1st dan in 9 months.

[JKDcalvin]

I was in jujitsu class, and my sensei was telling me about this guy who trained 9 days a week and got to 1st Dan in 9 months!!! Is it me..or is that something to be proud of?

[bu-kusa]

I was in jujitsu class, and my sensei was telling me about this guy who trained 9 days a week

9 days a week?

[Fred27]

9 days a week?

Yeh..If using the French Republican Calendar which had 10 days a week.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_Calendar

[DDATFUS]

I would certainly be proud of that, as it would mean that I had amazing time-bending skills. I mean, what martial artist hasn't watched the movie Groundhog's Day and dreamed of the possibilities?

I think it's not unusual in most gendai arts to be able to get a shodan in three to four years time, maybe training twice a week. 52 weeks a year, twice a week, equals 104 practice sessions. Multiply that by three, and you have 312. Multiply it by four and you have 416. So let's say that a shodan in the arts that I'm thinking of would average at something like 364 classes (sweeping generalization, ignoring many other details). If someone were to train seven days a week, we'll call that thirty sessions a month. Thirty times nine gives us 270 classes. That sounds a little low for shodan, but without knowing other details (such as the style that the guy was training in), it is really difficult to judge.

[JKDcalvin]

its 9 times a week haha..sorry guys

[Neil Hawkins]

As mentioned a lot is style and background dependent.

I remember a story about a young keen guy who trained hard and got his shodan in seven years, all the old guys said how can he have internalised the training to a satisfactory standard in such a short time!

I think that is the key, in 9 months you may be able to learn the techniques and perform them, but do you really 'know' them, can you pull them off under stress, can you adapt and adjust based on what your attacker is doing, can you teach those techniques effectively to someone else?

I got a shodan in a particular style of jujutsu in six months, but that was on the back of nearly 10 years training in a different style, not starting from scratch, and I'm pretty sure that only gave it to me because the 'white belt' was showing up some of the seniors!

Neil