 Most people know the relationship of the white belt and the black belt. You've got your beginner, you've got your master, and you've got various colored ranks in between. Now, of all the systems out there that you use to color belt system, there appears to be one belt color that's the most versatile of all of them, and that is the red belt. And today we ask, why is the red belt the most important belt in the martial arts? So why is the red belt the most important belt in the martial arts? Previously, we did an episode on how many belt rings are in the martial arts, and we looked at a lot of different individual systems and how the colors impacted that particular system, and in some cases we touched upon the red belt. Now, what I find particularly interesting with the systems that use the colored grading system is that there's a bit of a universality in terms of when the colors are used for which ranks. So generally speaking, your beginner ranks will typically be your whites, your yellows, your oranges. Your intermediate ranks are usually your blues, your purples, your greens, although sometimes it's not uncommon to find one of those colors in the beginning rank, but generally speaking, those are intermediate colors. Brown belt is almost always exclusively advanced belt ranks right before black belt, and of course black belt is your first time. Now, I know I said before, you know, white belt was beginner, black belt was master, and that's not really accurate. When you reach black belt, that really just means you are proficient with your basics, and now you can work on to your deeper training in an attempt to master your system. Even cooler is that, you know, some versions of Tongue Sudo use the midnight blue belt instead of the black belt, and we also covered that in the belt ranking episode, so go check that out if you want to learn more about that. But when it comes to the red belt, I find it really fascinating because here you've got your chart, you've got your beginner belts, you've got your intermediate belts, and you've got your advanced belts, and you will find 99% of times systems will have some sort of version of this. But when it comes to the red belt, it's a little bit of a wild card, whereas it can fit anywhere in this chart. You can see it anywhere, depending on the system. Sometimes you don't even see it at all, and in some cases, it encompasses the whole rank of belts. So I find the red belt a very fascinating color in the whole grand scheme of the color belt grading system. Now, while the red belt is very versatile, if we were to apply a universal concept to it, the closest association we can get to that is really that the red belt is often used as a master color or a master rank in many systems. So for example, in many Okinawan systems, you will see the color belt system going up the black belt, and once they get their first done, you know, they will continue to the second, the third, the fourth, and ranks are usually, you know, still solid black belts with either white bars, red bars, gold bars, or texts inscribed on the belts, various different ways to note ranks. But in many cases, once you start hitting like fifth dan, sixth dan, and above, the belts might change from black to a red and white alternating color, which is called the Coral Belt. And in many cases, once you hit ninth and tenth dan, the belts become red, which signifies the master rank. This is very common, especially in the Okinawan systems that use the belt ranking coloring system. Now, in the American Kempo, the color red still signifies a master color, but we use it slightly differently. We don't typically have a solid red belt. Some schools may choose to do that, but typically traditionally in the Parker system, the red belt isn't there. But what we do do is for the black belt ranks, you know, from first dan all the way up to tenth dan, the belt stays black, but you use red bars and stripes to signify your rank order. And the concept there is we're always striving to become masters. We can always add a little bit of mastery to it, but we can never truly master everything. And that's kind of a reminder to that, that we're always learning and there's always room to technically add more expertise. So that's just an alternative way the color red can be used to note mastery. Now, when it comes to an art like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the red belt is a very highly esteemed rank. And I greatly admire Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for probably having the most consistent and highest standards for its belt ranking system. And when I say consistent is that you almost see the same color ranks from school to school to school. There might be slight variations from some schools, but typically speaking, it's white belt, blue belt, purple belt, brown belt, and then black belt. And of course, you've got your 10 degrees from that point on. And once you know your first several belt ranks are solid black belts with stripes, and then you get to your coral belts. But in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, when you get up to your ninth and your tenth dan, that is the red belt. And it takes a lifetime of work to get there because there's such a high sense of esteem held with that rank. If you earn, and I mean, if you earn a red belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, you've pretty much committed your whole life and taken a good chunk of your lifetime to achieve that. So I really admire that the standards are there in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. But once again, you're seeing the red belt as the ultimate color. It is the level of mastery. So yes, as we can see in many cases, the red belt is a symbol of mastery. But sometimes the color red or the red belt is used in lower ranks, so it can be the opposite. So for example, you've got Shotokan. Now when it comes to Shotokan, you don't have the same consistent belt ranking from school to school. Every association, every school seems to have their own different order of colors. But in many times, I have seen the red belt as a lower rank, you know, second, third, fourth rank. Sometimes it's not in there at all. But every now and then it does pop up. But when it does pop up in Shotokan, you don't usually see it very high up on the list. It's usually a little bit lower. And then we have Kyokushin, in which the white belt is considered ungraded, so it's not a rank. Your first rank is your red belt. So in a system like Kyokushin, red belt is your first color that you get. So why does this differ so much between system to system? Well basically it comes down to each art has a different symbolism and different meaning and philosophy that they apply to their belts for their own specific purposes. So again, going back to American Campo, typically our belt colors go, you know, from white, yellow, orange, purple, blue, green, brown up to black. And basically there is the colors are getting darker as we go because we're absorbing more knowledge. We're getting better. We're getting more dense with our material. So the colors tend to darken. Now going back to Kyokushin, the red belt symbolizes the color of soil and earth, building the foundation from which the seeds of basics can be planted, cultivated, and grown upon. Now this is a common theme in Kyokushin and each belt has a philosophy behind each color. Another example would be the blue belt. The blue belt is the color of water and it represents that at this stage of training, the students should be able to flow and start to develop their own level of fluidity just like water would flow. So that was the intended meaning of the red belt in Kyokushin. However, its founder Masayama did come across this confusion because again, red is often associated as a master color and was used as a master color before Kyokushin was even founded. So to avoid confusion, he went back and he changed the red belt to the orange belt, but you will still often see many schools still using the red belt in that fashion. So when it comes to Kyokushin, it might either be red or it might even be orange, but it's kind of the same rank. It's just, which depends on which school and which color they decided to go with. But originally Kyokushin was red and then they got changed to orange later. So again, that's an example of how it was an entry level belt completely opposite of the master rank. Then we have many of the Korean arts, Taekwondo, Tongsudo, Hapkido, where they kind of change it slightly. You know, where a lot of systems, the red belt is the master color rank or in systems like Kyokushin where it's an early color rank, the red belt in the Korean arts tend to be just below black belt. So it's kind of like in the red belt range. It's in the advanced level student that hasn't quite hit the black belt level yet. And you see this a lot and you see various combinations of that, but very typically the red belt in the Korean arts is right before black belt. So I've often heard it described as the red belt signifies blood, energy, vitality, and that the seeds have been planted and that the student is a flowering plant and they're about to bloom and go on to their real training, their Don training after that. So again, another interesting usage of the color red. So going back to American Kempo, they sometimes will use red in a very similar way. As I mentioned, traditional Ed Parker American Kempo schools will use three levels of brown right before black belt. But sometimes schools will choose to break up those brown belts instead of having three of the same color belt. They'll change it where you'll have your brown belt, you'll have your red belt, and you'll have a red black belt, and then you go to your black belt. So it's really the same ranks as your brown belts, but they're using the color red just to kind of break up the pattern a little bit. But it's very interesting how that's just an alternate way that they use the color red, very similar to the Korean arts in that it leads up, it's right up to your black belt. But honestly, me personally speaking, I prefer that the three brown belts because it doesn't make sense to me to use the color red to lead up to black belt and then go and then still symbolize that the red is a mastery color that you only had tidbits on. So that comes down to personal preference. My original school that I was at, used a red belt, later we switched to three brown belts. I personally like the three brown belts and using the red as a master color, but to each their own, it really doesn't mean, it doesn't really matter in the end, it's just how each art chooses to use it. And sometimes red's not even used at all. Actually in many cases, you won't see red in the system, especially if it's a traditional system. Back in the early days of Shotokan, you know, back in the early days of karate, generally it was white, brown, and black. You know, those were the first real colored ranks. And then eventually color started getting added in. But if you're looking at a traditional Shotokan rank, you won't see red in there. And you won't even see it as a master color because it only goes, if it's a traditional school teaching the way that Gichin from Nekoshi taught, it probably won't go above fifth degree black belt because he himself never awarded the black belt above that. So you'll find a lot of traditional schools won't even use red at all. But in some cases even the red belt will be fully present throughout the whole system. In the case of Bujinkan, students start out at white belt. That is your ungraded rank. And then once they pass that and they get their first grade, if they're male, they will get a green belt. If they're female, they will get a red belt. And students will wear those belts the same color throughout their entire queue ranks up until they get their black belt. So in a case like this, red doesn't even represent a rank, it represents a gender. So once again, it's a whole other use for the color red. Or the red belt can mean nothing at all other than a point scoring system. If you look at a lot of your competitive karate tournaments, especially with the World Karate Federation, competitors will either wear a blue belt or a red belt. And it doesn't matter what the actual rank is, it doesn't represent the rank. It basically represents the color of the flag so they can award points by holding them to a corresponding color flag. So in a case like that, it doesn't mean anything other than point allocation. It's not dissimilar to the judo's white and blue belt uniform arrangement for the same kind of concept. But in a case like this, it doesn't even mean rank at all. It is just for point allocation. And it doesn't even end there. You've got individual schools that will sometimes just take the color red and make their own designation for it. Because why not? You know, it means something different to everybody. So again, as another example, I know a very good Kemple network down here. A lot of them will use red a little bit differently. It is still the master color, but what they do is they swap the black-red relationship. Traditionally speaking, we have our black belts that stay black and we just add a little bits of red on there to show that, well, we can only add a little bits of mastery, but we always have room to learn. Some of them in the network, they swap that that when you get to your fifth down, you get a solid red belt with a black bar. And as you progress the rank, you get additional black bar. So what they're doing in that case is representing they're taking away the red because once you become a higher senior student, sometimes it's very easy to feel like you've mastered it all, that you've learned it all. But it's a reminder that each time you learn more, you start to realize you don't know as much as you thought you did. And it's kind of like a little reminder that that little mastery gets taken away to show that there's, you know, there's always, the more you learn, the more you realize there's more to learn. So that's just another creative way I've seen the red belt used. So why do I feel that the red belt is the most important belt in the martial arts? Well, because it represents both master and a beginner. It could be found nowhere in the system or it could be everywhere in the system. It could be an achievement to earn or it could be nothing more than the point system. So the red belt is the most important belt in the martial arts because it reminds us that the colors mean nothing. When it can be everything and nothing at the same time, that tells us that the colored belt systems in and of themselves don't make you a better martial artist. It doesn't matter what color you're wearing around your waist. In the grand scheme of things, what's important is how you're using the material that you're learning to make yourself a better you. So I don't care if you're standing there right now with a leopard colored camouflage print belt with white polka dot stripes. You determine what you want that to mean and then you wear that damn thing loud and proud because in the end, you put the meaning into the belt, not the other way around. So I have right here my original red belt I got when I was about 16, 17. Like I said, our first school, we did the, instead of the three brown belt ranks, it was broken up between brown, red, red, black. So this is actually my red belt rank. It has the black stripe through it because I was part of the black belt club because I'm special. Anyway, anyway, I would really love to hear how the color red is used in your system if it's even used at all. So thank you all so much for watching. Please like and subscribe and also join us on Patreon. I did do an exclusive video on Patreon going through my belt collection and showing things off like how belts like this came into play. So be sure to go check that out. Click on the Patreon link right now and sign up and there's all sorts of exclusive videos. Hopefully a lot of good stuff that you guys will enjoy and thank you again and we will see you next time.