Who was your master

[Bruce7]

I am the chief instructor at West Houston ATA Martial Arts (www.WestHoustonATA.com). I am a 6th Degree Black Belt, Master Instructor.

My instructor is 7th Degree Black Belt, Senior Master Larry Spencer.

His instructor is 7th Degree Black Belt, Senior Master Sam Phrumjuntun.

His instructor is 9th Degree Black Belt, Grand Master In Ho Lee.

Thank you, following your linage brought me to the history of ATA and Songahm Taekwondo. It looks like Soon Ho Lee and Haeng Ung Lee develop a Taekwondo better suited for Americans call Songaham in 1969..
I found Songaham very interesting. The forms I know from MDK are very different from Songaham which might be a good thing. I am not for sure.

Thank you again, my grandsons Taekwondo at tiger rock makes sense for me now for they must be practicing Songaham Taekwondo.
Your school sounds very good, but is very far away form Kingwood. I am still trying to decide If I want to learn Songaham, If I do, Tiger rock is 1.4 miles away.

 

[Yokozuna514]

Overall, I think lineage is more useful for filtering for undesirable characteristics in a school than it is for identifying desirable characteristics, but it can be helpful as a starting place for that too.

This is a very succinct way of putting it. Basically putting up the lineage shows that the instructor not only has the respect to name his teachers but he feels that their names will also attract potential students. Again, there is no guarantee that they are the best instructor for you but it does show that type and quality of instruction they received and what you can expect to receive from their school as well.

 

[Bruce7]

Even if I have said that I don't want to live under my teacher's shadow, I still like to take this opportunity to honor my teachers and also their teacher.

My Chinese wrestling teacher's teacher - Chang Fong-Yen (nickname - the phoenix Chang).

That was so cool, I wish I knew that much about my teacher in long fist. I train in long fist in the 70's. My teacher could not speak English so I did not know much about him, only that he was amazing.

My Chinese wrestling teacher Chang Tung-Sheng (nickname - the wrestling king).

My long fist teacher's teacher Han Ching-Tan.

My long fist teacher Li Mao-Ching

 

[Danny T]

Ok…I’ll play the name game. Let’s see how many you know and how much it helps you determine if I’m a good instructor worthy of your time.

My first boxing coaches: Baston Dugas and Harold Meyers (probably never heard of them) Iberia Boxing Club; two of the most successful coaches in youth boxing in Louisiana and the South during the 50’s and 60’s.
My first wrestling coach: Dr. Louis Bowers (began & coached the Wrestling program at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in the mid 60’s) also coached a youth wrestling program. (probably never heard of him either). Then Larry Hartsell
My Shotokan Instructor: Sensei Ernie Fournet. 4th degree Black Belt Shotokan, Army Special Forces Sergeant -20th Airborne, Police Officer Louisiana State Police, Police Defensive Tactics & Swat Tactics instructor. (most likely never heard of him as well)
My Isshinryu Instructor: Paul Whitman 3rd Degree. Spent approx. 6 months with him during my time in the US AF.
My Judo Instuctor: Captain Chris Foti
My Police Defensive Tactics Instructor/s: Captain Chris Foti and Major James Houston
My Tai Chi Instructor: Cynthia Gardner studied with Dr. Yang Wing Ming.
My Silat instructor: Pak Herman Suwanda
My first Wing Chun Instructor/s: Steve Young, Gary Lam, Francis Fong.
My first Jun Fan Instructor/s: Steve Young, Sifu Larry Hartsell, Guro Dan Inosanto.
My Kali Instructor/s: Guro Omar Hakim, Tuhon Bill McGrath, Leo Gaje, Dan Inosanto, Larry Hartsell
My Muay Thai instructors: Earl Robin, Ajarn Chai Sirisute
My BJJ instructor/s: Rey Diogo, Ricardo Murgel, Pedro Sauer, Erik Paulson
My CSW instructor/s: Christian Malgeri, Curt Doyle, Erik Paulson

I've not named all due to not spending much time with them.

 

[oftheherd1]

When I read one of these threads that talks about lineage, I don't know if I should feel bad or disregard it as another attempt at bragging, or whatever. In the Hapkido I studied, I was trained by some of my GM's elite 3rd and 4th Dan students, then by the GM himself. I cannot imagine how I could have gotten any better training if I knew my GM's training back to DJN Choi.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Ok…I’ll play the name game. Let’s see how many you know and how much it helps you determine if I’m a good instructor worthy of your time.

My first boxing coaches: Baston Dugas and Harold Meyers (probably never heard of them) Iberia Boxing Club; two of the most successful coaches in youth boxing in Louisiana and the South during the 50’s and 60’s.
My first wrestling coach: Dr. Louis Bowers (began & coached the Wrestling program at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in the mid 60’s) also coached a youth wrestling program. (probably never heard of him either). Then Larry Hartsell
My Shotokan Instructor: Sensei Ernie Fournet. 4th degree Black Belt Shotokan, Army Special Forces Sergeant -20th Airborne, Police Officer Louisiana State Police, Police Defensive Tactics & Swat Tactics instructor. (most likely never heard of him as well)
My Isshinryu Instructor: Paul Whitman 3rd Degree. Spent approx. 6 months with him during my time in the US AF.
My Judo Instuctor: Captain Chris Foti
My Police Defensive Tactics Instructor/s: Captain Chris Foti and Major James Houston
My Tai Chi Instructor: Cynthia Gardner studied with Dr. Yang Wing Ming.
My Silat instructor: Pak Herman Suwanda
My first Wing Chun Instructor/s: Steve Young, Gary Lam, Francis Fong.
My first Jun Fan Instructor/s: Steve Young, Sifu Larry Hartsell, Guro Dan Inosanto.
My Kali Instructor/s: Guro Omar Hakim, Tuhon Bill McGrath, Leo Gaje, Dan Inosanto, Larry Hartsell
My Muay Thai instructors: Earl Robin, Ajarn Chai Sirisute
My BJJ instructor/s: Rey Diogo, Ricardo Murgel, Pedro Sauer, Erik Paulson
My CSW instructor/s: Christian Malgeri, Curt Doyle, Erik Paulson

I've not named all due to not spending much time with them.

Your list highlights what I think is the best reason to list any instructors. Dan Inosanto is an instantly recognizable name in some (fairly large) circles, so putting him on there would be good marketing. Beyond that, your entire list would be at least as useful to me if you left the names out.

I think I have one of my instructors on my site. I honestly don't remember, and haven't bothered to look in the course of this thread. If I did, it was mostly for the sake of maybe someone recognizing his name later if they were looking for a school in his area (only about an hour from my house). In other words, if I put it there I did it for the instructor's sake, not for me or to inform any prospective student of mine. Because I don't think his name would be particularly helpful, unless one of his students moved to my area and was looking for a place to train closer to home - they might like the fact that I'd be familiar with their current training.

 

[JR 137]

Ok…I’ll play the name game. Let’s see how many you know and how much it helps you determine if I’m a good instructor worthy of your time.

My first boxing coaches: Baston Dugas and Harold Meyers (probably never heard of them) Iberia Boxing Club; two of the most successful coaches in youth boxing in Louisiana and the South during the 50’s and 60’s.
My first wrestling coach: Dr. Louis Bowers (began & coached the Wrestling program at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in the mid 60’s) also coached a youth wrestling program. (probably never heard of him either). Then Larry Hartsell
My Shotokan Instructor: Sensei Ernie Fournet. 4th degree Black Belt Shotokan, Army Special Forces Sergeant -20th Airborne, Police Officer Louisiana State Police, Police Defensive Tactics & Swat Tactics instructor. (most likely never heard of him as well)
My Isshinryu Instructor: Paul Whitman 3rd Degree. Spent approx. 6 months with him during my time in the US AF.
My Judo Instuctor: Captain Chris Foti
My Police Defensive Tactics Instructor/s: Captain Chris Foti and Major James Houston
My Tai Chi Instructor: Cynthia Gardner studied with Dr. Yang Wing Ming.
My Silat instructor: Pak Herman Suwanda
My first Wing Chun Instructor/s: Steve Young, Gary Lam, Francis Fong.
My first Jun Fan Instructor/s: Steve Young, Sifu Larry Hartsell, Guro Dan Inosanto.
My Kali Instructor/s: Guro Omar Hakim, Tuhon Bill McGrath, Leo Gaje, Dan Inosanto, Larry Hartsell
My Muay Thai instructors: Earl Robin, Ajarn Chai Sirisute
My BJJ instructor/s: Rey Diogo, Ricardo Murgel, Pedro Sauer, Erik Paulson
My CSW instructor/s: Christian Malgeri, Curt Doyle, Erik Paulson

I've not named all due to not spending much time with them.

Seriously, you think no one’s ever heard of Steve Young?

How many Super Bowls did he win? Doesn’t he still do TV?

 

[Balrog]

Thank you, following your linage brought me to the history of ATA and Songahm Taekwondo. It looks like Soon Ho Lee and Haeng Ung Lee develop a Taekwondo better suited for Americans call Songaham in 1969..
I found Songaham very interesting. The forms I know from MDK are very different from Songaham which might be a good thing. I am not for sure.

Thank you again, my grandsons Taekwondo at tiger rock makes sense for me now for they must be practicing Songaham Taekwondo.
Your school sounds very good, but is very far away form Kingwood. I am still trying to decide If I want to learn Songaham, If I do, Tiger rock is 1.4 miles away.

When ATA was founded in 1969, GM H. U. Lee was teaching the Chang-Hon style of ITF. He began to develop his own style in the early 80's and presented the first three forms of the Songahm style at the ATA instructor camp in 1983.

When GM H. U. Lee passed away from cancer in 2000, GM Soon Ho Lee became the second presiding Grandmaster of the organization. He's since retired as the presiding Grandmaster, but is still very active in ATA.

I don't believe that Tiger Rock is an ATA school. Since you live in Kingwood, you might check out Henderson's ATA. I've known Master Henderson for many years and highly recommend him.

Edited to add: the individuals I showed are my direct lineage. However, there are numerous senior ranks in ATA that I have trained with, and I consider them my instructors as well. I try to learn as much as I can from as many people as I can.

 

[MetalBoar]

I'll say I think part of the OP - and your point - is about a tendency nearly all of us have of wanting to find the right school. What I was trying to get at in one of my earlier posts is that there isn't one. In an area that size, with that many choices, there are probably dozens of "right" schools, and you only need to find one. So you don't need to evaluate or filter every school. You just need to filter a handful of them that are convenient (okay, so we've started with a very coarse filter of "convenience"). You pick a handful that are near home, or near work, or on the route between. You check their web sites for red flags - things that tell you they're unlikely to be a good fit - then look at the schedule of those that didn't get knocked out. Then go visit a few of what's left. In all likelihood, you'll find something you like in one of those.

This process only changes if there's something specific you're looking for. I personally don't know the lineage of some of the folks I trained under. I never asked, and I'm not sure if they ever mentioned it or not. That's true of two instructors who had the largest influence on my approach to my primary art (neither are/were practitioners of my primary art). I could list them on my bio, but I could literally only list their names. Neither was in an association when I trained with them, and I couldn't list their instructors if I wanted to.

There are a lot of good MA schools in the area, the problem is that there are even more that are bad (from my perspective anyway) and then a very large number that may be very good in general but not right for me. At this point I know the community at least a little and I'm lucky to have a couple of friends who seem like they've trained with everyone in the area so it's easier to find what I'm looking for here in Seattle now. The last time I had to really look for a school in a big city that I wasn't familiar with it was a long process. I might make a longer post or start a thread about this at some point, but the short story is that even choosing only a few styles, limiting myself to only schools within 15 minutes in bad traffic of work, home, or in between and cutting out everything I found on the Internet that didn't really excite me, I watched classes in over a dozen schools before finding a "right" school for me and I was pretty free with just cutting places from my list based on their website or a phone call/email exchange.

Now, I admit I'm very picky and have been spoiled by having some truly amazing instructors in the past, but I'm happy to use whatever tools I can to refine my search. If I were independently wealthy or even just comfortably retired I'd probably try every decent looking school in town, but as it is I feel like training at all is a real luxury so I want to make my time count.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

There are a lot of good MA schools in the area, the problem is that there are even more that are bad (from my perspective anyway) and then a very large number that may be very good in general but not right for me. At this point I know the community at least a little and I'm lucky to have a couple of friends who seem like they've trained with everyone in the area so it's easier to find what I'm looking for here in Seattle now. The last time I had to really look for a school in a big city that I wasn't familiar with it was a long process. I might make a longer post or start a thread about this at some point, but the short story is that even choosing only a few styles, limiting myself to only schools within 15 minutes in bad traffic of work, home, or in between and cutting out everything I found on the Internet that didn't really excite me, I watched classes in over a dozen schools before finding a "right" school for me and I was pretty free with just cutting places from my list based on their website or a phone call/email exchange.

Now, I admit I'm very picky and have been spoiled by having some truly amazing instructors in the past, but I'm happy to use whatever tools I can to refine my search. If I were independently wealthy or even just comfortably retired I'd probably try every decent looking school in town, but as it is I feel like training at all is a real luxury so I want to make my time count.

My point - which I don't think I made clear - was that most methods of filtering based on website contents are as likely to exclude a school you'd really like, as to help you avoid those you wouldn't. Web sites just aren't much help in most cases. We're usually better off going one by one through the schools until we find one we like. I've been lucky to find good instructors many times, with only one sloppy experience. Almost all of that was before the internet was a thing, and I've seen some bad-looking websites pop up for some folks I knew to be quite good at what they did. So I just don't have a lot of faith in the website as a filtering item, unless it throws an obvious red flag (claiming lineage I know is impossible, for instance, or making fundamental mistakes when talking about the art they supposedly teach) or provides an obvious bit of interest (lineage I know and am eager to train in, or an art I'm personally curious about).

 

[MetalBoar]

Ok…I’ll play the name game. Let’s see how many you know and how much it helps you determine if I’m a good instructor worthy of your time.

My first boxing coaches: Baston Dugas and Harold Meyers (probably never heard of them) Iberia Boxing Club; two of the most successful coaches in youth boxing in Louisiana and the South during the 50’s and 60’s.
My first wrestling coach: Dr. Louis Bowers (began & coached the Wrestling program at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in the mid 60’s) also coached a youth wrestling program. (probably never heard of him either). Then Larry Hartsell
My Shotokan Instructor: Sensei Ernie Fournet. 4th degree Black Belt Shotokan, Army Special Forces Sergeant -20th Airborne, Police Officer Louisiana State Police, Police Defensive Tactics & Swat Tactics instructor. (most likely never heard of him as well)
My Isshinryu Instructor: Paul Whitman 3rd Degree. Spent approx. 6 months with him during my time in the US AF.
My Judo Instuctor: Captain Chris Foti
My Police Defensive Tactics Instructor/s: Captain Chris Foti and Major James Houston
My Tai Chi Instructor: Cynthia Gardner studied with Dr. Yang Wing Ming.
My Silat instructor: Pak Herman Suwanda
My first Wing Chun Instructor/s: Steve Young, Gary Lam, Francis Fong.
My first Jun Fan Instructor/s: Steve Young, Sifu Larry Hartsell, Guro Dan Inosanto.
My Kali Instructor/s: Guro Omar Hakim, Tuhon Bill McGrath, Leo Gaje, Dan Inosanto, Larry Hartsell
My Muay Thai instructors: Earl Robin, Ajarn Chai Sirisute
My BJJ instructor/s: Rey Diogo, Ricardo Murgel, Pedro Sauer, Erik Paulson
My CSW instructor/s: Christian Malgeri, Curt Doyle, Erik Paulson

I've not named all due to not spending much time with them.

Well, if I saw a website in Seattle with this list on it I'd be very interested and would definitely send them an email or call. I've trained with people who have trained with a number of people on this list and Wing Chun, Silat and Kali are things I would like to study or study more of. Without any other info I'd be concerned about how much training the instructor had actually done with some of these people as they don't do more than the occasional seminar in Seattle (if that) and some have passed away at this point. That wouldn't stop me from calling, but it would be the one of the first things I was trying to figure out when I contacted the school. As long as I didn't get the impression that the instructor was completely full of it, I'd definitely check it out in person.

Edit to add:
Thinking about this a little more, I'd call you even if your website just said you taught Silat and had a number because there just aren't very many people anywhere in the US teaching it. I'd still be cautious about figuring out whether you were qualified because a lot of those teaching it don't really have more than seminar level experience with it. If you just listed Wing Chun and nothing else I'd probably still contact you if you were conveniently located because it's another art I'm interested in right now. Kali is another I'm really interested in. Other arts you'd probably be lower on my list if you didn't include your instructors, either because I'm less interested in the art or there are another 20 people teaching it in Seattle who do have a list of impressive instructors they've put on their website.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

When I read one of these threads that talks about lineage, I don't know if I should feel bad or disregard it as another attempt at bragging, or whatever.

Here is the problem:

- If you don't list your teacher's information, people may think you are self-taught.
- If you list your teacher's information, people may think you are bragging.

This can be a lose-lose situation no matter which way you may take.

 

[Buka]

Ok…I’ll play the name game. Let’s see how many you know and how much it helps you determine if I’m a good instructor worthy of your time.

My first boxing coaches: Baston Dugas and Harold Meyers (probably never heard of them) Iberia Boxing Club; two of the most successful coaches in youth boxing in Louisiana and the South during the 50’s and 60’s.
My first wrestling coach: Dr. Louis Bowers (began & coached the Wrestling program at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in the mid 60’s) also coached a youth wrestling program. (probably never heard of him either). Then Larry Hartsell
My Shotokan Instructor: Sensei Ernie Fournet. 4th degree Black Belt Shotokan, Army Special Forces Sergeant -20th Airborne, Police Officer Louisiana State Police, Police Defensive Tactics & Swat Tactics instructor. (most likely never heard of him as well)
My Isshinryu Instructor: Paul Whitman 3rd Degree. Spent approx. 6 months with him during my time in the US AF.
My Judo Instuctor: Captain Chris Foti
My Police Defensive Tactics Instructor/s: Captain Chris Foti and Major James Houston
My Tai Chi Instructor: Cynthia Gardner studied with Dr. Yang Wing Ming.
My Silat instructor: Pak Herman Suwanda
My first Wing Chun Instructor/s: Steve Young, Gary Lam, Francis Fong.
My first Jun Fan Instructor/s: Steve Young, Sifu Larry Hartsell, Guro Dan Inosanto.
My Kali Instructor/s: Guro Omar Hakim, Tuhon Bill McGrath, Leo Gaje, Dan Inosanto, Larry Hartsell
My Muay Thai instructors: Earl Robin, Ajarn Chai Sirisute
My BJJ instructor/s: Rey Diogo, Ricardo Murgel, Pedro Sauer, Erik Paulson
My CSW instructor/s: Christian Malgeri, Curt Doyle, Erik Paulson

I've not named all due to not spending much time with them.

Shades of Shirley Ellis, that is one rockin' list, Danny.

Awesome.

 

[MetalBoar]

My point - which I don't think I made clear - was that most methods of filtering based on website contents are as likely to exclude a school you'd really like, as to help you avoid those you wouldn't. Web sites just aren't much help in most cases. We're usually better off going one by one through the schools until we find one we like. I've been lucky to find good instructors many times, with only one sloppy experience. Almost all of that was before the internet was a thing, and I've seen some bad-looking websites pop up for some folks I knew to be quite good at what they did. So I just don't have a lot of faith in the website as a filtering item, unless it throws an obvious red flag (claiming lineage I know is impossible, for instance, or making fundamental mistakes when talking about the art they supposedly teach) or provides an obvious bit of interest (lineage I know and am eager to train in, or an art I'm personally curious about).

I've done web development, created websites for a couple of MA schools and am familiar with how tremendously bad they can be, so I do agree with this somewhat. I think (perhaps I'm deluded) that I've got enough experience with how websites can be screwed up in general and how MA schools screw them up in particular that I can see through the chaff a little better than a lot of people, but it is a problem. If I don't know anyone in the community I feel like I have to use the Internet to find schools at this point and a lot of the best schools seem to have no other presence anywhere. I don't know about @ShortBridge 's school, but I know that I must have walked right passed one of the other local schools he's affiliated with and if they had a sign I didn't see it (I just checked the website and it specifically says they don't have a sign). Once I start looking at a website it's hard not to compare it to the information I'm seeing on other sites. I don't judge a school based on the aesthetic qualities of their site,(well maybe a little, usually ugly is better than too flashy, commercial in my experience) but I am influenced by the information that's on there.

 

[dvcochran]

Ok…I’ll play the name game. Let’s see how many you know and how much it helps you determine if I’m a good instructor worthy of your time.

My first boxing coaches: Baston Dugas and Harold Meyers (probably never heard of them) Iberia Boxing Club; two of the most successful coaches in youth boxing in Louisiana and the South during the 50’s and 60’s.
My first wrestling coach: Dr. Louis Bowers (began & coached the Wrestling program at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in the mid 60’s) also coached a youth wrestling program. (probably never heard of him either). Then Larry Hartsell
My Shotokan Instructor: Sensei Ernie Fournet. 4th degree Black Belt Shotokan, Army Special Forces Sergeant -20th Airborne, Police Officer Louisiana State Police, Police Defensive Tactics & Swat Tactics instructor. (most likely never heard of him as well)
My Isshinryu Instructor: Paul Whitman 3rd Degree. Spent approx. 6 months with him during my time in the US AF.
My Judo Instuctor: Captain Chris Foti
My Police Defensive Tactics Instructor/s: Captain Chris Foti and Major James Houston
My Tai Chi Instructor: Cynthia Gardner studied with Dr. Yang Wing Ming.
My Silat instructor: Pak Herman Suwanda
My first Wing Chun Instructor/s: Steve Young, Gary Lam, Francis Fong.
My first Jun Fan Instructor/s: Steve Young, Sifu Larry Hartsell, Guro Dan Inosanto.
My Kali Instructor/s: Guro Omar Hakim, Tuhon Bill McGrath, Leo Gaje, Dan Inosanto, Larry Hartsell
My Muay Thai instructors: Earl Robin, Ajarn Chai Sirisute
My BJJ instructor/s: Rey Diogo, Ricardo Murgel, Pedro Sauer, Erik Paulson
My CSW instructor/s: Christian Malgeri, Curt Doyle, Erik Paulson

I've not named all due to not spending much time with them.

I was fortunate to train under Tuhon McGrath while he was in Nashville, TN. Great times.

 

[KenpoMaster805]

1st professor William chow was Gm Ed Parkers Teacher

Then GM Ed Paker put his knowledge to my

Sifu Jesus Flores and my Sifu became GM Jesus Flores

Then he put his knowledge on me and my fellow student im a 2nd generation kenpoist of his style

 

[TSDTexan]

Ok…I’ll play the name game. Let’s see how many you know and how much it helps you determine if I’m a good instructor worthy of your time.

My first boxing coaches: Baston Dugas and Harold Meyers (probably never heard of them) Iberia Boxing Club; two of the most successful coaches in youth boxing in Louisiana and the South during the 50’s and 60’s.
My first wrestling coach: Dr. Louis Bowers (began & coached the Wrestling program at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in the mid 60’s) also coached a youth wrestling program. (probably never heard of him either). Then Larry Hartsell
My Shotokan Instructor: Sensei Ernie Fournet. 4th degree Black Belt Shotokan, Army Special Forces Sergeant -20th Airborne, Police Officer Louisiana State Police, Police Defensive Tactics & Swat Tactics instructor. (most likely never heard of him as well)
My Isshinryu Instructor: Paul Whitman 3rd Degree. Spent approx. 6 months with him during my time in the US AF.
My Judo Instuctor: Captain Chris Foti
My Police Defensive Tactics Instructor/s: Captain Chris Foti and Major James Houston
My Tai Chi Instructor: Cynthia Gardner studied with Dr. Yang Wing Ming.
My Silat instructor: Pak Herman Suwanda
My first Wing Chun Instructor/s: Steve Young, Gary Lam, Francis Fong.
My first Jun Fan Instructor/s: Steve Young, Sifu Larry Hartsell, Guro Dan Inosanto.
My Kali Instructor/s: Guro Omar Hakim, Tuhon Bill McGrath, Leo Gaje, Dan Inosanto, Larry Hartsell
My Muay Thai instructors: Earl Robin, Ajarn Chai Sirisute
My BJJ instructor/s: Rey Diogo, Ricardo Murgel, Pedro Sauer, Erik Paulson
My CSW instructor/s: Christian Malgeri, Curt Doyle, Erik Paulson

I've not named all due to not spending much time with them.

I am familiar with Gary Lam, Guro Dan Inosanto, Pedro Sauer, Erik Paulson. I know/know of them, even if they have never heard of me.

From what i know of these gentlemen... they teach authentic martial arts. I cannot say that is enough to verify whether you are a good instructor based on that alone. But if you lived nearby, i would absolutely be paying your school a visit

 

[ShortBridge]

I've done web development, created websites for a couple of MA schools and am familiar with how tremendously bad they can be, so I do agree with this somewhat. I think (perhaps I'm deluded) that I've got enough experience with how websites can be screwed up in general and how MA schools screw them up in particular that I can see through the chaff a little better than a lot of people, but it is a problem. If I don't know anyone in the community I feel like I have to use the Internet to find schools at this point and a lot of the best schools seem to have no other presence anywhere. I don't know about @ShortBridge 's school, but I know that I must have walked right passed one of the other local schools he's affiliated with and if they had a sign I didn't see it (I just checked the website and it specifically says they don't have a sign). Once I start looking at a website it's hard not to compare it to the information I'm seeing on other sites. I don't judge a school based on the aesthetic qualities of their site,(well maybe a little, usually ugly is better than too flashy, commercial in my experience) but I am influenced by the information that's on there.

We're all hiding in plain site. If you'd like an introduction to anyone, let me know.

I wrote my site personally, with a text editor. It could be flashier, but it is responsive and it serves our meger purposes.

 

[Danny T]

Shades of Shirley Ellis, that is one rockin' list, Danny.

LOL...man you are going a long way back and getting to 'The Nitty Gritty'.

And...yes I've been very fortunate in having had (made) the opportunities to train with some very high level personalities.

 

[TSDTexan]

Here is the problem:

- If you don't list your teacher's information, people may think you are self-taught.
- If you list your teacher's information, people may think you are bragging.

This can be a lose-lose situation no matter which way you may take.

"References available upon request"