Online Black Belt......really? But it's from the "The Great Grandmaster of the Century".

[Coker101]

I have not trained in some 8 or so years and while looking at the local places I ran into Shaolin Kimpo Karate then decided to do some investigating and ended up running into "The Great Grandmaster Villari".

http://www.grandmastervillari.com/

Now I don't mean to come across rude or disrespectful towards anyone but on his site he calls himself "The Great Grandmaster of the Century". Personally I find that to be absurd to make such claims as "Great Grandmaster of the Century".

Then I see this picture...

And then that he gives black belts through videos or online or some such nonsense. Maybe I have a bad attitude but my goodness, is it me or does he come across a bit like a scam artist? I might be wrong...I don't know.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

Well, he needs to be able to distinguish himself from all those "pretty good grandmasters of the year."

I've heard his name but don't really know much about him. I found his videos to be rather ... less than impressive.

 

[K-man]

I have not trained in some 8 or so years and while looking at the local places I ran into Shaolin Kimpo Karate then decided to do some investigating and ended up running into "The Great Grandmaster Villari".

http://www.grandmastervillari.com/

Now I don't mean to come across rude or disrespectful towards anyone but on his site he calls himself "The Great Grandmaster of the Century". Personally I find that to be absurd to make such claims as "Great Grandmaster of the Century".

Then I see this picture...

And then that he gives black belts through videos or online or some such nonsense. Maybe I have a bad attitude but my goodness, is it me or does he come across a bit like a scam artist? I might be wrong...I don't know.

A quick search of the internet confirms my view. It would seem that the title 'The Great Grand Master' is to differentiate him from all the other 'Grand Masters'. Not to mention 12th Dan, wow, now that's impressive.

Great Grandmaster Fred Villari


Fred Villari is acknowledged as one of the most important martial artists of the last 1000 years.


Great Grandmaster Villari is globally renowned for combining Northern and Southern Chinese martial arts, Chinese Boxing, Japanese martial arts and Chinese, Mongolian, and Japanese felling/grappling arts with Western Boxing.


Grandmaster Villari innovated changes from low to upright stances in order to have more fluency and freedom of movement.. The old stances were suited for people of a different stature and who fought in a low crouched position. Villari Fighting Stances were developed using the way of the upright position, which has been proven to be far superior. This is one of the most important changes that Grandmaster Villari has made in the Karate and Kempo systems. No wonder so many other martial art styles have copied and imitated his changes.


In addition, Great Grandmaster Villari incorporated Chinese and Tibetan internal martial arts (Energy Arts) to create the most complete and devastating fighting art the world has ever seen.


Great Grandmaster Villari has been the leader in creating a system that works in today’s world, including:


- Developing the first martial arts shoe (now a standard in almost every martial arts facility in the world)


- Designed and manufactures a designer-quality jean with a cut and material that is equally comfortable and stylish in the dojo as well as the street.


- Perhaps Great Grandmaster Villari’s most significant innovation was creating the first true “mixed martial art” over 45 years ago with his innovative “Four Ways of Fighting”
Mr. Villari realized early on that while traditional martial arts had much to offer, many are outmoded in modern times. Mr. Villari knew that mixing Western Boxing, martial arts, and grappling is much more effective than one style alone. His philosophy is that every fight is different and people have differing abilities so one must have the ability to seamlessly change during a fight to ensure you are the victor not the victim.


In recognition of his exploits, in 2006 Mr. Villari was elected and inducted by Grandmaster Aaron Banks in a ceremony witnessed by over 100 Masters from all over the world as “The Grandmaster of the Century”.


Aaron Banks, who passed in May 2013 at the age of 85, was one of the country’s most respected tournament promoters. Aaron Banks was a Grand Master in the martial arts and he made it his personal mission to share the different forms of martial arts in the western world.


Grandmaster Aaron Banks promoted martial arts to the public with his Oriental World of Self-Defense shows that played in Madison Square Garden for over 20 years via ABC-Wide World of Sports, NBC Sports World, CBS Sports, and HBO Sports. His “Oriental World of Self-Defense” had millions of viewers. He is also credited with launching the career of Chuck Norris.
http://www.grandmastervillari.com/about-grandmaster-fred-villari

Seems perfectly legit to me.

 

[TimoS]

create the most complete and devastating fighting art the world has ever seen

I thought that Ashida Kim's kata Dante was for that

 

[dancingalone]

He's been discussed various times before here. Just search under "Villari" and Shaolin Kempo. From what I recall from reading over the years is that he was a very legitimate fighter back in the seventies and eighties coming up under one of those kajukenbo offshoots and he produced some good black belts, but eventually commercialized and did the whole found his own style thing, opened franchise opportunities, and then ultimately added a video testing program.

<shrugs> There's a few members of this board who were or active in Shaolin Kempo. They seem to suggest that like anything else you sometimes have to sift through the bad schools to find the few good ones. Hey, that's like most MAs these days.

 

[RTKDCMB]

After 2 minutes of research I found this litle gem:

Notice how he cuts his own throat at 0:01.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Folks, I'd like to remind you all that MartialTalk has a policy against fraudbusting. Threads such as this one have a tendancy to cross that line, so please, review your posts and think before you click post. The TOS can be found here if you wish to review them.

 

[Coker101]

Folks, I'd like to remind you all that MartialTalk has a policy against fraudbusting. Threads such as this one have a tendancy to cross that line, so please, review your posts and think before you click post. The TOS can be found here if you wish to review them.

No problem. But stating that giving out black belts through videos is ridiculous would not be against rules would it?

Anyway, fraud or not this guy calling himself the grandmaster of the century is absurd in my opinion. Just my opinion but I would not train with this guy for free regardless of what he was in the 70s-80s.

 

[K-man]

After 2 minutes of research I found this litle gem:

Notice how he cuts his own throat at 0:01.

In actual fact it's not that far off the way I teach that defence. The way he did it makes it unlikely you will be cut as you push the knife away. The problem arises with an attacker who responds by pulling the knife back when you may be cut, hopefully only superficially, but with blood on the hands it may be difficult to complete the defence. A determined attacker will not leave the knife to the side for the disarm if you pressure test the technique. The technique will still work against resistance but just not as simple as it was shown. KM teaches a modified form which reduces the risks.
:asian:

 

[Kong Soo Do]

Learning from a video can be the subject of a debate (and has been here on MT).

In reference to the 'Great Grandmaster of the Century', well there is a long list of Grandmasters, Great Grandmasters, Supreme Grandmasters and so on and so forth. I suppose it boils down to a simple question: Is this a label they've given themselves or is it a label others have given to them? The answer to that question can reveal quite a bit of information.

 

[WaterGal]

A quick search of the internet confirms my view. It would seem that the title 'The Great Grand Master' is to differentiate him from all the other 'Grand Masters'. Not to mention 12th Dan, wow, now that's impressive.

Does that work like how great-grandparents are more senior than grandparents? Reminds me of a guy around here that's the "Supreme Grandmaster" of an art he made up and teaches part time at the community center.

 

[K-man]

Does that work like how great-grandparents are more senior than grandparents? Reminds me of a guy around here that's the "Supreme Grandmaster" of an art he made up and teaches part time at the community center.

I'll have to take a rain check on that one. It requires far more contemplation that I have time for at present. However, I am considering whether I should class myself as 'Supreme Grandfather' or whether just plain old 'Pop' or 'Grandad" will suffice.

 

[Jaeimseu]

Learning from a video can be the subject of a debate (and has been here on MT).

In reference to the 'Great Grandmaster of the Century', well there is a long list of Grandmasters, Great Grandmasters, Supreme Grandmasters and so on and so forth. I suppose it boils down to a simple question: Is this a label they've given themselves or is it a label others have given to them? The answer to that question can reveal quite a bit of information.

And did he buy that uniform and belt for himself or was it given to him?

Look at all those stripes! He must be a Great Grand Master!

Sent from my SHV-E210K using Tapatalk

 

[Cirdan]

His Great GMness` uniform got more gold than the Fort Knox.

 

[wimwag]

Does that work like how great-grandparents are more senior than grandparents? Reminds me of a guy around here that's the "Supreme Grandmaster" of an art he made up and teaches part time at the community center.

I know a guy who invented his own martial art. He combined "techniques" he learned from mortal kombat and tekken and incorporated an airsoft pistol into it. He gives demonstrations to elementary kids that have the misfortune of walking by his house after school. It has yet to be proven in combat.

 

[Xue Sheng]

If it is the same guy, and I think he is the origin story is similar but I see it has expanded a bit, Fred Villari had a chain of martial arts schools back in the 70s and I went to one of them for about a month found myself entirely unimpressed and left

 

[RTKDCMB]

Another interesting video

I like where he tightens the attackers nuts at 0:12.

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

And then that he gives black belts through videos or online or some such nonsense. Maybe I have a bad attitude but my goodness, is it me or does he come across a bit like a scam artist? I might be wrong...I don't know.

I don't know that 'give' is the right word. There is most certainly a cost involved. Anyway, pretty much everyone seems to have an online component these days. I think that even the Gracies have gone that route.

There are many, many threads here discussing the pros and cons of online/video training. Regarding raw beginners, a very visual learner can probably pick up the lessons quite well. The main issue in my opinion is not the lack of an instructor, but the lack of partners who are any further along than you are, or the lack of partners period. Then you get into potential safety concerns.

The people who benefit the most from videos are people who already have a good deal of relevant experience. Though in their case, the need for the video is probably not all that great and the courses usually cost more than one would normally spend for reference material.

 

[punisher73]

In situations like this, it is sometimes hard to seperate the physcial techniques of the system, from the marketing/business of the system.

I have viewed the physical moves of the system (up through blackbelt) and it seems like it would give you the same tools as most other TMA's. There used to be a person on here named Prof. Joe Shuras, who was a student of SKK and was there at the beginning. He talked about how hard the training was and how much sparring was done. He also mentioned that as Fred Villari wanted to spread his system, that he really toned down the physical apsects like the hard sparring and conditioning to make it more accessible to everyone. In fact, in an old issue of BB magazine, they actually talk about how Fred Villari schools are like McDonalds, probably one of the first references to a "McDojo" back in the 70's. Of course, there point was that you could go to any of the chain schools are the New England area and walk in and know what to expect and train just like at any other Villari school.

So, I guess if you had a knowledgeable instructor who knew how to fight and apply the system, it could be beneficial to you. If on the other hand, you don't get a quaility school then it would be a McDojo and wouldn't do a whole lot for you. Of course, this is also the case with any school/system out there.

 

[Coker101]

Well I personally can't see online training working with all aspects of an art...maybe forms in some of the arts but that would be about it....in my opinion.

I could be wrong as I have never tried it but imo you need physical contact with other practitioners as well as the instructor. To me, online would be a massive disadvantage.