Yeah...and as usual, it didn't take long to digress into another topic! I took a lot of what was said with a grain of salt, but after visiting this guy's school, I definitely have some hesitation, and have decided to stay away. He seems to be one of those guys where if you ask him what he teaches, he tells you what you want to hear. Evidently, after black belt, you begin training in Parker Kenpo techniques. The instructor has no direct Parker lineage that I know of. Prior to that, it's basically TKD with some jujutsu thrown in, and a little bit of ground grappling. He only teaches once a week -- the rest of the time it's done by his instructional staff. None of that bothers me per se, but I was basically told that he does teach "Kenpo concepts" prior to Shodan -- when I asked for further elaboration, none of his black belts could articulate even one concept to me. That had me worried. Also, he does grappling at least one night a week -- unfortunately, it appears that he is teaching it out of a book or something (he has a Gracie Self-Defense cert on the wall, but no rank whatsoever in BJJ, yet claims to teach grappling derived from it), and many of the students have picked up some bad habits. Again, the black belts couldn't describe to me any core tenets (emphasis on establishing position was not even mentioned, for example). It may be a good school for some, but unfortunately, it's not for me. I'm going to stick on my current grappling track, and start studying BJJ proper as soon as my economic situation allows me to. I have actually found a gentleman about half an hour from me who is quite knowledgeable as well as reasonably priced. He is a BJJ brown under Royler, teaches just about all of his own classes, has a fantastic competition record, and is also a rather personable fellow. Perhaps one day I will be able to find a Kenpo school that I can use to enhance my personal grappling training.
) - as soon as the full-time job comes through, I'm there.
