Interesting. So then adults don't learn kata at all they just do the MMA aspect? For the kids do they learn techniques and then kata/bunkai which refelct those techniques? Which kata are they learning? Also, why teach TMA at all, why not just teach the kids MMA?
BTW...my questions are not to antagonize...I am genuinely curious about the club's methods of teaching.
I understand that so no worries.
The children learn TSD and Judo, we also try to teach them about as many martial arts as we can, we show them as many various ways of bowing, going into fighting stance ie left foot forward or right foot back etc and that sort of thing as we can. Most children will only stay with us for a couple of years or so before their parents are posted out so we try to make sure that wherever they go next they will be comfortable in whatever style of martial arts are available where they going. We don't teach them other styles just make them aware of them, its actually quite interesting though and does foster a liking for all arts.
My instructor has done Shotokan, I've done Wado and we both do TSD, all three are reasonably alike. We teach the Bunkai as we teach the katas, they put the Bunkai into their self defence training too.
I attend as many of Iain Abernethy's seminars as I can as well as using his books and DVDs. he's very good if you want to know anything or need advice on techniques etc. A very nice man as well as being a scary one.
We don't teach MMA until they are fourteen as we think it's better to learn a TMA first, very few people in UK teach children MMA, it's considered an adult thing so the children wouldn't find many places to train once they left us. We do a lot of ground work as well as the usual throws in the Judo which was my instructors first art many moons ago before he joined the Army, he too has a few different styles under his belt due to moving around a lot.
I do have a TSD class for adults but it's not been on for nearly eight months. I'll get to that in a minute. We teach MMA to adults because it's the best style for people who cannot be at regular training every week. Apart from the teenagers our students are all serving soldiers as are most of the children's parents. We have no syllabus so can train each session according to who is in, that way with duties, deployments and leave etc they never feel they are missing anything and they can always catch up. We can fit each class to what the students who are in need. We do put a lot of traditional techniques into our training and we do a lot of SD work mostly geared to crowd and riot type of scenerios. There's a big interest in MMA at the moment and the 'higher ups' in the army seem to approve of it as a useful adjunct to military training. The other thing is that the soldiers can come straight into the class and not have to learn too many techniques all at once or to worry about grading. When they have so much training at 'work' they want something that is fun, enjoyable and they can pick up the basics fast. Most can already box, that just needs a little readjustment to stances etc. Many have done a TMA when they were younger in civvy street but have been unable to pick it back up due to service commitments so we actually have very few complete beginners.
We have people coming in too from other places when they are here on course or training, they always add to the pot of techniques which is great.
I started a class last year for those who wanted to do MMA but also wanted to do TSD and grade. I made it a small class of 7 adults all soldiers from the same regiment the Quuen's Royal Lancers, along with a young assistant from the MMA class who's dad and brother are in the Scots Guards. The class closed down seven and a half months ago when they went to Afghanistan. While there one of my students, Steptoe, who was only 20 was killed by an IED.
We had a lot of the lads in the MMA class also in Afghan, they are back now and have popped in to say hello before going on leave. We'll be back to full training again in a couple of weeks.
I haven't decided what to do about the adult TSD class though, I want to get my students together to see what we want to do, training without Steptoe seems odd and somehow wrong but stopping training also seems wrong. One of the lads, Smudge was in last night, he's not the same person who went out, you can see it in his eyes. It's hit them badly. The lad who was helping me had his dad and brother in Afghan, his brother was injured by an IED, his dad John heard it go up. Both John jnr and snr are fine now but John senior who is our conditioning coach has had a hard tour. We'll have to see what the other lads are like when they are back properly. I think the next few months are going to be a bit rough both in the club and outside. Next year the Brigade are booked to go back to Canada at BATUS for training for Afghan in 2012.
At the moment even writing about Steptoe brings tears to my eyes I'm afraid but everyone is trying to get on with life all over the garrison so I can't dwell on it. We are looking to fundraise for army charities with a fight night early next year and we have the children's grading coming up, they of course have been distracted too by their fathers being away, some of them have been living on their nerves so I can't complain I guess.
Anyway sorry for prattling on, I do you know lol! I hope though you can see why we teach what we do.