As indicated http://colinyates.blogspot.com/2010/01/returning-to-martial-arts.html I am looking for a decent (by my definition) school to study martial arts.
I have just returned from an hours training at Hinkley with Sensei Robert Phelps (http://www.leicesterjujitsu.co.uk/jujitsu_Training.asp) and thought I would give it a quick review.
First, let me state that this is a review against *my* criteria. If you are looking for a Ju Jitsu class then I would have no issue recommending it. Any negative assertions as related to what I am looking for, not ‘is this a good Ju Jitsu school’, to which the answer is yes!
The class is held in a school room with the standard blue break mats on the floor. There were about 10-12 (forgot to count :)) students (what are they called?) of differing ages and abilities. It was very friendly and laid back. Sensei Robert came over to chat to me and he was as friendly as his wife, who ran the ‘reception’.
The class started with the obligatory warmup and then Sensei Robert spent 5 minutes 1 on 1 with me going through basic breaks and rolls.
For the rest of the class I trained with three different people, two brown belts and one red belt. Both Sensei Robert and another black belt kept popping over to check on things when I was with the red belt. All of the training involved 1 on 1 in different scenarios, i.e. ‘if somebody is strangling you (by putting your hand here and here) then if you move your left hand over like this, and then your right hand over like that, and move your hips……..this happens. Now you try’. We went through 5 different moves using this teaching method.
So what do I think – I am undecided. It was a very comfortable and relaxed environment, and you could just tell that Sensei Robert knew his stuff. Watching the higher belts do their thing was quite inspiring. I just don’t know if it is what I am looking for. There was no teaching on the strikes at all – no bag work or patterns, it was all defensive. Also, the pace was a little slow – necessarily because it was all about the technique, but I didn’t really feel as if I had enough instruction. To me, there are two styles – ‘who cares about technique – hit them’ and ‘attention to detail – repeat this 1000 times’. If the style is in the second class, which Ju Jitsu clearly is, and should be, then I want to know exactly what I am doing right, wrong and how to improve it. Quite often I hear ‘well, we don’t want to discourage beginners’, but I am not really a beginner – I am there to learn, and if it is ‘technique heavy’ art, then I want to make sure my technique is excellent from the get go. Rather worryingly the red belt and even some of the brown belts didn’t exactly know either.
I am being harsh, and deliberately picking faults. Don’t misunderstand, I was impressed enough to consider going back – you really need to visit a place 3 or 4 times to get a genuine feel for it.
Pros:
- very safe and respectful – no egos that I could detect (although at 6 foot 2 and the wrong side of 18 stone I either put them off or encourage them ;))
- high skill level
- diverse age and skill range
- the man had some skillz
Cons:
- it is at least an hour round trip for a one hour lesson
- not enough ‘accuracy’ in the techniques that I could see (although I am being unfair as they thought I was a beginner)
- the second hour was for very high grades
- the grading takes a very long time – 3 months between grades, although I don’t know how rigid that is, or whether you can double up (grade for multiple belts at the same time), or whether you can skip a belt
- not enough rough and tumble for me
- this isn’t going to get me fit – the warm up had me breathing hard (yeah, I know :(), but the rest of the class required zero exertion
Have I ruled out Ju Jitsu? Not necessarily – if I could find somewhere that focused on the strikes as well with some sparing, then great. Have I ruled out this club? Not at all – I may well go back for another 3 or 4 weeks just to ‘give it a chance’.
As I said to my wife – if I could zip forward 3 or 4 years to when I receive my black belt in Ju Jitsu I would be ecstatic – I really want to do it, the problem is I am not sure if the journey is going to excite/interest me that much.
Tomorrow will be one of:
- Ju Jitsu at http://www.smrtj.co.uk/clubs/?id=2
- Tae Kwon Do at http://www.jfreer-taekwondo.com/club_training_info.htm (who disappointedly hasn’t rung me back!)
- Thai Kick Boxing and then Jeet Kune Do at http://urbanmartialarts.com/Timetable.html (who has so far demonstrated excellent customer service by responding to my email before and after Christmas)
Stay tuned to find out the next step on this epic journey to black belt!
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