Welcome!
Please bare with me I did not have time to proof read this page.
Please do not let this be another problem for you.
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If you are in this part of Double Dragon's Home Page then something is wrong. However, this is ok, it does not matter if you are a Black Belt or a White Belt let us talk for a moment.
I do not know if I can help but I will try. Before I start let me say one thing, I will play no games here and the first time you slip before we solve your problem, I will stop trying to help you. Trust me on one thing, none of my students or I, will try to treat you with disrespect, physically or mentally. We will all try to help and be a friend.
Now that we are clear on this subject let me tell you a short story.
As you probably know from reading my home page I started doing Karate at around "13" years old. The first school I attended was at the YMCA, studying Kyokushin. The second school I attended was a private school teaching Goju-Ryu. My first teacher was a student of Yamaguchi himself regardless of the fact that Yamaguchi changed the name of his style, or someone did to Gojukai makes little difference to me. The third school I attended was a Jutoka school, what is Jutoka, well Judo, Taekwondo, and Karate, another martial arts variation. Then I attended a Cuong-Nhu school, another variation this style is a blend of six different styles. Then I attended a Judo class, then I had a number of USA Goju-Ryu practitioners try to prove to me how good they were. I learnt understood how insecure those USA Goju-Ryu practitioner were at that time around a karataka in Goju-Ryu who was not of Grandmaster Peter Eurban's line. They wanted to prove to themselves that they were better than I just because came from another Goju-Ryu Master of Yamaguchi, as if they were not worthy of there rank. After this escape I went back to train in Cuong-Nhu, some of the most capable black belts in the country belong to this style. The Cuong-Nhu organization is very disciplined and honorable. Then I went back to try and study Goju-Ryu. This time with Master Russ Rogg, this style is now Shendo Goju-Ryu. I had problems with his students also, Russ is an excellent practitioner and I liked him a lot. Finally I found Grandmaster Saavedra, and with Hanchi I found respect for my capabilities and a man that was trying to do something worth something in the martial arts. It took a Grandmaster to stop the problem I was having in finding a Goju-Ryu teacher to train under, someone who would not try to prove some point or another. I will leave this at that. Grandmaster Saavedra, studied under Grandmaster Peter Urban (USA Goju-Ryu) who studied under Supreme Grandmaster Yamaguchi.
I studied Traditional Goju-Ryu under Tony Chisolm when the disagreement between Peter Urban and Yamaguchi began. Tony Chisolm didn't say much except that Peter Urban or Goju-Ryu in America had gone crazy. I had no idea that this was going to have a devastating effect on my life. I was a young man when I came to the USA in 1977 and did not know where to find Tony Chisolm who had left me. So I had to study karate as a dislocated student.
So what did I do, well I went out to find a Goju-Ryu school that I could continue training towards my 1st degree Black Belt. Thanks to Peter Urban and Yamaguchi I was in for a real problem.
It did not take me long to realize that Black Belts in America were given Certificates. No one gave me a Certificate to prove I was a Black Belt they gave me a Belt. So when I attempted to join a Goju-Ryu school they were very aggressive and I was treated like trash, just because I was not USA Goju-Ryu. Those Schools that let me train with them only wanted to see how quickly they could injure me, well they could not thanks to the training I received from Tony Chisolm, but they did make me leave their schools. This rubbish forced me to go to another style, Cuong-Nhu, they did not accept my Black Belt, however they did show me respect, and today I hold a Brown Belt in Cuong-Nhu no certificate needed. Well I wanted to continue Goju-Ryu so I welt looking again. My reason, well, it was the loyalty to my first teacher Tony Chisolm and my Hero Yamaguchi.
Just like me I know that a lot of you have a great loyalty to the first system you learn and your first teacher. I still feel deep down inside that my first style Kyokushin and my first hero Matsutatsu Oyama are my first love. But with a little understanding you can find some light in all this darkness. Matsutatsu Oyama,s teacher was Neichu So and who was his teacher well Gogen Yamaguchi so Kyokushin is another form of what, well Goju-Ryu, like the cat you can change its spots to suite its terrain, and make it better to camouflage itself, but it is still a cat, just better in its current surroundings. Yin & Yang.
This time I went to a school taught by Russ Rogg still USA Goju-Ryu, the thing that struck me was that all the students wore a black gi. This was an insult to Goju-Ryu to see students in black gi, an insult to Yamaguchi I felt. Any way by this time I understood what had happened between Peter Urban and Yamaguchi, and since I could not find any schools that belonged to Yamaguchi in the USA, and I could not find Tony Chisolm, if I wanted to do Goju-Ryu I had no choice but join USA Goju-Ryu even if it meant seriously hurting one of them as they tried to hurt me. Note no one told me that Yamaguchi had changed the style name to Gojukai. I guess to loose students like me did not matter enough or maybe they did but I was a kid and lacked the understanding to find my way. Pity the internet was not yet accessible at that time.
The story here reads almost the same as before, Russ Rogg greeted me and allowed me to join his school. He told me that he would allow me to learn all the variations to the katas and he would then allow me to test to Brown Belt and after a little while in this rank he would let me test to Black Belt and I would be back where I belonged. I can honestly say his intentions were honest, but his students did not agree with him and he gave in. He tested me to Brown Belt I passed of course but then he could only, promote me to Purple Belt and told me that this was because his students were getting angry that he was going to give me a Brown Belt. I as a honorable student to my new teacher, who I dearly liked, accepted this Purple Belt. But when his Brown Belt saw I was wearing a Purple Belt they took this as a sign that I was not really any good and lost respect for me, knowing I was a Black Belt of Yamaguchi's Goju-Ryu. Then they attempted to prove to me that they were better than I, so even though I did not want this conflict I was thrown into it. Of course I did not expect to be really attacked, but when they did, and you can believe they did not draw any of the force of their attack. I reacted as any black belt would if someone really tried to hurt them, and they got hurt. Russ Rogg had lost control of his students because he did not demand enough respect or they did not respect him enough or they misunderstood and were trying to show their teacher they loved him, or he set it up. I do not know but instead of Russ putting an end to this, after I hurt his student, and understand me, I did not hurt them badly. I however, bent my first masters rules 'Tony Chisolm', who said "If someone even, looks like they want to fight you take them out." I let them live. Well Russ Rogg a 7th Dan decided he was going to teach me a lesson, he did not care to teach his other students discipline, but he did break up the match as his student yelled for pain as I pinned him on the ground and bent his fingers, as big as he was.
After about two other sparing matches Russ decided to spar with me, I did not think he was going to try to injure me, he was my teacher and I loved him. Well by the time I realized I was in trouble and I was going to get hurt his kick had jumped over my block and was coming straight for my eye. I remembered what my Cuong-Nhu master had said to me many years earlier. Master Ngo Dong, "If you are going to get hit make sure you hit the other person or you will have lost the battle" (Balance the loss of energy if you cannot do better) so I let a punch fly and Russ took it in the ribs as I took his heel in the eye!
I saw double, he knew it. He did not want another punch like that one. We were both still standing. However, in keeping with Goju-Ryu Karate, I showed no pain, he showed no pain. Then he asked me if I was all right, I looked at the two of him and said no but I am ready to continue. He moved funny I knew he was in pain, he knew I was seeing double. Then he said enough. I bowed, we saved face in front of the many students he had who witnessed this fight. But the bottom line was I had lost my home again, and worse of all I had to leave an instructor that I really loved studying under.
As time had passed I had become a Airline Pilot and to lose my eyesight was more than I could risk. My eyes refocused after a few hours, for the Black Belts reading this, well no one in the school, but I knew how long it took me to see straight again.
There was something else happening while all this was going on. Grandmaster Saavedra who just happened to be the teacher of Russ Rogg has heard of me and was paying attention to my progress. Thank God for this.
I left the Instruction of Russ Rogg and decided at the advise of my students to start another style and do not return to Goju-Ryu, for sooner or later someone was going to get seriously injured, and that could be me. I accepted their challenge to go it alone and founded HaSo-Ryu.
This went well until my father in law insulted me over the fact that my 3rd degree was self issued and I had become a renegade Black Belt, he was correct but I had not just issued the belt I had beaten other 3rd degrees in competition so this way I knew I was of this caliber. Any way it hurt and off I went again for the one millionth time to get recognized.
One of my students in Cuong-Nhu who had gone on and become a Black Belt found out that I was looking around for Mike Arnspiger who was my Cuong-Nhu teacher. My student who knew my history had become a student of Grandmaster Manny Saavedra and asked me to come and see him at his request, I did and found out that he was aware of my situation. I was invited to continue my studies as his personal student. This was a great honor and Grandmaster Saavedra proved to be a fine example and a honorable man. This is what I had expected to find the first time I entered a Goju-Ryu School.
I would not be honest if I said that I was immediately accepted by his personal students, but Grandmaster Saavedra gave me a level playing field to play on and I earned their respect and friendship quickly, for his students were extremely disciplined, and possessed great respect for their Grandmaster and his decisions. Because of the type of Black Belt Russ Rogg had become he, was asked to start his own style and today is the founder of an interesting style, Shendo Goju-Ryu, I still am a very good friend of his.
Well if you have read this far you now know that I am willing to help you if you have had any of the problems I have encountered in my experience with Karate. I do not tell this story to blame any of the people who put me through such a perilous journey. I tell you this story to help you not have to walk this road.
If you are a Karataka, you have moved and there is no school in your style around, or you have fallen to the wayside and do not know what to do now, then e-mail me at DeBucUSA,
I will try to help. I am really not concerned with what style you were doing, just that you need respect, acknowledgement for your efforts, and a helping hand.
I can offer you this if you offer me as much as I offer you. Do not contact me to discuss how bad your previous experiences were, just give me a history of the problem, your rank, and your lineage, in short some background. I will contact you in short order and we will see if I can help. Please be ready to continue your karate for I have a lot of students and have limited time. However, note "If you do not trust someone you will never be able to trust someone." I will put you to the test as with the old way. If you cannot walk the road you will not be invited into the gate.
The best to you in your efforts to move forward, nothing tried, nothing gained. Talk to you soon Renshi.
If you feel like hearing more on this click here:
The Problem of Lack of Respect
in Martial Arts
{ps. I have not had the time to proof read this page sorry}
