Innholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2023 i Black Belt Magazine

I’ve worked for Black Belt in various capacities — freelance writer and photographer, assistant editor and now editor-in-chief — since 1988. Back in the beginning, there was no such thing as MMA. The fight sport didn’t debut until 1993. As soon as that happened, though, the floodgates opened, and fans voiced their opinions about how real MMA is and how nothing else matters. By now, most of us know that view is shortsighted. I was guilty of a similarly erroneous way of thinking in my early days in the arts. Mine didn’t pertain to winning in the cage; it pertained to being prepared to win on the street. Self-defense was the only thing that should matter, I thought. Over the years, it dawned on me that I was wrong —…

After years of discussion, the University of Washington finally dedicated an official tribute to one of its most famous former students, martial arts legend Bruce Lee. A permanent dedication of “Bruce Lee Ascending,” a silhouette depiction of the late kung fu film star done on the main staircase of the school’s Odegaard Undergraduate Library, took place. Han Edward So Eckelberg, a graduate student at the university, created the artwork in 2020 while an undergraduate as part of a class project. It proved popular enough among students that it was voted “Best Artwork” at that year’s university Maker’s Summit. The university officially recognized the artwork with a ceremony attended by more than 150 people. Lee studied philosophy and drama at the University of Washington in the early 1960s.…

A new karate-themed unscripted series called Kiddie Kai has debuted on Discovery+. Created by Hot Snakes Media founders Eric and Shannon Evangelista, it follows kids and their families through a season of training and competition in the “Blackbelt Byway,” a region along the Interstate 95 corridor between Virginia and North Carolina in which martial arts are the thing to do. In this area, every dojo claims to be the best and every parent wants his or her child to train with the top sensei. The series features Mark Williams, a celebrated kung fu instructor; John Chung, a seven-time taekwondo world champion; Jeff McGregor, a veteran karate instructor; and Cliff Kinchen, a seventh-degree black belt. Kiddie Kai showcases the teachers, parents and children as they square off on and off the…

That said, many budo organizations have worked to standardize testing among their members. If you belong to a dojo affiliated with a national or international group, chances are you have a test with specific requirements for each rank. This allows for a lot of order and predictability. You can go to any dojo affiliated with that organization and be fairly sure of the quality of the ranked students and they can be sure of yours. Probably most practitioners would think this a positive. It is, in some ways. However, give some consideration to an alternative perspective on grading and standardization. Classical Japanese martial arts, also known as koryu, developed somewhat in isolation from one another. Keeping the essence of your ryu secret was a considerable advantage in an age of…

Question: What do you get when you mix a samurai-sword wielder from America’s Got Talent with a teenage weapons and forms world champion who recently embarked on a career in action movies? Answer: The newest member of Team Paul Mitchell Karate: Haley “Bulletproof” Glass. Her catchy nickname demonstrates that she doesn’t need a Kevlar uniform to showcase her amazing skills. Glass was born on June 3, 2003, and raised in Orlando, Florida. She started karate at age 5 while her mom Giomayra Walker worked late every night to make a better life for them. Walker wanted her daughter to have a fun activity to do, so she took her to a local community center. Glass enrolled in a shotokan karate class. Her martial education progressed normally for two years. Around…

Ninja of the Magnificence The original name of this 1988 flick was American Ninja: The Magnificent. You can’t go wrong when the lead character is named Elton. The cast includes Sam Baker, Fu-Mei Chang and Mark Chang (not Black Belt writer Mark Cheng). Invincible Obsessed Fighter This 1982 release is also known as Murimgori. It’s directed by Jeong-yong Kim and Tomas Tang and stars Un Bi, Cheol Jang and Hong-Kwon Jeong. Dragon vs. Needles of Death Released in 1975, this was originally called Long Hu Feng. The “needles of death” are nails that are thrown with deadly precision. It stars Feng Kou, Ping Wang and Chun Ti. In nonfiction: Want to learn BJJ? Check out Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with Carlson Gracie Jr., Fundamentals of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with Allan Goes and Jiu-Jitsu…

• On speed vs. strength: “[You need] a combination of both. If you’re strong but you move in slow motion, you’re not going to hit anything.” • On escaping from the side pin: “From my wrestling days, I knew how to get out of that hold easily — which isn’t the Kodokan way of getting out of a scarfhold. One hand goes between the legs, and you squeeze his balls a bit while you roll the guy over. Since there’s no referee, you just do what you gotta do.” • On Bruce Lee: “He taught me a lot of kung fu moves that I’d never seen, and he showed me how to do crescent kicks and spinning back kicks. In return, I showed Bruce some judo throws and grappling techniques. …Although…

Apolo Ladra was born in the Philippines. He lived in Batangas, which is renowned as the city where the butterfly knife was born. As far back as he can remember, Ladra says, people — including his uncle, his grandparents and his neighbors — always carried blades. His father, who served as chief of police there, often encountered bad guys with butterflies. Clearly, the art of the blade runs in the family. Ladra moved to the United States when he was 7 years old. He excelled as a taekwondo student, instructor and competitor, then found success running a school. Over the ensuing years, he delved into the study of kali and dedicated himself to mastering the art from his homeland. Ladra now regards kali as his combative art and taekwondo as…

The International Combat Hapkido Federation recently celebrated its 30th anniversary of continuous operation as one of the largest and most respected hapkido organizations in the world. Hundreds of charter schools in more than a dozen countries teach the art founded by John Pellegrini. Pellegrini started developing his style of hapkido in 1988. The process of structuring its modern, reality-based curriculum and its belt system took four years. In 1992 Pellegrini founded the ICHF as the official governing body and regulating authority of his style. At that time, he also placed himself and his organization under the supervision of In Sun Seo and the World Kido Federation. After monitoring and overseeing the quality standards of combat hapkido, as well as the growth and progress of the organization, Seo in 1999 formally…

Coached by Jackson Rudolph and Reid, Cole and Jake Presley, Team Competitive Edge has added two overall grand-championship-caliber competitors: Zeke Gomez of Florida and Wassim Dridi of Canada. Gomez won the NASKA grand championship at the U.S. Open in July, and Dridi won a grand championship of his own at the AKA Warrior Cup in January. Both martial artists come from schools that have a history of producing top sport-karate competitors. Gomez trains out of Florida Sports Martial Arts Academy, which has produced the likes of Marc Canonizado, Haley Glass and other world champions. Dridi hails from Karate Sport Action in Quebec, the home of Diamond Nationals ring winners Eric and Esteban Tremblay. The move came after Competitive Edge saw four of its players make the jump to Team Paul…

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…

I began my journey in 1955 with the London Judo Society, then delved into aikido, kendo and karate. I joined the British police and subsequently served as a troubleshooter in a bad part of London, which resulted in my rolling in more gutters than most people. It was a learning curve that separated dojo training from the real thing. In 1967 my victory at the National Police Judo Championship inspired me to visit Japan to further my training. Being short on cash, I was forced to go there via a six-week crossing of Siberia during the Cold War. That was just the beginning of the adventure. It continued because this period in history marked the tail end of an era that was quite unlike what we see in martial arts…

Discipline is a weighty part of the martial arts experience. That’s because discipline figures into so many of the features and details the arts offer. While these can vary from one system to the next, there are key components that affect every training hall. Early in my martial arts career, I looked at discipline as mostly a physical thing. For example, it might mean not getting to test for your next belt or doing push-ups in class. In other words, if you weren’t disciplined in doing what you were supposed to do, you got disciplined — corrective discipline! Over the years, I learned that discipline is much more than that. In this column, I will focus on a mix of supportive and preventative discipline and explain how they can be…

In episode 1863 of The Joe Rogan Experience, Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, talked extensively about his martial arts passion. Zuckerberg said he became interested about 12 months ago and now trains regularly. What was unclear is precisely what Zuckerberg does. On several occasions during the podcast, he mentioned that he does MMA and watches the UFC, but then he noted that his instructor is Brazilian jiu-jitsu master Dave Camarillo, a judo black belt and a BJJ black belt under Ralph Gracie who launched his own system known as “guerrilla jiu-jitsu.” Zuckerberg went on to say that he enjoys the rolling component of his workouts and that his two children are into jiu-jitsu, too.…

A legendary lineup of combat-sports veterans, event promoters and entrepreneurs who led professional kickboxing to historic heights more than 40 years ago have joined forces to revive the sport of pro kickboxing. The announcement of the creation of the Professional Kickboxing Association came from Joe Corley, chief executive officer of PKA Worldwide. Corley introduced pro kickboxing to the U.S. public nearly 50 years ago. His six-decade career in the sport has seen him transition from champion point fighter to professional kickboxer to co-owner of the Professional Karate Association, the organization for which he produced and commentated on more than 1,000 hours of championship bouts on cable and broadcast television. “The remarkable growth of MMA and other combat sports for the past 20 years has convinced us that now is the…

Team Paul Mitchell, the longest-running sponsored team in sport karate, made its largest move in recent memory when it added six forms and weapons competitors to its roster. The new pickups are Samuel Diaz III, Dawson Holt, Ben Jones, Isabella Nicoli, Averi Presley and Esteban Tremblay. Diaz brings a veteran presence to the team as a formidable senior competitor, Holt is a newcomer to the adult division who fulfills the roles of sword practitioner and men’s CMX forms threat, and the quartet of Jones, Nicoli, Presley and Tremblay gives the team a solid junior roster that will set it up for success across multiple disciplines. The martial artists are expected to make their debut at the team’s home tournament, the Ocean State Grand Nationals, in April 2023. The team has…

Sensei Bas: If we’d tell it wouldnt come as a surprise anymore…. kris whip: When I was a teenager I dated a girl whose dad went around with a set of Nunchucks on him, he would use them if threatened (we lived near a very tough area) saw him use them a few times. Alucard: Back in the 80’s two guys were going to fight after school. “Alvin is bringing his num chucks, Donald is wearing his spikes” Michael Coon: Two kinds of people. Need-tos & Want-tos. If you’re a “Want-to carry nunchaku to my beer drinking party”, I don’t want you there. If you honestly feel you “Need-to carry nunchaku to a beer drinking party” you should select lower-risk environments. Go to the library. Read a book.…

Black Belt started working with Bruce Lee before he was a star — witness our October 1967 issue, which featured him on the cover at a time when his name was deemed less attention-getting than the phrase “Green Hornet’s ‘Kato’: Does he really practice kung fu?” Since he passed away, the magazine has continued to work with the Lee family to keep readers up to date on all the projects that are in the works. In that vein, we present our annual interview with his daughter Shannon Lee, who has her hand in so many projects that it’s hard to imagine her ever resting. First of all, could you make a few comments about Bruce Lee in Black Belt, the book that Black Belt Publishing is about to release? I…

MAN OF CONTRASTS LeBell was gregarious while somehow managing to be both a natural-born showman and a humble martial artist — which was often demonstrated via his famously self-deprecating sense of humor. Most articles about and interviews with him tended to retell his seemingly endless funny stories juxtaposed with a few of the amazing things he’d done in his life. Frankly speaking, those interviews were usually awesome, and no doubt the articles pretty much wrote themselves. I can say that because I interviewed LeBell on multiple occasions for print and television, and I was lucky enough to be invited to train with him several times. I feel privileged to have been choked out by the master — on television, no less — after which he presented me with a custom…

■ On the logic of his style, Remy Presas says, “The key to any fighting is learning how to defend against specific angles of attack. Unlike most other martial arts, arnis does not so much concern itself with learning specific defensive moves as it does with developing an internal sense for what your opponent is about to do.” ■ “Although this flow is akin to the concept of ki or chi, it is really nothing mystical,” Presas continues. ■ The martial arts are spreading around the globe. Case in point: Talca, Chile, hosts the First National Chilean Karate Championships. Interestingly, it’s sponsored by the nation’s military sports commission. ■ Century Martial Arts debuts an ad campaign for its Kickin’ Jeans featuring Ernie Reyes Sr. and Jr. ■ Hwang Kee, founder…