So you read it in a Book

 Growing up I played contact sports, Rugby and Basketball....and before i go any further, if you think Basketball is a non contact sport, then you are very much mistaken. It's supposed to be, but the reality of it, well, that's something else. So I got bashed about a bit, and also did a bit of bashing. Growing up on the Streets of Birmingham, I saw my share of fights, and when I used to occasionally work the doors for one or two Nightclubs back in the day, saw the odd ruckus there too. 

Unlike competition fighting, street fighting has no rules. Its messy and unpredictable and there is no referee. 

People confuse Kumite and competition fighting with fighting in general. I'd also go as far as to say that I don't think many of the Karateka I have trained with over the years have actually been in any kind of real fight. 

The sort of fight where you're definitely going to get hurt....and just hope you come out of it ok, win OR lose.....

I find that more and more people are teaching more and more things that they have no practical or life experience of... . 

No qualifications 
But a great teacher....

In a recent training course ( not related to karate) a Lawyer and Psychologist were teaching about multiculturalism and diversity. It got me thinking as to what they actually knew from experience about what they were teaching. 

The Lawyer in their thirties and the Psychologist in their twenties had known nothing but books and school their whole life. Hardly qualified then to teach about what they were peddling. 

Teachers of Karate are the same....   one time I was in a class where the teacher began talking of Kumite.....once he referred to things or options you would have in a fight, I left the class. 

You see, you can't teach what you have no experience of. The person teaching admitting to me only a couple of weeks before that they had never been in a kumite competition or been in a street fight.

WTF......but here they were teaching fighting. 

Working with a standing  Makiwara, you will learn how to punch. Facing a swinging Sagi Makiwara you will learn how to block and evade. Both of the tools hurt, so you are conditioning the brain to pain and both never get tired so your stamina and will improve. 

Credentials are important in Karate, and I don't just mean academic ones......give me an unqualified (academically that is) teacher with real world experience of what they teach every time, over the one who read it in a book.