Stripes

Suppose you came to train at our Jiu-Jitsu class.

You'd see a bunch of people wearing similar white outfits. Maybe you'd notice that a few of the class members are wearing Blue Belts instead of White. You assume that these denote higher rank.

The class starts, and the instructor is also wearing a Blue Belt. You assume that a Blue Belt is a big deal.

Class continues, and one of the Blue Belts is assigned to you to explain the basics. Soon, you are rolling around with the other White Belts. You notice that some of them have black stripes on their belts. Some have more than one.

You assume this also denotes rank. You start looking closely at the instructor's belt, trying to see any difference between it and those of the other Blue Belts. It is exactly the same.

It would be just a tad more elegant if the instructor were somehow off higher rank than his highest students.

I have been a Karate instructor for a very long time, and ran a major club while wearing only a Brown Belt. I got by, but people expect clubs to be taught by Black Belts. If not a Black Belt, then at least somebody higher than the students.

In our Jiu-Jitsu class this has just changed. The most senior of the Blues have been working towards completion of their first stripe curriculum and exam.

The first to receive the new rank is our instructor. He is now qualified to wear a Blue Belt with a single, proud stripe on it.

He is also a certified instructor. As such, he would be qualified to wear a slightly different instructor's stripe once he has produced a certain number of Blue Belts. He has also recently achieved this.

Soon, several others of the Blues will earn their first stripes, too, but the instructor will have two on his belt.

Somehow it just will look better and more structured. Nothing real will have changed, but symbols can be important.