Innholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2023 i Black Belt Magazine

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

MIYAGI-DO JIU-JITSU?

It all started with a struggle for control of the TV remote. What unfolded exemplified the value of jiu-jitsu, especially for people like me who have zero chance of engaging an enemy in a Taliban cave (which Tim Kennedy refers to in this issue’s cover story) but a decent chance of having to manage an uppity friend or family member. In this context, “manage” means control without hurting — the polar opposite of slamming a shin kick into someone’s thigh if all I knew was muay Thai. Back to the story … A friend’s teenage grandson was the person on the other end of the remote. He’s about 10 pounds lighter than I am and about four decades younger. In addition, he’s fueled by the I-can-whoop-any-adult attitude that all teenage…

2 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

COMMUNITY

ON CINEMA BLACK BELT: WHICH MARTIAL ARTS MOVIE DO YOU CONSIDER “CORNY” BUT GOOD? Brian S Woods: Everything cinematic is corny … the best is Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. [shown] Robin Hay: Billy Jack James Tan: Big Trouble in Little China, for sure. I love it so much! Happy FattyKarate: “Lady Dragon.” I kinda liked it, as corny as it was. Rumbletoe: The Last Dragon. Although when I watch it now it comes across as being mildly racist, with some over the top racial stereotypes but it was perfectly acceptable back then. Its intentions were good. ON A LINK TO A BLACKBELTMAG.COM STORY BLACK BELT: HOW DO YOU IDENTIFY A MCDOJO? Joe Swift Karate: I don’t. Outside of a few specific traits, the word “McDojo” is mostly a blanket term…

2 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

FREDIA GIBBS: MULTISPORT SUPERNOVA CONTINUES TO SHINE

Her name doesn’t appear on any “top athletes of the past 100 years” lists, but the sum total of her combat and multisport accomplishments remains unmatched even by the most prominent sports figures, male and female. One could even say that her glaring absence from all those compilations is an embarrassment. In today’s world of endorsements and lucrative contracts, Gibbs should be a billion-dollar athlete because she was light-years ahead of her time. Why do I call her a supernova? Consider Round 1: “Look at the biceps on Fredia Gibbs … and the abs! This is the new evolution of women’s fighting. They’re not just technicians; they’re a strong, physical presence out there.” — Battle of the Masters, Fredia Gibbs vs. Valerie Henin, 1994 Gibbs trained in karate, jujitsu, taekwondo, kickboxing,…

4 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

BEST PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKES AND PALMS VS. FISTS, PART 2

There are several reasons I prefer using palms rather than fists for hand strikes to the head. Generally speaking, palms are structurally superior to fists. Before I get into the specifics, I’ll provide some context. If you fell face first onto a concrete floor from a standing position, how would you break your fall to keep from face-planting? Most, if not all, people would do so with their palms. Striking the human head with full force is not unlike striking a concrete floor in a fall. That visualization should make it clear that the first vulnerability in using fists is the susceptibility of the metacarpal bones of the ring finger and pinkie to fracture. When bare bones in the hands make contact with the skull, the skull prevails almost every…

5 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

WAR FIGHTING WITH TIM KENNEDY

Tim Kennedy is a rarity in the martial arts world — even though he denies it, as you’ll see. He started in the traditional arts (shotokan karate, Japanese jujitsu, wrestling, boxing and jiu-jitsu), then enlisted in the military, where he trained in the Modern Army Combatives Program as a soldier and the Special Operations Combatives Program as an Army Ranger and Green Beret. Later, he transitioned to Strikeforce, the International Fight League, the UFC and other MMA organizations, where he built a record of 18-6. It should come as no surprise that Kennedy is also a member of the Black Belt Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 2011 as MMA Fighter of the Year. In this enlightening interview, he elaborates on a subject he is uniquely qualified to discuss:…

19 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

Extreme Challange

Shugyo is a traditional Japanese martial arts practice that entails putting oneself through sustained rigorous training for the purpose of self-development. It typically involves enduring feats that are performed outside — in the mountains, at the beach, under a waterfall, in extreme heat, in bitter cold and so on. Martial artists who engage in such intense physical practices believe it will lead to a mental and spiritual transformation. The underlying concept is that by pushing oneself beyond one’s limits and strengthening the body, the martial artist will live in the moment and gain an enhanced appreciation for being alive. Historically, shugyo was integral to the development of many martial artists, including sword-master Miyamoto Musashi, aikido-founder Morihei Ueshiba and kyokushin-founder Mas Oyama. Shugendo: New Spiritual Practice The roots of shugyo can…

12 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

BRUCE LEE HONORED WITH FILM PIONEER AWARD

Martial arts movie icon Bruce Lee was named the recipient of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Film Pioneer award at the 18th Chinese American Film Festival in San Gabriel, California. At the Golden Angel Awards ceremony that opened the festival, Lee’s daughter Shannon was on hand to accept the honor. Variety quoted her as telling the audience, “Thank you for recognizing his impact, his fight for Asian representation in Hollywood, his desire to create and share authentically his culture with the world.” The 2016 movie Birth of the Dragon, a fictionalized account of Lee’s challenge match with kung fu master Wong Jack Man, previously won a Golden Angel Award. —Mark Jacobs THAI FIGHT HOTEL OPENS ITS DOORS Kickboxing promotion Thai Fight opened what it’s calling the world’s first muay…

9 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

TEACHING WITHOUT OVERWHELMING

“Today, we learn the front kick. Take a front stance. You have too much weight on your back leg. Now raise your knee as high as you can. No, your butt is sticking out; tuck it in. Keep your raised foot parallel to the floor. Your arms are flailing; pull them in, elbows against your sides. No, that’s too tight. Relax more. Your supporting leg is too stiff; you need to get a springing action from it as you kick. Keep your back straight. Lift your knee higher so your thigh is parallel to the floor.” If you learned the front kick in a good karate dojo, you heard all that advice and a lot more. However, think back — did you hear all of it the first time you…

4 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

FROM THE RING TO THE CAGE: ALI 2.0

Biaggio Ali Walsh understands all this. The grandson of boxing immortal Muhammad Ali, Walsh is seeking to forge his own path not in boxing but in the equally tough world of MMA. “Regardless of anything I ever do, I know people are going to compare me to my grandfather,” he said. “Yes, I’m a fighter, but MMA is a whole different sport than boxing. So I’m the first Ali to get into mixed martial arts, and I want to make my own name in that.” Walsh has a butterfly tattoo on one arm and a bee on the other — a tribute to his grandfather’s famous motto “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” and a permanent reminder of the legacy he has to live up to. Growing up,…

5 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

RECOLLECTING WITH JEFF SMITH

The breakthrough occurred because the Smith/Allah bout was shown worldwide on closed-circuit TV as a preliminary to the Muhammad Ali/Joe Frazier “Thrilla in Manila” main event. Smith was on top of the world. A year earlier, he won the Professional Karate Association world light-heavyweight kickboxing title at the organization’s first event. Professional Karate magazine named him America’s No. 1 point fighter that year, and in 1976 he was inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame as Karate Player of the Year. —Herb Borkland Before we present highlights from Smith’s appearance on The Combat Show on Jungo TV’s Black Belt Magazine Channel, check out these three new movies on the platform. The Leopard Fist Ninja: This actioner from 1982 stars Jack Lam, Willie Freeman and Chung Wok. It tells the tale…

7 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

3 PILLARS

Soon after they exploded out of their Scandinavian homelands more than 1,000 years ago and began unleashing violence across Europe and into Asia, Africa and North America, the Vikings gained a reputation as fierce fighters. The havoc they wreaked even led the Europeans of the era to compose a prayer: “Oh Lord, from the fury of the Northmen deliver us.” Evidence that violence permeated Viking society and decimated their enemies can be found in a variety of sources throughout the region. Until recently, however, scholars didn’t know much about the fighting system of the Vikings because they left little behind to provide clues. Unlike in the Asian martial arts, there are no training manuals and no living traditions of their weapon-based fighting. However, by using the scientific method, substantial force-on-force…

7 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

THEN AND NOW

The first part of this feature was written by Tim Vandehey and published in the April 1989 issue of Black Belt. The second part was written by Adam James in 2022. FORMER FIGHTERS WORK TO KEEP KIDS OUT OF GANGS by Tim Vandehey The year was 1969. Turmoil boiled throughout the United States — race conflicts, the battle over civil rights, protests over Vietnam and the general growing pains that came with overwhelming change. The great conflicts have been recorded in a thousand books and at least as many miles of news film. Our concern is with one of the smaller struggles, a world that stood as a microcosm of the change: the world of karate. As in most other aspects of life, Blacks had come to realize that the…

15 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

DOJO FUN AND GAMES — FOR RETENTION

In her hit song, Cyndi Lauper reminded us that “girls just want to have fun.” Kids just want to have fun, too. In fact, they need to have fun — to run, exercise, play and do everything else that goes along with being young. For that reason, “fun, fitness and self-defense” is a theme my dojo uses on signs, in brochures and on webpages. It’s worked well over the years because here we are, continuing to attract new students while retaining others consistently. In this column, I will focus on fun and games for kids and teens. (Adults usually like them, too.) Some of the games require specific instructions while others do not. Before I begin: Perhaps you’re wondering why you would want to add games to your classes. As…

5 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

DOJO LISTINGS

Arizona Sixkiller’s House of Kenpo Karate1570 E Northern Ave., Suite BKingman, AZ 86409(928) 607-0021sixkillerjr.jess@yahoo.com California Blain Cort’s Total Self-Defense2955 McMurry DriveAnderson, CA 96007blaincort@gmail.com Golden Tiger Karate9501 Flushing QuailBakersfeild, CA 93312(661) 345-4371goldentigerkarate@yahoo.com Kuk Sool Won-Rohnert Park Martial Arts311 Professional Center DriveRohert Park, CA 94928(707) 494-1151Kuksoolwonrp@yahoo.com Red Dragon Championship Martial Arts1603 Garnet Ave.San Diego, CA 92109(858) 263-4212reddragonpb@live.com Budokai (Budokaikan Association)4616 Park Granada #72Calabasas, CA 91302(747) 444-7940senseialex@budokai.net Connecticut New England Rendokan1845 Silas Deane HighwayRocky Hill, CT 06067(860) 628-1022Info@ner1.net Florida All American Martial Arts & Krav Maga Academy4255 US Highway 1 South, Suite 4St. Augustine, FL 32086(904) 797-2262lessons@staugustinetaekwondo.com Georgia Kombative Academy of Traditional Martial ArtsSavannah Mall, 1st Floor14045 Abercorn St., Suite 1512Savannah, GA 31419(912) 459-8693katmadefense@gmail.com Georgia Lozo Karate6395 Spalding Drive, Suite CPeachtree Corners, GA 30092(404) 333-8808info@goranlozo.comlozokarate.com Louisiana Zanshin Dojo3925 Highway 59Mandeville, LA 70471(504) 220-7228info@ZanshinDojoMRJ.com…

1 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

MUSEUM OF ART

Fifty-five years later, he’s the founder and president of the Martial Arts History Museum in Burbank, California. It’s an establishment where you can find, among other things, the gopher chucks from Kung Pao: Enter the Fist, artifacts from the storied career of Benny “The Jet” Urquidez and traditional instruments that are played during muay Thai matches, not to mention obligatory displays like samurai swords and armor. The theme could be described as Asian culture seen through the lens of the martial arts — not only how those arts kick and punch but also where they come from and what impact they’ve had on their country of origin and the culture of the United States. IT STARTED WITH A MAGAZINE: After several years of writing for various martial arts publications, Matsuda…

5 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF READINESS ADVICE

Those who are deeply read, those who are informed by tragic firsthand experience and those who have existed safely thus far but still have a watchful eye on reality all seem to agree that the Boy Scout motto “Be prepared” gets it right. So does the following: “He, therefore, who aspires to peace should prepare for war.” —Flavius Vegetius Renatus, Institutions of the Romans, A.D. 378 That single sentence and many like it are touted frequently in self-protection circles and for just cause. But such sentences are often misinterpreted by those who fear any emphasis on martial matters. And the sentence is often interpreted too shallowly or taken too literally by the very people who hold such sentiments dear. This superficial reading is in some sense as off base as…

5 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

ESSENTIAL GEAR

FEATURED ITEM New from Tim Kennedy, the martial artist on the cover of this issue, is Scars and Stripes: An Unapologetically American Story of Fighting the Taliban, UFC Warriors, and Myself. Kennedy is outspoken if nothing else — as you know if you read the previous articles Black Belt did with him or listened to any of his podcast interviews. It is, therefore, a fitting title for this 399-page book. Kennedy, for those who don’t know, is a war hero (although he denies it), an MMA veteran who competed in several franchises, including the UFC, and a member of the Black Belt Hall of Fame. In the book, Kennedy unleashes his wild side, which the Black Belt team got to see up close at the photo shoot that was done…

3 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

PATH TO THE PODIUM

As a Black Belt writer for more than two decades, I’ve had the luxury of deep-diving into the minds of many top martial artists to learn what it takes to succeed. Legendary trainers like John Hackleman and Greg Jackson, “blood and guts” era karate champions like Bill Wallace, Olympic gold medalists like Kayla Harrison and MMA phenoms like the Gracies all have shared their insights. As a graduate of the Canadian Coaching Certification Program, I’ve spent decades poring over resources that pertain to performance enhancement in the martial arts in an effort to help athletes who come to me for coaching. Some of them have gone on to compete in MMA and amateur muay Thai. I also have firsthand knowledge that the information I’m about to present works. I used…

12 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

FIGHT LIKE YOUR GRANDFATHER!

Imagine a martial art with pressure-testing drills, improvised weapons, multiple opponents and scenario training. You might think of krav maga or an entry in the category that’s come to be known as reality-based self-defense. In short, something that’s decidedly modern probably popped into your mind. Turn back the dial a hundred years, however, and you’ll find all those ingredients in 1920s Shanghai and well into World War II. So jump in your time machine because you’re about to learn how to fight like your grandfather. The Origin When you entered Shanghai in the early 1900s, you knew you were in “vice city.” It was managed by foreign interests, throwbacks to a decaying empire and, most of all, cold, hard money. For some, it was a place to run to; for…

13 min

Black Belt Magazine|Winter 2023

From the Archives

• “Our American team is so much more versatile than the competition, it’s not even funny, and it is really because of the type of fighting we face in open point competition here in the States,” Tokey Hill says in the cover story. “Techniques are much more varied and personalized than anything you’ll run up against in an international tournament.” • Hill continues: “Strategy, not just quickness and reflexes, plays an important role. In world competition, everything is basic hard-style shotokan-type sparring — very linear, very back and forth. These guys are not what you would call mental fighters. Not that they’re dumb, just that they’ve been taught formula fighting, and it becomes very predictable after a while.” • A four-page ad announces that Chuck Norris has commissioned Century Martial…

3 min