How to Tie a Judo Belt
While knowing how to tie your belt properly before practicing judo may not seem like an important detail, it is actually one of the fundamental skills for beginning your training. The belt, or obi, keeps your uniform tightly secured and teaches the novice how to follow instructions carefully while conforming to discipline.
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Instructions
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Wrap the belt twice around your body, with the ends open at the front of your waist about 1 or 2 inches below your navel. The ends should be of equal length. Pull the judo belt tightly around your waist, so that it is snug without restricting your movement or causing you discomfort.
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Take the right end and tuck it behind both lengths of the belt, coming in from the bottom. Pull the right end up above the belt, and continue to hold it with your hand.
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Do the same for the left end of your judo belt, bringing it underneath the belt and up, eventually holding it up even with the other end.
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Wrap the left end of your judo belt out and over the top of the right end to tie it correctly. Bring the left down through the hole and pull out both ends of the belt.
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Tighten your judo belt by pulling both ends of the belt toward the outside of your body until the knot begins to form. When done, the knot should be tight and fairly symmetrical. There should be no twists in the obi. Both ends of the belt should still be equal in length.
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Practice tying your judo belt until you achieve consistent results. You should also learn how to tie your judo belt quickly and efficiently, since it may come loose during a match. Remember that a properly fastened belt should not come loose repeatedly during judo practice.
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Tips & Warnings
Notice what your instructor does. Some judo instructors may have unique or alternative ways to tie your judo belt, so that the entire class or dojo is uniform and consistent.
Get to know the belt system. As per the United States Judo Federation (USJF), the color of the belts signify the level of expertise. Judo students start with a yellow belt (rokkyu), and then move on to orange (gokyu), green (yonkyu) and three levels of brown (sankyu, nikyu, ikkyu) before moving to expert status or a black belt (dan).
