Dealing With Issues

[oneya]

Find some sorta premises near them and offer free tuition in wado ryu for 1 month as an introduction Shep and you will not only save them from their ignorance - but you will have another good wado dojo in your own area to spread the word...??

oneya

[shep]

Thanks for the compliment oneya, but I really dont think I could compete as a sensei with this kind of quality

http://www.cotterillmartialarts.co.uk/k ... wsbury.htm

shep

[Rayedin]

I used to be happy to organise new kits for the kids when they began, along with kumite kit if the parents asked for it, until.. one week i handed a parent a new gi wrapped in the bag, she toddeld of with the kid and he came back wearing it all happy, the next class the dad turned up with the kid, who was wearing the gi, he was in a rage that there was a rip in the trousers and wanted me to exchange it there and then, i explained quietly that the kid had been wearing it and the previous class his wife had accepted it brand new in the bag and was happy, so sorry i can't take it back and send it back for an exchange, (bear in mind i sold them at the prices i got them for). he stood back and we got on with the kids class.
Once the kids were all out of the dojo and the adults came in, they were doing some stretching etc before the class began and the same dad came storming in, this time shouting the odds, i asked him to step outside for a chat but nope...he continued ranting and i was getting both a little p****d of and embarressed by it, so took the finger he was pointing at me, turned it locked it and walked him out squealing, in the reception once i'd let go he started screaming he wanted a "square go" (lol) round the back of the centre, i quietly told him i,d be delighted to drop him (so no one else heard), wait for me after the class and i'll be happy to sort it out.
I went back into the class, the adrenaline subsided and at the end of the class went out to the car park fully expecting this guy to be there, thankfully he wasnt.(embarresing enough talking him down without rolling around a car park with an obvious idiot!) never saw him or his kid again.
As a result rather than organise kits for students myself i have a page on the website dedicated to any questions parents may have along with links to everything they may ever need, subsequently they now pay full price rather than club prices.
Some parents are fantastic, others well....most of you know the rest!

[Craven]

Once the kids were all out of the dojo and the adults came in, they were doing some stretching etc before the class began and the same dad came storming in, this time shouting the odds, i asked him to step outside for a chat but nope...he continued ranting and i was getting both a little p****d of and embarressed by it, so took the finger he was pointing at me, turned it locked it and walked him out squealing, in the reception once i'd let go he started screaming he wanted a "square go" (lol) round the back of the centre, i quietly told him i,d be delighted to drop him (so no one else heard), wait for me after the class and i'll be happy to sort it out.
I went back into the class, the adrenaline subsided and at the end of the class went out to the car park fully expecting this guy to be there, thankfully he wasnt.(embarresing enough talking him down without rolling around a car park with an obvious idiot!) never saw him or his kid again.

Good call Rayedin, that finger lock sounds cool! Maybe he realised afterwards that he had just walked into the dragon’s mouth and managed to get back out with all his limbs intact?! :-)

[Rayedin]

Hiya Craven,
step back into defensive stance, hands (open) at chest level , as muppet pokes toward your chest in an attempt to intimidate, ask a quick question to engage his brain and immedietly grab finger! your pinkie acts as a fulcrum, his finger the lever, bottom two fingers are most important to keep a tight hold, draw in pinkie whilst rotating wrist forward as if round a pivot point at the base of your wrist, change rotational direction turning the lock full on, wherever uke's palm faces he will go, up down and all around. i like to bring my opposite forearm into play using it to turn his arm and place his palm against my chest whilst maintaing control of the finger, now a quick flex of the pectoral muscle is enough to increase pressure on the lock.(may be difficult to visualise, some vids on the youtube channel if you can be bothered searching) the beauty is pain complience, no need to cause any injury to maintain control and shock someone enough to make them think twice. in several years of door stewarding you'd be surprised how many people try to intimidate by pointing, by controling yourself and the distance minor joint locks are relatively effective and work a lot of the time, of course i,ve had my moments when sweaty hands have worked against me, always a pleasure lol, when one thing fails think quick and move forwards!
perhaps not wado, but fun to practice!

[oneya]

Ah, what a shame, Wado doesn't have a defensive stance.!!

oneya

[Rayedin]

Ah the facetiousness lol, you know what i meant! minor joint locks don't seem to be a huge part of any wado syllabus, as opposed to various gendai jujitsu systems. stances..well stances cross all forms.

[oneya]

Ah the facetiousness lol, you know what i meant! minor joint locks don't seem to be a huge part of any wado syllabus, as opposed to various gendai jujitsu systems. stances..well stances cross all forms.

I really wasn't being facetious Ray, in wado ryu there are no stances that are purely defensive because wado - like most Japanese martial arts - are predicated on offense so all 'stances' are for offensive reasons. If offensive action is not your intention there is no need to adopt a stance at all, and yes, there are moments when the offense is momentarily defensive in the ebb and flow of the action but the wrong understanding of this philosophy brings its own problems. One of these – but not the only one – is the compliance factor that creeps into the practices of kihon kumite, ohyo kumite and yakusoku kumite which brings a deadness to the mind and body in these parts of our practice.

As for the 'joint locks' whether major or minor, not seeming to be part of the syllabus Ray, well any syllabus is only an outline of the whole or complete art and the rest will unfold as the process goes on. In the western world the 'karate' aspect tends to be dominant for the most part because it lends itself to tournament and a sporting aspect of wado - which is also what it was designed for, so the pain and pleasure factors come later..

A few posts ago we spoke of 'holes' that you could see in your view of wado ryu. As I said then, when wado is understood the gaps and holes will diminish and eventually disappear. So when making judgments this bears thinking about Ray.

oneya

[Rayedin]

perhaps my wording was taken in the wrong vein, as i am not a wado purist i'm nowhere near practicing perfect wado and therefore my phrasing may not be wado perfect, i live and learn. while i can understand that their may be no stances designed to be purely defensive, there are situations that require defensive stances, am i wrong in saying that karate is a martial art based on attack and defence? and that defence aspect requires some form of stance?, were there no defence in karate why have blocks? why move backward? with all the best will in the world, we cannot be offensive all the time, there are times for both offence and defence. there are different ways to look at it of course, and opinions also differ.
In the situation presented a defensive stance is merrited, as life is not the same as dojo practice and offense is not always the intention, there are times when the adoption of a defensive stance for the purposes of both preperation in case of conflict and also as a presentation of non agressive yet stong body language is the best course of action, were it to merrit "karate mode" i,d have to take my shoes and socks off, not always the thing to do with a drunk customer!.

As for the joints locks, major or minor, how many wadoka practice them often enough during regular wado practice to use them without concious thought in a situation where adrenaline is at a high and techniques drilled into muscle memory are the only ones with any hope of success?, and do so effectivley? my intention was not to illustrate that wado does not have these techniques, as contained within the kata are a pethora of locking techniques, it was merely an observation on regular wado practice, based on the three k's.

Finaly, the holes metioned are there, like it or not. maybe its sportification or the watering down of any art through the generations but they are there, as a judoka i know there are kicks, punches, blocks, strikes, sword defences, knife and stick defences even gun defences believe it or not all contained within the syllabus, but most judoka would disagree and call judo a sport, never practicing these all important aspects, most blank them and disagree that they are all part of judo, a browse through several books would change ideas but then that would change the perception of the sport they practice, wado i assume is in a similar boat, how many regularly practice throwing, holding, or locking techniques or would believe how many are contained within the kata? each in itself is a complete system of attack and defence but none practice all the aspects prefering instead to practice the major points in each system. Yes the holes would diminish were the art to be practiced in its entirety, unfortunatly few do. thus the holes remain.

On reading back through this post i can already see several arguments for and against, always a good thing!, the practice of any martial art is a lifelong process, one which will never be truly mastered, its the journey thats the fun part, and differing opinions from other martial arts practitioners whilst not always immedietly accepted do provide food for thought, a different prospective and an opportunity to re-think adjust, improve and learn. so thankyou!, when i read your post this morning i thought will i reply? or will i just leave it where it is? i gave it some time to sink in, had a think and decided why not, our opinions may differ but as a student its my place to question, and i'm here to learn.

Reagrds

Ray

[wadoka]

Ray

The replies and answers on here came come thick and fast at times, and also on different levels.

If you look at the thread on Ohtsuka sensei teaching at the Goju Kai there is the explanation of Ohtsuka teaching jodan uke. If you look at this sequence http://www.wado.co.uk/Wado.co.uk/Series_3.html you will also see jodan uke. In the lessons we get told this is what jodan uke is, attack.

Through the process we are told different things, but the lessons/course are full of different people at different levels. One thing that is consistent is the mindset of attack.

Talking about defence has it's appropriate moments to get people off and started but if you get a chance to listen to the people at the top, it is all about attack. There may be attack and defence together but let's just talk attack. That sets the path.