Hi, I'm new here but have been reading these forums for the last few weeks. My kids aged 9 and 10 got into shukukai karate (not sure if its the correct spelling?) about 4 months ago. They had no previous martial arts training, but when they did their first lesson I could see they had talent. As white belts the were sparring against higher belt colours, and sometimes fought better than some of the green belts that were there. Anyway, as the weeks went by my younger son started to lose concentration because the instructor does the same things in the same routine every lesson and I guess my son as much as he likes karate just found it as boring the way the instructor taught it. When the instructor was off at a competition and had another instructor fill in for him. My sons loved it as he made the lesson more fun and they ended up really enjoying it and concentrating more. Anyway when the original instructor came back and things returned as normal. I reminded my son to concentrate. (he struggles to concentrate, its not something he can help) I reminded him before each lesson to try and concentrate more and not to fidget. (he will play with his belt, or look around or if he's sat on the floor he'll keep changing position etc..) So anyway, on the day of grading. Everyone was playing a warm up game of tag which the instructor usually lets happen most lessons. The instructor was sat at a desk and had his laptop there and a huge wire trailing across the floor to the socket. The wire was about 6 foot in length maybe more and he must of had to connect it to another wire at some point as there was a tiny table to support the box that was in the middle of it. My son ended up running near to the wire while playing tag, but not near enough to cause any damage etc.. and he ended up yelling at him really loudly that he'd been told before not to run near the wire. My poor son went red and was obviously humiliated as with it being grading there were 40 odd people there if not more. My son hadn't even been warned not to run near the wire, the instructor had told him that he couldn't play dodgeball because of the computer he had not warned him about running. I feel the instructor had humiliated my son. All he had to do was have a quiet word with him if he felt my son was in the wrong. But to be fair the instructor let the tag game start and surely if he felt that protective off his computer why let them play the game. My son is no angel. He is hyperactive, he has no concentration and will occasionally mess around (Although usually its me that notices this not the instructor) I understand this. But when my son was playing a game which the instructor allowed happen in every lesson then he humiliates my child by yelling at him and makes my son too embarrassed to go back. This is totally wrong. He even graded my son a zero (for messing around) and announced it to the class. Luckily my sons score was high enough for him to grade to red belt anyway. I just think he's rather bad tempered. The instructor even told my daughter to 'go away' and she was stood several feet away from the table watching him. Which made her alittle upset. He went on to explain to a parent how 'Students have got to understand I'm not their friend etc,,' But yets has his favourites in the class and often books 'karate' holidays for his 'students' Tbh, he acts like a fake. Pretends to be friendly but isn't really. Even on his facebook page he has 'please don't add me as a friend as I don't want any friends, sorry if I upset anyone. So don't ask.' He also spends a lot of time chatting to parents in the lesson and makes black belts take over warming excersises. He's told off my son for doing something they do every lesson by his instructions. Then he's humiliated him instead of having a quiet word. Any thoughts? Do I take them back? Am I over-reacting.? There's no other places in my area that do the same style of karate. And they've just graded to red belt, so it would be a shame if they had to start from White belt again. thanks in advance
