Suspicious of a local Kakidote dojo

[Shamash]

I've recently discovered a local dojo which claims to teach something called Kakidote. It supposably combines karate, Iaido, aikido, and kyudo. The website is www.cookevillemartialarts.com I'm leaning towards classifying this as bs, but I want to introduce the background story of how I was introduced to them.

During one of my vactions from college, I decided to visit my brother's karate dojo for some quality family time. Instead of the normal instructor, we had a guest black belt. His attire was abnormal in that he claimed to be a karateka yet was dressed in an aikido style hakama, complete with a Pakastani "Katana" sword attached to his waist. Regretfully I can't remember his name but for brievity lets call him Mr. PK (Pakistani Katana). During the lesson, he referred to his techniques as okinawan karate.

I wasn't too fond of his attitude so I left immediately after class, however; my brother stayed and chatted. Later that night my bro informed me of his converstation with Mr. PK. PK said he worked as a security guard for a Car dealership in Cookeville and that he regularly had to break the arms of car theives. He even went on to state the precise thinkness of a dow rod needed to approximate the force needed to snap a hoodlums arm. Despite his legendary arm breaking, the best was yet to come. He described a home break in, during which he fought off an intruder. His account was as follows: He awoke during the night to discover a man breaking down his door. He grabbed his sai, stabbed the intruder in the groin with so much force that he literally lifted him on his tip toes. PK then used his sai to throw his elevated attacker out of the door.

Naturally such a crazy ass story raises questions. I was curious to find out where exactly in Cookeville PK was teaching at. I couldn't recall his name and no one had ever heard him say precisely what style(s) he knows. A quick search with yahoo resulted in typical tkd and krotty dojos, but nothing that teaches karate while using Japanese Swords.
Using several alternate search engines, I came across the Kakidote website.

Though I can't definitively classify Kakidote as PK's home dojo, the similarities are striking. The pics include students with standard karate gi's, gi's with hakama's, and of course Katana's.

The head instructor is named Jim Green. His bio is as follows: Sensei Jim Green
Seventh Degree Black Belt


Sensei Jim Green: 35 years teaching experience licensed certified Kenpo Instructor.

Studied under: Sensei Roy Tomason(Shorin ryu Karate), Sensei Sunny Johnson of Tracy's Kenpo Karate, Sensei Elmer Lewis of Tracy's Kenpo Karate, Sifu Ben Dacascos brother of Al Dacascos, Sensei Jimmy Mitchell Tracy's Kenpo Karate, Sensei Richard Willett of Tracy's Kenpo Karate, Sensei Mike Roberts of Tracy's Kenpo Karate.

This dojo may be entirely or partially legitimate so I don't won't to call bullshido just yet, especially since Kakidote may not be connected with the illustrious Sai stabber. I was hoping if anyone had any knowledge of this style and whether or not it is bs. I'm always suspicious of styles which claim to combine contraditory and completely opposite styles. Combining Chinese Kenpo, Aikido, Iaido, and Japanese Archery "Kyudo" is an impressive feat.

[Doctor X]

Wow.

Well, I am sure there is a record of a man with a sai in his groin. Unless PK is built like the Veritable Brick ****-House, his claim to have lifted a man with a sai in his groin and THREW him is utter bullshit. This is even better than Coda "The Iron Belly" Scott's "knife fight!" There is a police, hospital report if it happened.

When someone starts spewing such crap from the onset, I really do not care if he can teach anything. There are enough honest teachers of quality out there to not waste time with a charlatan.

As for combining all of those styles . . . well . . . of COURSE!! I mean, who does NOT carry a katana and a bow and quivers with them just in case someone grabs your wrist?

--J.D.

[Mr. TD]

I'm not a regular poster but this one is to funny to pass. He can't be legit, look at this:

He's cleaning the blade by using the oil cloth on the sharp side :D not even a beginner is that stupid.

I wish he used a shinken :seppuku:

[Shamash]

Actually we've all been to harsh on Kakidote. Its actually the worlds most evolved fighting system. MMA only has three punny fighting ranges: standup, clinch, and groundfighting. Kakidote has four: Projectile/ki blast range, striking range, standing wrist lock range, and finally groundfighting.

Just fucking imagine if you had the benefit of seeing your opponent charging towards you from about 3o yards away. What the **** is an MMA'er going to do? The extended anticipation for actually making physical contact would screw with his mind and drive him insane.

Now Kakidote thats were the **** is at. A kakidoteka would simply whip out his extremely bulkly Japanese bow and fire a volley of arrows at the offending mo fo. If the attacker happened to deflect the arrows with a chi shield, the kakidoteka would simply whip out his uber samuria sword he bought at the flee market for $10. In the unlikely case the bad guy was actually an insectoid alien with a sword proof adamantium exoskeleton, the kakidoteka would still have his kenpo to fall back on. It would be kinda like that historically accurate malnourished okinawan peasant who punched through ten heavily armoured samurias with one punch. Well our kakidoteka would be even more impressive. If our level 100 chi master insectoid extraterestrial wasn't done in my kenpo mullets and tiger claws THEN the infinity that is kakidote would unless the internationally banned Standing wrist lock of mass destruction.

Oh yeah, MMA ain't got nothing .

[OnceLost]

A guy getting a sai in the groin? Forget police reports, that would make international news...unless it was never reported or... <lightbulb over head>...or it never happened!

[Plasma]

I'm not a regular poster but this one is to funny to pass. He can't be legit, look at this:

He's cleaning the blade by using the oil cloth on the sharp side :D not even a beginner is that stupid.

I wish he used a shinken :seppuku:

WTF ouch! Get a bladesmith or sword instructor (referring to guy in pic). If that sword is sharp(Katana should be razor sharp, for his sake I hope that is a Iaito) the katana is going to slice through that cloth and cut his hand.

Wrong side stupid. A suggest to commit suicide would be reduntant here.

:seppuku:

[Shamash]

I'm curious as to where the head instructor learned Aikido, Kyudo, and iaido. His bio basically states that he did a lot of kenpo and a little bit of some type of kung fu. Maybe he is so impressive that he can't list all of his training for fear of making Cro-Cop jealous. Since he takes a couple of lines just repeating "I'm a tracy kenpo master", it would be logical to conclude that he is trying to inflate his martial art training.

Several years ago, there was a konigun ninjutsu school in Cookeville. The instructor claimed to be an Iaido master. I'm not sure what happened to the school. Maybe the konigun group just renamed itself after the fiasco with the lawsuit.

[Plasma]

Gotta love the mandatory martial arts headband the old guy is wearing...

I give him benefit of the doubt for the Hachimaki, if he was wearing it correctly. Which he is not.

[Iscariot]

What Mr TD and Plasma said so far about the sword.

Drop him an email and ask for the following:
His current grade in Iaido.
His instructor.
How long he's been studying.
What koryu he studies.
What organisation issued his Iai grade.

If it's legit this will be a piece of piss to check. From what I can see though, it's another case of Sword Syndrome.

[OnceLost]

What IS that certificate? It looks like the word "Studios of Self Defense" at the top...