I am. I practice real baguazhang every day now.

The point is, even though there is *some* good that comes from The Cult, it is still pretty much a twisted, tainted picture of what martial arts should really be about. Maybe not at your school, but certainly at the one I went to. I have trained at four different schools in my life, and only OYD/CMD really creeped me out. Only at OYD have I seen a higher level instructor strike my instructor during the course of a lecture, leaving them in *obvious pain* and say "don't worry, he can take it." Not that the fellow he hit was any better, I saw him hit a student as well before that.

I quit OYD shortly after that. Too much darkside stuff. Too much greed and malice.

Students that show the best aptitude and effort should get the most attention, not the ones that pony up the most green. Students that spend their time, money, and effort to develop themselves should be rewarded, not leaned on to get more people in the school or spend more money on additional training.

I appreciate that you might be getting something you need from OYD. Allow us the freedom to discuss the issues that we had with it. Since I have seen a ton of flyers around for OYD in my neighborhood it is obvious to me that you guys are working hard to present yourself in a positive light. I believe that those of us who have had negative experiences should be allowed to share them. Particularly since this appears to be a common issue for former students.

Certainly no one goes to such extremes to denounce or declaim other martial arts schools. This may be worth noting. Maybe it's because people felt good enough about these other schools to stay, or if they left, felt good enough about their experiences that they didn't feel the need to warn the rest of the world. I know I didn't...until OYD.

My two cents.