Young folk

I'm quite curious to how many people under the age of 25, are actively practicing Aikido. Age and rank please. I'm only asking because majority of the people I have met practicing are over 25. I'm 22 and a Nikyu

15 5th kyu ....as far as i know there are very few people that are under 25 at our Dojo.

18, Shodan

At our dojo we have a few "young" folk. We have a 15 year old who is a 5th Kyu, an 8 year old who has passed his 7th/12th Kyu test and another 15 year old who is fairly new.

Average age in our dojo is 43, but I train a lot with a 13-year-old (in the adult classes now) who recently made 5th kyu. It's hard to train at this age because your body is changing so fast, but he's getting his equilibrium back and looks quite good. We do a lot of jo takeaways together and he is excellent with a jo.

I expect if he sticks with it, he might be shodan around 16-17, which would be a first for us. Usually the really skilled kids don't become skilled adults; they go into soccer instead, alas.

Mary Kaye

Same as Mary Kay. We're pretty much all in out forties and we have two 16 year olds. One is there because he has to make up PE credits and both his parents are shodan. But he doesn't really want to be there. The other will be testing for 5th kyu in two weeks (and i go up for fourth).
He also is likely to make shodan by 19 or 20., he is very much in touch with the Principles of aikido, and working on learning to control his body.
My sensei started training when he was 15 in the 60s and made shodan at 18. He has been training non-stop for 39 years.

We have 3 kids classes a week, most of them are elementary school aged, maybe middle school. But they don't train during the regular classes Other than that, I'm 3rd kyu and 21, and the youngest in the "regular" classes. The next youngest is 23 I think, but we have a lot of mid-20s, grad-school types, so there's still lots of young energy in the dojo.

20 years old and in 4th kyu

Most students at Shodokan Honbu practicing on any given day are between 17-25.

I'm 23 and nikyu... we have a good range of ages at our dojo, from 11 up to 60s or so... all the blackbelts are over 30 though - I'm the most advanced of the younger folks.
Gaia

Peter Rehse wrote: Most students at Shodokan Honbu practicing on any given day are between 17-25.

And oozing with malicious testerone from what I hear

Bronson

19 / Whatever your dojo prefers to call someone who hasn't tested.

Bronson Diffin wrote: And oozing with malicious testerone from what I hear

Which just goes to show you don't believe everything you hear Bronson.

Our dojo has about 6 people who range from 16 to 25. They make up just over 1/4 of the class, the rest are in late 20's and 30's. Had a couple folks over 40 but they couldn't hack it or had non-Aikido injuries that called for a stop to training.

LC

Bah! All you young 'uns got it easy today! In my day we had to do ukemi on concrete! Blindfolded! While wearing only our boxers! Or bra and panties for women! And we liked it!!!

24, unranked... I have trained for about four months now, so I am pretty much new!

Larry Camejo wrote: Which just goes to show you don't believe everything you hear Bronson.

I don't believe you!

You are SHODOTHUGS the evil scourge of ki wielding purveyors of the true aiki way. You take young men and mold them into...dare I say it....testosterone maddened unenlightened (and most likely unattractive) competitors... GASP!!! <----- see the wink wink

Bronson

24 and a Nikyu

14yrs old, 1st kyu, been training for 7 years..... hopefully will test for shodan early next year

I'm 18, don't have a rank yet (have yet to be worthy of testing), and I think I'm the youngest in my class taught at the university.

22, have not yet been graded.

Bronson Diffin wrote: I don't believe you! You are SHODOTHUGS the evil scourge of ki wielding purveyors of the true aiki way. You take young men and mold them into...dare I say it....testosterone maddened unenlightened (and most likely unattractive) competitors... GASP!!! <----- see the wink wink Bronson

Young WOMEN too, just to be pedantic...!

-One sane, rational, enlightened (and most likely attractive) (!)
shodothug-in-training

I'm 16 and am the youngest in our dojo. everyone else is over 25, kinda sad when i think about it.... anyway im grading for 2nd kyu next month!

Sarah Moon wrote: 22, have not yet been graded. Young WOMEN too, just to be pedantic...! -One sane, rational, enlightened (and most likely attractive) (!) shodothug-in-training

You tell him Sarah.

Even though unranked I'm sure you can take Bronson any day on these forums.

ShodoThugz rule!

LC

Sarah Moon wrote: -One sane, rational, enlightened (and most likely attractive) (!)

Not to mentioned unencumbered by an excess of testosterone.

I would never comment on the attractiveness of one of my minions BUT in the posted pici (Images/Dojo) Sarah is the furthest one in.

Peter, Peter, Peter...Now look what you've done. Overloaded the Aikiweb server while all the testosterone encumbered caused a denial of service attack just to look at that one pic.

Shame, shame.

Nice looking group of shodothugs, by the way

I'm 16 and 2nd kyu. There have been quite a few other young people who passed through (came and left), and one 13 year old who is still training.

I also have another guy friend who is 2nd kyu and goes to a different dojo on an off. I try to drag him onto the mat now and then, but there is so much school work and whatnot that it is hard to make time.

Oh, and by the way, hi everybody! I've been a forum lurker for a while, going here when I should be writing essays and would rather be at Aikido. Haha, just like right now!

laurel