Dojo challenges, do they still happen?

[HandsOfStone]

I was watching Larry Tatum's kenpo "Insights" video, and during an interview he said that when he first started teaching in West Los Angeles in the early 80's, he got a quite a few people coming in off the street to challenge him. He said that on several occasions he had to basically defend his life and that it was like during the old west "gunfighter" days. Some of the people were martial artists, some were streetfighters. He said that he had to be on guard at all times (must have been nerve wrecking just going in to work!) because he was also located next to a Veteran's hospital, and they would let the patients getting mental treatment get loose and roam around.

Has anyone here had an instructor that was challenged in the dojo or training hall? Maybe there's even someone here who issued a challenge themselves "back in the day"?

I haven't heard of anything like this, so I'm curious if it even happens in today's times, what with people so quick to file lawsuits these days.

 

[The Kai]

I've been asked by more then one street pinhead-wanna be streetfighhter

 

[terryl965]

Hands of Stone in the early day's there was always a challenge for the right of a Dojo or Dojaang, but I have never heard of this since the seventies and then it was far and in between. The right to challedge was a art form all it owns the way I understood from many older guys.
I'm sure on this forum someone has had thechallenge thrown at them just not me.
Terry

 

[dubljay]

Yeah this happened a while ago in the small town I live in. Some tough guy said he could whip all the black belts at the single school thats in the town, along with other disparaging remaks and thinly veiled threats. The school owner set up a day and time for this challange to take place. Basic rules were no eye shots, no groin shots and no weapons. The owner had a waiver written up and notarized by his lawyer stating that the owner could not be held liable for the consequences of the match and that anyone involved in the challange match could not sue or be sued as a result of it, this included the black belts that agreed to fight him. The guy never showed....

In my opinion both parties were acting rather immaturely. Though I was not a student of that school I trained with many of his students, and occasionally helped teach a sparring class, I was asked to participate as well, I declined.

 

[Kembudo-Kai Kempoka]

General answer: Yes, they still go on. Some friendly, some not so friendly.

Regards,

Dave

 

[kenpochad]

. Basic rules were no eye shots, no groin shots and no weapons.

no groin shots that takes all the fun outa things

 

[dubljay]

no groin shots that takes all the fun outa things

Well it's obvious it would have been ineffective against the guy, clearly he had none as he didn't show up.

 

[OULobo]

I used to get a challange every so often, when I was running a college club. They were always either cocky or wary. It was the wary ones that worried me. They were just interviewing to see if they could handle or intimidate me. The cocky ones just hadn't learned about humility yet, or were some backyard fight club punk. Most were friendly or honorable. I had one nasty one, but they have a tendancy to back off when the whole club pulls ax handles and staves, with the occational machete, screwdriver and spyderco scattered about the assembly. An unfriendly, uncontrolled challange is called a threat, and facing threats requires no rules or honor. So this means friends and weapons are perfectly acceptable.

I did hear a story about an instructor in his school that was told by someone off the street that he couldn't teach his style anymore. When he dismissed the man, the man challenged him. So the instructor got two machetes off the wall and threw one at the man's feet saying, "pick it up". The man said, "no, the challange is empty hand." The instructor said, "you can go empty hand if you want", and started to advance. The man decided to leave.

 

[Paul B]

Not so much challenges around here as punks off the str33t who have watched UFC from it's inception wondering in and making loud remarks about their dubious "mad skillz". They are then usually shown the door. It's not the best neighborhood so it's to be expected.

A couple have even come back wanting to be students..and end up hanging around for awhile and then quit once they realize it's hard work. Ah well. Like OULobo said it's the quiet ones that worry me.

 

[evenflow1121]

I had a close friend of mine who studied the Tracy System who had these sort of challenges when he was younger in the 1970's and when he first began to teach on his own.

Another friend of mine who is a Hung Gar Master now, when he first started out in NY would get challenges all the time. Said the Tiger Claws were very effective for him. People would just walk in and challenge him.

 

[Laborn]

well, my school....me personally asked, and a few other students asked, if we could challenge the ATA dojang, but our instructer said we couldn't because of law suites. darn there went my fun lol (btw i dont mean real actually fighting, i mean sparring, seeing which school is best*

Laborn

 

[Shogun]

A funny thing you will se about the Gracie schools is how they tell the macho UFC wannabe guys to leave the school. They made their art famous by it being unbeatable in any match and dojo challenges are among them. not to say if someone challenged a gracie they would turn it down, its just they dont like the "i'm a tough guy, beat everyone up with my mad jiujitsu skills" mentality.

 

[Han-Mi]

we have had a few, one time a less experienced instructor let a color belt spar with a guy off the street and the color belt kicked him once and th guy ran out. My instructor doesn't like to let in to the dummies off the streets in general. Once though, a guy came in and wouldn't stop disrupting the calss, a real big guy. My instructor told all of the sudents to go downstairs and to call an ambulence in 5 minutes, basiically scared the guy off with that. He really thought that the guys was serious by what he was saying, so he thought an ambulence would be necessary one way or another, he thought it was a great side affect that the guy backed out because of it.

as the general public comes to understand the martial arts, this all happens less and less, but it still happens

 

[arnisador]

It happens. A fellow instructor was telling me a story along those lines last night!

I wish I had a link for the Hee Il Cho story--he dropped a challenger, then had to pay a few tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills (if memory serves).

 

[bignick]

Coming secondhand, so please take with a grain of salt.

But back in the 70's, the man that started our tae kwon do school was supposedly challenged by his nephew. And he almost killed his nephew. From what I've heard, ribs high up in his rib cage were supposedly broken and among the other injuries the doctors thought the guy had been in a car accident. Again, supposedly, the fact that he was family was the reason he wasn't killed.

An interesting story, but the I'm not sure if it's been blown out of proportion through time or not

 

[Ubermint]

Buy the gracie challenge tapes. Rorion's narration alone is worth the price.

 

[TerryC]

When I was taking lessons in the Philippines in the 70's and 80's near the US military bases, we frequently had American GI's who had just arrived in the Philippines come in as issue challenges. My master always accomodated them by letting them "spar" with his nephew, a 120 lb. 3rd dan.

They had a routine.....the master would let them go for a few minutes until the challenger thought he was doing pretty good, then give his nephew a slight nod...then the nephew would put the challenger on his ***.

Very entertaining, and our school gained a few dedicated new students that way. At least the ones who were humble enough to acknowlege they made a mistake.

 

[kenpochad]

Theres storys of a school here in town where the owner would go out
and get in bar fights and after him beats on the guy he give him a card and tells the guy if you want to learn to fight like me come to my school
i dont know if this is just a story but ive heard this from differnt people

 

[searcher]

They do happen, but as stated before they are not often. I have never heard of someone issuing a challenge and then stting rules. This just sounds weird. You don't have rules in a street fight and the same goes for a dojo/dojang challenge.

 

[clfsean]

I'm sure they still happen, but in today's litigation based society, I gotta say not to often... even for a "friendly match".