A little Thought but BIG annoyance

Why do you teach martial arts?
Is it for the ego trip? ( look at me look what I can do and you cant)
Is it for the furtherment of yourself ( commendable but still selfish )

Is it for the MONEY!! ..I have to tell you that this is the most annoying aspect of the martial arts for me.
I have in my time seen the gift of martial arts instruction turn into a mass marketing tool with accountants running schools who have NO martial arts experience whatsoever.
They dont care that little johnny's parents are poor and cannot afford for him to train ( despite the fact that he may be the next Ed Parker ) all these parasites want is their pound of flesh and sadly more and more martial arts schools are going this way.
The " pay up turn up and SHUT up !!" schools are now dominating the market with the little johhny's of this world left by the wayside for the rich kids who " can pay up ".
Martial arts was first taught as a means of a GIFT to the shoalin monks and was then passed on as a GIFT.
Yes their has always been money and business involved ( how would the ancient teachers have eaten otherwise ) but there has always been an act of kindness and honour or a time when the martial arts were about the furtherment of the person and not a fast buck. When the schools were run by sifu ( teacher ) and not accountant.

Think please you guys know who you are and so do we ;-).
The martial arts cannot become a wholesale business it will destroy it.
Yes by all means charge for your expertese I expect no less than to pay for or earn what I leanrn.
But I beg you guys to remember the next ed parkers who may not be able to afford to train, tell your accountant to shut up and maybe create a scholorship fund for these kids.

" rather on the mat than on the streets " :-)

Big fish small pond

I recently invited one of our JNR black belts into the senior class and was surprised to find that they were terrified of the prospect. Our adult class is friendly, informative and fun.
We work hard there and i thought this would be a great opportunity for them to further their knowledge.
Upon asking both them and their parents what was wrong I was told that they fealt " confortable " where they were.
It started me thinking .. are we comfortable where we are.
How many of us could truly leave our class and travel to another or even teach in another country.
To those that do and have I take my hat off to. It must be difficult to do,I have travelled quite a lot with KENPO and met some wonderfull people. I urge others to do the same, after all education comes from experience.
Please dont be a big fish in a small pond .. there is a whole ocean out there to explore.

VA school shooting

My heart goes out to you all.
I dont really have to words to say what is needed here but think that maybe this page says it all
http://leewedlake.blogspot.com/

Fun Fun Fun

Its not all doom and gloom here :-)

The sun is out at last and its time for me to get these white legs out and frighten people.

I love the summer it makes me feel good inside and upon surfing the net I found good news on the kenpo front ( see Promotions on lee wedlakes blog) awesome, congratulations guys.

A big salute and handshake to you all.

Little Black Belts

I have to say that I dont agree with junior black belts. I personally think that they are a little young to take in the responsability that the belt presents.
Not that its much of my business because my instructor has the last say on that.
I was however dismayed to see the attitude of a jnr black belt lately when told to keep their guard up the reply was " I dont need to I allready have my black belt ".
Think about what this person was thinking and a lot of you will look to the people teaching them.
I agree with you but while people try to promote their martial arts through the giving of belts to young children this is the responce you should expect.
As Mr Parker said " you must earn what you learn" and I for one think that the attitude of " aw well they cant do this or this or this or this but they have attended class and are up to date with payments lest promote em " is wrong because it fosters arrogance and falsehoods in the ability of the student.

To end my rant I will once again quote Mr Parker
" just coz the colours show it doesnt mean you know "

Think about it!!!

Lee Wedlake

I really like this person , he for me is a true martial artist and a gentleman.
If you like me are into kenpo then you should visit his site www.lwkarate.com its very good and full of some pretty funny stuff if you manage to find his bolg.

First Thoughts

I thought I would set this up and remain a little hidden , not that I want to hide but some things need to be said and some people can be upset by them.

I love KENPO, its awesome practical and intelligent as a martial art. There I thought I would say that first.

Recently however I have been a little dissapointed in it , the amount of offshoots and organisations claiming to be the last remaining remnants of " true kenpo "disturb me to say the least.

Then there are those who take kenpo and say that its " not a complete martial art " well show me a martial art that is complete ??

I really do long for the days when we were all under one umberella but through greed , ego and arguments that will never happen again. Its a true shame that even where I live there are 2 KENPO offshoot schools and 3-4 other KENPO schools NONE of which talk to each other and ALL struggling to get new students.

I stay in KENPO so that hopefully as the new emerging guard we can make the changes from within and hopefully stand back to back and pull our art back together.