Bally Total Martial Arts (TMA)

by David Fiscus
(Houston, Tx, USA)

Bally Total Fitness Health Club in the USA has a division called Bally Total Martial Arts (TMA).

They use the WTF philosophy.

I am currently a Hi-Brown Belt. The belt I most enjoyed earning is yellow. Because our dojang is in the middle of a health club we have a lot of spectators.

Most people know very little about belt rankings, but they all know White belts are the beginners, and Black Belts are the experts. So once I earned yellow, I felt good because everyone that might be watching would know I was not one of the newbies..(lol)

The most enjoyable part? Winning the local Power Breaking contest. I was a green belt, and yet I beat a dozen black belts to win.

The hardest part of my journey so far, is to constantly stretch. I have bought a Stretch Loop
and some torture machines you crank to spread your legs. They have both helped me greatly improve my flexibility, but at my age (53) I need to work at all the time!

Our Belt rankings are as follows:
White
Yellow,
Orange,
Green,
Blue,
Brown,
Hi-Brown (brown with white stripe in the middle),
Red,
Hi-Red, (red with white stripe in the middle)

Deputy I Black Belt (Red with Black stripe in the middle and One yellow Stripe).

Deputy II Black Belt (Red with Black stripe in the middle and Two yellow Stripes).

Deputy III Black Belt (Red with Black stripe in the middle and Three yellow Stripes).

Deputy IV Black Belt (Red with Black stripe in the middle and Four yellow Stripes).

Black Belt.

Deb's reply

Hi David

Thanks for telling us about your taekwondo belt system it's amazing just how many belt systems there are out there. I'm loving learning about them all! :-)