Is Frank "The Man" James good or bad for 10th Planet??

[frank-theman-james]

I find it funny that the "who should be the next bb" thread started some trouble because as soon as I saw that I thought of a few guys in my head who I might see as "deserving" of a belt promotion, but then I realized that I really don't know shit. Yea, I'm a white belt, but it's more than that... it's simply not my place to decide or even cast a vote as to who should get a belt promotion and who shouldn't. For that reason I chose not to post a reply on that thread, and it seems that my inclination was correct. It's a troublesome thread in general because the bottom line is that endorsements by your 10th planet peers on the forum has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not the fighter is qualified to move up in rank. That's the job of that fighter's instructor, whether that's eddie himself, or another senior 10th planeteer.

As far as Frank goes, I do understand his frustration with it being expensive to get to HQ and test, or even to compete, but everything costs money, that's just life. I'm in law school right now and I'm paying $200,000 just for the opportunity to achieve "rank" in the legal field. If the belt itself is so important to you then save the money and make the trip, or put in the time and mop up some competitions. Either way, it was probably inappropriate to voice his concerns publicly like that, and he certainly should have used some discretion and not attacked people personally. I do sympathize with him a little in that the forum ganged up on him pretty quickly and kind of trapped him into a corner and he chose to try to fight his way out which he should have known was futile. He's been on the forum for a while and I don't recall any other incidents with him so I think we should probably just drop it at this point.. I don't think a ban is really necessary, but if the conflicts continue then perhaps a ban will be inevitable.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents, since u asked master bravo. Can't we all just get along?? Happy Rolling!

thanks Matt, you and I have spoke and tried to make arrangements to get together and train, so I think you know I'm not a douche. appreciate you

[Arnaud Arross]

I suppose the level of douchebaggery is pretty low in comparison of other forums. We should keep it that way...

Totally agree

[frank-theman-james]

If you ban him, he'll probably just come back with another name. Just saying. I've said some douchey stuff myself out of frustration. I hope you guys don't hold grudges against me forever. It was just a way for me to vent some frustration and maybe get noticed a little and it worked. But whatever you guys decide to do with Frank is cool with me. If he's the cause of too much drama, he should probably be punished in some form.

thank you jon. I think you understand the shoes im in and thanks for your kind words. Everyone makes mistakes

[frank-theman-james]

He might have been out of line, but giving him a second chance would not hurt. If he really means well for the system then he will prove that over time if he acts up again you will whether it was a bad choice or not.

thank for understanding and seeing that people sometimes screw up even if they have the best intentions.

[frank-theman-james]

Ive tried to thank everyone who took a positive stand and said give me a chance, if I missed anyone, thanks to you. For those who voted to ban me, I'm sorry that you feel that way, but I guess sometimes when we write words on a screen, the tone, whether it be light or serious, good or bad, cannot be expressed in black and white. I wish that I could meet all of you in person and let you get to know the real me, and I get to know you all. I'm sure that things would be different. I hope the best for all of you.

[Jake Whitfield]

hi, i have never posted on here but this time i feel the need to chime in. let me start off by introducing myself. my name is jake whitfield. i am a brown belt under royce gracie and a professional mma fighter (my record: http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/f/DA...les-Whitfield/ ). i also own triangle jiu-jitsu academy here in north carolina (www.trianglejj.com). i know frank personally and feel like i have something to add.
first of all, let me start by saying some of the things that frank is going to say about me. first, he is going to say that i'm a punk kid. well i really have no way to argue that since it is his opinion. second, he's going to point that i have been very critical of eddie and 10th planet. this is absolutely true. i am a traditional gracie jiu-jitsu teacher and i'm proud of it. i have been highly critical of how eddie portrays his style and some of the things he teaches and i will continue to be.
i moved to goldsboro, nc in may of 2008 and my first encounter with frank was about a week before i fought tim mannon. i was working the bag at my gym and this little car pulls out. out of the car steps this large guy in an even larger tapout shirt. so i start to talk to him. he tells me that he is frank james and that he used to teach at the other mma gym in town. he tells me that he was given a purple belt by the head of nova uniao in north carolina to which i replied "oh you mean jeremy owens from evolution? yeah jeremy is a really good friend of mine." then frank changed his story and said that he wasnt actually given a belt by jeremy but that jeremy said that he was a purple belt level. next he tried to tell me that he was really good friends with charuto and i replied "oh yeah? thats cool. i trained with charuto last week." now he starts backpedaling and trying to tell me about his awesome stand up background and how he had taken one of his students down to a kickboxing gym in wilmington to be evaluated. and i said "oh you mean john maynard at champion kickboxing? yeah hes the one who gave me my black belt in kickboxing". now frank didnt know what to say so he tells me (direct quote) "well small joint manipulations are really my forte." at which point i informed him that i had to get back to training.
over the next few months, frank would pop into the gym occasionally and hang out and try to tell me more bullshit. i was always polite to him and would always ask if he wanted to roll but he would always have a reason why he couldnt. then he finally scheduled a private with me in january of 2009. he asked me some fairly ridiculous questions then we rolled. we rolled about five minutes and he tapped about six times. only one of those times was a legitimate submission. the other times was "oh man i cant breath, get off me". then he offered to help me with my stand up and i said "sure wanna spar?" so we put on some gloves. most of the stand up training was me stalking him around the mat and him running away. finally he stepped in and hit me with one jab. it landed solid but did nothing. frank however reacted like he had just killed me "oh my god man are you ok?" i just looked at him and was like "yeah it was just a jab dude keep going." finally he stopped running and i landed a few combinations and he said he didnt want to spar anymore. i remember that day very well because it was the day that grandmaster helio passed away. i got done training with frank and got a text saying that he had passed and all i could think was "what a disgrace! grandmaster helio passes and i'm hear training with this guy."
frank didnt come back into the gym for awhile after that. maybe six months later he showed up again. i was having royce at my place for a seminar and had sent out a mass text to everyone in my phone about it. so frank shows up... wearing a BLACK BELT! lol frank does the whole seminar and at the end of the seminar when royce is about to do evaluations he says "ok, everyone with more than a years experience on this side. everyone with less than a year on the other side." and frank mr black belt went over to the side with less than a years experience! haha
once again, i didnt hear anything from him for a long time. then about six months ago, one of my students posted a video on facebook on how to counter the rubber guard. frank left a rather rude reply saying that my student didnt know what he was talking about. one of my other students posted a response with two videos showing my guy using the exact countrer in competition. at which point frank said something about how it would never work against someone that really knew 10th planet jiu-jitsu. now i had enough so i replied and said that frank james is a phony. not only does he have no business being an mma coach but he certainly has no business criticizing my student who has competed many times and done very well. this set frank off and frank started attacking me and calling me names so i offered for frank to come by the gym and roll. he said he didnt want to roll, he wanted to fight. so i offered for him to come by the gym and we could put some gloves on. he told me that he didnt want to do mma because mma was for pussies that needed to hide behind the rules. he wanted to fight me in the street and he was going to pull my eyes out and stomp on my head and all this stuff. i posted one more time pointing out that at no time did i ever threaten this man. all i ever did was offer for him to come by the gym and train. i didnt respond for probably 70 more comments. when i did it was to copy and paste a message from jon helton. frank even went so far as to tell a black belt, a black belt that placed third at the pan ams, that he didnt know anything about jiu-jitsu. for the next month everywhere i went, people were asking me what was wrong with that psycho.
finally a few weeks ago i saw frank at walmart. i simply went about my business but i did keep my eyes open. frank is well known around here for sucker punching people. i have many students who are law enforcement officers and they all talked about how many times frank has been arrested. there is even a law in a local county for "habitual misdemeanor assault" that was created specifically for frank. eventually frank ended up in line behind me. as he walked up, i turned to face him so he could see that i knew he was there. our conversation went like this:
frank: hey man hows it going?
me: fine
frank: when are you fighting again?
me: march or april, its up to the promoter
frank: oh man thats cool! i'll have to make sure i'm there...long pause... i'm having a seminar at my gym
me: yeah with the guy from delaware
frank: yeah! want me to drop some fliers off at the gym
me: nope, its not my thing
frank: yeah i know but it never hurts to broaden your horizons
me: yeah but that stuff doesnt interest me. obviously eddie has proven that HE can make it work at a high level, but i dont really care for most of it.
frank: yeah theres a lot of stuff i dont like to with the names and everything
at which point, i took my bags and walked away. then i hear how hes telling people on here that i was scared and how there was almost a show at walmart. you folks dont know me, but i can promise you this: the only thing about frank that scares me is his punch from behind. frank james is a bully and bullies are no threat to anyone that will stand up to them.
eddie, like i said in the beginning, i have been vocal in my dislike for a lot of the stuff that you do and say. you are an authority with a unique amount of influence in the bjj/mma community and i dont always agree with how you use it. personally, i play rubber guard quite a bit and the twister back take has become one of my favorite ways to get to the back but the way you present the sport bothers me. i have respect for you as a jiu-jitsu practitioner. to beat royler, you have to be pretty freaking good no matter what the circumstances. but i also have to say that after reading this thread i do also have more respect for you as a person. i'm glad to see you taking steps to protect your name and your students from someone like this. i would love a chance to talk with you one on one about some of my feelings, but this is all i have to say about this matter. thanks.

[Jonathan Wylie]

I want to personaly say thank you Mr. Whitfield you just confirmed all my suspicions and that is a perfect example of disagreeing in a respetfull way.

[Jake Whitfield]

oh and one last thing. i talked to jeremy owens of evolution mma (www.evolutionmixedmartialarts.com) AND charuto in the last two weeks and they both confirmed to me that frank was never given a purple belt by either of them. feel free to send jeremy an email and he will tell you the same.

[Clinton lawrence]

thank you sir that was a powerful statement again thank you and all the best

[Matt "Gumby" Glach]

Jake Whitfield: In the legal world we call that hearsay. Honestly, I think it's rude and disrespectful to come on here for the first time just to blast one of our members, the system and our master! Yes, you did it in a "respectful" dialog, but I still find the act itself to be extremely disrespectful to all of us, especially Frank, and Eddie. You should have sent that message to Eddie himself because now you've besmirched Frank's name to no end in front of the entire family and you have no business doing that since you are not a part of this family, in fact you're a self-proclaimed hater of this family. All of your stories are clearly loaded with bias and you are portraying Frank as a despicable person which is completely unfair to him. If all of what you say is true I would be very surprised because all of my encounters, albeit they're limited to text, have been nothing but pleasant. It's a shame to think that what you've said might be substantively factual, however I'm most certain that you've made him sound worse than he is. On the flip side, if you actually are being completely candid and not exaggerating, I guess I can say thank you for taking the time to let us all know, but I still think it would have been more tactful and respectful to send this to Eddie first and let him choose whether or not to share it with us all. Some instances of libel one just can't recover from, true or untrue, and this feels like it might be one of those instances.

Oh well, what's done is done, but I just had to tell you how I felt about that one. Sorry Frank, I hope these allegations prove to be false, but either way keep your head up and keep training. With jiu jitsu comes humility. We could all use a little more humility.