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BlackBeltStreaming.com
contents
October/November 2018 - Volume 56, Number 6

42RSIA:
PEKITI TI
FOajeRJGr.E, aD2I0N18 FBIlaRckEB!elt Haitlli
Leo T. G e, explains ho
w pek
e in du cte at
of Fam e d by combat th
as sh ap
tirsia w Spain,
Philippines,
involved the 
-DSDQ,W·VD
$PHULFDDQG
Q\RXZRQ·W
KLVWRU\OHVVR
forget!

FEATURES
48 MORE MARTIAL ARTISTS JOIN
THE HALL OF FAME
The staff of Black Belt announces
additional inductees for 2018: Malia
Bernal, Woman of the Year; Kim Soo,
Instructor of the Year; and Eyal Yanilov,
Self-Defense Instructor of the Year.

54 BATTLE OF ATLANTA
50TH EDITION
The iconic martial arts event co-founded
by Joe Corley was a family affair this
year — and one for the record books in
many respects. Big reveal: Our writer
actually competed in the tournament.

60 BEHIND THE SCENES AT

‘ENTER THE DOJO’
Black Belt paid a visit to Master Ken and
Todd (actually, martial artists Matt Page
and Joe Conway) to talk about how far
WKHLUZHEVHULHVKDVFRPHWRÀQGRXW
how they make new episodes and to
OHDUQZKDW·VLQVWRUHIRUameri-do-te. 34RSIA KALI
66 TALE OF TIM TACKETT E K IT I TI ctee
Plack Belt Hall oches this FilipinLRoUVD
f Fam e indu
We sat down with the JKD senior UU
tea HUQZD
B
Ladra
Apolo WWRJLYHPRG environmen
statesman and ended up learning a lot t
J DU y
DERXWKLVLQWHUSUHWDWLRQRI%UXFH/HH·V ÀJKWLQ dvantage in
an and
h y more UV
Photo by Brandon Snider

a l a s w FH
HQWRIÀ
art. In Part 1, Tackett discusses the path tactic in
h expla
that took him to jeet kune do,KLVÀUVW — whic ZHQIRUFHP ersonnel
PRUHOD cial Forces
encounter with Dan Inosanto and Daniel p
S pe g up.
Lee, and more! and re signin
a

',6&/$,0(5%/$&.%(/70$*$=,1(LWVRZQHUVGLUHFWRUVRIÀFHUVVXEVLGLDULHVVXFFHVVRUVDQGDVVLJQVDVSXEOLVKHUGRQRWHQGRUVHDQGPDNHQRUHSUHVHQWDWLRQZDUUDQW\RUJXDUDQWHHFRQFHUQLQJWKHVDIHW\RUHIIHFWLYHQHVVRI
either the products and services advertised in this magazine or the martial arts or other techniques discussed or illustrated in this magazine. The publisher expressly disclaims any and all liability relating to the manufacture, sale or use of
such products and services and the application of the techniques discussed or illustrated in this magazine. The purchase or use of some of the products, services or techniques advertised or discussed in this magazine may be illegal in some
areas of the United States or other countries. Therefore, you should check federal, state, and local laws prior to your purchase or use of these products, services or techniques. The publisher makes no representation or warranty concerning
the legality of the purchase or use of these products, services and techniques in the United States or elsewhere. Because of the nature of some of the products, services and techniques advertised or discussed in this magazine, you should
consult a physician before using these products or services or applying these techniques.
 DEPARTMENTS
18 26
KARATE WAY ACTIVE SHOOTER
In “Zen and the Art of Combat,” Dave Lowry ,W·VDVDGIDFWRIOLIHLQWKHst century that active-shooter
examines why Westerners are fascinated with this incidents are frequent stories on the nightly news. Many
form of Buddhism — which often boils down to an SHRSOHWKLQNWKHUH·VQRWKLQJWKH\FDQGRLQVXFKVLWXDWLRQV
assumed martial arts connection that may or may not EXWWKH\·UHZURQJ)LQGRXWWKHEHVWZD\VWRVXUYLYH
exist.
30
20 SCREEN SHOTS
FIGHTBOOK %ODFN%HOW·V resident movie critic gives you an in-depth look
%ODFN%HOW·V 2018 MMA Fighter of the Year award at high-tech going wrong in Upgrade, Ryan Reynolds going
goes to Justin Wren, a martial artist who not only has ballistic in Deadpool 2DQG6KHUPDQ$XJXVWXV·FKDUDFWHU
a promising career in Bellator but also is using his going bad in Into the Badlands.
fame to help the less fortunate in Africa.
74
22 BETTER BUSINESS
DESTINATIONS You probably think of the BOB in your dojo as a cool
From his base in India, our trusty columnist DQDWRPLFDOWDUJHWIRUNLFNVDQGSXQFKHVEXWWKHUH·VPXFK
concludes his investigation of kushti wrestling. He more you could be doing with it to engage your students.
RSHQVZLWKDVWUDQJHVWRU\RIWKHWLPHKHRIÀFLDOO\ Interestingly, many training methods involve keeping the
pinned himself in competition. base empty for maximum mobility.

24 76
FIT TO FIGHT COMPETITOR SPOTLIGHT
Is there a science to combat hair pulling? There is. Jackson Rudolph has won the title of world champion an
7KHUH·VDOVRDORQJKLVWRU\EHKLQGWKHSUDFWLFH:H·YH DVWRQLVKLQJWLPHVDQGKH·VRQO\,IWKDWGRHVQ·WPDNH
got both bases covered for you. him a shoo-in for %ODFN%HOW·V 2018 Competitor of the Year
DZDUGZHGRQ·WNQRZZKDWGRHV

Competitor Spotlight:
Jackson Rudolph

Photo Courtesy of Century Martial Arts

8 EDITOR’S NOTE
10 TIMES
16 COMMUNITY
72 ESSENTIAL GEAR
78 BLACK BELT PAGES
82 FROM THE ARCHIVES

92/1R,6618636LVSXEOLVKHGELPRQWKO\E\%ODFN%HOW0DJD]LQH//&$GYHUWLVLQJRIÀFHVDW1DWLRQDO%OYG0LGZHVW&LW\2NODKRPD(GLWRULDORIÀFHVDW32%R[&DQ\RQ

&RXQWU\&$7KHNQRZQRIÀFHRIWKHSXEOLFDWLRQLV1DWLRQDO%OYG0LGZHVW&LW\2NODKRPD3HULRGLFDOVSRVWDJHSDLGDW2NODKRPD&LW\2.DQGDWDGGLWLRQDOPDLOLQJRIÀFHV32670$67(56HQGDGGUHVV
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only). The publisher and editors will not be responsible for unsolicited material. Manuscripts and photographs must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed return envelope. Printed in the United States. Copyright 2018
by Black Belt Magazine 1000 LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited.
 92/80(122&72%(5129(0%(5

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Floyd Burk, Mark Cheng, Antonio
Graceffo, Mark Hatmaker, Mark

AND GARDENERS
Jacobs, Dave Lowry, Kelly McCann,
Dr. Craig D. Reid, Keith Vargo

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WKDQWKHVHZRUGVIURPD&KLQHVHJHQHUDOZKROLYHG\HDUVDJR 1705 National Blvd.
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ZKHUHWKH\DUH7KHLUVNLOOVDUHDOZD\VVKDUSQRSXQLQWHQGHG,IWKH\·UHLQDSODFH (866) 626-6226
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ZKHUHWKH\FDQEHSHUFHQWFHUWDLQWKHLUVNLOOVZRQ·WEHQHHGHGZKLFKLVZK\ Black Belt magazine, contact MagDogs
WKH\WUDLQ at (800) 365-5548. Back issues can be
purchased from Palm Coast Data,
1RZDJDUGHQHUPLJKWORRNDWDZDUULRUDQGWKLQNWhy does he spend so much
(800) 266-4066
time and effort on a pursuit that a) never ends and b) is unlikely to be used in real
life?7KHQWKHJDUGHQHUJRHVEDFNWRKLVEXVLQHVVSOXFNLQJZHHGVDQGSODQWLQJ
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How sad,WKHZDUULRUWKLQNVWKDWWKHJDUGHQHUGRHVQ·WHYHQNQRZKRZWRZLHOGKLV
tools as weapons to save his own life.
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WKHLUOLYHVWREHLQJSUHSDUHG3UHSDUHGWRXVHDQ\ZHDSRQ3UHSDUHGWRIDFHDQ\ Michael A. Dillard
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Robert W. Young
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— Robert W. Young, ',5(&7252)6$/(6 $'9(57,6,1*

Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Delgado

8 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018

 MARTIAL ARTS NEWS YOU CAN USE. READ IT - KNOW IT - LIVE IT

Jhoon Rhee passed

away on April 30, 2018,
at age 86.
Black Belt Photo

10 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018

 housands gathered at McLean
Bible Church in Vienna, Virginia,
to remember Jhoon Rhee,
the “father of taekwondo in
America.” Rhee died on April 30 at age 86.
Emceed by his oldest son Jimmy Rhee, the
service featured testimonials from many of
WKHPDVWHU·VQRWDEOHVWXGHQWVDQGIULHQGV
Among the speakers were Chuck Norris,
Allen Steen, Linda Lee Cadwell, Jeff Smith,
Michael Coles and Charlie Lee.
Other well-known people sent video
greetings, including prominent life coach
Tony Robbins (a Jhoon Rhee black belt),
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Gov.
Larry Hogan of Maryland.
5KHH·VFKLOGUHQIURPKLVROG´1RERG\
Bothers Me” TV commercial (available on
YouTube) added touching observations on
the grandmaster as a father. Cadwell spoke
about the hours that her husband Bruce
Lee would spend with Rhee, talking and
training together. She said Bruce respected
the taekwondo pioneer not only for his physical prowess but of Texas in 1959. Nobody had heard of taekwondo in those
also for his martial arts philosophy. days. When Rhee asked for volunteers from the audience,
6WHHQZKRZDV5KHH·VÀUVWEODFNEHOWLQ$PHULFDWROGRI Steen said, two giant football players (who would go on to
how he met his teacher at a demonstration at the University NFL careers) came forward to challenge him. After seeing
Rhee drop them with well-placed side kicks,
Steen, a boxing champion, decided he
QHHGHGWROHDUQKRZWRÀJKWZLWKKLVOHJVDV
well as his hands.
Charlie Lee, a former head instructor for
the Jhoon Rhee Institute, remarked that
Rhee was his “Mister Miyagi” who taught
him the most important lesson: “If you live a
life of integrity and honesty, people will love
you, and if you are loved, you are happy.
This is the purpose, the meaning in life.”
Performances were interspersed with the
speeches. Most memorable was a team of
Jhoon Rhee black belts that did a synchro-
nized form to God Bless America, a tribute
WR5KHH·VSDWULRWLVP
Perhaps senior student and former
kickboxing champ Jeff Smith said it best
when he recalled how Rhee used to say he
wanted to live to be 136. Smith said that the
grandmaster in reality will live a lot longer
than that in the hearts and minds of the mil-
OLRQVRIPDUWLDODUWLVWVKH·VWRXFKHG
In a way, Jhoon Rhee was martial arts
royalty. He was the man who introduced
the Korean arts to the United States in
the 1950s. That alone would be enough to
enshrine him in a hall of taekwondo leg-
Photos Courtesy of Stephan Lewis

ends. But he went on to do so much more.

The grandmaster taught not only numerous
international champions but also celebri-
WLHVJRYHUQPHQWRIÀFLDOVDQGSROLWLFLDQVRI
all stripes.
Taekwondo — no, the entire martial arts
ZRUOG³ZRXOGQ·WEHZKDWLWLVWRGD\ZLWKRXW
WKHG\QDPLFLQÁXHQFHRI-KRRQ5KHH
— Keith D. Yates

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 11

 JUSTIN WREN FIGHTS FOR THE FORGOTTEN
entury Martial Arts has teamed up with Justin Wren to
C recruit martial arts schools to raise funds to provide
FOHDQGULQNLQJZDWHULQDUHDVRI$IULFDZKHUHLW·VODFNLQJ
while promoting an anti-bullying program aimed at Ameri-
can martial artists.
“The ultimate goal is 100 martial arts academies,
100 water wells and 100 anti-bullying campaigns,” said
Wren, who is %ODFN%HOW·V 2018 MMA Fighter of the Year.
(See Page 20.) “The Fight for the Forgotten campaign
will provide water wells in the Congo, as well as Rwanda
and Uganda where our support teams are based. We
want to bring access to clean, clear, safe and much
healthier water resources to the gracious people in need
of those services.”
The effort could serve 30,000 to 100,000 people,
Wren said. “We will lead with, and will focus strategically
around, the Mbuti Pygmy people, the most bullied people
on earth. We will also drill wells in neighboring communi-
ties and even with neighboring country teams.”
:UHQ·VDQWLEXOO\LQJFDPSDLJQDLPVWRDGGUHVVWKH
cause of recent increases in school-age addiction,
depression, suicides and shootings, he said. “We
believe bullying, or some form of bullying, has been a
major contributor to the rise in these catastrophes. We
also believe the martial arts community can be the ones
12 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018
to step up, have a major voice and help lead the way in anti-
bullying.”
Bullying, he explained, can take many forms such as extreme
teasing, degrading communication or actions, and physical
abuse. It can affect victims for their entire lives, he added.
“Wrestling was my outlet when I was going through bullying,”
Wren said. “The sport, the discipline, the focus, my coaches,
instructors, teammates and the surrounding support team helped
me believe in myself, get through and eventually out of depres-
VLRQEHPRUHFRQÀGHQWDQGÀQGDJRRGDQGSRVLWLYHFRPPXQLW\
to belong to.”
Consequently, Wren and executives at Century decided to
DSSHDOWRPDUWLDODUWVVFKRROVWRVSUHDGWKHEHQHÀWVRIWKHWZR
part program. Participant schools will receive a video of Wren
delivering an anti-bullying talk, as well as Fight for the Forgotten
ZULVWEDQGVDQGD)LJKWIRUWKH)RUJRWWHQÁDJ$ZDUGVZLOOEH
given to the top 10 schools that raise funds.
´(DFK00$J\PÀJKWWHDPPDUWLDODUWVDFDGHP\FDUGLR
Photo Courtesy of Water4
kickboxing gym, CrossFit gym or individual that sets a goal
WRKHOS&HQWXU\·V)LJKWIRUWKH)RUJRWWHQFDPSDLJQZLOOEH
equipped with an online fundraising toolkit,” Wren said. “It will
include tips for fundraising, ideas for events to host, invitations
WKH\FDQSULQWRXWDQGPDUNHWLQJPDWHULDOV,W·VRXUPLVVLRQWR
set these academies and people up for success.” For more
LQIRUPDWLRQYLVLWÀJKWIRUWKHIRUJRWWHQRUJ
 th
Oklahoma Loses a 10 -Degree Grandmaster
O nGreene
July 27, 2018, respected grandmaster Roger
passed away. He battled several health
LVVXHVLQKLVÀQDO\HDUV
Greene began training in 1964 in a school in the Kang
'XN:RQRUJDQL]DWLRQ´0\ÀUVWFODVVWKH\KDGPHVLWLQ
a low horse stance for an hour,” he said in a 2017 inter-
view. “In those days, the hardcore schools would give you
VRPHWKLQJGLIÀFXOWWRGRWKHÀUVWWLPHWRVHHLI\RXFRXOG
WDNHLW$QGLI\RXFRXOGWKHQWKH\·GOHW\RXWUDLQWKHUHµ
Greene received his black belt from Bob Babich,
then switched to kenpo under Al Tracy. Greene earned
a black belt from Tracy, as well, and went on to open
a Tracy-kenpo school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 2000 he
left his commercial school and started teaching out of
his ranch in Claremore, Oklahoma, which he continued
doing until his death.
´*UDQGPDVWHU5RJHU*UHHQHZDVWKHÀUVWSHUVRQ-RH
Lewis promoted to black-belt level,” said Mike Dillard,
founder of Century Martial Arts. “He, along with Chuck
Norris, was one of my instructors during my years as a
national competitor. Grandmaster Greene was an out-
standing martial artist and a brilliant instructor.”
*UHHQHZDVRQHRI/HZLV·PRVWVXFFHVVIXOVWXGHQWV
8QGHUWKHFKDPS·VJXLGDQFH*UHHQHDFFXPXODWHGD
string of tournament victories and was ranked No. 1 in
ÀJKWLQJDQGIRUPVLQWKH0LGZHVWDWYDULRXVWLPHVLQWKH
1970s. Lewis promoted Greene to ninth degree in 2010,
and the board of Joe Lewis Fighting Systems made him
a 10th degree in 2015. Tracy also promoted Greene to
10th degree in kenpo, and Chul Hee Park awarded him a
ninth degree in taekwondo.
A memorial service is planned for September 29 at
the Cox Business Center in Tulsa. More information
DERXW5RJHU*UHHQH·VOLIHDQGZRUNFDQEHIRXQGDW
rogergreene.com.

World Bare Knuckle Fighting Federation Formed

he combat-sports world has a new organization
T WKDWZLOOEHY\LQJIRUWKHDWWHQWLRQRIÀJKWIDQVEXW
WKLVRQHKDVDQDQJOH,W·VFDOOHG
the World Bare Knuckle Fighting
Federation, and just like the name
says, its bouts will involve glove-
less combatants. The inaugural
event is planned for October and
will be available on pay-per-view.
“This all started from our passion
Photos Courtesy of Roger Greene
LQJVSLQQLQJEDFNÀVWVDQGKDPPHUÀVWVLQDOOÀJKWVZKLFKZLOO
take place in a traditional boxing ring for optimal viewing and
VDIHW\0HQ·VDQGZRPHQ·VPDWFKHVZLOO
VSDQÀYHWZRPLQXWHURXQGV
To populate those matches, the
WBKFF scouted and recruited battle-
WHVWHGÀJKWHUVDQGSURPLVLQJSURVSHFWV
from boxing, MMA, kickboxing, muay
Thai, wrestling and other combat sports.
The stable currently includes MMA
ÀJKWHUV3KLO%DURQLDQG&KULV<DUERURXJK

for hand-to-hand combat and to

give fans what they deserve,” said
John Carbonaro, COO and director
RIRSHUDWLRQV´:H·UHJRLQJWRJLYH
combat sports fans what they want
and deserve: integrity, passion and
fairness. WBKFF will soon become the biggest, most
popular [event] in combat sports.”
The WBKFF rule structure will allow holding and strik-
ER[HU7LND+HPLQJZD\IRUPHU8QLYHUVLW\
of South Alabama football star Desmond
/D9HOOHIRUPHU1)/SOD\HU6KDZQH0HU-
ULPDQIRUPHU8)&ÀJKWHUV6HWK%DF]\Q-
VNL7RP*DOOLFFKLRDQG&KULVWLQD0DUNV
IRUPHU%HOODWRUÀJKWHUV9LUJLO=ZLFNHUDQG'DNRWD&RFKUDQH
and former boxing title-challenger Jasmine Clarkson.
For more information, visit wbkff.com.

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 13

 he Professional Fighters League announced that it
has received a $28 million equity investment from a
group of sports, entertainment and business titans that
LQFOXGH.HYLQ+DUWDFWRUDQGFRPHGLDQ0DUN%XUQHWW
producer of the TV series Survivor and The Voice; Tony
5REELQVVSHDNHUDQGDXWKRUDQG7HG/HRQVLVPDMRULW\
owner of the NHL 2018 Stanley Cup champion Washing-
ton Capitals and the NBA Washington Wizards.
7KH3URIHVVLRQDO)LJKWHUV/HDJXHLVWKHÀUVWWREULQJ
a fan-friendly sports-calendar format to MMA, in which
LQGLYLGXDOÀJKWHUVFRPSHWHLQUHJXODUVHDVRQVLQJOHHOLP-
ination playoffs and then a season-ending championship.
,W·VWKHVDPHIRUPDWXVHGE\PDMRUOHDJXHVSRUWV
´,RQFHVDLG¶,I\RXJHWNLFNHGLQWKHIDFH\RXGHVHUYH
LWVLQFH\RXVDZWKHIRRWFRPLQJ·µ+DUWVDLG´7KDWZDV
before I became an investor in the Professional Fight-
ers League. I love sports, and the PFL is my favorite
QHZVSRUWWRZDWFK7KH3)/ÀJKWVDUHWKHPRVWH[FLWLQJ
LQ00$DVHYHU\ÀJKWPHDQVVRPHWKLQJZLWKÀJKWHUV
working to win a spot in the playoffs and the opportunity
at their share of the $10 million. I became an investor as
I believe the PFL is the future of MMA.”
)RUPRUHLQIRUPDWLRQYLVLWSÁPPDFRP

NEWS BITES
• Donnie Yen posted on his Instagram feed
WKDWKHKDVÀQLVKHGÀOPLQJIp Man 4.
• %ODFN%HOW·V Japanese-swordsmanship
group on Facebook now has more than 1,000
members.-RLQXVLI\RXKDYHQ·WDOUHDG\
• ,NR8ZDLVZLOOVWDULQD1HWÁL[PDUWLDOVDUWV
series called Wu Assassins, and he's currently
FRVWDUULQJLQDQDFWLRQÁLFNWLWOHGMile 22.
• The new Black Belt website has soft-
ODXQFKHG2QLW\RXZLOOÀQGWKHBlack Belt
Store, your No. 1 source for martial arts
books and DVDs, as well as all things Bruce
Lee and %ODFN%HOW·V stylish T-shirt line.
• 2IÀFLDOV in the Japanese city of Iga are
ZRUULHGWKDWWKH\·UHrunning out of ninja,
which is the reason most tourists visit.
• At the 2018 Martial Arts SuperShow,
Black Belt reconnected with a number of big
names in the martial arts, including Graciela
Casillas, Billy Blanks and Herb Perez.
Expect to see them in future issues of the
magazine.
• At the same event, Fumio Demura was pre-
sented with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Photo Courtesy of Well Go USA

• The Black Belt staff completed a photo

shoot with jujitsu icon George Kirby. The
images will be used to illustrate his new
book, which is in production now.
• Hollywood execs have announced that the
Ninja Turtles will be featured in another
UHERRWHGÀOP

14 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018

 DOJO LISTINGS
Alaska Illinois

BECOME A
BL ACK BELT
Juneau Karate Academy Yi's Mixed Martial Arts Fitness Academy

I B U T O R !
DIS T R
8800 Glacier Hwy. #106 18 East Ferguson Ave.
Juneau, AK 99801 Wood River, IL 62095
(907) 723-7314 (618) 251-5425
sensei@juneaukarate.com usakick1@gmail.com

California
American Martial Arts Academy
3DFLÀF$YH6XLWH
Stockton, CA 95207
(209) 952-4000
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 M U N IT Y
COM
On Our Last Cover
Novell A Williams Jr: WMAC Masters!
Tomoi The One: That’s Willie “The
Bam” Johnson! I’ve been a fan of his
since WMAC Masters! One question.
Where’s the ponytail?
On Ron Van Clief Winning
His Latest BJJ Medal
BLACK BELT: Inspirational!
Ron Van Clief: Within the next five
years, I will compete four times per
year until I am 80 yrs. old. At 80,
I will retire from BJJ competition
but will continue to study Relson
Gracie jiu-jitsu until my demise.
RJ: Much respect, sir. It was you
and RIP Grandmaster Moses “Doc”
Powell that inspired me to be the
best that I could be. Thank you.
On a Mention of William Shatner’s Martial Arts Connection
BLACK BELT: Did you know Star Trek’s Capt. Kirk used to do karate? It’s true! Read more in the Aug/Sep issue of Black Belt mag.
Kevin Mace: Used to do? That’s never good to hear.
16 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018
On a Plan to Remake Enter the Dragon
BLACK BELT: Been thinking about the remake. … I’d skip it if the star was a
Bruce Lee look-alike — because you know he’d fall short. But I’d watch if
it was a TOTAL reboot with Tony Jaa. Or Michael Jai White. Or JeeJa Yanin.
Who’s your pick for the star?
Chris Wisniewski: Enter the Dragon is a martial arts classic, featuring a
one-of-a-kind superstar … Bruce Lee. No remake necessary. The original
is still a cult classic.
Maurice L. Zackery: Why a remake? They can make a new movie
based on the original characters.
John Mills: Mark Dacascos
Paul Clark: Donnie Yen for me, great screen fighter and has
already done the Bruce Lee tribute thing to death with his Fist of
Fury remakes. So he could rein it in a bit and be an older, wiser but
equally lethal Lee. Has to be an Asian actor … what about the guy
from the Raid 1 & 2 — Iko Uwais?
RJ: I’d go [with] Michael Jai White or Scott Adkins or even Marrese
Crump. Donnie Yen probably gets strong consideration too.
North TX Kenbudokan: I don’t think it needs to be remade [but] if
Michael Jai White was behind it and in it, I would be onboard.
On a Post in
Which
Hee Il Cho
Recalled His
Early Days
Ron Van Clief Photo Courtesy of Ron Van Clief • Hee Il Cho Photo by Robert Reiff
BLACK BELT: When
taekwondo was young …
Noble Vibes:
He was and
is awesome.
Incredibly tough.
 On a Question of the Day
BLACK BELT: How has your view of the martial arts evolved over the years?
Lisa Strykowski Belfiore: My view hasn’t really changed, but my focus has. I’m much more interested in the art and
discipline part of it now, and prefer learning the bunkai of kata more than sparring.

Gene H. Gause: Kick, punch, throw, spar is NOT martial arts, merely tools. Real martial arts is about empowerment
and development of human potential.

Randy Hernandez: I learned fighting multiple attackers is a more tactical approach than the flashy Bruce Lee movies
and more like Chuck Norris. Respect other styles and learn from them — that works for me. Self-control is more impor-
tant with the wannabes out there.

Seth Micheal Osmera: It’s changed in the sense that it’s not just about fighting or self-defense, it truly is meant to
make you a better version of yourself.

John Guidera: Don’t know if I’m humbled by age, but I don’t feel I have to prove anything to anyone anymore. I’m
enjoying getting everything I missed as a kid. I have found harmony within mind, body and spirit. I don’t love fighting
as much as I have learned to love karate in its entirety.

Tony King: That the only way to truly know if an art works is to test it yourself. A technique that can work for someone
else may not work for you. The true art is in the practitioner, not the other way around.

James Wolf Arseno: For most of my life, I’ve looked for pure efficiency and what
really works in a real fight. Right now, I’m looking for what works to soothe my soul
and make me grow as a person.

Robert Kerr: As I get older, it’s less about the martial and more about the art.

Dave Giddings: I now realise that, well, everyone wants to be a ninja.

On a Preview for This Issue On a Link to a News Story

BLACK BELT: We’re working on stories with these fine BLACK BELT: A 27-year-old man is accused of attacking his 60-year-
gentlemen for the next Black Belt: Apolo Ladra and old roommate with a hatchet. To everyone who dismisses the
Leo T. Gaje Jr. traditional weapon defenses taught in the martial arts because
“Nobody uses one of THOSE on the street anymore,” I say ...
Joseph remember what a little alcohol can do.
Anadenb:
My extreme
respect to Gene H. Gause: An overlooked point is that traditional weap-
Apolo Ladra and Leo T. Gaje Jr. Photo by Brandon Snider

those people ons train muscles, joints and ligaments in ways that are then
w/expertise translated into open-hand strength. It’s kind of like martial
in martial arts arts gym equipment. Without the weapons, these body parts
especially in wouldn’t be developed in the same way. Also, we may not
kali, arnis or carry swords, but sticks are readily available, so the techniques
baston [and] may be used to break bones or disable body parts. It’s impor-
still keep their tant in our pursuit of knowledge to LOOK PAST simple defini-
humility, like tions and realize the deep and often disguised meanings.
you, Sir Apolo
Ladra & Sir Tony King: This post got me going to YouTube looking up
Leo T. Gaje. “defense against a hatchet” …
I’m gonna wait
for this issue. Sean Quinones: I guess he couldn’t bury it.

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 17

 ATE WAY
K AR
Zen and the Art of Combat
Westerners seem fascinated with Zen — or, at least, with what they think Zen is.
BY DAVE LOWRY
Z
en seems to describe a state
of mind, for many Western-
ers, of perfect calm, deep
insight, and mysterious and
exotic power. When linked to Japa-
nese budo, as it very often is in the
West, Zen appears to connote some
spiritual element that elevates the art
into the realm of the metaphysical.
ZEN BUDDHISM is one form of that
religion. In brief: Buddhism teaches
that much of life’s suffering comes
from illusion. We suffer because
18 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018
we don’t think we are successful or
handsome or rich enough, because of
this or that external circumstance. In
reality, Buddhism teaches, these are
illusionary distractions. The primary
concern of that religion, then, is to
find a way to cut through these illu-
sions and see reality as it is.
There are many approaches in
Buddhist thought that can lead to
a clear perception of reality. Zen is
a Japanese interpretation of Chan
Buddhism, which evolved in the
sixth century. The approach taught
by Zen practice is one of contempla-
tion, of entering into a meditative
state in which outside thoughts
are calmed, then grasped for what
they truly are. The goal is to attain
enlightenment, which entails seeing
life as it truly is.
(What about the “sound of one
hand clapping”? This is an example
of a koan, used by some schools of
Zen to encourage practitioners to go
beyond the limits of rational thought.
A way of jump-starting the con-
sciousness, it is a question that has

no logical answer. It’s presented to
the student to encourage a different
way of looking at reality.)
This is, of course, a very broad sim-
plification, but it puts Zen in at least
some context useful to us.
ZEN BECAME connected to Japanese
budo primarily from two different
sources. The Zen priest Takuan Soho
(1573-1646) was among the most fas-
cinating characters in feudal Japan.
His teachings and travels brought
him into contact with many of the
to some extent,
A few kyudo (archery) enthusiasts attached itself to
Zen philosophy.
were Zen practitioners, including some In part, karate
who taught Westerners living in Japan leaders knew that
linking their art to
in the first half of the 20th century. Zen would make it
attractive to those
who associated it
with the legend-
most famous figures of his day, ary Shinkage ryu — not understand-
including renowned martial artists. ing that the connection was only
Among those was Yagyu Munenori through one of its masters and not
(1571-1645), the martial arts teacher to the ryu itself. (Think of it this way:
of the Tokugawa shogun. Munenori A Japanese person comes to the
took an interest in Zen, and Takuan United States and learns lacrosse
served as his teacher. The names from a coach who happens to be a
of some of the kata and some of Baptist, then goes home, assuming
the strategies of Munenori’s Yagyu lacrosse has deep roots in the Bap-
Shinkage ryu came nominally from tist faith.)
Zen literature.
However — and this is critical — ADDITIONALLY, a few kyudo (archery)
Munenori’s particular interest in Zen enthusiasts were Zen practitioners,
did not mean he incorporated Zen including some who taught Western-
philosophy into his ryu. The Shink- ers living in Japan in the first half
age ryu, like most classical martial of the 20th century. One of those
ryu, was deeply connected to other Westerners, a German author named
sects of Buddhism, notably Shingon, Eugen Herrigel, wrote an enormously
the only esoteric form of that reli- popular book linking Zen to kyudo.
gion. Rituals and incantations create Another one, D. Suzuki, wrote a book
the structure of Shingon; they were that introduced Zen to many West-
employed by the samurai for protec- erners. Suzuki was a Buddhist scholar
tion and success in battle. but knew almost nothing of Japan’s
It is true that some samurai, martial culture. He made a number
upon retirement, entered Buddhist of connections and assumptions that
temples. Zen, however, did not play were accepted uncritically by West-
much of a role in the everyday world ern readers and that have contributed
of the samurai. Zen meditation and significantly to misunderstandings
training are long and time-con- and inaccurate interpretations.
suming. The samurai did not have The main thing to remember is
the luxury of devoting themselves that Zen is a specific approach to
to such extended practice. They Buddhism. Those who use the term
needed spiritual help quickly, and to describe a vague “spirituality”
the teachings of Shingon, with its or mystical awareness or monkish
reliance on the protective powers of wisdom are misusing it. Those who
Buddhist deities, were much more choose to adopt Zen Buddhism as
suited to their lifestyle. their belief system are free to do so,
of course. And if they wish to try to
IN THE MODERN ERA, particularly in integrate it into the budo, that is their
the early 20th century, “new” arts like right, as well.
karate, judo and kendo became pop- They should understand, however,
ular in Japan. Their leaders looked that the word does mean something,
for ways in which these arts could be and it is not just a convenient catch-
distinguished. Jigoro Kano chose to all for attitudes or feelings.
emphasize judo’s teaching method-
ology, one based on Western meth- Dave Lowry has written Karate Way
ods of education that were much since 1986. For more information
admired in Japan then. Kendo was about his articles and books, visit
presented as a means of developing blackbeltmag.com and type his name
character and a strong spirit. Karate, in the search box.
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 19
 HTB OO K
FIG
2018 MMA
Fighter of the
Year: Justin Wren
At first glance, it might seem odd for Black Belt to give
its MMA Fighter of the Year award to someone who hasn’t
fought in a cage all year. But in a bigger fight —
outside the cage — Justin Wren has proved
himself a consistent winner.
BY MARK JACOBS

Photo by Brandon Snider

20 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018

W
ren hasn’t competed
in MMA since a spec-
tacular victory over
Roman Pizzolato in
2017 because of a tear in his shoul-
der that required surgery. But that
hasn’t stopped him from continu-
ing to fight to save the lives of
thousands of Mbuti Pygmies in the
Congo and to bring clean drink-
ing water to impoverished people
around the world.
THAT’S NOT TO SAY Wren can’t get
it on in the cage, as well. Just ask
some of the opponents he’s punched,
choked and slammed into oblivion.
The heavyweight got started in
wrestling as a youngster after seeing
videos of the first UFC events. Hav-
ing been pushed around and picked
on relentlessly as a child, he says
his initial thought on seeing those
early MMA stars was, I bet those guys
don’t get bullied. That motivated
him to turn his childhood torment
into a drive to excel on the wrestling
mats, where he ended up earning a
national high-school championship
and a national junior Greco-Roman
wrestling title.
However, a severe arm injury sus-
tained after high school curtailed his
wrestling career and led to a growing
dependence on painkillers.
BEFORE HE COULD return to wres-
tling in college, Wren was side-
tracked by the opportunity to
compete in a local MMA show. He
won and kept on winning. He forgot
about college when he was chosen
to participate in Season 10 of The
Ultimate Fighter. It was the series’
highest-rated season at that time.
Audiences got to watch the 22-year-
old Wren get thrown in with a group
of veteran heavyweights, all older
and more experienced than he was.
Nevertheless, he stood out not just
for his fighting but also for his pleas-
ant, nice-guy demeanor.
After Wren lost a close decision
to the show’s eventual winner Roy
Nelson, big things were predicted for
him by many pundits, including UFC
head Dana White.
But Wren’s reliance on painkillers,
along with a growing dependency on
alcohol and other drugs he took to
stave off lingering feelings of insecu-
rity, soon spiraled out of control, and
he was forced to quit the sport. “My
childhood dream had turned into a
nightmare,” he recalls.
Fortunately, acquaintances
involved in a Christian outreach
group convinced Wren to enter a
rehab program. After finally get-
ting clean, he had an episode that
he describes as “experiencing God’s
love.” Feeling it was his purpose in
life to help others, he joined a mis-
sionary group and ended up in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
one of the poorest, most-dangerous
countries on earth.
IN THE CONGO, Wren befriended the
Mbuti Pygmies, a diminutive race
of people who have been murdered
and enslaved by neighboring tribes.
Wren decided to move to the Congo
and live for a year in the rainforest
with the Mbuti to better understand
them and figure out how he could
aid them.
Once there, the American con-
tracted malaria and nearly died, but
he never let that discourage him
from continuing his fight to save the
Mbuti. Wanting to bring them clean
drinking water, he eventually con-
nected with an organization called
Water4, which helps drill wells and
trains others to do the same around
the globe in the battle to bring every-
one clean water.
When he returned to the United
States after his year in the Congo,
Wren was wracked by a desire to
do more for the Pygmies, who had
essentially adopted him as one of
their own. The man who would come
to be known as “The Big Pygmy”
decided to use the ready-made plat-
Once he got to the top of Kilimanjaro,
he pulled out a new Bellator
contract and signed it there on
the highest peak in Africa.
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 21
form he had in the MMA world to
bring attention to the plight of the
Mbuti and raise money to aid them.
Signing with the Bellator promotion,
he went 3-0, working the rust off with
each match.
SHOULDER SURGERY temporarily
put his comeback on hold, but Wren
managed to keep himself busy by
continuing his work abroad while
propagating his anti-bullying mes-
sage at home. He recently partnered
with Century Martial Arts to attain
the joint goal of drilling 100 water
wells in Africa and empowering 100
martial arts schools with anti-bully-
ing programs.
He also kept busy journeying to
Africa with a group of players from
the National Football League to climb
Mount Kilimanjaro for the purpose of
bringing additional attention to the
world water crisis. Although Wren
said hiking for 20 straight hours on
the last day of the climb was more
punishing than any MMA fight he’s
ever done, he nonetheless reached
the summit, and the group achieved
its monetary goals, raising enough
money to drill wells in several Afri-
can villages.
But don’t think Wren is done with
MMA fighting just yet. Once he
got to the top of Kilimanjaro, he
pulled out a new Bellator contract
and signed it there on the highest
peak in Africa. Regardless of how
his upcoming fights go, after every-
thing he’s already done in life, he’s
definitely the biggest success story
in MMA and a worthy recipient of
Black Belt’s MMA Fighter of the
Year award.
Justin Wren’s website is justinwren.org.
 N ATI O N S
DESTI
Kushti
Wrestling
in India,
Part 3
After I faced the mighty Jeetu in the
kushti tournament in India, I was
matched with some wrestlers whose
strength and skill were of more
human proportions. That allowed me
to actually apply the techniques I’d
learned and have a chance of winning.
BY ANTONIO GRACEFFO, PH.D.
22 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018
A
t one point, a wrestler
charged me and shot a dou-
ble-leg takedown. I caught
his head and rolled back-
ward, landing on top. Unfortunately,
under kushti rules, when I rolled on
my back, I oicially pinned myself.
Therefore, I lost.
The same thing happened when a
wrestler attacked me with a bear hug.
I trapped his hands against my body,
threw myself backward and rolled
on top of him — which once again
counted as a pin.
After I had pinned myself five more
times, I told Deepak I should be con-
sidered the most successful wrestler
of the day because I had seven pins
on my record. He didn’t buy it.
FINALLY, I was pitted against a wres-
tler who, despite being built like a
piece of stone, allowed his guard to
drop for a split second. Using an arm
drag, I was able to get behind him
and take him to the ground. Kushti
wrestlers often drop to their knees
rather than get thrown from behind
with a suplex. Luckily, this guy didn’t
realize I was incapable of suplexing
him. Once on his knees, I went to his
back and began the arduous process
of trying to roll him over. Unfortu-
nately for me, kushti wrestlers are
good at turtling up, as well as lying
on their side to prevent a pin.
I laced one of my legs under his and
began working on the opposite arm,
forcing it to the ground. Eventually,
I had no more leverage and no more
strength, but his shoulders were still
centimeters of the ground. Out of
desperation, I slapped a submission
hold on his arm, and he had no choice
but to roll to relieve the pressure.
I was proud of my success — for
about a second. Then he began
shouting in Hindi. Although I don’t
speak the language, it sounded like
he was saying, “That’s an illegal arm
lock.” Then Deepak cut in: “That’s an
illegal arm lock.”
So I couldn’t count the pin. The
good news, however, was that I sud-
denly thought I could speak Hindi.
APPARENTLY, if you cheat like that in
a real match, the crowd might beat
you up or destroy your car. Luckily, I
had neither a car nor a crowd, and the
wrestlers remained incredibly nice to
me. They even laughed when, out of
desperation, I threw a triangle choke
on someone who’d just pinned me.
My experience in Asia has been
that fighters tend to be nice. When
you already have 25, 50 or 200 fights
behind you, you have nothing to
prove by beating up the new guy.
And no matter how good you are,
you’ve been beaten enough times to
know that, as the Chinese say, there’s
always a taller mountain somewhere.
Western wrestlers have an expres-
sion: “Embrace the grind.” They say
that because they recognize that wres-
tling is the most painful and diicult
sport, combining all the cardio and
strength components of other sports
Photo Courtesy of Antonio Graceffo
but then adding the fact that you get
beaten up and thrown to the ground
every day for your whole career.
Asian wrestlers feel similarly. In
Cambodia, my coach was shocked
when I wanted to pay him for sub-
jecting me to such hardship. Here in
India, I experienced the same kind
of fraternal bond, where even though
they knew I came from a diferent
background — primarily MMA and
grappling — the wrestlers felt that
we shared a common experience. In
my particular case, I think there’s the
added respect that comes whenever
a 50-year-old university professor
spends his own money to get beat up.
Later, Deepak said he believed I was
the oldest person in India still training
in wrestling. I certainly felt like it.
IN THE EVENING, Deepak and his son
Anuj showed me kushti videos. In
return, I decided to show them one
of my MMA fights. In one bout, I
had my opponent pinned against the
cage and was punching him in the
face. My hosts looked sick to their
stomachs. They said it was horribly
violent, and I think it made them
question their decision to take me
into their house.
This reminded me of another obser-
vation I’d made: Wrestlers in Asia
don’t consider themselves fighters.
Whereas American wrestlers know
they can transition to MMA, Asian
wrestlers — including kushti practitio-
ners — regard themselves as athletes.
When I asked Anuj if he knew he was
a fighter, he just looked confused and
said, “Wrestler, not fighter.”
The next morning while we were
training in the park, my theory was
confirmed. Anuj experienced what
was likely his first invitation to fight.
Here’s how it happened.
Every morning, people would
gather to watch us train. Occasion-
ally, young boys would try to copy
our movements. This morning, how-
ever, it wasn’t little boys who were
watching; it was four grown men.
Although I couldn’t understand what
they were saying, I knew they were up
to no good.
One of the men said he wanted to
test his strength by wrestling Anuj.
This seemed preposterous because
Anuj is a 14-year-old boy who weighs
112 pounds. Anyway, Anuj locked up
with the guy, and Deepak told him
to take his opponent down. For some
reason, Anuj did nothing. He just
stood there, head to head with the
man, unmoving.
Afterward, he said he didn’t take
the man down because there were
small stones on the ground and
he didn’t want to injure his knees.
We’d already wrestled on that same
ground, so the excuse seemed
unlikely. My assumption was that
Anuj really had no concept of fight-
ing outside the ring.
The challenge resolved after a few
minutes. The man broke his lock and
started walking back to his friends,
mumbling something. Always will-
ing to lend a hand, I ofered the man
a chance to wrestle. Suddenly, he
seemed less enthusiastic. His friends
pushed him back to the center of the
ring, laughing. With no other option,
he locked up with me. As soon as we
started, I pulled him in close, secured
his head, threw him to the ground
and pinned him.
As this was my only legitimate
pin of the week, I decided to count
it. More important, it wound up
being a good learning experience
for everyone.
THAT AFTERNOON, Deepak and I
trained at an akhara that had a mud
pit and a mat. He explained that
mud wrestling is a traditional sport
that practitioners use to earn a liv-
ing. If they want to participate in
international competitions or try to
win a medal for their
country, they have to
compete in mat wres-
tling, which is part of As soon as
the Olympics, Asia
Games and Common- we started,
wealth Games.
As good as the mud I pulled him
wrestlers are, because
of the rule diferences,
in close,
some of the most excep-
tional ones are only
secured
mediocre on the mat. In
fact, Deepak told of a
his head,
champion mud wrestler threw him
who was defeated by a
novice on the mat. to the
I got my own taste
of it when I wrestled ground and
an athlete in the mud
and on the mat. While pinned him.
he was better than me
on both, we were fairly
competitive on the mat, and I was
able to hold my own. In the mud, he
dominated me, winning in seconds.
This illustrated one of the reasons
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 23
India has fared poorly in Olympic
wrestling, where the nation has won
only five medals. To do better, kushti
wrestlers would have to dispense
with the mud and dedicate all their
training time to the mat. And if they
did that, they’d have no way to earn
a living.
ON MY PENULTIMATE day in kushti,
an opponent took me down, and I
heard my shoulder pop. The next
morning, Deepak said he’d take
me to a place where I could get the
“best” medical care. Unfortunately,
the veterinarian’s oice was closed.
Instead, we went to see the unli-
censed bonesetter, the same one
who repairs all the wrestlers when
they’re broken.
According to the vintage drawings
of musclemen he had on display, the
bonesetter was also a seller of ton-
ics and potions for bodybuilding.
These “magical” liquids filled tinted
bottles that were set in an old-timey
wooden rack just like in a 19th-century
drugstore. The examination table
was outside, on the street next to a
stall where tires were repaired. When
we arrived, he was using a pair of
giant scissors to cut bandages, which
appeared to be picking up all kinds
of grime from the street.
He told me to sit on
the table and remove
my shirt. After feeling
my shoulder, he said
it was only partially
out of the socket, so he
brushed it with smelly
salve from a silver
paint can, wrapped me
in the dusty bandages
and told me to rest for a
few days.
Deepak asked him
when I could wrestle
again, and he said,
“Eight days.” I asked
when he thought I
would wrestle well, but
he didn’t answer. Tell-
ing the future appar-
ently entailed a sepa-
rate charge.
Antonio Gracefo’s book Warrior
Odyssey is available at blackbelt
mag.com/store.
 O FI G H T
FIT T

24 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018

Hand Scalping: A Digression on
Combat Hair Pulling
There’s a surprisingly long history of hair pulling in the annals of combat, both sportive and on the battlefield. In this
column, we’ll confine ourselves to sportive instances of what we now perceive to be unsportsmanlike behavior.
BY MARK HATMAKER

C
ombat hair pulling — or whether this is because the practice
pugna capillos trahens, if increased or simply because inex-
you’d like to gussy it up a bit pensive printing and rising literacy
with Latin — was permitted rates made available more accounts of
in more than a few organized endeav- combat clashes, we cannot say for sure.
ors through the years. My guess is that it’s the
And in some cases, it latter: more scribblers
was out and out encour- The early to document a practice
aged. Greeks that was already in full
Before we continue, if prohibited bloom.
anyone doubts the effi- Many English boxers
cacy of hair pulling in hair pulling in in the 1700s sported
sportive combat, please pankration — shaved heads not for
stretch your memory except when it fashion’s sake but to
back to UFC 3, specifi- remove the follicle
cally to the iconic match
was permitted. handle. Jack Broughton,
between the up-to-that- the father of the English
point mighty dominant Royce Gracie school of boxing, drew up a set of
and the ponytailed behemoth that rules in 1743 that noted no handles
was Kimo Leopoldo. Gracie gamely below the waist were permitted.
took the win in that bout, but if any- However, no specific mention was
one thinks that would have been the made of hair pulling, and because
outcome had not that handy ponytail we continued to see shaved pates in
been available, I suggest a second matches, we can surmise that it was
look and a re-evaluation of opportu- still a tactic in play.
nistic handles. We know for a fact that it continued
as a gambit, for as late as 1795, Gentle-
THE EARLY GREEKS prohibited hair man Jackson used a bit of hair control
pulling in pankration — except when to gain the English championship
it was permitted. That is, just as early from the formidable Daniel Mendoza.
boxing and wrestling went through
negotiations for ad hoc rules — “This ACROSS THE POND in the young
is in, but that ain’t!” — pankration United States, fighting — both sport-
seemed subject to rule bending ive and unsportive — was coin of the
and compromising. We’re told by realm. What’s astonishing is just how
Pausanias that the rules drifted a bit vicious even the sportive aspects were.
between regions, and Lucian refers Organized matches of Frontier
to pankrationists being called “lions” Rough and Tumble play, a form of
by the fans not because of their leo- all-in fighting, held few rules — hence,
nine fighting nature but because of the descriptor “all in.” It meant any-
their propensity to bite, which was thing goes, in all respects. We’re
also prohibited. talking about an era when sporting
There are various mentions of a single eye because you lost the
hair pulling in combative accounts other to an eye scoop was regarded
throughout history, but it’s not until as a badge of honor, a time when suf-
the 16th and 17th centuries that we begin fering from “lumberjack’s smallpox”
to see more and more citations. Now, — bearing facial scars from being
stomped by caulked boots — marked
you as a man.
References to hair pulling are fre-
quent, and they indicate how vicious
it could be. Never was an eye batted,
which tells us that the tactic was not
considered unsportsmanlike. Perhaps
in an era when scalp taking was prac-
ticed by Native Americans and Euro-
pean interlopers alike, mere hair pull-
ing seemed like a walk in the park.
I DISCUSSED and demonstrated
Rough and Tumble hair-pulling tac-
tics in my book No Second Chance
and in my three-volume street-
defense series. At the risk of being
redundant, I’ll note the two most use-
ful elements of the practice here:
i The hair can be used as a handle, but
it’s better as a guide. By “guide‚” I mean
using the hair to twist and/or manipu-
late the head into a better striking
position or force the opponent’s head
and neck into an unnatural alignment
intended to shut down his offense.
i Hair grows with a grain. The hair
from the crown forward grows toward
the forehead, while the hair from the
crown downward grows toward the
nape of the neck. Pulling or guiding
the hair against the grain fires more
pain receptors, thus permitting better
control. It also makes for easier tear-
ing — for hand scalping‚ so to speak.
CLEARLY, human combat has long
had a connection with hair pulling.
However, nowhere but in Frontier
Rough and Tumble will you find
such an “unsportsmanlike” tactic
embraced with such gusto.
Mark Hatmaker’s website is
extremeselfprotection.com.

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 25

 TE R
ACTIVE
S H OO
I
If you’re reading this article,
it can be assumed that you’re
either a martial arts instruc-
tor like me or a practitioner. (If
you’re not already a martial artist, I
highly suggest you join a program —
there’s nothing more empowering!)
Through your martial arts train-
ing, you have the ability to defend
yourself, which means you already
have a last-resort plan of action
should you find yourself confronted
by an active shooter. However, it’s
very unlikely that you will ever
face such a criminal in a fair fight
26 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018
because an active shooter, by defini-
tion, has the advantage of possess-
ing a firearm — and he’s already
using it. That’s precisely why my
team and I developed an active-
shooter training course that teaches
students to place their focus on
being aware and devising an exit
strategy, as well as recognizing
threats before they manifest.
I started teaching active-shooter
tactics because of my background
in law enforcement and martial arts.
Additionally, our school is a certified
krav maga center that teaches all
Do the
Right
Thing in
an Active-
Shooter
Scenario
Unfortunately, active-shooter
incidents have become not
only a frequent story on the
nightly news but also a threat
to people of all ages in virtually
all locations. These horrible
events can and do occur at any
time, so it’s important to have
an overarching plan to protect
yourself and your loved ones
should you ever wind up in the
presence of an active shooter.
BY ROBBY BEARD
kinds of weapon disarms, so develop-
ing the course was a natural fit.
The program has garnered a lot of
press because whenever a tragedy
occurs, martial arts school owners
scramble to find a course that will help
them help their students. For several
years, I’ve conducted this training
around the country, as well as online.
Here, I will present it to yet another
audience that may be in need of a plan
for an active-shooter scenario.
HOW TO RESPOND: The No. 1 option
is to run. If you find yourself in a situ-
ation in which shots are being fired,
your priority is to get away. To that
end, have an exit strategy in place.
Always be aware of potential escape
routes no matter where you are. Some
people mistakenly assume that the
best exit is the same door they used to
enter the room or building, but that’s
not always the case. In a restaurant,
the best exit might be a backdoor or a
window. Even a Sheetrock wall can be
broken through in an emergency.
The second option is to hide. When
running isn’t possible, it’s a good
way to increase the odds that you’ll
survive, but you need to understand
where and how to hide. Here is what I
recommend in our course.
Strategically position yourself in
a room where the shooter isn’t so
you have the best chance to defend
yourself. Barricade the door(s) with
any furniture that can be moved. Stay
quiet and stay by yourself (unless
you’re with loved ones). If possible,
darken the room. Consider using
your belt, purse strap or cellphone
charging cable to secure the door.
The third option is to fight. Think
of this as the last resort in any active-
shooter situation. Our course focuses
on this component for obvious
reasons: I’m a martial artist and I’m
usually teaching other martial artists,
so it only makes sense to spend time
fine-tuning the physical side.
Martial arts schools that follow our
method often incorporate the combat-
ives they teach every day, along with
our gun-disarm strategies. Those gun
disarms grew out of my background
as an National Rifle Association
instructor, as well as a krav maga,
jiu-jitsu and karate black belt. All that
enabled me to create a set of disarms
that are easy to learn, easy to remem-
ber and easy to implement under
stress. Of course, there are other ways
to take a gun away from a shooter,
but it’s always best to concentrate on
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 27
methods that a person with no previ-
ous experience can retain.
HAVING A GUN MIGHT NOT HELP. I’m
a gun owner and a believer in the
Second Amendment, but I caution
my students — and they always find
out in our course — that carrying a
firearm can add a huge variable to a
mass-shooting situation.
If you draw a gun in an active-
shooter scenario, you might be put-
ting yourself and those around you
in greater danger. Here’s why: When
responding to an active-shooter
report, law-enforcement officers
immediately will perceive any person
holding a gun as a suspect — even if
that person is just reacting to shots
being fired. There will be precious
little time for the police to ask ques-
tions because ending the threat is
their top priority.
The other thing you need to remem-
ber is that if you deploy your gun
and the shooter sees you, you will
inadvertently draw his fire, which will
endanger you and the people around
you. In cases in which the shooter has
a semi-automatic weapon, you might
cause a hail of bullets to be unleashed
in your direction.
FOR ONGOING TRAINING, I always
advise people to find a martial
arts school that includes an active-
shooter training program. It’s likely
you can find such a facility in your
town. By all means, consider joining
— after you’ve checked the instruc-
tor’s credentials. As we all know,
participating in a program is the best
 way to learn the real-life application
of martial arts skills. If you deploy your gun and the shooter
If you belong to a school that
doesn’t address this, I encourage you
sees you, you will inadvertently
to show your instructor this article draw his fire, which will endanger
and direct him or her to activeshooter
tactics.com, where our online video you and the people around you.
course can be reviewed.
If you’re an instructor, consider
adding our Active Shooter Tactics
program to what you offer. Your cur-
rent students will appreciate the
training, and community members
who aren’t enrolled in your facility
may be encouraged to join. We’ve
had many reports of parents and their
college-bound kids taking the course
together. Not only does that give the
parents peace of mind when their
children are on their own, but it also
frequently results in those parents
signing up for regular lessons. It’s
one more way to get people to learn
awareness skills and physical tech-
niques that can save their lives.

Robby Beard’s Active Shooter

Tactics course is available at
ActiveShooterTactics.com.

Tactical Training Gear by Century

www.centurymartialarts.com/tactical-collection/

“Century” is a registered trademark of Century, LLC. All rights reserved.

© 2018 Century, LLC. 08/2018 #15552
 E N S H OTS
SC R E
A Deadpool Upgrade in the Badlands
BY DR. CRAIG D. REID
Upgrade
UPGRADE
Directed by Leigh Whannell, this film
is a revenge-filled, sci-fi horror thriller
that supports the argument that we
should steer clear of some high-tech.
It does that by showing us how com-
puter hacking can lead to bloody
human hacking when technology
goes awry.
When old-school car mechanic
Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green)
and his tech-loving wife get amo-
rous in their self-driving car, the car
goes haywire and crashes in an area
that belongs to vicious hooligans.
Moments later, Trace watches his
wife being executed as the thugs
laugh and leave him a quadriplegic.
30 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018
An artificial-intelligence expert
helps Trace regain mobility by
implanting a computer chip called
STEM. It has the ability to command
his body to execute lightning-fast,
ultra-violent martial moves, which
are used to wreak revenge on his
wife’s killers. Then the chip gets
stuck in survival mode and Trace
can’t control the bloodletting.
Although critics described
Upgrade as Death Wish with neo-
Matrix action, the fights show a
greater influence from old kung
fu films like Legendary Weapons
of China from 1982 and the Jackie
Chan choreography style that was
created in 1978 for Dragon Fist. Chan
combined kung fu with his opera
background and developed a cho-
reography method that used arm/
hand skills that end with rhythmic
snaps, then for Dragon Fist, he added
mechanical motions to each move
and performed them with straight-
back postures. Shooting at 22 frames
per second hid the momentary
pauses between each movement.
Upgrade Photo Courtesy of BH Tilt
In Upgrade, when Trace is under
the spell of STEM, his back and torso
become stiff and robotic, and they
remain so while he mechanically
does punches, blocks and evasive
maneuvers. That helps make the
fights unique because his body sways
during each shot.
 “We did that by strapping an
iPhone under the actor’s clothes, and
then the camera lens locked onto
the phone,” Whannell explained. “So
wherever the phone went, the camera
that sat on a swivel in a motion-con-
trol housing unit would follow.”
As technology evolves, occasion-
ally something old and borrowed is
manipulated into something new and
creative. In this case, it’s more about
camera choreography and editing
than fight choreography and skillful
actors/stuntmen.
DEADPOOL 2
He’s b-a-a-a-ck, and this time it’s
irreverently, violently and self-
loathingly personal. Deadpool (Ryan
Reynolds) returns in Deadpool 2.
Although he’s a foulmouthed anti-
hero in a superhero suit, he’s no
chicken — unless he runs out of good
“c-luck.” Yet in this sequel, a Domino
falls into place, bringing Deadpool
extra good luck.
As Deadpool 2 begins, it heralds
that it’s directed by one of the two
guys who killed John Wick’s dog,
which is quickly followed by 600
seconds of Deadpool outrageously
hacking and whacking thugs with
human-vegematic, wisecracking,
Deadpool 2
Deadpool 2 Photo Courtesy of 20th Century Fox
fourth-wall gore. We quickly see that
the franchise has a fab insurance
policy: You’re in good hands with
director David Leitch.
Filled with heart-loss agony, Dead-
pool reluctantly becomes an X-Men
trainee. When his first mission goes
more wrong than paddling a rubber
raft through croc-infested waters, he
finds new meaning in life: Protect an
emotionally disturbed mutant lad
from being killed by Cable (played by
Josh Brolin), a brutal time-traveling
cyborg with supernatural abilities.
Wielding a pair of katana as
though they were Chinese swords
and striking vital points with kali
moves, Deadpool uses Muhammad
Ali–like trash talking to distract
his opponents during their battles.
Although Deadpool 2’s fights focus
on physicality, Leitch’s action trade-
mark is still apparent: Make one fight
different from all the rest. In this
movie, that would be the meth-lab
battle in which Deadpool destroys
tons of henchmen while his nemesis
flees in slow motion.
“It was a motion-control shot that
took a day to rehearse and photo-
graph,” Leitch shared. “The camera
rig shot two action passes, each with
a different frame rate. The first pass
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 31
was with the villain at 48 frames.
Then a normal-rate pass of Dead-
pool fighting in the background.
Then we lined up the two takes. It
was a tricky logistical puzzle to get
everything on stacks and working,
then timing and comping those two
layers together.”
INTO THE BADLANDS
Déjà vu! He’s b-a-a-a-ck, and this time
it’s really personal. The coolest new
character in Season 2 (episode 3) of
this AMC series, which features argu-
ably the best martial arts action ever
on American television, is the lethal
“clipper” Nathaniel Moon (Sherman
Augustus). Moon’s out to kill Into
the Badlands hero and fellow clipper
Sunny, played by Daniel Wu. At the
episode’s end, Sunny defeats Moon,
yet he’s happy to die an honorable
death. When Sunny spares his life,
Moon loses face — and his right hand.
Fast-forward to Season 3: Moon
returns as an important recurring
character in search of redemption
against Sunny. He runs into new pre-
dicaments, learns new weapons and,
as of this writing, is slated for another
eight episodes.
“If maybe I’m part Scottish, I want
the keys to my house Fort Augustus,”
Sherman Augustus said, jokingly.
He’s referring to the ancient fort/set-
tlement built circa 1715 at the south-
west end of Loch Ness in the Scottish
Highlands. I found his knowledge
unique, and I was further moved
when he replied to a question I asked
about the first martial arts film he
saw and how it impacted him.
“Shaw Brothers’ The Flying Guil-
lotine,” he said, referring to a 1975
movie. “I had an argument with a kid
in seventh grade who did martial arts,
and when I thought the argument
was over and walked away, he did a
spinning back kick and hit me in the
back. I thought martial artists weren’t
supposed to be bullies and decided
that if I ever learned, I’d do it the
right way.”
Augustus got into football and
worked his way up to the pros (Min-
nesota Vikings and San Diego Char-
gers), which taught him plenty of
discipline. Retiring from football, he
got into acting, and after doing a big
fight scene in Space Marines (1996),
a member of the stunt team advised
him to get into martial arts because
he’d be good.
“I recall the kid who kicked me,
self-defense aspects, how Flying Guil-
Into the Badlands
32 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018
lotine resonated with me and wanting
to do the arts properly — discipline
and not wanting to fight,” Augustus
said, answering the second half of
my question. “I began training and
eventually got my black belts in tae-
kwondo and kook sool.”
Each season of Badlands features
more fights, better action and more
stunning ways to present each char-
acter’s growth as a fighter — which
other shows rarely do. The crew
knows how to shoot and edit fights,
and before each season, dedicated
actors and new cast members attend
training camps to get in shape and
improve their skills. Wu keeps things
fresh by adding new talent such as
Jackie Chan’s former stunt double
and choreographer Andy Cheng, who
joined in Season 2.
Season 3’s differences include wire
choreography influenced by Swords-
man II (1992) and The Heroic Trio
(1993). The preponderance of esoteric
and chi-based skills may stem from
the Shaw Brothers’ four-part Brave
Archer films (1977-1982) with an inter-
esting nod to the American Western
A Man Called Horse (1970).
Augustus explained a portion
of the production: “The show is
treated and shot like a film, so we
take five to eight days to do heavy
fight sequences. My Season 3 open-
ing fight, choreographed by Andy
on a coal-mine chimney, took nine
days plus sporadic days to film
due to weather holdups. You wake
up, cold, rainy — sometimes I’ll
antagonize an old football injury.
You don’t dare grimace. You work
through it. When we fight, we’ve
got to bring it.”
I closed by asking for his take on
the significance of the Black Panther
phenomenon. “Right now, there’s
opportunities to make not just black
cinema but all cinema better — and
not with just big companies but
[also] smaller independents,” he
said. “I’m hoping a renaissance for
all filmmakers is coming. I don’t
need to keep seeing films reminding
me, ‘Hey, man, this is what you were.’
We know that. It’s time to progress
and tell good stories [that are] not
being told.”
Dr. Craig D. Reid’s book The Ultimate
Guide to Martial Arts Movies of
the 1970s: 500+ Films Loaded With
Action, Weapons and Warriors is
available at blackbeltmag.com/store.
Into the Badlands Photo Courtesy of AMC
APOLO LADRA Teaches
the Filipino Fighting Art
to Give Modern Warriors
a Tactical Advantage in
Any Environment
BY MARK NICHOLAS BRADY PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRANDON SNIDER
 iceps, chamber, hip, point.
Thrust, slash, cover. The
rhythmic shouts come from
a kali master instructor, and
they’re echoed by hundreds
of students who are mim-
icking his every move. It’s
part of the training that’s
taking place at the 2018
Martial Arts SuperShow in
Las Vegas. In attendance
are police oicers, former
SWAT team members,
Special Forces operatives,
U.S. Marines and ordinary
martial artists representing
disciplines that range from
krav maga and taekwondo
to Brazilian jiu-jitsu to kung
fu san soo.
Men, women and children
from all walks of life have
assembled in the Bellagio
ballroom to learn pekiti tirsia kali from one of the most
visible exponents of the art, a man named Apolo Ladra.
Let your mind wander, and the clack of their kali sticks
can evoke images from diferent eras and locales. Maybe
the sound is the byproduct of Filipino farmers working
their scythes in the field. Maybe it’s the noise of riflemen
firing, reloading and refiring across revolutionary battle-
fields. The strikes reverberate beyond the ballroom walls.
They’re universal, all-encompassing, drawn from the
pulse of an indigenous Filipino fighting art forged over
hundreds of years. The resonance is material, and for the
stick wielders, it’s spiritual.
Ladra’s role is to serve as a bridge that spans centuries
and continents. He’s out to inspire the next generation to
learn pekiti tirsia as it was passed to him by the legend-
ary Leo T. Gaje Jr.
MULTIDIMENSIONAL
The art of kali extends into the martial, mental and
cultural dimensions of human exertion. Its practicality
derives from native arts adapted to intrusive circum-
stances. How to fend of an invader? How to adapt to his
method of invasion?
It’s arguable that no nation knows this dynamic
like the Philippines, where the traditional culture has
absorbed a barrage of foreign influences on everything
from religion to commerce to combat. For centuries,
incursions and occupations by the Spanish, Americans
and Japanese forced Filipinos to adapt, conceal or face
the eradication of their cultural expressions, including
the martial arts. Essentially, Filipino warriors and the
populations they were traditionally bound to defend
found a way to unfetter themselves from foreign rule.
One way, ironically, was to serve as the fighting force
on Spanish galleons as they embarked on imperialistic
tours of the South Pacific. The fighting style of the Fili-
pinos was so foreign to the enemies of the Spanish that
it couldn’t be defeated.
36 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018
Fast-forward 300 years. Because of their exposure in
seminars and magazines, as well as online and in theaters,
the Filipino martial arts are well-known to the masses. In
fact, it’s easy to overlook how long they’ve been in the pub-
lic eye. Bruce Lee wielded doble baston in Enter the Dragon
(1973). Jef Speakman whirled makeshift escrima sticks
in The Perfect Weapon (1991). More recent flicks like the
Jason Bourne series (starting in 2002) have featured intri-
cately choreographed, lightning-quick, brutally satisfying
kali scenes.
In just a few decades, the Filipino arts have gone from
underground to spectacle, and that’s put them on the
radar of all martial artists.
MASTERFUL
No one represents the full dimensions of the art of the
blade like Apolo Ladra, a Filipino native whose father was
chief of police of the province of Batangas, birthplace of
the balisong (butterfly knife).
Ladra spent his youth in Baltimore, teaching taekwondo.
Then he decided to return to his roots and dedicate his
career to propagating the Filipino martial arts, which he
learned from Gaje, inheritor of pekiti tirsia. Ladra expresses
the art of kali with subtlety and immediacy — during the
past two years, the master, now in his 50s, has fought in
full-contact stick matches in the Philippines, wearing
a fencer’s helmet as his only armor. In the hundreds of
seminars he conducts yearly in the West, Ladra conveys a
simple dictum: Learn to teach, teach to learn.
To get a sense of the master’s devotion to the art, you
need only talk to those he’s taught. For his students,
pekiti tirsia represents the most efective, eicient and
all-encompassing martial art, an assertion they base on
its physical as well as mental dimensions.
Matthew “Dutch” Hemker holds a fourth-degree black
belt in taekwondo and first degrees in krav maga, Shaolin
kung fu and the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program. He
spent 10 years on active duty in the Corps and currently
works as a contract trainer for the military. He teaches
combat, survival and self-defense through the Warrior
Training Group in Hampstead, North Carolina.
Hemker has trained with Ladra for three years, and kali
has become the foundation of his personal and profes-
sional life. “When people ask me about martial arts, I ask
them, ‘What are you trying to achieve?’” he says. “The
answer comes in the most bare, direct terms: How do I
defend myself against an attack?”
Many consider krav maga the default no-nonsense
martial arts approach to hand-to-hand engagement, but
Hemker notes similarities between the Israeli system and
the Filipino art. “Both krav maga and kali deal with tacti-
cal threats with a problem-solving mindset,” he says. “But
kali delves into the side answers of self-defense.”
In essence, kali can mesh with virtually any martial
art. “The skill sets blend extremely well,” Hemker says.
“It’s modular and scalable. I could train a civilian house
mom with basic techniques or could scale up the level of
aggressiveness for a soldier or law-enforcement oicer
training to survive being stabbed or bludgeoned out on
the beat. In its depth and range, there’s nothing more
efective than kali.”
1 3

4 5

6 STICK VS. STICK: Apolo Ladra (right) faces a foe (1). As soon as the man swings,
Ladra intercepts the limb and uses his stick to strike the incoming stick (2).
+HWKHQWKUXVWVKLVVWLFNLQWRWKHPDQ·VDEGRPHQ(3) and maneuvers the
RSSRQHQW·VZHDSRQDQGZHDSRQDUPVRKHFDQSRVLWLRQKLVVWLFNXQGHUWKH
DUPDQGDORQJVLGHWKHPDQ·VULEFDJH(4). Ladra raises the butt end of his
VWLFNVRKLVÀVWLVDERYHWKHPDQ·VDUP(5), then sharply pushes down to
leverage the stick out of his grasp (6). When the opponent falls (7), Ladra
ÀQLVKHVZLWKDVWULNHWRWKHEDFNRIWKHQHFN(8).

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 37

 STICK VS. STICK: Apolo 1 2
Ladra confronts his
opponent (1). When
the man executes his
strike, Ladra moves to
the right and intercepts
the swing with his hand
while using his stick to
hit him in the ribs (2). He
WZLVWVWKHPDQ·VZHDSRQ
hand while chambering
his own stick for another
strike (3). Ladra uses a
downward strike to knock
the weapon from the 3 4
RSSRQHQW·VKDQG(4-5).
Having repositioned his
VWLFNXQGHUWKHPDQ·V
arm, Ladra applies
pressure on his biceps
(6) to break his balance
and send him to the
ground (7). Once the man
is on his back, Ladra can
VWULNHXQWLOKH·VQRORQJHU
a threat (8).

5 6 7

For soldiers and cops, such skills are not only practi-
cal but also essential to survival. In the United States
alone, there were nearly 130,000 assaults with a knife
or other cutting weapon in 2016. Assaults with weap-
ons ranging from bare hands to blunt objects topped
230,000 that year.
Oicer Jef David, who spent two decades on the Pem-
broke Pines, Florida, police force, teaches close-quarters
combat at the Miami Dade College School of Justice. Like
Hemker, he considers Ladra’s kali indispensable.
“Six or seven years ago, I went to a friend who runs a
martial arts school and said I was looking for someone
who could teach efective baton skills,” David says. “He
referred me to Apolo.”
The class that Ladra put on emphasized hand-to-hand
combat even though it was designed to use sticks. “A ton
of people showed up, and we didn’t have enough sticks,”
says David with a laugh. “[Apolo] adapted his teaching.
We essentially learned a Filipino approach to upright
grappling. It was amazing. It involved many of the tech-
niques we use and teach [at the police academy], but
Apolo taught us why they work. That why, that how, the
mental approach — that’s the force of his teaching.”
David’s interest in kali quickly progressed to sticks.
“The biggest attraction for me, as a cop, was the baton,”
he says. “[It’s] an incredible tool for grappling and con-
trol, with techniques that have been around a long time
but forgotten. Locking up arms, doing takedowns, hold-
ing [perps] with the baton — it’s a lost art. Apolo’s bring-
ing it back.”
David also emphasizes Ladra’s absorption of multiple
martial arts — hard styles, soft styles, striking, grap-
pling — and his transmission of useful techniques in the
context of kali. “The training I got in just six months was

38 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018

 1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

EMPTY HAND VS. KNIFE: Apolo Ladra is threatened by a man with a blade (1).
Before the opponent can attack, Ladra lunges forward and controls
the weapon hand while executing a palm strike to the head (2). He
WKHQSODFHVKLVULJKWIRUHDUPRYHUWKHPDQ·VDUP(3) so he can control
it while redirecting the arm up (4) and into position for a wrist lock
(5),IKH·VXQDEOHWREUHDNWKHZULVW/DGUDFDQXVHKLVULJKWKDQGWR
JUDEWKHRSSRQHQW·VELFHSV(6) and twist his arm (7) to transition to
a takedown (8). Once the adversary is immobilized, Ladra strips the
knife from his hand (9).

worth all the training I’d had in my 20-year career,” he
says. “He simplifies everything. Cops can’t take a chance
on doing anything fancy. Every patrol, every stop — it can
be life or death. No time to mess around or get fancy.”
OFFENSIVE
Ofense, counterofense, re-counterofense. Ladra’s kali is
that simple. And that complex. “Fighting is only fun if it’s
always my turn,” he says with a smile. “When I fight, it’s
always my turn.”
How does this translate? Quickness. A snap of the wrist,
twitched twice or a hundred times, a fluent flurry of irre-
pressible ofensive force, going, going until you win.
That’s the central tenet of kali. No hesitation. No men-
tal reservation. Leave the opponent no space or time to
maneuver. Not for an inch, not for a microsecond. He’s
sucked into the vacuum of your overwhelming attack.
The kali approach is to hit him with the force of an ava-
lanche but with total precision and subtle articulation.
For Ladra, the fundamental principle is simple: Every-
thing is ofense. Attack, counterattack, re-counterattack.
Re-counter, re-counter, re-counter as necessary. Even the
sound of the word “at-TACK” expresses the action of the
hands or sticks or blades. Attack is embedded even in
every block and parry. There is no passive element in
pekiti tirsia.
FLOWING
But kali is not crude. Although born of battles in jungles
and alleys, on streets and ship decks and battlefields, it’s
far from messy. One session with Ladra and it starts to
feel ingrained: This is an art as refined as painting, as

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 39

 STICK VS. KNIFE: Apolo Ladra faces a man with a knife (1). When the blade comes in, Ladra steps aside and strikes him in the neck
(2). Note how his right forearm is positioned to block the knife strike if the man tries to redirect it. Ladra then uses his left hand
to move the weapon arm to his right and his stick to hit the thigh (3), after which he grabs the hand (4) and positions his stick
against the wrist and alongside the neck (5)$IWHUOHYHUDJLQJWKHEODGHRXWRIKLVRSSRQHQW·VKDQG/DGUDZUDSVWKHDUPZLWK
his left arm (6) and lifts (7) to effect a takedown (8). The pekiti tirsia stylist then chambers his weapon (9) and thrusts it into his
RSSRQHQW·VWRUVR(10).

1 2 3 4

5 6 7

8 9 10

poetry. It’s that elusive air that, ironically, keeps its prac-
titioners training toward a perfection that’s impossible to
attain. It’s a pursuit. Kali fighters call it “flow.”
“When you’ve moved through those thousands of sim-
ple moves, you start to find your flow,” Ladra says. “Flow
is possibility, finding new patterns, new ways to move that
come from your nerves versus your active brain. As you
train, flow becomes natural, and kali fighters learn to feel,
intercept and return the flow of other fighters.”
This isn’t at all mystical. Flow is the function of the
muscular repetitions that are central to kali. It’s based on
physical principles that were first noticed for their roles in
diferent aspects of Filipino life, from farming to dancing
to animal husbandry.
Flow is defined as “the continuity of a kali fighter’s
tactical execution of ofense, counterofense and re-
counterofense.” This end result is movement without
thought. You must learn to forget. As Gaje likes to say,
“Forgetting is knowing.”
Repetition, again, is fundamental. Kali training
requires tens of thousands of repetitions of sequences
that range from the simple to the subtly nuanced, from
strikes with a single stick to blade disarms, joint locks,
traps and takedowns.
REALISTIC
Realism, in the sense of putting pressure on an opponent,
is key to Ladra’s teaching method. In seminars he runs
for karate and taekwondo schools around the world, con-
sequences are central to the training. Getting hit with the
point of a rubber knife, for instance, is less realistic than
the jab of a blunt aluminum blade. The latter changes you
physically and nervously.

40 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018

 The realism extends to the drills. “In a practice setting,
when you’re slashing and thrusting, you might stop just Announcing Black Belt’s 2018
Weapons
before the tip of the blade hits the target,” Ladra says.
This results in rigidity, which can be lethal. Thousands
of repetitions of a stunted strike mean that the strike will
be stunted — and likely fall short when it counts. Instead,
Ladra says, practice striking through the target.

MOBILE
Like so many elements of kali, the movements flow from
instinctive, ingrained Filipino habits of work. Nothing
Instructor
of the Year
demonstrates this better than the art’s footwork.
“The closer you are to your opponent,” Ladra says, “the
fewer angles they have on which to attack.” He teaches
students to move in an open V-formation, one adopted
from the way Filipino farmers spread rice seed from bas-
kets held at the hip.
“They do this for hours,” Ladra says. “Step in, strike
(toss a handful of seed), step back and thrust (put the
hand into the basket for more).” The circular motion
opens a periphery of perception from which one can
intercept multiple attacks.
There’s another strategic aspect to the footwork and
motions of the art. “The rice fields of the islands only
come up to here,” Ladra says, placing his hand just below
his chest. “So when a fighter in the fields makes a slash,
he also moves down, below the stalks.”
He disappears for an instant, and when he returns, it’s
to slash again — from a new and unforeseen angle.

SMOOTH
Like in so many martial arts, the force, speed and power
of a kali strike don’t come from one muscle group or
one motion. The torque generated by twisting hips com-
bines with the muscles of the torso and arm to accelerate
strikes with the stick.
Think of the patterns available as the simple work-
ings of a complex machine. You have gears in a piece of
machinery, which turn and interact. You want them to turn
smoothly; you don’t want them to grind, to stutter, to halt.
“You say you don’t want to throw a wrench into the
gears, right?” Ladra says. “We make smooth movements
constantly. That’s how you generate speed — you make
Apolo Ladra has been a martial artist for most of his life —
force and open up angles of attack.
he started training informally in the Philippines when he was
“When you mix the angles and lines, it’s like a web. just 7. In 1979 he moved to Baltimore and began training and
Hence the idea of sinawali (weaving). In the spider’s web, eventually teaching taekwondo. But soon he heard the call of
there are openings, but we seal them through circular RQHRIKLVFRXQWU\·VQDWLYHDUWVpekiti tirsia,DV\VWHPWKDW·V
lines with the feet, the hands, the weapons. That takes helmed by Leo T. Gaje Jr.
away those gaps.” /DGUDFRXOGQ·WUHVLVW´,QHHGHGPRUHRIDFRPEDWLYHDUW
Think of old-school basket weaving. The Filipinos and I wanted to learn about my heritage,” he said. He stopped
are famous for their woven wares, including traditional teaching taekwondo and plunged into pekiti tirsia. And as
\RXFDQVHHIURPWKLVDUWLFOHKH·VEHHQULGLQJWKHZDYHHYHU
sleeping mats called banig. These are hand-woven by the
VLQFH+H·VEXLOWKLVIROORZLQJWRWKHSRLQWZKHUHLWLQFOXGHV
manubanig — literally, a person who weaves banig — from VFKRROVWKDWWHDFKKLV.DOL.LGVSURJUDPDQGPRUHWKDQ
dried sea grass that grows in the rice fields. How do the people who are learning his iKali Combat program, and the
manubanig weave so precisely? Through the very method numbers are on their way up.
that’s been mentioned repeatedly here. It’s the same one Rather than repeating points already made in the main article
used by all students who train in pekiti tirsia under Apolo ³RULQWKH/HR*DMHSLHFH\RX·UHDERXWWRUHDG³ZH·OOMXVW
Ladra: repetition. DQQRXQFHLWQRZ$SROR/DGUDKDVEHHQQDPHG%ODFN%HOW·V
:HDSRQV,QVWUXFWRURIWKH<HDU&RQJUDWXODWLRQVVLU
— Robert W. Young
Apolo Ladra’s website is artofblade.com.

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 41

 1 2
4 5
E
very traditional martial art exists in the
present because at one time in the past, it
was used successfully in battle. It would
have been illogical for warriors to pass
down strategies and techniques that failed
to function in fights. End of story.
In part because of geography, most
cultures and classes were pitted against
the same enemies, often for long periods
of time. Therefore, it can be assumed that
most fighting systems developed to neu-
tralize a specific enemy. Case in point: In
Japan, jujitsu was created to combat the samurai, with
their iconic weaponry and their unique way of fighting.
Now, the fact that most members of a given adversarial
group probably fought in similar ways, one can argue that
this could limit the eicacy of the art that’s being used
against said group if it was pitted against a diferent group.
It follows, then, that any art that was battle-tested against
two enemy cultures would be more efective than a style
that faced only one. And it follows that if an art was forged
in three crucibles that resulted from prolonged clashes
with three mighty nations, it would have the upper hand.
Such a system does exist, and it’s called pekiti tirsia.
This form of kali is helmed by Leo T. Gaje Jr., and it’s
being used by millions of military men and women
around the world for the very reasons I just mentioned.
Crucible No. 1
Gaje was born in 1938 on the island of Negros in the Phil-
ippines. When he was just 6, he began training under his
44 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018
3
TRAINING TOOL AS WEAPON: Leo
T. Gaje Jr. (left) confronts
his opponent (1). The man
begins his attack, but Gaje
GRHVQ·WZDLW+HVZLQJVKLV
stick from its ready position
WRWKHRSSRQHQW·VZULVWWR
LQWHUFHSWWKHEORZ(2). Gaje
then places the far end of
KLVZHDSRQDORQJVLGHKLV
QHFNZKLOHXVLQJKLVOHIW
hand to control his arm
(3). The pekiti tirsia master
moves to his left so he can
JUDEWKHHQGRIKLVRZQVWLFN
(4)DIWHUZKLFKKHSXOOVWKH
man in tight for a choke (5).
grandfather Conrado Tortal. The reason the patriarch put
his only grandson on the martial path so early was emi-
nently practical. “He said, ‘I will train you so you can pro-
tect your property and family,’” Gaje said. “Every family in
the Philippines had to be able to take care of themselves.”
Historically, a significant part of that mission of protec-
tion was to fight against the Spanish, he added.
You see, in the aftermath of Ferdinand Magellan’s
arrival in 1521, Spain took gradual control of the Philip-
pines. And the Spanish, with their blades, ruled with an
iron fist. “Often, one member of a family would go out to
observe how the Spaniards used their swords — they were
intelligence agents, in a way,” Gaje said. “In my family,
my grandfather had three brothers, and they observed
the fighting system of the Spaniards. They would report
to my grandfather, then do clinics on the type of fighting
they saw. Most of it was using the blade from long range.”
With the intel, Gaje’s grandfather focused on footwork
— specifically, how the family might use close-range
methods to defeat their enemies. “My grandfather and
his brothers analyzed the footwork of the Spaniards step
by step,” Gaje said. “They saw that most of the movement
was linear, so they developed a way to open it up, which
is the open triangle. From that base, they were able to
strategize their methodology. They used diagonal lines
because a diagonal line is a protective line when you
slash and thrust. They were looking for a way to attack up
close that was not counterable, meaning to say there was
no way to block the technique.”
The brothers determined that there are two ways to
fight when blades are involved: with weapon contact and
without weapon contact. “If one blade makes contact with
 FIRST CONTACT: Leo T. 1 2
Gaje Jr. (left) adopts
an unconventional
posture in front of
his foe (1). When
the man initiates a
GRZQZDUGVWULNH
Gaje drops and
thrusts the tip of
KLVZHDSRQLQWRKLV
abdomen (2). Before
the opponent can
recover, Gaje inserts
WKHVWLFNEHWZHHQ
WKHPDQ·VOHJVDQG 3 4
pushes (3)+LV
balance broken, the
adversary falls, and
Gaje immediately
chambers his
ZHDSRQ(4) for a
VHULHVRIIROORZXS
strikes (5). Note
KRZKHXVHVKLVOHIW 5
hand to immobilize
WKHRSSRQHQW·V
ZHDSRQEHDULQJ
DUPZKLOHKH·VRQ
his back.

another blade while blocking, it takes time to recover,”
Gaje said. “So they studied angulation [to avoid that]. If
your angle is coming in this way, I go that way. If you go
high, I go low. All this was part of a building process —
they did it every day.
“Whenever they developed a new technique, they would
go on a test mission. The brothers would go out and fight
with the Spaniards. One hundred percent of the tech-
niques we teach now worked then. That’s why we teach
them — and it’s why in pekiti tirsia, we always say that
every technique cost lots of lives.”
Gaje’s grandfather often talked about the cultural disci-
pline he and his brothers were adding to what the Span-
ish practiced, Gaje said. “He called it the actual expres-
sion of combat. It was about the counter of motion before
attack time, which is where [the acronym] COMBAT
comes from.
“The system they created — pekiti tirsia — had only 12
methods, one for each month of the year. In one month,
you had to learn one method. The first three months were
for skill development. The next three months were for
specialization. The next three were for mastery. And the
final three were for testing and building confidence. It all
had to be done quickly because they were fighting the
Spaniards.”
To polish their skills for actual use, the brothers would
begin with hardwood sticks, Gaje said. “They would hit
water for power development and to feel resistance. They
also worked on speed so their actions couldn’t be trapped
or easily countered. And, of course, they focused on using
footwork to get in close — pekiti tirsia means ‘close-quar-
ters techniques.’ It isn’t designed for long range.”
The goal, Gaje reiterated, is to take action before the
opponent’s strike comes to fruition because then you
don’t need to spend time blocking. “If you give me a
slash, I will slash, also,” he said. “Counter of motion
before attack time means that as soon as there is one
motion from your opponent, you’re there. It can be any
first move.”
Such combat eiciency came as a result of three centu-
ries of Spanish control of the Philippines, Gaje added. “It
enabled us to develop a blade technology that was supe-
rior to that of the Spaniards.”
Crucible No. 2
“Eventually, eight provinces of the Philippines revolted
against Spain,” Gaje said. “After the revolution ended,
Spain negotiated in the Treaty of Paris of 1898 to sell the
Filipinos to the Americans at $3 per head. Imagine that!
The Philippines was considered the property of Spain, but
why did they have to sell the Filipino people to America?
Why not the land?”
At first, the Filipinos were elated to have cast of the
Spanish, but they quickly learned that being under
American rule wasn’t much better, Gaje said. “We started
fighting the Americans with guerrilla tactics. Our success
caused Gen. [John] ‘Black Jack’ Pershing, who served in
the Philippines, to tell the War Department, ‘We cannot
win the war like this. These Filipinos are so savage.’”
Among other things, Pershing recommended that the
U.S. military develop a handgun that was capable of stop-
ping the Filipinos, Gaje said. “That’s why they created the
.45-caliber. At close range when Filipino fighters came at

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 45

 WITH EMPTY HANDS:)URPDQRWKHUXQFRQYHQWLRQDOUHDG\SRVLWLRQ/HR7*DMH-UDSSHDUVWRZDLWIRUKLVRSSRQHQWWRDWWDFNZLWK
the stick (1), but before he can do so, Gaje advances and executes a throat strike (2)8VLQJKLVOHIWKDQGWRFRQWUROWKHZHDSRQ
DUP*DMHVHL]HVWKHPDQ·VKHDG(3) and rotates (4)PDQHXYHULQJKLPGRZQDQGLQWRDKHDGORFN(5). Gaje then takes him to the
ground (6)DQGVOLSVWKHZHDSRQDUPXQGHUKLVOHIWOHJZKLFKUHPRYHVWKHWKUHDWSRVHGE\WKHVWLFN(7)7RÀQLVK*DMHVODPVDQ
HOERZVWULNHLQWRKLVKHDG(8)IROORZHGE\DKDPPHUÀVW(9).
1 2
5 7
Marines with their bolo [knives] raised, a .45 was needed
to stop them. The .38 didn’t work.”
The Philippine-American War continued until the com-
monwealth was formed in 1935. “That was the only way
for the Americans to say they did not lose in the Philip-
pines,” Gaje said. “They said, ‘We’ll give you a common-
wealth.’ We said, ‘What are the conditions?’ Among other
things, they said, ‘Your men will be in the U.S. Armed
Forces under Gen. MacArthur.’”
What precipitated was a period of improved relations
between the Americans and the Filipinos, he said. “But
then in 1941, Japan invaded the Philippines with a force
of 200,000 and battleships and tanks and planes. They
started attacking, and America lost the Philippines.”
Crucible No. 3
The war with Japan was brutal and bloody, resulting
in the Japanese occupation of the Philippines and the
installation of a new government. “The Filipinos and the
Americans who were left fought back,” Gaje said, “but
there was no sign that we were winning because we were
outnumbered — and there was no support from the U.S.
because it was responding to the Pearl Harbor attack. The
Americans in the Philippines were totally dependent on
the Filipinos for support. Many Filipinos sacrificed their
lives in defense of the Americans.”
46 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018
3 4
8
Not surprisingly, the ensuing five years brought count-
less conflicts with the Japanese, who carried firearms
and often swords while the Filipinos were forced to rely
on their blades. Looking back, Gaje now regards it as an
unparalleled learning experience. Necessity, as they say,
is the mother of invention. And innovation.
Modern Beneficiaries
Fast-forward to the 21 century. All members of the
st
special forces of the Philippines learn the pekiti tirsia
skills that were honed in those three periods of turmoil.
“It’s mandated,” Gaje said. “They start with the stick,
which is a training tool. As they progress, they learn
the knife. Of course, the stick can be used as weapon.
If you have a hardwood stick, which is very strong and
heavy, you can be flexible — you can stop a person
without killing him.”
The Filipino fighters aren’t the only ones benefiting
from the evolution of the art. “More than 1.2 million peo-
ple in the Indian military do pekiti tirsia ,” Gaje said. “And
there’s another 700,000 in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri
Lanka. The U.S. Marines learn it, too, as do the militaries
of Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, even China.”
A natural question is, How do all these countries’ deci-
sion-makers know about an obscure art like pekiti tirsia?
Why don’t they pick kenpo or jujitsu, for example?
 1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8
COME AND GET IT: Leo T. Gaje Jr. makes himself look
unprotected to lure the opponent into attacking (1)+H
LQWHUFHSWVWKHLQFRPLQJWKUXVWZKLOHPRYLQJWRWKHVLGH
DQGGHOLYHULQJDQRSHQKDQGVWULNHWRWKHIDFH(2)+HWKHQ
FORVHVWKHJDSDQGSODFHVKLVVKRXOGHUXQGHUWKHZHDSRQ
DUPZKLOHFXSSLQJWKHEDFNRIWKHPDQ·VQHFNZLWKKLVULJKW
hand (3)8VLQJKLVOHIWKDQG*DMHJUDEVKLVDGYHUVDU\·VOHIW
arm (4) and pulls it across his body (5). Using the trapped
OLPEVDVOHYHUV*DMHVHQGVWKHPDQWRWKHPDWZKLOH
maintaining his hold on the knife (6). The pekiti tirsia expert
WKHQVWULSVWKHZHDSRQIURPWKHRSSRQHQW·VKDQG(7) and
prepares to use it against him, if need be (8).
“That’s a good question,” Gaje said. “When you’re fight-
ing a war, there’s no kicking or punching. But why do they
need the blade?
“During training in the Philippines, a test mission was
sent to fight the Muslim extremists. The Philippine force
recon marines, who are trained in pekiti tirsia, learned
that in battle, the blade demoralizes the extremists. Our
military is now feared by the extremists because we have
a force inequality: If they use a blade to cut the neck of
one of our people, we will use the blade to chop them to
pieces. The only martial art in the world that is tested
every hour of the day is pekiti tirsia, and the military
knows this.”
Introducing Black Belt’s 2018
Man of the Year
+H·VWKHLQKHULWRURIDPDUWLDODUWWKDWOLWHUDOO\LVEHLQJ
XVHGE\PLOOLRQVRIPLOLWDU\SHUVRQQHODURXQGWKHZRUOG
EXWKH·VDVKXPEOHDQGDSSURDFKDEOHDVDQ\RQH\RX·OO
HYHUPHHW1RZKH·VLQYHVWLQJDJRRGSRUWLRQRIKLV
time and energy to spread the art of pekiti tirsia to civil
LDQVLQQHHGRIIXQFWLRQDOVHOIGHIHQVH
´,GHFLGHGWREULQJLWRXWEHFDXVH,VDZZKDWZDV
KDSSHQLQJLQWKH)LOLSLQRPDUWLDODUWVKRZWKLQJVZHUH
EHLQJEDVWDUGL]HGµ/HR7*DMH-UVDLG´6RPHRIZKDW
people think is Filipino martial arts is just a combination
RIMXGRDQGNDUDWHDQGDORWRIEORFNLQJWHFKQLTXHV,W·V
very dangerous because nobody can do that stuff on
the street against a knife.
“In contrast, my grandfather and his brothers devel
oped pekiti tirsia so people could look at their opponent
DQGGLDJQRVHIRULQVWDQFHZKHUHKHZLOOJRZKDWKH
ZLOOGRDQGKRZKHZLOOXVHKLVZHDSRQ7KDW·VZKDWZH
FDOOWKHFRXQWHURIPRWLRQEHIRUHDWWDFNWLPH7KHQZH
GRQ·WKDYHWREORFN,QVWHDGZHGRFRXQWHURIIHQVH:H
GHVWUR\WKHIXQFWLRQDOLW\RIWKHZHDSRQE\JRLQJIRUWKH
FORVHVWSDUWRIWKHDWWDFNHUWKDWZHFDQFXW³WKHZULVW
WKHHOERZDQGWKHVKRXOGHUµ
$V\RXPLJKWH[SHFWVXFKQRWRULHW\ZLWKUHVSHFWWR
HIÀFDF\OHDGVWRUHTXHVWVIRULQVWUXFWLRQIURPFRXQWULHV
ZKRVHDUPHGIRUFHVOLNHO\ZRXOGXVHWKHVNLOOVLQOHVV
WKDQKRQRUDEOHZD\V´:KHQWKH\DVN,GRQ·WVD\QRµ
*DMHVDLG´,MXVWVD\,·PRFFXSLHG:HOLPLWRXUWHFKQRO
RJ\WRFRXQWULHVWKDWDUHDOOLHGZLWKWKHSURYLVLRQVRIWKH
United Nations.”
%HFDXVHRIDOOKH·VGRLQJLQWKHPDUWLDODUWVFRPPX
QLW\DQGLQWKHPLOLWDULHVRIWKHZRUOGBlack Belt is proud
to name Leo T. Gaje Jr. its 2018 Man of the Year.
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 47
 2018 Instructor of the Year
Kim Soo
BY JOHN T. BINGHAM
o get a better idea of
T
how long Kim Soo has
been active in the U.S.
martial arts community,
consider the following:
He started writing
for Black Belt back
in 1964 when it was
printed in black and white on the
magazine equivalent of newsprint.
He moved from South Korea to Texas
and started teaching in 1968, the
same year he received his seventh-
degree black belt from the Kang Duk
Won organization. In those days,
taekwondo was so new in America
that instructors typically billed
themselves as teachers of “Korean
karate” — which explains why, when
he set up shop in Houston, he called
his facility the Kim Soo College of
Taekwon-Karate.
48 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018
That’s not to say Kim is a relic
from a bygone era. Far from it! The
lessons he conveys to martial artists
now are as life-changing as ever. If
they weren’t, he wouldn’t have just
celebrated his 50th year of teaching in
Texas. That, in itself, is a milestone.
Let’s travel back in time a bit fur-
ther to get a glimpse of where Kim
Soo came from and how he got to
where he is now. Born in 1939, he
started training in 1951. In America,
that was the year I Love Lucy debuted
on CBS and the Disney cartoon clas-
sic Alice in Wonderland hit theaters.
On Kim’s side of the world, it was the
second year of the Korean War.
In 1952, Kim — still too young to
be drafted — joined the Chang Moo
Kwan, the martial arts foundational
organization created by Yoon Byung
In and Lee Nam Suk. Within two
years, Kim owned a black belt in
kong soo do, the Korean pronun-
ciation of karate-do. In 1962 he
received his fifth degree from the
Korea Tae Soo Do Association. In
1967 he was awarded his sixth dan
by the Korea Tae Kwon Do Associa-
tion. All that made him the perfect
person to act as Black Belt’s corre-
spondent in Korea. He vacated that
position only because he relocated
Photos Courtesy of Kim Soo/Robert McLain
to Houston in 1968.
To better know the man who wore
those ranks, consider what Kim Soo
said when asked why he selected
Texas as his new home: “When I
was planning to establish a school
in the United States, I made sure to
choose an area where there were no
other instructors. There were several
well-known instructors already in the
United States: Jhoon Rhee was estab-
lished in Washington, D.C., S. Henry
Cho was on the East Coast and sen-
sei [Hidetaka] Nishiyama was on the
West Coast. So I chose Houston to
avoid interference with anyone.”
Imagine what life was like for a
newly arrived Korean martial arts
instructor attempting to run a busi-
ness in Texas in 1968. His higher
education — a Bachelor of Arts in
Russian language and literature from
Hankuk University of Foreign Stud-
ies in South Korea — did him little
good in the Lone Star State. What an
average-size Asian man needed to
convince a population of strapping
young Texans that he had the keys
to self-defense and that they should
pay money to learn them was con-
summate fighting skills. Fortunately,
Kim had them in abundance. He also
possessed the ability to convey the
intangibles of the martial arts, and
together they constituted his formula
for success.
To meet the needs of his American
students, Kim reviewed all the hands-
on research he’d done over the years
and created his own system, which
he dubbed chayon-ryu (“natural way”
in Korean) in 1970. Its curriculum
encompassed kicks from taekwondo
and hapkido, hand techniques from
the Chinese arts and Japanese the World Taekwondo Federation. By gue 4-5-6 of Tae Kwon Do Hyung in
karate, and various components from 1985 Kim had earned his ninth dan 1976 and Palgue 7-8 of Tae Kwon Do
judo and aikido. from the Kang Duk Won, which was Hyung in 1981. All were consistent
At that point, many martial arts followed four years later by the same sellers for decades. In fact, the first
instructors might have throttled rank from the Taekwon Kwon Bop volume can still be ordered from
down a bit and started enjoying the organization. In 1994 the latter pro- Century Martial Arts.
empire they’d built, but not Kim Soo. claimed him a 10th dan. Kim’s most recent article in Black
The master’s journey of learning was (If you’re wondering how one Belt was published in 2008. In it,
far from over. In 1973 he achieved martial artist could earn so many he was asked about his plans for
his seventh degree from the Korea advanced degrees in such a short the future. He said he expects he’ll
Taekwondo Association, and in 1979 time, know that these styles — tae- eventually retire and move back to
he earned his eighth degree from kwondo, tae soo do, kong soo do and Korea. Fast-forward 10 years. Kim
four organizations: the Kang Duk so on — are very closely related. In Soo is still hard at work in Houston.
Won, the Kwon Bup Association, the some cases, the names refer to the On second thought, he probably
Korea Taekwondo Association and same art but in diferent eras.) doesn’t consider it work. Way back in
Kim’s relation- 1972, Kim told Black Belt, “My work
ship with Black Belt is my hobby. My mission is to bring
didn’t end when he self-confidence, character and under-
left Korea in 1968. standing to people who, like myself,
From his base in have known self-doubt. I can do this
Texas, he wrote through [martial arts].”
three books for No doubt all of us can relate to
Ohara Publications, that sentiment. And no doubt a lot
the former name of Texans are glad he’s opted to stay
of the magazine’s in the States to do just that. The staf
book-publishing of Black Belt is certainly happy he’s
arm: Palgue 1•2•3 done so and is proud to present Kim
of Tae Kwon Do Soo with its 2018 Instructor of the
Hyung in 1973, Pal- Year award.

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 49

 2018 Woman of the Year
orty-five years ago, the

F
martial arts world was
largely a boys club.
Almost all the instructors
were male, almost all the
famous competitors were
male and almost all the
martial artists everyone
talked about — like those who got
featured on the cover of Black Belt —
were male.
Then a tournament competitor
from Northern California, at the time
known as Malia Dacascos, became
the first female champion to grace
the magazine’s cover. Dacascos,
who’s now known as Malia Ber-
nal, was not only the No. 1–ranked
woman in the country in both forms
and fighting for several years run-
ning, but she also had the temerity to
begin challenging — and beating —
the best male forms competitors. She
ended up being rated the fourth best
kata competitor in the United States
in the men’s division, as well.
“I was always competing against
the same group of women, and I
thought, Why not compete against
the men for a change?” Bernal said.
“I finally asked one promoter, and he
let me do it. I’ll never forget that first
tournament. All the men lined up for
the kata competition, then I stepped
out there and someone said, ‘You
have the wrong division!’ And I told
him, ‘No, I’m competing against you
guys today.’
“Then I won. But I never thought
anyone would still be talking about it
years later.”
A self-described tomboy, Bernal
was raised on a farm several miles
from the nearest neighbors. She mar-
ried young, and when her husband
was away from home working eve-
nings, her parents recommended she
take some sort of self-defense class
just in case she ever had to protect
herself. Never one to jump into any-
Photos Courtesy of Malia Bernal

thing without doing a little research

first, she began visiting local martial

Malia Bernal
arts schools to see which would be
the best fit.
“I went to a local strip mall — one
of those places with a pizza parlor,
an ice cream shop and a karate
BY MARK JACOBS school tucked in between — but I

50 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018

didn’t care for it,” Bernal said. “I said. “But when we had street clothes passed down to a number of stu-
went to several more karate schools, on, it was open prairie. I could say dents, including Karen Sheperd and
but they were all too rigid. I had what I wanted, and we were equal.” her stepson Mark Dacascos, both of
always done skiing and realized my Together, the pair became a pow- whom went on to become renowned
body was more of a flowing type. erful force, dominating both men’s tournament champions and garner
Then I visited a kung fu school, and and women’s tournament competi- acting success in Hollywood.
that really piqued my interest.” tion in the early 1970s. But Bernal Bernal hasn’t slowed down in recent
The school was run by Al Dacas- decided she should do more in years. She continues to teach her own
cos, a renowned practitioner of martial arts than just win trophies. style of xian dai gung fu and work as
kajukenbo who would go on to found To make a profession out of it, she a fitness trainer who begins her own
his own brand of kung fu called wun knew she’d have to stand out. She routine at 5:30 every morning.
hop kuen do. Bernal signed up for began wearing her hair in unusual Always something of a trailblazer
classes, never dreaming it would lead styles and sporting custom-tailored for women in the martial arts, Bernal
to a whole new life for her. kung fu uniforms when everyone said she never looked at herself as
Although the school had more than else was still wearing a standard- a person campaigning for women’s
a dozen other female students when issue karate gi. rights or as even consciously being
Bernal enrolled, within a few months, “Al didn’t like it at first,” Bernal part of a movement.
almost all had quit. “There were tough recalled. “He felt it was being disre- “I just did my own thing,” she said.
guys there interested in hardcore spectful. I said I didn’t see how it was “I was never one to join the band-
fighting, and they didn’t really want being disrespectful to him or his art wagon. My mother always told [me
women around,” she recalled. “And if I’m trying to take things to another to] strive to be a leader, not a fol-
most of the women didn’t want to be level so he and his style would gain lower, and [that] I should want what
battered black and blue, so they quit. more recognition. Eventually, he saw seems to be impossible. That was
But I’ve never been known to quit if I I knew what I was talking about.” how I looked at succeeding in the
really want to learn something.” Bernal’s innovations — and her martial arts world back then. I had
After a while, the male students real- uncompromising work ethic — were dreams, and if you have a dream, you
ized she wasn’t going anywhere, follow it until you succeed.”
and they began ofering advice The editors of Black Belt are
on how to improve. In return, pleased to announce that Malia Ber-
the brash Bernal told them that nal is the magazine’s 2018 Woman of
one day she would be the first the Year.
female martial arts champion
on the cover of Black Belt.
“They all laughed at me,” she
said. “But years later when it
happened, they all came to me
with copies of the magazine and
asked me to sign them.”
Dacascos was harsh on her in
the beginning, forcing his new
student to fight in her first tour-
nament after just six weeks of
training — literally pushing her
into the ring when she balked
at fighting a more experienced
green belt. For her part, Bernal
felt Dacascos was arrogant and
at times cruel. But she made a
deal with him, ofering to keep
fighting in tournaments if he taught
her forms and weapons so she could
compete in those divisions, as well.
Dacascos began taking her more
seriously, and as Bernal’s first mar-
riage began to dissolve, she and her
instructor became closer, eventually
marrying. As for the potential com-
plications of becoming involved with
her martial arts teacher, Bernal said
this was never an issue.
“When he had his uniform on and
we were in class, he was the boss,” she

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 51

 2018 Self-Defense
Instructor of the Year
t’s a recurring theme in the

I
martial arts: A young person
is in need of self-defense skills
— perhaps he or she lives in

Eyal Yanilov BY THE EDITORS

an area rife with threats — and
that person is fortunate to
be taken under the wing of a
teacher who’s a whiz at analyz-
ing violent scenarios and then find-
ing solutions to physical problems.
The young person demonstrates an
aptitude for learning the master’s
lessons, which of course gets noticed
by the master, who assigns the young
person teaching responsibilities.
When the master leaves this world,
the torch is passed. The art continues
to evolve, only now it’s under the
leadership of a new visionary.
That, in a nutshell, is the life of Eyal
Yanilov. At age 14, he began learn-
ing krav maga under an instructor in
Israel before becoming a student of
Imi Lichtenfeld, the man who created
the system. Yanilov excelled, and
Lichtenfeld made him his assistant
instructor and right-hand man
In those days, Yanilov said, krav
maga was not really a martial art or
even an organized system. It was
more of a collection of efective tech-
niques with little in the way of phi-
losophy or theory. “Imi himself was
the ‘walking system,’ but he didn’t
teach a system,” Yanilov said.
There were moves for escaping
from holds, moves for stopping
strikes and moves for taking away
weapons. Most were followed by
quick and destructive counterat-
tacks. “Back then, military and police
techniques such as holds, takedowns,
defending against bayoneted-rifle
attackers and sentry removals were
also taught — even to teenagers,”
Yanilov said.
In the mid-1980s, Yanilov, educated
as an electrical engineer and with a
strong background in physics and
Photos by Robert Reiff

mechanics, deepened his under-

standing of sport science when he
attended the School for Trainers and
Instructors at the Wingate Institute
in Netanya, Israel. The coursework
helped solidify his grasp of the

52 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018

 toward you and you want to stop
it from hitting you. They’re basic
reflexes. They definitely work. The
natural response is the foundation
for the techniques. They start the
same way — that’s why they can be
used under stress and danger.”
At the same time, he’s brutally
honest in his assessment of every-
thing he teaches. “Naturally, if a
250-pound man is attacking a 100-
pound girl, some defenses she can
do and some she can’t,” he said in
the same interview.
All who train under Yanilov in
Krav Maga Global appreciate that
movements that made up krav maga. as chief instructor and chairman of no-holds-barred approach to instruc-
Later, Yanilov expanded his knowl- the International Krav Maga Federa- tion. It’s one of the reasons they trust
edge of martial arts in general by tion, which he founded with six of his his leadership. “I took the techniques
training with James Keenan, a man advanced students. In 2010 Yanilov Imi showed before he died in 1998,
with advanced rank in taekwondo, launched Krav Maga Global – KMG. tried to understand the principles
karate and the Chinese arts. His hori- It is active in 60 countries and has behind them, and applied those prin-
zons were slowly being expanded. more than 1,500 instructors operat- ciples and variations of them to new
Yanilov’s eforts were deemed a ing in hundreds of gyms. problems,” he told Black Belt in 2015.
success by Lichtenfeld, and the two One thing his followers, no mat- “Eventually, the techniques, princi-
started writing oicial krav maga ter which country they hail from, ples, tactics, mental preparation and
books and manuals. In 1985 Yanilov admire about Yanilov is his focus physical training become meshed
began teaching his modified methods on the practical. “Blocks, deflections and integrated. It’s all taught in a
to Israeli anti-terrorism and spec-ops and parries — all these are natural very specific and unique way. This is
units, and in 1987 he introduced them responses of human beings,” he said modern krav maga.”
to American police departments. in a 2011 interview. “You raise your For his eforts to make modern krav
In the late ’80s, Yanilov crafted a hands in front of your face if some- maga available to all who are in need
new krav maga curriculum while thing is going to hit you. You put of its unarguable efectiveness, Black
transforming it into what he calls a out your arms if you’re going to fall. Belt has named Eyal Yanilov its 2018
more “technical system,” and Lichten- You do the same if something comes Self-Defense Instructor of the Year.
feld approved of that, as well. Yanilov
set about teaching the curriculum to
the top instructors in Israel. Some
accepted it and learned, while oth-
ers did not. Nevertheless, in the ’90s,
Yanilov went international with it.
Then in 1998, Lichtenfeld passed
away, leaving Yanilov in charge. It
was a monumental loss, but it did
not deter Yanilov from continuing
to fine-tune krav maga. He decided
on his next endeavor: formulating
tactics for use in a variety of self-
defense situations, including those
best dealt with in nonviolent ways.
“Krav maga was becoming a holis-
tic and integrated system of self-
defense, fighting tactics and third-
party/VIP protection,” Yanilov said.
It was now a full-fledged martial art.
Before he died, Lichtenfeld
awarded Yanilov the highest rank he
gave anyone, as well as a Founder’s
Diploma of Excellence. Yanilov then
left his position as head of the pro-
fessional committee of the Israeli
Krav Maga Association and served

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 53

 Iconic Martial Arts Event Was a Family
Photos Courtesy of Battle of Atlanta

Affair — and One for the Record Books!

BY PERRY WILLIAM KELLY
T
his year marked the 50th
iteration of the Battle
of Atlanta karate tour-
nament. From its first
winner — superstar and
Black Belt Hall of Famer
Joe Lewis — to its
present-day champions,
the BoA has showcased
a who’s who of karate
competitors and hosted
a treasure trove of his-
torical fights and kata performances.
This year’s tournament was bigger
and better than ever — and decidedly
family focused.
The 50th BoA took place June 14-16,
2018, at the Renaissance Atlanta
Waverly Hotel and Cobb Galleria
Centre in Georgia. The turnout con-
firmed that it’s still the go-to event
for karateka from across the United
States and abroad.
RECALLING THE HISTORY
Although the 2018 BoA catered to
kids of all ages, it also honored the
elders — specifically by inducting
a few martial artists into the select
group of people who have received
the Joe Lewis Eternal Warrior Award.
However, the event’s tag line was
“Where Legends Are Made,” and to
that end, plenty of current stars were
on hand to display their talents to the
amazement of onlookers.
To fully understand the homecom-
ing that was the 50th Battle, you need
to know how it started and how it
became the tournament that everyone
who was anyone had to attend. To do
that, we must look at Joe Corley.
Five decades ago, in a scene like
something from an old movie,
Atlanta-based Corley decided to
rent a gym and put on a show — the
first BoA. Half a century later, those
grainy black-and-white memo-
ries have faded, and they’ve been
replaced by full-color, high-defini-
tion images of what a technically
advanced, modern karate tourna-
ment should look like.
Corley’s motivation for creating
the BoA was to bring fairness back
to competition. “Battle co-founder
Chris McLoughlin and I traveled
the country, competing in tourna-
ments from Arizona to D.C. and from
Miami to New York,” Corley said.
“The main thing that we saw and
experienced was how much regional ceremony. I asked Corley to explain.
bias existed around the country. The “We worked closely with Joe Lewis
bias included favoritism not only to [Fighting] Systems in implementing
the regional favorites but also to the the Joe Lewis Eternal Warrior Award
fighters and team members of that at the Battle of Atlanta [in] 2013 fol-
same organization. lowing grandmaster Lewis’ passing,”
“Our initial mission was simple: to he said. “The premise was to bestow
create an environment where anyone his namesake award on the kinds of
from anywhere could win on any fighters he respected, and he set an
given tournament day. The mandate incredibly high bar. Needless to say,
for our oicials was to exercise the these recipients have reached the
kind of fair and impartial judging heights of competitive intensity.”
that one would expect at a martial The ceremony was a treat for all
arts event, where honor and dignity karate fans. I was transported back to
should be paramount. We drew many my teen years, when champions like
of the top fighters in the country to John Natividad, Keith Vitali and Jef
Atlanta, the first time that had hap- Smith graced the cover of Black Belt.
pened in the Southeast.” Martial arts icons who were recog-
Over the years since its launch, the nized in 2018 included Linda Denley,
BoA has seen numerous innovations a tang soo do practitioner who’s won
in tournament karate. Protective gear a plethora of championships; Ste-
for sparring was made mandatory phen K. Hayes, the face of ninjutsu in
here. Jhoon Rhee’s martial ballet America for decades; and Dr. Maung
debuted here, laying the groundwork Gyi, the man who introduced bando
for what’s now called musical forms. to America.
During its reign as the premier tour-
ney in America, the Battle attracted
I was fortunate to have a chance to
interact with another elder of the mar-
such action icons as Chuck Norris, tial arts, a man named J. Pat Burleson.
Burt Reynolds and Wesley Snipes. I asked him if he saw any diferences
In the 1980s, the BoA’s full-contact
fights were featured on ESPN, NBC, Joe Corley
ABC, CNN and TNT.
You might say that the rich his-
tory of the Battle of Atlanta set the
standard, and when you look at those
who walked away with medals and
trophies this year, you can see how
they met the challenge. However, it
was the friends made, the legends
met and the fellowship enjoyed that
attendees will remember forever.
HONORING THE ELDERS
Part of understanding where you are
is knowing who paved the way for you
to get there. Everyone at the Battle
does this by honoring their elders. For
me, it began when I chatted with Gary
Lee, head honcho of the Sport Karate
Museum in Sugar Land, Texas. Lee
had a display of martial arts memo-
rabilia, including a photo of Bruce
Lee and Jhoon Rhee sparring on the
beach. He regaled me with stories of
competing “back in the day” and even
recounted a meeting he had with a
new Black Belt assistant editor named
Robert Young (now the editor-in-chief
of the magazine).
The homage to our ancestors con-
tinued with the Joe Lewis Award
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 55
between competitors in 2018 and
competitors 50 years ago. “The fight-
ers are better technically now — but a
little light on balls,” he quipped.
When you’ve been in karate for six
decades, much of it during the blood-
and-guts era of competition when
protective equipment didn’t exist,
you can get a pass on a comment like
that, I figured.
RECRUITING THE STAFF
Several years ago, Corley handed
of the running of the Battle of
Atlanta to a family of top-notch
tournament promoters. “I had two
other projects that were — and still
are — major draws on my attention,
and Greg Ruth and his family had
stepped up and helped me in the
hosting of the live events,” Corley
said. “He asked one night how I
would feel if they took over the
Battle. I instinctively knew it would
be in the best hands with him, and
we transitioned the handof over
several years.
“I sleep well, knowing our work for
so many years is in caring, capable,
competent hands. It was easy to see
Greg’s passion for presenting the
56 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018
sport in its best light. It was espe-
cially rewarding to see him making
decisions for the right things for
the right reasons and with the right
principles. He always came down on
the side of what was good and fair
for the competitors.”
Greg Ruth’s passion started in
1998 when he attended his first BoA
with his son Brian. It was 11-year-old
Brian’s second national tournament,
and he won first place in fighting
that day.
“I began helping with the Battle as
coordinator for the black-belt divi-
sions in 2000,” Greg said. “However,
it was after 9/11 that my passion for
the Battle came full circle. [In 2002],
as my granddaughter Mariah held
the flag onstage and my son Toby
sang Alan Jackson’s Where Were You
When the World Stopped Turning, I
realized that I wanted to have a much
larger role.”
Since then, Greg has developed
what he calls a “major family event of
synergy.” His twin sons are involved
— Toby serves as executive director,
and Tommy creates the graphics and
designs for the banners and flyers.
Meanwhile, Mariah works as market-
ing director, and her son Jacob is the
guy who cheerfully does anything
that’s asked of him.
FINDING THE TALENT
Greg Ruth also relies on his friends
Eric Rudolph and Ronnie Presley,
who serve as tournament directors.
Both have sired families of martial
artists whose onstage performances
rival anything David Copperfield has
done in Las Vegas. Case in point: At
the Battle Zone finals, the Rudolph
and Presley kids combined their mar-
tial arts skills with of-the-charts ath-
leticism and showmanship to bring
the house down.
Reid, Cole, Jake and Averi Presley
are all NASKA champions, and they
won grand-championship titles at
this year’s Battle of Atlanta. The
audience’s collective jaw dropped
when Reid performed a backflip
while switching the hand he used
to hold his bo behind his back. And
10-year-old Averi’s intensity in her
kata impressed even the adults in
attendance. She won’t be getting her
lunch money stolen any time soon.
Speaking of bullies, you may not
know the name Jake Presley, but
you might remember him from Ben
The Battle of Atlanta has always
attracted martial arts celebrities.

Greg Ruth (left)
and Joe Corley
Affleck’s 2016 actioner The Accoun-
tant, in which he played a bully
destroyer. His brothers Reid and
Cole have roles in the martial arts TV
series Into the Badlands.
And then there’s Eric’s son Jack-
son Rudolph. He’s a 58-time sport-
karate champion and a member of
the prestigious Team Paul Mitchell
Karate. At the Battle of Atlanta, the
rising star won in musical weapons,
non-bladed creative weapons and
traditional non-bladed weapons.
A professional athlete for Century
Martial Arts, Jackson is founder of
the Flow System, which he developed
in conjunction with the Martial Arts
Industry Association. To top it all
of, he’s in the pre-med program at
Stanford University and on track to
become a neurosurgeon. Not bad for
a 20-year-old!
“Let’s not forget one of our most know they’ll be taking on a peer rather
competitive divisions: the men’s than an opponent who’s decades
60-plus black-belt division. Last younger or many pounds heavier.
year, it exploded, and it’s expected
to be even more competitive for
the 50th — chock-full of the sport’s
legends who could not and would
MEETING THE
not shake their competitive fire and
allegiance to the Battle.”
COMPETITORS
While working out at the gym in
That last statement rang true for the hotel, I met some fighters from
me (see sidebar) because I com- Hungary. Despite their limited Eng-
peted at the Battle of Atlanta this lish and my nonexistent Hungar-
year. Why? In part because it’s one ian, I learned that they’d flown 15
of the few tournaments in which hours from Budapest to get it on in
senior fighters can face of against Atlanta. That prompted me to ask
their peers without being at a poten- Corley what attracts people like that
tially huge disadvantage. In other to the Battle.
events, an older fighter might have “The consistent draw is the obvious
25 years on his opponent. Or he sense of fairness that was our initial
might find himself facing a much mission,” he said. “Each year, we
heavier foe because weight divi- would see champions from various
sions had to be combined. parts of the country as grand cham-
But I can attest that older martial pions, and we truly did not have
artists like to bang as much as the any vested interest in who won. We
young bucks, especially when they also invested in having high-profile,
If point fighting isn’t your thing, you can opt
for semi-contact fighting, sport jiu-jitsu,
forms, weapon forms, synchronized team
forms, musical forms — and the list goes on.

SERVING THE CROWD

To meet the needs of all who enter,
the Battle of Atlanta ofers a myriad
of categories in which people can
compete. They’re broken down
according to age, as well as activity.
If point fighting isn’t your thing, you
can opt for semi-contact fighting,
sport jiu-jitsu, forms, weapon forms,
synchronized team forms, musical
forms — and the list goes on.
The drive to deliver something
for everyone was explained by Greg
Ruth: “There are divisions for all
belts, all ages, boys, girls, men and
women. We will in a big way this year
be highlighting the youth underbelts
— the future of our sport — onstage
at the Battle. This emphasis on our
future leaders is sponsored by Cen-
tury and has rapidly become a crowd
favorite in the Battle Zone finals.

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 57

highly respected, highly competent,
fair oicials. The Tournaments of
Champions drew big attention from
fighters who aspired to be included
and gave them a chance to be in the
company of the best competition in
the world.”
Another aspect of the BoA that
participants love is its commitment
to community service and charity
work. “We have our annual visit to
the children’s hospital — Children’s
Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite
— with Team Paul Mitchell Karate,”
Greg Ruth said. “Each year, we visit
the kids, and each year, they inspire
us. This has truly become the high-
light of each Battle of Atlanta.”
JOINING THE FAMILY
Looking back, I regard the 2018
Battle of Atlanta as one of the most
enjoyable martial arts events I’ve
attended. From the moment I entered
the hotel — which had 80 percent of
its rooms occupied by martial artists
and their families — I was treated like
a long-lost relative. “I remember y’all
from last year!” said the stafer who
checked me in.
The workers at the venue have
seen it all — kids swinging swords,
teens wielding kama and bo, gi-clad
competitors gobbling down food
before their next event — but they’re
still accommodating, and that
warms the heart of even the most
hardened martial artist who knows
what it takes to compete in an event
at this level.
The Battle of Atlanta really is a
family afair. In a way, it reminds
me of something Bruce Lee once
The Fighting Writer

 I went to the Battle of Atlanta
not only to cover it for Black
Belt but also to see if I could add
one to the win column I started
keeping track of when I returned
to sport karate after a 45-year
layoff. Although I earned a gold
medal in the over-50 division
at the 2017 World Police & Fire
Games, a win at the Battle would
provide me with something to
brag about when I hit my rocking-
chair stage.
I entered the over-60/under-
190-pounds sparring division.
Because I regularly spar with
members of the Canadian
national karate and muay Thai
WHDPV,ZDVQ·WFRQFHUQHGDERXW
getting injured.
In my prelim, I faced a Joe
Corley black belt who quickly
gained a two-point lead. To even
the score, I unleashed a round-
house that “bit” hard into his ribs.
Unfortunately, it caused him to drop, which resulted in a snapped collarbone. I felt
terrible that my kick was more muay Thai than karate and apologized profusely.
,QWKHÀQDO,IDFHGDVDYY\NDUDWHÀJKWHUZKRVHHPHGWZLFHP\KHLJKW,WZDVD
technical battle that went down to the wire, with him getting the nod in the form of a
VFRUH6RPHRIP\WHFKQLTXHVZHUHQ·WVHHQE\DOOWKHMXGJHVEXWWKDW·VSDUWRI
WKHJDPH,FRQJUDWXODWHGKLPIRUEHLQJWKHEHWWHUÀJKWHUWKDWGD\
Later, Corley informed me that I would receive a Joe Lewis Eternal Warrior
Award for my contributions to the arts. My 30-year career as a martial arts writer
and law-enforcement defensive-tactics instructor was being recognized, along with
my win. I felt honored beyond belief.
said: “Under the sky, we are but one an instructor in four other martial
family — it just so happens we look arts. He’s the former national coor-
diferent!” dinator for use of force for the Cor-
rectional Service of Canada. His
Perry William Kelly has a fifth- website is perrywkelly.com.
degree black belt in jiu-jitsu and is

Battle of Atlanta Highlights

1970: The first BoA tournament is held at Oglethorpe
University in Atlanta.
1973: Joe Corley fights Bill Wallace for the PKA
middleweight title in front of 12,000 fans.
1976: Jeff Smith fights Wally Slocki for the light-
heavyweight title with comedian and Chico and the Man
star Freddie Prinze providing commentary.
1986: A show dubbed Karatemania featuring “The Iceman”
Jean-Yves Theriault and Bob “Thunder” Thurman takes
place at the BoA. It’s the week’s highest-rated program
for ESPN.
2002: On the one-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks, New York City Police Commissioner Bernard
Kerik, a karate black belt, is inducted into the Battle of
Atlanta Centurion Club.

1979: The BoA debuts on ESPN. 2013: The Joe Lewis Eternal Warrior Awards are introduced.

58 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018

GET THE NEW AND IMPROVED BLACK BELT now on your favorite digital device, including the
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Subscribe on our website to get the BEST pricing. To learn more, VISIT BLACKBELTMAG.COM!
 d

  

 
   
    G
]  <
 2
In case you missed our December 2014/
January 2015 issue, which featured the
fictional Master Ken on the cover, here’s a
recap. The character is brought to life by a
real martial artist named Matt Page. On
screen and of, he’s supported by Todd, who’s
played by another real martial artist named
Joe Conway. Together, they’ve built Enter
the Dojo into a runaway hit on the web, as
well as a series of live shows that have taken
place in Germany, the United Kingdom
and Australia so far. They also have a
high-visibility working relationship with
Century Martial Arts. We recently sat down
with Page and Conway to find out what’s
happening in their world. (You can read that
original cover story at blackbeltmag.com.)


s I pull into a
parking spot
in front of the
worldwide
ameri-do-te
headquar-
ters, a smile spreads across
my face. The dojo door
is locked, but that’s OK because a banner sporting a
familiar tiger tells me I’m in the right place. I snap a few
pix for social media, then drive of to kill time until my
appointment with Master Ken.
I return a little early and run into him and his sidekick
Todd, who just drove up and are still stuing burgers
and fries into their faces. As I follow them inside, I’m
accosted by the aroma of onions, which for some reason
does not seem out of place.
A kids class is going on — yes, the tiger’s lair is a func-
tioning martial arts school. We walk by a few Master
Ken posters and some custom-made ameri-do-te gear,
then take a load of in the oice. I get right to the point:
“What’s been happening in the world of Enter the Dojo
since we shot that Black Belt cover?”
“Well, we’ve released four seasons of the show,”
begins Master Ken — I mean, Matt Page.
I interrupt him for clarification: “What exactly does a
‘season’ mean on YouTube?”
“That’s a good question,” Page replies. “We consider
a season to be a set of storylines that include the same
characters, which usually means Master Ken’s students.
But what has become a lot more visible and more popu-
lar are the trending topics, the videos where we com-
ment on things that are happening now. These don’t
require context, and they tend to be shorter. We’re able
to pick up on waves of discussion — if something hap-
pens in the news, we say, ‘Let’s go to the dojo and see
what we can come up with.’ Some of those videos we
turn around in less than 24 hours.”
I ask how the creative process unfolds, especially when
deadlines are in place. Joe Conway, aka Todd, helps me
understand the workflow: “The hardest part is getting
started. Once the camera’s rolling, then it’s all business.”
“We do have some bad takes,” Page adds. “We may do
four or five takes where it’s like, that’s not it. Then we
start thinking, OK, what are we missing? Maybe we don’t
have enough one-liners. Maybe we don’t have enough
references to the story.”
Those stories, it turns out, come from real life. Page says
he collects inspirations from real martial artists. “With
me, it’s like the Clark Kent/Superman thing,” he says.
“Clark takes of the glasses, and no one recognizes him.
I take of the Master Ken mustache, and I’m invisible.
That’s nice when I go to events because sometimes I need
to do reconnaissance. I can sit in a seminar and gather
material for jokes. I’ll be taking notes and thinking, We’re
going to make fun of that … and that … and that.”
Laughing
Making fun is what Master Ken does. And fans get to
watch him do that more often than ever, it seems.
“To stay current on social media, you have to put
out content every week, almost every day,” Page says.
“What’s interesting is that when we started, we were
doing what the platforms we’re looking for: bite-size
content. But now people want longer videos. At one
point, I felt like maybe we’d done enough regular sea-
sons of Enter the Dojo, but now I’m thinking maybe we’ll
do a new season or maybe a spinof series. You have to
play to what people are watching, and right now, they’re
watching longer content.”
Page notes that “longer content” means videos that
are at least 10 minutes. I ask how many such shows he
and Conway can manage in a week. “We shoot a season
like a TV show,” Page says. “There are three cameras
and a crew — the whole deal. It takes about a day and a

62 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018

half to two days to shoot a 10-minute episode, but then it
can take a week to edit.”
“It’s a little diferent if a sponsor is involved,” Con-
way says.
“It really helps when we can get a video sponsored,”
Page continues. “It allows us to take a little more time,
to hire a couple of people to help. We’ve done a variety
of sponsored videos. We’ve done product reviews for
Century Martial Arts. We had a great collaboration
with a software company, where they gave us very wide
parameters along with notes on where they would like
to put their product in the storyline. And we just worked
with a local firing range and firearms dealer, and they
actually had scripts already written. We just plugged
our characters into what they were doing.”
“It can be tricky, though,” Conway adds, “because
sometimes the people writing the lines don’t under-
stand Master Ken’s character.”
Page concurs. “This is the trickiest thing in sponsor-
ship,” he says. “Master Ken evolved by being irreverent,
by being ofensive, and to take him away from that is
risky because that’s what made him popular. When we
have to take the edge of to deliver a commercial, we
notice it. In one shoot, we got all the way to postproduc-
tion and then finally somebody in charge watched the
video and they were like, ‘Whoa, wait a minute! There
are a couple of words in there we cannot say.’ We had to
go back in and rerecord the dialogue. But that’s OK. It’s
about learning that balance.”
Interacting
Master Ken has risen to such a status that Page and
Conway have no problem recruiting famous martial
artists to guest-star. “We’ve had Cynthia Rothrock,
Michael Jai White, ‘Karate Hottie’ Michelle Waterson,
Chris Casamassa and others,” Page says.
One admirer jetted halfway around the world for his
close-up. “He flew in from Israel,” Page says. “He said he

   6


 6
was a fan who just wanted to be on the show.
“Master Ken has been in some feature films, too:
Sicario, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and Whiskey
Tango Foxtrot. Recently, I was on a show called The
Night Shift and another one called Midnight, Texas —
things they shoot here in Albuquerque.”
Master Ken, it seems, isn’t the only one getting some
notoriety. “We did a collab in Las Vegas with Funker
Tactical,” Conway says. “We did videos with all those
guys, then got to the locale where a seminar was going
on with probably 50 to 100 people. We walked in and
heard some rumbling, and they were looking at us. Then
one guy went up to Matt and said, ‘Can you take a pic-
ture of me and Todd?’”
“Then they turned to Joe and said, ‘Where’s Master
Ken?’” Page adds, laughing.
Conway says getting recognized as Todd is fun — for
the most part: “One time, I was in line at Starbucks
when a guy was driving by. He screeched to a stop, put
his phone out the window and started taking pictures.
That one was odd. It’s a little uncomfortable when they
make it obvious.”
I ask if it’s ever a bad thing. “I don’t think so,” Page
says. “It’s a reminder that people like our work, and
that’s a big motivator. It’s especially cool when they ref-
erence a recent video we’ve done. …”
“As opposed to the people who say, ‘I’m such a huge
fan — and I really got to catch up on Season 1,” Conway
says with a howl.
Both Page and Conway say they’re amazed at the
famous martial artists who are fans of Enter the Dojo.
“We were on a trip once when a guy came up to us and
said, ‘Somebody wants to take a picture with you,’” Con-
way says. “It was Carlos Machado! The same thing hap-
pened with one of the Gracies.”
“And Cynthia Rothrock,” Page says. “She said she
really liked our videos and then agreed to do a collab
with us. I’ve been aware of her since I was a kid watch-
ing her movies, so when somebody whose work you
  
 



 






  ]
 

2

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 63

 

 
 


 
  
 
 
  
2
grew up watching says they like your work, it’s a special
kind of validation.
“It was similar with Michael Jai White. Originally,
we met him briefly at the Martial Arts SuperShow,
then he watched more of our videos. Later, the makeup
artist who works on Enter the Dojo was working on a
movie he was making, and she mentioned us. He was
like, ‘Oh, yeah, those guys are funny.’ She reminded
him that we’re in Albuquerque, so he came in and did
a video.”
Distributing
Recalling the discussion we’d had when Page visited
our oice for the aforementioned Black Belt cover, I
wondered if he still harbored hopes of landing a Master
Ken TV series.
“When we started the show, the point was to get on
TV, but it feels like in the six years we’ve been doing
this, the flow of content has shifted,” Page says. “It
seems like legacy media — feature films and tradi-
tional television — are trying to adapt to more current
platforms. Out of necessity, we have been doing the
thing that’s coming into popularity now because we
didn’t know how to get a TV show going. That’s why we
decided to just make our own show and put it online.
“The further we progress, the more I believe that cre-
ating your own content and putting it out on various
platforms, building your following and having your own
brand is where things are going.”
Page says he’d be excited if he was ofered a TV series,
but he’s not holding his breath. “We’ve had those meet-
ings, and nobody seems to know what to do with us,” he
says. “It’s not that I don’t want to collaborate with peo-
ple, but I’m not going to sign away control of the show
with the promise that maybe someday this will work out
financially. I’m a lot more excited about what we can do
on our own with these new platforms. We have almost
300,000 YouTube subscribers, we have half a million
Facebook followers and we have 46 million channel
views on our YouTube channel.”
64 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018
Despite taking a beating in the majority of those You-
Tube views, Conway never gets tired of it. “He hungers
for it!” Page says with an evil smirk.
“Todd actually gets insulted if Master Ken chooses
somebody else to demonstrate on,” Conway says.
“Sometimes I’m like, ‘You’ve got to make more contact
because it’s easier for me to sell it.’ There are times
when people think, Oh, Master Ken really hurt him. I’m
like, ‘No, I’m just a good actor.’” (laughs)
Training
That ability — and willingness — to take a shot prompts
me to ask about Conway’s background. “It all started
when a friend took me to The Perfect Weapon,” he
says. “That movie got me into kenpo. I started train-
ing in Santa Fe and went up through the ranks. Then
my teacher moved. I went around to other schools but
wasn’t impressed. I don’t want to be snooty, but what
I was getting from American kenpo was something I
wanted to continue.
“I moved to Albuquerque years later and learned that
Jef Speakman was doing a seminar here. I met him
and found out he had a kenpo school in Albuquerque.
So I started training. One day, I was told Jef Speakman
wanted to take me to lunch. He said he wanted to move
to Albuquerque and develop the school, then asked me
to be the instructor.”
Conway admits that was nice to hear, coming from
the kenpo icon — but he says he didn’t feel worthy.
Nevertheless, he accepted. “I took over the Jef Speak-
man school about seven years before we started doing
Enter the Dojo. That was back when they were doing
kenpo 4.0.”
Kenpo 4.0 eventually gave way to the MMA-influ-
enced kenpo 5.0. “I was there in the embryonic stages of
that,” Conway says. “In fact, I was able to go to Australia
to share some of that knowledge with his schools before
it had even been presented.”
The next step on the martial path for the man who
gives life to Todd was Brazilian jiu-jitsu. “The grappling
in kenpo 5.0 seemed like just the tip of the iceberg,”
Conway says. “It left me hungrier for more jiu-jitsu.
So a couple of years ago, I started training at the New
Mexico Jiu-Jitsu Academy. I dabbled in other things,
too — like stick fighting in Bobby Taboada’s system. I
tested for level four in that. Kenpo 5.0 is still my pas-
sion, though.”
Passion, indeed. Conway just received his fourth-
degree black belt in the system.
Teaching
“ABQ Karate is the name of our school here,” Conway
says. “As most martial artists will tell you, there’s not a
lot of money in teaching. The great thing is, Enter the
Dojo has given us the opportunity to meet with success-
ful martial artists. All of a sudden, it’s like, you mean
you can make a living doing this? You don’t have to
keep your day job?”
Conway is clearly pleased with his new lot in life as
a full-time instructor, but I feel compelled to ask the
dynamic duo if visiting martial artists — people like me
— ever interfere with the routine. Page says they used
to deliberately keep their school and the fictional head-
quarters of ameri-do-te separate to reduce the chance of
that happening, but then they relented.
“We thought it was silly because even without us put-
ting it out there, people who are on road trips across the
country find out where we are and stop by,” Page says.
“They’ll take a picture outside the door. They’ll message
us. Sometimes they’ll even knock on the door. Once Joe
called me and said, ‘There’s a kid here who’s a big fan.’ I
was like, ‘All right, I can be there in 15 minutes.’ I drove
down and we took a quick picture by the banner.”
Planning
“We’re really excited about what next year has in store
for Master Ken and Todd,” Page says. “We have a lot of
plans — new material, new people we want to have on
the show, new hero videos we want to make and new
trending topics we want to address. We’re going to put
out content as often as we can, but we want to make sure
it’s good content.”
Conway jumps in: “Now I’m going to put Matt up on
a pedestal. He comes up with the ideas, directs us, acts,
edits — it’s a lot of work.”
“I wouldn’t mind some help!” Page bellows, then grins.
“It is a lot of work, and I couldn’t do it without Joe. He’s
a school owner and a martial artist, which makes the
brainstorming so valuable. I’ll come in and say, ‘OK, so
here’s a concept for a video. Here’s what I think is funny
about it, but I don’t know what the video is.’
“And Joe says, ‘Well, today some students said this
or that,’ and we end up taking this abstract concept and
grounding it in what he can relate to as an instructor.”
Conway summarizes: “Matt comes up with the idea
and then …” — a smile spreads across his face — “he
forges the goblet and I polish it.”
“And as long as people keep watching, we’ll keep
doing it,” Page says.
See more of Master Ken and Todd at youtube.com/user/
EnterTheDojoShow.
Photo by Robert W. Young
 i d n’t
Tim
r S ta t es m a n D
JKD Senio rt ,
Start in B ru ce Le e ’s A
D i d n ’t St o p H i m
But That o f It s
From Be co m i n g O n e
es p e c te d T e ac h e r s!
Most R
Tacke tt Interview by R
As I sat in his immaculate living room, listening to
the tale of Tim Tackett unfold from the mouth of the
man himself, I couldn’t help but note the parallels
between his life and mine. Both of us started our
martial arts journeys in the United States before
going to Asia for non-martial arts reasons. Both of
us, however, seized the opportunity to train as much
as possible while in Asia. Both of us found that local
masters were flattered that a foreigner had come
so far because of his passion for the arts and subse-
quently were very giving. Both of us returned from
Asia and built a career in the martial arts that did
not involve teaching what we’d learned in the Far
East. That’s where the parallels end. Tackett’s path
led him to become a prominent jeet kune do teacher,
while mine led me to become the editor of Black Belt.
And that is why, as I sat on his sofa, Tim Tackett was
doing 90 percent of the talking and I was happy to do
90 percent of the listening.
obert W. Youn
g
PART 1
Could you tell us how you got started in the martial arts
and how Taiwan fit into it?
I was always interested in World War II combatives
when I was a kid. There was a chief of police here in
Redlands, California, named Wesley Brown who had
written a book on it, and I futzed around with that for
a while. Because I was in the YMCA youth circus at the
time, martial arts seemed natural to me.
So you had an athletic background from the beginning?
I did. Interestingly enough, Bob Bremer, whom I learned
jeet kune do from, was also a trampoline guy. He
taught Bruce Lee how to do backflips and stuff. That
helps you know where your body is in space.
What came next martial arts-wise?
When I was 12 or 13, a judo guy started teaching at
the Y, so I began training with him. Then nine months
later, he moved, and we were left with no martial arts

anywhere nearby. It was a lot different then, in 1952 or
’53, than it is now.
Anyway, I finished high school and went to my first year
of junior college, then joined the Air Force. First, I was
stationed in Louisiana, where I met my wonderful wife of
57 years now, and then I was told that we were being
sent to Taiwan.
Was that a duty station you had requested because of
martial arts?
No. I actually got orders to go to Fairbanks, Alaska, but my
wife was pregnant, so we got out of that. We went to Taiwan
instead, where I worked on a national security base where
they monitored Chinese broadcasts. I met a guy named
Mr. Chung, who taught a martial art called kuo shu. I also
learned hsing-i, white crane and some Southern Shaolin.
Then I went to a local park and met an old man named
Yuan Tao, a tai chi and hsing-i teacher who had been
a guerrilla general. He accepted me as a student, so I
started learning tai chi from him. He thought I learned it
so well, in fact, that he made me his assistant instructor.
Did that go over well with his students?
Most people didn’t pay any attention to it. It wasn’t like
when kung fu came here and all this “secret” nonsense
started. Then another teacher in the park offered to teach
me for nothing so that I would take his art to America, so I
68 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018
ning,
After decades of jeet kune do trai
t are
Tim Tacket t possesses hands tha
pite the fac t that
as lethal as ever — des
ROWH DFK HU
KH·VDUHWLUHG\HDUROGVFKR
learned more Shaolin and some chin-na from him. I ended
up working out maybe seven hours a day, six days a week
— just doing martial arts. The reason I could train so much
is my wife was working days teaching school while I was
working swing shifts at the airbase, so I had all morning
and most of the afternoons free.
Because the Japanese were there for 50 years, many
Taiwanese martial artists used belts. I ended up getting
a second-degree black belt. Some instructors didn’t use
belts. Under them, you were either an assistant instructor
or a full instructor. So I also became a full instructor in the
kuo shu association.
When your tour of duty was over, did you return to
California?
Yes, and I started a school. In the meantime, I visited some
other schools in the area — there still weren’t many. I went
to a kung fu school here in Redlands. The instructor was
actually upset that I was teaching. He said it was all sup-
posed to be secret. I showed him a card from my teacher
in Taiwan, and he ended up sending a letter to my teacher,
Photos by Robert W. Young
asking why he had taught me so much.
The next school I visited was Ed Parker’s. Later, some of
my students fought in his tournaments. This was at the end
of 1964 and the beginning of ’65. Parker had me show
him what I’d learned in Taiwan, and then Dan Inosanto,
Jim Greenwald and Steve Golden took me out to lunch.
 Dan Inosanto was a kenpo practitioner
then, wasn’t he?
Yes. And then I saw Bruce Lee in 1967,
and I was impressed. I thought what he
was doing was pretty interesting, but I
didn’t have time to get into it because I
was going to college and trying to run
my school.
In 1970 I graduated with a Master of
Fine Arts degree and started teaching
drama at Montclair High School. The
first student I gave a black belt to was a
guy named Bob Chapman. One day, we
went to a tai chi school to check it out. I
showed the instructor my tai chi, and he
said he would take us as students.
When we left, his assistant followed
us out. He said, “Listen, you’re not
going to learn anything from this guy
— he feels threatened because you
already know tai chi.” Then he asked,
“You ever heard of jeet kune do?” I
said, “Yeah, Bruce Lee’s thing.” And he
said, “You know Dan Inosanto?” I said
that I knew Dan pretty well. Then he
said, “Here’s his unlisted phone num-
ber. If you’re interested in jeet kune do,
give him a call.”
So I called him up and Dan was like,
“Timmy, come on down! It’s not too big
a deal — bring some boxing gloves.”
That could be ominous.
(smiles) Bob Chapman and I went down to Dan’s back-
yard, where he had a little school. My first class there I
fought full contact — against Bob Bremer and Daniel Lee.
I didn’t do terribly bad, but I didn’t do that well, either.
Once I started doing [JKD], I realized that it was so much
better than what I knew. That’s when I began throwing
away things that didn’t work.
And you stayed with it.
I just stayed with it. It became what I wanted to do. I never
taught it commercially. The whole thing of it was, nobody
was doing this stuff for a living. Bob Bremer was a crane
operator. Jerry Poteet was a carpenter. Richard Bustillo
worked for Continental Airlines. I was a schoolteacher. But
I really enjoyed teaching JKD. I guess people started hear-
ing about me because Mito Uyehara, founder of Black
Belt magazine, approached me and asked if I wanted to
do a book on hsing-i. So I wrote a big book, which ended
up getting cut in half and then they lost the second half.
Years later, it was found and published, so I ended up
being the author of volume one and two of that. Then I
did some other books before coming back to my home at
Black Belt to write my two Chinatown Jeet Kune Do books.
People started coming from Europe to train with me,
and I would go there during the summer when I was off.
Eventually, I retired from teaching high school and got
tired of traveling. Basically, I retired from formal teaching
— and was inducted into the Black Belt Hall of fame. You
have to retire to do that, I think.
How important was training in Asia in your life?
It was something special for me. What was really interest-
ing was how open everybody was. They were worried
their arts would die out and were happy I was going
back to America to teach them. There was none of that
nonsense I heard over here with the Chinese saying, “You
can’t teach Caucasians.” In Taiwan, they would come up
to me and offer to teach for free!
I got into the respect that was always present in the mar-
tial arts community in Taiwan. When you met a teacher,
you would do this and that. When you became a teacher,
you didn’t call yourself sifu or print business cards that say
“sifu.” You’re somebody else’s sifu, not your own sifu.
Also, in Taiwan, there was no such thing as a master.
There was only instructor and full instructor.
Would you recommend to people that they spend time in
Asia, if possible?
Yeah … but I don’t know what it’s like now. I don’t know
if it’s different. I don’t know if they still have all those
fascinating martial arts because the world seems to have
gotten [obsessed with] MMA and everybody talks smack
about everybody else.
Overall, what role do you think your experience as
a schoolteacher had in your being able to convey the
essence of JKD to your students?
When I was teaching high school and later directing plays
and stuff, I found that passing along information was very
easy for me. Often at training events, Dan Inosanto would
say, “You go ahead and do most of the talking here.”
You had the ability to break down the material into some-
thing that’s appropriate for the age and experience of
the student and then present it in a sequential and logical
manner. Is that hard to find in the martial arts in general
and JKD in particular?
Some people might have trouble getting across their mes-
sage because they can’t communicate well or they lack
patience. It can be hard — either you can do it or you can’t.
I don’t know if you can learn how to do it. I do know that
the teacher-education courses I had to take were a bunch of
7LP7DFNHWW·VJDUDJHLV
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KLVSUHIHUUHGZD\RIWHDFKLQJ
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 69
 nonsense. My seventh year of college was a waste. I didn’t
learn anything in “teaching theory and practice.”
Are there any things that jump out from your early days
in the martial arts that, at this point in your life, make you
say, “Why did I spend my time doing that? It’s not impor-
tant. It wasn’t important then, but I thought it was.”
One of my students, Mike Blesch, wrote an article on
it, and we have it on our website (jkdwednite.com). It’s
called “The JKD Filter.” It’s a way to look at techniques
and say this is good and this is not so good. I don’t
regret having learned anything because I eventually
learned how to get rid of it. The process of throwing
away is essential.
Do any examples come to mind?
There are a lot of stances and a lot of techniques. One of
the problems I find in any art, even JKD, is that you start
studying with a teacher and everything you learn is of
great value at all times. Then you start working with a guy
like Bob Bremer and find out that some things don’t work.
That’s when I said, “Why am I doing stuff that doesn’t
work against this particular thing?”
For example — and I still teach this because I think
everybody should learn it — in JKD you learn the progres-
sive indirect attack. You throw a feint and then you maybe
do a high finger jab and a low hook kick. At first, you
go, “OK, that really works well against a blocker and a
runner.” So it’s really cool, especially if you know your
opponent’s a blocker or a runner.
Then I tried to use it against Bob Bremer, whose idea
was, as soon as you move, he does a stop-kick and then
hits you. By the time I did my feint, I’d been hit. It made
1 2
me wonder why I was doing that. If I tried a high feint
against a Brazilian jiu-jitsu guy, I’d be on the ground. On
the street, I would be foolish to try it.
So I still teach it, but I break it down for my students:
This is when you use it, and this is when you don’t use
it. If I know the guy’s a blocker, hell, it works really well.
However, if the guy’s a JKD practitioner, it doesn’t work. It
wasn’t designed to work against JKD; it was designed to
work against other arts.
Does it take a certain level of experience and maturity in
students to be able to learn something, to figure out how
to do it well and then to realize that it might not be for
every situation?
Exactly. It’s very difficult. And it’s difficult to throw away
stuff. When I started JKD, we would say, “What does this
art do? How does this guy move? This is what I would do
against somebody doing Thai boxing.” It was all what
you would do against somebody who knows this and that.
It was a constant analysis. If you go to a new school and
start learning the art, you don’t necessarily buy the whole
program, but you certainly should try to learn everything
the guy’s teaching you. The problem is you don’t want to
throw it away because it’s impolite.
So you have to develop a process for yourself: Here’s
what I learned, here’s how I’m going to test it against dif-
ferent opponents, and if it doesn’t work for me against
certain opponents, it’s gone.
A technique has got to work against anybody who’s
unarmed. It all goes back to watching Bruce Lee in Long-
street — it’s all in there! To touch me, you have to move to
me. To move to me, you have to give me your leg. That’s
why Bob Bremer would do the leg obstruction.
Then you have to ask yourself, “How do I attack some-
body who intercepts?” Once you start figuring out ways
to attack that kind of opponent, you have to test every-
thing the same way. You have to be constantly thinking
about what works against any opponent. You have to
analyze everything.
Is there a preferred way to avoid opening yourself to
a counterattack?
You have the advantage if you don’t attack, but then to
function, you have to control the distance. If your oppo-
nent is too close to you, he has the advantage. If he’s far
away, you’re not as vulnerable. What does that mean?
You have to use footwork to control the distance so you
can see the technique coming.
This is why we work an awful lot with the hammer prin-
ciple. Basically, it’s a move in which the opponent steps
back and tries to attack by dropping his hand and coming
at you, and you look at it and think, I can see that com-
ing. You learn how to start getting ready on his prepara-
tion. Do it long enough and you’ll start to see his intention
— and that goes back, again, to Longstreet.
And then you find that you can intercept opponents
Photos by Thomas Sanders
almost before they move, but that takes a long time. So
in the meantime, you just focus on doing a few things
really well. The problem is — and [Jiddhu] Krishnamurti
7LP7DFNHWWULJKWIDFHV-HUHP\/\QFK(1)7KHPRPHQWWKHRSSRQHQW talked about all this stuff — you’re organizing. To get
VWHSVIRUZDUGWRLQLWLDWHKLVMDEWKHMHHWNXQHGRVW\OLVWXVHVDOHJ across his point, Krishnamurti would tell a story about the
obstruction to prevent him from moving into contact range (2) devil and his friend sitting on a hill when a guy comes

70 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018

7KHUHLVQRVXUHÀUHZD\WRVWRSDJUDSSOHU7LP7DFNHWWVD\V the head with a hard jab and move, hit him with a hard
EXW\RXVWLOOQHHGWRWUDLQIRUJUDSSOLQJDWWDFNVLQFDVH\RX·UH jab and move. The judo guy couldn’t touch him.
IRUFHGWRWU\+HUH7DFNHWWOHIWDVVXPHVDGHIHQVLYHSRVWXUH
DJDLQVW-HUHP\/\QFK(1)/\QFKVKRRWVLQ(2), causing Tackett
to retreat (3)EHIRUHLPSOHPHQWLQJDQH\HJRXJH(4),W·VQRW
JXDUDQWHHGWRZRUNEXWRIWHQLWZLOO
1 2 3 Versatility is the key to self-defense. One thing I’ve noticed
4 MMA guys I’ve worked with — well, even at 77 years
walking down the street. The guy bends down to pick
up something, and the devil’s friend asks, “What is that
guy doing?” The devil says, “He picked up a piece of the
truth.” The friend asks, “Aren’t you worried about that?”
The devil says, “No, I’m going to let him organize it.”
That’s what happens — you get organized despair
because you have too much, learning this and learning
that. Instead of throwing away, you’re constantly adding.
A minute ago, you spoke about being vulnerable. Does
JKD have an approach to confronting a grappler that
minimizes your vulnerability?
You have to be able to survive in any environment, so you
have to learn grappling. The thing that drives me crazy
is when people say, “I don’t need to learn any kind of
grappling because I’m a stand-up guy who can outbox
anyone,” but you never know if you’re going to slip and
fall. You have to learn, even if you don’t want to be on the
ground. It’s also a given that you have to learn how to get
up no matter what.
Let me tell you a story. One of the first really good grap-
plers I met was a judo champion in the Air Force. Once
I saw him line up 10 good martial artists and have them
attack. He took them all down except one guy. As soon as
the judoka moved, the other martial artist would hit him in
So it depends on the person. But even a guy who’s so
good at controlling distance and hitting can fall. Or he
might be too close. He still should learn grappling.
Do you think anybody is capable of learning a skill set so
well that he or she can stop every takedown attempt?
No. You can learn something so well that you have a
good chance, but you don’t have a 100-percent chance.
is that in JKD, we work hard at hitting hard. That’s why
we have our strong hand forward. However, some of the
old, I hit harder than they do! They don’t have that snap,
that power, in their punch.
For self-defense, you have to be able to knock a guy out.
Bruce Lee told Bob Bremer that the best way to win a fight is
to reach over and knock the person out. You need to have
sledgehammers for hands. That’s one thing that’s lacking in
the world of strikers. One of the problems JKD practitioners
face involves the straight lead punch: If you twist your rear
foot to put all your weight on your front leg and do that as
an attack, you might be in deep doo-doo because it’s hard
to recover. But if someone is stepping in on you and you
use that technique, it can be a powerful thing.
In our classes, we do a lot of drilling where a guy steps
in with a focus glove and you hit them on the end of that.
Then it’s two things coming together, which can generate
an amazing amount of power. Once I had somebody say
I couldn’t knock him out with one punch. So I had him
hold a focus glove and step toward me, and then I hit the
focus glove hard. He was quiet about it after that.
(To be continued.)
Tim Tackett’s website is jkdwednite.com. To order his Chi-
natown Jeet Kune Do books published by Black Belt, visit
blackbeltmag.com/store.
1 2 3
The hammer principle is based on the hand movement one
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starts with his lead hand in a defensive position (1)+HGURSV
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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 73


BOB Drills You
Probably Never
Thought Of, Part 1
BY FLOYD BURK
T
hese days, it’s hard to
watch a TV show or movie
that includes a dojo scene
without spotting a Body
Opponent Bag in the corner. BOB is
ubiquitous for a very good reason:
It’s a must-have for every martial
arts training center no matter what
style is taught. I say that because of
the myriad ways you can use BOB
to improve your students’ skills. Pre-
sented below are some of the meth-
ods used in my school, along with a
little background information.
74 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018
FIRST, THE BACKGROUND. Like most
dojo, ours has a BOB — it happens
to be an XL — placed near the heavy
bags, pads and shields. I wish we
had more than one because every-
body loves whaling on it. I remem-
ber the first thing I did when I got
a chance to try one: crack it with a
left hook and an uppercut. If you’re
a puncher, it’s hard not to appreci-
ate being about to make contact
with a target that’s designed for it,
and that’s true no matter how old
you are.
Over the years, I discovered that
the beauty of BOB is it offers users so
many options that a heavy bag does
not. The first one is what precipitated
my initial action when I had my first
close encounter: BOB provides a
realistic striking surface for the hook
and uppercut, which the heavy bag
does not. Consequently, students who
lack access to a BOB often alter their
strikes to adapt to that shortcom-
ing, which leads to bad technique,
improper muscle memory and so on.
Yes, they can benefit from rounds on
a heavy bag, but if they’re training
for self-defense, they need to practice
their techniques in a realistic fash-
ion, and that’s precisely what BOB is
made for.
While traveling to other schools,
I noticed that most instructors keep
their BOB stationary when it’s being
used. They fill the base with water to
give it mass and keep it from moving
when struck — which, incidentally,
permits solo workouts, and that can
be very convenient. However, keep-
ing BOB loaded isn’t the only option.
I often drain the water from mine to
make it easy to move around the dojo
and quick to maneuver when I want
to change the angle of attack to keep
students on their toes. The following
are some drills I use for “empty BOB.”
TEACHING CHILD SAFETY is one of
the priorities in our dojo. The three
rules of our program are don’t be
there, don’t get touched and don’t go
quietly. BOB helps us ingrain those
lessons with these two drills.
Hi-BOB Drill: Have the kids line
up in front of BOB while you stand
behind it. Addressing one person
at a time, tilt BOB forward and
downward to touch the student. The
student’s job is to shout “Hi” while
smashing BOB in the nose with
a palm heel before running away.
This drill helps kids develop an
immediate response to an adult who
invades their space. Fringe benefit
when teaching the very young: They
think of BOB — and not you — as the
bad guy.
You’re-Not-My-Dad Drill: Have the
students line up several feet away
from BOB. Stand behind it with one
hand on the base and the other on
BOB’s back. Focusing on one child at
a time, quickly push BOB around the
mat while the student runs away and
shouts, “No, you’re not my dad!” The
goal, of course, is to prevent child
abduction the easiest way possible —
by avoiding the threat.

IN OUR DOJO, I teach group classes as

well as private lessons, and many of
those sessions revolve around tour-
nament sparring, kicking and fine-
tuning the basics. Yeah, I could serve
as the target in any of those drills, but
I prefer to let BOB absorb the punish-
ment. For sparring drills, BOB usually
wears head protection and a chest
guard. For the other drills, he’s not
geared up.
Defensive-Kick Drill: Have a stu-
dent square off with BOB at a normal
fighting range in the middle of the
mat. The student waits for BOB to
move forward. The instant BOB
advances — once again, you’re push-
ing it from behind — the student
moves back and pops BOB in the
midsection with a side kick. Reset
and get ready to repeat, but this time,
have the student move backward at
an angle while nailing BOB in the
noodle with an ax kick. Reset and get
ready to repeat, but after the student
kicks, keep going forward. Chase the
defender as he or she responds with
whatever foot and hand techniques
are appropriate. These drills develop
skills, improve endurance and boost
body control. They’re a great workout
for you, too.
Speed and Focus Sparring Drill:
BOB stays stationary this time with
you supporting it from behind. The
student, who plays the attacker, prac-
tices his or her favorite kicks aimed
at BOB’s head and body, precisely
where they need to land to score in
competition. Offer corrections while
the student continues for several
minutes. For the next round, shift
BOB from side to side and forward
and backward to make it more dif-
ficult to score. Take full advantage
of BOB’s ability to adjust to different
heights to simulate fighting different-
size opponents.
Kihon Drills: (Note that BOB wears
no gear during these drills.) These
exercises are similar to the sparring
and kicking drills, but the student
performs your art’s basic techniques.
They might include the reverse
punch, lead punch, chop, ridgehand
and backfist, along with the front
kick, roundhouse kick and side kick.
When BOB attacks, the student
responds with pre-assigned tech-
niques and combinations. Because
empty BOB is so mobile, these drills
foster dynamic movement without
risking injury to a human being who
otherwise would be absorbing a lot
of contact.
(To be continued.)
BOB is available from
centurymartialarts.com.

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 75

 COMPETITOR SPOTLIGHT

“Don’t try
to imitate
anyone. Focus
on what your
skills and
Photo Courtesy of Century Martial Arts

passions are,
and that will
take you a
long way.”

76 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018

2018 Competitor of the Year:
Jackson Rudolph
Most Black Belt Hall of Fame inductions can be considered recognition for a lifetime of achievement in the martial arts.
BY THE EDITORS
T
he Competitor of the Year
award is different. It’s tradi-
tionally bestowed on a ris-
ing star. Yes, that rising star
needs to have a track record, but half
a century of success in the arts is not
a prerequisite.
Which, in this case, is fortunate
because Jackson Rudolph isn’t even
close to being half a century old.
That’s not to say he lacks experi-
ence. Rudolph, 20, started training
at Hwang’s Martial Arts in Paducah,
Kentucky, when he was 6 — at the
urging of his first-grade teacher,
who happened to be a black belt. “I
signed up for a silent auction at a
school carnival and won a two-week
introductory course,” Rudolph said.
It didn’t take long for that serendipi-
tous beginning to snowball into
a passion.
His winning ways with weapons
commenced in 2010-2011, when
he was a two-time ISKA U.S. Open
world champion and a NASKA
world champion, but the Jackson
juggernaut really started rolling in
2012. That year, he bagged another
U.S. Open world title and a NASKA
world title, became a Warrior Cup
champion at the AKA Grand Nation-
als and won the coveted diamond
ring at the Diamond Nationals.
Subsequent performances brought
plenty of other top titles in events
run by those organizations, as well
as at Chuck Norris’ United Fight-
ing Arts Federation World Cham-
pionship, the Irish Open European
Championship and the Adrenaline
Championships. In all, he’s claimed
the title of world champion 58 times.
Podium climbs notwithstanding,
Rudolph remains as down to earth
as any instructor you’ll ever meet.
His selfless side is evidenced by his
answer to the question, What has
been your greatest accomplishment
in the martial arts?
“My greatest accomplishment
is the development of the Flow
System,” he said. “The curriculum,
which is available through the
Martial Arts Industry Association,
gives me the opportunity to spread
my knowledge and inspire a new
generation of athletes long after my
competitive career is over.”
No doubt the source of his humil-
ity is his upbringing in the tradi-
tional arts. In other words, he was
raised right. In Rudolph’s case,
being raised right includes earning
a fourth-degree black belt in the
World Taekwondo Federation and
the International Taekwon-Do Fed-
eration, along with a first degree in
the Chuck Norris System.
As much as he’s accomplished on
the circuit, Rudolph is not done with
tournaments. “There are two reasons
I still compete,” said the member
of Team Paul Mitchell Karate. “The
first is that I have an undying pas-
sion for the sport. The second, and
more important, is to continue to
inspire my students and younger
fans who have dreams of being like
me someday.”
In true martial arts fashion,
Rudolph is quick to acknowledge the
intangible benefits of training, and
he makes certain the next genera-
tion follows in his footsteps there, as
well. “The work ethic and dedication
that I have learned from my mar-
tial arts training is something that
helps me in many areas of life,” he
said. “Whether it is my career in the
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 ƒ BLACKBELTMAG.COM 77
industry or my journey to become a
neurosurgeon, the drive that martial
arts gave me is instrumental.”
Did he just say “neurosurgeon”?
Yes, he did. Rudolph, it turns out,
is enrolled in Stanford University’s
human biology department, which
ideally will serve as a steppingstone
to his becoming a neurosurgeon.
Being a doctor is one of his over-
arching goals because it revolves
around improving the lives of oth-
ers. Improving the lives of others
through the martial arts, of course, is
his other goal.
“Martial arts can be a life-chang-
ing sport,” he explained. “My dream
is to spread the tenants of martial
arts to as many people as I can. In
doing so, I also want to motivate cur-
rent martial artists to achieve great
things with their talents.”
The arts’ most important teach-
ings are based on respect and treat-
ing others the way that you would
like to be treated, Rudolph added.
“When more people are part of that
movement, the world becomes a bet-
ter place.”
And in that vein, he offered a final
morsel of advice for all the world
champions who will come after him:
“The greatest competitors to ever
live were so amazing because they
used their forms as an ultimate self-
expression. Passion is what drives
the legends to be cleaner, faster
[and] stronger, and to try more dif-
ficult tricks. Don’t try to imitate any-
one. Focus on what your skills and
passions are, and that will take you a
long way.”
The staff of Black Belt is pleased
to name Jackson Rudolph its 2018
Competitor of the Year.
BLACK BELT PAGES

78 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ JUNE/JULY 2018

BLACK BELT PAGES

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80 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ JUNE/JULY 2018


• Talk about bad luck! His mother was born in Hiroshima, his
father in Nagasaki. When the atom bombs fell, 14-year-old
Tsutomu Ohshima, a direct student of shotokan founder Gichin
Funakoshi and the martial artist on the cover of this issue, was
living between those two cities.
• :DV2KVKLPDZKR·VQRZEDVHGLQ6RXWKHUQ&DOLIRUQLD
ELWWHU"1R´(YHQWKRXJK,ORVWP\FRXVLQWKHUH·VQRSHUVRQDORU
HPRWLRQDOKDWUHGVµKHVD\V´7KDW·VQRWPDQ·VZD\7KDWZDVD
ZDUYHU\FOHDQFXW,QDZD\WKDWZDVKHDYHQ·VZLOOµ
• 0RUHIURP2KVKLPDRQWKHVWDWHRIWKHDUWVLQSRVWZDU-DSDQ
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karate dojoRSHQDQG\HWDOOWKHSUDFWLWLRQHUVZHUHH[MXGRPHQ
or kendo men.”
• *DU\$OH[DQGHULVVHHNLQJQHZPHPEHUVIRUKLV1HZ-HUVH\²
EDVHG8QLWHG6WDWHV$VVRFLDWLRQRI0DUWLDO$UWV,QVWLWXWHV,WVJRDO
LVWRSURPRWHDQGLPSURYHWKHVWDWXVRIWKHDUWVLQ$PHULFD
• ´3V\FKRNDUDWHµLVEHLQJSURPRWHGDVWKHDUWDQGVFLHQFH
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watch out!
• While describing a kenpo self-defense sequence, Ed Parker
GHOLYHUVVRPHZRQGHUIXODGYLFH´1RUPDOO\ZKHQ,VWDUWWHDFKLQJ
DQLQGLYLGXDO,ZDQWWKHSHUVRQWROHDUQIURPWKHPRVWDZNZDUG
SRVLWLRQ,I\RX·UHDOUHDG\LQDVWDQFH\RX·UHDOUHDG\SUHSDUHGµ
• TaekwondoLQVWUXFWRU6LPRQ5KHHLVQRWDELJEHOLHYHULQ
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\RX·UHUHDOO\RXWWKHUHWRGHIHQG\RXUVHOIRQWKHVWUHHW\RX·UHQRW
going to use gloves.”
82 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018
From
the
A rchives
Vol. 17, No. 8, $1.50
The 188th issue of %ODFN%HOW was
dated August 1979. It was 76 pages
long and featured VKRWRNDQkarate’s
Tsutomu Ohshima on the cover.
• ,WVHHPVWKDW5KHHZKR·VDQLQVWUXFWRUDW-XQ&KRQJ·V:HVW
Los Angeles taekwondo school but who also trains in kung
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WHFKQLTXHV,IHHOP\PXVFOHVDUHJHWWLQJWHQVHµKHVD\V´%XWWR
be able to kick, you have to be loose. It interferes with my kicking
WHFKQLTXHVDQGZKHQ,ÀJKW,UHO\PRUHRQP\NLFNLQJµ
• As if to rebut that last statement, Hilda Weiss writes, “In some
ways, the idea of ki is unnecessarily mystical, distracting from
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WKHNLLQWKHZRUOGZRQ·WKHOS\RXµ
• (DUQHVW+DUW-ULVWKHODWHVWPDUWLDODUWVFKDPSLRQWRVWDULQD
XQLIRUPDGIURP&HQWXU\0DUWLDO$UWV
• ´7KHZD\RIWKHQLQMDµ6WHSKHQ.+D\HVZULWHV´LVQRWPHUHO\
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• The genesis of the shinaiLVRXWOLQHGE\ZULWHU-LP0DWKHU
´7KHDFWXDOVZRUGSOD\RIWKHVDPXUDLJDYHZD\WRkata as times
EHFDPHPRUHSHDFHIXOLQ-DSDQ,QWKHVHNDWDDOLYHEODGHZDV
XVHGE\ERWKSHUIRUPHUVDQGWKHHPSKDVLVZDVXSRQSHUIHFWLQJ
form, timing and maai (distance). As time went on, however, kata
became boring to those who longed for the old days and the need
WRWHVWWKHLUDELOLW\LQFRPEDW$VDUHVXOWWKHVKLQDLZDVDGRSWHG
enabling the kendokaWRRQFHDJDLQSURYHKLPVHOILQEDWWOHµ
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9&5VZRXOGQRWEHFRPHZLGHVSUHDGXQWLOWKHQH[WGHFDGH
(Note: Back issues are not for sale.)