As long as it takes. Sometimes longer, but never less.
This is a very difficult question to answer. We can't predict how much a person will practice or what difficulties they will have. At Sheng Chi Kung Fu we hold our standards very high. We uphold the standards in the way they were taught to us. It is a skill level that is required, not an amount of time. Each person is different.
However if we were forced to give an answer in a given quantity of time we'd say that it averages about 2000 hours of training. We don't take shortcuts and with the amount of knowledge and skill needed to pass the black belt test a great degree of training is required. This is as it should be. The rank of black belt is a highly respected and coveted rank at Sheng Chi Kung Fu.
