I’ve been training for over 30 years now. A milestone that I never expected or planned. However many times over the years I’ve attended seminars with people that we experts in their field. At Culver Karate Club in Connellsville we’ve got experts in the field of Shotokan Karate, Jujitsu, MMA and Aerobic Kickboxing.
Over the last few years we’ve heard of various instructors that profess to be Master with just a few years of experience. I’ve heard of instructors claiming that they don’t teach sport they teach real self defense. Yeah, been there done that. I trained with a former Green Beret in training that certainly was not for the ring. I have a Jujitsu instructor that developed and put in place the Marine corp karate program and taught every form of armed and unarmed fighting in the Marine Corp. Karate is not taught as a sport. Karate teaches pure self defense, however the people that I have doing the sport part of it are winning in that sport and at the same time they are learning how to go against people that intend them bodily harm and win, whether it’s in the ring or on the street.
The same person that professes not to teach sport, teaches kids that they should take the person to the ground and grapple with them. I know because he was bragging to me how great his program was. I asked, what if they have a friend (which all bullies do), and the proceed to kick them while you are holding this other bully down. He didn’t have an answer. Great Idea! I teach kids how to safely get into positions that they can defend themselves from without getting into a fighting stance which will get the kid into trouble. Yes, if the kid makes a fist, and if they grab the other kid and throw them on the ground they will definitely go to the office and the parents will definitely get fined. That’s call no tolerance. What I find really funny about this is that instructor was a school teacher and should know this and is basically teaching kids how to get themselves in trouble. If a good kid realizes that he/she is going to get in trouble he will hesitate or worse yet do nothing and get beat up. I know, I’ve seen it happen! The schools will take the student who was defending himself and sit him down and lecture him and yell at him. The kid actually gets beat down by the bully and then gets beat down by the principle. They scare the good kid into doing nothing. Do you think no tolerance means a thing to the bad kids? Nope just a day off!
Did I mention that the so called self defense instructor learned his stuff at a seminar and on videos. Wow! I’ve trained and trained and trained some more for over 30 years. I’ve also gone to countless seminars. I want kids to get out of situations without a mark and the parents have a leg to stand on when they talk to the principle. My Jujitsu Instructor has taught countless Marines how to survive real military encounter and survive. I’ve had many students defend themselves successfully against bullies.
Seminars are cool but they don’t create experts. The expert is often trying to network and sell his DVDs. Like I said, I’ve been to countless seminars and I’ll occasionally learn a technique or two. I’ve put together what I’ve teach from all of my experiences not just a weekend.
In the end don’t take short cuts! If you want your kid to learn something of value, put some time into it. Find a quality school and send your kid to a real instructor that has real answers not stuff he just learned the day before!
Presented by,
Shihan Culver 7th Degree Black Belt Mushindo Ryu Goshin Jitsu, 6th Degree Black Belt Shotokan Karate, 2nd Degree Black Belt Syu Sin Do, USAKF National Champion
