Kyokushin karate belts, in order

Before black belt, grades are called kyu and count down: you enter at 10th kyu and move toward 1st. Black-belt grades are dan, counted the other way, from 1st (shodan) upward. This is the ladder published by branches of the WKO Shinkyokushinkai, and the one the dojo applies.

A stripe on a coloured belt marks the second kyu of that colour. It takes the colour of the next belt: a blue belt with a yellow stripe is a 7th kyu, on the way to yellow.

For every belt, the dojo publishes the programme that prepares the next grading. Here is what each one contains, as the catalogue describes it.

• Orange — the first grading: stances (heiko dachi, zenkutsu dachi, kumite dachi, seiza), hikite, punching combinations, the first kicks (hiza, kin, mae and yoko geri), the first blocks (gedan barai, jodan uke, juji uke), ido geiko, the kata Taikyoku sono ichi and Sokugi Taikyoku sono ichi, and the Dojo Kun.
• Blue — four more stances (kiba, kokutsu, neko ashi and sanchin dachi), the mawashi geri, the blocks soto uke, uchi uke and shuto mawashi uke, the kata Taikyoku sono ni and san, Sokugi Taikyoku sono ni and san, and Pinan sono ichi.
• Yellow — elbow (hiji) and knife-hand (shuto) strikes, the stances musubi dachi and tsuru ashi dachi, ushiro geri, ura mawashi and ushiro mawashi geri, the kata Pinan sono ni and san.
• Green — kake dachi, tettsui and shotei, shuto uke and morote naka uke, kakato geri and tobi mae geri, the kata Sanchin, Pinan sono yon, and the ura versions of the first three Pinan.
• Brown — Pinan sono go, Yantsu, Tsuki no kata, and Pinan sono yon and go in ura.
• Black — Tensho, Saiha, Gekisai dai and Gekisai sho.
• Nidan and sandan — Garyu, Seienchin, Seipai, Sushiho and Kanku.

From orange to green, the programme also includes the physical requirements of the grading and a reminder of the Dojo Kun. The section-by-section detail is on the programs page.

In the WKO Shinkyokushinkai first-year textbook, an examination covers kihon, ido geiko, kata, conditioning (knuckle push-ups, jumping squats), flexibility and kumite. For shodan, the same textbook sets a kumite of ten consecutive bouts.

A WKO dan examination held in Greenfield Park, Québec, in December 2024 gives the measure of it: candidates fought 15 consecutive bouts for 1st dan, 20 for 2nd and 30 for 3rd. How tough is Kyokushin, really? gives the context.

The same textbook also says what a belt commits you to: moving up a grade means having to set the example for juniors, in technique as much as in etiquette and the way you speak. That is why dojo etiquette is part of what you learn from white belt onward.

At the dojo, the Petit Samouraï programme takes children aged 4 to 6, and that group has colours of its own: on Saturday mornings, one group brings together the white belts, another the purple and red belts. These are colours specific to that age; they say nothing about the level of contact, which is a separate question. The kids programme is for ages 13 and under; from 14, you register in the adult programme. What age can kids start? deals with the starting age, and the kids karate page presents the classes.

To train between classes, the dojo offers one video programme per belt, self-paced and with no time limit: $25 for orange belt, $30 from blue to black, $50 for nidan and sandan. They are preparation tools; the content of each is detailed on the programs page.

The colour tells you where a student stands in the technical programme. It does not tell you how long the next one will take — that varies from one person to the next, and this page gives no average. Nor does it tell you what level of contact a student trains at: that is a training decision, made at the dojo, which cannot be read from the belt or the age.