What's Everyone's Take On Tommy Carruthers?

I never really bothered looking into this guy before. But recently, I saw some youtube clips of him and read some stuff about him. I admit that I may not know the whole story about him, but I smell garbage! Apparently, he does online teaching and charges $45 a month for a couple of 10-12 minute lessons a week. You can join a gym and learn JKD in person for the same money! Also, he apparently does no sparring because he believes it's not realistic enough for street fighting. You may not be able to do everything in sparring that you can, but there is a feeling of fighting and honing of your reflexes that you can't develop any other way. And also, his video demos are the usual flashy stuff. He's moving lightning fast (it looks like it's been sped up honestly) against some guy who's just standing there. A few backfists and hook kicks that has your average untrained guy saying "OOH! AHH!" Anyway, let me know if I'm off base here. I might have heard wrong. But if these things are true, then he is indeed a con man and a bad egg.

 

He speaks very highly of you.

 

Dude, lets go and expose him on bullshido.

 

"When Tommy is on he reminds me of Bruce when I knew him. The first time that I saw him I told him that he punches like Bruce. Tommy is also a very powerful kicker. He has Bruce like speed and power and is more flexible than Bruce was.

If Tommy landed a full force strike in the center of a person's chest there is a chance that their heart would stop. He transfers an amazing amount of shock with his strikes. He has taken Bruce's ideas and turned them into a functional reality." - Jesse Glover (Bruce Lee's first student)

 

The Tommy argument has been done to death. Anyone who knows him or has seen his stuff will tell you he's the real deal.

 

He may be very good in JKD, but that wasn't the main question. Maybe I should have worded it better. Is it true that the way he teaches JKD, he does not teach any sparring? And is it also true that for his online training, he charges $45 US per month for a couple of 10 minute lessons per week? Maybe he's a good martial artist, but that doesn't necessarily stop someone from being a con man.

 

He's not a con-man. He doesn't advocate sparring per-say, as far as I know he teaches full contact fighting drills, designed to more accurately simulate a real fight. His guys gear up and go at it full-tilt and by all accounts can really bang. As for his online videos, it's no different to other JKD guys having $600-700 DVD sets and books, except with better progression and the fact that you can contact him for help regarding any of the content.

 

You should have worded your posts in a different way. The way you have came across is as though you have an agenda against Sifu Carruthers that totally lacks respect. To imply that he is a con man is very ignorant. The man is very passionate about teaching JKD.

Well said February. Sifu Carruthers is an exceptional JKD instructor, who tells it like it is.

 

Very true, he's a really honest guy.

 

Okay. That's fair enough. I was curious more than anything else. To be honest with you, I'm not really in touch with the JKD community. There seems to be so much bickering and dishonesty that I prefer to just focus on my own training and what we do at the gym and leave it at that. But one thing you did point out was that it's no different from the guys charging $600-700 for dvd sets and books. That may be true, but how can anyone get off charging that kind of money for dvds? You're not getting any personal instruction. You can use it as a reference or get some tips from it, but that's about it. On the other hand, paying that money for a gym is perfectly reasonable. You're getting use of the facilities, training equipment, you've got sparring partners to train with, and of course you have personal live instruction. As far as I'm concerned, guys charging that kind of money for dvds or short video clips ARE con-men. That doesn't mean that they're bad teachers or martial artists in person, but that is highway robbery!

 

Research before posting about someone will help. Clumping the good with the bad because you don't like their business practices is wrong. I have two close friends who know and trained with Tommy and I know you are wrong about singleing out this man.

 

Fair points and fair play to you.

Well lots of guys have Video sets and books which amount to 100's sometimes even 1000's of dollars, Inosanto, Poteet, Tim Tackett and his group, to name but a few. They're simply selling their product, nothing wrong with that. In fact Poteet has now followed Tommy's lead and is offering online vids. The difference is, he already has an absolute ton of vids and books out already, whereas Tommy has nothing except his online stuff. Tommy could have bought out a DVD series or books, but he went down the route of the online stuff because it offers better progression for the student and a communication channel to those who watch them. He is very sincere about wanting to propogate good JKD instruction to people. He is definitely not a money grabber. His School in Glasgow doesn't even have a sign on the door and he's done free seminars for his online guys. You're way off base about him being a con-man.

 

id fight him

 

now that i have a problem with. A drill does nothing more than build attributes. Doing a drill is great for many reasons, but nothing takes the place of sparring. Drills are controlled, a "real fight" as you put it, is pure chaos.

 

Bro, here's a couple of scenario's:

1) 2 guys square off, hands up, stance taken up, ruleset agreed upon, wait for someone to say "go" and then have at it full contact. That's your typical sparring scenario.

2) You take up a natural posture, your opponent is in a natural posture he can attack you at any time, verbally or physically, you control distance, use a "fence" whatever to maintain control, at any point during this time he can atack you, when he does, it's no rules, anything goes full tilt. Repeat this scenario with multiple opponents, bring weapons into the mix, get attacked from different angles etc. etc.

That's the difference between sparring and a good fighting drill. Sparring has it's value, I've done and do both and I believe the second scenario prepares you better for the chaos of an all out fight.

Just my opinion dude.

 

Actually I guess your use of the word drill is what threw me off. I would call that a realistic sparring scenario. Those are great. As far as the anything goes full contact, I'd have to decline. If you gouge my eye, stomp my jewels, or break my fingers for training, you're a dead man. I've got to be in good enough condition to do my job and bring home the bacon. Plus, if you go all out and hurt someone like that, you're taking them out of the game for a while. That hurts your training.

I've practiced things like this in the past, and should probably start doing it again. thanks for the reminder. I also would like to practice with some of my LEO friends. Just want to learn how to handle a situation with the best result from a legal standpoint.


I would like to see Tommy C. post some videos of such 'scenarios' and or sparring with full contact. If you guys have videos please send it my way. I only see him doing techniques without resisting opponents. Not very realistic IMO.

 

For your information, full protective gear is used, ie, head guards, body guards, shin guards & groin guards. From time to time people do get injured - to me that is to be expected training in any martial art, in other words injuries are not exclusive to JKD.

Sifu Carruthers has nothing to prove regarding 'scenarios' and or sparring full contact. The man has spent the majority of his life training in JKD to a very high standard. The videos you have seen are nothing more than demonstrations.

 

Well of course we all get hurt from time to time. I've had my fair share of broken bones, torn ligaments, cartilage, and flesh wounds. What I was thinking of was if a training partner were to take it there, without it being an agreed condition. Looking back on Feb's post, I can see that was never implied. My apologies. I just hope you don't say "from time to time people do get injured' as a way to convince yourself it's ok to abuse your training partner and take him/her out of the game.

[quote-Stevie Bhoy;10642387]Sifu Carruthers has nothing to prove regarding 'scenarios' and or sparring full contact. The man has spent the majority of his life training in JKD to a very high standard. The videos you have seen are nothing more than demonstrations.[/quote]

From what I've read he hasn't spend the majority of his life practicing 'JKD.' He had been doing various martial arts for most of his life, with JKD being the latest chapter. I know they are demonstrations, but the opponent needs to be doing more than just standing there with his eyes squinted. If he's got top-notch skills, he can at least FAKE his opponent has a tad too!

 

From what I've read he hasn't spend the majority of his life practicing 'JKD.' He had been doing various martial arts for most of his life, with JKD being the latest chapter. I know they are demonstrations, but the opponent needs to be doing more than just standing there with his eyes squinted. If he's got top-notch skills, he can at least FAKE his opponent has a tad too![/QUOTE]


Don't take this the wrong way mate but the word 'pedantic' springs to mind, i.e. pedantic is an adjective decribing a person or statement as heavily loaded with scholarly knowledge; usually implying that he/she/it's so precise that it's boring.

 

to which part are you referring? I googled the word and it said, "usually used as a indirect insult"