INTRODUCTORY RANK LEVEL

10^th Kyu White Belt This rank is awarded to all new students upon enrollment

BEGINNER RANK LEVELS

9^th Kyu White Belt This rank is awarded to students with at least 1 month of training 8^th Kyu Orange Belt This rank is awarded to students with at least 1½ months of training 7^th Kyu Orange Belt This rank is awarded to students with at least 5 months of training

INTERMEDIATE RANK LEVELS

6^th Kyu Green Belt This rank is awarded to students with at least 8 months of training 5^th Kyu Green Belt This rank is awarded to students with at least 11 months of training 4^th Kyu Green Belt This rank is awarded to students with at least 14 month of training

ADVANCED RANK LEVELS

3^rd Kyu Red Belt This rank is awarded to students with at least 17 months of training 2^nd Kyu Red Belt This rank is awarded to students with at least 21 months of training 1^st Kyu Red Belt This rank is awarded to students with at least 24 months of training

BLACK BELT RANK LEVELS

1^st Degree Black Belt (cadet) This rank is awarded to students with at least 2½ years of training 1^st Degree (Dan) Black Belt (shodan) This rank is awarded to students with at least 3 years of training 2^nd Degree (Dan) Black Belt (nidan) This rank is awarded to students with at least 4 years of training 3^rd Degree (Dan) Black Belt (sandan) This rank is awarded to students with at least 5 years of training

Students who enroll in our school holding a certificate of rank from another martial arts school are allowed to enter our training program at that rank. However, the student will be required to wear the belt color shown above that matches the rank on the certificate if his/her belt is not the same.

There are certain conditions under which this offer is not be available.

The martial arts is one of the only forms of athletic training where you will not only find lots of men, women, and children as young as 4 years old enrolling in classes year round, but you will also find that once they are enrolled many of them go to classes as often as 2 – 4 times a week to study and practice. It is also not uncommon to find that most of these men, women, and children stay motivated to continue their training for 2½ to 4 years in pursuit of their black belts. Also, many of these students go on studying and practicing for many more years in pursuit of higher goals and achievements.

There are a lot of great reasons why students become willing to attend classes as often as they do, work hard as they do, both mentally and physically, and stay enrolled as long as they do once they are enrolled in martial arts classes like ours. One of the reasons is because we use an under black belt (Kyu) rank training system that has a unique way of inspiring students of all ages and genders to want to keep learning and improving their martial arts skills and techniques until they become black belts.

Our training system is divided into 4 under black belt levels; introductory, beginner, intermediate, and advance. Each level, except the introductory level, is divided into 3 separate rank categories. At the beginner and intermediate levels students are required to study and practice a specific set of self-defense techniques and other general requirements for at least 3 months between each rank. At the advance levels they are required to study and practice for 3 to 6 months between each ranks. At the advance level the focus is on preparing our students both mentally and physically for the transition from under black belt ranks to black belt ranks. This time is also used to inspire students to start thinking seriously about how to use the confidence, courage, and self-discipline that they have learned and developed, to help them achieve important goals in all of the other areas of their lives.

Every time our under black belt and black belt students are promoted to a higher rank they receive a new belt, or belt stripe, and a beautiful 8½ x 11 certificate with their name and new rank printed on it.