Ok, this guy buying a black belt thing is crazy. No one should just train and beat up a punching bag in their garage, then go get a black belt for 5 bucks and be equaled to those who train for endless hours in a dojo, or school for 3-5 years. Now, Just to point out something about the make up your own style thing mentioned earlier, I have trained in numerous arts for the past ten years. I was trained privately by a Okinawan Goju-Shorei Instructor until I was brown belt level. it took about a year of 7 days a week training at his home dojo, in which I would train at after work everyday to AC/DC and other adrenaline boosting noises..LOL. Anyway, I moved away, and then went deeply into Jeet Kune Do training in Phoenix Arizona with a man who was certified by ted Wong in Jun Fan Kickboxing, and a tae kwon do 1st Dan as well. I got my closest friends together, and we made my house into a dojo. We would train, and fight all through the house day after day, along with our formal training. I then Took kenpo, judo, jujutsu, and kickboxing at a mixed MA school until I held brown belts in each one, and then studied under Nathan Ligo, the only american to ever be given a black belt by Mas Oyama in JApan before he died in Kyokushin/Budo kArate. ( As advertised in Black belt magazine, the 3 year live in program) So, I combined all the arts I ever studied and trained under, and formed a "collective " Style as I call it, and now that what I do. Even though I was never given A BLACK BELT by any school or teacher, my experience, and years of experience are equal to, and more extreme than a regular martial arts student. I trained every day, 5-10 hours for almost 5 years before I put on a black belt. The average time to train is 3 years in any school, training 2 or 3 times a week for an hour or so. But martial arts was an all day thing. My life. I hold the rank of 3rd degree black belt in My own collective style, in which is many styles I was formally taught, combine into one balanced system. I have been teaching for 4 years, and I have never lied or mislead my members. I have a dojo now in Pennsylvania, and it has been running for 1 1/2 years. Everyone who comes here loves what I do, and I get no complaints. But yes I created my own personal style form the systems I learned from legit instructors.
