To my astonishment..

New pads on the walls, new front desk, cage style fence on one side with padded poles...and a flat screen TV set mounted on the wall right above the training mat. It was playing some kind of fight channel with the volume set moderately so everybody in the room could hear. This was going continually during classes that night.

Sounds more like entertainment than training to me. I guess next week they will have disco lights and a smoke machine as well. Pyrotecnics the one after that. Bleh!
 
I really can't see that happening in a Traditional Martial Arts Dojo, but if so, I'd leave the school pretty quick.

Did they even announce it or ask the students?
 
Sounds more like entertainment than training to me. I guess next week they will have disco lights and a smoke machine as well. Pyrotecnics the one after that. Bleh!

It's EnterTRAINment!

w00t! I developed the next fitness meme!
 
DAMN!!!! I wish I thought of that :disgust:

Now all you need is T-Shirts and your on easy street :D

In truth, it's blasphemy. I would be concerned for my soul if I were to promote such a thing or if I had a soul.
 
Words fail me - luckily, many experienced practitioners have already made the points I would have done once I got my jaw (or fingers in this case) working again :D.
 
Did they even announce it or ask the students?

Nope. Not that I would really expect them to.

I haven't been back there since Monday so I don't know if there's a buzz about it from other discontents like me. But I will peek back in tomorrow and see.
Here's to hope that sensei returns to his senses and shuts that thing off!
 
Girlbug2, you really should go back. Use the TV as a training aid. Don't watch it yourself. Learn to use it. Wait until there's a really exciting exchange on the screen. And deck your sparring partner while he's distracted. :)
 
I actually think the TV could be an interesting strategic move. The students shouldn't pay attention to it whilst training - personally I'd view it as a way to exercise my focus.

Then again, if they HAVE put it up simply to draw customers I'd say it's completely counterproductive.
 
Girlbug2, you really should go back. Use the TV as a training aid. Don't watch it yourself. Learn to use it. Wait until there's a really exciting exchange on the screen. And deck your sparring partner while he's distracted. :)

Heh. I used to take my boyfriend (who is now my husband) out to play pool....at a strip club. I ALWAYS won. :angel:
 
Heh. I used to take my boyfriend (who is now my husband) out to play pool....at a strip club. I ALWAYS won. :angel:

LOL that reminds me of an episode of the fresh prince of bel-air where will told a story about having witnessed a murder and going into witness protection so he could hustle his friend who beat his *** at poker everytime 3 years running and got thousands of dollars from him. :p
 
To be honest....I’m not quitting either…in reality.... I will go out fighting if it comes to that... this Dinosaur will not go quietly

OH MY GOD YOUR A DINOSAUR?????? I LOVE DINOSAURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DINOSAURS RULE!!!....................Oh wait you were being figurative.....Um.... Look A DINOSAUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Dashes for the door)

Hi I'm some other guy, and while I'm all for a less formal class setting the whole TV thing is taking it a bit to far even for MMA.
 
:xtrmshock
Yup...I'm an MA Dinosaur and on the short list for the extinction of my kind :disgust:

And if this is the future of martial arts... I quit :disgust:

You really need this t-shirt

qc-evol.gif
 
I'm seriously thinking about puting a flat screen on the training floor and already have one in the pro shop. The one in the pro shop is used to play training videos and is out of sight of the classes, but other students can learn while waiting for their class. The idea of the one on the training floor I got from Renzo Gracie's school of making it easier for students to see the techniques being taught at angles that they may not be able to see normally in class (esp. helpful w/ grappling techniques). Obviously, this is for training and not for entertainment. Also, we can use it for feedback to the students on their own performance in class.
 
It's a Muay Thai dojo, but there is also some MMA.

Regardless...IMO a television is the wrong thing to have running in the middle of class time.
Agreed. The only use for a TV is to show videos as a teaching aide. You might be trying to teach a certain technique and you just happen to have a great video of Joe Fastfoot using that technique to clock his opponent. Pop it in, let them see the practical application of it....then TURN IT OFF!
 
While I don't agree with the idea of keeping the TV on while training or while instruction is being given (unless that is where the instruction is coming from), could it be that the owners of the place were just trying it out to see what is acceptable or not, what is a distraction and what is not?

People learn differently today, what is a distraction for me watching a movie at home is nothing to my 18 yr old son, in fact it is normal. If I'm watching a movie I want to get into it, be totally there with the story, my son will carry on 5 different conversations by texting on his phone while he is watching the same show.

I remember hearing the radio blaring on a disco station so the kick boxers in the rear room had a beat to do their bag work to. Again for me practicing out on the floor it was a distraction, for them they tuned it out and pounded to the beat.

Considering it is a Muay Thai, MMA type of a school I think the TV thing is a progression of being edgy, on the cutting edge so to speak. This is a totally different environment than the traditional dojo with the white walls, wooden floor, the shrine with all of the masters pictures around it etc. etc.

It could also be a commercial for the all of the hype, (Train here and you too can look and act like this) (drink this, eat this, etc. etc.) and products found in the MMA. Who knows.

Mark
 
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