For the Shotokan folks--adding full-contact to Shotokan?

[Manny]

Good enough reason, since you have to take what you can get. I was not aware that you didn't have any such schools in your area.



Let me give you some insight from an instructor's point of view.

When you teach a class, 20% of your students are going to be so good, that they'll "get it," no matter how bad of an instructor one may be. 20% of your students will never "get it," no matter how good of an instructor one may be. The remaining 60% can "get it," but need help from the instructor.

If you catered to the top 20%, you're going to be helping a group that doesn't need much help, and that the bulk of your students aren't going to be getting as much help as they should be getting.

If you catered to the bottom 20%, then you may be able to bring a few out of that 20%, into the middle 60%, but what about the other middle 60% of people that you didn't cater?

That's why instructors will focus on the middle 60%, if they want their dojos to survive.

How does this relate to your situation? It's a bit of a stretch, but imagine this: how many of a dojo's populace will actually want to do full contact continual sparring? If, as in instructor, you introduce such things into a dojo, you'll certainly make a small percentage of people happy (the young, strong athletes who don't mind full contact), but what about the others?

Nice reply, I am a TKD instructor and get all waht you wrote, you are right about the percentages of the students (the really good ones, the average ones and the below averge ones), TKD is like shotokan in some ways, TKD has evolve in some of the best full contact sports, that's why we use full armory (most of the times) like a hogu (vest rpotector), helmet,shin/instep pads, forearm pads, a cup, mouth piece and lately some kind of protecting gloves. Yes TKD maybe is not so brutal as kyokushin karate but beleive the blows are real and I've seen broken arms, wrist and hands, good knock outs and so on.

I have benn doing WTF style sparring where we are not allowed to punch the face and where we can kick below the waist line and in some way this limit us but those are the rules of the game, I know if dojang our master allow us to punch viciusly to the face a lot of kids will jump off the master will lost alot of kids and big money, so I understand why the safety rules.

As a teen I sufered broken theet, a broken nose, a well knock out (jumping/spining back kick to the jaw) and very strong blows to another parts of my anatomy, but even that I never quit. I am not of the 20% very good ones but not the other 20% ones, I am inside the 60% ones, I mean the ones who train hard to get the things and to polish them, we are the gross of the dojang, and yes we have some very good fighters and yes we have a very poor fighters but the rest (the 60%) are people who tries to become better.

Manny