Praying Mantis Skills

[Sifu Darkfist]

I am sure that we all agree that skill is what seperates the haves from the have nots in this system. By this i mean those that have respect and those that do not.
I see alot of frustration in the CMA world and am happy that much of it has avoided us as little evil green insects. However, prospective students have options in this as any other style.

Do the people that you follow possess real skill? The ARGUMENTS stop on the performance of a Form or that of an application. To find a fraud is easy, just open your eyes.

in an era of flakes who dont train anything and never have it is important for the leaders in this style to constantly reiterate their feelings on what students should look for. Ill leave the descriptions up to you guys. Lets hope people new to CMA pay attention to your sugestions

the floor is yours

[Hoop]

Someone who is brand-new will have no idea if the person they are training with is for-real or not. They don't have the eye to spot poor form or bad application.

Sounds to me like you have some people in mind.

Go on and name some names if you wanna get something off your chest!

[Sifu Darkfist]

the fact of the matter is i drive by tons of new organizations that claim mma or such, and with no way to actual certification god knows what these guys are teaching.

All should be concerned about this issue, because many of you make your livings through teaching legitimate martial arts and these frauds cut into your bread and water.

I do not charge my students currently for personal reasons, however i do care for those that do and hate to see students not have a reference for quality, thats why i started this dead thread. lol
James

[shirkers1]

What is it with ohio? There is a MA school on every block it seems, some more than one in the same little town or block. I live in phoenix now and there's nothing....

[yu shan]

I do not make my living from coaching. I do charge because I have an overhead and it pays my way to travel and train with my Shifu and to give my Shifu a red envelope. In turn, I bring back treasures to share with my students. So basically I throw all that I earn right back into my Praying Mantis Boxing club.

Most of what I have found here CMA wise are fellows teaching out of their garages and backyards. They are very secretive and are not at all open. Having seen some of their stuff... it is because it is crap. The major influence in this area is, WadoRu (sp) and of course TKD. It pains me to see people spending all this money on such rudimentary styles. But then again, I think people now a days are looking for the easy way out. Mantis is complicated and it hurts.

No fraud here, come by and visit anytime.

[Judge Pen]

Jim,

I've been trying to send a TKD black-belt your way. He knew I studied CMA and was interested in mantis in particular.

I've seen lots of bad TKD, but the only Wado-ryu (sp?) I've seen was pretty effective. Very direct and simple, but the guys were tough and hard-core.

[mantis108]

Personally, I don't mind that at all. I usually will tell people to try everything else in town first before they make a decision on whether or not to study with me.

I am more than happy to have a small group which I could pay more attention to everyone. But then I either teach out of my store or at the City's Gym so there is no financial pressure really (actually I do have to put up some of my own money for the Gym rental).

I supposed it is true that there are people who take some MMA or other MA seminar and start teaching. I know there is a guy in my town that does it and his people think that they are the "real deal". It doesn't bother me. I guess I am more or less "sweep the snow in front of your own gate, don't worry about the frost on the other's roof."

Mantis108

[mantid1]

Darkfist

You have a good point.

I myself had a fat tai chi student run off after a couple of years and start teaching. He even went as far as telling people he had studied with the grand master of my system for 17 years, was a buddhist monk and was trained by shaolin monks in chinese medicine. He met the master once, was not a monk and did not know anything about chinese medicine. Was very bad at Tai Chi.

The only way you could regulate who runs a school is through some type of college program or government regulations or control. Did I mention the fat guy had a PHD? The theory that higher education may equal more maturity, honesty and integrity did not hold true. Not bashing education but I would expect more than that.

Government control and regulation can also be translated as wushu.

All I can do is run a quality school and hope people can see the difference. They probably will not because the soccer moms and dads want to be able to talk about the 7 year old black belt just before they go to cheerleading practice.

Shirkers

The reason there are so many schools in Ohio is because of higher unemployment which means more people trying to make a living. All you need to run a school is an empty room. It is also easier to find lease space because of the economy. I am not speaking for all of Ohio but if you check lease averages in Pheonix compared to Akron you will be surprised.

[Sifu Darkfist]

I must say Yu... that site is out of sight. i particularly love the greeting mantis, as well as all the other content. as you can see i do my own and havent learned a whole lot yet (lmao). thanks to all of you for taking the time to add to such an important cause (that of dissemination of good information). there is no question that there are true experts that speak here

All have great points, However the Akron point is not totally clear, you see we were fortunate to have a chinese teacher very early in the Chinese martial arts years of America. He was extremely prolific, is loved by many and critiqued by many more (he has passed many years ago). After that this area was addicted and trys to draw as many masters here as possible. I E master Yang and many more skilled masters.

however we also draw the fakes as well and yes economy etc. might have an effect. Although i would say it is very hard to get people to pay for anything up here.

There have been historically alot of really tough guys that come out of the rust belt as well (probably due to the nasty depressed cities etc).

[shirkers1]

There have been historically alot of really tough guys that come out of the rust belt as well (probably due to the nasty depressed cities etc).

NOOOOOO this can't be true, akron having tough fighters?!~?!?!?!?!?:eek: :D

I thought only sarcastic no character having wanna be's came out of akron. :rolleyes:

[mantid1]

Could you tell me who the original Chinese teacher was? Just curious.

I know Tony Yang. He is a very nice person.

Many areas claim the fame of having one of the "first asian teachers in the US".

Most cities have tough guys whether in Ohio or Dallas.

[Sifu Darkfist]

his name was Femine ong northern long fist (and shoalin) you can find more of his info at this site of Master Wayne Schulz a friend and formersifu of mine as a boy one of a few different of my very young years

http://www.schulzmartialarts.com/sifu/sifu.html

he has some info actually a couple of my original masters were his formal students Including Don Niam etc.
I was so young when i started it is all sketchy now that i am old, but i remember some things.

the older you get the more you have to lose to add more lol
if you want to know more you should ask them they are much more informed than i (btw many detractors speak against him im not sure why, all i can say is i have seen the results my whole life and guess what these guys are good really good)
james

[mantid1]

Thanks for the link.

This shulz guy seems to dable in alot of different things.

After looking at this site and another I came across today I have a question about weapons. It does not fit here but I will ask anyway.

I was taught by a legite master that when working with a kwan do , horse cutter, army sword, nine ring long handle or similar weapons that you never grab the metal part right next to the guard. It has to do with leverage and distance.

The master said if you were supposed to hold it there it would not have the protruding rivets. He aslo asked "Then why such a long handle on the nine ring or kwan do"?

This is kind of a thread hijack so I will start another one.

[Oso]

I must say Yu... that site is out of sight. i particularly love the greeting mantis, as well as all the other content. as you can see i do my own and havent learned a whole lot yet (lmao).


I can put you in touch with the person that originally designed yu shan's site, and mine. She's not managing yu shan's site anymore but still does mine.

[Sifu Darkfist]

Well i would love to thrust it into true beauty like your guys sites however, i am in possesion of a budget that matches my tuition fo my students lol. Zilch
so i am going to have to learn the hard way by continuous change. (hey sounds like cma, constant physical and mental evolution.

oh your site is incredible as well i only hope the guests take the time to visit all of these wonderful resources. soon i am going to post theory so at least amateur site has some substance.

thanks guys

Oh yeah the Schulz dable thing, yes he has been training a long time and the nice thing i know personally of his rough and tough days from my father as well as many other sources. Many of these guys as with many others from that generation are and were no nonsense but whoopers back in the day when fighting was not looked at as a serious crime.

[Oso]

oh, I got lucky in having a graphic designer/3D artist/web developer as a student.
I couldn't afford her either based on my 'kung fu salary'. I trade her private lessons for the work.

good luck...your sites fine, just keep things simple as you learn more about designing it...heh, kinda like learning kung fu ;)

[yu shan]

Sifu Darkfist

Thank you sir for the compliment about my site. I will try changing my gallery more often. ALL credit should go to Ming Yue the creator. I think she cut me a break because we are related in the Mantis world of things. She is very good at her craft, and not a bad boxer either! Man, gotta set something straight though James, I am by no means an expert. Please read my sig. I will be a student to our wonderful lil bug until I go to meet The Almighty. I have no fancy kf school, just rent space in a hall, and leave as much sweat on the floor as possible. I often wondered about all the kf in the state of Ohio, just figured you guys were the lucky ones. Keep up the tradition Darkfist.

Judge Pen

Good to hear from you bro, how are things with the new woman? You dont have to answer that here.;) And thank you for giving me a good word with your TKD friend. I take it he is in my area. Have him give me a call, I dont bite. As for the wado-ryu, guess what I have seen was not a good representation of that style. There is a lot to be said about direct, simple and hard-core. I`m hooked on Mantis though, and give me one crack at these fellers and I gurantee to hook them too! Pure quality my man.

[Hoop]

NOOOOOO this can't be true, akron having tough fighters?!~?!?!?!?!?:eek: :D

I thought only sarcastic no character having wanna be's came out of akron. :rolleyes:



There's tough guys in Akron? :eek:


*looks around nervously*

[shirkers1]

There's tough guys in Akron? :eek:


*looks around nervously*


Well it seems like some don't agree though.. :rolleyes: I've been losing sleep over it. :D