Before this turns into an "ARGH SHUMA SUCKS" thread, keep this in mind: Shuma posted a story about how getting his ass kicked at a throwdown helped him to become a better fighter (note BETTER, not necessarily SUPER BADASS) as a contrast to what PizDoff did. It was not written in a particularly egotistical manner. Any attribution of ego is based on personal dislike for him.

The post is very appropriate, and should be taken for what it is.

OH NO HE'S SOOOOO FULL OF HIMSELF DUDE JUST THE OTHER DAY HE WAS LIKE, OH IT'S ALMOST DUSK TIME FOR ME TO GO ARMBAR THE SUN!

Why are you deliberately obstinate?


Because Shuma has come into every TO TD thread that I have seen since I have been here with the same line.

"You should all be training at a proper BJJ school instead of going to TD's" line

Which completely ignores where people train or why they go to TD's

If he hadn't repeatedly trolled the TD threads in the past I would give him more credit for having a genuine point.

Still his best post though.

P.S.

Knowing what I know of the TO grappling seen and that Shuma has to have genuine skill as Shah Franco Blue Belt.

But being a dick with skill is only marginally better than being a dick with out skill.

I don't agree that throwdowns are a universal waste of time, but you have to understand he formulated that opinion after traveling to thowdowns where there were often people who were using the throwdown not to test grappling knowledge but to gain some grappling experience. This left a bad taste in several mouths around here, not just shuma's tight little manpleaser.

Before this turns into an "ARGH SHUMA SUCKS" thread, keep this in mind: Shuma posted a story about how getting his ass kicked at a throwdown helped him to become a better fighter (note BETTER, not necessarily SUPER BADASS) as a contrast to what PizDoff did. It was not written in a particularly egotistical manner. Any attribution of ego is based on personal dislike for him.

The post is very appropriate, and should be taken for what it is.

For the record I'm not totally disagreeing with Shum. I just think he's whining bitch.

I have to admit, there is a lot of merit in Shuma's post..but I think people attend TD's for different reasons and are expecting different things to come out of it.
Personally, I don't mind getting hit in the face and mixing it up bit. Some people don't and that's OK too - as long as you are not claiming to be more than you are.
If Pizdoff is drawing the ire of other members because he doesn't practice hard enough or just plain sucks and doesn't seem to have any desire to improve my question is this : if you don't have to roll with him, why make a big deal out of it? he doesn't claim to be a great fighter, he is the NEWS EDITOR for Bullshido - he's not even a forum leader. i personally have never read a single post where he offers any advice on technique or whatnot.
Dscouraging people from coming to the TO Throwdowns only makes it shitty for guys who want a bit of a challenge and are willing to step up the contact a bit. Not everyone has the opportunity to do that as often as some others do.
I really don't want to get involved in this one, I grow tired of the pendantic whining and snivelling on this site.
Truth of the matter is that I can see both sides. I hate guys who do shitty Kung fu and ruin it for people who train hard in the art. So I suppose that BJJ guys have the same right to lash out at Pizz'd if he is not living up to (or even attempting to live up to) standards of their sport.
Whatever..

This thread happens every year and the only change is that the number of terrible posters keeps going up. I don't post much at Bullshido anymore because of the 2% of posters I can tolerate, half of those are already on my IM list. However, I still feel motivated enough by the site's cause to respond to this thread because it's more damaging to Bullshido than a hundred threads on any other topic. I'm sure the rest of this post will sound incredibly self-righteous but I long ago stopped caring what most of you think.

You see, when I registered here I was entering my sixth year of training at a karate mcdojo. I disliked many of its better posters for extolling BJJ and Muay Thai above all else because any art could be viable if trained right blah blah blah go read the TMA forums if you want an idea of what my thought process went like. As a point of reference, this was early 2003 and Pizdoff already had more posts than most of the other forum members combined.

Deciding that I should test the effectiveness of my training, I attended a Toronto throwdown that fall and the results were dismal: I was controlled and submitted by one of my friends despite having some Judo experience, and my Karate was ineffective enough to nearly get me knocked out on my feet through Boxing headgear. Based on these outcomes and a desire to improve, I left Karate late that month and stuck to Judo full-time until I could join my current Karate-BJJ-MMA school the next summer.

Fast forward to the infamous Shuma-Gorath vs. Repulsive Monkey match in February '05. I'd never trained MMA and couldn't wrestle, and what little standup I'd learnt went down the tubes when the adrenaline hit, resulting my reverting to stale McShotokan. The only BJJ I'd practised enough after six months was self-defence for when you get knocked down by a standing opponent. After losing the first round on points, I came back and won the fight via a couple solid punches, based on overwhelming desire to not lose to someone doing Tai Chi. Even though it was an awful performance in light of the hype, I still looked better than my first throwdown video and the results were better.
That was now three years ago. Somehow, (mainly because my detractors can barely walk upright) I still take abuse for that video today. In those three years, I have:

-Competed and medalled in three different grappling weight classes
-Earned my blue belt and some stripes (then again so did the entire 10% of the forum that trains)
-Posted some technical threads that were unfortunately text-only
-Opened a university BJJ program taught by one of our organization's brown belts, which has four-stripe white belts that put most throwdown grapplers to shame
-Recovered from two different back injuries received while training
-Travelled to Brazil and competed in the World Cup at blue belt

Where am I going with this? Well, Pizdoff looks the same on film as he did back in 2003. He is the same man who got submitted by a Thai boxer with no formal grappling instruction. The same man who came to my BJJ school and blamed his complete domination by professional fighters on having to wear a gi. The same man who thought slams and stomps were as easy as they appear on TV. The same man who thought no one knew to lift their hips while shrimping. The same man who asked "how long to shin surf a newb" when trying to gloat about a retarded variation of knee-on-belly. And yet, somehow, Wastrel / Deus / Deadpan / Boyd / Hedge / Aeso / myself and all the other people who hurt your feelings have been the only ones calling him on it, and this has gone on so long that half of those people cannot stand to post here anymore.

The only thing separating him from a normal grappler is will. We've all got busy schedules and we all get sick. I haven't trained much lately because I'm trying to graduate from university so I can understand taking some time off. But when you nurse the same shoulder injury for five years while I see men training with torn ligaments and competing mere weeks after being in motorcycle accidents, there are precious few excuses left. When you look the same as you did five years ago despite training at one of the best schools in the city even for a few months, someone's character has to be called into question.

"Oh, but he's just a hobbyist like most of the people here" you cry. **** right off. If someone's stated hobby is playing tennis, they will eventually resemble a worthwhile tennis player with some consistent practise. If they like building those tiny ships inside the bottles they'll eventually produce one with some consistent effort. If they like to grapple, they will eventually resemble a technically competent athlete.

The only difference between Pizdoff and everyone who improved in the last five years is that Pizdoff's reaction to failure is "lol I suck" while the real grappler says "I'm never letting that happen again". When I got rocked at a throwdown, I switched schools to get better training. When my terrible MMA fight was deservedly mocked by friends and people who did fucking ninjitsu, I went to more Kickboxing classes and tried to get some wrestling instruction. When I lost an in-house tournament via an embarrassing ankle lock, I took a private class on applying and escaping that one lock. Pizdoff, on the other hand, doesn't appear to have that desire for success in anything. He was even beaten at forum posting by a bot called NewsGimp.

Pizdoff's motivation or skill doesn't really concern me. I never have to roll with him because I stopped wasting time at throwdowns now that they've served their purpose for me, and I rarely see people like him at my school since if they don't quit within six weeks they get better and provide a worthwhile challenge in class. What bothers me is that people are actually defending his lousy work ethic, splitting technical criticism off of throwdown threads and hiding videos from public view when they are justly mocked. You are becoming the same insular community that spawns many of the kinds of fraud Bullshido claims to fight.

Posting here with any kind of serious intent, or even attempting to glean the useful bits of knowledge and wit buried beneath the white noise of mediocrity and 4chan-esque drivel has become my least-productive hobby. In the last year I've probably helped more people avoid fraudulent martial arts via Facebook than Bullshido. All of you need to ask yourselves what you gain by posting here and if the kind of effort shown in each and every throwdown video is something you should reward with respect.


Oh look, my helicopter is here. (http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showpost.php?p=824948&postcount=199)


That's sounds fine.

Your training did not give you what you wanted, so you chose to leave Karate and train in Judo and BJJ instead.

But this needs to be understood. If all posters on this website started wrestling in highschool and continued with it, they probably would be better martial artists than they are today. Wrestling itself is a great base to learn BJJ aswell.

Oh look, my helicopter is here. (http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showpost.php?p=824948&postcount=199)Rereading that thread is a nice piece of nostalgia. I can't believe how wrong I was. The ironic ending to that story: If anything, I'm currently a harsher moderator than Shuma or Aesopian. Yet no one really complains. I wonder what's going to happen in 5 or 10 months when I'm not going to be able to be the guy doing all the moderating anymore.
For the record I'm not totally disagreeing with Shum. I just think he's whining bitch.Trust me. Having discussed this in person with you over a beer, I'm 100% aware of what your opinion is, and I'm definitely not trying to change your mind about Shuma as a poster. I just wanted to state that I feel the post is valid, even if you don't like the source.
PostWow. Well, I don't think anyone is going to argue with you there, as unrelated as your post is to, well, anything.

Can someone please just lock this thread, burn it, bury it, and salt the ground it stood on.

We need to move on to more important things like. Why my grappling sucks and what we all collectively can do about it.

Because by this time next year I want to dominate and crush all.

No, Goju, we will not go softly into that good night.

Well that was a decent post by shum. But the point seems to be that since he got schooled in TD's, now he doesn't need to waste his time?

Selfish I'd call it. If shum had got off his ass and CONTRIBUTED by actually showing up, that would have been great. As it is, I'm sorry he trained shitty carartey and didn't have the luck to train Kyokushin or Enshin or Shidokan or any good TMA type school, but now that he's trained well, is the proper Bullshido attitude to keep that training to oneself?

But back to Boyd, is he a gimmick? Shum appears from his post to actually be training, albeit that he is taking the attitude that helping put on TD's and showing others a proper way to train and fight seems to be too much trouble for him to bother with putting forth the effort (and doesn't this essentially betray this site's purpose?), but Boyd seems to be the one on this thread giving people **** about their half assed grappling. I ask again, does Boyd go to TD's? Has Boyd posted any vids that would make his opinion valid. I'm not trying to pick on Boyd, as I don't spend enough time here to actually know the answers, I'd just appreciate knowing.

Well that's good to know that he's training.

IMHO it's great that advanced people like Asia, Clyde, Omega and such share their skills at TD's. Maybe BJJ blues are too insecure/egotistical or something.

(and I did get schooled myself TDing with Meex and Little Idea, to tell the truth).

*edit* ****, I just realized that this ISN'T the Toronto TD thread that I more or less read this one I haven't read. Hmmm, hope I made sense.

No, Goju, we will not go softly into that good night.

Gently not softly

and in the immortal word of Roberto Duran No Mas man No Mas, I tap

Well that was a decent post by shum. But the point seems to be that since he got schooled in TD's, now he doesn't need to waste his time?

Selfish I'd call it. If shum had got off his ass and CONTRIBUTED by actually showing up, that would have been great. As it is, I'm sorry he trained shitty carartey and didn't have the luck to train Kyokushin or Enshin or Shidokan or any good TMA type school, but now that he's trained well, is the proper Bullshido attitude to keep that training to oneself?

But back to Boyd, is he a gimmick? Shum appears from his post to actually be training, albeit that he is taking the attitude that helping put on TD's and showing others a proper way to train and fight seems to be too much trouble for him to bother with putting forth the effort (and doesn't this essentially betray this site's purpose?), but Boyd seems to be the one on this thread giving people **** about their half assed grappling. I ask again, does Boyd go to TD's? Has Boyd posted any vids that would make his opinion valid. I'm not trying to pick on Boyd, as I don't spend enough time here to actually know the answers, I'd just appreciate knowing.

That's not the point shum was making at all.

So says the cry baby.

Do not make me post your MMA record.


80% of your post is how good you have become and your accomplishments especialy in comparison to how bad Pizdof has (in your opinion) remained.

How about this? I've spent most of the last 5 years as a worthless drug addict with a bad back among other various injuries, yet still managed to improve. No reference to anyone else, just a plain fact about myself that applies to this discussion.


But this needs to be understood. If all posters on this website started wrestling in highschool and continued with it, they probably would be better martial artists than they are today.

Completely true and entirely irrelevant to this thread.


If anything, I'm currently a harsher moderator than Shuma or Aesopian. Yet no one really complains.

You don't get to comedically edit posts, though. A tragedy.

recap, im actually with boyd and hedge on this one (oh teh vomit).

some general points: some people can really bitch on the forum but then you seem em on video and it makes you wonder where they got the nerves to give any advice or opinions what so ever.
personally i think pizdoff is one of those people.
im aware that there's no video material of myself but as people may know i dont give out advice on anything on a serious note that much.

The fact that you have 'the balls' to visit a throwdown and manhandle someone doesnt give you a free pass to get away with crappy techniques etc.
I've seen several videos of TD's so far, and i think the TD's are really a good thing, but i cant say ive seen many impressive fighters, just some.
What im trying to say here is that there's several people on the forum that come across more knowledgeble then what the tdvideos give em credit for.

on the other hand: at least they show up at the tds, fight and get on tape, so i can always appreciate that aspect.

so in short: you dont have to be good,gung ho or anything, as long as you're realistic about your abilities and dont portray yourself any better/experienced etc on the bullshido forums.

just my two cents.