experiences in other MA dojos

[majin29]

Wow that's another remarkable account. I guess I should count myself lucky based on these posts. Pity that some organizations don't get what martial arts are about and use intimidation and aggression as a benchmark for excellence.

[karateman7]

I have had a mixed bag in visiting other Dojos in my time doing Wado Ryu. I have been to two other wado ryu clubs and the people at them train hard and the instruction has been good; yet I couldn't train with them because they wanted me to get insured within their organisation to attend. Which would be fair enough if the insurance I already have didn't cover me as long as I am doing karate under an insured instructor. As a full time student I really don't have the cash to pay for two sets of insurence for the same activity every year.

The only bad experiance I have ever had was visiting an MMA gym to try out Brazillian Jujjutsu. I am not really interested in it; but my friend claims the instructor is good and was worth checking out. I ofcourse explain I do karate when asked if do anything already when I get there. Thirty minutes into my taster class I have been put into a sparring match with a blue belt; and note this is before I have been officially shown any techniques. Ofcourse I assume it's wrestling style as it was a grappling class; but the guy hits me with a right hook when I go for an Uchi mata. I let it go the first time; but when I go for an Osoto Gari again he hits me but because of the timing we both clumsily end up on the floor where I performed an ude-garami and manage to submit him. As you can imagine I left after that because it's just not good practice to put somone in a sparring match so quickly; especially on a first session.

It was a bad experiance because without my prior Kick Boxing and Submission wrestling experiance, with some dabbling into Judo, I would have ended up quite badly hurt against such an idiot. In hindsight I shouldn't have gone along with it, but I did and walked away fine, but it was stupid and a lesson I have learned from.

You sure that wasn't your Wado talking?

[Gary]

It’s funny you should mention that your one bad experience occurred at a Wing Chun club as I have experienced a similar situation.

My Wado group used to have a club at the Guildford Spectrum sports centre. A Wing Chun group (although I think they called their particular branch Wing Tsun – they had “WT” on their T-shirts) used the room directly after us. Not a week went past without the instructor passing comment as we vacated the room. He’d make sure that he said it loud enough for his students to hear, as well as a few of us who were leaving the room.

They were never hugely offensive, but instead silly comments, like when we gathered up our shoes to put them on outside he would pass comment about why that was another reason to train whilst wearing your shoes, and how that was “silly” as you were far more likely to be wearing shoes in a sd scenario etc etc!!??

After a while it grew tiresome – he was clearly trying to impress his students at the cost of putting down another MA. Of course not all Wing Chun / Wing Tsun instructors are this way inclined, but maybe the art seems to produce a disproportionate amount of bell-ends?

As far as training in other ma, my experiences have only been good ones and continue to be. In the most part it is down to the group that I train with – they are a great bunch of fellas. I also think it helps that it is a) Japanese and b) a Koryu bujutsu. There is certainly a symphony there, and whilst I am still a green horn at it, my very patient instructor has commented on more than one occasion that my “Wado” training has certainly helped.

Gary

[acer]

It was a bad experiance because without my prior Kick Boxing and Submission wrestling experiance, with some dabbling into Judo, I would have ended up quite badly hurt against such an idiot.

Well well look at that ....The only straight punches train didn’t help you?Imagine that....

[karateman7]

May I ask what the alternative to training with straight punches is? I'm honestly asking not mocking

[wadoka]

Careful....

[kyudo]

Well well look at that ....The only straight punches train didn’t help you?Imagine that....

Acer,
As this thread will tell you, I came from a background of TKD and kickboxing. And I experimented with a lot of MA styles. Then one day I decided to switch to wado and stick to it. The reason was pretty simple. When first entering a wado dojo I liked the atmosphere. But in the first place I was much impressed by the fact that for all my fast kicks and punches, straight or not, I didn't seem able to affect the fella standing in front of me. Did I say in front? In fact he moved constantly to places where I had no control over him, so smooth and swiftly that I didn't even see it happening. This was the first time in my life that I had zero, nada chance of taking on a guy. He was 100% in control of the situation.
This, BTW, was an experience totally different from the incident at the Wing Chun school. This guy wasn't trying to impress or overwhelm me. He just did his thing as I attacked him. Which made it all the more impressive.
I honestly had no clue what he was doing, but it sure roused my curiousity. So I decided to take up this art and happily practiced the mandatory kihon waza and straight punches ever since.

And that's all I'm going to say on this subject....

[shep]

acer

Wing Chun is a fighting system built on the principle of only straight punches - shortest and most direct route possible to the target and 'rapid fire'. The chances of a Wing Chun practicioner using swings, hooks and uppercuts would be more remote than the chances of you understanding the princples of Wado, it would seem.

shep

[Wado heretic]

The kick boxing helped as it meant I was used to taking a body shot and not flinching; and in what I thought was a grappling match it would have been unfair of me to have applied Wado Ryu to the fullest extent. I shall concede that Wado Ryu is not submission wrestling; meaning beside it's principles it has no place being used in said combat sport. The foot work and hand speed I developed from training in Wado Ryu did help me though; it is how I kept achieving a grip on the gi of an experianced grappler whom resorted to cheap tricks to stop me throwing him.

Acer; you're seeing form over function time after time. Just train and get on with it; if you don't like Wado Ryu get out of it. Just don't let your stuborness turn you into an internet troll; the last thing the internet needs is one more troll.

[majin29]

I'm still floored at some of the experiences of others here. I'm shocked that some martial arts schools endorse this kind of behavior. Looks like the "martial" part of the martial arts takes a front seat to some and they forget the "art" part of the equation....

The Kung Fu school I studied with didn't say anything bad about other schools or styles. Nor did the Tae Kwon Do one. It was just the Goju one that was openly contemptuous of other neighboring schools and styles. Pity. The espoused such high moral ideals in their classes (or at least purported to).

On one occasion, we did have a guy come in to try a class out and he was this heavy set bald guy with a shiner. They paired me up against him when I was still only a white belt and he was wacking at my ribs quite hard. The one good thing my former sempai did was persuade him not to join the school. Turns out he was a BJJ MMA guy who trained at another school and just wanted to fight. I didn't get hurt much but I didn't appreciate the guy coming in under false pretenses (he didn't reveal that he trained until AFTER the class was over and my ribs were aching- thanks).