Go Kan Ryu/GKR (yes...the door to door ppl...)

Discussion in 'Karate' started by honest_john, Jul 28, 2004.

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  1. CobraMaximus

    CobraMaximus Banned Banned

    Same Assossiation/Scam Corporation so similar Dojos. Seems the thing for most MAs, same federation, ame style dojos.
     
  2. Visage

    Visage Banned Banned

    Like I said, I'm not getting drawn into a debate about the politics of the style. But it was out of order what the two of you said. Especially the way you said it.
     
  3. tommy

    tommy New Member

    I have been reading all these posts, and must admit Ihave never heard of GKR. That said however, I can only surmize and give my .02 to Emma based on what I have read.

    I think the people that hae weighed in on this post are dedicated and knowledgeable martial artists...ones who study other styles and learn their history.

    The fact that they seem to all be saying the same thing about this GKR style, I would take it to heart Emma. I am sure you have trained hard, but misplaced training can be a waste of time and actually dangerous.

    I would seriously consider looking for another martial arts school that has a good reputation. Ignorance can be bliss....but a samrt person, which I am sure you are, will consider the reason that all these people are bagging on GKR.

    You don't hear them bagging on other arts...so why GKR?

    They say it for your own good. IMHO
     
  4. Chruffin

    Chruffin Valued Member

    GojuMaster, I'd expect someone with your kind of grounding in the MA to show a little more respect to another's views, especially when you've had no first hand experience of her dojo.

    Yoda, likewise the dojo you went to may have been a load of rubbish. So was the Shotokan dojo I went to the other week. If it helps practically all my friends in MA have had similar experiences when they tried Shotokan. As for knowledge of Karate, I've trained with Shotokan brown belts and dan grades who haven't been able to even successfully avoid one of my punches, much less effectively block and counter it, unless I did it in a nice rigid Junzuki Jodan for them.

    Does this mean that Shotokan sucks? Of course it doesn't, all it means is that these classes I've seen or the Martial Artists that came out of them were pants (technical term there :) )

    Hell, if nothing else, we're all here doing Karate - Possibly *the most abused style in the MA world*!!! I've spoken to people who do Wing Chun, Lou Gar, T'ai Chi, that Brazilian one I can't spell, Muay Thai and just straight boxing. We're seen as the laughing stock of the MA world guys. Should we all just bow out and let it all go? Forget Shotokan, does *Karate* suck?

    No, it doesn't. Likewise, you can't slate GKR as a whole until you've tried it for an extended period of time.

    Wake up guys, it's about the artist, not the art. If Emma W's trained hard then she's definitely not a 'nobody' as you'd like to have her believe GojuMaster. In fact, with people like you putting her down at every step I'd say she's a little more...
     
  5. GojuKJoe

    GojuKJoe Valued Member

    i'm afraid i have to agree with the anti GKR people here. Emma may be a good martial artist, i don't know, but in my experience, and from what i've been told by other people, GKR is a rip off. Maybe there are some good GKR karateka, but i doubt very much that there are many at all.
     
  6. Knight_Errant

    Knight_Errant Banned Banned

    Actually, there ARE certain exceptions to that rule. From what I've heard, GKR seems to be one of them.
     
  7. Emma W

    Emma W New Member

    thanks for the input, but here goes, to those slagging off gkr from what they have READ, i suggest that you speak to or observe their karateka. as for the guy saying kancho flies around in a helecopter, you have given me the best laugh i have had all day matey. as for the average training lifespan of a gkr student, 2 years eh? well i have trained over 3 times a week for 2 and a half years and didnt earn my 3rd kyu or have the honour at competing at national level by moaping around the dojo- i was made to work hard for it by an instructor who has been doing varying styles of karate all of his life, and decided gkr was his favourite. i have also tried shotokan a while back, so please dont tell me to train elsewhere. i am happy training at my dojo- come and check it out for yourself and youll see for yourself that the students there are hard working, competant karateka and have nothing but positive and cheery attitudes towards karate. thank you for the support from TejitsuDo and Cheruffin, i really do appreciate it. :eek: and the day i earn my black belt in the future with gkr will be a very proud day for me indeed.

    thanks for your time.
     
  8. GojuMaster

    GojuMaster New Member

    The Great Karate Ripoff (GKR) good debate here, but first let me tell you, how is it that nobody from the GKR ranks come up with one single allegation to the contrary as far as the running of the Org and their background.
    So the Grand Master is a Nidan in Karate and all of the sudden he promotes himself to 7th Dan (choke) but that's alright!
    Then you are taught by people who completed 6 lessons and maybe knows less than you, but that's ok.
    Then you are not recognised by ANY of the International bodies, but that's alright!
    You can only compete in non contact Tournaments run by them and perhaps (in Australia) the NAS, which is basically run by thi s mob, but that's alright!
    The system changes every 2 months according to the new poeple joining in e;g: if I was say a 4th dan in Goju Ryu, then I may know this Kata better than the ones we already do, so you take one out and get this guy to teach the "new one" and add it to the syllabus, hehehe! Clever, aren't I?
    They charge you for breathing in GKR but that's ok, I feel I am a somebody.
    The system is a pyramid scheme developed to make money out of people who "think" are learning a Martial Art, otherwise, why would you send people out to knock on doors? but that's ok!
    A second Dan in Karate is not entitled to give any rank higher than his own to anybody, so what is Emma going to do when going for a second Dan? Accept one from a person who "nominated" himself to a higher rank? Clever!
    Never mind, going back to one of the comments made and from which I'm still laughing; I never said Emma "was" a nobody. If you read the context of the phrase, it reads: "one day you'd realise you are a nobody...." this basically implies something like; Emma travels to Japan for higher learning, but soon realises that nobody has ever heard of this famous australian style, and worse still nobody knows who this so call Master is, and even worse when she realises that everything she worked so hard for is nowhere near acceptable in our curricula!
    I say "our" because I am a 40 year veteran of the Arts (some thought I was 14 years old I gathered) with a well earned very high grade in Japan and Okinawa, a place I call my second home and where I'll be for two weeks in January and then March in case any of the "defenders" of the Crown want to come and try the "real" thing.
    And Emma, some of the ones slagging GKR for what they have readas you said, may have been around longer than you care to think, and may have witness the rise of the scheme to the point it is now, and many more would have been just disgruntled ex students whom like you one day, saw that they were taken for a ride and for your hard earned cash.
    And someone said: it depends on the Dojo (whether you learn anything of real value or what the "Instructor" got shown the week before) Are you then trying to suggest that if you are "lucky" you learn some stuff, and if you are not...well, tough!
    May as well figures, when some have already realised that here in Australia the standards and methods are "somewhat" different. Mmmmm it may depend on the Dojo I say.
    Keep dreaming :Angel:
     
  9. Miss_Kitty

    Miss_Kitty New Member

    I am a proud practitioner of GKR and currently hold Shodan level, I have been training for around 8 years now. Over the years GKR has changed and only for the better not to make a profit like people have said here, but truly to become a fantastic genuine Martial Arts Club. Unless you have trained in tis style for as long and if not more years than I have and have experienced the training then you have no right to slag my club.

    I understand there have been dodgy instructors that don't really understand what they are doing, but our practices of training instructors has changed for the better too. By the way not all of our instructors are bad and to judge us on this premise is wrong!

    Door to door is a unique way of attracting students to our club, we don't force them to join it is against policy only some people have been bad and forced people to join. We now have introduced training fee options that I think is outstanding value for money for our students and not designed to make quick money.

    I'm disappointed to witness you so called Martial Artists disrespecting our club, only true Martial Artists can also appreciate other styles, respect and realise that we are all trying to improve our practices in some way. You obviously don't realise how successful our organisation is and so what if we are our own federation! We don't have to be bart of the IKF. Perhaps those who disrespect our style should think a little bit more about who they are as a Martial Artists and also get there facts right.
     
  10. GojuKJoe

    GojuKJoe Valued Member

    like i've already said, i'm only speaking from my experience, we had a man from GKR join our Goju Ryu club, and his level of knowledge was terrible. He was about a 6th kyu or something, and told us that he used to teach at his old club, but a new guy came in and basically took over. This new guy was a policeman, and was about a 6th, maybe 5th kyu too, but he was just given a black belt and told to teach the class. This kind of behaviour is totally unacceptable, because the students under him, are not getting good quality instruction, but they think they are, because they automatically trust his belt. I've heard similar stories form just about everyone who has had any GKR experience, so i think saying "there have been dodgy instructors" is a little inaccurate in my opinion, i'd say it's more like, almost all of the instructors are scammers, but there are a few decent ones.
     
  11. JohnnyX

    JohnnyX Map Addict

    Me thinks: At this point, it would be nice for a GKR Instructor to pop in and tell us a story.

    Cheers. :)
     
  12. tommy

    tommy New Member

    How do you "FORCE" someone to join. is that like protection money...mafia?
     
  13. CobraMaximus

    CobraMaximus Banned Banned

    So it weren't genuine in the beginning...?
    If it is so genuine why is it not acknowledged.

    Btw, a GKR guy came along to my club and was a grade away from his black belt.
    He was beaten in every fight, had never heard of any of the stuff we did and all his knowledge amounted to frontkicks and punches.
    Sadly this leads me to believe that GKR sucks.
     
  14. Emma W

    Emma W New Member

    the amount of disrespect here is shocking. think about what you say before you really begin to hurt other people.
     
  15. YODA

    YODA The Woofing Admin Supporter

    Emma - respect in MA is EARNED not demanded.

    GKR doesn't seem to have earned much :rolleyes:
     
  16. GojuKJoe

    GojuKJoe Valued Member

    Well put, I agree
     
  17. uraken

    uraken Be water my friend...

    Emma,

    No better saying than the truth hurts and im really sorry but it does sound like its hurting......

    If you really are happy with your training the comments made here really shouldnt bother you yet you seem so angered by peoples views on GKR, some of these people have tried it too yet you still find their comments offensive, why ? How many arts have you tried before or during your GKR training enlighten us because it seems to you even the people that have experience of GKR are also wrong in their views.

    If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck then im afraid it probably is a duck, took me a too long to realise but hey you aint me and I aint you :)

    Good Luck in your training
     
  18. Mike Flanagan

    Mike Flanagan Valued Member

    Its GKR policy to have junior kyu grades instructing. From speaking to a number of GKR and ex-GKR students it has become clear to me that considerable pressure is put upon any adult who passes the first few grades to become an instructor.

    So if there are dodgy instructors it is a direct result of GKR’s policy of getting students teaching asap and opening up as many dojos as possible.

    Perhaps that’s true to an extent in Australia, I couldn’t say. But that’s certainly not the case here in the UK. The organisation has 9000 students and only a handful of dan grades. So its business as usual.

    I'm disappointed to witness you so called Martial Artists disrespecting our club [/QUOTE]

    I would say it’s the other way round. GKR is bringing into disrepute the art that many of us here hold in very high regard. We dedicate our own free time to passing on our skills and upholding the standards and integrity of our art. Only to see our art being cheapened and brought into disrepute by the shallow facsimile that GKR.

    Mike
     
  19. Mike Flanagan

    Mike Flanagan Valued Member

    I have seen GKR students in action and I have spoken to them.

    Emma, I realise some of the comments you’ve read in this thread may seem confrontational but I think everyone here is genuinely trying to guide you in the right direction. There seem to be a considerable number of skilled and experienced martial artists here, all essentially singing from the same hymn book. Surely that has to make you wonder why. I personally have practiced a number of different martial arts. I hold all of these arts in high regard. They each have strengths and weaknesses, but they are all of value. Ask yourself why should I take exception to GKR in particular?

    I don’t doubt that you and your fellow students are hard-working and have positive attitudes. But that’s my real concern, I hate seeing genuine hard-working students being taken in by this scam.

    Mike
     
  20. CobraMaximus

    CobraMaximus Banned Banned

    Mike, good post and well done.

    I have to agree. Emma, it may seem disappointing to start over again BUT many other styles like Wado RYu, Shotokan, Goju etc. are far more respected, stable and guaranteed.
    At my club in about 4/5 Years you could be a really highly skilled black belt 1st Dan, maybe 2nd and would be well on your way to being a superb martial artist of a respected order.

    My 0.02
     
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