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Have any of you asked to spar with the instructor or one of his students when shopping around for a martial arts school? I know that there are some sifus/senseis/etc who think this is offensive, but I believe that if you are going to put your hard-earned money on it, you might as well get to know their "credentials". A traditional MA teacher I've heard about takes such a request offensively, and has beat the crap out of those who have asked to spar either him or one of his students. Such "honor"!
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I think there is a right way and a wrong way to go about asking. If you do into a school and start talking about how bad you are, how the teacher's style is crap and his school is crap, then you problably deserve to get your ass kicked. I personally think there are better ways of finding out about a schools credentials.Originally posted by sanjiyan99 -
that is pretty offensive, and i wouldnt reccomend it to anyone ever. u should instead just ask the instructor when the sparring times are and watch how they train, or ask the students what they think of the school. going into a school and asking to fight the instructor aint crackin bro.
btw, one day this big samoan guy came into the school i train at and challenged the bjj instructor to a fight, and nearly got his arm broken off. he was yelling in pain from the savage arm bar he was put into. asking a martial arts instructor to prove himself to you isnt a good idea.Comment
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Wonderful. Of course, I know even politely asking to spar the instructor or one of his students is not the best course of action to take in order to find out more about the style, or the way they train. Your best bet would be to take a trial class (if offered), or put money down for a private lesson. Pardon me, but I wanted to hear some stories. Yes, I do agree that if someone comes to the school acting like "billy bad ass" then that individual does deserve an ass-kicking. However, if someone were to politely ask for a sparring contest, then there is no need to be rude with words, but it would be more appropriate to talk with hands!Comment
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We used to have a few winners come to our school. They were invited to stay and train. We used to run a very physical class and many weren't up to the challenge. If they wanted to spar then we would be happy to oblige then. . . .Comment
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I've seen this happen a lot
I've trained in 4 different schools where I've seen some winners come by and challenge the instructor. Before I even got into muay thai or kickboxing I only did shito ryu karate and I guess the day before my sensei got into an argument with the pizza delivery guy next door. Something about a door ding from my sensei which he denied. Anyway the pizza delivery guy's girlfriend worked there too and she yelled at my sensei right in front of the class and her bf challenged him and my sensei just looked at him and asked, "do you feel froggy?".."than jump". The idiot tried some wide haymaker and all my sensei did was close the gap with a hard reverse punch/gyaku tsuki to the moron's solor plexus. A lot of you guys on here chastise anything that isn't boxing/muay thai/kickboxing but if you've ever trained with any good karate, etc. guys some of those techniques do work when performed right. I wish I didn't lose contact with this sensei and could still train under him...
The other time was with my first muay thai instructor Alberto Ramirez..Alberto stands about 5'2-5'3 and is about 125 pounds. This black belt canadian kickboxing champion(i still never heard of the assoc. he said) came and challenged him). Alberto was a young instructor than and agreed, he basically just jump kneed and kneed the hill out of the guy and threw a lot of looping over hand punches until the guy verbally quit. The guys wanted to join and alberto told him "no".
The other time I saw this happen was when I trained brazillian jiu jitsu under Marcelo Alonso. Some state wrestling champion came in and challenged Marcelo. Marcelo did what some other guy on this post said and just about broke the guys arm in a arm bar.
The last time I saw this done was insane... I used to train under a man named Master Cairnes. He's a 4th dan in a style that is a combination of muay thai/kyokushinkai/judo/pencack silat..it's called tjakai and isn't really that well known but Rob Kaman trained in this style under Roy Martina before he went to meijiro gym. Cairnes is also the highest ranked black belt under Frank Dux in Dux Ryu..yeah yeah, I know about all the bs about frank dux too and never studied dux ryu but from what I've seen of the stuff it's still pretty damn effective. Cairnes stands about 6-4 and weighs about 260'ish. This idiotic shodan/1st dan came in and asked cairnes for his black belt. Cairnes politley told the guy no that it came from his shidoshi. So than the guy challenged cairnes to a fight and cairnes politely asked if he could warm up and the guy agreed. Cairnes went to a bananna bag and just started doing a couple of leg kicks. Now for Cairnes size, that alone would make him a hard kicker. He even takes that a step further and kicks harder than anyone I've ever seen. The guy got scared by seeing him kick the bag and left.
I've never came in and challenged anybody but one of my x students told me that this happened a lot when he did wing chun in hawaii and that wing chun is notorious for challenges to the instructor. Just food for thought..good times.Comment
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I think if you come into his gym and ask to spar in order to see if he's good enough to train you - then you should not complain when he doesn't cut you any slack. I mean you asked to see the show, right?A traditional MA teacher I've heard about takes such a request offensively, and has beat the crap out of those who have asked to spar either him or one of his students. Such "honor"!Comment
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Difference in point of view
You know, this is a big difference IMO between boxing gyms and "dojos" or "martial arts schools." In boxing, and I suspect in many kickboxing gyms too, the teacher is more of a coach or trainer. He doesn't have to be some old wise guy with big white eyebrows and a long beard who can kill you with his chi or whatever. He also doesn't have to be some world class athlete or fighter. He just has to know his subject and how to teach it and how to whip your tail into shape. You would never hear of someone going to a boxing gym and "challenging" the instructor. This is a common fallacy I've seen in the martial arts world: that someone has to be superior at performing the martial art to teach it or train others. The other HUGE mistake is the idea that because someone is superior in ability he is going to be a good teacher.Comment
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I agree, Id rathr have a good teacher and an ok teacher than a world class fighter but a crappy teacher. However one of the plusses you get from having a good fighter for a teacher is that you could watch him and learn from his example.Comment
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Good point Shoot. Fighting ability and teaching ability might be related sometimes, but they aren't the same thing.Comment
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Gregimotis,
What you say is true -- that if the instructor should oblige your request by proceeding to beat the crap out of you, there should not be complaints since he was "asked" to show his stuff, right? Which brings me to tell my story. Tell me if you would side with either the customer or the sifu:
Back during my high school days, I had decided to take classes in choy li fut kung fu after some friends told me of its efficiency in dealing with multiple opponents. After showing me some beautiful forms they had learned, and a few techniques, I decided to join them. I worked a job at the local Walgreens in order to pay for these lessons, among other things.
One day, two young teenagers, who looked to be no older than thirteen, came through the door and was asking questions about this particular school. The sifu and his top student came out to meet them. One of the two teens looked around curiously, touching a weapon on the wall. The sifu's top student yelled at him, "Don't touch that, you bitch! I'll kill you!" And suddenly, the top student jumped him, and began to beat him senseless. The sifu did nothing but SMILE. The boy's friend ran to him, to which the top student turned around and said, "You want some of me, too, mutha*****er?!" He literally kicked them both out the door. Later, I discovered that unless they were enrolled in the class, they were not supposed to touch the weapons as this could be taken by the sifu as a sort of "challenge", as if to tell him that the toucher knows something about fighting. I also discovered that for all his talk about morality, honesty, honor, respect -- he would turn around and enlist the senior students to join him in acting out his own personal vendettas against those who have verbally insulted him. I thought, "What?! An insult is a blow to pride, but not a threat to life." It was then that I thought this man I signed under to be taught lessons in kung fu was pathetic. Fortunately, he did not require a contract of stay, so I never came back again. Much later on, he and his top student got their asses handed to them in a tournament by a MT practitioner, as was told me by the friends who invited me to join them in kung fu.Comment
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today this kid who doesnt train at our school came in. he wanted to try the sparring class. i dont really know what his deal was, but he either thought he was naturally a good fighter and would dominate, or wanted to see how hard we train. the entire time he was trying to brawl with everyone, and he was trying very hard to take our heads off with every shot with haymaker and wild type punches. he lacked technique, experience, and he wasnt in great shape, i guess he just thought he was a badass. when he got paired up with me, i lit him up and shattered his dreams.
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last year i was studying wing chun some MT guy come over to the kwoon saying he was looking to take someting different. my sifu asked what styles he studied b4 the MT guy said he practice muay thai for ten years b4 in thailand. my sifu started dissing the MT guy and his style saying his style sucks he only has a few moves. MT guy got a little pissed off and challenged sifu to a sparring match in the kwoon. sifu shapes up into a stance like a fruitcake out of frisco, MT guy starts tearing into him with combos. sifu tries to trap him but it just gets him up close so the MT guy starts kneeing the crap out of him with strikes to sifu's spleen, sifu's ribs, sifu's kidneys. after that the MT guy left and told us all that our kung fu sucked.
so after that i left wing chun and started looking for an MT gym.
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