Taekwondo / Martial Arts

[Tom Baker]

Any enthusiasts out there? I'm working on my black belt in traditional taekwondo...about a year to go. Interested if anyone else has had experiences in TKD, or hapkido, kung fu, judo, jujitsu, karate, etc...

[Marc]

Wow, that's really neat. I'm not into that stuff, but I'm sure someone is. :)

[Robyn]

No experience here, but am always interested in reading about martial arts.

[Marc]

Hey Tom, what are the levels of belts in karate? I know white is the lowest and black is the highest, but just curious. :)

[Tom Baker]

Belts are a western invention, a result of martial arts becoming more popular. Not sure about karate, but in taekwondo there are two "governing bodies" of the sport, the World TKD Federation and the Internation TKD Federation, and they set some guidelines, but basically it's up to the school. I've seen schools that have more belts than mine and schools that have less.

My school starts with white, goes to yellow, orange, green, purple, blue, brown, red, and black. Those are fairly common divisions. Karate may or may not be close. I know that TKD and Karate have sort of merged philosophically in a lot of schools since coming to America. They are similar arts, although karate (I think) does a bit more with grappling and throws, while TKD emphasizes kicking a bit more. Translated loosely, taekwondo means "the art of kicking and punching."

In addition to the solid colors my school has "half-belts" - yellow-black between yellow and orange, orange-black between orange and green, etc. Right now I'm at blue-black. It'll probably take me about a year to get the five more belts I need to get black, barring any injuries or missed time.