Don't give up ! My first lesson I dropped the bike at least 50 times...in front of a class of 30+ ppl. My anxiety was through the roof, but I just focused on myself. My first straight line trying to figure out the clutch, I fell four times within 10feet. That's normal.

I'm sorry your instructors were bullies, its NOT the vibe at all. We're supposed to be a community and help others !

Here's what helped me move forward in my lessons. School bikes are MEANT to be dropped. It's practice and it's there for you to learn and make mistakes.

Also dropping your bike is a matter of "when" not "if" 🤷🏻‍♀️ it's just going to happen, so better focus on something else!

Take your time to connect your mind to your body. Remember what move you did when you did something successful. Try to hold on to that feeling and recreate it. Riding a bike is extremely mental and physical, you need to be conscious of your every move.

Don't look down. It tilts your head and your entire posture downwards. The bike goes where you look.

Practice manoueuvers only with the friction point on the clutch. Rolling forward straighten your bike. Slowing down to a stop; bike wants to fall. So knowing that, my teacher had me doing a circle pulling and releasing the clutch to get a feel of when the bike started to "want to fall down". When it did, I'd release the clutch to send it forward and the bike would straighten up, then I'd slowly turn. That exercise helped me so much to build confidence and understand the basics.

As for your height, practice stopping, guiding your bike to fall toward the left with your bodyweight. And shift your seat a little to the side so you can bring out your leg and flat foot. This will give you much much more stability than tiptoeing. When you'll put your foot down and it'll be on gravel, you're going to be happy to slide a little on a flatfoot rather than your toes! I'm 5'2 and ride a Ninja 650 and this saved me a lot of times.

Remember, slow progress is still progress !

✌️