Like any dojo, people tend to come and go but we generally have 2 or 3 long term female students on the mat. Whereas there is roughly about 10 guys or more depending. Trying to recruit students at a university clubs and society fair I got pretty much the same response from the majority of guys and girls, they all appeared to be too worried about breaking a nail, so I dont think its a gender specific thing neccesarrily, just depends on each persons individual attitude. Its weird, you show people a video of some nice pins and gentle techniques and they say aikido is boring and useless, so you show em a video of koshinages and big hard projections and they look at you as if your mad before running away...(maybe we are mad?)
