A brief history of my martial art experience.
I first started out in Jeet Kune Do for about a year and half. While I was there I was also studying all of Bruce Lees books and couldn’t help but to notice that they were going against the very thing that Bruce Lee preached. Bruce said no belt levels, instead this school used shirts. He said it was important to practice forums and stances when you are first starting. They said Bruce Lee was completely against them. The biggest of all, they were pretty much against full contact sparring. Bruce Lee would have compared it to learning to swim on dry land. Long story short, I ended up leaving seeking a better teacher.
One day when I was training in Jeet Kune Do the teacher assign me to practice with one of the new students. I thought, hey he’s new and probably isn’t going too hit or kick to hard. He used a skipping side kick. The sound of the kick was so loud it was like a gun had went off. The kick sent me flying for about 3 feet, then I hit the ground and rowed the next 10 feet stopped only by the wall. I had to find out how he did it.
I shared with him the problems I had about the current class I was in. He agreed and said he didn’t know much but could teach me the little he did learn back when he had a real kung fu teacher.
A few months later he lets me know that he has located his kung fu teacher again and invited me to come train with him. The training only lasted for about 6 months. During that 6 months all he really thought us was the basics.
The training was like nothing else I’ve been through. Each and every class he reached the bar beyond what me and my friend thought possible but somehow we’d make it and he’d congratulate us on making it through training for that day. Our choice was simple. If you couldn’t do something he’d beat punish you till you did if he thought you were holding back. If you didn’t want to be punished you could either do what was asked of you or leave and never return.
Well, I don’t really want to go into the reasons as to why I left. Lets just say our trainer was a little…on the weird side and made us feel really uncomfortable. If you want more info just pm me and I’ll let you know.
After I left his class I learned of the “famous” Shaolin Do and how they were actually Shaolin Kung Fu. I trained there for a few months only because I couldn’t find anything better. Finally I talked the teacher into letting us join in on the sparring matches even though we were only white slashes. That was the dumbest thing this teacher could ever do. The teacher had us all line up and fight against the highest ranking people in the class. Since the school was fairly new the highest ranking was only a second brown slash. I finally got my chance after he went through nearly the whole line. I wasn’t even trying to hurt him. I was only playing around and he just bowed out right in the middle of our match. He told me that after training there for 4 year he didn’t stand a chance against me.
Since then I went to quite a few different schools in Columbus. The result is the same. It would seem as if these teachers are only out to make money and not there to actually teach their students self defensive.
I’ve tried giving up on martial arts all together but somehow I just can’t. I’ve stopped training but not a single day goes by that I don’t think of the training I went through during that short 6 months of my life. Somehow it changed me. I just can’t explain it.
Well, there is my introduction. Sorry for the length. I’ve giving up on looking for good trainers in the phone book. I’ve found two really good trainers and neither of them were in the phone book. My search has brought me here. I wonder how many others are here for that same reason.
