OneKickWonder

Not the way that we do it!! The initial is known, but after that, it's not, hence, the battle isn't known by either student, nor is the outcome. And yes, that's the MA...performing a specific action is expected...TECHNIQUES, whatever that might be at that particular moment. Please don't group all of us traditional MAist together on the same cloth and/or with the same broad brush stroke!! I was raised, and am still, a traditional MAist, but the manner of which we/I was/were trained by Soke and Dai-Soke, is very much realistic and practical. Why?? Our lives depend on it each and every time!! The MA is an ongoing testing ground, in which I'm still an active participant of because NOTHING is written in stone...NOTHING!! Therefore, it's up to the student to take what they've been and/or being taught, and greatly expand upon it because, once again, their live depends on it. What the student is taught is how to give that door of opportunity that swift kick to get that door opened, but that student must be willing to have the guts to first go through the open door, and then to bust that door wide open with their own testing grounds. Students are given the tools, but how the student uses them is up to that student, traditional or not!! I'm a Senior Dan, but what I've given to my students is the free will to expand what it is that they've learned from me. But they have to have the guts to accept it or discard it for their MA betterment. I've given them all of the puzzle pieces but it's up to them to put them all together so that their picture becomes much more clearer to them, not for me, but for them!! How will the student learn to use the tools? How will they expand upon what you've taught them? When will they get that opportunity? Should they go out to bars and deliberately cause trouble so as to create the opportunity to practice? Should they beat up random people? Probably not. As students, we pay someone money to train us to fight. I'm sure some might go to learn kata, but very often people go with the exception that having spent many thousands of pounds/dollars and several years saying yes sir and bowing and placing their full trust in the guy at the front, they'll become proficient fighters. The posters and adverts usually imply that too. The reason to keep going to a class rather than just copying YouTube demos is to have an instructor see and correct you, but perhaps even more importantly, to have a room full of like minded people to practice against and with. It's not unreasonable for a paying student to expect to be taught what was promised. To say that kata should be taken literally, then it's up to the student to expand upon it, without creating that opportunity in the training hall, is effectively only given them half of what was promised or alluded to at the time of accepting their money when they first come to train. IMO the only martial arts that should be taken literally are actually fight sports and not traditional martial arts: Boxing, Muay Thai and BJJ. When you're throwing a jab in boxing, that's the way you should use it in the ring. When you're throwing a kick in muay thai, that is how you're supposed to do it in the ring. When you pull an arm bar, that's how you're meant to do it. But any other arts? Not really, no. You're not supposed to chamber the non-punching hand next to your wrist or ribs in a real fight. Who would ever get in a super low zenkutsu dachi or shiko dachi stance in a bar fight? I, for one, would never think "incoming punch! Better put my fist next to my ear so I can then perform an ude uke block!" No karate practitioner out there will tell you "you should chamber your hand next to your hips on a real fight, and you should definitely punch in using zenkutsudachi". And that means... you're supposed to adapt said techniques, making them not literal. That's exactly what several karate folks here and telling us. They are saying that kata and their bunkai are literal.

Not the way that we do it!! The initial is known, but after that, it's not, hence, the battle isn't known by either student, nor is the outcome. And yes, that's the MA...performing a specific action is expected...TECHNIQUES, whatever that might be at that particular moment. Please don't group all of us traditional MAist together on the same cloth and/or with the same broad brush stroke!! I was raised, and am still, a traditional MAist, but the manner of which we/I was/were trained by Soke and Dai-Soke, is very much realistic and practical. Why?? Our lives depend on it each and every time!! The MA is an ongoing testing ground, in which I'm still an active participant of because NOTHING is written in stone...NOTHING!! Therefore, it's up to the student to take what they've been and/or being taught, and greatly expand upon it because, once again, their live depends on it. What the student is taught is how to give that door of opportunity that swift kick to get that door opened, but that student must be willing to have the guts to first go through the open door, and then to bust that door wide open with their own testing grounds. Students are given the tools, but how the student uses them is up to that student, traditional or not!! I'm a Senior Dan, but what I've given to my students is the free will to expand what it is that they've learned from me. But they have to have the guts to accept it or discard it for their MA betterment. I've given them all of the puzzle pieces but it's up to them to put them all together so that their picture becomes much more clearer to them, not for me, but for them!! How will the student learn to use the tools? How will they expand upon what you've taught them? When will they get that opportunity? Should they go out to bars and deliberately cause trouble so as to create the opportunity to practice? Should they beat up random people? Probably not. As students, we pay someone money to train us to fight. I'm sure some might go to learn kata, but very often people go with the exception that having spent many thousands of pounds/dollars and several years saying yes sir and bowing and placing their full trust in the guy at the front, they'll become proficient fighters. The posters and adverts usually imply that too. The reason to keep going to a class rather than just copying YouTube demos is to have an instructor see and correct you, but perhaps even more importantly, to have a room full of like minded people to practice against and with. It's not unreasonable for a paying student to expect to be taught what was promised. To say that kata should be taken literally, then it's up to the student to expand upon it, without creating that opportunity in the training hall, is effectively only given them half of what was promised or alluded to at the time of accepting their money when they first come to train.

As a below-average weight female living in the USA, I get the unhealthy-body-image version of this "good genes" write off a fair amount, as if my genes are enviable because I look sickly thin. I hope it's not too horrible that when this happens I laugh and ask if they'd like to trade me for a kidney (since another super awesome card in my genetic deck is for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease). I guess the grass is always greener on... someone else's body? Maybe I misunderstand, but it sounds like people are frequently complimenting you, but you may be seeing it as veiled insults or at best tactless comments when in fact folk mean well and are impressed by you. You say you frequently receive comments that you are fast. And you have observed that you are faster than most. Yet you dwell on the statistics that say you fit in the slowest 20% I'm not going to ask how you found out you have no fast twitch muscle. That would be a personal question that I'd have no right to ask. But if you didn't know that you had no fast twitch fibres, would you have reason to worry about your speed or agility?

Is anyone a natural born martial artist? Is anyone NOT a natural born martial artist? I guess it boils down to, what is a martial artist? I'm possibly the worst person to tackle this, as my bubble has burst. I can no longer blindly follow. I find myself looking at senior artists with the same eyes I looked at the school bully once I realised how much smoke and mirrors was involved in maintaining an illusion of superiority and grandeur. But in real terms, what actually is a martial artist? I think if we strip away the grades and the competition and the politics, it's someone who takes what they are, and makes the very best of it that they can. It's someone that doesn't make excuses for what they can't do, but instead endeavours to become best at what they can do. It's someone that through very selective and focused training becomes good enough in their strengths to overcome their weaknesses. Is anyone a natural born martial artist? Yes. Everyone is. The question is, does everyone stay that way or do they give in?

Because most of my posts are a bit too serious, I thought I'd share some musings about things we as martial artists do that ordinary folk find strange. Here goes. 1. Getting caught fighting invisible people in the office toilets. The toilets ( rest room to our American friends? ) are typically quiet, reasonably spacious, and often have lots of mirrors. This makes them great places for a bit of practice. It's quite difficult to look nonchalant when a colleague suddenly walks in just as your outstretched leg reaches the peak of its trajectory a couple of feet or so in front of your head. 2. Opening a door with your foot when your hands are occupied with 2 mugs of tea. Someone sees you approaching the door and jumps up saying I'll get the door for you, but too late, before your 'normality filter' has chance to do its job, you're already balancing on one foot while gently pushing down the door handle with the other. 3. Randomly engaging your best mate in combat and he's already on the floor before you realise that people around you might think you're really attacking. What they saw was some psycho randomly throw a fellow human being to the floor. No amount of light laughter and jovialty will stop nearby parents from quickly ushering their kids away while looking at you suspiciously. Any more?

But would you be offended if the suggestion was you were not as skilled as your male counterparts? If I have to jump, spin 360, and strike a small target before landing gracefully in a fighting stance, and you just had to step through and side kick, would that be an equal test of skill allowing for natural body differences? Just throwing it out there, but some of my female counterparts can do that far better than I can. With respect to my female counterparts, I suspect (in fact I know because some have come out and said it) that some are happy that this inequality exists because it makes the test easier for them. I'm not sure I can support that.

I hear what you're saying. Definitely there is a like it or lump it attitude within the association. And I get that to some extent. I really hate when the student body pressures the association into making a change. It's usually not a good thing. It typically waters down the art. But the point of principle here is while the rest of the world is slowly moving on from gender prejudice, with even the military now accepting women if they can show they can achieve the required standard the same as their male counterparts, there is still gender inequality in martial arts. Worse than that, ours is an association that was set up specifically to be inclusive for all, and I feel like that legacy is being eroded. Instead of moving forwards, we're going backwards. But on point of principle, if the women were given a harder test than the men, there'd be hell to pay. Imagine saying to a woman, right, the test is over for your male counterparts, but if you want the same grade, you have to do some extra work. It would be a scandal. But because it's the other way round, people just accept it. I think that's wrong. There is either gender equality, or there is gender stereotype and prejudice. I guess the issue I'm wrestling with is, do I want to be part of something that actively promotes such stereotypes and prejudice, or not. The answer is no. Which leads to, am I willing to sweep it under the carpet in order to advance my own position. This is the one I'm really struggling to resolve.

Yes!! Why?? It's part of the methodology, and the starting point of the syllabus/curriculum. Any system has to have a starting point to be considered as well as for it to grow. However, the effectiveness must be harshly tested thoroughly and without any ambiguity whatsoever. Imho. How? I can practice blocking a mid section front kick and countering with a punch as many times as I like. Then tell myself I've proven that application to be effective. Then it all falls apart the first time a real attacker kicks from a different angle or throws a punch first or is stronger and faster than me. If we take kata literally, we can't possibly test their effectiveness. Kata is orderly, violence is not. How?? Resistive training!!!!! Just short of killing/injuring/maiming ones dojo mate. Yes, Kata is orderly, and that's good; wouldn't want it any other way. If one doesn't take Kata literal, then there's no real reason to take Bunkai literal, nor is there any real reason to take the MA literal, and in that end, there's no real reason to shadow the doors of any MA school!! Do you drill off what's in Kata?? Those drills are literal assumptions, at best. Oyo is the exclamation point of Bunkai, just as Kata is the exclamation point of Kihon and/or Kumite, and vice versa. What one drills in the dojo should be no different against an attacker. Resistive training when both partners know exactly what is going to happen is just like pushups or weight training. You will become very good at performing a specific action. If that specific action happens to be called for in the first couple of seconds of an attack, great. I think perhaps I've misunderstood traditional martial all this time. I assumed there was real life practical value in it as a combat system. Thank you for helping me to see my error. I'm sure traditional styles can be practical, if approached with an open mind, but I now understand that we are expected to just have blind faith that somebody else has already done all the testing, so we don't need to, and should bow to the senior grade and say yes sir and go home happy that if we get mugged on the way home, it will be OK, because our mugger will stand at arms length, bow to us, drop into a formal stance, then throw a straight punch, so we'll all know exactly what to do.

To clarify, the differences aren't in fighting ability. To give an example. One part of the test involves a demonstration of martial prowess by breaking inanimate objects.both men and women are expected to display such prowess by screaming at a board before breaking it. That is after all very relevant. As we all know, a real fight can be ended instantly by finding a small piece of pine wood and breaking it while screaming. It's an important skill. But the man will be asked to perform a specific technique. Perhaps a jump spinning back kick. Perhaps he will be asked to jump over a curled up comrade to reach the board. Again, vitally important skill no doubt. You never know when you'll next need to jump over a downed friend, turn mid air, and I don't know, knock a can of pop/soda out of an assailants hand to make him bow at you and give up. The woman candidate on the other hand will be given a choice of kicks. Perhaps she'll choose the much simpler step through side kick. So the man is asked to do a specific thing, while the woman is given a choice. None of it against a resisting opponent so body weight/strength is not an issue (although of course every black belt should be able to break an inch of pinewood, because 98% of all street attacks feature an assailant holding a piece of flimsy board in front of themselves).

Here's a situation I find myself facing. I personally believe in gender equality. It so happens that I'm male, and fairly big and strong. Not epically so, but probably generally tougher than my peers. I don't say this to brag. I enjoy outdoor physical activity and over the years that has an effect compared to the average towny. I want my black belt in my current style. It's imminent. But here's the thing. I want the black belt only because I want to run my own class, and I'm aware that irrespective of experience, nobody wants to be taught by someone that isn't black belt. I have no doubt in my ability to acquire my black belt. Again without bragging, I have enough experience in martial arts in general and TSD specifically to wear a black belt with confidence. But here's the problem. As a male, in the grading I will be asked to demonstrate certain things that equally experienced women will not be asked to demonstrate. The women will in effect get a slightly easier test. It boils down to this. The women will be judged for their fitness and artistic ability. The men will be tested for the same, plus their 'toughness'. On passing, both will be considered equal in terms of rank and ability. I know I'm one of thousands so any statement of make will have little impact. But on point of principle, as a statement I'm considering either refusing to grade unless the test is the same for men and women, doing the grading but refusing to do the parts that only the men are asked to do, or ignoring my principles, doing the test, with the goal of leading my own class my (equal) way. Thoughts please.

Yes!! Why?? It's part of the methodology, and the starting point of the syllabus/curriculum. Any system has to have a starting point to be considered as well as for it to grow. However, the effectiveness must be harshly tested thoroughly and without any ambiguity whatsoever. Imho. How? I can practice blocking a mid section front kick and countering with a punch as many times as I like. Then tell myself I've proven that application to be effective. Then it all falls apart the first time a real attacker kicks from a different angle or throws a punch first or is stronger and faster than me. If we take kata literally, we can't possibly test their effectiveness. Kata is orderly, violence is not.

As MatsuShinshii points out, these are demonstrations for teaching/illustration purposes--they are simplified and "cleaned up" so they are easier to see, understand, and begin to practice--but they are not examples of the full training process used to make them applicable. I fully understand that. I myself am an advocate of the cooperative demo as a means of illustrating an idea without anyone getting hurt. You'll get no disagreement from me on that point. But when I suggested earlier in this thread kata should not be taken literally as combat applications, but rather a set of principles, I was told in no uncertain terms that I was wrong, and the applications are literal. So the question remains. Should we take kata literally or not?

I think it's a stretch to say that EVERY kata is an entire system, for exactly the reason you suggest. That plus the fact that some are created to specifically simplify one thing. In TSD for example, we have 'basic form 1' that was invented rather recently (years ago but not that many years) because the guy that invented it realised that pyung ahn (pinan) contains a lot for kids to try to think about. So to give kids a sense of progression, he made the rather simple basic form 1, which comprises a few turns through 90, 180 and 270 degrees to teach turning in stances, basic observations etc, it's got 2 stances in it (3 if you count the ready stance at the beginning, one kick (repeated 3 times), one kind of punch and one kind of block. Nobody claims it's an entire system. In fact it is openly claimed to be nothing more than a means to drill movement through basic stances. Pyung ahn / pinan is sometimes described as a complete system. Before we accept that, we must consider that it wasn't always 5 forms. It was originally a single one. It was split into 5 to aid teaching. If you look at the pyung ahn / pinan set carefully, you'll see that it seems to ficus on different ranges depending on which number you're on. The entire set contains a broad range of blocks, strikes and grappling moves. But even the name doesn't allude to a complete system, but rather a basic set of essential skills. There is a great debate about the translation of pinan. Some say it means peace or tranquillity and alludes to stillness of the mind. But I read an article once that suggested that in China it is a common greeting and means simply 'stay safe'. In TSD we also have bassai, or passai as I believe the karate dudes call it. Funakoshi suggests several translations for it. None of which suggests a complete system to me. The most widely accepted translation seems to be 'storming a fortress'. This is itself open to interpretation. Who is doing the storming, the practitioner? Or is the practitioner being stormed? And does 'fortress' represent a literal fortress or stronghold or is it the fortress of the mind or body? Either way, when I perform it and try to visualise what's going on, I feel like throughout the entire form I'm on the defensive, like escaping from various locks or takedown attempts. I can't find anything in bassai that feels like it's me that's attacking. I'm fact the sense I get throughout the entire form is that I'm struggling against an attack, just trying to hold my own for as long as possible, not winning. If bassai is a complete system, I don't think it's a very good one. We must also consider that there are techniques we do in basics that don't seem to appear in forms. The jumping 360 roundhouse kick that the taekwondo dudes call the tornado kick doesn't appear in any form I've seen. Yet it's clearly in several martial arts systems. But then we must ask ourselves. If a form represents a complete system, what is it a complete system of? If it's a complete system of unarmed combat, I think they fall far short. But if it's a system of movement, transition between stances, shifting of weight etc, then possibly.

Just something to think about. Not advice per se but something to think about nonetheless. What does rank matter? To me, rank is in some ways a measure of ego. That's not to say that high rank means nothing. Most of the martial artists I aspire to are higher rank than me. Yet some have no rank, because they are in a school that doesn't grade people. They have epic skills but no rank. In the club I'm in, the CI is 5th Dan in TSD. He has no experience at all in any other style. He is a good man and a good martial artist with a lot to teach. But within our club we also have a second Dan. Who also holds a 2nd Dan in taekwondo, a third Dan in aikido, and no grade at all but experience from seminars in judo and jujitsu and wado. He also has military experience. I make no judgement. I'll just leave that there for folks to think about.

At this point, if I were there in person, I would bow to you, and mean it.

This is very informative and insightful. Many thanks for sharing. What this does for me personally, is to reinforce my belief that kata / forms are about teaching principles rather than literal applications. Based on this fine contribution alone, I present 2 reasons for my conclusion. 1. In each of the videos shown, the 'attack' was far too orderly. It was completely unrealistic. But even if someone were to attack in a slow and predictable way, you'd have to be pretty skilled to pull off the techniques shown. Some of those joint manipulations only work if you get them pretty much bang on accurate. Quite difficult to do in the chaos of reality. Yet in that chaos, there may be moments where perhaps midway through a struggle, you happen to get that lock on or see that opportunity to strike. Therefore the principles are sound, but the application, which I see as a predefined assembly of principles, is unrealistic. It is like learning to build a house, then being given a piece of land and asked to build a house on it. If you break it down to principles of lay foundations, build walls, add plumbing and electrics etc, it's going to be fine. But try to build a specific area house to a specific design it's only going to work if by pure chance the plot perfectly suits the design. 2. As you've said, even very experienced teachers can't agree on the application. These are guys that have dedicated a lifetime to the study of an art in intricate detail. Yet they have perfectly valid but radically conflicting views on applications. I know the elbow wing thing you refer to. I've heard it represents having your hands tied and a pole slotted through your arms, as if being taken prisoner, and you are escaping. I've heard they are blocks from when you are caught off guard with hands by sides, but when I went to aikido I saw the exact same move being used in a disarm technique. The aikido version making more sense to me than any other explanation I've heard or seen, but that doesn't mean it's exclusively correct or even what the creator of the form had in mind. To answer to your number 1 reason... Your looking at a demonstration for the purpose of teaching others. What you do not see, at least in the way we teach and learn, is the steady progression of training. The techniques have to work, no matter of looks, in real life and as such are pressure tested. No, not every student will use all of the applications because some will not work for them in a stress situation. In terms of what we call the founders applications, they are simple, effective and very efficient. They do not have 40 movements to end the fight. Typically there are only a few movements and they are natural not forced. In terms of your number 2 reason... I think you need to re-read the post. There are many variations and although no one can with absolute certainty that this or that application came from the founder one thing holds true, if it works use it, if it doesn't don't waste your time. You can choose to study the Kata or not. In the end it's your journey and your decision. My focus has been to study the Kata because IMHO it's a treasure trove of techniques and applications that you would not be able to pick up no matter how much you trained in Kumite. It gives you the well-roundedness that studying modern day Karate does not. It teaches you other ways outside of the typical and gives you more choices than just Kihon. But to each their own. I'm not sure if you misunderstand my point. I'm not for one second dismissing kata. Quite the contrary. I see it as perhaps THE most efficient way to convey the core principles of a system. It's like poetry. There are poems about the horrors of war. There is no way they can tell the whole story. There are entire libraries that can't even do that, but they can convey the seed of imagination needed to reconstruct a situation in our mind. I know beyond doubt that the principles are practical. I find myself applying them regularly in free sparring, which is the closest we can get to fighting without actually really fighting. But what I've never seen, ever, either in training or in a rowdy nightclub when things go awry, is someone pulling off a kata technique exactly as per form, against resistance. I've seen and done the old apply this shift of weight to recover the balance after nearly being floored, or the apply this cross block from an awkward stance to block a kick that would otherwise get through. All principles drilled in forms. But never ever, even once, seen anything where I can say ah yes, that was clearly the 7th move from pyung ahn sah dan for example.

This is very informative and insightful. Many thanks for sharing. What this does for me personally, is to reinforce my belief that kata / forms are about teaching principles rather than literal applications. Based on this fine contribution alone, I present 2 reasons for my conclusion. 1. In each of the videos shown, the 'attack' was far too orderly. It was completely unrealistic. But even if someone were to attack in a slow and predictable way, you'd have to be pretty skilled to pull off the techniques shown. Some of those joint manipulations only work if you get them pretty much bang on accurate. Quite difficult to do in the chaos of reality. Yet in that chaos, there may be moments where perhaps midway through a struggle, you happen to get that lock on or see that opportunity to strike. Therefore the principles are sound, but the application, which I see as a predefined assembly of principles, is unrealistic. It is like learning to build a house, then being given a piece of land and asked to build a house on it. If you break it down to principles of lay foundations, build walls, add plumbing and electrics etc, it's going to be fine. But try to build a specific area house to a specific design it's only going to work if by pure chance the plot perfectly suits the design. 2. As you've said, even very experienced teachers can't agree on the application. These are guys that have dedicated a lifetime to the study of an art in intricate detail. Yet they have perfectly valid but radically conflicting views on applications. I know the elbow wing thing you refer to. I've heard it represents having your hands tied and a pole slotted through your arms, as if being taken prisoner, and you are escaping. I've heard they are blocks from when you are caught off guard with hands by sides, but when I went to aikido I saw the exact same move being used in a disarm technique. The aikido version making more sense to me than any other explanation I've heard or seen, but that doesn't mean it's exclusively correct or even what the creator of the form had in mind.

That’s a huge thing for me, in a sense. If I absolutely had to narrow down one reason alone for restarting karate and staying with it, it would be for the stress relief. When I’m there, the outside world doesn’t exist for an hour and a half. Going through the movements, I can’t think about anything but what I’m doing right then and there. And if I could let the outside world in, it would end during sparring. There’s no time to think about work when someone’s punching at your stomach. There’s no time to think of family issues when someone’s kicking at your head. It’s moving meditation. It’s inner peace through violence Very well put. That's exactly how I see it.

Exactly this ^^ I see the role of martial arts training in self defence to be to make us physically fitter. Not necessarily more skilled. Faced with a genuine immediate need to fight, you won't do anything clever or precise or intricate. You won't do one step number 25 or whatever. You will function as a frightened wild animal. Your martial arts training will mean you can strike faster and harder perhaps, or get up off the ground more quickly. But it won't make you some sort of ninja. I think a lot of instructors have a lot to answer for. Very often they cultivate this belief that this technique works against that attack. If they do this, you do that, then they fall down, you restomp the groin then walk away. I worry that that means if people do get attacked and out of pure fear, don't do what they practiced, they'll feel like failures or that the art let them down. What let them down is the marketing. When practicing self defence aspects of our style, I like to mix it up every now and then. Especially with lower grades. I might refuse to fall when they go for a takedown, or I might counter their counter and stop an inch short of punching them to the side of the head. Often they go through the same sequence of facial expressions in this order, shock, anger, realisation that they need to look beyond the basic technique if they want it for any third more than their next grading.

I think in this sort of situation, gut instinct is best. Gut instinct combined with astute vigilance. I think I'd train with them as long as I was getting what I wanted in tens of skills. But I'd also frequently ask myself if my goals are really MY goals or the association goals. The two do not always align.

I've trained in multiple TSD schools, and wado school, and king fu. I've also done a very small amount of judo and aikido. The only clubs that have the mats out all the time were the judo and aikido. I don't think at kung fu or wado we even had any mats to get out if we wanted them. In TSD the mats tend to come out only if we're having a specific focus on breakfalling. For karate and similar, I believe mats are counterproductive for the most part. The training hall floor is invariably nothing like the real world as it is. Add an inch of dense foam to the floor and it becomes as far removed from the real world as it gets. But not only that, mats will impede your foot pivots when kicking, and they'll take away some of the determination to stay upright when your opponent is trying to floor you. Mats have their benefits of course. When practicing falls, if you get it slightly wrong, as sometimes happens even to the most experienced martial artists, it's best to get it wrong on rubber than on concrete. But I wouldn't judge a club by the presence or absence of mats (unless it was a club that likes throwing a lot). Something to consider. Some clubs become part of an association purely for the help with grading and marketing and insurance, rather than a steadfast support for the association philosophy. If the instructor you've found seems like a good one, I wouldn't automatically judge him based on association literature.

Just mentioning a reason why there is a disproportionate amount of weird/strange compared to some other activities. Yet so far, nobody has mentioned that it's about a bunch of people of all ages and shapes and sizes getting together, in pyjamas, to get sweaty together, in pyjamas, beat the living daylights out of thin air, in pyjamas, shout about lot at nothing, and then get up close and personal and chuck each other about, in pyjamas. Did I mention that we do all this, in our pyjamas.

All sounds normal. Think of the brain as a computer. It runs an operating system we call the mind. It's a very clever system, able to reprogram itself based on experience. Your friend experienced something traumatic. Their mind was reprogrammed in light of this experience. It was programmed to initiate an emergency response to certain triggers, like someone getting too close, or the sight or expectation of a crowd. It will keep this program until programmed otherwise. I'm not an expert on this. I know a bit through my own experience. But from what I can gather (both my own figuring plus professional advice I received) the trick to reprogramming the brain is gradual exposure to the triggers, until the subconscious learns that those triggers are not a threat. Here's my experience. I wasn't attacked. I was out in town alone, when I suddenly became very ill. I thought I might actually die. I was dizzy and disorientated, my heart was going crazy and I was becoming confused. I thought I might be having a heart attack. I was scared of leaving my family but more bizarrely in hindsight (remember I said I was confused) I was also scared of the embarrassment of dropping dead in front of strangers in town. I made it quite far. Then I needed an ambulance. Physically I'm fine now and have been for a while. But for some time in couldn't go far from home or work. And I certainly couldn't go for a walk on my own. But I knew that was silly, so I made a point of walking daily. First just a few meters, gradually building up. Months later I'm making good progress. I almost seem 'normal' again, but I still can't bring myself to walk the route is walked that day. If I try, I get genuine panic response, elevated heart rate, sharpened senses, twitchy responses etc. So I turn back. There are days when I think I can't be bothered to go out. But I know that is just feeding the demon, so until the demon is fully defeated I will keep pushing myself. That's my story. Hopefully your friend can take something from it.

This is exactly my point. Conditions in training are so far removed from reality, that I sometimes wonder if there's any point to it, other than the obvious fitness and social benefits.

I don't think I've ever met The Perfect Instructor. I don't even think such a thing exists. Bit for all the little flaws and quirks of the many instructors I've met over the years, not a single one has ever made me feel under pressure to do anything I don't really want to. Sure there is positive encouragement. Sure I've had people screaming in my face to go faster or just keep going, but not in a threatening way. Always in the kind of way that a spectator might scream at their favourite sports team or athlete to squeeze that bit more out.there's been times when I've fallen short, unable to continue, or unable to keep up. There's been times I've had to wobble uncoordinated out of the hall to cool down and compose myself. When such things happen there's been nothing but total support. That's been there in multiple clubs covering multiple styles over multiple decades. I'm aware of associations with politics such that you're supposed to believe you owe them everything. But you're given them your time and money in exchange for some knowledge. It's a fair deal. When the seller starts dictating to the buyer, the buyer can just walk, and buy that knowledge from somewhere else.