The belts are the progressive order of rank that openly display the level of experience that each practitioner has earned through instruction, study, application and training. The Master Instructor uses stripes of colored adhesive tape to adorn the belts of the students as an incentive to learn a new technique, new verbal knowledge, or for students who have been recognized by the Master Instructor to have faithfully achieved the learning objective. Only the belts are symbols of rank, the tape-stripes are incentives or achievements. 

In the Kids Program, it is the prerogative of the Master Instructor to decide to allow advanced students to skip belts and progress to the next higher rank.