Hi everyone,
I think i am the only one who can comment on this subject. i first started wado ryu karate i trained for almost 5 years. due to travel i had to change styles. i then trained for 3 years in shodokan. and 2 years in hapkido. due to my job i had to move agian and started with GKR i have been training with them for 4 years.
Its a hard one it sounds pushy to go door to door (by the way i dont) but so many students would never have joined if they never did in 4 years i have never know anyone to come off the street and teach. when i trained in wado ryu and shodokan both times i had been asked if i minded standing out the front of the class as a sempai not sensei just so the new students had someone to watch if the sensei was busy with other students.
in gkr the dont get students to do that instead if someone has been training for a few years they can do a 10 week course to learn how to help in a class but if they do that they have to also train extra and go to a senior class everyweek.
every stye has its good points and bad points in the clubs i have been to there is always a sensei who dosent know how to teach or run a class properly every club has someone where you think my god how did they get there grade and every club has people who have amazing karate. the thing i like about gkr is that they never bag other clubs and they are family oriantated and they always try to promote good karate-ka and ettiquite. some others styes just train for sport and forget about the traditions and ettiquite in karate. also sullavan the founder of GKR believe it or not actually goes to japan to get graded he still does. over all ive found GKR has more of a positive outlook but thats just my expirence im sure the are a few bad sensei's in GKR. but i think it comes down to the indervidual. also someone wrote about GKR wining most nas tornaments yes they do for those who dont know nas is national all stars so they compete agianst kick boxers tai kwan do etc
we have just go a new head sensei i have only see a bit of his kata and kumite he is dam fast. my sensei at wado ryu was an awsome at sparing but ive never seen anyone so qiuck i cant wait to train with him. Sorry about any bad expirences youve had the best advice i can think of is old fashioned shop around for your sensei see what values they have seen how they train
hope this has helped answer some questions
also im from australia so i dont know about GKR in the UK it sure sounds diffrent over there i didnt think it would be.
there pretty strick on the way things are run over here each dojo has to be run the same. i know if i go to any dojo in australia i will walk in and the bow in is the same the format is the same and you dont have diffrent sensei's telling you diffrent things. a stye i was in before was bad for that some bits of kata youd do diffrent depending on which sensei you had in frount of you.
Good luck
