Why does the philipino martial arts black belt have a red stripe around it?

Question

Why does the philipino martial arts black belt have a red stripe around it?

Answer 1

Like another poster said. Sometimes you get to be higher rank so things signify higher rank like a red piece. If you figure there are 10 ranks once you get to black belt (in some styles) there has to be some way to signify if you are first or second etc.. I've seen grey cloth used sometimes. I know when an old master of mine got his 5th dan he received some crazy looking belt. You will also get title changes sometimes like maybe sifu,tenshi, renshi, shihan, etc.

Some styles such as Savat and capoeira use sashes so they don't even have belts.

Answer 2

cos the guy who developed it liked the black-red combo?

Answer 3

Red is cool.

Answer 4

Because they like it? Why wouldn't they?

Answer 5

This is only true with some martial arts. The reason being is because a red belt CAN actually be a higher rank than a black belt.  Therefore, a red stripe around your black belt signifies a level higher than that of an ordinary black belt.  In other martial arts, at a certain, higher than black belt level, the black belt is replaced by a partially white and red belt, and the red will continue to dominate with more experience.  Others use purple belts instead.  These "higher" ranks however are still collectively referred to as "black belts."