mountkiscokaratedo

ah thank you very much, I do appreciate it. You are right, the significance of the rank of shodan is the first step and it is often magnified in my mind due to the significance that I attatch to it which is never the less not to be diminished.

In today's world of comercial karates and dojo's giving out belts like free samples to make as much money as fast as possible it seems karate has lost a bit of integrity. I am not sure if I have been training long enough and deserve it though. I am a 15 year old brown belt, and I am going for my ranking of blackbelt on April 22. I have been training for ten years. From the age of 6-12 i've trained an hour and a half twice a week and for the two years after about three days a week for an hour and a half and this year i've been training two days a week for an hour and a half of intense training and then an hour and a half before hand (however these are only kadre hours). Although i've been training for a long time I am wondering if the number of over all hours is actually enough.