Actually, your doing it the right way Exile. I would value your black belt ranking much higher than someone who strapped it on within a couple years of beginning. I bet it's safe to say your instruction is at a higher level.
I appreciate the thought, QG, and I have to say, I've never felt in much of a hurry to get to Shodan. I'd rather get there later, having trained for that extra time, than test too early. I figure my instructor has me pegged dead-on in terms of what I know and what I can do, and I'm happy to trust his judgment.
And really, it's a bad idea to go for rank that you aren't quite good enough to be really entitled to... I mean, who wants to feel that kind of pressure, like any moment you might find yourself having to show skill and mastery that you don't actually possess? What could be more embarrassingly unpleasant? A couple of times in my life I've had dreams—real
nightmares—in which, because of some mistake or other, I was standing in front of a large crowd of people about to deliver a lecture on some topic I had no business even
thinking about, let alone talking about to an attentive audience. Premature rank must feel a bit like that, I'd think...
Quality is much more important than speed - people who get their belts rapidly, or because they showed up at the requisite number of classes, or paid dues the requisite amount of time - those people don't really value (or, in too many cases, understand) what they are given. You will have earned your rank, and it will have a value that goes far beyond the piece of cotton around your waist.
I agree, Kacey. I've always liked the idea of saving the best for last, and in this case, as you say, the value is the training itself, and the development of the skills—the belt is just the external sign.
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