Innholdsfortegnelse for October - November 2016 i Black Belt Magazine

Before a match, fighters forgo gloves and wrap their hands in thin gauze and tape. Once the action begins, they’re allowed to attack with head butts and throws, as well as strikes and kicks. There are no judges to award points. The only way to win is via a knockout, TKO or doctor stoppage. In ancient times, bare-knuckle fighting wasn’t taught just to members of the military class; it was also made available to Burmese youth. The reasons were obvious: Lethwei ensured soldiers stayed fit to fight, it served as a rite of passage for young males and it functioned as a popular sport that entertained the masses. It was also a brutal way to settle a grudge. DURING ITS HEYDAY, lethwei was known as the “sport of warriors.” In…

Case in point: Oswald Boelcke. This German flying ace was one of the top innovators and instructors in the Axis air force during World War I. Among his many accomplishments, Boelcke chose a young Baron Manfred von Richthofen to become his pupil and coached him to an astonishing string of air victories. Von Richthofen is better-known as the Red Baron. BOELCKE FLEW at a time when pilots of both the Axis and Allied powers still considered themselves “knights of the air.” They demonstrated a curious kind of chivalry that often entailed showing courtesy to the opposition. Stories abound of pilots who found that their primitive machine guns had jammed in the middle of a dogfight, only to receive a salute from their adversary as he opted to fly away rather…

Ricardo Liborio had spent most of the year preparing for a single match against grappling legend Mario Sperry at the Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championship. Then, three weeks out, he fractured his wrist. Nearly 20 years earlier, when Liborio was considered one of the best Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitors on the planet, his career had come to a similarly sudden halt. It happened when a broken jaw and the 11 surgeries required to repair it had cost him almost two years of mat time, effectively ending his brief reign. The superfight with Sperry was to be the first foray back into competition in 14 years for the 49-year-old Liborio, so he wasn’t about to let a broken wrist get in the way. “We’d drill light, and when he’d…

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Football has Archie Manning and sons Eli and Peyton. Baseball had Bobby Bonds and son Barry. But father/son duos who play together for the same team are pretty rare. Ken Griffey Sr. and Jr. played baseball together for two seasons with the Seattle Mariners, and hockey great Gordie Howe played for several seasons alongside his sons Mark and Marty. To that shortlist, you can now add Gerald and Kameren Dawson. The top-ranked tournament heavyweights — who fall into the 30-39 age group and the 20-29 age group, respectively — compete as part of Team Paul Mitchell Karate. “OUT OF 120 competitors we’ve had on the team over the years, this is the first father/son duo we’ve had competing together,” said Paul Mitchell head coach Don Rodrigues. “I had my son…

Unfortunately, what people don’t spend enough time on is understanding the importance of movement, establishing range and being harder to hit. Sure, the combatives mentality lends itself to “hey diddle diddle, right up the middle” and “going cave man,” but is that the most effective approach? The most efficient? Don’t misunderstand me: Sometimes the absolutely right thing to do is to cover and explode directly into your attacker to stop his momentum and establish the all-important transition from him feeling like the predator to him feeling like prey. He suddenly finds it necessary to protect himself when he realizes there are negative consequences for attacking you. But not always. BASED ON THE LACK of movement you observe in some combatives training, the assumption must be that the attacker somehow becomes…

MANTIS In part one of this story, which appeared in the August/September 2016 issue, Wang Bo discussed the Shaolin concept of the tree, which is composed of roots, a trunk and branches. In the temple’s style of kung fu, the roots equate to your legs, which are used to assume stances, to move, and to attack and defend. The trunk is what lies on your centerline: your torso and head. Discussed here are the branches, which are your hands and arms. — Editor BRANCHES “You use your branches to protect your trunk. When you improve your arms — your branches — and your roots — your legs — you can better protect your trunk. The secret of being a good martial artist is being equally fast with your roots, trunk…