OP – make it your mission to get him dealt with appropriately.

Shouldn’t someone off here who is good at martial arts challenge this guy to sort all this out in the dojo? 😛

Seriously though, my GF has done martial arts for years and it seems this guy has failed to heed most of the important lessons they are supposed to teach you. Sounds like a complete tool.

Teacher is a %^&. Report him.

Hope the little fella perks up by tomorrow.

Was it definitely karate (or was it kickboxing) and did the instructor have a very big nose?

I just saw a terrible image of two if not one bloke throwing some cycling kit into a mahoosive tumble tryeer/washer round the back here. I have just been reassessed how people make a living round here..

Sounds like he needs reporting, he’s unfit to be left in charge of children.

This ^^^^^

I would drop an anonymous call into the local Police PPU (public protection unit). At the least it will put him on their radar. I wouldn’t want him anywhere near my (or anyone elses) children.

I’d make it my personal mission in life to become the worlds best karate-er, then challenge him to a fight at some time.
Then I’d do that crow-standy-on-on-leg thing, and finish off with a judo chop to his temple….
That’ll learn him to shout at kids….

DrP

If the club and instructor is not M.A.C. or A.K.A affiliated, forget it. If he is, report him.

To echo previous words find a local aikido club, where are you based?

Thanks all.

@ tobys dad – we’re in Liverpool. My son’s not going to be asking to do martial arts of any sort for a while. If he does show interest again we’ll definitely look into aikido.

Not Karate, but Judo I have been the little junior just starting, right up to being the sensei of both juniors and seniors, one thing I always found with students of any age make it fun……this goes for any level of club, in my prime I trained at Wolverhamton judo club where 4 of the then 7 olympic squad members trained, the training was rock solid but everyone enjoyed it as even the best enjoy some banter.

………incidentally bullies dont tend to last long in alot of martial arts as there is ALWAYS someone better, what it will teach you kids is fitness discipline and give them a huge outlet for energy

Weird thing is this guy was recommended to us and (looking at his company’s website) it’s been going for ages… he’s been teaching for more than 30 years, apparently. 😯

The pyjama side of fighty stuff has that sort of weird discipline side to it. Bowing to people, rigid lines, do what you’re told, speak when spoken to… Which might help lead a particularly odd person to those lengths. “You are weak! You will never be ninja!” <smack> etc.

Fighty stuff that is approached more like a sport (including judo, despite the jammies) is generally less like ‘The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei’. (U-Tube it!) Oh, and may actually work, if that matters.

(All IMO+E, of course.)

Tool avoid

A good sensai – with kids or adults- will pace it according to their ability and concentration levels

That is niether good teaching nor is it good human being

they do free Capoeira [ lets not start that debate but it may be good for the OPs son] at the Slavery museum on saturdays

the formal stuff is ok to show respect and all that if not taken to a rigid element but it is just about respect – No bad thing to have respect for someoen who is teachign you and can kick the shit out of you 😉

Try a few as the sensai matters probabl;y more thna the style to kids IME

@ Junkyard – interesting, cheers

When the emotional trauma subsides I’ll mention the Capoeira to my boy. Looks good!

My son did Wado for a year. The sensei then changed his job so the top sensei took over of that area. had half the kids in tears on week one. My son was proud to have just gone to a yellow belt and thats not what he/ us wanted on his first night with his belt. I complained to the previous sensei and he just said’ Thats the way he teaches and is great with kids’ So nothing would have changed. So we changed. he has been going to tae-kwon-do for the last few months, loves it.The guy is pathient and understanding to kids ( must be nearing sainthood) and son loves it. He has just graded at the weekend and is always ready before anyone to get to his training.
Sad he had to throw the towel in with the wado he was doing, but we werent the only ones to leave. Kids still go there, but probably through parental pressure, but thats not how we bring our kids up. Sadly the new sensai’s ethics are that it is a’fighting’ teaching, so not for mamby pambys, even if your only 7 or 8 yrs old, which is wrong at that age.His loss and our gain to Tae.

Weird thing is this guy was recommended to us and (looking at his company’s website) it’s been going for ages… he’s been teaching for more than 30 years, apparently.

Link?

Have a look at Kuk Sool too – kids love breaking things 🙂

KSW Scottish Championships 2011 – 204 by Ben Cooper, on Flickr

On the respect thing – respect is earned, no-one gets it automatically.

Link?

OH advises against it…

All I can say is he looks like Steve Kean’s evil twin in an advert for Andrex.

He needs to get out there and befriend a local Japanese guy and enter a competition against Cobra Kai.

He’ll get a 50’s car and a lesson on Bonsai trees too.

Based in Liverpool you say camo16….

Would you consider Ju Jitsu? The guys here have kids classes in Liverpool that I heard were popular. They also organise sessions for a blind and disabled children. We got them in to be our uni instructors. I trained with them for 6 years before I left the pool and moved back to Essex. Would definitely recommmend going to watch a class first wherever you decide to go.

Camo16 – if you are in Liverpool then you are in the heartland of British aikido!

Go here:

http://www.komyokan.aikido.co.uk/dojo.htm

you won’t regret it and you and your lad will get a totally different experience.

Sounds like a wrong type of club to me.

This is a pic of my little one who is 9, after doing an all day Wadokai England training session this Sat.

I think the smile says it all 😉

Check out another club

My little one has been doing Karate since 6 and loves it, the club and members are like one big cuddly team, lots of fun, giggles and smiles, but the training does rack up as they progress, you do see kids move around a bit from other clubs and the standard varies quite a bit too.

Its all been very positive so far for us.

Ski your post reminds me of our dojo shared by a karate and a judo club, we all socialise and call each other the kickers and cuddlers…..

To the OP. Sounds like he’s a bit of an old school style instructor. Unless he’s a multiple world champion with a long history of coaching multiple world champions ditch his club and find a better one. £4 a class sounds like a lot too. My me and my son pay £49/month between us 2 classes each week – included in that fee is classes at any other club within the association, so theoretically we could get a couple of classes a night – 7 days a week. TAGB – Tae Kwon Do.

klumpy

The pyjama side of fighty stuff has that sort of weird discipline side to it. Bowing to people, rigid lines, do what you’re told, speak when spoken to… Which might help lead a particularly odd person to those lengths. “You are weak! You will never be ninja!” <smack> etc.

Fighty stuff that is approached more like a sport (including judo, despite the jammies) is generally less like ‘The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei’. (U-Tube it!) Oh, and may actually work, if that matters.

I’ve got a theory that with your more sport oriented arts, you need to be able to back your words up with ability, therefore they attract less of your “BOW TO YOUR SENSEI” type of halfwits.

Other than recommending he befriend a local Japanese guy, I’d echo the comments made by everyone else…he doesn’t sound like a good instructor.

If you train for many years and become ‘good’ at martial arts, it doesn’t automatically mean you’re a good teacher. Perhaps he comes from a strict school himself and is following the approach from his teacher.

I’ve trained in many different martial arts classes (I guess I’m the same as one the previous posters where I start then leave after doing the beginner levels). I went to a kick boxing club in Oxford for a while where the kids trained with the adults but they weren’t shouted at or ridiculed. I’ve also training at a Muay Thai gym in Oxford where they have a separate kids class.

I once went to a few classes taught by Shaolin Monks in Oxford (can’t remember why they were there but they were genuine warrior monks). The monks were really nice guys, but when it came to training they were really strict and did not like it if people messed about and shouted in Chinese. They’d also try to stand on your legs when you’re doing the splits (unsuccessfully).

I’ve trained in a scary MMA gym in the east end of London owned and run by a professional fighter where almost all patrons were muscle bound thugs who all got carried away in sparring…including the instructor.

My current gym (although i haven’t been there for months due to work commitments) is a well run Muay Thai gym in London. The teaching staff are nice, and the kids class is run by a senior student.

I’m not sure what my point is to be honest, other than I’ve never been to a club/gym where they’re horrible to people. Some have been rough gyms where i’d go home with black eyes, but they’d still ask if you fancied a pint after class.

Some people just aren’t good teachers.

Op that karate teacher sounds like an utter tool, stopped sending my son to karate when he graded others higher than him who didn’t complete the karate moves my son did then changed there payment method to monthly DD and price shot up, he now goes to Judo with a great teacher and bunch of guys.

Break the wrist, walk away… Break the wrist, walk away… Break the wrist, walk away… Break the wrist, walk away…

On the subject of multiple world champions who’ve taught multiple world champs – you might fancy giving this blokes TKD classes a try. http://www.warrenvice.com/Classes.html