Yeah....KEEP IT REAL
My name is Jeff Liboiron and I am a Senshido Instructor in Nanaimo, BC, Canada. I wanted to write this short article to bring awareness to the integrity of the Senshido team and the organization.
I had a job interview recently where a guy was looking for instructors to help out with running a new school he wanted to open up in my city. I, of course, responded with some level of interest and decided to meet this individual and see what he had to offer since I love training all the time, and love teaching as well when I get the opportunity to do so. It seemed like a good idea right? WRONG….
He has successfully opened up a few martial art schools across Canada, all of which are doing very well, I believe. I found out his curriculum is based off of kung fu, and he focuses only on bringing in families and children. While there is nothing wrong with this, I found that there was something very wrong with him advertising that he teaches “self defense.” His self-defense highlight video had absolutely no self defense training in it whatsoever. It was just a bunch of people hitting bags and pads. That’s great for developing attributes, and should be done, but…. where’s the self defense?
His debate was that most people are not willing to defend themselves psychologically. While this can be true, I have found that I have been able to get rid of this belief in every single one of my students if they did indeed have it at the start. All it takes is proper training, and primarily psychological training. He argued that the enemy is not the guy with the knife, but it is obesity in children, and not taking care of your body. This is also true, but at the same time, can these families and children NOT learn about diet, health, fitness, AND self defense that works.
I know that Senshido and other Combative training methods are not the norm or what’s popular. I don’t plan to make a living off of it, but people…wake the fuck up and think for yourselves. Don’t be sheep. This guy told me he pays one of his students 60 grand a year, and bought him a car to run a school for him. I didn’t even flinch. I am not going to, not even for a million bucks a year, teach people things that will get them killed. My goal is not a black belt. It’s getting home at the end of the day should I need to use my training. Speaking of which, I have had to do so many times, including saving my life two or three times aside from the attempted beatings or muggings. I know what real violence is like, I know how awful it is to hear a guys jaw break when you palm strike it, or hear someone try to breath after you punch them in the neck. It’s not pleasant, and it has affected me negatively, but at the same time positively as well in that I can pass on my knowledge to others should fate put them in a self defense situation.
