Pyros

I have noticed that a lot of fights occur in certain places. If you avoid the places, you avoid the fights. Of course this leaves you still vulnerable to random acts of violence, robbery and rape, but it drops the chances of a violent encounter dramatically. I was kind of used to seeing fights every week in a couple of my then regular bars. The bars had loud rock music, lots of bikers and drugs, etc. Later I didn't go to bars that much and when I do, I go to the nicer ones where bikers are not so common. Now I have noticed that I haven't seen a single fight in at least a year! The last time I was in a fight, was summer 2001, I was very drunk but had to defend my sister from a robber. The robber was obviously completely stoned and didn't feel anything I got through to him. I had to run after my sister was safe.

Gensei-ryu 6th kyu, blue belt Shorin-ryu 8th kyu, yellow belt Kali, apprx. 2 years

I live in Finland. Here pro dojos are rare. The community (the government and municipalities) support non-profit organizations and about 90% (just my own quick off-the-hat estimate) of all dojos are operated on non-profit principle. That means the costs are very low. That means we don't have McDojos. That means we only have dojos whose teachers are in it because they love doing it without much if any compensation. Like in the old days, you learned the art in the school, now you teach the art as per your membership. So when I practiced Shorin Ryu, I paid 40 bucks for a year's membership. Now I pay 120 bucks a year at the dojo I go to.

In the dojo here they have four classes per week. I also train twice a week conditioning (weights, aerobic exercises). I can't attend to all four classes though as my work gets in the way.

I've done some Shorin Ryu in the past but Gensei Ryu seems to be the one from now on. Gensei Ryu seems to be one of the less known styles, so for those interested in other styles, here's a free online book about Genseiryu: http://www.karatedo.co.jp/genseiryu-butokukai/eng/e-karatedo/e-karatedo.html