Some people

I've been teaching for a long time. When I was a young brown belt I had visions of training with a true Master. But those people are few and far between despite what the phone book and Internet would have you believe. If you have been to my seminars where they have introduced me as a Master you've heard me say I don't claim to be a master - I have much work left to do to deserve that. I am a master teacher, I'll buy that. But that's only one aspect.
Anyway, I understand the allure of training with a master, or saying you train with a master. I understand the "prestige", or maybe it's "street cred" today. And I understand the responsibility involved in such things, especially when one is labeled as a protege (how do you get the accent mark over the letters anyway?).
What's bugging me today is that I came across a website with the statement that the man "is a direct student of Lee Wedlake". I've had many people tell me they met so and so and he was a student of mine, or one of my black belts, or how they know me and we hang out, blah, blah, blah. And it's just not so. I even had a guy call my studio and tell my sister, who was working the desk, that we went to college together in Arizona and got our black belts at the same time. For one, the whole of my time in Arizona was in the Phoenix airport one time on a connection. Second, I took my black belt test alone. Actually, it was the second I took alone. The first was in a group and I flunked it. Where do we get such people? My sister was amazed.
This man with my name on his site took a total of about three private lessons and a few seminars. We never got past Short Form Two. I never certified him for anything. In fact, last time I spoke with him I told him we had no future in any kind of relationship because I had heard his bad-mouthing about me. Then he has the balls to call me and ask me to do a seminar. He did not deny he said the things but he still advertises my name on his site. If you e-mail me at wedlakekenposeminars@comcast.net I may tell you his name.
There's a guy in PA that has a diploma that I witnessed at his test and tells people he studied with me. I met him but I didn't train him. I guess it's easy to fall into the trap that you're in the lineage or whatever but please give credit where it's due. And don't take it when it's not. What do we do about this? Probably not much. We have people with fake Physician and Religion degrees. They get caught from time to time. And so do these people with the fake lineage. It catches up with them most of the time. I was with Frank Trejo at someones apartment in California many years ago and we noticed an IKKA black belt diploma on the wall. I said it looked fake. The man actually told us that it was and Frank said "I wish you hadn't told me that. I'm in charge of tracking these things down."
Be careful who you brag to.