My experience with American kenpo

Tez3

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No just the one guy the head instructor was a great guy he was a good teacher a decent guy. A bit arrogant but well he was a 7th dan, a former soldier and a police officer I guess there's bound to be a bit of arrogance there but he was fine and a guy I do still have a lot of respect for

Why do you say that? Do you think senior grades or police officers or soldiers are bound to be arrogant then? I would have said if he was arrogant it was his nature nothing else.
 

Touch Of Death

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Why do you say that? Do you think senior grades or police officers or soldiers are bound to be arrogant then? I would have said if he was arrogant it was his nature nothing else.
There is an us verses them mentality, police officers naturally fall into.
 

Tez3

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There is an us verses them mentality, police officers naturally fall into.

Not really in my experience here in UK, watching the news though from America though it's certainly very different from here.
 
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Why do you say that? Do you think senior grades or police officers or soldiers are bound to be arrogant then? I would have said if he was arrogant it was his nature nothing else.
I know plenty of police officers who trained at the school because he was the head instructor and they all had similar types of arrogance and I'm not saying that as a bad thing. I remember one of them who'd been in the police a very long time said that police need a bit of arrogance they need to believe in themselves so when a situation kicks off they're not going to be timid. I also remember being told being arrogant isn't always a bad thing it's what you do with that arrogance if you use it to bully people and put them down and say how much better you are that's bad but if you use it just to believe in yourself and know you can handle anything that comes your way that's not a bad thing.
 

WaterGal

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Idiots and jerks take karate lessons, too.

Sure, but the teacher is not under any obligation to a) teach them, and b) make them a high-ranking senior student. Sometimes, it's better for the school if you weed out idiots and jerks, because they bring the whole school down.
 

WaterGal

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I know plenty of police officers who trained at the school because he was the head instructor and they all had similar types of arrogance and I'm not saying that as a bad thing. I remember one of them who'd been in the police a very long time said that police need a bit of arrogance they need to believe in themselves so when a situation kicks off they're not going to be timid. I also remember being told being arrogant isn't always a bad thing it's what you do with that arrogance if you use it to bully people and put them down and say how much better you are that's bad but if you use it just to believe in yourself and know you can handle anything that comes your way that's not a bad thing.

There's a difference between being confident and being arrogant. Confidence means that you believe in yourself and are not timid, which is an important character trait for a police officer, soldier, or anyone in a line of work like that. Arrogance, on the other hand, means that you think that you're better than other people, that other people are beneath you or less important than you. I don't think that's a great trait for anyone to have.
 

Touch Of Death

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Sure, but the teacher is not under any obligation to a) teach them, and b) make them a high-ranking senior student. Sometimes, it's better for the school if you weed out idiots and jerks, because they bring the whole school down.
That may be why the parents are bringing the kid to you in the first place. If discipline is not something you offer, I get your position. :)
 

Tez3

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There's a difference between being confident and being arrogant. Confidence means that you believe in yourself and are not timid, which is an important character trait for a police officer, soldier, or anyone in a line of work like that. Arrogance, on the other hand, means that you think that you're better than other people, that other people are beneath you or less important than you. I don't think that's a great trait for anyone to have.

Absolutely spot on. If you are a police officer or soldier the confidence is there mostly because of solid training which means you can cope with every situation that is thrown at you. Arrogance gets you no one, no one wants to work with or be partnered with an arrogant person. Being arrogant, as Watergal says, is thinking you are better than others and that leads to arrogant people causing trouble which no one wants. Working with someone who thinks he's better than others leads to confrontations when you're supposed to be calming situations done. Quite honestly arrogant soldiers and police officers don't last that long.
 
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Martial arts train the mind, body, and spirit. Clearly this black belt wasn't trained in either. I mean, walking up with no stance and punching right into the face after getting kicked right in the groin? That's not skill, that's a sucker punch. Also, the right thing to do is to say "Nice one" and resume. If you guys believe that guy was a legit black belt, I don't know what to do. What's even more crazy is he's been a black belt for a few years, due to his 2nd Degree Black Belt!
 

Touch Of Death

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Not really in my experience here in UK, watching the news though from America though it's certainly very different from here.
Maybe it is different, over their, but over here, every civilian has their own opinion about how the police should go about doing their jobs, like shooting them in the foot, instead of aiming for center mass, but again, if you guys are all on the same page, more power to ya.
 

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Bobby Joe Blyth is pretty much the poster child for this crazy martial cult situation.

 

Tez3

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Maybe it is different, over their, but over here, every civilian has their own opinion about how the police should go about doing their jobs, like shooting them in the foot, instead of aiming for center mass, but again, if you guys are all on the same page, more power to ya.

On the whole the police and the community are on the same page here, the police serve the community and they do it in many ways not all to do with crime.
The selection process to be a police officer is extremely vigorous, with mental and physical testing to weed out those not suited then the training which lasts for two years is thorough and equips officers with the right attitude and skills.
Now of course you can't weed out martial arts students before they begin in the same way, you can during though if you see traits coming through you don't like the look of, arrogance and bullying for instance. You can certainly include during the training how a student should conduct themselves while training AND back that up by not allowing inappropriate behaviour such as the student walking over and hitting the other one ( if he did that immediately after a groin shot I'd say that showed he had no balls). A martial arts instructor's job is not to instil discipline in a child's life that is the parent's job, we can back up parents, we can teach students how to behave in the dojo and how to conduct themselves as martial artists but we aren't the parents nor should we to expected be. We teach martial arts and any life skills that come from that are added bonuses.
 

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You are absolutely correct. There is NO such thing as a teenage karate expert.
There is from my experience but in this particular story we're talking about a 22 year old karate expert whose out of control and whose a bully.
 

WaterGal

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That may be why the parents are bringing the kid to you in the first place. If discipline is not something you offer, I get your position. :)

Martial arts training can be a good way for people to learn better self-discipline, leadership skills, confidence, sportsmanship, etc. But the student has to be open to that. They have to be willing to change. And some people aren't. Some people are just bullies or jerks, and like being that way. They think it's funny to punch someone in the face, or talk trash about other students behind their backs, or whatever. You can try to get them to change, but if they won't.... eventually, you'll have to make a choice - you can kick them out (either directly or by calling them out on their crap enough that they stop showing up), or you can continue to train them and have them create a toxic environment that runs off all your other students who aren't the same way as them.
 

moonhill99

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There is an us verses them mentality, police officers naturally fall into.

You been watching way too many cop shows. The aggressive cops are more likely to get into fights than cops that are very calm and relax.

Any aggressive body posture, getting into the guys face, yelling, talking really loud and being hothead are more likely to get into fights and escalate the situation.

Many cops now are taking de-escalation training class.

If your martial arts instructor is teaching you to stand less than one feet from the bad guy and yelling and talking so loud for everyone on the street to hear you!!! Well you better leave that class ASAP. Or you could escalate the situation and the bad guy may get really mad and say okay that's fight.
 

Touch Of Death

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You been watching way too many cop shows. The aggressive cops are more likely to get into fights than cops that are very calm and relax.

Any aggressive body posture, getting into the guys face, yelling, talking really loud and being hothead are more likely to get into fights and escalate the situation.

Many cops now are taking de-escalation training class.

If your martial arts instructor is teaching you to stand less than one feet from the bad guy and yelling and talking so loud for everyone on the street to hear you!!! Well you better leave that class ASAP. Or you could escalate the situation and the bad guy may get really mad and say okay that's fight.
Actually they teach that is criminal justice courses. The logic is that if you surround and inundate a guy, or gal, with nothing but criminals they start to see the world a little differently. I am sure it would never happen to you, of course. ;)
 

Ironbear24

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I think you should try another kenpo dojo. Ed Parker kenpo (or any kenpo) can be very great but like any place it needs to have good instructors.
 

Ironbear24

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Not really in my experience here in UK, watching the news though from America though it's certainly very different from here.

Growing up Latino I remember my grandpa telling me to treat cops like they are mad dogs. No sudden movements, don't run because they love to chase. Just stay still, nod and cooperate and hope they let you go.

I imagine it might be similar for other ethnic groups.
 

Tez3

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Growing up Latino I remember my grandpa telling me to treat cops like they are mad dogs. No sudden movements, don't run because they love to chase. Just stay still, nod and cooperate and hope they let you go.

I imagine it might be similar for other ethnic groups.

That frankly is just nasty.
 
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