If you attend every available class, and invest several hours of your personal time practicing, its possible that you’ll earn a Black Belt in, or around, 5 years.
If you add up all the class requirements and attend minimal classes with next to no additional practice, and you’re blessed with a strong mind and body, it’s possible that you’ll earn your Black Belt in 7 years.
Why does it take so long? Why is it possible in other martial arts to earn rank in under 3 years?
Ryukenkan Ryukyu Kempo has been around a long time. Along the way, we’ve made our mistakes and we admit that we have issued rank to people who didn’t deserve it. We have also seen how that damages the reputation of our classes and how that, in turn, hurts our students.
Because of those past mistakes, we said “no more”.
- No more easy gradings
- No more “participation medals”
- No more gradings that make people “feel better”
- No more gradings that make parents feel better
When we issue rank to a student, that rank must have meaning. For the rank to have meaning, it must be earned.
Each belt level has a number of items that are prescribed. Each item must be demonstrated to a set level. If you ask yourself honestly, “Do I want lower quality now, or higher quality later?”, only a fool takes the easy option.
We’re not here to give people handouts. We’re here to build strong people who have successful, strong lives.