ChunJiDo

[cjd4life]

MaxMarks,

One other thing I forgot to mention, I noticed you were in New Hampshire... if you get a chance you may want to get in touch with some of the guys that are in my organization from the New England area. There is a lot of great Kempo and Arnis in the area. Sigung Rudy Duncan, Shihan Jesse Dwire, Guro Dan Donzella, and Sensei Ken Swan are all up that way, and they all enjoy working with other open-minded martial artists. You can find contact information for all of them at https://www.chunjidointernational.com

Take Care!

[DWx]

Welcome to the forums cjd4life, thanks for taking the time to answer people's questions

If you don't mind me asking, what's your TKD background? and why did you choose to call your style "ChunJiDo"? (Just because I do TKD and I love to talk about it )

[cjd4life]

DWx,

My initial TKD training was with the World Taekwondo Association (WTA) and Grandmaster Duk Son Sung. My immediate instructor was Mr. Charlie LaVanchy here in Evansville, Indiana and our Midwest Director was Master Young Sik Choi who now heads the Traditional Tae Kwon Do Chung Do Association (http://www.traditionaltkd.com/index.html). After Mr. LaVanchy closed his school I trained in Shotokan for awhile, and then went back to training in TKD in the American Taekwondo Association under Michael Parks. I enjoyed my TKD training and still think it is definitely the best art for learning to kick with speed, power, and flexibility.

I noticed you are from the UK and train in the Chinese arts as well as TKD. I am not sure if you are near Walsall, but if so please drop in and see Shifu Christos Stamatiadis and let him know I sent you. He is an amazing young martial artist who has lived in China and studied with the top Chinese Grandmasters. Shifu Stamatiadis was my National Director for Greece and has recently moved to the UK and opened the SCHOOL of TRADITIONAL CHINESE MARTIAL ARTS & PHILOSOPHY. You can see more about him and his contact information at http://chunjido-international.com/affiliates/16.

Take care my Friend and best wishes in your continued training!

[MaxMarks]

First, I want to refer back to the origin of this thread. I never had the privilege of studding with Michael DePasquale Sr. I work with his son though. Everyone I've meet that knew Sr. has described him as nothing less than the most incredible martial artist they've met. Further, his son carries his legacy well.

Based on the company he keeps alone, it would be an honor and privilege to train with Soke Cutrell. I'm confidant all his students are in good hands.

On a side (and sad) note: I was scheduled for a seminar with Sr. he was coming to our dojo in NH. It was canceled due to his death. I missed meeting him by weeks.

cjd4life,

I've already meet and worked with most the guys you mention. Terry Dow from The Training Station in Manchester NH has a Martial Arts Symposium every year that most of those people come to. It's a great group.

As for the combat system we have one of Micheal's top guys, Shawn Flanagan, at our dojo. Maybe you've met him.

Great to meet you over this thread! Hope to work with you in person some day.

Take care,

[cjd4life]

MaxMarks,

Thank you again for the vote of confidence in my ChunJiDo program! You are very fortunate to be training in the DePasquale system. I feel very fortunate to have attended training seminars with both Sr & Jr. You are correct Michael is doing an amazing job carrying on his Father's legacy and Mr D will always live on through Michael, Bill D'Urso, Shawn Flanagan. and all of the others who share his teachings and keep his spirit alive! One of my most treasured pictures is one of me and Mr DePasquale Sr.

http://chunjido.com/shots/387

I also wanted to share a link from our paper in Evansville, Indiana that just came out this week

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2011/dec/28/no-headline---ev_martialarts/

God bless and all the best!

[sojobo]

MaxMarks, thank you for your kind words, greatly appreciated. Actually the blend of Kempo and stand-up Jujitsu is my favorite blended part of my system. I have been fortunate enough to work with Michael DePasquale Sr. (now deceased) and also Michael Jr. in the past in Yoshitsune Jujitsu and also Combat Jujitsu, both amazing people and I still consider Mr. DePasquale Sr. to be the most incredible martial artist I have ever met. In our commercial video, I did not want to go too "combat" and scare people away

All of my Jujitsu is stand-up, I greatly respect the ground practitioners, but since I don't have a Black Belt in BJJ, I do not teach it currently in my system. My California Director though, Sensei Mario Schapp, is currently training directly under the Gracies in Torrance, California and has conducted great Gracie Combative seminars at my dojo in Evansville, Indiana.

My primary Kempo and Jujitsu Instructor was Professor Larry Hilton who founded the Nippon Ketsugo Kempo Jujitsu Association and taught until health problems forced him to stop training and teaching. I received my 5th Dan Kempo Jujitsu rank and Shihan title from him. I still consider him the fastest martial artist I have ever seen, and he turned out some great martial artists, John Geyston being just one example, Jeff Devoe another.

Sojobo - I stand corrected and apologize for the error, I have been training for 32 years, and had my own school over the last 15+ years. Sorry for the confusion. As far as my Jujitsu, I think I have answered that above. Professor Hilton trained under Carl "Pat" Burke and also Professor Vistacion who were both great martial artists and Professor V was the instructor for Moses Powell.

As far as the use of my title, I used it to let everyone know and have no doubt it was me responding to the inquiries on ChunJiDo. I am very comfortable using the title, it is who I am. Just like a Doctor, or Senator, or professor of Education. I am proud of the arts and what I have accomplished during my lifetime. I in no way meant to dishonor or disrespect anyone else. I am not a world champion, I have coached several world and national level competitors/champions, but you will not see me use that title, I am not a Grandmaster of any other art, but I am the Grandmaster and Soke for ChunJiDo.

Through the years I have taken a lot of heat for "creating" my own art. I really have not created anything, no one has, I just have developed my own interpretations and system of teaching what has been there for a long time. I have blended systems and will continue to incorporate new and improved techniques into my system of teaching. But through the grace of God and a whole lot of bloods sweat, and tears along the way I have been fortunate enough to inspire and lead students through ChunJiDo. I try my best to never say ChunJiDo is the best art or better than all of the others, "best" is measured in a lot of different ways and it is a lot like being a gunfighter, no matter how good you are, there is always someone out there with a quicker draw or a better aim!)

I think I have answered most of the questions, and again, I would like to thank those who have raised the questions about ChunJiDo, because it gave me the opportunity and privilege to talk to all of you about the arts, and specifically ChunJiDo... great conversation, take care and God bless!

Hi Robert and thank you for your response.

I'll be honest, I'm not the greatest lover of people that have "created" their own style - as you can probably tell from my bio, I am a student (and have been for many decades) of traditional Japanese martial arts.

There are no sensei that I have trained with - Japanese or otherwise - that are above 9th dan. None of them are referred to as soke or shihan.

Those are more easily found outside of Japan it would appear.

But, if needs must...

Sojobo

[Dobbersky]

...............

Also - there are people on this board that are very knowledgeable about martial arts. There are also some high ranking and graded martial artists too, but they do not see the need to sign off their posts with their grade and "Shogo" title - it means nothing here.

I look forward to hearing more from you Robert.

Sojobo

Totally agree here!

I know we all welcome you to the forum. I look forward to reading your responses to various threads and indeed thread you yourself have started

OSU!!!

[Sparrow]

Based on the videos from your website, as well as ones posted on FB to your ChunJido page and those of students, Im having some confusion.

First, I do see the Tae Kwon Do background displayed in the forms you have on your website. However, the other forms you include in your curriculum are not from Kempo.

They are from Shotokan (except for the Pinan, which are in several styles including Shotokan) an art you did not mention in your list of arts you have dan rank in. 

In regard to Kempo, Kempo is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese "Chuan Fa", or law/way of the fist, and many styles of Chinese martial arts studied in Japan will use the word "Kempo", the Japanese name while retaining the Chinese flavor and style. The only exception would be Shorinji Kempo (Shaolin Chuan Fa), which contains a blending of the fluidity from Chinese arts with a hard style sparring. I say that to point to I see none of the forms from any Kempo style in your white-to-brown/black list of katas. My question is why, if you have all of this experience in these other styles, why do you need to pull from styles you do not even have instructor rank in? 

So I took time to look at videos from various YouTube sources. These would be students, both current and former, videos from your own YouTube channel, and videos posted from various tournaments, interviews, etc. 

From what I have seen, you have what you call a two handed catch, a deflection using both hands in a fanning motion (which does have the Chinese flavor of Chuan Fa/Chinese boxing), something you call a "z" lock (very similar to a hon gyaku from jujutsu), two throws, and 2 stick drills. The testing videos that I have seen show that all testings are identical with the only new skill set to learn is the form for that rank. The exception was the black belt where you added one or two more rounds of sparring. But again, I do not see any proficiency developed in any throwing, joint locking, sticks, etc. It almost looked like those things were ignored right up until the testing date, were practiced once or twice, done for testing, and then put back down again until the next testing. If your students showed proficiency in any other weapon or technique, it was either learned prior to joining you, or was imparted by one of the instructors in your network of affiliates. This observation is coming from your tournament and public demos, where I have seen various weapons presented, but which do not appear in YOUR curriculum. Do you take students who have proficiency in these areas and use them for demos, even though you do not teach them? 

I will say that I do take issue with your rank. You have indicated that your highest rank in your, shall we say "ancestor schools" you studied is Roku Dan, 6th degree. Yet you are a 10th degree in ChunJiDo? My apologies, but how does one with a 6th degree blackbelt, legitimately award themselves 10th degree, Grandmaster status just because they take what they have learned and repackage it? In my experience, this has been done by members of martial arts organizations who have been instructors, but break away so they can garner all of the revenue. They are no longer ATA students, JKA students, ITF, etc. They are now ChunJiDo students, and all of the money that went to ATA, JKA, ITF, etc. is now going to you. And for the kid full of wonder from watching Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, Karate Kid, Jackie Chan, and for the parent fulfilling that wonder, 10 degree grandmaster is a great hook, much better than 6th degree under somebody else. 

In short, I do think you are a legitimate martial artist with a legitimate 6th degree black belt, with several champions in your school, and more power to them who have been able to take your offerings and cultivate those skills. But I also think you have grossly misrepresented yourself even to the point of blatant falsehood, and done so through vanity and some greed. This becomes apparent when you ask the very simple questions of if ChunJiDo isnt any better or worse than any martial art, than why feel the need to brand and trademark ChunJiDo as something new, and why are you picking and pulling from arts you have not studied instead of purely teaching the ones you have and in full curriculum? For an art that translates as "universal", you seem very limited.