UK - BAMA / Bushido / Pete Delane?

Hi, I'm new to this forum. I've done a bit of searching on here and the internet in general and wondered if anybody has any up to date info about BAMA / Pete Delane Academy?

I don't seem to be able to find any recent info. Most stuff I've seen on forums is a couple of years or so old.

Anyone got any recent info on them?

Cheers

 

they good sir are as bull as bull can be, they claim great secrets, their master has a wrongly translated his own name which is korean and japanese, they offer obscure arts with no lineage such as Aikido-te and they have made up schools of the sword. the karate style is not specified to its origins and they forbid any practice of other martial arts when with them, the lessons are over priced, you have to listen to mr delane talk on a tape for 15 minutes before you start and he spouts all this new age samurai rubbish and then you begin learning your uber secret pretend karate. its utter rubbish and the organisation is run by a nutter who calls his black belts retainers.

 

It will probably be useful if I expand upon my post to give you my reasons for starting this topic up.

I was introduced to the BAMA many years ago. After a few introductory sessions I joined them. I had no experience of MA at that time and it was the first place I went to to be honest. We are going back to around 1992 (ish?).
At that time the fees were about £2 a session if I remember correctly and were conducted in a class situation. There was also an option to take lessons on a private basis. I couldn't afford it as I was a student so I stuck to the classes.

Some time after I joined (maybe a year or so) the club went to a solely private tutor system with 1 hour lessons at £15 each.
My intructor was very good and gave me the lessons for a greatly reduced rate so I could continue but he was eventually told he could no longer do this.

Anyway, to cut a long story short I was there around 5 years in the end and more changes were made until I decided to leave as I had a gut feeling that things were not always "right". This meant I made the difficult decision to leave. There are many reasons but I won't bore you with them here.

I was put off MA for a while after that. However, I've wanted to get back into MA. I didn't feel I could go straight back to BAMA and thought I'd find out a bit more about where they are now. This is made alot easier these days with the internet without which I wouldn't have found a few veery interesting posts about BAMA. it seems others have concerns. I felt the club was going down a pyramid selling route and I've seen this concern expressed by others.

Can anyone suggest a good place to get back into the MA world in the Nottingham UK area?
I'm now 40 and not quite as agile as I once was so this may dictate which style is the best option.
I'm really coming at this with a clean slate and so any constructive help would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks.

Cheers.

 

Off the top of my head re karate, in/around Nottingham you have some good dojo, inc

Tomiyama Sensei, Kofukan ****o Ryu

Trimble Sensei, excellent traditional Shotokan

Vince Morris Sensei's group, Shotokan with a difference !

Simon Oliver Sensei, Shotokan with a difference!

 

Hi Jim, many thanks for the pointers. Greatly appreciated.

 

Dont be taken in by them, £20 a lesson!! which is OK for 1 on 1 tuition but once youy get past the first couple of grading the class increases to about dozen in a class (nice £240 per hour for the club) then they start trying to fill your head with ****, like master Chuzans ability to beat anyone without touching them. Complete Bullshido

 

there advertising on here now too, check out their web site:

http://www.bushido.me.uk

 

I was an instructor in the Bushido Academy of Martial Arts until recent events led to my decision to leave. In fact a very high volume of instructors and students have recently left. This is due to new information coming to light on the workings and intentions of this organisation. The fears of many were unfortunately realised. The martial art is just a hook to get your money. It actually becomes a little more sinister as you grade through the ranks to beyond black belt and enter the inner circle, then it becomes time and money, all through clever manipulation.

The School is run by a man called Pete Delane, who claims to have special knowledge from a dead Master. He teachers a cleverly developed Zen, to keep the students confused and paying for more lessons.

My sincere advice is to walk away very quickly. Don’t get involved and if know someone involved get them out. The School is run like a Cult. All outside information is attacked, all styles attacked, and the senior grades worship Pete Delane, who calls himself Master Chusan.

If you want more information on this see XBAMA website, they are openly discussing the issue as more students realise the truth and leave.

Hopefully this organisation will be shut down

 

^^^^Hint hint!^^^^

 

Hello everyone

When I went to the "academy" the senior teacher took calls on his mobile telephone from prospective clients while on the mat supposedly teaching me. I shared the mat with some twelve-foot lengths of timber, sawdust, some casings for what looked like air-conditioning, various tools, screws and other fixings. It was dangerous.

I went to learn iaido specifically because of an inflammatory condition of my wrists, telling him I had tried aikido and my joints had not been able to tolerate it. During lesson two, because I had scratched my nose for a second time "without awareness", the teacher said "I can see I'm going to have to start giving you press-ups." He meant that each time I scratched my nose or otherwise made myself comfortable "without awareness", he would call on me to do press-ups as punishment so that my concentration would be enhanced.

Don't go there.

If you pay more than a dojo that is not commercial, you expect exceptional service. His taking calls while on the mat was profoundly disrespectful, and I had paid him £15.00 for an hour of personal tuition.

He loaned me the club sword. Its handle-wrapping was unravelled. Dangerous, disrespectful, and would undermine the student's ability to learn. The grip in iaido is quite delicate, and an unravelled wrapping makes it impossible to learn the grip.

During the first lesson, he told me I was waving the sword up and down as I made a slow horizontal cut. He demonstrated his own slow horizontal cut, drawing my attention to how his sword moved unwaveringly. In fact his sword was waving up and down as much as mine!

I observed "aikido te" being taught. It was completely unlike aikido, and looked more akin to the unarmed combat taught in the army. To borrow the name of another discipline in order to give the impression one is teaching the art is dishonourable.

The organisation practises a range of psychological techniques to induct students into believing the teachers have special abilities, and to accept authoritarian practices. The authoritarian behaviour of the teacher serves his need to have his self-esteem artificially bolstered, and merely disrespects the students. I'm afraid it looked to me like he got them in young and indoctrinated them, and all in the name of profit.

I hope this helps.

 

Do these guys teach kids - that would be really, really worrying if they do.

 

Hello Paul

I don't think at this particular branch he teaches kids. He did, however treat everyone as though they were children. His existing students were required to line up outside his office, in a particular position, until he finished whatever business he had in there, before training started. The lobby was decorated in a mock-Japanese style, so I imagine he was running a fantasy that he lives in Japan under the shogunate.
Anyone else aware of other branches of this franchise where kids are taught?

Respectfully


Peter

 

this place sounds interesting... funny, but interesting

 

Just found this:

http://www.seishindojo.co.uk/BAMA.html

 

Hello Super Gario and Fusen

It would be nice to think that this set-up is quirky and odd, but harmless. I don't think, though that it is harmless. I fear for the (quite young) students lined up waiting for training to begin. It was odd that they were effectively forbidden to socialise before training. Normally, students talk as they arrive, while they change, and before going onto the mat. At the branch of the franchise I went to, that was discouraged.

Fusen, the link you give leads to some very enlightening comments about what Murray Bruton found over decades of belonging to BAMA. Now I understand more about why students had to stand in the lobby in silence like soldiers while they waited to go onto the mat, and why students are punished for lack of alertness.

I would urge everyone visiting this discussion to read Murray Bruton's material (see post by Fusen, above). I would though take issue with Murray over one thing. He says the training is good stuff, and he left for other reasons. Something called "aikido te" (which is the invention of BAMA) is taught. It is not a version of aikido but a type of self-defence more akin to Western types. The sword teaching is not a recognised style, and the teacher mispronounced "iaido", one name for sword arts. Nobody learning iaido to a level good enough to teach could fail to have heard the correct pronunciation a thousand times. When I asked if they taught jo, the teacher told me they don't teach "jo bo." In other words, he thought a jo is a type of bo! (for those of you not familiar with these weapons, a jo is a staff that comes up to your arm-pit while a bo is a staff about man-height). Anyone familiar with any type of aikido would know what a jo is, and that it is not a type of bo. Remember also they loaned me a club sword whose hilt-wrapping was hanging off, which made it impossible to learn the grip, and is dangerous. Part of martial arts training is to do with respect, and the saw-dust, timber etc on the floor, teacher answering mobile calls on the mat and hilt-wrapping hanging off is hardly a good example by which to learn it (I think of the younger students, especially).

Respectfully

Peter

 

For clarification on this organisation and Pete Delane, see the link below.

It's a letter from the former No2 who left about a year ago.

The Bushido Academy of Martial Arts (BAMA) cult and it’s leader
http://www.bushido.me.uk/

 

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