Interesting, in Chinese arts, your are considreed a seinor at Black Sash. In general, it takes 8-9 years to earn the rank, so for a school offereing Black Belts at 3 years, they may be considred ready to begin full training after mastering thier basics, I supose. If that was the case, then I'd have to be giving Black Sash's away to 3rd level students. Instead, I won't do it till they compete 9 levels of training. The highest level in my system requires the student to be proficient at learning from the manuals. One of the test requirements is to work a form out of a book, self correct it and not only demo the set to me, but explain it in detail. This in addition to showing full proficiency with the entire 9 level curriculem. I'm not teaching it anymore, so I'm sure I will never see anyone get that high, but just so you kind of get an idea of what level a Kung Fu Black Sash must be on to earn the rank.

I've heard in Kempo schools it does not start to really come together till about 3rd degree. In most Kung Fu systes, it must fully come together just to earn the Black Sash.