Dan Richards

Hey Mary and Andrew, I appreciate your replies. I think it's good that people see an overview. I was surprised myself to see some of the differences. But there does seem to be a relative standard for time and requirements to shodan. And in most cases it really is around 300 days. Which an average student can knock out in two to three years.

Schools that are far in excess of that can say they have "higher" standards. Which could be valid. Another valid POV could be that there has been a structure evolving within some organizations that resembles multi-level-marketing.

I would say it's valid that a school that can't train a student to shodan in 3 years needs to seriously take a look at the school and the training methods. And any student who is considering a school that can't train them in that amount of time, should be aware of that fact.

Jeremy mentions about "not wanting to be held back." And I think that's a legitimate concern, and one I've witnessed within aikido. And I think it's something people can be alerted about, even if just for their own information. I've seen politics hold people back. I've seen delayed testing hold people back. I've seen inflated times (which also translates into hugely-inflated costs) and requirements hold people back. I've seen a lack of brown-nosing hold people back.

It's less of a bee in my bonnet, than just information I'm interested in compiling and presenting.