After doing the third Shaolin Temple film, Jet Li thought about quitting movies, yet a project came along that inspired him to continue, a film that cemented his name in Chinese kung fu flick history while portraying China’s all-time favorite cinematic and real-life hero. Here is Part 2/2 of Jet Li Kung Fu Roles. In 1991, the father of fant-Asia films Tsui Hark cast Jet Li as folk hero Huang Fei-hong in Once Upon a Time in China, the movie in which Li broke his leg and from then on welcomed the use of stunt doubles. Although the franchise had five sequels, Li starred in only three: Once Upon a Time in China II (1992), Once Upon a Time in China III (1993) and the final instalment Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997). Jet Li played a more comedic version of Huang Fei-hong in The Last Hero of China (1993). All the Huang films were set in the late 19th century near the end of the Ching dynasty. Huang battles foreign forces in Once Upon a Time in China , fights a foreigner killing cult and protects Sun Yat-sen in Once Upon a Time in China II , tackles marriage, assassins and lion-dance matches in Once Upon a Time in China III and faces Native Americans, racism and Chinese mobsters in Once Upon a Time in China and America. “In the ’50s and ’60s, Huang reflected the people of that era,” Jet Li told me. “Back in Huang’s day and in the Once Upon a Time in China films, when China opened its doors to Western culture, people learned things, good or bad. My Huang character focused on learning something good from the Westerners while keeping the good from our culture. Historically, the Huang films represented the generations of Chinese at the time they were made. For me, Huang reflected on who I was when the films were made: a man battling to understand his own culture and open himself up to the West.” Born in 1847 in Canton, China, Huang was the true reflection of the Confucian code. As a child, he was a martial arts street performer and later became a martial arts instructor for Gen. Li Fu-ling’s 5th Regiment of the Cantonese army and the Cantonese Civilian Militia. Apart from his phenomenal hong chia kung fu, fei tuo and iron-wire skills, Huang was renowned for his chivalry, righteousness and devotion to running his father’s Chinese-herb clinic, where he gained fame for his bone-setting abilities. Huang was also Canton’s top lion dancer (nicknamed Lion King) and renowned for his “no-shadow kick” that was made famous by Tsui’s films. In them, Jet Li would fly sideways through the air, kicking his legs as if riding a bicycle. It became known as the “Hong Kong kick” in Hollywood. Nobody knows what the no-shadow kick looked like because it was supposedly so fast that it didn’t leave a shadow. Later in life, he married Muo Gui-lan, a teenage bride who was betrothed to him during his golden years in return for his saving her father’s life. However, deeply saddened by the destruction of Bao Zhi Lin during the Republican Revolution, Huang began to weaken and died at age 77 in 1924. “People’s lives are like films,” Jet Li told me. “You play your character in real life, and film puts your whole life into a short time. Each film has a different story and life, and you become that person for a few months, and after that, you become another person. In real life, you learn to love, deal with people, learn different languages and cultures. In film, you learn things you may never do — cop or ancient hero — but they all have a part in your life, and together it makes you grow as one.” Next stop, 1910. The Manchus are falling, the Republic of China is rising and Japanese imperialists are everywhere. This is the setting for the Ronny Yu-directed Fearless (2006), in which Jet Li plays the legendary Huo Yuan-jia, a man who was called to defend China’s honor when the nation’s morale hit an all-time low. “Fearless is less a story about Huo the man than an expression of his spiritual path,” Li said. “Much of the movie’s plot is fiction, although the setting and time periods are factual. Our aim was to tell a convincing story where Huo is portrayed as human and not a god. In 2003, I learned that 280,000 people in China committed suicide every year. I hoped the film might encourage those who lost faith in life to be strong again. “In the film, Huo’s attitudes toward life, the world and martial arts are like mine. He died at 42. I made the film at 42. I tried to reflect the philosophy of people my age in the movie. Message: Live your life positively.” In Fearless, Huo dreams of continuing the legacy his father established as a world-class fighter. After reaching his goal, a personal tragedy causes him to disappear for several years — until September 14, 1910. On that day, Huo resurfaces to defend the honor of China at an international fighting tournament. It happens at a time when Chinese morale is plummeting. Because of the one-on-one battles, the country’s pride soars, and Huo becomes a symbol for Chinese nationalism, a man regarded with reverence. Born with jaundice in 1868, Huo was forbidden by his father from learning kung fu, but for 10 years, he secretly watched his father teaching others. Huo mastered the mi zong style and earned his reputation by battling a bandit who led a 1,600-man army. He also used his mental prowess to defeat a Russian wrestler and a British boxer — without lifting a fist. When Huo established the Chin Woo Physical Training School in 1909, his tenet was that students should practice kung fu to strengthen their mind and body while perfecting their spirituality. As Huo’s jaundice worsened, he sought treatment from a Japanese doctor who told local Japanese judo schools about Huo’s abilities. That led to a fight with Shanghai’s top Japanese judoka. Because of his declining health, Huo sent his top student Liu Chen Zhen to fight the judoka — and he won. Shamed by defeat, 10 Japanese fighters attacked Huo, and Huo broke all of their hands. It’s believed that to avenge the Japanese losses, the doctor poisoned Huo. Which brings us to… Based on another aspect of China’s history, Li’s final hero film Fist of Legend (1994) was made. It came along 20 years after Bruce Lee portrayed Liu and thus inspired Jet Li to become an actor. Fist of Legend was Jet Li’s homage to Bruce Lee’s Liu. Set in 1914 after Huo’s death, the movie has Liu Chen Zhen returning from Japan to Shanghai to fight the Japanese martial artist who, according to the film, killed Huo during a duel. Jet Li’s Liu is cast in a different light, and his nod to Bruce Lee’s fighting style occurs during the finale when Jet Li awkwardly bounces around like a Western boxer. “It wasn’t real boxing, and you can tell I wasn’t used to it,” Jet Li said. “Although it doesn’t look good on film, we needed the stylized punching. People can boast that their martial art is the best, but everything is not the best. So I have that character learn karate [and] boxing and put all those good things together into the character’s own style. Isn’t that what Bruce Lee did with his martial art?” After Bruce Lee passed away, many actors started mimicking his moves and his looks. Jet Li, on the other hand, tried to avoid the comparison, even going as far as changing the romanization of his surname from Lee to Li. So why did he choose to do a film based on a character made famous by Bruce Lee? “In Bruce’s version, the topic was narrow and focused on one point of view: The Japanese were all evil and unsympathetic villains. When Japan invaded China, I’m sure many Japanese opposed the invasion, the expansionist policies and the atrocities of their armies — just as all Chinese were not good. In Fist of Legend, I wanted a wider array of Japanese characters to show they weren’t bad. Plus, it’s a story about love between a Chinese man and a Japanese woman. Love is something that doesn’t have any national nor racial boundaries. I thought the movie made a good point of this crucial lesson that is much too often overlooked.” Regarding playing real-life Chinese kung fu heroes, Jet Li said, “We try to create them and end up putting our philosophy into them the way that we think. This way, we can get to know them so we can make the character seem more real and work. My films about the old heroes of China represent that younger generation of Chinese. I don’t think my characters did that in real life. We create them, and by doing that, we can learn something through them.”

The COVID-19 pandemic saw people around the world searching for advice on how to practice martial arts in the comfort of their own home, far away from germs. While the world appears to be moving on from the pandemic, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still train at home. The truth is, the best type of fitness is one you could hypothetically do in a prison cell. The beauty of the striking arts is that without any equipment or partner, you can still practice your skills. In this post, I will present a workout routine I developed for my students so they could train at home during the first lockdown here in the United Kingdom. But first, we need to talk about discipline. When you start training at home, you’ll find that it’s easy to be motivated for the day, or maybe even for the week, but as time marches on and life gets in the way, your mind can stray. This is normal, and I too suffer from it even after a decade of training. So how do you avoid it? Start a Martial Arts Training Habit Find a time that you can reasonably do every day and set it. Go about your day, but the second that alarm goes off, stop whatever you’re doing short of a legitimate emergency and spend the next 45 minutes training. Do this every day. Any day missed is a day that could break the habit and set you back for weeks. The more time you spend training, day in and day out, the easier it will be. With that said, let’s begin. I will go over each portion of the program, then finish with the overall schedules. This routine features technique training six times a week, physical fitness four times a week, flexibility twice a week, and on a Sunday a rest-and-rehab session to aid recovery. Solo Training Routine: Fitness This section is based on building strength and conditioning geared specifically to martial arts. All work is done via bodyweight exercises, and the only piece of equipment necessary is a pull-up bar. If you aren’t able to hang a pull-up bar, you can substitute by doing resistance-band exercises. Remember that eventually you need to reach a point where you can leave this basic routine behind and work with a professional coach in your area who can give you a routine tailor-made to you, but sticking to this plan for six months will have a great benefit on your overall fitness, especially for martial arts. Warm-up, Part 1: Skipping Rope or Star Jumps Beginner: 3 rounds of 1 minute (1-minute rest) Intermediate: 3 rounds of 2 minutes (1-minute rest) Advanced: 3 rounds of 3 minutes (1-minute rest) Warm-up, Part 2: Dynamic Stretching For the sake of ease, you will use five basic wushu kicks. It doesn’t matter if you don’t practice kung fu; these are the easiest ways to gain dynamic flexibility. Front kick: 2 sets of 10 (alternating sides) Side kick: 2 sets of 10 (alternating sides) Outside crescent kick: 2 sets of 10 (alternating sides) Inside crescent kick: 2 sets of 10 (alternating sides) Flick kick: 2 sets of 10 (alternating sides) Push-ups (Monday and Thursday) Beginner: 3 sets of 10 reps (1-minute rest) Intermediate: 3 sets of 15 reps (1-minute rest) Advanced: 3 sets of 25 reps (1-minute rest) Can’t do one push-up? Attempt 3 sets of 15 kneeling push-ups. If you can’t manage that, drop the number of reps. Pull-ups (Tuesday and Friday) Beginner: 10 sets of 1 rep (1-minute rest) Intermediate: 3 sets of 5 reps (1-minute rest) Advanced: 3 sets of 10 reps (2-minute rest) Can’t do one pull-up? Try 10 sets of 1 negative pull-up, in which you jump up to the bar and slowly lower yourself. If you can do only one of these, that’s something to work with. Try to do one more the next day. Squats (Monday and Thursday) Beginner: 3 sets of 15 reps (1-minute rest) Intermediate: 3 sets of 25 reps (1-minute rest) Advanced: 4 sets of 25 reps (1-minute rest) Can’t do one squat? Find a table or other high surface. Put your hands on it, then lower yourself into the squat using the object to take some of the weight off. Try 3 sets of 20. Solo Training Routine: Technique This is a standard routine you can do every day, anywhere. It assumes you’re doing some form of kickboxing, be it muay Thai, sanda, etc. If you are in a martial art like karate or kung fu, you can still do all this alongside any forms training. Round 1: Footwork (4 minutes) Footwork is the basis of everything you do in any martial art or sport (except for pool and snooker, I guess). Do not neglect the first five minutes of this routine as it will help everything else fall into place. Half-steps forward, backward, left and right (1 minute) — Lead with the correct foot, lengthen your stance, then return to your basic start without bringing your rear foot to follow it. Full-steps forward, backward, left and right (1 minute) — Take full basic steps, ensuring your feet do not cross and your stance stays balanced. Forward step followed by a pivot, rear step followed by a pivot (1 minute) — This is to practice evasive action. Shadowboxing (footwork only) — Move freely around your space, ensuring that you are circling, pivoting, advancing and retreating with proper balance. Rest for 2 minutes. Round 2: Jab + Straight Kicks (3 minutes) For one round, work exclusively on technique for your jabs and front kicks, be they snap kicks or teeps. These are the rangefinders and range maintainers, so they are essential for anyone practicing martial arts. Ensure that your jab is performed without a flaring elbow. You can practice this by standing with your jabbing side to a wall. Also ensure that the front kick is done without pulling you off-balance. Lean back slightly to bring your hips forward to keep the weight shift strong. Round 3: All Punches + Straight Kicks (3 minutes) You are now allowed to use all punches at your disposal. Make sure that as you throw a left hook, your weight comes to your right foot by the time the punch ends, and vice versa for the right hook. When uppercutting, make sure your uppercut comes out like a rear straight with an upturned fist, having a moderate bend in the arm. This ensures that you’re training to strike an opponent who is a distance away from you. It’s easy to get into the habit of uppercutting straight up, where no opponent will ever be. Round 4: Full Kickboxing (3 minutes) You can now throw all kicks. Try to improve your kicking technique and balance by chaining multiple types of kicks off the same leg — for example, a left round kick followed by a left side kick. The better you are at doing multiple kicks off the same leg, the better dexterity and control you will have. Round 5: All Legal Techniques (3 minutes) Now it’s time for free-form shadowboxing. Use everything your martial art teaches. Just make sure to work on your defensive techniques, too. Round 6: Punching Burnout (3 minutes) Fill three minutes with as many punches and kicks as possible. Keep a record of how many full reps you achieve and try to beat your previous best each time you train. Round 7: Kicking Burnout (3 minutes) For the final round, spend 90 seconds throwing as many kicks as fast as you can. When you tire or run out of time, immediately switch to the other leg. Having proper bounce-kick technique from muay Thai can be helpful here. Cool Down Finally, cool down with light stretching of the lower back and legs. Start with your feet shoulder-width apart and gradually move them farther apart before reaching down on either side to stretch them completely. Don’t attempt to go for extreme splits unless you already are able to do so or unless you have a specific routine for achieving the splits that is already planned out. Finish by alternating between the horse stance, bow stance and crouching stance while practicing deep, controlled breathing. Then after 5 minutes of gentle cooldown, you are done for the day. The Schedule Monday — fitness portion, technique portion Tuesday — fitness portion, technique portion Wednesday — warm-up (from the fitness portion), technique portion Thursday — fitness portion, technique portion Friday — fitness portion, technique portion Saturday — warm-up (from the fitness portion), technique portion Sunday — rest

by Lito Angeles Photo by Rick Hustead Let’s begin with a quick review of the scenario I described in the June/July 2022 issue: You’re coming out of a restaurant when a stranger bumps into you. He starts getting hostile and threatens you with bodily harm. You employ the fence stance (April/May 2022 Black Belt) and attempt to de-escalate by apologizing — and not AACTing, which stands for antagonizing, arguing, challenging or threatening. As you convey your apology, you create a space of at least 3 to 4 feet by stepping back and moving to the right or left of center. All the while, you watch for body language that indicates he intends to launch a surprise attack. When you angularly step back — with your innocuous fence stance serving as a barrier, tactile sensor, range gauge and action trigger — you’ll immediately know his intentions because he’ll stay put if he doesn’t want to attack or close the gap if he’s planning an ambush. If he closes the gap to get back in the 1- to 2-foot zone, you should angularly step back again, this time commanding him to remain where he is. This will be enough to dissuade the average assailant, especially if he’s a “woofer,” or someone who’s all bark and no bite. You’ll end the situation with no blows thrown. However, let’s say he’s not deterred and opts to close the distance again while continuing with the hostility. Maybe he slaps your hand away. At this point, you’ve already apologized and backed off repeatedly. You never antagonized, argued, challenged or threatened him. You did your best to maintain a safe distance. He’s encroached on your personal space not once, not twice but three times, blowing off your apology and continuing to threaten you. At this close range, action is faster than reaction. When he does attack — and he will any second — you won’t know which limb or which side he’ll use or what technique he’ll throw. Moreover, when you’re in the 1- to 2-foot danger zone, it’s practically impossible to block or evade any surprise attack. Yes, you can make assumptions like he’ll probably use his right hand and throw a haymaker to your head, but you won’t know until he does it. Do you really want to bank on those assumptions? I wouldn’t. Even worse, you’ll know nothing about your adversary’s skill and experience levels. You also won’t know if he’s armed. Is it prudent to wait to be attacked before physically defending yourself? I hope your answer is no. In such a scenario, you would be morally and legally justified to physically defend yourself with the primary tactic of proactive self-defense, which happens to be the tactic bad guys use on their victims: the preemptive attack. This is, bar none, the best unarmed tactic you can use for proactive self-defense. There is nothing more effective and efficient. There are various ways to employ it, but the best way is with a single pre-emptive power strike that imparts maximum blunt-force impact to the head. Driving this point home, when your adversary has clearly shown that he’s an imminent threat at a distance where he can get the drop on you, you must beat him to it and unleash the most powerful shot in your arsenal. By now, it should be clear that you don’t need to wait to be attacked. If you do and he knows what he’s doing, he’ll take you out in a flash. Once you’ve grasped the folly of waiting to be attacked first, how should you pre-emptively strike when it’s go time? Based on my experiences, observations and insights from a law-enforcement and civilian perspective, the most potent strike is a boxing-based hook with a fist or, as I prefer, with a palm. Optimally, you should target the side of the jaw, but the side of the head in general is also an excellent choice if you use your palm. Why the palm hook and why the jaw? The palm is a structurally superior and adaptable striking tool that involves the lowest risk of fracturing a bone or lacerating the skin, especially when compared to the fist. And the side of the jaw has been proved to be the best target for rendering a person unconscious. As a reassuring backup to that (in case you miss), the entire side of the head is a potent knockout target when using the palm. As for the hook, no punch is more potent and efficient for rendering an adversary unconscious. It’s one and done. I will elaborate on this in future columns, and I will address the most effective and most overrated empty-hand techniques — and the best and worst targets. To reiterate, the most efficient way to neutralize a close-range threat is to render your adversary unconscious or semiconscious through blunt-force trauma to the head. That said, some might consider this barbaric and believe a more humane tactic such as a body shot or joint lock will suffice. I acknowledge that in certain cases, a head shot that causes a knockout may be inappropriate because the possibility of a person fatally injuring himself from the secondary impact with the ground is always there. However, experience and observations have revealed to me that for the most part and for most people, body shots and joint locks are worthless in serious situations. And no matter if the volatile situation you’re in is ego-based or criminal-based, your adversary can kill you. The most reliable target to attack when you’re in a dire situation such as this is the head. The reality is that if you have to respond to a serious imminent threat with physical violence, you should always regard it as a potential life-and-death situation for all people involved — because it is. Along these lines, you should maintain a perspective that says while you could unintentionally kill an adversary, that adversary could do the same to you and any loved ones who happen to be with you. It goes without saying that there are other considerations such as the possibility of being arrested and imprisoned, but it’s the immediate threat to life and limb that justifies your last-resort response. You must have exhausted all other options or deemed them unviable because whether you are the victor or the victim, the consequences are often life altering in a negative way. Lito Angeles is Black Belt’s 2022 Self-Defense Instructor of the Year. This article originally appeared in a 2022 edition of Black Belt Magazine.

Over the past decade, regardless of all the technological breakthroughs in modern medicine, the leech has been reborn as a lifesaver for those undergoing skin grafts, reconstructive plastic surgery and limb-reattachment operations due to cancer and other traumatic experiences. The surname Leitch dates back to the Middle Ages with Anglo-Saxon/Scottish origins regarding folks who were important doctors who saved clan members’ lives and searched for new ways to heal. After interviewing David Leitch, a director whose films have made $1.73 billion, about his first four movies and his forthcoming film that’s approaching faster than a squirrel on a Bullet Train, I discovered that he’s an action filmmaker who’s not only a legitimate martial artist but also a professional with a surgical approach to fight choreography and fight directing that is consistently groundbreaking. Audiences become so engaged in his film fights that you’d think everybody was getting married. Here is an article about how Film Director David Leitch got influenced by Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. With mental stamina and philosophical prowess, David Leitch absorbs new technology that is useful, discards the useless howls and yowls of copycat combative complacency, and injects a distinct flair into his fights to make them his own. Martial artists may recognize the foundation of Leitch’s approach to life, martial arts and filmmaking as similar to Bruce Lee’s tenet to continually research your own experience to refine the expression of yourself. Yet in the often harsh and cruel cinematic landscape, Leitch has remained grounded in his roots and from whence he came; he’s a Midwestern Sconnie lad. Halfway between Milwaukee and Green Bay, Wisconsin, four miles from Lake Michigan, Leitch was born in 1975 in the small town of Kohler (population around 2,000). It’s also where he began wrestling in second grade — and wrestled all the way through high school and into college for a year. Leitch said the first martial arts film that impacted his life was Enter the Dragon (1973). “Bruce Lee was by far one of the most influential martial artists that exposed me to martial arts,” he shared. “I’m a child of the ’70s and ’80s. He made me want to study jeet kune do and inspired me to search for and find Dan Inosanto. That was about 1984 [or] ’85. It was a really big film for me as a kid. When I wrestled in high school, I remember playing scenes from the film to get me psyched up for matches.” Yet Leitch’s fondness for martial arts films bloomed from a most peculiar and surprisingly important part of American pop culture. “Some local stations on Saturday night aired Kung Fu Theater,” he said. “I loved all the Shaw Brothers movies. Some of my close high-school friends and I would hunker up at one person’s house, and we’d stay up to two or three in the morning watching kung fu films on Channel 18.” I couldn’t help but mention that dubbing those kung fu films into English was my first job in Taiwan in 1979. After reciting several lines in different voices from a film I dubbed, with a snicker Leitch commented, “That’s funny.” Since there were no martial arts schools in Kohler, Leitch came up with a neat and sweet plan. “I was obsessed with martial arts, would buy Black Belt magazine and Inside Kung Fu, and would order books from the back ads like James Lew’s The Art of Kicking and Stretching and Jeff Imada’s The Balisong Manuel. I’ve worked with James in martial arts movies, and Jeff is one of my mentors in stunts and we have a 25-year friendship. I was pretty crazy as a kid, buying all these books, hanging a heavy bag in my garage and using PVC pipes to make a wooden dummy.” The drive to learn martial arts continued, and when Leitch found himself enrolled at the University of Minnesota, he discovered a Dan Inosanto affiliate school in Minneapolis. That wound up being where he met his first formal martial arts teacher Rick Faye, an instructor under Inosanto. “I dove into JKD and trained in everything else offered at the school — kali, escrima, savate, judo and Thai boxing,” he said. “I scheduled my classes for the morning at the university and then trained at the dojo from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. every day for four years. During the summer, I’d go to Los Angeles — a sort of pilgrimage — to work out at Danny Inosanto’s academy.” This became one of the most critical junctures in American martial arts movie evolution: the moment when Leitch met his future cinematic fighting brother — where, perhaps in a metaphysical realm, one might argue that they are fraternal twins united by fate for a destined purpose. It’s the sort of thing where seemingly unrelated items, people or sports teams share a powerful emotional bond, and the mind accepts that, on a spiritual level, something in their DNA is responsible for these life changes and newfound realizations. “That’s when I met Chad Stahelski,” Leitch said. “Chad was one of the premier students at the Inosanto Academy. He was already an uke for Dan. We became good friends, [were the] same age, had the same training ambitions and trained our asses off.” Just like if you keep your fingers crossed it’s difficult to type, I’ve also learned that training your arse off makes it harder to sit down, which is a good thing during training. “One summer when I went out there, he was working on a movie and said, ‘Yeah, you can use your martial arts in a movie,’ and I was like, ‘You can?’” Leitch continued. “At the time, I was starting to think that I was going to have a school and teach martial arts, yet I was still in that athletic phase of my life. So I thought, I get to use all these moves that really have no purpose? (laughs) This was amazing. It didn’t take me long after college — one year — when I moved out to L.A. with hopes of being a stuntman and a martial arts choreographer.” Which brings up another one of the most influential and inspirational individuals in Leitch’s career: Jackie Chan. After his name was mentioned, Leitch’s voice changed. He became as giddy as a schoolboy and spoke with great reverence, a few times becoming tongue-tied. I know this feeling well. In 1993, I spent about 20 hours in one go on the set of Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master II, watching him do the fight choreography during the finale involving Chan and his real-life bodyguard Ken Lo. Chan detailed how he did his fight scenes, why things were done the way he did them and what pushed him to his limit, then showed edited footage of the previous day’s shoot and taught me many fighting tips of the trade. (When I sang Cantonese opera to him, Chan freaked out and joked, “If you ever do that again, I’ll kick you off my set.” It was a fun and exhausting night/day.) With an enamored lilt in his voice, Leitch gathered himself and continued: “It’s kind of hard and indescribable to me how much he influenced my career. When Chad and I created 87Eleven (their action-design company) during my formidable years, we watched hours and hours and hours of looped Jackie action scenes where Chad and I had two VCRs hooked up together and we edited all of Jackie’s action and choreography into endless three-hour loops. “Looking up to him — from being a stunt performer to a choreographer, an action designer to a person in front of the camera to a director/producer mogul — there is nobody in the action space, in my opinion, that’s done it better. “His ability to study from the masters — Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd — and come from that to make it his own is unbelievable. His capacity to make empathetic characters that are super-relatable pushes against the classic uber-masculine Western trope ‘I’m invincible.’ None of Jackie’s characters are invincible; they’re all vulnerable. He’s the only action star that did that until Die Hard. You can see how much Jackie influenced cinema that way. “I’m not disparaging great marital artists, yet while [Jean-Claude] Van Damme and [Steven] Seagal were going in one direction, Jackie was going in the opposite direction with his characters. When I look at Jackie’s characters, these are characters I care about, and I want that in my films. They’re way more relatable, vulnerable, emotional. I also appreciate him as a comedian, physical comedian and storyteller. I could go on and on and on about Jackie.” In Part 2, David Leitch shares which Jackie Chan fight is his personal favorite, how Bullet Train is an homage to Chan and information about a huge project that’s never been done before. Let’s just say … imagine if one does cartoon action like Chan and Leitch, you can improve it by fine-tooning the equipment.

Separately, the characters have their own meanings, though. Kung means “achievement,” and fu means “husband.” Maybe this derived from the fact that the husband in ancient times had to work hard to support his family. Another interpretation for kung fu can be “workmanship” or “skill gained through committed effort.” A martial art is definitely a skill gained through committed effort. If you work hard to improve your skill, eventually you might become a sifu, a term most Westerners associate with being a kung fu master. But actually, a sifu can be any skilled worker, including a driver or a handyman. The irony for those who speak Chinese and who watched the Karate Kid remake with Jaden Smith is that Jackie Chan was both a handyman and a martial arts master, both of which can be a sifu. Having graduated from Shanghai University of Sport and having a background in linguistics, I’m fascinated by the correlation between language and martial arts. The professors in the Wushu Institute at the university were often sifu who combined academic research with ancient kung fu philosophies. Whether at the institute, at Shaolin or at my traditional wrestling school in Beijing, I noticed that the old sifu often spoke in chengyu, a term that refers to idiomatic expressions composed of groups of four Chinese characters, each representing complex meanings that usually had to be explained. Hearing the old teachers speak in this manner was like something out of kung fu cinema. They weren’t just talking; they were imparting knowledge, and there was real wisdom in what they said. The explanations contained within their chengyu were like parables. Often they made no sense at all, but if the recipient was patient, the meaning would be revealed. Each one followed a similar pattern. To illustrate, I’ll use a real-life example. One of my sifu enunciated four characters: “Wen ji qi wu.”In Chinese, characters compose words, but each one is not necessarily a complete word on its own. Those particular characters translated to “Smell the chicken and dance,” which wasn’t very enlightening. So after saying them, the sifu had to explain which word each character represented. Wen, he said, means “to smell” in traditional Chinese, but in this case, he was using the older meaning of “to listen.” This was another aspect of chengyu that made it difficult to comprehend: Many of the meanings of the characters were not used anymore. The next character he explained was ji, as in gongji, or rooster, a deep wisdom in martial arts The third character was qi, as in qichuang, which means “to get out of bed.”Finally came wu, which is part of wujian, or “to do the sword dance” or engage in sword practice. For the final part of the lesson, he told us how the characters fit together to create the idiom. In this case, it resulted in “Practice the sword when the roosters crow.” Then he went on to explain the relevance. You should get up early in the morning and begin training at the break of dawn. It seemed like the older and wiser a sifu was, the more chengyu he or she used. Consequently, speeches and discussions often became nothing more than a chengyu, followed by an explanation, followed by the next chengyu and so on.A university professor I met at the wrestling school was a former grappler and current sifu. Being an educated man and a sifu, his speech was 90-percent chengyu. One day, he said, “Tian xia wu di,” immediately followed by “Did you understand?” Before I could answer, he said, “No? OK, I will explain.“ Tian is ‘sky’ or ‘heaven.’ Xia is ‘under.’ Wu is ‘without.’ And di is from diren, or ‘enemy.’ So if you are under the sky with no enemy, there is no one who can beat you. Therefore, you are wudi, or invincible. ”Now you can see why I viewed the years I spent in China as rigorous training but the time I spent listening to chengyu as ho-holds-barred fighting. After a full day of wrestling and san da, as well as academic lessons, chengyu sometimes made my head split.At the sports university one day — after we’d practiced throws, ground fighting and submissions — our teacher shared a chengyu with us. Strangely, I understood the meaning before he explained it and I just loved it. He said, “The essence of fighting is ti da shuai na.”Then he elaborated: “Ti is from ti tui, which means ‘kicking.’ Da is from daquan, which means ‘punching.’ Shuai is from shuai jiao, which means ‘wrestling.’ And na is from qin na, which means ‘grabbing and joint locking.’” Clearly, even hundreds or perhaps thousands of years ago, Chinese masters knew about MMA. After practice, I had to attend a wushu lecture. Although I was no longer surprised when my professors — particularly the martial arts professors — spoke in chengyu, it was still tedious to listen sometimes. This teacher said, “Ideal fighting includes coordination of the internal and the external. Does anyone know what that means?” As it was a rhetorical question, no one answered. Nevertheless, he waited a second or two, gave a sly smile to show how stupid we were and then explained: “Coordination of the external and internal is shou yan shen fa, bu qi li gong.”He gave that a moment to sink in, then continued. “Shou is from shoufa (hand techniques). Yan is from yanjing (eyes). Shen is from shenti (body). Fa is from fangfa (method). Bu is ‘not.’ Qi is from qixi (breath). Li is from liliang (power). And gong is from gong fu (kung fu).” We got the message. Nevertheless, the teacher went on to explain each element separately. And in the course of those explanations, there were new chengyu and more rhetorical questions — followed by more explanations. In the end, he said that coordinating the internal and the external in martial arts meant coordinating hand techniques, eyes, body, breath and method. If we don’t breathe properly, we’ll have no power. You can see that the explanation of a single chengyu can take time because each character represents a word, each word represents a concept and each concept has multiple components that might represent something else entirely. Next, the professor said, “Shoufa is da la na hu. Da is hitting or punching. La is pulling. Na is joint locking. And hu is breathing. Therefore, hand techniques include striking, pulling and grappling — but we also have to breathe properly.” One of the monks at Shaolin Temple once told a group of students, “Fei yan zou bi.” Literally, it means “fly eaves go wall.” After he explained, I learned that it really meant “to jump onto the roof and over the wall.” In other words, we should be light on our feet, able to leap and move while fighting. The final chengyu I’ll mention here is the one I had to remember throughout my studies and my training in China, and I treasure it to this day. It translates to “Diligent study, bitter practice.” We have to study diligently, and we must practice hard. We’ll experience discomfort and suffering — that’s the “bitter” — but we’ll be happy with the results.

Devin Gibson vs. Tyler Randall headlines at River Cree Resort and Casino Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) make their highly anticipated debut in Canada with the BKFC Prospect Series on Saturday, March 2, 2024   at the River Cree Resort and Casino in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.   “BKFC has a wealth of fans in Canada and we’re honored to promote our first event in the country on March 2 in Edmonton,” said David Feldman, President and Founder of BKFC. “Our BKFC Prospect Series has been a tremendous hit with recent events in Florida and the United Kingdom and we expect another outstanding evening of bare-knuckle fights on March 2.” Canada is the sixth country BKFC has promoted an international event joining the United States, Mexico, Thailand, England and Bulgaria.   BKFC Prospect Series on March 2 is headlined by a flyweight clash between Devin ‘The Canadian Assassin’ Gibson, (2-1), of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada and #2 Ranked Tyler Randall, (2-2), of Cape Coral, Florida.   The 29-year-old all-action Gibson looks towards re-entering the win column following a hotly contested battle with Albert Inclan at BKFC-35 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Also 29, Randall seeks an earned world title opportunity returning to the squared circle after a split decision loss to Chancey Wilson on April 21, 2023 at BKFC-38.   Tickets for the BKFC Prospect Series are Now On-Sale  at BKFC.com . The River Cree Resort and Casino is located at 300 Lapotac Blvd., Enoch, Alberta T7X 3Y3. For more information visit their website at River Cree Resort.   The BKFC Prospect Series will also be broadcast internationally as part of the BKFC+ Subscription for $7.99 per month on the BKFC App – The Best Value in Combat Sports  and is sponsored by Bucked Up, Grunt Style, Fubo Sports, MIT 45, Only Fans and Crescent Tools. Additionally, the event will be broadcast on Fubo Sports free of charge.   Additional fights for this BKFC Prospect Series event will be announced shortly.

Jhoon Rhee is featured on the 1970 issue of Black Belt Magazine with his signature side kick. The feature showcased the future "Father of American Tae Kwon Do." His legacy endures through the decades with countless students, champions and stars he instructed like Jeff Smith, Bruce Lee and Muhamad Ali. His accomplishments also include the schools he established, advancements in safety equipment and the influence he exerted in fostering a deep appreciation for Tae Kwon Do as a martial art and way of life in the United States. Read more about this cover and get access to all past issues of Black Belt Magazine here!

Anatoly Malykhin is not done chasing history at ONE 166. On Thursday, ONE Championship announced the ONE Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight World Champion will go for three-division gold against a familiar foe at ONE 166 on Friday, March 1. Malykhin will try to dethrone ONE Middleweight MMA World Champion Reinier De Ridder in Qatar to become the sport's first-ever three-division king. Malykhin has plenty of reasons to be confident for this rematch. When the two first met at ONE Fight Night 5, the Russian decimated "The Dutch Knight" to claim the light heavyweight crown. His strength and power proved to be too much. But he will need to make the middleweight limit, which will add a layer of intrigue to how he acclimates to the lower weight division. He enters De Ridder's most dangerous weight division to try and topple the talented Dutchman in one of the year's biggest events. De Ridder will also be motivated to redeem himself against "Sladkiy" after their previous encounter. "The Dutch Knight" was unbeaten when he ran up against the heavyweight king and could never employ his gameplan in their meeting. De Ridder will try to utilize his length and incredible grappling to get the win back and retain the gold. The ONE Middleweight MMA World Championship bout will headline an incredible card that will also feature ONE Straw weight MMA World Champion Jarred Brooks vs. Joshua Pacio and much more. ONE 166: Qatar airs live on Friday, March 1, from the Lusail Sports Arena. More bouts will be added in the weeks to come.

Few would think that working on their vertical-jump height could improve their martial arts, but it can. Although martial arts training does not primarily depend on the vertical jump, improving it will develop strength, speed, power and explosiveness in kicking, punching, hopping and skipping — all of which are needed for agility in martial arts. Anytime you improve power or augment the rate of force absorption in your muscles, you create the potential to be faster and more explosive. But being fast and explosive also comes down to coordination and synchronization of movements. Vertical jumping develops both. It builds power and teaches you how to coordinate and synchronise the movements of the jump — much like learning a new martial arts technique and then working on coordination and synchronization to maximize effectiveness. Improve Your Vertical Jump: Body Fat Body fat has a significant impact on your vertical-jump height. Therefore, reducing body fat through proper diet will help improve your jump height, speed, explosiveness and power. Improve Your Vertical Jump: Breathing Intra-abdominal pressure is crucial to augment force in your jump. Before you jump, inhale through your nose to create core tension and pressure. The intra-abdominal pressure will stabilize your spine. And when you compress the force in your core as you jump, it acts like a compressed coil that springs your torso elastically in your countermovement, which is the jump. Improve Your Vertical Jump: Knee Bend The knee bend is what creates the spring or coil. The optimal angle for this is 70 degrees. At this angle, you will maximize the force of your jump by using your hips, knees and ankles. It creates a spring that works like a trampoline. If you jump with your legs bent at a 90-degree angle, you will lose power from your hips, knees and ankles because you will deactivate the spring. The knee bend helps the ankles stiffen and absorb force to transfer into your jump. And the knee bend allows your hips to move to compress and create force from the floor. Improve Your Vertical Jump: Fast Eccentric Motion Fast eccentric motion initiates the stretch reflex. The stretch reflex is an elastic mechanism in your muscles that acts like a spring. The best way to visualize the stretch reflex is to think of a trampoline. The harder and more forcefully you jump on the trampoline, the higher you will go into the air. Your muscles can do the same thing. However, the stretch-reflex elastic energy must be used within a second or it will dissipate. So it’s essential to teach your muscles how to absorb force. For example, when you squat down to the floor in your vertical jump, how fast you move eccentrically is crucial. If you move slowly, you won’t gain or gather enough force elastically to transfer into the concentric part, which is the jump. Consider this: If you drop a ball, it will bounce back. But if you slam the ball down, it will bounce higher. You can see that there’s a difference in the eccentric motion of bouncing a ball. It’s the same when you jump. And that’s why you need to go into your squat fast to activate the stretch reflex. Don’t go into the squat slowly, or you won’t gain the elastic energy you need to jump high and fast. Improve Your Vertical Jump: Arm Swing Arm swing is another component that helps create force. If you don’t swing your arms, you won’t gather or gain enough force to jump as high as possible. The motion of the arms swinging down and back will create more force, enabling you to jump higher and faster. Improve Your Vertical Jump: Compress The final step is to compress all the components together. Think about compressing your core and feet into the floor by bending your knees and swinging your arms back. Here is a video to help you develop your vertical jump to maximize power in your martial arts. Now that you have all the elements of an optimized vertical jump, you must synchronize and coordinate each one into a sequence. You won’t maximize your jump speed and height if even one of them is off. Remember that vertical-jump power will enhance and improve your speed jumps, hops and skips. In addition, it will transfer to other movements and techniques in your martial arts training. For more information about speed and explosive power, check out the book INSTANT STRENGTH .

The first step in any difficult endeavor is usually the hardest. In jiu-jitsu, that step is literally the step you take when you walk through the door to try what to you is a new martial art. The decision to challenge yourself mentally and physically and commit to a long and often arduous journey is never an easy one. Among the next few steps that will come early in your jiu-jitsu journey are the ones you’ll need to take to tie your belt. These should be much easier than many of the other steps you’ll take in the grappling art. The following are five steps that will make your belt-tying experience as easy as possible. Step No. 1 Hold the belt in front of your body with both hands, ensuring that the length of the ends is equal. The first step in submitting an opponent in jiu-jitsu is the setup, and the same is true when tying your belt. It’s important to get both ends even so you don’t have one that is much longer than the other. Step No. 2 Wrap the belt around your waist starting in the front. Intuitively, many first-time jiu-jitsu practitioners start to tie their belt by wrapping it around the back of their waist. However, the correct way is to start from the front. You should end up with one end of the belt in each hand. Give a little slack to the end with the black bar. This will help you with the next step. Step No. 3 Take the end of the belt with the black bar and place it over the other end. The final position will resemble an “X.” The belt should be snug around your waist at this point. Step No. 4 Take the end that you put over the top in step No. 3 and put it under the center of the belt. You should now be able to pull both ends to make it tight. If you were to let go of your belt with both hands, it should stay snug around your waist. Step No. 5 Cross the end with the black bar over the other end and loop it through, pulling it tight to ensure that your gi top stays closed. Once you follow these five steps, you’ll be ready to step on the mat and focus on your jiu-jitsu training.

Two Japanese characters make up the word: Ki means “energy,” and ai means “to unify.” The concept appears often in the traditional martial arts of Japan and in different ways. In the broadest context, it refers to ways in which an opponent is manipulated through means other than physical contact. That can include the use of vocalisations. There are very sophisticated psychological ramifications of kiai, however, and they extend far beyond just shouting. A stare. A way of posturing. The “attitude” one exhibits in the face of conflict. All these can be expressions of kiais. Shimada Toranosuke (1810-1864) was still in his teens when his swordsmanship made him famous on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. Using a bamboo shinai, he won several contests. He eventually traveled to Edo (now Tokyo) and launched another series of challenges. Although he lost some, he began winning. A lot. His fame grew, as did his self-confidence, which, given his youth, probably fermented into arrogance. Shimada challenged Odani Seiichiro, a small, nebbish-looking fellow who happened to be the 13th headmaster of the jikishinkage ryu. Shimada and Odani faced off; the former was convinced it would be a short match. To his surprise, he found himself slowly moving backward. Shimada did not will it; it just happened. Odani was stepping forward, his sword out but not looking particularly threatening. Shimada, however, said the experience was like facing a moving wall of kiai. Before he realized it, he’d backed up the length of the hall. Odani relaxed, retreated to the center of the room and once again assumed the look of a chubby panda. Shimada followed, and they resumed their match. And once again, even as he struggled mentally, Shimada later recalled, it was as if a solid cloud was advancing on him. He was powerless. He found, in desperation and confusion, that his arms and legs wouldn’t work. He actually lost consciousness. Afterward, Shimada begged to be accepted as a student of Odani’s ryu. He excelled and later founded his own branch. (Those who are interested in learning more about Shimada should watch the drama The Sword of Doom. Toshiro Mifune’s character is based on him.) Accounts of this sort make kiai sound like magic — or perhaps a kind of hypnosis or method of mind control. Lest you dismiss it as so much nonsense, take a look at, for example, videos of systema experts. Don’t concentrate on their techniques. Instead, look for the way they move and stand as they speak. They exploit posture, facial expressions and physical size. All work not as a substitute for talent but as a way of establishing control. We like to think of magic as something embraced by primitive, unsophisticated people who are intimidated by any threat of a power that’s not seen but is somehow communicated. All humans, though, are susceptible to suggestion, to almost-unconscious clues we pick up from the behaviors, expressions and movements of others. This is where the realm of kiai exists in serious martial arts. Just in terms of the vocalization of kiai, the subject is still far more involved than many know — especially those who shriek like a banshee who’s just stepped on a Lego as they do their kata “performances.” In classical ryu, specific vocalizations are taught. Some sounds tighten the muscles in the back that are used for thrusting; others engage the abdominals that enhance striking. The sounds aren’t spontaneous squawks or roars. They have a deliberate meaning. A vocalized kiai might be used to confuse or distract an opponent, just as loud noises of all sorts will do. But it also can disrupt concentration and impose one’s will to exploit weakness in an opponent. The key here is to remember the actual meaning of the word: to unify or harmonize one’s energy with that of another person. In this sense, kiai is about infiltrating the mind of an opponent, then controlling it. Again, this might sound esoteric, but the reality is that in a deadly confrontation, it takes only a fraction of a second of inattention or distraction — think of the way a pickpocket works, subtly bumping into a victim to momentarily break his or her attention — to take the advantage. There is no need for a spell or a power that incapacitates long term. All that’s necessary is the briefest disruption. It’s no accident that Shimada was defeated by a master of the jikishinkage ryu. That school concentrated on kiai as a fundamental part of its curriculum. It exists today, and the training is still emphasized. This ryu defines kiai as a combination of respiration with and without vocalizations, and attitude. To teach the former, students begin with a furibo, a huge, fearsomely heavy club that’s swung in solo exercises to teach muscular and respiratory connections. Later on, the curriculum of jikishinkage ryu takes the student through a succession of four kata sets, each with a different form of kiai. They’re named after the seasons, which have a number of esoteric meanings along with practical physical lessons. The scrolls of ancient ryu have numerous references to the notion of kiai as a means for dominating an enemy. Kiai no ri is an expression used to describe methods for employing one’s energy to affect another person in a combative sense. Another term is kihaku, which today is often heard in kendo dojo in reference to a “strong spirit.” In older parlance, however, it meant an ability to control circumstances by projecting energy through posture and breathing. Kiai is one of the many aspects of budo that outwardly seem simple. Look deeper, though, and you’ll find that it’s far from simple.Dave Lowry has written Karate Way since 1986. For more information about his articles and books, visit blackbeltmag.com and type his name into the search box.

Against all odds, those women managed to succeed in the male-dominated world of pro wrestling. They raised families while blazing a trail for female athletes long before many of the breakthroughs of the civil rights and feminist movements occurred. The formula that was used — “sex, muscles and diamonds” — changed the image of combat sports. Promoter Billy Wolfe and his wife, world champion Mildred Burke, sold glamour and action. The women entered the ring dressed like Hollywood starlets, doing battle in satin bathing suits and tight leotards while performing some of the industry’s most difficult moves and introducing new ones, which became their signature. Johnson’s flying dropkick and other aerial maneuvers made the women more exciting to watch than the men. Wolfe became the first promoter to welcome Black women into the wrestling ranks in the early ’50s with Babs Wingo of Columbus, Ohio. Wingo fought against Burke in the first integrated women’s championship match around 1952. Her sisters Ethel Johnson and Marva Scott, along with Kathleen Wimbley and other Black women, soon joined. The “Negro lady wrestlers,” as they were known, were fierce and fabulous. The public’s curiosity made them the next big thing in wrestling. Segregated audiences clamored to see these female gladiators with their strong, muscular physiques. The rest, as they say, is history. For 13 years, journalist and filmmaker Chris Bournea labored to unearth the history of these African-American pioneers. His research began in 2005 in his native Columbus, the home of women’s wrestling. While working at a newspaper called This Week, a subsidiary of the Columbus Dispatch, he had a friend named Terry Anderson suggest a story idea about a local woman who used to be a wrestler. Bournea followed up — and ended up with the great fortune of interviewing Columbus native Ethel Johnson, the first Black female wrestling champ. During her career, she was billed as the biggest attraction to hit girl wrestling since girl wrestling began. The sportswriters of the day called her “the Black Venus.” Representatives of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s annual Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus read Bournea’s article on Johnson. They said they had never heard the history of these amazing wresters and were wondering if Bournea could help them get in touch with Johnson so they could honor her with a lifetime-achievement award. Having an international superstar acknowledge Johnson motivated Bournea to continue his research into women’s wrestling. He soon uncovered the hidden history of these unsung “sheroes.” I saw Lady Wrestler when it was screened in New York at the Museum of the Moving Image as part of the Fist and Sword Martial Arts Series curated by Warrington Hudlin, and I was captivated. How did you find so much information on these women? I interviewed Ethel Johnson and Ramona Isbell and their children and then Marva Scott’s daughter Kim Martin. Kim remembered a lot of facts. I was fortunate that my friend Wil Haygood works for The Washington Post. He’s a very accomplished journalist, and he referred me to Jeff Leen, who I interviewed in the documentary [and] who is also a Washington Post reporter who had written a biography of Mildred Burke. He told me that the University of Notre Dame has a huge wrestling archive, and that’s where I found a lot of the archival photos and press clippings that had background about the women. The University of Notre Dame was really just a treasure trove of information. How did those women train? In the footage, they appear to be in superb physical condition with incredible athleticism. They really had to know the holds, how to move and fall. Ethel Johnson talks about how she and her sisters took gymnastics when they were kids, not knowing that it would pay off later. So they knew how to tumble and fall, do the acrobatic things. It wasn’t just getting up there and faking it. When Billy recruited them as teens, he wanted young women who were like martial artists. They had to have the flexibility and almost be like acrobats. They knew how to fall so that they didn’t break their arms or neck or something. Their young bodies could take all that type of really grueling tough training and abuse. Ethel, her sisters Marva and Babs, Kathleen Wimbley and others were among the first Black women to train in Billy Wolfe’s gym as part of his fighter-development program. They trained with his more experienced white female fighters, having medicine balls thrown into their stomachs, lifting weights, [doing] deep knee bends, practicing wrestling techniques, flipping over the ropes. Through this type of training, the women really developed the endurance of an Olympic athlete.Gerry Chisolm was Black Belt’s 2020 Instructor of the Year. For more information about Lady Wrestler, visit ladywrestlermovie.com