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Old 12-28-2004, 08:02 PM   #41
Joe Bowen
 
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Dojo: Yongsan Aikikai
Location: But now I'm in the UK
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 212
South Korea
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Re: Aikikai Aikido Academy

It has been my experience that in Japan you have two types of Aikido students: those that practice in order to eventually teach and those that don't. Those that just practice Aikido without any ambition to teach and make their living teaching Aikido are graded fairly quickly to Shodan and maybe even Nidan, but it take a while for them to progress from there. Those that want to teach and make their living teaching Aikido are held to a little higher standard. Additionally, you are not considered teacher material unless you've spent some time as Uchideshi to someone.
In my many brief trips to Japan, it became apparent to me that most Japanese don't consider you a serious student of Aikido unless you are a shodan. You would be hard pressed to find a shodan teaching any type of class in Japan, even to children. Contrast that with the US where you have nidan and even in some cases shodan running their own satellite dojos and you can get a pretty good idea that there is a considerable difference in the expectations of the rank.

joe

Last edited by Joe Bowen : 12-28-2004 at 08:04 PM. Reason: spelling
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