When do people quit most?

[bat in a birdless village]

At what point does everyone feel that people quit training at a martial arts school the most?

Of course, this will all have to do with personal experience, so you would have to explain your answer.

In the 15 years that I have trained, I have noticed that orange belt (about 6-8 months of training) & brown belt (right before black belt) seem to be the 2 big dropping points. Of course more people get to orange than brown because orange precedes brown, but I think in terms of percentages of those that hit those two belts, the numbers seem to be the same.

I can see why people would leave at the 6-8 month mark--that would be the time when you have seen close to enough to decide if you want to stick with it, but to quit a few months before the black belt test seems odd. I am not saying that black belt is the goal of marital arts. The goal of martial arts training is to simply lean what you can and enjoy training, but I almost see leaving a few months before your dan test almost shows a fear of completion or a cycle. Maybe people are scared to wear the black due to what others would expect from them. I don't know, but it seems to me that those are the two big quiting points.

bat

[Shui Tora]

When I was a novice, after four weeks of training; I wanted to drop out. There were people from my old school (that I really hated, and they too hated me) that saw me train (of course, being a white belt at the time didn't feel right...) So I wanted to drop out there and then.

However, my Sensei told me that everyone started a white belt, and worked their way up from there. (I know I'm deviating from the point; but I'm getting to that )

Most of ours that drop out are either red or blue belt... They see that Karate isn't about getting a Black Belt (that takes years to get there, and hard work) while they think that after 7 months, they should be black belt... I too thought like that, until I began to see the wider picture of karate....

Our Club isn't a McDojo... My Sensei believes that handing out black belts (like they're going out of fashion) isn't the way of Karate. You have to prove that you understand Karate, not to use it in your own selfishness and vain...

In all; it is up to the karate-ka whether he/she wants to drop out, but the main for us is Red/Blue belt; although this year we have seen an increase of people joining (up by 3.5%... YES! ) Good news for our club...

I hope that answers your question...

[CheekyMusician]

At our club adults seem to drop out quite randomly, at any level, but I suppose adults do tend to have other things in their life that might dictate to them whether they can train or not eg. kids arriving on the scene, moving away for work, their income dropping or their work schedules changing etc.

For kids, the dropout seems to be similar to what bat noticed. A lot of early stage learners 10th and 9th and 2nd and 1st kyus.

[parkerlineage]

I agree with your observations, bat. Usually after a few months, and then right before black.

We also seem to have a lot of people who aren't motivated after they get their black belts, and so they don't show up a lot anymore.

[Shotokan-kez]

Generally at our club people just tend to drop out whenever, there doesnt seem to be a particular pattern. What i have noticed is that people show up for classes less and less after recieving their black belts, which i find sad really.

[cross]

Generally after a couple of weeks, when they find out what training is actually like. And like others said, at brown belt.

[bushido_man96]

I heard a statistic once: 10% of the people who start training a martial art make it to black belt. Then, only 10% of those go on to 2nd dan, and 10% of those on to 3rd, etc. From what I've seen in my career, this seems fairly close.

[Brandon Fisher]

Around san kyu and ik kyu I have found or right after recieveing their shodan.

[cross]

or right after recieveing their shodan.

Yes. this has happened at our school with a couple of people in the past.

[parkerlineage]

I think it's because people set the goal of reaching shodan, then get it, and think they know all there is to know. Granted the learning curve changes once you get your shodan, but I find it different, not less.