Chicago Dojo Wars

[arnisador]

From the 1970 Black Belt article mentioned before:

JUDO TAKES TO THE AIR

By Mildred Carr

SEOUL, Korea - Each overseas flight of the Korean Airlines will have a judo expert on board as a precautionary step against hijackers or "other unruly passengers," an airlines spokesman announced. Thirteen highly skilled judoka have been assigned to serve as stewards on the international flights to Japan and Southeast Asia. This program was started as a result of the hijacking of a Korean turbo-prop plane by a North Korean spy. This is the first time an airline has officially initiated a martial arts program on its flights.

CHINESE MARTIAL ARTISTS CONVENE FOR CONFERENCE

By John T. McGee

NEW YORK CITY -Alan Lee and the Chinese Kung Fu-Wu Su ***'n were hosts to a group of masters in the Chinese fighting arts. The association, under Lee's direction, put on an exciting and highly informative demonstration. Afterwards, a conference was held in which the guests participated. The questions discussed included: "Should a ranking system similar to that used in karate be instituted in kung-fu?"; "Are diplomas necessary?"; and "Is the idea of a national kung-fu association tenable at the present time?"

 

[kenposcum]

From what I understand (me being the puppy that I am), the dojo wars were not just one isolated incident, but many throughout the late sixties and early seventies. I will hassle my instructor for more info and report back, tootsweet.
A caveat: any info I recieve will probably be of the strictly anecedotal variety, sorry.:asian:

 

[tonbo]

Truly a "bad-name" day for the martial arts, when this all took place.

Yeah, I know these kind of things happened. My head instructor's father is a survivor of the "old school" challenge days. I can see why people did it, but am still amazed at the levels to which it went.

Unbelievable.

Anyway, thanks for digging that info up!!

Peace--

 

[J-kid]

I was thinking SOMEONE should start a web page listing mcdojos. Alot has changed since the 70s we cant go around beating the crap out of every person who makes a Mcdojo. But we can worn people about them... Just a idea,, Your friend Judo-kid

 

[Aikikitty]

This is the first I every heard about the whole thing!!! GRRRRRR! The whole thing strongly reminds me of one of those bad dojos in the Karate Kid movies only 500 times worse! :angry: :flammad: :wah:

It's when something stupid like that happens and so everybody hears about it and many people think ALL martial art people are like that and they would NEVER allow there kid to even think about taking martial arts!!!!! :soapbox: :wah:

Robyn :wah: :waah: :vu:

 

[kenposcum]

Well, there are an awful lot of "McDojos" out there spewing an awful lot of crap, and they make an inordinate amount of money swindling people and telling them lies. I met a guy at Denny's a few years ago who had been studying for ten years and had a grand total of 36 degrees of black. "Uh-huh," I said, holding back my fury. The idea of going around to these schools and beating the ever-loving mess out of the charlatan instructors is not a new one("dojo arashi" in Japanese, "school storming") as they are literally taking food out of the mouths of "real" martial arts instructors. But that would be wrong, wouldn't it?
This is a dilemma that has stalked me for quite some time. I cannot stoop to their level and sell ranks, and lie about the practitioner's skill level. That is dishonorable. But I need to eat and live and date and stuff...and the evil ones will not stop their lies.
What do I do? I am very angry that these people are allowed to do this. A formal challenge would just bring the boys in blue, lawsuits, and probably a neat orange outfit and rent-free living. I suppose I could go to one of these schools incognito and show up the instructor and throw business cards everywhere...well, anybody got any ideas?

 

[Rainman]

Originally posted by kenposcum

Well, there are an awful lot of "McDojos" out there spewing an awful lot of crap, and they make an inordinate amount of money swindling people and telling them lies. I met a guy at Denny's a few years ago who had been studying for ten years and had a grand total of 36 degrees of black. "Uh-huh," I said, holding back my fury. The idea of going around to these schools and beating the ever-loving mess out of the charlatan instructors is not a new one("dojo arashi" in Japanese, "school storming") as they are literally taking food out of the mouths of "real" martial arts instructors. But that would be wrong, wouldn't it?
This is a dilemma that has stalked me for quite some time. I cannot stoop to their level and sell ranks, and lie about the practitioner's skill level. That is dishonorable. But I need to eat and live and date and stuff...and the evil ones will not stop their lies.
What do I do? I am very angry that these people are allowed to do this. A formal challenge would just bring the boys in blue, lawsuits, and probably a neat orange outfit and rent-free living. I suppose I could go to one of these schools incognito and show up the instructor and throw business cards everywhere...well, anybody got any ideas?

1. Yes- post their club names on forums like this one.
2. You can't challenge people like that anymore see #1
3. I feel your pain- I've actually tried to get on the mat with some of the people I know to be full of it-cost is usually 20.00. While I don't like these people actually giving them my money for anything really bugs me. And actually getting on the mat with the head guy/school owner is like a trying to find a needle in a haystack.

 

[kenposcum]

Well, okay, I know one chain in particular:
T-USA "martial arts" schools. In addition to teaching the form of Tae Kwon Do better described as Take Your Dough, they also claim to teach other arts, then, when the prospective student arrives, they "explain" to the person how Tae Kwon Do is the "same" or better. Smooth talking, hustling sales pitches, lies...the best was when they claimed to be teaching "kickboxing," and when the student came they'd just try to con them into takiing TKD, the explanation being, "it's the same!" Grrrrr...and when they move in, they undercut area martial arts schools by charging less than the established schools until the real schools are forced to close, and *surprise!* then their rates go up.
I don't know if we should start a McDojo thread or how this would work...moderators, any ideas?
:asian:

 

[Bob Hubbard]

McDojos were recently discussed here >
http://www.martialtalk.com/showthread.php?&threadid=3514

and a seach came up with a bunch of other links:
http://www.martialtalk.com/search.p...id=22033&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

Short version, theres legal considerations involved. If you wish to warn about a school that you've had a bad experience in, feel free to post about it in our 'bad budo' forum. If you can reference something tangable (police reports, news articles, etc) it helps set the credibility higher than the "a freind told me" posts that all too often crop up.

Definately spread the word, but do so in a way that doesn't bite ya.


It is often asked "Whats it take to get a black belt?"
My Reply is $3.50 + S/H.

"Whats it take to be a blackbelt?"
A lifetime of dedication, training and experience.

:asian: