Thread: A fresh face :)
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Old 01-24-2017, 12:27 AM   #6
Cass
 
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Dojo: Aikido Academy
Location: Athens
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 67
Greece
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Re: A fresh face :)

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome!

That's an interesting question actually, we don't do changes in belts or do tests at all before 1st kyu. My sensei believes that before 1st kyu it is more productive for beginners to focus on getting the feel for aikido rather than memorizing moves for a test. As I mentioned women get their hakamas at 3rd kyu and men at 1st, so women know where they stand before men do (and once you hit 2nd you are invited to come to the 1st kyu/shodan prep classes). As for how the students receive this, it varies. On the one hand there is no stress for memorizing everything, you just watch and repeat moves without having to recall any japanese. However it does make it more complicated if a visiting sensei comes that refers to techniques by name, as most before 2nd kyu are not very familiar with the terms.

Competitiveness I believe exists in all dojos to a certain extent and removing the belt/testing system doesn't get rid of this tbh. If anything it can add a bit of a tense dynamic as nobody knows definitively how "good" the other aikidoka is, which can lead to friction with people with less experience trying to explain to others how to do things. In particular this happens when men from other dojos or that return to aikido partner with female aikidoka, I'm not really sure why. At seminars it can also be a bit confusing, partnering with a yudansha that has no idea where you are at can be daunting, if you are fluid in one technique they can assess you too highly and overwhelm you on another that you are less familiar with etc. We have beginners classes which you are kept in from anywhere to 4-10 months depending on the speed of your progression though, so that's another indication of your level, when you are permitted to enter the mixed class.

Despite these problems though, I like the system, as I believe it allows aikido to be more "pure" in that you aren't getting anxious about testing and it does remove a bit of the ego because not knowing for sure who is "better" makes it a more level playing field (unless you have an arrogant beginner, but well..). I think my sensei tends to keep people in line a bit as well, if he senses someone is feeling "mightier than thou" he will use them as uke more and correct minor issues in their technique more aggressively, so that tends to keep people humble :P.
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