Young folk

[Please visit our sponsor:]

Yamato Budogu from Kyoto, Japan - Our new "Kitsuke" hakama will keep your hakama from falling off!

[Niko Salgado]

I'm quite curious to how many people under the age of 25, are actively practicing Aikido. Age and rank please. I'm only asking because majority of the people I have met practicing are over 25. I'm 22 and a Nikyu :freaky:

[aikido_luver]

15 5th kyu ....as far as i know there are very few people that are under 25 at our Dojo.

[Jordan Steele]

18, Shodan

[tenshinaikidoka]

At our dojo we have a few "young" folk. We have a 15 year old who is a 5th Kyu, an 8 year old who has passed his 7th/12th Kyu test and another 15 year old who is fairly new.

[MaryKaye]

Average age in our dojo is 43, but I train a lot with a 13-year-old (in the adult classes now) who recently made 5th kyu. It's hard to train at this age because your body is changing so fast, but he's getting his equilibrium back and looks quite good. We do a lot of jo takeaways together and he is excellent with a jo.

I expect if he sticks with it, he might be shodan around 16-17, which would be a first for us. Usually the really skilled kids don't become skilled adults; they go into soccer instead, alas.

Mary Kaye

[Qatana]

Same as Mary Kay. We're pretty much all in out forties and we have two 16 year olds. One is there because he has to make up PE credits and both his parents are shodan. But he doesn't really want to be there. The other will be testing for 5th kyu in two weeks (and i go up for fourth).
He also is likely to make shodan by 19 or 20., he is very much in touch with the Principles of aikido, and working on learning to control his body.
My sensei started training when he was 15 in the 60s and made shodan at 18. He has been training non-stop for 39 years.

[Clayton Drescher]

We have 3 kids classes a week, most of them are elementary school aged, maybe middle school. But they don't train during the regular classes Other than that, I'm 3rd kyu and 21, and the youngest in the "regular" classes. The next youngest is 23 I think, but we have a lot of mid-20s, grad-school types, so there's still lots of young energy in the dojo.

[Martin Ruedas]

20 years old and in 4th kyu

[PeterR]

Most students at Shodokan Honbu practicing on any given day are between 17-25.

[GaiaM]

I'm 23 and nikyu... we have a good range of ages at our dojo, from 11 up to 60s or so... all the blackbelts are over 30 though - I'm the most advanced of the younger folks.
Gaia

[Bronson]

Most students at Shodokan Honbu practicing on any given day are between 17-25.

And oozing with malicious testerone from what I hear ;)

Bronson

[kaishaku]

19 / Whatever your dojo prefers to call someone who hasn't tested.

[L. Camejo]

And oozing with malicious testerone from what I hear ;)

Which just goes to show you don't believe everything you hear Bronson.:p

Our dojo has about 6 people who range from 16 to 25. They make up just over 1/4 of the class, the rest are in late 20's and 30's. Had a couple folks over 40 but they couldn't hack it or had non-Aikido injuries that called for a stop to training.

LC:ai::ki:

[Zato Ichi]

Bah! All you young 'uns got it easy today! In my day we had to do ukemi on concrete! Blindfolded! While wearing only our boxers! Or bra and panties for women! And we liked it!!! :)

[Thomas Ambrose]

24, unranked... I have trained for about four months now, so I am pretty much new!

[Bronson]

Which just goes to show you don't believe everything you hear Bronson.:p

I don't believe you!

You are SHODOTHUGS the evil scourge of ki wielding purveyors of the true aiki way. You take young men and mold them into...dare I say it....testosterone maddened unenlightened (and most likely unattractive) competitors... GASP!!! ;) ;) <----- see the wink wink

Bronson

[Patrick]

24 and a Nikyu

[aikitim23]

14yrs old, 1st kyu, been training for 7 years..... hopefully will test for shodan early next year :)

[Caitlyn Raggio]

I'm 18, don't have a rank yet (have yet to be worthy of testing), and I think I'm the youngest in my class taught at the university.

[sarah07]

22, have not yet been graded.

I don't believe you!

You are SHODOTHUGS the evil scourge of ki wielding purveyors of the true aiki way. You take young men and mold them into...dare I say it....testosterone maddened unenlightened (and most likely unattractive) competitors... GASP!!! ;) ;) <----- see the wink wink

Bronson

:rolleyes: Young WOMEN too, just to be pedantic...!

-One sane, rational, enlightened (and most likely attractive) (!)
shodothug-in-training :D

[Hrvoje]

I'm 16 and am the youngest in our dojo. everyone else is over 25, kinda sad when i think about it.... anyway im grading for 2nd kyu next month!

[L. Camejo]

22, have not yet been graded.

:rolleyes: Young WOMEN too, just to be pedantic...!

-One sane, rational, enlightened (and most likely attractive) (!)
shodothug-in-training :D

You tell him Sarah.:)

Even though unranked I'm sure you can take Bronson any day on these forums. ;) ;)

ShodoThugz rule! :cool:

LC:ai::ki:

[PeterR]

-One sane, rational, enlightened (and most likely attractive) (!)
Not to mentioned unencumbered by an excess of testosterone.

I would never comment on the attractiveness of one of my minions BUT in the posted pici (Images/Dojo) Sarah is the furthest one in.

[maikerus]

Peter, Peter, Peter...Now look what you've done. Overloaded the Aikiweb server while all the testosterone encumbered caused a denial of service attack just to look at that one pic.

Shame, shame.

Nice looking group of shodothugs, by the way :)

[Laurel Wagstaff]

I'm 16 and 2nd kyu. There have been quite a few other young people who passed through (came and left), and one 13 year old who is still training.

I also have another guy friend who is 2nd kyu and goes to a different dojo on an off. I try to drag him onto the mat now and then, but there is so much school work and whatnot that it is hard to make time.

Oh, and by the way, hi everybody! I've been a forum lurker for a while, going here when I should be writing essays and would rather be at Aikido. Haha, just like right now!

laurel

[Niko Salgado]

Jeez, to hear of people being shodan at 15 years of age.. or even below 20.. kinda tempted to switch styles of Aikido just to get the rank. Oh well.. that's what I get for being in Ki Aikido..testing is pretty extensive ;) I'm just kidding, I really enjoy it and am not racing for ranks, although I think it's time to get more serious about raising the ranks. :ki:

There are only 3 people under 25 at our group, although 1 is inactive, and for a while I was the youngest, at one point about half the group was under 25, but then they got a life, when those of us still in it chose Aikido to be part of our life. We have a pretty small group and hopefully increasing the numbers soon with public rec programs and such.

Keep at it! If you could, name your style and how long you've been practicing for as well, much appreciated! I just like a perspective to how many youngin's practice Aikido to kind of give a demographic to those asking questions.

[akiy]

Due to the two universities/colleges in town as well as having satellite classes at both, our dojo gets a fair amount of people who usually train in those classes. Also, we usually get several people in that age group start with us when a new beginners class begins anew (every three months), perhaps due to this area having quite a number of outdoor/active folks. There's also a kids (6-9 years old) and a youth (9-15 years old) class at our dojo which is pretty active, although the number of folks who move into the regular adults classes seems to be very limited.

There's also another thread, "Calling teenage Aikidoka" here:

http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5835

-- Jun, going back to the old people's threads...

PS: Laurel, go finish your homework.

[Brad Darr]

23, shodan everyone else in the dojo is over 25 and has been since I started.

[PeterR]

Jeez, to hear of people being shodan at 15 years of age.. or even below 20.. kinda tempted to switch styles of Aikido just to get the rank. Oh well.. that's what I get for being in Ki Aikido..testing is pretty extensive
I'll bet good money that there are some pretty young Shodans (beginning level) in Ki Aikido as well. They young man has been doing Aikido for 7 years after all.

Where I train we can have up to Nidan as a student grade. However, when they switch to adult classes they start from the beginning again. They tend to get promoted pretty quick but still.

[happysod]

I'll bet good money that there are some pretty young Shodans (beginning level) in Ki Aikido as well I'll take that bet and lose some money... oh wait. Damn, I preferred it when the shodothugs were all defensive about competition rather than acting all reasonable and Peter, it's not fair play to load these boards with your studes.

Anyway I think the youngest grading I've seen was 5th Kyu at about 13 - I hated that kid as he was calm, smooth in his movements and had no self-conciousness at all when displaying his technique. :D

OT: Jun, I demand shodothugs and aiki-fruitie are added to the dictionary, I noticed a miss-spelling of shodothug earlier by Bronson, tut tut

[PeterR]

I'll take that bet and lose some money... oh wait.
Not necessarily - I only base the conjecture (reasonable Shodothug use of dictionary- scary huh?) that almost every Aikido organization in Japan that I've run into seems to have a system in place where youngsters with enough time in can have a black belt.

Varies from place to place - but not from style to style.

I don't see a 15 year old Shodan as a problem.

[Bridge]

Is 25+ over the hill or something?

I'm 26 in a couple of weeks time and a 5th kyu.

[Niko Salgado]

Is 25+ over the hill or something?

I was mainly targeting those "typical" college(undergraduate) age and below.

[daniel loughlin]

just 15 in october and going for 2nd kyu in february

[Taliesin]

I must say, although the dojo I train at has one Junior Shodan, in the adult's classes the age range seems to be mainly 25+. That said we have graded two (brother and sister) to Shodan at ages 17 and 18 respectively (Although not at the same time). I must point out though that they did appear to thank that training any less than 6 days a week was slacking. Like everyone else they their earned their grades through commitment and bloody hard work.

[Jill N]

Hi all:

We have a 17 yr old 3rd kyu, 20 yr old 2nd kyu, 20 yr old ungraded, 21 yr old 5th kyu, and a 23 yr old ungraded. Otherwise it's all us old codgers from age 25 to 55 or so. We are all one happy family! (some might call us a motley crew I suppose)

e ya later
Jill.

[Bronson]

:rolleyes: Young WOMEN too...

WOW!! That speaks volumes for the Shodokan training method. I'm amazed it can turn young women into testosterone maddened anything....truly an equal opportunity evil influence ;) :D


Even though unranked I'm sure you can take Bronson any day...

Maybe out to dinner :D

I, sir, am an AIKIFRUITY. I am more enlightened, better mannered, have better hygiene, have a much deeper understanding of the REAL inner meanings of aikido, and I propably have a nicer car than any mere Shodothug who's main focus of practice is base effective technique.

Just don't ask me to martial art my way out of a wet paper sack 'cause I'm not sure I could :D ;) :D ;)

Bronson

p.s. I sure hope you all realize this is all in fun because I don't ever want to be on the receiving end of any of those things that end in -ate

[PeterR]

I like this guy - maybe we should adopt him. :D

[L. Camejo]

I like this guy - maybe we should adopt him. :D

I agree Peter.

Checking out Shodokan DVDs, hanging out with the Shodothugs (tm) all the time. Hmmm, I think he is trying to defect. :eek:

Admit it Bronson, you've had enough of the Fruitiness, now you want some real red meat Decadent Aikido. evileyes

<Darth Vader Voice> You cannot resist the dark side of the force. </Darth Vader Voice>

:D
LC:ai::ki:

[happysod]

Resist Bronson, the power of the shodothug is but toy when compared with the true power of Ki...

OK, just shoot me now for that one, I deserve it.

[PeterR]

As I breath heavily through cupped hands in the background.

[Bronson]

<Darth Vader Voice> You cannot resist the dark side of the force. </Darth Vader Voice>

Nah, I've got my own sensei to be an evil influence on me :D, appreciate the offer though. I wouldn't mind a few classes just to see how the evil side lives ;)

Quick story: I recenlty had to have a test done at the hospital. Everyone, including my doctor, told me it would be very painful. During the "painful" part of the test all I could think was "this is nothing, anybody who thinks this hurts needs to come to class and take a few strikes in the belly of the bicep". That little tidbit of knowledge courtesy of my evil sensei :D

Bronson

[Bronson]

...red meat Decadent Aikido.

Larry I don't know the name of your dojo but you need to change it to the above :D

Bronson

[brian_wray]

I began my study of aikido at age eight and a half, and my sister at nine and a half. We weren't the only kids there, either. My dojo had a special "young persons" practice; there were a few others in the range of 10-13. I know one of the older kids (14 or so) was a 1st kyu.

[dominicmulholland]

23: But I only just started 4 weeks ago. Unranked

[The Molinjir]

12, 5th kyu, but one of my friends from the dojo, a 14 year old, is a shodan in both Aikido and Kenpo. He started at the age of four in kenpo, and 5 in Aikido.
He is quite heavily into martial arts :D

[Dan Gould]

18, er... will be starting Monday :-$ Don't even have a gi yet.

[Christy S]

19 years old and a "Sassy Shodan" as my friends at the dojo say. :-)

[Kevin]

Hi all.

Haven't posted in a long, long, long...... time.

I am 18 and tested for my Shodan in August. In April, it will be 10 years of Aikido training.

It is great to see a lot of young people training. I'll try my best to continue training throughout college. Dojo is 15 minutes by bike, and school works is loading up, but I'll try my best.

-Kevin

[Kevin]

Sorry about posting the address signature for my former website. I lost interest in web design some time ago and it is now some spam site.

[markwalsh]

25 now, started training at 18 at University.
There are a number of University clubs in the UK (eg; Leeds, Southampton, UCL) and even a British Universities Aikido Federation - part of the BAF.

The youngest Aikikai shodan I have head of over here was 14/15. Several of the best instructors in the UK started training as children, e.g Philip Smith, Alex Megan, Cath Davies.

I worry that the Aikido population is aging, which (to me) means that the whole art could be in a state of decline?

Question for people who have trained since a young age, do you feel that Aikido has damaged or prematurely aged your body in any way? While aikido has clearly kept me healthy on many levels, I also feel I have the joints of a 40 yr old already (though am better looking obviously).

Slightly off topic: The breaking down of age barriers is one of my favourite thing about aikido. I feel that it is one of the few ways in which the generations of rapidly changing countries can sincerely communicate.

Later grey heads,
Mark
x

[markwalsh]

aging population thraed link:

http://aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4188&highlight=aging

[morren]

I'm 25 and a 5th Kyu. (Recently promoted from "new guy") I started a couple of years ago, but had to take a year and a half off because I moved.

[Alex Megann]

Why, that's very kind of you to say that, Mark!

I first went on the tatami when I was about fifteen, though it took a few years to get me properly hooked. I did see Kisshomaru Doshu when he came to Oxford in 1975, but that was before before I started.

I passed my shodan at twenty-five, and am now forty-two. I think Aikido has been an almost overwhelmingly positive influence on my health, and so far have been lucky enough to have had no serious injuries in the dojo. I have had various aches and pains, but those were mostly from either carrying on training when I've been tired and dehydrated (the kidney stones after my sandan grading are one example) or from incorrect stretching. My knees can ache at the end of a long weekend course, but then they ached at least as much twenty years ago, and I actually find seiza much more comfortable now than I did back then.

There are two things that have kept me healthy. First of all, constantly working to avoid straining, mostly by pursuing good posture and relaxed movement. The prime examples of this for me are my own teacher, Kanetsuka Sensei, as well as the late Yamaguchi Sensei and Endo Sensei. The second is daily stretching - I do at least five minutes most days, and often much longer. At a week-long Summer School I have found that the key to survival as I have got older is to stretch gently and deeply both at the start and at the end of each class. On top of these, I love taking ukemi, and value this more and more as a fundamental part of Aikido.

Kanetsuka Sensei is constantly telling us to look after our bodies and gently chiding senior aikidoka (even if they are younger than he is!) because they have let themselves grow stiff. The beautiful aspect of Aikido for me is that it really is a life's study. You can start as a teenager (or at whatever age) and some decades later you're still doing Aikido but have a completely different attitude to it after all the experiences - positive ones as well as setbacks - of the years.

All the same, I do see many people who have been unlucky and had accidents (often in the "bad old days" when safety and responsibility were far less emphasised), as well as more chronic conditions from bad practice over a long period. We are all responsible for our own health and if we aspire to enjoy Aikido when we are old in years, the time to start preparing for that is always the present...

Alex

[Tatiana]

14 and I'm 4th kyu... I have friends that practice Aikido at the same dojo (and others) that vary from 12 to 18... Tho it does mainly seem to be adults... It's sad.. I wish that more young ppl would do aikido... It's so good! ^^

[KerstineElnegaard]

The thoughts of a lurker ;)

I've been reading the entire thread and is quite surised over what has been told...

Personally I come from a dojo, where the majority of the people that trains are below 30... I am a 18 years old, and 3rd kyu. I was graduated at the age of 17, and has been training for 3 years now. We have a very training for juniors/kids (with up to 30 active kids)... and there are kids on this team that has trained for up to 4 years.

In general the people that come to see what aikido is, are below 30... at least where I come from...

See, this is a quite different scenario from what I have seen described earlier, and I find it quite funny, that it can vary so much from place to place.

To be precise we are at least 3 under the age of 20 who is graduated higher than 3rd kyu... and more on the way.
It must also be considered that kids are not graduated in our dojo...

So young people training aikido is not an exception in "my" :cool: dojo...

[rachel]

Hi Niko,
I'm 19 yrs. old, only shodan.
Don't get discouraged by people who have been training for a long time, hope that you will learn from them.

-Rachel

Oh, also, my dojo in Hawaii has children's classes starting from age 6 and lots of teens and young adults. At the dojo here in Japan (Aikikai Hombu) there are also classes for children. Lots of people start young, the challenge is to keep them going.

[malsmith]

im 15 and i just joined dojo in august, so im not really any rank yet. there are quite a few young/high school aged people in my dojo, i think there are like about ten of us, and its a small dojo!

[fatebass21]

21 years at Kyu 6. I've been studying for a year, I was 20 years old when I started training and studying. My dojo actually has very large evening classes for 'juniors' and there are some 5-6 year olds that are one or two ranks above myself. I wish I would have started as early as they have. :) There are also several sempai that are younger than me in the adult classes I attend.

[Tharis]

22 years old, 1st kyu after about 3 years of training. I started in a college dojo where I was about the same age as everyone else, and now I train in Cleveland with people ranging from my age or a little older to (guessing) people in their 40s or 50s, with a decent distribution. I'd guess there's a few more younger than older people, but it's still probably a bell curve.

Regarding injury, I've strained by neck once, fairly badly, through a combination of zealous uke and inept ukemi. My knees still hurt sometimes, but they're also a lot more flexible than they used to be. Generally, I think I'm a lot more healthy, certainly more fit, than I would be if i weren't training.

Yours in ukemi,
Thomas

[lenna]

17 no rank yet, youngest in our adult classes but our kids classes have like 15 eight year olds.

PS how long does it generally take to get to 1st kyu?

[rachmass]

In our dojo there is a young woman who is 18 or 19 who has been training steadily since 13. She's a ikkyu. There are maybe 10 under 25, and the long time members of the dojo are in their 40's and 50's with the chief instructor in his late 30's. Average age is around 35 I would say (a real bell curve with age in this dojo). Only 3 women in the dojo though :-(

[Joezer M.]

I'm 22 and training in two different dojos affiliated to two different organizations... I'm an ikkyu in one, and a nikyu in the other... Does that make me a 1.5 kyu? :confused: :)

Regards,
Joezer

[Amanda]

22 and currently ungraded.

The dojo I train at also runs a childrens class although I don't know how many of them will stick to adults.

[Nick Simpson]

Im 22 on thursday (Yay me!) and im a 2nd kyu, going for 1st kyu in May hopefully. I started at a university dojo when I was 19 and train mostly with people ranging from 19 - 25, although in our monday class we have two 13 year old lads who are very enthusiastic and our parent organisation has a fair number of younger kyu grades but seems to consist of mainly older dan grades.

[emi_moes]

I'm 19 & 5th kyu & have been training about a year. I believe many of the beginners in our dojo are around the same age as it is a university dojo I believe our oldest & most experienced aikidoka(that word sounds so much like okie dokie lol) is probably about 25
Bah! All you young 'uns got it easy today! In my day we had to do ukemi on concrete! Blindfolded! While wearing only our boxers! Or bra and panties for women! And we liked it!!! :)
as far as training hard our sensai advised us to go out & practice on the ice outside when it's -27 deg. ferinheit so... :P many of the people in our club also practice ukemi by throwing themselves out of windows or off rooftops

[Eltron]

I started when I was 20. I'm 21 now, turning 22 in a few months. I haven't been graded yet but that's because my aikido club, albeit stressing the importance of formalities of dojo etiquette, is very informal and slow-paced.

[Rocky Izumi]

Bah! All you young 'uns got it easy today! In my day we had to do ukemi on concrete! Blindfolded! While wearing only our boxers! Or bra and panties for women! And we liked it!!! :)

You forgot, in the middle of winter in Saskatchewan at -50 degrees C.

Rock
(Another person having survived Saskatchewan and now refusing to live anywhere that cold.)

[Christian Orderud]

26, 6th kyu. :)

[Meggy Gurova]

I'm 27 and 3 kyu. Most off the people in our dojo are between 18 and 25. Then there are a few between 25 and 30. We have 3 between 30 and 40 and 2 around 50. We don't have any black belts in our dojo (only our sensei).