I was recently invited to attend a class at a local Wado Ryu school here in town. I got my gi out for the first time in a few years and pulled out my white belt, which is the only belt I've actually held onto over the years, and headed down for a little training.
It was a fun energetic hour of training, but I probably won't be going back. The money issue aside, I'm not willing to clutter up my brain with a lot of superfluous movements. I don't think it's worth ingraining what I see as bad habits.
While I was running drills with one of the brown belts they said "Are you a black belt in another style?"
I told him that I just train, which is the truth. Later on while talking to one of the sempai, I confessed that I'd never made it past 5th kyu in any of my previous styles. In one of those styles I actually refused to test because I didn't really care to go to the next belt.
It's always confused me that on one hand we're not supposed to care about the belts, but on the other if you don't have the correct belt around your waist than you don't matter. Anyone who truly doesn't care about the belt system is kind of a heretic.
This isn't to say anything bad about this particular dojo, because they seemed like a good group of guys and gals. I'm hoping that I can train with some of them outside of their dojo.
It was a fun energetic hour of training, but I probably won't be going back. The money issue aside, I'm not willing to clutter up my brain with a lot of superfluous movements. I don't think it's worth ingraining what I see as bad habits.
While I was running drills with one of the brown belts they said "Are you a black belt in another style?"
I told him that I just train, which is the truth. Later on while talking to one of the sempai, I confessed that I'd never made it past 5th kyu in any of my previous styles. In one of those styles I actually refused to test because I didn't really care to go to the next belt.
It's always confused me that on one hand we're not supposed to care about the belts, but on the other if you don't have the correct belt around your waist than you don't matter. Anyone who truly doesn't care about the belt system is kind of a heretic.
This isn't to say anything bad about this particular dojo, because they seemed like a good group of guys and gals. I'm hoping that I can train with some of them outside of their dojo.
