Innholdsfortegnelse for February - March 2016 i Black Belt Magazine

Case in point: In 1964 Ernie Cates, one of the most decorated judoka in the United States, was able to muster only a fourth-place finish at the Olympic Trials. It wound up being his sole chance to make an Olympic team. Cates had won the Marine Corps Judo Championships five times and was twice the interservice champion at a time when most of the best judo players in the country were found in the armed forces. But all those titles came between 1959 and 1963. Judo wasn’t introduced as an Olympic sport until 1964. If the Tokyo Games had come four years earlier, during the prime of Cates’ competitive career, perhaps things would have been different. By 1964, however, age and injuries were starting to slow him down. NEVERTHELESS, Cates…

They’re usually forms competitors — those precocious tykes you see at tournaments, wearing uniforms that are two sizes too big and drawing applause for their amazing acrobatic displays. Less common is the prodigy who excels in sparring. Natalie Hershberger is looking to redefine the martialprodigy image. The 11-year-old Ohio native has competed in taekwondo since she was 6. She’s already won four national titles as a black belt, two AAU Junior Olympic titles and, most recently, her first age-group championship at the U.S. Open. “I guess I’m kind of a natural at taekwondo,” she said. “I have long legs, so it’s easy for me to kick. But it still took lots of practice for me to get good at it.” TAEKWONDO IS A FAMILY affair for the Hershbergers. Her father…

TO SAY THAT GREG JACKSON HAS A LOT GOING ON these days would be an understatement. In early November 2015, he was inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame as Instructor of the Year. Since November 14, he’s no doubt been inundated with reporters seeking comments on the UFC 193 bout in which his fighter Holly Holm KO’d reigning champ Ronda Rousey. He’s preparing to launch an online MMA course produced by Black Belt. In addition to all that, he’s still manning the helm at Jackson’s Martial Arts & Fitness Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We covered Jackson’s Hall of Fame induction in our December 2015/January 2016 issue. Presented here are details on how he helped train Holm for her UFC bout, a look at the new streaming-video course…

• In 1956 a letter is delivered to the Kodokan in Tokyo, asking for the “strongest, most skillful judo fighter in all Japan” to be sent to the domicile of the writer. All expenses will be paid, including airfare and a weekly allowance for the duration of the proposed six-month assignment. The Kodokan president gives it some thought, then tells Takahiko Ishikawa to pack his bags. Thus Cuba gets its first official judo teacher. • In the Letters department, readers spar over the notion that Chuck Norris will become the next Bruce Lee. • Now-defunct Dolan’s Sports runs a full-page ad for nunchaku and nunchaku parts. Our favorite: a nunchaku key chain that sells for $1.49. • In a bout with Burnis White, Bill Wallace battles to retain his middleweight…

MARTIAL ARTS MOVIE NEWS • Mask, a documentary about Tapout’s Charles “Mask” Lewis Jr., has been released. Directed by Bobby Razak, it features neverbefore-seen footage of Lewis, who began by selling Tapout clothing from the back of his van and eventually built the company into a multimillion-dollar brand. Lewis was killed by a drunk driver on March 11, 2009. “Mask, my life’s work, is a film about believing in yourself and making a difference in the world,” Razak said. “It’s difficult to imagine MMA being as popular as it is today without Mask’s steadfast dedication to our sport. The ripples from Mask’s life can be felt throughout the MMA community and beyond, and I hope my film inspires people from all walks of life to follow their dreams.” masklewis.com •…

The first time I saw the jeet kune do leg obstruction in action was in Dan Inosanto’s backyard. Bruce Lee had recently left to make movies in Hong Kong, and Inosanto decided to build a private workout area at his home. I felt privileged to have been asked to join his training group when it was done. Near the end of my first class, Inosanto told everyone to prepare for sparring. I was matched with an experienced JKD practitioner named Bob Bremer. We squared off, and after a quick exchange, Bremer nailed me with a leg obstruction. I immediately learned the hard way that when the technique is used properly, the opponent is rendered unable to kick or punch. Furthermore, the opponent can’t move forward or backward because as soon…

FRANK E. SANCHEZ has been around the block. As a youth in Guam, the U.S. territory in which he was born, he frequently had to call on his martial arts skills to deal with local ruffians. “When I was young, nothing pleased me more than a good brawl,” he wrote in Black Belt. “More often than not, it was at close quarters with someone who used only his hands — kicking was considered sissy stuff at the time because the Asian arts weren’t widely known. It was relatively easy to overpower such an adversary using hand and foot techniques.” Sanchez’s growing proficiency gained him a reputation as a formidable fighter. He wasn’t always scrapping, however. Often, he could be found singing. Using the stage name Frankie Sanchez — get it?…

• On November 27, 2015, Bruce Lee would have celebrated his 75th birthday. • A video circulating on YouTube proposes an intriguing theory, namely that the clumsy Jar Jar Binks character from the Star Wars prequels is actually a Sith master whose movements are patterned on zui quan, or drunken-fist kung fu. The video shows clips of real martial arts monks and compares them to movie scenes that show the blundering Binks. • The world’s largest martial arts class was conducted in Abu Dhabi on November 25, 2015, to coincide with National Sports Day and mark the UAE’s 44th National Day. Organized by the UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation, it was attended by the Guinness World Records committee, which confirmed that 2,481 jiu-jitsu students participated. • Black Belt is about to release…

Most of the descriptions of Ketchel’s punching power penned by sportswriters of the time echo this one from Bert Randolph Sugar: “Like Dempsey, Ketchel’s defense was his offense. A murderous puncher with death at the end of each arm, Ketchel kept exploding six-inch shells in fiveounce gloves until something happened.” Ketchel always fought with murderous intent, whether it was in his unofficial 250-plus barroom fights or while wading through the middleweight division until his untimely death at age 24. He was so confident of his power and conditioning that on five occasions, he fought two men in the same day. Once, he outscored six opponents in one six-round match, taking a fresh fighter for each round. PERHAPS THE GREATEST SHOW of Ketchel’s power and conditioning, if not his grit, came…

In case you live in a cave, here’s a news flash: 2016 is an Olympic year. The 31st Summer Games are scheduled to take place August 5-21 in Rio de Janeiro. Whenever the world’s premier sporting event rolls around, we find ourselves reflecting on how the Olympics have affected the martial arts. Part 1 of this article examines whether the Games have been good for judo and taekwondo. For input, we interrogated five experts, prompting them with questions and hoping they’d offer opinions on other topics that are of concern to them and practitioners of their art. — Editors ART: JUDO ADDED TO THE OLYMPICS: 1964 EXPERT: Gary Goltz, former president of the U.S. Judo Association, current board member of the Hal Sharp Judo Teachers Foundation QUESTION: Is pre-1964 judo…

You’ve said Bob Bremer is the person who got you interested in JKD. How did the two of you meet? Bob and I met a long time before we started JKD. He was actually with Ed Parker at that time. I went there and checked that out with him, but it wasn’t for me. I dropped out but still saw Bob regularly — we fished together a lot. Later, I heard Bob talking about JKD, so I went down to the school twice. The second time I signed up. How was the JKD school different from the kenpo school? Ed Parker’s students were guys who liked to rush in and start throwing fists. That didn’t fit me. After working out with Bob a little bit, JKD seemed like the right…

If you own a martial arts school, operate a club or run a program in a local parks-and-rec facility, you need insurance. It’s as simple as that. The right insurance coverage will keep you from having to stay up at night, worrying about the possibility of losing your assets should an accident happen. Ask anyone who’s been there — all it takes is a single claim that stems from a student landing a punch with a little too much power, and your whole business can come crashing down. Insurance, as they say, is part of the cost of doing business in 21st-century America. Thankfully, companies like Markel can make it easy to obtain the coverage your martial arts business needs. BASED IN RICHMOND, Virginia, Markel was founded in the 1920s.…