Drinking the cool-aide: Martial arts Groupies!

A while back I blogged about the instructors that I liked and some that I did not like. The facts are that this blog is all about the way that I see things, its my thoughts and my opinions, some of which will not jive with others. But then there are the facts. I don’t mind if you want to Drink the cool-aide and believe what an instructor is telling people, but for God’s sake don’t post your silly thoughts on the internet and have someone who knows about the situations be able to read them and laugh at them. An old Chinese proverb states “better to keep your mouth shut and have people think you a fool, than open it and prove them right”……a proverb that sometimes even I should keep in mind.

I posted about an instructor, whom out of respect I did not name. He was a gent that had tried the JKA instructor program and did NOT graduate.

Now, my comments in the first blog were to bring to light the attitude this gent had when he made his way back to the JKA of MB and taught a class. I thought nothing of the blog after I posted it, because to be frank I don’t often think of this guy and have had several other mediocre instructors that were better than he was and a fair amount of "bad instructors" after him. I had really to struggle to remember this guy when writing the post because it was a bit of a Joke brining him in, that and he was not allowed to teach an evening class. He only taught a noon class one time, we all pretty much went to our instructor and asked that we not have to repeat that class at night. He had everything that I don’t like about Karate; Ego, poor teaching skills, poor interpersonal skills and adding to his "I" am better issues he also had the "Worship me" Down pat.

So, why am I again blogging about this "gent" well, Months and months after I posted a long blog with a snippet about this guy...one of his students, I am assuming by the veracity of the email...has chosen to hit me up with a reply to that blog. Early this morning as I sat down to do my end of month Blog, one that was to be about “Teachers vs Student” differences in black belt who pick one or the other path…and here is this email saying I have a reply to my blog. The info I got is this guy was searching thru the blogs and came across my little piece of the blogisphere..and he took issue with my post…one in which I do not name any names at all…just post some facts and let others read them. This student even signed up for the Blog info so that he could make the comment to me…a lot of effort for someone replying to a post that does not even mention the instructor by name!

It’s funny however; he questions my facts and opinion of this instructor, whom he guessed I was talking about, a post in which I don’t name names and most people with a life wont go and live on the web to connect any dots!. Now it’s funny, because the facts he offers in response are horribly wrong and laughable. They show the guy has truly drank the cool-aide and is not thinking straight. Here is his reply...with the instructors name deleted, because I am not trying to make this a personal attack on the instructor. I simply did not like the way he taught that day! Who knows, maybe he took a class and got better??

“ The blogger Kensei is extremely disrespectful and should get his facts straight. I believe that he is referring to Sensei .” Cool so I go to lengths not to name names were I review the guys teaching ability, much like a movie critic and you go and blast his name on the web…who does this serve…

“Sensei .” graduated from the JKA Instructor Program as it existed in .” before the death of Sensei Nakayama, former Chief Instructor of the Japan Karate Association. Sensei .” was graded to Yondan and awarded a B Instructor License by Sensei Nakayama. Sensei .” is the only non-Japanese graduate of the old JKA Instructor Program.” Wait a tick, so he is the “ONLY” Non-Japanese to graduate from the old instructor training program….well, besides getting your facts wrong, the “OLD” instructor training program continued unchanged thru to todays date. And we have Walter Crockford from Canada and we now have a gent by the name of Elmar Caagbay, Don’t know anything about him but he does not sound Japanese! The JKA also lists several non-japanese of whom all have graduated and have been release, kicked out or removed themselves from the JKA of their own will…Tamang Pemba is a non-Japanese instructor whom is with the NSKF and is very well known and respected…spoke with him over the web a few times and he is a respectful and nice person. Others who were in the program and did not complete or left their after are Ennio Vessulli, Nigel Jackson, Pete Pacheco, Leon Montoya, Richard Amos,and Pascal Lesage. Mr. Amos is a instructor of a friend of mine and also a very nice gent, and from what I have been told a heck of a good instructor.

“Sensei .” made himself unwelcome in certain quarters by revealing subsequent serious financial improprieties at the JKA. After the death of Sensei Nakayama these financial improprieties contributed to the breakup of the old JKA into several factions and to almost a decade of litigation amongst these factions. Please note that the present JKA is not the same organization as the original JKA and does not recognize many former JKA instructor program graduates, including Sensei .”Wow, thats a whole lot of wrong info that could get the instructors who repeat it in a lot of legal hot water! First off the JKA split over the name, its VERY well documented that the Asai side and the JKA side were arguing about the name JKA and the use of it. Asai sensei’s side felt that due to the fact that Nakayama left no replacement as chief instructor when he passed on that Asai should be the chief instructor. However, the Nakahara group felt that they had ownership over the name and the organization. A lengthy court battle ensued and the Nakahara group won out and to this day are the owners of the JKA name. Your assertion that the split was over money and that the instructor in question had ANYTHING to do with it is laughable. For the record, you can see the legal battle and how it played out…BY GOOGLING IT….nowhere in the many articles I have read did it mention that there was an issues like is suggested here. And at this point I believe that the instructor in question was already long forgotten by the JKA and Asai side of the argument. I don’t think the instructor in question played a large role in the splitting of a group that he had left…been removed…kicked out…ran away from! He was in his home country by the time the JKA unraveled and I really don’t think that “an outsider” would have access to the financial information in question!

“.” learned his skills through 5 years of daily practice at both the old JKA and at top Japanese University Clubs. He has a legendary tournament record. He has analyzed basic JKA movements and has identified several areas for both speed and deliverable energy improvement. Some of this analysis is available at www. .”. Blogger Kensei should study this material.” I took a class from him, I was unimpressed to say the least. Found it a waste of my time when I had a far better instructor that I trained with daily and nothing he was doing was even remotely “new”, I have trained under some of the most senior Karate instructors in the world (Nakayama, Tanaka, Ueki, Yaguchi, Okizaki, Koyama, Takashina, Mikami) and he could not hold their gi bag to be frank. I don’t dispute that he was a great Karate fighter, and he did go TO the JKA instructor training program. But I suggest the facts his student tries to lay out…well they are influenced by him being the student of the instructor in question! (can you say hero worship?)

I have also been to his web site and to be frank, he is trying to re-invent the wheel and make it look the SAME as it is…but with more BS to shine it up. Is this anything new…No, I have ran into so many instructors whom try to put a spin on Karate and throw their name on it and call it theirs, all while trying to say that they come from a JKA root but their Karate is different. The only person that can say that with any truth to their assertion of a new form of Shotokan would be Asai Sensei and all his followers because he truly did change JKA Karate. This other instructor, along with the countless others…not so much!

“Being taught by .” is a privilege, not a right, .” deals with kumite reality, not student feelings. In order to benefit from instruction by .” Kensei must first acknowledge his own limitations.
Regards,
.”

Wow, does that not scream of CULT! Instructors should not be placed on a pedestal so high, they tend to disappoint in the long run when that is done. They are human and in most cases flawed as much as the other guys who don’t wear white pajamas. This is what is WRONG with Karate today, and has been for so much longer than should be allowed. Hero worship and cult mentalities don’t have a place in Karate…. well they do but they shouldn’t! I fully admit my limitations, I am getting older and older and the body does not respond the way it used to. But to be frank, I don’t worship at the altar of the “SENSEI”, I know my sensei personally and he is flawed like the rest of us, and would NEVER suggest it is a “Privilege” to train with him….that is stupid! He however does welcome people to come and train with him, he has been teaching longer than most have been in Karate and he still has his ego under control. I also would establish that I have limitations as much as the next guy, but suggesting that the instructor now know on my blog as does not is stupid and cultish itself.

Moral of the story kids, Instructors are flawed, People are flawed and often…students drink the cool-aide that some instructors feed them and make the humans into Gods….I don’t want to be around when this student hits rock bottom and realizes that the instructor is just as human as others, or he takes a class with a better instructor….God I hate martial arts Groupies!