 The belt ranking system varies from one style of karate to another, however, the Kempo belt system, particularly American Kempo, stands out with its own traditions, etiquette, and, well, controversy. This episode was inspired by a Facebook post by Kempo brother Sabora Chan, which featured a photo of Senior Grandmaster Ed Parker that isn't seen very often, and I thought this would be a fun topic to quickly explore. We're going to look at the general ranking system and titles, the ranking traditions, and the general requirements for each level. I've been training in Kempo for over 30 years, and I've seen every flavor of black belt there is. Many good, many bad. At the end, we're going to just touch upon the controversy of why there are so many 10th-degree black belts. Now, American Kempo is a bit of a unique animal. Although it's often referred to as Kempo karate, it truly has one foot in karate and another foot in kung fu, resulting, in my opinion, a very cool hybrid. Even looking at the evolution of the system as it developed, in the earlier stages, it bears more resemblance to traditional Japanese karate, and it later takes on more Chinese attributes. Also, interestingly enough, according to his Infinite Insights book, Mr. Parker was originally against the belt ranking system. He questioned why a green belt from one style could perform better than a black belt from another. However, as he continued to build this curriculum and organize the system, he saw the usefulness in adopting the belt system as a teaching tool. Not as a sign of who was better than who, but simply to mark a student's place in the curriculum. Now, while the number of belts and colors did change as he developed the system, and we talked about this more in our History of American Kempo episode, the final belt order is remarkably similar to traditional karate and strangely consistent among Kempo schools. For those out of the loop, American Kempo schools are notorious for being incredibly inconsistent with each other, but the order of belts has, for the most part, stayed the same. The lower ranks or queue ranks are almost always white, yellow, orange, purple, blue, green, third brown, second brown, first brown, and then you transition into the black belt don ranks. Now, the brown belts counting down three to one actually reflect the Japanese queue ranks which count down, so white belt is technically ninth queue. One common variation that some schools will do is sometimes replace the three brown belts to include brown, red, and a half red black belt instead. Also, like most traditional karate systems, there are 10 than black belt ranks, typically called degrees in American Kempo. Now, this is where a lot of the differences between Kempo and karate start to emerge. And speaking of different arts, if you appreciate the content we put out, then please visit our online store where you can pick up a variety of different martial arts shirts and canvas prints. This helps keep the channel running and you get a great souvenir to show for it. We really appreciate you being part of this channel. Now, Kempo does have one belt tradition that I've never seen in another art, and that is where to place the knot. In traditional karate, the belt knots are worn in the center. However, in traditional Ed Parker Kempo, men wear the knots on the left hip and women wear the knots on the right hip. Now, this was Mr. Parker's way of observing the Chinese concept of male energy being left side and female energy being right side. Mr. Parker was also known to tell another story about it being the 70s when the men and women both wore long hair, so he used the knot placement to tell people apart, which is pretty funny if it's true. The judges will allow both explanations. The only time the knot is worn in the center is the instructor or instructors leading the lesson. They are centered and balanced, so while teaching, they place their knot in the middle. Even other black belts in class will move their knots to the side. Now, this is a tradition that's not observed as much as it used to be, but I personally still like it, and I think it's unique. Black belt ranks in Kempo seem to follow a more academic lexicon versus their Japanese counterparts. They are called Degree instead of Don, and they are actually awarded academic titles. In karate, ranks are referred to as First Don, Second Don, Third Don, or more appropriately, Shodan, Nidon, San Don, etc. In Kempo, black belt ranked titles are assigned as Junior Instructor, Associate Instructor, Head Instructor, Senior Instructor, Associate Professor, Professor, Senior Professor, Associate Master, Master, and Senior Master. Now, Senior Master is often interchanged with the term Grand Master, which one is correct? Honestly, I'm not sure, because I've seen it both ways in Ed Parker's books. Now, Ed Parker himself holds the title of Senior Grand Master and is only one of those. Curriculum requirements have changed over the years. In the earlier days, it took longer to reach first degree black belt, but when you did, you had seen the entire curriculum. Grading, from that point on, relied on you doing deep dives and understanding the system at an academic level and then making contributions and teaching. Then after a curriculum change, the techniques were actually spread out a little bit longer, and it took you up to third degree black belt instead. The last main iteration spread the techniques out even further so that you finished a curriculum at fifth degree black belt. It's the same material just designated at different rankings over time, but however, this does play into a little bit of the ranking controversy that we see in Kempo. Now, another minor difference from karate are the actual rank markings on the belt. In most traditional karate and Korean systems, ranks are marked by a collection of stripes, one for each down level, or in some arts the belt color itself or pattern will change to reflect the higher levels. In traditional Ed Parker Kempo, black belt ranks are denoted by half inch red stripes applied to the belt, one inch from the tip. As the student is promoted up the rank, another half inch red stripe is spaced a half inch apart and is added until reaching fifth degree. At fifth degree, the stripes are replaced with a five inch red bar. Additional ranks would add additional stripes until finally reaching grand master and achieving two full solid red bars. However, what's interesting about the stripe system is that it wasn't always the case. Mr. Chan posted a couple of photos of Mr. Parker sporting a seventh degree black belt, which is rare to see in photos and their individual stripes apparently before he adopted the fifth degree bar system. When Mr. Parker decided to make the switch, it was unknown to me, but I have heard speculation that he may have had inspiration come from his time served in the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard and Navy wear ranking epaulets and while still very different, they do bear a somewhat similar visual appearance. I have seen suggestions that this may have inspired Mr. Parker into a similar ranking style, but I personally don't know if that's true. If any of you out there were either in the armed forces or were around in the early days of Mr. Parker, I would love to hear what you think. Now, there is no shortage of controversy in politics within the Kempo community and honestly, I'm not really interested in debating about what rank Mr. Parker was when he started Kempo or any he-sheds, she said politics. That's all counterproductive and it all happened before my time and it does not impact my quality of training in any way. However, one of the most common questions I come across is why are there so many tenth degree black belts? This is not entirely easy to answer and like I said, I've been doing this for a long time and I've met many people in the art and I have seen varying degrees of this, pun intended. There are general timelines observed for black belt ranking. For example, it's commonly considered a requirement to have two years between first and second degree, another three years for third degree, four years for fourth degree, and then at least five years between ranks going forward. Now, I've seen variations to this, but if people who started training in the early Parker days kept going, well then 40 to 50 years later, it does stand to reason that many practitioners would have met this requirement and put the time in. Now, some of these people have also left their mark and put in a lot of time and influence and helped shape Kempo into what it is today. Another possible reason for the number of grand masters is because of the shifting curriculum. The material that is now required for fifth degree used to be required for first degree, so there are some that who feel that it was unfair that they got first degree learning the same material, so they decided to jump rank upward to match. Also sadly, there are those who chase rank, don't observe the time gap requirements or outright buy their rank. I've seen 20 year olds wearing fifth degree black belts, I'm not going to comment on that. Finally, it's not uncommon for someone to achieve a first or second degree black belt and then branch off and throw in a flavor of another art and suddenly they have their own system of Kempo and they award themselves grand master. In the end, it honestly really isn't that important. Like Mr. Parker originally said, belts are simply markers to place a student in the curriculum and it's not an actual measure of skill. I have personally seen 10 degree black belts that perform like orange belts and I have seen orange belts that move like black belts. I have met a few masters in my life that I truly do feel have earned that rank and there are some that I question, but it's not up to me. There are days I feel good about my efforts and there's days that I don't feel like I live up to my own fifth degree. It really doesn't matter. What truly is important is that if you're going to commit to any martial art that you put in the time and dedication to learn it correctly and hopefully pass that knowledge on with your own flavor. The rest is arbitrary and to prove that, right here and right now, I am awarding myself the rank of recycled newspaper belt. With the way I have a feeling the comment section is going to go, it will be nice to have something to line the bottom of the bird cage with. So that is a brief tour of the Kempo belt ranking system and how it differs from traditional karate. I actually find it very interesting to see how different arts handle rank and we can do that right here by looking at how many different belt ranks there are in traditional karate.