in small schools/organisations

[tshadowchaser]

How many of you have ever asked an instructor his lineage?
How many of you have ever asked for the names of people that where on the promotion board or where the test took place?
Have you ever checked to see if the people in the above question even are real or if they do know your instructor?
Now I know that some organizations will have backgrounds that are world wide and checking may be easy or you may even know the testers but what about those that belong to small groups that are not well known

 

[sfs982000]

How many of you have ever asked an instructor his lineage?
How many of you have ever asked for the names of people that where on the promotion board or where the test took place?
Have you ever checked to see if the people in the above question even are real or if they do know your instructor?
Now I know that some organizations will have backgrounds that are world wide and checking may be easy or you may even know the testers but what about those that belong to small groups that are not well known

I've never really even thought about asking about lineage when I've checked out schools and instructors in the past. Growing up all the schools I studied at were smaller and were not affiliated with any organizations. There was a well know Poekelan instructor, Willy Wetzel, that had trained a lot of people who went on to open schools back home, so those guys I could trace back to Mr. Wetzel. Other than that I guess I never really gave it a second thought, I usually based where I trained on how I saw the training that was conducted, the attitudes of the instructors and students and generally my overall feel for the school. Bottom line was I just used my gut feeling and it hasn't steered me wrong yet, I've had nothing but positive experiences over the years with my training.

 

[kravi]

My teacher is a member of ISKF, so I was able to find him and his school listed there. That was enough of a background check for me.

He is studying BJJ on the side, but certainly doesn't claim any expertise in it that he doesn't have, and as we're learning Shotokan with a little BJJ added to it, I think he's more than qualified.

But I can't say I've been exposed to situations, even as a kid in the 80s, where I didn't automatically know the lineage, or at least the important parts of it.

--Me