In all my classes i stopped all forms of excerising. Classes begin with basic drills and move into techniques of the day. Then students are split into groups based on rank to go over requirements. NO EXCERISE. For sure this increased my student numbers. I tell them if they want to get physically fit go to the gym, but if they want to learn the Art of fighting this is the place. I was taught with serious excerise in BKF, and saw people run away from class by the dozens. Today it is a rule in my club not to teach beginners ground fighting as they also don't enjoy it. Well its high season for MA right now, and new members are many in my club including several ladies. I do my best to make them enjoy the class. IS THIS SELLING OUT?? Sure i spend a lot of time with my beginners calling them by name and giving them special attention. It is paying off big time right now, but will it in the future?
If drilling basics, doing forms, and running techs is not a workout, they aren't being done properly, in my opinion. Mr Parker viewed this as an education, not for the mind only, but for the body and spirit as well. The mind must be exerted in order to be taught. So, too, the body.
This message has been edited by jejwood from IP address 207.255.143.249 on Feb 18, 2009 2:54 PM This message has been edited by jejwood from IP address 207.255.143.249 on Feb 18, 2009 2:54 PM
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In your classes, you stopped "all forms of exercises".....so basically you don't have classes at all then? So what is everybody doing on your mats then, just standing or sitting there watching videos of "The Art of Fighting"?
Sir, I'm going to have to strongly disagree with removing exercising from your "classes"
Of the many ways that people use exercise and keep in shape, IS through Martial Arts.
In martial arts exercising you will find that lots of training is required for you to master the basic movements and stances. One of the main items that you will need to understand when you are undergoing your training is that you will need to build your endurance levels up. To begin this endurance training the martial arts fitness regime will be started off first. What's good at teaching someone how to punch and kick if they're only going to be able to throw one because after that, they're tired and winded?
In martial arts fitness you will be able to gauge your growing skills as you can hold your stance for a longer period of time or throw more than 1 or two strikes before you start huffing and puffing....if you don't do lunges or leg strengthening exercises, then how can you stay in a wide kneel stance..what about just a typical training horse stance before you legs start to shake? How long can you stay in that stance...if you know what that is.
How many kicks or punches can you throw before you start sweating and getting tired? If you were up against me, i'd let you throw as many strikes as your body will let you, once you're tired which should be too long after that, then i'll attack....would you be able to sucessfully defend yourself while I start to unleash my fury....you can't, becasue you're TIRED.......but darn it, if you only kept the exercise portion in your classes, maybe you would've had a chance...
in my opinion, teaching someone the "art of fighting" requires a HUGE deal of physical fitness and for you to remove that from your "classes" only cheats the student from achieving multiple goals.
btw, i'm not coming down on your or making judgement calls or impugning your abilities, i get really irratated when i see classes or hear about classes that have no physical fitness tied into it...Fitness is a must, there should be no and/if's or buts....it just should be there..
If students aren't sweating at the end of the class, you didn't do your job.
Respectfully,
Maurice A. Gomez Sr.
USA- Head Instructor
MAX Dojo American Kenpo Karate Studios
www.maxdojo.com
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While I rarely agree with this poster, my sense is in this case he may be misunderstood. Amen appears to be making a distinction between exercising as in a warm-up of calisthenics and exercising through martial arts basic drills and techniques. If what he is saying is that he is omitting a calisthenics warm-up because this eats away at the time he is being paid for - i.e. teaching martial arts - then I basically tend to agree with him. In all the years I trained in classes with Mr. Parker, to my recollection he never led a warm-up, but, instead, had the senior student do this. Then after the class was warmed up, Mr. Parker walked onto the mat and began teaching. As I advanced in the art, I found that the "warm-up" became essentially martial arts drills. As an aside there are a handful of teachers who are well known for their lengthy warm up of calisthenics. While this may be helpful in conditioning the student, over the years I have heard students grumble that they aren't coming to class to do push ups and sit ups, but to learn karate. Surely there is something to be said about a student taking the responsibility to condition their bodies outside of class. Anyway, just my two cents. Well, perhaps a dime.
Salute
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Well, he does make this opening statement: "In all my classes i stopped all forms of excerising. Classes begin with basic drills and move into techniques of the day." Clearly, if basic drills and techniques amount to exercise, then he had to be referring to a non-martial arts warm-up.
In any case, I tend to agree with you about burning up the hour doing calisthenics. Where this is really noticeable is with regard to seminars. I have to believe that few students are keen on paying for a two-hour seminar with an esteemed instructor who has been brought in from some distant location - only to find themselves doing a half hour of calisthenics.
Salute
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I agree with this perspective entirely. I can do jumping jacks on my own time. Now, we have a basics and conditioning night at our studio, where we usually do some form of working out in this sense before getting into Kenpo per se, but in this case I am usually pushed to do things that I would not otherwise discipline myself to do on my own, and all to the end of improving my art. But taking a big chunk out of every class to do these basic calisthenics? I see that as a waste, unless it can be tied somehow to Kenpo, which I think it can. Drilling the basics hard, doing forms at full speed and power, and running techniques like our lives and limbs are actually at stake can be a great workout, and I think that this can and should be part of any Kenpo class.
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When I used to train in JKD, before each class we did our own stretching and warm-ups then once class started we would go into techniques and so on............That way you get a lot more training. I heard some schools spend 15-30 on warm-ups, I rather do my own work-out outside of class (I have a home gym @ home) and train how to fight in class.... That's what most of us come to M.A. classes is to learn to fight, well that's what I expect from class.........
Remember "Train Strong to Remain Strong"....
Speed, Power, and Accuracy.......
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I can't understand why anyone would pay a good chunk of money to go to a Kenpo seminar and be exercised with calisthenics for an hour or so and then spend 30 minutes actually teaching something about the art. As a student attending a few of these, I was disappointed to not get anything from the seminars other than what Lactic Acid does to muscle, and not learning a thing to do with Kenpo.
When I ran classes, I did martial art exercises to warm up, they strengthen stances, kicks, punches, etc.. If they want to lose weight or get fit, get on The Biggest Loser or go to the gym, it's not my responsibility to keep you fit, it's to teach you to fight. If you ain't got the stamina, it's on you to fix it.
I have seen the small snipets and comments about stuff you teach, so I do not think any amount of exercise will help them with the worthless crap you are peddling, so please carry on...
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It only shows your level of intel when u can make such a big judgement based on such little evidence. You must be in high demand at many Kenpo schools. One look and you can say if the Instructor is crap. Carry on.
The short little video clips I have seen all suck, most of your comments a ridiculous, and you seem more interested in getting new wives, making money, and being referred to as a Grandmaster then actually putting any thoughtful and useful information out there to show you are worth a damn.
I am not out there saying I have reinvinted Kenpo, tossed out the innefficient, added what needed to be added, reformed a Continent, a Country, and countless women, and am in need of a bloated title, but I guess we all need to just take your word for it huh?
LOL
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My concern would be the economy.. Many people who used to use a gym are probably canceling those memberships due to the economic downturn.
You want them to choose MA over the gym if it comes to cost cutting, and so offering them so exercise during class may actually keep more your students. If you are afraid of too many quitting because of grueling workouts, try to compromise and choose harder ones for more serious students and "best you can do" for the more casual ones.
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I tell my 11yr old that people who use curse words do so because they have a low vocabulary. I think in many Instructor's case they have a low Martial Art vocabulary and make up for it with physical. With all the mountain of information GM Parker showed us, wasn't most of it mental. I mean i have trained with guys who could do twice as many push ups than me, more pull ups and more sit ups, but couldn't lay one glove on me in sparring. And more important couldn't teach a flee to fly. I teach that all fighting starts and ends in the mind. Surely it makes sense and it is what today's students want. At least in East Africa. 'If the mind's not tight, you're gonna lose the fight!'
I tell my 11yr old that people who use curse words do so because they have a low vocabulary. I think in many Instructor's case they have a low Martial Art vocabulary and make up for it with physical. With all the mountain of information GM Parker showed us, wasn't most of it mental. I mean i have trained with guys who could do twice as many push ups than me, more pull ups and more sit ups, but couldn't lay one glove on me in sparring. And more important couldn't teach a flee to fly. I teach that all fighting starts and ends in the mind. Surely it makes sense and it is what today's students want. At least in East Africa. 'If the mind's not tight, you're gonna lose the fight!'
My teacher used to say "your fitness is not my responsibility - but it is my concern"
meaning he wanted us ot be in better shape but wasn;t going to spend class time watching us do calisthenics.
However since then he has added 20 minutes of work-out to the front of each class. Intervals of striking (punches, kicks, elbows etc) with calisthenics.
I've got mixed feelings about it. I need the exercise, but I pay for kempo instruction. The exercise includes MA related activity, but he doesn't spend a lot of attention to perfecting technique of the students during this period.
The classes I go to are 2 hours, so the exercise is about 1/6th of my class time - tolerable. Some people go to twice as many 1-hour classes, it makes up 1/3rd of their time (because they do it every hour) - I would not be happy if that was my class.
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Sorry, you are wrong, Amen. It doesn't matter what you say, it only matters what you do. If you can hit that hardest, fastest, and totally dominate your enemy - you simply win ain't that a @#!*
This message has been edited by dwightbobblehead from IP address 66.215.203.83 on Feb 25, 2009 8:43 PM This message has been edited by dwightbobblehead from IP address 66.215.203.83 on Feb 25, 2009 8:39 PM
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ain't that a @#!*