Training with a chief instructor

[sensei8]

As an adult, I would say that even the greatest is still just a man.

But I do remember being 13 or 14 years old and having Bart Vale squeezing my head like a grape. Good times. If you don't know the name, here he is knocking out Ken Shamrock.

MasterPain,

The bold sentence above is very solid!!

Btw, I can't seem to use the link, and I think it's because there is a "." right before the "www"

[MasterPain]

As an adult, I would say that even the greatest is still just a man.

But I do remember being 13 or 14 years old and having Bart Vale squeezing my head like a grape. Good times. If you don't know the name, here he is knocking out Ken Shamrock.

MasterPain,

The bold sentence above is very solid!!

Btw, I can't seem to use the link, and I think it's because there is a "." right before the "www"

Okay I fixed it. Anyway it was pointed out to me that it was fake, which I would have realized had I really paid attention instead of putting up the first thing I found of him. Here's a real fight. Keep in mind this was in the early years of shootfighting, I believe before the phrase MMA was coined. So it's a bit unrefined.

Also for the OP I feel I should expound upon that first statement. As a white belt 20 years ago, a legit black belt was like a demigod. For one thing I was a little kid, and uncoordinated as all get out. For any whitebelt, I'm sure the skill gap just seems impossible. Now, I can hold my own with about anyone at least for a few minutes. When I do run across someone who can manhandle me, I understand that it is just because the have had more mat time and have done better at conditioning, maybe refined technique a little better. Things I would do if I were more motivated. So after you have trained a few years, you will start to see that being incredible is just a matter of years of hard work and experience. And among other advanced students, you'll just be normal.

[ChristianeHigashi]

Thanks for all the feedback and opinions

feeling a bit better and hoping to show im still up to standard.

this is the man that i'll be training with for 3 days

http://www.higashi.org.uk/ChiefInstructorPro.htm

frighteningly good.

[Shizentai]

goodness! His Instructor was the founder of the world's 3rd largest Wado organization? Too cool!

It must be a great class!

My sensei too was the student of the founder of our organization (the JKA). Though he is growing older, you'd never know it from the training he gives. There is something truly grand about the kind of advise that comes from a lifetime of experience... and for that matter, the type of highly-tuned techniques that allow a 77-year-old man to swiftly escort a strapping 20-year-old to the floor. What's more so, he always treats his pupils with respect, equality and a very good sense of humor. He expects great things from all of us, regardless of our shortcomings in life. It's hard to say I respect any other one person more. I always wondered how it happened in the universe that someone like me would randomly stumble into the dojo of someone like that. Over the past decade of training under him I still haven't yet figured it out.

So to make a long story short, I'm basically right there on the same page with you.

[sojobo]

Thanks for all the feedback and opinions

feeling a bit better and hoping to show im still up to standard.

this is the man that i'll be training with for 3 days

http://www.higashi.org.uk/ChiefInstructorPro.htm

frighteningly good.

Peter Spanton was one of the first Wado-ryu Karate Dan grades here in the UK along with the likes of Melvin Parry (who I think was based in the north).

I have never trained with him, but my instructor was one of his contemporaries and also started his training with Suzuki Tatsuo in the late 60's.

One of my friends, who started his Wado training under the auspices of Shinohara sensei, joined the Higashi-kai (a few years ago mind). He tells me that training was very, very physical - and thorough. I also met one of his top lads (purely by coincidence) 2 years back and we had a good chat – he had good karate but it was a country mile away from Wado-ryu... but does that really matter?

If you read his bio - and it is true to say that this was the case with many of the early Wado students - what they lacked in technical knowledge they made up for in effort. This manifested itself in tough physical sessions with lots and lots of kumite.

Technically, things are a lot different now - but maybe -as a result the calibre of the students has changed also.

Enjoy your training and as long as you apply your self - that's all that any teacher can ask.

Sojobo