George S. Ledyard

I have to say, these discussions always get to me. Aikido folks sitting around competing with each other to see whose training is cheapest. Aikido training is so under priced compared to the market it's not funny. The average dues for martial arts training in this country is around $120 to $140 per month.

I am a professional instructor. I have a dojo in an urban area which costs me just under $2000 per month. By the time you add the advertising, telephone, and other basic expenses I'm up to around $3000 per month just keeping the doors open.

The of course, there is my training. Since I am trying to deliver the finest training I possibly can, I am constantly training. My estimate for 2007 for training expenses is about $4500. I have been spending thousands on my training every year for more than twenty years. In fact one could say that I spent my kids college money getting to where I am in this art.

The dues at my dojo is around $100 per month. I teach six or seven days a week. I pay the instructor of my kids program 25% of everything the program generates. When I ran the numbers for 2006, I made all of 18 thousand from the dojo if one just counted the dues. In other words, just like college, the tuition you are paying doesn't come close to covering the true expense. So I have to teach Defensive Tactics outside, do police and security training, sell videos, travel all over doing Aikido seminars in order to not qualify for the earned income credit come tax time.

Hombu dojo has had a training program for professional instructors for decades now. They are supported in their training. This is how they turn out Shihan level teachers. Over here we have to do this ourselves.

So when Aikido people sit around and congratulate themselves on how cheap Aikido is, people should understand what they are saying. Everyone wants good instruction... people want their teachers to be as high level as possible. Why should a teacher be expected to "provide" that for you at his or her own expense?

The fact that Aikido dues are so cheap makes it very hard for people to put the time into their art which would allow them to develop into top level teachers. Most Aikido teachers are amateurs. Because there is no real money in it they limit the amount of training they do (unless they have great jobs to support their training). If they work, they spend the bulk of their free time on their art, taking time away from their families, relationships, friends etc. They use their own money to keep afloat. They are essentially donating their time and money. They do it because they love it but it sure isn't a matter of anyone being "entitled" to the benefits of their efforts.

How many of you folks out there who exult in the $30 - $40 / month dues you pay are donating 6 or 8 hours per week to charity? How many do charity work every weekend? What job do you work at? What if I said that I think that everyone should be entitled to whatever labor or service you provide at a third of what the going rate is for that effort?

People need to understand that in order to develop the finest instruction possible, for us to compete in quality with the Japanese who train professional teachers, we need a support base for our teachers. The bottom line support for a developing teacher is the dojo. It will take thirty years before one is good enough to start traveling and teaching seminars. So his or her support comes from the dojo. When people devalue that experience by saying that a teacher should be providing his expertise as a service because Aikido is a spiritual art, I say what?

If people want the poor to be able to train, then set up a scholarship fund in your dojo, subsidized by all the folks who have real jobs. If you think Aikido programs for the poor are so great, get donations and set up a program. Buy the mats and get a space, solicit donations from local businesses and THEN maybe ask the teacher if he'd donate some time. This after YOU have done some work and put in some time. What makes any of you out there think you are "entitled" to be taught Aikido? Why should people who have spent decades getting to where they are, fall all over themselves so that you can train without making any extra effort?

I can tell you that it was never that way back in O-Sensei's day. He paid a lot of money to be taught by Takeda Sensei and the old 30's deshi paid a lot to train with O-Sensei. The reason that O-Sensei was able to devote himself so completely to his training was that his family was rich. The gentleman never held a real job for any length of time in his life. He had a whole network of people who supported him. They built dojos and provided the financial support for anything needed. We don't have that here. No business man has offered to build me a dojo. No one donates money so that I can train. It all comes from the dojo and my other teaching efforts.

We need to stop thinking of training as some sort of entitlement program and value it the way other activities in our culture seem to be valued. When you undervalue Aikido training you are undervaluing your teachers.