That Gavin Johnston is full of shit!, I remember when he first came to NZ and started to teach under an Aussie outfit called "Kevin Hawthorne Ninja school's".
I also had a little experience in Ninjitsu, and I can tell you what he is teaching is not Ninjitsu, the best person on the board to clarify this would be Richard Wood as he holds a Shodan in real Ninjitsu.
That would of been around 12, 13 year's ago. He was then a Shodan. I should know as that was my first instructor unfortunately, I was around 14,15.
He broke away from their school and basically created his own style, which is nothing more than bad freestyle Karate, a bit of Japanese Jiu Jitsu etc.
He claims to have a black belt in Seido Karate, Tae Kwon Do, and experience in Kung Fu. I dont know how credible any of his qualifications are, as he does not list any of his instructor's or leave contact details on his site. I remember him showing me something he called Kung Fu, from what I remember it was pretty fake.
It seems now he is trying to cash in on the MMA craze, I spoke to Geoff about this and he told me he only turned up to class 2 time's. What a clown!
I would love to see someone go there and tap him and his "Ninja" soldiers out. Too funny!
I want to suggest, this guy knows nothing of the sort. He has alot of photos on his site dressed in "Ninja costume" (created by Hollywood for theatre) and the postures are nothing I have seen before and bloody unpractical. I've been doing Ninjutsu for 12 years now and have never seen anything so ridiculous. I've seen similar in the Kama Sutra however. It is a real shame that the old Ninjutsu battle field orientated martial arts have been given a bad rep due to people like this guy and the likes of Ashida Kim. The 'Ninja' was nothing more than a Samurai who was no longer fighting for the local lord. The Samurai characters in 'The Last Samurai' for instance would have once been classed as Ninja, as they were a broken off clan of Samurai themselves. People like these guys really dig at me. I guess it is only a matter of time that people like this will start to scuff the polished surface of yet another martial art like Brazilian Jiu Jutsu. Unfortuneately its been happening for the past few hundred years with most arts. Today in our civilised world there is no risk of being cut down with the sword for simply being a dick. Tis a shame at times.
Ok I didn't want to write anything as a link or the use of their name would only give them undeserved attention. Good or bad it helps their cause.
But as the picture sparked so much interest I'll let you have the story. (Some of you have already heard it from me)
I went looking for somewhere out the valley to run another class, as I was getting a lot of enquiries from out that way. I looked at google and came across that site and saw they had an interest in groundfighting (clearly from the pictures NO FUCKEN IDEA, but an interest) So I emailed Gavin with an enquiry and waited for a response. 2 months latter he makes contact and I go down to visit him one lunchtime. The place is only a couple of minutes from my run in Petone.
Anyway I get there the place is kinda dark and dinghy, it’s a concrete floor with no padding just carpet squares, no very appealing at all. But they have a cage!!! ( where these pictures are taken. http://www.kokuryunz.co.nz/photos/armbar1.jpg http://www.kokuryunz.co.nz/photos/fullguard.jpg http://www.kokuryunz.co.nz/photos/armbar2.jpg
Gavin is standing in front of the mirror shaving! Not the best thing to be doing in the middle of your training area but I guessed he was really informal and that sort of thing was ok?!? So I go to his front counter, that has a glass pane over it with pictures underneath, pictures like these http://www.kokuryunz.co.nz/photos/sensei_sempai.jpg http://www.kokuryunz.co.nz/photos/sensei_jap_1.jpg http://www.kokuryunz.co.nz/photos/camp_camo_lineup.jpg http://www.kokuryunz.co.nz/photos/sensei_shinzen.jpg
There are plenty more, go here for a laugh http://www.kokuryunz.co.nz/images.html
Gavin sees me and quickly hides his shaver and starts to walk towards me, so I move to the edge of the training area (marked by a piece of black insulation tape) and start to introduce myself and offer my hand to him. He gets within arms length of me and turns his back on me to bow to the dojo. Ok a bit rude but I guess he had to do it right in my face to prove some point. Now he knows nothing about me and has not looked at our site or done any research about GSW, I know this from some of the things he asked in his conversation (I’m not going to give the entire story as I don’t have the time).
He then introduces himself as “SENSEI”. Now I’ve trained martial arts for a very long time and the only people who introduce themselves by their teaching titles are the very insecure ones, or the very arrogant ones, especially to outsiders!!!!!!! Sensei was a bit of both. Sensei Chris Gower, Kyokushin Black Belt, Hardman and world champion has never asked to be called Sensei!!
The meeting went downhill from there. He already teaches BJJ as part of his groundfighting as he has done private lessons with Paulo Guimaraes in Sydney and Rob at ground Zero in Melbourne. Both reputable BJJ’ers. He was keen to help until he heard I had 20 people on the mat. He only has 12 jigsaw mats and the cage but the cage is not for rolling just fighting?? 12 jigsaw mats = a 3m by 4m square.
He also preceded to tell me how he was going to, single handedly save the MVD from bankruptcy, by moving his operation into the club while it was failing!?! Yes he assumed from the add that Jill placed, that I answered, that led to GSW moving in to the MVD, was because MVD was going under and he didn’t realise we had moved, he thought we had folded!. He also said he was going to take over the old site and run a “real martial arts club”. From his pictures, website and reactions to my conversation his club is very small and I don’t know how he is surviving. I would love to know how much he charges his students?
Anyway he has small mans disease, is very up himself, has a piss poor setup, and really rubbed me the wrong way. Apparently something he is very good at. I think he is slightly delusional but that’s just my opinion. I left, he has never contacted me about running classes in his DOJO and I’m very glad. I would love to get him on the mat, or in the ring, or anywhere, as he is a dick! And needs to learn some humility. But a loss to anyone anywhere would be easily explained away by him.
He does encourage inter club sessions: http://www.kokuryunz.co.nz/sparring_with_kungfu.htm
this will make you laugh I think its the same guy (if its the Kevin Hawthorne ninja magic dude) A friend of mine who is a reasonably capable martial artist (and very proficient in the Bujin) visited the school. Sitting quietly watching he was approached by the instructor and asked what he thought. He replied that it was not ninjutsu, but rather a blend of other styles. The instrucor got all wound up and challenged my friend to fight in front of his whole class. My friend tried to decline politely but after taking a lot of crap from the guy promptly went on the mat and knocked the guy down, threw him a business card and offered to teach him the real thing!
he wanders around kickboxing events with a staunch stiff look on his face and a carrot up his @rse. then his ninja's do some weapons stuff (to be fair i quite enjoy it) whilst SENSEI is staunching around showing off his 10 students ability to juggle knives!
He reminds me of some bad 80's martial arts films, like Michael Dudikoff from American Ninja.
I have a mate who got talking to him once when he worked nearby and old Dudikoff was telling him how he was preparing to go to vegas for a cage fight (anyone know which UFC he was in???)
THen he took my mate whose never had a fight in his life (no brothers, real placid guy) and proceeded to demonstrate his "skills" on him by kicking him and showing death touches etc and getting him to hold bags whilst SENSEI oosed them!
I just thought I'd notify you lot. Pretty much anyone can be a Shodan. If you pass the instructors test then you get to become a Shodan Ho. So basically you have a probationary black belt that allows you to teach. Even myself (a first dan junior) is a Shodan Yudansha. Any info required just email me at karl.ninjakarl@gmail.com
Hey Guys, just to let you know my humble story, its taught me not to be too judgmental about other peoples claims and ranks in the martial arts.
Years ago i worked for a film security company on a hollywood film, ran across a little bald guy, skinny as a pencil, hippy looking. spoke about martial arts and compared notes. A few months later i caught up with him in my home dojo. he compliments my gym, hes half my size and doesnt look like much and doesnt claim much either. so when he tells me hes got a new student that after a months training can take hits on his body without any marks or bruises i thought id go check it out. sure enough i was able to hit this guy with full on blows to the chest, back, etc without the guy so much as moving, felt like is was hitting hollow wood. it actually hurt more than hitting the makiwara ever will!
found out my mate was trained in an ancient energy system and this young student was his attempt to pass on some teachings..for free!!! anyways after months of groveling i was witness to many 'movie type things' but in real life, right before my eyes!! a dozen hits per second, sent flying from a single finger strike with light impact?? stab a guy in the throat and his throat bounces back?!! get hit from a distance without contact?!! all real, and after decades in other styles needless to say my eyes were opened bloody wide!!
i came across Sensei Gavin, and although ive other mates in other ninja styles, i will say that i think hes awesome. lets face it, like the skinny bald mate of mine, unless you dwell deeply into things, you really only see whats on the surface, and isnt ninja about stealth and misdirection?
i trained for years under another guy sifu martin lindgreen, awesome guy huge history and well recognised for his contributions to kungfu in NZ, yet people rubbish him too?! ever been in his path??
also trained briefly under grandmaster steve heremia founder of Black dragon jiu jitsu in NZ. how do you knock a certified grandmaster with huge accreditations globally? i dont know, but my mates brother whos a black belt in a different JJ assures me that the grandmaster is hopeless, and has low skill levels!?
anyway you all probably think im full of it too.. mate who cares, cos one thing i learnt after years of going through the ranks and gaining ass kicking experience.. doesnt matter who mean and tough you are.. at any stage a young bald skinny guy can come rock your belief systems and do shit that only exists in silly movies.. and when that day comes, you realise that everyone whos good in their arena deserves just a little credit for their pain and suffering. as we all well know, beneath the surface, theres alot more to us martial artists than meets the eye.. for both untrained and trained people.. cut sensei gav a break. go train or something..
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That Gavin Johnston is full of shit!, I remember when he first came to NZ and started to teach under an Aussie outfit called "Kevin Hawthorne Ninja school's".
I also had a little experience in Ninjitsu, and I can tell you what he is teaching is not Ninjitsu, the best person on the board to clarify this would be Richard Wood as he holds a Shodan in real Ninjitsu.
That would of been around 12, 13 year's ago. He was then a Shodan. I should know as that was my first instructor unfortunately, I was around 14,15.
He broke away from their school and basically created his own style, which is nothing more than bad freestyle Karate, a bit of Japanese Jiu Jitsu etc.
He claims to have a black belt in Seido Karate, Tae Kwon Do, and experience in Kung Fu. I dont know how credible any of his qualifications are, as he does not list any of his instructor's or leave contact details on his site. I remember him showing me something he called Kung Fu, from what I remember it was pretty fake.
It seems now he is trying to cash in on the MMA craze, I spoke to Geoff about this and he told me he only turned up to class 2 time's. What a clown!
I would love to see someone go there and tap him and his "Ninja" soldiers out. Too funny!
J.
Man, this is perfect for MMA prac! We should set some matches up...?!
Shi'ite! Sorry, that last comment was by me!
AR
I want to suggest, this guy knows nothing of the sort. He has alot of photos on his site dressed in "Ninja costume" (created by Hollywood for theatre) and the postures are nothing I have seen before and bloody unpractical. I've been doing Ninjutsu for 12 years now and have never seen anything so ridiculous. I've seen similar in the Kama Sutra however. It is a real shame that the old Ninjutsu battle field orientated martial arts have been given a bad rep due to people like this guy and the likes of Ashida Kim. The 'Ninja' was nothing more than a Samurai who was no longer fighting for the local lord. The Samurai characters in 'The Last Samurai' for instance would have once been classed as Ninja, as they were a broken off clan of Samurai themselves. People like these guys really dig at me.
I guess it is only a matter of time that people like this will start to scuff the polished surface of yet another martial art like Brazilian Jiu Jutsu. Unfortuneately its been happening for the past few hundred years with most arts. Today in our civilised world there is no risk of being cut down with the sword for simply being a dick. Tis a shame at times.
Richard Wood (richardjameswood@hotmail.com)
Time to post this dude on www.bullshido.com then...
Ok I didn't want to write anything as a link or the use of their name would only give them undeserved attention. Good or bad it helps their cause.
But as the picture sparked so much interest I'll let you have the story. (Some of you have already heard it from me)
I went looking for somewhere out the valley to run another class, as I was getting a lot of enquiries from out that way. I looked at google and came across that site and saw they had an interest in groundfighting (clearly from the pictures NO FUCKEN IDEA, but an interest) So I emailed Gavin with an enquiry and waited for a response. 2 months latter he makes contact and I go down to visit him one lunchtime. The place is only a couple of minutes from my run in Petone.
Anyway I get there the place is kinda dark and dinghy, it’s a concrete floor with no padding just carpet squares, no very appealing at all. But they have a cage!!! ( where these pictures are taken.
http://www.kokuryunz.co.nz/photos/armbar1.jpg
http://www.kokuryunz.co.nz/photos/fullguard.jpg
http://www.kokuryunz.co.nz/photos/armbar2.jpg
Gavin is standing in front of the mirror shaving! Not the best thing to be doing in the middle of your training area but I guessed he was really informal and that sort of thing was ok?!? So I go to his front counter, that has a glass pane over it with pictures underneath, pictures like these
http://www.kokuryunz.co.nz/photos/sensei_sempai.jpg
http://www.kokuryunz.co.nz/photos/sensei_jap_1.jpg
http://www.kokuryunz.co.nz/photos/camp_camo_lineup.jpg
http://www.kokuryunz.co.nz/photos/sensei_shinzen.jpg
There are plenty more, go here for a laugh http://www.kokuryunz.co.nz/images.html
Gavin sees me and quickly hides his shaver and starts to walk towards me, so I move to the edge of the training area (marked by a piece of black insulation tape) and start to introduce myself and offer my hand to him. He gets within arms length of me and turns his back on me to bow to the dojo. Ok a bit rude but I guess he had to do it right in my face to prove some point. Now he knows nothing about me and has not looked at our site or done any research about GSW, I know this from some of the things he asked in his conversation (I’m not going to give the entire story as I don’t have the time).
He then introduces himself as “SENSEI”. Now I’ve trained martial arts for a very long time and the only people who introduce themselves by their teaching titles are the very insecure ones, or the very arrogant ones, especially to outsiders!!!!!!! Sensei was a bit of both. Sensei Chris Gower, Kyokushin Black Belt, Hardman and world champion has never asked to be called Sensei!!
The meeting went downhill from there. He already teaches BJJ as part of his groundfighting as he has done private lessons with Paulo Guimaraes in Sydney and Rob at ground Zero in Melbourne. Both reputable BJJ’ers. He was keen to help until he heard I had 20 people on the mat. He only has 12 jigsaw mats and the cage but the cage is not for rolling just fighting?? 12 jigsaw mats = a 3m by 4m square.
He also preceded to tell me how he was going to, single handedly save the MVD from bankruptcy, by moving his operation into the club while it was failing!?! Yes he assumed from the add that Jill placed, that I answered, that led to GSW moving in to the MVD, was because MVD was going under and he didn’t realise we had moved, he thought we had folded!. He also said he was going to take over the old site and run a “real martial arts club”. From his pictures, website and reactions to my conversation his club is very small and I don’t know how he is surviving. I would love to know how much he charges his students?
Anyway he has small mans disease, is very up himself, has a piss poor setup, and really rubbed me the wrong way. Apparently something he is very good at. I think he is slightly delusional but that’s just my opinion. I left, he has never contacted me about running classes in his DOJO and I’m very glad. I would love to get him on the mat, or in the ring, or anywhere, as he is a dick! And needs to learn some humility. But a loss to anyone anywhere would be easily explained away by him.
He does encourage inter club sessions:
http://www.kokuryunz.co.nz/sparring_with_kungfu.htm
this will make you laugh
I think its the same guy (if its the Kevin Hawthorne ninja magic dude)
A friend of mine who is a reasonably capable martial artist (and very proficient in the Bujin) visited the school. Sitting quietly watching he was approached by the instructor and asked what he thought. He replied that it was not ninjutsu, but rather a blend of other styles. The instrucor got all wound up and challenged my friend to fight in front of his whole class. My friend tried to decline politely but after taking a lot of crap from the guy promptly went on the mat and knocked the guy down, threw him a business card and offered to teach him the real thing!
what an absolute gripper that guy is
he wanders around kickboxing events with a staunch stiff look on his face and a carrot up his @rse.
then his ninja's do some weapons stuff (to be fair i quite enjoy it) whilst SENSEI is staunching around showing off his 10 students ability to juggle knives!
He reminds me of some bad 80's martial arts films, like Michael Dudikoff from American Ninja.
I have a mate who got talking to him once when he worked nearby and old Dudikoff was telling him how he was preparing to go to vegas for a cage fight (anyone know which UFC he was in???)
THen he took my mate whose never had a fight in his life (no brothers, real placid guy) and proceeded to demonstrate his "skills" on him by kicking him and showing death touches etc and getting him to hold bags whilst SENSEI oosed them!
What a tosser
Brent
I just thought I'd notify you lot. Pretty much anyone can be a Shodan. If you pass the instructors test then you get to become a Shodan Ho. So basically you have a probationary black belt that allows you to teach. Even myself (a first dan junior) is a Shodan Yudansha. Any info required just email me at karl.ninjakarl@gmail.com
Hey Guys, just to let you know my humble story, its taught me not to be too judgmental about other peoples claims and ranks in the martial arts.
Years ago i worked for a film security company on a hollywood film, ran across a little bald guy, skinny as a pencil, hippy looking. spoke about martial arts and compared notes. A few months later i caught up with him in my home dojo. he compliments my gym, hes half my size and doesnt look like much and doesnt claim much either. so when he tells me hes got a new student that after a months training can take hits on his body without any marks or bruises i thought id go check it out. sure enough i was able to hit this guy with full on blows to the chest, back, etc without the guy so much as moving, felt like is was hitting hollow wood. it actually hurt more than hitting the makiwara ever will!
found out my mate was trained in an ancient energy system and this young student was his attempt to pass on some teachings..for free!!!
anyways after months of groveling i was witness to many 'movie type things' but in real life, right before my eyes!! a dozen hits per second, sent flying from a single finger strike with light impact?? stab a guy in the throat and his throat bounces back?!! get hit from a distance without contact?!! all real, and after decades in other styles needless to say my eyes were opened bloody wide!!
i came across Sensei Gavin, and although ive other mates in other ninja styles, i will say that i think hes awesome. lets face it, like the skinny bald mate of mine, unless you dwell deeply into things, you really only see whats on the surface, and isnt ninja about stealth and misdirection?
i trained for years under another guy sifu martin lindgreen, awesome guy huge history and well recognised for his contributions to kungfu in NZ, yet people rubbish him too?! ever been in his path??
also trained briefly under grandmaster steve heremia founder of Black dragon jiu jitsu in NZ. how do you knock a certified grandmaster with huge accreditations globally? i dont know, but my mates brother whos a black belt in a different JJ assures me that the grandmaster is hopeless, and has low skill levels!?
anyway you all probably think im full of it too.. mate who cares, cos one thing i learnt after years of going through the ranks and gaining ass kicking experience.. doesnt matter who mean and tough you are.. at any stage a young bald skinny guy can come rock your belief systems and do shit that only exists in silly movies.. and when that day comes, you realise that everyone whos good in their arena deserves just a little credit for their pain and suffering. as we all well know, beneath the surface, theres alot more to us martial artists than meets the eye.. for both untrained and trained people.. cut sensei gav a break. go train or something..
terima kasih
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