How to earn a black belt…

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A black belt in karate signifies that one has attained a very advanced skill level while a white belt indicates that you are a novice.

While the belt colour is a way to distinguish one person’s skill level from another, karate teaches that there’s is no white or black belt but rather simply a white belt that gets darker through time.

It is basically the same white belt that has simply darkened over time through the practice or routine of putting it on and taking it off.

Each level of darkness represents ‘experience’ and therefore signifying that one has gained more and more knowledge through practice, application, routine, repetition, study etc

A black belt therefore is not truly black but rather a much darker shade of the original white and although it appears to be black, it continues to darken further and further despite our inability to distinguish one level of darkness from another.

While two black belts appear equal to one another however, the precise level of experience is difficult to identify as one person might be stronger in some areas while another is stronger on other areas.

The goal is therefore not to have a black belt but rather to continuously keep darkening it with experience and knowledge even after it appears to have reached what we believe to be it’s darkest shade.