Belt Ranking System

The Belt Ranking System is the universal system of signifying a martial artist's increasing level of technical knowledge and practical skill in martial arts. While nearly all martial artists practice multiple forms of martial arts due to the diversity of MMA, a practitioner follows the belt ranking for only one discipline, as it the Association of Martial Arts recognizes only one discipline per practitioner can be 'accurately' measured.

Martial Artists who practice more than one discipline do not get an official belt ranking for those, if committing to one. They can receive other, traditional belts to recognize knowledge and growth, but these will not be recorded by the AMA.

## History

The Belt Ranking System follows the tradition of many historical east Asian martial arts. At the time, only traditional martial arts seemed to have followed this system, especially Japanese Martial Arts. The Judo ranking system developed the modern staple of belt rankings when it spread across the world. Brazilian Jujitsu adopted this system as well. Sports and civilian Krav Maga used a similar system but with patches instead of belts. When the Association of Martial Arts was officially formed, the Martial Family declared all known and registered martial arts would follow a central belt system. Although they allowed certain traditions to follow, all must be translated to the official belt ranking for national and international competition.

The Belt system is followed by all Professional Dojos, regardless of professional or amateur status. It has been used as a measurement of ability by Dojos willing to recruit and trade-in martial artists. Companies looking for sponsorship have also used belt rankings to find martial arts who could be good marketing tools.

The emergence of Ronin and integration of underground fighters led to changes in the issuing belts. Since many Ronin, such as Akira Sakurai, showed huge potential in the Martial Gene, the belt system has slowly broke tradition and became an unofficial way to measure power rather than skill. However, since a belt ranking is held for life and can never be brought down, many fighters who go on hiatus or are injured for a significant time, return not meeting the level of expectation their belt ranking gives them. The AMA has strongly recommended Senseis to not give out belts loosely to maintain the integrity of martial arts.

## Belts

Every martial artist (aside from Ronin classed) starts out at a White Belt. Senseis are tasked to discipline and observe the growth a one's technical knowledge of the martial art. Age does correlate with the belt, but some martial artists commit their entire life with no break to learning, while others have voluntarily/involuntarily taken extensive breaks, which have halted their progress. To attain each belt, one must complete years of training prior to a previous belt level. At the end, it is up to the Sensei or the AMA if necessary to determine if a PMA can move up a belt rank.

At some point, increasing one's belt level requires more philosophical and mental knowledge of a discipline rather than physical. The following assumes an individual is just starts learning formal martial arts from the beginning in a martial arts establishment.

## Criticism

Many Dojos and martial artists have criticized the belt ranking system as a way to regulate and control martial arts practice. It's been deemed an inaccurate measure of skill since it is based on whether the Sensei approves of the belt and the quantity-quality ratio of training. Since most martial artists train in more than one martial arts, a belt seems to be unnecessary to measure skill. The Martial Gene opens the potential of humans born with black belt level abilities.

On the flip side, many Senseis criticize the belts for distracting the overall goal of martial arts practice and even professional competition. A high belt rank doesn't always correlate with a high professional ranking. Fighters also seek sponsorship to gain more money and have tried to commit to increasing their professional rank rather than focus of practicing a discipline. Because of this, many high ranking martial artists are not at the belt ranking that matches their skill and achievements. The level of martial arts training and competition differentiates between countries and regions and a central belt system is too simple to try to regulate the path of a discipline. The AMA has no way of knowing how someone receives a belt ranking without directly monitoring a PMA's training progress.

At the same time, the definition of 'training' is trivial, since competition counts as the practice of martial artists. Dojos and families who follow single traditional martial arts criticize the system for breaking traditions by forcing them to adapt old belt rankings to the central one. For example, a 1st degree black belt in traditional judo may have a longer path and is given at a different skill level versus the central one.

## Trivia

* The only 10th Degree Red belts are legends in martial arts, such as Wong Fei-Hung, Bruce Lee, and Helio Gracie.
* To understand the idea of attaining a belt for one discipline, we use Takashi Isshiki as an example. Isshiki is a 4th Degree Black Belt in Black Dragons Dragon Style martial arts, but he is also a practitioner of Judo. On public data, his belt is a title for his knowledge in Dragon Style.
* If a PMA starts formal training with no prior experience at the age of 10, the fighter is capable of reaching a 1st Degree Black Belt by 14, assuming the Sensei oversees his/her consistent training over the years.