I studied at Way of the Crane for almost a year and a half. I found that it was often difficult to get instruction or feedback, and that discussing this personally with the sensei didn't seem to help matters. I liked their curriculum -- a mix of traditional Okinawan techniques and drills, street skills, and conditioning. Unfortunately, it was difficult for me to learn as much as I would have liked. It was often unclear how or when one was supposed to test for the next belt level, and we often were not allowed to learn new skills or to train with upper-ranking students until after we had tested. There were 2-3 month periods when I frequently had to train on my own, with very little feedback, while they focused on working with other groups. There were also periods when I would get re-taught the same drill 7 times, and usually get paired with a student who was just learning the drill. I was happy to review, and happy to help other students learn, but I sometimes felt like I was only able to DO the drills and get critiqued on my form maybe 20% of the time. On one of the rare days when we was allowed to to train with upper-ranking students, one of them pointed out that one of my techniques was wrong. I realized I had been doing it that way for months and no one had said anything to me. That was the day I quit in frustration. I left the sensei a message saying that I wasn't going to continue classes. She left a return message in which she said things like ""we keep trying to teach you, but you just keep doing it wrong,"" and ""maybe you should go to one of those schools where you pay them to give you a black belt"" (getting a black belt had never even been one of my goals), plus several other cutting things. I was in tears by the time the message ended. She'd also said that if I wanted to leave ""with honor,"" and have an opportunity to return to class, I needed to send her a check for $100. After that, I was glad to no longer be training under this person.
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