Gee, I am happy for you. But I am not sure I understand your apparent hostility. As a memeber of the AKKI I have every rigth to ask a question. The whole, "who are you to demand soemthing" doesn't quite cut it. I didn't "demand" I aksed a question of does anyone know when. A simple, no we don't know probably woudl have sufficed. Or a "Mr. Mills has decided that he has cocnerns we are all movign correclty with the current matgerial first" woudl have been an Ok answer. I have been in Kenpo long enough to know how to use master Keys to figure out weapons, mass attacks etc. Don't presume to lecture me. There was a time when we could expect to see new material come out about every two years. There was always a lot of excitement to see what Mr. Mills was doing. So I thought, since I was an actual member of this organization, that I had the right to ask if the new stuff was coming out soon. At the time it wasn't a big deal. But I knew as soon as anybody asks questions like this someone takes offense.
And as a matter of fact if you go back to the Camp schedule it clearly says that Brown 2 Lance would be gone over. Now of course Mr. Mills and the seniors teaching seminars have the right to teach whatevr they want. And those of us who have to travel a great distance to come to a camp sometimes have to determine if we can come soley based on what is being offered. With the rising costs of airline tickets etc. There are times when if I don't see anything that particularly grabs me, I may not come to the camp.
But if I see something that excites me, I bite down and spend the over a thousand dollars (camp, airfare, room, food etc.) to come. So if that material isn't what I expect it to be, can't I be bothered by that? If I came all the way to learn "A", and this is the only place and time I can learn "A" And "A" isn't even referenced and we do "B" are you honestly telling me I shouldn't be a bit put out? That doesn't mean what was doen wasn't good or even vital. It's good stuff but not what brought me to the camp. In what other setting would that not raise some eyebrows? I may be the only one like this since nobody else posted.
But that's a side issue. I wasn't posting to complain or register dissapointment. I simply was curious about somethings. By the way. No one has as yet had the courtesy to answer my questions, other than who are you to ask. Pretty sad.
Go back and reread your posts you've put here as an objective observer. Tell me how those posts were presented in a positive manner. Then you sit there and ask why the hostile attitude.
"Please don't cop out and say I should be satisfied with improving what motion I have now."
Very positive.
Later,
"Wow. I thought I would get soem answers to my questions, or at least draw soem type of response. I didn't even get a negative response. What gives. What is the point of a forum where no one ever answers any questions? Either no one knows the answers to my questions, which seems odd, or you have chosen not to answer. Everything the AKKI puts out talks about how e are dedicated to quality and helping each other. But the website stays down for over a year, no one answers questions about where someone can find an instructor, and heaven forbid we find out a timeline for the system. It's easy to say talk to your instructor. But if your instructor isn't directly under Mr. Mills, can't always make the camps, don't get e-mails answered, then they don't know. What are we suppossed to do?"
It seems here that you have an agenda. What was the point of this post, other than to say Thanks for nothing.
When someone responds with an honest answer, you respond
"Then by that arguement we shouldn't have any more material. All we are going to do is rearrnage what we know, so figure it out for ourselves? Heck that's great. I'll just get some buddies together and work on it by myslef. I can save all that money I spend on classes! Yeah I understand what you say, I can can certainly do that. But if you read my post, that wasn't my point. I was asking WHEN we would see ANY of this material. And as I was reading the camp sched, I was under the impression that some of this would be shown at the last camp. Was it? And what about the ground fighting? I had questions about this as well."
And you have the gaul to ask how you don't understand the hostility?
What's your real agenda here?
Gordo:
I would ask you to go back and please re-read my FIRST post. Tell me what was hostile there? I aksed what I thought would be easy questions to answer. Although I did allow probably somebody would get upset. Why? Because someone always gets upset as if asking questions like this are somehow questioning Mr. Mills.
Was my SECOND post a bit sarcastic? Yeah. Too sarcastic? Perhaps. But I was a bit frustrated that in several days nobody answered my questions, which were When is this stuff coming out and is there going to be a seperate ground material. NO ONE has yet to answer that by the way Gordo. The AKKI is suppossed to be about helping each other out. But when I ask for info, I get snarky comments.
What did I get back, was don't ask questions just refine your motion. Yeah I know the motion is already there. That wasn't my question. Did I go off on the guy, yeah because that answer was a cop out and had nothig to do with my original question.
I didn't have an agenda. I said I wasn't at the camp so maybe all of you who were there could help me out. No one was interested. It would have taken a minute to do so.
But you know what? I pay my dues to the AKKI. I work my material. I go to class. I think Mr. Mills is a great martial artist and teacher. Nice guy as well. I have never said anything personally against him. I questioned the seminars but again I thought since no one had said anything (which seeing the tone of this group isn't surprising) maybe I was worng. It woudl have made me mad. But I would have asked someone there.
So given all of that, I have every right to aska question of my organization. Whether you like it or not. Having questions doesn't mean you are questioing the people. Right now though, I am. I have been accused, by people who don't know me, of being hostiel and demanding more material. So tell me why I should want to remain in an organization that apparently says you are one of us as long as you keep quiet and sit in the cone of silence.
Oh and by the way, I have gall, not Gaul. Gaul would mean I'm french.
Barthalomew,
As a paying member, you have legitimate questions and while I don't share your frustration, I understand yours. The AKKI is a work in progress. Given the material already on paper, I feel we are light years beyond many in kenpo land and inferior to no one. If your journey is not moving fast enough for you, you may need to re-evaluate why you are here. My suggestion is that you send Mr. Mills an e-mail. He is a very convivial man and I'm sure due to your passion, he will reply. Be patient, he is also very busy. You know, taking care of his family, building a system, teaching his students, running a family business, maintaining one of the top kenpo organizations in the world... stuff like that.
I hardly ever post on here, but I feel the need to respond. Barthalomew, I understand where you are coming from. You asked good questions. One of which, the ground curriculum, I e-mailed Mr. Mills about after the camp. I haven't heard from him abut this, but as Rick said he is pretty busy. Hopefully he will reply. If he does I will post it.
But I agree with you. I am surprised nobody answered your questions. I didn't take it that the curriculum isn't moving fast enough. You were just curious. So am I. I was at the camp this eyar and I hoped to see some of teh material that was lsited on the schedule. I kind of go both ways on this. I got a lot out of the camp, specifically on using velocity which seemed to be a major thread of the camp. But I was dissapointed that at least some of the knife defneses weren't revealed. I can come up with my own. I cna use the old IKKA material. But let's be honest that isn't going to come close to comparing with what Mr. Mills would show us. So the camp was good, but not what I assuemd it woudl be. Maybe the assumptions were on my part.
But as for everybody else, this guy asked two innocent questins and a couple of you jump all over him. Nobody else even posted. Not one of mr. Mills seniors posted. I know they aren't obligated to post. mayeb they don't know either. But why didn't somebody just say "nobody knows". Or Mr. Mills bad shoulder has put him behind. Or as I think somebody already said, Mr. Mills isn't satisfied with how we are moving. I got that vibe a bit at the camp. And until he is we have to work on what we have. I don't know about Bart there, but I could have lived withthose answers. An AKKI brother deserved better from all ofus.
Now thatbeing said, can somebody answer the question of teh ground curriculum? It was good stuff. Was it just for the camp or are we integrating what we did specifically into the curiculum. And if so how?
Brian Jones
3rd Black AKKI, Ohio
I also would like to respond to all that is being said about the subject of asking questions. I am the Ohio rep and train with Brian( the last person who posted). Barthalomew's questions on his first post were innocent and good questions deserving of some kind of answer. I am sure many people(including myself) would like to know the status of the 2nd brown material, the updating of the website and the ground material. Some of us do not train with the AKKI seniors or have direct access to Mr.Mills. The camps and this forum should be safe places to ask questions and share information. We should not be afraid members are going to take offense if a question about the AKKI is asked. We all believe in this organization and Mr. Mills. If we didn't we would not spend so much time and money trying to keep progressing in this art. If no one really knows the answers to these questions an email directly to Mr. Mills might be the answer but arguing with eachother on the forum surely is not.
Good Luck to All and Keep Training
Russ Curry