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Originally posted by David Kerr
How often did you grade in karate?
Because surely you could have used that
as some sort of gauge. What I mean is that on the surface of things it looks as if you were quite happy to receive these promotions. A promotion to any grade is a two way street, no one can force you to sit them if you don't want to. You also say that you have been training for four years and you reached San dan, I myself have been training for four years and will grade shortly for shodan, I also came to Aikido from a striking art and for me personally I had to unlearn everything that had gone before. I am also curious why no one thought to get this instructors credentials checked out until it was too late.
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I did not even thought about comparing the karate gradings with my Aikido gradings. The problem was that I did not know enough about Aikido to judge what is right and what is not.
I really thought that this was the way it was done. Aikido is not very big in South Africa and I do not know any other clubs in my region to go there to find out how things are really done.
I only started wondering about the whole thing after I started to read the forums on this website and different books by different instructors.
I feel cheated by this instructor because I believed what he told me and today I realise that my grading is not accepted by the Style HQ, but I am willing to learn the correct way even if it means to start at the very beginning. I will do this because I love aikido to such an extent that it is more than just another sport or martial art to me.
It was easy for me to unlearn what I have learned in karate because the techniques and applications of aikido makes a lot more sense to me than that of karate. To me karate will only be a sport like any other sport.
Regards
Jacques