Eligibility
The following is a sneak-peak as to one of
the documents you will receive with your application materials
by mail. If you can answer "yes" to all of the below
questions you may consider yourself invited to enter the BKH
program provided you follow the instructions correctly (instructions
that will be included in your application materials) on how
to make your preparations and "check in" to the dormitory.
Many people who are accepted to the program can not answer "yes"
to all of the below questions and we will still consider you
for acceptance if you can't. Not being able to answer "yes"
to all the questions below simply means that we will need you
to fill out the more-detailed application before we can invite
you to simply show up at the dormitory. Included with the below
questionnaire is a warning about being untruthful concerning
any of the questions on the questionnaire. If you lie, we will
find out about it, and you will be excluded from participation
in the dormitory program at any time in the future.
1.
Are you male and older than 18 (at the time you sign and have
notarized your entrance agreement) and will you be younger than
23 at the time you enter the dormitory?
2. Are you free of an
adult criminal record (includes felonies and misdemeanors but
not moving violations) and are there no outstanding warrants
out of your arrest in any state?
3. Are you heterosexual,
currently not involved in a romantic relationship, unmarried,
without children, and free of any family responsibility that
may interrupt your 3 years training and BKH?
4. Are you free of any
medical concerns that would effect your living the life of a
serious athlete for three years, are you free of any medical
concerns that would require anyone taking care of your needs
for three years to spend any money (on medications, treatments,
dental conditions, etc.), and have you never: 1. used intravenously-administered
illegal drugs, 2. had even a single sexual encounter with a
prostitute, a male, or promiscuous partner unprotected, or 3.
spent even one night in jail.?
5. Do you understand
that by accepting our invitation and entering the BKH dormitory
program you are promising on your honor to complete three years
in the program, do you understand that you are ineligible for
entry if your intention is to spend any period of time less
than that in the dormitory, and are you at least potentially
interested in a career in martial arts instruction following
your graduation from the BKH program?
6. Are you a nonsmoker
(including marijuana), have you been so for at least 6 months,
and are you free of any addictions to any drug or alcohol?
7. Are you a US citizen
and are you eligible for a US passport?
8. Do you weigh less
than 180 pounds if you are 5'6" or shorter, less than 210
pounds if you are 6' or shorter, or less than 240 pounds if
you are taller than 6'?
9. Are you free of any
injuries, or conditions, that would prevent you from running
every morning, 6 days per week?
10. Do you have a valid
driver's license (that will not expire for at least your first
year in the BKH program), and can you bring it with you along
with a social security card or birth certificate?
11. Do you have any religious
beliefs that prevent you from participating in any normal activity,
and if you are religious, are the practices that you follow
such that you can refrain from subjecting them to others with
whom you reside? Do you understand that in BKH we do not either
encourage or discourage any religious belief, but that we will
not make any exception for you an in any situation if there
is some religious practice that you feel you must participate
in if it in any way conflicts with dormitory routines?
12. Do you understand
the meaning of and are you willing to sign the enclosed "On
the Nature of the BKH Program . . ." document in the presence
of a notary and bring it with you when you come?
13. Do you understand
the meaning of and are you willing to sign the enclosed "Premature
Departure Guidelines" document in the presence of a notary
and bring it with you when you come?
14. Have you read all
of the information contained in this packet and all of the information
on the BKH website at www.budokaratehouse.com?
15. Are you NOT a neo-nazi
or white-supremist, and do you NOT have any body markings (tattoos)
that might suggest that you are?
16. Are there NO any other concerns that you
have that makes you wonder whether we would admit you if we
only knew ************ about you or your past? (Please remember
that we maintain the right to throw you out of the program at
any time and that includes if you came having answered "yes"
to all of these questions, but failed to disclose any piece
of information unique to your own personal situation that you
wonder if we'd accept you "if we only knew." (This
questionnaire doesn't ask you for example if you're a quadriplegic
and if you were you might still be able to answer "yes"
to all the above questions but once we met you we will still
turn you away, with regrets and sympathy, as ineligible.) If
there's anything about your person you think we'd want to know,
we very strongly advise you to complete the detailed application
form.
17. Have you read carefully
and do you understand the following statement written by the
program director on comforts and freedoms within the BKH program?
Comforts
and Freedoms in the BKH Program
"The purpose
of the BKH program is to make you tough, and one of the means
by which the BKH program works to achieve this goal is to deny
you certain comforts and freedoms that young American men take
for granted. For example when I (program director) was in the
dormitory program that I attended in Japan, I had a Walkman,
but I was not allowed to listen to it for about 3 months after
I began the program. There was a TV in the dormitory but I never
once watched it for my first year in the program and was allowed
to watch a video (movie) once every week after that time. All
of my meals were chosen for me, none of them included certain
things I came to long for such as pizza and tacos, and I was
required to eat everything that was put before me to eat.
I was not allowed
to leave the dormitory / dojo without permission, and when I
was granted permission it was rare, and only to take care of
necessary functions such as going to the post office or to the
doctor's office. In my 2nd year in the dormitory, I was granted
a free day off from 10 am to 10 PM, once every two weeks during
which I went to movies and ate fast food, etc., but there was
literally none of that type of freedom in my first year, and
I was never allowed to take that freedom for granted in my second
because if they needed me to work or train in the dormitory/dojo
I could be denied my "day off" at any time. I always
had enough to eat, but sometimes my meals were prepared by other
residents and sometimes they didn't do a good job, and yet I
ate what was put in front of me without complaint anyway.
Often times,
instruction that I received was given by my seniors in the dormitory
(students who'd been there longer that I), often times I was
scolded by them for not living up to their expectations, and
in some cases, even though they were my seniors, they were not
of a very strong intelligence or sense of character, yet I was
required to do as they said anyway and not talk back. If I was
told to clean a toilet by a senior student, I cleaned the toilet.
(My teacher expected me to report to him immediately if I was
ever ordered to do anything unethical by a senior student and
I never was.)
I was very often
- almost daily, in fact, for some periods of time - beaten quite
severely in the dojo. I was never beaten in a "please,
please don't hit me" type situation in which I was helpless
and begging for mercy -- because of course I never did that
-- but it was rather in a in-dojo controlled fighting situation
in which I'd either displeased the senior student (or teacher)
I was fighting with, or in which he'd decided that it was time
for me to get my ass kicked a little bit to learn my place better,
or to learn what it felt like because getting beaten in fights
is a necessary part of learning to win them. Getting "beaten"
in these situations never included getting injured (I never
had broken bones although I saw a few broken), but they often
required getting my thighs pounded with Thai Boxing-style low
kicks until I could no longer stand, or getting my wind knocked
out (or actually getting myself knocked out a couple times).
I saw a number of faces get slapped when students became way
out of line. (Don't let this scare you too much; remember our
goal is for you to succeed, and new students are introduced
to full-contact fighting at a very reasonable pace.)
There was a
several week long period in the summer that I slept every night
in a puddle of sweat, waking up every 20 or 30 minutes to put
cold towels on my forehead and chest because Tokyo was so hot
and we had no air conditioning. There was also no heat in our
bedroom and we had plenty of blankets, but sometimes when we
slept we could see our own breath and it didn't matter if the
windows were opened or closed since they weren't insulated anyway.
In Japan, I washed all of my own laundry by hand in a wash tub
and hung it out to dry. Not only that, but for my first three
months there, there was a jerk of a senior student who made
me wash his clothes as well, which I did without complaint.
Now, things
are different at BKH. We have a washing machine and a dryer
and it's rare that students here go three months without Walkmans
or one year without a TV. However, you absolutely must understand
that it is very much an element of our teaching method to make
you tough by making your life hard and by denying you certain
comforts and freedoms that you take for granted. After all,
you can't become strong in soft living conditions. You have
to remember that if you're coming here to change your mind and
your body into that of a champion fighter. If you're wanting
to come here because it's free and you think it's going to be
more comfortable than where you are now, you're probably making
a mistake. If you're coming here because you think we're going
to be less demanding of you or less strict than your parents,
you're definitely making a mistake.
Remember that
we want you to become successful. We'll never try to break you
(unless your attitude is really bad) but make sure you understand
that there's a lot more to success here than just staying here
for three years. If we fed you guys pizza and let you do as
you pleased, every one could endure three years, but no one
would be strong. You're going to be given great advantages here
in terms of getting stronger and making yourself into a better
person. If you persistently fail to do so, however, you will
not graduate."