yes, but not only is it to show your achievment and knowledge, but to show your physical ability in the martial art itself, surely when we all start MA when were young little 6 year olds doing the same old punches class after, after class when we see the big guy walk in with the black belt round his waist we always wish we was like him. lol if u ask me it's just deceiving.

I think black belts should take time to achieve, meaning no one under the age of 20 should have a black belt no matter how young you started. I'm tired of seeing little kids with black belts no there is no way a little kid has enough knowledge and skill to fight at that level. He just knows enough to get himself hurt.

you cant be any righter than that. allthough i would say 20 is a bit too old. make it maybee 17-18 and i would agree

i think thats fair, but maybe 16, i know these twins who are so dedicated they have unbelievable skill in GKR karate. whats the rank system in wing chun and wing tsun?

well in my class there isnt really a rank, i spose there is a system, jus like
student-advanced 1-advanced-2- then you are able to teach the class. but the thing bout my class is that we study qi-gong/chi-gong whetever u wnna call it in there (hard and soft by the way).

in my classes there are no ranks as such, unless you are an instructor, you have equal authority with everyone else, a Navy Sash cannot order around a white sash, its not our way.
but our sashs gives us an idea of what skill level someone is at. When we do sparring, it is good to know since i will know how hard i can go on the other person, and what technical variety i can use, but if there are no sashs you might be going all out on some guy that has only been there a week...

traditionally, Kung Fu wore a sash (which ever colour, bu7t mostly black) to support their vital organs. it was the Judo that bought in the belts. this one guy had too many students. and he could not keep up with who knew what. so he seperated them into a white belt and a black belt, it just advanced from there

interesting, i never knew that. but i can't say that i agree with having to be 16 or 20 to get a black belt. if a child has the knowledge, skill and dedication to the martial art, who is to say that are not allowed to get what they rightfully deserve. i think it's wrong to say that you need to be 20 to get your black belt just because you're bigger because what about people that are bigger than them? I know that you'll have more knowledge when you're 20, but what if you only went once a week and someone that's ten went four times a week?

yes you have to be skilled and have alot of knowledge in order to get a black belt. But I think there's alot of responsiblity that comes with that. At an older age a person is less likley to go around and do nothing but cuase trouble with the stuff they learned. At an older age a person is more mature and able to handle himself better in the real world by beeing able to control himself. Yes when it's come down to it and he has to fight he will have the advantage. The attacker will be at complete suprise becuase you didn't come off cocky and gave him the image that you can beat anyone in a fight.

Interesting comments on the reason for the sashe on the traditional Kung Fu uniform ... the part about the sash... The sashe is simply a piece of cloth used to hold up the pants. In the traditional chinese clothing, there were no elastics, or ropes that were incorporated into the pants. Something is needed to hold the pants in place, and a piece of cloth, sash is use for this particular purpose. The fuss about chinese martial art belt systems, is another thing ... originally, there's no such thing as belt systems. Some schools developed a system similar to the Japanese belt system, but in reality, anyone telling you their chinese martial school has a belt system, is questionable or in attempt make up a new system for the westerners. Seniority and loyality to the Sifu and style of the art is the only important thing.