It’s not easy being green (but it is kinda fun)

Warning: martial arts geek-out ahead. Read at your own risk.

Oh the agony

I tested for first-degree green belt earlier this month before leaving for Minnesota. It was the longest test I’ve ever had in this system, because Mr. B. had me do a bunch of techniques from each previous belt level to see if I’d retained everything. Plus I did nine or ten kata. Definitely one of the most exhausting tests I’ve done, spread out over two hours. At least I got to spend part of it lying down, since half of first green is defensive ground techniques. After I did my test, I left on vacation for two weeks (and, not surprisingly, developed a nervous twitch due to jujitsu withdrawal). Last night was my first night back and the official testing night for the other students.

Usually students at my school find out if they passed by the presence or absence of a newly-striped belt on the counter when they next come to class. No belt awaited me. After some teasing hints from other students and Mr. B.’s attempt at inscrutability, I thought I’d passed, but couldn’t figure out why Mr. B. wouldn’t tell me for sure. Turns out he was waiting to see if Soke Stanton would show up so he could award everyone’s belts in front of Soke. 

Soke Stanton created the style of Shinki Ryu Jujitsu that we study. “Soke” is his rank, which is higher than “Sensei” or “Shihan”; it means head master or founder. Someone with that rank tends to make lower belts feel nervous/awed because he has so much experience. Soke’s attendance at lower-belt tests is somewhat rare, I gather. He hasn’t come to one in the year and a half I’ve studied here. Good thing I wasn’t testing tonight, because he did show up right in the middle of testing. The other students did really well even with the added pressure/honor of Soke’s presence.

At the end of class, Mr. B asked all of the students who tested to line up in seiza. We knelt in front of him as he pulled a fistful of belts from a bag. There was mine: dark green, crisply folded, and already marked with rank stripes. We had a little ceremony and then class was dismissed. I looked down at the belt and mentally laughed at how stiff it was. It just needs some sweat and then it’ll look fine.

What a green belt means

It’s kind of fun to say, “Hey, I’m a green belt.” But if we look at a belt objectively, we see that it’s just a piece of cloth useful for holding a gi closed. American martial artists tend to focus too much on belt colors (and fancy trophies, and cool gis, etc.). The color doesn’t matter. A mark of honor for a black belt is when their belt becomes so tattered that the white cotton inside shows through, symbolizing the reality that we are all “white belts”; we’re all beginners in some way and we never stop learning.

The color green doesn’t mean much to me. To others, the belt announces that I am serious–it’s not too hard to reach yellow belt, but a green belt means you are serious about training. I was committed at white belt.

Whenever I tell people I’m in martial arts, they ask if I’m a black belt. I say no and have to explain the colored belt ranking system. Thankfully, Shinki Ryu only has four belts: white, yellow, green, and brown, with three ranks each (black, the goal of most colored belts, isn’t a color). Third-degree yellow/first-degree green is the midpoint of the journey to black belt, but the second part of that journey will probably take me longer than the first. I’m okay with that. I value a green belt in that it represents a year and a half of training and a lot of sweat, and because it means that I’ve continued my commitment to being a lifelong “white belt.” (Some day I’ll reach black belt and then the real learning will begin!)

Green belt isn’t an easy stage. The techniques get harder: gun and knife defense at first-degree green, throws at second degree, some really painful wrist locks at third. Standards get higher, too; I’m supposed to be an example to the lower belts in the quality of my techniques, in my knowledge, and in my fitness level. I will spend a year or more at this belt. It’s going to be a challenge that I really look forward to meeting.

The belt

Here it is, my sartorial accessory of choice for the next year (it goes well with white pajamas):