Your Style or Your School?

[WhiteShark]

What is the more valuable aspect of your current training. What I mean is we all know there are exception to any rule. For example there are good TKD schools and Tai Chi guys that fight .

So for you is your style of MA more important or your specific school within that style?

In my case I believe it is the school I am in and by extension my current instructor more than Shidokan as a style itself. I really love Shidokan and the ideas behind it especially because it comes from a strong tradition(Kyokushin) but doesn't turn it's back on innovation. This is largely due to the founder(Yoshiji Seono) being very open minded compared to his contemporaries.

However, I feel that training with my coach in the Atlanta location has put me in contact with more styles and information about fighting than just the Shidokan curriculum can be credited with. Our gym used to be all Muay Thai and my coach was the assistant instructor/resident pro. Then he bought the school and became the head instructor and added the Shidokan classes to the schedule.

This has let me experience his instruction as an abstraction from the style and led me to believe that the individual may be more important than the style but the instructor may be more important than both.

[Chupacabra]

I train bjj and MT so the schools don't really matter that much as it is harder to find a bad school than a good one. Still, I go to a really good school as far as instruction is concerned .......... we gotta get that air fixed though.

[Loki]

Well I like my stlye of tae kwon do but I belive my dojo is kool but sense its as hapkido school as well every thing kinda blends togehter which I really like

[WingChun Lawyer]

I have no previous experience with muay thai, but my coach is very good and quite strict. That said, I do prefer the principles behind wing chun.

[WhiteShark]

Damn lawyers! You're supposed to pick ONE!

[WingChun Lawyer]

Fear my rhetoric.

[Xango]

For XY, your chance of finding a school that sucks is, unfortunately, much higher than your chances of finding one that doesn't.

For LHPF, if you're not at my school, or studying with someone trained by my teacher, not only does your style probably suck, your teacher is most likely lying...

For Judo, I'm there to learn the style, and just blessed with a good school to boot. Come to think of it, I'd probably be in BJJ if it wasn't for the Tohkon, so I guess it's school there, too.

[TylerDurden]

Style, I have trained with with guys from pretty much every other BJJ school in the state and would not hesitate to train at their schools if need be.

[Omega the Merciless]

Shoot-Thai (MMA)
SAMBO
Kickboxing
Kung-fu
Hapkido
Taekwondo
Kenjitsu
Misc Weapons
Tai Chi
.....

Bitch slapping.

It's really the school not the style for us.

[Shaft]

I have what may be a great example of this phenomenon. Currently, I'm training in an Aikido style that is not under Ueshiba but underwent a parallel evolution to "real" Aikido. For simplicity's sake, I just call it Daito-Ryu Aikijisu. The real name of the style is Aiki Kokyu Kan Aikido. Normally, this style would be totally MAS, but it just so happens that my instructor cross trains in JKD. This way, we use the JKD philosophy and apply it to aikido technique. We also regularly add elements of Cali and Silat to the training. The end result is essentially an MMA class with a base in aikido.

[Kiozz]

Originally posted by WhiteShark
So for you is your style of MA more important or your specific school within that style?

My coach has been the most important factor. I have trained in other gyms over the years and experienced other coaching methods, but my first coach was the best one for me. Not the youngest of guys, but still open minded to look around for new methods and wise enough not to force the latest accepted trend on you if it didn't fit.

Still, I just train in boxing (starting judo comes september), and now that I'm mostly interested in being well rounded, I wouldn't think a second before switching to a school such as yours now. Not only for your instructor (that's really kick-ass, as seen in the clips you posted a while back), but even for the eclectic connotation of your style.

You're just a lucky bastard that you train both in a valid system and under a valid instructor.

[Locu5]

for me, it is the school and specifically the instructor. go for the style, stay for the instructor.

[JKDChick]

Instructor
Then school
Then style

[Guy Mendiola]

I train in Tae kwon do(ITF) and Boxing but the Tae Kwon Do organiztaion is really A.I.M.A.A. but with the exception of a well known Grandmaster then I think it's not really a bad school. But I would go for the good martial arts school.



You mean real Taekwondo? Heel II Cho is the man!!!

[Honey Badger]

It's the instructor. There are several guys all in the same area supposedly teaching Kun Tao. Most of them, unfortunately, are McDojos.

I came to the school for Jun Fan and Kali but I stayed for Kun Tao and Kali.

[Shuma-Gorath]

My instructor has turned fighters coming from widely varying backgrounds into some of the toughest fighters in Canada. Being a world Karate champion means he could teach pretty much anything he wanted, but it just so happens he chose BJJ and the remaining elements of striking (elbows, kness, leg kicks, etc).

Compare that to my last Shotokan dojo, and it's clearly all about the the school. In fact, I'd say Karate is second only to Wing Chun in its variation across schools.