muttley

My original Sensei who got me hooked invested a lot of time in me, transforming me from a wimpy little kid with no confidence into some one with a lot more confidence and will. Now my most recent sensei is helping me develop myself further

I am so pleased there are other "like minded" people out there.

That's just it isn't it...it's all about the money, and that is a great shame. When I went to train on Thursday the Sensei only had 5 students in his class, he still ran the class, he could have cancelled and probably would have if he was only after money, but the fact that students turned up to train was enough for him.

Andym....you hit the nail on the head there. That is exactly what I mean. The lack of a definitive style is what IMHO is damaging to the martial arts now. Kids want to come into martial arts and train to be the next big thing in MMA, some of the dojo nowadays are saying they can do just that. What is missing is the patience that is needed to excel through the grades and gain the experience required. I have been a 1st dan for years, mainly through a lack of training but also due to a feeling of not being ready to take the next step.

many thanks

I have recently got into listening to podcasts in my car rather than getting annoyed with local radio etc. I have found a couple of pretty good resources for these, one being https://www.iainabernethy.com and the other being https://www.24fightingchickens.com Has anyone else got any suggestions of places I can download some more resources so I can just plug them into my usb drive in the car, sit back and enjoy some in-depth insight on my commute to work?

This is something from an article I have just read on The Shotokan Way, it kind of highlights my concerns: "On a far less serious but still relevant subject, the rise in recent years of the purely profit making organizations targeting mainly children and using unskilled, virtually untrained instructors, yet in their marketing seriously taking the moral high ground, are an example of this. One could argue that these unskilled instructors know no better; after all they are not Martial Artists. In many cases they have paid out thousands of pounds for a franchise, which in fact makes them the biggest punter. However there is generally a high grade Martial Artist at the top of this pyramid." And the original article: http://www.theshotokanway.com/whatyouseeiswhatyouget.html

I guess my main issue here is the rise of clubs with no dedicated style. They have no real direction and this annoys me. I have even seen people promoting themselves as a master/grandmaster, these people are Sho-dans, Ni-dans at best.

Defining these things, to me it's about the values instilled in the martial arts, in the Do that you learn. By this I mean that in studying Shotokan for example, I was taught to respect the rank long before I joined a regimented job. I was taught control, avoidance of trouble etc. Now, with so many of these "Martial Art" Dojo that do not specify what exactly it is you are learning, how can you through yourself into the Art, the Way, the Do? To me these Dojo are more set up for fitness at best or to learn how to batter someone into submission (at worse) which is fine if that is all someone wants to get out of the Art, a mere hobby. But to me, the study of a Martial Art, be it Karate, Kung Fu, Taekwondo or whatever should be more, much than that...

Since I have started on my search for a new dojo to train in and widened my search from a Shotokan Dojo to other forms of martial arts, I have noticed something that is becoming more and more worrying for me. There are too many Dojo that do not specify what style they train, just claiming to be a "Martial Art". It's like they have been born out of someone training in a few different martial arts for a few years and then trying to take the best of all to develop their own art. While I have no issue in "cross training" and having taken some classes in Aikido and other traditional arts as well as Shotokan (it is good to have a broader horizon), what I don't understand is why there is such an increase in these Dojo's and a decrease in traditional arts. Is is due to UFC, MMA etc? I know that these are appealing, but do they teach the spiritual side of Martial Arts, the budo, the Zen? It's sports martial arts and promoted to the extreme which to me is ruining the thing that I love. What do others think about this, is it all too easy for someone to train, get a black belt in one style, then train for a few years in another style and then launch their own "revolutionary" fighting style ala Bruce Lee and JKD (although his findings were warranted)?

Trained in Shotokan Karate. Never really had to use it, in my line of work we use a dedicated form of control and restraint. I have come close to using karate on the street once. Some drunken idiots were trying to get myself and some friends to fight them in a park many many years ago. One of my mates was disabled, they knocked him to the ground while my other mates ran off. I got in between them, adopted a guard stance, raised my hands and stood there looking at them. They said something about not wanting trouble before promptly turning and running. What would I have done if they hadn't run off? I don't know, 2 of them, 1 of me but by showing my confidence, I had dealt with it without having to through a punch.

Has anyone ever trained in this style of karate? I had not heard of it until I stumbled spin a dojo thus morning. Is it quite traditional? Are there similarities to other styles?

The kugb are pretty good at letting you keep your grade. They will let you train and assess you.

Will do, seems an interesting mix of kyokushin and muay Thai. Going on Thursday

Right, I have been looking about online, think I may have found the answer to my training desire: http://www.kyokuacademy.co.uk/ Have been emailing the Sesnei and he seems a decent chap, says he will never soften the training to become a "McDojo" (his words) which I like the sound of.

The other issue I have is working shift work causes problems for regular training

As mentioned previously, I have studied Shotokan the entire time I have trained in karate but after returning to a Shotokan club after time away, I am finding it hard to get motivated, the kata's just aren't coming back and I feel undeserving of wearing my black belt in training. Due to this I am seriously thinking of changing to Kyokushin as this is the most popular form of Karate in my area. What do I need to consider before changing style? Am I likely to be fitter for Kyokushin than Shotokan? Will it be like a totally different martial art for me as Shotokan is pretty much all I know? Obviously for Shotokan, the governing bodies are generally the JKA, KUGB and EKF (I'm in the UK), what is the main governing body for Kyokushin?

Would love to get into this, however, discussing how we teach things like this in a public forum is liable to get me sacked

Teaching them self defence and giving them the confidence to not have to carry knives and other weapons as well as the confidence to say no to gangs can only be a good thing can't it? With the amount of kids dying of knife crime here in the UK at the moment it might even save some lives.

I am currently 68% of the way through this engrossing book on my Kindle. Written by Dennis Martin, it basically is his life story of working the doors at some pretty notorious nightclubs in Liverpool with among others Terry O'Neil and Gary Spiers. The stories of old, how they all developed their martial arts (mostly Karate of one style or another) into a more potent, close qaurters system of fighting/self defence are great, the interviews that make up a large part of the book are open, honest and quite hard hitting, to read how Gary Spiers took on and defeated a gang of armed youths intent on killing some kid he didn't even know etc. Great stuff and well worth a read for any martial artist.

Just thinking that by introducing sparring to these from the outset would be asking for trouble. Maybe if it works as a model it can be added to

In my experience (not only of karate instruction but in professional restraint tuition), this is based more on the learners own learning style. Some people pick things up better by seeing a technique once and then doing it, refining as they go, others need to see the technique loads before feeling confident enough to try whereas others want to research the technique, reading the theory behind it prior to trying it. of course, some people mix and match all learning styles. I don't think there could be a definition of how many demonstrations is enough though.

Thinking about it this could be extended to other bits, like investigating the meaning of the Dojo Kun etc

So Kihon up to maybe heian sandan?

The idea would be a very simple form of strictly non-contact karate, really just opening these lads minds up to something different. Maybe get some of my senseis from old to come in and give talks and demos etc. The provision would be that they all sign a compact, any fights and they are out. I also think simple things like reciting the dojo-kun every session and the karate-do promise would help them and get them thinking differently. Ongoing support by setting them up with a club in the community would help greatly.