Do we have enough techniques?

Teachers of Danzan-Ryū have sometimes been presented with the problem of having a student who has learned "everything". Specifically, the student has reached a level of learning where they have gone through all of the techniques for their rank. This presents the greatest difficulty when the student is a black belt at about the Nidan or Sandan level. The apparent problem is that the student will lose interest if they continuously are required to do the same arts over and over.


One way that teachers have approached this problem is to add requirements to, or "pad" their testing requirements. In some cases, this padding has come from other non-DZR martial arts (Karate, Judo, Aikido, Eskrima, or whatever.) Another way that this has happened in the past is for a teacher to create a new board and proclaim inclusion in Danzan-Ryū.


There are martial arts which contain only a handful of techniques and are very effective with their short curriculum. The proper approach (in this writer's view) is to do what the Professor laid down for us. The collection of techniques found in the boards should not leave us bored.