As long as not enough people are here to vote for my profile, I am unfortunately not able to vote for You, Robert. But by the way: Congrats and welcome to the club of double-BB!!!

I received my shodan on Wednesday. I'm in the middle of jumping through the hoops to get my rank registered with usa judo, but until then... Please feel free to check out my profile, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have about my rank. Thanks!

Congratulations on the shodan. Please explain how you got your black belt, but it's yet to be registred be the federation? In Europe, depending on the size of the country, you'd usually have 2-10 gradingdays a year. You'll show up, well prepared. For most european countries that would mean: - you've collected points durings competitions - you have studied you kata really well -

Really good question. Over the course of the life of our dojo, we've never been affiliated with any organization, and all 3 of the instructors we've had running our program have never gone through any governing bodies when conducting promotions. While this is more or less normal for bjj gyms, I understand that judo is not completely done the same, and we're trying to get all our paperwork in order, so that is official. Everything is signed now. Just waiting for official approval. My sensei's promoting instructor is a 7th degree bb, whose rank is registered both with usa judo, as well as the kodokan (he may only be a 6th degree bb with the kodokan. He signed off on my paperwork, so that I could also get my shodan registered with these organizations. Long story short, I'm verified through my gym, promoted by a registered (usa judo) nidan, signed off by a registered (usa judo) nanadan.

Cool, thanks for a great answer. Always interesting to hear what federations and clubs do, across the world :) Thanks !