The White Belt in Pukulan
The First Examination After Two Years of Training
Rotterdam, February 28, 2026 — examination day.
In Japanese martial arts, the white belt is the first one tied around the kimono.
It represents purity, the beginning, the first step onto the tatami — the moment when one starts to make the first movements, to train, to make martial sacrifices, and to aspire to the higher ranks, all the way to the final, coveted black belt.
Index Table
The White Belt in Pukulan: Its Deeper Meaning
In Pukulan, the Indonesian martial art I practice, after approximately two years — give or take a few days — the first grading examination is precisely to earn that WHITE BELT.
It is not awarded automatically in the first lesson.
It must be earned.
During these two years of practice and technical training, it takes a great deal of courage to get up from the couch each time and choose to practice a discipline as demanding and complex as Pukulan.
For this reason, earning this first belt is the most important phase in building solid technical foundations and true discipline, fueled by the passion necessary to progress. Only after passing the examination does the real beginning of this extraordinary journey truly start.
It’s Not Just Technique. It’s Character.
In summary, the white belt is not merely the first rank to be achieved, but the very foundation upon which the entire martial journey in Pukulan Pentjak Silat rests.
Two years of intense training to earn the first belt — the same belt that many other martial disciplines tie around a practitioner’s waist on the very first day — in Pukulan instead symbolizes the first examination, the most demanding one. Here, progress goes far beyond simple physical ability; it reflects commitment, discipline, and true dedication to genuinely learning the Art.
Moreover, this white belt — earned through the first examination — serves as a reminder that, despite having already absorbed hundreds and hundreds of strikes over those first two years, the road toward the “perfect strike” is still a long one.
The First Examination: The Toughest One
This white belt reminds us that we have never truly “arrived” — in fact, that we are still far from it. It teaches us to keep our ego in check, channeling it into practice and into the constant refinement that comes from walking the Path without pause.
That refinement lives in the work done on the tatami and beyond it, because a martial art is something that is lived inwardly — even outside the training floor.
