Love most of the answers so far, ill give my view later on today, think I found my best answer below this morning. I TOO agree its a piece of cloth, its just graduating HS and starting College and so on, we never stop learning.. Ill check back later see if more answers but i like the last few.
pugpaws2
Favorite Answer
When I began my training in Karate in 1967 I thought that reaching first degree black belt meant mastering something. But it does not. Reaching black belt is a big achievement, but far from mastering anything at all. Reaching black belt means you have learned the basics. It means you memorized the basics and have some ability to do them. how well varies from one person to the next. Most black belts at that point are not good fighters. The Japanese masters see a new black belt as someone that now can begin to learn the art. That belief is reflected in the terms used to describe the color and black belts. Color belts (all colors below black belt) are all called Mu-Dansha. All levels of black belt are collectively called Yu-Dansha. The MU in Mu-dansha means "nothing". The Japanese see new black belts as teachable and nothing more.
The real Karate can't be used in any type of sport so I'm not in favor of Karate in the Olympics in any form. Taekwondo was already being ruined by commercialism. Once it became an Olympic sport it only made things worse. Now because of the Olympic Taekwondo many people have wrongly assumed that Taekwondo has not hand techniques.
Anonymous
A black belt means different things within different schools and styles. I studied Shotokan karate many years ago, and the first level black belt meant the person had mastered a number of techniques and advanced kata and was qualified to be an instructor. If I'm not mistaken, Shotokan traditionally has 5 black belt levels.
Olympic exposure would probably be great for karate. This issue came up about 25 years ago, and two or three major karate organizations could not agree upon competition rules for the Olympics, and I don't know what became of the Olympic Karate situation after that.
jwbulldogs
Had you ask this 30 plus years ago having a black belt would have meant the world to me. I would have thought of it like I have arrived and that I was an expert. It would have been the end of my training. I would be able to fight an beat others up.....lol This shows how little I knew.
But 30 plus years later it is just a piece of colored cloth to hold my uniform together. It means I have a degree of knowledge and skill. It means that my training is not over. The more I know the more I need to know.
Personally I do not wish to see karate in the Olympics. I do not think it would help karate at all. In fact it will in my opinion I believe it will be bad for karate. It will lead to an increase in those that join karate schools. But it will lead to less focus on self defense which has already occurred and it will worsen and more focus on a watered down sports version of karate.
AKBAN
A black belt to me is two separate things with different meanings.
1. Just a piece of black cloth that symbolizes an accomplishment. In my opinion martial knowledge precedes rank.
2. As mentioned it symbolizes a great accomplishment but at the core means so much more and is special.. Aye, it's not mastery of a rank and is truly only the first step to the beginning but it should mean a lot and it must be earned the hard way, the right way, and the real way. A 5th degree black belt from a mcdojo means nothing while a green belt from a real school means much per se. It should be earned through hard work and dedication, blood and sweat, etc. No shortcuts, not the easy way, and with all the mcdojos around watering down everything and teaching nonsense martial knowledge truly procedes rank. It's what you know that counts, not what belt is tied around your waist...to a degree.
As for karate being used in the Olympics? I have no opinion of that nor do I care. Tis fine with me.
dragon4
Karate was intended by the masters for self defense only and not the scoring of "points' in competition or who has a better fight experience that day. True self defense is about who is left standing in a fight. It's about repetetive training to master a handful of good basic techniques. Techniques to neutralize an attacker are very different from competition karate. This does not belong in the olymics, but the one advantage is advertizement for karate.