How important is time in rank?

[KorroddyDude]

3 hours ago, bushido_man96 said:

Something our Aikido dojo does is keep track of the number of hours trained during the time-in-grade.  So being the rank for certain amount of time is one requirement, but also hitting the appropriate number of classes is taken into consideration.  I guess you could say it's a combination of time-in-grade and activity-in-grade.

My dojo tracks attendance as well, but there's no minimum training hours requirements as is the case with some schools.  I never asked, but I think it's used for other purposes rather than promotion.

USJA has minimum training hours requirements, which if equally spread throughout their time in grade requirements, comes to two hours per week.  I could live with that.

There are some karate dojos in my area where you can't meet the training hours requirements between one testing cycle and another unless you're averaging 4.5 times per week.  That's a no-go for me, which factored into my decision to choose where I train.

Edited November 18 by KorroddyDude

[KarateKen]

On 11/14/2024 at 9:48 AM, KorroddyDude said:

I think time in grade serves three useful purposes:

1.  It eliminates any perception of bias or favoritism among the students.
2.  It communicates a hard minimum timeline to the students, which eliminates awkward conversations about "when can I test?"
3.  It aligns with how education systems typically work.  A five year-old in kindergarten knows that he or she has twelve years (minimum) of education ahead of them.  You don't see kids asking their teachers when they're going to graduate.  They know that, as long as they're meeting the academic requirements, what year they're going to get their high school diploma.

At the end of the day, every instructor is free to run their school how they see fit (particularly if they're unaffiliated), but if potential students are aware of the various promotion systems among martial arts schools, that may very well affect the school that they choose.

Good points.  This is why you are member of the month.