Oh where do I start? Hang in there with me, this is sure to be a long one. My family of 5 all…read moreattended classes at Long's Shotokan for nearly 5 years. I took every adult class available; my kids took every kid's class available. 3/5 of us obtained shodan black belts under Mark Long over the course of the 5 years. All of that said, we had never been at another dojo so we were just rolling with the blows, not knowing that dojo life could be any better. Now that I have left, I know it can be infinitely better.
Firstly, before testing for my shodan black belt, we each had "interviews" with Mark Long where he asked us one thing we liked and didn't like about either the testing process or the dojo in general. I told him that my dislike would be the many inconsistencies; i used his schedule as an example because it changes, unannounced, at least twice a year. The last schedule change cut classes down to 30 minutes, half of which is spent listening to sermon-like lectures and not working out. I was well aware of the dojo's Christian stance from the day I joined, as there are crosses and bible quotes hanging in the lobby, so that is not the issue here. The issue is that I was paying nearly $300 a month to learn self defense, not go to church. And okay, his rants aren't always religious themed, sometimes they are so far off in left field that I truly can't follow.
Onto more inconsistencies though, to obtain your shodan black belt there is a grocery list of requirements you must meet to be eligible for testing. Some of these include: must have a yellow belt in aikido, must have an orange belt in judo, must have attended 4 tournaments, must pass the physical endurance part of the test (50 pushups, 50 situps in 3 minutes, followed by 50 jumping jacks and 50 burpees). I have witnessed many tests where the testers did not have these requirements met and were still allowed to test and pass. Just this past summer, I watched a man test for his Nidan (2nd degree) and pass without knowing the nidan kata or his self defense. I started to realize that he is running a belt factory. When I came to this realization I feared that perhaps I had been a product of the belt factory too, but I put those fears to rest when I remembered that on my own Shodan test, I was pulled into the office by the black belt board and told that I was "out-performing the rest of the students" and to "share some of my enthusiasm with the other students." sorry/not sorry, I took my training and testing very seriously because my entire reason for training in martial arts was to learn self defense to protect myself and daughters. It is VERY serious.
But onward, my family is a mixed (caucasian and mexican). Over the years, Mark Long made multiple underhand racist comments towards my daughter and my husband. Another former black belt of his went on to work on the Border Patrol. He came to visit family and came into the dojo to train. Mark Long put him and my husband to spar one another and thought it was hilarious to announce that the Border Patrol Agent could beat my Mexican husband & send him back home. Let me add here that my husband was born in the states, this is his home. This exact same sparring match happened the next time that black belt visited too. (I am good friends with that black belt and even he has expressed the distaste that left him with; he felt extremely uncomfortable with it and considered walking out each time.) He would often make "Mexican hat dance" jokes to my daughter's footwork. He once did the Hitler hand salute while talking about Trump, in the dojo, during business hours. One of his other black belts told him that was inappropriate and he laughed it off. At a different time, he was talking about rolling a magazine on an airplane with the intent to beat a Muslim man because he feared he was a terrorist... he made a joke about terrorists yelling "aloha snack bar" before committing terrorist acts. He also called my very dark skinned daughter "Brown Bug" for years, when she repeatedly told him that she didn't like that name. He played it off as a term of endearment, but now I truly question that. When I went into the office to cancel our payments and leave the dojo, he had the audacity to question my husband's citizenship and say that perhaps he was here on a work visa. Again, I add that he was born in the states and we have been a member of the dojo for 5 years... he knew my husband was American. In the same conversation he listed off HIS black belts, "I have Mexican black belt; black belt who is a black guy, I have black belts that are gay, trans, etc." Which really threw me back because who keeps track like that? And portrays them as HIS? It's extremely disturbing.
He told me 6x in an hour, "if you don't agree with me, get out and never come back." this is proof that you are not welcome there if you do not share his ideologies.
The list goes on but it appears I have met the max character amount for a review and I cannot continue.
