Am I in a mcdojo?

[CredoTe]

...

But a lot of karateka often will take much longer than that time frame because of various reasons, like not feeling ready to grade for their next dan grading. My sensei is a 3rd Dan but he doesn't feel ready to grade for his 4th (even if he has been a 3rd dan for close to 10 years). And his old sensei is a 5th Dan and has been saying for years that he is more than ready for it.

Absolutely... I'm with you, there... Your sensei probably could test and pass with flying colors. I sense he's just not that concerned about rank, which is cool. Nor am I...

[Harkon72]

I concur, I had a Shotokan Sensei who was a second Dan for 10 years. He could have graded to 4th or even 5th Dan in that time. He just accepted his grade and just got on with his Karatedo.

[ossemon]

My sensei tells me to get into shape for my nidan next summer... Will it turn my belt blacker?

[ineluki]

or has the ever present presence of the world of McDojo turned me into a hyper-paranoid overanalyzing nut ball

I wouldn't go that far but I believe you are somewhat overestimating the issue.

Both Shotokan and TKD (as trained in most dojos) are primarily striking and kicking arts, and skills like balance, timing etc can be transferred quite nicely.

In the end a Ap chagi is just a Mae Geri with a different name.

[FighterForLife]

I just started training shotokan karate and I think we spar with gloves on, but when I watch clips of japanese karate association karate fights they are always without gloves. This is really distressing me.

Old topic, but I am new here so I thought I'd drop in my $0.02.

Being a Kyokushin guy, we usually train without gloves. That said, we still use them sometimes. Glove use, all by itself does not indicate you are in a mcdojo. I actually wrote a whole blog article on mcdojos but here are a few signs you may want to change schools:

1. Lengthy contracts are required.

2. The sensei never spars with his students for fear of causing them terrible injury.

3. The sensei has far too many dans (degrees) to his black belt for his age. (Such as an 7 dan 30 year old.)

4. The sensei claims to have a black belt in far too many martial arts styles.

5. There are prepubescent black belts.

There are exceptions to these and any one on its own is not a "smoking gun" but when you start to find several warning signs then you definitely have some thinking to do on whether you are going to get the best training you can at your current location.

[CredoTe]

My sensei tells me to get into shape for my nidan next summer... Will it turn my belt blacker?

Lol... Hopefully it fades over time...