I doubt that associations and legislation are the answer. And I know that school challenges aren’t. Educate the populace so they know what they’re looking at. Too many legitimate martial artists go along with the ‘don’t talk about what we do’ approach. So the only sources of information end up being the charlatans.
Stuart B.
First of all, who here is qualified to police anything about the martial arts?
some are for fighting, some are ritualistic and some are hybridized of these.
some are style specific and not for the streets, IE:closed school contests and merely keeping alive a tradition.
There are too many p.o.v’s on how to punch right for pete’s sake!
some schools say do this, some say do that, both ways are effective.
point is, anyone of us has limited scope in regards to the whole body of martial teachings available.
just because anyone of us has trained for 10 years, or five, or twenty or what have you, our only point of true reference is that which we have tasted directly. The rest is speculation and conjecture and the only way to tell someone in the martial arts that what they are doing is wrong is to prove it through crossing hands and demonstrating whyit’s wrong.
If you are not prepared to do that, then why wax on about how this or that should be policed!??
What’s in a name anyway? It’s all about perspective.
Keep practicing in your own small corner and be happy in it. That’s all there really is in the end. Go out and test yourself, because you certainly can’t test your whole style with any consistency outside of your own personal experience and those who would cross hands with you.
cheers
Nicely said, Kung Lek.
[and the earth trembled]
ditto what AP said…
Hard to do… telling people they suck and all, and to some you’d be taking their lively hood… good or bad.
Go to the school and demand traidional gong sau wherein you fight the school’s senior students. If you defeat them, you then fight the school’s teacher. If you defeat him then the school has to close down.
What do you think? Surely it’s up to us to protect the integrity of our arts?
I think the school’s would still stay open, and the challengers would all end up in prison 
As for the morality of these challenges, I guess it depends on what the school is claiming. If they’re coming out and saying they can kick anyone’s @ss and so on, then they’re asking for it. That’s pretty much a chalenge to anyone not in their organization.
But, then again, what’s really gained from these fights on a large scale? Like the TWS vs. Remuul fight… all that happened is TWS decided he was training realistically enough. SD is still the same as it’s allways been.
There’s a TKD school in Knoxville that claims that one of their uber-black belts can beat any other local black-belt and they are claiming $100k if anyone prooves them wrong. I inquired because I was sceptical and because I was curious. They never returned my calls or sent me any information.
Later I found a former student of this school who told me that it was all a sham. The “master” of the school was the sole judge of the competition. If you won the round, he called it a tie. If you knocked the guy out, he “disqualified” you. If you were losing, he wouldn’t stop the fight until you quit or got the bewezus beat out of you. I think a school like this is asking to be taken down a notch, but they apparently refuse to submit to an objective format. They also refuse to attend open tournaments and keep everything closed off.
The point is its difficult to impossible to self-police schools like this. Every art imposes their own standards and if they refuse to cooperate, then what do you do?
they apparently refuse to submit to an objective format.
For some reason I just go the image of two guys in gis playing knuckles…
Places like that are unfortunate, if people are ignorant enough to not see the hype, or simply don’t care, then so be it.
Every art imposes their own standards and if they refuse to cooperate, then what do you do?
Beat them silly.
the thing about “shams” or “McDojo” is that they would not exist if nobody enrolled in them. perhaps educating the public about legitimate martial arts would be a better idea. people need to understand that just because someone is a martial arts teacher that you can’t trust them 100%. when i went for an interview at “temple kung-fu” i knew they were bogus not because of my previous knowledge of martial arts but the way they treated me. the fact that they acted like used car salesmen i knew something was up.
also, it is important to note that those who need “policing” are not necessarily unskilled. it is that they pretend to be something they are not. my instructor trained with “O.E.Simon” for several months many years ago. he said that although he left because simon was a complete fake, simon himself was a pretty skilled fighter. unfortunatly lying is not a very punishable crime.
You all realise this was a joke thread, right?
Look at joedoe’s “Could Someone please…” thread.
No, no. It is serious. We should go on a rampage of destruction to cleanse the MA world of shysters.
Hey, if we do that KFO will become a very quiet and lonely place to hang out.
I def think this kind of self-policing should be done
Far too many McDojos give real martial arts bad name
I walked into a tkd studio and asked for Master Kim. Of course almost all TKD masters are named Master Kim. Well i did mantis before and have been studying bjj so this clown had no chance. I challenged him and even though he played at being all pacifist, he was getting ****ed. Finally he made m sign a waiver, his secretary was looking at me like I was challenging God…well I didn’t buy it. This guy wasn’t my god.
We squared off. I expected him to come in kicking, but he waited. He was probably planning to counter with a spinning kick. I was right. I went in with strait knees and peppered his face. I flanked him and grabbed him around the waist. I could tell that he has zero grappling experience because he kept trying to stomp and head butt.
I did a nasty mantis trick, I grabbed his pills. He didn’t show pain at firsts, but when I squeezed them hard enough he folded, I pansed him and used the opportunity to try to put him in a scorpian hold. He was folded though and his had strong abs. I threw his legs down and got a side mount. Every time he went to pull up his pants I hit him in the head and screamed “I learned this in Prison…beyotch” (I’m not gay, nor have I done time, but it sure scared him.) I got a back mount and was working the choke. I switched sides and he tapped like a loser. I kept choking though. I told him that once he was asleep I was gonna have sex with his secretary and shove some nunchucks up his butt. He suddenly got strong and threw me off. I kicked him in the solar plexus and winded him. The secretary was calling the cops so I ran away.
So much for quality control.
~ Those that can do, those that can’t talk. Or so it seems.
~ Let them be. What difference should it make? As long as what you learn is legitimate and quality and you are capable of taking care of yourself and your loved ones, why are you worried about Fred McKempo? Let other people learn their. It is good for the economy and provides for some discipline for children whose parents are unwilling or unable to provide it to them at home. If you are really concerned about them learning quality stuff, then start to offer classes by yourself. ( I actually did that for a while, but I find that traditional training gives you about a 5% retention rate for students over a 12 month period.) Luckly I was offering the classes for free to some neighborhood kids. Would have been totally broke and poor if I had to ask for money. Oh, wait a second, I am totally broke and poor anyway… hehe
~ Train hard and become the best you can be for yourself for your family and for GOD. Everything else will take care of itself.
Peace,
Sin Loi
Yi Beng, Kan Xue