Luther unleashed

I drink coffee! I drink frappe silly muff muff drinks lol. I quite smokin years ago and started. There's a place that I found after I used to go to the biggest name on the business, what keeps me going there is the customer service. They are just very friendly and always ask about my day. The fact is, that nothing is more important than customer service. This place now has my money, all because of the service, NOT because their drinks a better or their prices are lower. I think the points you made were very good ones, I mean every one. Me personally, I am always open and had an incredible mentor in the business. We had a falling out, and disagree with whom blame is places, but I will never deny the unbelievable professionalism that was displayed on the mats, and I am very thankful. I use my old instructors business/conduct as a road map, sometimes I deviate from the road map, sometimes it works out and I make my program even better, sometimes it doesn't and I say "oh, that's why he didn't do that" haha. Ultimately sensei8 I think that some of us are born/have learned to have more ability to convey respect to others. This ability is a huge factor in customer service, and something like a great mentor will only help you, and never hurt you. People want to be respected, and heard. That is half the battle IMHO.

As others have said, really terrible news. Very very sorry to hear about the loss as well as disruption of normal day to day lives revolved around training.

This was said with a tremendous amount of non-bias opinion and dignity. It's very educated and reeks of raw and genuine directness. Oh hell, it was just good lol.

I suppose, I really don't know but it does make sense. The thing is, I don't get too caught up in names, if you think about it martial arts always get an identity by WHAT they do, and not what they are called. A name is just a label, the art itself is living and breathing. I always say the version of Tang Soo Do I practice is clearly closey related to soo bahk do, however in my training was never actually called that. I can watch 5 TSD guys do a particular form, or technique, and it will look slightly "off" in body mechanics to me. I see a soo bahk do guy perform it and I say "ah there it is, that's how I do it". If I cared about names too much I'd have to now say I practice Soo Bahk Do if I wanted to be true to a name, that identifies my specific concept of power which is hip generated. I also practice some of these forms. Chuck Norris used to teach American Tang Soo Do, and eventually wanted to make it more personal and called it Chun Kuk Do. Of course he developed it futher over the years, but American Tang Soo Do was not left behind, it was merely build upon. Names are simply to try and encompas the identity of something, bit names are limited. I actually practice American Tang Soo Do, is it Chun Kuk Do? Technically no, although it technically is, just an older version. Sorry, topics like these can sometimes trigger something in me that makes me feel bound, and not free to breath in martial arts. It's I teresting.

I would have to say it's not going to be anything like any style of karate I have ever seen, whatsoever! Hung gar is a very traditional style of Kung fu, the movements are anything but linear. They are very circular and movements are very very often excessive. There is a large emphasis on stance training which is primarily for strengthening the legs, and it works lol. As for self defense I think anything can be applied in self defense because every bodies different. For me, it's really the only martial artI have studied that I really don't use much in my teachings as I blend several other arts, mostly because I enjoy direct attacking methods and Hung Gar is very circular and indirect in most attacking methods. It's excellent for a traditional style of Kung fu, and has many benefits but in my opinion the self defense is very limited, again just my personal opinion.

So I moved around a lot, but I often lived in poor places and fought a lot. I grew up around gangs and fighting and guns and so on. I for one, can relate to the back round you speak of. As for respect I strongly disagree with your assessment that the streets are similar respect to the dojo. The main difference I see is humility. You see, in the streets I grew up in, respect was forced by gear and strength, not through humility and genuine peaceful nature. Respect in the dojo isn't typically about strength but having a humble and kind/accepting heart. At least that what it should look like. Now when you say Marta arts places need to catch up to boxing, I think some of the silly places that are sadly often linked with Taekwondo in america, may be on this position but may are not playing catch up to boxing. Many good places are a good Deal ahead of boxing on many ways, but let's not forget every place is different. Where you are from has a big role in martial arts and your journey because if your looking from self defence you will seek it out, if it's sport activity for your kids you will seek it out an so on. I grew up strut wit ad fighting so yes I enjoy the more direct application server and finding the stuff that works based on real life more but that's me. Lastly the one thing that always drew me to martial arts was the humility and true respect. Not respecting me because I'm good or scarry, but because we are human beings and I'll give you respect until you cross a certain line that changes thing. In the streets as a younger I had a temper and attitude problem. Martial art helped me like counseling, and to learn true humility and respect, the street never did that for me. I do agree that you do not need to bow to an instructor outside of the dojo though, it's not the time or place.

So there's something that I find really really interesting about the word McDojo! The op used it in part in the way I always thought of it. So, it would seem to me that 90% of people seem to feel the word is used to describe a place that is all about money. In my mind I suppose that's part of it, BUT mostly I think of a place that is a bit fake. A place that does whatever necessary to attain students no matter how watered down it gets, or even a place that has an instructor that doesn't have the experience he leads people to believe and so on. The money factor to me is only a small part but if a place is really overcharging people but teaches good stuff then it's not a McDojo, not to me anyways. So, to the original poster I think it's simple as ststed, let them go. You see I have seen that many students will look at fast rank and many wont. Here's an example. I have skipped a few students in my time, past a belt. Approximately 4 or 5 times in almost 2 years. Not the same student, in fact never the same. Typically it's easy to do it in the beginning. I have an adult student who I skipped past white belt with a black stripe, which is 9th rank, and placed him directly at yellow belt 8th rank. I didn't do it to please him, I did it because he was a 5th rank in Shaolin Kempo, and surprisingly enough many of his techniques and forms were very similar so he picked up the material very quickly. Within the second week I was already able to move on to the higher level techniques so it became clear that skipping him was a way to sort of move him along and place him where he should be since he had previous experience. Now, that was his first and only test so far, as his other test is coming up he asked if he was going to skip again and that he felt he knew the material to skip two bbelts. I informed him that not only have I not ever nor do I plan to skip somebody to belts after skipping them one already, but I also informed him that he should never expect to skip hand if you was to skip over again he should see this as an unexpected honor. In my mind they McDojo would please him and throw him the extra belts, not about money per se but more so just to keep him. I would rather go out of business personally and close my doors before I give away rank to anybody any reason other than they aren't it.. to me this is what makes the rank that I passed out and really rank in general or something. You can't buy it and you cannot beg for it nor can you steal it. It must be earned and us as martial artists have a responsibility to at least hold some type of standard. Bystander might not be the same as sensei8, and sensei8's standard might be appalling to Bushido mans. This is a big reason why people form Federation and associations to uphold a standard, however I think the most important standard to uphold is the standard of not making everything given but earned. This is the standard of pride, dignity, honesty, hard work, and reward for dedication after achieving a milestone. In my honest opinion this is what sets apart the mcdojo of the true dojo.

So, as an instructor I would agree with both of you. I also can see the benefits and there are somethings that could be bad. For one federations cost. They usually take some cash for testings, membership, and more. The one thing I do not have as my school itself isn't currently backed by a federation is that typically there are tournaments that a federation has and they come in numbers. Now, my wife has taken part in tournaments, I have even taken many pictures and supported her, but I never have. Self defense has always been the draw to me and never that aspect, but as a teacher I would, at times, love to offer this to my students at some point. It's been difficult for me to find a school on the same page as me, so I can see som benefit there. Ultimately I think the draw is authenticity. Being backed by a federation means there is some credit to what you teach, now that also govern to some extent, what you teach but this can be good and bad depending on how you view it. When I taught for my last school, there was an instructor who often taught technique wrong. Be taught it from technique that was from his previous system. It was complicated because a student would say "Mr so and so said do it like this" and I would say when your with him do it like that, but when with me do it like this. I did FYI address it with the chief instructor but he never seemed to fix it. In a federation propped technique is very fluid and stressed. In this way I see a benefit again, but ultimately I chose not to be a part of one as I like to teach integrated martial arts. I want to learn a great technique and not have to answer to another person weather I can teach it in my program. Also, as I grow do does my program. If I see the need for change I simply change it, I don't ask somebody if I can Change it. As stated above some benefits and some disadvantages I think. Often times in put down for not being in one. Recently a guy called and laughed when I said I wasn't a part of a federation alarm he asked me. He literally laughed at me, I felt like telling him some things for his lack of respect, but I told him to have a good day. True story, sometimes people want that "team" feeling and feel it makes the material taught authentic, I could go on and on.

So you are with a federation/association, I think most martial artist and especially schools are. Do you look down at those who are not? Do you have less respect for those who are not? I am connected to a federation but it's a very open minded federation pertaining to styles and most federations seek to isolate a style and preserve it in my experience. Style wise, do you question something less, such as a technique, because the guy belongs to blah blah, rather then not belonging to any? Be honest!

I couldnt see the video unfortunately but what your talking about is something I teach regularly. Also in jeet kune do this is called a stop kick basically and it's not a kick to cause damage but to control distance. It's called a stop kick. So the way I teach it within most technique there is a minimum as a maximum. The maximum chamber is the knee all the way loaded as you explained, the lack of clambering would be the minimum level. Both have its place, and both can be powerful. Of course in sparring many people will want to "cheat" a punch, a kick, or even footwork to get the jump because a fight is free flowing and depends heavily on what you feel right then and there, and not what you practice without being under pressure. Think about it like this. If you do a basic combination suck as Jab, Cross, rear leg front snap kick, it's a great example. If you throw the jab, and the. Put the same behind the cross as if it was your last technique you will see there is a gap in timing to get to the front snap kick. In order for the combo to be an effective combo you must cheat the cross, as the cross shortens it allows the kick to come more quickly. The power in the attack comes from the combo itself and not in each individual strike itself. Does that make sense. I was taught big chambers for traditional blocks and many years later learned to understand the concept of spontaneous reaction. The chamber must be able to execute from the "minimum" chamber in order to be most effective. Maybe I'll do a video when my back healt, I hurt it a week ago and I couldn't even stand, every day I'm about 20% better, hopefully that doesn't stop lol. Hope I helped trigger something in your mind in some way, shape or form. Interesting, so I didn't see the second page when writing and I now see the video. What I'm looking at is more of a front snap kick, however the same post above I think applies. I see this as more of a jabbing front snap kick. With no pivot I can't see the side kick in it but never the less same concepts to me as mentioned above.

Thanks guys. The thing is I suppose I learned some things because I'm always open minded, I feel o did a lot of good things though. My turnover was really low and it's what I experience at my first location. On a personal level I'm having some personal problems in my life that are making finances a problem, so letting to dojo go was more of a decision that had to do with serious money problems in my own life amplifying the need to not spen money on the dojo. A normal person in a normal situation should have an could have gotten through this small rough patch. I'm going through some tough times which made it all a lot on me. I feel better letting it go, because at the moment my family needs my focus. In the future I'll go again no question. I will know to be prepared financially for a slow start and make sure I can weather that storm for a few months. It was a very enjoyable experience.

The problem is the students that go away for a week or two don't enroll for the month. A contract would solve that but I wouldn't go that route. I think the biggest thing is not having enough money to get through the start up especially when the start up is at the beginning of summer

Thanks buddy, mostly what didn't work was myself having enough finances to get me through the summer where everybody went on vacation. I did a good job of keeping students and new student started to slowly trickle in but student vacations were killer. I look back to some places I train and I remember that summers were dreadful but I did not remember this at the time because at the rec center I usually get an increase in students. Planning things out I see now that it was a bit of a mistake to open in the summer. The biggest thing I guess it is not to sit and cry about it because I did not go out of business, I just had to close down a second location and there's a big difference. I remain thankful to still be open somewhere LOL.

I lost my first student after month 2, the father said it was because of his religion and he couldn't bow to the flag, and that in his culture it meant a symbol of war to bow to a country's flag. For is its similar to the Op, we bow when entering, exiting the studio, to instructor when class begins and ends, and anytime an instructor teaches and then then moves along. It all represents respect and tradition to me and nothing more, certainly not war, in fact everything traditional martial arts is about is relarely war. Anyways, People have their own preferences

Thanks sensei. She's doing well. Sorry jr137 been a while, been tied up making hard decisions. So, unfortunately I had to make a really tough decision. Rent day came, along with the electric bill. I had 3 new students but I also had 5 go on vacation. I could rough through it in fact I had a few offers to help me out but I decided to close it down. Very upsetting, very very upsetting. It was a choice though. I am having financial problems and it came down to me not wanting to pay for the dojo, I made it up in my mind that it needed to pay for itself. If I wanted I feel after summer an after vacation time I'm sure I'd be successful but right now my family is having some problems with money and me paying wasn't an option so it became an easy decision. Also, I had a Jiu-Jitsu program in place on the days I was at my recreation location because I couldn't be at two places at one time and it allowed my place to be open and functional. I decided the only way I would consider gritting through it is if I could dedicate 100% to the place, unless I got rid of my recreation location I couldn't do that, so another reason to walk away. I'm not one to give up but I felt that between my personal life and family vs adding another bill (the dojo) it because easy to walk away. Upsetting but didn't really feel it was a choice on the end, it was just the right thing to do for me and my family now. A few said they would follow me to my recreation location, so that's good. You live and learn. Sometimes in life you have to put yourself out there and take risk in order to succeed and at times you don't but it's always a lesson learned for me, so I never truly lose because I gain something if not the success I sought

Some random info... The way of the empty hand, although a loose translation of Tamg Soo Do, it is the equivalent of the Japanese version know as Karate which is of course "empty hand" or some of the time seen as Karate -Do which is "the way of the empty hand". This has always been a known translation but the more specific translation for Tang Soo Do is "the way of the China hand". It is basically a Korean Version of Japanese Shotokan.

So i find these things interesting so I figured I would ask my foreign-exchange student who happens to be from South Korea. Whatever she says does not necessarily mean that she is 100% right or 100% wrong because she has only a very small amount of taekwondo back around but really nothing at all in depth with martial arts and sometimes the titles used maybe different than what the common Korean Speaker says but I asked her what Sabomnim means and she said instructor. I asked her if that's all it means or if it means a certain type of instructor and she said like master instructor. I think it's easy to use it for either especially when somebody is not being specific about it as she was not. My last instructor was "Master Guffey" because we used english terms heavily but when we were doing Haidong Gumdo (Korean sword) it was "Guffey Sabomnim" which was the equivalent. Sword was run very traditional so this is why it was different. As for the posts above im a bit taken back by the posts quite honestly. A few by new members and a bit demanding, a bit "Im right and your wrong"! I also asked my Exchange student what she calls a martial arts studio, her reply was pronounced exactally how i will spell it... "Do-Jong"! Now, i asked her to translate it into english spelling and she said D,O,J,A,N,G. These go along with the things I have always followed. Im not saying Im right and anybody is wrong BUT I dont think we should come on here and demand that others are wrong because as yoy can see we have different experiences. My foreign exchange student is speaking from a Korean language aspect and not martial arts. She did a small amount of TKD at age 11 and now is 15. In martial arts terms she foesnt know much, in fact to my surprise she has never heard of Tang Soo Do although she translated to "China hand way" and although there are a few solid translations behind TSD that is the one I also Know. Perhaps the martial arts world uses some terms differently. In english I might say something is tight meaning awesome, and a foreigner might ask how can it be loose or tight? Its all just words so I dont think we should really get too caught up in it, as long as we get to know eachother and know what eachother means when they use it. Candyankyosa and Emperor I am humbly refering to your posts when I say they are demanding. Its for lack of a better word, I simply mean there is more then one way to go about things sometimes, thats all, so we should not feel so right and feel others are so wrong! Take care. -Lex

I would agree with the itf looking more like shotokan bushido. I have studfied a small amount of itf tkd and more of wtf. Wtf to me, resembles nothing of what i do in tsd though. I have never heard a tkd school say hyung though thats interesting. The history gets too messy for me but in my experience in tkd, and the students I teach that were tkd prior to me, have many differences in many ways. Just my experience going back to 93, and I inderstand others have different experiences.

They are very dofferent in the sense that the exact way of executing techniques is not the same. They are very different in philosophy in the sense that, as you stated, there are less kicks because the philosophy does npt place such importance on kicking. They are different in the aspect of forms, as they do not have the same forms. In fact, even the name used for forms is different, TKD says "poomse" and TSD says "hyung"! Tang Soo Do is. Korean varient o Shotokan Karate. In the ways that Shotokan is similar to Tang Soo Do, so is it similar to TKD. Compare TKD to Shotokan and then wing chun or hung gar kung fu and and you will see the style of larate itself is aimilar to these korean arts, but in a broad and general way, many specifics and details are different. Another difference is that in MANY TKD place now days the sport aspect is more prominent, in american martial arts in beneral this is true but TKD more so. Yes, TKD has self defense as an aspect bit typically many achools focus on the show and look of the moves rather then the direct effectiveness, in TSD ot is usually much less popular in the sport aspect. Not all, but most. Now, i dont get much into history of martial arts because in many cases it's inaccurate and stories vary, but what stands today is they are more different when you get down to the details then they are the same IMHO! Lastly i have a foreign exchange student who lives with us who is from korea. She has trained in Taekwondo for a short time but has never even heard of Tang Soo Do, so the popularity is another big difference. May i ask what raises this question for you?

I posted before i read this on the second page. similar to my assesment of the video, sort of says something I think!

In Hung Gar kung fu we ise toger claw but i have necer leared it as its showed here. i learned it as an attack to the eyes, hand preperation for a grab, or as a palm strike... Never the tips into throat and what not. I would prefer to use it in one of these ways. I would also choose some other techniques first but i like to say often to students "there is a time and a place for everyrhing. in karate there are many strikes that have been disected and many different types of techniques have been derived from one movement, this technique in kung fu is no different then that.

What is your reason gor teaching martial arts? Is it kids? Is ot the interaction inside the studio? Is it that you enjoy sharing your knowlage? What is your reason? For me, the answer is that I really, for an unknown reason, enjoy sharing what I know. I cant explain why, I just enjoy teaching others techniques and watching them really get it. I also enjoy being present in the studio and outside of training it gives me an excuse haha.

Lipin1, cool ideas thanks. To start with I actually have a scheduled "Women's self defense" class coming up. It's an opportunity to get some exposer as well. It's in about 2 weeks. The only draw back is I am not allowed to promote my business unless they ask me specifically, which is strange and I can't think of a good reason they make it that way, but what can I do. As for advertising I'm all over Facebook and have that locked down I believe. I post a great deal of pics and vids. Tonight was testing, I posted 8 or 9 really good pics and wrote some things encouraging to students and prospects alike. I also post on a few local Facebook pages specifically designed for the area. I am running a summer special of 50% off the first month. Not the same as your suggestion but similar, although I like the angle of making some summer classes with more emphasis on fun the the norm, the t-shirt idea and the like are all cool ideas. Lastly the fair thing, excellent and I'm sure that would make an impact. In all honesty I ha w never done a demo, I just never have been interested. I'm more of a private person but obviously as I have grown into owning a school, I am constantly challenged to step out of my comfort zone. You are right, I need to look into doing something like this. Me and my son who's only 9 but a great helper, put out another 100 fliers or so tonight after my testing while we were on the Walmart parking lot. Really hoping al the fliers are helping get a little bit of notice from the community. We will see! Thanks for all the good ideas.

Thanks sensei8. Well I'm in a 3 year lease and I didn't sign up to quit at the sign of struggle. There is a time to quit though so I hear you but the time is not here. My first location does great, but it's not enough to make a living at it, and since I left my 16 year career as a mechanic after repeated back injuries, this is it. It's this way and, well, this way. Today I put balloons on my A-Frame sign to make it more noticeable, I had a customer walk in, and so far I haven't had walk ins lol, funny! Thanks ligear, I have a website and I'm very active on Facebook. I have been around a little bit so I'm set up, I just don't have funds to really purchase things like banners or things of that nature. Tonight looked nice, I had some students to teach, and it was a fun night of sparring! I shouldn't complain, I have accomplished my dream after 22 years of "thinking about it"! Now I just need to maintain it or I'll be teaching people on the street haha!

They don't allow it unfortunately. i ha e done it after school though while picking them up, I just passed out a fair amount yesterday for the last day of school, promoting a summer special. Hopefully it pays off!