Sunday, October 12, 2008

Gene Simco Fraud? Why does the controversy surrounding Gene Simco exist?

Gene Simco Fraud? Why does the controversy surrounding Gene Simco exist?

Gene Simco is a victim of "verbal cancer".

Gene Simco began training in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu around the time of MMA’s birth in the US. At this time, very little instructional information existed on the art of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. Simco, already a life-long martial arts enthusiast and teacher, began training diligently in BJJ. Because it was so new in America and schools were few and far between, Simco would travel to seek top-notch instruction, and take notes of his training sessions with some of the top instructors in the world. He would then bring the information back to his students to make the martial arts program at his school better. As years passed, Simco began employing Brazilian Black Belts to teach at the school regularly, along the way, he would earn belts from them as he deserved them. The act of having many different instructors was seen by Simco and his students as a way to obtain the most information possible and create a diverse learning environment, but unfortunately, the sportive side of BJJ, which consisted of “teams” and aggressive competition didn’t see it the same way. Simco is a martial arts instructor and began training long before sport jiu-jitsu existed on a large scale. His reasons for training were for self defense, interest and recreation. His only objective was to create better students and in order to do that, he would have to get all the information he could from as many places as possible. This same philosophy then translated to his books and DVDs, where he would compile techniques and information from several instructors and years of experience training with them. Obviously, his tremendous success in the martial arts industry proves that people appreciate the amount of knowledge he has gathered and now offers in his products and services. However, there is a part of the BJJ community that has twisted what most feel to be a good thing and tries to make it look as if he were “belt shopping” and spread rumors about his relationships with certain instructors. The fact of the matter is that Gene Simco trained with many of the greatest instructors in the world for the purpose of learning and earned his belts along the way. The idea that he would seek speedy promotion or buy a belt is proven untrue by two facts: Simco trained for ten years before earning his black belt and when Gene Simco was promoted to Purple Belt in BJJ, he voluntarily removed his Black Belt in traditional Jiu-jitsu and never wore it again. There are many people of questionable integrity who wear their Karate or Judo Black Belts while holding a lower rank in BJJ, creating the illusion that they are a BJJ Black Belt. Gene Simco is not one of these people and never has been. He has always been forthright with his students and is only being criticized by his competitors who have failed in business where he has succeeded.