Bullshido at Georgia State?

[Lotus_ATL]

Hi, Lotus_ATL. Would you be interested in attending (or even hosting) a local Throwdown, an ego-free sparring and training session with other martial artists?

That sounds interesting. Is there a way that you can e-mail me directly? (I'm not very familiar with the options on this board yet.)

[EternalRage]

OK, oldman_withers, let me get this straight: you are a beginning student who admits you haven't practiced these styles, yet you feel compelled to judge them based on what you've read and a little TKD? And judge instructor's abilities based on what they look like?

I remember talking to you. Let me fill in the others on this list some of the things you did not mention. When I talked to you, you would not look me in the eye, and kept grinning to yourself as if you just thought of something funny. You had difficulty paying attention. I mention this now because apparently your judgement was impaired. Then you observed a beginning class, did not understand what you saw, but chose to remain ignorant. You could have asked a question, even as an observer. If you've never thrown a perticular technique (nor had someone throw it at you), you are not going to be able to judge its effectiveness. I remember that you made some weird noise, and the class stopped and stared at you. Then you apparently thought the class was over, and left early.

The classes at the recreation center are only $20 per student, per 15-week semester. That's less than $2 per student per lesson. Clearly teaching a class like this is no way to make money. Many of the instructors volunteer their time, to give back to the martial arts community. I'm not suggesting that you are cheap, but many other classes charge $20 per lesson. You could have easily enrolled in several different classes and tried them out, instead of watching (and not understanding) from the sidelines. In the class, there is often not enough time to practice everything. If you saw three different kicks taught in one class, that's actually a good amount of material. Of course, you would know that if you bothered to learn.

You could have participated, you could have learned something, but instead you chose to anonymously criticize what you don't understand. The styles you saw are just fine. The Bullshido lies with you.

It's usually easy to tell if something is a McDojo, but whether something is Bullshido is harder without looking at the class itself. And here we have a trickier situation, since you're teaching for a university population - more red tape and a generally hobby-oriented student crowd, so your classes might be different. Most university classes (especially the striking ones) are going to have a little more bullshido in them because usually the instructor is only going to be there to give a taste of his system and just get kids exercising and interested.

That being said, Lotus ATL, perhaps it would be best if you addressed questions about your system from the perspective of a non university teacher, ie how you would do things in your own school.

1. How much emphasis is put on "dead training" in your system? (dead training as in anything without resistance, like forms, prearranged sets/drills, etc)

2. What is your opinion on crosstraining?

3. What is your sparring like and how often do you do it?

4. Are your gradings based on how much the students know (ie if they know this form, that self defense drill, etc) or based more on application (ie more on live training and sparring)?

5. What are your tournaments like? Point sparring/semi continuous/full + levels of contact?

[Locu5]

That sounds interesting. Is there a way that you can e-mail me directly? (I'm not very familiar with the options on this board yet.)

Sure, you can reach me as Locu5 on Yahoo, either Messenger or email.

[TheMightyMcClaw]

I don't have any videos of training, though there is a gun and knife disarming video available at the website that someone posted above. It was made by a Lotus Self Defense black belt. My point about the sweeps is that there are always some techniques that are not allowed.

Umm.... have you tried any karate, hapkido, judo, BJJ, sambo, FC Kickboxing, San Shou, or MMA competitions?
As far as I know, all of those allow foot sweeps and then some.

[Lotus_ATL]

It's usually easy to tell if something is a McDojo, but whether something is Bullshido is harder without looking at the class itself. And here we have a trickier situation, since you're teaching for a university population - more red tape and a generally hobby-oriented student crowd, so your classes might be different. Most university classes (especially the striking ones) are going to have a little more bullshido in them because usually the instructor is only going to be there to give a taste of his system and just get kids exercising and interested.

That being said, Lotus ATL, perhaps it would be best if you addressed questions about your system from the perspective of a non university teacher, ie how you would do things in your own school.

1. How much emphasis is put on "dead training" in your system? (dead training as in anything without resistance, like forms, prearranged sets/drills, etc)

2. What is your opinion on crosstraining?

3. What is your sparring like and how often do you do it?

4. Are your gradings based on how much the students know (ie if they know this form, that self defense drill, etc) or based more on application (ie more on live training and sparring)?

5. What are your tournaments like? Point sparring/semi continuous/full + levels of contact?

Hi EternalRage,

I think any class needs to have a mix of several things: stretching, floor exercises (practicing the basics), rolls and hitting the mat, forms, new material, and contact simulation. The last includes one-on-one exercises, bag work, and sparring. Crosstraining is good (I assume that you mean new, different activities like jogging and weight lifting, not taking multiple martial arts at the same time). The serious students will crosstrain anyway, so I would limit the class time spent on it to new material. I would include things like "what if the opponent has a weapon," but I would not make the class do a different sport. I like sparring, but I want students to have some level of control before I let them spar each other. Belt tests include knowledge of material (kata and techniques), stamina/endurance, and sparring.

Tournaments should be judged like boxing matches. I have little tolerance for people who show off in the ring in a way that would get them hurt on the street. For example, I saw a point sparring match where a guy hit his opponent, pulled out his mouth-piece and yelled "point!" then turned to the audience. Contact should depend on the level. Beginners should not be doing full-contact sparring with other beginners. A black belt can hold his own with full-contact.

What is your class like? Is it different than this? Do you teach, or are you a student? How long have you been studying?

[Spezza]

Looks interesting.