Why did it take Roshi 50 years to master Kamehameha?

[precita]

It really looks ridiculous in retrospect it took Roshi 50 years for him to master the Kamehameha. Not only because Goku learns it instantly, but also because both Krillin and Yamcha use it in the second tournament with Tienshinhan.

How could Roshi have been that lackluster over 50 years when both Krillin and Yamcha were able to master it so easily? It really just puts into perspective how absurdly strong Krillin and Yamcha really were compared to regular humans.

[DBZAOTA482]

He invented the move...

Now I wanna see Chi-Chi pull one off. It'd be her first and a massive one that bombs the ocean.

[Wizard Sesame]

I always assumed that he wasn't very talented, but was a very, very hard worker after Piccolo Daimao's reign of terror. It would be a nice reversion/mirror of his relatively laid back but incredible fighter characterization throughout Dragon Ball.

[FoolsGil]

There is no stated reason in story why it took 50 years to develop an attack, since it was the setup of a joke, but a staple in anime is the the newer up and coming generation is greater and stronger than the previous generation, I'd accept that going forward.

[Blade]

I guess as far as a piece of backstory goes, I think it serves to do two things:

A) Demonstrates the skill and power required to master the attack, making it seem like a badge of prestige or importance.
B) Firstly demonstrates Goku's prodigiousness in mimicking it so quickly, and then by extension, solidifies the idea of there being some sort of 'Golden Age' of martial artists by the fact that Kuririn, Yamcha and Tenshinhan also attain the skill relatively quickly.

[irreality]

It really looks ridiculous in retrospect it took Roshi 50 years for him to master the Kamehameha. Not only because Goku learns it instantly, but also because both Krillin and Yamcha use it in the second tournament with Tenshinhan.

How could Roshi have been that lackluster over 50 years when both Krillin and Yamcha were able to master it so easily? It really just puts into perspective how absurdly strong Krillin and Yamcha really were compared to regular humans.

I always figured it was once of those things that until the first person does it, it is incredibly difficult to figure out. No other martial artists were using ki in that way (assume dodonpa came later). Many might not even know ki *could* be manipulated in that way. He had to figure out it was possible and perfect the attack. Once somone figures it out and develops it, anyone familiar with ki and a high enough level of skill can look at it and say: ok, that makes sense, I can mimic that.

Take Videl, for instance: she had enough power to learn how to fly (but as of yet, not shown to have the power to shoot a ki attack). She mastered it in like a week. But can you imagine how long it would have taken her to figure out flight was possible and how to do it without Gohan there to instruct her? Maybe years or a lifetime, since many other martial artists never figured it out. I think it is a similar thing.

Or even take real life: A high school student can build a small electric generator with some wire and some permanent magnets. We as a civilization have known about magnets for hundreds of years, but we haven't harnessed it as electricity until recently. Does that mean that the average physics student is a genius compared to Michael Faraday and all scientists before him?

Not that I don't think there is a golden age of martial arts thing going on.I think Goku, Krillin, Yamcha, etc. have a much higher "Base ki level" to start at when they learned the Kamehameha than when Roshi developed it, so they might have had a leg up in that regard. But learning his techniques also gives them a leg up in developing their own and mastering them.

[Eire]

I think swimming strokes are good analogue. Crawl and breaststroke were in use since times immemorial, but butterfly was presented for the first time in 1930s. No every child is taught this in PE class, but back then it was a revolution. Now try to think that you were not shown, but had to invent it from scratch.

[TheGreatness25]

How long would it take Bruce Lee to master the Kamehameha?

It's pretty obvious that Roshi is a "normal person" martial artist who mastered ki.

[nickzambuto]

Roshi laid it out clearly in the 22nd Budokai. The next generation was surpassing him. Krillin, Yamcha, and Tien all possessed far greater drive and natural potential as martial artists. Think about it, disregard the Kamehameha and look at physical strength and martial arts. It took Roshi 300 years to reach the level he is at, yet Tien was like, what, 18 or something when he beat him at the Budokai? So it follows suit that a technique which took 50 years for Roshi to develop can be mastered by Tien in the span of seconds.

[Cetra]

He did not only need to master it. He needed to slowly develop and learn that technique first. Goku's power might be greater than Roshi's and he easily learned the move other than Roshi but who knows if he even managed to master it to its fullest. Maybe Goku's Mastered Kamehameha would be of an imcomprehensibly high power.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Maybe compare it to learning a type of math/science (e.g. calculus) to inventing it like Isaac Newton did. The latter is undoubtedly harder. Roshi had no one to watch and imitate to learn the move after all.

[Lord Beerus]

So that it makes it all the more impressive that Goku was able to pull of the technique on the first go after just watching it once.

[precita]

So that it makes it all the more impressive that Goku was able to pull of the technique on the first go after just watching it once.

Which is kinda downplayed when we see normal humans like Krillin and Yamcha able to use it too.

[LSSJGODSSJ4Gogeta]

It's harder to create something as opposed to the rest who simply copied him. He was the first person born on earth to use ki besides his master that we know.