This was about 3 years ago or so.

This kid turns up to our bujinkan class. He was thin, geeky and looked like the spaz that nobody likes from an 80's high-school movie. He was 16 at the time.

Well, wwe start getting into it, I paired up with him in the course of training and he's doing stupid **** like opening his hand and trying to punch with his fingers. He was told several times that he shouldn't do that as someone could grab and break them. I should have done that to teach him a lesson but anyway...

After training were all talking and he starts talking about going to america to train with Ashida Kim. We tell him that AK is full of **** and isn't connected to any ninjutsu arts. He didn't buy it. He went on about how he can put his hand in boiling water (cheap stunt anyone can replicate). My instructor told him that if he really wants ninjutsu, he's better off spending his money going to Japan to train with Hatsumi as that's the closest he's going to get. By the way, his parents were willing to fund his ninja training trip to the US.

He never turned up to training again but did phone my instuctor a few times asking for private lessons. He was told that there was little to be learnt from private one-on-one lessons and he should come to classes. No Show.

Later on I hear that he has been made the Australian representative of Ashida Kim's organisation.

nice......

I don't know how AK doesn't get busted for soliciting minors over the internet

Later on I hear that he has been made the Australian representative of Ashida Kim's organisation.

His name wasn't Danny was it?

Yeah, amazingly enough, some groups have spent money to fly Ashida Kim in to train them.

Anyone who even googles ashida kim and looks at his site, should automatically KNOW that it is a bunch of bullshit. I have a hard time beleiving he has any followers.

His name wasn't Danny was it?

Hmmm, rings a bell. I'll check that for you and get back to you on it.

I had a friend in college who was a bona fide ninjutsu bullshidoka and even he believed that Ashida Kim was full of ****. Even though he was no better himself; He claimed to run a ninja dojo from the backyard of his parents' house where he lived and picked students off the street. He also claimed to be a badass even though he was a wirey looking mofo and also had a "network" of ninjas working under him(He even showed me his list).

Just picture a really skinny reedy guy in his late 20s with really long messy dandruffy hair, big mule-like teeth, a thin "white trash" goatee and a stuffy Kermit T. Frog voice, unemployed and still living with his parents who claims to be a ninja master just because he read some books on Togakure ninjutsu. He used to bring ninja weapons to show off and we used to borrow MA books to each other.

Last time I saw him though, He did manage to reform a little (he's got a job now but not a very good one) but he still is a little on the crazy side.

Anyone who even googles ashida kim and looks at his site, should automatically KNOW that it is a bunch of bullshit. I have a hard time beleiving he has any followers.


I dunno. If someone just saw, say, Secrets of the Ninja, they might give some credibility to Ashida Kim. The reason is that Radford ripped off Applegate sentry removal techniques and plagarized them into SoTN. So someone who didn't know that much about martial arts might see that part and not necessarily automatically reject the rest of the book.

Basically, if you see all the Ashida Kim stuff on the internet, it's easy to see that he's insane. However, if you just saw a couple of his books, I could see someone who 1.) isn't bothering to exercise critical thinking and 2.) perhaps dosen't have much sparring experience sort of accepting him.

I dunno. If someone just saw, say, Secrets of the Ninja, they might give some credibility to Ashida Kim. The reason is that Radford ripped off Applegate sentry removal techniques and plagarized them into SoTN. So someone who didn't know that much about martial arts might see that part and not necessarily automatically reject the rest of the book.

Basically, if you see all the Ashida Kim stuff on the internet, it's easy to see that he's insane. However, if you just saw a couple of his books, I could see someone who 1.) isn't bothering to exercise critical thinking and 2.) perhaps dosen't have much sparring experience sort of accepting him.

Whats very sad about it all is that when you tell the Ashidaphiles that all he did was rip off someone else's stuff the go, "I don't care if it works that all I want!" And have to think YOU STUPID **** IF HE RIPPED OFF SOMEONE ELSE DON'T YOU THINK THE PERSON HE RIPPED OFF WOULD TEACH IT BETTER!!! They don't becauese it will end their fantasy of playing NINJA!

I trained with a guy who used to train with some fake "ninjas" who used to just get some basic karate and call it ninjitsu. Now this is the really funny bit:

They made this guy dress up in a ninja costume and hand out flyers in the street.