crbateman

How many people do you know that bought an expensive treadmill or other exercise machine, and after it's used a few times, it's relegated to some corner, with laundry hung on it? Many people start MA training with good intentions, but can't or won't sustain it. Aikido dojos have much their share of this.

And there are are others who simply don't get out of it what they're looking for (often because they don't put anything into it). There are those whose means have been diminished in these times of economic distress.

Keiko, by necessity, involves much repetition, much devotion to the basics. Often, this becomes boring to the student looking for more immediate gratification.

All this adds up to an enrollment/attendance problem in many dojos. The chemistry of the training derives from the motivation of the participants, the delivery of the instructor(s), and many other factors. And it is often a fragile and tenuous thing. Are the students going to show up in droves if the main instructor only teaches one night per week? Is the instructor going to drag him(her)self down there six nights per week if nobody shows up half the time?

Not much clapping gets done unless both hands are into it. Sometimes, things just don't add up.