Anyone hear of Al Martin?

**danniboi07** · Posted On: 6/17/2008 12:10am

Ah thank you sir! Much obliged =)

**uumaku** · Posted On: 6/17/2008 9:57am

danniboi07,

I have trained with Al Martin for eleven years, I have trained in Okinawa's various other Karate styles for thirty eight years. Martin Shinshi's system is better than Kise's on many levels and for many different reasons. For one it predates Kise's. for two it is the Sakugawa family lineage. Kise started in Shorinji then trained with Sokken Hohan in Matsumura seito. Even though the Seito practioners would like and like to have everyone believe their system is pure this is not the truth. Nabe Matsumura is/was a fictious person; no records other than vocabulary from Sokken exists. Video's are a waste of time due to human ability of choreograpy and cinnemaphotography. We sparr/fight all the time, if you can make it through the workout with any strength left. We bleed and bruise. Yes that is one of the old links from back in the eighties or early nineties. Steve is correct, my salutations are in Ucinanaguchi (Hogan) the older language of Okinawa or Uchina. Would you like to know the meaning? I hope i have answered your questions honorably and to your saisfaction.

Tim Griffin

**uumaku** · Posted On: 6/17/2008 10:37am

Originally Posted by mcmapman

Well my name is Duncan, and I am a marine stationed in Pensacola Florida. I study Shorin Ryu, and spent 3 years training with Master Kise at Gunners Gym in Okinawa. IIIMEF baby!!

"Al Martin is also a U.S. Marine of twelve years former Marine M.P. His father was a retired Marine from WWII."

I have not seen him personally,

"So why am i burning bridges with my mouth?"

but I have seen a video of Paul Hart on youtube and that dude is suppose to be his top student... and he SUCKS!!!!!

"I talk about people i do not know based on what i think i saw. and I am a U-Tube Junky"

I guess the youtube video is all I have for evidence,

"I am a naieve Individual with no proof to validate what I am saying"

but in looking for a Shorin Ryu person in Florida

"I am looking for an Instructor in Florida,"

I found his barrage of websites and all of this other crap his guys have posted in forums.
" Because Al Martin is the best shorin ryu Instructor in Florida,

From looking at his sites and whatnot it seems like he doesn't have his head on straight or is some strange type of fanatic.

" Martin ShinShi is a Fanatic?"

I was mostly just wondering if anyone has had any dealings with this guy, because from the outside his group looks like total ****.

"Though I have only three years of **** training myself to compre it to."

I don't want to have to drive 9 hours to train with this loser to find out he is BS artist when maybe someone on here has dealt with him in the past.

" Because I am a lazy smuck."

From his sites and from the video of his top guy,

"Who I have know clue who that really is."

I say it is all BS. His Shorin Ryu looks like bad Tae Kwon Do to me.

"So you have more experience in bad TAE-KWON-DO THAN YOUR THREE UNHAPPY YEARS OF KISE KARATE"?

Duncan your mistake is thinking that if you drove to meet Al Martin that you would interest him enough to even talk to you and meet you himself. Al Martin is not required to meet you or teach you at all. Beside's being the famous Shorin ryu Karate instructor he is also a Father to six children an accomplished Author of many books, an art collector, tresure hunter, explorer. Al Martin has 9,865 active students 237 Black Belts. Martin Shinshi evaluates each person before he will show them anything of the Sakugawa/Matsumura system, if you are lucky enough to get to meet him at all. It takes at least ten to twelve years to make it to Black Belt level however he does have a few who have been training that long and are still White Belts. Most everyone that trains with Martin Shinshi has Black Belt rank in other systems. People from other countries travel alot more than nine hours just to meet him. Do you think that nine hours is a long time? Hey beside's who was twisting your arm to bother us anyway? Certainly not us.

Good Luck & Happy Trails
Tim Griffin

**BudoMonkey** · Posted On: 6/17/2008 11:50am

9,865 active students?

Thank you for your response, Tim. Where can I find an active website that would list current locations for your schools?

**uumaku** · Posted On: 6/17/2008 12:10pm

BudoMonkey,

http://karateinc.tripod.com/ or www.shorin.info

Tim Griffin

**Damai Bushi** · Posted On: 7/17/2008 6:38am

If it looks too good to be true, it usually is. In this case it is, and it ain't too good either.

I wanted to ask uumaku if instructors like James Coffman and Ron Lindsey (both ranked high by Kise and Soken), guys that will show you what real MATSUMURA karate looks (and feels) like, agree with you and your org., and obviously your teacher's assessment of their very effective and pure version of Orthodox Shuri-Te? Are you 100% sure that Nabe Machimura never existed? Because his family sure spoke about him like he was real. Regardless it was a consensus agreement amongst the modern masters like Soken's best friend Kyan Chotoku and Choshin Chibana that Soken was the progenitor of the Matsumura Family style. Are you saying that the last surviving Okinawan Bushi was a liar? Why would he need to? When he returned fron Argentina the other sensei knew who he was. Till the day he died they knew who he REALLY was. He was treated with the proper respect, as a teacher of teachers who knew the old ways.

Kise Fusei was a 7th Dan in Shorinji Ryu when he switched to Hohan Soken's family style. He was ranked 9th Dan by Soken O'Shinshi, and given Judan by the Japanese Government after Soken's passing. He was multifaceted AND he really learned true Okinawan Karate Do and Jutsu. Plus, he could really fight (probably still can). Same with Kuda who ranked above 9th Dan in both Okinawan Kenpo and Matsumura Seito. He went on to establish his own amalgam called "Mastumura Seito Kenpo" made infamous by Fred Ettish who is now a much better fighter. Kuda Yuichi was ranked by Soken and Shigeru Nakamura (Okinawan Kenpo FOUNDER). So wtf are you spouting on your site? Btw, Okinawan Kenpo also does contain the Bogu Kumite aspects of Okinawan Kenpo, but Matsumura Kenpo bases almost all of its principles on Soken's teachings and methodologies. So they train to fight in the ring and on the street. Tell Paul or whoever put your site together to stop the lying and change the site to reflect fact not hope.

Your organization is a cheap rip-off of Ron Lindsey's Kokusai Shuri-Te Karate/Kobujutsu Rengo Kai. You know he met Al Martin and Paul Hart, right? I cautioned him about you charlatans. He said he'd give you guys a chance. He was warned that you were shysters, by several REAL Shorin Ryu yudansha. Who knows what the outcome was. I stopped training with him just before he met your organization's "leaders". I haven't contacted him in over a year. Hopefully for your teacher's sake he didn't lose his temper when (if) he found out the truth.

Your sensei knows (one version) of the real Matsumura System, because he at the least met Lindsey Sensei.
He obviously gleaned a little bit from Lindsey's style of Shorin which closely reflects Machimura Sui-di. Your "sensei" knows that the closest thing to the Matsumura Family style's Karate is left in the hands of Soken's students and their students. Of course as with all Okinawan Karate the individual's umuiri is reflected in their interpretation of sui-di, naha-di, etc..
You know this too, right?

What is it with people everywhere believing lies without batting an eye, yet denying the truth even when it is so apparent? Is mankind really this
ignorant/idiotic? Hilarious!!!

Watch your step. Your boosheet slingin' is going to come back to haunt you. Now go practice your poomse or whatever you TKD diluted Shotokan guys call your forms.

The original poster was spot on. These cats are plastic...
Good luck finding any good karate at all stateside. Semper Fi from a former Air Farce guy, even though it drops my I.Q. significantly when I say it ;)!

Wone Kadondo

**Monk** · Posted On: 8/01/2008 3:38am

Damai Bushi, you claim to be in Florida. Why don't you just go down and beat Al Martin up? It should be easy for you. After that then tell us how bad he is. If not, then face up to the fact that he handed you your ass. You are all talk. Go complain about this post if you want it removed as well.

BTW, Ron Lindsey and Al Martin never met up. None of the group of Martins students ever met with Lindsey. I have nothing to say about the quality of Lindsey's Karate as I have never met the man. I have seen some poor videos of him on youtube but to judge someone from those videos without knowing where they came from or why they were filmed is not a good practice. So until I meet him I will withhold my opinion.

I sometimes wonder if anyone actually trains or if they just sit on a computer and find fault with others. Fact is, who cares about bitching about what others do? This guy says he "never met" and has no intention of meeting Al Martin yet he wants to bitch about him. He decides to come to the group that allows anyone to complain and pat them on the back for it. Get off your butt and prove it and then post the video. I challenge anyone who wants to complain about another to start by posting a video of them easily defeating the ones they are complaining about. If you cant do that, you are all talk!:pottytrai

**Suarve** · Posted On: 8/04/2008 9:48am

hi i'm new to this page, and i am a student of Al Martin. i'd be more than willing to answer any questions you have, just contact me at suarve2@aol.com with the subject regarding Al Martin.

Steven

**Suarve** · Posted On: 8/04/2008 10:08am

oh and to the post by monk above mine, i agree. if you really do doubt then go meet the man for your self, but just let me know first I'd like to be there.

**mcmapman** · Posted On: 9/26/2008 10:51pm

Shinshi 紳士, as in Gentle Warrior. What crap. That's not even a real title or license. I thought from reading this thread that you might have been actually serious. Based on the writing style I think that half of these people are the same person. If Shinshi Martin is such a gentle person then why are all of his students so happy to fight on here?

I have to agree with Damai Bushi. What Mr. Martin has going on looks to good to be true. If he even had half as many students as he claims he would be the most famous karate instructor in the USA. He is virtually unheard of, and no one in Okinawa who has heard of him has anything good to say.

Duncan