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Old 04-15-2013, 07:49 AM   #68
lbb
Location: Massachusetts
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,202
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Re: Ranking systems in different countries

Quote:
John Powell wrote: View Post
Ouch. 1,000 weeks?! So, there's 52 weeks/year, so that's 19.23 years, at 5 days a week!

OK, so let's say we are a "real world" dedicated aikido practitioner, who goes to the dojo for practice an average of 2.5 times/week, including the occasional seminar when there's a big bump in hours,... then the period is nigh-on 40 years.

Do-able? Yes. Perhaps a philisophical "in the next lifetime" by medieval Japan standards, also perhaps?

Let's just say, nobody we know "masters" this stuff, but we do know people personally who get really, really dang good at it, eh?
Well, let's just say that mastery is not common, and you probably can't do it, for a generic value of "you". That's what sticks in most people's craws. They really don't like that truth. This feeling seems to arise out of a bizarre paradoxical belief in a meritocracy in which the standards of merit are unfair, somehow, when they're just too hard. It's illogical, it's no different than the infatuation over the black belt, but there you have it. That's what mastery means, and most of us will never get there -- circumstances dictate that, if character failings don't. And if you need to believe that mastery will happen if you train for a really long time (like, I don't know, three years), feel free, but you're humpty-dumptying with what "mastery" means when you do so. Better to ask the question about why you need the title of "master" (or the black belt), though. Ultimately, lasting happiness can't be based on illusion.
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