Fred Villaire's Shaolin kenpo

**kenpo123** · 12-17-2005, 20:37

Just wondering what you guys think of the man and the art of shaolin kenpo, plz give reasons why you think what you think.

thanks.

**sean_stonehart** · 12-17-2005, 23:17

I don't think anything about his "shaolin kenpo" since there's not any direct relation between what he does & TCMA.

**JessePasley** · 12-18-2005, 05:34

And from the 'Common Questions' section:

How can I test?

Simply record yourself performing the movements for the level that you are testing for and send in the tape. You will receive a certificate and belt based on your achievement.

**Jeff Burger** · 12-18-2005, 08:51

I didnt know Freddy was out of jail already.

I think of him as the father of Mc Dojo.

Jeff

**kenpo123** · 12-18-2005, 12:56

HMM, but the man himself FREd seems to know his stuff? right?

**sean_stonehart** · 12-18-2005, 14:18

There's not an entirely clear background on him other than he went from this guy to this guy to this guy & each time he bumped rank pretty good until he declared himself a grandmaster.

**TonyU** · 12-18-2005, 14:48

You can do some reading here

**kenpo123** · 12-18-2005, 21:31

hey thx Antonio there was ALOT of stuff to read there very helpfull! Lots of opionions facts myths. ext

**Mst Whalen** · 12-20-2005, 13:56

Originally Posted by kenpo123

hey thx Antonio there was ALOT of stuff to read there very helpfull! Lots of opionions facts myths. ext

Fact in the early seventies Fred Villari's teacher Was Nick Cerio of Rhode island he promoted Fred too second dan, no fiurther ,we used to work out in one of the orginal Dojos in Weymouth .the instructor would let us train there for free ,So people would watch us kick. We were from a moo duk kwan Dajang. And as yellow belts and green belts we would beat the instuctors sparring one of our red belts was paid to teach a private class showing the instructors how to kick.

There was an interview With Master Cerio in a local martial arts paper where he stated that Fred should be renamed Fraud because of his self promotion 2nd Dan to !0th Dan two years, He made claims that he trained with Chow never did. he said he trained in china and someone checked he never had a passport or visa

His original chain was United Studios of self defense they had colorful commercials on the TV some of the First in this area, shown during those Sat afternoon Kung Fu movies

The idea of life time memberships were sold at his dojos they pushed their 1/2 hour private lessons 3 a week gave you free group lessons ,evryone passsed every test.They pushed the life time membership which most quit after three years.high pressure sales

They changed the Name of the chain to Fred Villaris Studios of Self Defense selling franchise rights and Contracts ,Unfornatly the people thta bougth the original memberships, they were useless ,since the name of the corporation changed they were not obligated. at one time they had close to 100 schools in New England. franchise fee $40.000 included one lesson with fred a week most classes were taugth by Green belt students

They had their own tournament closed to all except their schools ,this way someone from the outside could not beat them, it was mandatory for all students as was most of the stuff he sold to the students,

I snuck into one of his tournaments with some friends in 1979 and watched Fred himself do a demonstration where people flew and fell before he hit them ,the announcer said Villari had the fastest hands in the world he could throw eleven strikes in five seconds it was commical, I was laughing along with the others ,When someones grandmother said he should get a new watch his seems to be broken, 7 strikes 8 seconds, this was 1979. $30 to enter and it was two days long with several thousand entering

Then He moved to CA. and he became someone elses problem.

Instructors left including his top boys Fred Bagley, Charlie Mattera they started their own group Masters studios of self Defense they are 10 th dans More 10th dans are in New england than in Korea, Japan,and china combined

**sean_stonehart** · 12-20-2005, 14:35

... and that's the way it is ...

**kenpo123** · 12-21-2005, 14:33

dam!! You know, i train at one of the VIllaries schools, and my instructor is very good and so is his! THey move very well, fast and powefull in my opionion anyway.
But how the school is ran and how crappy the other students are, i mean the black belts the green and brown belts, they move like uncordinated retards. NO matter what everyone passes there tests.. Its very very comercial, what kept me going was the fact that my teacher was actually very good. Witch is what got me researching all this in the first place. Im thinking there must be something good out of this... and im training and training and come to the conclusion maybe he was trained somewhere else or just natrually very talanted or maybe my untrained eye has put him on a higher pedastill then deserved. I have learned lots of strikeds and some stuff that i made usefull in my own way. So at least i got something out of it. But as I grow in the martial arts I see the huge shortcomings off my school such as training these rediculis combinations against a slow reverse punch or lunge punch ( person throws punch you perform flashy combination witch isnt even that flashy or effective, person stays still ike stone statue) or training chi qong out of nowhere and telling us how we should be feeling hot tingling sensations in our hands? NOt something that happens the first time i thinks.. ANyway.... thats my story

forgive my poor grammer and spelling as I type at light speed and do not fix mistakes..

**sean_stonehart** · 12-21-2005, 21:22

Well if you're interested in changing schools to something a little not so what you've got there... let us know. I'm sure we combined can find something up your alley.

**kenpo123** · 12-22-2005, 19:47

Im looking for a school that teaches actually teaches you how to fight without breaking your bones and sending you home with bruises and missing teeth..with out bragging how there master's chi is through the roof, like some video game and he has a chi meeter..some heavy sparring sure.. heavy grappling sure.. somewhere right in the middle .. some good mma school longisland suff county.. thanks man

**sean_stonehart** · 12-22-2005, 21:42

No prob... give me a day or two & I'll see what I can dig up for you. It'll probably be straight CMA if that's all the same to you.

**kenpo123** · 12-22-2005, 22:50

thx bro..!! oh and i dont even know what cma stands for.. i am just a novice martial artist.. 1.5 years of training

**sean_stonehart** · 12-23-2005, 06:42

Chinese Martial Art...

**sean_stonehart** · 12-23-2005, 13:01

Try this one... it's down the island from you ...

http://www.nykungfu.com

**kungfufist3** · 01-03-2006, 16:36

I heard damasco left charles mattera www.theshaolinway.com

**flyingninjadude** · 02-17-2006, 13:25

Freds big pizza franchise is nothing to what charles mattera has done the martial arts world.
He has blue and green belts run schools. If you look on villaris web sites he has less than 4 1st dans runing schools. If you look at charles mattera s web site www.ussd.com he doesn't even list the instructors rank. Because most of them are below black belt.

**genin77** · 02-20-2006, 18:26

I spoke to student of Winchell Woo's who said that Fred went to him some time ago when Shaolin started to become a topic of extreme interest for martial artists in the west and Winchell Woo started to train him and then stopped... For reasons I'm sure we can all think of... but sure enough Fred sarted placing the Shaolin title on his schools.

This is a conversation I had two years ago with a senior student of Winchell Woo's but should not be interpreted as factual, only what I heard.