It used to take from 3 to 5 years for shodan. Then 2 more years to make nidan then 2 more years for sandan. Then 3 more years for yondan then 3 more for godan. After that it was time and effert as many styles have no set requirrements after yondan. But As have said over the past 12 or so years. I have seen several places that have promoted rank fast. And to me they handed it out For money not for what was earned. Also used to be if you was less then 16 years old you recieved a junior black belt and had to retest after you turned 16. We have 5 year old blackbelts out there now. When people get more down to not giving rank away . Then a blackbelt will represent more. A black does not mean you are a better fighter. It means you have pasted the required level of training For that style. I would hope a blackbelt in a style could out perform the lower belts in there school. But as proven many times learning the tools and being able to use the tools That takes some training to Like I was told over 30 years ago. If a person could just master the tools that is learned to just become a green belt they would be able to fight very well. And some of the better tools are learned after a first degrwee blakbelt ranking. Kind of like saving the best for last. But if given at earlyer training levels how much better would a person be After they had much more training time in developing the use of there tools. Its proven over and over a large amount of tools takes much longer to get good at. And many will never be needed in combat. As fighting is short fast and down to the getting it done and over. What you have is a short time to be effective. And thats use of common tools that work and have been tested. So a blackbelt is time and training. but a fighter is takeing the time to train to fight
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r.lee
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