Hopefully Master Rob and the other NWA instructors wont mind me sharing a quick lesson. Lets talk about colored belts and black belts. As some of you may know there are two ranking systems in the martial arts. Colored belts are a part of the Gyup/ Kyu 級 ranking system and Black belt is a part of the Dan 段 ranking system. Kyu 級 can be translated as Class or Steps, whereas Dan 段 literally translates to Rank. Think of this like a number line. At one end there is White Belt and at the other end there is 9th degree Black Belt, the highest rank in Youn Wha Ryu. The largest numbers are on the outside and the smallest numbers meet in the middle. Kyu are the negative numbers on our number line and Dan are the positive numbers on our number line. White Belt is an interesting belt in that it doesnt fit onto the number line at all. In Japanese this would be called Mukyu 無級 which just means no Kyu. Dont take this negatively. White Belt is a great belt! You are still pure and pristine, like a falling snowflake, never touched by the world. ;) But once you test for that Yellow Belt you are a full fledged member of the world of martial arts! You have gone where so many never will. You have reached 9th Kyu. You are 9 steps away from being a Black Belt. At 2nd degree Yellow Belt youre even closer! Only 8th more steps to go. Green Belt sees you at 7th and 6th Kyu, remember the numbers goes down as you get closer to Zero. Blue Belts you are a proud practitioner at 5th and 4th Kyu! Red Belts are so close they can almost taste it... 3rd and 2nd Kyu. Brown Belts, congratulations! Look at the journey you have already traveled. You have learned so much, but youre one step away. Youre still a 1st Kyu. Black Belt... My beautiful Black Belts. What an achievement. It is said that only one in a thousand who started this journey actually make it to where you are. Feeling pretty good, right? Youve finally made it to the starting line. And to make sure you dont get a big head or decide to quit, you arent actually ranked yet. You are a Zero Dan. The real training begins here! You need to take the next year or so to really cement the lessons youve already learned, so that you can continue on strong! Do you accept the challenge? You 1st dan through 4th dan you hold very special ranks, you are the backbone of the martial arts world. You will face hardships that make that Brown Belt test look like a cake walk. But its worth it. Because some day you may just reach 5th Dan. This rank is not meant for everyone, but everyone whos achieved this rank was meant for it. You are the wise ones. Tempered beyond what most can comprehend! And the 6th Dan...? Did you know that in the entire history of our style weve only produced 7 martial artist that have stood the test of time to finally become 6th Dan? And weve yet to produce a 7th Dan, let alone an 8th Dan. But, Im sure well get to see some legendary stuff in the future. Speaking of legends, Grandmaster Han, reached 9th Dan in 1985. He founded our style is the greatest martial artist Ive met in person and the most humblest man I know.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 04:30:57 +0000
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