Karate hit the United States back in the fifties. Advertisements promised that a slight woman could beat up a grown man, and showed men killing bulls. It was said that even a child. who was properly trained in Karate, could do amazing things.
So what went wrong? What went wrong is that so many people wanted the art that there weren't enough teachers. And this brings us to the question of what a person needs to teach Karate?
Back then, guys with three years experience were getting their black belts, and then turning around and teaching. But it took a dozen years to master the art back then, and an instructor needs more data than a master. Being a master means that you have the data, but being a teacher means that you not only have the data, but you can get somebody else to get it.
Fast forward a few decades. You've got guys teaching the martial arts, and they have twenty years experience, and they've mastered the art, but nobody ever taught them how to teach. Experience will make a master, not too much trouble, but simple experience will not make an instructor.
An instructor requires the specialized data of how to teach. Getting tougher doesn't matter, he needs to find out the how and why of making technqiues work, and be able to get other people to understand those hows and whys. This is an entirely different education, you see.
So you walk into a school and observe a teacher. Is the teacher actually going over why things work? Or is he merely having people copycat his movements?
Yes, the first stage is Monkey see monkey do, but it only lasts a short while. The real real reasons for how and why something works must be inserted, or what is being taught will become nothing more than memorization. And when the fist comes out of the darkness, do you want to remember how to defend yourself, or do you want to have the instantaneous intuition that is available if you don't just memorize, but know and understand the how and the why of why the moves are what they are?
So that's the story. Karate could do all it claimed, but it was reduced by quick black belts who wanted to make money, and who didn't really know why they were doing what they were doing. I trust this information will help you when you seek an instructor, and when you are actually learning the art.