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Cliff Judge wrote:
So you are critical of Most Aikido for not allowing students 300 hours of training within two years?
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Not at all, Cliff. In fact, I think 300 days and three years is healthy. A good pace. And right in line with most organizations. I am pointing out shodan programs that approach near four times that amount need to be examined. At present USAF requires a total of 1140 days.
I think as we move into the future, I, at least, would say that anyone who's having to train over 1000 days for shodan - is having their time and money wasted. A student training 3 days a week would train 156 days a year. In 6.4 years they would accumulate 1000 hours. That really should put someone into a serious solid sandan by then. And a good school should be able to deliver that.
George Ledyard posted in the recent topic,
Perhaps the tide is changing
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I think at the end of 8 to 10 yrs of training properly, we could end up with someone who currently operates at a fairly high Dan rank. In other words, after 8 - 10 years of training we would have someone who functions at or better than what passes for 6th dan at this point.
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Now - and this is forward thinking: A highly-respected shihan is throwing out there that people could be trained - under the right conditions and methods - to a 6th dan level in not much more time than people are currently being trained to a 1st dan level in some organizations.
I actually agree with George. I know people can be trained up better and faster. I've done it. I've seen it.
And I'm less critical about where we are, than I am excited about where we're going. But in order to see where we're going, and create positive, healthy, upgraded methods and expectations; we've got to take an honest look at where we are.