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Luther unleashed
Brown Belt
Joined: 30 Jan 2014
Posts: 676
Location: Phoenix
Styles: A few!
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Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2016 8:27 pm Post subject: How many black belts in your art? |
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Hey guys, I have been interested in these stats out of sheer curiosity. Tried googling a bit but it's a rough road, just figured I'd see if anybody has any good insight. Tae Kwon Do I am certain would be the highest anoint of black belts, but you never know I suppose.
I have studied a few arts and some didn't have any rank. The one I teach at the Rec center (Tong Che Bahk Do) though has only 85 black belts total! Actually I was the 63rd black belt added to the black belt registry. Pretty cool stat I think.
Anybody know any of these stats for either their art or another art? _________________ Hustle and hard work are a substitute for talent! |
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Nidan Melbourne
KF Sempai
Joined: 21 Aug 2013
Posts: 2359
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Styles: Goju-Ryu, BJJ, Balintawak Arnis
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Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2016 8:42 pm Post subject: |
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At my old dojo I couldn't tell you how many Black Belts there were/are because the club had operated for 15 years or so prior to me joining. So now there could be hundreds if not thousands.
At my current club we have or had around 50-60 Black Belts in the last 8 years of training. Many of them came across as Black Belts. |
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Wastelander
KF Sensei
Joined: 18 Oct 2010
Posts: 2734
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Styles: Shorin-Ryu, Shuri-Ryu, Judo, KishimotoDi
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Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2016 12:42 am Post subject: |
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I suppose I could send a letter to our honbu dojo and ask for the number of registered yudansha, as they would have that information. Unfortunately, I can't answer that, at the moment. I can say that my Sensei has promoted 8 people to Shodan in the time I have known him. He has done some Nidan and Sandan promotions, as well, but those aren't "new" black belts, so I'm not counting those. _________________ Kishimoto-Di | 2014-Present | Sensei: Ulf Karlsson
Shorin-Ryu/Shinkoten Karate | 2010-Present: Yondan, Renshi | Sensei: Richard Poage (RIP), Jeff Allred (RIP)
Shuri-Ryu | 2006-2010: Sankyu | Sensei: Joey Johnston, Joe Walker (RIP)
Judo | 2007-2010: Gokyu | Sensei: Joe Walker (RIP), Ramon Rivera (RIP), Adrian Rivera
Illinois Practical Karate | International Neoclassical Karate Kobudo Society |
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Luther unleashed
Brown Belt
Joined: 30 Jan 2014
Posts: 676
Location: Phoenix
Styles: A few!
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Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2016 10:21 am Post subject: |
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I know it's a hard stat to find. I'm fortunate that I have been able to follow an accurate black belt registry for this info on this art specifically.
This brings up another thought, is there a black belt registry available online for you to see? I think this is a great feature to have as a school. I have one myself. I think it's also cool for students to see where they are on the list, just for fun. _________________ Hustle and hard work are a substitute for talent! |
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DWx
Black Belt
Joined: 17 Jan 2007
Posts: 6455
Location: UK
Styles: Tae Kwon Do & Yang family Tai Chi
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Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2016 12:10 pm Post subject: |
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TKD is so popular you are talking 1 000 000's of blackbelts in WTF, ITF and independents. How you look at the numbers depends on whether you want to look at this as a whole or break it down into the various sub-styles.
The Kukkiwon gives a figure of 9 million people holding Poom or Dan certificates which is a heck of a lot. http://www.kukkiwon.or.kr/front/pageView.action?cmd=/eng/introduce/business
They actually also have a database where you can search for poom and dan ranks: http://www.kukkiwon.or.kr/front/eng/main.action
ITF will be smaller than this and a little harder to quantify as you have 3 organisations claiming to be the ITF plus many breakaway groups. But to give some context, 10 years ago I was the 1086th person in the UK to obtain a 1st dan in my country in the ITF group I was a member of at the time. Now multiply that up to account for all the different ITF groups and independents and that's 1000's of blackbelts in my country alone. We've even had in the region of 60 blackbelts grade at our club in the past 15 years too.
Even if you look at a smaller group like the ATA, they have somewhere in the region of 350 000 students according to their website. If we conservatively say 10% of those students are blackbelts, that's still 35 000 dan ranks. _________________ "Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it." ~ Confucius |
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Luther unleashed
Brown Belt
Joined: 30 Jan 2014
Posts: 676
Location: Phoenix
Styles: A few!
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Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2016 1:22 pm Post subject: |
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DWx those are some cool stats. Personally I view the different branches of TKD as different arts. If you were to look at a form in WTF, compared to ITF the common person would assume they are completely different arts so to me it's a different black belt to count.
It's pretty crazy to think of hey martial art having black belt practitioners in the millions but especially for tae kwon do it is certainly believable. _________________ Hustle and hard work are a substitute for talent! |
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JR 137
Black Belt
Joined: 10 May 2015
Posts: 2442
Location: In the dojo
Styles: Seido Juku
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Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2016 2:24 pm Post subject: |
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Seido Juku has about 30,000 active members worldwide, according to a website somewhere. No idea how many are black belts, but I'm sure there's quite a few. I do however know we have...
1 9th dan - our founder Kaicho Tadashi Nakamura
4 8th dans - one of which is Nakamura's son and named successor. All four are the only ones ever promoted to this rank by Nakamura.
5 7th dans - I want to say 6 of them, but I can't think of who the 6th one is. My CI is one of them. 2 or 3 others have held that rank but either passed away or aren't current. |
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sensei8
KF Sensei
Joined: 23 Feb 2008
Posts: 16430
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Styles: Shindokan Saitou-ryu [Shuri-te/Okinawa-te based]
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Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2016 4:40 pm Post subject: |
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Very interesting topic; thanks for starting it Lex!!
Looking through our Hombu's registry, active/inactive, we've 953 Yudansha's throughout the SKKA Network!! The overall total of the Student Body, as of Q3 2016, is 16,779 since the Hombu opened in 1957 of both active/inactive. The very first Yudansha [Shodan] was earned in July 1965, and that student had been at the Hombu since the Hombu first opened. This, of course, is to also include Soke's and Dai-Soke's Judan, as well as San Dai-Soke's Judan; all three of these are inactive...two have passed away, and one was expelled.
Active/Inactive Yudansha's:
Kudan = 2 [My Sensei, when he was Kaicho of the SKKA, before his promotion to Dai-Soke, and myself]
Hachidan = 21
Nanadan = 13
Rokudan = 19
Godan = 88
Yondan = 86
Sandan = 107
Nidan = 121
Shodan = 358
JBB = 135
That's, since the conception of our Hombu, 15,826 of Mudansha ranks, of both active/inactive!!
I personally have promoted 108 to Yudansha from my Kyuodan Dojo, since 1984. Between the 3 Kyuodan Dojo's, my overall Student Body total was, 3,194.
Active/Inactive Yudansha's
Rokudan = 1
Godan = 9
Yondan = 12
Sandan = 17
Nidan = 26
Shodan = 28
JBB = 15
That represents 3,086 Mudansha's under my direct supervision.
[edit: spelling] _________________ **Proof is on the floor!!!
Last edited by sensei8 on Sat Dec 24, 2016 5:32 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Lupin1
Black Belt
Joined: 15 Dec 2009
Posts: 1637
Location: Naples, FL
Styles: Isshinryu
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Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2016 9:07 pm Post subject: |
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There a ton of Isshinryu black belts, but my instructor formed his own curriculum with multiple forms, drills, and movement sets from other styles in addition to the standard Isshinryu requirements.
He's been teaching 35 years and last December I had the honor of becoming the 15th person he's promoted to black belt.
Unfortunately due to the nature of our club being at a youth center that kids usually stop attending once they reach high school, not too many people stick around long enough to make Shodan. I trained as a kid and left when I hit high school like most do, but I was the first one in 35 years to ever go back as an adult and make it to black belt. |
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Zaine
Black Belt
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 2279
Location: Dallas, TX
Styles: Matsumura-Seito, Shobayashi-Ryu, Shudokan, Long Fist, American Street Karate, Southern Mantis, HEMA
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Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2016 7:53 am Post subject: |
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This would be super hard to research, but really interesting to find out. I wonder how successful a poll would be. Some arts divulge these things though.
My club had three, me being the first. It closed down shortly after the third was tested.
My sensei's dojo (Matsumura-Seito Shorin Ryu) has 32 overall black belts, with 13 of those still being active within his dojo, and 19 being listed under the "non-active" section. James Coffman, Gagne's sensei, does not have such a list on his website, so I'm not sure where the numbers are after this point. _________________ Martial arts training is 30% classroom training, 70% solo training.
https://www.instagram.com/nordic_karate/ |
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