When do people quit most?

[Brandon Fisher]

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.

You are a shodan that understands. Keep it up.

[Sohan]

I think often some people who reach Shodan quit because of the volume of material to maintain in some systems. It is very difficult to manage 30-40 kata and various weapons and other training, work a full-time job, teach, spend time with family, and get things done around the house---and do all well while staying successfully married. Many adults with busy lives to lead simply find it hard to maintain all of this.

Not everyone has MA as the central point of our existence, all appearances aside.

With respect,

Sohan

[KarateK]

I think it depends on the age of the student also. I quit when I was 11, wasnt dedicated - plus high school came along, as did boys, computers, clothes etc.

I think our club mainly loses pupils either due to their personal lives - ie cant commit to the training and as such dont progress. Or when they get to purple/brown belt and realise how tough it is.

[aefibird]

In my club we have 3 main drop-out points - a couple of months in, at around 2nd & 1st kyu and just after blackbelt.

I think a lot of people tend to drop out just before taking their blackbelt is because they get disillusioned with it. They've been training for ages but still not reached that "goal" of BB.

Plus, if there is a minimum waiting time between the last kyu grade and taking 1st Dan then that only adds to it. At 1st kyu you're top of the coloured grade pack but still not progressing (yet). You see other students climbing up the ranks after you but you don't seem to be going anywhere and you still have months to wait before you're eligable for testing.

[IcemanSK]

I think folks sometimes leave at 1st Dan because either there isn't a "continuation cirriculum" in place after 1st dan. This was the case at my 1st school. We had a world class fighter there who was only a 2nd dan. There was no real motivation for him to move up, nor was there a process for him.

Another reason folks leave then is the "well, I 'mastered' this art, what else is there?" thought process. I had a bit of that when I got mine. I wanted to "spread my wings" a little. At 17, I didn't give much thought to whether my instructor thought it would be disrespectful to look elsewhere. (A very American mindset that my Korean instructor didn't appreciate.) I regret it now.

[Shotokan-kez]

Like me iceman i would like to try another art suck as tkd or muay thai, but i do need to gain permission from my sensei first. This doesn't mean i will quit at 1st dan because that isn't the case at all, i want to continue up the dans. Shame other people don't see it that way and feel they have achieved every thing they can when they reach their first dan. There is always so much more to learn.

[jaymac]

Our drop outs come random. I tend to see kids quit because some parents do not like the way it is run in accordance of learning discipline. They want their child to behave better at home and mark that on their papers that they fill out at the beginning. Then when they actually have someone in the class making their child listen and learn, they drop out (hence the bad behavior at home) We see a drop out of teenage girls when they enter highschool. It is either not cool or they get involved with school activities. And some shodans drop out because they do not feel they are advancing quick enough or shodan was their only goal. Usually once someone gets to Nidan, they are their for life.

[bushido_man96]

There was a good point made earlier about a lack of continuation curriculum. I think that having something new available to black belts may help motivate them to keep on going. Our current school had an opportunity to do this with the addition of the ICHF curriculum, but it has faded out recently.

[Kieran-Lilith]

With the kids in our school, most of the drop it around orange belt, so about nine months in. For us, that's only 7th kyu. The other drop point seems to be from 3rd-1st kyu (brown). I think we have less than ten black belts that have been promoted from our school in the ten years our Sensei has taught publicly....not entirely sure, but pretty certain.

[cathal]

Like many others I have seen people quit around the 6th/5th kyus...as well as around 3rd - 2nd kyu.