Whats the Point

[unknownstyle]

why is it that so many now days are so worried about losing students that they decide to water down everything that they teach? being a true martial artists i want to pass my art onto people that want to learn it the way it was meant to be taught, people that believe in order to be a black belt it takes more than paying an instructor once a month.

as an instructor i would rather have 10 students that wanted to learn karate the way i have been taught. than have 1000 that just want to flash a rank at people.

[NewEnglands_KyoSa]

I think the obvious answer here is no. It's not right to compromise something that compromises your integrity. Also, it's only going to come full circle and compromise your students too, whether you have ten, or ten million.

[DWx]

I think the problem a lot of teachers have nowadays it that financially it is very difficult to teach unless you have students to pay for it. Even if it isn't your main source of income you still have to consider other factors such as can you afford to spend time doing it? can you fund room rental costs, insurance? etc. Of course some of these are going to affect others less and some people more but it is hard to keep it going with little to no students. And if other places are watering down their curriculum and a person can get a blackbelt from someone else within 3 years but it'll take 10 years with you, the consumer may jest go to the easier place.

Then there is always the issue about "old fashioned methods". Sure they work and maybe more people should do them but many people today aren't prepared to go into work the next day looking bruised and battered. So again watering down the teaching methods must sometimes be done to stay in buisness.

Personally I don't think you should water it down because like NE_KyoSa said you'd be compromising yourself and your students. If you can get by with 10 students and teach them properly then thats great.

[NewEnglands_KyoSa]

You're right, DWx, and it's a shame that some old school methods had to be phased out because of the times, law suits, and spoiled people. I like the old school way of martial arts. I wish, atleast i could be taught that way again.

[ninjanurse]

The trick is to find a balance between old school and modern style. I would not compromise my style to keep a student but I may change my methods of information exchange to impart the "old school" in our "new school" society. Sometimes it is how you say it that matters not what you are saying.

[Throwdown0850]

in most places its all about keeping the students... I would never compromise my art just to keep students, it should be taught the right way, and if they don't like it, they don't have to stay.. every summer my Judo instructor would have like 10 people start his class.. and by the end of the week, he would have one or none left, cause they would quit it was so hard.. we had a total of 12 people in our class..

[unknownstyle]

its really hard to get someone to train in the old ways. im young but was taught in the old school methods, noe my teacher has started to tone dow the way he teaches and i dont really want to and ive noticed how many students have switched the days that they come so it will fall on a day when he is there. i am very blunt in how i put things and i think alot of people think im kinda mean. they need to learn that i am that way so they can correct those mistakes in a controlled enviroment, instead of on the street where its too late to fix that mistake. i dont understand how alot of school will teach a student to fight when the student has never really been hit. how does this effect them when they are attacked? if i got hit in the ribs real good it doesnt bother me because i have been conditioned in body and mind to overcome the feeling of not being able to breath or vomiting. i think that is one of the major elements thjat is missing in todays school

[NewEnglands_KyoSa]

its really hard to get someone to train in the old ways. im young but was taught in the old school methods, noe my teacher has started to tone dow the way he teaches and i dont really want to and ive noticed how many students have switched the days that they come so it will fall on a day when he is there. i am very blunt in how i put things and i think alot of people think im kinda mean. they need to learn that i am that way so they can correct those mistakes in a controlled enviroment, instead of on the street where its too late to fix that mistake. i dont understand how alot of school will teach a student to fight when the student has never really been hit. how does this effect them when they are attacked? if i got hit in the ribs real good it doesnt bother me because i have been conditioned in body and mind to overcome the feeling of not being able to breath or vomiting. i think that is one of the major elements thjat is missing in todays school

I whole-heartedly agree. The mental and physical toughness just isn't there anymore. I mean all the classes that i teach are in AIR CONDITIONED dojos/dojangs. Can you imagine that?!?!?!? AIR CONDITIONED! Back when i trained in the under black belt level air conditioning was unheard of in a karate dojo. Cracking a window was even unheard of. You toughed it out, and you liked it.

And as for being mean, people are going to think you're mean for a long time...usually until they themselves become teachers and make their first kid cry or pout, or get looked at like the have five heads by one of the adults. It's usually not until they themselves question themselves for being mean do they realize that being mean is really just looking out for them and trying to teach them the right way, so they don't become another statistic.

[bushido_man96]

I think the problem a lot of teachers have nowadays it that financially it is very difficult to teach unless you have students to pay for it. Even if it isn't your main source of income you still have to consider other factors such as can you afford to spend time doing it? can you fund room rental costs, insurance? etc. Of course some of these are going to affect others less and some people more but it is hard to keep it going with little to no students. And if other places are watering down their curriculum and a person can get a blackbelt from someone else within 3 years but it'll take 10 years with you, the consumer may jest go to the easier place.

In this case, what we as Martial Artists have to do is educate those who are shopping as to what the quality of the MAs they are getting is. I think that eventually the public does come around, and realize what they need and what they have.

In the end, I don't think it is a matter of training in the "old methods." At any rate, I think that there are a lot of misconceptions of what all the "old methods" were. At any rate, just because they are the "old methods," doesn't mean that they were the right methods. It is important to be able to train safely so that you can keep coming back for more training. That doesn't mean that your training is watered down. It is important to have some level of contact in training. But it doesn't always have to be full contact. It is important to train your concepts and understand your methods of fighting.

[NewEnglands_KyoSa]

It isn't a matter of old training methods...that isn't the problem.

But old methods were good methods, nobody died, nobody was scarred for life and it produced many great martial artists. Is there other ways to do what the old methods did? Maybe, and sometimes. The old methods and more traditional methods were carried over from the continents on which these arts came, the old methods are a small piece of tradition that often get lost in todays Americanized martial arts.