How to tie your belt

Please note, brand new belts will be very stiff and hard to tie properly until you've broken them in. If you don't mind washing your belt repeatedly, that will soften the material far quicker. If you are uncomfortable washing your belt, read this article on the history of karate belts.

		Your belt should have a plain end, and an end (and side) with a label. For clarity, the label side in our drawings is yellow, and the plain side is white.
		With the label facing outwards, wrap the belt anti-clockwise around you (viewed from above) so that the label-end is somewhere near your back. The exact position will vary according to your waist size and the length of your belt. The main part of your belt should be in the front.
		Holding the label end in place, continue to wrap the belt around you. If you pull the belt firmly, it should be able to hold the label end in place against your body.
		If the belt is long enough, wrap it one more time around your body, ending up with the loose end at the front. If the belt is not long enough, skip this stage.
		Take the loose plain belt end and tuck it under the two layers of belt in front of you. This bit is vitally important, if you do not tuck beneath both layers, then as soon as you start training, the bottom layer will droop down, and look unsightly. If there is only one layer, just tuck it under that.
		Now for the tricky bit - reach behind you and find the label end which is hopefully held in place by two circles of belt. Pull the end down and out from the layers of belt on top of it, and unwind the label end anti-clockwise until it is at the front. At this stage, you should have two belt ends of roughly equal length; the label end hanging down and the plain end poking up. If the ends are not equal at this stage, you'll have to adjust how far you wind the belt around you in the first stage. Kids often have to start much further around, whilst chunkier people often start further back.
		Bend the plain end down. Take the label end, and without twisting it, pass it behind the plain one.
		Now wrap the label end once around the plain end.
		Pull both ends outwards to the sides to tighten the knot, then downwards at 45 degrees to give it the right shape. The two ends should both be pointing out and down at 45 degrees and should be of equal length. Click here to find out why the length is important.

Left-click above to open a printable version of this document in Acrobat PDF format. Right-click above to download a printable version to your hard drive (61k) You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to access it). You can download Acrobat Reader here

All graphics and text on this page are copyright Mat Broomfield. Feel free to use or print the pages for yourself if you are a student.
Senseis, feel free to print multiple copies for your GKR students only.
Unauthorised reproduction in any additional form, including, but not limited to other web sites, books, videos or multimedia is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.