Category: Uncategorized Page 46 of 76

Making heroes out of villains

On June 18, 2012

GEORGE TOWN: Wayward youths and former drug addicts may be involved in violence but a 66-year-old Wing Chun master is helping to instil discipline in such lads, by teaching them the martial art.

Cheong Wai Phoe, who is head of the Opera Cho Gar Wing Chun (Cho Gar Hay Ban Wing Chun), believes that learning the martial art would help youths and former addicts gain employment in security firms or earn a living as bodyguards.

“With martial arts movies making a comeback, there are jobs for martial artists to serve in the choreography department and also as stuntmen,” he said, adding that he is willing to provide free lessons.

The Opera Cho Gar Wing Chun is listed in Wingchunpedia (www.wingchunpedia.org), the online Wing Chun encyclopedia website, as one of the major branches of the Wing Chun martial arts system.

The website also mentions Cheong as the last known living student of Sam Chan, who brought the martial arts to Ipoh from Poon Yu Village in Guangzhou, China, and the oldest living Opera Cho Gar Wing Chun practitioner who is ranked.

Cheong started learning the martial arts with Sam Chan in Ipoh in 1963.

“In the 1970s, there were more people interested in learning martial arts, as kung fu movies were very popular.

“I was interested in martial arts as there was little to do during our spare time.

“But nowadays with computer games, the Internet, and Facebook, the younger generation has lost interest,” he said.

Cheong now has over 20 local students who practise the art at the Prosperity God Temple in Paya Terubong, three to four times a week.

He also has foreign students from the United States, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Thailand and Singapore

Students ‘Awed’ By 65-Year-Old Karate Master

By TSMA

On June 1, 2012

In Uncategorized

Kousaku Yokota, an international karate master who gave a weekend seminar recently at John Turnbull Sensei’s dojo in Southampton, began with judo at the age of 13, a martial art practiced by his father, in his hometown of Kobe, Japan.
“I thought judo was it,” Yokota Sensei said during a conversation at Turnbull Sensei’s house in Bridgehampton the day the seminars were to begin. “But after I’d been practicing a couple of years, a new guy came to my class — a very short guy I could throw easily. But every time I threw him he would jump up like a grasshopper!”
“I thought that was very strange. When you’re thrown in judo you’re not expected to jump up — you slap an arm as you fall to the floor and stay down for a short moment. When I asked him why he popped up like a bouncing ball, he confessed to me that he was a karate guy who was practicing judo to supplement his karate. I had thought that judo was the most lethal form of the martial arts, but he said no, no, that karate was, that he could disable me with a karate move before I could throw him.”
To test that assertion “I grabbed both of his arms so he couldn’t punch me. He smiled and without moving his arms he kicked me in the groin! Not that hard, but enough so that I let his arms go as I crumbled to the ground. In judo it’s just throws. So that got me interested, it convinced me that karate [imported to Japan from Okinawa in the 17th century] was the better way. I stopped judo completely. My dad didn’t like it, but he said, ‘At least it’s a martial art.’ ”
After a year during which he studied the Shotokan style in Kobe and the Gojuryu style in Osaka, about 30 miles away — there are many styles of karate — Yokota Sensei dropped the latter style entirely in favor of the former, which he found to be “more complete.”
His first mentor, he said, had been an imposing 6 foot, 200-pounder, Sugano Sensei, “strong like a bear. . . . We were all afraid of his punch when he summoned us to demonstrate. He pushed us to the limit!”
He had been lucky, he said, inasmuch as he had been able to practice karate throughout his life. “In Japan, most have to quit at 22 when they begin working from 8 in the morning until midnight. There isn’t enough time.”
The 65-year-old eighth-degree black belt, who lives in San Jose, Calif., came to this country in 1966, at the age of 19, graduated from the University of Delaware with a business degree, and became a high tech salesman, which enabled him to teach karate on the side. He’s been teaching for 40 years. “My heart,” he said, “has always been in karate.”
Faithful practice, he said, in answer to a question, furthered self-realization and helped the karateka face down his biggest enemy — himself.
Of course, self-realization hadn’t been uppermost in his mind when he was a teenager, and “looking to be a bad martial artist!”
While Yokota Sensei thinks competitions have become over-emphasized at the expense of the martial art’s ascetic Samurai tradition, he competed frequently in full contact tournaments when he was younger, until his retirement at 37, not long after having held his own as the eldest competitor in the All Japan championships in 1981 and ’82.
At 50, he said, he — a 5th degree black belt at the time — felt that he’d reached a plateau, and underwent two-and-a-half years of Ki (inner force) training in Japan before meeting up again with Tetsuhiko Asai, a 10th degree black belt whose Taiwanese-based style, he said, was well suited to more experienced practitioners.
The Ki training produced mixed results: While he believes that one can internalize and use the universal force that surrounds us, his master’s failure to fell him by pointing a finger — even as he was able to topple countless others in this way — persuaded Yokota Sensei that he could learn no new techniques there.
Asai Sensei, whose method he now teaches throughout the world, had, however, impressed him greatly. “He was in his late 60s and was flexible — his movements were sharp and dynamic. I thought, ‘This is the way I want to look in my 60s and 70s.’ And so — this was in 2003 — I decided to follow his path.”
The effectiveness of Asai Sensei’s style — an admixture of relaxation and explosive power — was abundantly evident during the weekend seminar. Yokota Sensei’s arms were like whips, his fluid movements like those of a jungle cat.
These analogies did not overstate the case, Turnbull Sensei, a 6th degree black belt himself, and one of the highest ranking Shotokan practitioners in the United States, said during a separate conversation. “There were 35 of us who took his seminar, many of us very experienced black belts, and we really were awed by him — by his grace, his speed, his power, and the knowledge he had. He was very inspirational. . . . It was a tremendous honor for us that he came here. He’s one of the top international instructors in the world. He’s published books, videos. . . .”
The director of the World Japanese Karate Association-U.S.A., Turnbull Sensei said, “I’ve been doing karate for 45 years and I’ve never taken a better seminar.”
“When you’re older you do the movements more efficiently,” Yokota Sensei said, when questioned, adding that his 20-year-old son “wastes a lot of energy.”
“The key part is breathing. That’s very important. And daily practice of the forms and stretching.”
“I try to flow like water,” he said, with a smile, when this writer said he’d seen his movements so described in an interview published a year ago.
“Sometimes, at our dojo we flow like molasses,” Turnbull Sensei interjected, with a laugh.
Asked if he was planning to teach “forever,” Yokota Sensei smiled again. He had never, he said, been sick a day in his life.
And to what did he credit that?
“To karate and tea. I drink a lot of tea — green and black, with honey.”

79-year-old-rheumatism-sufferer-gains-martial-arts-black-belt

By TSMA

On May 29, 2012

In Uncategorized

Youcef Bendaoui

A 79-year-old who suffers from rheumatism has achieved a prestigious black belt in a challenging martial art.

Youcef Bendaoui has been awarded a black belt in shorinji kempo – broadly similar to karate with philosophy and self-improvement.

His trainer Stephen Stanway, 29, said Youcef was “active and determined” and had attended 350 of his sessions over five years to achieve the black belt.

These included working towards a philosophy exam on the day, hard technique work, spinning and perfecting body movement and stances.

Algeria-born Youcef, who has also achieved black belts in karate and hapkido and a brown belt in jujitsu, said his success was down to his healthy lifestyle and being well looked-after.

He said: “Every year I had to pass one exam, you don’t get a black belt just like that it takes time and a lot of work

Youcef Bendaoui: The black belt

A 79-year-old who suffers from rheumatism has achieved a prestigious black belt in a challenging martial art.

Youcef Bendaoui has been awarded a black belt in shorinji kempo – broadly similar to karate with philosophy and self-improvement.

His trainer Stephen Stanway, 29, said Youcef was “active and determined” and had attended 350 of his sessions over five years to achieve the black belt.

These included working towards a philosophy exam on the day, hard technique work, spinning and perfecting body movement and stances.

Algeria-born Youcef, who has also achieved black belts in karate and hapkido and a brown belt in jujitsu, said his success was down to his healthy lifestyle and being well looked-after.

He said: “Every year I had to pass one exam, you don’t get a black belt just like that it takes time and a lot of work.

“My legs aren’t as strong as they were but I train twice a week with Steven and I do hapkido once a week.

“Steven is a very good instructor and I have a lot to thank him for.

“I won’t take a break now I’ve got my black belt, I will continue doing it and I am very happy I have passed this exam.

“I have a very good instructor and this keeps me fit. Someone asked me how old I was and I joked ‘over 100’ and they just looked at me. I don’t look too bad at all for my age.

“My good condition is thanks to how I live my life, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I sleep well and I am well looked-after, everybody cares for me very well.”

Mr Stanway, who teaches the martial art in Roath as a hobby, said: “He is a fit and active man and he has proved he has a very good level of skill. He suffers rheumatism in parts of his body but he is active and determined.”

Shorinji Kempo is a system for self-improvement and training, established in Japan in 1947 based on Shaolin kungfu. The training methods are based on the philosophy “spirit and body are not separable” and include religious, foundation, educational, global and intellectual property entities.

Instilling excellence, one student at a time

By TSMA

On May 28, 2012

In Uncategorized

Humble.

This is the word that comes to mind when talking with Central Coast Academy of Taekwondo President and Grand Master Glen Boyer. Executive director of the Paso Robles nonprofit martial arts school, Boyer holds a 7th Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido.

A quiet, simple man by all accounts, one only has to spend an hour at Boyer’s martial arts school to know there is a bit more to this humble man.

“We fell in love with Master Boyer from the very beginning,” Julie Wouters said.

Wouters and her family, husband, Justin and children Evie and Tristan, are all students at CCATKD. “He introduced our family to a whole new world.”

Wouters, a Taekwondo champion, is currently taking a break from training during pregnancy. She said Boyer is very tied in with presidents of various Taekwondo associations and he has introduced her family to most of them.

“We had never done martial arts before and my husband wanted to try it,” Wouters said. “It is something we can all do together as a family, and it is a good workout. It’s a wonderful environment — it’s something that pushes you mentally as well as physically.”

Organizations such as the World Tae Kwon Do Federation in Seoul, Korea, United States Olympic Committee, California Unified Tae Kwon Do Association and CCATKD’s parent organization, the South Western Association of Martial Arts and others too vast to mention also recognize the school and Master Boyer’s commitment to excellence.

In business on the north end of Paso Robles for the past three years, the Central Coast Academy of Taekwondo is recognized as one of the premiere schools of martial art not only in Paso Robles but across California and the entire nation as an outstanding college of martial arts, fitness and health. For the past two years, several CCATKD students have achieved California state championship status.

“Our job, our motto is to develop leaders and cultivate champions,” Boyer said. “It’s so easy to deflate an ego. We don’t want to do that here, we want to build up our students.”

• Medal winners

CCATKD recently competed in two California state Taekwondo tournaments. At the California State Championships North in Danville, Tristan Wouters, the youngest CCATKD competitor at just six years of age, took first place in both forms and fighting. Also bringing home first-place honors in fighting were Jeremy Fields and John Murphy. Instructor PJ Boreham took third in fighting.

Wouters took home two additional first place gold medals at the California State Championships South in Brea in forms and fighting, while Eunice Lim placed second in forms.

“Each of these champions brought great credit upon themselves, their families, our Taekwondo school and instructors, our city of Paso Robles and the county of San Luis Obispo,” Boyer said.

Following these competitions, Tristan Wouters is currently the undisputed Taekwondo Champion in all of California, holding this honor for the second straight year.

Wouters, Fields, Murphy, Boreham and Lim are now eligible to compete at the 2012 U.S. Junior Olympics and U.S. National Championships to be held in Dallas June 27 through July 4. All have been putting in extra hours at the school as they train for the upcoming event.

• Commitment to excellence

According to Boyer, at CCATKD the emphasis has always been placed upon excellence – excellence in personal discipline, physical achievements, academics and in martial art technique and fighting ability. In addition, students are held to standards for a high level of moral and personal attitude and achievement.

“Oftentimes, students who come in here for one reason end up doing different things,” Boyer said. “Their grades improve, B’s become A’s because they learn how to focus, they learn how to concentrate, they learn to stick with a topic. We connect mind, body and spirit. That spills over into school, work, other sports, even surfing — it works for everything. We work on agility and dexterity. It is hand-eye coordination down to its finest.”

Boyer grew up in San Diego, spent six years as an Air Force Military Policeman in Korea and Vandenberg, graduated college and worked as an IT Director before reconnecting with a military buddy who had moved to the Paso Robles area. In addition to Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido, he has also studied boxing and kickboxing, Shaolin Kenpo, Kendo, Judo, Jui-Jitsu, Muay Thai and Escrima, offers instruction in Tae Kwon Do, Hapkido, kickboxing, fitness, health and nutrition.

“This is my full-time gig now,” Boyer said. “I had been doing this just for fun. I got my start as a kid at the old YMCA. I have friends who were on the U.S. Team and were Olympic champions. That’s where I was supposed to go, but I decided to go into the Air Force. It was not in my heart to compete; my heart was to do something for my country.”

PJ Boreham, Andia Lashlee, Jonathan Bluff and Justin Wouters currently assist Boyer in coaching students at the school. Many of the CCATKD students serve or have served in the United States Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force or Coast Guard.

CCATKD boasts success in the area of rehabilitation training and has been called upon to provide rehabilitation for individuals injured in accidents as well. In addition, patients from a variety of medical and clinical treatment programs, as well as individuals needing assistance with weight loss, nutrition alternatives, building confidence and personal self defense are among those who have benefited from the classes and personal attention offered through the school.

• Giving back

With a commitment to giving back to the community, students from CCATKD will present a demonstration in the downtown on June 2 in conjunction with Kids Day in the Park.

CCATKD is also involved with the Adopt-A-Highway program, cleaning up trash along the highway in an effort to make California a bit more beautiful.