I'm really surprised at this thread because nobody has mentioned Fiorenzi's partnership with Sifu Robert Brown.
This alone should sink Fiorenzi as a "respectable" guy. Seriously. Sifu Robert Brown is a load of McDojo crap who has no idea what he is doing, but is really good at selling it to soccer moms and suburban fantasy basement dwellers. There are even a couple of bullshido articles I read about the guy from a few years ago after I went to visit the BJJ classes at "School of Asian Martial Arts" in Berkley.
Fiorenzi is the BJJ instructor there and trains Sifu Brown. The entire program is total crap.
I checked out the program about 6 months ago, after having only about 6 months training in BJJ, because it was closer to my house. Fiorenzi was NOT THERE when I went, so Sifu Brown was running the class. And Brown was wearing all black. I asked a student who was helping with my "intro" if Brown had a black belt. The student told me that brown had a REALLY high rank.
I got creepy cult vibes from everyone the entire time I was there. Everyone kept talking about how great Sifu Brown was, and everyone kept telling me how amazing Ryan was. They repeated to me probably 50 times that Fiorenzi was the highest ranked and best and most advnaced BJJ guy in all of Michigan. However, everyone there, from the other beginners to their most advanced "helpers" were the worst BJJ guys I have ever in my life seen.
I did not roll with Sifu Brown, but anyone I did roll with was completely clueless. They kept saying I was really good and kept saying I must have already trained for a long long time. I only had 6 months of twice a week training! And yet they couldn't pass my guard, couldn't control my wrists, couldn't get any choke or submission to work on me. And I could understand when I saw Sifu Brown "demonstrate" a few of the drills we were to go over because even me, with barely a beginners level, could tell he was explaning things terribly wrong. He said everything with lots of this almost mystical explanations too, as if he was some expert in body mechanics and physiology. But nothing he said was even white belt level. His RNC explanation was terrible (lots of wrenching things back), his armbars were terrible. No wonder his students couldn't get them to work at all (let alone get into position to attempt one in free rolling). And Robert Brown is apparently a purple under Fiorenzi and a Black under... some mail order thing. His students didn't seem to even know.
And Fiorenzi now runs Brown's programs and "zen" teaching at East West apparently (I have never been to East West). But it can't be good if his website claims to be running Brown's programs at it.
Also, Brown has no zen training. He just passes himself off as a zen and meditation master to make money off of the suburbanites. And apparently he has no actual kung fu training either, according to the other stuff I've hread about him on the web.
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Sorry to resurrect an old thread. I was just broswing around looking for BJJ in Michigan stuff.
