Tuesday, January 8, 2013

New Red Deer Dojo

Shihan Kevin D. Lintott was transferred recently to Red Deer, and is now operating a new Dojo.

Goshinkan JuJitsu Red Deer
New Semester Starting Now!
Unit 110 -25 -37337 Belich Cres
Red Deer, AB, T4S 2K5
(587)315-0620
Monday Adults Mixed 7pm - 8:30pm
Wednesday Junior Shogun 7pm - 7:45pm
Wednesday Adults Beginner 7pm - 8:30pm
Friday Advanced JuJitsu for Green Belts and up 7pm - This class is for all GMA / AJJA members!
Saturday Little Samurai 1pm - 1:45pm
Saturday Junior Shogun 2:00pm - 2:45pm
Saturday Adults 3:00pm - 5:00pm
Private Lesson Now Available!

For more information about our programs please email us at Shihan Lintott.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

How Long should it take to become a Black Belt

A question that lots of students and non-students have asked me. How long does it take to become a black belt in Goshinkan JuJitsu? This is not an easy question to answer as you have to factor in the totality of many things. In Japanese JuJitsu it takes four or five years to reach the Shodan level. I have had many students take up to seven years and a few achieve the rank in less than four years.

You must factor in your age and ability, your instructor's age and ability. How often and for how long you can train.  Things worth achieving should take a reasonable amount of commitment and time. The true answer is it takes your whole life to become a black belt and a good Sensei.

There are some instructor's I am sad to say that will promote almost anyone regardless of the amount of time they have put in. This is doing a huge disservice to all Japanese and BJJ black belts world wide. I don't believe most instructors start off this way but are influenced by money and being the grand pooba. The belief maybe, If you can have a ton of black belts under you society might respect you more.

Whatever the reason none of them are good reasons. In our style of JuJitsu there is at most one person a year promoted or tested to the Black Belt level and generally it's about every two years. (they have all been training well over four years). Goshinkan-Ryu JuJitsu has less than twenty black belts. Very few people have what it takes to make it this far and the ones that do realize they have now just started their journey in JuJitsu.

There have been a few Ryu's that have directly started under Goshinkan JuJitsu and these Ryu's are considered very very young or new. If the Ryu is five years old then generally it should have one or maybe two black belts. It take almost ten year for a Ryu to have ten black belts in western Canada. The numbers may be much higher in the UK as there is a lot more people taking JuJitsu. The number is relative.

Some of my students have expressed concerns about high ranking black belts that promote numerous students to black belt, these Sensei are not even on the mat with these students. This is a very poor practice and yes it does happen. I don't personally agree with it nor do any of the JuJitsu black belts I associate with.

Unfortunately there is a lot of strong personality's in martial arts and people with small man syndrome. These people will continue this process as they truly believe they are contributing quality to their style or type of martial art. This is far from the truth and there is no place in traditional or modern martial arts for such people.    

The black belt should not be given just because a person has the ability to copy a technique, their are time lines in almost every single Ryu. The founders of these styles would be rolling in their graves if they knew what was going on.

K.D. Lintott, Sensei Goshinkan-Ryu JuJitsu

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Camp Of Combat Arts 10

July 1st to July 3rd is the 10 year anniversary for the Alberta Jiu-Jitsu Association's Camp of Combat Arts hosted in Calgary. This year's camp is going to be bigger and better with several new firsts for the AJJA.

On Friday July 1st the AJJA will be putting on the first every Provincial JuJitsu Black Belt testing.

The Camp on Saturday July 2nd will have several top Canadian Martial Arts instructors with a social to follow. The camp will have a classes for kids and adults of all skill levels.

On Sunday the AJJA will be hosing the Alberta Provincial Jiu-Jitsu Tournament for Adults and Kids. Categories are: Duo's Competition; Self-Defense Competition featuring the V and Gauntlet; Gi grappling Tournament.

Tickets for the event will be available soon on the combat arts Pro web site.

Keep watching Twitter and the AJJA web site for more updates on instructors. The first 50 people to pre-register will receive free CCA T-Shirts.

For more information email Lintott Renshi at ajitsua@telus.net or phone 780-539-4607.