Ever Younger Masters and Black Belts

When will the Young-Fu madness stop?

All right, enough already; I suppose it's time for a bit of rant mode. This "my son is only three and he's a black belt" madness has got to stop!

It seems increasingly often we can read about "The youngest taekwondo black belt in [insert country/state/city here]", or "Only [insert age here] and already a black belt in karate." A recent case in question is this article from the UK.

And let us not forget about the "master" label that is thrown around all too often. One thing is that the media nitwits sometimes seems to believe getting a black belt promotion in a martial art is synonymous to being a master. Another thing is when a young teenager gets to a relative high grade of fourth dan in taekwondo and is entitled to call herself a master.

Young black belt masters - Original image from Flickr.com

So young, and oh so cute

Yes this kids are cute and all that, and I have no doubt that they are good at kicking and punching and doing patterns and all the other stuff they do. All fine and dandy but that's beside the point.

There is nothing I want more than to see young people thrive in the martial arts and enjoy their art, their progresses and all the benefits the arts can give them. But do we really need to cling these really advanced titles to youngsters and hype up grades and promote like there's no tomorrow just to boast that "we have the youngest black belt in the country"? No way!

Six years old and a black belt in taekwondo after a little more than two years of training...? Fifteen years old and a fourth dan master in taekwondo after only 10 years of training...? In my book, this is wrong on so many levels.

Just mark my words, someone will eventually be promoted to "diaper-dan" black belt. "still wearing diapers and already a lean, mean killing machine - cute but deadly!" (and I'n not referring to the Japanese Sumo wrestlers wearing what looks like diapers here, I'm talking about the actual poop-pant, baby deal). Kind of like this Dragon Baby but obviously not as awesome :-)

So what do you think? Do you agree that we're doing children and young people a huge disservice by pimping titles and grades prematurely? Do we really have to cave in to the black belt factories and McDojos? ...Or am I simply an outdated and grumpy, boring old fart, perhaps someone even a bit envious? Let your voice be heard!

Dangerous Martial Arts Frauds

More than just martial arts shenanigans

Fraud - Image from Flickr.com

A recent blog post from my good colleague, "The Stick Chick" Jackie Bradbury got me thinking.

The post in question is a cross post from another great blog (you should read both blogs of course), Colorado Springs Ninjutsu and it's about the apparent dangers of martial arts frauds.

As you are probably well aware of by now, I tend to write quite a lot about all the shenanigans and outright craziness within the martial arts community - this whole blog here is dedicated to the grand scheme of martial arts antics.

And boy is there ever an abundance of "juicy" material and apparent wrongdoers to choose from!

Still, in spite of my knowledge about the arts and the subject at hand, I guess I wasn't fully aware of just how dangerous these martial arts fraudsters can be.

The true dangers of fraud in the martial arts

The fact of the matter is that you should head on over to either of the aforementioned blogs and read the article in full - it really is that important to understand the full scope of what these martial arts charlatans are capable of doing.

The truth is that frauds are really, really dangerous people, capable of doing serious damage to everyone around them - family, relatives, friends, associates, colleagues, business partners ... and of course heir students.

Here's an excerpt from the original article:

Many people think that frauds are harmless, but I can't begin to count all the cases of someone who lies about being a martial arts master who also have criminal records. It is actually easier to list the frauds without criminal records than list all the guys who have spent time behind bars.

There are guys like James Hydrick, who tried to pass himself off as a kung fu master with psychic powers who is now in a mental hospital after molesting 6 boys whom he lured in using martial arts tricks. He also has convictions for kidnapping, torture and a few other things.

There is Ron Collins, whom I have detailed a bit in my blogs as he faced the legal system. He is in a mental institution as well as I write this, and if he gets out he still has to go to court for making terroristic threats. Not to mention his prior convictions involving a 13 year old girl.

There is Troy Zink, with convictions for rape and weapons charges who is suspected in the disappearance of Tera Lynn Smith over a decade ago.

Nimr Hassan, who claims to have been made the head of the Koga ryu by James Mitose and who murdered an elderly man.

And these are just the start. I can't even hope to list all the martial arts instructors that have convictions for rape and sleeping with their under-age students.

James Hydrick in action

Serial Rapist Martial Arts Expert

Police did not believe first victim

Serial Rapist - image from yorkpress.co.uk

A British woman, now 29, came dangerously close to being raped by serial offender - described as a martial arts expert - Mark Thompson, in York back in 2009.

The woman was saved by two nightclub bouncers who heard her screams as she fought the violent sex attacker.

Thompson was arrested on suspicion of attempted rape and taken into custody, only to be released short time later. The victim was understandably shocked when authorities told her they didn't believe her claims of a sexual assault.

"It did not take them very long to decide they didn't believe me."
"It was a strange feeling. It was if I was the one who had done something wrong. I was so disappointed." (read the whole article here).

Because the prosecutors did not believe the victim, the serial rapist was set free to attack three more women.

It has also emerged that a total of 68 rape cases has been wrongly closed by Cleveland and Northumbria Police after they concluded no crime had been committed...

Arrested again

Then, five years later, in 2013, the same man was back in police custody. This time around he was brought in for kidnapping a 21-year-old student off a York street, raping her three times. Following that incident, two more victims came forward.

At Teesside Crown Court in May, [the first victim's] evidence helped convict Thompson [...].
The 37-year-old had denied nine charges, including three of rape, one of attempted rape and one of kidnap.
A judge branded him "one of the most dangerous offenders I have ever had to deal with."

The man was later given a life sentence for the crimes.

The 2009 victim added: "If they had taken my complaint more seriously five years ago these girls would not have had to go through things as bad or much worse than I did. That's what makes me really angry."

Not a Ninja After All

Now apologize to the man!

OK, here's a Missouri nitwit who, in true martial arts nutcase style, threatens a police officer with grave physical harm... being a totally bad a** ninja and all that. So, what's new you might ask, we all know fantasy ninjas are known for a certain degree of odd behavior.

The thing is that this individual attempted to make his scare tactics even more scary by claiming to be nothing less than a black ninja. Yes, you heard that right, a black ninja.

According to police, [...] left three messages on the St. Charles detective's work line. Each message was lengthy and contained threats of shooting and killing the detective and his family, police said.
[...] identified himself on the recorded messages and claimed he was a former Army Ranger and a black ninja.

The ninja was white

I suppose the threat could have been somewhat more believable if this oh-so-scary character had not been such a totally white individual...

And I' might be led to think this is one of the reasons why our ninja was handed a (suspended) sentence which also included writing a letter of apology to the threatened detective. This apology should probably read something like this:

Dear Officer so-and-so
I'm truly sorry I claimed to be a black ninja. As we all know I'm as white as they come. I truly apologize for any confusion this claim may have caused.
Yours truly,
White Ninja

Black ninja was white

Martial Arts Voodoo

More martial arts magicians in action

Yes ladies and gentlemen, it's definitely time to revel in some more amazing display of martial arts voodoo - magicians showing us how we, the simple mortals and martial arts nitwits, obviously do things totally wrong!

How come I can't stare people down, throw an attacker with the slightest of touch or get a opponent to go totally bonkers with awesome chi powers? Man, do I ever need a better teacher! We all know there's nothing wrong with the student... Can you do this? No? Well you need a better teacher as well since there's nothing wrong with you either!

Martial arts voodoo - it's definitely out there

Voodoo in the fighting arts

Tai cheats in action

The Stare Fu master

We have shared this one before. However, it's too good (as in too bad) to be  left out of this martial arts shenanigans rundown.

Force field fail

Here's what happens when the force is not with you yet... you're in for a surprise and a sore butt!