Warrior Concepts International

**Ushi** · Posted On: 9/29/2010 5:30pm

You need to read more because you are wrong. It has never been like that. We always try to get eyes on the ground always try to invite the people involved to come and discuss the topic at hand.

Getting eyes on the ground is great but as I read more you prove my point and the reason I left these sort of forums.

Quote:
I am a current student of Shidoshi Miller's. I have previous experience in Kosho ryu Kempo, Nanban Sato Ryu Jujitsu, Nagano Ryu and to a lesser degree have trained in several schools of kung fu and budo. I am always skeptical about teacher's claims unless I get a refference from a teacher I already trust. To that end I saw Shidoshi Millers website and articles for years before taking him seriously. What did it for me was listening to the kuden podcasts another poster mentioned above and hearing almost the same words my most trusted teacher used when I was younger.
Word of mouth is a good place to start.

Word of mouth = gossip I prefer facts.
Quote:
One of the main things that makes me stay with him now is that he encourages all his students not to trust him and to validate what he is teaching. He has even gone to the point of recommending that we TRY to make what he teaches fail.
So you all spar and drill with aliveness? Do you have any videos which show such training?

Visit the school watch a class. You won't take my word any way.

Quote:
He does bring real experience from the police and military world and gives practical application but doesn't teach us things "because they are used by the military" or things like that. He tries to teach things because they work.
What branch and what type of law enforcement experience does he claim to have ?

Ask him. You have the address in the posts above.

Quote:
If you are only going to teach the highest level of proficiency then you would see a peaceful master who never went places that were violent, knew how to avoid conflict and could negotiate his way out of situations.
That is not martial arts that is conflict avoidance and general life skills.

So I guess strategy is not martial arts either since you can't break a brick or stop a mugger with strategy. Oh wait you can stop a mugger with strategy...and life skills.

I can say that there are classes I leave inspired and uplifted and classes I leave wondering if he is trying to make us all quit. I do however always leave with something to think about and technique to practice and test.

Just my 2 cents worth. I can't defend him or his school or anything except for the experience I have had with him and that has been educational and worth the money practice and time so far. Hope that helps whoever wants to know.Quote:
If you are going to a martial arts class to feel inspired and uplifted I guess you are getting what you pay for there ...

I train to learn how to fight.
If you go to a martial arts class to be inspired and uplifted you are delusional. You should be learning how to handle yourself in dangerous situations. I am glad that you train to learn how to fight because it will help you in life. Taking one part of a quote out of context to make yourself look and feel better points to the possibility you may need those skills in life. I would prefer to learn to be a better person and sharpen my life skills to the point that my ego can stand aside and I can listen even to those with foolish ideas or a need to stroke their own egos. You can learn valuable lessons from every encounter.
I would like to thank you very much for your help in a life lesson of my own. You have been very helpful.

**Styygens** · Posted On: 9/29/2010 8:00pm

Originally Posted by dracsmith

He is also knowledgeable about the history and the philosophy behind ninjutsu; at my invitation, he visited the university where I now teach and addressed my students in an upper-level course on philosophy in martial arts.

Could you provide a little information about what he said to your university class?

Was this a philosophy class, or a class on Asian culture, or what?

Thank you.

**BackFistMonkey** · Posted On: 9/29/2010 9:12pm

Ushi please use the quote function the disjointed mixed bag of quotes is not doing your point of view any good. As a matter of fact I don't even know what you are trying to say or do except poison the well.

Originally Posted by Ushi

You need to read more because you are wrong. It has never been like that. We always try to get eyes on the ground always try to invite the people involved to come and discuss the topic at hand.

Getting eyes on the ground is great but as I read more you prove my point and the reason I left these sort of forums.

Quote:
I am a current student of Shidoshi Miller's. I have previous experience in Kosho ryu Kempo, Nanban Sato Ryu Jujitsu, Nagano Ryu and to a lesser degree have trained in several schools of kung fu and budo. I am always skeptical about teacher's claims unless I get a refference from a teacher I already trust. To that end I saw Shidoshi Millers website and articles for years before taking him seriously. What did it for me was listening to the kuden podcasts another poster mentioned above and hearing almost the same words my most trusted teacher used when I was younger.
Word of mouth is a good place to start.

Word of mouth = gossip I prefer facts.
Quote:
One of the main things that makes me stay with him now is that he encourages all his students not to trust him and to validate what he is teaching. He has even gone to the point of recommending that we TRY to make what he teaches fail.
So you all spar and drill with aliveness? Do you have any videos which show such training?

Visit the school watch a class. You won't take my word any way.

Quote:
He does bring real experience from the police and military world and gives practical application but doesn't teach us things "because they are used by the military" or things like that. He tries to teach things because they work.
What branch and what type of law enforcement experience does he claim to have ?

Ask him. You have the address in the posts above.

Quote:
If you are only going to teach the highest level of proficiency then you would see a peaceful master who never went places that were violent, knew how to avoid conflict and could negotiate his way out of situations.
That is not martial arts that is conflict avoidance and general life skills.

So I guess strategy is not martial arts either since you can't break a brick or stop a mugger with strategy. Oh wait you can stop a mugger with strategy...and life skills.

I can say that there are classes I leave inspired and uplifted and classes I leave wondering if he is trying to make us all quit. I do however always leave with something to think about and technique to practice and test.

Just my 2 cents worth. I can't defend him or his school or anything except for the experience I have had with him and that has been educational and worth the money practice and time so far. Hope that helps whoever wants to know.Quote:
If you are going to a martial arts class to feel inspired and uplifted I guess you are getting what you pay for there ...

I train to learn how to fight.
If you go to a martial arts class to be inspired and uplifted you are delusional. You should be learning how to handle yourself in dangerous situations. I am glad that you train to learn how to fight because it will help you in life. Taking one part of a quote out of context to make yourself look and feel better points to the possibility you may need those skills in life. I would prefer to learn to be a better person and sharpen my life skills to the point that my ego can stand aside and I can listen even to those with foolish ideas or a need to stroke their own egos. You can learn valuable lessons from every encounter.
I would like to thank you very much for your help in a life lesson of my own. You have been very helpful.

**It is Fake** · Posted On: 9/29/2010 9:23pm

http://www.youtube.com/user/kage36#p/a/u/1/GsCmJZUhMqE

http://www.youtube.com/user/kage36#p/u/20/b590Aclw7HQ

http://www.youtube.com/user/kage36#p/u/2/soCJlRrKG0g

**dracsmith** · Posted On: 9/30/2010 10:51am

Originally Posted by Styygens

Could you provide a little information about what he said to your university class?

Was this a philosophy class, or a class on Asian culture, or what?

Thank you.

The material he presented to the students in class concerned the distinctions among a fighter, a soldier, and a warrior, in terms of their motivations for engaging in combat and the outcomes they seek. It tied in very well with some introductory material the students had recently discussed on philosophy of sport (particularly Kendricks & Carlson's distinction between results-oriented and process-oriented approaches), and with material they read later from Sun Tzu's Art of War.

In addition to his presentation to the class, he also gave a more general talk that was open to the public; IIRC, the theme was on applying lessons from ancient martial arts traditions to living in the modern world. He was actually one of two ninja guest speakers; his co-presenter was Courtland Elliot, a Canadian instructor who is also in the Bujinkan system.

I had other guest speakers; Professor Joe Lansdale, perhaps best known as the author of the story on which the movie Bubba-Hotep was based, came and talked about Shen Chu'an, the martial art he founded; the chair of the kinesiology program at the university, who is also an experienced teacher/practitioner of Taekwondo, came and talked with the students about the background of that art.

Each student also had to research a martial art and give a short presentation explaining its history and connecting it to the philosophical concepts we were going over in class.

This was a philosophy class; we were primarily looking at martial arts as a manifestation of philosophical concepts drawn from Asian philosophical systems such as Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Students often find these systems difficult to understand because they (the systems) arise within such a different worldview, but since they (the students) think that martial arts are "cool," it made some normally-difficult subjects much easier than usual.

Thank you so much for asking!

**dougguod** · Posted On: 9/30/2010 1:23pm

Originally Posted by Ushi

I have previous experience in Kosho ryu Kempo, Nanban Sato Ryu Jujitsu, Nagano Ryu and to a lesser degree have trained in several schools of kung fu and budo.

How much time did you actually put into each of these systems? It would help your credibilty, and by extension "Shidoshi" Miller's, if we had reason to believe that there was some actual depth to your knowledge and that you weren't merely a dojo-hopping dilettante with a short attention span or a slacker who quits when things become challenging. Which, as it turns out, is a typical profile for people who get drawn to ninjutsu. :ninja7:

**Flappyhead** · Posted On: 9/30/2010 5:31pm

Originally Posted by dougguod

How much time did you actually put into each of these systems? It would help your credibilty, and by extension "Shidoshi" Miller's, if we had reason to believe that there was some actual depth to your knowledge and that you weren't merely a dojo-hopping dilettante with a short attention span or a slacker who quits when things become challenging. Which, as it turns out, is a typical profile for people who get drawn to ninjutsu. :ninja7:

Which would explain all the DVDs and "online training" advertising on this guys website. Seriously, those two alone should raise some red flags with potential students.