Hi all, I recently began Shotokan Karate and this April I will try for my orange belt (unless I am mistaken and another belt colour comes before that) and I am wondering if people who have done shotokan and been through the 9th Kyu grading tell me the things tested - what needs to be known. If people can do the same thing for other belts past orange as well that would be much appreciated.
You're at the start of a long (and hopefully enjoyable) road... Karate starts by taking things back to the basics and teaching you how to walk again, how to move in the specific karate way. The aim of the first two or three grades is to demonstrate that you've got the idea.
A typical syllabus for orange belt will include the following: stepping punch (oi tsuki/zuki), rising block (age uke), inside/outside block uchi soto uke), downward block (gedan barai), Front kick (Mae Geri). Kata: Either Kata Kihon/Heian Shodan depending Kumite: 5 Step kumite - attacks: jodan oi tsuki, chudan oi tsuki, mae geri defence: Age uke, soto uke, gedan barai What association are you with?
Depends on the school. The order reliably goes white, green, brown, black - anything in between is pretty much random
Never seen a blue belt in Shotokan before! Mmmm. Seems like not all styles go through the light to darker colours then.
Yep- we had blue belt after white and we attend a Shotokan club locally. White, Blue, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Purple, Purple/White, Brown, Brown/White, Brown/Red, Black. Guess it depends on the organisation. Hope your grading goes well! Paul
I don't think I ever had an orange belt. I went white, yellow, purple, green, brown, and maybe someday, I'll test for black. The first couple tests were all pretty much just demonstrate kata, demonstrate kihon. It wasn't until the green belt test in my school that we started fighting as part of a promotion. Fighting very, very hard. Typically against a large number of people. I recall one black belt testing where the testee did five bouts, one of which was against two people at the same time. Fun stuff. Fun fun stuff.
I can remember dying my white belt orange (I hadn't got a Gi when I took my red belt exam so orange was my first belt colour) and ending up with a peach belt for an agonising 3 - 4 months.
Typically.... The more "added" belts to a primary system... is generally directly related to the frequency of rank promotions... which is generally directly to the co$t of said rank promotions... which is generally directly related to the Dojo's profit/loss and the operating bottom line. The attrition rate in the Martial Arts is astronomical. Extra belts, stripes and the such are sometimes added to keep students interested. It can at times water down the art but often not necessarily the case. Typically there are two times (so to speak) when a dojo sees the majority of the students drop-out, between major rank splits (often divisional splits for tournament competitors). (1) Novice (white/orange/yellow) to Intermediate (blue/green/purple) (2) Advanced Kyu (Brown) to Dan Ranks. We promote an annual tournament… it has gotten so bad that we need to divide competitors for bracketing by number of years in training… and still have to ask some of the students to bring over their Sensei to explain the belt standards for their system.
The requirements seem to be pretty similer to the Isshin Ryu requirements of orange belt.... We have to know all fifteen upper body basics, all 9 lower body basics (ten, depending on which school you're at), all of Seisan kata, spar for five minutes, and know a bunch of history questions surrounding the art and the grandmaster.
They definitely exist Both organisations I have been a member of had Brown/Red as a final step towards black (TASK and TISKA). Take care, Paul
