jalexander,

I am not a student of Tim's but just trained in similar arts besides what is called 'internal martial arts'(IMA). For the most part, IMA is a joke because people rely on chi (the naive ones) thinking they will become powerful without learning basics like sanshou (which also contains shuaijiao, qi'na, elements of what is now called judo, etc).

BJJ is functional and if you have true basics with your past teachers, then the BJJ area is like a testing field. It tells you where you are
wrong in training and helps you to adapt/incorporate the techniques.

Loyalty to 'useless' stuff is absurd but still alot of people remain loyal to it. BJJ is reality and one just incorporates it into their training.

One of the most difficult aspects of finding a good teacher is that many decent practitioners are lousy teachers because they don't have the patience, the language or the communication skills (and, no, the last two items are not the same thing!)

I have only experienced Tim by hosting him to do a workshop in my city; but my students and I were certainly impressed by him on many levels. He is one of only a small handful of teachers out of dozens that I have met in three decades of martial arts training that really impressed me on many levels.

Of course, the downside to hosting him is that he seems to require a lot of meat in his diet ...

I've been training with Tim since the mid fifties and I can tell you why I'm loyal; He owes me fifty bucks and he borrowed my lawn mower and still hasn't returned it! Also, he does a great Ace Ventura impersonation.

Remember that scene when Ace was with the lions eating a zebra...

I have never trained with Tim, but I have his Xing Yi Nei Gung tape and several of his books. If his teaching style is like his writting style... thank god I only bought the books.

Just kidding again.

I like all of your works.

Thanks Rich,
Actually, I talk just like I write, but I have a pirate accent.

and his favorite color is AAAARrnnnnggee.

....and he drinks a lot of rum.

and if you ask him "where are your buccaneers?"

He'll say "They're under my buckin' hat!!!"

(Since we're on the subject; BlackBeard raped my Great, Great Grandmother!)

I've known Tim since the beginning of the last century. We grew up in the Bowery and would hang out in Chatham Square. He'd fight for money back then, using his karate. Papa Piaggi, the organ grinder, would dress Tim up like a bellhop and tether him from a leash to collect pennies for him. Those were the good old days. We wore knickers back then and would pull out our slingshots and hit old ladies in the buttocks. We sat atop a lighthouse and watched the Roach Guards take on the Dead Rabbits. Then he left and went to Taiwan. We surely miss him in the old Bowery.

that was a different Tim, Tim never did Karate.

Oh. Sorry.

A follow-up question for Meynard.

In a previous post in this thread on March 16th, you said

"There's only one other person in the world who I could think of who could match his(Tim) ability to teach and use martial arts. He is that good. "

What one other person in the world might you have been referring to?

Thanks,
Richard

he probably meant Don Dragier.

Hi Enforcer,

Hopefully Meynard will answer for himself. I am just curious, especially since Meynard is also an instructor of Kali.

Don Draeger might fit in the category. If I had made such a statement I might have meant Jack Hoban ;)

Richard, I never personally met Jack, but my training partners said they smelt cigarette smoke on him!! LOL!

I have heard that many of the top Bujinkan guys are interesting characters, but then again anyone who dedicates that much time to studying Ninjutsu can't be that normal

Too bad Hatsumi is semi-retired and doesn't travel to the USA anymore.

Richard, remember how a lot of the training groups would secretly badmouth each other (they don't have the right idea, Hayes doesn't really know him, etc.)? I heard Hatsumi and Hayes had a falling out. Any knowledge on that? That doesn't seem to be a good example of loyalty.

Hi Kenneth,

I don't know anything particularly interesting about the high-level politics. I know that a lot of people think Soke Hatsumi is a great guy, very intelligent and kind with a good sense of humor. But then again I have heard that he is a little tempermental and definitely traditional. Obviously every student-teacher split involved a two-way disagreement.

The whole Stephen Hayes situation is doubley interesting when you consider that many of the current top Bujinkan instructors (including Jack Hoban) started off as students of Hayes and went to Japan as his blackbelts to further their studies with Hatsumi and take the Godan test for Shidoshi licenses.

One other high profile ex-bujinkan instructor is Dr. Glenn J. Morris, but I know that even though he now teaches his own art "Hoshinjutsu" he still goes to train with Hatsumi periodically.

A lot of the top Bujinkan instructors have a big problem with Richard VonDonk's home-study course for Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, but obviously Hatsumi doesn't.

But I must say that neither of two Bujinkan instructors I have trained with in the past have ever been into bashing others.

Unfortunately, my three favorite arts all have too much politics; Wing Chun, Taiji, and Ninjutsu

It is something I read on this forum, I don't know that it is true.

A home study course for Taijutsu?? Yeah, I've read Hatsumi feels that successfully navigating the sea of inevitable phonies and the less-than-qualified is yet another lesson in overcoming life's curveballs.