Karate Kid

I didn’t grow up watching Bruce Lee like so many others.

Being a child of the 80′s meant that I grew up with Karate Kid and American Ninja.

However, like many of the latecomers, I schooled myself on the importance of Bruce Lee and what he brought to not only cinema, but Gung-Fu.  I then immersed myself in Shaw Brothers classics and Wu Xia style movies.

No different than someone who didn’t grow up on KRS-One.

Or Wu-Tang Clan.

Shame on you when you stepped through to
The Ol’ Dirty Bastard straight from the Brooklyn Zoo
And I’ll be damned if I let any man
Come to my center, you enter the winter

Urgency

Solo training can be monotonous at times.  It is important to use the mind.  Play tricks on the mind.

Today, I tricked my mind into thinking that the heavy bag was my opponent.  Not only that, but at times I would pretend that an opening had been created and it was with most urgency that I hit.

CTK

 

Nishiyama

Bruce Lee and Jesse Glover would meet Nishiyama at a Judo tournament in Tacoma Washington, circa 1959.

Who?

It must have been a funny sight. Or, odd at least. The neighbours were having some kind of a get together, playing music, hanging out in their garden and having fun. A purple Lotus sports car pulled up into my driveway. The rumble of the car died as the key was taken out of the ignition and out stepped my brother and a casually dressed Japanese man named Takao Tanaguchi. Takao’s “geta” footwear (imagine a clog crossed with a flip flop) made an audible cloppin sound as he marched into my house.

I can just imagine the neighbour’s thinking “who the hell is that?”

The three of us sat and watched an MMA event that had been broadcast from Saitama, Japan. The commentary was in Japanese which suited Takao as he was here visiting my brothers’ Dojo for a couple of weeks. Sensei Takao, is a man in his  60′s. He is a shichidan (7th degree black belt) in Shotokan Karate and in intimidatingly good shape.

There are some people who talk about martial arts. There are some people that study and train martial arts. Very, very few embody martial arts.

24 Hour Karate School

Thanks Sacha