Wow, I shoulda looked at this (f’n funny) thread sooner.
The last “class” I went to was Tang Soo Do. The sensei was serious as hell about fitness and first thing we did was 1000 jumping jacks. However, he was the only man to ever complete them. I made it to I think 450 once. We did the hell outta pushups too.
After all that it was kata time.
Sparring was intermittent. Maybe every 4th session. Belts didn’t matter for it. Nobody wore pads or gloves. U exercised self-control if you expected your opponent to do the same. I saw no injuries.
No nerds were there. Regular guys trying to learn the art, get in better shape, fight better.
That said, I’m a large white guy, was only white guy there, class was in a fairly rough black neighborhood. I worked with the sensei at GM days…
I dunno where u guys are going but I think I’d probably walk out or be kicked out quickly from a lot of ‘em. They don’t sound like solid schools IMO.
But, your stories amuse the hell out of me - Thanks!!!
This is a silly way to judge that.
When I took karate I hated the “fitness” part of class, which to me seemed like filler material to pass the time. Why pay money to do push ups, jumping jacks, sit ups, etc., when I can do that at home?
Ok. But it is my silly judgement none the less, based on very little data from an online forum.
Zero empirical data available.
Any students from these schools hold titles for anything recognized by national associations? I don’t know and can’t know.
Yes, maybe silly way to make judgement, I agree.
However, if I were to personally walk into a martial arts school and experience firsthand what I’ve heard described here, I would not pay for instruction there is my point.
There are traditional martial arts schools where things are orderly and a dude who CAN whip some ass runs the show, and nowadays there are some dance classes advertised as “fight schools” where some dude who thinks he’s tough and scams people tries to run things…
And that’s fine. My judgement of that judgement is that it is silly.
In a similar line, if I walked into a martial arts school and saw a bunch of students watching a guy do 550 jumping jacks, I would leave.
You’re never going to learn the five point exploding heart palm technique with that kind of attitude.
Pretty sure I would just do 1000 jumping jacks if I wanted my heart to explode.
I can only speak for the people I train with, but yes. This is usually pretty transparent in BJJ circles. You can watch their pro fights or grappling matches on video pretty easily nowadays, so there’s that. Or you may train where nobody competes, which can be fine too. You’ll know when you’re getting manhandled. There’s really no mistaking it when it’s happening, regardless of whatever titles might be hanging on the wall. As far as titles go, it mostly just boils down to the belt system applied at any given school.
You can also research the people who awarded anyone their black belt, and often see their pro fights or grappling matches on video. This can give you an idea of the technical and teaching standards any given instructor might expect from his or her own black belt level students.
I think it is much easier to get away with being a garbage instructor if you never actually have to demonstrate any successful application of what you’re teaching. Any asshole can buy a black belt on amazon and open up a school, but it would not be very long before someone who actually knows BJJ will show up and call out the nonsense.
Contrast this with George Dillman, who had great financial success as a Karate instructor, held many impressive titles from nationally-recognized institutions and never, not even once, has he demonstrated any of it under any kind of stress test.
Doesn’t anybody sign up for martial arts to get into better shape and do tough stuff like finger tip pushups and cool leg lifts? Kicks are cool, but isn’t GPP more cool?
Do you really need a martial arts instructor to do any of that?
I am contemplating signing up for a local school here run by a former UFC champ specifically for that reason. Don’t care about being able to fight anymore, but it is still great exercise.
Fighters/wrestlers from out there are well known for conditioning and toughness. Sounds like fun.
Now we’re getting into the real martial arts weirdos. the LARP’ers.
The reason for this is, a LOT of ppl sign up for martial arts classes to learn self-defense. Nerdy, strange, socially awkward people are picked on, and targeted as easy prey for crimes. It seems pretty logical they would be the ones learning how to protect themselves. Not everyone does martial arts for sport or fun, it does have an actual utilitarian function.
Just saw this thread and got instant warm fuzzies.
Started lifting, Kenpo and later Wing Chun 16 years ago because I was a total nerd and wanted to be all ‘modern ninja’. Still lifting and now doing MMA because I’m still a complete nerd and still wanna be a modern ninja.
I also may like getting punched in the face a bit more than I’d admit in polite company.
I strongly believe that within all men there exists a knowledge of martial arts, usually kung-fu, in our collective unconscious.
The only real mystery is how many beers it takes for this knowledge to manifest as action.
@twojarslave probably has an incredible amount of experience observing this phenomenon.
Yeah, I witnessed a number of soldiers who thought enuf booze had unleashed their inner Bruce Lee. They were nearly categorically incorrect :). Funny
I started/stopped (BJJ) 14 years ago due to an ex. I picked it back up a year ago because strength and size felt useless without ability to use it. It has the added benefit of providing opportunity to compete.
I always love when a four year old thread gets revived.
In my early fifties I got into Kempo karate while my son was in Shotokan. We compared notes.
I always thought karate dudes had a secret. The secret was that they trained. I trained three times a week and while I felt it was kind of a belt dojo, we did spar. I went through white, yellow, orange, blue, blues stripe, green, and green stripe. My next belt was brown, then brown stripe, then black.
At blue belt, I got to wear a black gi - it doesn’t show the blood from sparring. A bunch of Star Wars nerds and wanna be Ninjas.
The secret, again, was that I trained.
I think BJJ kind of does have a secret, and I figured, like most karate nerds, that if it went to the ground, I had lost.
So I subscribe to the Shotokan they taught my son. The first thing they taught him was to assume a defensive stance and announce, “I don’t want to fight you!”
Pretty effective.
Short of that, I am going Mike Tyson - everybody has a plan until they get hit in the face.
In my youth, I was pretty good at hitting guys in the face.
In my dotage, I am pretty good at yelling, “Stop! I don’t want to fight you!”
Pride comes before a (literal) fall in this case I think. The macho guy who refuses to say, “Stop! I don’t want to fight you,” may well learn that lesson the hard way.
This thread has great philosophical learning potential!