Innholdsfortegnelse for February/March 2022 i Black Belt Magazine

Black Belt Hall of Famer Karen Sheperd was recently promoted to eighth degree and the rank of martial arts “professor” by Al Dacascos, founder of wun hop kuen do; Julio Hernandez, a grandmaster of wun hop kuen do; and Michael Sandos, a grandmaster of wun hop kuen do and kajukenbo. The ceremony capped a career that’s spanned five decades. Like so many others, Sheperd started martial arts after seeing Bruce Lee in action. She signed up for shotokan, then switched to kajukenbo. Soon afterward, she got involved in forms. Sheperd began training under Dacascos, and in 1979 and 1980, she was the No. 1–rated women’s forms champion — the first female to bear that title because before she came along, there were no separate ratings for women. Sheperd then embarked…

After clinching his sixth Emperor’s Cup championship at the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament, Terunofuji finished with another win to garner a perfect 15-0 record at the event — the first time he’s ever gone unbeaten in a tournament. Terunofuji defeated Takakeisho in a hard-fought battle, pushing his foe out of the ring. The victory capped a remarkable year that saw Terunofuji continue a comeback from career-threatening injuries to win four out of six tournaments and secure a promotion to yokozuna, the sport’s highest rank. The recent retirement of legendary grand champion Hakuho left the Mongolian-born Terunofuji as the only reigning yokozuna in the sport. Having captured the last tournament title in September, this victory made him the first grand champion in nearly 50 years to win his initial two competitions…

Multiple-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world-champion Andre Galvao is returning to mixed martial arts and has signed a contract with ONE Championship. The Brazilian is a legend on the mat, having finished three of his five victories by way of submission. “Back in the day, I had no wrestling and no ADCC world titles,” Galvao wrote. “My no-gi game is different now.” He went on to say that he’s looking forward to showing the world his all-around game while competing against the best. In addition to mixed martial arts, Galvao also will be able to enter ONE’s submission-grappling matches. The ability to compete in both sports will afford him the opportunity to clash with other elite grapplers who have recently signed on the dotted line, including Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida and Gordon Ryan.…

On September 29, 2021, during the season 23 finale of Big Brother on CBS, host Julie Chen Moonves gave Britini D’Angelo the floor and, on a much larger scale, a national platform to reveal to her fellow houseguests and to America not only that she’s a fourth-degree black belt but also that she has autism. Her goal was to raise awareness of autism and ultimately help end the stigma associated with it. D’Angelo gave an empowering speech, proclaiming, “When I was 22 months old, I was diagnosed with autism, and I have been living with autism every single day. The reason why I did not disclose that to all of you in the house was that I wanted to be seen as me. I wanted you guys to get to…

Kanakushiku Sanda (c. 1841–1920) certainly fit that description. His Okinawan name was rendered as Kinjo Sanda in Japanese, but he’s better-known by the nickname Ufuchiku and the art he created, a fighting method that stressed the use of several traditional Okinawan weapons as well as empty-hand techniques. That fighting method goes by the name Ufuchiku ryu. “Ufuchiku” is actually a title, one given to the top ranks of the police force of Shuri, the royal capital of Okinawa during Kinjo’s day. The city during that era was filled with native Okinawans, as well as Chinese, Japanese and Westerners, making it a bustling place of freewheeling markets and, not surprisingly, crime. Fights were common. Police were frequently called to break up disturbances or prevent them from escalating. Kinjo, tall for an…

In this and future installments of this column, we will bring you highlights from the video interviews that are done with martial arts masters in hopes that some of their know-how will assist or inspire you in your martial arts journey. Those interviews form the basis for a series called The Master’s Way. Every Thursday, a new episode featuring the likes of Olivier Gruner, Cynthia Rothrock, Ernie Reyes Sr., Keith Vitali and Tayari Casel will premiere. (See below for excerpts from Gruner’s episode.) Another Jungo original is Black Belt Theater. Running the project is none other than Cynthia Rothrock, who’s joined by Stefan Johnson, a social media celeb. In each episode, they focus on a classic film. Available now are shows that focus on Return of the Dragon with Bruce…

The use of the lower limbs for striking an opponent was highly developed in the ancient Greek martial art of pankration. In fact, this characteristic is essentially what distinguished the fight sport from the other two “heavy” events — wrestling and boxing — that took place at the Olympic Games and other Panhellenic festivals. Because pankration was an extension of battlefield combat, its low kicks were practical and effective in a way that many wrestling and boxing moves weren’t. There’s little artistic or literary evidence that pankration taught high kicks aimed at the face or spectacular jumping or spinning kicks like we see today in competition. No doubt influenced by their militaristic roots, the Greeks probably considered such flashy techniques nearly useless in battle. Yes, the feet were seen as…

On December 5, 2021, Black Belt’s 1989 Female Competitor of the Year Christine Bannon-Rodrigues was promoted to 10th-degree black belt in oki-ryu kenpo. One of the most accomplished competitors in sport karate, Bannon-Rodrigues amassed numerous titles in forms, weapons and fighting during her career. She won the coveted women’s sparring diamond ring at the Diamond Nationals in 1992 and was inducted into the Diamond Nationals Hall of Fame in 2008. She’s a nine-time world champion as recognized by the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations. Her success in competition led to opportunities in the film industry, where she’s had a career performing stunts as Batgirl and acting as a double for Hilary Swank in The Next Karate Kid. She was promoted by her husband Don Rodrigues, 10th degree and the coach of…

After years of success with numerous individual and demo-team accolades under the leadership of Mike Welch, veteran Team Infinity member Joseph Bein will take over as head coach. Welch and other key role players at Infinity Martial Arts decided to shift their focus to the franchise and lift the brand to another level from a business standpoint after attending Adam Kifer’s Relentless Membership Summit. Bein inherits a squad that fields a world-championship-caliber demo team and has a core of star competitors including Connor Chasteen, Alex Riggs, Will Nevitt, Noell Jellison, Diego Rodriguez-Florez, Sofia Rodriguez-Florez and Alyss Groce, all of whom are currently in the official Black Belt Magazine Rankings. Bein has coached InfiniTeam, Infinity’s developmental team, for several years and has worked heavily in networking and recruitment for Team Infinity…

Anatoly Bondarenko, considered one of the greatest sambo practitioners in history and a two-time European judo champion, passed away in Moscow at age 77. International Sambo Federation Vice President Sergey Eliseev told the Russian news agency TASS that Bondarenko had been sick for some time but eventually succumbed to COVID-19. Bondarenko, originally a sambo competitor in the Soviet Union, was among the first generation of Soviet athletes to compete internationally in judo, where he successfully used his sambo skills. He won individual gold medals at the European judo championships in 1964 and 1969 in the 80-kilogram division. As a sambo player, he captured the Soviet national title six times between 1963 and 1973.…

Arizona Sixkiller’s House of Kenpo Karate 1570 E Northern Ave., Suite B Kingman, AZ 86409 (928) 607-0021 sixkillerjr.jess@yahoo.com California Blain Cort’s Total Self-Defense 2955 McMurry Drive Anderson, CA 96007 blaincort@gmail.com Golden Tiger Karate 9501 Flushing Quail Bakersfeild, CA 93312 (661) 345-4371 goldentigerkarate@yahoo.com Kuk Sool Won-Rohnert Park Martial Arts 311 Professional Center Drive Rohert Park, CA 94928 (707) 494-1151 Kuksoolwonrp@yahoo.com Red Dragon Championship Martial Arts 1603 Garnet Ave. San Diego, CA 92109 (858) 263-4212 reddragonpb@live.com Budokai (Budokaikan Association) 4616 Park Granada #72 Calabasas, CA 91302 (747) 444-7940 senseialex@budokai.net Connecticut New England Rendokan 1845 Silas Deane Highway Rocky Hill, CT 06067 (860) 628-1022 Info@ner1.net Florida All American Martial Arts & Krav Maga Academy 4255 US Highway 1 South, Suite 4 St. Augustine, FL 32086 (904) 797-2262 lessons@staugustinetaekwondo.com Georgia Kombative Academy of Traditional…

Separately, the characters have their own meanings, though. Kung means “achievement,” and fu means “husband.” Maybe this derived from the fact that the husband in ancient times had to work hard to support his family. Another interpretation for kung fu can be “workmanship” or “skill gained through committed effort.” A martial art is definitely a skill gained through committed effort. If you work hard to improve your skill, eventually you might become a sifu, a term most Westerners associate with being a kung fu master. But actually, a sifu can be any skilled worker, including a driver or a handyman. The irony for those who speak Chinese and who watched the Karate Kid remake with Jaden Smith is that Jackie Chan was both a handyman and a martial arts master,…

Now, I want you to conjure up the image of the hands being thrown. If you’re like most people, you’re envisioning semi-straightened arms held out in an extended guard, as well as sweeping and clubbing blows. That’s the common narrative, but it’s not necessarily accurate. To see why, let’s take a trip into the world of behavioral economics, talk a little road biking, play some football and ponder an observation made by a skydiving pioneer, all before bringing it back to the titled topic. In 1975 economist Sam Peltzman of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business published an intriguing article in the Journal of Political Economy. The title of the piece was “The Effects of Automobile Safety Regulation.” Peltzman asserted that advances in safety were not resulting in…

FEATURED ON: The Master’s Way BACKGROUND: French special forces, action-movie star MARTIAL ARTS: Kickboxing champion in 1984, 1985 and 1986 SEE HIM IN: Showdown in Manila (on the Black Belt Magazine Channel, of course) When you started to get into kickboxing, was it an extension of your military career? Olivier Gruner: I started training when I was younger [because] I was inspired by Bruce Lee. Obviously, a lot of people did — a lot of martial artists. The Chinese were really popping out martial arts movies, and I was fascinated by the guy [because] he was small, he was skinny and he could beat up everybody. I wanted to be like that. Everybody wants to be like that. When I went to the military, it was different. We used weapons…

Two years ago, competing in a martial arts tournament meant getting in your car or on a plane, traveling to a venue, standing in line to register and waiting until your division was called so you could showcase your skills. Then COVID-19 struck. The pandemic and the lockdowns that followed forced humanity to rethink its ways. Tournaments were hit hard because large gatherings were prohibited and travel was restricted. Many events simply shut down. None of that fazed Emily Cooper. That’s because way back in 2000, whenever her students competed at tournaments, she would post their performances on the internet so parents could watch. The idea quickly gained traction, and before she knew it, thousands were viewing her online videos. Thus was born SportMartialArts.com. She didn’t know it at the…

VOL. 19, NO. 4, $1.95 The 208th issue of Black Belt was dated April 1981. It was 100 pages long and featured taekwondo master Hee-Il Cho on the cover. • Wise words from Hee-Il Cho: “A technique cannot be judged as it stands alone. It must be evaluated as to its adaptability to a person’s fighting style. All techniques are not for everyone. What’s effective and practical for one person will not be equally effective for someone else. A classic case is the jump-spinning back kick.” • “What most people fail to realize is that the jump-spinning back kick is not strictly an offensive weapon but rather a very useful and potentially effective counter-technique,” Cho continues. “It was never intended to be an offensive weapon.” • The polls are open! The…

On what would have been Bruce Lee’s 81st birthday, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum unveiled a new Lee exhibit, which opened to the public the next day. Following on the heels of the previous Lee exhibit, which ran from 2013 to 2020, the new one, called “A Man Beyond the Ordinary: Bruce Lee,” is slated to run until 2026. The exhibition is being held in collaboration with the Bruce Lee Foundation, headed by Lee’s daughter Shannon. According to the South China Morning Post, it will feature more than 400 pieces of memorabilia, many of which haven’t been displayed before, as well as interactive installations. Among those items are personal letters from Lee to his wife Linda Lee Cadwell, a fencing mask Lee used for training and the famed yellow…

On November 18, 2021, Glenn Keeney passed away at age 79. Inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame as 1977 Karate Instructor of the Year, he was one of the most influential martial arts promoters in America. Born in Anderson, Indiana, in 1942, Keeney became interested in martial arts as a teenager, eventually training in Okinawan goju karate starting in the early 1960s. A noted competitor and training partner of Bill Wallace, Keeney was ranked No. 4 in Black Belt’s 1972 tournament-fighter ratings. But it was as a promoter and organizer that Keeney most made his mark. He staged some of the most prestigious tournaments in the country, including the USKA Grand Nationals, the Top Ten Nationals and the PKC Nationals. An instrumental figure in the early days of…

The International Mixed Martial Arts Federation announced it was rescheduling the 2021 IMMAF World Championships for January 24-29, 2022, in Abu Dhabi. This follows the earlier cancellation of the event that was to take place in Kazakhstan. Hosted by the UAE Jiu-Jitsu and MMA Federation with the support of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, the senior and junior tournaments will now take place at the Jiu-Jitsu Arena in Zayed Sports City, near UFC Fight Island (Yas Island). The IMMAF’s flagship annual event in 2019 attracted 450 athletes from 49 nations, but COVID-19 put a stop to the plans for 2020. That makes this the first IMMAF world competition in two years. Returning medalists and rising stars who recently made their mark at the IMMAF European Championships and World Cup Prague…

Carlos Estrella: Pay attention to the little things your teacher and the senior students do. Don’t just emulate; truly pay attention … even to where their feet land AFTER a movement and compare. Salzian Nawawi: Don’t get fat. Christopher Yurasko: Train your weak side twice as much as your strong side. Scott Reeser: Never take a “break” from training, NEVER. Also, work on flexibility with more diligence; core strength cannot be overlooked. Rumbletoe: Toughen up. Dominate your fears. And don’t shortcut your techniques. Shirokage Alden W: Be more open minded about different arts J.R.FireFire: Start earlier in life. Martial arts is a life long journey.…

MarioRodriguezJunior: Muay Thai & Savate which I consider kickboxing, others don’t, only for a couple of years each, concurrently. It was nice being young Stefan Ljungqvist: Yes. Was an advantage when I started with Sanshou for sure. I also had a really good friend that was a boxing coach and joining his classes as frequent as possible was even more beneficial. Michael Coon: Didn’t we all do that in the 80’s?? Arnab Ghosh – Martial Artist | Content Creator: Trained a bit, just for kicks; pun intended!…

Threat recognition is the foundation for employing effective self-defense measures to ensure your personal safety. What does this initially entail? In a word, awareness. Situational awareness is the bedrock of self-defense. Without it, you stand little to no chance of proactively or reactively protecting yourself from danger, whether actual or potential. So what exactly is awareness as it pertains to self-defense? It refers to being alert to and observant of your immediate surroundings and all those who occupy that space. It means not being thought-or task-fixated — for example, playing or FaceTiming on your cellphone, myopically searching in your car trunk for an item, being lost in thought on a contentious issue, changing a flat tire on the side of a road and so on — to the point at…

1 This 6-ounce uniform has an elastic waistband with drawstring for a secure fit. The generous gusset allows for maximum mobility and increased comfort when kicking. The fabric is a cotton/polyester blend that’s machine washable. Sizes 0000 to 7. Available in black, white, blue, red or pink in most sizes. Imported. MAKE: CENTURY MARTIAL ARTS MODEL: 6 OZ. LIGHTWEIGHT STUDENT UNIFORM MSRP: $39.99 URL: centurymartialarts.com 2 This 7-ounce uniform has a full-cut traditional jacket, along with pants that feature an elastic waistband with drawstring, a combination that ensures a precise fit at all times. The top and the bottom are made of a cotton/polyester-blend fabric that’s machine washable. Sizes 000 to 9. Available in black, white, blue or red. Imported. MAKE: CENTURY MARTIAL ARTS MODEL: 7 OZ. MIDDLEWEIGHT STUDENT UNIFORM WITH ELASTIC…

HOW TO PLAN HOW TO BUILD HOW TO EQUIP HOW TO TRAIN Full disclosure: Unlike most of you, I’m just starting my martial arts journey along with my family. Although I possess no secret knowledge, Black Belt asked me to share my story in hopes that it might inspire others, no matter where they are in their own personal development, during this difficult time brought on by COVID. My introduction to shorin-ryu shorinkan began during the pandemic — specifically, in the second half of 2020. My wife happened to show our children one of the Karate Kid movies, and by the time the credits rolled, they were begging to take lessons. This was around the time one of my friends started taking classes in traditional Okinawan karate. More often than…

Is there such a thing as luck, or do we just make good decisions and bad decisions that eventually determine our success — or our failure? The life-changing choices we make sometimes seem like they hinge on the flip of a coin, the roll of the dice … or a piece of well-intentioned advice that goes south. In this vein, Black Belt contacted nine of the most successful martial artists in the world to pose two questions: What is the best advice you ever received as a martial artist? What is the worst advice? In addition to revealing tidbits from their own journeys to the top, their answers provide guidance for all martial artists. DENNIS BROWN The editors of Black Belt called Dennis Brown one of the 25 most influential…