Belt Auction

Why is the karate uniform black belts have to be so long?

Public Comments

1. Good question I don't know. All I know is that you have to have them in a special type of knot.
2. This may be a silly answer but when an apponent is behind you, you can turn really quick and wip him.
3. A long belt makes your technique look better. For example, when your doing a low side stance, a long belt will make it look even lower. That's the theory behind it anyway. Added to on 30/11/08 I don't think Pugpaws2s answer had much thought go into it, and alot of it is opinion. As for the belts being to long because of lack of stock, or club got the wrong size. Does that really make sense? I think that if you have been with a club for the years that it has taken to earn your Shodan that they would know your size or would have ordered one in your size in advanced. I’ll agree with you that the names embroidered on the Black belt is a modern influence on martial arts, however the Koreans Have been marking their Black Belts with rank long before Teakwondo or any other martial art became commercialised. The claims you made with the uniform was an opinion too with no really back up to support your idea. I would have thought you would know why uniforms are sometimes too long or too short seeing though you have been taking part in martial arts for so long. There are two types of uniform. Traditional and Tournament. Traditional dogi (or the ones you claim are too big because of a lack in stock) are long to highlight movement and a lot of martial artists like the 'snap' sound it makes with good fast technique. The Tournament dogi on the other hand are very short. Sometimes going halfway up the shin and forarm. Tournament uniforms are more commonly used for Kumite so they do not get in the way, and Traditional for kata. But I'm sure Pugpaws2 already new that. Dont say I lack knowledge when I'm a Shodan that seems to know more about Martial art tradition and History then you love.
4. i don't know but in taekwondo the belt is wrapped twice around the wasit before being tied
5. There are some really uninformed answers here so far. There is no reason why the black belt has to be long. In the 1960's and even before it was not very common to see long black belts. Since then I've noticed that the belt lengths have slowly gotten longer. Sometimes it is because people get their belts from their martial arts school. The school may not stock a full range of sizes. It is easier and less trouble for them to just stock long belts. That way the will always have a belt when one is needed. If they stock short belts they might be to short for larger students. ADDED NOTE: The same thing has happened to uniforms. Many people are wearing uniforms that are simply too long to wear. The pants legs and sleeves are way to long for proper technique. They may think that they look good, but looking good does not mean that you can do things correctly. How many times have you seen someone attempt to kick only to have their heel get caught in their pant leg because it is too long. Those that work weapons like the Katana or sai learn quickly that long sleeves get in the way and restrict your movements. Nothing worse than trying to flip the sai and have one of the prongs get caught in your sleeve. It is also not good to see someone go to draw a katana and end up grabbing both the katana and their belt end at the same time. Could easily get you killed if the situation was real. EDIT: monk_yarik You mentioned putting writing of style, name, ...etc on belts. That is something that was not done years ago. It is something that commercialism has done to the martial arts. In the 1960's no one wore names on belts or uniforms. Uniforms either had no patches or maybe a style patch. Now everyone has multicolored Gi, tons of patches, and belts with their name, rank, style, ..... on them. But the martial arts today are not as good as they were when people were only concerned with how well they were trained.
6. I would vote for tradition . But I do not know 100% . Maybe because black belt have to content name of style , name of school , master name and black belt holder name . There must be enough space to put everything in proper order .But this is only my suggestion . I do not know .
7. i don't think for any specific reason!