Man lol, those guys at bullshido are relentless haha

Man I did a quick search of the school I attend on bullshido and man they were just picking it apart, they had a field day. Calling it a variety of names, mainly a McDojo. That kind of hurt, but I can see where they're coming from. If only I knew which school they associated these claims with. It could have been the San Leandro, Castro Valley, or some others. The one in Davis that was mentioned was one that was headed by my Instructor right now. It really is unfortunate that there are some accusations of us being McDojos. I know there were some policy differences between the schools. I'm not so sure back then. They weren't pulling any punches, haha. Though the "family" style thing, I do believe that he was taught by his grandfather, and he claimed so, but I doubt it was only a family style. I think it was more that his grandfather taught him Senkotiros just like how one of us would teach our children the style we know, or at least some basics so they get their feet wet. Though Punisher does use the word McDojo as something that can fit for everybody 8 - 80, which is pretty open usage, and can fit for many things.

I understand where they are coming from and respect their opinions. These opened my eyes a little bit, but that is very sketchy use of the word fun for a Pallen School. Of course there can be a little fun and joking around because if a student or person isn't really happy, or atleast enjoying what they're doing, they won't really learn properly and put a 110%, they would just put minimum effort. Just using such excessive use of the word "fun" makes it sound like to is all fun and games, which isn't an accurate depiction, but meh. Haha I stumbled upon the thread because Bullshido is infamous for picking apart schools and I was just curious if they did anything on it.


Anybody's school been on the other side of bullshido? Just wondering? It is quite humbling, they do their job well

 

Poor GoldShifter.

Young Noob, please reread MAP's policy on profanity. You will be held to it if you intend to stay.

 

LOL!

 

GoldShifter,

I have no idea whether either of the two commercial schools I've attended are discussed on Bullshido. Don't care, honestly. They very well could be. And one of them actually probably deserves to be. But that's irrelevant.

I personally strongly dislike the term "McDojo." Because it's been co-opted to the point that its meaning is now simply "a school whose priorities don't match up with ours."

That creates a wide scale. On one end are a set of teaching and business practices that I completely agree are a problem. On the other end of that spectrum, however, are schools that have simply made different decisions from the folks at Bullsido and similar forums. Your school probably falls somewhere on that spectrum. But that doesn't mean that there's a genuine problem for you.

The question is whether you're pleased with what you're getting from the training and what you're paying to get it. End of.

Don't let other people's opinions wreak havoc on your view of your own experiences.

 

Do you have links to the threads where they discuss your school?

 

That is so important, that I felt it needed to be put down again! Many, many martial artists are quick to put down anything that's different from what they do. It's a perfectly human desire to be included in a group, and commercial dojos make a pretty easy target.

While it is undoubtedly true that a great many of the corner "karate" studios don't teach the best self-defense tactics, even though they claim to, they still fill a need or they wouldn't still be open. I've personally known several people that have died because they had no physical activities. I've never even heard of anyone dying because their self defense abilities weren't all they thought they were.

 

I agree with the others ^^ If you get what you seek out of your school/club/dojo/whatever, it's right for you. You may have to wade through a lot of things to find what you're looking for.

 

I will say that sometimes we don't have the knowledge or objectivity to properly evaluate whether we're getting what we need or paid for. So there's a place for outside influence. The problem is that people tend to judge your school based on what THEY want. Without taking the extra (and all-important) step of working out what YOU want.

 

Bullshido posters tend to have 'any school but mine' is a McDojo mindset, I wouldn't worry about it much. They have their opinions, you have yours...

 

what were they saying about it?

 

I like bullshido a lot actually. I think their position of skepticism and scrutiny of martial arts/artists is a good one. Years and years ago I trained at a school that did not train alive. I don't want to provide too many details because I still respect the people there quite a bit, but I didn't learn very much that was practical.

I started lurking on Bullshido a lot, reading the arguments about alive training, against one punch knockouts, against kata, etc., etc. Well, it ****ed me off pretty bad, until I realized that they were right, my training was pretty useless.

Once I realized that, I mean, it's kind of like training in bad faith - it's hard to really care about techniques when you realize how impractical they are or how abstracted your training methods are. I guess I'd draw similarities to performing a religious ritual while secretly thinking "bullshido" the whole time.

If nothing else, I've got bullshido to thank for getting me into BJJ, MMA and boxing (although I've only really stuck with BJJ and have little to no striking ability to speak of).

 

Man, if I could count the many hours spent a McDojos, I should get a huge refund or tax break

I've been to McDojos, and there are some qualities on the surface. The types I dislike are the "inflated ego, fabricated higher credentials" boisterous instructors leading certain few schools and alienating students.

 

Huh, oh they were just talking about our Grandmaster and saying that he is one of those instant grandmasters, and also that there was I guess this demo that was happening at six flags. And I guess when this guy was reading some kinda banner or poster thing, it had excessive use of the word fun. It wasn't really them going into a school, I guess it was just first impressions o.o I took it with a grain of salt because they didn't go into an actual school, though it was humbling to say the least LOL

 

Can someone please tell me where in this post I used any profanity? Mod's off the rocker I think...

 

The only problem is they like to generalize thing too much. If you train CMA, they will assume that you are either a dancer, a Chi person, or a MA for health guy. There was a discussion about a good friend of mine who trains CMA. Until someone mentioned that he had taught an anti-terriorist school, people finally stopped question about his combat ability. One guy over there knows my friend very much. He said, "This guy will not only kill you, he will also kill your family and your dog." They just like that kind of macho image in that forum.

 

Im not a fan.

 

Bullshido has a traditional forums section, and occasionally I have read some pretty interesting stuff there. I think there is some good information to be had from the site, it's a resource like any other. I think if I was studying BJJ, MMA I would be able to get a lot more from it.

Many years ago I used to read the rec.martial-arts usenet newsgroup, and it was very similar in tone and content to Bullshido. Occasionally there would be a really great post, that made up for the noise.

What is interesting to me, is even with the bias against CMA you see there, there are some pretty frequent posters there with a CMA background that still seem to be involved in it, at least in some way - even though they have somewhat moved on to other things. It's really interesting to me to read their take on things.

To the OP - if you find value in what you are doing - don't let someone's offhand observation of a one off event your school mess with your mojo.

That said - some of their school reviews ARE funny.

 

All I can say is know want you want out of training.
If you want to achieve understanding of the culture or history, you need to train at an honest school with people who create the environment you're seeking insight into. This is not bowing and reciting school tenets. By and large this comes from sweating, leaving your comfort zone and constant, honest self criticism. Which is why 'martial arts' schools that produce people who can't navigate violence of any sort are generally regarded as deceptive at best and group mental masturbation at worst.

I mean sure, if you just enjoy the poses and yelling and outfits, knock yourself out. But don't tell me you're learning to fight or improving yourself as a person or understanding the warrior culture of a certain group or period if you're not progressing in and coming to understand the medium (navigation of violence) these peripheral caricature pieces were developed from.

 

I think people need to remember that the criteria for Bullshido reviews were designed with a particular kind of training in mind. The fact that a Bullshido member reviews a club badly doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad club; it means it's not the kind of club that the Bullshido review criteria are intended to look for.

I've been at Bullshido for a few weeks now, and though I am at the moment exclusively and aikido guy, they've been nothing but nice to me. They don't hate stylized, traditional martial arts; they hate the delusions and lies prevalent among the practitioners of those arts. If you're not spewing nonsense, they will be nothing but respectful, no matter what your art is.

 

I have your original post archived. Either you were trying to get something past the filters or your spelling needs work. You put two "t"s and no "f"s in the username "Goldshifter."

Take a minute to work it out. Then let me know which one of us is off our rocker.