My first topic....i do GKR oh dear god.

Hi all, i have read all the posts about GKR on these forums, and never felt compelled to write anything.......untill now. I have been doing GKR for just over a year and i am a blue belt and also an instructor. When i read your posts, including that mammoth 8 page closed topic post, i was angry at the way GKR was talked about as i loved the style, and thought i was getting a great martial art. Things have changed.

Im not going to be doing GKR anymore. My wife has just gone full time as a self defence consultant (SDC), and since that has happened, all i can see is the negative side of this style. It has taken over her life, everything now comes second to doing "her job". It is 11:30 at night right now, and she is still out "working". After being in the style for over a year, i think it sucks. To me GKR is nothing more than a money making scheme. The instructors at GKR are hopeless. I joined the instructor program thinking it was the path to success. I have come to realize how pathetic most of the instructors are. ALL of the black and white belts, are coloured belts. A lot of them cant even tie their own shoes, and yet they are teaching a class, and most of them are lower ranked than the people they are teaching. They say its an "honour" to be selected as a sensei. This is a load of rubbish, any person who applies to be a sensei is accepted. The reason for this is, all GKR care about is making money, the more people SDC's sign up, the more money they make, and hence the more senseis are needed, so they grab any tom, dick, or harry, and say put this belt on your teaching this new class.
I know of people who were full time, and when they quit, they were shut down by the club, had their sensei belts taken, and a couple were kicked out all together, because they couldn't care less about you, as long as you are making them money, my wife will soon learn this.

Anyway, the whole time me being a sensei, i felt i was playing at being a sensei, i mean who the hell am i to be out teaching a class after 1 year of learning Karate? What do i know about teaching people something i relatively know nothing about? I don't, and cant possibly know anywhere near enough to be teaching a class, neither can any of the black and white belts.
They say its an honour to be a sensei with GKR, well i say its a dishonour, and IMO GKR is the most dishonest club i have ever been associated with, because at the end of the day, they don't care about you or your development whatsoever, they are just out to make a buck.
Thanks very much

 

Firstly, welcome to MAP.


Secondly, get your wife out of there. Theres no future in pyramid schemes.

Glad you've 'seen the light.' If you need help reccomending a good club we should be able to help you out.

 

Does your wife accept your views and feelings about this outfit?. Best you have a serious chat with her before things go 'pear shaped'.

I watched a GKR class once after a 'salesman' fron them came tapping on my door.

The instructor in question was an idiot. One of his students complained that her knee was hurting when doing roundhouse kicks, it was because she was not pivoting on the supporting leg. He was too uneducated to realise that and told her it was because she had not been stretching.

Best thing you did was leave I hope your wife does the same.

 

Take your wife by the hand and run, run as fast as you can, far far away!!

 

Wow, you were an instuctor after a year???????

I agree with the others,get your wife and run!! Good luck with it.

 

i was an instructor after a year because GKR takes people as low as yellow belts, the second belt in the GKR system, and gives them classes to teach, where they thereby get a black and white sensei belt. This is one of the many dodgy practices in the club.

 

thanks very much. I live in Victoria Australia, im also a regular poster on the Blitz forums, and am getting those guys to help me find a club also. So many to choose, hard to make a decision, need to find out what it is i want from a martial art before i do anything i think

 

i gotta read about this stuff. sounds ridiculous!

 

Words fail me. Sounds like a cross between a scam and a cult.

Take along someone who is actually proficient at a real martial art and offer them a challenge. It will soon become apparent to all and sundry just how crap this whole "style" is. Teaching after your second belt?

Good grief!

 

From what I understand alot of GKR isn't any worse than your typical TMA school but its the whole cult/pyramid scheme thing that is appauling.

 

Good job sniffing out the BS dude! Best of luck in all your future endeavors, and I hope everything works out with your wife!

 

Judging by the fact that they appear to let novices teach classes, and even to teach higher grades than themselves - then that's quite an accusation.

 

Honestly I have heard that they do suprisingly well in Kata comps and even in the odd bit of point sparring.

I think you are forgetting that a great deal of TMA schools are pretty crappy.

edit: Also I have seen sparring session first hand between a 1st dan TSD and a 1st dan GKR, and the GKR held his own and he had pretty decent kata.

 

*waits to see if the thread degenerates*

 

i was thinking of taking up something like Zen do Kai, but not sure yet.

 

What country are you based in, General?

 

Victoria Australia....also found a Krav Maga school where i live, this looks interesting, anyone here do it?

 

Errrrrrrrrrrrr, who is your wife spending all this time with ? Nearly midnight is a little late for karate !?

Jaae

 

eeeeeeer, not for GKR it isnt, they knock on doors till 7pm to get appointments, and book their last appointment at 11pm then have a meeting when they are done, so 12-2 am is usual

 

find a good kyokushin club, they own in victoria. Welcome to the MAP madhouse, i've really allways dispised GKR, and hate the fact that anything that " evil" for lack of a better word, could possibly be Australian, there's a GKR, club opened in my town, up here in Queensland, i to am a blue belt in ****o-Ryu and i was thinking about teaching their instructors a thing or two.

P.S ZDK, is a good choice, i've got a friend who is a black belt with them.(they rival my club for being the largest Dojo in town in numbers)