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Dutchman.
I haven’t worked out in an organized fashion for going on 4 years now. Due to present time constraints, most of my training is self-training. Heavy bag, bungee bag, makiwara, weights etc. I occasionally meet people in a garage somewhere or run by a Dojo where I know someone and cross train. There is frankly no one close to me I care to train with on a regular basis.
Not exactly a Kyokushin BB either. My first Sensei was ranked in Kyokushin. He was also a Nidan in Shotokan under Hidetaka Nishiyama. Since there was/is virtually no Kyokushin presence in California, he chose to affiliate with what was then the JKA under Nishiyama. He ran his Dojo as a Kyokushin dojo. The training methodologies/tortures and the level of contact were the same. However, he shipped us off to Nishiyama for testing. When we passed HN’s test, HN would give our certificates to our Sensei. He would then make us pass his test (which generally were a lot more painful) before he forwarded and recognized the rank. So we were kind of moving in both circles, but the ranking is in Shotokan. The Shokokan guys considered us animals because of the way we trained. There frankly isn’t a Karate Dojo within an hours drive of me that I would consider training at anymore. Even Nishiyama’s dojo has changed. Things have been made much easier; the level of contact keeps going down, as does the overall intensity level. The easier they make it, the larger the student base. The larger the student base, the more money they make. It seems to unfortunately all be about $$$$ now. It just ain’t the same.
Damn, it sure is hard to type with this sheet over my head.
I haven’t worked out in an organized fashion for going on 4 years now. Due to present time constraints, most of my training is self-training. Heavy bag, bungee bag, makiwara, weights etc. I occasionally meet people in a garage somewhere or run by a Dojo where I know someone and cross train. There is frankly no one close to me I care to train with on a regular basis.
Not exactly a Kyokushin BB either. My first Sensei was ranked in Kyokushin. He was also a Nidan in Shotokan under Hidetaka Nishiyama. Since there was/is virtually no Kyokushin presence in California, he chose to affiliate with what was then the JKA under Nishiyama. He ran his Dojo as a Kyokushin dojo. The training methodologies/tortures and the level of contact were the same. However, he shipped us off to Nishiyama for testing. When we passed HN’s test, HN would give our certificates to our Sensei. He would then make us pass his test (which generally were a lot more painful) before he forwarded and recognized the rank. So we were kind of moving in both circles, but the ranking is in Shotokan. The Shokokan guys considered us animals because of the way we trained. There frankly isn’t a Karate Dojo within an hours drive of me that I would consider training at anymore. Even Nishiyama’s dojo has changed. Things have been made much easier; the level of contact keeps going down, as does the overall intensity level. The easier they make it, the larger the student base. The larger the student base, the more money they make. It seems to unfortunately all be about $$$$ now. It just ain’t the same.
Damn, it sure is hard to type with this sheet over my head.
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