zen do kai.

[ogre237]

Just wondering what peoples views are on Zen Do Kai I have heard alot of mixed reports from different people that i know.
I was just wondering if any one here has any experence with it and can give me their opinion, good or bad.


Not sure if people outside of Austarlia and New Zealand will know about Zen Do Kai.

[Bon]

Dude,

I say go for it!!!

It's a very complete and well rounded system from what I know.

I think we'll see more dojos making the shift to incorporating everything into one. :)

[Jim]

I think Ozebob is a practicioner and he's near you. May be worthwhile Emailing him - I haven't seen him on here for a while.

[Joe karate]

Never heard of it, what is it?

[YODA]

Check it out for yourself....

http://www.zendokai.com.au

[Thomas]

There is a small Zen Do Kai school here in the North Country of (far) Upstate New York. I don't know much about the system but I have trained with several of the members in varius locations (including once at the Zen Do Kai school as a guest). The school here is serious and professional and seems to many be composed of adult students. We shared forms (poomse/kata) and did some kicking drills together.

I have enjoyed working with the members (junior and senior) and every one of them had an open, professional, and welcoming attitude. When we meet at seminars, I really enjoy working with any of the students from there because they are always respectful and well trained.
(Sorry not to give specifics... I can only give my impression of the school and members here )

[moromoro]

MY PERSONAL OPINION is that it USE to be good, but now i Bob jones doesnt really teach that much.... i feel that the quality has gone WAY WAY WAY down since the early 1990's and of corse the late mid to late 80's....

i have some very good friends with high ranking in the style.....

(dont do it to leanr their stick fighting)

thanks

terry

[Chris from CT]

Originally posted by Thomas
There is a small Zen Do Kai school here in the North Country of (far) Upstate New York.

I was taking a look at the Australian wepage and I believe that Mike Campos' ZDK group in NY is a different organization than the Australian Group. Here is the website for the NY based organization...

http://www.superior.net/~zendokai/index.htm


Originally posted by Thomas
I don't know much about the system but I have trained with several of the members in varius locations (including once at the Zen Do Kai school as a guest). The school here is serious and professional and seems to many be composed of adult students. We shared forms (poomse/kata) and did some kicking drills together.

I have enjoyed working with the members (junior and senior) and every one of them had an open, professional, and welcoming attitude. When we meet at seminars, I really enjoy working with any of the students from there because they are always respectful and well trained.
(Sorry not to give specifics... I can only give my impression of the school and members here )

I was just up there for their 22nd annual Super Summer Seminars and it was a blast! There was over 250 people in attendance from all over including Texas, Canada and even Connecticut. ;) The seminar was held at Colgate University and went all weekend long. There were alot of cool seminars and the people were very open and friendly.

Thomas, were you there the other weekend? If you did, I wish I had known. I's always nice to put a face with the name.

Take care. :)

[Thomas]

No, I wasn't there but it would've been nice to meet. I train once in a while with the Zen Do Kai people, usually for a bit of diversity, at seminars, or as a abckup training place. Their attitude has always been: if you come to us in a respectful way you can train with us or do your own thing in our studio. I have appreciated that.

[glasgow kiss]

see other post's on this subject at http://pub19.ezboard.com/fbobjonesmartialartsgeneral.showMessage?topicID=24 5.topic

my original post is as follows;

ahhhh lonewolf, you've just come across a very interesting thing, now the NAME ZEN DO KAI is VERY international, but for a strange reason, which i'll get to, if by chance you are surfing the net for zen do kai you may just run into a site in america on a martial arts style called ZEN-DO KAI. what is very interesting is that they (the australian and american style) are totally different (the american style was first bassed around Shotokan karate i believe) but were started at almost the same time in compleatly different parts of the world, i e-mailed the head of zen do kai in america, Michael Campos 9th Dan (Kyudan) and this is what he had to say;

"strange as it may sound, I have had the name ZDK (Zen-Do Kai) in the USA since 1969...you are not the 1st AU person to
contact me...never met Mr. Jones but heard of AU ZDK in late 70's from Bill Wallace...then in 2000 met Richard Norton at Chuck Norris' Convention and he told me he co-founded AU ZDK w/Bob Jones...anyway, no connection between our
groups...we apparently choose the same name and since it is a big world never knew of our existence for years...there are other Zen-Do Kai groups out there...not all are martial arts related...anyway, we don't look at the name as our style but rather as our organization..."

to find out more about the usa Zen-Do kai goto http://www.superior.net/~zendokai/index.htm

gota dash catchya,

me...

[Thomas]

That's really fascinating! I didn't realize there were two styles out there with the same name that were unrelated. My previous posts(s) about Zen Do Kai refer to the one found in the USA, specifically in Massena, New York State.

[Haduken]

ogre237: did you end up doing this? I am interested because i studies Zen Do Kai briefly in queensland and wondered who you trained under... or whether those that you train under now of Mick Parker - who is who i trained under... i have always wondered if he is still around up there.

[Falcore]

So back to the original point, can anyone offer some opinions on the Aus ZDK organisation. I've met a lot of former students and instructors who gave not entirely glowing reports. And my old boy and all his borthers still love relating stories about the ZDK "wrecking crews" from the 70s and 80s.

My understanding was that ZDK isn't that big in australia any more, and they have switched more to using the name Bob Jones Corporation, and dipping their fingers into pretty much every style available now? Is that about right?

[Colin Linz]

Try this link. It has some posts made by critics and supporters.
http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25281&highlight=zendokai

[Vanir]

Quite right, I remember well the Bob Jones Corperation/ZDK being plastered all over current affairs programs in the 1980's as a cult concern.

Investigative reporters followed his car around and found him cruising around town doing mundane things with some of his black belts dressed in red gis like some kind of militia. These guys must've been no older than 19 and looked every bit the wannabe neo-nazis.

They took cameras into one of the dojos where students were dressed in brightly coloured "ninja gis" and practised thowing shuriken against targets. I mean it wouldn't look so bad if it were adults and a bit of effort put into a firearms range-style look just to keep up safety appearances and professionalism over zeal and lunacy.

The general theme of the story, which included interviews with some independant, quite highly ranked MA'ists was that his background was a bouncer, although did include traditional karate, however that he had broken away from any traditional styles in the creation of his school and had no real solid connection to the formal MA community.


Some other guy named Kevin Hawthorne sparked up a "Ninja School" around the same time, those guys actually ran around trying to make a local version of the "Guardian Angels" and were about as successful around here (cops have a hard enough time, how do think hard working aussies getting told what's what by a pack of teenagers are going to react...?).

[Nightstrike]

Edit: uh nevermind, what i heard of sounds completely different.