Can their be truth to this or is this completely ridiculous

[Thrawn33]

I agree with this. Plus remember that a shodan is roughly the equivalent of a BJJ blue belt. It signifies that a player has grasped the fundamentals, but has not necessarily reached the same level of Judo that you would expect from a black belt in BJJ (the equivalent of which in Judo would be yondan or above).

Thats a dangerous generalization.

Just like BJJ there's a disparity in skill between the same ranks and different instructors, now multiply that by the fact that there might be 100x as many judo clubs.

Take a shodan from Pedro's club and put him against one from Sensei Bob's Judo Dojo.....

 

[dalexan242]

The people I know who do / have done Judo tell me that, on average, it takes 3 years of training 3 days a week, plus some success in competition, to reach shodan. In BJJ, this is about the same as what you need for a blue belt.

Maybe it's club dependent, it seems more like 7-8 years of three times a week at our club.