Hey everyone, I'm pretty new to this forum, I just made this account,after reading through some of the posts, a few minutes ago. I'm having this conflict with what type of martial art I should take. I've been taking Tang Soo Doo for about 7 months,and i'm exceling in it,or so my Master says,A Korean martial art. Nice self defense,even better exercise, discipline... discipline.. full of that. But it seems like it's based more on discipline as in 'yes, sir no sir' ,no contact sparring, which they say is a higher discipline,but i'm afraid if I keep training with no contact, I won't be able to go through with any strike, and when I do take a punch that i'll just freeze. I don't think it's practical enough for me. Another choice is Choy li fut kung-fu. If any of you know much about Choy li fut, it's based around Shaolin kung fu. And it's also cheaper than Tang Soo Do. It seems to be more practical than Tang Soo Do, street wise..... But i won't know until I try it out.... Anyway...
Sifu Lamar you're in Birmingham? I'm in florence! Small world after all.
My parents used to live in Tuscumbia and I visited them there often! You should come down to Birmingham for one of my monthly seminars when you get the chance. I think you would really enjoy what we do! I hope to meet you sometime in the near future!
"HARDCORE STREET COMBAT: no pajamas, no barefoot kata, no ceremonial bowing; just no-nonsense applied science for stopping a violent encounter quickly and decisively."
Thats easy, Just go to a NYC Nightclub and talk to someone's girlfriend...They will teach you all out no nonsense combat.
PS- I wish I had the honor and opportunity that Sifu just presented you, at the very least I would have given him a humble thank you for even taking the time to respond.
This message has been edited by MusicDo on Mar 27, 2004 1:22 PM
Hey Mike, Most of the time I sense Sarcasm in your posts....
Normally I ignore them but this time I'd like to know what is your motivation ?
Why do you deem sarcasm and negativity as your primary tools of stating your opinion, have you nothing positive left to say...or see nothing positive ?
I am directing this right at you, because you have been trailing my posts with negative comments, I know your a smart guy...but many of your posts deny that.
Lets talk bro, whats happenin, why the sour face ?
I think I can fill this one in for Mike, of course correct me if I'm wrong Mike.
Many people here seem to think of Lamar as a God and the devine authority on this forum (no offense Lamar). The fact is, he's just a man, and a practitioner of Martial Arts like the rest of us. He's just well established and experienced (there are others as experienced as him as well, even on this forum). If it was any other person who made that post you wouldn't of bothered posting how Trevor should be thanking him Ricky, and you know it.
Lamar made an offer that Trevor didn't fancy, so Trevor should thank and bow down to him because Lamar typed up a little paragraph and waisted a few seconds of his precious time? Ricky, your making people sound like they are better then others.
A "thank you anyway" would have been polite, no doubt. But Trevor is not obliged to do so. And whether he wants to thank Lamar or not is up to him.
This message has been edited by Masamune_77 on Mar 28, 2004 2:53 PM
I do not understand why such a fuss is being made over this! Trevor posted:
__________________________________
"HARDCORE STREET COMBAT: no pajamas, no barefoot kata, no ceremonial bowing; just no-nonsense applied science for stopping a violent encounter quickly and decisively."
That's what I'm looking for!
__________________________________
That is a direct quote from my website about my teaching curriculum, which was actually paying me a compliment, not insulting me in any way! Notice after posting the quote from my site, he typed "That's what I'm looking for!" In other words, he is saying that I offer EXACTLY what he is after, which means that he will probably be visiting me in the near future!
Tell me honestly, would you have made that same response to Trevor if someone besides Lamar had posted it? Would you have taken the time to write:
"I wish I had the honor and opportunity that Sifu just presented you, at the very least I would have given him a humble thank you for even taking the time to respond."
I don't know about you, but to me that definitely sounds like you're glorifying him.
You say you don't want to get angry, but you do sound angry in your last post. Why? I was in no way trying to attack you. I was simply stating MY opinion.
actually none of my posts were ever directed at yours,
Infact I have to read back to see how and where exactly you took my post personally.
but now that you bring it up...
I will now make it more of a blanket statement,
there is alot of unneccesary arrogance displayed on the forum in general. Cant say I ever saw that in any of your posts, but if U want I'll check.
See what you made me do ? lol :p
Now that we have our discrepancies in synch, we can continue this debate.
Mike and Masamune - I don't think you guys understand Ricky very well. Ricky is a nice guy who is into the philosophical part of life. Unfortunately as Masamune says, he rarely shows gratitude from another martial artist unless your name has the word sifu in it. Lamar is a great guy but he has the word sifu in front of it. Unfortunatly Ron Prather is also a sifu so I had to wear my boots when Rick was posting a while back from all the brownnosing and a$$-kissing I had to hear from him about that too. No matter how much Ron would slam me verbally, Ricky would have a great excuse why it's ok that Ron should put me down cause I was inaccurately portraying myself cause I had the name "LenMaster". I rolled my eyes countless times to this and it got annoying. I couldn't defend myself cause Ricky would be saying how I should respect Ron for it cause he has been in martial arts for a long time and is a sifu now and should be respected. He is just weeding out the wanna be's. So Mike, that means it doesn't matter how good you are as a martial artist. You have that sifu title and you are set. But if you are not a sifu, god forbid you have a handle with the name "master" in it or "sifu" or "sensei", cause you will have no right to even post your ideas because you are innaccurately portraying yourself. That means you wouldn't be able to call yourself the Incredible Hulk or Spider-man either cause "everyone" would know you are out to fasely lead others into believing you are "REALLY" The Incredible Hulk or Spider-man. Ricky would just stand next to Ron like a dog and massage his feet while Ron tries to verbally shut you down. Well the truth is Ron was in it as long as I have (a little detail many people overlook). When I came up with a good idea or a good solution, Ricky would never publicly acknowledge my input either so don't take it personally. He's just another rank worshipper.
ALL WILL CRUMBLE UNDER MY WRATH. I AM THE ULTIMATE BEING. I AM MUAD'DIB, THE MAHDI! BLESSED WITH A MENTAT'S MIND, EQUIVILIENT TO TODAYS MOST ADVANCED COMPUTER'S. FULL MASTERY OF THE WIERDING WAY, WHICH IS THE COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF EVERY MUSCLE, NERVE AND VITAL ORGAN AND HOW TO USE THEM. THROUGH THIS I MAKE BRUCE LEE LOOK SLOW, HAVE A SIXTH SENSE THAT ALERTS ME OF DANGER, AND CAN USE "THE VOICE" TO CONTROL MY ENEMIES. I HAVE BEEN TRAINED IN FREMEN SURVIVAL AND STEALTH. I CONTROL ONE THOUSAND LEGIONS OF FEDAYKIN, MY PERSONAL DEATH COMMANDO'S. I AM THE KWISATZ HEIDERACH, I HAVE THE ABILITY TO SEE THROUGH THE FABRIC OF SPACE AND TIME. I MAY GLANCE INTO THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. ALL WHO OPPOSE ME WILL DIE! LASTLY, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, I CONTROL THE SPICE!! AND WHOEVER CONTROLS THE SPICE, CONTROLS THE UNIVERSE!
I AM OMEGA SUPREME! I WILL BURN YOUR BONES AND CRUSH YOUR SKULL. YOUR HATRED WILL BE YOUR ULTIMATE DESTRUCTION AS IT MAKE ME STRONGER YOU HYPOCRITE! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Masamune pretty much summed up the target and reason for my sarcasm. When Ricky said, "I wish I had the honor and opportunity that Sifu just presented you, at the very least I would have given him a humble thank you for even taking the time to respond." ...I rolled over in my grave because of the unabashed level of ass kissing.
When I think of my own instructor, Super Asskicker, I think of him as a friend and a mentor. We joke around, we crack on each other, we use first names, (as opposed to titles), and we even disagree about combat. What?!? Yeah, you heard me. We have differing opinions on certain things, and we debate each other freely. I make my point, he makes his, and we both learn.
There's a kind of "love" there, but I certainly don't worship him, and he'd probably call me out if I ever kissed his ass. He just doesn't want or need my praise- that's the kind of guy he is.
Contrastingly, when I hear people talking about what an "honor" and "privilege" it is to bask in the radiance of this person or that person, I immediately see a follower, a person who accepts and doesn't question for themselves, and this goes both ways.
That kind of one sided relationship is not beneficial for the teacher. Now, we're talking on a higher skill level here, so maybe what I'm saying doesn't apply, but, if you know enough to be credible, you should always question rather than accept, challenge instead of follow, ask instead of ass kiss.
If you DON'T know enough, well, then I guess you have no choice but to shut your mouth and swallow what you're fed. That's not an insult, Ricky, we all start knowing nothing.
(doesn't mean you have to smooch the chocolate starfish, though)
Lol...thats funny...because at no time was I bowing down or kissing ass.
Infact ..I've had several intense debates.
My point is, just because I show respect to another human being doesnt make me a worshipper.
Now ..back with Ron, I remember quite clear the argument, He was purposely pulling your chain, and you got defensive ..and I saw through this...I was not defending Ron Pulling your chain, but I saw what he was doing and how you were reacting ..and I found it humorous. He was simply askng you your real name ...and you were too scared to answer, then he was asking why you called yourself "MASTER" in your name. I remember that and still hold my stance, instead you just looked at me as if I was sharring in his arrogance, I wasn't ...I was trying to stop you from acting silly....Sorry!
I accept what you guys are saying because obviously you miss my point.
It would seem that a Grandmaster of any school can be found sweeping the floors and doing the job of a janitor, and anyone who walks into his school is treated with respect ...despite what their background is.
I really find it amazing, that you guys find this as bowing down. It should just be a common courtesy, and if you havent that courtesy...its best to stay quiet than spew defensive negativity.
Its amazing ...all claim to be great archers...but miss the point.
Humility and worship are 2 different things.
Trust me when I tell you I worship no man on this earth, but this is no excuse for arrogance.
continue your rants, they are false.
thats just my opinion, take it with a grain of salt.
Oh and yeah ..I know that it was my own mis understanding to that post that I responded to and Sifu Lamar made that clear to me.
But Im glad it came up, the truth is ..the arrogance annoys me....here were are. Im not here to clean anything up, I just made a call on it.
This message has been edited by MusicDo on Mar 29, 2004 4:38 PM This message has been edited by MusicDo on Mar 29, 2004 4:36 PM
"Now ..back with Ron, I remember quite clear the argument, He was purposely pulling your chain, and you got defensive ..and I saw through this...I was not defending Ron Pulling your chain, but I saw what he was doing and how you were reacting ..and I found it humorous. He was simply askng you your real name ...and you were too scared to answer, then he was asking why you called yourself "MASTER" in your name. I remember that and still hold my stance, instead you just looked at me as if I was sharring in his arrogance, I wasn't ...I was trying to stop you from acting silly....Sorry!"
Ricky - This is how me and Ron met:
I had seen tons of posts by this guy called "Jiyasa" and everyone was picking on him. But the one that layed it on the hardest was Ron Prather. Other people would throw digs in, but Ron's were the hardest on the kid. I found out later when I talked to Jiyasa why Ron was picking on him. Because Ron was getting picked on by somebody else and Jiyasa stepped in to tell the guy off and leave Ron alone. A few weeks after that, Ron started making fun of Jiyasa and issued challenges to him. He started calling him a fake.
I finally had enough interest to want to talk to Ron, as other posts that involved him started to pop up. It seemed Ron had someone new to argue with everytime something new was posted. I posted a thread asking for Ron to come to chat. Ricky was in chat at the time as well. Ron comes in and I say hi. We start talking about weight and you mentioned your weight which was overweight. Ron started ribbing on you saying "time to get on the treadmill fat boy". I defended you saying "Ron, that is not a polite thing to say to someone that is less fortunate than you". Ron goes "I am not paid to be polite". I started laughing and said "Ron, you sound like that karate instructor from Karate Kid (Mercy is for the weak! We do not train to be merficul here!). So Ron goes "WHAT???? F*CK YOU!!!! What is that supposed to mean"? I said "Ron, the way you said it made you come across like you have no compassion. Ron replied "YOU HAVE NO RESPECT!!! YOU COME IN HERE ASKING FOR MY ADVICE AND YOU SPIT IN MY FACE?" And I was like "uhhhhh no. I never asked you for advise. I posted a thread to meet you cause you are slamming Jiyasa and I want to know why? Ron then goes "Jiyasa is the biggest wanna be fake little keyboard martial artist! I would kill that kid"! Then he goes back to "You DID ASK ME FOR ADVICE"! I said "no I didn't". So he goes "OH YEAH???? WAIT HERE!!!" And he leaves. He comes back and says "oh...my bad. It was someone else". So I said "see?" And he goes "Hey Len, what is your real full name, address, city, state, zip, and name of your school?? I was like "Whoah!! STALKER!!!" Some strange guy on the internet wants all my personal information? I don't think so. So we went back and forth on this for a little bit and he said finally "WHAT??? YOU ARE A MARTIAL ARTIST THAT POSTS HERE AND YOU HAVE NO SCHOOL??? YOU ARE A PHONY!!! A FAKE! A FRAUD! I AM GOING TO TELL EVERYONE ON HERE NO TO LISTEN TO YOU! YOU HAVE JUST WASTED MY TIME"!!!!
Then he left the room and that started the whole me vs. Ron thing. Ricky sat there the whole time telling me Ron had every right to act that way cause he was a sifu and he call people out on bluffs and he should be respected for his ways. And that his way of dealing with people was humorous and the right way to go about things.
I told Descado about this not long after that in which he replied "That's the reason he hates you? What a dick that guy!" From that point on since that day, I and slew of others have had our run ins with him. Descado even issued a challenge to Ron in which Ron didn't post anything back but for some reason told me that Mike was just another keyboard warrior that wouldn't take up the challenge. Many of Inosanto and Vunak's students have had run ins with Ron and some even wanted to beat him up. Even Lamar feels apologetic for certifying him because even in his eyes, he admits Ron has a bad attitude and acts like a jerk. Everyone sees this. Except Ricky. It's just too bad Captain Peace, Love, and Philosophy himself can't see it. And this is supposedly in Ricky's eyes Ron pulling my chain. Since that day, everytime Ron would walk into chat, Ricky would jump on his lap and go for a carousel ride and ask Ron all kinds of questions like "gee Sifu, what do you think about this?" or "I really respect the fact that you did this..." or "Sifu Ron, will you tell me the best way to..." And everytime I would give an opinion contrary to Ricky's he would just say I should be open minded and give up my ego. And that I didn't understand. When Ron gave him advice that was contrary to what Ricky thought or believed, Ricky would fall to his knees and say "THANK YOU SIFU RON FOR SHOWING ME THE WAY!!! I APPRECIATE ALLLLLLLLL THAT YOU HAVE DONE FOR ME! MAY I PLEASE WASH YOUR FEET WITH MY HAIR AND RUB BODY OILS ALL OVER YOUR BACK!!" There was even a post made not too long after that in which Ron posted "Ricky, quit following me around like a dog!" LOL. Other people have not like Ron or posted other things and Ricky would always defend Ron. Ricky would defend Lamar. Ricky would defend Dan Inosanto. I like and respect Lamar and Dan but it's not like Ricky. Now everyone hopefully will see what others are talking about aside from even me about Ricky and how he worships titles. I and countless others have informative threads that we have posted here. Ricky's input is rarely seen showing appreciation to an individual by name other than a sifus. But what do you expect from someone who dropped out of AKA (A$$ kissers anonymous)?
This message has been edited by Lenmaster on Mar 29, 2004 6:50 PM
I didn't even take the time to read all that arguing. It's funny how people can make nothing into something. It's easier to forgive and to forget, we all make mistakes. He read my response wrong and misunderstood me. Not a bad thing, If you just look away and not make a big deal out of it everything would be great. I respect everyone here at the forum, and i'm not trying to insult anyone. It's just that you guys that are arguing have WAY to much time on your hands, you need to focus most of that on your martial arts training. If you did, you would excel rapidly and become better then you were before. Learn from your mistakes, what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. Mentally, Phyiscally, Spiritually.
