Soo Bahk Do Question

[JaseP]

It is more of a guidline... there have been notable exceptions, especially for those who have had prior training in other arts... Generally though, the time scale is kept to prevent people from simply getting by on pure natural talent without ingraining the technique and teaching into their psyche... It's important for a student to have a firm grounding in training before jumping belts, and some knowledge needs time to "settle in". This is particularly so in the Dan ranks. Allowing people to jump throught the belts too rapidly sometimes lets the wrong element into the senior levels. Also, the whole idea is to achieve Pyung Ahn,... and pyung ahn is not achieved in a quick way.

[EternalRage]

Why is the time limit so important? I dont mind waiting cause i love tending class and learning but If you can do the requierments (CORRECTLY) (forms,cross hand grabs, sparring,breaking) then why is time so important? Or is the time thing more of a guidline rather than a rule?

Its often hard to judge a person's true skill level - some may just be relying on pure mental memory than what should be trained into muscle memory. Others may just have natural talent, also it may be misleading since a person can be really good at one aspect of martial arts and very bad at another. It also makes it hard to standardize in an organization when so many different instructors have slightly differing training and experiences - this leads to different expectations and training methods.

Time limits, although in recent times has become an ineffective way of measuring skill level, still offers a general guarantee for a certain threshold of skill level for a belt ranking. This is based on a giant assumption that everyone trains very hard and also equally. Thus I feel that in current times since martial arts has become more of a hobby than a way of life, it is hard to even gauge skill with time limits. I recently attended a Dan Shim Sa, and I admit wholeheartedly that I am by no means an expert in martial arts, but I definitely thought the time limits were too inaccurate at predicting and expecting a reasonable threshold level for dan for many of the candidates. Even though physical training is not all of martial arts, even some candidates were lacking serious Moo Do, which is another reason why time limits are good - to help develop character as well.

I believe too many systems these days have too short of a time limit for first degree blackbelt. 7-10 years should be the minimum. Commercialism has played some part in shortening the time, however mostly I blame it to the fact that with contemporary life, it is hard to stick with something that long and even devote a reasonable amount of time each week to it. But then again if you love it, you will do it.

[JaseP]

I believe too many systems these days have too short of a time limit for first degree blackbelt. 7-10 years should be the minimum. ...

No way, that's way too long... Most people can be competantly brought to black belt level within 3.5-4 years,... even in todays standards. The Moo Duk Kwan, under Hwang Kee, used to award GI's their black belts after 1 year, provided they trained religiously every day (usually for like 3 hrs). Those guys every bit of earned their rank. A lot of those guys are the current "old guard" of Tang Soo Do/Soo Bahk Do Americans...

[d16turbohonda]

Cool thanks for the replies you answered my guestion with even more usefull info.

Thanks again.

[mikaveli]

I believe too many systems these days have too short of a time limit for first degree blackbelt. 7-10 years should be the minimum. Commercialism has played some part in shortening the time, however mostly I blame it to the fact that with contemporary life, it is hard to stick with something that long and even devote a reasonable amount of time each week to it. But then again if you love it, you will do it.

Thats very true. A lot of people refer to getting their dan grades as a journey, wheras others want it to be more of a short trip.

[d16turbohonda]

I think its possible to attain a black belt respectfully in 3 1/2 years from a dojo that offers calsses 5 times a week. Most of the karate schools I was researching offers class 2 times only a week. When I saw that i thought to my self that what if i miss one day then I will only have one day of class for the whole week whitch is GAY! I currently go 2-3 times a week.