Thai Brai,
It did happen trust me. But you have to understand the situation & reasons. You are right Rick is an incredibly nice guy & not the sort to go around challenging people. Rick is incredibly loyal to Dan Inosanto, and respects everyone opinion but often he feels critcism is not constructive of Dan its just misinformed nonsense. It had been going on for years, Rick would hear about things Tommy Carruthers had said on himself and Dan Inosanto, the Krause brothers (also in Scotland), etc.
So eventually Rick went through to Tommy's place and asked him to explain himself what he had been saying, and that if he had issues with what Dan Inosanto or himself was teaching regarding JKD , they could have it out right there and then. Tommy visibly shaking and afraid, apologised and said he did not want to fight; he also said he had great respect for Dan & would never talk badly of him (even though Rick knew for certain he had). And that was that, no big deal.
Rick Young does not go around challenging people, but in this instance he had heard enough , and went to his place , and particularly as he was in his own country Scotland. Most under Dan & loyal to him would have done the same if Tommy had been in their area - what is your problem?.
Tommy speaks very badly on a lot of people Dan Inosanto, Patrick Strong, Paul Vunak, Krause brothers (and they are in the same city as him - Glasgow!), etc. But he never ever says it to their faces. As Tim Tackett said above he p***** off a great deal of people with his outspoken views, and it is definitely not the sort of thing to do in the martial arts world today for obvious reasons.
When he had Patrick Strong over for seminar while back, after he left and went back to U.S. he bad mouthed him a lot, not just direct to his students but publically on his forum too. Just not the sort of thing you do, and shows the kind of person he is. If you have someone over for seminar & don't like what they are teaching & feel it was not worth getting them over; it's simple - don't get them again. But don't wait till they have left your country then bad mouth them. Some of Patrick Strong's students naturally took great offence also.
Regarding his credentials he originally was certified by Gary Dill! - Gary Dill now speaks very poorly of him, email him and you can ask. He went the Concepts route for a while attending seminars with Paul Vunak, Dan Inosanto, Larry Hartsell, etc - but realised certification would take years so took another route. He has trained with Jesse Glover, but Jesse does not certify people & so he is not certified by him. He has trained with Ted Wong & was supposedly certified by him at a Jun Fan JKD Nucleus meeting in the U.S. , others say it was not actual certification; anyway he is not listed on Ted Wong's site as one of his Instructors that much is certain. |