They made it

Ross Burland i don‘t think they are beginners. Japanese judokas just train much longer and more often than the other nations. On the other hand often their training methods aren’t necessarily effective if you don’t train as long and often as they do. I realised this when a Japanese trainer trained us on a trainings camp and one training was like two ours of training (normally quarter hour warm up, the rest technique, it was a technique training) and the Japanese warmed up for like two hours and then he made half an hour technique before it the other trainers stopped him because their wouldn’t have been any lunch any more.

For the Japanese the idea of the black belt can mean from “competent training partner who are able to not hurt themselves” or “a seasoned practioner”. When you get your Shodan (1st degree black), you are effectively starting your “first step”, tutorial level is over. The real training begins there.