Well this is an old thread, but if anyone is interested I can shed some light on the subject. Mong Su Dom Tai is what happens when a martial artist earns a black belt under Jim "Ronin" Harrison, learns the entire Shou Shu Kung Fu system, tests for 1st degree black belt in Tracy's Kenpo Karate (the story I was told in-studio is that the founder and his wife tested for black belt and succeeded but walked out of the studio after the instructors asked if they could incorporate their thesis form into the system), and train savate to physical excellency only to decide it is too difficult to teach it all seperately. So they used the kenpo system structure teaching model and created their own choreographed self defense techniques incorporating their diverse experience and training. Wonder where they got the inspiration to found their own style? Look at their lineage......ALL of their instructors were revered martial artists who did exactly that. The training philosophy was Bruce Lee 101.....to become a martial artist you have to make your own expression of art.....either way the art is legit. I quit after several years of training and went into other things because they have a closed door policy that I think is weird and cult - like. They have their own tournaments, no spectators in class, it's forbidden to share the techniques lol.....weird. what is weirder is that most systems that do that are hiding their lack of skill or their brainwashing special magic chi lol but MSDT is, from a technical viewpoint, a no-nonsense up close and personal self defense system. The attitude is like the Kuntao Silat I studied and the body motion is unique small circle kung fu with savate kicks.....weapons are good. They teach fighting forms and sound sparring techniques. No knife forms.....knife is taught spontaneously. But wierd controlling clan mentality. I moved on to other things but have to say I haven't encountered much that out classes it technically....definitely many other capable, even equal, systems out there....but not really better than it. It's up there on the traditionally taught arts scale for sure. People are right to be critical and suspicious of "home spun" arts but should also be open to investigate because the truth is all arts were once "home spun" and those great arts we enjoy today are home spun somewhere in history.
