Fang Shen Do: Tales From the Inner Circle

[Dennism]

well i'm not up for slamming them and at the same time I dont' mind stating the obvious which that FSD is just a money grab for students. There are better places to train that will push you harder and with a martial art that is clearly defined. From the time that I started there must have been 3 or 4 iterations of what the focus is.. fighting , conditioning , easy classes more students, less students but quality students. Toned down classes for the general masses. Who knows what it will be next year. Saying that the conditioning for most of the family and owners was second to none .. we would always train differently than what we would teach our students... more drillls more dynamic more intense something you guys would have never have seen.

[Slamurai]

@ Dennism: But isn't that sort of... missleading? If the instructors are in peak physical condition as a result of their resistance training and aerobics, which they do on their own time away from class, then it's not right of them to say that they acquired their "sculpted physiques" doing only FSD. The impression I was given by the instructors was that their fitness was as a direct result of training in FSD. One could be led to believe "Wow, these guys say they are in amazing shape because they train in FSD.", when the truth of the matter is that athletisism takes more than an hour of glorified aerobics once or twice per week.

Are there any videos of the conditioning classes? Are they anything like OAMA's Muay Thai or BJJ conditioning classes?

@ greenguy: Do you feel like you were robbed of your money due to the excessive amount of tme and energy dedicated to conditioning? When 2/3 of the time spent in class is on ding situps and suicides, how do you find time to discuss technique or drill?

@ everyone: Do you think there is such a strong emphasis on conditioning and atheltisism because of a lack of solid technical content?

[Dennism]

yes it is misleading.. they want people to go to 2 classes a week or pay for bbc and masters which will allow you to go to more classes. They teach only technique and then you pay for sparring / grappling ( unless in bbc ) .. When teaching at my school or other schools it was a stretch and warmup then technique and 10 - 15 stations at the end that is all.

When training with owners we would do 3 or 5 minute stations .. I remember a number of times doing up to 1 1/2 hours of stations straight

And I never did a class that was close to this.

[Macte]

FSD is about trading/brawling....faster/stronger....there tactical choice is to attempt to "overwhelm" a person to get them to cover....their is NO clear and distinct transition training whatoever....
No applied tactics under pressure....it all looks very messy.......

[Askari]

just my opinion from what i've seen at a few school that alot of grapplers don't have the conditioning to take hits cause alot of them never been hit hard while trying to apply techniques. I'm not telling you what is absolute and should only be taken as an opinion. Why have this message board if you can't give an opinion and secondly its kinda out of context of this board anyhow at this point.

You are absolutely entitled to your opinion. But if your assumptions are incorrect, then you will be called on it.

Assuming that because someone trains BJJ they have somehow forgotten that punching happens, or are incapable of either executing or defending against dirty tricks, is an incorrect assumption.

Very few people who train BJJ are pure stylists, many cross-train other arts.

[sifu no bs]

Hello once again,

wow I was surprised to hear that mr.Dennis wrote on here and is making statements of his conditionning and that he is getting better workouts now and in truth never could handle the wednesday workouts or any of them fopr that matter when it was at a higher level of intensity. My conditioning comes from stations training and variations of just that.

I guess it hits you more when it's people that you know more or that you have a name to put with the claims, I have treated this man very well thru the years and my youngest brother has even more situations with this man and his family. Just disapointed to see and read that all he has tosay of us is that we have good conditionning and not much more... but oh well

If he is interested in a grudge match with Mr. D'Amour then we can arrange that for sure, it would be fun to see and may the best man win quite simply.


I have invited people for the last 3 years believe it or not for some training and NO ONE,NOT ONE MAN has made the effort in all that time. I have been to other schools for training , I have crosstrain with various martial arts to get a better idea of what you guys are talking about when it comes to real training and bla bla bla just to have a clear view of everything and not be ignorant about martial arts in general. I have paired up with a great team at my school I have cornered 8 or 9 guys in various competitions , I have participated myself in one lately, 2 guys won mma matches, we have made numerous contacts internationaly .... I'm making things happens in all this time.

If there is anyone who wants to have an open training session at my school or any school please let me know, some of the guys are doing this in montreal with some tri star students and I would like to do this asap.

Once again I will state that we are not a competition school and what we teach is for street defense. You claim that many people want to compete?

I will teach anyone who wants to compete for FREE. I garantee you positive results and you will finally understand what FSD is all about . I too want to see that dragon in the ring but unfortunately not alot of people want to compete.

AGAIN I WILL SAY THAT IF ANYONE WANTS TO ENTER ANY COMPETITION I WILL TEACH YOU FSD FOR FREE FREE FREE JUST TO HAVE THE DRAGON ON YOUR BACK AND LET THIS GREAT SYSTEM BE KNOWN IN THE RING

Sifu Stephane Patenaude

[PeterPantsless]

Stephane,

Congrats on competing. Care to tell us about your recent fight?

[Askari]

wow I was surprised to hear that mr.Dennis wrote on here and is making statements of his conditionning and that he is getting better workouts now and in truth never could handle the wednesday workouts or any of them fopr that matter when it was at a higher level of intensity.

This seems to be the typical FSD reaction to someone leaving, insult them.

I wonder what you said to his face during these workouts, I wonder what you said to him to get him to buy a franchise. I am sure he was told how great he was when he was a member of the inner circle.

I have been to other schools for training , I have crosstrain with various martial arts to get a better idea of what you guys are talking about when it comes to real training and bla bla bla just to have a clear view of everything and not be ignorant about martial arts in general. I have paired up with a great team at my school I have cornered 8 or 9 guys in various competitions , I have participated myself in one lately.

And thus bullshido wins again, converting from the dark side of street only secret inner circle training and bringing you and others like you in from the cold to train for competition and cross train with other arts.

You've probably noticed that cross-training and competing are fun.

And you're probably just a little pissed that you didnt do this before Bullshido pushed you into it.

[sifu no bs]

Actually didn't change much for me just made my belief in what I do even stronger, competing was fun but not a big priority for me but I hope my students will maybe want to try the experience for themselves. Not mad at all but I don't thionk I would have if not for bullshido

[n00b]

... competing was fun but not a big priority for me but I hope my students will maybe want to try the experience for themselves. Not mad at all but I don't thionk I would have if not for bullshido

Quoted for truth.