The definition of what is a black belt has different meaning within the myriads of martial arts The definition of what is a black belt has different meaning within the myriads of martial arts being taught throughout the world, and there are many general misconceptions as to what is required to attain such a high rank. One of the first youngest black belts was Joshua Bishop in June of 1995 in the martial style of Koo Self Defense at the very young age of 5 years old. Joshua Bishop was featured in local newspapers, martial arts magazines and television, other names followed soon after Tommy Muller, 1995, Tyler Moore, 1998, were also 5 years of age, and most recently in May, 2009 the youngest recognized female Karate black belt in the world was named, Varsha Vinod, age 5, from Allappuzha, India.
It is truly a very rare occurrence that children at such a young age will attain a level of dedication and discipline to achieve such a high rank, but it does happen sometimes in martial arts. The question people raise the most is, are these children too young to hold such a high rank? And what about the responsibility and leadership qualities that go along with the rank? Are instructors to willing or make it to easy for children to achieve black belt ranks?
