Self teaching??

[thatchrisguy]

Hey there, got a question.... For a couple of years now we have had a professional instructor teaching a group of about 30 of us kenpo karate. We live in a very remote rural area and he moved away without notice abandoning the class of commited students. Does anyone know if we can continue to legal train oneanother or how belt advancement would or should take place..I am curious as our center has recieved grants for equipment and several of us have obtained belts already and we wish to continue the program which was a paying one and we are now training together without paying. Just curious if anyone has any info that could help our situation or shed light on what we need to know..thankks

[joesteph]

I am curious as our center has recieved grants for equipment and several of us have obtained belts already and we wish to continue the program . . .

What larger organization was your school affiliated with, Chris, that your belts are recognized by? I ran a quick check through a search engine and came up with the American Kenpo Karate Association at:

http://akka.org/

Is this the organization your school had been associated with? You can always contact the "higher ups" and find out what your options are.

[tallgeese]

I've always been a big proponant of training outside the norm of a class enviornment amoung peers to keep and polish skills.

That being said, advancment rank wise will be difficult in this manner. As will any actual progress in skills you haven't been exposed to yet. I'd take a look around to any remotley close neighborhoods and see what they have to offer. Nearby junior colleges usually have clubs and these would probibly be willing to take you in.

Getting in touch with any organization you were a part of would be a good idea as well. If you're independant, look for any group that is withing driving distace and see if you can start training with them.

Keeping and honing skills works well with peer work. But to really make gains, you're gonna need instruction. Unless you have a bb level individual in your group, then you will have an easy transition to training without your former instructor.

[bushido_man96]

Tallgeese has good advise. Look around for something that may offer what you have done, or something like it, and perhaps make the change. I understand that not having to pay any class fees is nice, but eventually, to accelerate the learning process, you may have to pay an instructor.

With that said, if you are able to contact the higher-ups in your organization (like joesteph suggested...hopefully, they can be contacted), then you may be able to work something out where you and your group could make travel arrangements for once every month or so, to get some instruction on things to work on and new things to do. Granted, this will be a loooonger process, but it is doable. You may also be able to arrange times for testing in this way, too. In the end, it'll be up to the guys in charge as to what comes of testing and gaining rank.

Good luck, and let us know what you find out. Welcome to the Forums, too. Hopefully we can help you a bit.

[sensei8]

Self teaching?? Dangerious! I'd speak against it, unless one's already well versed in the Martial Arts already. Even then, the book/DVD doesn't have eyes to critique flaws that might be otherwise overlooked, hence, the birth of bad habits become false technques. Bad habits are hard to break and during a real fight for ones life, this is the wrong time for bad habits to help an attacker.

I'd just say...please be careful with self teaching the Martial Arts. Music, etc., I say go for it and enjoy it!

[Wa-No-Michi]

If you can avoid isolation from qualified instruction you should take every opportunity to do so, as others have advised.

However, remote learning is not a new thing. In the 1960's here in the uk, many groups were formed in order to "study" karate, but without a regular instructor of any sorts. Bear in mind this is before the age of the internet, dvd, vhs and to and extent quality written publications. Dave Allsop for example - a high ranking Wado instructor here in the uk, explains on his website how he and some fellow Judo-ka formed a group that studied karate from whatever source they could (in the most part articles from the early Judo Magazines of the time). Arguably this didn't constitute a karate club, but back then, thats all they had.

Even today, there are traditional / classical arts like Daito Ryu / Shindo Yoshin ryu which have "study groups" operating around the world.

To err on the side of caution however, these are not commercial groups, but more a collective of like minded individuals who share a common interest. Two different things maybe.

But if you can get acces to frequent instruction, take it. It's far easier at the end of the day.

[Kruczek]

I have had times when no instruction was available, especially now that I am trapped at military school.

I have learned a great deal off of youtube, but you have to have a good foundation in the art and you have to know what your looking for. If you see someone from a different style do it you may be mislead, or if you see someone do something different than you were shown - they could just be wrong.

I personally believe that all karate was made up by someone at some time in history. If you have no instructor, try to get everyone uniform on what you all learned from your instructor and then start trying things you find in Kempo books, movies, and youtube videos. If they do not work effectively on someone else ditch them and move on. If they work great....keep them and worst comes to worst...You join a new dojo, they tell you that there is a better way, and you do it a new way. There is so much you can learn by experimenting - BUT BE CAREFUL lol.

[ironsifu]

i dont think its a good idea to teach yourself, but

in your school theres probably classmates who been with this teacher for a few years. the senior one should do the training, as long as he is teaching what he learned from your master. as long as everyone trained hard, you can probably develop good skill there, especially if the teaching you received was good training in the first place.

its a good idea, somebody said, to invite a travelling master to come and teach, and best if its the same style, same family and lineage. like classmates of your master, or even to bring your old master back every now and then. where i am from, i use to travel once a week, for almost 100 miles on a bus to train with my master for 2 or 3 days a week. guess what, when he was a young man, he saw his masters only a few months a year because he travelled farther than that!

the best learning of course is to study full time. but next to that is full time practice with part time learning.

another suggestions, is that some of your should travel to study with a master, and then come home to teach your brothers.

[BlackTiger]

Keep training with what you already know. Perfect it. Look for a qualified teacher that will come to you, set up a work shop for all of you together and have these on a regular basis.

Or travel to a qualified teacher on a regular basis and continue to learn.

My best to you.

[axispower]

I think there are instances where you have to do what you have to do. Of course, you should do whatever you can to legitimize your belts. That means you guys can't just arbitrarily form your own panel for belt testing and promotions. But I've seen similar situations where an accredited black belt comes in once a month or so to review what students were doing and make sure they were on track - then return, often with another black belt or two in tow - for the actual belt test. Of course, it's going to cost you a few bucks to bring these guys in but it is the right thing to do.

Unfortunately, many instructors work with students until they reach black belt then pretty much ignore them after that. The school we're currently affiliated with has a "program" for black belts - but it does not include any new kata or weapons training. Once a student reaches black belt the instructor expects them to come up with their own creative kata for future tests and exhibitions. In class they work primarily on conditioning and sparring. This is all well and good if you're not competing in kata on a regional or national level. But the sad fact is that we have students who have been promoted to 2nd Dan Black who do not know all of the 1st Dan traditional forms. Being a die-hard traditionalist I've insisted my daughters learn ALL of the forums for their own belt level and one level above. Most of these were learned from videos, from other black belt friends we know from the tournament circuits, or from some of the older black belts who came to our school from other systems. Like I said before - you have to do what you have to do.