United Studios of Self Defense, school of Shaolin Chu'an Fa Kempo run by Mr. Matera and Mr. Demasco. From what I have seen, this is the fastest growing chain in California. I don't want to start a war, but what do the members of MAP think of this school? Anyone else studied there? How does it compare to American Kempo? I have found that MAP posters are generally polite, tactful, and knowledgeable. It is for this reason that I post what could otherwise result in a flame war. May you achieve Satori
The original McDonalds had great hamburgers. As a chain grows quality slips. Some kind of law of nature. The USSD came right out of Villari's organization. Villari came from Cerio. Those men were great Martial Artists. Demasco is chicken nuggets. I've seen deMasco in action, on many videos. Not impressed. He's better than me, sure, but he isn't half what he should be, as 10th dan. Give me a year ior two and I won't even be able to say that (I hope). The founder of my style got his first training there, many years ago, in California. So our style is similar. I've spent more than afew hours wathcing videos they produced and comparing to our techniques. Some of their stuff is like "HUH???" But our founder left them a long time ago, went to Cerio and Angel to learn more and better. Maybe that explains the bad atitude demasco had with our group in Florida last year. I wasn't there but they thought he was gonna sic his bodyguard on one of our AIs. Why would a 10th dan bring a bodyguard to a MA convention? Why would a 10th dan try to itimidate a 5th kyu like that? low class... personal anecdote: I was in Colorado for a week and printed out a coupon from the area USSD school for a free lesson, thinking that would help pass the time away from home. I went in to the school one day, they were busy with classes and told me when to come back. No prob... I came back, told her (the owner) what was up (visiting town), and she refused to honor the coupon because there was nothing in it for her. Take what you will from that. Another: I was doing some research into my founder's past, trying to contact his first instructor at USSD (writing a bio piece for website). I emailed the USSD national HQ asking if they had any contact info for him. I got a reply from the USSD VP telling me they "knew what I was up to" and that they wouldn't help me. I don't think he meant he knew I was writing a bio of my instructor. I told him that much. Take what you will from that. (I also emailed the regional head and he wrote me back very politely and said he had lost touch with the guy and was very nice. Take what you will from that, too) There is a plaque honoring demasco at the shaolin temple. What does that say about the power of money in China? Take what you will from that. I'm sure there are USSD schools run by people who are not money-grubbing welchers or 12-month black belts or paranoid psychos. I'm sure there are thousands of students at USSD who are dedicated and honest and work hard to overcome the quality of their instruction. But I have never seen anyone from a USSD program, live or on video, who wasn't stiff, clumsy, and over-confident. -David
When I was there it was about 2years to black belt. I felt like they where trying to grow to fast and push people to black belt fast. The style I thought was ok. It seems to be more flashy then realistic. Most of the forms pinon 1-5 and katas 1-5 are shotokan forms,pinon 2 nick cerio made up. 2man fist set are ed parker forms. The DMs are kempo combos not shaolin DMs. I beleave jkd is more practical and is a far beeter style. In their manuel they said they came from nick cerio thats not completliy true charles mattera got 1-7thdegree black belt from master FRED VILLARI. Mattera used to be a district manager for villaris till 1988 when left villaris and took afew of villaris 1st and 2nd dans he opened about 40 schools in california. Not many high level instructors went with mattera he only has one 8th degree FRED VILLARI HAS 8 of them and one 9th degree. I heard mattera sent letters to all the 200 villari instructors schools and asked them to come with him, they probably didnt want to go with him because alot of the high level instructors work out with mattera and probably didnt want to work and get rank from him . just my opinion.
I think the quality depended entirely on the individual instructor. I have trained at a couple of USSDs, one I would not go back to and one had the best teacher (judging by student quality )that I have ever seen.
reply.. everyone has their own version of karate , Villari's jst seems to be more "machoized". In his case, from my perspective it is about money. He offers a home study system where you can quickly earn a real life black belt. All in all its a false sense of security. If you want your blackbelt that bad, save yourself the 170.00 + and the 60.00 per belt testing fees he charges, and run down to ur local martial arts supply shop and buy one for 3.99. Studying a true martial art that takes time and years to learn can be something beautiful. Taking a phony race course to a black belt, is something sleezy. Now I hope, u guys dont hold any grudges for what I have said, because I have never seen Villaris school in person, but have seen his clips. Although he has inspired me to create my own art someday. I think ill call it. iron-kenpoguy-ji-itsu.
Talk bout a McDojo..this is worst..i've seen so many in my area..and i was looking at some when i was looking around at dojos..and what i saw was nothing compared to many other smaller schools.. i mean they are way too expensive and u pay for every single test u get..and i didn't really like the style..i went in with an open mind, but when i walked out of there i knew that this school wouldn't teach me anything that i couldn't have learned in a Martial ARts for Dummies books...i looked at two USSD schools, and they were about the same probably because they weren't that far from each other. i don't think all USSD schools are like this..just wish these two weren't give USSD such a bad name, because it seems to be growing much faster then they can manage.... DJ Hunny
Yeah the style is really bastardized and really exspansive($175 a month for a year contract) USSD claims their from nick cerio but are really from FRED VILLARI. They should just acknowledge where they came from and lower their prices. Just my opinion.
Where do you think Villari came from??? Cerio. But, Cerio DID go and promote Mattera to some higher dan rank in 93 or 92 I think it was.. so now they claim Cerio. That's a common trick, to claim a lineage based on one promotion from somebody you never spent much time with. Happens all the time. I wonder who Mattera and DeMasco were under as they came up through the kyu ranks... I bet it is somebody none of us ever heard of.
Your right villari did come from cerio my point was that the style has been changed from cerio and each instructor has but his own spin in the techniques and know one knews where the after black belt forms and kempos and combos came from(they probably made them up). Cerio promoted mattera to 8th in 1990 he gave him another 8th in 1993 at a clinic he never promoted him to 9th. You can look on the USSD wibe site and download the nick cerios state of the arts, where it will tell you how nick cerio gave mattera another 8th dan not 9th. I think ussd is a mcdojo and your headmaster was smart enough to realize this and open his own chain of dojos and train with different masters and not just one selfpromoting master. Just my opinion
I don’t know anything about it at all. The name seems amusing to me though. Shaolin Chu'an Fa Kempo? Seeing that Chuan fa and Kempo are just the Chinese and Japanese pronunciations of the same kanji and mean the same thing, it would look very strange written in Chinese or Japanese, and doesn’t really make much sense in English either, Shaolin fist method fist method.
Apparently the one good USSD school I had found was the one good school. Any way that instructor is gone so can any one point out a good kempo school in the Los Angeles area.
It really is a shame how expensive and over rated these schools are. I honestly think that Villari Kempo is an interesting, fun martial art. But it isn't interesting enough to pay over $150 a month. Too bad, really. May you achieve Satori
What part of Los Angeles?? Im sure there must be a lot, i live in Long Beach, not far...maybe i can think of some or send some links...
If I lived in LA I would study with Ron Chapel and his "SubLevel 4 Kenpo". This is a variety of American Kenpo that Prof. Chapel describes as "the Kenpo that Ed Parker himself was doing" and not the same as the "motion based kenpo" that was widely spread and is still taught the world over. You can reach him at "r c h a p e l @ e a r t h l i n k .net" (But remove all of those spaces). There area number of senior American Kenpo masters in your area, you lucky SOB LOL!!! Choose carefully
These aren’t American Kempo systems, but they may be of interest to you. http://www.southbay-shorinjikempo.org/ and http://shorinji.caltech.edu/people.htm .
Master Herioan is in that area. He runs one of the few Villari schools left on the West coast. If he's within a reasonable distance from you, I'd recommend going and checking out his school. He's an excellent instructor. Here's the contact information for his school: 3601 Oceanview Blvd. Glendale, 91208 (818) 957-7544 Good luck!
