Follow these rules?

[tequilaman]

yup. if anybody at my school bowed i think everybody would laff at em that said , everybody is frendly and ego isnt exactly well-received.

You guys train at shitty schools apparently. If Gracie Barra does it, and my Judo school in Japan (that had won nationals) also does it, maybe they are onto something. A little respect for tradition never hurts. It is simply a showing of respect. You're not worshipping a false diety or anything like that.


All dojos in Japan, even MMA dojos, respect the dojo. Brazil it is more lenient, but they bow and respect the dojos.

Train in Japan, especially at a judo or karate dojo, and you'll see how serious they take this stuff.



"Why shake hands with a guy? It's just the olympics."

 

[IMP]

I usually follow the rules of the instructor out of respect for him. Since I train at many places, the rules can vary quite a bit. But in general:

01. Bow to the center of the mat when you enter.
02. Bow to the centre of the mat when you exit.

I don't like doing either of these things. The dojo is an inanimate object. I don't believe it is a symbol of religious significance either. So the dojo doesn't care if you bow to it or not. I only bow out of respect to people and to God. Otherwise degrades myself below material things rather than what is important.

The dojo may not care but all the people in the room care. If you enter the mat you give a short sign that you know why you are here and you aint the janitor who wants to scrub the mats, but fight on them.

 

[NJCarder]

I cannot train when the instructor makes me feel like shit...i can't stand it...i went into a karate school...and i had to bow to him and shit...im cool if i shake the guys hand and call him sir...but im not gonna worship him because he's older then me...i like BJJ way better learning it from Marines that talk more shit then i do...

 

[Bama Zulu]

I cannot train when the instructor makes me feel like shit...i can't stand it...i went into a karate school...and i had to bow to him and shit...im cool if i shake the guys hand and call him sir...but im not gonna worship him because he's older then me...i like BJJ way better learning it from Marines that talk more shit then i do...

It's not worship, it's respect and discipline. You know, integral to the learning of martial arts and building of character.

 

[Soid]

It's not worship, it's respect and discipline. You know, integral to the learning of martial arts and building of character.

Being forced to do something isn't out of "respect" nor does it build character. It's just a difference of culture. Why should I pretend that Japanese culture is more superior to my families? What is the difference between shaking someone's hands and bowing to them? I'm not saying that bowing isn't a sign a respect nor do I think bowing to someone is stupid. But I do find it rather ignorant when someone says that bowing to someone because they tell you to is going to build up some sort of character. Saluting someone because you want to is respectful in any form. Be it shaking their hand or bowing. Bowing only to the instructor because it's a rule shows more lack of character than anything else.

 

[triso]

I don't need to call my instructor sir, and bow to the mats to have respect for them and the tradition. I respect my instructor because he is a cool guy off the mats, and because he has incredible skill and experience on the mats.

The respect is there without the bowing. It's not our culture.

Where I train the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly, yet competetive and goal oriented. Everyone shuts up when the instructor is showing a technique.

Posture means nothing. So is descending order based on rank.

Don't make this shit more then what it is. We go to train because we like the environment, we like to fight, we like the physicality, the sport, the challenge, and the people (for the most part). It's a pssion of ours ... it is not spirtitual in any way, and respect should be there already, without using culture that isn't ours.

 

[Jimmy Cerra]

The dojo may not care but all the people in the room care. If you enter the mat you give a short sign that you know why you are here and you aint the janitor who wants to scrub the mats, but fight on them.

It depends on the place. If the people in the room care, then I bow to them. If they don't, then I don't. Depends on the place.

 

[GracieStudent]

no rituals at my school. the respect is there from all of us.

 

[Soulfly]

I bow every time I go into Judo class.

 

[EPT]

5. If you don

 

[Yozigi]

I don't understand why it would be so hard for one to restrict him/herself from speaking about anything other than the respective martial art s/he's training during the practice. I come to dojo to train, not to talk. Bowing is just a sign of respect, it's not worshipping.

These two things don't make atmosphere unfriendly or unrelaxed.

 

[triso]

It's unncecesary. I don't understand why some of you feel you SHOULD be doing these things. People pay good money to train. They put their bodies on the line physically. They ARE going there to train, or they wouldn't be paying the money. Just because people bullshit a little on the side when class is not going on means nothing.

 

[clarkgriswold]

I was trying to figure out if #12 is a joke or not, but I guess not since the whole thread seems to be serious. A dirty gi is a sign of disrespect and also a sign I'm going to be sick if I walk within 2 feet of you and a sign of a guy nobody wants to roll with.

Nobody should be using a gi not washed after its last use. Even twice w/o washing is gross. Put it in the laundry when you get home, or don't use it til you do.

 

[EPT]

Lol, washing a gi weekly is only acceptable if you train once a week in that gi, we get sweaty enough doing one class, it's bad enough getting other people's sweat on you to start with, but rolling in other people's sweat from yesterday is crossing the line.

 

[El Gato]

The Brazilians did away with The showing of respect (the traditions), it didn't happen over night but over a long period of time. In a sense they made it their own art .

 

[Bama Zulu]

Being forced to do something isn't out of "respect" nor does it build character. It's just a difference of culture. Why should I pretend that Japanese culture is more superior to my families? What is the difference between shaking someone's hands and bowing to them? I'm not saying that bowing isn't a sign a respect nor do I think bowing to someone is stupid. But I do find it rather ignorant when someone says that bowing to someone because they tell you to is going to build up some sort of character. Saluting someone because you want to is respectful in any form. Be it shaking their hand or bowing. Bowing only to the instructor because it's a rule shows more lack of character than anything else.

It's almost along the lines of military basic, it builds character outside and inside of the dojo. Anyways I could get into why the Japanese don't like shaking hands because it goes back to a long time ago when shaking someone's hand was an actual move to stop other Samurai from getting to their swords....

 

[Yozigi]

Nobody should be using a gi not washed after its last use. Even twice w/o washing is gross. Put it in the laundry when you get home, or don't use it til you do.

Pft. Do you use some kind of a extremely thin tkd/karate gi if it really is that bad? If not then you're a sissy : P I dare to say that I train a lot and after every practice I use my another gi and keep switching them like that for a week or two then wash both at the same time, that's totally enough and acceptable. It's not like I would go to a dojo into a modeling contest or something, everyone is there to throw, armbar etc. eachothers, not to judge the aroma of their training partners gi. Of course gi can't stink, but washing it once a week is just fine even if someone trains with it like 4 times a week.

There are some extremely smelly people though, but they are rare exceptions and not counted.

 

[ichimonji]

I love those rules. But I think it would be easy to surpass them

1) Be repsectfull.
2) Give credit where credit is due.
3) foucs.

What you are doing it taking to much from those rules. Bowing is a sign of respect. Calling people sir is a sing of respect. Shaking someone hand before sparring is a sign of respect. Come to the class clean, cutting you nails, not cursing, not wasting peoples time is a sign of respect. Arrive to class on time is showing respect to everyone in class and to the teacher.

On a side note ... If you ever did Kali you would understnad why you wiat to get on the mat if you arrived late. If you simply are talking about unreltated stuff and walk blindly onto the mat you could get smacked with a stick to your head. That why it is important to focus on training while training.


Now it if told me to worship my techer and call him grandpaster Poompba and that I had to say a prayer everytime I stepped onto the mat ... well you can see that would be overboard.

 

[Darwinist]

Or quite possibly the teacher does know best and either through you not understanding the move or the instructor not explaining it that well you could be missing out on some subtle thing that is essential to make the move work.

What I meant is don

 

[Soid]

Pft. Do you use some kind of a extremely thin tkd/karate gi if it really is that bad? If not then you're a sissy : P I dare to say that I train a lot and after every practice I use my another gi and keep switching them like that for a week or two then wash both at the same time, that's totally enough and acceptable. It's not like I would go to a dojo into a modeling contest or something, everyone is there to throw, armbar etc. eachothers, not to judge the aroma of their training partners gi. Of course gi can't stink, but washing it once a week is just fine even if someone trains with it like 4 times a week.

There are some extremely smelly people though, but they are rare exceptions and not counted.

Hmm my gi stinks after using it in one day, having it in my bag riding the subway, and getting home. I don't know if my sentence makes sense but to sum it up.. my gi fucking stinks after a day. Doing that 4 times a week, my gi will smell like shit. You might not think your gi smells like shit (same thing I say when I throw a fart and people act like they want to vomit) but I'm sure others feel your gi smells like shit. It's not a beauty pageant, but rolling with someone who has a stink gi and ignores mat etiquette isn't a good learning experience for your training partners.