Oh, man, do I ever have complaints about this.
....This might be a bit long.
Okay, so I'm a first degree black belt in Kenpo. I started Karate when I was ten, and got my black belt at age sixteen. Six years, and I was with the first group of kids to test. I'll mention that more than two thirds of the original group had dropped out by this point. Sound familiar.
But that was why training at that school was so great. I had an awesome Head Sensei, someone who taught us what we needed to know to pass, and he taught us well. Detail was his thing, and we weren't babied. The rules that showed respect were obeyed, and if they weren't, Sensei made sure we never disobeyed the rules again.
Our blackbelt test consisted of three seperate parts on three seperate days. First was Basics and Tecniques, three hours long, going over everything from white belt to red. Then was Kata's, three hours long, going over everything from white to red.
The third day was Sparring, and the one I was dreading most, as it's not my favorite. I grin and bear it and try my best, but I just don't like sparing. I'd rather be doing forms and tecniques. Anyway, on at the sparring test, we all had to spar one time, but for ten minuets. It was with ten different Sensei's that had all taught us throughout the years. We stood in the middle of a circle they created around us, and we had to spar each one for a minute. We had no way of knowing when the minute was up, who was coming up next, or where they were coming from.
Needless to say, I couldn't lift my hands by the seventh minute.
It doesn't sound like much, really. But ten minutes of sparing is a long time. I'm not saying I kicked anyone's a**. My a** was handed to be. One of the instructors cracked my rib.
The way to pass the sparing test was to stay up. If you got knocked down, you get back up. If you're in pain, you forget it and get back up. Basically, they want to know that you can stand up and fight no matter what if you're ever in such a situation. I bearly passed that part, as when my ribs cracked I almost passed out.
I stayed in for another year until I graduated from high school.
When I left for college, I had to quit, as I moved to the West Coast and couldn't afford taking lessions out there. (I was going for free at my dojo on the East Coast. We couldn't afford it, so our Sensei let us stay in as long as we compeated. It was a sweet deal.)
I came back the the east coast about a year ago, and one of my old Sensei's offered me a job at his Dojo.
I was freaking excited. Nervous, because I hadn't done any Karate in a while, and completely out of shape, I happily accepted and started right away.
I couldn't believe my eyes.
-The kids weren't bowing onto/off of the mats.
-They weren't answering the instructors with "Yes Sensei" or "No Sensei."
-They complained about doing pushups.
-Their moves were completely sloppy.
-They couldn't remember their Kata's.
-Bow Stances and Horse Stances were completely indistinguishable.
-They couldn't run for more than a minuet and a half.
-Kicks were never formed all the way, puches are half-hearted.
-Kids were rolling their eyes at me.
-Refusing a request from a Sensei.
I couldn't believe how sloppy and undiciplined these kids were. I hadn't done any Karate in FOUR YEARS and I was still surpassing the recent blackbelt students.
I was stunned.
Basically, the school was there to make money.
I'm sorry, I know it was long-winded, but did anyone else suddenly realize that their style had gone to s**t because of undiciplined Dojo's?
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