From how many years you are not considered as beginner?

[Iskrax]

>6 months? >1 year? 2?

Or you will always be a beginner because you always try to improve yourself? Or when you have pretty decent skills?

Yours thoughts?

[Lupin1]

Kinda like asking "how long is a piece of string". That word can have many different meanings. We outright call our students "beginners" until they join the rest of the class for the entire class instead of going off part of the class for "basics" lessons-- about six months (also about the time frame for earning yellow belt). Some schools have specific "beginners" classes for the first 3 belts or so before they move on to "intermediate". Others would consider all the kyu ranks "beginners" while others like to stress that a new Shodan is "still just a beginner". And then you get those who insist that you could train 100 years and still just be a beginner.

No one's wrong. It's just different ways of viewing the concept.

Personally, I'd consider someone a beginner for the first year or so-- until they get a good grasp on the basic movements and can start applying them in certain situations-- until they've constructed a working "martial arts schema" on which to build. After that I wouldn't consider them a beginner any more, but not being a beginner in no way implies or even attempts to imply a person knows everything there is to know or even that they know a lot. You can no longer be a beginner while still recognizing that you haven't even touched the tip of the iceberg of all there is to learn (so obviously I don't subscribe to the "everyone will always be a beginner for all eternity" mindset).

[Harkon72]

I was at a course of Aikido here in North Wales. There were martial artists there from a few western European countries. During the first day I had a gentleman from Holland as my partner a few times, I would say he was in his mid 60's, he wore hakama and was very experienced. He had studied in Japan and his training had been continuous for the best part of 40 years. At the end of the day I went up to him and said; "Thank you for your help today Sensei" He greeted me with a broad smile as he showed me the belt underneath the hakama skirt. The belt was white. "Please, don't call me Sensei, we learn together, I am a beginner in life as you are." I walked away inspired.

[sensei8]

After 50 years, I'm still a beginner; my journey's not ended!!

[sensei8]

Kinda like asking "how long is a piece of string". That word can have many different meanings. We outright call our students "beginners" until they join the rest of the class for the entire class instead of going off part of the class for "basics" lessons-- about six months (also about the time frame for earning yellow belt). Some schools have specific "beginners" classes for the first 3 belts or so before they move on to "intermediate". Others would consider all the kyu ranks "beginners" while others like to stress that a new Shodan is "still just a beginner". And then you get those who insist that you could train 100 years and still just be a beginner.

No one's wrong. It's just different ways of viewing the concept.

Personally, I'd consider someone a beginner for the first year or so-- until they get a good grasp on the basic movements and can start applying them in certain situations-- until they've constructed a working "martial arts schema" on which to build. After that I wouldn't consider them a beginner any more, but not being a beginner in no way implies or even attempts to imply a person knows everything there is to know or even that they know a lot. You can no longer be a beginner while still recognizing that you haven't even touched the tip of the iceberg of all there is to learn (so obviously I don't subscribe to the "everyone will always be a beginner for all eternity" mindset).

Solid post!!

[sensei8]

I was at a course of Aikido here in North Wales. There were martial artists there from a few western European countries. During the first day I had a gentleman from Holland as my partner a few times, I would say he was in his mid 60's, he wore hakama and was very experienced. He had studied in Japan and his training had been continuous for the best part of 40 years. At the end of the day I went up to him and said; "Thank you for your help today Sensei" He greeted me with a broad smile as he showed me the belt underneath the hakama skirt. The belt was white. "Please, don't call me Sensei, we learn together, I am a beginner in life as you are." I walked away inspired.

Solid post!!

[OleOle]

>6 months? >1 year? 2?

Or you will always be a beginner because you always try to improve yourself? Or when you have pretty decent skills?

Yours thoughts?

Well, I'm conscious that having only been training for two months I am certainly still a beginner! I am looking forward to learning more and at this early stage I'll probably think that I am just past the beginner level when I have graded a few times, perhaps have achieved an intermediate kyu belt and have moved on from many of the basic moves that I am learning right now.

I'm not in any hurry, I don't see that this journey has an end point and while many practitioners classify first dan black belt as a beginning, that's different from the person being a beginner, so in my mind, the term beginner is associated with a lack of proficiency and I sure as heck hope that if I ever make it to first dan that I'll be proficient!

Good luck with it all.

[sensei8]

A beginner, by its definition, in Shindokan usually averages out to be about 2 years, and that's on a table of 6 years to Shodan. Some are less and some are more; depending on testing cycle pass/fail ratios and the like.

I despite putting a number on this because of the wide hairy-scary parameters that surround this type of thing. After all, to me, rank levels are subjective and unimportant to the overall improvement in ones MA betterment...imho.

[bushido_man96]

I think once one is getting close to hitting the high colored belt and black belt tests, you are no longer a beginner. It may be early in your journey yet, but I think not a beginner anymore.

[Canadian77]

>6 months? >1 year? 2?

Or you will always be a beginner because you always try to improve yourself? Or when you have pretty decent skills?

Yours thoughts?

I don't think you have to consider yourself a beginner just because you continue to try to improve. I think it depends on your scale. If all you have is beginner and expert, then yes. you would probably be a beginner for most or all of your time as a martial artist. But I think a scale should include intermediary steps. My Sensei has said that when he got his black belt his sensei said to him something along the lines of 'Congratulations, now you can start to learn karate'. So perhaps you are no longer a beginner at Shodan, as you have a good idea of the basics at that point? At any rate, I think the transition is slow and smooth, and the exact moment couldn't easily be pinpointed for one person, let alone how different it would be for others. Still, an interesting point to ponder.