Jeff Davis school of the Martial Arts in West Virginia

**Dogtrainer** · Posted On: 7/21/2010 4:39pm

Hello! Long time lurker here, but this subject has been bugging me for a while, and I registered so I could ask the general community.

I've been training at the Jeff Davis school of Martial Arts in Morgantown, West Virginia for a long time, and I'm not happy. I don't think Jeff Davis is for real.

http://www.tsksma.com/

Jeff Davis, the head teacher, is a absolute control freak. We aren't allowed to go to other schools, competitions, watch tournaments or anything like that without his express permission. He has reasons for it, and they made sense when I was a kid, but I'm in college and it doesn't make sense anymore.

Beyond that, what details I can give about him personally are bad: he smokes too much, he drinks, he won't dress for the classes he teaches, he reads the class curriculum off a sheet from where he sits at the top of the class. I've never seen him do anything, ever. Not a punch, a kick, a throw. He'll do forms, but often he looks to his senior student, who I think has left the school a while back, and asks "Is it this way or this way?"

He had some upper rank black belts there up until a few months ago, but they all seem to have left. One of them, who was teaching a advanced class for a while, taught me more in 4 weeks that was practical and useful than I got in 4 years with Davis. He and another upper rank recently tried to put together an informal open work-out but Davis shut them down pretty hard in public and embarassed everyone, especially Davis. I hardly see those teachers anymore, and I miss them. They seemed to be the real deal.

We never spar. We never roll. We endlessly practice kicks, punches, throws, and exercise, but we never actually hit anything, or throw anyone. In fact, there was judo randori recently, and a 2nd degree black belt who trained only under Davis broke his leg loading someone to throw them. Not getting thrown, but maneuvering to throw someone else. I found out later this 2nd degree had never rolled, or sparred, or done anything. I was pretty shocked.

A friend recently found this...

http://www.findmmagym.com/mmagym-wes...tial-arts.html

and it's pretty accurate I think.

Please, if anyone can give me the real deal on this, please do so? He's got (or at least had) some really good teachers around him, but they aren't at his school any more, and if this guy is lame I want to know so I can stop holding back and tell him what I think.

**helmutlvx** · Posted On: 7/21/2010 5:19pm

First of all, since this is your first post, you should have made an Introduction thread in the Newbietown forum.

Second, please read the guidelines for MABS.

With that said, I live in Morgantown and I've read about Jeff Davis some. He fits most all categories of Bullshido. He claims multiple high-level belts in more than 10 martial arts and mentions training with Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris on his website.

The training schedule for the school is mostly cardio kickboxing with training in a specific martial art one day a week.

edit: I also noticed that Judo and Karate were not taught in his school three months ago when I read the website. I find that interesting.

**Dogtrainer** · Posted On: 7/22/2010 10:36am

In apologize for not posting in newbietown.

I'm bringing this all up now because Davis is holding a camp this coming weekend, and it's pretty weak, compared to previous years. We have an Aikido master from Pittsburgh coming, but I've never learned anything from her, and a Kyokoshin master who's really good at making us break a sweat, but I don't really learn anything. Then there's a guy from Miami coming in, and he's really cool, but I don't know what he's doing.

In the past we've had some really great teachers there but they aren't coming anymore. I can't ask my senior because I think he's left. The only other good teacher there who wanted to roll and hit things is gone also. I guess it was okay when we had some blackbelts there who wanted to do things in a practical way, but they've all gone, and Davis doesn't do anything. I'm bored, and I have some friends there who are bored also.

I'm going to this camp to see whats going on, but I don't think Ill be there long after that. I want to train with this guy who works downtown, but he won't train anyone right now. I think I'm going to end up at this BJJ place across town.

How do I find out if Davis is legitimate? I can't even ask his instructor because they had some kind of fight years ago and don't talk, and I can't find the man without dragging in people who aren't involved.

**lefi** · Posted On: 7/22/2010 10:50am

Let's get one thing straight: if you' think you're having a session with a Kyokushin master, and all you get is to break sweat, and no sparring, you did not in any way have a session with a Kyokushin master.

**helmutlvx** · Posted On: 7/22/2010 10:55am

Figuring out the legitimacy of Jeff Davis' credentials is as simple as contacting the organizational bodies for each art.

He states he has a Judo rank from AAU, so all you have to do is call them and ask if he really does have a rank there. So on and so forth.

If you're in Morgantown looking for BJJ, I suggest you go to Ground Zero. They hold their own grappling tournaments and they have lots of great instruction

**ritegrapple** · Posted On: 7/22/2010 4:27pm

Sounds like you're bored and unhappy and the guys you used to like are gone and its time to find a better school/MA for you. Period. Regardless of how much or how little you choose to discover about Davis' "legitimacy."

**Dogtrainer** · Posted On: 7/27/2010 3:09pm

I've sent an email asking about Davis to the AAU. I've never done this before, so I may miss the shot a bit.

There's nothing else to check about him that I can follow up on, without provoking a confrontation before I'm ready. I want to confront, but I want my facts together first.

The camp this past weekend was okay, and I did learn some things. I got to see some people I hadn't seen in a while, and I liked that. I got a new form, and got to do some knife-work. But other than one class, I never saw Jeff Davis on the mat, and that was the class he "taught."

I do know he claims Gene Thorner as his teacher, and I've seen Mr. Thorner in person, but I've never asked about their relationship (it wasn't a big deal then). Several people I know give Mr. Thorner a lot of credit for his judo skills but I've never seen them, or any from Jeff Davis.

A google search came up with this
http://www.asma-usa.org/masters/Gene...27s%20Page.htm
and this bothers me because it mentions Glenn Premru, who a lot of people I respect say ugly things about.

This also comes up in the search
http://baiyingpai.com/instructors/ma...am-o-cummings/
and I've seen this school in operation and it's terrible.

This is all getting more depressing as I go.

I think the advice that I just leave is the best action.

**helmutlvx** · Posted On: 7/27/2010 3:13pm

Man, those White Eagle guys are hilarious. I sometimes train at the Gymnastics Gym in the building they train at and sometimes I stick my head in there and laugh really hard.

I stopped by the Seneca Center yesterday at around 6:30PM, but the door was locked and I got no answer at the phone number on the sign of the door.

I've had my suspicions, but I would prefer to see the training for myself.

**Dogtrainer** · Posted On: 7/27/2010 3:21pm

Originally Posted by helmutlvx

I stopped by the Seneca Center yesterday at around 6:30PM, but the door was locked and I got no answer at the phone number on the sign of the door.

Davis called off classes on Monday because he felt everyone needed to recover. I was fine and could have gone, but...

There are classes as normal today though.

I don't know why the number didn't work.

**helmutlvx** · Posted On: 7/27/2010 3:24pm

I plan on somehow getting an introductory class so that I can do a proper school review instead of people being redirected to this thread which is a bit piecemeal.

If it's suspicious enough, I might put in some time researching Davis' ranks and doing the write-up for that. But we'll see.