Fang Shen Do: Tales From the Inner Circle

**JackBurton** · Posted On: 5/06/2009 11:52am

Originally Posted by Patatoseur

and please PLEASE don't believe everything people say and always stay respectful...I think there's nothing really more to say about Fang Shen Do...like,hate it,your choice...but make your own opinion...juged on what you experienced,not what you heard or read.

fsd is aggressive passive.
They use words like "gouge" and "brutal" and "street" to try to convey
menace, aggression, better-not-f***-with-me.

It may work with their students and anyone gullible enough to believe
someone who makes claims without proof,
but it doesn't seem to work here.

Nor will it work against any competent fighter.
One reason why they don't compete.

But when fsd can't intimidate verbally,
do they actually step up and prove themselves?
No, they try to become victims.
And even then they can't resist trying to hype themselves.
Sort of "Don't hate us because we're awesome"

This type of crap has made fsd into a long, running joke.

And you want to be a member of this organization?

You want to be a member of an organization that has:
- No support or recommendations from other schools,
- No endorsements or respect from the MMA community.

Go ahead, try and find any. Make me eat my words.
No? So you didn't even attempt to verify their claims,
did you? You just swallowed all their crap and signed a contract.
( Either that or you're fsd staffer and are trying the same old,
poorly thought out bullshit. "Hi, I just started fsd...blahblah" )

In either case, I don't hate you, I just disrepect your stupidity
for making poor choices.

Since stupidity is its own reward, here's a good quote for the fsd blog:

"Owwww....oWWWW!The bees!
They're....defending themselves somehow..?!"
- Jacques Patenaude

Regards,
JackBurton
=========
"Have you paid your dues, Jack?"
"Yessir, the check is in the mail"

**Shifty** · Posted On: 5/06/2009 12:03pm

Well apparently I've missed a lot over the last few months because for some reason I no longer get emails to notify me about my subscribed threads.
But on to my point...

Patatoseur: I am certainly not trying to insult any FSD students or discredit anything that you've learned, but there are elements of FSD that you may not be aware of or that may have been kept from you because you are not in BBC or masters, and I'm not talking about secret moves or anything like that. I was myself a student in FSD for roughly 6 years, and during the majority of the time spent in FSD I did not think anything was wrong with the system that I was involved in. It was during the last couple of years of my training with fsd that things started getting a little bit fishy.

All I am saying is that there were some turn off's that you probably wouldn't notice until you get in deeper, but until then, all is probably going to be fine and dandy.

For instance, have you ever wondered how much money must be spent to progress through the higher ranks in the system? You MUST pay for specific seinars, training camps, equipment, etc... Aside from the overpriced equipment which is pretty much required for any martial art, the seminars and other expenses that are required to move up in rank (especially at brown stripe and on) are pretty unnecessary when you think about it. Training camp for brown sash, level 1 weapons for black stripe, power punch for black stripe, etc... But if you choose not to fork out the cash, you will eventually plateau.

Have you ever wondered how the assistant instructors ended up in a situation where they pay way more money to be a slave?

Anyway, I'm not going to repeat everything that has been posted time and time again, but someday something will click, and you will realize that there is much better out there, no matter what your personal goal is, and you could pay a lot less and have more fun doing it.

If you love it now, then nothing that anyone says can convince you otherwise because you are getting what you want. I was the same way, and being very young when I started, I didn't know what else was out there.

Stick to it if you like it and try to enjoy your training, and there are many aspects of FSD that aren't all that bad such as great conditioning, good striking and kicking, and nice people to train with just to name a few. And many of the post on this site are from people's personal bad experiences that don't necessarily reflect FSD as a whole, but this FSD blog wouldn't exist if there wasn't something wacky going on. And I have seen first hand most of what these people talk about, and reading it almost doesn't even do justice.

**used2b** · Posted On: 5/06/2009 1:15pm

Just to reinforce what's already been said, from my own experience:

I did 7 years of Karate (JKA), blew out a knee, was off for a few years and then got back into MA when a friend got me to attend the old Catherine Street club. I trained there for around 6 years.

I did enjoy it, the conditioning was great, and I felt really good about myself. Sifu (jp) was "on the floor" pretty much every class and the workouts were always real high energy. The training was mostly WingChun based back then. He used to talk alot about Bruce Lee (like he was a close personal friend) and show us little bits and pieces of MuyThai and PentjakSilat and always said that he'd add it to our training - but never did. I paid for a couple of years of the "Special Classes" but was always disappointed at the content; they were very similar to the regular classes with maybe a bit more sparring and weapons. ... but nothing special.

The sparring was where we had the best training but you had to learn that all yourself. If you were silly enough to try and use any of the regular class stuff (including the unstoppable chung choys, lol) while sparring you got creamed. Of course my karate training was entirely useless too. I did make excellent use of my high school wrestling though.

If you're enjoying the FSD that's fine. Just try to understand that not everything they feed you is the straight goods and that there are things that you will not get to experience if you stay. There IS more out there. Consider having a look for it.

**Patatoseur** · Posted On: 5/06/2009 2:49pm

All right everybody.First I will say it once more...It IS far too expensive...and they always want more I think we are all agreeing on this.For the dumbass who said I was lying about St-John abulance.Inform yourself man!!!Saint-John Ambulance isn't being paramedic...We're first responders who VOLONTEERS to cover events.You know the guys in white at the bell center (I am in Montreal) or any Sens games or festivals...it's us but we are still steps under paramedics.And yes I did recieve my training at 16 (and we refresh it) because you CAN cover events at 16...And for the others, don't worry I'm not eating all their crap without questionning it.In fact, I often question people there about they're other experiences and ask questions (that I mostly make reading you guys) to the instructors.And I don't care if many of you don't like it it's your choice,the main reason I joined Bullshido was because I couldn't take it when some started calling us cults and were speking about physical punishment and stuff.

**Patatoseur** · Posted On: 5/06/2009 2:58pm

I forgot.Even though I'm not masters or BBC I already tried such classes a couple times.The reason there wasn't biu jees and stuff is because we have big gloves and helmets and wouldn't be really useful with that (biu jee is a strike to the eye).And yes there are entire classes spent on ground fighting (looks pretty Jiu Jistu to me but I never studied it so I couln't tell for sure).Also,you musn't forget that stuff like phon sao's aren't attacks or takedowns, they are drills or techniques to devellop one's reflexes and to teach your hands to think by themselves,nobody hides it, they always tell us "when you're in a real fight don't say ok I'll do phon sao #4 it's not the goal and it won't work".You musn't forget that Martial arts are not only about striking, important drills like chi sao or shadow closing are as important as knowing how to kick well.

**Patatoseur** · Posted On: 5/06/2009 3:00pm

And no i'm not a member of the staff,I just really love it.

**n00b** · Posted On: 5/06/2009 3:58pm

Originally Posted by Patatoseur

I forgot.Even though I'm not masters or BBC I already tried such classes a couple times.The reason there wasn't biu jees and stuff is because we have big gloves and helmets and wouldn't be really useful with that (biu jee is a strike to the eye).And yes there are entire classes spent on ground fighting (looks pretty Jiu Jistu to me but I never studied it so I couln't tell for sure).Also,you musn't forget that stuff like phon sao's aren't attacks or takedowns, they are drills or techniques to devellop one's reflexes and to teach your hands to think by themselves,nobody hides it, they always tell us "when you're in a real fight don't say ok I'll do phon sao #4 it's not the goal and it won't work".You musn't forget that Martial arts are not only about striking, important drills like chi sao or shadow closing are as important as knowing how to kick well.

Hahha, I'm TOTALLY quoting this so it's here when you come back later to tell people what you've discovered.

ENTIRE classes on ground fighting? Why you must have entire MINUTES of sparring experience, I bet your skill at defending against being smashed onto the floor and choked out must be AWESOME to behold.

**Patatoseur** · Posted On: 5/06/2009 5:01pm

Sorry if I wasn't clear...I meant entire BBC and/or masters classes.Some are spent on sparring.Of course...they often mix them.You know,everybody waching two students fighting on mats.In those,you start up and from there it's up to you (it often finishes on the ground).

**Patatoseur** · Posted On: 5/06/2009 5:01pm

If THAT'S not how it supposed to be then I really don't know how it is.

**Patatoseur** · Posted On: 5/06/2009 5:05pm

But yes I think it's pretty lame and uncessessary to pay extras to join BBC or Masters to do sparring and/or ground fighting...those groups include some more stuff like weapon training and I understand those are extras and they don't want to spend normal class time on this but yeah sparring should be included in normal classes (actually we sometimes sparr but it's too rare to mention).