I am afraid of my new sensei?

Question

I have practiced karate for almost 7 years now and had the same instructor the whole time. Now he is retiring. We have a new teacher. He is nice to me but he is unpredictable. He is amazing at everything he does. I was kind of getting used to him but yesterday durring a drill he kicked a boy as hard as he could the boy started crying. the boy was 14! Granted the boy was being an a$$hole and otherwise being disrespectful and not doing the drill correctly or even trying. Is that normal teaching style? I am rather afraid of him now. Just the way he calmly did it. But then another time when I hurt my leg one class he was so tender and concerned about me. I want to keep going but now I am afraid of him and I don't feel comfortable talking to him. I guess I can say I was afraid of my other instructor at the beginning because she yelled a lot when we wern't listening but I was 8 then. Please Help

Answer 1

I quite honestly doubt if he kicked him as hard as he could. If he had the boy would as Tao J said have been seriously hurt. This is basicly an old school method of correcting bad behavior. It is generally either something like this or push ups. I can garuntee you that the boy will not be disruptive or disrespectful again, if he stays. I would actually take Tao J's advice and ask the instructor if it was done to teach a leson, and then I would be glad because you have an instructor that is obviously not worried about whether he has many students or a few. You will probably recieve excellent training from him.

i know it straightened me out in a hurry.

Answer 2

it was common practise in the seventies.to make a point or discipline this way.but then students started sueing the teachers so it was stoped. im surprise that a teacher would still teach this way today. its like leting a teacher spank a kid in school now days.

Answer 3

When I was 8, I started Karate.  I continued until I was 16 and had to move away.

Now I train Aikido and in both arts, the dojos are pretty formal and traditional.

Here are a few events that have taken place on the mat over the years:

1.) When I was 11, the first person I ever called Sensei while actually meaning it came back from Okinawa where he had been training for a few years.  When he took back his dojo from his senior student who had been shepherding it, the senior student was pissed.

One Saturday, we were doing line drills and when Sensei turned to move down the line, his senior attacked him from behind.  Sensei turned, evaded the punch and knocked the guy out cold with one blow.

He then picked the guy up, walked to the door, kicked it open and literally threw him out telling him never to return to his dojo.  He never did.

I was quite nervous about this man for a while after that, but then again, that's when I truly became interested in Karate.

2.) Sensei would never get angry when I was disruptive in class (giggling, loosing concentration or whatnot).  Rather, he would ask me to hold his bag when he demonstrated a punch or a kick.

He never gave it all he had (believe me, I know he had much more than he was hitting me with) but he would certainly let me know that my behavior was undisciplined and thus unacceptable.  Got the wind knocked out of me and knocked on my *** more than once that way.  When that happened, he would help me up, put his hand on my shoulder and help me catch my breath.  Then he would do it again.

Students would hold their discipline for no other reason than to avoid being his target.  You know what?  It worked!

If more than one student was acting up, the whole class would count off knuckle pushups on hardwood then situps.  Ten per student for a class of about 30 or so.

I'm a skinny guy, but by the time I was 16, I looked like I had a beer belly - it was all abs.  My triceps were also in great shape.  Never liffed a weight in my life, but I still have those due basically to goofing off in class.

Sensei used to say that he was a glass half full kind of guy so he saw goofing off as a great opportunity for conditioning.

3.) These days, I teach kids Aikido and when students are goofing off, I watch until I figure out who the ring leader is - there is always one and its usually one of the senior kids that knows they are a role-model.

Then I line up the class for demonstration and call them for ukemi.  Then I just keep throwing them.  Not extra hard or anything like that, not with anger or malice, not extra fast, not with extra joint manipulation.... just with alot of extra reps.

I just keep throwing them until they are fairly winded then ask the class to find partners and train.

Now, they are winded and don't have a chance to catch their breath.  So they ask for a break.

I tell them that they had plenty of energy for goofing off a few minutes ago and ask why they have no energy for Aikido now.

They tell me its because I had just kept throwing them and throwing them.

I look them in the straight in the eye and respond "Exactly."

I don't do this with little kids but with the tweens, generally, they get my meaning and tend to stick to training more.

____

Martial arts is about endurance, self discipline, concentration and awareness among other things - people don't learn these things if they get away with avoiding them.

Its supposed to be fun to do martial arts, but sometimes, the training itself is anything but.  Remember where these arts come from - essentially to give you an edge when your life is on the line - that is a serious situation so the training should be taken just as seriously.

I think your Sensei thinks training should be a serious endevor so he demands his students are serious.  You seem to be hence his compassion for your injury.  The boy did not seem to take it seriously so he was issued a reminder as to why he should.

In fact, it was probably more compassionate in the long run to issue that kick to the boy that to have held it back.  The boy clearly took the kick seriously did he not?

Lets say a 15 year old is dealing pot...  what's ultimately more compassionate for the kids future?  Another lecture not taken seriously or a wakeup call in the form of being arrested, scaring the **** out of them?  If the words don't work, what's left but an escalation of force if you want to ultimately help the kid?

Answer 4

I'd bet that the new instructor knew exactly what he was doing when he kicked that student.  Sounds like he did not kick the boy out of anger, but to prove a point and establish some ground rules.  Capital punishment is old school and not really common anymore, but I can't say I disapprove (assuming he was in control of himself).  

I bet the boy that was crying was more scared than hurt - and contrary to what you say, I'll bet he did not kick the boy "as hard as he could".  The boy would likely have been injured severely.

The fact that he is pretty "tender and concerned" about your injury shows me that the sensei has some heart.  

As a student of 7 years you are established enough to address your concerns with your sensei - tell him you were startled and confused by his striking of another student and it made you uncomfortable.  

Trust is important in a learning environment, and he seems to have shaken yours with his unexpected action.  Address it like a mature student - you are 15 years old and becoming an adult...this is the perfect time to test yourself as such.

Answer 5

You got some nice answers.

I would also add that you need to find out if there was malice by the teacher or not. If he was being mean and not just being a good sensei, then you have a problem.

But as the others pointed out, it was probably cold, calculated, old-school discipline. In this day and age it has fallen out of favour but not with everyone and certainly not in the martial arts.

(And I also agree that it is highly unlikely it was a hard kick. Probably a fast push, but not a real kick. I have used this many times as well over the years.)