Burton is away for a couple of weeks so I don't know if he checks the forums when on trips. I can answer the question about competition and training.
Burt does encourage compettion (for those who wish to participate), several students have done submission grappling (NAGA) here in Hawaii. A few weeks ago Molly Helsel competed in her first Pro MMA fight in Indiana with Burt cornering her. You can read about Molly at www. groundnpound.org. Our people do well in sub-grap considering they're going against (mostly) dedicated grapplers. Our classes usually split 50/50 striking / clinch-ground, so we're not specialists in one field. Our focus is also less competition oriented and more "self-defense" JKDU South Africa puts on and competes in competions also and I'm quite sure the European JKDUers likewise participate in comps if it appeals to them.
In JKDU we used to test for phases (1-6) by perform techniques on pads/mitts and against an opponent. Burton's made rcent changes to our curriculum,so we don't have "phases," we just perform and improve. Instructors have a "lively" time performing seven rounds of sparring against an opponent (stick, knife, kickbox, ground, etc)
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