Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Belt Rank System

Honest Mind, Loving Heart, Strength in Body! The Martial Arts way of Life at The Taekwondo Network

Did you know that in the beginning, when a tae kwon do student received a belt it was white. That was the only color. Ever.

A serious student trained for years.

Because a martial arts belt is never washed, the years of wear included the grime, sweat and even blood that permeated that white belt until eventually it became...Black.

Today, we use belt colors to distinguish the process of learning that would take the student of old from novice to expert. Every school that uses a relatively new colored belt system applies the same principal of starting with white and earning progressively darker belts until the student is ready to test to earn a black belt.

Is black belt the end of the road? Click the title of this article to find out more.

kalynna
Posted by at 7:20 AM
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2 comments:

  1. Can you please site your sources? And please also let us know the date you believe Taekwon-Do was started!
    ReplyDelete
  2. Sure...

    This is a tale that I've heard from many places orally, but it is published in Marc Tedeschi's Taekwondo, The Essential Introduction.

    Though tae kwon do is an ancient martial art native to Korea, modern tae kwon do was not well documented and pinpointing a "start" if you will is difficult.

    Most historians agree that a handful of influential schools began just after the end of the Japanese occupation in the 1940's. These schools and their immediate offspring are credited with the beginning of modern tae kwon do culminating in a Korea Taekwondo Association in 1971.

    It's actually a very convoluted and complex history. If you want to learn more, visit the history pages of my website, Taekwondo-Network.
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