Original Training Partners

[Nidan Melbourne]

Out of sheer curiosity, how many people that you actively train with currently were there on the same day or at approximately the same time (Started the same week) as you OR within' a month of you?

Personally I have 1 person who started 1 month after me who I still actively train with. Whilst everyone else has dropped off over time. I loved training with those people that have stopped, admittedly I saw many of them as family.

[IcemanSK]

Of the guys that trained that I went to high school with (about a dozen guys) only 2 of us are still training. Now this is nearly 35 years after we started, mind you.

[Nidan Melbourne]

Thats still good though considering things change over that time frame.

[Spartacus Maximus]

In the previous organization and first dojo, out of maybe 20 who reached shodan roughly around the same time only 1 other person is still training. In total there are only 3 who were there 15-20 years ago. If one is still training after that time, one is a rare exception.

Very few people who start training as teenagers or children keep it up for more than a couple years. Life and other priorities combined with the "I want it right now!" entitlement mentality makes such a long term commitment difficult to do for the average individual. In dojo-business speak they are called "dojo door holders" because their presence allows the dojo to remain open.

[sensei8]

No one!!

The closest I have is Greg Forsythe, Kancho of the SKKA: He joined 6 months after I did...back in 1965...April...I started in October 1964...and we're still going strong...two peas in a pod.

[Lupin1]

No one.

My instructor's son started a few months before me and he just stopped training about a year ago (though I think he still runs through stuff at home with his dad sometimes). There's one other guy still training who was in the kids' class at the same time I was, but he's seven or eight years older than me and started four or five years before me.

Our two sixth dans started at the same time, though. They're the two longest-training students still active in the school and started shortly after the program started. They took their black belt test together in the 80s. They're pretty much like brothers at this point and I think they probably keep each other going.

[The Pred]

Only myself and one other who started in 1990.

[tallgeese]

None that I know of. There's several from that time frame, within a year or two. One who started 3-4 years after I did that I still train with. But my first instructor is still active and I train with him every them we are in the same town.

[bushido_man96]

None left from my group. There were three of us that made it to 1sr degree together, but last I knew, I was the only one left training.

[JR 137]

Life gets in the way. The younger you were when you started, the greater the chance of leaving or taking time off. I started at 18 years old. I trained for nearly 6 years, then left to go to grad school (I went away for undergrad, but was close enough to commute - 1 hour away from the dojo). The 5 or 6 guys who started around the same time as me were about the same age. 1 guy was in town for college, and went back home a year or two after graduating. Me and one other guy went away for school. Another guy left when he got into the police academy; he works overnight and has 3 kids. Another guy went to the Marines.

I bump into some people from the dojo every now and then that trained when I did. My CI closed the dojo and turned his part time dojo near his house full time, which is about an hour away. The people remaining from my era stopped training.

Out of all of us, we he one guy I tested for shodan with hasn't stopped training with my original Sensei. He was just promoted to 5th dan a few months ago. He lives near the current dojo, went to college locally, is married with no kids, and works a normal 9-5 job.

Life took us all in different directions. I sometimes wonder where I'd be if I never stopped training. Had I not left for grad school, I wouldn't have been in the same place at the same time as my wife the night I met her. That also negates my kids. And the career path and places I've lived and been.

I have no regrets. Just the opposite, actually.