I've started training at a McDojo!

[mrradley]

I'm going to cut right to the chase. The very first thing I thought when I inspected your complete profile was "And we FINALLY have a West Wind supporter on the board... took long enough." Your a white belt on here so you don't post that often... meaning ever. I'm assuming you read the whole post and maybe hopefully my own post and the only "knock" you have on the school is that they hired me. (And they didn't just hire me... I was their "golden boy" until I obviously stopped caring). And your style is boxing. All of this leads me to believe that your part of the system and most likely have either trained there for boxing or are with one of the other gyms Reyes likes to take Julaton to.

Your whole post to me sounded like a whole bunch of psycho-babel that WW is known for. Starting with your opening quote. Your filler points that had little to do with anything anyone else has said before you. And the way you presented ideas as if they were new when in fact, they're the same points everyone else has been making for quite some time. And you top off your kinda pointless post with a personal attack calling me deranged and annoyingly aggressive, among other things... Riiiiight. Real constructive.

What I would have much rather seen, and would have respected so much more was a WW Instructor coming on here and saying "Hey... I teach there and this is what it's like now." See, that can lead to meaningful discussions on their practices involving lessons, their morales and basically everything they have done and still do that is illegal. This personal attack is nothing but a poor attempt to defend the machine. At least that's my gut reaction.

I could be wrong though. Kolchak, you may not be apart of WW. You could be just someone passing by and wanted to give your own two cents to the situation. (For the record, you had to search for this thread because it wasn't on the front page. How do I know this? There is a 4+ day wait between cuatro76's post and yours.... so you did in fact search for it for one reason or another.) What I would recommend you do is search all of the internet for more information on West Wind. I would start with re-reading this whole post, reading my post again, looking them up on Yelp! and there are a couple of other horrid reviews wandering around the net as well. Maybe then you'll believe how pathetic the system is.

But again, it's not rocket science to figure out you went looking for this thread. And I don't see any real reason to post a response 4 days after the newest post if your an innocent bystander to the whole situation. So just come clean . Say who you are. Use your name and we'll have a nice chat about why Thompson, Reyes and Sheppard need some help.

~Cheers!

[Katje]

"
B)Anyone who lets himself get suckered into a streetfight, much less starts one, deserves whatever they get. Someone who's savvy can bluff his way through 99 percent of these things and just flat out run away from the other .9 .

C)People who expect to be able to defend themselves in any situation with their hands are deluding themselves, anyway. Spending years learning a martial art that will be rendered ineffective in the entirely possible event that you are attacked by two or more people, that you may or may not have the presence of mind to remember or be in a position to use when you are actually attacked is much less cost/time effective than just buying a gun and a comfortable holster.

I'm not sure what the situation re street fights etc is like where you live, but I would like to reply in my experience with being attacked - in the street or otherwise - from a South African perspective, which I think can be generalised to pretty much any country.

With regards to point B, once again I'm not sure what the situation is like where you are, but people here often don't get "suckered" into street fights and certainly wouldn't have time to even start bluffing once the attack started. People get attacked, mugged and raped here all the time. Most of these attacks (particularly rapes and muggings) are unprovoked and so bluffing would be useless, ditto if the person unexpectedly grabs you in the street. My mother was attacked in this way while I was with her and even though I took the usual precautions of checking over my shoulder once the guy had walked past he still doubled back and grabbed her from behind by the arm. In that sort of situation there is no bluffing or running away, and it happens everywhere. Your point is very valid in, say, a bar situation where the fighters escalate from a verbal argument into a brawl, but I don't think it takes quick and unprovoked attacks into account.

Perhaps what you say in point C is true, but one thing learning a martial art is definitely extremely good for in SA is making yourself less of a target. Often when you get mugged or pickpocketed in the street it is by a single beggar, street child or street children. Fighting back, particularly in areas where there are other people around, will act as a deterrent and persuade the attacker or would-be attackers that may be hanging around to pick on an easier target. This can easily be achieved by simply being a bit savvy, but there will always be cases where it doesn't work.

Like I said this is from my little backwater perspective but I think what I said can probably apply to most situations regardless of the country they take place in.

More on topic: Thanks to bunyip for all your hard work and the awesome posts, they were a great read!

Katje

[Joe Hatfield]

I am anxious to read more, especialy since you have such a detailed and inclusive way of writing. Good or bad, I think you will give these guys a fair shake.

[BoonDog]

I am anxious to read more, especialy since you have such a detailed and inclusive way of writing. Good or bad, I think you will give these guys a fair shake.

Who are you talking to nOOb??!?!
This thread is over a year old and no one posted to it until you did.

Why not go over to newbietown and do a proper introduction.

[JohnnyCache]

you can't haze noobs until your account is actually 6 months old.

[newmoons]

you can't haze noobs until your account is actually 6 months old.

Hehe. Pwned.

[JohnnyCache]

Hehe. Pwned.

Thanks for the useless necro-post, newb

[patfromlogan]

Thanks for the useless necro-post, newb

Awe ****, this should always be To The Top! One of the very best threads, should be required reading.

I hope that the West Wind videos on this link are watched. There's even some sparring in the middle right one (Head Instructor Competition). I've failed at copying them.
http://www.westwindschools.org/#/Martial-Arts/Archives/


and check out the costumes!!! LARP! LARP! http://www.westwindschools.org/

[shotokanbjj]

i checked out their website, the costumes are top notch lol.

Know what i like about their system? The fact that they give an absurdly detailed review of what you'll have to do in order to get each new belt. Know what i don't like? Everything else.

What in the god damned **** does learning 11, ELEVEN new kata at once have to do with your ability to fight? What does that do to make you a competent martial artist? Absofuckinglutely nothing.

When you're going for black, you have to "make your own katas"? That sounds like a fancy way of saying "make something up, and we're going to steal it and add it to the required curriculum after you do".

What i'm curious about is, with something along the lines of 46 kicks, 120 self defense techniques, and 30 kata (from their website) needed to get to first degree brown, how proficient are the students at actually applying any of these? Not very apparently, since they don't actually spar.

Going from shotokan (where we rarely sparred) to boxing was an eye opening experience, because i quickly found out which of my techniques actually worked, and which didn't, and it made me sad that maybe 10% of them were actually useful, but it is what it is. I bet any student of WW put up against an equally trained student of boxing, MT, or hell even REAL karate would quickly find 95% of the crap they waste their time on isn't useful at all.

Once i have my own place to train students, i fully intend on making it known that while the style is going to focus on shotokan karate, that it's primarily an ART, not a self defense system, not a "i can train this and kick the **** out of anyone" combat method, it's an ART. The "fighting" aspects will come from the few things i've found actually useful from karate, and the rest from boxing, muay thai and jiu jitsu lol.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with teaching 9053180580 kata and techniques to your students, so long as you make sure they understand that's what it is, but when you label it as a lethal self defense style, when it clearly isn't, that's when bullshido is called, and i think that's exactly what west wind is, a bunch of bullshido.

[Bebe]

I hate to necrobump this thread, but I haven't been here in a while and did want to respond to the questions in the above thread.

I trained at West Wind for four years. I will say that the form I had drilled into me there (with WAAAAY to many moves, variations, and katas) has withstood the test of time over 25 years and four different styles/arts. The muscle memory of that kind of ridiculous drilling really did work for the form and art of any style of traditional MA.

I did not, however, learn to spar, much less fight. I trained in Tae Kwon Do next (laugh your and my ass off) for a couple of years, then switched to Okinawan Shorin-Ryu for about six years. I learned how to spar there, and my form in kata competition was really, really good because of my years at West Wind.

I trained then at an "MMA" dojo, mostly Kenpo on the traditional side (which I have a black belt in), and Jiu-Jitsu/Judo/Muay Thai etc. on the MMA side. Again, my form kicked ass, but I will also say that the strength and muscle memory gained from the very traditional drilling at West Wind continue to serve me in sparring and less holds barred fighting.

I am a woman, and I fight against men. My speed and form are commented upon often as a plus when we are still on our feet, and my strength and grips are noted as well on the ground.

That said, West Wind is a cult now, and I would NEVER recommend them to anyone.

Hope it was reasonable to necro this thread. Plus, everyone should read this thread. EVERYONE.