What is a black belt?  And what is needed to attain one?  This isn’t a simple answer.  For one, every school and every martial arts style may have different answers to that question.  Secondly, every student is different and therefore every black belt is different and what is needed to attain that black belt is different.  But I’ll do my best to give you an idea of what it takes in my school.

When they asked Michelangelo how he made his statue of David he said, “It is easy. You just chip away the stone that doesn’t look like David.”  He was also quoted as saying, “I saw an angel in the block of marble and I just chiseled ’til I set him free.”

Many students come to me for multiple reasons.  Generally speaking, it’s to learn a skill such as self defense or body control.  While martial arts does provide these, its greatest attribute is a journey of self discovery.  Look around any martial arts school and you’ll find multiple types of people doing multiple different things at multiple different skill levels…and all could be the exact same rank.   If all we did was taught you a skill, wouldn’t everyone be doing the same thing and at the same skill level as others their rank?

When I first walked into that martial arts studio back in my home town of Norfolk, Nebraska I had made the assumption that I was just going to physically add some things to my skill set and add another notch to my belt of physical accomplishments.  After a few embarrassing moments that showed me I wasn’t as good as I thought, I began my journey of self discovery.  Over twenty years later, that journey is still going strong and the discoveries have only increased over time.  For many, martial arts begins as a physical attainment, but for anyone who sticks around and puts any effort into it, they’ll discover that the biggest gains aren’t from physical attainment, but from self realizations.  Discovering both physical and mental limitations, strengths and weakness you didn’t know you had.

So why is self awareness and the realization of your own strengths and weakness so important to self defense?  In some ways it’s obvious, when you know your weaknesses you can work to strengthen them or at least protect them.  And when you learn what your strengths are, you can cater your skills around it.  But there’s another reason.  As much as we like to believe that the people who we seek defense from are nothing like us, the fact is, they are exactly like us.  The school bullies, the thieves looking for your wallet, the drunken college student who thinks you looked at his girl wrong, the rapist, and even the serial killer….they aren’t monsters from another planet, they are us.  They have the same needs, the same emotions, the same desires, the same feelings, the same strengths and the same weaknesses.  We are all capable of both doing good things and doing bad things.  The only difference is our perspective and perceived justification for what we are doing.  When you truly understand who you are, what you are capable of and why you do what you do, you will better understand those who try and hurt you as well as why they want to hurt you, how they will hurt you and even when they will hurt you.  And if you know this information, then you can avoid issues altogether.  This is the highest attainment of self defense.  Defending yourself without physically having to defend yourself.  Pardon me as I take a side step from this article to make something very clear.  Violence isn’t what you think it is, neither are fights.  It’s not like it is on tv.  The reality of fighting involves not just temporary physical damage, but psychological damage that may last forever, not to mention the possibilities of contracting diseases.  Did you think that fight wasn’t going to be bloody?  Do you think that person physically attacking you has kept themselves clean?  Do you think you will ever walk down that sidewalk again without flashbacks of what happened?  No. Avoidance is only way to purely defend yourself with no consequences. All other roads lead to lasting problems. Now back to the topic at hand!

Most of my students, as they get closer and closer to earning their black belt, ask me the same question.  Generally the question is a long these lines, “What do I need to do to earn my black belt?” They all know the physical movements and expectations I have of them, but most realize over time that physical skill is not enough to please me or to earn a black belt.  I never have a great general answer for them as the specific answer changes from student to student, but one portion of the answer that tends to include everyone is “failure”.  No, I don’t tell them they are going to fail.  But some of the greatest self discoveries come from failure.  I set my students up for success, yes, but then I also set an impossible task in front of them in order to fail.  But it’s not about the failure, it’s about what they do with it.  When you realize that you aren’t as strong as you thought you were, or that the skills you thought were perfect during class suddenly dissolve when your body and mind are exhausted, or when your endless endurance finally hits the wall, or possibly when your ego gets thrown to the floor and stomped on when all eyes are on you….it’s what you do next that determines who you really are.  The stone has been chipped away, the only thing left standing is your naked self for all to see.  With your imperfections exposed and highlighted.  Do you give up?  Do you run and hide?  Do you deny what just happened?  Or do you accept your failures, discover who you really are and stand with pride of this discovery and knowledge of yourself?  If you choose the latter, then your black belt awaits.  It will not be given to you; you will take it, as it was never mine.  I was just holding it for you until you realized it was yours the whole time and that you now truly feel worthy of wearing it.

Understand though that black belt is not the end, it’s the true beginning.  Everything leading up to it was just preparing you for the real journey.  It was the chipping away of the biggest slabs of stone.  I learned more as a first degree going to a second degree than all the years spent as a colored belt.  I learned more as a second degree going for my third degree than I have all the years spent getting to second degree.  This, at least so far, has continued to be the case as I stand here working towards my sixth degree.  Each passing year I look back at what I knew a year ago, both about martial arts and myself, and have thought to myself, “wow, how little did I know a year ago?!”  I see no end, nor even slowing, in sight.  For every new door of knowledge and self discovery I open, ten more doors await for me on the other side.

The martial arts belt around your waist is not there for looks.  It’s not there to keep your pants up.  It has no special powers.  It does not guarantee you success, nor does it guarantee you respect or courtesy from others.  It simply reflects the wearer’s knowledge of self realization and their knowledge of the martial arts.  The white belt you wear on day one reflects the fact that you know nothing of the martial arts and may truly know nothing about yourself.  The more elements of knowledge you gain along the way the darker the belt becomes.  From oranges and yellows to blues and purples and browns.  Constantly chipping away that stone that isn’t you, until finally, your true self is exposed and you know yourself.  That massive amount of knowledge is then reflected through your belt as the darkest color possible, black.  There is an angel inside that block of stone around you; will you hide it from the world, or will you chisel your way out?