Who here has heard of Dan Inosanto?

[medic06]

Just a quick poll to resolve a debate going on in another thread or two. Don't cheat

[elliotNess]

I don't know how anyone can call themselves a martial artist if they have not heard of Dan Inosanto. Beginners are an exception.

[Red Rum]

Yes, and if you read the other thread you will find that the argument covers non martial artists.

And I think you wil find there are many people who have not heard of Dan Insonato including many wing chun guys.

At SENI this year I mentioned Insonato to a few of the people there and they had not heard of him.

Just as a lot of people in USA have not heard of Mike Bispin or Kevin Chan or Sam Kwok or Roger Gracie

Insonato has not been in movies and holds very few seminars in the UK.
I am told that the last one he was due to be in he pulled out of last minute

[eXcessiveForce]

You are kidding right. You are asking this in a JKD forum for god sakes.

even a beginner in JKD should know who Dan is.

[elliotNess]

Originally Posted by Red Rum

Yes, and if you read the other thread you will find that the argument covers non martial artists.

And I think you wil find there are many people who have not heard of Dan Insonato including many wing chun guys.

At SENI this year I mentioned Insonato to a few of the people there and they had not heard of him.

Just as a lot of people in USA have not heard of Mike Bispin or Kevin Chan or Sam Kwok or Roger Gracie

Insonato has not been in movies and holds very few seminars in the UK.
I am told that the last one he was due to be in he pulled out of last minute

Do you own the 4 bruce lee training books? The ones with the orange, yellow, blue and green covers? That's Guru Dan in the book training with Bruce lee. That's the best way I can put him in perspective.

[Red Rum]

Elliotness, what is your point? That Insonato was in a book with Bruce?
How many people have been in movies with Bruce Lee?

I was on my Sifu's video as one of the people he trained with. That doesn't make me something special!!

Ip Chun asked one of my training partners to be in a video with him and he turned him down. Again it doesn't make the guy special!!!

Insonato is good as he has trained hard and is okay for the length of time he has trained. But the argument was that someone posted he was the most influential martial artist in the USA....

I just disagree with this tremendously and many people in other arts (especially in ones that Insonato doesn't train in) would

[elliotNess]

Originally Posted by Red Rum

Elliotness, what is your point? That Insonato was in a book with Bruce?
How many people have been in movies with Bruce Lee?

I was on my Sifu's video as one of the people he trained with. That doesn't make me something special!!

Ip Chun asked one of my training partners to be in a video with him and he turned him down. Again it doesn't make the guy special!!!

Insonato is good as he has trained hard and is okay for the length of time he has trained. But the argument was that someone posted he was the most influential martial artist in the USA....

I just disagree with this tremendously and many people in other arts (especially in ones that Insonato doesn't train in) would

Yea, I saw that argument in another thread. I'm staying out of it. I'm just glad I had a change to meet Dan Inosanto in person. He is an old man now, almost 70. I answered before I saw the other thread so I retract my position and just wanna say to know him is to respect him.

[Little Apple]

As a minor note, I believe he is already 70, or just over. Anyway, I've spoken with a lot of people who say he is the best martial artist on the continent (some say the world) because he is the second best at every art that he does, and he does a lot of arts. He is also a very private person, and doesn't like to put himself out there much, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were bunches of people who didn't know him. In my opinion though, anyone would be silly not to respect the crap out of the man. The best already do, and that should be enough on its own.

[jeff5]

Guro Dan is one of true Masters of this century. Many people, unless they're in a certain Martial Arts circle or just really into all kinds of Martial Arts, will never have heard of him.

[Thai Bri]

I think it's a safe bet that most people have heard of Bruce Lee. For the most part, only martial artists will have heard of Dan Inosanto - and many of the McDojoers won't anyway.

But who cares? I bet he doesn't.

[jubaji]

I think the real point of this thread is to help Red Rum realize his ignorance.

[Garland]

Originally Posted by Thai Bri

I think it's a safe bet that most people have heard of Bruce Lee. For the most part, only martial artists will have heard of Dan Inosanto - and many of the McDojoers won't anyway.

But who cares? I bet he doesn't.

On the two occasions I've met the man, Guro Dan seemed to be very reserved, respectful, and has a great deal of humility.
He's laid back, and is, hands down, the most knowledgeable and versatile martial arts practitioner and instructor in the world. He's often been cited as a living encyclopedia of martial arts...but the coolest thing is that he keeps learning- he is an embodiement of the progressive and evolutionary nature of the martial arts. Whatever he embraces in the present has a tendency to evolve into a huge trend in the martial arts community when he begins to move onto the next thing. It seems like he's always miles ahead of the pack in figuring out what works and then adopting it to his curriculum, his academy and his teaching.

He has had a hand in almost everything on the cutting edge of martial arts since the 70's...and he shares.

So somebodies sifu decided wing chun lacked a grappling component and decided to bring in BJJ. Good. I'm happy they've decided to take a step in the right direction. But it's not worth a comparison. To insult Guro Dan is to badmouth basically every positive landmark change in the martial arts community in the past 40+ years. It's just not...logical.

[jeff5]

Originally Posted by Thai Bri

But who cares? I bet he doesn't.

Precisely.

[Tim McFatridge]

Originally Posted by Red Rum

Elliotness, what is your point? That Insonato was in a book with Bruce?
How many people have been in movies with Bruce Lee?

I was on my Sifu's video as one of the people he trained with. That doesn't make me something special!!

Ip Chun asked one of my training partners to be in a video with him and he turned him down. Again it doesn't make the guy special!!!

Insonato is good as he has trained hard and is okay for the length of time he has trained. But the argument was that someone posted he was the most influential martial artist in the USA....

I just disagree with this tremendously and many people in other arts (especially in ones that Insonato doesn't train in) would

RedRum,

I have not read anything on the other thread so I am not aware of what all has bee nsaid regarding Guro Dan. I can tell you that the reason so many people believe that Guro Dan is the most influential person in the martial arts is because of what all he has done. He has done more than any other single martial artist out there to bring in other systems from outside the USA.

In the 1970's when he and Richard Bustillo were running the Kali Academy in Torrence, Ca. they would always bring in different Kali men to teach at the acadmey. They would bring in Floro Villabrille and Ben Largusa to teach Villabrille Kali. They would bring in Ted Lucaylucay Sr. who would teach everyone boxing and related everythign to the blade. This was later called Panantukan. They would bring in Angel Cabables who would teach them his system of Serrada Escrima. Later on Guro Dan brought in a Savate guy and had him start teaching at the Inosanto Academy and helped promote Savate to the rest of the county. He also brought in Master Chai and had him start teaching his Muay Thai at the Academy and then started promoting Muay Thai to the rest of the country. He had Edgar Sulite teach him LAMECO Eskrima then started promoting LAMECO Eskrima to the country and helped Edgar get his seminars going. In 1994 a gentleman by the name of Yori Nakamura came to the US for one reason... to learn JKD from Guro Dan. When he arrived Guro Dan asked Yori to show him what he had trained in Japan. Yori then showed Shootwresling as he had been taught by the founder Satoro Sayama. Guro Dan quikly called up Larry Hartsell to come down and see this style of fighting. Larry and Dan became students of Shootwrestling at that moment. A short time later Erik Paulson was introduced to it. Guro Dan had Yori start teaching Shoot at his school and began spreading the word on Shootwrestling at all his seminars.

When people say that he is the most influential person in the martial arts it is not any disrespect to any one else out there. It is just that Guro Dan has brought in people from arts other than what he was teaching or training at the time in order to introduce the rest of the country to what he saw as valuable.

[jubaji]

Originally Posted by Mike Brewer

I looked at the poll numbers, and I see one person who has not heard of Dan Inosanto. I have to assume that it's Red Rum's vote. Odd. He's been talking about Dan Inosanto in several threads...

Are you sure his name isn't really norom?