A little over a year ago, I left the school where I had been training since moving to Chicago in 2007. BTW, it was a mixed arts school that included some FMA, not an FMA school. I left partly because of specific issues with the school, mainly lack of an experienced FMA teacher. There had been two initially, but in the course of my training, they both retired from teaching, at least temporarily, due to getting married & having kids. The other reason was because, after a dozen years of devoting most of my free time and discretionary income to martial arts, I was just ready for a break. But now I'm starting to get the itch to train again. I'm not going back to that school. I don't hate it or feel wronged by it or anything, it's just not the place for me. There are a couple of other schools in the area with excellent FMA teachers, but their class schedules are not very compatible with my work schedule. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do long-term, but for starters, when I get home from work tonight, I will pick up a stick & dagger and do some carenza.
Did you try the midway Kodenkan ran by John Bedarnski? I trained with him for a bit when I was stateside and before I returned overseas.. John has a good program and because of him, Ive been with the Dekiti Tirsia system for almost 10 yrs.. Just a recommendation
Thanks for the recommendation. I took a class from John once, when I first moved to Chicago. I found him to be a good teacher, but the times & location are not a good fit for me.
Then I would recommend that if you are on the north side up near waukegan or north chicago area, look for Marc Halleck in Libertyville.. I spent a few times in his school along with a jkd affiliated school in round lake.. Other than that I would suggest there is a ptk school in the chicago area, but its location is not available to me currently as I am doing this post from work and can't find the information
I know Marc. He's a good dude. If I do join a school again, it's likely that his place is where I would go.
