Sentoka

My first Sensei was a lady named Cathy, who taught a style of freestyle karate, based off Zen Do Kai (a big Australian style, under the Bob Jones Corp.) When I made the switch to Wado a few years later, there were 5 instructors under the chief instructor (who was male). Two of the five were female. The female instructors were not to be taken lightly. Both of them were fast, smooth, technical beyond comprehension, and just a teensy bit psycho, while still maintaining a smile and a supportive attitude toward all students. I have quite a few females in my own dojo now, two of which I wouldn't be at all surprised if they become Sensei themselves one day.

Because while I'm not for profit, I'm still in the establishment stage. As I said, continuously losing students to this sort of thing could have serious repercussions to my business. I didn't say marketing in general is bad. I did, however, say that dubious marketing and business practice is. I'm not confused on the situation at all. I market my school, but I tend to steer away from blatantly poaching students from another school. That may be for some people, but for me it's a no-no. And in my eyes, offering to hand a student a black belt from 4th Kyu after a year if they exclusively train there does very much constitute a McDojo. Is that the very definition of a black belt mill? Pay your fees for a little while, get a black belt.

Good old GKR! I've met a few of their students and instructors through the NAS circuit and they all seem like hard working, dedicated martial artists. I'm not too fond of their marketing strategies though. But this is something else. I'd be getting in contact with their Regional Director, as well as the Police, as they already have. Their Regional Director may just laugh, but at least your friend will be seen to take the high road, and attempt to rectify the issue before it gets out of hand. Perhaps explaining the reality that their students have been trespassing on state government land to market a service for profit without the knowledge of the school? A trespassing charge would look great next to their Trainee Black Belt Program.

I'll shoot you through a copy of mine if you want, Liam. We're constantly updating our syllabus book. Originally it started as the grading requirements and a bit of history. Now it's around 20 pages, including a comprehensive terminology glossary, explanations of fundamental principles in Wado and the theoretical self defence components. My instructor used to issue the next grading syllabus every time we upgraded, and it was seen as a bad thing to show the students beyond what they were testing for next. As part of our promise to our students of complete transparency, I believe it's necessary to show what they're in for in the long run. I stop short of putting diagrams or listing bunkai, as it's meant as a guide and information for the students, not as an instructional book.

Excuse the dramatic title, but once I explain I'm sure you'll understand. I established my school early this year, and so far we have been a resounding success. We based ourselves around the ideal of no nonsense karate, removing artificial success criteria and being wholly accountable and transparent in our methods. No hocus pocus karate, no immediate gratification, just hard work and real karate. We've developed a core group of students, some from a martial arts background, and some who have recently caught the bug. These guys are fanatics, I love training with them and have developed some good friendships through it. The rest of the students kind of float in and out, and I'm ok with that.... To an extent. Now, getting back to my subject title, I've recently lost students who were training with both me and another school, because my style of training demanded effort. Nothing extreme I assure you, but effort nonetheless. And by only grading every 6 or so months, meant they wouldn't receive a belt the moment they performed a technique correctly. This other school, who shall remain nameless, has caught wind of this and offered to grade them to black belt from their current 4th Kyu in that style within a year, provided they only train there. So, no immediate gradings with me. Instant grading there. Effort required with me. Only attendance required there. Not for profit business structure with me. Dubious McDojo style marketing and business strategy with them. My question is, has anyone dealt with a similar issue, and how did you deal with this? I know the obvious answer is "don't worry about it, keep on keeping on" but as I said, we're not for profit and losing students regularly to this sort of thing has the potential to cripple our business. And I refuse to stoop to McDojo style training and marketing. I'd love to hear ideas!

Thanks so much for all of your replies. I originally looked at Choke Sports because of the ties to Isami/Kyokushin. I'm a big fan of the look of the their black belts and a friend who trains Kyokushin put me onto them. I've seen the Shureido belts around a fair bit at seminars and tournaments, and have to say they do look incredible. I mainly went after Choke and Tokaido due to them having a relatively easy online ordering for embroidery. As was mentioned before, embroidery done during the manufacturing process looks heaps better than doing it after the fact. I did manage to find a Shureido supplier in Sydney, so I'll order one today and see what my local embroiderer can do for me. Thanks again guys!

Obviously there's a huge problem when ordering belts off the net with not being able to see the finished product, or sample, first hand before purchasing and waiting the 6+ weeks for manufacture and freight. My main concern is belt durability and quality/workmanship of the embroidery. So far, I've narrowed my search down to either Choke Sports or Tokaido. Just wondering if anyone's had experience with either or both of these companies, and could give some advice.

My teacher never made a point of telling us his lineage, nor did we care. We practiced Wado Ryu. Sorted. It was his own organisation, and he'd sat on the same rank for as long as i'd been training. We didn't give it any real thought. Sure, the uniforms were a bit extravagant, and he trailed off on his Zen ramblings a bit. The cost of old age and not having a superior to answer to. Last year, after training with him for over a decade, I started planning my trip to Japan. I bit the bullet and asked him. All of a sudden, I found our direct lineage straight to Ohtsuka himself. Through McClean sensei, Sakai sensei, then to Ohtsuka meijin. I can directly trace my lineage to the founder of our style, within a few generations of teachers. It's had no real impact on my training, if anything its made me more rebellious, and eager to break those rules, man! Lineage is a big thing to some people because I think they believe they can use it as validation for what they practice. That said, the old masters weren't infallible. The access to information we have now far surpasses any means of research thy had back then. In simply a few clicks I can access majority of information on a given style, or have a conversation with a teacher across the world. If you train hard, train honestly, and have a definitive goal in mind, then I don't think lineage effects what you do in the slightest.

This. You don't have to teach to make a career out of martial arts. I'm a tradesman by profession, but made the switch to crowd control and am finishing off my personal training certifications at the moment. I only opened my own dojo after everything else. And my dojo is definitely the least profitable of all of them! Luckily I sincerely love what I do, or it'd be very easy to throw the towel in. 3rd Dan is definitely advisable as a goal to start teaching at. But i've seen 1st Dans absolutely kill it. You need more than a black belt to be successful, you need business experience, knowledge, have a good bookkeeper, have some decent habits, be a shrewd businessman, and have marketing flair. And not be afraid to do the hard yards! I used to draw up syllabus' when I was a kid and I was testing for my Kyu grades. I dreamed of having my own dojo. You obviously have a goal, don't lose sight! If I could go back and give myself some advice, it'd be, have a realistic business plan, and keep your friends very VERY close. There's going to be times where you're not going to know how you'll cover overheads, and you'll lose sleep. You're going to need your friends to take your mind off things and stop you from going insane.

The organisation I started with had everyone who started in a plain white Gi, with a style patch on the chest and an optional rectangular club badge on the shoulder. As you progressed, it got a bit outrageous. By Shodan you had black pants, white gi, with a yellow and black lapel, style badge on the chest and large one on the back, Club embroidery underneath the back style badge. A rectangular "Instructors" badge on the other side of the chest. A black belt club badge on the opposite shoulder and weapons badges along the bottom of the gi. And a black belt with your name embroidered in English. Some people like that, but hey. The way I see it is the more you focus on what you're wearing and pretending it gives you a higher standing than the guy standing to the left of you in line ups, means you're focusing less on your actual training than you ought to. The first thing I did when I went out on my own was get a plain white gi.

Are you applying this in a controlled environment? Or are you in crowd control or law enforcement? I've always found a sprawl works well, and depending whether i'm working i'll back step and attempt to continue force downwards to incapacitate and regain distance/attempt to restrain and remove. If i'm mucking around in the dojo ill generally apply a guillotine and take to the ground (Note: positional asphyxia and "ground fighting" is a huge no-no in self defense, both from a legal and safety standpoint) Most likely not. Supplementary skills do have a flow on effect between sports, but if you're a footballer fighting a Kyokushin fighter for example, under their conditions, you're gonna have a bad time. My best advice would be to first recognise the situation you're finding yourself in. If you're trying things out in the dojo, cool! Keep going, have a blast. But do yourself a huge favour and differentiate between aggression in the dojo, professional fighting, and real world violence. Aggression takes on a very different appearance in each one. At times in your post it seems you're blurring the lines between each.

It changes from day to day! As Wastelander said, everything is Naihanchi, so that's usually it. Honestly, i feel if i practice nothing but Naihanchi and its bunkai during a session, it isn't a session wasted.

Differing opinions on technique will always appear at surface level. But shouldn't go any deeper. My teacher was trained by Sakai sensei, but was influenced by a local Shotokan instructor early on. So the Wado I was taught had all of the underlying principles, taught the same Kihon, Sanbon, Ohyo Kumite and Kata, however the stances and movements were slightly more exaggerated. Normally, you'd never pick it, but lined up against other Wado practionitioners it was obvious. I must admit though, we tend to allow a lot fewer alterations than other styles. Something to do with the split maybe, between Ohtsuka and the Wado Kai. I'm not sure. But just about every instructor I've met has been very much stuck in their way. So it's strange to hear of differences arising at a national level. As was mentioned before, training and grading are different things. If you want to grade, prepare to do what they want. Simple. If the examiners differ between themselves, then they need to be held to account by the governing body. At the end of the day, they're there to grade YOU. If you feel your grading may be made difficult due to the fact one of the examiners likes to put his own spin on the syllabus, then get onto your instructor/superior and let them know. If this isn't a viable option, alert another examiner of your concerns. Odds are they'd be aware and share your concerns.

Noah, mate, Absolutely on point. It's great to hear this, and I think you hit the nail on the head. A major concern of mine is will my credibility be brought into question. This really does help. Thankyou.

That sounds very familiar. I began cross training not long after I was graded to Shodan. My best mate, who's also a black belt under the same style, and I used to go and size up what we knew against other schools and styles. Not in a hostile way, but purely to see where we stood, and what more we could learn. We competed heavily in different organisations, but found we learned more my havering a chat with people and sitting in on a class. Most people were receptive to other styles coming to train, we had a great time, and I've made a lot of contacts through doing that. When my instructor found out, he wasn't happy. He didn't tell us directly, but we always copped the snide, underhanded remarks when he was addressing the class. He honestly believed what he did was superior in every way, and there's no need to cross train if you trained with him. Honestly I should've seen the red flags and ran. But I stayed on until late last year. Kumite was frowned upon in the later years, restricting students to a back and forward match, and judging them on aesthetics as opposed to fighting ability. He used to get me and another higher grade up to demonstrate Jiyu Kumite and claimed that it was the result of the back and forward "sparring" to validate what he was teaching. Bunkai was frowned upon unless it was the basic "down block to a perfect front kick, straight punch to chest" style choreographed application. I made the decision after I made the career move to crowd control last year. I tried to at least get him to incorporate some level of verbal deescalation or legality of self defence, if we were taking a move from competitive karate. To at least give us some value. But he didn't want to hear any of it. I was very much the same as your Sensei, his head started shaking as i opened my mouth. So, now I'm independent, we're finding what we're practicing is very different to what I was taught and what is considered traditional Wado Ryu. To the point where Wado doesn't reflect what we teach at all. We do a lot of heavy Kyokushin-style training. Self protection training, scenario drills, and when we teach kata it is directly followed by bunkai. I love what I'm doing, and it's definitely one of the better decisions I've made.