I was at a place once when someone asked me about it telling me that they knew a guy who had a 10th degree in a style of jiujitsu they created.
The guy actually walked in while we were talking and wanted to show me stuff. For a 10th degree he sucked a bowl of penis'. Apparently he had his own school of like 200 people too he said. In the "martial arts hall of fame" he claimed too.
Sad.
WHen I was younger, I used to call them on their bullshit or tell the person talking to me that their friend is full fo shit. I don't even bother anymore unless that person is being obnoxious. It just makes me look like an ass.
Is it me, or are the Korean instructors more cult like than others? Is there something about their culture that supports this, because most of the "cult like" stories I've heard about are about Koreans.
When I moved back to San Antonio I took it upon myself to go to most of the schools in the yellow pages....it took a month or two, but man talk about informative....and entertaining :)
iblis, I basically did the same thing in the Houston area before opening my own school. You are right on about informative.
I had been teaching for years at other people's schools, but still had reservations about opening my own. After that little pilgrimage I have no reservations. I just wished more people interested in Alive training and realistic self defense. In one week, I had one guy ask if how many siniwali's I know ( filipino double stick drills ), another guy ask if we did push hands, and one other guy ask if we taught how to use shurikens.
It may sound like I'm a shill, but damn the most "well adjusted" folks were schools or just study groups (FREE!) who did mma,boxing or muay thai. They were pretty no BS, but they lacked a certain attitude and energy I got from the TMA schools.
The energy/attitude I assume you were feeling at the TMA schools was the complete confidence they feel towards their skills or their master's skills, no matter how misguided they may be. When you practice with a training group, it is like a lab were no one has all the answers because the questions aren't concrete. You just try it and see what happens.
By the way, anyone in the Houston area want a super cheap place to train Russian martial art ( ROSS ala Scott Sonnon) and MMA style combatives shoot me an email at Sulsa17@aol.com.
I met this Brazilian guy named Rolker. He claimed his brother was in the UFC, and I was like, "Please.."
On a more serious note, we've had more than a few kooks show up to train. My two personal favorites:
1. A guy who went to Arizona and met some ex-NFL player who had started his own system. It was supposedly more efficient than BJJ, and was demonstrated on video by this monster of a man demonstrating "technique" on a guy weighing in at around 130lbs. I was impressed.
2. A Hap Ki Do guy claimed his instructor had tapped Renzo and Carlos Gracie (Sr. or Jr., I don't know). He also had punched a guy in the head, and the guy's eye fell out.
3. A member of the local Judo club attacked a local Hap Ki Do instructor, who also happens to run a bar and is a very tough guy to boot. When push came to shove, the Hap Ki Do instructor rear naked choked the drunk Judo guy, the Judo guy tapped. Maybe he didn't realize it's not sparring practice. No tapping. Hehe. (this isn't a knock on Judo, but it gives perspective on why the guy tapped)
At least you haven't gotten the "I trained in the mountains with my uncle, who is an ninjitsu master". I was like " At least keep your bullshit current. People in the know are lying about training with brazillians now. GEEZ"
I forgot about Kung Fu Ken. He's convinced a Shaolin warrior would clean up in the UFC.
Of course he would, He would use " Monkey acts like wrestler" and then transition to " Angry phoenix convulses in spasms". It is simple strategy.
A guy came to BJJ class and told us he fought in the UFC, Pancrase, and World Vale Tudo.
I tapped him out a few times when we rolled. (I suck at BJJ)
After class I went home and punched his name in Sherdogs fight finder thinking I met a bullshiter.
Holyshit, he did fight in the UFC, Pancrase, IFC, and World Vale Tudo.
He lost most of the matches, but wasn't a lier...
Paulio story sounds very familiar...
same same here. Call them on it or show you know and
all of a sudden...
As stated above...keep it REAL.
I got a couple of "energies" from the TMA schools....insecurity was one as was incredulous rapture at the lethal techniques they were being taught (I usually try to ambush the students coming in/out to get their opinions on the training.)
I feel bad telling this, cuz they were nice folks, but one Jiu jitsu school I visited bowed no less than FIVE OR SIX TIMES to the flags, instructors, senior students, potted plants in the corner.....man. They also spent nearly an hour doing a SINGLE defense against....a one arm grab! When the trainee would get flipped they would utter "OOOSH" (as they often did when they bowed.) Once when the instructor was demonstrating how to paralyze and drop someone who came flying at you with a single arm wrist grab he flipped/threw the student hard and some student goes "OOOOOOOOSH"like he just jizzed himself. That about did it for me.
NEXT
Don't know if this would qualitfy as "BS" or if it would qualify more as ego gratification (possibly both). There is this guy I run into now and then on campus who is a self-proclaimed mixed martial artist.
I asked him if he does "JKD" (since he uses that term a lot to describe what he does to his students). He said that what he does could be described as "JKD," but it would more accurately be described as "MMA." A couple of weeks later (just days before Matt Thornton comes to town), I asked him if he was going to the Matt Thornton seminar (afterall, he is a "JKD/MMArtist").
His reply was that he knows all about Thornton and his "aliveness thing" (his word, not mine). Furthermore, he then states that he "knows JKD" and that "[he] don't need anyone to teach him JKD. [Afterall,] Bruce Lee never needed anyone to teach him JKD."
So I'm thinking, "Your loss, not mine." For a guy who claims to know what aliveness is all about, he still clings to his chi sao and all the Wing Chun BS and sure as hell doesn't know how to clinch (he thinks trapping is superior).
I saw a friend I haven't seen for a while last week, he was going on about a mate of his who "trained with the Gracies" and about how hard he was.
I vaguely remembered his name so I looked it up on the internet, turns out he's one of the pioneers of MMA in the UK. :)
I was working as an escort for a stripper who did Bachelor parties and shit.
I met another bouncer/escort who started talking about Mixed Martial Arts and shit. I said nothing about my knowledge of the sport and just listened to him. He went on to say how he had just got back from Japan about a month ago and had fought Marco Ruas to a draw. He explained to me who Marco Ruas was.
Later we talked and he figured out that I knew he was totally full of shit. It's much better for people to FIGURE OUT that you know they are full of shit than for you to point it out.
One of our bachelor parties had cancelled and he and his stripper were between parties so we went to a bar for a couple drinks. He pulled me aside and asked me not to tell the girls anything; admitted that he had made it up to get laid.
LOL. I never did say anything about the girls. A couple months later I went to the Ultimate Rumble in Reno and he was in the Hotel lobby talking to his buddies (and a stripper that worked for the company that we both bounced for) about how he was going to enter but the event only allowed open hand strikes so he didn't enter; otherwise he would go ahead and "blow people up". He would have fought John Marsh; lol. He said "hi" but stopped all of talk when I walked up. Silliness.
Samoa.
I am pretty sure this one is fake, maybe Jpet can help me out.
My girfriend is kinda friends with this guy. This guys friend is some skinny kid who she said is a twig. Anyways he said he was at a Rage in the Cage and when they called up all the fighters he went up and signed up. He said he fought two fights and won both by knockouts and that any streetfighter can go into the cage and win against a trained person. The thing that caught my attention was he said he got paid $500 for each fight. Bullshit warning going up. I cant imagine Roland paying anywhere near that for the streetfighters to feed to his Brausa guys.
So I go home and check their fight database for his last name. Nothing. No name, no record, nothing.
Later she told me that he said that he beat that pool player the black widow oriental girl and won like a thousand dollars.
BS. I am a 4th Dan in Judo, and Gokor, Karo and Manvel are NASTYYYYYYYY. I cannot beat any of them. SO many people lie about tapping Gokor, it is SICK...
I was hitting the havy bag at the gym when this Samoan dude comes up to me. He asks if I box
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We're a smart bunch.
He explains that these were underground events run by the mafia and rolls up a sleeve to expose a long scar on his elbow. I'm guessing it was from surgery after being badly armbarred, then he drops the bomb by going on to say that the scar was from being hit by a baseball bat!
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We also have active imaginations.
Samoa.
LOL, ttt I love these stories.
One day I'm gonna write these all down and produce a martial arts book.....maybe call it MARTIAL MUSINGS TWO!