[Forward: My good friend, David Hays is contributing this article. David is a 4th degree Kenpo black belt from Dick Willett. Dave has been a fierce tournament competitor, studio owner and now he mentors the upcoming generations of karate students. The photo credits go to Barbara Steinberg. Welcome David! John W. Zimmer]
On June 14th, 2008 Dick Willett’s senior Black Belts hosted a seminar in San Diego Ca. with the legendary Joe Lewis and world champion grappler Dean Lister.
Joe Lewis was the best of the best in the golden age of Sport Karate. During the early years of martial arts in America, he stood out as the best in the sport. There was no one more feared and/or respected than the legendary Joe Lewis.
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When I was knee high to a grasshopper, I remember my mom telling me that, “sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you!” That was in an attempt to lessen the impact of the mean kids on my block that used to make fun of me (for what I don’t remember). The idea that was, and is, still valid today, is that sticks and stones are readily available weapons! Bruce Lee once said in one of his movies (paraphrasing), anything can be used as a weapon. The sticks and stones you find on the ground are legal weapons if the intent is to use them for self defense when you need them. Did you catch that nuance?
My mom made a sheath for a club I had whittled when I was about 12 years old. I used to travel through the woods (imagining I was an explorer) with the club strapped to my belt and almost had to defend a couple of damsels in distress. I happened on a bunch of guys surrounding a couple of girls I knew from school. I said hi and the girls who looked really worried, saw me and were elated! One of the girls said I was her brother and I played along. The guys looked at me and my club and soon took off. That was my first experience of my Teddy Roosevelt defense, you know… talk softly and carry a big stick! Here is a 1912 story of a girl fighting off muggers with a night stick and saving her fiance here!
Lets examine legal fighting methods with sticks and stones. We will also look at some good usages and why you might want to use weapons. I have always been fond of stick fighting. Here is a video of some Portuguese stick fighting called Jogo Do Pau.
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People have become more civilized in the last thousand years but we really should learn some lessons from the past. The reason I say this is people should still be at the top of the food chain! We (speaking for all humanity here) are smarter than any animal but in today’s society - using our native smarts have not been cultivated in cities.
I reviewed this video about two women that were attacked by a Pitt Bull dog and were taking on lots of bites. I would first like to say that an animal owner should not own a dog he or she cannot control and I would also like to point out that these women were scared and they probably had never had to fight for their lives. Review this video and then I will talk about strategy.
As you probably know by know from reading this blog, I enjoy a good contest. I stumbled upon some kick boxing from Eurosport Fight Club on Youtube.com that featured a match from Eurosport’s Netherlands vs Thailand Kickboxing Series. I’m not sure exactly when this fight took place but it was uploaded to Youtube.com on January 31, 2008.
The series seems to be a national team competition featuring some really great fighters. For the Netherlands, Jimmy Eimmers is fighting and Hansuk is representing Thailand. Take a look at this video below.
Aloha! One of my first karate exposures was from Hal Edwards Lima Lama and the NAS Miramar base in San Diego. When I was a teenager we (fellow military brats) would go to the base karate program and learn Lima Lama. Hal was a black belt from Saul Esquivel. I met Saul Esquivel at the base karate club once and later met the founder of Lima Lama, Tino Tuiolosega at a seminar in Escondido, CA as I recall.
One of the things I heard about Lima Lama was it was composed of old island martial arts that the head hunters used to practice (Lua) and many of the moves were part of the traditional island dances called hula. Hal was big on pointing out the benefits of using short circular wrist moves to block and fingers or back knuckles as a quick counter. I looked for some hula on youtube.com but found modern dances for the tourists but here is one hula that seemed to be telling a story (I am not an expert in hula).
Wow… what a fight! I just saw five rounds of exciting action and found out that Urijah Faber can strike! In this first defense of Urijah’s belt that went the five rounds, he had a worthy opponent. Jens Pulver was able to escape the ground and pound game by sitting up early in the match. Faber was able to cancel out Pulver’s striking with fast lunge/counter punches and hooks. I’ve never seen Faber strike so much and found he could hang with Pulver. Jens was in trouble in the second round but came out of it and took the fight back to Faber, who in turn had to go to the ground to recover.
The last three rounds were marked by some ground work but mainly striking where Pulver was attempting to pick some shots and then was beat to the punch most of the time. You could tell these fighters really respected each other’s fight skills after the bout.
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This is a quick post to let everyone know that depends on free TV… tonight (Saturday, May 31, 2008) on CBS (according the TVGuide.com):
Scheduled: Kimbo Slice takes on James “Colossus” Thompson in a heavyweight bout in Newark, N.J. Also: Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith in a middleweight fight; and Gina Carano vs. Kaitlin Young in women’s action.
This should be exciting action and (I think) the network TV’s first major foray into the exciting MMA world of fighting! It is kind of interesting to me that it has taken this long to get real fighting to the networks when so much of their (the networks) investment has been in the ancient sport fighting of my grandfather’s era (do you want to know how I really feel?) 
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For many of you that have taken karate lessons and learned how to do all of the basics, you may still be wondering; Will it really work? And, How can I make karate work for me? I have read a wikipedia article (one should not rely on wikipedia as authoritative as it can be edited by anyone) on Model Mugging where a gentleman decided to focus on self-defense instead of traditional karate because it did not work for many women (in his judgement).
Karate lessons will give you all of the tools you need to fight back but it will not fight back for you… meaning you will have to get over the feeling of, “Is this really happening to me” and come up with a quick plan. Part of a karate education is supposed to be exposure to fighting and getting some self-confidence to find some moves that work for YOU! If you are just focused on getting the pretty belt or the recognition that comes with a black-belt… you are probably wasting your money.
I will try to relate some of the moves that give me confidence in almost any situation…. moves that I cannot use in sport karate or full-contact karate for the most part. I will try and relate what it is like to be in a real fight for your life as I have been in plenty (all fights after high-school are really (and should be) fights of last resort), and I will try and put it all together for you. And yes - I think anyone can be trained to fight in a self-defense situation. My most favorite move is the counter-punch or lunge punch. Here is a quick video demonstrating this very simplisticly (there is a lot more to it if you want to be successful).
I just read a story about Elle Macpherson using Tai Chi to get her handbag back from a robber here. I was kind of amazed that a supermodel would be walking about unaccompanied but even more amazed that she, after getting robbed, would get her purse back! After reading the story - all I can say is Elle probably did get some confidence from Tai Chi. Here is a picture of Elle McPherson with a surfboard. She looks like she stays in good shape.
Another Supermodel that can fight is Michelle Waterson. She works at Hooters by day and is starting to fight MMA. Michelle was in Oxygen networks, “Fight Girls.” It is really cool to see someone living their dream. Michelle states in her videos that karate is her way of life. She is a black belt in Karate and learning Muay Tai and Wushu. Here is a picture of Michelle doing a front-snap-kick.
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When I was starting out in karate I was told about the Tracy’s system (most styles are similar), basics, 240 self-defense techniques, 17 katas, and kumite (sparring/fighting). My first thought I asked my instructor was why I could not just learn how to fight. Why did I need to memorize so many techniques to attain each belt rank? My instructor (Dick Willett) told my that forms and techniques helped us learn how to learn the martial art. I thought about that and it made some sense… If I had just wanted to learn how to fight, I would have taken wrestling or boxing.
Lets explore the components that make up a martial art and then look at katas in more depth. First look at this video of two karate/kung fu champions doing a funny skit. George Chung was one of the top kata competitors in my day (late 70’s/early 80’s). Cynthia Rothrock was from the same era, also winning lots of kata championships.
Many of you may be wondering what is the best style or martial art for self-defense? There are many good martial arts schools that teach adaptive self-defense moves that also teach the traditional martial arts. People often ask me what is the best way to learn self-defense. The short answer is to find something you like for the time commitment you want to make, and then follow through.
Almost any martial art will work in self-defense if one practices but it must be suited for the student. For instance if a woman wanted to learn how to fight in two weeks, I would not suggest a formal Kung Fu or Karate school (unless they also taught self-defense courses), but rather a self-defense course. If a woman wanted to learn an art form as well as some practical self-defense then almost any martial art will be good (Kung Fu, Karate, Jiu Jitsu, Judo, Aikido and so on). Here is a short video of a Kung Fu school with a self-defense offering.
I have been hearing about Cung Le for the past year from my wife’s nephew, Tony Corleone, who has contributed some rap music to Cung Le’s bouts. I have not seen Cung Le in person but I have been reviewing some of his videos after he took the middleweight title from Frank Shamrock. This guy is a fighter after my own heart! I love to see a striker compete in MMA. Here is a video of some of Cung Le’s highlights.
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I’ve been watching a couple of hours of the T.O.P. (Toughest Operational Personnel) Army Fighter series on the Military Channel (105 on COX South San Diego) yesterday. I am impressed with how our military is being taught to fight. A good overview of this series is found at MMAJunkie.com.
Safety is a great concern during the military version of MMA so while it is OK to use a leg lock, it is not OK to twist the foot because these guys are actually shipping out to Iraq. I found a short clip of one popular fighter that fights MMA and T.O.P. Army Fighter for your perusal.
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The following story is of my wife (let me call her Sly) using self-defense when she was a kid! I should explain that she came from a large family with a single working mother for most of her teenage years. Her mother was away a lot and the kids went unsupervised. I have edited this account to remove much of the identifying information.
I decided to publish this becuase there are probably lots of young girls living in unsupervised conditions due to single working parents. Sly has been a fighter ever since we met and had to use her wits to escape many times when she was younger. I will publish self-defense stories of people not trained in karate to show that anyone can use their wits to increase their chances of survival! This is written in the first person - I will hold my comments until the end.
Watch out for those peeping-toms!
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Picture from here.
It is with great pleasure I would like to notify the readers of this website that Joe Lewis (former point and world heavy-weight full contact karate champion) and Dean Lister (U.S. National Sambo champion, a U.S. Machado National Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and National Gracie Jiu Jitsu Champoin) are giving a seminar on June 14, 2008 at Rancho Bernardo (just north of San Diego, CA). Joe Lewis is also planning a seminar on June 12, 2008 at Chandler, AZ (near Phoenix, AZ).
Picture from here.
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What is going on? I have been looking for stories of women defending themselves against attackers and I found a bunch of articles about women punching, hitting sharks and saving puppies and kittens against pythons! I have never had an issue with sharks - I’ve seen a few blue sharks and leopard sharks while scuba diving but I have had an altercation (for me) with a Torpedo Ray.
Jessica Alba reportedly while filming “Into The Blue,” had to punch a shark in the nose that got too close to her - story here. Another woman kayaking off of Australia, had a Great White capsize her kayak and try to eat her. She responded by hitting the shark repeatedly with her paddle until the shark swam away (story here)! Both of these woman let the sharks know there would be no easy meal here! I found a promo picture of Jessica posing for the release of her movie, “Into The Blue.”
Photo from: http://www.320by480.com/wallpaper/?id=1102
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If you are like me and have scuba dived before, you have probably thought about what you would do if a shark attacked! I remember reading about this very issue in scuba classes when I was 16 years old. The instructor told us to go to the bottom and take your tank off to use as a barrier. We were taught to find a crevasse on the bottom to wedge ourselves in until the shark swam away. I don’t know about you but I think the shark has gills (unlimited air supply under water) so my best hope would be for the shark to lose interest. 
I used to read Jacques Cousteau books so I could learn about the underwater environment. One method he employed was to make shark billy sticks. I duplicated the shark billy stick by pounding small nails into a small wooden bat, snipping off the edges close to the wood so the shark’s skin would not slip off the end of the bat. I also drilled a hole into the handle of the shark billy stick so I could attach a strap. My plan was to put the shark billy stick between any shark and myself so he would not eat me (If I happened to notice him).
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Many women and children do not feel powerful when attacked by a large man. Some men think because they are generally larger and stronger - they can intimidate women. While I cannot solve gender politics in this post, I can offer ways to mitigate some men’s aggressive methods of communication.
These bullies or worse - criminals (depending on the situation) try to get a woman to give in to his way of thinking by forcefully encroaching on a woman’s space - making her backup or do what the bully wants! If a man is going to get physical - you do not have to go along with him… you can get physical back! Here is one woman learning how to do just that!
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When I was a boy I wrestled in Junior High-School. I think my weight class was 132 pounds or so but one thing was for sure - there were not any girls on the team. I don’t know that I would have cared if there were girl wrestlers but 35 years ago - I just don’t remember any girls willing to take on the boys!
Well that has changed. This is old news to those of you following high-school wreastling but Michaela Hutchison (in 2006) has defeated a boy to win the 103 pound weight class here. The amazing thing about this is Michaela is every bit as tough as one of the boys! Take a look at this video below and for those of you not familiar with wrestling scoring - you get points based on pins, reversals (escaping control) and such.
Three armed men boarded a tourist bus near Limon, Costa Rica, and attempted to rob the 12 retired folks on vacation! In a turn of events that warms my heart, a 70 year-old ex-marine disarmed and put one assailant into a choke hold! The other tourists started fighting back and the other two assailants fled!!! The group was onshore during a stop, during their Carnival cruse in February, 2007. One of the reports is here.
While it is always sad for a human being to lose his life, the 20 year-old assailant had no business robbing people and apparently met his match by messing with retired leather neck (Marine)! Many younger people make the assumption that old-folk will not be able to fight back, let alone stand up to young punks! I have a few memories of older (I know - I keep calling 70 years, old - in 20 years I will think that is middle age too) folks defending themselves.
I was surprised last year by the band, “The Zimmer’s” that sang, “My Generation” seemingly as a cultural awaking that old folks mattered too! Well here at MySelfDefenseBlog.com, we think that old folks can kick Butt! Here is a short clip of, “The Zimmers.”
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