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Old 05-29-2001, 10:02 AM   #30
Brian Vickery
Dojo: Aiki-Buken Aikido
Location: Gilbert, Arizona
Join Date: Jul 2000
Posts: 208
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Re: I'm dying to know...

Quote:
Originally posted by giriasis
...who reached shodan in under three years?

I would like to hear from the people who voted in the categories of "under 1 year"; "between 1-2"; and between "2-3". I'm stopping there since I will consider between 3-4 years more plausible.

Please quince my curiosity,
Anne Marie
...I'm one of those who voted '2-3 years.' I tested shodan one month short of 3 years in my training. The average time to get to shodan in our dojo is about 4 years, but that depends on many factors: how many classes attended, physical ability, positive attitude, self-confidence, etc.

At that time my dojo held 7 classes a week, I was in a minimum of 5 of them. During test month I was all 7.

The classes were also relatively small, somewhere between 6 to 12 students per class, so each student received much hands on attention from sensei. In my opinion, this was the major factor in advancing relatively quickly. I have noticed when student numbers grow, the rate of student progress begins to slow down as a whole.

Shodans are considered 'beginners' in the dojo. They have a solid understanding of the basics, can take ukemi, but by no means are they considered 'experts'. Truely, my training JUST began when I got to shodan! Up to that point, I sometimes 'felt' as if my sensei's techniques were a bit on the soft side, but what I didn't realize was that he was just taking it easy on me until I was ready to handle the harder stuff! I became 'painfully' aware of that point VERY quickly! ;^)

I had taken Tae Kwon Do for a short time prior to starting aikido, but that didn't have any impact on my advancement in aikido. All that did was make me a better uke, knowing how to punch & kick. (Of course learning ukemi is a totally different story!!!)

I hope this helps!

Best regards,

Last edited by Brian Vickery : 05-29-2001 at 10:04 AM.

Brian Vickery

"The highest level of technique to achieve is that of having NO technique!"
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