Black Belt for Kids?

The black belt is one of the most symbolic things in the martial arts. That status and rank will vary and change, of course, between different arts, and it's not coveted only just by adult students, but children as well. So today, in this video, we're gonna talk about and ask the question, can kids get a black belt? Okay, big question, a lot of people ask it. Can kids get a black belt? There's a lot of ways to approach this question. Technically, the answer is yes, kids can get a black belt. The more important question is, should kids get a black belt? You're gonna have to look at different requirements. Obviously, every school's gonna be a little bit different, but what makes a black belt? Is it just because you're in art for two years, three years, four years, you're automatically a black belt by time base? Or what are the achievements that you have to accomplish in order to get it? Typically, in most systems, at least as adult black belts are concerned, to qualify for a black belt, you are basically, you have to have a pretty good understanding, if not mastering, of the basic material, your basic stances, punches, kicks, blocks, techniques, and you have to be proficient in application. So, you have to know your material and be able to perform it at a reasonable level to be considered a black belt. Now, of course, from there, training continues, but how does that apply to kids? Can you expect an eight-year-old to get a black belt and take on an adult male? That question's kind of up in the air, and there's a lot of controversy from this. A lot of schools, especially traditional schools, don't even allow children, students, or you have to be a certain age requirement, like 12, 13, before you can start to train, because a lot of schools will put an age restriction on the black belt. I've heard 16 being a common one, even 18. That's really gonna be up to the school and what they're trying to teach. Realistically, is a five-year-old gonna be able to take an adult male? No, but is it possible a five- or eight-year-old can learn enough where they can fight out of someone's grab and get away? That's a different story altogether. So, what would qualify a child to become a black belt? Well, once again, we talked about the understanding of the base material and then being able to apply it. With kids, that's kind of a relative question. It's kind of hard to compare a child to an adult, but what about a kid to another kid? Eight-year-old's in school. Can he be a black belt level compared to other kids? So, this is where a lot of schools will bring in what's called the junior black belt. Now, I know there's a lot of mixed feelings about this and there's pros and cons. The whole concept of a junior black belt is a child starts young, usually five, six, seven years of age, will spend a few years going through the ranks, so yellow belt, white belt, whatever belts are in your system, and after about three years, maybe four years, they will test for their junior black belt. This is not equivalent to an adult black belt. The curriculum is usually streamlined, it's simplified, it's not as in-depth, because kids, you can't go into the same, depending on the age group, of course, a five-year-old, you're not gonna spend an entire class on a stance. You're gonna work with more of them on coordination and their ability to perform a task and understanding concepts. So, a junior black belt is a great way for a child to see the progression, the ranks. It's great for self-confidence. School I teach for, and other schools I've been at and taught, did offer the junior black belt. So, kids would start at white belt, they'd work their way up, after a few years, they'd test. And they go through the same requirements for testing. They've gotta do the physical education part, they get quizzed, they have to write an essay, they've gotta run two miles, they've gotta do all their workouts, perform their techniques on another student, and rigorous sparring. So, they do earn it. They achieve the junior black belt, and from there, they will begin the adult curriculum. So, of course, at this point, they've trained for three, four years. So, they will start from there to work their way up with the adult curriculum. And by the time they get to that adult black belt, you're talking another four years, five years, they will be an adult. And at that point in time, there's a very good chance that person will be a black belt level student. So, that's just some idea of the junior black belt. A lot of schools don't even offer it at all. Because, like I said, some have age restrictions. I mean, again, you have a kid start, some five-year-olds, they're not gonna be a black belt by age eight or nine. Now, comparative to another student, they might still be able to defend themselves if they're bullied or attacked, and the discipline is certainly there, and the attitude is certainly there, and you'd be surprised what students can comprehend. I had a student, he was maybe nine years old, came up to me, Mr. Dan, can you explain to me the concept of purposeful compliance? All right, that's something we teach to our adult students. I didn't expect him to know it, but some kids can pick up a lot of the material. So, the junior black belt is a great middle rank for that. Speaking of middle ranks, some schools will offer, especially for the kids, almost like intermediate belts. So, we go from white belt to yellow belt to orange belt. Some of our kids start really young, three and four. Obviously, they're not in class to learn karate. They're in there to learn focus, attention, coordination. So, naturally, they're not gonna progress as fast as an eight or nine-year-old would. They just can't comprehend the material as fast. But at the same time, you have a kid that you're trying to focus on attention, and you've got the same color for nine months. Well, they see everyone around them go up ranks. That kind of works against you. Psychologically, the kid gets bored. So, sometimes we do middle ranks. So, you do like a half yellow, half orange belt, or a half white, half yellow belt. They see the progression. They get stripes on the belt, they test for it, they earn an achievement. I've seen a lot of kids turn around. They come into school, they're wild, they've got no attention span whatsoever. But you give it a few months, they start earning a sense of accomplishment, and you see the attitude turn around. Some schools, once the student achieves their black belt, they'll do, you'll see some stripe belts. So, it'll be a black belt with a colored stripe around the middle. And what that usually signifies is either a junior black belt with, okay, so your black belt with an orange stripe. Okay, you're a junior black belt, but you're now working on adult curriculum, orange. In my personal training, my school actually split curriculum so I was almost towards black belt when my instructor switched over. So, he actually had us, just a few of us that were kind of caught in between the split, he let us dual train. We worked on the old curriculum to finish it up while on the new curriculum. So, by the time we got our black belt for the first curriculum, we got the black belt, but then he would also give us the stripes through the middle of the belt to correspond to the second curriculum where we were at so he could see where we were at. Then, the other thing to realize is whether you believe a kid should be a black belt or not, or if you agree with a junior black belt or not, a lot of people view black belt as an end game sort of thing. Oh, I'm gonna put my kid in class in three years, he's gonna black belt, he's done, he knows all the karate. No, anyone who's ever trained in the martial arts knows that black belt is not a destination, but that's where your real training actually begins. As I mentioned before, you use those years of training, you learn your basics, you learn your concepts, your stances, your kicks, your blocks, your techniques, and then you're able to apply them. When you're proficient in that, you're awarded the rank of black belt because you have earned it. You've shown an understanding of the material, but from there, most martial arts have multiple degrees of black belts. You get a first degree black belt, great. Now you gotta work towards your second degree, third, fourth, most arts go up to 10, and that's like a 40, 50, 60 year commitment to do that. There's that much material and that much level of understanding. So, can kids get a black belt? Yes. Should they get a black belt? You tell me, what do you think? What does your school offer? What have you seen? Have you seen any black belts that are kids that perform to a great level? Or tell me what your opinion is. So, thank you very much for watching this video. Please subscribe and share, and I'd like to bring more material to you and tell me what you think. Thank you so much.