But if the promotions are automatic then that's a bad sign.
A general rule of thumb is that early ranks are earned quicker than later ones. So the first few ranks 3 to 4 months seems right. After that, things should start to take a bit longer. And yes a black belt should take several years.
The Sensei's rank shouldn't matter nor should his age. What matters is his teaching ability and the quality of the other students.
And as an FYI if you're going to take karate for self defense know it's not like the movies. You won't be able to take classes and kick butt in a few months. You probably won't even be able to do so after a year or so if you're not already a good fighter. And it's likely that you might actually be worse for a time as you unlearn bad habits and learn good techniques.
Now a personal bias of mine is that Shotokan is a hit or miss style. I say that as I've seen some really bad Shotokan and I've seen some decent stuff. What I do know though is that it lacks some a great deal of open handed techniques found in styles like Uechi. Now in a school year fight that's not a bad thing, but in a life and death situation, knowing them can be the difference between walking away or not.
Another thing about Shotokan is that it's fairly linear, and from my perspective seems to emphasize "hard" techniques. These things aren't bad per se but keep in mind that they're not the only way of doing things and they're going to have an influence on all of your future training.
Now I don't look at any of this as good or bad but as things to think about.
My suggestion is to go to a few classes and see. $100 seems high to me, but the $50 isn't so bad if the gear is high quality stuff. In fact it's a deal. Now if it's cheap stuff that run.
BTW have you looked around at gyms, rec centers and such? I've found that some of the best martial arts training isn't in commercial space but rather in this places.
Not really Lloyd Machida does Shotokan.
Ok do i have no experience with martial arts training and i want to start im currently 12 and i want to know how to defend myself (been pushed around and beaten too many times). Anyway the school charges 100 bucks a month the gear is 50 bucks if you choose to buy from them to advance to new belts it takes 4 months most of the time it depends how good you are and sparring allows hits to any part of body and to advance to different degrees in black belt you must wait years the instructor seems to know what hes doing hes a 6th dan and hes 50ish i think idk looks old so is this a legit school?
