When Karate was king

f.Channell · Post by **f.Channell** » Tue Apr 20, 2010 10:35 pm

Love this movie. Just bought it at a library for $1.00. Best dollar I have spent in a while.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEkgqAO7tl8

F.

MikeK · Post by **MikeK** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 2:44 am

Pretty tame by today's standards, even among Kyokushin and Enshin fighters. A good number of those guys look pretty inexperienced, but the good guys are very good.

f.Channell · Post by **f.Channell** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 3:45 am

It is just the whole vibe of it. The cool soundtrack, running in the streets in gi's.
Getting nostalgic I guess.

F.

MikeK · Post by **MikeK** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 4:11 am

I liked the NFL Film style narration.

One of my karate teachers was a Kyukushin black belt. He switched to old school TKD (he said they fought more) but kept the Kyukushin style sparring (no gear) as part of each class. The good old days of smash and bash & blood and breaks. Belt tests were particularly fun when we'd up the pace and amount of contact.

f.Channell · Post by **f.Channell** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 4:42 am

I didn't find out about sparring gear for quite a while in the 70's either!
Wasn't any sparring class either, just someone would walk up and say want to spar? Baptism by fire in that dojo back then.

F.

robb buckland · Post by **robb buckland** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 11:07 am

In class on Saturday I flashed back to and commented on similar memories when a Nidan from Long Island came up to me and asked about sparring gear....

He asked ," Can you show me the correct way to wrap my hands......?"and..."Do I wear these footpads for the sparring drills ?"

I remember once at one of my dan tests I was wrapping , then shadow boxing...GEM told me,"We know you can fight ....." Apparently the board didn't need to see me fight.

I don't like watching a movie and missing the ending ...especially an "old school ending !!"

MikeK · Post by **MikeK** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 1:19 pm

Fred, The school I went to tried the gear and tossed it, and went back to just free sparring no gear. I think over the last few years they added gear back in because of insurance.

This past weekend I was working out with a guy who goes to the big TKD school in the area and he told me that when they spar no gear they don't make contact, and even with gear it's limited contact. Not good for training what I do, so I went a bit with him letting him hit me so he could get used to, well, hitting people.

He had to really adjust his range and I will say his control was very good, though I was hurting a little bit the next morning.

The other thing where the modern way of karate sparring hurts people is that they aren't used to being hit. The shock of being hit, not even hurt or injured, is often enough for some people to fold like a cheap suit.

Bill Glasheen · Post by **Bill Glasheen** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 1:25 pm

Dig the hair styles and polyester shirts. It does peg the date of the film, no?

Yep... Those were the days. I still remember coming home from the 45-minute drive to/from W&M where I studied with Hiroshi Hamada in a room with no air conditioning or heating. I'd peel the gi off and mom would immediately throw it in the machine. I'd look at the purple marks all over my body, and not have a clue as to who put what mark where.

Then Jhoon Rhee made his fortune with karate pillows on the hands. For better or for worse, it changed the way we spar. Now non-contact sport karate is its own thing.

Even the MMA venue has changed since the beginning.

I have a mixture of feelings about the beginning of the film. Per Mike's comment, a lot of inexperienced karateka making it on film. A few were really good. But there was way too much flash, and virtually no self-defense bunkai.

It is what it is. George likes to talk about "time capsule Uechi." This is time capsule martial arts. Been there, done that. And I'm glad I don't do most of what's on the film any more.

Still fun stuff though. And the hype brought a LOT of students into the dojo. That wasn't altogether bad.

- Bill

CANDANeh · Post by **CANDANeh** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 1:38 pm

Still taking it in the streets

This is Andre Gilbert who is in the video (Note his hair still the same) Canadian flag behind him in video. Still very active and loves busting ice

Bill Glasheen · Post by **Bill Glasheen** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 2:45 pm

All the really good stuff is on YouTube in clips 2 through 10.

It took me a while before I realized I saw this on television many years ago. It validated what I was doing at the time - hardassed Japanese sport karate with a bit of kata on the side.

It's worth mentioning that the Japanese in this film showed some remarkably good full-contact sport karate. The tragedy of the mix is not having heavier weight competitors in some of the styles (e.g. Muay Thai) which do very well in this kind of sport venue. But all that got straightened out.

It's also worth mentioning that the judo/jujutsu capabilities of some of the Japanese fighters "snuck out" in the tournament. With the 2-second grab rule, they couldn't do much with that. But now of course it's all the rage in martial arts. And of course that then opens up the antidote to the grapplers - a good inside striking game.

The leg kicks took out the lanky American strikers. It was a good strategy for the Japanese. If you want to know why American blacks do well in boxing but not quite as well in MMA, well some of the clues lie in this tournament.

- Bill

f.Channell · Post by **f.Channell** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 6:04 pm

There's some great spinning heel kick knockouts and yes some kick catch takedowns.

I was trying to find some of the old Wide World of Sports arrow and bullet catches but couldn't.

Most of us have evolved way beyond this, but can anyone deny it's not cool?

F.

Bill Glasheen · Post by **Bill Glasheen** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 6:39 pm

f.Channell wrote:
Most of us have evolved way beyond this, but can anyone deny it's not cool?

F.

The actual full-contact tournament (with no punches to the head and no kicks to the groin) is a tough and exciting venue. That was the way they did it in Shinjo Seiyu's dojo. No surprise that his son grew up to kick some azz.

What I have found interesting is that young Shinjo Kiyohide the sparring champion (who treated "Uechi pointy things" with indifference) grew up to be a complete martial artist. You can see it on the Discovery and History Channel videos. Gone are the seiken fists. Now he's into jar training and poking holes in things. And I say "Good for him AND his journey."

- Bill

Van Canna · Post by **Van Canna** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 9:42 pm

I was trying to find some of the old Wide World of Sports arrow and bullet catches but couldn't.

I still remember the arrow catching by George Pesare's boys in RI.

Glenn · Post by **Glenn** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 8:48 pm

I remember Terry Bryan talking on the old CyberDojo list about his arrow catch for "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" sometime in the 1990s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLj8eK814o0

f.Channell · Post by **f.Channell** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 2:19 am

I seem to recall some bullet catching with the teeth also in those days.

F.

When Karate was king

When Karate was king

The good ole days.....

Same hair just grayed somewhat