My area has too many martial arts clubs but I have nowhere to train

My town has something like 10 martial arts club despite it being a small town with a population under 70,000.

We have 5 kickboxing clubs, 3 Japanese Ju jitsu clubs, 2 judo clubs, 2 BJJ clubs, a taekwondo club and a karate club. Notice how there are actually more than 10: 2 of the clubs have kickboxing and BJJ or BJJ and judo under one roof even though the instructors are different.

Even though we have multiple clubs I can't train because people I don't like and/or want to fight in the future train at multiple clubs or keep changing club.

I can't even travel to neighbouring towns because other people also travel.

I've lost too many times in kickboxing and judo now I can't rematch them because they keep changing

 

When you say "people you want to fight in future" I assumed you mean in competition, not scrapping?

As for not wanting to train somewhere because of people you don't like - thats called cutting your nose off to spite your face.
If you want to do martial arts, do it. Your not being asked to marry anyone.

It seems you're creating problems that don't need to exist.

 

I have lost way too much in kickboxing and judo and I know I could have beat 4 of them in kickboxing and 1 in judo. But I can't rematch them because they keep changing club so I refuse to train with them ( for example, 1 guy who beat me in kickboxing trains at where I used to wrestle while another who beat me in kickboxing started training at my kickboxing club).

As for people I dislike it's because they have either been rude to me or are friends with past bullies from school.

I am sick of losing so rather than fight them again and again in tournaments I'd rather fight them under MMA rules or arrange a kickboxing/grappling fight.

I don't understand why people keep changing club- I got kicked out of my club in 2011 for arguing with a rival club and refusing to join them.

I change clubs out of necessity but now I've run out of places to train

 

If EVERY club has someone that has an issue with you then it might be worth looking at the one common ingredient

 

Left judo club because I was given wrong time for grading and told I missed my grading even though they could've squeezed me in later that evening or even the week after. Also judo was losing members and instructor couldn't take part due to blood platelet issue

First kickboxing club was crap- I got to blue belt after 5 years training and still I was put into novices in local tournament. Belt =/= category.

Kicked out of my third kickboxing club for refusing to join the rival club and arguing about it.

 

Mistakes happen - acting like a douche about it reflects on you not them

Angelo Dundee never sparred Ali

And did you win? If you keep losing then guess what? You are probably a novice

Equally this does not factor in attendance; 5 years at 1 class a week is worse than 1 year at 3 classes a week

Ahhh, so someone else fault again eh? Strange how they were a "rival" yet the club was trying to get you to join.

 

The best change I ever made was leaving my first club where you're forced to pointfighting or do made up katas to go to the next grade. Plus sparring wasn't monitored

The problem is because I was forced to pointfight my continuos suffered.

I don't understand why a Japanese Ju Jitsu club (not mine) needs an external BJJ and K1 coach.

Another club I refuse to train at one of the BJJ blue belts is the coach of my rival kickboxing club. He has a background in Chin Na and a year of Japanese Ju Jitsu so why is he fighting as a sandbagger in BJJ

The BJJ coach of the club I refuse to train at also trained at 3 clubs

 

Ok subtle isn;t working...

You are the problem

Until you fix your attitude you ain't training anywhere anytime soon

 

A decent club wouldn't hand out grades to someone unless their sparring is above that of lower grades- the rival club has their orange and green belts fighting in black belt categories. My first club was a joke

The rival club is taught by the guy who taught my instructor from my first and third club. If his students weren't so rude I wouldn't have an issue with them; we had a 2 local 'derby' fights with them and one of their fighters was saying things like 'I'll make 9/11 look like a fun day out'. Anyway, here is their coach's justification for their behaviour- by this point they had already poached a fighter from another club

"Ok Ronal just seen your comments on my wall, from them and the reference to the comp I can only assume your talking about the fight with James. Look you need to lighten up. If you go around saying you nearly KO'd someone with one punch and they feel you didn't, you can hardly expect them to not say something. As you have pointed out to others in the past, if you don't like what your hearing you can filter them out or block them altogether. It doesn't really matter what really happened, two fighters are always going to have differing views on an encounter. Your coach may of said you rocked him and from his perspective that might be true, he could also of been trying to ego protect a fighter that had just lost and needed picking up. Just for the record. From my perspective the fight with James was pretty much one sided. You spent most of the round being hit and kept leaving the area. Did you hit James, yes you did. But you only really used your jab and that was whilst half turning away so there was no power. To my recollection you hit James with one good technique, I would not of said it nearly KO'd him but he must of felt it because he immediately came back with strong shots which from my experience that indicates a fighter that has felt a hit and is a little put out. I remember that incident well because I was shouting at James to take it easy and lighten up. You have made reference to the fact that James is unsportsmanlike. In his defence I would point out that before the fight started I told him not to hurt you and to go easy (you can choose to believe this or not, I don't really care). He did enough to win and could of done a lot more had he been of a mind. That to me is not the sign of someone with an ego who thinks they are better than they are or of someone who takes pleasure in beating lesser opponents. I've seen Roy's comments as well. There is no malice intended, it's just a tongue in cheek bit of banter between two team mates in response to your posts. If you don't like it then don't make posts that open you up it or take your own advice and remove them from your friends lists. What I don't take kindly to is the above implication that my club is full of people with huge ego's that like to go around bullying everyone, because that is not the case. Do we cheer on and support our own guys, yes we do as will most clubs. Do we post our success's, yes we do as do all clubs. However our club is open and friendly a fact which I'm sure Dave Thomas (your own instructor would agree with). Chris and Damian (both from your club) have trained with us, Chris only once. But I'm sure both of them would say our club is welcoming and friendly. Our club doesn't need to puff its chest and shout about how good we are. Until we started fighting at Andy Lavery's fight nights most clubs in the local area didn't even know who we were. That's because we normally keep a low profile and let our performance speak for itself. You have only seen us compete at the IMAO in Andover because Andy is a friend and we are a local club we said we would support the event. Normally we don't compete at low level events....although that is changing because there is still value for our novices and fighters making a debut. Hence the trip to Yeovil. You seem to have a filtered view of what is going on around you and I have been surprised by some of your comments: 1. You give the impression that as a club we are up ourselves and take no account of the fact we stood on your line and supported you during your points fight. Hell I even shouted some advice (which you probably didn't hear) when you were fighting James during your continuous fight. 2. You imply in one of your statements that we tried to recruit you to our club. I can categorically state that is untrue. Plus it doesn't make sense, if we think your so bad and dislike you so much, why would we want you? I don't need to ask people to join us, we get enough students coming to us of their own accord and as we have an open door policy with our fight classes we get a lot of guys from other clubs too ( I'm sure they will all confirm that we don't try to make them leave their clubs). 3. Your statements about being threatened is the one that's got me the most irritated. You have later stated that no one has actually threatened and yet the implication was made initially and then later you associate my clubs name with this type of behaviour just by mentioning us in the same context. I have nothing against you Ronal and although you struggle at competition, I like the fact that you get up there and have a go. Having said that MY CLUB IS NOT WHAT YOU ARE IMPLYING. WE DO NOT STAND FOR BULLYING AND WHILST WE TEACH A POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE WE ARE NOT AN EGOTISTICAL CLUB EITHER...

"Roy made a comment to "give you a smack next time" because he found your comment funny. As he has already explained to you via Dave's wall, it was a bit of banter between two team mates. Seems to me your attitude on facebook is similar to your attitude in fighting, you don't mind dishing it out but don't like it when it comes back at you. Once again you entirely miss the point. This is not about your bout with James or the little tiff between you and Roy. You guys don't agree on how the fight went....I don't care, it's not important. What I care about is the indirect attack on my clubs reputation which in turn is a reflection on me. Look at the reaction from your friend Jamie Rawlings, he is concerned that someone is bullying you as any good friend should be. When I saw your response "a couple from the falcons" I too responded because I will not stand for bullying especially not from people in my club. Whether it was intended or not, you have given the impression that you are being threatened by members of my club. The fact that you are now saying "it was a precaution in case James tries to threaten you" is just sad and makes you look like a complete idiot. The point here is that NO ONE from the club has threatened you. Nor is anyone running around shouting from the rooftops that the Falcons are the best because one of our fighters beat the great Ronal Lakhani - a reference to your statement "they think their so big because they beat me". Ronal, your not living in a Manga comic. You seem to think the world is made up of good and evil clubs and want to paint us in the same light as the Cobra Kai from karate kid. Comments like "I hope Dave and Chris ANNIHILATE them in May" are not constructive. Dave and Chris are fighting Brad and Wojtek and none of them have anything to do with your war of words with Roy and James. The fact is in the ring the four of them are going to do the best they can to beat each other. And I know it's called The Grudge and as its full contact they will try to knock each other out. However the one thing you can guarantee, regardless of who wins, they will touch gloves and shake hands before and after the fight. Hell we'll probably all go out and get ****ed together afterwards. You keep saying this sport is not your forte and with the kind of attitude your showing I would tend to agree. We are all sportsmen. There is healthy rivalry, but there is also mutual respect. There is no room for in this sport for personal animosity. I've wasted enough time on this "sh*t" and so I'm taking your advice and removing you from my friends list. Just to be clear. I have nothing against you personally and I wish you well with whatever martial arts you choose to pursue. I just don't want to see anymore of this crap on my wall."

 

That makes him sound like a pretty grounded and reasonable dude and makes you sound even more of a prat

I repeat, the clubs are not the problem here and in case you missed it before......

UR

 

Agree with @Hannibal - your attitude and ego are the only things blocking you from joining and progressing in any class.

If you WANT it, MAKE it happen.

 

Except the fact they poached a fighter from another club, my first club's coach also trains with them (hence he has no faith in his own students because he's a crap teacher), and 3 of the guys from the club I was kicked out trained with them:

"Not read it Ron im a bit busy and have a rubbish phone, we dont have ememys at the falcons, all clubs have rivalry between them and after fight night myself and Chis aim to go down to the falcons to train with them, we can all learn from 1 another in this game, i hope nobody is being malicious towards you Ron but your passion for the sport does get the better of you and not everyone is so enthusiastic, agreed if people dont want to read they can delete but its public and people have opinions and sometimes your posts can provoke, you have the ability to delete also my friend."

 

Do Peter Aerts, Ernesto Hoost and Semmy Schilt train together even though they're rivals?
Does GSP train with BJ Penn or Matt Hughes even though they're rivals?
Does Daniel Cormier train with Jon Jones even though they're rivals?
Does Junior Dos Santos train with Cain Velasquez even though they're rivals?

I have nowhere to train despite their being 10 clubs because people keep changing club.

 

Another thing; the other Japanese Ju Jitsu club (that has BJJ classes) says ''Good luck to our brothers'' with regards to a different club that has different BJJ classes. Why are they wishing luck to another club? One reason is people train at both. I don't see the point in all these clubs if people keep changing

 

They all take responsibility for their own development.
They don't let personal issues with other fighters at their gym get in the way of their training there.
GSP might not train with BJ Penn, but he does train with other people, and I'm willing to bet he's trained with some people he doesn't really like, because:
A) he can learn something by training with a variety of people, whether he likes them socially or not
B) He's not a whiney kid who throws his toys out of the pram because things don't go his way.

 

Because they are showing support for fellow martial artists, who actually have the guts to show up and train and compete, without making excuses of "that guys friend used to bully me in school!"

 

You are not a competitor - at best you are an over-enthusiastic amateur; at worst an over-opinionated petulant child

You lack the experience and ability to hold the views you do about martial arts and the fact you seem to see at as a kind of clan warfare rather than a group of like minded people hanging out is testament to that

 

So you agree; fighters who want to fight other fighters in the future won't train with them.

GSP doesn't train with BJ Penn
GSP doesn't train with Matt Hughes
Junior Dos Santos doesn't train with Cain Velasquez
Daniel Cormier doesn't train with Jon Jones

 

I have friends in town that are highly skilled martial artists in their own right and I do not hesitate to send potential students their way; it's called being a fully rounded human being