Did martial arts as a kid, but that was years ago.
What do some of you feel are requirements to achieve a black belt (sorry, seeing several here post about sub-10 year olds acquiring this), or what it represents.
So, short answer....
Requirements for sub-teen Shodans should be mastery of technique within their age limitations. Shodans for teens and above should be much more stringent with added emphasis on the mind and spirit.
Long winded answer...
Years ago, I had a teacher who had an exceedingly traditional (Japanese) view of Shodan, the first black belt rank. It translates literally as 'beginning degree' in Japanese.
Martial Arts are about mastery of your mind, body, and spirit. He believed, as do I, that a black belt merely signifed a certain level of technical expertise of body control and movement while the true mastery of ones self, especially the mind and spirit, came in the upper ranks following Shodan.
Most people treat black belt as the end game, when it is really only the first step in a very long journey.
I have issues with dojo's that award Shodans to anyone sub-teenager. Smaller kids, unless they are a phenom, simply do not have the same strength, balance, quickness, fluidity, control, or precision commonly found in teenagers. Watch a 10 y/o and a 15 y/o who both have two years experience execute a round kick and tell me which one is more precise, fluid, and controlled. Yep, you guessed it, even though both are far from perfect.
Now, if a school awards smaller kids their Shodan, and then drops their ranking back down, to say blue or green, when they move from one age group to the next, I can get behind that for a couple of reasons.
First, you are telling the kid that while he has made improvement up to this point, his technique needs refined if he is to be at the same level as the bigger kids as well as working on the mind and spirit portions.
Secondly, kids need reinforcement they are doing good at things or they will lose interest. Enter the belt system. It helps keep the kids interested by providing tangible goals to achieve.
Interestingly enough, I saw reason one play out in my school. A ten y/o was awarded his Shodan and at 12 moved to the teen classes. His rank was dropped to blue and his momma raised hell at our Master. He said sure, he can keep his black belt if he can prove he deserves it. Our Master immediately called randori (free practice/sparring) and mommy's little angel proceeded to get trounced by the purple and brown belts.
By the end of the session, the kid was begging for a green belt and forgiveness while momma didnt have a word to say lol
Edited because I can't spell lol