colorbelt

Colorbelt is a term used to describe non-black belt ranks in many martial arts and related disciplines that use colored belts to denote a student’s level of training. Belts indicate progression through defined curriculum, skill proficiency, and experience. The exact colors, number of ranks, and the order of progression vary by discipline, school, and governing body. Some systems also use stripes on the color belt to indicate partial progress toward the next color.

In many arts, students start as white belts and advance through multiple colors before achieving a black belt. A typical, but not universal, progression might include colors such as yellow, orange, green, blue, and brown or purple, with red sometimes used in certain systems. The specific colors and their meanings differ between karate, taekwondo, judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and other disciplines, and some programs use only a few colors.

The belt ranking serves pedagogical purposes, guiding curriculum, sparring eligibility, competition categories, and instructor assignment. It also provides motivation and a visible measure of experience for students, instructors, and peers. Because there is no universal standard, the meaning of a given color belt can vary from one school to another, and even between federations.

Some studios publish testing requirements and progress criteria for each color belt, and may place limits on how many periods a student must train before testing. The term colorbelt is most commonly used in martial arts contexts, though the concept of color-coded progression appears in other training environments as well.