Dojo/Dojang Archetypes

[shaunkwondo]

THE INJURY FAKER - the injury faker is completely injury free and full of energy when there are only lower belts to spar, but can very quickly "do a knee" or "stuff an ankle" at even the mere chance of a higher ranked student joining in the sparring. The injury faker can easily be picked out at gradings as they almost always have visible strapping on a body part so they unfortunately cant participate in the sparring but they will usually take pride of place sitting with all the other black belts up the front of the room.

LOL, sorry! I unintentionally piggybacked off yours! So true though!

 

[CoryKS]

The Fortune Cookie - This student has memorized thousands of zen koans, Indian and African folk sayings, and the collected quotes of Bruce Lee, and can recite them at will for any conceivable situation. Occasionally throws out one that he made up himself to see if anyone will know the difference.

 

[Ken Morgan]

The Samurai Wannabe usually isn't too obnoxious unless he is an extreme one. He is the guy who is fixated on Nipponese culture (substitute Korean and Hwarang Warrior as needed) and obviously wishes he had been born several hundred years earlier in an Eastern country, hopefully as someone of the warrior profession. The Samurai Wannabe will correct you on your pronunciation of a Japanese word, being right only half the time. He knows obscure facts about the Tokugawa Shogunate and will soak up valuable training time pontificating about it to a mostly bored class. The best way to get rid of the Samurai Wannabe is to point out to him that karate is actually a 'peasant' fighting system. More times than not, this will force him to gravitate to kendo or iaido or aikido as his next art.

Oh yeah, we get them in iaido often, but thankfully when they realise that iaido is boring as all hell, we don't spar, we don't let newbies use real swords and its actually much harder then it looks, they disapear very quickly...

 

[Balrog]

"The Powerhouse"
also known as The Bull in a China Shop.

Believes that power is better than speed, snap, form, and. . . anything really. The Powerhouse will barrel his (in most cases The Powerhouse is a male) way through forms and drills, leaving him red-faced and bent over gasping for air by the end of them. During sparring, control is a major issue for The Powerhouse who only has one setting - charge in and hit hard. In many cases, this is due to inexperience, though it isn't always the case. The most likely student to be a Powerhouse is generally a green belt (7th gup or so) who hasn't taken a chill pill and learned to relax yet.

The best chill pill is a defensive side kick to the abdomen as he charges in. It's just amazing how that can change someone's attitude in sparring! :lol:

 

[ralphmcpherson]

The best chill pill is a defensive side kick to the abdomen as he charges in. It's just amazing how that can change someone's attitude in sparring! :lol:

So true. Im tall and lean with long legs so most people charge in at me with a flurry of punches to get me out of my desired range. A prop sidekick to the mid section works a treat for this, especially with people I spar all the time because I only have to have done it successfully once and people remember that its there.

 

[Gorilla]

Great Thread!!!!