bobo

years ago when I studied goju ryu karate I got a brown belt in 6 months. A few more and I probably would have got my black belt.

I think it happens alot more than you think. mainly between "TMA's" & "MMA's"

years ago when I was more ignorant I tried an aikido dojo briefly, and I didn't like the bowing to the shrine so I kind of traded some sarcastic remarks with the owners (they weren't the friendliest people anyway) , and was told not to come back... But now I would have no problem bowing to whatever, and I do in the martial art I practice now. (not aikido). I am also spiritual ,& non-religious. and alot more open-minded. Anyway, I think it's more a lack of understanding eastern traditions.

tournaments these days are pretty lame. Even the ones with the big promoters/money behind them are lucky to get a crowd of 100 people at most & they are usually relatives & friends. Poor Unqualified judging/judges , stupid gymnastics, people walking around looking like unhappy zombies they don't wanna be there, etc ... and they are usually held in some dark high school gymnasium. Makes you wonder why they even have them in the first place... Anyways, Why bother.

DVD's by Teru Chinen "okinawan goju ryu" are really good & easy to learn from as it repeats the Kata's slow & from different angles, breaking it down etc.. It's about as "authentic" to the real way of doing them as you're going to get. However , his bunkai is a little crazy. It's good, but alot of the techniques are so improvised that it's hard to see any correlation between them & the movements in the kata.