Something Odd

LegLockGuy

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Hello ya'll, I'm from Illinois.

I remember a little while back there was a Toshindo school in Naperville, Il. It always looked interesting. Well a little lil while back I was confused to see that the school had basically disappeared. No mention on the net, in the yellow book or anything. I've heard that this happened to alot to Toshindo schools. Is that true?
 

Jade Tigress

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It's still there. It's the Illinois Quest Center now. Hope this helps.
 

Jade Tigress

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Really?

I look on the net and find nothing about it, also on the official Toshindo website, it doesn't list the school.

I know someone who trained/trains there. Do a yahoo yellow page search, you'll find it there. :)
 

lalom

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Actually the school in Naperville, indeed is no longer a To-Shin Do dojo, or a Quest Center. The school's head instructor is Michael Eichenberg who has left To-Shin Do and has teamed up with Tom Maienza. Tom Maienza split from To-Shin Do and started his own version of taijutsu called Jizaikan, an art where he's merged his experience with Ninjutsu with Aiki-jujitsu.

I don't understand in any way how that could even be done being that the concepts are completely different, however if you wish to see it further here it is: www.jizaikan.com.

Tom Maienza is ranked 4th degree in Bujinkan Budo and 5th degree in To-Shin Do among a plethora of other arts.
 

Jade Tigress

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Actually the school in Naperville, indeed is no longer a To-Shin Do dojo, or a Quest Center. The school's head instructor is Michael Eichenberg who has left To-Shin Do and has teamed up with Tom Maienza. Tom Maienza split from To-Shin Do and started his own version of taijutsu called Jizaikan, an art where he's merged his experience with Ninjutsu with Aiki-jujitsu.

I don't understand in any way how that could even be done being that the concepts are completely different, however if you wish to see it further here it is: www.jizaikan.com.

Tom Maienza is ranked 4th degree in Bujinkan Budo and 5th degree in To-Shin Do among a plethora of other arts.


Ahhhhhh. Thanks for clearing that up. :)
 

SFC JeffJ

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Actually the school in Naperville, indeed is no longer a To-Shin Do dojo, or a Quest Center. The school's head instructor is Michael Eichenberg who has left To-Shin Do and has teamed up with Tom Maienza. Tom Maienza split from To-Shin Do and started his own version of taijutsu called Jizaikan, an art where he's merged his experience with Ninjutsu with Aiki-jujitsu.

I don't understand in any way how that could even be done being that the concepts are completely different, however if you wish to see it further here it is: www.jizaikan.com.

Tom Maienza is ranked 4th degree in Bujinkan Budo and 5th degree in To-Shin Do among a plethora of other arts.
It would be interesting to see the results of that combination.
 

saru1968

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I've sent a polite email to try an gain some further understanding of what they do.
 

lalom

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I've sent a polite email to try an gain some further understanding of what they do.

I hope you do better than I did. Some months ago I sent an email to Mr. Maienza but never receieved a reply. This was when he split off so he might be less "busy" now.

From what I've heard from a few sources, is that he began tired of getting tapped out by rookie practioners of Jujitsu when things would go to the ground. He assumeably has merged the principles of ninjutsu with the groundwork from Steve Crawford's Aiki-jujitsu MMA stuff.
 

MrFunnieman

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Nope nothing whatsoever..

I'll resend but the email did not bounce back so it should have got there.

It is unfortunate that you haven't heard anything. I have spoken with Tom Maienza in the past and trained with him when he was part of the Quest Center, but I have never trained in Jizaikan. I think the concept is interesting, but I understand how Aikido and Ninjutsu/ To-shin Do could be philosophically at odds.

As for To-shind Do schools mysteriously dropping out of existance, I don't think it's true. Gary Bolton was running a school in Florida and moved back to run the Hombu dojo a couple of years ago and when Tom Maienza left there were a few senior students from the Dayton Hombu that followed Mr. Maienza. Michael Eichenberg is a nice guy and I trained with him several years ago, while he was still part of the Quest organization, but before he took over the school in Illinois.

LegLockGuy, I think it would worth checking out. Watch a couple of classes or if they have an intro deal, try it out.

FWIW
 

stone_dragone

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From the website..

"Jizaikan school of martial arts have both classical and modern styles: Ninjutsu, Aiki Jujutsu, Aiki Ninjutsu, Aiki Ninpo, Toshin Do, Bujinkan, Jinenkan, Aikido, Judo, AJJ, American Jujutsu, Jujutsu, Kenpo, grappling training and more. Arts taught by Hatsumi, Stephen K. Hayes, Morihei Ueshiba, Tom Maienza, Steven A. Crawford, the Jizaikan and more"

and for more info

"JizaiKan has gone to Myspace. Be sure to go and check out the weekly training video."

There's a link on the page that takes you to it.
 

WORDZ3

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I trained in Michael Eichenberg's school and in my opinion its nothing more than a McDojo and belt factory. He swore up and down that it wasn't when i signed up, but deep in to my 6 month contract I realized that I hadn't really learned much since I was there and id spent hundreds of dollars. Don't get me wrong, he is a nice guy. But the school has a very cold feeling and definitly is not teaching Ninjutsu. Which is what i signed up for...
i think schools like this take advantage of amature martial artists and people with no experience. Its kind of shady when the Grandmaster of the Martial Art you study has a full time job (Soke Masaaki Hatsumi is a chiropracter) to make a living and the american instructors feed thier kids off the art. From my understanding Hatsumi discourages shidoshi from trying to feed themselves off thier students.

Aikido is cool for show and steven segal movies, but thats about it.

If you look at Tom Maienza's profile you can see that he is only a 4th degree in the Bujinkan. In order to teach anything I think you should at least be a 5th degree. It says something about a student that doesn't want to be tested, weather they believe in the testing system or not. No, rank is not everything, but if you want to learn authentic ninjutsu you have to go to the source.

Want ninjutsu....find another school.
Want ninja rangers and train with white belts and 8yr olds...go to Warriors Edge. They will gladly swipe your card.
 

bydand

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I trained in Michael Eichenberg's school and in my opinion its nothing more than a McDojo and belt factory. ...

You know, this is not a very good first post for you. You may not like the guy, you may even question his ability, but to bash him like this in a public forum is just bad judgment and not really the way this particular forum operates. Go introduce yourself properly in the Meet & Greet section, take some time to read through the different sections you are interested in. It will give you a good indication of how things are done here on Martial Talk as opposed to a couple of other MA forums. Hopefully you will not just turn into a mass of red stars and bars. (referring to your "reputation" status shown on the upper right side of each post you do make.) Something positive to add is always welcome, if you know somebody is a putz, you can rephrase it so it doesn't just sound like the ravings of a madman. Came close to dinging your rep myself, but the kinder, gentler me :lol: thinks it just may be a shaky start.

Before you ask, I have only met the man one time, so I have no self-interest at all in the matter.

Aikido is cool for show and steven segal movies, but thats about it.
Guess I miss where this is from. Are you just trying to tick off as many people as you can with one post?
 

SKB

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Got to agree with the other reply! Take a deep breath! Then figure out what it is you are trying to say.
 

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