College instructor in STL

**sterlingsinner** · Posted On: 4/24/2012 3:23am

Hey everyone, I took some courses over the summer at a community college in St Louis to supplement my university requirements and save money. I needed to fill some gaps to get full time status so I picked up Judo I with a guy that seemed overly theatrical and shady. I looked online to try to find some stuff about him but there isn't much. Just his listing on chun ji do international. When he introduced himself to the class he listed blackbelts in a LOT of different arts. My uh-oh light was blinking immediately. He talked about knowing a style that he couldn't talk about because it was secret or something like that. He hinted at it a few times and said that in his art he liked to get in very close and strike (but it wasn't any well-known art). He talked about knowing all these pressure points and how chi exists in the body and can be utilized to disrupt others or stun them. He hinted at knowing intricate deadly techniques as well. He was like one of those guys out of a really bad MA movie.
He said he was law enforcement so I granted him some experience with handling people. We never really rolled or did any sort of sparring with him so I never got to see any demonstrations. He showed us how to do 4 throws and then a handful of stuff that I'm pretty sure wasn't judo as well as a bunch of pressure points. Our last class involved sparring with others. I had missed the previous one so I had to spar with the other 7 students for a minute each. I had VERY basic jiu jitsu experience and learned a little from a guy that used to wrestle and ended up doing some combatives tournaments in the military. I ended up doing well and he said he was impressed but I knew that the class was nonsense. The whole thing was ridiculous and I felt bad that a few of those kids thought they were really learning something, maybe even confident that they could defend themselves in a real fight.
I tried getting a jiujitsu lineage out of him but got nothing. I felt that i had a good idea of what a bad session looked like and found a real BJJ gym in the area and my search for knowledge found this site. I looked all over the place for this guy and only found the one site I mentioned above... chun ji do international. I can't post a link yet since I'm still new
His name is Roby Irby

**hungryjoe** · Posted On: 4/24/2012 6:18am

Roby may or may not have skills, but he is a member of a known circle jerk/pay to play organization.

http://www.chunjidointernational.com...iates/officers

http://www.chunjidointernational.com/affiliates/39

Sensei Roby Irby of Hillsboro, Illinois holds advanced Black Belt ranking in many arts including Taekwondo, Krav Maga, Jujitsu, and Taijukai. Mr. Irby has extensive Law Enforcement Taining including, Ground Fighting for Law Enforcement Officers and Pressure Point Control Tactics. Mr Irby has been recognized by many organizations such as, US Taekwondo Union, the World Taekwondo Federation, the United States Taejukai Association, and the Nippon Ketsugo Kai Association.

Roby has his very own rank recognition and advancement organization.

http://unitedblackbeltfederation.com/

Awarding rank of 5th dan Jujutsu to a Master Moshe Katz

Possibly his Krav came the same way?

Google search under "United States Taejukai Association" lists only hits with Irby himself.

**slamdunc** · Posted On: 4/24/2012 8:06am

Originally Posted by hungryjoe

Roby has his very own rank recognition and advancement organization.

The one thing that stands out is the photo with our own favorite ninja and kumite champion, Frank Dux. That paints a pretty bleak picture for me.

**slamdunc** · Posted On: 4/24/2012 8:07am

UBBF offers regular seminars by leaders in the martial arts industry, rank advancement and distance learning. Sounds pretty legitimate, I didn't notice a reference to Ashida Kim

**JohnKenner** · Posted On: 4/24/2012 9:32am

Which community college was this? Can you give me an idea of what the title and description of the class were?

I ask because there is a lot of good Judo (Kirkwood Judo Club, White Dragon Judo) in the area. I find it ridiculous to market a class as Judo when is not teaching Kodokan Judo.

I mean, who knows about this guy right?

Sensei Roby Irby of Hillsboro, Illinois holds advanced Black Belt ranking in many arts including Taekwondo, Krav Maga, Jujitsu, and Taijukai.

I mean he uses the appropriate weasel words - what does advanced Black Belt mean? He also lists himself as Dr. Roby Irby on his website... He could have credentials that make these claims technically true. The only bit that really irks me is him teaching a Judo class when he never lists himself as a dan in Judo.

Incidentally, what the hell is taijukai (also spelled taejukai on the same site)?

**sterlingsinner** · Posted On: 4/24/2012 2:05pm

Originally Posted by JohnKenner

Which community college was this? Can you give me an idea of what the title and description of the class were?

I ask because there is a lot of good Judo (Kirkwood Judo Club, White Dragon Judo) in the area. I find it ridiculous to market a class as Judo when is not teaching Kodokan Judo.

I mean, who knows about this guy right?

I mean he uses the appropriate weasel words - what does advanced Black Belt mean? He also lists himself as Dr. Roby Irby on his website... He could have credentials that make these claims technically true. The only bit that really irks me is him teaching a Judo class when he never lists himself as a dan in Judo.

Incidentally, what the hell is taijukai (also spelled taejukai on the same site)?

It might be the secret art he was talking about.... j/k. I have no idea what it is.

The class was just Judo I at the STL Community College in FP. He still teaches there. Our entire class was him talking about all sorts of different techniques and comparisons. He always talked about no one ever being able to grapple or get in close with him because that is the preferred distance for his secret art and he'd end up breaking bones or killing his attacker.
We did break falls for the first few classes whenever he wasn't telling us about different styles or some other deadly martial art, then went on. Basically, if I cut out all of his talk, what we did over an entire semester was: break falls, two or three throws (I'm not good with judo so I can't tell you the names of them), tons of pressure point attacks and minor joint manipulation takedowns. The last two classes were basic sparring with everyone. Your final test was to demonstrate three consecutive moves that fit together and it didn't have to be moves from class. I passed with a double leg takedown to side mount, full mount, and armbar, none of which were taught in class but he told me that the moves were impressive.
I've done some research in MA and joined a BJJ gym since then and realized that what he's doing is dangerous and he's getting paid for this from a community college. He offers Judo II but I am further in my degree at my university so the community college classes don't factor in anymore, or I'd take it and get video or audio for examples. He has a bunch of younger kids that are fresh out of high school that don't know any better thinking that they're really learning something useful.

**JohnKenner** · Posted On: 4/24/2012 2:42pm

Originally Posted by sterlingsinner

The class was just Judo I at the STL Community College in FP.

Was this it: PE 137?

Introduction to the "gentle way" - the basic techniques of Sport Judo. Includes standing throws (Naga Waza), grappling techniques (Katame Waza), choking techniques (Shime Waza) and free exercise (Randori).

Who can check to see if this guy is currently a member of USJA or USJF?

Wow, no mention of the anti grapple in that syllabus:

He always talked about no one ever being able to grapple or get in close with him because that is the preferred distance for his secret art and he'd end up breaking bones or killing his attacker.

I've done some research in MA and joined a BJJ gym since then and realized that what he's doing is dangerous and he's getting paid for this from a community college.

Good for you. Most would've drank the kool-aid.

**sterlingsinner** · Posted On: 4/24/2012 3:08pm

Originally Posted by JohnKenner

Was this it: PE 137?

Yes it was

I was in the military for a while and I knew something was way off with that guy when he started talking about how easy it is to kill people and his secret art. When I heard that he practiced some secret art I immediately thought of Frank Dux.
I really wondered about the validity of his claims and also wondered if there would be some penalty if he was proven to be a liar. Similar to military personnel that claim to have certain awards or medals when they don't. I know there really isn't a penalty but i can understand how serious it is to claim you're a black belt when you're not. I could see the danger in it when we did the sparring at the end of the course. I had to spar with each of them in the course and it included a girl who was about 90 lbs and didn't have any experience as well as an 18 year old kid who was heavily overweight and had 90lbs on me. How can you have people with such little experience in a sparring session? Very dangerous. Like I said before, he still teaches there so it makes me nervous to think that this is till going on

**slamdunc** · Posted On: 4/24/2012 3:13pm

Originally Posted by JohnKenner

Who can check to see if this guy is currently a member of USJA or USJF?

I don't know if he is a member of either of those two organizations, but he is an Illinois Secretary of State Capitol Police Investigator, and has received training in Pressure Point Control Tactics (PPCT): defensive tactics for law enforcement. This would explain the emphasis on:

Originally Posted by sterlingsinner

tons of pressure point attacks and minor joint manipulation takedowns.

These techniques are proven in certain circumstances, but against an active, but not violently resistant opponent; they have nothing to do with Judo.

Originally Posted by sterlingsinner

When I heard that he practiced some secret art I immediately thought of Frank Dux.

Did he mention that he did train with Dux? IMHO, that would have totally destroyed all of his credibility.

http://unitedblackbeltfederation.com/

**sterlingsinner** · Posted On: 4/24/2012 3:28pm

I agree with the pressure point and minor joint manipulations. It works when you have a suspect that you can get hands on or as a precaution before a suspect turns violent. I could definitely see the usefulness in a situation like that.
He showed pressure points in the forearm and that didn't impress much. A lot of his pressure point demonstrations were him asking you do present an arm or hold still while he demonstrated it. Pressure points are cool but not as effective as he proposed and we shouldn't have spent as much time as we did on pressure points.
I just remembered another claim about pressure point manipulation and accupressure. Apparently hitting the right pressure points can immediately incapacitate you for a while. He would be able to disrupt your chi so greatly that you wouldn't be able to move certain limbs. I'm sure I'll remember some more gems as I think more on it. He said so much stuff that I just filed it all away under "stuff to tell other people to get a laugh"
I'll leave you with one more gold nugget, "hitting two pressure points on the body can increase blood pressure and overload the heart. I can actually cause a heart attack by hitting the right spots. Of course we can't go over that, but these things are out there. Pressure point control can be deadly"