# I'm back with a new fire!



## Clapping_tiger (Dec 14, 2007)

It has been so long since I posted here I had to create a new account with the same log in name  Anyway, I doubt any of you remember me but pretty much my whole journey from White to Black in Kenpo happened here. My training background started with boxing as a late teen, then Chinese Kenpo and I dabbled in some MMA and full contact fighting. So I'm back, and here is an update as to what has transpired over the past few years. 

It all started when the school I was in which I was the Enrollment Director and an instructor started to change. When I started the student base and attitude and intensity matched what I was looking for perfectly, it was awesome. It went from a more fairly intense and willing to give and take punishment student base to a more family oriented school. There always was a youth class, but soon that overtook everything and even became the priorty of the school. There were just too many kids running around, and people who didn't want to get hit and refused to listen to comments about how "X" blend or freestyle technique really isn't realistic. But the owner/head instructor needs to feed his family too so a lot of the focus came to youth enrollment and just getting Mom and Dad enrolled too and we just needed to keep them there no matter what. So a lot of the "old school" students started to leave because our training and what we like to do started to become effected. Soon there was only 3 of us original students left, I ended up leaving then followed by my training partner from white all the through, the last hold out ended up leaving last year. She told me it's sad that nobody there even remembers us. The only thing is the old photos of the "old school" Black Belts. During that time I was working out on my own and had a buddy who wanted me to teach him so I started that, but then he moved away a few weeks later. My wife and I bought a house and I made a room in the basement where I had room to practice my form and put a free standing wavemaster down there. I continued to work my technique and forms but didn't have any real steady partners. Once in a while I would get together with some old friends from the school and mess around but those were few and far between, I even stopped in at the school once but the whole atmosphere was totally different. I continued on my way alone.......

Skip to Spring of this year my brother approched me and asked if I still knew Kenpo. With a smile I said "I remember a thing or two. why?" He wants to learn and has a friend who wants to learn as well. So we set up some times and got together and I taught them some basics. Things went well and they stuck with it. Soon we started sparring full contact and they liked that, they stuck with it. Even started showing up for class and first thing they wanted to do was spar before class. Soon their technique started to sharpen up and the developed some snap, now they have some power behind the technique when we work out on each other. Soon they will be testing for the Orange belt and it appears they will stick with it, so I fixed up my basment room even better so now it looks like a karate school. I don't charge them and don't plan to take more students, but I am just so happy and re-energized to have workout partners. It's to the point where I think I am more excited than they are that we are having class tonight. All this prompted me to re-join martial talk because this forum helped me keep the fire lit during my training a few years ago. So that is where I am at today.


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## Kacey (Dec 14, 2007)

First, welcome, and happy posting!  :wavey:

Second, I'm glad you found a way to continue your journey... and that I'm not the only person who converted my basement to a dojang!


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## morph4me (Dec 14, 2007)

Welcome Back


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## terryl965 (Dec 14, 2007)

Welcome back and glad your journey has come full circle.


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## LocknBlock (Dec 14, 2007)

WELCOME BACK !! HAPPY HOLIDAYS !!


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## SFC JeffJ (Dec 14, 2007)

Welcome back!


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## arnisador (Dec 14, 2007)

Wb!


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## IcemanSK (Dec 14, 2007)

Welcome back. I'm sure you have all kinds of new things to add.


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## Ping898 (Dec 14, 2007)

welcome back!


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## Clapping_tiger (Dec 14, 2007)

Hey thanks guys. I don't want you to get the wrong impression from my post though. When I re-read it, it almost sounded like I left the school because I don't think familys should be at the school or something. That is not the case. I think MA is a great activity for the entire family, what I didn't like was the focus change. There was a solid line between adult and youth class, soon 12 year old Johnny wanted to be in adult class with his Dad, but from what I was used to I could make some contact with my partner. For regular class time you would be paired up randomly. Sometimes you were with an upper belt, sometimes a lower belt. Sometimes an adult, sometimes a younger student. At first I didn't mind getting paired up with the younger ones. I thought it was good for them, which it was. Until I start to notice that more and more younger kids are in the adult class, which reduces my odds each week of getting someone my age and weight. I didn't want to come off like I was this super tough "let's bang the hell out of each other" guy, but IMO if you're in MA you need to expect to get bruised and battered from time to time. I didn't like having to take it easy on the days I was in class as a student, which is what was happening. And yes I did talk about my problems with the owner/head instructor and I got a promise to make an advanced class, which he did. It was for Blue belt and above only. This is no joke, it was not more than 2-3 months later, there was an orange and purple belt in advanced class...then 2 purple belts, and I was the oldest by at least 10 years in a lot of them. That was when I knew my days were numbered. The orange and purple belts didn't know our material so in advanced class we had to do orange and purple belt material, which I kept saying is not what advanced class says to me. Which really is no different than now, except I am teaching my brother and his friend how to partner with my techniques even if they don't know how to do them, they can still give me a workout with them. Which is cool, it's so nice to have bodies to work with. 

I am not jaded or angry, I understand why the school went a direction I couldn't follow. It was just sad that something I looked forward to every day became something I really didn't enjoy. It was like watching a best friend drift away and there was nothing you could do. Talking to this friend would only change things for a short time. Soon you grow apart. I am sure you guys get what I mean, even if I don't think it's coming out so well in written form.


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## 14 Kempo (Dec 15, 2007)

Hello and welcome back to MartialTalk ... enjoy!


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