How to put on a gi

Pants:

1. The pants should be snug around the waist but riding fairly low on the hips.
2. If the cord goes around twice, snug up the middle loop first, then tighten the ends.
3. To be traditional (and safest), use a square knot. A bow knot (like you would use to tie your shoes) is more convenient during undressing, but can sometimes come undone during practice.

Jacket:

Belt:

1. Find the middle of the belt. Place it several fingers below your navel.
2. Tightly wrap both ends around you. Each end goes behind you and comes out the other side. The belt should lay flat on your body at all points. This means that, over your spine, the two ends run side-by-side (since they can't pass through each other).
3. Take the ends in front and lay them on top of the middle part of the belt, which is already there.
4. In the middle, you have to lay one end down first. Lay the right end (the one that started to the left, wrapped behind your body, came out to the right, and is now in your right hand) on the middle part, and let the excess hang slightly.
5. Lay the left end *over* the right and middle parts. Tighten if needed. Let the excess hang slightly.
6. Suck in your gut, wrap the left end (now on the right side of your body) down, under, and up inside all the other parts of the belt. Tighten if needed. The left end should now be sticking diagonally up and to your right, and the right end still sticking diagonally down and to your left.
7. To tie the knot, bend the left (upper right) end down and to the left of the right (lower left) end. Then bend the right end up and over the left end, and thread it through the loop made by the left end.
8. Tighten by pulling the ends. The left end should be sticking left and the right end should be sticking right, and the knot should appear somewhat bilaterally symmetric.

A different method for tying the belt:

The belt of an aikido-gi does not have to cross at the back.

You hold the belt in front of you; you grab one end of the belt at about 25 cm from the left end (depends on how long your belt is, and how "fat" you are), and hold it against your belly. Then you have to wrap the other part of the belt around you: you take the right side of the belt and you move it to the right, then behind you and back to the front (don't start with the right end of the belt, this would only complicate things; just start with a handy part of it); you do this once again. In this way, you have no cross at the back. Instead, the belt is layered (2 layers).

At the front, the left "end" of the belt will be the closest to your belly, and the right "end" will be the top layer. Now you have to take the right end, point it downwards and put the right end of the belt under the left part; then you pull this right end up. This means that the right part is first the top layer, the goes down and under the bottom layer, and comes out at the "top". (you could also look at it as the right end making one spiral move around the layers). In this way you end up with some kind of primitive knot.

Of course, this knot is not the "real" knot. You have to use both ends of the belt to make an appropriate knot, one that will not come loose, if possible.

BTW, you can switch directions if you are left-handed.

This is not meant as some kind of criticism. I have used the method in the previous section for several years, but when I switched schools I learned the method described above. Either one is OK i guess, but if you want your belt to look "good", it is better not to have a cross at the back.

Of course, this is just a matter of aesthetics, so it does not really matter.