thieves in the martial arts

A good buddy of mine gave me a hard time (in a joking manner) recently about how most of my blog posts in the past few months have been me ranting and raging at someone or something that ticked me off. He was right. Making me angry is a good method of making me write here. I told myself that I would try to be a little more positive. I really meant it.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of total scumbags are there. And sometimes, they push me too far.

Case in point. I think intellectual thievery is abhorrent. Unfortunately, it is also rampant in martial arts. I can't police the world, but I can call out those people who do it when it strikes closer to home. So, I will do so now.

There is a new trend of people teaching MMA or Combatives who recognize that boxing is a key to fighting, but they don't have the experience to coach it. Nor do they have the intellectual honesty to try to learn it well from a legitimate source. So they steal the creation of someone better and smarter than themselves and pass it on as their own. There are many people out there who have stolen CM Boxing methods but try to call it something else. Here are a couple of terms they try to substitute for CM - "high guard boxing", "cover & fend", "MMA Shell defense". Everyone of these terms is a direct rip-off.

To be clear, I am not saying that only CM has a "shell" or "cage" structure. There are different boxing and Muay Thai techniques that are similar. But there are certain terms describing CM that are proprietary and have never been used before CM. Terms such as hunchback, dive jab, sinking into the pelvis, etc. If you want to disagree, show me where these terms were used in a fighting context before Rodney King and Matt Thornton introduced CM to the general public in 2002. I am confident such citations won't be found.

But there are people out there, some really well known, who are thieves who have knowingly stolen material that does not belong to them. They use these terms, teach direct CM concepts and principles, but call it anything but CM.

One of these is a world famous martial artist from Australia who has DVD's out where he teaches his "MMA Shell" using words like hunchback stance, yet never mentions Rodney King or CM. It just so happens that I was physically present when this person learned CM directly from Rodney. I also sparred with him and know for a fact his stand up skill was rudimentary. Yet 18 momths later, he produces a DVD set that he charges a very high price for that features his ideas of stand up striking. And he does not have the simple decency to give credit where it is due. What a turd.

Another guy is an "authority" on combatives in the UK. Magazines and websites in the UK always feature him as a cutting edge instructor and street fighting expert who spends a lot of time researching. This ass has written articles on how great CM is and what a genius Rodney King is. Yet when he publishes a book, he shows CM boxing but renames it "cover & fend" and NEVER mentions Rodney's name. And, after the book came out, along with a companion DVD, he has tried to diminish any mention of Rodney. He has even hid and edited the article on his website. Even worse, I know for a fact that he was invited numerous times to come free of charge to a number of Rodney's seminars in the UK and he NEVER responded. Not only is he a thief, he is lazy as well.

There are also a couple of people who Rodney has kicked out of his organization who never actually fulfilled their commitment to actually train in person with him, but still try to cash in on CM. There are a couple in Australia and one in the UK (Coventry). They couldn't do the work to actually learn, but want to be seen as "sensei". They might just be the worst of the bunch.

I don't see how any of these people sleep at night. In my opinion, they are complete scumbags. And if any of them have a problem with me writing this, they are more than welcome to confront me on it. Just be ready for that confrontation to be videoed, and the results then posted on youtube for the world to see.

I doubt any of them will man up.