Average experience — good sport, mediocre gym

I want to separate the sport from my specific experience. Karate as a discipline is genuinely compelling — the gedan-barai lower block, the depth of kime, how kime transforms every strike. All of that is real and valuable.

My gym, however, has been mediocre. Coaching quality varies session to session and the split between traditional and sport karate schools has been handled poorly. I've seen people get hurt because progression was rushed. If I were starting over I'd research gym culture more carefully before committing. The sport gets four stars; my current gym gets two. This review averages to three.