Black Belt Photo Montage

[Byzantine]

Congrats!

[PhuturePriest]

Excuse my ignorance, but why are you wearing black? and short sleeves? I've seen a fair bit of karate and they almost always wear long sleeved white..... how does this work??

 

 

Long sleeved and white is more 'traditional', but tradition is essentially meaningless (or at the very least highly overstated) in karate, and it really just comes down to a matter of aesthetic preferences and taste, as well as the individual club's custom.

 

American Goju comes from Peter Urban, who studied in Okinawa. Everyone in traditional Okinawan karate wears all white with long sleeves. In order to differentiate from the Okinawans, Peter Urban chose for everyone to wear black. The sleeveless is first of all traditional, because the samurai wore sleeveless gis like this. But it's also nice because it's not as hot.

[Nihil Obstat]

hmm, okay fair enough... I thought there was more a solid tradition like with the belt colours. Hehe, but even they differ...

Belts are not as traditional as you might think. Karateka (a group to which I also belong) can be kind of pretentious about it. :smile3:
The colored belts actually come from judo, and originated, if I remember correctly, with the ranking system from a board game.

[jeffboom]

Well, I just saved all of those pictures. 

[Oremoose]

So when do you join the Order of Catholic Ninjas? :ninja:

[jeffboom]

So when do you join the Order of Catholic Ninjas? :ninja:

There's only one Catholic ninja, and I believe he lives in The Vatican.