Hello.

I notice that all of the posts seem to concern the Karate taught bt the Bushido Academy.

I'm interested in their "Aikido-Te" as I'm an Aikidoka myself. Perhaps someone could tell me what the difference is between Aikido-te (which I would roughly translate as Aikido hand) and regular Aikido.

As far as accreditation goes I can fiind no record a a Peter Delan or Grandmaster Chusan having practised Aikido anywhere.

Just read through this beginning to end. I couldn't help notice the similarity in wording and tone to nearly all of the posts made by those posting to say how happy they were with their training.

Has anyone thought to check the ip addies for those posters? They just sound too much alike and are all beating exactly the same notes in their posts. Plus they just plain sound like the paid testimonials you get on infomercials.

And one more thing, a "secret" history of training is nearly always, and I mean always, a sign of a quack. Legitimate instructors in legitimate systems are more than happy to describe their backgrounds

So train with them at your own risk.

I'd also like to address the posts above which argued that lineage and proper training didn't matter so long as the techniques were effective. I can only speak to sword arts. Perhaps things are different in unarmed combat.

In sword arts, your margin of error is exactly nothing. If you flub a block or a redirect, you die. If you screw up your timing or distance, you die. If you slip in training, you cut something, possibly off. There is simply no margin of error. Kinda like brain surgery. Would you trust a surgeon who claims to have a bonafide degree and did his internship at a real live hospital, but won't tell you a single thing about where or when? Someone who other professionals in the same field say they've never heard of? It's secret knowledge. I'm sure he'll be happy to answer all your questions in the recovery room after you pay the bill.


[This message has been edited by Charles Mahan (edited 08-12-2004).]

As you may have seen I posted a similar thread to this in the sword section to see if anyone there knew anything. After all, they also teach the way of the sword.

Someone responded and posted a link to the e-budo forum where this group were discussed at length. being a bit slow at work today I followed the link and read through the thread. It seemed to go down very similar lines to this one.

Something interesting though;

In the e-budo thread there was a response from James Seaward. (Yes, that well known instructor from Bushido that responded on this forum). Guess what, his post on e-budo was exactly, and I mean word for word, the response he gave here. He must have cut and pasted it. It seems that we're not the only ones with questions that aren't being answered.

Curiouser and curiouser!!

JohnL

Hi,

I am not the same person posting as different people. I have actually decided to not continue my training with them and I am now looking for clubs with reputable background. I couldn't get answers on the school history during lessons and found my instructor to be very evasive on the subject.

Hopefully I will have better luck with the next place I train with. Starting to get a bit disillusioned with MA, as this is now the 3rd place in 12 months I have tried and all of them have had something not right about them in one way or another.

Thanks to everyone in this mail. I was inches away from no doubt becoming sucker #3423 and joining their organisation.

Thanks also for all the information on Reading dojo's, I will look into them (a little more carefully than with the BAMA)!

Also, I'm not sure why you had such trouble getting a reply via email? I mailed basically the same message I posted under "a couple of questions" to Keith Sans from BAMA and got a reply within the hour?

I was wrong to come here and post, especially as I didn't have the full story as regards BAMA. Don't let what I have written put people off, BAMA may have just what some people need as regards learning a Martial Art. I shouldn't have been sneaky by posting here, rather I should have discussed things further with my local BAMA representative. Best wishes to everyone here.

[This message has been edited by SpiderHands (edited 08-15-2004).]

Hi shukokaichap,

Yeh the guys i have spoken too have gone onto other things. The general concensus is that there is an extremely large difference between the BAMA arts and more, shall we say, 'mainstream' systems. Some have gone over to more classical Karate, some have gone onto Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu Iaido some have gone to Aikido. All have said that there new systems are authentic - their old teachings were not.

As for the Aikido-te - we are basically talking Karate with a touch of throwing and locking. nothing like authentic aikido.

cheers

SpiderHands,

Sorry to hear of your social phobeas. This can be a hard situation in the MA's! but i think the best way to overcome it is to approach a reputable instructor and enquire into whether he would be willing to give you some private tuition untill your confidence grows. Then he can introduce some of his students to you and you can gradually build up to the full classes.

This may help with your phobea's also.

I have found that martial arts practice has created a strong willed character just from the nature of the training - Martial arts should be fun and enjoyable as well as authentic and effective. If you go there with a happy mindset and the idea to have fun you should be fine.

Good luck! and happy training

GKR....GoKan Ryu by any chance, Spiderhands.

Another very commercial outfit though at least they say where they are from and who they are.

Agree with another post earlier, find a decent school and talk to an instructor about some private lessons to help the confidence. It might help ease you into a main class later on.

Good luck mate!