Different styles of karate

Wado-AJ · Yellow Belt

Ah ok, it does change things...

In my dojo it is:

9th kyu: white (you get it when you start training)
8th kyu: yellow
7th kyu: 0range (so that is one year training, every half year exam)
6: green
5: blue 1
4: blue 2
3: brown 1
2: brown 2
1: brown 3

I know some dojo who give their new students a suit including white belt. And then after half a year of training he has to do white belt exam! because they don't have 2 blue belts. Its so stupid if you ask me.. It is made to stimulate! By the time they study it for 3 years, they don't care about 2 blue belts, or 3 brown, it is most of the time a challenge. But at the start it is funny to do your white belt exam after half a year, right?

bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

moriniuk · Yellow Belt

I work away from home quite often and always try to look for a different style of martial arts to train in whilst I'm away. I usually get to attend the school about 4 times. I would say that my original core style is JKA Shotokan. Although I have studied KDS Shotokai regularly for a few years
I have attended schools that teach Wado, Kyokushin, Goju, Asihara, Enshin, WTF Taekwondo and Shorinji Kempo.
This may be a bit controversial but I'd say that they are all basically the same.
I've never had any trouble fitting in the classes. Maybe I don't know all the katas or they're practiced slightly different but basically the stances, kicks, punches and strikes are very similar with only minor technical differences.
Ironically, considering they are so closely related, I found KDS Shotokai to be the most different from JKA Shotokan.
Some schools may have different standards than others, but generally I think it is ok to keep your previous grade.
The China Wushu Association have a good system. They just award dan (duen wei) grades in Wushu irrespective of style because they recognise these similarities between styles.
Surely if somone has studied Shotokan for a number of years and decides to switch styles to Wado, which has its origins in Shotokan. They should at least be allowed to "fast track" and not start from zero.

joesteph · Black Belt

Wa-No-Michi · Blue Belt

tallgeese · KF Sempai

I think advanced understanding in combative will probibly "fast track" someone almost automatically if test are held when a person is ready. Espically if arts are similar.

I've had guys come into my classes who were excellet boxers. There's not much I can teach them about strking with the hands. Some exposition on how to transition and then your off spending more time with them on aspects that they don't have. Hence, your time tabel in automatically accleerated.

An exceptoin will probibly occur when it's a radically different art. A joint art if you come from only a strking background ect. A weapons art if you've never done weapons, that kind of thing.

Personally, I never make guys were a lower belt color than they have already been awarded elsewhere. They got it, they should be respected for it. It's a belt in that art, however, and I rank them from my first level on up. Once they reach that equevilacy then they can use the new belt. It's all farily hypothetical on my end, we rarely wear uniforms. But the prinicple is there and it's been done that way before.

Everyone's gonna be differernt on this, even within arts. I don't think that there is really a right or wrong answer for it, just the one that is in effect at whatever club you end up at.

Wa-No-Michi · Blue Belt

In most traditional schools of Karate, the criteria for awarding belts is governed by a students ability to adequately attain standards within a defined syllabus.

In other words, if you are a first Dan in Kyokushin, and you want to be considered to be a first Dan in Shotokan, you not only have to have the same technical ability to punch kick and fight etc, you also have to have the same knowledge of the schools syllabus ie Kihon, Renraku-Waza, Solo and Paired Kata etc.

If you dont know and therefore cant perform "Empi" kata in accordance with the way the school wants it done, how can you hold claim to a first Dan within that particular school / association - you can't.

I know that If was a 2nd Kyu brown belt say, and a fella from another style walked in and was declared a Dan grade I would be pretty hacked off with my instructor.

Belts are defined by schools / associations at the end of the day, not styles. If your school has no structured syllabus I guess there is no reason why a Karate-ka from another style / group / art couldn't be given permission to wear whatever belt they wanted.

tallgeese · KF Sempai

I'm not talking about instant promotion. Just saying that with certain proficiencies already established, it's easier to move people thru quicker. That's all. Specifics will have to be learned of course, but that learning should be acclerated if one is already acclimitized to the type of thing your doing.

As for wearin rank on my mat, it's not a declaration that they are bb in the art I teach, simply a decleration that they have acheived that rank elsewhere. They'd still progress thru learning ranks as everyone else, just with different decor so to speak.

Uechi Kid · Orange Belt

Uechi Ryu here
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