Giles wrote:MaartenSFS wrote: Anyone that has trained with me knows that I am not authoritarian, but if people are afraid of a little work I'd rather not teach them - especially now that I have a day job that pays the bills.
I'm sure you're not authoritarian in person.
I like to train quite hard and for long periods when in groups, but I prefer to do this in a group or school atmosphere which is a little more easygoing. I push myself from the inside and don't like people pushing me in a 'military' manner from the outside (or not as standard, anyway). My feedback in this case is about the (probably inaccurate) impression that this ranking system might create when people read it on your website. Or might not create - it's all up to you anyway.
Fair enough, but since my Master came up with it I will still go with it out of respect for him.
Although I don't force my students into submission I think that to get good at anything it requires self-discipline. I'm going through an eight-week boot-camp right now and the main reason that the ones that are dropping out or getting kicked out fail is because of a lack of discipline. People get good at fighting by either fighting on the streets all the time or training hard and sparring regularly. I belong to the latter camp and this is the safer of the two methods. If people aren't even willing to do that (and there are different intensities of sparring - mine is probably at a medium level) then they don't really have any business doing martial arts and are just lying to themselves.