I always thought of Daido Juku as, like MMA, being more of a competition rule set than an actual martial art. I get that, again just like MMA, it has basically become its own martial art. However, that doesn't mean it still isn't an interesting rule set to compete under.
Also, Speed BR, just because someone doesn't want to do MMA because it doesn't include the gi, and/or they would like to compete in something like MMA but with a gi, doesn't necessarily make that person an insecure Asianophile. Given my background in Judo and ju-jutsu I would much prefer to compete in an MMA competition that required participants to wear a gi, because it suits my skill set. To do normal MMA, I would either have to learn to adapt my existing skills to a no-gi setting or learn a completely new set of skills. Given this, it is only natural that people who have trained extensively in the gi would prefer to compete in competitions that require both participants to wear one. As Daido Juku does this, I can easily see its attraction to practitioners of gi wearing martial arts.
Well, I completely agree with your statement. In fact, that was the reason I tried it as well. As I said, I also practised Judo and BJJ and when I discovered something that resembled MMA, but with a GI, I also decided to give it a try. Theoretically, the idea[/U] to develop a rule set that involves fighters wearing pants and jackets sounds nice indeed, especially for practitioners of Judo, BJJ and Sambo, allowing for a wide array of strangling and takedown techniques.
As I said, THEORETICALLY, it sounds nice.
My reservation with regard to Daido Juku, however, stem from factual experience and not theoretical considerations after watching videos over the internet and can be summarized briefly into brief considerations.
1- Daido Juku classes TEND TO be organised in a very
cult-like fashion. I was not the only one to realise that - I took many friend to classes, and chatted with people from other Dojos who had trained Kudo as well; they thought likewise. Besides, MOST students that I have encountered presented the same behavioural pattern : attracted to contact sports and MMA, but reluctant to try anything "not traditional", while clearly attached to traditional Asian mysticism (especially Japanese) .
Of course, I am not stating that everyone that trained Daido Juku or G.K.Y.S is or must be a "Bujinkan-like" LARPER. To allege that would be ludicrous and simplistic.
However, I do have to point out as well that
most students, especially after a few years of training, seemed to be
brainwashed into believing that any "non-Asian" form of combat was worthless. All the disciplines most currently taught in "regular" MMA gym was deemed to be ineffective and worthless
because of its purported "lack of spirituality " (something I strongly disagree about - rolling in BJJ, just like strenuously training Muay Thai or Boxing can be as spiritual as Kudo or Karate) when Daido Juku itself has more limited rule set than MMA (only 20 seconds of ground grappling, no ground and pound and the use of helmets)
2-
Daido Juku, just like G.K.Y.S is marketed as a complete and self-sufficient system, when that in fact is not the case. I came to know that
ALL KUDO TEACHERS in my country were compelled to attend BJJ seminars in order to teach groundfighting to students. Likewise, the main instructor at one of the main Kudo gyms in Tokyo is a respected Muay Thai competitor (he is the bald dude who appears on youtube videos demonstrating how to use your knees and elbows qhen fighting); their best competitors came from other striking arts -Adam Khaliev is a TKD blackbelt, Semmy Schilt and Galiev came from knock-down karate and Stepehn Tapilatu is a beast who won countless ITF-TKD championships.
Daido Juku is almost thirty years old and we have not seen anyone who started their martial life training Kudo dominate their competitions .
3 - Lastly,
the style is marketed as a discipline in which grappling plays a very important role - however, most of their teachers are not skilled enough to teach it properly. Having a Kyokushin or Seiwakai blackbelt or even a Judo blackbelt does not qualify you to teach kneebars or toeholds, which are allowed under their rules.
I have SEEN personally students break their ribs during training due poor grappling instruction : both guys were rolling under the "watchful" eye of the instructor, who decided to teach the students some newaza, instead of asking me to take care of that department, as he usually dd- one of them tried an insanely bizarre move and the teacher did not intervene. The other student, who clearly had no idea about what to do (he had only trained Capoeira before...) started to spazz. All of a sudden he screams and says in pain "Dude, stop.. I heard a crack". Bingo... His rib was broken. Hey,
grappling is as dangerous as striking ; if you would not trust a BJJ whitebelt to take care of things when people are trying to bend your joints on the opposite direction or vying to strangle you,
why would you trust your safety to someone who probably has mediocre skills in that department?
