I knew after we won our defamation suit, our trolls and haters would come back with a vengeance. When the truth isn't on their side, the only strategy left is to flood the search engines in order to bury it. I'll admit that I was a little shocked at who's leading the charge, but let's dive in...
The majority of the attacks against us came after I wrote an article in 2020 on Barron Shepherd, a local judo instructor and the first troll dumb enough to use their real name to lie about us. It didn't take long to uncover gapping holes in his background, including claiming USJA rank and credentials but not appearing on their database when the article was first written (he is now listed as a 3rd Dan by both USJA and USA Judo). As of this article, Barron has written no less than 7 blogs about me in the last 2 months, so I probably should thank him for letting me live in his head rent free all this time, as I can honestly say he hasn't crossed my mind at all. Of course, none of these articles present anything unique and certainly aren't the "smoking gun" he thinks they are. However, since he's been begging for my attention, let's play along.
The main theme in all of his articles is that my teacher, Steven Hatfield, and I are committing fraud by claiming to be licensed by the Kodokan in Japan for Judo. This is the easiest to disprove, as there is not a single article or post that I have made claiming to be endorsed or certified by the Kodokan in any way. It doesn't matter how many fake screenshots he posts from "students" of mine, it simply never happened. Our ranks are certified by the USA Traditional Kodokan Judo Association.
So how can we say we teach "Kodokan Judo" without being recognized by the Kodokan Judo Institute? Quite simply, because that's the name of the art! There are now numerous styles and flavors of Judo, and specifying that we teach Kodokan Judo is to say we teach the art as Kano intended: with striking, kata, solo practice, ground fighting, and randori. Not every Shotokan Karate school in the world is certified by the Japan Karate Association, and they are no less Shotokan.
Now, let's come to the subject of the Judo National Governing Bodies. In the US, there are 3 organizations considered the NGB of sport Judo: USA Judo, US Judo Association and US Judo Federation. However, they are not the only organizations with the authority to issue rank in Judo as Barron would have you believe... But let's pretend for a moment that they are. According to Barron, any Judo rank certification not issued by one of the 3 NGBs is worthless and carries no weight in the Judo community. By those standards, Barron's own rank and claims are fraudulent. According to USA Judo and USJA as of this writing, Barron holds only a 3rd Dan. His 4th Dan comes through the "International Armed Services Judo & Jujitsu Academy" and his 5th Dan comes from the "Judo Black Belt Association."
By all accounts, both Harold Robinson and Steve Scott are legitimate, high-ranking judoka with the authority to issue such documents and normally things would seem perfectly fine. However, aside from not being from one of the NGBs, two things stand out to me about these two certifications. The first is that while Barron likes to spew on about time in grade, apparently it's acceptable for him to go from 4th to 5th Dan in only a year (April 14, 2022 to April 28, 2023).
Something else both of these certifications have in common is that they are certifications in the art of "Kodokan Judo," yet neither appear to be from one of the 3 NGBs or the Kodokan itself.
So, I'm a little confused. Either Barron is really only a legitimate 3rd Dan, these certifications above (by his own standards) are worthless, their use of "Kodokan" on the certificate is fraudulent, and his wearing of the Black and Red panel belt is an act of misrepresentation... Or we can finally admit that the 3 NGBs are not the only source of legitimate Kodokan Judo rank meaning our USATKJ ranks are just as valid as his, and move on with our lives. Both assertions cannot be true. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones...
EDIT (9/27/2023) - Barron continues to report this article for DMCA Copyright Infringement in hopes that it will be taken down by our hosting provider, which is how he had my previous blog site removed although the "copyrighted" image in question are screenshots from social media and therefore public domain. According to Facebook's terms of service, by posting your pictures and videos you grant Facebook “a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any [IP] content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (“IP License”). Take note of the words “transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license.” This means that Facebook and its users can license your content to others for free without obtaining any other approval from you.
However, his face isn't important enough to have this site shut down again. So, if anyone wants to know what Barron looks like, they can visit his Facebook or Instagram. Comments are closed.
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