I’ve never paid attention. Probably pathetic on my part.
the gracies stole that concept from edmund kooklafran&ollie parker. BTW, have you ever read comrade "fightin’ " bob smith’s martial musings?
What’s this?? A book?? I love martial arts books.
It’s about comrade bob’s 60 years or so in the martial arts. He used to write hilarious books and articles under the name john F. gilbey. He was a friend of don draeger and jon bluming and lived with them in draegers fighters house in japan for a few years, along with a lot of other guys who came thru on rotation like doug rogers and jim bregman to name just a few. This was during draegers experiments with sport specific weight and cardio training.
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I got an isami belt when I got my blackbelt, got it with “professor” bars too as I was teaching since blue … Never knew about the formality of it until later. A friend said it was the last belt I would ever get so not to feel bad about paying for something nice. He was right. Enjoy it. I love my isami, ages nicely too.
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No. I’ve read Robert W. Smith’s [John F. Gilbey’s] book “Secret Fighting arts of the World” & I’ve thumbed through some of his kung fu books.
I’m in the market for a high end white belt. I’ve been in the game a couple months and I deserve it after putting in the mat time. @shen do you have a referral code? I want you to get the credit when I order mine.
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How much is a drop in? What are the class times? I haven’t trained in over a year but am starting to explore some options.
I bought myself a nice Isami belt when I was promoted to black belt, but prefer to wear my Valor Elite gi material belt that I bought about 18 months later. The Isami is a lovely belt, no fancy embroidery or anything, but I have to make myself wear it as otherwise I’d always go with the Valor.
As for the Professor bars, even though I teach off and on, I wouldn’t put those stripes on as I don’t own a school or am the head instructor. I quite like the fact that those bars are meant to be kept just for those purposes. But Shen, as you run your own school (along with the worldwide Shendokan foundation), it’s totally ok to have the Professor bars. Has the new belt arrived yet? And good luck with the new school, am I right in guessing that the OG stands for Ocean Grown?
James
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It’s a very temporary set up right now. Just roll out mats until real mats are in. 6am and 6pm, it’s very informal and unofficial but welcome to come! No drop in fee for you.
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This. Valor is quite comfortable. I still really miss those Green Gi hemp belts! Sometimes I wanna sandbag just so I can wear them again.
Yeah, the club is Ocean Grown, as mentioned above, its really nor quite open yet. I just got the belt --It’s very nice. It has embroidered stripes & the bars, but they are small. I didn’t get kanji embroidered or my name or anything so it’s really NOT as flashy as I feared. It’s nice. I have accepted it.
However…
I am having very SERIOUS second thoughts about the $9,200 Black Panther Hakama I have also ordered. That has to be professionally smuggled into the U.S., as it is HIGHLY illegal to make clothes from the fur of endangered animals. Really, not sure what I was thinking when I got that.
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Bro…you realize the danger of posting that, right? There are lists ya know…
Thank you!
I’m just a purple belt scrub, but I think it sounds like a cool purchase and you should enjoy it. You obviously wanted it and wouldn’t have taken the time to think so much about it if it wasn’t important to you on some level. You should enjoy it. Plus you’re a black belt and likely well respected wherever you train, so no one will have an issue with it
when are you buying a shoyoroll
Isami is awesome…i mostly wear the ouano avenger, does he still sell them?.I lost some weight and my belts are a little long the last 2yrs…not that they see much useover the covid bullshit
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I have no instructor bars on my black belt. It is an Eosin Panther however, and it is awesome.
You earned it, nobody gave it to you.
Just rock it. Only thing you should be embarrassed about is if it still looks new next year.
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I think it’s awesome to get a nice belt- then again, I took forever for all of my promotions 
As an anecdote to your question, when I got Marcelo his black belt (as a gift), he requested not having the instructor bars, because he said it looked like too many stripes.
As for me, I’m a dummy- I’ve had my own school for 9 years, and haven’t competed in 11 years- and my black belt has a white bar - because I like how it looks haha.
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