Why I got disenchanted with my Karate Sensei?

Years ago I used to learn Karate, Shotokan Karate to be more precise. It was an easy thing to join. I was looking to learn some self defense and the Office Gym introduced a program on Shotokan Karate. I am not a very physically active guy so my reason to join was not to get exercises that I could do in 24hr fitness. I wanted to learn the art. And bang it started with a flyer. We had a sixth degree blackbelt as our Sensei. In the first few sessions he explained the history of Shotokan and how this is one of the few traditional martial arts still in practice. He also explained how many American Dojos are more into sports Karate and not the traditional ones. He explained Shotokan was about low stances, not so much moving and an art of very high concentration. Traditionally only one blow was thrown by its practitioners and the fight would be over unlike many frequent kicks and punches. It fit very well with a Guy who was slow, did not want to move, could sleep while in one stance and I was in. Sensei did not have to explain the history and give an impression he favored traditional and I could have been happily be doing sports Karate without really knowing its traditional variant. But the pretext set my expectations to a different level. I thought I was learning something more deadly than those romanticized Gym activities. I was enthralled.
The membership grew and more folks started going to his real Dojo. The class in the Gym started to become physical exercises and talks of participating in Tournaments started to become more frequent. Instead of how-to decapitate your opponent, points were given for touching your opponent's ribs during sparring. In no time I figured out I was into Sports Karate. There was no problem as such, I was still enjoying it but my expectations were thrashed and I started to look for reasons to leave. That reason came a few years later when Dojo fees were increased that I thought was too high for me. I was disenchanted with the Sensei and I thought he too became commercially inclined. I respected him. Next few months saw me taking a KravMaga class that I thought was run by some street fighters. I ended up joining Wing Chun paying more than what I thought was expensive and learned more in three months than what I learned almost in four years of Karate. There was nothing in the art itself, Karate is still as deadly as any other art but it was more to the sincerity of its coach that increased my keenness in learning. I left Wing Chun because work load along side my School turned out to be too much to handle. The gist of the story is it is very important to set the expectations right. It matters less what you are really doing what matters is if you are still steered in the same direction that you had set your feet on.

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