Little Nine Heaven school in Arizona

[dotyl9h]

Brother and Sister students,
My brother, Gary Doty and I are opening a L9H school in Arizona. We are senior students under Lao Tzu James McNeil for 30 years. About goddamn time those of you that know us are probably saying. Well anything good takes time to prepare. We have both recieved advanced instruction in the complete L9H system . We will be teaching the L9H system to include;
Hsing-I (Hsu Hong Chi and Chaio Chang Hung style), Ba-Gua (Chaio Chang Hung Dragon style), Chen Tai-chi (Old style), Hsiao Chiu Tien (Chaio Chang Hung Little Nine Heaven Taoist Boxing), Splashing Hands Kung Fu (Complete system including the 5 animal forms), Tzu Men-Chuan (Poison Fingers style and advanced Iron Hand). The program will eventually expand into a healing arts clinic which is my brother's specialty.
We will be running a traditional daily class teaching true no holds barred internal kung fu but also a package program geared towards the serious fighter interested in MMA style competition.
Lao Tzu McNeil and I, with the invaluable aid of Shen Lee, have developed a system of training based on our L9H system, specifically targeted towards students interested in MMA fight preparation. We have adapted the extreme nature of properly applied internal fighting to the structured rules of MMA. My brother and I, with special seminars featuring Lao Tzu, will be coaching in striking and counter-grappling techniques based on our traditional internal systems combined with some modern training tactics. This will be a seriously committing course of periodized instruction with the student being fight or competition ready at it’s culmination.
Finally, we will be offering a special course of instruction in weapon disarmament and retention for law enforcement and military personnel specifically but the course is not restricted. These techniques are simply learned, highly effective and are based on the L9H system, mostly L9H boxing and Splashing Hands. This is an entirely different system than that presented by Lao Tzu in his Splashing Hands Combat videos. Many close-fighting techniques from L9H boxing and Splashing Hands are featured in this course. The base technique is extremely simple to learn and is broken down in named phases in the military fashion.
I will post up with specifics when we get our location set up. We will open initially in Arizona near Phoenix some where but will soon open another location in Costa Mesa or Newport area in California. You will all be welcome. Feel free to email me at dotyarg@yahoo.

[dotyl9h]

Tom,
Thanks for the words of encouragement. I will have a website up soon and will post up again.
James DotyL9HNHB

[somatai]

Good luck to you both with this venture......not sure if you remember me (Derek) living with the Greek mallakas, Zelda and that crazy fucking rooster all those years ago in rainbow.....anyone in arizona would do well to train with these guys real skills and nice guys to boot.

hope your well Jim.

best of luck,
Derek

[dotyl9h]

I absolutely remember you, Derek. The only healthy vegetarian I have ever met. Thanks for the kind words. I will definitely post up when we have everything rolling. I will shoot you an email, Derek.
P.s. Some a- hole down at the school after you killed El Diablo, the rooster, with a spear. Now that rooster was intimidating but it was a friggin rooster for god sake. Fortunately for the dude, Keo ,you a- hole if you are out there, that Lao Tzu McNeil is a forgiving guy because I am not.

[Chris Fleming]

Congrats on your school. I find your training approach using traditional MA for MMA very interesting and look forward to hearing more about it.

[Dale Dugas]

congrats on the new school.

[somatai]

I absolutely remember you, Derek. The only healthy vegetarian I have ever met. Thanks for the kind words. I will definitely post up when we have everything rolling. I will shoot you an email, Derek.
P.s. Some a- hole down at the school after you killed El Diablo, the rooster, with a spear. Now that rooster was intimidating but it was a friggin rooster for god sake. Fortunately for the dude, Keo ,you a- hole if you are out there, that Lao Tzu McNeil is a forgiving guy because I am not.

now that i am an omnivore i think back on the food those boys used to consume and cook and am sad i missed it, they sure knew how to eat damm.....too bad about diablo, though he was a fucker, i remember marios and he battling, i think marios was beginning to become undone by that wily rooster a few more months and he would have been a real sight.

[JAB]

Good luck.
Though I do not know what "Lao Tzu McNeil" means. If you mean 'teacher' then you are WAY off; "Laoshi" would be proper. If you mean the Daoist sage "Lao Tzu" then I am not sure why you are putting it before McNeil's name

You mention many styles, but I do not see any ground work in there. May I ask where you get your ground game from to teach MMA?

Thanks
Jake

[Kurt Robbins]

Youtube

[TaoBoxer]

For some reason the Tang Shao Tao guys often say Lao Tzu instead of Lao Shi. My only explanation is that the Taiwanese accent in Mandarin makes it easy to mistake the word. In the Way of the Warrior interviews with Hung Yi Xiang you can hear it.

Lewitt

[cerebus]

Doesn't "Lao Tzu" mean "Old Man" or "Old Master" or something like that? It was a title, not the given name of the author of the Tao Te Ching (or so I seem to recall)...

[bailewen]

As soon as they mention the Taiwanese accent it makes sense.

Yes Troy, "Lao Tzu" does mean something like that but really only 老子 means that. The proper Pinyin would be lao-zi. The "tzu" is wade-giles and confuses things. Taiwanese speakers have a hard time differentiating "sh" and "zh" as well as "s" and "z". They turn everything into "z" so it's easy to see how "lao shi" (teacher) could end up being head as "laozi" and then a non Chinese speaker just doing his best to transcribe it ending up with "lao tzu".

It sounds like it could totally be an honest mistake based on a simple lack of Chinese language skills.

[edededed]

Taiwanese saying "Laoshi" usually sound more like "Laosi" ("Lao-su," not "Lao-tzu").

[ashe]

let us know when you get your location open, and i'll drop in to say hello. a member of your family via, the group in FL. cornered for me during my first san da fight, so i always have a special place in my heart of the L9H boys!

once you get some people coming through, anyone looking for a little more practice is welcome to come join us for open sparring on wednesday nights. we're trying to get a mix of folks in there. right now we have some WC, ILC and maybe a regular with some thai boxing background. we're hoping to get the white crane guys from mesa interested too.

[Iron Apprentice]

I absolutely remember you, Derek. The only healthy vegetarian I have ever met. Thanks for the kind words. I will definitely post up when we have everything rolling. I will shoot you an email, Derek.
P.s. Some a- hole down at the school after you killed El Diablo, the rooster, with a spear. Now that rooster was intimidating but it was a friggin rooster for god sake. Fortunately for the dude, Keo ,you a- hole if you are out there, that Lao Tzu McNeil is a forgiving guy because I am not.

My first day at the school, I was there when Keo killed him. I was like "Oh shit! What the hell?!". But El Diablo was tearing people up though. Youd be standing there talking to someone and suddenly youd feel a burning on your leg and it would be him. Got my ass too. He was always pissed because of the other rooster who he herded right along with the hens because he (Diablo) was bigger and meaner - he was huge! He was even on the cats cases. What an incredible animal. He burned Keo really good that day and after that he (Keo) was seeing red and did Diablo in. You probably know Keo had supposedly been in guerilla warfare and stuff in Burma and Africa, so he wasnt wrapped too tight. Later that day, I was in Shifu McNeils front house for potluck, and Keo comes up to me with a bowl saying, "You should eat this soup. Its a very special chicken. Its a magic soup." A very spiritual but also demented and funny experience my first day there, as I stood there scarfing down a bowl of one of the best chicken soups Ive had that contained the great El Diablo, with Shifu McNeil saying, "...you killed my goddamn chicken Keo!" A memory Ill never forget.

So after that, Keo still had Diablo's feet and was rubbing them with salt and preserving them. I thought to myself, Ive GOT to get one of those feet off him for the ultimate momento. And talisman. I offered him $50 bucks for one, and he would NOT part with it. I kept asking for the next several months and he wouldnt budge. I was pissed.

That bird in particular had much influence animal-wise on my understanding of the the essence and tactics of XY in stepping and fighting. So as a result stepping has long been an intensive focal point in my practice and teaching. And in fighting, staying nimbly agressive, explosive, and using hi & lo attack where my intent is, along upper and mid methods, geared toward kneeing and kicking the hell out of the opponents stomach, groin, knees, shins,and ankles at every opportunity.

PS: Mr Doty. You and your brothers skills were often talked about when I was around the L9H group. Garys leaping ability in the Lung Xing (dragon shape) was extraordinary. Good to see Teacher McNeils branch going strong. Lucky Arizona. Cheers.