Mats blog

Often people come up to me and asks me how I tied my belt, even very high ranked people. So I guess the technique I use is not so well known.

I have seen many variations of tying the belt, some is not so good and it looks sloppy or even bad (I think). Some people take the ends and forcefully apply the knot, which destroys the belt, it doesn't look so good.

I tie the belt as most people do but I use a technique where the belt knot holds better. There is a trick to it that even works on brand new silk belts so it doesn't open up so easily. This is how I do it...

First make sure both ends are equally long, and layered on top of it self (the belt should not cross on the back). It doesn't matter from which side the belt is rolled on the body. Here the top layer goes under both layers and up (my right hand).

Here everything is as usual, but look carefully how I do it...

stick both ends of the obi between both layers as you do the knot.

Here I loosened up the whole knot to show you where the ends go, between the layers of the obi.

The I pull the ends to finalize the knot. I don't pull hard, just enough to make the knot look good. This is an older belt so it holds better than a new one, I never need to adjust the belt for the whole class.

If you have a brand new silk belt, instead of pulling the ends hard to make it stay, use this technique. Make the knot fairly tight without letting the belt to "curve", and flatten the knot against your body, just squeeze the knot to your stomach so it gets flat, don't pull it so hard that the belt get curved or bent. With a brand new silk belt this knot might hold the whole class if you've done it properly. If you have cotton belt, it will guaranteed hold the whole training session.

Happy Training!