How to progress in Shorinji Kempo

One of the most common questions that people have when they first start a new hobby is “how do I progress in this hobby?”. For musical instruments, you might take exams and get your Grade 1, Grade 2, and so on. For languages you might measure yourself using GCSE, A-level exams, or use the CEFR rankings to measure your progress.

For Shorinji Kempo, like many other martial arts, we use the kyu-dan grade system, better known as coloured belts and black belts.

What are the belts in Shorinji Kempo?

All new students start off as a minarai, a beginner. Literally, mi (see) narai (learning), learning by observation. Your job at this stage is to watch carefully and copy what you see. These students wear a white belt, and are also known as 6th kyu.

To progress you will need to learn the techniques taught at each grade, and get better at the ones for previous grades. You’ll also learn some philosophy (don’t worry, it’s very practical philosophy!). After each grading exam you will progress to wearing darker and darker belts:

• 5th kyu, yellow belt
• 4th kyu, orange belt
• 3rd kyu, green belt
• 2nd kyu, blue belt
• 1st kyu, brown belt

This is, in theory, a reflection of the sweat and effort you have put in to make progress – staining your belt ever darker in the process.

When you make it to brown belt, of course, the journey is not yet over. You are now ready to take your shodan grading and become a black belt.

How many years does it take to get a black belt in Shorinji Kempo?

To a certain extent, that depends on you. How much effort are you willing to put in? How many times a week are you attending class? Are you studying outside of class too?

Having said that, there is a minimum. Grading in Shorinji Kempo is not just about perfecting your technique; there is also a philosophy element, and part of that is to spend enough time at each grade to demonstrate your determination to succeed and to develop as a person.

For your first grading, for example, to get to yellow belt, you will need to spend at least 3 months training. To be honest, the minimum time requirements won’t slow you down much unless you’re training 5 days a week and obsessively studying outside of class. Learning the techniques is the hard part!

To cut a long story short, if you did everything as fast as you could, you could in theory get to black belt in 2.5 years. However, most people take longer than that – somewhere in the 3-5 year range is not unusual, and I know of people who have taken longer.

Personally I think that the faster you do it, the less well you will have learnt each technique and the worse off you will be in the long run. Take time to enjoy the journey and fully internalise the basics and principles!

What happens after you get a black belt?

Non-martial artists often think that getting a black belt is an end goal. It means you’ve made it! You are now officially Good, right?

Wrong.

Don’t get me wrong, you’re definitely better than a minarai, but Shorinji Kempo – any martial art really – is a lifelong journey. There is no end goal.

Shodan – first level black belt – translates literally as “beginning grade”. After a while you might progress to 2nd dan, 3rd dan, 4th dan, … Each new grade comes with more techniques to learn, more exciting avenues to explore. Your journey is really just beginning, and that is an exciting place to be!