by Bryan Lowe

When I was about six years old, I saw the film Karate Kid. I guess you could say it changed my life, for it was this (albeit somewhat cheesy) 80′s movie that sparked my interest in the martial arts, and inspired me to take my first Karate lesson.

I’ll admit when I first stepped into a dojo, it wasn’t exactly what I had seen in the theater. This of course, initially disappointed my young spirit. I had really wanted to learn a crane kick. Instead of seeing students dodging dangerous swinging metal objects as I had watched in Karate Kid, I merely saw students performing punches and kicks aimed at imaginary targets. Despite this initial setback, I persevered (something I would learn so much more about as my studies continued). The more I studied Karate, the more I realized it wasn’t just punching and kicking, the deeper I found myself in my addiction to the martial arts the more it taught me about myself and life. Karate became a vital force in molding me into the person I am today.

At it’s core, Karate isn’t about self-defense, but instead self-completion. It teaches people how to learn, how to work, how to live. In martial arts it is necessary to always work with control in order to bring out the best in oneself and one’s partner; if partners are too aggressive with one another, someone is likely to get hurt, but if the partners do not challenge each other enough, neither will improve. This principle also applies in life. One must find a balance in how aggressive one should act in “real life” relationships. I found that everything I learned in the dojo was applicable outside of it as well.

One principle philosophy in my style of martial arts, Uechi-ryu Karate, is a balance between hard and soft; people should be “hard” enough so that they will stand up for what they believe in, but “soft” enough to compromise and be open minded. Throughout my teenage years this has proven to be one of the most important qualities to master, for temptation is lurking around every corner. Another important philosophy from karate is the eight virtues of black belt: modesty, courtesy, integrity, compassion, self-control, gratitude, perseverance, and indomitable spirit. these virtues are what martial artist strive to attain in their lives, and I do my best to apply these attributes in my everyday life.

Although the outward benefits of being a black belt, may at first seem materialistic and superficial, an extra line to fill on your college aps or an achievement to brag to your friends about, its real significance goes much deeper. The black belt encourages you to set a good example, to be a role model both in and outside of class. Having a black belt adds a responsibility of acting like a black belt, of behaving responsibly, working diligently, and outwardly projecting and living by the eight virtues of black belt and the student creeds.

I could continue listing these philosophies, but that would be rather hypocritical to what karate is really about. As my Sensei, Mr. Durkin, often reminds my fellow students and me, “Karate is not a talking art, but a doing art.” Listing off countless philosophies and each one’s meaning would be futile, without “doing” these philosophies, without living by them. A deep and potentially meaningful statement on paper is weak and feeble, but when applied in life, it has supreme power and importance.

Studying martial arts has not simply taught me how to rattle off creeds and codes, even a parrot can do that. Uechi-ryu Karate does not spawn parrots, it creates people, real people, meaningful people, people who can think, learn and discover for themselves. Just as life can not be learned from a book, the secrets of Karate can’t be revealed in a one page essay. Only through living, through taking risks can its real meaning be found. It is interesting that the majority of Karate’s lessons aren’t learned in the dojo at all. So I continue studying Karate each and every day I live, I learn. this is the true study of Karate, living and learning.

Bryan Lowe has been a student at Buzz Durkin’s Uechi-ryu Dojo for 8 years. He is a senior at Philips Exeter Academy and wrote this essay as a school project when he was sixteen.

Copyright 1999: Bryan Lowe. All rights reserved

by Zoltan Dienes and Mike Flanagan

Reprinted with permission from the authors

Zoltan is an experimental psychology at Sussex University, with 32 published scientific articles and co-author of a book reviewing research in his area. He has appeared on British national television, radio, and newspapers and German national television about his research. He has also been a statistical consultant for several years to two drug companies (Wyeth and Cerebrus). He has been training in karate for 22 years, and teaches Kyusho as part of regular training at his club, the University of Sussex Shotokan karate club.

Mike is currently in his final year of a three-year course in Shiatsu and uses TCM in this work. Mike is currently a student of Matsumura Shorin Ryu, and has been studying kyusho jitsu for four years.

1 March1999

INTRODUCTION

Are there general principles specifying the most effective ways of combining pressure points? According to some there are principles, those provided by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). According to a common understanding of this approach, the most effective combinations are often those that follow the Destructive Cycle of the five elements (wu3 xing2 in Chinese). There are other traditions, like within some styles of Jujitsu, where there is a rich knowledge of useful pressure point combinations, but inspiration is not taken from TCM. And there are other approaches where usefulness of different sequences might be determined purely from the openings created by the known physiological reflexes created by working different points, without reference to TCM or five elements. But five element theory is widely subscribed to among practitioners of Kyusho-Jitsu, and so we decided it would be fun and informative to test the usefulness of five element theory to Kyusho-Jitsu.

Whatever five element theory’s effectiveness in a therapeutic context, its relevance to Kyusho-Jitsu is a separate question in need of independent verification. In the absence of a controlled investigation, it would be easy for the theory to appear to be useful, even if it were not (or even if it made precisely the wrong predictions), because it can easily be used post-hoc to provide rationalizations for effective kyusho and tuite moves (see Zoltan’s study on the TCM-inpsired use of ‘colours’ in tuite, which is described at http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Spa/9083/colours.html or http://websites.ntl.com/~alan.platt/ZoltanPage3.html). Also, if observations are not made under controlled conditions, our own beliefs can strongly determine the outcome. Maybe you have noticed demonstrating to a class the “wrong” and “right” way of doing a move – when performing it the right way, maybe you noticed doing all sorts of other things (like putting in more oomf) to make sure the move worked! The tendencies of our movements and exertions of muscular force to follow our beliefs and desires can occur quite unconsciously. Thus, demonstrations of how activating one point sensitizes another may only work because of pre-existing beliefs. Alternatively, five element theory may appear useful precisely because it is!! In both our minds, this was an open question.

Five element sequences

According to five element theory as normally applied to Kyusho-Jitsu by martial artists, one of the most powerful principles in predicting effective pressure point combinations is the Destructive Cycle: Fire burns Metal, Metal cuts Wood, Wood digs into Earth, Earth absorbs Water, and Water extinguishes Fire. That is, if a point is activated by rubbing or striking, the most effective type of point to rub or strike next will often be a point associated with the next element in the Cycle. Something can only be more effective or most effective compared to something else. One vital question is, what should the comparison be? If I am to strike a person more than once, what sequences are SUB-optimal, purely from the point of view of five element theory? To answer this question, it will be useful to enumerate different possible sequences of the five elements.

We will, purely for reference purposes, label the destructive cycle as D, and describe going round it one step at a time D(1). If one follows the destructive cycle backwards, this is sometimes called the insulting sequence, and is labelled D(4), because it amounts to going round the destructive cycle four steps at a time. According to the DSI, one organization that subscribes to a version of TCM, cycles can be effective in both directions. (For those partial to mathematical formulations, this TCM principle can be stated: D(a) and D(b) are similarly effective if (a+b) = 0, modulo 5). Thus, D(1) and D(4) would be of similar effectiveness.

If one followed the Destructive Cycle from one element to the the third one along, i.e. D(3), one would be following what is called the Creative Cycle. For example, after attacking Fire, one could attack Earth. Following the Creative Cycle backwards is D(2), and would be regarded by some as of equivalent effectiveness as D(3).

Finally, one could follow each element by itself. This is D(5), or equivalently, D(0). D(0) covers advice such as to attack the same meridian, or its paired meridian, repeatedly.

Let us consider the case of two successive strikes. I hit one point and then another point. Given my first hit, there are exactly five types of strikes I could make next: i.e. to each of the five elements. It turns out, rather nicely, that all those five possibilities are covered by the five D(n) principles above. This follows from the fact that in the D(n) principles above, n can take any value from 1 to 5, corresponding to each of the five elements. Thus, if five element theory is to offer any useful advice, there must be a way of specifying which of the D(n) principles is best (under what conditions).

According to the DSI, ALL D(n) cycles can be equally effective, depending on whether the strikes are sedating or tonifying. That is, a strike to an element does harm by creating either a deficiency of qi (sedation) or an excess (tonification). One then needs an account of whether a strike is tonifying or sedating. The DSI explanation is that striking with the qi flow is tonifying, and against the qi flow is sedating. From a TCM perspective this is perhaps controversial; another account could be that any strike or attack with an intent to hurt would be sedating, and gentle massage with the right intent is tonifying. But either account will do for our purposes. Based on one line of reasoning inspired by TCM, a succession of strikes that were all tonifying (or all sedating) would cause maximum damage by following D(0) or the creative cycle, D(3), or its equivalent D(2): sedating one element (e.g. metal) sedates the next one along in the creative cycle (e.g. water), as well as the next element back in the creative cycle (e.g. earth); a further sedation strike to either metal or water or earth would aggravate the imbalance. Following D(1) would actually be counter-productive: Sedating metal would increase the amount of qi in the wood meridians, according to the destructive cycle; so a sedation strike to wood would help remedy the imbalance. Conversely, if one attacked with alternating sedation and tonification strikes, then D(1) and D(4) would be the most effective; using D(0), D(3), or D(2) would be counter-productive from a martial point of view. We should emphasize that the above is just one line of reasoning that could be taken from a TCM perspective, because TCM is not so much a theory as a set of images, metaphors, and a language for expressing intuition. However, we believe we have taken what the DSI has told us to a logical conclusion.

Our comparison cycle

We took the Creative Cycle, D(3), for comparison (Fire produces Earth, Earth yields Metal, on Metal condenses Water, Water feeds Wood, and Wood feeds Fire). We chose the Creative Cycle on the grounds that in our experience attacking the same meridian or the same element twice, D(0), is often quoted as effective, almost as much as the destructive cycle, D(1), is. D(4) was rejected on the grounds some may see it as effective as D(1) (the same cycle backwards). Further, on a version of the DSI logic (as we have reconstructed it), striking with the flow of qi consistently (or against it consistently) should lead to the Creative Cycle being MOST effective and the destructive cycle LEAST effective. This is an interesting prediction (whether the DSI subscribe to our reconstruction or not) to be contrasted with the general rule often held in the kyusho jitsu community: A good default sequence under any conditions is the Destructive Cycle. In this experiment, we pressed all points with the flow of qi and with the intent to hurt.

Principles to be controlled

There are other principles, which, for a first investigation, we simply controlled rather than investigated per se. The other principles we ensured that we did not use were:

1. The 24 hour (diurnal) cycle

2. The strange flows.

3. The use of tonification and sedation points.

4. The use of bo and yu (i.e. diagnostic and alarm) points.

5. The use of xicleft and horary points.

6. The use of connecting points.

7. The use of points that have an association with a particular element: i.e. fire, earth, metal, water, and wood points.

8. Quadrant theory. All the points we use will be in the same general quadrant of the body (upper torso, arm, neck, and head).

The experiment

The main idea of the investigation was this: We tested a group of people naive to TCM. One of our club members (call him tori), with some knowledge of Kysusho-Jitsu but completely ignorant about TCM, pressed on points. He provided a standard amount of pressure, as best as he could, attempting to ignore uke’s response so that the pressure he gave was independent of the response. His ignorance of TCM meant that variations in the accuracy and pressure of the technique were not systematically related to the predictions of TCM (a very real hazard if anybody knowledgeable of TCM were to act as tori). On a given uke, tori stimulated a ‘set-up point’, released it, and immediately stimulated a ‘target point’. The uke gave a pain rating to the target point on a standardized scale. After this one target attack and pain rating, a given uke was not tested again for 20+ minutes, to allow the activation of the stimulated meridians to die down.

These sequences (of set-up followed by target points) differed along various dimensions, or as we say in the trade, ‘variables’. The most important variable (call it sequence) was whether the sequence followed the Destructive Cycle or the Creative Cycle. A ‘destructive sequence’ followed the destructive cycle; a ‘creative sequence’ the Creative Cycle.

Another variable was the element of the target point, and there were five values that this variable could take. For a first go at data collection, we selected only one target point for each element. Thus, only the tendency of one single (e.g. wood) point to set-up one single (earth) point was tested. If the theory is very consistently true then the single point design should still work. But because this design could not give full vindication of the theory, it should be seen as an initial step in a more complete study.

METHOD

Participants

The ukes were people participating in karate classes at the University of Sussex. Twenty eight people were tested on each element.

Design

As they practiced their basic punch, kick etc, Mike and tori walked round testing each in turn. First of all a given target element was chosen. Uke was tested twice: once on the destructive sequence and once on the creative sequence, seperated by at least 20 minutes. Here some ‘counterbalancing’ variables came in, the conditions of which each uke were randomly assigned to: order(half the ukes were tested with the destructive sequence first, half second); left/right (half the ukes were first tested on the right side and then the left side; the other half of the ukes were tested first left and then right). The creative and destructive sequences were applied on different sides of the body to ensure that there was no residual sensitivity (possible bruising etc) due to pressing the exactly the same spot twice. Tori followed destructive and creative sequences in random order throughout the session because his effectiveness in applying the technique might improve/deteriorate throughout the session. The process continued in different sessions until all five target elements had been tested.

Points used

Below is a table of the sequences:

This list only contains 7 points: L2, LI10, St14, H2, K26, TW16, GB12

Note that each set-up point occured once in a creative sequence and once in a destructive sequence. This is a useful design feature because the pain rating to the target point may be partly determined by contrast to the pain produced by the set-up point. It is thus important that there is no systematic differences in pain produced by set-up points between the control and destructive sequences, and this design feature ensured that.

Instructions to subjects:

As I am teaching you, two of my colleagues will approach you in the session a few times. They are interested in the use of pressure points in martial arts, and they are testing some theories about how different points elicit pain. If you don’t want to participate that is fine, just say so to them when they approach you. If you have any medical conditions you should not participate. They will simply press one pressure point on you for about a second and then a second point immediately afterwards, also for about a second. You may not feel anything, or you may feel some more or less moderate pain for a second or so. You will be asked to give a pain rating to the second point; just ignore the first point. If you feel no pain, then give ‘0’ for your pain rating. Now I want you to imagine some time you banged your shin or ankle, or stubbed a toe. Imagine a time when it was really very painful, so painful you wanted to sit down. If you can’t remember a specific episode, that’s fine, just imagine what it would be like. That amount of pain we call ‘10’. I will give you 10 seconds now to choose and clearly fix in your mind how much pain a ‘10’ feels like …. that’s good. If when you are pressed you feel that amount of pain, then say ‘10’. If half that amount of pain then say ‘5’; if twice that amount say ‘20’, and so on.

Later in the session you will be approached again for another sequence of points, and the procedure will be repeated. The results are of great scientific and practical interest, so I hope you will participate. But please do not attempt to press any points on yourselves or your partner during this session.

Procedure

Before the experiment proper, tori was trained on the seven points until he could locate them quickly and accurately on different people on left and right sides without pressing on other points. Also, a procedure was determined for randomly allocating subjects to the four counterbalancing conditions (these conditions were: destructive sequence first-left hand side first, destructive second-left first, destructive second-left first, destructive second-left second). That is, a random number generator was used to generate a list of seven random permutations of the numbers 1 to 4. As each subject was picked from the class, he was assigned the next number in the list, assuring that all the counterbalancing conditions were used equally often and, crucially, still otherwise in random order.

As the class proceeded, tori took each subject aside privately, stuck a label on them determining the subject’s condition, took the pain rating, and then indicated for them to rejoin the class. On classes in which the experiment was ongoing, no kyusho moves were practiced.

Some points on the logic of the experimental design

Just some points on experimental design for those without a scientific training. You may say: but different people are differently sensitive to pressure points. This is true, but as each uke is compared to himself on the destructive and creative sequences, a non-responder will give zero pain both times, everyone else should give some pain each time and we can see if there are any consistent differences between the conditions. You might say that people’s sensitivity may vary with time (depending e.g. on their adrenalin release at that point in the session) and also that tori’s effectiveness may vary systematically or randomly throughout the session, creating differences between the destructive and creative conditions. These factors whilst present do not undermine the logic of the experiment because of the random assignment of subjects to conditions. This means that there won’t be any *systematic* difference between the destructive and creative sequences. Accounting for random differences between the conditions is exactly what the signficance testing statistics are for; indeed, without such statistics we wouldn’t be able to conclude anything, any mean differences could just be random.

RESULTS

This section will be difficult to follow completely for those without previous exposure to inferential statistics, even with the brief explanation given for each term. However, a comprehensible summary of the results is given in the Discussion. For the table below, we have tried to be thorough so that people can get a feel for various aspects of the data. In order that the wood can be seen for the trees, though, the important points will be highlighted after the table.

In the table below the mean pain ratings are listed according to the target element, and according to the following contrasts: whether the creative or destructive sequence was followed, whether it was the left or right side of the body, and whether it was the first time that uke was tested on that point or the second time (20+ minutes later). Standard deviations are given in parentheses (standard deviation is a measure of variability between different subjects: roughly 2/3 of people lie within one standard deviation of the mean). For each contrast, the mean difference is reported and the 95% confidence limit on the difference. To appreciate this concept, bear in the mind the distinction between a sample ( the set of people that we actually tested at a particular time) and the population (the set of all people and times we could have sampled from): We are really interested in the population, not in the random vagaries of a particular sample. The 95% confidence interval says (loosely) that we can be 95% sure that the true population value of the mean difference lies between the quoted lower limit (first number in parentheses) and the quoted upper limit (second number in parentheses). (This is not the technical definition but it captures how confidence intervals are best thought about.) If zero is included in the interval then we have no evidence that there is any population difference (i.e. a t-test would not be significant at the .05 level). The limits tell us that whatever population difference may exist, we are 95% sure that they don’t lie outside the stated limits; e.g. to take the difference between the creative and destructive sequences on all the data, we have no evidence that the sequences caused different set-ups of the target points (zero contained within the interval), and whatever difference as there may be, we are sure it is not more than 0.5 of a pain rating (i.e. whatever effect as there may be is very small). That gives a measure of how sensitive our experiment is.

Because the data for some elements were not entirely normally distributed, Wilcoxon p’s are also reported. This test does not require normally distributed data. If the quoted number is less than .05, there is evidence of a difference. It can be seen that the results produced by the Wilcoxon’s are entirely consistent with those produced by the confidence intervals based on t-tests.

                WATER     WOOD    EARTH

Creative    6.1 (3.7)    5.5 (4.0) 7.0 (2.1)

Destructive    5.6 (3.2)     5.4 (2.8)        7.0 (2.2)

Difference 0.5 (-0.4, 1.3) 0.1 (-0.9, 1.1) 0.1 (-0.6, 0.7)

Wilcoxon p 0.31 0.82 0.64

Left 6.0 (3.1) 5.5 (3.0) 6.7 (1.9)

Right 5.8 (3.9) 5.5 (3.8) 7.3 (2.4)

Difference 0.3 (-0.6, 1.1) 0.0 (-1.0, 1.0) -0.6 (-1.2, 0.0)

Wilcoxon p 0.67 0.53 0.10

First 5.3 (3.0) 5.3 (3.9) 6.8 (2.0)

Second 6.5 (3.8) 5.6 (2.8) 7.2 (2.4)

Difference -1.3 (-2.0, -0.5) -0.3 (-1.3, 0.7) -0.4 (-1.0, 0.2)

Wilcoxon p 0.0027 0.13 0.25

Average 5.9 (3.3) 5.5 (3.2) 7.0 (2.0)

                    FIRE METAL ALL

Creative      6.5 (2.3) 5.2 (1.9) 6.1 (1.6)

Destructive    6.3 (2.0) 5.5 (1.8) 6.0 (1.3)

Difference 0.2 (-0.6, 1.0) -0.4 (-1.1, 0.4) 0.1 (-0.3, 0.5)

Wilcoxon p 0.69          0.39 0.50

Left                  6.4 (2.0) 5.6 (2.0) 6.0 (1.3)

Right                  6.4 (2.2) 5.1 (1.7) 6.0 (1.7)

Difference 0.0(-0.8, 0.8) 0.5 (-0.3, 1.3) 0.0 (-0.5, 0.5)

Wilcoxon p 0.97       0.14     0.93

First            6.0 (1.9) 5.1 (1.7) 5.7 (1.4)

Second    6.7 (2.3) 5.6 (2.0) 6.3 (1.5)

Difference -0.7 (-1.5, 0.0) -0.6 (-1.3, 0.2) -0.6 (-1.1, -0.2)

Wilcoxon p     0.041          0.16  0.005

Average 6.4 (1.9) 5.4 (1.6) 6.0 (2.5)

Considering all the data, the lowest rating given by anyone was 1 (and the highest was 20). That is, there were no nonresponders in the sense of people who felt no pain. The average amount of pain was 6 (on a scale where 10 means “so much pain one wants to sit down”). If pressing activates points at all, then points should have been activated in this experiment.

Now lets consider various questions addressed by the results:

Does the destructive cycle activate points more than the creative cycle?

For none of the elements was there a significant difference between the creative and destructive sequences. Pooling all data together, there was still no difference. In all the data, we can be 95% sure that whatever the true population advantage of the destructive sequences over the creative sequences, it is not more than 0.3 on the pain rating scale. This is a tiny amount, a change in pain of 0.3/6 or 5 percent. Put another way, our data rules out the destructive rather than creative cycle resulting in a more than 5% increase in pain.

Are the left and right sides of the body equally sensitive?

For none of the elements was there a significant difference between the left and right hand sides of the body, and there was still no significant difference when all the data were pooled together.

Are people more sensitive on the second time they are tested?

Our data bear on another claim sometimes made by people inspired by TCM. It was probably George Dillman who introduced the notion that one should not train on both sides of the body in the same session, because stimulating one side of the body activates the other side. In our experiment, the same target point was pressed on opposite sides of the body in the same session. Consistent with the TCM claims, in the data as a whole, people gave higher pain ratings on the second test (6.3) than the first (5.7). The difference was significant in only some of the elements taken individually, but an analysis (Friedman and analysis of variance) indicated that the difference between first and second testing did not vary significantly across the different elements (p > 0.3) (finding an effect significant in one condition and not in another does not indicate that the conditions differ; that has to be specifically tested). That is, as far as we can tell, the difference could be treated as a general one across the elements.

One straight forward explanation of this time of testing effect could be that tori simply got better at pressing the points over the course of the session. However, this explanation isn’t plausible when we consider how pain ratings varied across successive subjects within the first lot of testing or within the second lot of testing: A regression of these pain ratings on subject order (1 to 28) showed that there was not a positive slope, if anything there was a negative slope. That is, there is no evidence that tori was getting better with practice during a session, or even just pressing harder with time.

A note on pooling across all data for the statistically minded

Within each element 28 different people were tested. Across elements, some of the people were the same and some were different depending on who turned up for each session. That is, the data could not simply be treated as a set of 140 independent observations. Thus, when the data were pooled, subjects were matched according to the order in which they were tested for each element. This ensured that the number of observations treated as independent by the analyses did not exceed the number of different subjects tested. It may be noted that when all the observations were treated as independent, the analyses produced virtually identical significance values and confidence limits as the matched subjects analyses.

DISCUSSION

The major finding of this study was that there was no significant difference in pain rating of a point whether it was preceded by stimulation of a point as specified by the destructive cycle or as specified by the creative cycle.

It is sometimes argued that the strength of the cross point activation effect depends on whether the points have the same yin-yang polarity or a different one. In our selection of points, the successive points in each sequence had the following yin/yang values:

Sequence: Destructive Creative

Target point:

Water yang-yin yin-yin

Wood yin-yang yin-yang

Earth yang-yang yang-yang

Fire yin-yin yang-yin

Metal yang-yang yang-yang

For those who believe that keeping the successive strikes the same polarity, the Earth, Fire, and Metal cases would allow an advantage of the destructive over the creative cycle to show most clearly, and Earth and Metal would allow an advantage of the creative over the destructive cycle to show most clearly. For those who believe that crossing over between yin and yang is most effective, Wood and Water would allow an advantage of the destructive over the creative cycle to show most clearly, and Wood and Fire would allow an advantage of the Creative over the Destructive cycle to show most clearly. In fact, despite these opportunities, no advantage ever emerged for either cycle.

One might argue that it is only when striking points that the cycles produce their effects. This is possible and would require further investigation. However, the cycles are frequently cited when people grab, stroke or press particular points, often with less intent and penetration than used in our study. We find no evidence that even substantial presses to points activate other points according to the destructive as compared to the creative cycle.

One limitation of the study is that we used just one target point per element. It could be argued that the destructive cycle (or creative cycle) does not generally apply – perhaps they only apply to special points, or under special conditions. It IS clear that one can’t simply list “destructive cycle” as a “player” that can be incorporated into any technique. If there are only special points to which the cycles apply, it would be interesting to see accounts of these points developed.

The study was sensitive and could pick up small effects. This is illustrated by finding that people gave a higher pain rating – by 0.6 of a pain unit on average – the second time they were tested rather than the first. Since the second time of testing was always on the opposite side of the body, this is consistent with the claim of cross side activation, at least of the same point. This is an interesting finding that deserves further investigation. We can’t be sure its a cross side activation effect, because this study did not compare pain on a second testing between the same side and the opposite side. Thus, any mechanism that tends to lead to higher second pain ratings, regardless of side, is also consistent with the results. A prosaic explanation could be, for example, that on the first rating people were a bit macho and tried to show how tough they were. On the second rating may be they felt they had already proved themselves and gave a truer figure. (NOTE: This effect of second testing does not undermine the other comparisons – e.g. destructive vs creative – because each sequence occured equally often first as second. Further, an analysis of the difference between destructive and creative sequences on ONLY the first time of testing showed a nonsignificant result, p > 0.4.) A future experiment could look at stimulating the same or related point a second time on either the same side or the opposite side of the body to see if cross body activation is really important.

If cross body activation is important, the warning that one shouldn’t train both sides of the body in the same session still does not follow from our data. One could increase pain a lot more than 0.6 of a unit simply by pressing harder! We appreciate, however, that the claim is that one should not train both sides of the body because of the disturbances that might follow to one’s qi, and increased pain is not necessarily a symptom of this. On the other hand, to the extent that long traditions provide acceptable default answers, in Yawara jujitsu, a tradition of pressure point fighting going back hundreds of years, people train both sides of the body freely.

In the field of Kyusho-Jitsu the body of knowledge which constitutes TCM is often perceived as a single coherent set of principles. In reality this is not strictly true. TCM actually contains a number of inconsistencies, in particular those between five elements and the rest of the body of TCM (yin-yang polarity, fundamental substances, pernicious influences, principle patterns, organ functions, etc.). Five elements arose as a separate and distinct philosophical construct used to describe many different aspects of the natural world and human endeavour. It was not until the time of the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) that the first known attempts to integrate five elements into the body of TCM were made. Since that time the various correspondences (and to a lesser extent the cycles) of five elements have repeatedly been amended in attempts to attain consistency between the two bodies of thought. However, it is fair to say that even now five elements rests somewhat uneasily as an overlay upon the principles of TCM. For instance, in five elements the heart corresponds to fire (yang) and the kidney to water (yin). In TCM, however, the kidneys are considered to be the foundation of both water (yin) and fire (yang) for all the other organs. There are yet other theories for the functions of the points based on the flow of energy down the channels with different theories proposing flow in different directions. Modern clinicians do not necessarily have problems with these sorts of contradictions. In terms of diagnosis some clinicians tend to favour the (strictly) TCM model (which seems to be more popular in China); others favour the five elements model (a view more popular in the West); yet more tend to use whichever of the various models that seems most applicable to the particular client being treated (for further discussion relevant to these points see “Chinese Medicine: The Web that has no Weaver” by Ted J Kaptchuk and “Traditional Acupuncture: The Law of the Five Elements, 2nd edition” by Dianne M Connelly.)

Our view of five elements (and indeed TCM generally) is that it is not a science that provides predictions and explanations of effects in Kyusho Jitsu. It is a set of metaphors and images and a language for expressing intuitions honed after years of training. Images can be very important for generating further ideas, possible moves. If the moves don’t turn out to be effective, they can be rejected. If the moves are effective they can be added to one’s repertoire, and in that way the five element approach serves a valuable function for those attracted to it. However, this function might well be performed, equally effectively, by other non-scientific methodologies.

Our results are consistent with the claim that it is not necessary to possess any knowledge of TCM theory in order to fully develop one’s ability as a practitioner of Kyusho-Jitsu. This corresponds to our personal beliefs. But the data in no way undermine TCM more generally. Historically, Chinese medical theories were very useful in indicating WHICH points were useful ones for attacking. (They also specified times of the day best for attacking each point, although Vince Morris in his book “Kyusho Secrets” reports finding no correspondence between time of day and sensitivity of points). Mike employs TCM and Five Elements extensively in his Shiatsu practice. Our data simply call into question a particular use of TCM, a use that is not necessitated by the ideas of TCM itself.

Copyright 1999 by authors Zoltan Dienes and Mike Flanagan: All rights reserved.

by John Thurston

I have just finished reading Mr. Ian Jenkins excellent article entitled “Real World Self Defense”. I wish to compliment him on his scholarship and complement his comments from a somewhat different point of view. I do not wish, however, to turn Sensei Mattson’s fine Articles section into a debate on firearms for that is not its focus. However, I am a certified rifle and pistol instructor and, I admit, puts a certain bias into my comments.

It is vital for those who do not wish to voluntarily undertake the risks and responsibilities of weapon ownership to understand the dangers involved to all of us from improper use of firearms and all weapons.. In this respect I wish compliment Mr. Jenkins on pointing out the dangers connected to weapons misuse.

The debate is endless and from my politically incorrect point of view, unwinnable. However, I believe in the concept of integrated self defense. What does this mean? It means you take all reasonable steps to study methods of protecting yourself and developing yourself.

If you buy into the argument that weapons and/or firearms are inherently evil and their existence poses more risk than can be offset by their use in defensive situations, then, seriously, don’t read any further. I will not be able to convince you of anything. In truth, if this is how you really feel, I don’t WANT to convince you. Stay away from weapons. If you read slightly different areas of scholarship (the Latest “More Guns, Less Crime” recently commented on in Newsweek magazine) then maybe you should read on. It’s up to you.

The first rule that I expound to student in my firearms/ weapons instruction is pretty simple:

“Sometime, sooner or later you will have a firearm go off when you DON’T expect or want it to.”

What then to do? Follow the rules. When the weapons discharges, it had best be pointed where it will not injure anyone. I have had firearms go off four times when I did not wish them to.

Through good fortune and following the rules, nobody got hurt. I won’t carry this any further just now. Back to the Martial Arts. Listen to me if you will:

1. A weapon is and should always be an extension of your hand and your will.
2. Every weapon with which you train should be ethically used at all times.
3. If misused or mishandled, your weapon of choice will hurt you.
4. You should be free to choose (within reason) the areas of your weapons practice as well as your empty hand practice.

Questions:

1. Is Boxing a martial art?
2. Is Graeco Roman wrestling a martial art?
3. I archery a martial art?

I think you see where I am leading. The “Martial Arts” as we have now commonly come to understand the usage of the term, might give the answer “No” to the above questions. I answer yes. Is the opportunity to improve oneself through the study of Karate or other Asian martial arts higher than in the study of any of Archery, for example?. I answer yes to that as well. Kyudo is, however, an honored “Martial Art” in Japan. The “Eastern” Martial Arts have evolved in such a fashion that the
methods used in their study offer a greater potential for internal and personal development and improvement than do western boxing or wrestling in their present format. This does not mean that they are not martial arts or that they are somehow invalid.

For better or for worse, the Industrial Revolution took the West, and, later, the East towards the development of the technology of (mass) destruction and control, at the expense of “the person” and “personal” and unarmed or low tech “martial arts”.

For better or for worse, I have studied Karate, Tai Chi, Ba Fa, edged weapons, the cane, Archery, Firearms, , Kobudo (Sai and Bo mostly) and, yes, even spear throwing in wildly and widely varying degrees.

I recommend all such study, if undertaken properly and ethically..That, however, may be a point of view which distinctly represents the voice of a vanishing and politically incorrect minority.

I consider Uechi Karate to be at the core or center of all my disparate efforts to learn to develop true self defense awareness and personal growth. But, as Mr. Jenkins pointed out, there is quite a bit more to it and I compliment his effort to point this out..

by Ian Jenkins

The true facts of violence and self defense in the real world must be responsibly reported to students by instructors of any self defense/martial art class. By the true facts of violence I do not mean merely teaching students that sport or point sparring holds no meaning on the street. This fact is reported in many books and webpages and by many instructors, but it is unknown or unconsidered by a staggering number of martial artists. Many of these are truly unaware that in real fights no one need play by rules, spare the groin or knee, not throw things at you, and in general mind their manners, keep their distance, and refrain from simply shrugging off an ippon strike, throwing you to the ground and beating your noggin in. Maybe with their friends’ help.

No, I’m talking about the real world, and not the movie world. I’m not even talking about the handful of techniques useful to a victim, scared stiff, not warmed up, surprised in poor fighting attire and perhaps outnumbered and in an inconvenient setting like a slippery floor, rough surface, or tight quarters. I’m talking about what to do to rationally reduce your risks for violent injury in the world, because of the sad fact that injury threats come overwhelmingly from mates and family members not from strangers, with important exceptions for certain risky but often voluntary activities like getting drunk or ending up alone in an unsafe place, or owning a gun, or committing crimes. The hard facts
of assault must be confronted:

1) The greatest danger to you is a family member. Murders and beatings by intimate acquaintances are the most common type. Sexual assaults against wives/fiances/dates, children and siblings are the most common. About one in five to one in three women will suffer physical violence at the hands of a mate-1.6 to 4 million women every single year. Family violence is the second commonest cause of trauma in women seen at ER’s, with falls, the number one category, concealing more cases.

2) A handgun stored in the home increases your risk of death and injury by a variety of ways. First, by introducing a gun into the house, you increase the likelihood that you will kill your intimate acquaintances, or them you, many more times than the likelihood that you will defend yourself against an attack. Articles published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) repeatedly show that a gun in the home increases the risk of homicide about 3 fold, and that for every killed intruder, there are 1.3 accidental deaths, 4.6 homicides, and a whopping 37 suicides. For every killed stranger, 12 FRIENDS and 18 COHABITANTS are shot down. Simply owning a gun increases your suicide risk 5 TIMES. Potentially suicidal adolescents see their suicide risk expand 75 TIMES when a gun is available. If you ever have a depressed or impulsive (that is, adolescent) kid and a gun, you’re risking violent death. You might not feel suicidal now, so you might think having a gun around isn’t likely to make you shoot yourself. And you’re right. But an attack from a stranger in your home is even less likely.

3) Drug and Alcohol use are among your biggest enemies as far as intentional injuries are concerned. (as well as car, motorcycle, boat, pedestrian, and bicycle deaths). From a NEJM study: houses where someone drank were 2.5 times as likely to have a gun murder as dry houses; houses where alcohol caused problems at work were 20 times as likely to have these murders. Over 3/4 of studies show alcohol use in a mate increases your risk of getting beaten. Drinking can up your suicide risk 16 times, drugs 10 times. Most cases of stranger violence involve drugs and alcohol, and alcohol is used with shocking frequency as a date rape tool, as well as a vehicle for other drugs like rohypnol. Alcohol is a major factor in injuries/deaths caused from everything from falls, bike accidents, fire, and car crashes to suicides to homicides.

4) Common sense rules are your best protection against dating violence. This means: DON’T USE DRUGS OR ALCOHOL, DON’T TRAVEL ALONE, DON’T GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT PLANNING YOUR RETURN/KNOWING YOUR ROUTE, DON’T IGNORE YOUR INSTINCTS, DON’T IGNORE YOUR ENVIRONMENT, DON’T GO ANYWHERE WITH JUST A DATE, DON’T EXPECT ANYONE BESIDES YOURSELF TO ENSURE YOUR SAFETY (Not a new boyfriend, and sadly, not many long-time boyfriends) but KNOW WHO CAN HELP. The risk of sexual assault in college is roughly ONE IN FOUR. Try to be/look like a person who knows where they’re going and isn’t afraid. Many attackers size up a potential victim for posture, diorientation, fear, etc, and even verbally test the person, before attacking. ASSERTIVE AND CONFIDENT APPEARANCES, ACTIONS AND SPEECH MAY DETER ASSAULT. But be ready to RUN.

5) Other methods of injury prevention far outweigh self-defense–and I’m not talking about conflict avoidance. Bike helmets, seatbelts, fire alarms and the like are much more important.

Domestic Violence

To assess your risk of violent injury, start at home. Locks, alarms and window bars may reduce your risk by a measly 20-40%, but that’s nothing compared to the risk from a gun-roughly 500% increases in risk, larger ones if the gun is unlocked or loaded. And the number of gun injuries is tiny relative to the number of partner beatings. So your first priority is assessing your past/present relationships, if any. The following things don’t seem to affect your risk very much, as far as YOUR characteristics are concerned (as a spouse only): your alcohol use, race, prior marriage, housewife status, or income, or many other things. What’s more important about YOU is

1) if you witnessed or experienced violence in your family as a child or adolescent.

2) if you use drugs.

3) Other factors: 60% of studies say a healthy self esteem can protect you; the rest say it doesn’t matter. Half the studies on the victims sex role beliefs suggested that having traditional sex role beliefs increased their risk of assault, and half say educational level affects violence-but half say they don’t matter.

Remember that though your drinking doesn’t make your spouse more likely to abuse you, it does make any boyfriend or date more likely to assault you. And more important than you is your mate, particularly your male mate. There isn’t enough known about violence between lesbians. Your mate represents an increased physical violence risk to you if

1) he is sexually aggressive toward you
2) he is violent toward any children
3) he witnessed or experienced violence as a child or adolescent
4) he is unemployed or has an arrest record.
5) Other: a higher income, education, or assertiveness MAY protect you. Only a third of studies said his need for power/dominance was a risk factor.

Your relationship tells you more about risk than your characteristics. Risk factors include:

1) Frequent arguments
2) Higher female religious involvement/education/occupational level

Marital dissatisfaction is not a risk factor. While all this may help to define your risk, the big point is WOMEN WHO KNOW MEN ARE AT RISK. Ending a relationship doesn’t end the risk. It’s essential that everyone know about domestic violence, and constantly watch for it. So keep in mind that domestic violence:

1) Is never the victim’s fault, is never legal, and is never “right.” No one deserves violence (excepting self defense) whether they drink, gain weight, become pregnant, (though about 15/100 preganant women are abused) wear certain clothes, walk certain places, or anything.

2) Often goes in cycles of anger, abuse, apology, calm, and more anger and worsening abuse. Don’t take excuses. Don’t give him another “chance” to behave. The large majority or seriously injured or killed women have histories of ongoing abuse.

3) Can consist of physical, sexual, or psychological abuse. (Anyone can refuse any sexual activity at any time, regardless of marriage, long relationship, starting sex, or any dating. And everyone deserves respect, dignity, privacy, and autonomy–the right to control their own lives, including their activities, relationships and finances and BODIES.)

4) Often begins before marriage

5) Sex with intoxicated persons, may be rape, because they cannot consent.

6) Is often tolerated because of serious threats to the victim or children

7) Leaves serious and often permanent psychological scars in victims

There are many things you can do if you’re a victim of abuse.

1) Make an escape plan and hiding escape supplies, such as money, clothes, spare car keys, documents, and so on. Don’t overpack–it may tip him off. If you can’t pack a bag at home try leaving one with a neighbor or organizing a drawer of a dresser.

2) If fighting is unavoidable, stay out of bathrooms (closed space, hard surfaces) and kitchens (knives).

3) Try to keep a list of emergency numbers and resources. Consider arranging an emergency signal with a neighbor. If you call the police, DO NOT SAY YOUR MATE IS ATTACKING YOU. They may arrive hours too late. Tell them a stranger is attacking you in your house.

4) Get help. Find the numbers of local sexual assault agencies and class them. (In Virginia Try contacting SHE (Shelter for Help in Emergency: 293-6155), SARA, (Sexual Assault Resource Agency: 977-7273 (977-RAPE)), VAASA (Virginians Aligned Against Sexual Assault: 295-7273) or Virginians against Domestic Violence (221-0990). In C-ville, Open House Hotline: 295-TALK.)

5) Primary COLLEGE defenses are preventive: sobriety, caution, awareness, public places, groups, careful mate selection. University judicial panels can substitute for police involvement after the fact.

A lot of this applies more to women than men. That’s because more men abuse women than the other way around. And it’s also because women don’t do stupid things as often-like defend their macho reputation, pick fights, hang out with dangerous people, commit crimes, get rowdy at bars, and so on. But I don’t need to tell you how to reduce those risks, do I?

Ian Jenkins
University of Virginia School of Medicine ’01

Sources:
“Risk factors for fatal residential fires” NEJM 327(12) 859-63 1992
“Alcohol as a risk factor for injuries or death due to fires or burns”
Pub Health Reports 102:475-83 1987
“Violent deaths among alcoholics” J Stud Alc 44:938-49 1983
“Causes of death among alcoholics” Q. J Stud Alc 33:171-85 1972
“Effects of alcohol abuse on Readmission for Trauma” JAMA 270(16) 1962-4
1993
“Alcohol and Fatal Injuries among US adults” JAMA 260(17) 2529-32 1988
“Alcohol, Social factors, and mortality among young men” Br J Addic
86:877-87 1991
“Fatal Injuries and alcohol” Am J Prev Med 1:21-8 1985
“Drinking habits and death” Int J Epidem 12:145-50 1983
“Role of alcohol in mortality and morbidity from interpersonal violence”
Alc and Alcoholism 24: 565
1989
“Suicide in the home in relation to gun owenership” NEJM 3327: 476-72 1992
“Gun owndership as a risk factor for homicide in the home” NEJM
329:1084-91 1993
“Guns and adolescent suicides” JAMA 266: 3030
“Assoc between the purchase of a handgun and homicide or suicide” Am J
Pub Health 87: 974 1997
“Analysis of risk markers in husband and wife violence” Violence Victims
1:101-24 1986
SHE information packet

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The two articles on HIV/AIDS in the dojo are generally correct and suggest useful steps to prevent infection. Hepatitis, however, poses a greater threat. Its various forms are not as dangerous but more common and more transmissible, so the total risk of death it poses is higher. Hepatitis can live on countertops for days, unlike HIV, and the blood supply is less protected from some forms. Prevention is the same as for HIV, but I thought sparring supervisors who rightly conclude the HIV risk is tiny should know about it so they’re not tempted to ignore warnings.

Ian Jenkins
UVA medical school

Concerning the article on defensive mindset and karate by Dave Sargent: it may help to have students, after a “minor injury,” keep sparring to develop a survivalist attitude, but doing so is a real hazard, because it sometimes takes 15 minutes or more of rest/relaxation for the adrenaline to wear off and the damage to be noticed or appreciated. I had a student who tweaked a knee before class try to work out because he thought he was fine; I ordered him to sit it out. This injury turned out to require surgery, and kicks wouldn’t have helped. Others students have misclassified bone chips as “bonks.” I suggest resting any POTENTIALLY “structural” injury–pull/ fracture/sprain as opposed to bruise.

Ian Jenkins
Univ. of VA

by Bill Finnerty

Much is written,little is said. Much is taught,but little is actually
passed on.But why should it be? To fully understand the true depth of martial,you must study the ancient culture and all its strict traditions.

Rank does not denote knowledge, nor does it command the respect we think it does,by many true oriental Masters. In schools of old, master meant self mastery of ones true study. When Master Kanbum Uechi studied the old Chinese systems,he
was taught the three levels of learning,–Shoden–Chuden–Hiden. But in the third level,how much was actually passed on?

A student sees what is taught and what is said, but he must listen to what is not said,and not taught. Where in lies the true study. Many techniques taught,will not work in the streets. Kata is not kata,unless it encompasses three levels. “Oku” ——”Heiho” –and :”Dim-Mak”. These were and still are an integral part of the Masters training. But how much did he pass on?

In the Uechi ryu Sanchin kata, the master placed two self-defense hand positions. one is very apparent,but what is the second,and why its strong importance?It goes to follow, that the second is actually the first .

Master Uechi learned that—
Blocks are not blocks
Punches are not punches
Weapons are not weapons
Therefore–Kata is not kata.

“When the dragon roars–the student trembles
but when the dragon whispers–the wise student listens”
Think of all that i have not said.

by Van Canna, Kyoshi

Awareness

When each of us began to study karate, I am sure that one of the stronger motivations was to develop and cultivate the ability of self defense. Today if we were to question each student at any rank level as to their reasons why they continue to study karate, most of them would not admit that one of the strong motivating factors was self defense. I believe the reason for this is that we are all uncomfortable with mind images of ugly and violent confrontations; serious crippling injuries and or death and blows to self esteem if we are not able to successfully cope with the situation.

As a student progresses through the ranks, his confidence builds momentum in so far as potential responses to violent attacks, but I venture to say that a very insidious self doubt still persists as to his ultimate victory or even survival in a violent confrontation. One of the reasons for this self-doubt is that the ways we practice martial arts today we do not carry the fight through once the violent encounter gets beyond, or closer than, a certain point. We are functioning on the assumption that a well-placed kick or punch or whatever other karate technique we are being taught, will deal a final “Hammer of Thor” blow to the assailant, quickly ending the fight. Unfortunately and realistically, this is not always the case. On a physical level we must realize that we have certain weaknesses and limitations.

In spite of assiduous years of training, well-intentioned defensive blows might not have the desired or programed effect on an attacker. This is especially true if he is build like a football player or if he is heavy with natural padding. . . or that he is simply tough and mean!

I believe that on a psychological level, we all concede to the possibility that, once a confrontation begins, we will escape it untouched. When in the dojo wearing a uniform and a black belt, are among friends and are operating in a controlled situation, we are not crippled by negative emotions and are therefore capable of executing very skillful and powerful defensive techniques that bolster our confidence. However, picture yourself dressed up and all alone on a dark street at night, wearing street shoes that restricts your movements to a certain extent. It is easy to imagine that in a real situation your first reaction will undoubtedly be one of fear.

At this point there are a number of mental images coming into your head that you’ve never really had to deal with before while in the sanctity of the dojo. For example, in spite of your status as a karate practitioner, there is a very good possibility that you may be killed by a weapon or you might wind up with brain damage or fractures that will leave you paralyzed or a vegetable.

We should practice bringing these images to mind more often so we can deal with them and begin our mental preparation for survival. Some victims of beatings have sustained terrifying injuries, including exploded kidneys, disemboweled intestines and other ruptured organs. Some are now plugged into life support systems for the remainder of their lives. In addition, some of these injuries have resulted in such mental shock that a person is no longer able to function as a normal human being.

In is perfectly normal to experience fear before a potentially violent confrontation, but at times this fear brings on a paralyzing effect. A moment of indecision, linked to the flight or fight syndrome while all at the same time certain subtle changes are taking place within your body preparing you for some kind of response. If you allow total fear to overcome you, you will not be able to move fast, your mind will not be sharp and physical responses will lack power, accuracy and determination. A churning stomach and shaky knees will add to your discomfort. These are perfectly normal human responses and there is no shame in exposing them so we may understand them and eventually learn to control them.

You would do well to realize from the very beginning that even if you do not sustain a very serious injury, you will probably be hit hard and experience severe physical discomfort. The next question to deal with is what will you do when the fight begins. What will be your response both mentally and physically.

To be sure, I have read somewhere that most human beings are capable of being a hero but that at other times discretion is the better part of valor. If you are overwhelmed by the odds, you should retreat so that you may survive to fight another day. Keep in mind that your first obligation to yourself is to survive at all costs and not to win the fight. This is especially true if you find yourself in a confrontation when you have loved ones with you. Another thing to remember is that the very basic rule of violent encounters is that there is no such thing as a fair fight. If you choose to respond physically you must realize that you are now into a serious fight and that you better do something very quickly to come out of it in one piece.

I’ve talked to a large number of people involved in serious fights and I have been involved in a few myself. I can tell you in spite of your best intentions, your gallant effort in responding with effective karate techniques, just does not work all the time. You are still locked in a paralyzing moment out of fear and indecision. Your first response or timing may be off, or you may completely miss the target or hit a well-padded area of your assailant so that your response does not take immediate effect.

At this point it should dawn on you that the confrontation has degenerated into an extremely close quarter and grappling situation. The question now is whether you will be successful in prevailing with your conventional close quarter fighting techniques, particularly if you are in pain from counterattacks or if your assailant is bigger and stronger than you are. Once you have become aware of these particular mental and physical scenarios, you will do well to think in terms of dealing with the problem. Start developing a winning attitude, both physically and mentally.

There is nothing wrong with fear, as long as you don’t allow it to paralyze your emotions and actions. Experts in this matter say that you should use fear to your advantage by channeling it into controlled anger against your attacker.

You can survive and win if you are tough. Anyone can be tough if they believe they are tough, and part of the toughness means not to let pain from injuries destroy your will to fight and gaining control of the situation. In addition, if you respond with explosive counterattacks, you will completely surprise your assailant because most likely he is not expecting resistance from you. Also the display of an attitude that projects strength and decisiveness is very important to cultivate and in a great number of cases is enough to prevent a fight from even beginning. Just as in a tough sparring match, in most physical encounters there will be a few moments of sizing up the opposition. You’ll do it and so will the potential assailant. You must then put a determined look in your eyes and project the impression that: “Well if you’re pushing me into a fight, here I am and I am going to do anything necessary to survive.”

Take a strong physical posture and be prepared to tough it out until the end. Strike back in a ruthless manner without holding back and follow through until you see the attacker is incapable of further action against you. You will do well to develop some of the awareness principles outlined above and most important, work on developing some serious “stopping power” in your physical techniques.

Van Canna is a 7th degree black belt and Kyoshi in the Uechi-ryu Karate Association.

by Frank Thiboutot

In The Middle Kingdom, there is no sky. At least there’s no sky as we know it. Just a gray and orange layer of smog blocking the sun and eliminating any view of a blue sky even in the countryside. China is experiencing its own industrial revolution with coal smokestacks extending toward the heavens to perhaps someday catch up to the west in wealth and technology. For now, it seems to be the thinking of their leaders that the environment might have to be sacrificed in order achieve that standard of living found (but not admitting exists) in the west. Hong Kong and certain parts of Beijing may boast its ultra modern and high tech office buildings, hotels and businesses, but its the exception rather than the rule.

In early December, I was contacted by the ShanXi Fighting Tackunobo Association to organize a team of kickboxers from the U.S. to compete for the first time in TaiYuan City in ShanXi Province. There was also a team of Japanese invited to participate as well. After two months of phone calls and a stack of faxes an inch thick we made the historical journey having obtained our visas only one day before we left for Beijing on February 8th.

It’s every martial artist’s dream to visit the region of China where our sport has its roots. But, because China had been basically closed to the outside western world since the communists took over in 1949, I personally didn’t think I was ever going have that opportunity. I am an experienced traveler having been to approximately fifty countries in my lifetime. I had been all around the region from Hong Kong to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Japan after a two year stint in the Peace Corps in Korea in the mid-seventies. Even though we didn’t quite make it to Henan Province, where the original Shaolin temples once stood and another six hour ride by bus, to me, this trip was an opportunity of a lifetime. I also had no trouble soliciting my good friend, Bruce Marshall, of Marshall’e Kenpo Karate in Newburyport, MA to accompany me as a coach and for him to convince Jonas Nunez, America’s Finest Karate and Kickboxing in Elizabeth, NJ, to come along as a trainer and chief second.

The problem was in convincing the fighters that we could actually pull off this trip. Those involved in the fight game recognize it’s pitfalls pertaining to matchmaking let alone some guy from Maine calling them to travel half way around the world to fight in a communist country. This lead to a number of anxious moments even on the morning we left from Logan airport. We hadn’t heard from Felisberto Fernandes, Dorchester, MA, for a week despite numerous phone calls and then he was late in arriving because he went to another terminal. It wasn’t exactly a Kodak moment, but it sure was a relief that he and John Hunt, Watertown, MA, both made the plane with Bruce and I to JFK where we were to meet up with the other half of the eight man team and all fly together to China. Maybe it’s because to me they’re just kids, but it never fails to amaze me how oblivious fighters seem to be about time, deadlines, and making phone calls to let you know everything is on schedule with them. I guess if promoting and matchmaking were easy at this level, everyone would be doing it.

Speaking of promoting, a Boston based TV crew boarded the flight before we took off to film a family who was going to Nagano to watch their daughter play for the American Women’s Hockey Team. After this was announced by the stewardess and they received a polite applause, I asked her to make the announcement that half the members of the U.S. Kickboxing Team were on the plane as well and were on their way to China. They received a rousing applause and were asked to stand to identify themselves. Only a few years ago, most people would not even know what kickboxing was……..Making progress.

At JFK, Peter Kaljevic, by way of Yugoslavia who now makes his home in Queens, was the first to arrive along with Orlando Cintron, the Bronx, and Olando Rivera, from Staten Island, and the man who pulled it all together for the New York contingent, Jonas Nunez. I felt as though my job was done just before we all boarded the United Airline Flight to Tokyo which was full because the Winter Olympics had just started in Nagano. My thoughts were on how hard our travel agents Samantha and Rene in Hampton, NH worked to help us put this together. If someone hadn’t shown up for whatever reason, I wasn’t going to go myself because I would’ve lost face by not being able to deliver what I promised our hosts in China. I distributed the red, white and blue USA team robes and cornerman jackets that were express mailed by Ringside Products only one day earlier. High fives were given all around, “now I could relax”, I felt…………….NOT!

Little did I know that the total travel time, with layovers, was 27 hours from the time we left until we landed in Beijing. The worst leg was the 14 hour bedhead flight from JFK to Tokyo. We were met after we cleared customs at about 8:30pm on Sunday, February 8th by our interpreter, Wang Fei, whose American name is Danny and Huang JianFu, the coach of the Chinese team. I was reminded of Mr. Galacawitz in the Budweiser commercial when I saw the placard with my name on it, but instead of a limousine we had a comfortable mini-bus to take us to the Rainbow Hotel across town. I had expected the accommodations to be about the same as the hotel I stayed in while in Kiev in the Ukraine several years prior. But, this was surprisingly comfortable and about the equivalent of a Ramada or Holiday Inn.

I was also surprised that they had booked Bruce and I into our own separate rooms. This was indeed a happy moment since Bruce has been known to peel the paint off the walls with his snoring. We then had a brief meeting with Danny and Mr. Huang to discuss some of the business details and the rules for the event. We gave them copies of the rule books, world ratings, and catalogues in our possession to bring them up to speed with what is going on in the sport in the outside world. In our correspondences prior to leaving the States, we were under the supposition that we would be fighting Thai Style rules (without elbows) for these bouts, but that was to change. More on that later.

The next morning I got up at 6:00am to go for a run. It was still quite dark and eerily quiet in my room. There was no traffic noise which you’d expect even that early in the morning in a city with 12 million people. When I got outside, the streets were teeming with people walking and riding bicycles. If this were New York City, the horns would be

blarring. I’m assuming that the masses of Chinese, as I felt with the Ukranians, were simply less expressive (which could also be interpreted as more polite and better mannered) and were used to harnessing their emotions more so than people in the west. I also didn’t get the long stares and catcalls that I expected as I rambled along the streets and sidewalks in my colorful workout clothes. Is it a result of their subjugation by the

communists, I don’t know. I’ll leave those conclusions to the social psychologists, but, it

was certainly strange. At the beginning of my run, I saw Orlando Cintron who was on his way back from his run. Most of the guys went out early simply to flush their bodies, get their bodies back on track and keep their weight in check. And yes, I did see some elderly people doing light exercises and also practicing Tai Chi on the sidewalks in front of their shops.

After a solid American style buffet breakfast, we met as a group to do a little sightseeing. We were scheduled to see the Imperial Palace, also known as the Forbidden City, in the morning and The Summer Palace in the afternoon. I can tell you this much (because you just have to see these places for yourself to feel the impact of their massiveness and beauty) all the work Bruce, Jonas and I had done for the past two months were completely wiped clean by these two tours alone. Spectacular and awesome don’t even begin to describe them…and it was in the middle of winter. I can’t imagine how beautiful these two places would be in the summertime! Bruce had repeated the word “Wow!” so often that I was beginning to think it was the only word in his vocabulary until he injected “Look at That” either before or after the “Wow”. I’m personally all in favor of a democracy over a monarchy except, of course, if I were the king! What a life that must’ve been. The Taj Mahal in Agra, India and the King’s Palace in Madrid, Spain were in first and second place on my list of all time most impressive sites that I had been fortunate to visit previously. Now, they’re in third and fourth place.

That evening after dinner in the hotel lounge, I met with Danny, Mr. Huang and the two Japanese coaches from Tokyo, Toshihiro Yamaki and Hiromasa Yaginuma. Having been in the Peace Corps in Korea in the early eighties, it gave me the opportunity travel to Japan. They also travel often to Korea for kickboxing events which opened a line of conversation for us. Later on, the U.S. and Japananese fighters would form an alliance against the Chinese fighters. How’s that for a turn of events in comparison to WWII? At this time, we were notified that the rounds were to be reduced from 5 three-minute rounds to 3 two-minute rounds, otherwise, the show would last all night with 10 bouts. It gave me cause for suspicion as to their experience and conditioning levels, but when in Rome………….

On Tuesday morning, we had breakfast and the U.S. team members had cranked up their diplomatic relations and cross-cultural experiences with the host country nationals, particularly, the waitresses. It was difficult to get them to smile and open up mainly because they’re still considered to be second class citizens with their roles clearly defined. It’s definitly a man’s world in China, but these Americans, who are are

naturally gregarious by nature, made it their personal secondary mission on this trip to promote how we do things in the west by sweet talking as many females as humanly possible in one week.

They also began their incessant harangues about the quality of the food. Chinese food in China is not like it is in the States. Our hosts gave us the best they had to offer and as much of whatever we wanted. Even our interpreters didn’t recognize many of the dishes we were offered. It was above their normal fare of white rice and vegetables. They did realize, however, that I was eating frog legs on one occasion, which I thought was chicken, but of course didn’t say anything until after I asked. For weight conscious fighters in need of carbos, most of the dishes were not suitable to their palats. It has always amazed me how conscientious fighters are about what they take into their temples (bodies)…prior to their fights. Afterwards, they force as much alcohol as posssible into that same temple without any reservation. Makes sense to me???

At 10:00am, we boarded our mini-bus to begin our 500 km. ride to TaiYuan in ShanXi Province where the event was scheduled to take place with the U.S. Team on one bus and the Japanese Team on another. Just about an hour later, on the outskirts of the city, we broke down. But, as luck would have it, we were picked up by a Greyhound style bus with available seats which was also on its way to TaiYuan. Better yet, we were also treated to a Jackie Chan film to pass the time.

The countryside is mainly farmland with villages (collectives) scattered here and there. It was difficult to tell what types of crops they grew since it was wintertime. Every available piece of earth was utilized, however. Even the sides of the hills had a stepped system with various sized patches of earth to plant crops. I was surprised that there was no snow even in the mountain passes. Must of been because of El Nino.

China is one of the top coal, cement and iron and steel producing countries in the world. It is also produces non-ferrous metals, petroleum and mineral products for chemical industrial output. Wherever there wasn’t a farm, there was a factory. As an outsider looking in, I had to believe that it was a very harsh and stoic existence for the ordinary citizen even in the best of times.

I noticed at the rest stops, a number of young Chinese men who seemed to be stuck in a time warp. They were dressed like 1920s style gangsters with black suits and white ties with the proverbial cigarette dangling loosly from their lower lip. Either that or they had seen too many low budget movies produced in Hong Kong. There were also virtually no women to be seen. I guess they still stay at home while the men conduct business. In Korea, they are known as pak-ay (outside) and an-ay (inside) serams (people).

We arrived in TaiYuan at the ShanXi Coal Tower Hotel and were greeted with a large banner over the front entrance and several TV camera crews. Again, it was an impressive 26-story modern hotel with an auspicious welcome to this small city of only 3 million.

We settled in and got ready for the reception dinner scheduled for that evening which

also turned out to be very inspiring. After so very many years of matter-of-factness whenever a kickboxing event takes place in the U.S., it was almost overwhelming to be treated like celebrities or royalty halfway around the globe. The members of the

Tackunobo Association gave us a standing ovation as we entered the room. There were

welcoming speeches from the dignataries followed by a first-class dinner.

Kevin Garnett gets a contract for 126 million dollars for 7 years to play basketball.

As much as I believe in capitalism and the free-enterprise system, I get awfully sick and tired of the whining, bad behavior, and often poor performances from the overpaid professional athletes involved in the major sports in our country. The fighters, trainers, managers, promoters and officials who participate in our sport, pretty much for the sheer love of the game, in comparison, are always clinging to the hope that we will eventually make our sport a financial success. These rewards may not come in our lifetime, but it does feel damn good when our efforts are visibly appreciated by some and that we can at least say we had a role in paving the way for those who wish to travel this path in the future.

On Tuesday, we spent some time walking around in the area of the hotel where we saw people playing billiards on tables on the sidewalks. We then wandered into a shopping district filled full of small shops, push carts and restaurants. We sensed that they knew who we were because they were very friendly and were very accommodating about having their pictures taken. It was truly amazing and I personally felt, at that point, that, “Hey, I’m really am in the heart of mainland China!”

That evening prior to it opening, we met in the disco to workout and flush out the cobwebs. It was great to sweat and try to keep up with those half my age. It felt so good to skip rope, shadowbox, hit the punch mitts and do some light sparring mainly for calming the nerves and keeping the fighters’ weights in check. Because the dance floor was slippery, I worked out barefoot for the first time in 15 years and it promptly tore the skin off my feet, but it didn’t matter, it felt g-o-o-d to get some real exercise!

Even though I’m heavily into kickboxing for fitness, at 48, I couldn’t help but get the sinking feeling that the game itself, in the physical sense, has passed me by. I ate a few of Jonas’s sidekicks when we went one-on-one, but that didn’t bother me since I do that all the time in my classes, too. While watching the fighters shadowbox, I was thinking how extremely talented these high caliber athletes are and that they deserve more recognition and support. These days, I can only make an impact on the game in an administrative capacity. I was also thinking that at some point, Jonas, too, will have to also confront these demons and make the break from hangin’ and messin’ with the fighters to more of a management position…..which is hard to do, especially when you absolutely love the game as much as he does. I even had to chastise and threaten him that I wouldn’t take his photo because in every picture he was in, he was in some sort of fighter’s pose or karate stance. The break, however, will have to come sooner or later.

On Wednesday morning, I read my clock wrong and got up 6:00am instead of 7:00am. Incidentally, it was a travel alarm that I picked up in a Rite-Aid before I left which was

“Made In China”. I had a chance to channel surf the TV which included a program that was an MTV imitation, some cartoons, along with the news and weather. There was also a montage of activities on one station that included T’ai Chi, synchronized swimming, figure skating, and Chinese couples dancing latin style dances in a competition on a basketball court. “The best of the west has come east”, I thought.

Wednesday turned out to be The Festival of the Lanterns thus explaining all the brightly colored paper lanterns hung everywhere. The weigh-ins at 7:30am went well with all of the U.S. and Japanese fighters making their agreed upon weight. Some of the Chinese fighters were delayed because their train was late and had to weigh-in on the day of the fight. The weigh-ins are another behind the scenes thing that is an integral part of our sport about which the general public doesn’t have much of a sense. It’s best described as a ritual with an aire of tension as the fighters and trainers try to size each other up with their game faces on. Finally, there’s a huge relief by the promoters, officials and fighters alike when all the weights are verified and recorded.

Breakfast consisted of fried eggs, rice soup, rice cakes chicken wings and warm milk, but was welcomed by John and Olando who had been particulary worried about making weight. Felisberto, who looks like a mini-Evander Holyfield, never gave it a second thought, knows his body and ate pretty much what he wanted throughout the week. But, both Peter and Orlando had lost weight from their disinterest in the style of food, but there was no lack of what we had come to know as “Stormisms” from Orlando “The Storm” Cintron. For examples, a fork = technology (as opposed to chop sticks); his idol = Ghengis Khan; the Japanese fighters = Remember Pearl Harbor . Don’t ask me to clarify them. In context, they were really funny quips that came naturally one right after the other from the dynamo from the Bronx.

After breakfast, we all went as a group to check out the arena. It was primitive in its naked state by our standards and only had a capacity for 3,000 spectators. The association intended to give away all the tickets to dignataries and associates for this first time event.. The ring was small with the ropes being approximately 14’ x 14’ inside. They were in the process of setting up the lights for TV production, but the fighters climbed into the ring anyway to get a feel for the canvas…..another long standing ritual.

After we returned to the hotel, Bruce, Jonas and I met with the Japanese trainers, the Chinese coaches, Jian JianGuo and Huang JianFu, and the chief referee for the bouts, Liu YuFu, for an explanation of the rules which we then learned were the Wushu Shan Shou system of fighting. Their scoring system was cumulative over the three rounds (which was originally scheduled for five), not the 10 point “must” system that we are accustomed to using. Points were awarded similar to a point karate tournament with two

points for a kick or punch to the body and one point for a punch to the head or a kick to the legs. Takedowns were emphasized. In fact, two points are awarded for a takedown or throw, which is illegal and considered a foul in international kickboxing rules. What were we going to do now? Go home? Again, it’s never easy when you’re first at anything.

Afterwards, I had a private meeting in my room with a reporter from the press explaining the need to standardize rules. When boxing is mentioned to a person even only casually interested in the sport, he has an understanding of the rules. The word kickboxing, on the other hand, conjures up all sorts of notions and I’m not even bringing the various karate style tournaments into the mix. Above the waist kicking, leg kicks; elbows, no elbows; clinching, no clinching; long pants, short pants; now, takedowns. And then we have grappling and shootfighting to explain to the public. Where’s it going to end? No wonder the sport continues to struggle. I think I’ll get into the golf business…..

I decided it was time to introduce Bruce to the public bathouse. He had obviously heard about it from the fighters who manage to learn the lay of the land much more quickly than us old folks. Because I had spent time in Korea over 23 years ago, the concept was not new to me yet, it was also remarkably vivid. Now, don’t get any ideas; it’s really a legitimate bathouse that is usually located on the floor beneath the lobby in most hotels. Most of them are now called saunas in China. In the States we call them spas and charge

exorbitant fees for the same services.

There are also free-standing saunas for the general public who can’t afford a full bathroom in their home or apartment. I’ve also only been to the ones that are not co-ed. It’s a great treat for the body for approximately $4.00 plus tip. It was also one of the only things that weren’t paid for by our hosts. That and any souvineers that we wanted to take home with us. First, you take a shower and then make the circuit from the sauna or steam room to the hot tub, and then cold tub once or several times. A washdown by a male attendant does not sound very enticing to those who are as comfortable with their manhood as Tim The Tool Man Taylor. However, for those willing to go for it, like someone who is as shy as Jonas, the rewards are worth it. The attendant washes you down while at the same time, with a coarse towel, he scrapes off all the old dead skin which is visibly apparent on the towel. When finished, you’re completely relaxed. Afterwards, you shower, put on a robe and sip tea in a recliner until you stop perspiring so that you can get dressed. The pleasure police in this country, the ones who don’t want you to go to the beach without sunblock, or to eat movie theater popcorn or drive SUVs, would be clamoring about the bacteria in the water, too, if this luxury were common here. Suffice it to say, thankfully, that the oldest continuous civilization with a history dating back 5,000 years continues to retain this custom, at least out of necessity.

At dinner that evening, we were informed that there was no opponent for Stormy. By the look on his face, I actually thought he was going to break down at the table. He was so discouraged at the thought of having come so far for nothing…the training, the money lost from the time off from training his personal fitness clients and then having to explain that he went all this way and there wasn’t an opponent to be found among 1.2 billion Chinese??? See, I told you my job wasn’t over after I got on the plane at JFK.

Well, we had to scramble at that point and plead for the Chinese to find us a fighter. As it turned out, there was one available at 126lbs. while Storm weighed in at 117. That’s quite a spread for people in that weight range. These aren’t heavyweights. I left it up to Storm and Jonas and it was decided they would go with it. It’s never an easy decision one way or the other, but these guys are warriors, no questions asked.

***

Finally, February 12, 1998, the day we’ve all been waiting for, had finally arrived. Now, would you have waded through this whole narrative if I had posted the results of the bouts at the beginning of this article?

We had a police escort on the way to the arena. When cars would get in the way, the driver blarred over the loudspeaker to clear the way. Apparently, there was an accident somewhere up ahead and some resourceful drivers decided to drive on the sidewalks to avoid the tie-up. As we pulled into the driveway, there was a company of soldiers standing at attention in the parking lot. “Whoah,” I thought.! “I guess there won’t be any antics by our cornermen like Lou Duva might pull, if we happened to receive a bad decision”.

After the soldiers marched into the building, we followed them in and discovered that all three teams would be using the same locker room. Another first.

After marking our territory in a corner of the room, we began to get ready and started taping the fighter’s hands. The trainers kept their suits and ties on since all three teams had to march into the arena promptly at 7:30pm. It was a smaller version of the opening ceremony of the Olympics and just as tasteful. After marching into the auditorium and positioning ourselves in front of the dignitaries, speeches were given including one given by myself with the aid of Danny, our translator. Gifts were exchanged with the Japanese presenting a beautiful honorary title belt to the Chinese coach. We presented PKF Certificates and tee-shirts….what a surprise! Our team received a beautiful gold

warrior statuette that the team awarded to Jonas as the chief second which he would later place in his karate school in Elizabeth, NJ.

The arena certainly looked different when it was filled to capacity than it did the day before. It takes nerve to do what we do in this business anyway, but in the middle of China? Talk about a “homecourt” advantage. I can only describe the fights when the Americans fought because I didn’t leave the locker room to watch the Japanese bouts.

As the event progressed, a bond and comradery developed between the Japanese and American teams pulling for each other against the Chinese team members.

Both the Japanese and American teams only won one out of five bouts under the Shan Shou format. The Japanese coach certainly had less than fond comments and felt it wasn’t kickboxing as practiced worldwide. It could best describe it as “free-style kickboxing with an emphasis on takedowns and throws.” Plus, it wasn’t as “pretty” to watch from a spectator’s point of view. The flow of action was constantly interrupted with the fighters going to the mat and getting up off the canvas, and re-starting.

Chinese Team U.S. & Japanese Teams

Bout 1

Cheng Qingshen def. Ishibashi Tomokazu

114 lbs. Japan

Bout 2

Tang Feilong def. Orlando “Storm” Cintron

126 lbs 117 lbs.-USA

Even though Storm had wrestling experience and was strong for his weight, the 9 pound differential was too much to overcome. His energy was sapped from not having enough to eat during the week and lost the decision. If this were straight-up kickboxing, I have no doubt that Storm would’ve won.

Bout 3

Liu Wen Chong def. Yamaguchi Tetsuo

123 lbs. Japan

Bout 4

Liu Ya def. Felisberto “Chongi” Fernandes

132 lbs. USA

Chongi’s boxing skills and movement were far superior, but he had trouble getting inside. We felt if he pressured his opponent more, he would’ve won. It was a close and competitive fight, but Ya got the decision. Chongi will do well in boxing, kickboxing or Thai style kickboxing as a professional.

Bout 5

Liu Wei def. Asami Masayuki

138 lbs. Japan

Bout 6

Zhao Zhiqiang def. John (Fairtex) Hunt

143 lbs. USA

John, aka, “GQ”, was our most experienced Thai style fighter, but he also, coincidentally, drew their fighter with the most experience as well which made for a great matchup. I thought John won the first two rounds by forcing the action. In the third, he got caught with several lead leg side kicks that didn’t do any damage but built up points for the Chinese fighter who was awarded the decision.

Bout 7

Li YongLiang def. by Ito Takashi

Japan

Bout 8

Yang Zhiqiang def. Peter “TKO” Kaljevic

154 lbs. USA

It’s the age old amateur pace vs. the pro pace that were at odds. Peter is a slow starter and used to the longer rounds rather than getting it done in three rounds. Just as he was getting cranked up, the bout was over and the decision went to the Chinese fighter.

Bout 9

Cui Shengyi def. Tashiro Yoshiharu

165 lbs. Japan

Bout 10

Zhang Hesong def. by Olando “Warrior” Rivera

176 lbs. USA

This is the bout we needed in order not to get shut out and the K.I.C.K. World Light-Heavyweight Champion delivered. Olando’s reputation was that he doesn’t seem to get motivated until he gets hit. In this case, his opponent tried to push Olando over the top of the ropes above our corner in the first round. This definitely got his attention. In round two, Olando worked the body while inside not giving his opponent an opportunity to clinch and try to take him down. Towards the end of the round, Olando backed Hesong into his own corner and landed a stiff right hand on the button and followed it with a left hook afterwhich their corner threw in the towel to end the only bout that didn’t go the distance.

Since it was the last bout of the night, bedlam and exuberance broke out with everyone glad to have the event behind them. No one got hurt and we made a good showing. “GQ”

said that in every fight he’s had previously he had at least a few bumps and bruises, but didn’t get a single ding in this one. No fighter likes to lose, but under these circumstances everyone was a winner for participating in such a historical event. There were TV interviews by the press and team photos. The Chinese youngsters were wide-eyed at seeing Americans in the flesh and we encouraged them to have their pictures taken with the fighters. I said to one reporter that I wasn’t sure if I were willing to help promote Shan Shou internationally, but if invited to organize another team, I may change my mind.

On Friday morning, before leaving, Bruce and I personally met with General Secretary, Mr. Yin Xiping, “a very powerful man in ShanXi Province”, and we were presented with two more statuettes of ancient Chinese warriors. By now, we were a bit weary of the private meetings which were significant in number, but it gave us an opportunity to personally express our gratitude to the leader for being invited to compete in this event.

We then departed for Beijing on a large bus with both teams. This time we saw the uncut version of the Big Boss as well as a movie that had a scene with a real dog fight in it which was quite brutal. It was a comfortable ride, but the fighters were obviously a bit bummed at losing. How do you explain the outcome when you get back home? What’s going to be reported in the karate magazines? The results may just perpetuate the myth that since the martial arts originated in China, they were still the best fighters on the planet. Without sounding that I’m whining or that this is a case of sour grapes, I think the Americans are as good, if not better than anyone at this game. The Thais excel in Muay Thai, The Koreans excel in TaeKwonDo, the Americans, Canadians, Europeans and C.I.S. fighters excel in Full-Contact (international style kickboxing) and the Chinese excel in Shan Shou and so on. It’s my personal belief that it’s the fighter not the system that he trained under that makes him great or not. It’s like comparing rugby to American football; differnt rules, different contest. The challenge is to get everyone on the same page. That’s not easy as can be attested to by the traditional martial arts community in this country when its time to enter an open tournament. What’s a legitimate point?

That night, after arriving in Beijing and back at the Rainbow Hotel, the fighters went to the night clubs in search of what they do best, act as ambassadors of the U.S. to improve diplomatic relations between themselvess and as many young Chinese women as possible. Bruce, Jonas and I were invited to have dinner with Mr. Lei Wei, President of

the China Xinghua Group who was one of the sponsors of the event. Jonas declined the invitaton and went with the stormtroopers. It’s his perogative since he is still on the bubble between retiring as a fighter and moving into a role as an administrator.

It was at this time that I became aware that there are definitely two distinct Chinas. The one which is very old and traditional but economically poor, and the other which is very modern and high tech and run by the crony capitalists. (It’s a descriptive term similar to our limousine liberals here in this country). The city is, and I’m guessing now, about 70 miles in diameter. It took us almost an hour to get from our hotel to the China World Hotel passing the infamous Tiananmen Square on the way.

I couldn’t believe how many modern hotels and office buildings there were. The whole area was lit up and reminded me a lot of Hong Kong in some respects and Tokyo in others. It was impressive. I’ve been told that ShanXi with a population of 20 million is in an even a bigger building boom with skyscrapers going up all over the place.

The hotel was impeccable. The lobby was tastefully done in rich Chinese traditional colors and decorations with all marble floors and beautiful carpeting. There was a quintet of musicians playing traditional Chinese instruments on the way to our private room and dinner with Mr. Lei. I’ve been in a lot of high class hotels all over the globe, but this was outstanding especially since it wasn’t your typical Intercontinental, Hyatt or Marriot cookie cutter interior design.

Danny and Mr. Huang accompanied Bruce and I and the five of us sat down to dinner.

Bruce was asked to select the wine and fortunately didn’t pick out a $1,000. bottle which probably wouldn’t have even raised an eyebrow. He settled on a more moderate red cabernet for $93….twice. Then, they brought out the appetizers which included an uncooked lobster that was still twitching after its insides were laid open. The main course consisted of Peking duck which was perfect.

The conversation centered around President Clinton’s involvement with Monica Lewinsky and the American economy. I realized that our mainstream liberal media had done their job in defending Clinton when he said, Every man is entitled to one mistake.” (I was wondering if he personally knew Mr. “Charlie” Yah Lin Trie or Mr. John Chung, who were accused of funneling illegal foreign campaign contributions to the Democratic National Committee, but didn’t ask). We learned that the Xinghua Group was a young company that dealt in technology, industry and trading services, but is also involved with developing business in tourism, real estate, advertising and marketing. Mr. Lei also has has an office in Los Angeles where one of his employees, Mr. Yong Gong, works. Mr. Gong helped us with the last minute details and preparations for this trip regarding our obtaining visas. In 1993, Mr. Lei’s company promoted the first and only professional boxing event in China known as “The Brawl at the Wall” held at The Capital Arena in Beijing. Muhammed Ali was the guest of honor and Michael Buffer was the ring announcer.

When it was revealed that the coach, Mr. Huang, and Mr. Lei were lifelong best friends, both Bruce and I gave it our best effort to pump them for information as to their future plans for kickboxing in China. Bruce was subtley bouncing up and down in his chair at the possibilites of where this meeting might take us. It was like playing cards with professionals, however, neither ever specifically revealing his hand other than to say this will be an annual event. When the topic came up that these weren’t the rules we were used to competing under, all Mr. Lei had to say was, “we needed to practice harder.” It’s safe to assume that their agenda is to promote Wushu Shan Shou regardless of the progress made internationally with the ISKA, WKA and KICK sanctioning bodies. The night ended with Mr. Lei giving us each a set of traditional hand painted eggs for a souvineer. After another of several cell phone calls came in for Mr. Lei, we shook hands and left. Now, it was my turn and all I could say was, “Wow!” This guy was younger than I was.

We left for the airport at around 7:30am. There were a few anxious moments because one of the fighters, who went out to a club and had met a young lady the previous evening, hadn’t yet returned. I wound up packing his bags for him, but he just made the departure of our bus. He paid me handsomely not to reveal his name.

At the airport, we were required to pay an exit fee of $12.00 per person which the Association paid on our behalf. There was then just a little time left to pick up a few tee-shirts which, surprisingly, were not readily available elsewhere. We left for our flight to Tokyo, picked up a few more souvineers at Narita Airport during the layover and then boarded United Airlines Flight 800 (uh, oh) to JFK where we would all once again blend back into the scenery, become non-descript ordinary citizens once again and get on with our day-to-day businesses. For a brief period of time, we feel like stars and and could escape the mundane routines of our daily lives which may also be one reason why we all continue to do this. Those who can keep their heads on straight make out fine after the spotlight is turned off. Those that continue to think that the sun doesn’t shine until they get up in the morning, eventually wind up in politics or try to become Hollywood entertainers.

The whole trip was an educational experience and conducted in a first-class fashion from our interpreters, to the sightseeing, and the ceremonies. Even the programs for the event, the gifts, the dinners, the meetings and so on were as they should be. To voice our displeasure at the outcome of the bouts, would only cheapen the stature of event. For a first-time promotion with athletes invited to a country that has been virtually closed to the outside world since 1949, would be totally disrespectful. Do the Chinese have their own personal agenda? Probably. Were they using us to further promote their own style of fighting? Definitely. Are they using sport to further the cause of Chinese nationalism and way of life? Of course. Every country does. Some just disguise it better than others. But, no one can deny that it was an experience that our eight man team will never forget.

Finally, these few words of wisdom: two Sominex, (not Melatonex, thank you) work just fine, if you find it difficult to sleep on a plane for a trans-Pacific flight……………