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

Ya so basically a whole bunch of useless tripe that you can pay extra for.

Personally I'm not big on the schools that offer "specialty classes" in order to get "customers" to pay extra for "special" training. Especially a class that is only offered once a week.

Want to master TKD, practice the basics until you puke. Want to become a teacher/instructor, take a phys-ed course.

Money makes the world go round.

Again, little caustic but getting a little cranky with stuff like this especially when real educators/coaches and talented taekwondoin work so hard and all it really takes is an additional class a week to be a master.

 

Hello everybody - my first post!

I have trained in Judo as a little kid, some shotokan in middle school before switching to TKD, and have a total of about, 8 - 10 years training scattered over many years. My most consistent period was during college, for about 3 years, and fairly recently, about 3 years.

My first TKD school in Miami was run non-profit, above a cuban grocery, about 20 bucks a month dues, with the students doing everything from cleanup to building repairs. Senior blackbelts taught some classes as usual. Average time to black belt there - 4 years. However, no kids under 16 unless prodigal.

When I went off to college, I stopped to check out the local dojang and they told me: you? one year max., no problem! I hauled butt outta there and never went back!

Where I live now, my school pushes belts pretty hard, but not to the point of being ridiculous. Some kids have received thier BB's in a couple of years.

Because of my jumping around a lot, I'm still a black belt candidate, just shy of first dan. (I held off on my own cause I was sick and my head wasn't clear at testing time). After a couple of years off after the arrival of our child and limited time availabilty for all my special interests, I'm fired up and ready to get back into it.

My general opinion is that a black belt signifies an student with a good grasp of the basics. You need to be in fairly decent physical shape, able to have crisp clean movements, your forms need to flow, you should have tossed aside all of your early kick-butt juv. attitudes, and have progressed to a point where you are capable of receiving more advanced instruction. Remember that we are all students until the day we die, whether white belts or grand masters. As in life, the more you know, you realize the less you know.

It is embarassing for a school to have their black belt students falling down from lack of balance, stumbling in forms, or lacking good manners or sportsmanship. It is the responsibility of the school to develop good martial arts students and good human beings, not just black belts.

My .02

 

well ya of course but in these classes they teach like Demo stuff i think or somthing like that i dont really know. ill get back to you on that

 

reply, time it takes to earn Blackbelt

Although; this kid that you speak of had a total lack of respect and the fact that he was a bully attacking little girls, the traits of a true coward with a total lack of discipline. Keep in mind that in the sixties there were only four belt ranks white, green, brown, and black. One of the worlds greatest martial Artists of last century earned his black belt in a blazing nine months...Bill "Superfoot" Wallace, undefeated PKA middle weight champion of the world. Joe Lewis also earned his Blackbelt very quickly and became the Heavyweight champion of the world seven times in a row holding that title for both Kickboxing and Karate at the same time. I guess it comes down to how much effort and drive the student possesses.
-Kevin82abn

 

posted in worng topic - still sleepy.

 

at our school about 3-5 years depending on how often you train and ability to pick things up

i should mention our classes are longer (90-120 min) and can be pretty intense

 

I was 6 years training 4 times a week for two hours a class :bang: A year and a half? B####y he1l.

P.S. that was in an ITF organisation where the average was about seven years and I was 12 when I started and in order to go for my BB I had to take part in a three day seminar and 10 hour grading.

 

It takes 3 years on average. Most people get them around there, or maybe in a few months less. But this is through taking classes regularly (perhaps 3 times a week?). In my school, it takes everybody about 3 years. And my master slows people down if they are learning and going to fast. So even if you do go every single day and work hard and such, you have to actually sort of put in a specific time into Tae Kwon Do to achieve the blackbelt. So.. shortest may be 2.5 years? But on most people get it at 3.

 

at my school it takes about 2 years to 2 and a half years but we have training 6 days a week but I guess it ranges from school to school

 

I don't agree with this. Why hold someone back when they are showing they are more than capable of taking the material, learning the material, retaining the material, and excelling at the material?

 

yeah, every now or then, you get a very talented student.

 

How about a variation on this question? How long does it take to promote after 1st dan?
I've heard it's easy to make Black Belt in Judo but they slow you waaay down after than. I've also heard that it's hard to make Black Belt in Karate/TaeKwon-Do (pre McDojo days) but it's relatively easy to get higher rank. Aikido is hard to make Black (5 years?) and just as hard afterwards.

In my school, it took about 3-1/2 to 4 years for an adult to make 1st dan. Then typically 4-5 years for each rank thereafter. One thing that I think is interesting--given each Black Belt learns 3 new patterns for his next promotion (ITF)--you learn one new pattern after promoting, which you practice for a year, then the second, and so on. After 2 years, you've learned all 3, which you practice for at least 2 more years. The emphasis is perfecting patterns--as well as techniques--so there's no rushing through it. A side effect of this is that learning a new pattern is like a mini-promotion since you line up by rank and which pattern you're working on.

Comments?

 

you heard.... exactly...don't take it for granted. the situation isn't the same everywhere.

here in tkd it's not easy to get the black belt neither are dan levels.

 

Depends on how long it takes for the cheque to clear
Someone had to say it.

Again from my perspective it again depends on the base curriculum provided by the governing body, and how the individual school applies this to their curriculum and their own guidelines in terms of technical proficiency and understanding. With no real regulations in place this question is tough to answer.

Kukkiwon has time requirements and pattern requirements, that is about it. It took me about 5 minutes to learn keumgang, getting good at it took a little longer. Does this mean I'm ready for the next dan ranking?

Individual schools are able to basically do what they want, which is essentially where my first statement in this post came from. Lack of regulations from the top allows for schools to do this. My opinion . . . major problem.

Just as a side note from this post, majority of people on here would probably be shocked/surprised/disgusted how much time I've spent doing TKD, and where I rank. Time is not always indicative of understanding/proficiency and in my opinion should not really be used as a measuring stick to determine when it is time to test, be it longer or a shorter time for a particular individual.

Meh . . . what do I know

 

I take it the TKD in bold is meant to represent your club/associate? Man I hope you aren't making a generalization on this one cause I can find you a dozen clubs (all in good standing with their respective organizations) that promote BBs about as regularly as some of us change our underwear. Dang, I can think of a club off the top of my head that promises if you sign up now you can have a BB in two years.....

TK-Dork

PS - Artikon, I hear you. Man its funny when people realize how long I've been kicking around the gym and somehow avoiding any stripes on my BB.

 

tk-dork: Ditto. I actually refuse to show what rank I actually am the majority of the time. Even here there are only a handful who actually know it, via very early postings from me, or PMs.

I actually like to keep people guessing Still working on Taegeuk il-jang though.

 

I still haven't embroidered my name on my belt.....

 

first of all, i'm not a man.

second of all, i did write ''here'', meaning in my area, so i really don't where you came up with that generalising stuff

 

It took me about 2 1/2 years in TKD. But, I trained for 3 hrs a week in class and about another 4-5 hrs outside of class.

 

im 12 and have 5 months untill i test for first degree i have been learning since i was 6 years old. Im looking forward to taking my test. But after hearing that after 5-6 years of training its just regular to get your black belt i thought over to myself.