I am reminded of a story my former TKD instructor told about dojo challenges. He explained that a guy walked into his school one evening between classes and asked him if his TKD was effective. My instructor stated the guy then challenged him to a fight right then and there and began throwing punches at him. Needless to say, my instructor claimed he smacked the guy around a little bit and the guy left with a couple of extra bruises.

Has anyone ever witnessed such challenges?

I haven't witnessed any, but Ed Parker wrote in one of his books that they used to be quite common. More studios+more people believing that martial arts are effective meant that they were rare by the time he was writing (the early 80s).

In the early 80's I was teaching a class of about a dozen students in my basement. I didn't advertise nor have any signs outside my home. All was done via word of mouth.

Anyway, one day towards the end of class there was a knock on my front door and when I answered it there were 2 20-something guys askibng if they coyuld watch the class.

They seated themselves in a couple of chairs while I continued the class. After about 5 minutes, while I was lettign my students take a water break, one of the young men asked if I'd spar with him. I said sure, if he wanted to join the class and ibn a week or so I'd be glad to spar with him.

He said he wanted to fight...NOW!

The look in his face and tone of his voice made me ask him to leave my home immediately. His response was to call me "chicken". At that point I turned to my senior student and asked them to go upstairs and call the police to have these two removed from my home. I then turned to these two intruders, took off my obi (black belt) and said to them..."OK, these are the rules...there are none. Ready?"

To which the guy says "Wait a second, I just wanted to spar a little and see if I could beat you.'

I told the guy ..."You come into my home, in front of my class and challenge me to a fight, I respectfully decline and ask you to leave, then you DEMAND to fight me? Well buddy, if you want to fight, then fine. No rules..that's your option."

To which they left.

It sounds like this sort of thing was more common 30-40 years ago when the MAs were less accessible then they are today. Like in your situation Montana, your school was by word of mouth. So a couple of local bonehead tough guys show up looking to prove some point.

Never witnessed a real one (except the Gracie Challenges...but those were a bit different). But most of the instructors I've trained with had a similar story. Never met anyone who witnessed the incident either.

The Japanese term for it is called dojo arashi, which roughly means "dojo storming". As many have said, it used to be a common thing but not so much anymore.

I have witnessed two challenges at my own school. My instructor always agrees for a sparring session but that we do it the proper way. A true dojo challenge is challenging the entire dojo itself, not just the instructor, so a challenger has to face the students as well. He also has them sign a waiver making any injuries sustained during their time training at our place is not our fault. One of the challengers refused to sign and promptly left. The other agreed to sign and quit after fighting a kohai who was pretty much mopping the floor with him.

Sparring not only the instructor, but also the entire dojo . Why does that not surprise me coming from a Kyokushin practitioner .

Kohai is the lower colored belts right?

I haven't witnessed this although apparently a few years ago (about 6 years, if I remember the story correctly) a Judoka came in and challenged my instructor for some reason. I guess my instructor started out with a lighter-than-normal sparring session until the guy slammed him down on his head so hard that his neck did a lot of painful crackling that it wasn't meant to do. This then resulted in my instructor delivering a lot of knees and punches to the face after resuming the "sparring match" that left the Judoka exhausted and bloody. From the sounds of it I guess the guy was impressed but never did come back.

In any case, I don't know for sure if it's true or not but it's an interesting story, anyway.

Kohai is the lower colored belts right?

Kohai is a "junior student" (in the same way that a Sempai is a "senior student" although those translations are not exact), as I understand it, so technically it could have been blackbelts depending on the perspective of the person telling the story

Sparring not only the instructor, but also the entire dojo . Why does that not surprise me coming from a Kyokushin practitioner .

Sounds like a Bruce Lee Movie or a Scene from Sonny Chiba's "The Streetfighter"

Seriously, I have only had 2 challenges in my Dojo, to which I have accepted and did not embarrass myself either. I am always the first to spar with any new students so they get to see what Sensei is like (note I do not use the first sparring session for me to beat them to a pulp in fact I act as a "living punchbag" to try their means), although, I do show them that I can disperse their endeavours to overpower me when I wish too.

I have been told some excellent sotries from my senior Grades that I know about such challenges.

Kancho Ninomiya Founder of Enshinkai talks about such Challenges in his Autobiography.