How long does it really take to get a black belt?

Thank you for summing up the whole issue so well. Those are exactly my thoughts on the matter.

 

No problem

Sabum Steve Hartsock

 

Holy crap, consider yourselves lucky! I had to do horrible grunt work to even train there, and it took me nine years to get my black belt. Can you picture a five-year-old carrying paint out of a short asian guy's half-ton truck? That's me right there!

 

Sounds like yer instructor watched the Karate Kid movie one too many times hehehehe

Sabum Steve Hartsock

 

Heh heh heh... great point and so true.

Nice!

 

I try

I have to watch my words sometimes though...I tend to be blunt.

 

it took me 3 and a half years and that is as quick as it is possible to get a black belt (at least it is in my style any way)

 

How long for a BB?

I know the title probably makes me seem like I want a black belt ASAP, but its quite the opposite. I have been looking for like 2 years for a school where we live now-an hour away from my old school-and they have all been, um, crappy. Well, I finally found a school I like for the most part. They have decent students, not too much messing around, etc. The only thing that I am a little leary of is that they only take about a year and a half to get a black belt (usually) for adults. That seems so fast to me. Now, I saw a couple of their BB's when I was there and they seem pretty good and comparible to the black belts at my old school and he said they move up so fast because he teaches the way they do in Korea. The kids take about twice as long and are taught more of an American way. So am I worried about this for nothing? Oh and I am also a little worried about the fact that they allow child black belts. I was raised to believe that children-at least in 95% of cases-are not mentally ready to be black belts. My 6 year old will be started TKD with me and I really dont want him to become a black belt before he is mentally ready, probably some time in his teen years. But I cant really tell the master that, can I? I dont even know if he will stick with it that long anyway, but it worries me. I really like this school otherwise and it isnt a deal breaker for me.....I dunno what I am rambling on about, lol.

 

Oh yeah, and how common is it for WTF schools to only teach Taeguk forms? I like my Palgwe forms....

 

Within the association I'm in our instructor's estimate has always been 3.5 years at the minimum if you pass every grading in a straight sequence, more like 4-4.5 if you fail a couple.

 

Depends upon the training. If they do 2-3 hours a week then you'd generally expect 5 years minimum.
But If it were 6 hours a week then you could accept 1.5 years to black belt (in fact I'd prefer to have a more hardcore training while notching up insignificant pieces of cloth)

 

Lenght Of Time To Get Black Belt

It Has Taken Me 3 Years And 8 Months To Reach My First Black Belt Test. I Should Pass Because I Have All The Material. However As Far As I Am Concerned, This Is Just The Begining Of A Long Journey. At 1st Black You Know All Your Material But It Takes Even Longer To Master It.

 

A little over 4 years for me which is pretty typical for the club. We don't really have a rigid, set schedule as to when we test students but a rough schedule goes something like this:

-About 1 year to go from White, to Yellow, to Green
-About 1.5 years to go from Green, to Blue, to Red
-About 1.5 years to go from Red to Black.

My instructor also has an age requirement of 15 before he will test a student for black. If you make it to High red and you're not 15, you'll wear the belt until you do. A High-red student not old enough will still have to "test" every time the school has a grading. They just won't get the belt.

 

If you line up all the 1st Dan's of the world wouldn't you rather be one of the better ones instead of one of the bad ones?

I mean, I'd rather be a good yellow belt than a bad black belt any day. So why rush it? I'm not a black belt myself yet, but when I get to 1st Dan I'm going to be the best 1st Dan in the club/school.

In both the "schools" I attend it takes about 5 years to get to 1st Dan if you never miss a grading. (And it's by no means considered a master degree.)

 

It took me a little over three years to get to 1st dan. I was eleven when I became a black belt, now i'm 26 and still slowly working toward my 2nd dan. I was also going to class 4-5 days a week, almost everyday after school. Now i'm lucky if I get there once a week. My school is also a 2 hr drive for me if I can go. Most people in my dojo took about 5 years to get to the same rank. I say it depends on how much you put into your goal, not how much time it takes.

 

Minimum amount of time to black in our club is 3 years and 6 months. I, however, have missed a couple of gradings. I'm grading for bluebelt in early July and in September I'll have been doing TKD for 2 years... so if it all stays on track, it should take me in total 4 years and 1 or 2 months to get to 1st Dan... - this is because I should reach blackstripe in January 2008, however, since blackbelt gradings are only held in April and October and you must do six months at blackstripe, it means I'll be spending 9 months at blackstripe and thus in total it will have taken me the said 4 years and 1 or 2 months to get to 1st Dan. If I had not missed a grading and the blackbelt grading times were more flexible, and I kept on track by grading every time, it would indeed have taken me 3 years and 6 months.

 

For me, it's going to be exactly 2 years and two months.
Started May 4th, 2004 and my first dan testing is this saturday, the 3rd of june. (woot!)
I train 2-6 days a week for 1-3 hours at a time, plus demo team training and recent black belt training, and then a few hours a week of training at home.
it's been one heck of a road...
that's nowhere near ending
-Kat

 

12 months and $1800.

 

Holy crap, that much (and after such a short time!)?!? My testing's $350 USD, and I was ripping mad when I found out!
That's wicked expensive, what does that pay for?
Is that you specifically, or your school in general?
How often do you train?
(You knew these questions were coming )

 

LOL!

And you shoulda known I was joking!