Did you ever have a "John Kreese" type teacher?

[Himokiri Karate]

years ago here I made a thread about willing to train with someone who may have questionable morals. If I recollect correctly, some said that if he is an exceptional teacher they are willing to put up with him for short term. That is what I remember but I have to find the thread again.

Now I am wondering if you guys had a "John Kreese" type trainer and John is the infamous sensei from the Cobra Kai dojo from the karate kid. What I mean is, an exceptional martial artist who has a character that is compromised or maybe overly aggressive and a bit too yang and not yin enough?

[singularity6]

When I was in high school, I had to take a "health and swim" class... 2 months health, 2 months swimming. The football coach was teaching it... He was fat, dumb, and laughed like Butthead from Beavis and Butthead.

[JR 137]

I had a real piece of work for a wrestling coach one year. It was 9th grade. It was the only time I ever quit a sport. We had a group of about 12 of us who had been together since 3rd/4th grade. We worked hard and pushed each other. We were all great friends off the mat too.

Our coach who had been with us the entire way left to go to graduate school a few months before the season started.

This guy came in and did practically everything a coach shouldn’t do. He played favorites, he humiliated us in front of each other, he encouraged the upperclassmen to beat up on us, he was telling us to wrestle dirty, encouraging us to do stuff like take Ex-Lax to make weight, and he was even buying drugs from one of the upperclassmen. Great guy.

Out of the 12 of us, 2 finished the season. A few of us came back the following year because he was gone. Most of us remained pretty good friends afterwards. During that season, he pitted us against each other. It was never the same afterwards. Had he not been there, I’m pretty sure we’d have stuck together and been very good by our junior year. There wasn’t a weakness anywhere in our lineup.

[Spartacus Maximus]

In reality an instructor with a teaching style and personality like the John Kreese movie character usually doesn’t last very long. The only thing fear and violence teach is that a bigger stronger person can use them to control others. It isn’t the same as teaching people martial art skills to overcome and use the fear and violence they might face. Skilled instructors know how to do that without being obnoxiously arrogant, overbearing or abusive.

[sensei8]

Nope!!

I was quite fortunate enough to have 3 quality CI: Soke Saitou, Dai-Soke Takahashi, and GM Suh.

Nonetheless, I've encountered some Sempai's/instructors my days, however they were quickly weeded out, aka expelled, once discovered by either of those 3 quality CI for cause.

Edited November 14, 2018 by sensei8

[JazzKicker]

Not my instructor, but a fellow black belt instructor at a school I trained at. I never figured out why the chief instructor put up with him.

This guy was nasty, not at all kind to the little kids he taught. He smoked in the school, and for a while he was even living in the women's changing room. He was a rough ghetto guy, supposedly a "private investigator". The last straw for me was going to change, opening a locker, and finding he had left a pistol, unsecured, on the shelf. I complained, but the CI never did anything about it. The guy was in poor health, probably homeless, and 25 years later, likely long dead.

[Wastelander]

No, although when I tried wrestling in Junior High School, the coach hated me, and never taught me how to actually DO anything, preferring instead to give me no instruction, at all, and partner me with guys who were two years older and several weight classes heavier to have them beat me up for a couple hours, several times a week. I put up with that for 2 months before I quit--it's honestly a wonder I ever even considered joining martial arts after that experience. I wouldn't call him an exceptional teacher, by any stretch of the imagination, but his character was pretty terrible.

[DWx]

Not my personal teachers but I know a few like this within the TKD community. Whilst they have the skills the proof is in their own student base which is pretty small.

[Patrick]

Have found this thread really interesting. Thanks for starting it, Himokiri Karate!

Patrick

[Himokiri Karate]

Nope!!

I was quite fortunate enough to have 3 quality CI: Soke Saitou, Dai-Soke Takahashi, and GM Suh.

Nonetheless, I've encountered some Sempai's/instructors my days, however they were quickly weeded out, aka expelled, once discovered by either of those 3 quality CI for cause.

Were the sempai's/instructors good teacher despite their personality?

Then again I guess someone can be a great teacher but an overly aggressive teaching style may perhaps be bad for business or the culture of the dojo.

Have found this thread really interesting. Thanks for starting it, Himokiri Karate!

Patrick

Thanks man, in the world of boxing you get lots of aggressive coaches or trainers with personality and training approach of beating someone down so that person can find their conviction to rise from that misery. Problem with that is, these boxing personalities were like a million times worse than John Kreese and that often times life already gives you a beating. The few times I trained people, my goal was to give them fitness and flexibility and my style being boxing and karate/kickboxing, I want to give them different ideas of throwing few kicks from a boxing stance.

I find that the students mind would be occupied with two styles of martial arts and how they can compliment one another and by the time they finished their training, they realized their personal problems were not orbiting their thoughts and they were occupied with something that allowed their mind and body to be engaged with.

I think this is the most beautiful aspect of martial arts and something lost in the culture of combat sports. The idea of developing new physical attribute like flexibility so technique can blossom from that attribute. Despite being in boxing for years, I literally cant be around it other than just walking in for a quick sparring or doing some competition. Other than that, oddly enough my mind and interest is in traditional or ancient martial arts.