Whats the deal with Tommy Carruthers?

[Mr Roper]

Hi

I live in Scotland and want to find good JKD, seen his videos on the web and the guy looks monster, anyone trained with him?

Thanks

[Michael Wright]

Hey this could be a new game show - “What’s The Deal” with Tommy Carruthers.

Two contestants answer general knowledge questions whilst doing Chi Sao. The one who wins goes through to the head to head with Tommy, where they can win £10,000 if the beat him in a bollock-kicking contest. Don’t forget the bonus rounds where you can win household goods by doing one-finger push-ups in a muscle vest. Its fun for all the family.

Saturday nights, 6:30, BBC1.

[Mr Roper]

W T F ??!!??!

[Michael Wright]

Sorry, a few beers.

I trained with Mr Carruthers briefly in 1998. In my opinion he is excellent at what he does, which is very effective Jun Fan Gung Fu. His sources are all 1st generation students of Sigung Bruce Lee: including Sifu’s Ted Wong, Howard Williams, and Jesse Glover. In all of my training since I have not met many people who can match his speed, power or athleticism.

The only point I would make is that Mr Carruthers has (or certainly had at that time) very clear opinions on restricting your study to that of “pure” JKD. I’ve always had a slightly more exploratitive approach to martial arts, so this naturally led me to the “concepts” approach under Guro Inosanto. Therefore I moved on, purely out of personal preference, and will stress again that I rate Mr Carruthers very highly at what he does.

[Mr Roper]

Hey Michael, many thanks. I’ve actually been on your website a few times, looks awesome. Tommy teaches in Glasgow and I am just outside of Edinburgh so it wouldn’t be a bad journey.

[Michael Wright]

Given you live in Edinburgh, and to offer you the luxury of choice, I must mention someone to you.

You are in the incredibly fortunate position of having one the best martial artists in the world on your very doorstep. Rick Young runs his club in Edinburgh, and he is in my opinion as good as it gets. Rick was Guro Inosanto’s first Full Instructor outside of the US, and is his most senior student in Europe. There isn’t an area of the arts where he isn’t world class, he is especially renowned for his groundwork and is the World BJJ champion in his division. Senior Instructor under Sifu Larry Hartsell (RIP), Full Instructor under Paul Vunak, Full Instructor under Rick Faye, BJJ Black belt…….you get the idea. Incredible athlete, very experienced fighter, superb teacher and also a lovely guy.

I don’t want to influence you either way, its your path, but I had to bring Rick to your attention.

[Mr Roper]

Thank you Michael. I know about Rick and I don’t doubt he is incredible, but it is just the JKD side of things I am interested in for right now.

[Michael Wright]

...and Rick’s JKD is awesome, but I think I know where you are coming from. If it is a pure focus on the original art then as I said before, Mr Carruthers is excellent.

Good luck, and don’t forget.........Saturday nights, 6:30, BBC1

[Ghost]

Id go with what michael is saying, while id say that im not a fan of Tommy is an understatement. im not going into why on here though as it would be crap.

you can probably call rick on 01315544600. dont know if that still works or not though.
michael what am i missing on saturday at 6.30 tell meeeeeeee!

[Mr Roper]

Thanks Ghost. I guess what I am saying is that my interest is purely on the JKD for right now, and I'm assuming that at Rick's club it will be combined with the Kali and the grappling and stuff like that? Like Michael says, Tommy teaches pure JKD, and thats what I'm looking for. I appreciate you don't want to share your concerns in public, I have a lot of time for that, maybe if you get the chance send me a private message with anything you think I should be aware of?

[tel]

i would train with rick 10 times out of 10 and if you ask him to teach you pure jkd, he will

[Mr Roper]

Thanks. I did, and he is.

[sly fox]

cool.... rick is an excellent martial artist and teacher you made a good choice

[wee_man]

Don't go to Carruthers. He is a fraud. He talks himself up as knowing more than he does and his original Instructor Prof Gary Dill says he only did 2 days with him and once he got the bit of paper he ran. So all the talk of knowing the purest strain of JKD is all bullshit. He made his name with his seminar video flying about cyberspace. Apart from that he has no credibility as a JKD instructor. I got caught up in the hype after viewing those clips and promptly joined his class. What a RIP-OFF!! All it was was scenarios and dummy fighting. There was no moves taught. Also an induction was required before allowed to take part in class. All this consisted of was 4 lessons of basic footwork, kicking and bobbing and weaving. All for £100. You could learn that from a basic self defence book. Bloody discrace. I found him to be obnoxious and his head up his arse.

All I can say is DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE

[Ghost]

A good way to judge what appears to be a seasoned instructor is to look at who they have taught that has been a big success.