Why this blog?

I didn’t know who Sean Martial was until he attacked my teacher on-line. It seemed to start after a major magazine published a nice article about my teacher who runs one of the largest kung fu tournaments in the US and is well respected. The thing that struck me immediately was Sean’s arrogant and disrespectful tone, belittling of others, bullying, and general meanness of his attacks.

Martial artists often have differing viewpoints and you can call out someone you disagree with and not have to resort to juvenile tactics. Martial artists easily recognize bullies. A true martial artist who really cares about righting a wrong tries to do it in a just and fair manner without being unpleasant. If forced to use violence (whether of words of actions), they do so reluctantly and try to settle things behind closed doors without making a big fuss or taking pride in their actions. On the other hand, the bully makes a big show of their actions, noisily drawing attention to the matter because above all else, they crave attention . They want everyone to see and hear of their questionable actions because they want to show how righteous they are.

When I first heard of Sean Martial, it was through some of his on-line posts. I thought I was reading the words of some teenaged keyboard warrior, so I decided to investigate who this person was. What I found was a grown adult who had a history of lashing out in anger and bullying those who disagreed with him. In the martial arts world, high level people who knew him well did not have much respect for him. He was known as a fighter, a flashy performer, athletic, and someone who could make a form look “pretty” (but often lacking in principles). He was also considered arrogant, selfish, a trouble maker, a hot-head, irresponsible, unreliable, and someone who took advantage of other people. One of his classmate said he was “a person who could seem friendly and really chill, then suddenly lash out at you.” A school owner said he had known Sean a long time and “he was a d**k over 20 years ago and is still a d**k today.” Another school owner said Sean wanted to be an old style sifu that had people who would follow him blindly and not question him. He wants to be a myth and a legend so he inflates his past history and takes credit for the accomplishments of others. His words present a very different picture than his actions.

Although he has had no problem attacking people on-line and spreading lies and propaganda, the politeness of the martial arts community meant that people in the know where unlikely to call him out in public. They hoped that if they ignored him, he would mature and stop his antics. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Now he is trying to re-write history and paint his past in a positive light and that has led me to believe it is time for the truth to come out! I feel it is my duty to call out the bad behavior of this self-styled monkey king and to exert some control on him before he wreaks too much destruction!

While writing as though it is Sean speaking is parody, I assure you the facts are true, the screen captures are real, and the dialogues and rants are direct copies of the words written on various message boards, blogs and web sites. I have so many more stories that well respected figures in the martial arts world have shared with me, but that I don’t share here because I can’t find documentation online of what was said to happen. Many things he does are in secret and in the background, but a surprising number of people are eager to share the direct messages and emails they have received from Sean and to help warn others about him

Xuan Zang