How to tie your belt (obi)

Whilst not the most technically challenging part of judo, tying your belt is probably the first thing you will need to learn before you can move on to the more fun stuff. This has the notable benefit of preventing your Judogi from falling off every time you practice which is always a positive. On the plus side, this is something you can practice at home, so I have put together a step-by-step guide which should help.

The Traditional Method

This is the most common method of tying your belt that you will see, and is the most secure.

Locate the center of your belt - this is best done by collecting both ends of your belt and hold them together, and using this as a guide to find the middle
Holding the belt in both hands, place the center of your belt to your stomach.
With each hand, trace the belt around your waist untill your hands meet behind your back, then swap hands so that the belt crosses over and continue tracing around your waist so that the ends of the belt meet again in front of you.
Adjust the belt to ensure that each end is the same length
Place each end of the belt on top of the other layers so that the form a cross in front of you similar to the one formed in step 3
Take the uppermost belt end and slide it under all layers of the belt from the bottom so it ends up facing upwards
Now loosely form another cross from the two ends of the belt so that there is a gap in the middle then feed one end through the gap and pull both ends tight (a reef or shoelace knot)
congratulations you have just tied your belt

The 'Hollywood' Method

This method of tying your belt is so-called because it looks tidier and was often used when representing martial arts in films (citation needed) or in advertising media. the method itself is very similar to the traditional method but the last two steps are different

Locate the center of your belt - this is best done by collecting both ends of your belt and hold them together, and using this as a guide to find the middle
Holding the belt in both hands, place the center of your belt to your stomach.
With each hand, trace the belt around your waist untill your hands meet behind your back, then swap hands so that the belt crosses over each other. for a tidier look place one side on top of the other in parralel rather than crossing them over. then continue tracing around your waist so that the ends of the belt meet again in front of you.
Adjust the belt to ensure that each end is the same length
Place each end of the belt on top of the other layers so that the form a cross in front of you similar to the one formed in step 3
Take the uppermost belt end and slide it under all layers of the belt from the bottom so it ends up facing upwards
Feed the same end between the two belt layers that go around your waist, on the other side of where the knot will be, but do not pull tight - this should form a loop
feed the other end through the loop you have just created and then through the two layers of the belt that go around your waist
Pull the two ends to tighten the belt

I will update this with pictures to further clarify the two methods