MEANING of BELT COLORS:

When a student first starts kung fu they are considered a candidate and not necessarily a student yet. After the first test, usually the candidate begins to be a student at 10 tje which is a white belt – Instructor will let you know. As the student progresses and gains more knowledge and skills, the belts become darker – while the degree number goes from 10 tje to 1 tje as you go up in belts. Notice how 10 tje being the beginning or lowest belt and 1 tje being the highest student degree belts.

Why do the belts & uniforms become darker? Why white before yellow, yellow before orange, and blue before brown AND not in any other order? Where are the colors from anyway?

The answer is quite simple. The colors come from nature. The reason why the colors are in order the way they are which is from lightest to darkest is… The more knowledge someone has, the more experience, and improves personally; the darker the belt and uniform. However it is not just about your kung fu skills but also how you are developing as a person, your character, your personality, your morals, the way you treat people and yourself, honor, loyalty, keeping your word, integrity, love, patience, etc.

Now, imagine you are a sheet of paper or a book. You always start with a clean sheet of paper which is white. The more you write down, the more knowledge and experience you have, which means the darker the page OR belt/uniform in this case. When you reach a green belt (5tje), you are half way down the page. Therefore, the pants become black indicating you are half way there or the page is half full of writing. Once you reach brown belts (3tje-1tje) your uniform becomes full black which indicates even more knowledge and the page is almost completely written. These full black uniforms are Instructor degrees. Finally the 1tje brown belt with 3 black stripes becomes a black belt (1 don) and you are now fully knowledgeable. This is not where you stop but this is where you have enough knowledge to continue in your journey.

Black belt degrees are from 1 don (1^st degree black belt) to 10 don (10^th degree black belt).