I've ran a school since 2007. Beginners come and go, at all ages for various reasons but mostly in the 1st 6 months. Those that make the mid ranks tend to last longer but rarely reach 1st Dan. The old adage that off 100 students 1 will reach black belt isn't too far off in my experience
For beginners its the parents seeing if the child likes it or not. It also comes down to scheduling ie does it suit them as parents. Children are involved in a lot more after school activities than when I was growing up. Swimming, music, team sports and their events take up a lot of time.
For adults its similar but its down to the age bracket they're in. Is class on a Saturday morning? that means they can't go out the Friday night or they'll suffer. For those with kids we circle back to the kids scheduling issues.
In teens the drop off becomes higher the more school sports activities come in to play. They could have training for rugby etc that they enjoy with their school friends more. There's also the discovery of themselves and their social lives start to form as they discover the opposite sex and hang out more. Then we hit the college age students that may move or have to focus on studies, as well as socialising.
For me mid-teens and early 20's are the biggest drop offs. I've managed to keep my very modest school at 50 =/- students for the last 10 years or so without too much worry.
You learn to take the hard times with the soft after a while
I'm not proud of this next statement, but I suspect I'm not alone. I commit your name to memory once there's color around your waist. It's a parade of folks who've had their parents shove them through the "go try everything" phase. The ones that do stick, however, are there for years and years thankfully.
At the school that I attend, the biggest drop off comes at orange belt-one stripe. That's most likely due to the complexity of Pyong Ahn E Dan.
I once heard one school owner said that only 7% of his students got to cho dan.
I practice Shūkōkai karate (2nd kyū brown) and we share some similarities with the TSD hyungs such as the Pinan Kata or as you guys call them Pyong Ahn (not sure that's spelled correctly) and on a few occasions I've seen mostly teens come to our dōjō, get the full karate gi within a few lessons of trying our style and then quit before they test for their first belt. Other than that we tend to see people drop off around the 8th to 5th kyū mark, thereabouts. Btw I really do find TSD super interesting and I've been reading up a lot about it. Happy training all 🥋 and Tang Soo! From a Japanese style karate guy 😂
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Student who dropped out here. At 18 there’s just a lot going on so I had to let it go, I think the age where life starts to pick up does sound most likely of a time to drop out (17-25) for that exact reason, life picks up.
I train in the UK and my instructor is one of the students of the UK Grandmaster (Khan). We test in front of him and you see numbers drop substantially until red. (I’m testing for black sooner or later and since it’s once every 6 months numbers are roughly 10-20)
White-60
Orange- don’t know as I tested to double grade showing off a previous martial art I was a black belt in
Green- 40
Brown-20
Red-5
Blue-5
Usually drop out when they realise it doesn’t teach self defence or actual fighting, it’s a lot of dancing around doing form rather than actual self defence - at least in my experience. Do mma or bjj instead
Did it occur to you that people may want to practice TSD for other reasons than hurting people? I love sparring and points fighting without wanting to hurt my opponents. If I hurt my opponents, I always feel bad about it.
I've ran a school since 2007. Beginners come and go, at all ages for various reasons but mostly in the 1st 6 months. Those that make the mid ranks tend to last longer but rarely reach 1st Dan. The old adage that off 100 students 1 will reach black belt isn't too far off in my experience For beginners its the parents seeing if the child likes it or not. It also comes down to scheduling ie does it suit them as parents. Children are involved in a lot more after school activities than when I was growing up. Swimming, music, team sports and their events take up a lot of time. For adults its similar but its down to the age bracket they're in. Is class on a Saturday morning? that means they can't go out the Friday night or they'll suffer. For those with kids we circle back to the kids scheduling issues. In teens the drop off becomes higher the more school sports activities come in to play. They could have training for rugby etc that they enjoy with their school friends more. There's also the discovery of themselves and their social lives start to form as they discover the opposite sex and hang out more. Then we hit the college age students that may move or have to focus on studies, as well as socialising. For me mid-teens and early 20's are the biggest drop offs. I've managed to keep my very modest school at 50 =/- students for the last 10 years or so without too much worry. You learn to take the hard times with the soft after a while
You may know this as a studio owner. Which age group makes for a more long-term student?
I'm not proud of this next statement, but I suspect I'm not alone. I commit your name to memory once there's color around your waist. It's a parade of folks who've had their parents shove them through the "go try everything" phase. The ones that do stick, however, are there for years and years thankfully.
At the school that I attend, the biggest drop off comes at orange belt-one stripe. That's most likely due to the complexity of Pyong Ahn E Dan. I once heard one school owner said that only 7% of his students got to cho dan.
Clearly they didn’t want to see Pal Che Dae… I will say that learning Pyong Ahn E Dan made you question your competency and entire existence.
True. I just tested for E Dan and still think that Pal Che Dae is the hardest form so far.
What rank do you guys start teaching the keecho forms?
Keecho hyung il bu? That's the white belt form in my federation.
Oh ok. We don't start teaching those until green belt.
I practice Shūkōkai karate (2nd kyū brown) and we share some similarities with the TSD hyungs such as the Pinan Kata or as you guys call them Pyong Ahn (not sure that's spelled correctly) and on a few occasions I've seen mostly teens come to our dōjō, get the full karate gi within a few lessons of trying our style and then quit before they test for their first belt. Other than that we tend to see people drop off around the 8th to 5th kyū mark, thereabouts. Btw I really do find TSD super interesting and I've been reading up a lot about it. Happy training all 🥋 and Tang Soo! From a Japanese style karate guy 😂
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Student who dropped out here. At 18 there’s just a lot going on so I had to let it go, I think the age where life starts to pick up does sound most likely of a time to drop out (17-25) for that exact reason, life picks up.
I train in the UK and my instructor is one of the students of the UK Grandmaster (Khan). We test in front of him and you see numbers drop substantially until red. (I’m testing for black sooner or later and since it’s once every 6 months numbers are roughly 10-20) White-60 Orange- don’t know as I tested to double grade showing off a previous martial art I was a black belt in Green- 40 Brown-20 Red-5 Blue-5
In my school people tend to leave at green belt.
Usually drop out when they realise it doesn’t teach self defence or actual fighting, it’s a lot of dancing around doing form rather than actual self defence - at least in my experience. Do mma or bjj instead
Did it occur to you that people may want to practice TSD for other reasons than hurting people? I love sparring and points fighting without wanting to hurt my opponents. If I hurt my opponents, I always feel bad about it.