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1st Black Junior Instructor
2nd Black Associate Instructor
3rd Black Head Instructor
4th Black Senior Instructor
5th Black Associate Professor
6th Black Professor
7th Black Senior Professor
8th Black Associate Master
9th Black Master of the Arts
10th Black Senior Master of the Arts
Qualities and Characteristics of Rank
1st Degree Black Belt through 10th Degree Black Belt
First Degree Black Belt
A first-degree black belt (junior instructor) has achieved a certain
level of physical expertise. Understanding the concepts and principles
of motion, he has become a formidable fighter defensively and
offensively. However, his skills outstrip his ability to communicate and
teach, so teaching is essential to any further progress.
Second Degree Black Belt
For the second-degree black belt (associate instructor), the ability to
teach has begun to reinforce newfound skills. He has discovered that “to
teach is to learn,” and this is accomplished by a re-evaluation of past
mistakes and bad habits. A new sense of responsibility appears, and he
must begin to cultivate an image of authority within the school.
Third Degree Black Belt
At third degree (head instructor), the black belt finds that first and
second-degree black belt look to him for guidance and direction in the
execution of techniques. He now has the authority within the school
environment to organize a curriculum, express policy and set up tests.
Fourth Degree Black Belt
At fourth-degree black belt (senior instructor), the black belt acquires
the privilege of overriding others within the school after careful
discussion, as well as a more mature ability to communicate that allows
teaching first, second and third degree black belts. Together with these
responsibilities, the fourth-degree black belt assists the master
instructor in seminars, demonstration and other public functions at
which the school and the art are represented. His physical expertise
should be noticeably above that of more junior black belts, particularly
in terms of speed, power and timing.
Fifth Degree Black Belt
The fifth-degree black belt (associate professor), has reached the level
at which he begins to teach the art beyond the realm of the school.
Although the school curriculum has been carefully spelled out, he is no
longer bound by it and has acquired the ability to tailor it to fit
individual student needs. At fifth degree, in short, the black belt now
moves on to a broader base of responsibility.
Sixth Degree Black Belt
The sixth-degree black belt (professor) has now reached a level at which
he can not only teach the art but also begin to positively formulate its
concepts and principles outside his school. As a result, caution becomes
imperative. He has advanced to a critical point in his art, and it is at
this point that his accumulation of time in grade becomes his defense
against teaching what he cannot later retract.
Seventh Degree Black Belt
At seventh-degree black belt (senior professor), a noticeable change
takes place in the black belt’s understanding of his art. He becomes
capable of ascertaining the problems that lie within the teaching of the
curriculum. Working from a broader base and beginning to teach locally,
nationally and internationally what was once taught mainly at home, he
now recognizes that his former ways may not work abroad and must be
tailored to particular minds, cultures and agendas. He has realized that
while the language of the art remains the same, the varied applications
of that language must be fitted to the environment. In brief, a seventh
degree that goes out to teach in the world must have learned to tailor
his teachings to the place and the people.
Eighth Degree Black Belt
At eighth-degree black belt (associate master), the black belt’s
concerns shift to exploring areas of physical mastership that were not
visible to him in the past. His art eventually begins to expand
physically and mentally, so much so that a definite physical change
becomes evident, expressing the fact that he has begun to settle into a
physical mastery. Thus, movements are less contrived because they are in
the process of becoming embodied within him.
Ninth Degree Black Belt
At ninth-degree black belt (master of the arts), the black belt has
reached to a level where, at any given moment, he can choreograph a
technique by reaching a “super-conscious” level. No longer separate from
the art he has internalized, he has at last embodied it and become an
element of it. What he teaches and what he physically embodies are
indivisible. His contributions to the martial arts inside and outside
the community are many, and his rank is backed by at least 25 years of
sacrifice and service.
Tenth Degree Black Belt
Tenth-degree black belt (senior master of the arts) represent a lifelong
endeavor to help all humankind. The rank is so respected by peers and
students that the person’s word affects the course of the art.
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