Stories – Mostly True

I present these stories for your entertainment, and also, to some degree as a tool of learning.  Perhaps the reader can learn some important lesson from them.  They are told here to the best of my memory.  I do not guarantee that my faulty memory has not embellished them, but I have tried to tell them as accurately as they happened.  Some are not here, because you would never believe them anyway.

1.  We attack Sensei Box.

When I was a green belt in Mr. Box’s class, I was forever asking Mr. Box questions.  One day before class, I cooked it up with G. Jones, a brown belt, and two other Airmen who were green belts, that we should attack Mr. Box without warning using the ruse of my asking a question.  We worked out the details as to who would approach from where, and that when I got to a certain place in the question, we would all attack at once.  It was the perfect plan.  We executed it according to the arrangement, and when I got to the cue, everyone attacked.  I know that I attacked with oi-zuki, but there was no target there when I got there.  I remember seeing one of the airmen get a ushiro geri before he got a chance to attack, and after that, a familiar brown skinned fist pulled a punch off of my solar plexus.  I do not remember what happened to Mr. Jones, I just know that he was blocked and countered somehow.  The thing that amazed me so much about it was how easy it seemed for Sensei Box to defeat all of us.  Even with a coordinated attack, it seemed that he did it without really trying all that hard.

2.  Mr. Box and the tent pole

My teacher, Mr. Box is a Ute Indian. He is the brother of the chief of the Southern Ute. He is retired from the U.S. Air Force, and now spends his time doing lectures at museum openings (and such) for Native American culture. He enjoys making Indian regalia ect and has a complete warrior’s get-up with all the dressings. He is a very humble man. I asked him if he had a great big warbonnet with eagle feathers, and the like, and he said that “no, only a single feather of a warrior”.   Just like my karate teacher….the most humble man I have ever met. Now that he’s an elder, he has such a bonnet.  He was at a “mountain man rendezvous” some years ago and had his authentic Ute tepee set up, and was living in it. He said that one night they were standing around the campfire telling mountain man stories, when one of the guys got mad at someone sitting on the far side of the campfire about something, and ran over to his tepee, which was nearby, jerked the smoke flap pole out and came running up to the group with the pole. Mr. Box said that he didn’t know why, but just turned around, and here was this guy right on top of him with a long pole so he just used the technique right out of Empi. The technique just before the jump. The application taught here by many is taking a bo away from an aggressor who is trying to hit you with the bo. Well it worked perfectly. He stepped in and took hold of the smoke flap pole, which stopped the forward motion of the aggressor, he then stepped in another six inches,with the same technique, taking the fellow by the throat in one hand, and the groin(if you know what I mean) with the other. The guy started to scream but the throat grip cut that off to a cough. I asked Sensei Box, “what did you do next?  There’s supposed to be a jump right after that”. He said,”I let him go…..I was afraid he was going to punch a hole in my tepee with that smoke flap pole.  Do you know how hard it is to get buffalo hides these days”. I was rolling on the floor by now.

3.  The toenails

One of my black belts, Mr. I. Williams told me that when he was young and engaged to his wife that he was playing flag football with his father-in-law.He was a big galloot, with an aggressive attitude. When the ball was snapped,the father-in-law came charging across the line at him, and hit him in the eye with a forearm shiver, which laid him low. When my student got up, he decided that that was not going to happen again, so on the next play, when his father-in-law tried to hit him again, he dodged the forearm shiver, and stepped on his father-in-law’s right foot, planting his foot on his toes from the big toe, down to his little toe. My student said that his father in law immediately dropped to the ground in pain, limping off of the field, and did not play anymore in the game. My student said that his father-in-law has not had a toenail on that foot now for 27 years.

4.  The saw blade

A student of mine works in a motorcycle shop. He said that a fellow came in that had a bandage on his nose. He asked him what had happened. The guy told him that he and a friend had been somewhere and that his friend had got involved in a fight with a guy, who had ‘rassled him down to the ground and was pounding on him. He said he stepped in to help his friend, and the fellow promptly began fighting with him. The guy got on top of him, and bit the end of his nose off. (They got it sewed back on, and that was what the bandage was). In the ensuing fight the fellow went to his truck, and pulled out a circular saw blade, and using it like a shuriken, threw it at the first guy, cutting his scalp open. That was all that was told.  I don’t recall seeing the official bunkai for a saw blade in any of the books.

5.  The cheater and the boom

Several years ago, when I worked as a software engineer for Amarillo College, as I was walking out for lunch, a student of  the college was walking behind me. Since we Texans don’t know a stranger, we began talking about how nice the day was ect. As we walked thru the parking lot to our cars,we were passing the Music and Art building. There was a truck sitting therewith a piece of “art work” strapped to it. This piece of “artwork” had been standing on the lawn of the art building for a couple of years. Several months before, I had been over in the personnel building, and we were all speculating what this piece of “art” really looked like. We were all surprised to find, that everyone else also believed that it looked like Bullwinkle the Moose….Except I thought it looked like Bullwinkle after he had rammed head on into the back of a parked truck. His horns being knocked “catty-whampus” and his back bowed due to the inertia of his tail end coming forward, and his nose being a little flattened. This is what the”art” looked like. As the student and I approached the truck, a fellow dressed in dirty work clothes, long hair and a beard….looked like a truck driver/laborer was just finishing up. I said to the student “look,they have finally moved that piece of junk”. I moved over to the truck to point to the piece that looked like Bullwinkle’s nose explaining that it looked like Bullwinkle. The workman said in an  angry voice “I think it looks like ART to me”. As he said this he was loading a six foot long piece of pipe, used as a “cheater” to apply pressure to a boom, which is a contraption to tighten down a chain to secure a load on a truck.  He swung the piece of pipe around, and pointed the end at me.  Now this guy had a thought go thru his mind to “punch” me in the groin with the end of  that pipe. Upon perceiving this intent my defense was ready with Tekki Nidan. Had he made the punch, I would’ve raised my knee as in Tekki Nidan, and then stepping back down into kiba dachi, swept the punch to my right side with my shin, following up with the elbow strike as the attacker came stumbling forward. That was where my balance, and position happened to be at that moment.  All this was “in the chamber” and ready to use if he put actions to his thoughts. He moved the pipe forward in a thrust about an inch, hesitated, then threw it onto the truck. I turned to the student and said”oops, this must be the artist”.  The guy said “I don’t like your looks, keep moving”.   As he was saying all this he was holding a tool called a boom, or a come-along, which would have the same action as a nunchaku. Another thought went thru his mind of attack, and how he would carry it out. He was too far away to use it however so my mind did not extract any kata move in defense. I figured he had taken enough abuse for one day…..a bore like me disparaging his “art” had upset his whole day…..so I just went to lunch.  When was the last time you saw a kata application for defense from a boom?

6.  The Dogs

My younger son had taken a job with the Postal Office. Of course everyone knows the problems mail men have with dogs. My son told me that as he was delivering mail in a certain neighborhood, he delivers to a house that has two really aggressive dogs that are normally kept in a back yard kennel with an 8foot fence. As my son was putting the mail in the mailbox, when he clicked the lid shut he heard the scratching of claws on cement and the growl of an approaching dog. The dog leaped the 4 foot fence of the front yard at his throat. My son, who is a shodan in Shotokan, and a brown belt in jiu-jitsu reached up as the dog was in motion, grabbing the dog by his throat with his right hand, and continuing his motion, brought the dog over his head and down onto the dog’s back on the ground to his left. The thing is that the dog landed half on and half off of the curb, breaking it’s back. It was a large German Shepherd.  As all this was going on the other dog was making his approach,so my son turned, and pulled out his “mail man mace” (which is of less potency than what you normally buy in a store) and maced the other dog, a doberman, before he could jump the fence. The owner of the two dogs, it so happened, was just coming up the sidewalk as all this was happening, and as my son was macing the 2nd dog, the owner ran up and slapped the mace out of his hand. He began cursing my son, and ran over to where the mace can had landed, picking it up turned to mace my son. My son said “dad it was just like in the movies…..three stooges movies that is”….as the guy had the outlet of the mace turned at himself and when he pressed the button, shot himself right in the chest with the mace. He said that he was wearing a suit and white shirt,and that the mace is red and got all over his suit and shirt. He said that because the dose is so diluted, all it did was make the dog owner start coughing. It’s a good thing he did not continue his assault on my son. Had he tried it,……he might have gotten stamped. ha ha.

7.  The little kid

When I got out of the U.S. Navy, at age 22, I looked really young for my age.  I was at a local jiu-jitsu school to work out, dressed out in my gi.  There were two guys there visiting that had been working out, as best they could with no instructor.  They were speculating as to how tough the jiu-jitsu instructor was when I came into the dojo.  One turned to the other and said “look at that little kid with the black belt”. As I started warming up, I was throwing some yoko geri kicks, and snapping the gi pretty good.  After seeing that, they decided that perhaps I deserved my black belt rank, and became my students.  You can see a picture of one,on the photos page, as he became the first black belt I advanced.  The other was killed in a car wreck the next week.

8.  The incident at the dumpster

When I was teaching karate at Amarillo College, I had plans to start a jiu-jitsu class there also.  My plan was to “seed” the class with karate students that were interested, so once a month, for several months I taught jiu-jitsu during the advanced class, instead of advanced karate. There were only a few advanced students at that time, and they were all interested in learning some jiu-jitsu techniques.  I started learning jiu-jitsu in 1959 and in the middle 60’s practiced judo, then back into jiu-jitsu in the late sixties and early 70’s.  Normally, I teach randori,and applications, because that is where I come from, but one night I decided to teach a “scenario”  In other words “if he does this, then you do that”.  The lesson that night was a common assault, where an aggressor grabs you by the front of the shirt, and tries to hit you with the other hand.  The technique was to put a Thumb Lock on the hand on the shirt, then with the other hand, reach through under his same arm, and take him in Devil’s Handshake, (essentially an arm bar), as he is trying to relieve the pressure of the arm bar, sweep his foot, and as he goes down, continue the pressure with the arm bar, and then………..that was as far as I got. When class was over, my younger son, and his friend and I drove home to a town nearby.  I delivered my son’s friend (we’ll call him TM) to his door, and drove the rest of the way to our house.  You must understand, that TM was fourteen years old, but looked like a ten year old.  He would be offered the “child’s toy” when we would go somewhere for lunch, and would tell them with consternation “I’M FOURTEEN”.  He told us the next morning when we picked him up for school that an incident had happened the night before.  When he got home, he walked in the front door at about 10p.m. and his mother immediately “landed on him” for not taking the trash out before he went to school that morning. “You get right in there and take that trash out right now”, so he marched straight through the house to the back door, and taking the trash out the back gate, opened the lid to the dumpster to put it in.  He said that when the dumpster lid squeaked open, a man stood up in the darkness next to the dumpster.  TM said, the guy must’ve been sitting on the ground, leaning up against the dumpster. I asked him what he looked like, but he said it was too dark to see, but he could tell that was an adult, and had on a cowboy hat.  The guy came around the edge of the dumpster, and starts and attack on TM in exactly the same way we had just been practicing an hour before.  TM told me that he knew exactly what to do, it was so easy.  He put the thumb lock on the guy, and then ran.  I told him, (half joking) what I taught you had a follow up, why didn’t you do the follow up?  He said, “when I put that thumb lock on him, he screamed, and fell to his knees.  He jumped up and ran one way, and I ran the other.”

9. The knockout

When I was teaching karate at Amarillo College, after several years a good class had developed.  There were several police officers in the class as well as a couple of sheriffs deputies.  One brown belt was a pretty large and tough “bruiser” from Randall County S.O.  One night the exercise was kumite (free fighting).  In the middle of the rotation, a old green belt who was a senior police officer for Amarillo PD was matched against the younger deputy.  Several exchanges happened, and during a clash, the green belt “popped” the brown belt in the pit of the hip.  The kick was not very hard, it was not fully developed, nor fully extended. He did not have proper foot position, but hit with just the tip of his big toe,making light contact to the spot on the brown belt where the leg attaches to the hip.  Everything just stopped.  The deputy sat himself down on the floor, laid himself down on the floor, and was out.  I had called “YAME” and was going over to help him, when he woke up.  He was none the worse for wear, and wanted to participate in the rest of the class,but I never selected him for another engagement.

10.  Hand split

The first jiu-jitsu class that I taught at Amarillo college had about a dozen enrollees.  One of those was the karate brown belt deputy spoken of above, from Randall County S.O.  The first class, I usually teach how to line up, how to bow, the first three techniques, and the basics of break fall.  The three techniques are a simple thumb lock against the end joint of the thumb, a lock on the second joint of the thumb, and Hand Split. It’s a very simple technique against a chest push by an assailant.  You just simply pin his hand to your chest, and then take hold of the ring finger and little finger with one hand, and the index finger and the middle finger with the other hand, and pull apart.  Not exactly a deadly move.  The deputy had gotten far enough in the class to learn this technique before he got a call on the radio, and had to leave.  That was the last I saw of him fora while.  Several months later he told me that he had used the Hand Split technique in the line of duty.  He told me that he had gotten a call to back up a Canyon City police officer on a call at a motel across from the university there.  When he arrived, the officer was on the floor on his back, with the perpetrator on top of him “beating the fire out of him”.  The deputy said, “I reached in and, putting my hand on his forehead, pulled the perpetrator off of the officer, and we started fighting on the floor”.  He said that he was behind the guy the whole time,but somehow, the guy got the deputy’s hand in his mouth, and bit his hand so hard, that there was a piece that  was hanging by just a flap of skin.  He had bitten him on the edge of his left hand, below the little finger, just above the wrist.  The deputy said that after the perpetrator let go with his teeth, he turned on his side, and attempted to hit the deputy with a slap to the face.  “That’s when I got him in the hand split”.  He said the hold worked really good.  He said, “He just melted, and gave up”.   The police officer “cuffed him, and stuffed him” (his words) ” while I went to the emergency room to have my hand sewn up”.  They were able to save the use of his hand.

11.  Mr. Miller uses Haito uchi

Through the years I’ve been told repeatedly that haito uchi is not an effective technique, so I offer the following story, as told to me by Mr.Miller.

Back in the 80’s before mace and tasers there was a check forger that was preying on the banks of Amarillo. One day when one of my black belts, Officer Miller was on patrol, he got a call from a bank that the man they suspected of passing this rash of forged checks was trying to pass another one at a bank in his section of town. He arrived at the bank in moments, and looked in the window, and could see a man of the description that the police were looking for standing at the teller’s station. As he was moving toward the door, he could see that the man was finishing the transaction, and heading for the door, so he stood with his back to one of the doors of the main entrance. When the man came out, he was hoping that he would turn towards him, and he could confront him,but instead, the man turned the other way, and started walking away, not noticing the uniformed officer. When Officer Miller gave the order to”hold it”, the guy took off running. Officer Miller was sure that this was the suspect that they were seeking, and ran after him. We jokingly called Mr. Miller “Mr. Miler” because he was quite the runner,constantly taking part in events that involved all sorts of events including long distance running as well as sprinting. Officer Miller quickly caught up to him, and instead of tackling him, since he was still on the sidewalk and both could be injured in the fall, just hit him below the ear with haito uchi, or ridge hand strike. Mr. Miller said that it worked perfectly. The suspect went down so fast, that Officer Miller almost tripped over him. He handcuffed a still conscious, but non resistant suspect.

Comment from Mr. Miller about haito uchi

Another incident similar to the bank incident happened when I was working as an off-duty police officer for security at What-a Burger late one night. I had to arrest a what turned out to be a 16 year old who had stolen a women’s credit cards out of her purse. The 16 year old was much taller than me, around 6 foot,and out weighed me by at least 60 pounds. When I went to arrest him by myself,I didn’t have time to call for a back-up, he began to fight. I was able to foot sweep him to the ground, however, I was not able to control him, he was much stronger than me. I foot swept him to the ground at least three times, but still could not keep him on the ground. He had a heavy ranch style jacket on,keeping me from placing a wrist or shoulder lock on him. I even sprayed him in the face with pepper spray, all without any effect on him. He finally attempted to turn around and threw a punch at me. I was able to deflect the punch and then struck him hard with a haito uchi in the side of the neck with the meaty portion of my arm. The target area was the brachial artery on the neck. This ended the fight immediately. He went to the ground and didn’t try to get backup. I was able to get him handcuffed and call for help. If this hadn’t worked,I was going to be forced to take even more drastic measures. The point to this,even good sound techniques might not work in all situations, but to continue trying different things until something works.

12. Knife defense

Mr. Miller and I taught self defense classes together in the late 80’s to civilians, and to a couple of security departments. We taught several classes of women’s self defense. He brought a lot to the class with his experience as a police officer, and I brought my knowledge of simple, but effective martial arts.  One of the statistics that he taught was that if an armed officer is attacked by a man with a knife that was twenty two feet or closer, that the man with the knife could be upon him, and stab him before he could draw his side arm and fire it. The point he was making was that if the knifer is that close when he makes his assault, you must use your time to defend the knife attack somehow before you draw and fire. This is named the “Dennis Tueller Rule”.

One day during a Simminations training exercise, Mr. Miller found out the truth of his own statement. Simms training (short for Simminations) is a form of realistic police training where the gun is loaded with rubber bullets instead of real lead bullets. In a shooting scenario, the shot is actually fired into the assailant with the non-lethal round. Non-lethal or not, it hurts like blazes. The bullet will break the skin, leaving a good bruise, but will not penetrate. The trainees wear vests, and goggles as protective gear, but there is still the possibility of being hit on a bare spot somewhere. One day during training, Mr. Miller was “answering a domestic disturbance call” when another officer, playing the part of an assailant rounded the corner of the room where the exercise was being held, and attempted to stab him with a knife. When the attack began, he was about ten feet, and Officer Miller did not have any time to draw his gun. He used a throw called Uke O-toshi on the simulated assailant. Rather than throwing him hard, since he was in fact a training partner, he “slung him to the ground”. Then he drew his gun.. Mr. Miller told me that he prides himself on his quick draw and shoot abilities, but that day, there was just no time to draw his weapon. He had to defend the knife first with his martial arts skills, or be stabbed, all theoretically of course, as they were not using real lethal weapons.

One note on the throw Uke O-toshi. Many years ago, when we were practicing throws, I threw Mr. Miller with that particular throw. He made the slightest mistake in his break fall position, and punched his heel into the mat. That injury put him on crutches for three weeks back then, and still hurts some twenty years later.

13. Change for a quarter?

Back in the 80’s when one of my students and I taught women’s self defense courses, one of the things that we taught was that there were two types of self defense situations to consider. Sudden, unexpected attack by an opportunist,and an anticipated attack for which you should prepare. During the lecture portion of the class, he taught that statistically, according to Amarillo Police reports, that the most likely place for a woman to be attacked is in her front room when she comes home in the early afternoon from buying groceries,and surprises a burglar. That statistic still holds even today, with another statistic taking a close second. That is of being assaulted in the afternoon at a discount department store parking lot as she loads her groceries into her car.  An anticipated attack can happen to a woman when she is beings talked, or has an estranged boyfriend, or spouse that has threatened her, ora n aggressive work associate, either male or female. We taught our students how to arm themselves with everyday items that could be used as a weapon when needed. One of these items was a roll of quarters, placed in one end of the purse. Of course, the problem with any self defense course is in remembering what was taught in the self defense course that you took a couple of months ago when the attack happens.  The fact is, that no woman needs to be taught to hit somebody with her purse. That comes naturally. The question is how much damage will be done when she does it.

It was about three weeks after completing such a course that one of our women was being harassed by a male, and had stopped at a sidewalk phone hood to make a call. The male, stepped up behind her, and stabbed her in the back with a knife. She thought that he had just punched her in the back, and whirled around, and cole-coked him with her purse, which still had the roll of quarters in it. Then she hung up, and called the police, since it was the days before”911″. When the police arrived, the male was still laying unconscious on the sidewalk. They immediately called for an ambulance for her, which she objected to. She did not know she had been stabbed until they pointed out the blood dripping down the back of her dress.

14.  Thwarting an attack with attitude

In 1967, shortly after Sensei Box left for Vietnam, I continued to attend the class three times a week in Amarillo taught by the senior students, Mr.Whitley, and Mr. Jones, who had been promoted to black belt when I was promoted to brown belt.  I made it a habit to dress into my gi at the Center, and dress back into my civilian clothes after class, before driving the 40 miles back to Panhandle where I lived.  One night, the class went late, and we had to leave before I could dress into my civilian clothes, so I drove home in my gi.  When I came into Panhandle, I met my karate students at the courthouse as usual, thinking that I would drive out into the country somewhere, and change clothes, with only the coyotes to see me, then me and my buddies would carouse around to the early hours.  This night was to be different.  When I pulled up into the parking area, there were two adults there that were harassing one of my 14 year old students.  One was punching him in the back, the other was holding him by the collar from the front.  When I stepped out of the car in my gi, I was thinking, “now how am I going to defuse this situation dressed like this”.  I stepped over to the confrontation, and demanded that these two adults, (who were older than I was) stop hitting my friend.  They immediately turned their attention to me, and noticing that I was dressed in a karate gi, and brown belt, paused, deciding whether they should “light into”me.  One was to my right, and one to my left.  The one on my left was the more aggressive.  As they were deciding what they were going to do, I knew what I was going to do if they decided to attack me.  As soon as there was any indication of  further aggression to me, or to my student, I was going to step into left zen kutsu dachi with my back to the man that was on my right, and as I drew my right hand into hikite, strike the man behind me in the solar plexus with empi uchi, then sliding forward a half a step, execute gyaka zuki on the man in front.  They must have felt the intensity of my attitude, for the aggressive man let go of my student’s collar, and backed up. When he did, his buddy stepped back and away from me, (and although he didn’t know about such things) out of yoko geri range.  It is because of this incident that I liked Niju-shiho so well when I learned it later in 1969. It has remained my favorite kata all these years.

15.  Five on one knockout

In the early 70’s I had a good class at the Amarillo YMCA.  It was there that I developed the kumite exercise 5 on 1.  At that time, it was not as refined as it is today.  In those days it could more aptly be named”everybody ranked ni-kyu and up on 1″.  In one engagement, Mr.K. Wieck was the defender.  As the action started, he was immediately attacked to chudan by Mr. J. Stocker.  The timing of the attack was such that almost at the same instant Mr. T. White was making his attack on the same target.  When the attack came, Mr. Wieck stepped back into kokutsu dachi to block the chudan attack. In that split second Mr. Stocker’s kidney occupied the same space that the solar plexus of the defender had just occupied. It was this kidney that got hit by Mr. White, instead of the solar plexus of the defender.  Mr. Stocker was knocked out, dropping to the floor.  Immediately called YAME to the action.  Mr. Stocker immediately got up,and was sore the rest of the evening.  Thankfully, he was doing fine the following day.

16.  Surprise attack

Once during a class when we were practicing the kumites I was trying to emphasize a point about the fact that in a real self defense situation, it wasn’t always obvious who your potential attackers were.  To illustrate the point I was making, I lined two of my black belts up to engage in jiyukumite.  We bowed, they bowed, and I called “hajime” (let itbegin)  Immediately I (the referee) attacked one of the participants.  Of course, he was caught flat footed.  Who could have anticipated that the referee (of all people) was going to engage in the kumitewith no warning.

 17.  Technique from Kanku Sho

In the middle 70’s my senior student had just returned from duty with theU.S. Army in Okinawa.  We were discussing the kata Kanku Sho when thesubject of the 360 degree turning jump arose.  (Step number 41 in Mr.Sugiyama’s book 25 Shotokan Kata).  Mr. White stated that he had seen it used in Okinawa, and immediately turning to Mr. S. Goodlett, one of the recently promoted shodan’s, ordered an attack  with oi zuki to the chudan area of his back.  When the attack was made, my senior student blocked the punch with back hand block, and doing the jumping turn, landed on top of the attacker, driving him down onto the floor, holding back contact with the fists that drive into the back of the attacker in that technique, as it was taught in the “old days”.  I was impressed.

18.  Three Stooges technique

In the middle 80’s I was teaching a large class at the YMCA in Amarillo. The adult class was preceded by a children’s class. In the middle of the children’s class a man walked into the dojo, bowed very dramatically, and sat down to watch. I could feel his aggressive attitude. As is usual, I went over to greet him, and see what his interest was. When I approached, he stood up, and sweeping my greeting aside stated “I can beat you. I have been watching you for three weeks through the window there, and I can beat you. I am a third degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and I can beat you”. I tried to disarm the situation by explaining that we practice Shotokan here, and other smalltalk, hoping to finally just say “see ya” and have him leave, but he would have none of it. He continued to declare that he could beat me and telling me about all the tournaments that he had won and how many ribbons and medals that he had been awarded. Tiring of this verbal assault I finally told him that I had never participated in a tournament, but that I had been involved in several real situations, and that I had never been hit, and had never had to hit anybody twice. This didn’t even slow him down. Being a little taller than me, and younger, he began to glower over me, getting more aggressive as the conversation continued. He began telling me all the things that he knew,meanwhile, my children’s class was beginning to fall apart for lack of leadership. So I just butted into his boasting by telling him “I don’t know about all that stuff you are telling me. I only need to know two things.1. Lion hunters do not beat drums. And 2. I AM A LION.” (I “projected on him” when I said the last part) I told him, that I must get back to my class now, and that his best chance to beat me would be after the class by attacking me in the dark, unexpectedly, from behind. I went about teaching the rest of the class, and upon dismissing it, opened the door to the dojo. I had completely forgotten about this aggressor, but there he was, leaning against the wall by the door of the dojo. I was concerned that this “crazy”might try to hurt one of my kids as they exited the dojo, so I stepped out between the kids and him, and stood near him, having put on fighting spirit with the mind set of sen-no-sen, waiting for him to move any aggressive way toward me or one of the kids or anybody in the immediate area. One of the parents was trying to engage me in a conversation, but I had to hold my intentions on the”crazy”. The technique that was present was what is so outrageous. I was laughing inside, because the inspiration of it was from the Three Stooges where Moe takes Curley’s fist and puts it on his chin, lifts his knee up to his elbow, and then kicks the bottom of his foot, transferring the energy of the kick through the leg, arm, and to the fist. Say what you will, laugh at me all you want, that is what was waiting for this guy if he attacked one of my kids.It was an augmented ura-zuki. It was a couple of days later that I was thinking about the incident when I realized that it was a technique that I had been using since Sensei Box taught me Ku Shan Ku (later known as KanKu Dai). The ura-zuki (close punch) slides up the thigh as the knee is being brought up, and as it contacts the target, the point of the elbow is on the tip of the knee,therefore effectively augmenting the power of the punch with the power of the leg. In the end, the guy left, and I never saw him again. He’s probably out there somewhere in the dark waiting for me. Nyyyyyyaaaaaaa. Slap…oohhhh.Listen You.  Ok Moe, I give up.

19. Making Time, (a real, PRACTICAL application, of foot sweep)

Sensei Meier: My most vivid memory is of an encounter with T. White.  While awaiting to see the Emergency Room Doctor, every joint on every toe (left foot only) was dislocated, due to an adept and well placed foot sweep, fighting through the pain, I was able to make friends with several female health care professionals.  Moral to the story:  No pain, no gain. 

(this story sent to me by Mr. S. Goodlett)

20.  A Duct Tape Shime-waza

Recently one of my new black belts was awakened at 3 a.m. by a tapping on his bedroom window.  It was a woman that was an acquaintance from a Sunday School class that he attended.  She told him that her son had broken down on the interstate, and needed him to come help rescue her son.

They made their way onto the interstate, and found the vehicle parked on the shoulder of the road.  The young son, in his late 20’s has a drinking problem, and thought he had run out of gas, when what had really happened was that his engine had thrown a rod.  When my student and the young man’s mother arrived, the young man was only a short distance away, having taken a gas can, and was staggering away to get some gas.

My student called him back to the vehicle, and encouraged him to “just get in with us” but the young man would have none of it.  In the ensuing argument, the drunk young man, in trying to avoid being taken from the scene, wandered out into the lanes of the interstate, although there was no traffic at that time of night.

My student decided that he had to do something soon to restrain the young man, so he approached to put a hold on him, but the young man resisted him by taking a punch at him.

My student easily swept the punch aside, and swept the young man into a yoko shime waza (side of neck choke, applied from the side rather than the front, or from behind).  The young man promptly dropped, and was hauled to the pickup that my student was driving, bound with duct tape to keep him from jumping out of the bed of the truck if he came to, and taken home, and put to bed.

My student said it was the first incident he has been in since he began training.  It was so easy.  He saw the punch coming “a mile away”, and easily deflected it and applied the appropriate technique to fit the situation.
¨C1330C It is kata practice that will give one the perception to deal with an attack so easily.¨C1331C

21. Soft drink shower

My student Thomas has just been promoted to shodan after working out with me for three and a half years.  The schedule has been off an on, since I did not have a regular dojo, and due to my traveling, and his busy schedule of growing up into man-hood.
I have never had a student that has used the juji-uke block so many times, and so successfully as Thomas.  The gedan juji-uke is the x-block that is commonly used to block a mae-geri (front kick)  that can be found in Heian Yondan as the third move of the kata, followed by morote uke.
The first time Thomas used the block  was at a youth camp.  He had just stepped out of the concession stand with a soft drink in his hand, contained in a Styrofoam cup when another camper, a friend of his, in horsing around,  took a kick at his gedan area.  Instinctively Thomas used the juji-uke to block the kick, and successfully blocked it, but in the process of executing the block, squeezed his hand tight into a fist, crushing the cup, and squirting soft drink all over the attacker, himself, and a couple of bystanders.  I hope he asked the attacker to buy him another soft drink. 
He also used the block on two separate kumite engagements at his shodan advancement against different opponents.  He has developed it, and proved it in his own practice.

22. BB Pistol Showdown

I have a student that has a job working at a car dealership in the service department.  As is common among young men, there is a lot of raucous behavior, and some is borderline inappropriate.  Such is the story to follow.
A fellow employee at the shop had brought a bb-gun pistol to work one day, and had been popping fellow workers with it through the morning work time. (Why he was not immediately fired by the shop supervisor has not been answered).  Everyone is wearing thick work coveralls, so the bb’s only stung a little, not to mention the fact that someone could have been shot in the face, or especially the eye.  The perpetrator in question had shot my student twice before lunch, once from behind, and once from the front.  A few hours after lunch the perpetrator standing at arms reach distance from my student, drew the bb-pistol, and stuck the pistol in his chest and said “let’s see what that karate garbage you do can do for you now”.
Immediately my student executed a technique that I have been teaching for 45 years as a gun take-away out of Heian Nidan.  It is the first thing you do after you have gone down the “H” and have done the four shuto-uke, and then turn to return down the embusen.  Standing in left zen-kutsu dachi, the hands cross in front preparing for a right handed uchi-uke.  I have been teaching that the hands crossing in front is more than just a wind up for the uchi-uke, but an effective gun take-away technique.  First your left hand  spoils the aim of the pistol, and then when the wrist of the gun hand is hit by your right hand, it loosens his grip on the handle of the gun, and twisting it out of the grip of the opponent, it delivers it into your right hand with the muzzle pointing at the opponent.  In Sugiyama’s book 25 Shoto-kan Kata it is the move between 15 and 16 in Heian Nidan as the arms wind up for the uchi-uke.  In his book Mr. Sugiyama shows in figure 16 the arms already wound up.¨C1343C The gun take-away worked perfectly.  My student executed the technique, the bb-pistol came out in his hand, and my student shot the surprised perpetrator in the chest with the gun.  Of course, he was not hurt any worse than all the other employees had been hurt due to the layers of protective clothing everyone  was wearing.  Nevertheless, it still stung some. My student handed him back his property and told him he needed to stop shooting people with his bb pistol.  His reply was, “how did you do that?  I’ll bet you can’t do that again”, and promptly pointed it back at my student again.¨C1344C My student immediately executed the same move, which again worked perfectly, but this time, when he shot him, he shot him in the leg, where there is not as much padding.  This time, the sting was more intense.  We will have to wait and see if there are any further confrontations.