Martial Arts Schools Uniform

In addition to maintaining tradition, long pants are more practical than shorts. For one, a uniform that covers most of the body enables students to take falls without getting mat burns. Also, by using the uniform to grab hold of, a student executing a throw can control the person she is working with.

Certainly, most students would rather be grabbed by their pant leg than by their flesh.

That's not to say that students don't adjust their uniforms to increase their level of comfort. I got in the habit early in my training of rolling up my sleeves. Some students also roll up their pant legs above their ankles. (Being five-foot-seven, rare is the uniform that ends below my ankles.) My instructor allowed this—yours may not. However, none of these adjust­ments are allowed in tournaments, where tradition counts as much as ability.

Understanding the kind of uniform specific to a particular style is as important as knowing how to wear it. In judo, prac­titioners wear gis (pronounced GEES). The standard judo uni­form consists of a white jacket that is reinforced and pants— sometimes reinforced at the knees—secured by a colored belt that signifies the wearer's rank. The jacket is made of two lay­ers of cotton material. For strength, double stitches of thick cotton thread are woven through the jacket and cover the entire upper half of the garment and sleeves. From the waist­line to the bottom of the jacket, front and back, a small diamond-shaped design is woven into the fabric.

From the bottom of the right side, around the neck and down the left side, runs a lapel approximately two inches wide, stitched to the body of the jacket. This area is referred to as the scarf, and is often used to choke an opponent— sometimes called a scarf hold. Heavy stitching in each armpit prevents the seams from opening or deteriorating from perspiration. A slit of about seven inches up each side frees the hips. The sleeves are loose; you should be able to pinch at least an inch and a half of material between your thumb and forefinger while wearing the jacket.

You generally won't find uniforms made specifically for male or female students. In fact, the only difference between the uniform of a male and female student is that the female is likely to be the only one wearing a T-shirt beneath her jacket.

The low-cut neckline of uniforms and the grappling action that will at times almost pull the jacket right off you makes it essential that women wear T-shirts. But even male students wear T-shirts to absorb sweat and alleviate the abrasiveness of new uniforms and those made from canvas material. T-shirts also alleviate the aggravation a uniform can have on skin that's prone to acne.

The trousers of the uniform are usually made of cotton fabric, and have a drawstring waist. Like the jacket, the pants, too, must fit loosely, with at least two inches between the bot­tom edge and the leg. The belt, also made of cotton fabric, is about one-and-a-half inches wide and eight or nine feet long. It is wound twice around the waist and tied in a square knot in front, with the ends of equal length from the knot.

When not working on the mat, judo students wear zori, or slippers, made of rubber or straw and held to the feet a la "flip-flops" with a cord between the first and second toes. The idea is to prevent students from dragging dust and dirt onto the mat from their feet. Since judo practitioners spend a great deal of time rolling and falling on mats, if s understandable that they wouldn't want hairballs and dirt staring them in the face.

Most martial arts schools prohibit any form of footwear on the training floor. In judo circles, practitioners consider their karate counterparts somewhat vulgar in the foot hygiene department because the latter walk barefoot on both the train­ing floor and other areas of the school—in effect, dragging unwanted debris into the training area.

Aside from the footwear controversy, karate uniforms have a lot in common with judo uniforms. They're both referred to as gis, are generally white, and use the system of colored belts to signify rank. However, karate gis lack padding and are lighter because pulling and tugging on a partner's uniform isn't as common as in judo.

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