Renato Migliaccio-Respect is Everything

[Mike Bishop]

I fully agree that it's a two way street. I've spent 5+ years as a blue belt and stand by my reasons for leaving my last club. Loyalty is a great virtue but we're all our own man and sometimes moving (for unselfish reasons) is the right decision.

I spent 5 years doing Muay Thai with Phraya Pichai becoming an instructor, 3 + years at BTT slough before I came to Oz. I left the club I found here, and had trained at for 2 years, because I felt my investment wasn't being matched and I didn't want my belt to ever be put in doubt because we were required to pay for gradings. That was very important to me and my own personal values were more important than the 2 years I'd spent there.

I'm very happy with my new club and instructor and fully expect he'll be the one who will ultimately award me my black belt.

[Iconoclast]

I fully agree that it's a two way street. I've spent 5+ years as a blue belt and stand by my reasons for leaving my last club. Loyalty is a great virtue but we're all our own man and sometimes moving (for unselfish reasons) is the right decision.

I spent 5 years doing Muay Thai with Phraya Pichai becoming an instructor, 3 + years at BTT slough before I came to Oz. I left the club I found here, and had trained at for 2 years, because I felt my investment wasn't being matched and I didn't want my belt to ever be put in doubt because we were required to pay for gradings. That was very important to me and my own personal values were more important than the 2 years I'd spent there.

I'm very happy with my new club and instructor and fully expect he'll be the one who will ultimately award me my black belt.

I personally wouldn't want to stay somewhere that charged for gradings, so I think I would have left too. It's going to be tough when/if you come to compete against your old team mates though.

[Rob T]

Lots of the top guys left GB Swansea a number of years ago (to train with a black belt). I would never have left no matter what... I stuck with Chris. He is an awesome instructor and always showed me answers to any questions I had. I helped build the club up again after we were left with pretty much only white belts.

We now have over 20 blue belts who train regularly and another purple... plus Chris is now a brown belt. Our competition results speak for themselves

[uzi123]

Great article. I'm still a white belt, but I only went to one club and felt at home there. Maybe it was a mistake to not try out others, but 3months later, I'm still pretty happy! Not sure if I will ever compete, but I would only do so for this team.

[SwiftMotion]

Firstly thank you for all your opinions they are all valid and well said.Two things that stood out for me were the people that stayed on and created something.
The second is the statement"That it's a two way street"for me that's what gives me loyalty to a club as you said what they put into you is what you give back.

Ive never left a club due to training whites and blues but wanted to make that statement to hear other peoples opinions"Create awareness" as it also concerns the separating of classes according to rank ie Gracie barra.For instance if your club gives its competition team and its higher belts allocated training times,weekends etc it would be accommodating them in some way.Anyway good response and thanks for your input.