I am a fourth Dan in Aikido. Have been practicing since 1982. This is my thirtieth year save for 2 off with my son and unfortunately very sporadic practice the last 2-3 with a horrid hip (so in effect 25-26 years). Took me 13-years to get my first Dan grade but I switched styles of Aikido plus I am a pretty slow learner. Just happy to be able to practice when I can. Hoping that loosing some weight will help with the bad hip so I can return to the mat!!!!!

I am a brown belt. In my system (an American mixed karate style), our ranks are yellow, blue, green, purple, brown, black.
There is a minimum of 6 months between tests, a minimum of one year between brown and black, and a minimum of six years total training (with a minimum age of 16 years) to be eligible to test for black.
Once a person is eligible to test for black belt in our system, our instructors pass our names on to the head of our system. He observes candidates at the tournaments, training camps, and instructors' clinics, and he chooses whom he will test.

I would have been among the eligible candidates next spring, but I will have a newborn then. But I will continue to train through pregnancy, take about 6 weeks off after delivery, and hopefully be back up to speed by fall 2013.

I have my Green belt in Jeet Kune Do Concept (The fighting method "created" by Bruce Lee).
I have gone through white - yellow and orange to get to green and it has taken a little over 2 years. My next belt will be blue and I expect that the testing will be this summer - early fall. After the blue there is brown then black. Probably another 2 - 3 years.

I also have an orange cord in Capoeira. This is a little more esoteric than the traditional Asian style martial arts. The grading is different from school to school and style to style. My school CCCB (Centro Cultural Capoeira Biana) has 3 different grades with 3 different cords per grade. My orange cord is the first of the mid level grade. I have gone through, no cord, green & blue cords over 4 years to get to my orange. I could/should advance this fall but with Capoeira there is a lot of cultural things to learn that I have not yet mastered. So, probably looking at another year at least before I will advance to the next cord.

I have my second degree black belt in Uechi-ryu karate. I was supposed to test for my third degree next week, but a groin pull has put that off a couple of months.

I'm a yellow belt / kukyu in Bansenshukai Ninjutsu. Our system is set up like so:

Jukyu/Mukyu: White
Kukyu: Yellow
Hachikyu: Blue
Sichikyu: Blue with black stripe
Rokkyu: Red
Gokyu: Red with black stripe
Yonkyu: Green
Sankyu: Green with black stripe
Nikyu: Brown
Ikkyu: Brown with black stripe
Shodan: Black

Additionally, before testing for black, the student goes back to white and the black belt test is on everything from all of the belts, plus an hour-long randori session. First white belt gets four months before testing, the rest have three months (though you can test before if you're ready).

In order of attainment:
1st Degree Black Belt - Shorin-Ryu Karate
Brown Belt - Judo
Brown Belt - Jiu Jitsu
No Belt - Aikido
Brown Belt - Kung Fu
3rd Degree Black Belt -- Tae Kwon Do

Bounced around a little over the years. Started taking Shorin-Ryu in Okinawa in 1974. Acheived my Black Belt before returning to the U.S. Back at that time there wasn't a Martial Arts Studio on every corner. Not being able to find another Shorin-Ryu School caused me to bounce from one place to another until I eventually found TKD. It's not so much finding the right discipline for me as it is finding the right Instructor. I found that instructor in Master Moon Kyu Im and have practiced TKD ever since. I have about 38 years of learning, practicing and teaching under my belt now. I had my own school in California and, eventually, Oregon.

WHITE BELT!

I take krav maga through the KAMI Association, which is one of the two schools in Israel. We basically use a judo belt system. Minimum time to each rank thus:

yellow - 3 months from the beginning of training
orange - 3 months from previous belt
green - 1 year from previous belt
blue - 1 year from previous belt
brown - 1 year from previous belt
black, dan 1 - 1 year from previous belt
black, dan 2 - 2 years from previous belt
black, additional dans - 5 years between ranks for active practitioners

Once you reach orange, you can take a deputy instructors course with your teacher's permission. Then there is an instructors course for blue belts, but the instructor certificate is only granted once the student becomes a black belt. At dan 2, you can take a teachers or senior teachers course if you have an instructors certificate, your own teacher's permission, and you meet certain criteria.

My teacher is a black belt, dan 6. :glasses:

i will always be a white belt in JJ. I train but I don't compete. We don't move up in belts unless we submit opponents in tournaments.

Mommy TKD - It's the same belt system for ITF taekwondo in Britain. I'm currently a green belt and have to do 2 step sparring and break a board for my next grading so have been putting it off!

Belts become less important as you have longevity in an art (at least in my opinion). I found as a young aikidoka rank was very important, but as I age and as I have a longer and longer history, it seems to become less and less important. My first Dan (black belt) grade was very important for me and my second less so, but still important. My third was only important in that I had my own dojo at the time (but wasn't really that important anymore), and my fourth was a total surprise as I have been sidelined with a bad hip for a couple of years, but still involved, just not practicing much at all. At this point, after 30-years in the art, with a few off for bad behavior, it is relevant but not important. None of my practing friends care what each others ranks are and the only time it ever seems to rear its head is at seminars, and even then not so much.

Just enjoying the ride here, and hoping for 30-more years, most of it on the mat (hope losing weight will help with this bum hip!!!).