A class I used to train at when I was around the age of 16 ( yes a long time ago I know) used to start each week with the Instructor going into great detail on how he disliked several of the other clubs in the area for all manor of reasons from personality clashes to in his eyes bad styles all of witch he would see himself above and none of the personality clashes were his fault. I remember at the time thinking there is no smoke without fire and surely he is not right and everyone else is wrong ? And years later after meeting most of these clubs he was talking about it was proven who was the problem. That aside I believe that all Martial arts have something to offer and should be respected. Most times where I have heard people say “o I don’t like that style” it’s more likely they have just seen a bad example of it. For instance the first style of karate I studied for any long period of time (around 3 years I believe) was traditional Shotokan Karate, Shotokan in its real form is a very good art form and I have met some excellent practitioners of it. But the class I was training at was a bad example two instructors who pretty much used the classes to showcase their own skill set and in all honesty that was not a very highly skilled one, no sparring until you reached 1st Kyu ( Brown belt black stripe) I asked as a Blue belt if I could spar and it was apparently that much of an insult I was asked to sit out of the class. I eventually left and moved onto kickboxing as I wanted to test what I had been learning, for a while it left a bad taste about Shotokan but the lesson there is again not the art but the instructor that was the problem. With so many different arts now available and each one moving and evolving at a massive rate research is the key to understanding them not listening to many clouded opinions. I really do advise and encourage looking into other arts and at the right point in your Journey cross training too. I’ve tried lots of arts Karate, kickboxing, Taekwon do, Kung fu, Krav Maga, Escrima to name a few and although I am 26 years into studying Wado Ryu I have only scratched the surface, Enjoy your training with me as your chosen art but always have an open mind to the massive world of Martial arts, No Single Sensei has all of the answers.
