Yoshimitsu

Nightowl: Those are some of the very concerns I had. I spend a good deal of my time on campus at a work study job where luckily enough I really don't do anything of merit other than haunt internet forums. The last few weeks I've spent countless hours tracking down the styles and such that he has achieved a black belt in. That, however, is neither here nor there. I will say this in his behalf. I watched a good portion of his class today and it was professional and seemed to be very safety oriented (as safely as a bunch of college folks wielding bokkens can be, lol). After class I posed the question regarding his ryu, in which he directed me to the patch on his sword case of a tiger in the background with the wording "Shingitai" across the top. I had done numerous searches regarding this and could only find Shingitai Jujutsu (which at least on the American Federation of Jujutsu it mentions Sutzer, but I'm not sure that is correct). The entirety of the name being Shingitai Ryu Bujutsu. It has been my experience that two things could be possible: he veered away from some art he was associated in the past and created Shingitai, or that he completely fabricated the art. Of course I'm not very knowledgeable when anything kenjutsu or iajutsu is involved in. In other words, I wouldn't know a bad kenjutsu or iajutsu teacher if I saw one. This, as always with most martial arts in TN, has been a major letdown. I've still yet to find a class that isn't questionable in some way or another. PS If you go through the martial arts hall of fame website you will find an inductee there by the name of Bryce Dallas. Anyone knowing that name will understand why my warning flags immediately were raised.

Thanks for the replies and the input. Someone touched on a question I meant to ask in the original post. That question being, "Is it normal for teachers to NOT list their ryu, etc?". I know that I'm one of the few that would actually question such a thing. Anyways, I'll attempting to go to one of his classes on campus this following week and hopefully I'll have an update to post here. Again, thanks for the help and input.

Also for what its worth, the class he was going to teach at the Fit was only 15 bucks for 6 weeks worth of class time which isn't too bad. From what I understand he does a lot of work in community type centers promoting Tai Chi and fitness as well for similar prices.

Not as of yet...as I am told he keeps irregular hours here at Tech. I attempted enrolling in his kenpojutsu class at the fitness center but it was closed due to not enough interest.

.... http://masystemsproducts.com/Bio_Sutzer_Dean.htm He is teaching a course at Tennessee Tech University, where I am currently enrolled at. As usual with all of the martial arts I involve myself in I like to do a little preliminary research as to the background of the school, style, and instructor. In this case, I suppose the school would be kenjutsu and the instructor Mr. Sutzer. Style is absent because...well I can't seem to find the style of kenjutsu that Mr. Sutzer has learned and is now teaching. So I guess what I am looking for here is some help finding legitimacy in this class. Has anyone had any dealings with Mr. Sutzer and/or this website? Any help would be appreciated and greatly valued. PS I've spent the last two hours researching this - going through forum posts at various websites and searching websites on google. I've come up with nada and I'm beginning to get a little frustrated, lol.

Alright...I've got a question here. Does anyone know where I can find info on She Quan? A friend of mine is wanting to find somewhere that teaches this, however I haven't been able to find anything on the internet when I just search the name. Also, I just recently started a Kenpo class. Is there anyone here that can elaborate more about that particular art? Like what I can expect to learn? Thanks in advance.

Don't hold me to this but I believe the system of Jiu-Jitsu is the one by Gracie. I haven't asked a lot of questions as you can see, lol.

Ahhh, it's been awhile since I've posted here. Some of you might remember me from around a year ago. Since then I've basically been out of the martial arts, working and preparing for college. I just recently started looking for something new as the last art I practiced in I had to quit. I've found a place where they teach Jiu-Jitsu, Kempo (sp?), Aikido, and conventional Karate. My plan is to take all of those, with maybe the exception of Karate on a weekly basis. Since I'm relatively new to Jiu-Jitsu (I've only had one class) and I haven't even taken the other classes yet, so can someone please post some info on how these arts are compared to each other, and their differences? Thanks in advance!

No see the reason I made the training ground in the woods is so that I would get a workout just getting to the place. The place where I've began setting it up has only one way to get there, an old logging road that's straight up the sound of this hill, really steep and the climb is about 50-100 yards. At the very top it flattens off, that is my new training ground. What I plan to do is make several training spots along this road as it continues up the side of the mountain, with each spot concentrating on one thing. I'll run this little idea by my sensei and see what he thinks before doing it though as it will be a lot of work and I would want people to use it.

My class was called off as well. I'll be doing some training myself though on my new outdoor training ground that I'm working on in the woods around my house.

Thanks for all the welcomes guys. I'm sorry this is a bit late but I've been gone for about a week. Anyways be looking for me more often on these forums.

I agree with the above post.

My art I would assume is a combative art. My sensei mentions that our class is more geared towards "street" rather than tournament fighting. But as I'm sure most know even a tournament art can be effective.

While I cannot speak for any other arts I can speak for mine when I say that some of the things you said are a little assuming. Remember that there are arts out there who hit punching bags without gloves. I'm not saying boxing isn't just as "deadly" as a martial art, for that would be very arrogant on my part. BTW, when you said "working forms" did you mean doing katas? I would imagine that kata's are just one part of a plethora of things you would practice. I have kata's and I practice them but I practice my punches and kicks just as often if not more. Once again I'm not saying boxing isn't effective, I'm just saying that some of the things you said above probably doesn't apply to every ma.

I also have friend's in my class that I train with and invite over to my house and stuff. We were actually friend's before the MA class and one of them asked me and then some of my friend's followed me into the class and so on and so forth. It's always nice to know you have someone to train with.