Schools without affliation?

[Goju_boi]

join or don't. whatever makes you and your students happy

[karatekid1975]

I agree with Willannem. I also look for lineage, but I could care less about if a martial arts school is affillated with some large organization (most of it is politics anyway). If you learned karate from a good instructor yourself, and you teach quality karate, then I would attend your dojo.

[Goju_boi]

well a lot of schools websites don't say we follow this or that lineage.They just say shotokan karate and part of jka or something like that.Or TKD and part of ITF.

[Skeptic 2004]

well a lot of schools websites don't say we follow this or that lineage

I'm willing to bet because they more than likely don't know.

[SenseiMike]

Yup that's it. I teach shotokan, and I love it, but I like to teach it as an actual fighting style, which is where the knockdown fighting comes in.

Nothing wrong with that. Not all Shotokan organizations are sport oriented. Some teach point kumite and some don't.

I'm a Shotokan stylist and when I was coming up through the ranks my dojo sparred both hard contact and point sparring. We also practiced bare knuckle kumite.

These days the organization leans more toward competition but each branch dojo is free do teach pretty much how they want. I am not a "sport karate" type of guy and don't teach that kind of thing.

I prefer no safety equipment (foot and hand pads) and hard contact and I'm not a stand alone instructor.

I think people confuse systems and personal preferences. Kyokushin isn't any different than Shotokan or Goju or anything else, as a matter of fact it's made up of both styles. What is different is the way the particular organization chooses to run it's training/kumite/competition.

Same techniques, different way of practicing them. The individual is free to practice however he likes though.

When you really think about it, if your system or organization is entering competition, no matter if it's light contact or knockdown, it's still competition. that makes what you're doing a combative sport. It's geared toward competition. Some traditional Okinawan schools never compete at all and there are Shotokan schools that don't believe in or practice that way also (Shotokai). These schools practice only realistic applications of their art and it cannot be practiced/performed safely as in competition. Even knockdown is not true technique otherwise people would be getting seriously injured and /or killed.

I don't see that Sensei Mike is doing anything but practicing his Shotokan as it is ment to be practiced.

I think the competition folks, no matter the style, are the ones doing "something different" a modern morph/modification of the system.

Tommy

wow, that was really nicely said. really nice

[Willannem]

When I look for lineage, I mean I want to be able to check the background training of my instructor. I want know who certified him/her to teach and if their teacher was certified by quality instructors. “Quality” is a subjective word, I know, but established organizations have reputations for what they do and the standards they are held by. They tend to keep records of certifications given within’ their organization. I look for the chain linking back to the organization my instructors may or may not have branched from. In America, people are too quick to get a little bit of training or worse, video training, then run out and claim to be masters. I’ve seen it first hand.

Folks may hate relying on certifications but I equate it to martial arts instructors to doctors. When I go to a doctor, I don’t go by his word that he can diagnose and heal me of whatever injury or illness I may have. I want know where he went to school and whether he is certified to practice medicine in my area, along with his reputation. When I step into a medical office, I’m entrusting my life to the decisions and actions of the doctors within’. When I step into a dojo, I entrust my life to its teachings.

[kivikala]

What do you guys think when you see a "stand alone school"?

I believe an unaffiliated school has to have strong leadership to stand alone. I don't put much stock in organizations. (Been there, done that, got the tee-shirt.) So, to me, an independant school generally offers a greater opertunity. The danger is an unaffiliated school can fall into a rut, become weak, or lose quality unless they have a solid foundation and a vision.

Like any school affiliated or not, it is the strength of the instructor to make it noteworthy.

[SenseiMike]

I founded mine on 3 simple philosophies that I'm proud to say my students carry with them everyday:

1) No school should ever charge more than the average student can pay.

2) The instructor may the teacher, but he works for the student, as the student is the one who pays the bills, the teacher should strive to be accesible to the students at all times.

3) Karate is a fighting style, not an aerobics class, not a point based game, and it should be taught as such.

My guys not only understand this, but they carry it with them, and those who I turn into a teacher, will opperate there schools that way too.

So, in reguards to the last post, those are the beliefs are what The Rising Sun Dojo were founded on, and more than anything else, they are what matter at my school.

[Goju_boi]

I like those philosophies,I wish more schools did that though

[y2_sub]

I like those philosophies

Me 2