We don’t know where to start. There’s just so much wrong (and funny) with this guy/school. Is it his motto “I’ll make your head touch your ass”, the flashy welcome page, the fact that he wants money for his galleries, or the awesome biography of “High Priest Ricky E. Anderson”? Here for your enjoyment some highlights from latter:
- Leader of The Shaolin 18 Immortals
- Member of The International Bounty Hunter Association
[Thanks Setho Ranks for sharing!]
Actually, I have trained for almost 35 years in the United States and Hong Kong, and my 3 teachers include Grandmaster Leung Shum of Ying Jow Pai, Grandmaster Jeff Bolt, the senior student of Dr. Yang Jwing Ming, and my third teacher is the above person you are making fun of in this forum. I also competed for almost 20 years and am a national judge under Nick Scrima’s Kung Fu tournament circuit. I have trained with this gentleman for 22 years and will tell you I agree his website may not be the best but he is about the most devestating martial artist I have seen or trained under. I believe my three teachers stand on their own, and thus would like to know your background and length of service in order to justify your capability to make quick and uninformed judgements such as these. I have seen pictures on your website and could say some things as well, but it would be dishonorable and disrespectful for me to do so until I see your backgrounds as well.
Today, we all have enough issue trying to defend kung fu and internal arts from external attack without attacking each other or ourselves. Please research before making uninformed assumptions or comments.
With honor and respect,
Sifu Michael Aronson MBA
Sorry to have offended you with my post. I’m not in the US and I don’t know your teachers, so I won’t judge any of them. I don’t see any sense in telling you much about my background as it wouldn’t tell you a lot about my Gongfu and I don’t need to prove anything to anyone. If you want to lookup my teachers, here are their names: Arne Grandt (Germany), Mike Martello (NY & Antwerp), Zhang Xinbin (Beijing), Ma Weiling (Beijing). For an impression just lookup “Mike Martello” or “Zhang Xinbin” on Youtube. An early 2007 clip of mine is also on there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw8wmZDMBko
Now to get to the part about my post. I didn’t make any uninformed comments about your teacher’s gongfu, I haven’t seen or felt it, so I can’t comment on that. He also doesn’t name his teachers or was Wang Fu Yin his only teacher? What I commented on was his website (no biggie), his way of making money (charging for pictures of himself!), and his way of promoting himself (Leader of the Shaolin 18 Immortals!? come on!). Especially latter imho doesn’t count as defending Gongfu, but is one of the things that gives Gongfu the bad reputation of being showoff and about crazy legends etc. Same counts for someone calling himself “Reincarnation” or “High Priest”. Tell that to a BJJ practitioner and see how he makes fun of Gongfu. Being humble is part of Asian Culture, especially “Wude” in CMA. I have lived in China for 2 years, I speak Chinese fluently, and I have trained with, met, and interviewed a lot of good teachers, most of them wouldn’t even let anyone call them Shifu. I know it’s a different thing in the US, where people seem to be very found of belts, certificates, associations, and titles. I understand that it’s difficult to live on teaching Gongfu alone and that this is one of the reasons why marketing goes kinda rogue sometimes. Still I stand with my critique of such marketing practices in Gongfu, as it goes against many things I have learned as part of Chinese culture and Gongfu. It’s not about a big Ego but about developing yourself and your students. It’s not about showoff forms, jumping high and gymnastics, but about deep and inherent applications in everything you train.
Well said Puja.
I just talked with Stefan, Zhang Laoshis long term student in Beijing, about “Shifu” and “Laoshi” and he explained that no chinese Teacher or Master would ever call himself Sifu or Shifu. Laoshi (Teacher), yes. But Shifu? No way, that is just not polite and not very humble.