I guess with this logic you could argue that Carlos Gracie was not qualified to teach his MA? Since he didn't train with his teacher Mitsuyo Maeda for decade(s).
Let's look at what I actually said.
"He may have been "doing martial arts" for decades, but if you don't have at leaset one teacher that you've spent years with and are proud to have been associated with (at least in terms of skill), then you may not be qualified to teach martial arts in my opinion."
I never said you needed decades of training (it certainly doesn't hurt though). What I said was one can claim to have studied martial arts for decades, but never stayed with a teacher for more than a couple years which is never enough time to learn enough of a system that would qualify him to teach. When people don't give the name of there instructors I usually discover that it is because they have not had much instruction at all. I don't know how long Gracie spent training with his teacher, but I would bet it's more than a couple years. Plus Gracie revealed the name of his instructor so he has a verifiable line of quality instruction, which this Wong guy is not displaying. So you pretty much missed the whole point of what I said.
The Gracies openly admit that he was not taught the complete system. Since at the time the Japaneese weren't making it a habit of teaching westerners.
Again, from what has been said on the thread, Wong has not talked much at all about who he studied under. That is the opposite to openly admiting that "he was not taught the complete system". Gracie seemed up front on honest about his training if what your saying is true. Wong seems to dodge it; that's sneaky behavior and sets off a red flag for me.
The Gracies boast about how they changed the art into what we see today and could angurably be considered one of the most effective MA on the planet. Good thing there wasn't an internet back in the 1900's to discourage Carlos's self expression or to tell him on what he can can't do.
First, any martial art can be considered "one of the most effective MA on the planet". If people didn't think their martial art was effective they wouldn't train in it. What makes an art effective is if it does what it claims to do in the environment it was designed for. Second, I have no problem with people branching off to do their own thing so long as they are qualified to do so. If someone spent years studying martial arts, and I mean
actually studying not just mimicking what they see, then he or she would develope the qualifications to create their own organization or their own art (so long as they understand what makes their art different from what already exists). Third, I'm not telling anyone to do or not do anything. I'm not qualified to look at a CMA practitioner and know if what they are doing is correct. Other people on this site are and I would defer to their opinion on the matter. All I'm saying is either Wong had a major falling out with his teacher (which does happen), or he never had enough quality instruction to name a teacher. From some of the comments made by other posters who practice CMA, it sounds like the latter to me.
I have no idea why you made this about Gracie. I see no similarities between him and this Wong fellow.
