Re: Unhappy being pushed to test
Michael Hackett wrote: "My limited experience suggests that only one in ten new students will stick around beyond the first test, regardless of gender, and it appears that less than one in a hundred will ever see shodan. I have strong doubts that creating a cadre of artificial Amazons will change that and he will end up with some less than stellar yudansha. Then again, I could be wrong....."
Absolutely, and honestly most women (like the OP) who are going to stick around in a martial art anyway are going to see this in sexist terms, as being held to different, lower standards than the men. It's a real dead end!
The two reasons people quit at my dojo are injury and just getting frustrated because they want to have learned, to know what they are doing. There are infinite variations and everyone's body is different. Yudansha often feel retarded on the mat, at least they do when they are still learning.
I'm no sensei. But if I had a small dojo, I would deal with retaining students (all students) by really focusing on ukemi and by actively framing this infinite quality of aikido as a good thing that I experience myself.
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