r.severe said:
With this statement you have made as well as others
It should also be said just because they have a license or a membership to any organization doesnt mean anything in regards to knowledge of the ryu-ha, technique ability of the ryu-ha, fighting ability with the ryu-ha, training know how in the methodology of the ryu-ha, or just plain ability to fight their way out of a wet paper bag with a knife.
The above seems a bit off topic. But it may indeed have some relevence to the subject at hand.
If being a member of the Bujinkan does not guarentee knowledge of the contents of the Bujinkan, then just how little can we expect from people that are not members at all? Or those who are/were, but only the bare minimum to qualify?
There is something lacking in people like Rod and other ex-members of the Bujinkan that still try to teach the techniques. It is commitment and an honest drive to perfection. If you are going to do something,
teach something, then the people that I respect never sit on their laurals and be satisfied with what they have achieved. They are always out there trying to gain new insights and lessons from those that know more than they. You can show up to someone like Bill Atkins every chance you get to learn from his wealth of experience. Atkins does not have many people who are suprior to him in America, so he comes to Japan as often as he can.
Atkins is good, damn good. But he still takes every chance he gets to learn from the one man whom no one else is better at the Bujinkan- Hatsumi.
I can think of a certain ex Bujinkan member who claims to be good, but really does not seem to have even a bare minimum of knowledge of the art IMO. When Hatsumi trained in his country, he would not go. He proclaimed that he was teaching more realistic stuff that Hatsumi, etc. But despite trying to post on certain sites talking about Bujinkan, etc, he never took the time to train in Japan for years. Then he failed to renew his membership after a funny little incident. I can probably find the documents posted on the internet in a short while. Hatsumi has said that the bad teachers do not need to be tossed out because they all go away on their own. I don't think this is because of anything mystical. I think it is because the bad teachers are more interested in teaching and being known as a macho sensei than they are in taming their ego long enough to learn. So they don't train with Hatsumi or anyone else who knows better than them.
This is what I see in Rod. I do not see a great commitment to learn- only to be seen as a teacher. If he really wanted to follow what Hatsumi teaches he would start by losing some weight. I heard one Japanese teacher comment about someone, "Well, you can't expect anyone that big to have good taijutsu."
And why should we believe Rod or other people who have been caught in lies (or those that follow them) that he is knowledgeable or combat effective? Unless there is proof in the form of a police report, etc, then I am not willing to trust the word of a proven liar or those that follow him. Trust is important. And those that make strange claims like Rod and have been caught in falsehoods should not be trusted. Especially when they show patterns of behavior for doing the bare minimum to gain recognition.
