Black Belt Magazine August - September 2015

Bruce Lee oozes from the issue. In some instances, it’s totally intentional, and in at least one, it’s purely coincidental. Obviously, we have the “Little Dragon” on the cover. Thanks to Shannon Lee and the Bruce Lee Foundation for providing the classic image. Also in the intentional department: We have first-generation JKD student Richard Bustillo teaching the “5 Gates of Jeet Kune Do.” Four of those gates, he writes, come from the wing chun he picked up while training with Bruce Lee and Dan Inosanto in the 1960s, while the remaining one is derived from his ongoing practice of jeet kune do and boxing. In the intentional-but-also-coincidental department, we have JKD and Filipino martial arts authority Paul Vunak, who’s here to conduct a short seminar on the science of destructions.…

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA — THE REUNION “They have returned. And this time, they are not alone!” — David Lo Pan On an otherwise normal Wednesday night (well, as normal as Los Angeles gets), in an otherwise normal corner of the Little Tokyo district, in the otherwise normal and oh-so-dignified Japanese American National Museum, a normal visitor expecting a normal museum visit might have been shocked right down to his soles as he rounded an otherwise normal corner and stumbled on a reunion of the greatest collection of kung fu villains (and a few heroes) ever gathered. Who were they? The cast and creators of Big Trouble in Little China. “Wang, these Sing Dings …” “Chang Sings.” “They got enemies?” “Wing Kong.” “Who wear red turbans?” “Holy … Jack,…

Unified Weapons Master, an Australia-based firm that’s promoting a new form of competition revolving around weapons combat, has revealed plans to develop the Lorica Amazon, a version of its unique armor that will enable women to take part in future events. UWM has spent the past four years refining the prototype of the men’s armor, with the design expected to be finalized later this year. The armor uses the company’s proprietary sensor technology and medical algorithms to determine what damage would have been sustained by the competitor had he or she not been wearing the protective suit. The information is collected from 54 sensors spread out across the body, with many being read thousands of times a second. It’s then wirelessly sent to an advanced scoring system that allows analysis…

Century Martial Arts has joined forces with famed instructor and American Top Team co-founder Ricardo Liborio. The relationship makes Century Liborio’s exclusive equipment provider and means that Liborio will assist the Century research-and-development team with the testing and marketing of new products. It also means Liborio will be a featured demonstrator at the 2015 Martial Arts SuperShow in Las Vegas. “There are so many exciting things going on at Century, and I’m happy to team up with them to help develop new products and grow the martial arts community,” Liborio said. “Century is part of my martial arts family, a group that I’ve grown with through the years. I’m looking forward to working with their great team to create innovative and functional new products.” A native of Brazil, Liborio helped…

Kenpo 5.0 founder Jeff Speakman is in talks to develop a reality-TV series called Perfect Weapons. A promo piece is available on YouTube. Some local Japanese politicians have teamed up to create council to foster ninja-themed tourism during the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. The taekwondo skills of Paige McPherson, a bronze medalist at the 2012 Olympics, were featured in a two-minuteplus online ad from Mercedes-Benz. Beth Tarini has launched a campaign to raise funds to study how taekwondo can be used to treat ADHD. crowdrise.com/fightadhd SoCal hapkido master Fariborz Azhakh appeared with host and former NFL player Tony Gonzalez on a National Geographic show investigating the “unbendable arm.” A promo piece for the segment, called You Can’t Lick Your Elbow, is on YouTube. Morné Swanepoel, a South Africa–based martial arts…

Her announcement jogged my memory, and recollections from 14 years ago started surfacing. For seven years, Kyle Cordova took karate lessons from my wife Martha and me. He was a standout, and we were looking forward to mentoring him for many years, but his family relocated to Sacramento, California, when he was 10. Words from his mom Realynn brought me back to the present: “Kyle credits you and sensei Martha for helping him get where he is today. So do I.” Eager to talk about her son, Realynn explained that he’d doubled the lead unactor in Footloose for the angry dance scene in which Ren does his acrobatic routine and for the scene in which he does a flip off the back of a truck. Having worked with several people…