Last week I did a blog on dangerous freaks in the martial arts. I used the example of the guy who calls himself Kairo Seijuro, but whose real name is Kenny.
Kenny was getting some flack from people about his Youtube videos. He is terrible at sword work, but like most incompetents feels a need to show off and be complimented. When he got honest opinions instead of compliments, he tried to get nasty and one up folks with the following statement.
“the best part about the way i was raised is that only battle that are lethal are worth fighting at all....so if you are sore enough to go out of your way to risk your pride and life then ill happily accept....but not for some cheap short sighted fist-cuff of competition... ”
Underlying this type of bravado is the implication that no one would dare come face him for a lethal exchange. This is a strategy of many internet tough guys. Make a statement that no one would dare face you. It didn't go so well for Kenny. He is the type of person that abuses his girlfriend, but would never face someone that could do him harm. I posted the following, for clarification.
:+Kairo Seijuro , so you are saying that if someone came to you and challenged you to a duel with live blades, you would accept? Am I getting that right? If so, how may people find you? What place should you meet up with them? There are many people in California that might want to take you up on this offer.”
Since then, Kenny has gone silent.
This blog is about the tactic used by many like Kenny, that of making a lot of noise from behind a computer questioning the courage of the person on the other side. While living in Japan, I shot down a lot of claims of people saying they were the inheritors of ancient Japanese arts. I can't begin to count all the times someone in America tried to say that unless I got on a plane from Japan and said that there was no record of their style earlier than the time Reagan was in office to them in person, that I should just shut up.
I have been challenged like this numerous times. I have seen it happen to others hundreds, maybe thousands of times. I am not exaggerating that figure. The tactic of trying to stop debate or criticism is so common that in every group I admin on Facebook I put down the rule that anyone trying to use it is then responsible for the travel expenses of the other person. I advise everyone who runs a martial arts group to adopt a similar policy. It cuts down on the screaming from people who can't argue using facts and logic and lets discussion continue.
The rule about paying travel expenses is important. The issuer always seems to think that the other guy should come to them. In the few cases where people actually have taken that step, the other guy hides and runs away. I know of no case where someone who traveled to see someone in person actually found them willing to fight. And I am aware of a few. People will go from, "No one dares face me" to calling the police as soon as someone shows up. I have seen that a few times.
So, if anyone does issue a challenge to face them, and you do go to the trouble of going to meet them, take screen shots and other records and carry them with you when you do. If you don't, then the police will likely believe the other guy when he says you just showed up suddenly threatening his life. You will look like a crazy stalker trying to ambush someone. Never expect the coward to tell the police the truth. If you have something proving that the other guy invited you to face him, then you are much less likely to spend the weekend in jail.
I personally have a policy of never issuing challenges, but have yet to turn one down. Of course, anyone who challenges me has to come to me. There have been a lot of talk about coming out to Colorado so see me from some people, but so far not a single person has done so. I don't expect that to change.
A variation of this is to imply no one will dare come see you to deflect honest criticism. The tactic is to try to plant the idea that what people point out should not be listened to, because they aren't skilled or brave enough to face them, so ignore all those facts they bring up. For example, noted fraud and incompetent martial artist Christa Jacobson (whose lies I have exposed in other blogs) stated a few months ago that despite what people write, no one has ever come out to see her. Of course, she lives in Kansas, which is a bit far for most people. Someone named Dieter posted a video asking for clarification, as I did with Kenny, that people would be welcome to show up and not have the police called on them. No response from her of course. Another Kansas resident by the name of Jeff Brown was once taken to task over his actions (essentially, setting himself up as a teacher of a style of martial arts when he had never even been in the same room with a teacher of that style) responded with the comment, "If you get beyond the keyboard, come see me." Well, someone did start to make the effort to go to Kansas and asked him where they should meet up. Jeff Brown then deleted all his comments welcoming people to come see him and tried to pretend it never happened. Again, Dieter saved a screen shot of his invite.
Let me give a case to illustrate just how silly the whole thing can be. Most readers of this blog are familiar with Ron Collins, the pedophile, fake ninja and convicted criminal. Several times he has talked about maybe coming out to Colorado to challenge me. He has even said that I don't give the address of where I teach on line so as to avoid him showing up and facing me.
He has made similar comments about Barron Sheppard, who lives in Florida,hates pedophiles like Ron and exposes them when he can. Ron lives in West Virginia. Despite the distance, Ron made a big thing about how Barron needed to come up to him and face him in a cage match. The problem was, Ron lied about registering a match. When Barron called the event organizer, he found out that he there were too many obstacles to him taking part because of his age and condition. Since that time, Ron has been making a lot of noise about how Barron backed out. This is of course standard fare for someone like Ron who likes to be an internet bully, but won't actually risk injury. In the past, he has stalked the girl he tried to rape, threatened her family and assaulted her at her work. But he knows Barron would put him in the hospital. So trying to convince his circle of friends that Barron is afraid of him, instead of vice versa, is nothing surprising for him.
In all the fanfare that Ron made after the event, he kind of dug his own grave. You see, Barron knew I was going to do a seminar in Kentucky in October. Barron likes knife work, and I probably know more about the Japanese art of the knife than anyone outside of Japan. I am told by the sponsors of the event that it is only a couple hours from where Ron lives.
So after all the posing by Ron about how he really would have liked to have faced Barron, do you think that he would be willing to take a short drive to confront him in October? Of course not. He is already making excuses as to why he will not do it. As with Ron, many of them seem to involved conspiracy theories. (In one of his stories explaining his attempted rape, he blames his 13 year old victim of "coming on" to him as being part of a conspiracy by the police.) I have gone to the trouble of saying that if Ron, "Ashida Kim" or Frank Dux show up to challenge Barron or anyone else they won't be met with the police. Yet the excuses keep coming from him as to why he will not. I am not challenging him to show up, just making it really easy to see me if he really wanted to as he has been saying for years.
Neither Barron nor I expect Ron to show up and challenge either of us during the event. That is fine with me. I will be teaching and Barron seems eager to learn how Japanese knife work differs from what is done in places like Indonesia. We aren't losing anything by traveling to Kentucky. If by some miracle, Ron does show up and challenges one of us to spar with him, everyone knows he won't last more than a few seconds with either Barron or I. So, he won't show up. Even though we are making ourselves very accessible to someone who has talked about traveling to see us, we know he won't be there.
I not only know this from experience with others like Ron, his own experience shows what he will do in the future. For a long time, Ron made a lot of noise about how if the police came to arrest him, he would resist. He said he had a right to use lethal force to resist unlawful arrest and the conspiracy against him by the police was an example of illegal arrest. Yet, when the police did show up, he surrendered meekly and cried in the back of the police cruiser all the way to booking.
Ron's example is a lesson. People who say, "Come to me and face me" will never be there when you show up. If you surprise them, they will call the police. Don't go to the trouble of going to see them. If you are in charge of a martial arts discussion group, squash any use of this tactic or nothing of note will be debated. If you are ordered to show up and see someone to prove a point, turn it around and tell them to come to see you if they are so bothered by your words. If there is even a chance of them showing up, find a neutral place that you can announce you will be at (like the knife seminar I will teach) that they can find you if they want. Make sure it is a public place with lots of witnesses. Also, make sure you have something else you can do there while waiting because you can bet they will do something else.