Kuntow/Kuntaw instructor

[monkey]

i verify & acknolage that .Im wetzel line as you know & neither knew of him

 

[SilatFan]

Ok as far as i was told from the reeders family Savali-Sikes-Solomoney-Donzela never trained with reeders.Sikes did meet him briefly & Wetzel but was told not toclaim the art.The reeders line acording to his wife & Jerry Bradigan is not kuntao based nor has any in it.It is Tibetan TaiChi.Wetzel Had the Kuntao & any one not of wetzel & claimed it had short comeings.

Monkey,
If your going to say that people are lying about their training and martial history at least spell their names correctly.

If Marilyn stated that GGM Reeders line did not have any Kuntao in it then she is lying to you. Everyone from that era KNOWS that GGM taught and therefore knew Kuntao. One source of info might be the DeThouras brothers who mention him and his Kuntao knowledge. But I would believe that Marilyn herself did not know anything about the art and did in fact only learn the Tai Chi.

And as far as your statement that “Sikes did meet him briefly & Wetzel but was told not to claim the art.” Where do you get that from??? Marilyn again? How would she know if GM Sikes trained with GM Wetzel? I have heard, from two present day GM Wetzel instructors, that GM Sikes overstates the ranking he received from GM Wetzel but to deny that he trained at all with either is ridiculous.

 

[SilatFan]

Guy Savelli does not represent Master Reeders Liu Seong sytem of martial arts.

he makes outlandish claims of ridiculous psychic abilities, and has the gall to claim to have defeated GGM Reeders in combat.

feh,

he is a stain on the name of the art in America.

I have seen some of his video. It a an obscene parody of the Liu Seong system.

These are some of the men who actually trained under Master Reeders, with time, effort and achievement.

Art Sikes
Carl Spitale
Bob Servidio
Jerry Bradigan
Gary Galvin

there are others, but these men are already proclaimed students, known on the internet. i wont violate the privacy of others.

Liuseongsystem, out of curiosity, which one of these gentlemen is your teacher or maybe which of these men taught your teacher? I’d bet it is not Servideo or Bradigan.

 

[SilatFan]

Lert me first say I have never met Mr. Savelli and wouldn't know him if he walked past me. However I have seen the results of his teaching and it turned my stomach. 2 guys I came up through the kyu ranks with one went to black belt and one decided to go train with Savelli. Well the one who went with Savelli came back after about 3 years or so to visit and the other one who had gone to black belt and he were friends and used to love to spar each other. Well the black belt asked the other one to spar and the response was no I can't because he only did full contact now and he had learned how to kill. Well they ended up fighting full tilt and the black belt almost put Savelli's student in the hospital. It took the poor guy 45 minutes to get up off the floor and then it was only enough to literally crawl out of the room. Keep in mind they had the same about of training time and were only 1 rank apart.

Another one is the whole deal of him hitting his students with broom sticks and saying they have to devolop themselves to be able to take that kind of punishment. I have seen those demonstrations where there were tears coming out of the persons eyes. The person who got hit did it volunteerly and was an ex-navy seal so he was no slouch.

Mr. Savelli does not have a good reputation in this area and I would be hessitant at best to go train with him just going by what I have heard and seen.

Mr. Fisher,

I have couple of thoughts on your comments as someone who is a teacher and has trained with a number of MAs and specifically in this subset of Kuntao practitioners. First, I found your story funny – not because I don’t believe it - but because I've seen that sort of thing before.

Second, as a teacher I would hate to be judged by what one person who says he is a student does or how he performs. I think all teachers have had more then a few students who show up for a couple of classes, don’t attend class for a month to two, return for another short stay and then go on another long sabbatical (After repeating this cycle for a couple of years they still can’t understand why they don’t progress). But non the less when you talk to them they say they have been training for “3 years” because it sounds a lot better then “off and on for 3 years” (with emphasis on the off ).
I say this not because I couldn’t imagine Savelli not being able to train anyone into a killing machine (typed with sarcasm and a laugh) but only because I respect what I have seen at his school whenever I visited. M. Savelli is controversial, to say the least, the one thing I have not heard (nor seen) is that he and or his students are poor martial artists. I’ve visited his school a few times and came away respecting their skills.

Thirdly, maybe the “ex-navy seal …he was no slouch” would be another good indication of Savelli’s skill set.

Peace

 

[Brandon Fisher]

Good point. Like I said though hear say is one thing seeing something first hand is another. Thats why I won't make personal judgements until I see for myself but will pass on the hear say as hear say.

 

[liuseongsystem]

SilatFan,

my teacher is GM Sikes. I was/am his stepson. He raised me from the time i was about two or three until i was ten yrs. old. I also trained with Master Copeland for several years.


'Ok as far as i was told from the reeders family Savali-Sikes-Solomoney-Donzela never trained with reeders.Sikes did meet him briefly & Wetzel but was told not toclaim the art.The reeders line acording to his wife & Jerry Bradigan is not kuntao based nor has any in it.It is Tibetan TaiChi.Wetzel Had the Kuntao & any one not of wetzel & claimed it had short comeings.'

LOL

yea, that's why i was at Liu Seong's house so many times as a kid. ridiculous aint the word.

'met him briefly.'...LOL.

Kuntao....LOL

wow, this is getting stupid.


as far as goeroe wetzel goes, i dont know anything about my teacher's experience or rank. but why did he take him on t.v.?

 

[cleveland guy]

My personal experience with Guy Savelli:

I'm a Cleveland local and have studied many martial arts/philosophies over the past 20 years. I took a few lessons with Guy and can say this:

• Guy forgot the whole humility thing that goes hand in hand with the arts; he literally robbed money from my bank account on 3 different occasions - claiming he had the right to (i'd given him my account number to purchase tapes he makes students buy) since he'd given me such great gifts . . . ie the gifts of healing.
• I never saw him do anything other than raise his voice; however his students - and I've seen some great artists in my time - are incredible. Lying about Reeders or not, some of his guys, including his son, are true bad asses and yes, the whip they use is unique to them in their delivery and is devastating.

I am going to try kuntao under Sikes - as I'm fascinated by the system after exposure under Guy. But Guy is an ***#@@@ as a man; I hope he doesn't read this and kill me like those poor goats. In all, mixed reviews - freak of a man, but solid results in his students.

 

[vmijjg91]

I would like to add some information to the question of students of GM Reeders. Some of the first individuals to train from Master Reeders beginning around 1960 were the following:

Robert Servidio
Art Sikes
Harry Zimmer
Artis Simmons
Ed Carter

Of these individuals the longest to train and the one whom received the entire system from Master Reeders was Master Robert Servidio. Master Servidio passed on his knowledge to several individuals, the top student of his was Master Scott Young. I have had the honor of training with Master Servidio and Master Young. After 1965 Master Reeders stopped teaching pure Kun Tao. Guy Savelli started around 1964 as did Ed Seely and Ray Cunningham. After 1965 Master Reeders began teaching what he referred to as Tibetan Tai Chi.

My comments are not intended to disparage any individuals or discredit their claims. My intention is to state was has been relayed to me through my Kun Tao lineage.

 

[arnisador]

Tibetan Tai Chi.

There was a Tibetan Tai Chi school in Albuquerque but I never got a chance to check iyt out. What is it like?

 

[Iron Monkey]

Liuseongsystem, out of curiosity, which one of these gentlemen is your teacher or maybe which of these men taught your teacher? I’d bet it is not Servideo or Bradigan.

Sykes

 

[frankiefuller]

School in Albuquerque is pretty good. I dropped by there one time March 2006 I think and met this old black guy in front of the school and started talking to him. He didn't want to say much because he was worried somebody might put his pic up on the Internet or misuse the info if he talked about Kuntao. He was old, but didn't realize he was 72 and in great shape! He was going to not let me take a class but I told him I did some Kuntao with a local guy where I live who was a student of Bill Reeders and later a student of Ray Cunningham. He liked that and let me take a class for free for awhile. Let me say this: the conditioning was insane and warmup drills brutal. These two graying old ladies were in the class (maybe they're some of the instructors there), and I was 28 at the time I dropped by (I'm 29 now). I thought, hey I could keep up, I have several black belts in traditional Korean arts, nothing to it, and they're all old. Wrong. The training was brutal, unbelievable amount of conditioning, and the guy ended up letting me take a free class for awhile until throwing me out after over an hour (because I was doing a freebie class or something) but was nice and said here I gave you some stuff to do until you come back next time in town. Hey, he told me his name was Jameel and was a student of Art Sykes. Man, his hands were so fast that it was amazing. Alot of the backhand slap stuff, but I felt old with these guys and they seemed young and full of energy despite the age. They were all in better shape than me. Now I'm pretty humble and won't let age fool me again. I don't feel bad that I couldn't keep up because I realize martial arts is a learning process and I'm still young, even after 21 years of martial arts, I still have alot to learn. I'm going to pick up the Kuntao training towards the orange sash pretty soon again, once I can get another guy to continue it and we can do it together.

 

[Str8nasty]

Hi new to forums just wanted to say to those of you who want to bash on Guy and his demonstrations let me enlighten you.

First off before you bash anything know youre facts. The "Navy seals" as you called them were not navy seals at all in fact they were army delta.

Anyone that knows anything knows army delta pwns Navy seals as far as special ops go.

Secondly the broom handle training and watery eyes you refer too was infact not being used to condition but rather as a demonstration of the ability to generate a energy shield around youreself to deflect incoming objects. The technique is know as "disintegration".

Thirdly Guy has been studied by the Army mind sciences branch out of fort benning and has documented evedience of himself deviating prerecorded microtapes and stirking objects with his mind.

Fourthly the invisability and look of the leopard is nothing more then making you see what i want you to see in youre own mind. Do you really think our faces change pysically??

So bash bash bash all i know is that a without hucchung there is no kuntao.

And lol go and test youre skillz against them just walk into there school and throw a kick or a lol punch and see just how fast you loose a eye both legs and the ability to have children.

Peace and love Nasty

 

[Carol]

Moderator Note


ATTENTION ALL USERS

Please, keep the conversation polite and respectful.

Thank You,

- Carol Kaur -
- MT Moderator -

 

[empresa]

Thank you Carol.

I was (am) a student of Master Savelli. I have a lifetime membership to his dojo.
I know him to be a decent and nice person.
His style is unorthodox, yes. So it should be with anyone who is an innovator. To be a Grand Master, I feel you must have your own style, not simply be great at something someone else teaches.
I would say here, that a real testament to Guy's greatness is that you are all talking about him, (and some not real nicely) and he has not taken the bait.
I would also suggest that the Army's Delta unit would not be asking him to train them if he didn't know something they don't...

I would hope you all would attempt to learn about a man before trashing him.
I used to teach Ishin Ryu, and I can tell you that Karate in any form would definitely not be useful, or wise to try to use against someone Master Savelli had trained and that understood the higher forms of Chi and Huc Chun.
All you need to know is on the web. Just Google his name and see if he is your run of the mill Karate instructor like I used to be...

Also, look in to the May 2005 issue of Playboy Magazine.

I stand up for Master Savelli because he will not.
chris, Gulfport, FL

 

[arnisador]

I used to study Isshin-ryu prior to the FMA. Both have their strengths.