I've been in Judo - (pre-45 Kodokan, Traditional, "Combat")/Jujitsu (Traditional, "Combatives", "Sport"and Brazilian)/Sambo (Combat) for a bit and I always seek similar forms of study, but my Instructor/Coach Mark Tripp is very difficult to outdo.
Well, I went with a friend to a studio in Ann Arbor. Well, I was used to a fairly intensive form with a fair amount of randori or "free spar".
This place told me that they study and teach "Ninjitsu" and used pretty vague concepts of "fire", "water", "wind" and "earth" to transmit the philosophy of what it was they were trying to get across. Thinking they were into Aikido, I had no issues and got dressed in my Judo gi and wrestling shoes and began to warm up eventually putting in my mouthpiece and executing some break falls. I then asked my buddy to assist me on some judo drills and the class just stopped and watched slack-jawed. We were practicing approaches, setting the uke up to be thrown and stopping. We were joking and smiling in between the approaches, picking up the pace until we were working up a sweat and encouraging resistance before we executed the throw (uke allowing himself to be thrown).
The look on the "instructor's" faces pretty much said it all. They had no desire to attempt to teach us anything. They seemed to be afraid that what they taught was crap.
After some "tai chi" and zen-like moves during his class it was obvious that we were bored and my other buddy who invited me mentioned that both of us had done some competition and that I was more into "Combatives". Well, Mr. Sensei (who was only about 25 yrs old) asked how would we resist some of the front chokes and wrist grabs and whatnot so me and my fello Jujitsu/Sambo buddy began to simply tell him the theory of what we'd been taught - and enjoyed since we both trained together with Mark Tripp. One of the instructors frowned at much of what we were stating and asked if we could walk thru some of our methods so we obliged. I played uke and he was defending. Much of our defenses ended on the matt (but they didn't have to) and the Sensei asked to work himself in with what we were doing. The class had some difficulty because it was different, they weren't what I'd call serious about self-defense and they weren't particularly athletic, but some of the more aggressive personalities got into it.
Then comes Mr. Sensei II. He stated unequivocally that our techniques violate Martial Arts (emphasis on Arts). I told him that if one were to study the etymology of the word "Martial Arts" (i.e., Mars = God of War; Art = the creative, aesthetic application of science) he'd see that our interpretation of the concept was "somewhat playfully, practicing doing harm to another human body; after all it IS Self-Defense." He disagreed stating that his Zen Methodology "Ninjitsu" was more effective and more spiritual. I quickly obliged. He correctly perceived that we didn't agree. Now he missed the warm-up so he had no idea how we slow randori with the Brazilian ground work and what not so I imagine he saw two sweating newcomers wearing green and brown belts. So he asked us to be ukes. Okay.
NONE of his techniques worked. Not 25%. Not 10%. He finally asked me to show what we'd do. Now he has a black belt on so I incorrectly assume that maybe he knows a little something, but out of respect I walk him thru it and he resists to make me look like a fool. He then asks me to resist as he grabs my shoulder. I stiffen his arm and proceed to footsweep him and he steps away and I uchi mata him (holding him to a soft fall which he blows) then proceed to use some ground work skills on him while he resists futilely. I never applied any pain to him, I just took my time and applied a choke (medium hard) for about three seconds and let him up.
He was so disgusted that he wanted to "see" more. Knowing where things were going I declined. After the class he wished to know more so I handed him one of my Sensei's cards.
It was pathetic. Utterly pathetic. They knew nothing and were pulling the wool over every student's eyes. They wished to know what it was Dave and I were doing (but they had NO desire to train). Good Judo is difficult to find.