Gold Belt

Discussion in 'General Martial Arts Discussion' started by GoldDan, Dec 29, 2016.

  1. GoldDan

    GoldDan Banned Banned

    I am the founder and gold belt in Neo-Bokator. I always wanted to be a martial arts master since the first day I saw someone with a black belt. I remember it vividly, it was in taekwondo, they had black collars on their gi, not the white collars that the colored belts had.

    I've studied martial arts since I was a kid. I started with WTF taekwondo, then some karate. When I got into high school it was only natural to start wrestling. Then I learnt some judo throws and when MMA got popular I checked out BJJ. I've also done some kickboxing and thai boxing.

    Now I teach the noble art of Neo-Bokator at a private facility. I've put together all the best parts from the different styles I've studied. It's not just how to do the different things, like grappling and striking, but actually blending it together to become a full system.

    I'll honestly say that I never had a black belt, but to have an easier time teaching people I've awarded myself with a gold belt I found on Amazon. It helps me tap into the master persona. Students just needs certain things to feel at home in the dojo.

    Despite this, I do teach them pretty legit stuff. I teach them boxing basics, kicking basics, wrestling, judo. People are actually very impressed. Down the street they teach boxing, but they don't kick or grapple, so I am pretty much miles ahead of the competition at this location. I am a respected member of the community.

    I hope this forum can be a place for me to vent. Sometimes I doubt myself and run into trouble with certain students. Here I can anonymously discuss matters with other masters.
     
    Last edited: Dec 29, 2016
  2. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    Firstly welcome

    Secondly at 31 you are not a master

    Thirdly with no real pedigree in any discipline even what you are offering is highly suspect out the gate

    These are needed to be said upfront because the conversation will be very bumpy for you at times

    Do you have any videos you can show?
     
  3. Dan93

    Dan93 Valued Member

    Grabs for popcorn and mead...

    What Hannibal said about being far to young to class yourself as a master. When I hear things like "learned some Judo throws.." translates to me as picked up on YouTube and performed badly. What level of Judo have you learned and what grade did you achieve? and in the other systems in your resume and time in system.

    What was the reason for formulating your own system so young and how do you pressure test what you teach? Love to see some video of your system.

    Also have you ever studied Cambodian Bakator? if not why use the name in your system.

    Providing this is not a troll I am genuinely intrigued.
     
  4. GoldDan

    GoldDan Banned Banned

    Firstly, for somebody practising JKD, I think you should know that Bruce Lee was 32 when he passed away and even younger when he made the martial art you are affiliated with. Didn't he even die as a result of drugs?

    Everything you said about me can just as easily apply to Bruce Lee, his martial arts background was worse than mine. I mean: Tai Chi learnt from his father, Wing Chun learnt from Ip man? These two diciplines are the laughing stock of the world.

    I put on the gold belt, because people want things presented to them in a certain way. I just play the part. It is actually really helpful, if I tell somebody that looks up to me that they can do fifty push-ups, they do fifty! It is working so well that the next time I'm going to Thailand I am thinking of getting a picture of an old asian dude with a long beard, or a monk, and say that he is some legendary holy guy who trained me on a mountain.
     
  5. Dan93

    Dan93 Valued Member

    Again what grades do you hold and what length of time in the myriad of systems on your resume, how do you pressure test?

    Black belt level is basically where you understand the fundamentals of the system and you have openly admitted you have not got to this level. Why the rush to teach? Why not establish yourself in your chosen system/s, compete if possible and teach at a later point?
     
  6. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    You aren't Bruce Lee

    If you mean prescription, yes

    Nope

    Only by those who are clueless....oh, look you are laughing at them - QED

    People want someone who knows what they are doing - you clearly do not fit this criteria

    If I tell my students to do that they do so and I am usually wearing sweatpants and a tshirt

    Anyone awarding themselves a gold belt goes straight to the head of the "fraud" line

    Well you are making everything else up so why not go the whole hog.....
     
  7. aaradia

    aaradia Choy Li Fut and Yang Tai Chi Chuan Student Moderator Supporter

    Surely someone who hasn't mastered any one art has no business judging other arts en masse?

    You start off saying you mislead your students by awarding yourself a belt bought at Amazon. Do you students know this is the origin of your Gold belt? Because if they don't, this is fraudulent. Admitting to playing a "persona" is admitting to acting and being fraudulent. It won't garner any respect here.

    Then you proceed to alienate all the practitioners of both TCC and WC on here for no reason?

    Welcome to MAP, but I must confess I do not think you are off to a good start here. You might want to reconsider your approach.
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2016
  8. GoldDan

    GoldDan Banned Banned

    Well, my parents passed away. They grew up very poor and had a hard time parting with their posessions, so they bought a warehouse to store their things in when they moved into a smaller apartment. When they died I inherited the place and filled it up witn mats and other equipment. Before this I did MMA for four years, that is where I learnt Judo and BJJ. Wrestling in highc school for three years. I did taekwondo for three years as a kid, I had one of those red belts with black in them, the ones they give you because you're too young for a real black belt, then point-fighting karate for two years. I did kickboxing for three years.

    Remember what I said, I am here to discuss teaching, the pedagogy of it all. I'm not here to say anything is right or wrong, if you practise judo that is fine. It is actually funny that you mentioned judo, because we had two guys who did judo who came into our class and their sparring didn't go down so well. Obviously they had no stand-up, once they got in the opponent wasn't wearing a gi, while trying to set up something they didn't know where to place their arms and got eaten up by elbows and knees until the caved in and let themselves get swept to the floor, hoping to pull of something off their back, like their opponent was gonna go for that when they know that their prior experinece was judo. Eventually they got frustrated and tried forcing and entry, the protective equipment and light contact can only protect you that much, they started walking into the shots, so I had to stop it before they hurt something more than their pride

    We do sparring. I don't teach techniques that can't be used in sparring.

    What we do is actually MMA, but it is also Neo-Bokator, because bokator is MMA with enterprative dance, we just removed the dance, that is why it is neo/new bokator. It is a marketing trick, I was actually thinking of calling it something with taekwondo, like Choi-Kwan taekwondo, and claim it was the true secret and much more effective taekwondo that general Choi only revealed to his most trusted black belts. Like millitary taekwondo, then just teach MMA and they would be totally flabbergasted by how effective "real" taekwondo was, that it could actually work in the UFC. Believe it or not, some guy from Australia had actually allready done that. So I made my own system, so that it would be founded by me and I would own all the rights.

    And it is my system. I came up with all the combinations we use to learn how to float from kicking to punching, or punching to clinching or grappling etc. At the end of the day I am just happy if I see people who have trained there for more than two years use everything during sparring. Because growing up the one thing I always hated with martial arts was the wierd rules like "You two are gonna fight now, but you can not punch him in the face, we only kick here".
     
  9. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    I am call shenanigans right now.......
     
  10. YouKnowWho

    YouKnowWho Valued Member

    I have a bad feeling for this thread.

    Back in my time, you have to earn your respect and you don't ask for it.
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2016
  11. GoldDan

    GoldDan Banned Banned

    You communicated very clearly in your first post that being 31 meant that you could not be a master. If you make an exception for Bruce Lee, then obviously some masters are younger than 31. I didn't say that, you did. You insulted the very founder of your own martial art.

    That you refuse to admit this, while simultaniously lecturing me on honesty is something that is hypocritical.

    The reason why I have a gold belt is that I am the founder. Otherwise the people I promote would outrank me, so it is actually crucial that I have this unique rank.

    But in all honesty, the belts are just for kids, let us all be adults here for a seconds, a belt is made of cotton and does not have magical attributes. You don't wear belts to absorb the power from each color, it is for kids who can't sparr that hard, they get to earn belts to get more hyped over learning the combinations and basics. They want the gold belted master to teach them, its like santa claus to them.

    With the adults and young adults I am more of a bro that just takes the lead for the training. Ensuring that we learn what we need to learn.
     
  12. Dan93

    Dan93 Valued Member

    Firstly you need to look up Bokator as its not what you think it is...Its a pretty damn hard bare knuckle system from Cambodia very similar to Muay Thai, not sure where you got the "enterprative" dance thing from.

    You have no formal Judo training from what you described, learning throws in MMA is very different to a specialist art like Judo, Judo is one of the arts I practice.

    It sounds like you don't have the experience (formal and competition) to be teaching a system let alone your own. My advice if this is real (doubt it) by all means have a study group in your warehouse but take up formal training again and loose the silly self awarded belts. In this day and age almost everyone has access to the internet and your students will be looking up your credentials (I have with my own instructors past and present) and you are setting yourself up for a fall.

    Got a website for your training?
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2016
  13. Dan93

    Dan93 Valued Member


    Agreed on both points YKW. Would thank this if it was working...
     
  14. Rebel Wado

    Rebel Wado Valued Member

    Sounds like GoldDan bought a yellow belt that someone told him was gold. :D

    GoldDan, there's plenty of young and old high ranking folks posting on this forum throughout the years. None of them claiming rank posted totally anonymously. There were always those who knew who they were.
     
  15. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    Show me where I said Bruce was a master

    You are a typical charlatan who.has no actual ability or inclination to actually train, but who wants the accolades and respect that go with it

    Tough

    Real life doesn't work that way

    In fact if you are teaching then I am even more disgusted because you are passing on something that you know nothing about and that is beyond dishonest and firmly in "repugnant"
     
  16. GoldDan

    GoldDan Banned Banned

    You are very naive. This is a business, I am running a business. I have people working for me that depend on that money to put food on the table for their kids. I have an obligation to my workers to market their livelyhood.

    Look at any art that has been founded. Look at taekwondo, they say that it comes from ssirium and taekkyon, I've seen those, taekwondo looks nothing like that, it looks like shotokan karate, because that was what the founder knew. But to make it sounds special they said that it was korea's national sport dating back thousands of years. It is called marketing. Every martial art is guilty of it to some extent, especially the chinese ones that are shrouded in myths.

    I think anybody can judge martial arts now, it is soon 2017, people can go on youtube and find lots and lots of videos to make up their own mind. I don't fear it at all, because when people come to me they see boxing with good form, they see kicks, they see takedowns, lots of good stuff and they can judge if they wanna learn that for themselves.

    And I have to repeat, for me to put on that belt is no different than putting on a santa claus costume for christmas. They want the martial arts magic, so they believe in belts, I don't believe in belts. It is a marketing trick, belts have always been a marketing trick. You're not paying for the belt, you're paying for the master to give you the belt. If my former karate or taekwondo master fought a MMA guy they would lose, even if they guy had less experience, because he has better experinece. He can do stuff to them that they don't even know how to defend. I could beat them. Do people who only train taekwondo know how to break or pass guard? Do they know how to work the clinch? Do they even know how to box? Do they know how to defend a triangle? Of course not. They do taekwondo. But I admired those people and it helped me train.

    I think this entire conversation is just silly. I don't want you to approve of me, I'm an adult man, I am disillusioned from the martial arts magic. I just love teaching, I want to discuss sparring exercises, how other people in my position do things. Share experiences with work etc. I like my job.
     
  17. Dan93

    Dan93 Valued Member

    You don't have the qualifications or the experience to back it up. If I was looking at a TMA I would look at the qualifications of the trainer, their pedigree and how long they have been teaching, If I am looking at a sport biased art i.e. Kickboxing I would be looking at their fight record in addition to their training background.

    Assuming your trolling. If not got a link to your training?
     
  18. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    Post videos or jog on
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2016
  19. GoldDan

    GoldDan Banned Banned

    If Bruce Lee wasn't a master, yet founded his own martial art, marketed it and you actually teach and practise it, then you shouldn't have a problem with other people doing the same.

    You know nothing of my skill level. I've done martial arts since I was in elementary. You're just assuming. You need to calm yourself down, the way you're typing now is very wierd, you seem like you have some intense emotional reaction. You need to relax and think rationally about this.

    How many of the martial arts that people consider traditional were founded in the mid nintees? How many of them are marketed by lies and exageration? They are being marketed, JKD is famous because Bruce Lee is famous. The same goes for Wing Chun, look at the Ip Man movies with Donnie Yen and compare it with the actual events, the movie is a fabrication, the guy did not fight ten black belts from the japanese army simultaniously and win.

    By the way, since we are talking about the belt system. It is also a very new invention. But you can find people who say that it is from the samurai wearing white riding out to battle, to symbolize they were ready to die, then the blood on their clothes coagulated and turned black. And then we have all the techniques taught that doesn't work, like the punches and blocks from various kata that are being emphasised heavily for people to earn their belts. They have to learn pure garbage to earn these belts people here defend the legitimacy of.

    It is what it is. I am among the better people, because I give them the magic of traditional martial arts, without teaching them pointless stuff that doesn't work. While other places have people do long complicated interprative dance moves that supposedly will teach them how to defend against attacks from all four directions.

    I actually took what Bruce Lee, The Gracies and MMA taught us to heart.
     
  20. GoldDan

    GoldDan Banned Banned

    In all honesty, Hannibal is not so stupid that he doesn't understand that nobody would want to post a video after getting such hostility right of the bat. Hannibal started it, I finished it. The guy basicly fell apart when attacking me for being to young, when the founder of his martial art was even younger.

    And in all honesty, nobody is so stupid that they wouldn't know that people never post a video after getting this kind of treatment, This guy was accusing me of all sorts of things, this guy is a nasty, what a nasty nasty guy!
     

Share This Page