With all this talk about martial arts, which style is better, who can kick who’s butt, I decided to post this link to an interview with Dr. Jerry Beasley, one of the Americas foremost collegiate martial arts educators, and a professor at Radford university. Hope you guys find it interesting.
http://www .aikia.net/ Click on "new interview with Dr. Jerry Beasley"
I haven’t read the interview yet but if it’s the Jerry Beasley I’m thinking of one word comes to mind - “fraud.” I’ll check back.
All right, fraud may have been a bit harsh. But he still hangs out with the Bill Wallace’s (the man who predicted the jabbing front round house to be the predominat weapon in mma and when proven wrong bitched about how mma is no sport) and the Depasqaules (JJ guys who never fight, just sell magazines and seminars) so I wasn’t all wrong. You may also notice that he dropped out of all the tough arts i.e. Oyama Karate - one of the only worthwhile Karate styles, his current style is like N.A. kickboxing - dead to all those who don’t practice it.
I don’t know about you, but i fully enjoyed the article. Whether he fights people or not, what he says is very true.
You missed my point in posting the article. i do not think that Dr Beasley is a great fighter, nor would he claim to be one.do however feel that he is a great student of the martial arts, and also a great educator. My point in posting this article is that there is no “bad” style, only bad schools of thought. Any style can be good, if you keep an open mind , and cross train. And as far as his dropping out of the good styles, well I guess you do not know much about Joe Lewis.
Good Article. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. As not only a lifter, but a student of the arts, I agree with your statement, “that there are no bad styles, only bad schools.” Each style is like a tool. You would not use a hammer as a screw driver (although, I have seen some people try).
We are all students in this life. Live, learn, relax and laugh.
I admit I read the article with prejudice. Jerry is part of a group of martial artists who did two things 1) tried to stop mixed martial arts by writing articles trashing it as a sport and then 2) hopping on the bandwagon and making $$ off the mma trend. I wouldn’t be suprised if Jerry could fight - Joe L. is great (hell, amazing) at what he does and if he trained with Joe then he’s got to be good at American style Karate. While I don’t remember as much about Jerry himself, those he surrounds himself with have been on the opposite side of the fence for a while. The other thing that bothered me was while the tone of this article was correct he would have been saying a lot of crap about how the mma fighter has no skills and couldn’t hang with one of his bb 10 years ago. When I read the article I see how he has adapted his stance to suit his strengths without taking away from his paycheck. See his bit on TKD being effective in the streets - just keep your distance eh? Maybe try crosstraining in grappling arts so that you can safely defend yourself? It’s the same thing he did with JKD - “lets do seminars so I don’t have to start from the bottom again”.
If Larry Hartsell or Dan Inosanto had penned the article I would have been much more inclined to read with an open mind.
Alright, as I only know what I’ve read about Jerry my “bold” statements have been bothering me. I made a couple calls to guys I know who are familiar with what he’s done to find out if I was right or wrong. From what they say I was both - 1) Jerry is really good at what he does i.e. teaching JKD with a Korean m.a. twist and 2) Jerry has been associated with the people I was thinking of and has enhanced his credentials much in the same way most martial artists do (i.e. political belt rankings). Suffice to say his students are probably very happy and that’s what counts so what I say doesn’t really matter. Just don’t expect to get the type of info you might think you’d find if you’ve trained with an Inosanto, Thorton or Burton (all JKD greats).
What do you guys think about Remy Presas?
Remy, as in the Arnis/Escrima guy? If it’s who I’m thinking of then I’ve heard some positive things about him - especially as a teacher. The only guys I really follow at all who do stickfighting are the Dog Bros. so I’m not too informed.
Remy knows his stuff. My friend used to train with him.