Belt System

Belts also help an instructor properly manage a training class. From the front of a class, an instructor may quickly evaluate the training levels of the entire class by viewing the belts the students are wearing. An instructor may determine the following from the belts the students are wearing:

• Overall skill level of the class, using the number of yellow belts, green belts, blue belts, etc.
• Approximate skill level of each student.
• Approximate physical fitness level of each student.
• Approximate number of months/years each student has been training.
• Approximate level of commitment of each student.
• What patterns, step-sparring sequences, and techniques each student knows.
• What patterns, step-sparring sequences, and techniques each student needs to learn.
• Whether a student is allowed to free spar.
• Approximate sparring ability of each student.

An instructor may glean all this information from the belts students are wearing, whether it is in the instructor's own class or in a class with which the instructor is unfamiliar. Therefore, a visiting instructor knows how to manage a class of students he or she has never seen before.