Oh my...

[Kymus]

If you can't say anything nice, an alternative is to say something mean.

He's a total hack. If I lived near him I would 'dojo storm' his place in a ninja uniform and beat the crap out of him then ninja vanish.

This should be filmed as a documentary

[mooyingmantis]

Can we end this conversation now.

The Praying Mantis forum is usually the last place these kinds of discussions appear.

Summation:

1. He claims to be teaching a mantis form in the video.
2. Anyone here who practices mantis knows this is not the real deal.
3. Those unfamiliar with mantis who are reading this can be assured that some of the best mantis practitioners in the world visit this forum and would agree that the video discussed does not represent traditional mantis kung fu.
4. Nothing left to discuss.

Take the bashing elsewhere please.

[xiao yao]

Its not often I talk **** about others on public forums, but if this guy came to Yantai and showed people that, the nice shifu's would laugh at him, the not-so-nice ones would kick his ass!

[Kymus]

Supposedly he regularly visits China for further training. No idea what he's learning over there; I've never seen a video of him doing anything right.

[xiao yao]

from the videos i saw it looked like he had joined some tour group, maybe thats his "training in china"

[Jui heshang]

amazing kata

[sanjuro_ronin]

When you go to China and train, you can honestly say you trained in China.

[RickMatz]

Nice yard, but the lawn could use a little work.

[Kymus]

amazing kata

I totally love Chinese Kata, yep. Chinese Kung Fu kata rox

A lot of the time Mace will say "kata, taolu, whatever. It doesn't matter what you call it".

Well, yea... if you're actually good, then it doesn't matter. If you suck, then well.... tough luck, bro!

[SoCo KungFu]

Yes, I saw this video during the first wave of Jake Mace commentary a few weeks ago when he first put it up. I commented on the thread at the time but it seems to have been deleted. Although, he also seems to have deleted some comments defending him from my criticism too, so whatever.

Yes its bad. Unfortunately, of the 3 mantis vids I've seen on his page, as bad as it is this is his most "correctly" mantisy mantis. There are at least some techniques that resemble some things I've learned, in a really butchered sort of way of "resembling." Things that he says are strikes that are actually throws, etc. Things that would be obvious if the angles of motion were correct but because someone pulled it from a tourny video they couldn't tell the difference. No particular system, but a miss mash of things it looks like someone saw and thought they knew what it was. And threw it together in a barely coherent pattern of movements.

As far as the rest of the Jake Mace/Rydberg stuff, other than the false "traditional" claims, which I frankly don't care about he seems to be at least moderately honest. Doing some back reading this is what seems to be the case:

He was a student of the Soards but he and his wife, along with a number of schools broke off from the Soards when the old dude elder geezer whatever they call them Soard got hemmed up in a sexual assault charge. Rydberg and his wife were subsequently banned from SD because they testified for the prosecution (or helped the prosecution in some way at least). Down the road at some point, Sin The (who has the most elegantly flowing mullet I've seen in years btw) reinstated Rydberg along with others when Mullins and some other dude were brought into leadership in the absence of the Soards. It seems Jake had enough of being in that caste system, because he was the one that apparently broke it off with Sin The not much later. It was then after Jake broke from The and the SD name that Grandmaster Flowing Mullet decided to go with the lawsuit.

From what I've read, it does seem that at that time Jake notified his students to the inner issues of all the legal stuff. It seems many decided to stick with him because his school seems to be the most successful one that has gone independent. Makes sense, Tempe is a college town. Whether or not he continues to tell them the origin of the stuff no one seems to be talking about. No one from the SD people that seem to know him I mean.

Anyways, not defending the dude, his mantis sucks. Not because he can't move. Not because he's not in shape. But because he doesn't seem to have a clue on mantis "theory" beyond mantis beak hook thing. Awesome, he learned the first of the 12 keys, 11 to go. Actually I guess it would be the 3rd, but whatever.

But he seems to be good with kids and despite what I think of his reasons for the advice he gives (ie, jumping on the BS pH diet nonsense) he is in shape himself and if he can get people in shape, I'll leave him alone. Although he seems to basically be ripping off P90X. But hey, how many fitness coaches don't these days? And beach body works probably deserved to be ripped off with that borderline pyramid scheme they've got going. As far as tradition, Lee Kam Wing made up a number of the "traditional" 7 star forms from what I understand. Chan Poi seems to have made up a number of the "traditional" tan tui mantis forms. Seems tradition isn't all its cracked up to be.

[Kymus]

Yeah, Sin The wanted Jake Mace to pay to have all of his students re-tested, which I think really shows why it is you hear stories of him being at students' belt tests. It's about the money.

I read somewhere - maybe on Bullshido - that teachers are expected to dish out a good deal of money for testing; 90% of which goes to Sin The.

[SoCo KungFu]

I've read the Soards were the brains behind the operation and the business model was their doing. GM McDreamy Mullet just happened to benefit by being at the head of them.

Either way, there's a better place for that conversation in another thread. And as dull as the Mantis forum can be at times, I agree with Mooyingmantis. Best leave it out of here. I only responded because the issue was already made here. Frankly, what's known is known and it doesn't seem like anyone cares at this point. All this can be found quite easily by anyone who cares to spend an hour or two looking. And revealing more doesn't seem to matter to Jake's students. And really, they're the ones that have to make the decision.

Much like I see no reason to continue discussing Earthdragon and this faith healer stuff he's into, I see no more reason to discuss or interfere with Jake Mace.

Frankly, the guy needs to be doing some home gardening videos. He's like Chuck Norris with a spade and a bit of fertilizer...

[nubianmantis]

Yes, I saw this video during the first wave of Jake Mace commentary a few weeks ago when he first put it up. I commented on the thread at the time but it seems to have been deleted. Although, he also seems to have deleted some comments defending him from my criticism too, so whatever.

Yes its bad. Unfortunately, of the 3 mantis vids I've seen on his page, as bad as it is this is his most "correctly" mantisy mantis. There are at least some techniques that resemble some things I've learned, in a really butchered sort of way of "resembling." Things that he says are strikes that are actually throws, etc. Things that would be obvious if the angles of motion were correct but because someone pulled it from a tourny video they couldn't tell the difference. No particular system, but a miss mash of things it looks like someone saw and thought they knew what it was. And threw it together in a barely coherent pattern of movements.

As far as the rest of the Jake Mace/Rydberg stuff, other than the false "traditional" claims, which I frankly don't care about he seems to be at least moderately honest. Doing some back reading this is what seems to be the case:

He was a student of the Soards but he and his wife, along with a number of schools broke off from the Soards when the old dude elder geezer whatever they call them Soard got hemmed up in a sexual assault charge. Rydberg and his wife were subsequently banned from SD because they testified for the prosecution (or helped the prosecution in some way at least). Down the road at some point, Sin The (who has the most elegantly flowing mullet I've seen in years btw) reinstated Rydberg along with others when Mullins and some other dude were brought into leadership in the absence of the Soards. It seems Jake had enough of being in that caste system, because he was the one that apparently broke it off with Sin The not much later. It was then after Jake broke from The and the SD name that Grandmaster Flowing Mullet decided to go with the lawsuit.

From what I've read, it does seem that at that time Jake notified his students to the inner issues of all the legal stuff. It seems many decided to stick with him because his school seems to be the most successful one that has gone independent. Makes sense, Tempe is a college town. Whether or not he continues to tell them the origin of the stuff no one seems to be talking about. No one from the SD people that seem to know him I mean.

Anyways, not defending the dude, his mantis sucks. Not because he can't move. Not because he's not in shape. But because he doesn't seem to have a clue on mantis "theory" beyond mantis beak hook thing. Awesome, he learned the first of the 12 keys, 11 to go. Actually I guess it would be the 3rd, but whatever.

But he seems to be good with kids and despite what I think of his reasons for the advice he gives (ie, jumping on the BS pH diet nonsense) he is in shape himself and if he can get people in shape, I'll leave him alone. Although he seems to basically be ripping off P90X. But hey, how many fitness coaches don't these days? And beach body works probably deserved to be ripped off with that borderline pyramid scheme they've got going. As far as tradition, Lee Kam Wing made up a number of the "traditional" 7 star forms from what I understand. Chan Poi seems to have made up a number of the "traditional" tan tui mantis forms. Seems tradition isn't all its cracked up to be.

Hey SoCo. Are you real, You say Chan Poi and Lee Kam Wing made Up forms;Where's the Proof and Details of this action or just Hearsay and BS stuff. Regards. NM.

[18elders]

wah lum core forms 1-6 were created by master chan. they were not part of Lee Kwan Shan's curriculum.

[yu shan]

I do think this young feller has ability and with a good coach he could probably be pretty darn good.