A big target is hard to hide

There are lots of reasons why our size attracts the attention of trolls and jealous rivals, but our size and success also makes us more noticeable.  For example if a student in a normal club had an issue and wanted to complain about it on the internet, it's unlikely that many other people in the greater martial arts community would even recognise the name of that club or the instructor.But for GKR that is not so.

Think about it; statistically speaking the average martial arts club has under 50 active students.  If you amassed all the complaints and issues surrounding 1000+ other clubs (which is about the size of GKR) you would see controversy, club closures, splits, politics, complaints and malpractice.

I trained in a Goju club for a few years and that club completely split over politics. I trained in another style of karate, and that club split in a leadership power-struggle. I've trained in two jujitsu and two judo styles that all closed. I trained in a Shotokan club where the main instructor had to leave the class because he was allegedly getting frisky with a female student, and I was asked, as an 8 year old boy, to leave a judo club because (in my opinion) the instructor was a racist. And I trained in a kung fu club where the instructor knocked me out cold on my first lesson! Of the dozen or so clubs I've trained in during my life, only one other, run by the ever respect-worthy Sensei Steve Quinn in Basildon, has not been marred by controversy of one sort or another! But who knows about this controversy, because they were all smallish local clubs, and that sort of reputation doesn't gain national internet traction as it does with a huge international club like GKR.

Compare that to the fraction of negative internet press GKR gets, the vast majority of which simply isn’t true. Like any International organisation, we are a big, easy target to hit, but it doesn't mean that we are worse than the competition. In fact, I would argue that because of our accountability, and our student care and protection policies, we are a good deal better, and more professional than the majority of clubs.

If you want to focus on something, focus on these happy testimonials from people at the last world cup: