The Question is How Long Does It Take To Earn a Black Belt?

By Al Case

How long it takes to earn a black belt is one of the more interesting questions. People ask it when they first walk into a martial arts dojo. Doesn't matter if it is Karate, or Kung Fu, or Aikido, or whatever...that question is there.

Now, before I tell you something absolutely fascinating about the answer to this question, I have to establish my credibility. I don't do this to hold myself up, but rather to establish a solid footing for what I am about to tell you. You will find that it has much to do with the question we are asking here.

I studied classical Karate back in the sixties, and have studied just about every art to come down the pike. And, as soon as I would learn something, I would turn around and teach it. That is the best way to understand something, you see: turn around and give it to somebody else, answer their questions, put yourself on the spot.

And, running out of martial arts systems to teach, I began reconfiguring the knowledge I had learned. I created different methods for teaching this knowledge, and inherent in these methods was a simple concern. Can I get somebody to the rank of black belt faster?

I condensed styles, realigned methods, compared and contrasted until I was cross-eyed and dizzy. I set up different arrangements of basic movements, established different ways of doing training drills and techniques. And, of course, I did kumite until the cows came home and went to bed.

Over time, I figured out what, exactly, the knowledge was that made a person into a black belt. This is a concrete block of actual information, and I found something interesting. I found that if you taught people the actual knowledge, they didn't require the years of drilling.

Yes, the fellow had to get down and dirty, he had to get a fair sampling of bruises and toss downs. But he didn't need as much of this 'experience' as one might think. In fact, he needed about one tenth of what people expected.

In fact, as one accumulated knowledge, the percentage of hard experience went down. Don't get me wrong, it takes sweat and diligent work, and, most important, it takes exactly the correct amount of exact information, which is something that, unfortunately, none of the martial arts systems have today. But, if you do get the right data the question of how long does it take to earn a black belt requires a much shorter answer.

About the Author:

If you're interested in getting your black belt now, and not in three years, head to Monster Martial Arts. Get the free ebook while you're there.