Question regarding...

[Yoshimitsu]

.... 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.

[ps1]

Did you ask him? I find the best research can be done in person. Usually, you can pretty quickly tell when someone is giving you the run around about their history.

[Yoshimitsu]

Did you ask him? I find the best research can be done in person. Usually, you can pretty quickly tell when someone is giving you the run around about their history.

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.

[Yoshimitsu]

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.

[bushido_man96]

I am not sure how many styles of Kenjutsu/Iaijutsu there really are. I would go talk with him and find out what he does for sure. Like ps1 said, you can learn a lot by asking questions.

[ps1]

I would also point out that it's not uncommon for people not to list the specific ryu of kenjutsu or bukijutsu they studied in an add. More than likely the average person isn't even going to know what kenjutsu is. So to say something like Yagu Shinkage Ryu Kenjutsu is a little overkill.

Just another thought.

Let us know what you find out.

[bushido_man96]

On another note, I really think that there can only be so many subtle differences in schools of swordsmanship. In fact, I would be willing to bet that the major differences lie in schools of thought and philosophy, as opposed to major technical differences.

There are only so many angles to cut someone from.

[Yoshimitsu]

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.

[NightOwl]

I believe that there are about 2 main schools of Iaido out there. As for kenjutsu- there are A LOT. However, looking for Koryu schools is fairly hard outside of Japan I've heard. As for the guy himself- might as well stop by. Personally after looking at his site I am a bit skeptical. For instance: http://masystemsproducts.com/Bio_Sutzer_Dean.htm

Mr. Sutzer’s martial arts career began in 1970. His initial training was in Kodokan Judo and Shotokan Karate. Over the years, Mr. Sutzer has expanded his training experiences to include Shorin Karate, Jujutsu, Kempojutsu, Kobujutsu, and Iaijutsu / Kenjutsu (just to name a few!).

Mr. Sutzer has been instructing martial arts since 1973. He has conducted individual sessions as well as having as many as two hundred students at a time under his direction.

In 2001, Mr. Sutzer founded Shingitai-Ryu Bujutsu, sanctioned by the United States Martial Arts Association.

Mr. Sutzer was inducted into the United States Martial Arts Association Hall of Fame (as Founder) in 2002

A list of ranks:

hingitai – Ryu Bujutsu – 9th Dan

Karate – 8th Dan

Kempojutsu – 5th Dan

Judo – 6th Dan

Jujutsu - 5th Dan

Iaijutsu / Kenjutsu – 5th Dan

Kobujutsu – 6th Dan

Tai Chi - Sifu

His style is sanctioned by an organization the HE founded. Also the huge list of high degree belts he has in numerous styles is suspicious to me. Most colleges don't know much about martial arts. If someone wanted to coach a basketball class for instance, they'd have to provide a lot of proof of qualification as well as lots of prior work information. However if you say you have 7 black belts (all of which are 5th degree or above) as well as claim to be a 'sifu' in taichi, they probably aren't going to look into it too much. I mean, just present a certificate with Chinese characters all over it and it sure looks impressive.

Also look at this: (from his 4 min. fitness page) :

http://masystemsproducts.com/4_Minute_Fitness.htm

With employees being a company's greatest asset, keeping employees healthier is a concern for many companies. As a former director of HR, I fully understand this concern.

4 Minute FitnessTM is a great way to:

* Decrease stress

Job stress creates up to 60% of all absenteeism and costs employers more than $200 billion each year

C. Cooper & R. Payne, eds. Causes, Coping and Consequences of Stress at Work, 1988 and National Safety Council, 1995

* Alleviate lower back pain

Lower back pain has been cited as the second most common reason for missing work

* Improve breathing

Proper breathing lowers high blood pressure, reduces fatigue, improves sleep, and enhances memory

* Promote positive attitudes

Optimists are more successful than pessimists in work, school and sports, suffer less depression, achieve more goals, and respond better to stress

* Enhance visualization skills

Some of the world's most successful athletes and business people use positive visualization to enhance performance

* Create positive emotions that boost immune function

Depression, a common problem among workers, costs the US $44 billion per year in lost productivity.

National Foundation of Brain Research, 1999

4 Minute FitnessTM combines ancient secrets taken from tai chi, yoga, qi gong, meditation with modern medical discoveries and winning mental techniques used by professional athletes. The secret to our success is our innovative "Layered Practice" method. Practicing one method at a time would consume 16-20 minutes. We simply do them simultaneously so the entire process takes just 4 minutes to complete.

So not only has he been teaching martial arts, but he has been a human resource manager with extensive fitness training as well? And the program is used by 'professional athletes' who surely must have also discovered the 'ancient secrets taken from tai chi, yoga, qi gong, and meditation' right? 16-20 min. worth of techniques broken down into 4 minutes...also doesn't sit too right with me.

I dunno- perhaps he is legit, but still...

[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.