Hate to disagree but Tim was awarded his 8th degree black belt (masters degree) in 84 before moving to China, he trained directly with Jimmy h woo for a number of years
Ever hear of Tim Cartmell? Speaking as a long time "Internal" Martial artist..... internal...external....no difference... if trained right they all end up in the same place. I learned an awful lot about Xingyiquan (listed as internal) when I trained a bit of JKD. Trained Police Sanda and although the teacher went out of his way to avoid any sort of comparison to an internal art, there were a lot of similarities to what I was doing in Taijiquan.
No,I'm always happy to be corrected regarding historical inaccuracies on my part.Can't remember everything from years ago! His total fish out of water experience when initially trying free sparring in Taiwan is even more surprising in light of such a high ranking,even with his explanation of San Soo's methods-including no free sparring!
Know him on another forum for years. It's not that uncommen I think. At least there's a few guys on that forum who cross train BJJ. He made brown belt pretty quick, a raised eyebrow or two perhaps.. but who knows, maybe he really is that good, or maybe it's because... tai chi.... yea.. it must be that! lol
I think take a guy who has a life long passion for fighting, and learning, who has spent years developing sensitivity and body mechanics and doing standing grappling in various forms and he will have a head start on most people when it comes to learning bjj and race through the ranks...of course take a D1 wrestler and they will have a similar advantage lol