Royal-Allstar School

[Black Jack II]

This school is up the street in Warrenville, I have no idea of the merit, but they do have a sanda school in the city and all the teachers are 110% chinese for whatever that matters.

Say's they teach mantis boxing, longfist, tai chi and I read somewhere in their that they do baji as well.

Just incase you were looking for a school to train at.

http://www.allstarkungfu.com/nap/news/martial/20070808/136.html

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

Are these the guys who are in the same location on rt 59 as I was when I was teaching at the school with Troy?

If so I have been there, they seem like good guys. They are Beijing trained and very talented with the Wushu sets. I didn't get a chance to see thier sanda yet though. I have been too busy working out with Mas Judt's group. The Knife fighting bug has finally bitten me so to speak. I am actually trying to get my student to come into the group as well, so I don't think I'd have time for the Allstar kung fu club.

Even if I did have time, my Tai Tzu is heavily influenced by Tong Bei Quan. Since there is a Tong bei master here in Chicago somewhere, and Tong Bei is one of the root styles my Tai Tzu is built on, I'd probably go study that first.

The Tai Tzu is my pet project, so I allways try to look into arts with an evolutionary tie to it first. This allows me to assemble critical pieces of the puzzle even though the most credible Tai Tzu Sifu I know is in NJ. and can't work with me personally too often.

[Black Jack II]

Apache knife work in Chicago.

Seminars are expensive when Red Feather is in town but they also hold public classes on Monday's.

http://www.freewebs.com/fdvargas0351/index.htm

http://members.aol.com/redfeather88/apacheknife/

The kuntao stuff is all you need, just pointing out some interesting stuff in the city.

[Mas Judt]

Yep, same guys. Just drove by the Naperville school tonight - Sunday Night - it was open and a fairly sizable class was going on. Interesting.

BlackJack - have you seen the Apache Knife guy? I'd be curious to see what it is.


The Only AmerInd method I have seen - I forget the guys name/system name - but met him at 'dragonfest' - he was an American Indian but was an American Kenpo guy. The knife stuff - well it s@cked, to be nice. I think he made it up.

[Black Jack II]

BlackJack - have you seen the Apache Knife guy? I'd be curious to see what it is.

A friend of mine attended the seminar, I had to take care of the little one and had to bow out, but he reported it was fun. The concepts were based on a 12 angle pattern...which makes me wonder...they use no-lie blades and from what I understand is that a lot of the practice is knife sparring based and very physical.

The teacher seems to be getting a decent amount of cred, but I don't know if that cred is just because of great marketing, maybe he has a really good personality, maybe because people always want something different, or its just good material.

When I get a chance I would love to check them out just for kicks, as for the other guy, he is a total douchebag. He is an ex-ed parker student who is into it for the green, I remember talking with him one time, and asked him about the system and what he was going to charge for a actual native American fighting system, which btw it is not.

No answer...just asked me back, how much do you think the knowledge is worth to you:D

For now I want to get the time and scratch together to attend the Captain Ben Mangel's seminar in Lake Zurich at the Strike facility. It's $350 bucks but for me it would be so worth it.

That is if they let civilians take part. Often that facility keeps all the classes for military and police forces.

http://www.striketactical.com/training/details.asp?id=51

[Mas Judt]

I'd need to see it. I've seen a lot of 'jujitsu' guys like this and while they were tough old birds, the stuff was rudimentary at best. Not to say this is the case here. One of the best fighters I ever knew was a retired Marine (Most Marines can't fight worth sh!t, it's not what they train) and a retired SWAT guy. He had limited MA experience in stupid ****. But he fought a LOT and got smart and skilled. It was weird - most self-trained people have obvious flaws - he didn't. So who knows, this guy could be good.

[Black Jack II]

This cat is a little more than the standard marine, but I understand your point MJ.

From my view the rudimentary stuff, when done from the perspective of being smart and simple, is the best for basic self defense situations. Taking Hick's Law into account and a bodies actual response to a ad dump.

Plus, beyond that, on a off note, for me its also about the historical importance in what I like to do, that helps cover some of the cost.

As for a little on his background, Ben Mangels was a Captain in the South African air core as well as a South African Police Officer in the Durbin dockside community.

He has taught cqc/self defense for over 47 years, having a background as a chief instructor to military units in South Africa and in the UK, including the Reconnaissance Commandos, South African Airforce, and SAS.

He is a senior advisor to the AMA and ICCIA and has trained thousands of students in one fashion or another over the course of 47 years, on paper he holds a 8th dan in jujitsu, dan rank in judo, and also karate, I also believe he was one of the founders of the Black Dragon Fighting Society in South Africa during the 60's but that is just a guess for now.

I believe his personal system is just called atamei jujitsu but I can not be sure. More than not its a stripped down jutjitsu system or what they used to call combat judo but to be honest I have not seen it, but whatever it is, I am sure it will have a practical bent.

Either way, I like what I see on paper and from what I have heard:)

Ryan