Our Master just reached his 3rd degree in Hapkido, so he can now train and promote. Many Hapkido students are local police, so I think that speaks to its real world application.
I've lost nearly 100 pounds in the last 2 year's. What helped me, was weight loss apps. I could see just how bad I was eating... I used My Fitness Pal to trank food and such, snd Noom to track my excercise. I still use Noom, even tho I'm at 175 now.
At my Dojang one can get black in an accelerated program in 3.5 years. Standard is 4 to 4.5. (TSD) I joined the accelerated in May and I should get black in Dec 2016.
I would think your teacher would be offended that a student of theirs earned and deserved a rank that they refused to wear. Master of masters pride. It's yours, wear it, dedicate it to your Master.
45 here. Started a few months back. Testing for my orange belt tonight! Plus, I'm broken. So if I can do it, you can.. This is for a contest to win sparring gear, but it shows what overcame . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wML-vZUKq0&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Traditional white dobak. Though in the summer we can wear our uniform pants with a school tee. (but I never have. I wear the whole uniform, always.) The leadership team wears black pants with a pullover style red & black top.