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Old 06-03-2012, 11:24 AM   #305
David Orange
Dojo: Aozora Dojo
Location: Birmingham, AL
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,511
United_States
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Re: Spiritual and i/p

Quote:
Graham Christian wrote: View Post
Simply I claim because because I have no reason to disbelieve him. I have asked my friend about this who started with me to check even my recalls and yet he recalls even your name and Sensei Williams name being mentioned to us on a number of occasions. Hence my surprise with you not remembering. I do recall you mentioning him in a post in as much as someone you knew went to a dojo in north watford which probably was him.
I once had a fellow come to my class at a YMCA in Birmingham (Alabama). His student may have come to an earlier class and brought this guy along as his "teacher" to see what I was doing. The "teacher" advised me that he had created his own style from "kyokushin karate, kodokan judo (very specifically) and Tae Kwon Do." He showed me some of his kihon waza and it was just bizarre. His karate did not approach anyone's who had taught me to that point and his judo....I just couldn't see where it came into the equation. He wore a pendant of a fist-in-palm within a circle, on a little chain around his neck. I didn't notice it during warm-ups. I didn't allow any jewelry or rings of any kind during our practices, so I told him he'd have to take the pendant off when we went into technique practice. "It might cut your neck, or someone's hand with the techniques we do."

He looked shocked and said, "Oh, no! I never take this off!" and he backed off the mat bowing elaborately and giving me the praying hands. He sat to the side and watched while his student actually went through the workout. At the end of our two-hour session, as we were all headed for the locker rooms to change clothes, the student approached me and said, "Sensei wants to fight with you (or spar or randori, or whatever)."

I just didn't reply and went on to change. My reasons were very simple: the guy didn't go through the workout, so he hadn't earned the right to randori; he undoubtedly intended to wear that medallion while "fighting" and I wasn't going to have that; since he hadn't trained with me, I wasn't sure of how his body would move or how well he could take the falls; and I didn't know much about him as a person, what his temperament would be. Also, with the Tae Kwon Do influence, I wasn't sure what kind of things he would try but I felt there was a lot more danger for him than for me. I didn't want to have some nut's broken neck on my account.

However, with his background and the nature of his "art," I figured he would also claim that "his art" was composed of kyokushin karate, kodokan judo, tae kwon do and yoseikan aikido. Who knows? He may have decided that watching my class qualified him for a black belt in yoseikan (even though I was only ikkyu at the time). We actually did have a guy who started awarding ranks in yoseikan after observing a number of classes. Granted, we were running classes from his established dojo and he was a very experienced teacher of jujutsu, judo and karate, but he had not trained in the yoseikan classes and no one had ranked him even shodan. So how could he promote and rank people in yoseikan? So I figured this guy with probably a few months each in kyokushin, judo and TKD, would soon be a master of yoseikan based on attending a brown-belt's single class.

So what might someone do after meeting Noro two or three times?

In my experience, there are plenty of people who would froth that up into a whole new Tao...

Quote:
Graham Christian wrote: View Post
His stories of his numerous exploits revolved around two charachters, Noro and Tohei. Noro as his teacher and Tohei as his prefered explanations. Many other charachters were mentioned on the English side of things and many seemed to pass through our place. We didn't know who was who at the time and were not interested as students.
Well....."True Stories" are very easy to create, as I demonstrate in the "True" Story thread in the Open Discussions.

Quote:
Graham Christian wrote: View Post
So I can claim who my teacher was and as for the rest I am sure it's easily verifiable.
Well....if it's so easy to verify.....

Or maybe it's not. I think T-Rex Sensei's summary is pretty telling. I mean....he was able to document Jack Poole's attendance. But Mike Muspratt just doesn't show up at all. If you claim to be an old-timer, but none of the old-timers remember you, though they remember each other and a lot of less-developed people who passed through...it just doesn't ring the bell.

As a student, that would bother me.

FWIW

David

"That which has no substance can enter where there is no room."
Lao Tzu

"Eternity forever!"

www.esotericorange.com