Innholdsfortegnelse for October/November 2020 i Black Belt Magazine

YouTube recruited millions of fans to its streaming service to watch its flagship scripted series Cobra Kai, a sequel to the classic Karate Kid movies. The first two seasons of the series did extremely well and received two Emmy nominations for stunt coordination while providing nostalgia for martial artists around the world. Now, Netflix has landed exclusive rights to season 3. In addition to the production of a third season, Netflix has announced that seasons 1 and 2 of Cobra Kai will be made available later this year on a nonexclusive basis so fans can catch up on the series.…

BLACK BELT: Click to read “William Shatner’s Martial Arts Connection: When Star Trek’s Capt. Kirk Trained in Karate!” Jason McNeil: Weird coincidence — I was watching Big Bad Mama on Amazon Prime a few nights ago, and mid-’70s Shatner busted out a few fairly impressive fighting moves while Angie Dickenson and her daughters were making their getaway! Aloys Bruggeman: He fought with a gorn. He must be good Rob N Kat Cirnigliaro: All those smarts and moves and Kirk could never grasp the Vulcan neck pinch.…

Karate’s roots are not in feudal Japan, where the katana was ubiquitous. Yes, there were plenty of swords in old Okinawa, but as an art directed mostly at unarmed combat, karate emphasizes movements and strategies that are, in many ways, incompatible with those used to make the sword an effective weapon It’s odd and sometimes unnerving to watch karate demonstrations given by sword “experts.” Assuming that a person can use a sword just because he or she has experience in karate is like assuming that because your basketball skills are excellent, you’ll be a good lacrosse player — they’re both sports that use a ball, after all. In short, karate and swordsmanship are both fighting arts, but there’s little in the way of technical or strategic overlap. Nevertheless, it’s useful…

Question: “Am I on the right track or holding my danged knife wrong?” My reply: “Bowie designs are manifold. My personal preference falls toward a flat-spine knife with a half-guard because a spineside guard or broken spine jams up my thumb on a sincere stab in a saber grip. For me, anyway, a nice, straight, full-power stab with a hammer grip on the high line is impossible, and anyway it is a wrist killer.” Mitchell’s question is a common one that can lead us one step closer to weapons wisdom. First, I will point out that discovering that certain tactics and grips are wrist killers is possible only when we invest time in hard training with hard targets. If we stick with mirror play, shadow play or tit-for-tat flow drills…

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Two legendary boxers are set to clash at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, on November 28, 2020. The bout will be available on pay-per-view and Triller, a multimedia platform. Triller also will debut a 10-part docuseries leading up to the event, ESPN reported. Tyson’s training videos have caused a stir on social media over the past few months, and his reputation as the youngest heavyweight champion ever and one of the greatest boxers in history has fueled the public’s interest in a comeback. However, his opponent is an extremely accomplished boxer, too. Roy Jones Jr. was once thought to be untouchable as he won titles in four different weight classes, an unprecedented feat. Both athletes are older than 50, but they are confident that their extensive experience…

Best-known to martial artists as Roper, Bruce Lee’s roguish co-star in Enter the Dragon, John Saxon has passed away at age 83 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The cause of death was pneumonia. A veteran of numerous B movies and TV shows, Saxon also was known for his role in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Although no expert, Saxon had a legitimate background in the martial arts before garnering his role in Enter the Dragon. He first studied judo in the 1950s — “I learned some things but didn’t pursue it,” he said in a 2008 Black Belt interview — and then studied shotokan karate with Hidetaka Nishiyama in the 1960s — “I trained there for four years, just missing black belt.” Saxon would go on to practice tai chi chuan under…

BLACK BELT: Go here to read “Remembering David Carradine, Star of the Kung Fu TV series.” John Grace: Terrific, quirky actor. Complaining that he wasn’t a real martial artist is like complaining Pacino was not a real mafioso in The Godfather. Ron Lewis: Got me started in martial arts 40 years ago. Was one of the hit series of the seventies. Considering Caine was in every scene a remarkable achievement. Rate it highly, fantastic messages of humility, strength and courage. Long live Kung Fu. RIP David Carradine. Ron Lewis: David Carradine was awesome in Kill Bill, he played the part exceptionally well! Rock star. The whole concept of the original Kung Fu series attracted droves of people to the martial arts. David wasn’t the best martial artist of that time,…

My obsession with Miyamoto Musashi began when I was 13 years old, right after my sensei gave me a copy of Go Rin No Sho, The Book of Five Rings. It was while researching Musashi that I first ran across the name Jocko Willink — I discovered an episode of his Jocko Podcast dedicated to the samurai and his writings. For the first time, I got to listen to an analysis of Musashi by someone who had faced enemies in war and seen death up close. You see, Willink is a former Navy SEAL lieutenant commander who led his team in the battle for Ramadi during the Iraq War. He’s the recipient of the Silver Star and the Bronze Star. He’s also a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt. Listening to that…

For Black Belt’s September 2005 issue, I wrote “Top 20 Martial Arts Films of All Time.” I based my selections on each movie’s impact on martial arts cinema, not necessarily on its acting or fight choreography. It wasn’t an easy process then, and it wasn’t any easier when the editor of Black Belt asked me to write this piece on the top films that have been released during this century. Nevertheless, I agreed. Here’s my top-21 countdown. This Bollywood hit is so outrageous and stunning that I laughed at its bravura. It’s Ten Commandments meets Ben-Hur in ancient India. The plot revolves around a queen who chooses her adopted virtuous son Baahubali as her heir over her contemptible birth son Bhalla. Subsequently, Bhalla’s venomous deceit causes Baahubali to be exiled.…

The martial art of hwalssogi, or traditional Korean archery, has been designated as an intangible cultural heritage by the Cultural Heritage Administration in South Korea. Citing its frequent appearance in historical literature and records, the administration said that hwalssogi has played a significant role in the traditional Korean martial arts. Although archery became a formal sport known as gungdo under the Japanese occupation during the early 20th century, unlike taekwondo, which is primarily based on Japanese karate, hwalssogi does appear to have legitimate roots in a traditional Korean art of archery. The bow used in Korea is much shorter than the Japanese bow and closer to that used by Mongolian archers.…

BLACK BELT: How many of us took up martial arts because of this TV series? How many of us own the DVDs? Dön: I own this set! Hamilton community Initiative: I took up martial arts because of the show but no DVDs in my collection. Rocky DiRico: I was influenced by the Kung Fu weekly show … I started practicing karate around the same time. Giorgio: Not me. This series had very weak fight scenes … unlike Enter the Dragon movie. Keith: I took up training because of @erniereyesjr. I was 10 when I saw what he did in Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon. Dave Roman: The Karate Kid planted the seed of interest for me 36 years ago ON A NEWS POST ABOUT JOHN SAXON’S PASSING Jesse James Jacobs: Maybe…

Bruce lee once said, “i do not believe in styles.” He went on to explain that because we all have two arms and two legs, the techniques that are available to us and that are effective against human opponents are basically the same. For this reason, the styles we see in different countries do not necessarily exist because they are superior in a fight; they exist because they are expressions of culture. While investigating the grappling arts, for example, I’ve experienced Japanese judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Indian kushti, Balinese mepantigan, Korean ssirum and Chinese san da, along with plenty of others. Some practitioners wear a loincloth, while others sport a wrestling jacket, a gi or a specially made belt. Some matches take place before tens of thousands of spectators, while others…

On July 20, 1973, Bruce Lee passed away in Hong Kong. On July 20, 2020, in honor of his life and his profound effect on my life, I watched director Bao Nguyen’s Be Water, an ESPN “30 for 30” film that covers his life, career and martial arts philosophy. What separates Be Water from other Bruce Lee documentaries is the lack of narration. Instead, Nguyen provides insights via rarely seen videos and home movies; diary entries; letters to friends; and interviews with Lee’s students, a former girlfriend, his daughter Shannon Lee, his brother Robert Lee and his widow Linda Lee Caldwell. Be Water reinforces the notion that Bruce’s existence was metaphysically and thematically shaped by water. When his parents married, his father, then called Moon Lee, changed his name to…

THERE HAS BEEN A SEA CHANGE IN THINKING AMONG PRACTITIONERS OF THE TRADITIONAL MARTIAL ARTS IN THE PAST 30 YEARS. Previously, students faithfully accepted what they were told and furiously practiced those methods — which might be of questionable utility based on the interpretations commonly assigned to the movements within the kata. Then Taika Oyata showed that the common interpretations were not at all what kata were supposed to be about. Oyata’s teachings made only modest inroads into the martial arts community until Black Belt Hall of Famer George Dillman began training with him. Dillman took what Oyata taught and pushed it out to the world. The result: Teachers everywhere are now exploring realistic and practical uses for kata movements. (Such interpretation of kata movement is commonly referred to as…

Hidden amid the glorious combat pyrotechnics that make Bruce Lee’s 1973 classic Enter the Dragon such a memorable movie is one scene in which African-American co-star Jim Kelly, on his way to the big martial arts tournament, is stopped and harassed by white policemen. Viewed against the current backdrop of civil unrest gripping American society over police brutality and social injustice, Enter the Dragon’s brief foray into issues of race may well be the film’s most lasting symbolic image. “That scene is very, very timely, even so many years after the movie came out,” said Warrington Hudlin, a longtime martial artist and successful movie producer. “The message wasn’t just explicit but implicit. But to be honest, when I originally saw it, it didn’t stand out to me. I was already…