Being a martial arts expert is the first foot into the door of stunts in the movie industry. It’s not just about fighting. Stuntman Steven Ito reveals the truth about the stuntman business and its relation to fighting arts.
Category Archive: Featured Stories
George was a pioneer of martial arts who was unparalleled in his skills and devotion. His roots date back to the 50ies when he started training self defense based on JuJutsu, a European version of Jiu Jitsu. Driven by curiosity he observed US-American soldiers stationed in occupied West Germany training Taekwondo and Karate. He started learning this new, modern way of Oriental combat. One of the best known American instructors was Mike Anderson. George heard about Anderson’s exceptional skills and traveled to Garmisch Partenkirchen – around 700 Km south of West Berlin – every weekend to learn the art of Taekwondo. Both became friends and partners who were instrumental in changing the landscape of martial arts in Europe.
A few years back I asked my friend John Corcoran to research and write an article about the early history of Sport Karate in America. An article describing how Americans adopted traditional Asian martial arts like Karate, Tae Kwon Do or Hap Ki Do and turned them in to a competitive fighting sport, first known as: Sport Karate. This later became known as Fullcontact fighting and kickboxing as we know it today. John, who is one of the best martial arts editors and historians I know, wrote an outstanding piece of paper about this and I am happy to have found the original English language copy to post below. This is the first of 2 parts.
Men don’t fight with women, but what about if the guy has no choice and gets attacked by a martial arts champion without mercy? That is what is going to happen in a new movie recently filmed in Thailand: “White Tiger”. Don Wilson aka “the Dragon” and Cynthia Rothrock “Dragon Lady” will be crossing kicks and punches for the first time in a movie. Previously they played side-on-side in “Sci Fighter” aka “X-Treme Fighter”, but this time it’s their first real fight on screen. It’s doing to be a deadly fight and one of them will die.
Sad news: Joe Lewis passed on August 31st, 2012 after suffering from cancer. May he rest in peace. We keep you in our hearts, Joe!
It was in 2000 when I first had the opportunity to meet up with Joe Lewis, the person who became known as the first American Sport Karate Champion, first professional heavyweight World Champion and as a teacher. He is one of the most advanced instructors for self defense and combat principles that are developed to be scaled up for different demands and not just one occasion. Joe Lewis has been a mentor and idol for many martial artists. Some have had the chance to study with him over many years and call him their master while others have just met him on one or two occasions. Yet, both sort of encounters with Joe Lewis have spurred positive developments for martial artists from all over the world.