Originally Posted by Prof Vic 20

Hey

First post on here, I found the forum by accident and really liked the input on threads like this so I've signed up.

So here's my hat in the arena, so to speak.

I prefer not to judge anyone's skill unless I've trained with them - and that's their skill as a teacher AND martial artist. Let's not forget those skills go way beyond what happens on the mats and their chosen system of combat. Pedigree, personality, experience, and dare I say it? - customer service - are all factors for me. Also, do they walk the walk? I don't necessarily mean do they get into brawls or enter illegal competitions in Hong Kong. I mean are they of a black belt martial artists but white belt role models.

I do not think having bits on YouTube makes you a bad martial artist, in the same way being featured in magazines doesn't make you a good one. An instructor may give a good enough impression in print or film to motivate me to train with him, but if I don't like what I see I deselect the instructor from my training programme. This in itself is the most powerful way you can voice your opinion about a coach, and you offend nobody.

For the people working very hard to flame a man who's not around to defend himself, you need to remember all you're doing is working very hard to give people around the world that you've never met a really bad impression of you. You may not care about that, and that's up to you. But then again you might. You'll change more minds and make more points with constructive, reasoned, rational debate. "He's a tool" is just an opinion and not one to stop me training with anyone, though it tells me a lot about the person posting it. Likewise, "He's a good teacher, though a little expensive and I'd question his experience." is much more useful. If you have an axe to grind, may I suggest a forum for blacksmiths? I'm sure we all expect martial artists to operate on a higher level. So nyah! :P

I mean all this with respect, guys. Sorry for going on and making my first post a preach, I promise I'm usually a lot less mature.