Black Beltsby MKG ’10

Western Martial Arts institutions are often criticized when compared to their Japanese counterparts for awarding black belts too commonly. This is especially problematic at youth karate tournaments.

Alvin: Hey—are you Zach? Hey, I’m Alvin. I think we’re fighting each other today.
Zach: Hey, nice to meet you.
Alvin: So where are you from?
Zach: Well, I used to live in New York City, but my parents made me spend the last six years in Japan, to work on my Karate. How about you?
Alvin: I live in New York City. I’ve lived there my whole life. So wait—how long did it take you to get your black belt?
Zach: It took me all six years. In fact, it should’ve taken more, but I took an accelerated training regimen so that I could compete in this tournament.
Alvin: Really? Wow. It only took me five weeks to get this thing. I went straight from yellow to black. I went white, yellow, black. Isn’t that weird? All of a sudden, that sounds weird to me. Is that how it worked for you? What did you have before black?
Zach: Brown with six black stripes.
Alvin: Jesus. Were practices…hard?
Zach: Not really. I mean, we’d wake up every morning at five and do sparring until noon. We only focused on the four main kinds of sparring: Yako, Sego, Jano, and Deadly. Then we meditated, chanting things like “Mashi san ban” which roughly translates to “No mercy” and “Tisa do dosai” which roughly translates to “Even in a tournament setting.” Then we prayed to the gods of Karate.
Alvin: What!? There are gods of Karate!? They never mentioned any gods of Karate in the after-school class. Well, actually, maybe they did in that one class I missed. I had a saxophone lesson.
Zach: So you said we’re fighting each other today?
Alvin: I- I don’t know. Maybe I read it wrong. I probably read it wrong.
Zach: Oh, here (pulls out a schedule). It says we’re fighting each other at noon. That’s five minutes from now!
Alvin: Oh my God. Oh my God.
Zach: Are you nervous? Don’t be nervous. This will be fun! There’s nothing like two black belts going at it, as hard as they possibly can.