If you look at www.shaolinsecrets.com, a site run by a USSD instructor from SoCal states that the Abbot "adopted" them and gave them chinese names, the first time for Americans.
Okay, it looks like they got some extremely nice gifts, but its a USSD instructor who is making the characterization concerning their relationship as he attempts to sell product. I just found an article in Black Belt from March 2003, in which they are called Disciples, but is there anyone who can independantly confirm that they are the only such Westerners out there.
I beg to differ. Perhaps you have forgotten about Kwai Chang Caine, admitted to the temple in the early 1870s. he was half caucasian and half chinese, but his admission was controversial, as shown by this transcript:
No they're not. The are many others here's one for instance: http://www.russbo.com/main.html Also, this is from http://www.shaolin.com It's their response to FAQ #18: 18. I want to study at the Shaolin Temple in China. Can you give me more information? Unfortunately, the Shaolin temples were destroyed in the 1920's. Recently, the Chinese government decided to refurbish the temple at Honan. While martial arts are studied there today, this is a recent re-emergence into the arts. Our contacts who have visited the Honan Temple (1985, 1988, and 1999) report that what is taught is mostly Wushu and T'ai Chi Ch'uan. Most of our contacts who have visited the Temple believe it is more a trendy tourist point (and, yes, a good place to learn wu shu-but NOT kung fu) than a real effort to restore the arts outlawed by successive Chinese governments from 1901 until 1990. Jon Funk (Black Belt, March, 1996:21) has written a controversial article entitled "The Shaolin Temple Hoax." Because of the number of letters we receive about "the return of Shaolin Masters" to the tourist-dedicated, refurbished Honan Temple, we felt obliged to publicize Mr. Funk's laudatory effort. Our primary sources for this Web-Page are exiled Shaolin monks (or the diaries left behind by those who passed away in the 1970s), who assure us that Mr. Funk is right-on-the-mark about the complete absence of anything even remotely akin to bona fide Shaolin arts being taught at the Honan Temple today. Because so many of our letters are written by people who believe that the Temple is now offering genuine Shaolin arts (despite our protestations about "who do you think expelled/killed the old Shaolin in the early twentieth century?"), we quote a short, but important, part of Mr. Funk's article: "The Chinese government, it should be remembered, is communist, and doesn't want a religious group generating any ideas that don't conform to the party line." There is always going to be a gullible audience for "too-good-to-be-true" claimants. We are delighted that a source who is completely independent of our own, has come forward in such a prestigious and public forum as Black Belt magazine to substantiate our caveat. Although the Chinese government believes that the mere presence of martial arts instructors at the Honan temple lends them legitimacy, we find it as unlikely as the current attempt by the same government to countermand the Dalai Lama's choice for the reincarnated Panchen Lama. The last of the genuine Shaolin practitioners either fled the country or were killed during the civil wars of 1900-1931.
Oh I believe everything ussd tells me. They would never lie to me right? WRONG! They claim their from nick cerio,THATS A BIG FAT LIE! They are from GM fred villari. He claims they teach shaolin but all they teach is fred villari kempo. Charles mattera claims he ran fred villaris self defense centers. LIE Fred bagely was the president of villaris, mattera was just a district manager of california. If he ran villari's why doesn't mattera have any dojo's in boston where villari's started out at? Hey isn't sincerity one of ussd's principles?
It is to the best of my knowledge that Mattera took over west coast operations whereas Demasco took the East coast. Then they split up.
I would not train with USSD. Any company that lie's about where they came from and what art they teach should not be allowed to conduct business IMHO.
WOW, time for me to chime in. As a former student and assistant instructor I have to say, USSD is NOT about fighting. It's about collecting the money ( not in itself evil, we all have to mak money,, and if you can make a fortune on MA, go for it). However, everyone ALWAYS gets promoted, never have I seen someone fail a belt test. No matter how bad they were ( not their fault because most instruction was lacking), how many forms/techs they forgot or whatever, you show up you get a belt. Next, NO contact in sparring. We did at my school because it was me and my brother but everyone else was just point or very light continuous. Everything was learning a technique on a compliant partner and worst of all just doing it in the air. I actually triangle choked a black belt once(i was like a brown or green) and got yelled at the next day from another school owner. Rather than try and teach a defence to the triangle, it was banned along with other grappling, reason being, "its not what we do, wer'e kempo". In closing, I liked going there, only learned because me, my brother, and instructor/friend beat each other up, and if you want Kempo on LI, go to Ingargiola's. BTW, the USSD schools that became UMMA close down soon I hear.
BTW, I feel the main instructors were real deal, I would not mess with them. It's that they teach for the masses, they don't train you to be like they are. They all sparred and fought as far as I know.
Except I'm being polite. It will get worse the more cocky I get, I'm so glad wer'e done with them, you from the LI area or west coast?
"just point or very light" is not, believe it or not, the same as "NO contact". Check out this video from a school in my home town... they really do practice NO CONTACT sparring. This video may cause intense reaction when viewed and martial discretion is advised http://www.omahamartialarts.com/askj/testing/2006.04.01/ESONZASPAR.mov
MY EYES!!!! OK so very light contact for us, but a non-contact hit that was close enough could be scored with. Even the point sparring was not done much at all, once in a while. We had to spar after class when people left.
