Krav Maga?

Perhaps the large sticks made him feel insecure? :p

Ugh, seriously I know the feeling though.
Lost a good bokken to an Ex.
Why do they take things, when they don't actually want them?
I'll never understand some people.

He didn't dislike me. But once, he introduced me at a demonstration as "He took out three men in three seconds. And he's not one of my best students"

He was very demanding, and intimidating. But later, I found that that's just the way he taught. And the way he learned. And I sure worked a lot harder than if he would have been nice. He even told us once that "Wanting to be good enough to kick my ass" was a worthy motivation. At the time, I didn't get it. But it was his way of motivating us to work harder. It worked.

We learned not to ask how a technique worked in a form. At the time, I thought it was because we should ask questions like that. Now I believe, it's because he sometimes didn't know the answer. He was very fast, unbelievably powerful, and his techniques were awe inspiring. but the techniques weren't taken out of our forms. Karate is different. The techniques are more obvious. I would literally learn a form, and have no practical applications taken from it, at all. Not always, but often.


I agree completely. The student has to figure out what's being taught, or they will never internalize the meaning. I was already with my second instructor, before I learned that.

"Arrogance" may have been a misleading word. Impatience may be better. But here was a typical exchange;
Me "So, when you use this, are you standing beside the opponent, facing him...or are you maneuvering behind the opponent?"
Him "So, you think you know more than me? Do you want me to show you?"
Me "No. I got it".



I don't think it was ego. I think he just thought that the students shouldn't ask questions. I didn't mind the strictness. In fact, I valued it highly. The training was top notch. But there is a difference between forcing a student to put it together for themselves....and not knowing an answer.

The reason I say this, is because of my second instructor. Also a no nonsense guy. Also strict. But after the hard training, if you said "I think this move is for this use. Am I right?" You would likely hear "No. Here, let me show you" and you would get the real meaning. And it was often not what you would expect. And some times it was frightening.
And, with this instructor, you wanted to be on the receiving end. Often the strike wouldn't be obvious. Or the exact spot struck would not be obvious.
But if you were hit, you would know what the movement meant.

My second instructor told us that he wasn't taught like that. That he had to wait years before he would learn what a movement was really for. But he just didn't think holding back was useful. And he only taught like that to the advanced class.

I showed my second instructor a few forms, from my first instructor. (He had trained in a similar style earlier in his life) And he would tell me what some of the movements were really used for. It was then, that I thought that my first instructor just didn't know.
But it could also be, that I wasn't ready for that kind of training. I don't know.

Some Kung Fu forms are passed on, and get absorbed by instructors without full information. And some of my earlier forms were mostly power building foundational forms.

One thing my second instructor told me that I keep in mind "The movement will teach you how to do it." Meaning, that practice enough and you become amazingly efficient in your movements. I found that to be true.