Does anybody here know any form of martial arts? What is the difference between having a 5th degree black belt and a 10th degree black belt, and how high can you go?
I did Taekwon-do for 8 years. The belt rankings differ from each martial art, but this is what we had: White (universal) Yellow Green Blue Red Black Black 1st Dan - 10th Between each colour, we got a 'stripe' of the next belt (i.e. green belt with a blue stripe). It meant you were a senior in that particular belt. BTW, I got up to Blue Belt with a Red Stripe. Once you get to black belt, you earn 'degrees'. Starting from 1 going through to 10 (although not many people get to 10th degree.
after you get to a certain degree as a black belt you get higher by contributing something back to martial arts. for example teaching. you never stop learning no matter how high you go but it's not a certain skill that seperates the degrees. i'm sure this is probably different depending on the martial art and where it's taught, etc.
An interesting note: I remember I took Taekwondo when it was all the rage amongst my boyhood chums back in the day. The only thing I learned was that the colors of the belts symbolizes not so much your skill, but your experience. So you start of with a clean white belt, and the more you learn, the dirtier it gets, until its black. To the tenth degree I guess.
