www. gkrkarate.com they're website. said to be a mcdojo, but, i'm not too sure, they block the kata, so a red belt HAS to do bassai dai as their grading kata. put lots of emphasis on sport karate, they're not affiliated with the WKF. however not many Dojos are. they door knock for members and target students of other dojos. A GKR Rep came to my door a week back, i told her i was happy training in my dojo, and she moved on to the next house. the fact some GKR Dojos churn out more Black Belts than my Dojo has students, worries me, it's just us at ****o-Ryu another ****o-Ryu Dojo and a Shotokan Dojo for Karate in my town and my Dojos got the most students. then there's the point of them saying it's "low contact" karate on the web site and saying it's effective for Self Defence. make up your own mind, but IMHO they're a Mcdojo and and also very cult like in behaviour.
It's been done to death before , but the main points 1/ no contact kumite 2/ junior grades given a black and white belt and teaching 3/ contracts tieing you in 4/ they don't like you watching a class before you start There will be more if you search this or any ma forum.
I'm not sure GKR churn out a lot of black belts. In my experience they don't really pass a lot of black belts at all (perhaps because they have a high drop-out rate prior to black belt). What they do churn out is a lot of black&white belts who are (allegedly, so I hear etc etc) the people usually around green belt that are given classes to teach.
Non-contact sports karate. They do use low grades to instruct....Anyone wearing a black and white belt is a kyu grade....this can be anything from 8th to 1st kyu. If they are black belts they will wear a black belt. They do have a reasonable number of black belts but only because they have sooooooo many students, as with most physical activities most people who start don't stay long enough to earn BB. They don't hand black belts out at the drop of a hat like some Mcdojos. They do what they do very well, but self defense is lacking. I train with them and do so happily, because I understand what they offer and it suits my needs at the moment. I have tried other things aswell.
Most people do not pass thier black belt as the grading system at Black Belt level is very strict I have been doing GKR for over 5 years now i and i know many people who have failed on more than one occasion.
From what I understand, Go Kan Ryu is what sits at the opposite end of the Karate Spectrum from Andy Hug, Daido Juku, and Chaos Madmax.
i explained it in the post, the person who is a red belt going for brown MUST do Bassai-Dai without any choice in the matter. look- see http://www.gkrkarate.com/training/gradingkata.asp
They are a triangle money making scam artists. They sell Karate door to door and will fleece you for money. You will have them giving you a black belt white line in 8 weeks and taking classes. they offered me a job but I turned it down as their contract tied you in and it would have been hard to get out without some effort.
Wow! Where are you guys training? I've been in GKR in Adelaide for 2 years now and love it. One of the great benefits is that it is a style that caters for everyone so you can make if it what you want. Whether you covet the black belt (which you work darn hard for over a long time) or you just want some exercise, or a cupboard full of medals. If you research a little harder than McDojo bashing threads you will find GKR do very well in competitions all over the world. It is true that instructors are drawn from the kyu grades but from what I have seen only when they have the apptitude and basic skills to learn how to teach. Given the size of the club obviously they have to find instructors somewhere - and the size of the club is another great benefit - in Adelaide you can train on any night nearly anywhere. Maybe it's an Adelaide thing, but I feel well supported in the club. I couldn't think of a better place to start for a beginner. I have never heard of anyone being locked into contracts.
In the contract it states that you have to pay your own tax, if you leave you can not teach Karate within 5Km of their dojo for a minimum of 6 months. If that does happen for teaching their Karate they will take you to court for breach of contract. And when you have gradings like this you know they are making money. This was taken in 2003 by my brother who took the neighbours kids to a grading. She is in that picture somewhere.
Well, i have heard great things about GKR in Adelaide, being the heart of GKR, sullivan lived there all his life (or most of it) and it's where his hombu Dojo is, the mcdojo chain fans out from there getting worse in places like the US an the UK, but in Aus it's quite up to scratch, The Toowoomba GKR Dojo trains at my high school, i was thinking about going to train there, but no. i'm proud of how my dojo handles training for beginners, i've been with them since i started been going on five years now. now melS If someones going to teach you karate,would you prefer A) A 2nd dan with spot on technique and a will for both he and his students to improve, but he's just been given an instructing position. or B) An orange belt who'd been studying for a year and teaching for ten, and has been so busy teaching classes he has no time to learn for himself. I know which i would rather. I'm all for the all out goal of GKR to allow all people the ability to learn karate, but, if it can't be taught correctly, there's not point in it being taught because: it will not be street effective. it will turn into some lame Tae Boe thing *shudders*. it will give karate an even worse wrap than it has now, because people think. all karate is the same, thanks to ingorance.
I think everyone would have a problem with the orange belt in that scenario but I honestly do take your point. I'm not suggesting that all criticism of the club is not warranted. Reading the threads it seems there may be some issues in some dojos. But I doubt it is confined to GKR. If we looked at any large club with that number of dojos I'm sure we'd find a % with problems as well. I guess what I mainly wanted to say is that I think GKR is a great intro to martial arts, covering basics, kata & kumite and that it is broadly accessible to people everywhere. If that gets people off the couch and into a dojo thats a good thing. A look at your sister's grading pic suggests it is working there (but I agree they need a bigger dojo for grading!). And once they are moving around and progressing, if they feel they have advanced beyond what their current instructor can comfortably teach them, they would do what any student in any club would do - look for another dojo. Each instructor and class has its own strengths. Many students I train with take several classes to take advantage of this. I'm sure students in other styles do this too. Some even cross-train to develop skill sets that GKR doesn't teach e.g. grappling. We have had students join our club from other styles for various reasons too. I think people take up martial arts for different reasons. I'm not saying GKR is the best ever because each style has its own benefits and focus. I didn't join GKR to become a black belt. I wanted to get some exercise. Now I love it and am progressing, so while that black belt is still so far away the brown belt before it seems achievable and that it something I never would have dreamed of before. Someone else reading these forums can achieve that too.
