Some same he is awesome some say all he can take on is a jelly donut. Anyone seen him fight?
Any opions on him?

IF YOU GO TO HIS WEB SITE THERE IS A MPG FILE WITH FIGHTING ON IT

I heard the jelly donut beat his ass.

The mpg on his website is in my opinion not a real judge of his fighting skill. Because the video is of him being attacked by a person in a demo and the person only throws one technique at a time. Then after he does his thing they reset and do it again.
Anyone seen him spar? Or at least a better demo than on his site.
O yeah whats up with the fajin video on his site. That looks like it has been doctored or mabey its is just bad quality.
Hey bobby_joe the reason why the jelly donut won is because donuts with filling have "inner power."

Why rely on second hand information?

Why not visit him and see for yourself?

Thats what he did when he sought out chinese fighting masters back in the 70s and 80s.

You're right, David. He got "creamed"! LOL!
He found himself in a "jam."
He got "jelly" rolled.

Walter
Damn good advice. Mabey I can do that some day.
I will write a post about it if I do.

bobby_joe
Those were pretty funny.

that fajing demo on his sight has been doctored. If you watch it frame by frame there is a point where the uke (for lack of a better term) moves 5 feet between frames. A fanboy might say that he simply moves that fast, and there is not enough resolution to see him move. Not so, watch the video and ruminate that this is what he himself is dispensing to the public to show his power. Perhaps the man can fight, I don't know; but I do know he is a charlatan.

Anyone know anything about his teacher liu hung chieh? Can that guy and his lineage and his ability be authenticated?

How many air-miles would it be if everyone who was ever told "Why not visit him and see for yourself?" actually did.

Did you hear about his new movie?

"Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle"

Since when did this portly bard of kung fu make it into Hollywood? The attraction must have been those delicious sliders.

I trained with Kumar. He is not a god or a fraud. He is a very skilled pracitioner. I heard so many stories about him being either superhuman or fake that I had to meet him myself to know for sure. The only way to settle all dispute is to see for yourself. I learned the Nei Gung he teaches as well as meditation, and of course his martial arts.

I know he is is not a fraud or superhuman because after ten years of practicing his material I can do a few of the things he can do. My body is stronger than ever and I am a better person because of it.

What can be said, is if you are insecure, if you are scared or arrogant he will pick up on it and call you on it. He sees right through all that testosterone powered ego nonsense. He has a very no nonsense attitude towards bullshit and if you are not for real, you will find him very uncomfortable to be around. Otherwise, he knows his material and teaches it better and more clearly than anybody Ive heard of. It works. I tested it. Why settle for armchair speculation? I moved to California to find this guy after reading his bio in Energy Gates. I sought him out the way he sought out other masters in China. Hey dont take my word for it, after all making someone out to be what you iimagine they might be like is just as valid, right?

Take my word for it, he's not worth what he charges and his mystical approach to the martial arts clouds what he may or may not know about Chinese martial arts. There is no doubt that he is a brilliant man and self-promoer, but to even make the claim that he is an excellent martial artist would be an overstatement and gross misjudgment. If you want a person to discover and reveal your personality shortcomings, go see a shrink. If you want to learn real martial arts, skip on Kumar and go to the Shenwu studio and ask for a guy named Tim Cartmell. You won't be dissatisfied and he won't call you out on your insecurities.

How often have you trained with him Jacky? Just out of his curiosity?

Skill, like anything else, is always measured in the eye of the beholder. Accurate measure of skill is dependent on the beholder's credits and credibility.

Since in the view to which you are beholden to includes a negative assessment of Kumar's skill. One would assume you have the experience and critical thinking skills neccesssary to judge someone thus.

Before anyone can lend you the slightest credibility to your assessment, nay, judgement, of Kumar, we would have to know you are also a master of mixed martial arts and especially internal martial arts.

So..... are you?

My first gut feeling, is that you only heard about Kumar,You were turned off by his fees. You probably never met him, never mind trained with him. If you had been to any of his retreats you know he is the biggest skeptic of myticism there is.

You have to be really new at the martial arts game and the critiqueing martial arts game to insinuate anyone's martial art you have not fought with or against is not real.

So either A, you have fought Kumar and beat him easily with your superior Shenwu skills

or B you lost a fight against somebody using Kumar's skills.

That is the only real measure of whether anyone's art is real or unreal.

Have you fought and won, or fought and lost with Kumar's training?

For the record, I am not Kumarite, I just think it is good stuff. I took his skills for myself to use, I am not one of his sycophants or certified instructors either, I am just a smuck that completely rebuilt my spinal column after learning from him.

About a year ago I got into a fight with somebody begging me for change in a cafe.I was not feeling generous, I didnt like that he followed me into the store to panhandle from me so I was very firm with him and basically told him to eff off*

He flew into a rage and threw chairs at me. I reflexively used the Pi Chuan skills I learned from Kumar 7 years ago to knock both chairs out of the air and still using the same hand, I struck the guy in his face and his knees went on him. It was over in seconds.
I used one hand, one style of strike. I relaxed into the ground advanced,and just dropped my Pi on this guy and that was that.

I am not a great fighter or a regular fighter, but Kumar taught me combat apps for Pi and it worked like a charm. So, although I was the one that trained san ti enough to make it a reflex, Kumar taught me what to do and how to do it.

Judging by how ruthlessly effective I made that move work for me, his stuff works.

Now to be credible, you must present an argument as to why Kumar is not skilled because just saying so doesnt make it so.



* I live in SF,and we have thousands of mentally ill, desperately poor and homeless people here. Encounters with them are frequent for urban dwellers

"My first gut feeling, is that you only heard about Kumar,You were turned off by his fees."

since you mentioned it- what are his fees?

His fees change but.

Chi gung retreats can be anywhere from $600 to $1200 for a 6 day retreat with 4-6 hours of training a day.

Martial Art or meditation retreats are about $1000

Instructor Certs in anything is $2-3000 for two week intense retreat.

When he hold open classes it is usually like $20 per person per hour.

Private instruction which is not usually available, is $100-$200 an hour.

These are just approximates

I would also add. It takes business savvy to be a successful martial arts salesperson.Kumar has a degree in business.

Kumar flies all over the world every year, teaching, he live in a pricey town as has a house and a family with two kids. There are a lot ot talented martial arts people around that have neither the ability to sell themselves and their art or the desire to. There is nothing wrong with making money of of one's talents, or not making money off of ones talents.

In my experience many of the people I have met that talk smack about Kumar, were simply put off by his marketing, which makes his teaching available to those with money. Telling people a master can be no good because he is an excellent business man who didnt make instruction available for *your* budget does not make his knowledge or skill ineffective.

I studied with Kumar for ten years. While he now embraces the qi huggers and their bank accounts, back then he was an ass kicker. I suspect even in his current condition if you fronted him you would go night-night. Still, I prefer Luo Dexiu.

J. Alexander,

Like I tell anybody studying MA's, "If it works for you, stick with it." Good for you if you learned piquan and it worked for you in a fight with a vagrant. I thought the thing about the chairs was funny, but that's good that it all worked out in your favor. But I suspect that you could have instinctively used your ability to throw a clenched fist boxer's punch and it would have suited the situation just fine.

I studied with a Kumar disciple for some time. His knowledge of martial applications was rudimentary at best. At the time I didn't know any better, so I thought it was all high class Chinese martial arts. I don't want anyone to misunderstand me. That is, I really thought Kumar was excellent based on his reputation, his books, videos, etc. When I finally attended a seminar, I was fascinated by all the chi mumbo jumbo, but it wasn't getting me any better at martial arts. The cost of the seminar was absolutely ridiculous. The fatman got treated like a god and he really sucked. It was pathetic. I saw guys who appeared to be regular Kumar disciples, dressed in Chinese pajamas and playing with swords, who were probably spending their lifesavings attempting to milk the fatman for whatever he was worth. I felt very bad for them in retrospect.

Here was a man who really exploited the IM and had fooled so many people, including me.

Big money was spent to learn how to move your chi and this and that and more bullshit.

Now I compare what I have experienced at shenwu and I laugh at the old Kumar days. I see his videos and laugh at the garbage, probably made-up, martial applications.

You really don't have to be a martial art "master" to figure •••• out. You just have to be a critical thinker and ask questions.

As I said before, Kumar is a really intelligent man who impresses me much more for his marketing skills than his ability to teach or practice the martial arts. But remember, every man has knowledge.

I'm not trying to shamelessly promote shenwu and I don't wish to demonize Bruce Kumar, but people need to be aware of what's in store for them either way. I'm entitled to my opinion and I believe I have expressed it as much as I wish to in regards to this matter.

Now, I'm going to go eat a taco.

Peace be with you.
Peace out.
Live long and prosper.

Interesting. Obviously I would know this "disciple" if he was w/Kumar for any length of time up to about six years ago.

On his Yang Fighting video it shows him sparring these two karate guys, it was pretty cool.