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Black-belt banter rarely impresses Michael Cain. Better to try a different approach.

Cain, who runs Pacific Martial Arts with his wife, Marsha McKenzie, says the black belt has lost its panache, a trademark standard now eroded by martial arts studios taking shortcuts.

"It's become a meaningless concept," says Cain, a karate fixture in Whatcom County. "You can go to a school that says, 'We'll guarantee you a black belt in three years.' Is the music teacher going to guarantee you the second chair in violin in three years?"

To Cain, a black belt can't be "sold." Rather, he says, instructors' expertise and a strong curriculum enrich a belt's value, fostering the assimilation of essential physical and psychological principles.