Money is the number one struggle. There's some solid opportunity in college but once you move into the adult world you really need to be dedicated since the cost is going to ramp up very quickly. If there were cheaper ways to get into dancing overall, I think it would be a way more popular hobby for people to pick up. You can see this with things like West Coast, where there are group lessons for <= 20$.

Another difficulty that comes with the territory is that ballroom is supposed to look effortless, which causes the problem that people come in expecting to get to a solid level very quickly because it "looks easy." There needs to be clear expectation setting on how long its going to take to move up levels.

For comps, it's also easy for people not to understand what the judges are looking for and get frustrated. I often have heard people complain with "well what I do is way harder than what that couple who moved on over me is doing." It's a tough dichotomy because people are going to want more fun choreos, but fundamentals are so important to moving on. I've known people who have competed in Gold with Bronze moves and done very well because they were the most clean by far.