Johnson Holds a Seconddegree Black Belt and Fought in His First Mixed Martial Arts

Is there such a affair as luck, or do we just make good decisions and bad decisions that somewhen decide our success — or our failure? The life-changing choices nosotros make sometimes seem like they hinge on the flip of a coin, the roll of the die … or a piece of well-intentioned advice that goes south.In this vein, Black Belt contacted 9 of the most successful martial artists in the earth to pose two questions: What is the all-time communication y'all ever received every bit a martial artist? What is the worst advice? In improver to revealing tidbits from their ain journeys to the height, their answers provide guidance for all martial artists.

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Dennis Brown

The editors of Blackness Belt called Dennis Brown one of the 25 most influential martial artists of the 20th century. The road to that rank began when he started learning wushu and tai chi from Chinese instructors and continued when he traveled to Mainland china in 1982 to railroad train at Shaolin Temple, becoming the outset African-American to exercise so. In 1998 he was the magazine'due south Kung Fu Artist of the Year.

Best Advice: When God sends you a message, listen.
"I was scheduled to be on American Airlines flight 77 on 9/11," Brown said. "I was taking eleven of my students to China for training. I woke up in the middle of the night because something told me to reschedule the flight to accommodate a weekend preparation session. So I took that advice and unknowingly put my fate in my ain hands."

On Friday, the airline called and said, 'Nosotros have an earlier flying. Tin can you make it?' I hustled everyone together and fabricated the flying, not knowing that our original flight in a few hours would exist hijacked and crash into the Pentagon, killing anybody on board.

"The plane was full except for 12 empty seats. Those would accept been our seats. About that twenty-four hour period, I told people, 'I was scheduled to be on that plane. I was supposed to be in China. God doesn't make mistakes.'"

The best tip Brownish has received in the earthly realm came from his grandmother, he recalled. "She said, 'Find something that yous dearest to practise, and y'all'll never work a solar day in your life.' I've been teaching kung fu since 1971, and I nonetheless dearest it."

Worst Advice: Get a real job.
"One of my relatives tried very difficult to convince me that I could never make enough money to support myself or a family past smacking my friends in the park with swords," Brownish said. "He told me I had to notice a job that I could make money at, and so I tried that for years."

I didn't enjoy going to piece of work — nada was fun. Then one twenty-four hour period, I got up and decided to put my life in reverse and focus on the one thing that made me happy: martial arts. My journey in the martial arts has been very successful for me on many levels. I have three successful Shaolin Wu-Shu Grooming Centers and am proud to have risen from family poverty by pedagogy onetime-school traditional kung fu."

Cynthia Rothrock

The queen of martial fine art movies, who was Blackness Belt's 1983 Female Competitor of the Year, has garnered decades of accolades, but had information technology non been for some good advice that came in the guise of a scolding, her journey in the arts could have ended earlier information technology fifty-fifty got started.

Best Advice: Be a winner, not a loser.
"Early in my career, I got some skilful advice that stopped me from quitting martial arts," Rothrock said. "My instructor gave a talk to the class, emphasizing that quitters are losers. And at that point, I was ready to quit karate. I was the only girl in the course, it was hard and I was getting hurt. So I asked myself, 'Why am I doing this?'"

When he said, 'Quitters have bad attitudes,' he was looking correct at me — because I did take a bad attitude. And when he said, 'Quitters are losers and will never corporeality to anything,' I idea, I don't want to exist a loser."

What the teacher said prompted Rothrock to adjust her attitude and boost her focus. "I applied that positive mindset to my training and everything else in life," she said. "That was 40-some years ago, and I take e'er lived by that advice."

worst Advice: Apply less power.
"I was in China training in wushu in 1982," she said. "My teachers were extremely pleased with my progress and that my techniques were shine all the same very powerful. Then I came back to united states of america, and another wushu instructor told me I was putting too much power into my forms and that I needed to do them softer without ability."

We were both competing in forms in the same division, and I decided if I'm going to boot, I accept to kick difficult because I'yard not going to hurt someone with a soft swing kick, and for the same reason, I wanted to have power in my punches, likewise. For me, every movement of my forms had to be effective, whether it was fast or fluid, so I didn't have his advice. I did my forms with power. Long story brusk, I won and he didn't."

Nib Wallace

The three-time Blackness Chugalug Hall of Famer who goes past the nickname "Superfoot" owns an armory of kicks that made him a legend in and out of the ring. His approachable personality and ability to have fun whether didactics or fighting are part and parcel of his life philosophy — even if he's kicking an opponent in the head.

All-time Communication: Just have a proficient time.
"The best advice I always got was only to accept fun," Wallace said. "If you are going to practice it, any the 'information technology' is, relish it because if you don't savour it, you won't care."

For case, I love to train and practice my kicks. I don't believe I've ever thrown a perfect kick. I've thrown some pretty good ones, but I don't think any of them were perfect. I tell people, 'Practice makes permanent; information technology doesn't brand perfect.'

"No affair how much y'all practise, something eventually will go awry, and then yous should learn to laugh at yourself, he explained. "In one case, I was fighting a guy and tried to kicking him in the head, but I landed on my butt. [All you can do is] just grin and get up and do it improve the side by side time."

Wallace reached deeper into his martial memory and came upwardly with another instance: "In 1990 I hit Joe Lewis with a counter hook kick. I idea, Oh, damn! I've killed him with a perfect heel kick! Lewis merely backed upward and said, 'Ouch.' I just shook my head and smiled. Like I said, you gotta have fun."

Worst Advice: Don't mind the pain.
Wallace said the worst advice he ever received was to ignore pain. At present he knows how ill-advised that is. "If something starts to hurt, in that location is something physically wrong," he explained. "The guy who said, 'No pain, no gain,' is dead considering he said that a long time ago before we got smart most how to train safely."

Working through the pain is very stupid. Let an injury heal because with rest, it will heal a lot faster. Muscles, ligaments and tendons are soft tissues and will give — but only to a certain degree. When you get as well far, they'll snap."

Benny Urquidez

Also a Black Belt Hall of Famer, "The Jet" has been an icon and a role model for decades. He continues to educate and inspire future generations of martial artists and fighters.

Best Advice: Keep her.
Urquidez said his best tip came from Ed Parker at the 1967 Long Beach International Karate Championships later Urquidez introduced his girlfriend Sara to the American-kenpo founder.

"Mr. Parker looked at me and said, 'She'due south a keeper.' I had no idea what that meant — possibly it was a clandestine lawmaking or something. I went dwelling and thought almost that for a long time, trying to figure out what a keeper was. Several months passed before I saw Mr. Parker once more, and I asked him, 'Y'all said my girlfriend was a keeper. Exactly what does that mean?'"Mr. Parker looked me in the eyes and said very slowly, 'Go on her.' Then it sunk in information technology was two split words. He was telling me that Sara and I were a perfect lucifer and that I should go along her. Sara and I but historic our 47th ceremony."

worst Advice: Make people fear you.
"The worst advice I ever got was from my father," Urquidez said. "He told me, 'If you want respect, y'all must put fear in everybody.' So I did just that. I didn't intendance who it was or where nosotros were — I put fright into anyone and everyone. I was a tough kid looking for trouble back then.

"But my mom saw what I was doing and said, 'That'southward not respect. That'south fright. People are afraid of you. Is that who you want to be?' Mom made me realize that respect must be earned. Thanks to her, I changed."

Stephen M Hayes

In 1985 Black Belt named Stephen One thousand. Hayes its Instructor of the Year, and he's been a leader in the martial arts world ever since. Countless students, of both ninjutsu and his art of to-shin practise, take benefited from his accumulated wisdom.

Best Advice: Follow your passion.
"The best advice was to know yourself and to know exactly why you are training in the martial arts," he said. "And so notice the best teacher who can motivate your passion."

For me, that meant looking all beyond America for a teacher who inspired me with his skills and his power to teach others those skills and who lived an exemplary life. I was finally driven overseas to discover a teacher and an art that clearly addressed what I wanted.
"Following his passion — in this case, all the manner to Japan — enabled Hayes to learn the fine art that nigh appealed to him and so laissez passer it on. "My goal was to translate the principles of self-defense into mod scenarios and yet stay true to the classical principles of martial arts," he said. "You've got to selection a skilful teacher who teaches what you want to acquire."

worst Communication: Don't inquire questions.
Hayes said the worst advice he received was transmitted by example through teachers who conveyed the following message: Don't carp me with featherbrained questions about people or techniques. Just do what I say. Do the martial arts in their unchanging classical form and you lot can easily accommodate them to modernistic self-protection.

"This advice was wrong on all counts," he exclaimed. "I studied an antiquarian form of Japanese martial arts in the 1970s and did thoroughly bask it, but people in [present-24-hour interval] America fight very differently from people in 1500s Nippon. When I returned to America in the 1980s, I plant a vastly different landscape than I had encountered in Nihon."

I desperately needed to alter the techniques — peculiarly [with respect to] how aggressors attacked in modern America — while at the aforementioned time saving the earth-shaking principles taught in the ninja arts. Such a major transformation required an enormous torso of questions that needed years of careful and accurate answers

."I had to enquire questions to unearth the truth behind the combat aspects of diverse styles and forms. But in that location were those who would tell me to shut up and train."

Willie Johnson

"The Bam" is a primary wushu practitioner, Black Belt'south 2000 Kung Fu Artist of the Year and a sport-karate world champion who understands the difference between fighting for points and fighting for survival.

All-time Advice: Avoid street fights.
"The best advice was avoid a fight whenever possible because in the dojo, half the stuff you practice is repetition, just when a real fight happens, it's all about inventiveness, adaptability and menstruation," he said. "That's when your muscle memory kicks in. That comes from your survival instinct, not from prearranged grooming."

worst Advice: Black belts always win.
"The very worst advice was that a street fighter can't trounce a black belt and that a black belt will always beat a street fighter," Johnson said. "Now I know better because I was one of those kids on the street and one of those kids in jail. I learned how to fight to survive."If the street fighter and the martial artist are equal in size and force, the martial creative person will have an reward because he's more technical and strategic, Johnson said. "Just there are some very tough street fighters! So I say to martial artists, 'If you meet one of those guys, you'd better be adept because he isn't fighting for a bays. He's a predator who makes a living by robbing, hustling and killing. He doesn't care about getting life plus l in prison."

Ernie Reyes Sr.

Throughout his career, the founder of the West Declension Demonstration Team and Black Chugalug's 1981 Teacher of the Year often found himself receiving martial arts–related advice. He quickly learned to heed the good and ignore the bad.

Best Communication: Call up the values of the martial arts.
"The best advice came from my martial arts teachers Moises Arizmendi, Dan Choi, Jhoon Rhee and Tadashi Yamashita," Reyes recalled. "It was near living the highest values of the martial arts, which are honor, loyalty, family unit and bravery."

I accept taken that advice and [put] it into my 53 years of preparation. Information technology's all based on respect and bailiwick. Martial arts training can transform one'southward life for the improve and give [a person] the ability to brand a difference in the world."

worst Advice: Don't make martial arts a career.
"The worst advice was to not do martial arts as a career because I could barely brand the rent when I started my schoolhouse," Reyes said. "The second-worst communication was, 'Don't practice any other martial arts; just teach taekwondo.' Then they said, 'Don't practice musical forms.'

"I ignored all this advice. We modernized the Westward Coast Demo Team by calculation different styles and techniques to our taekwondo base. Then we added music to our forms and demonstrations. And from that, we began doing goggle box and feature films in add-on to producing many national champions."

Along the way, Reyes managed to turn martial arts into a fulfilling career.

Gokor Chivichyan

Black Belt'southward 1997 Judo Instructor of the Year is also an expert in no-holds-barred fighting and sambo. While competing, he built a record of 400 wins and no losses as a professional, he said. After moving to America, Chivichyan teamed up with "Judo" Gene LeBell to create an MMA system that's now taught in several countries.

All-time Advice: Accept the challenge.
"In 1997 I was challenged to come out of retirement to fight one final no-holds-barred world-championship fight against Mr. Maeda, a world champion from Japan. My friend Gene LeBell advised me to have the claiming, and so I did."

Information technology wound up being the right course of activeness, he added. "It gave me an opportunity to testify on a live pay-pay-view upshot the effectiveness of the style of fighting Gene and I created. I beat Mr. Maeda in 51 seconds. Information technology was the only defeat of his career."

His message for the public: Take risks even when a positive outcome isn't guaranteed. It's the all-time way to move forward.

worst Advice: Railroad train harder earlier the fight.
"The worst advice happened when I was a kid training for an effect [that was scheduled for] the side by side day," Chivichyan said. "I was advised to work harder and add more weight to my workout."

The day of the upshot, my muscles were sore and I got tired easily considering I put all my energy into training the mean solar day before. I lost the friction match because of that bad advice."

Later, he would notice this is why athletes taper before competition.

Karen Sheperd

When she competed, Blackness Belt's 1997 Woman of the Twelvemonth was a champion without equal. Fifty-fifty more important, she was a pioneer who fought in and out of the ring to create a rating system for women's forms. The alarming part of her story is that her accomplishments came close to not happening at all

All-time Communication: Yous're as well bankrupt to compete.
It may sound odd, simply the worst communication I ever got was also the best advice I ever got," Sheperd said. "It was in the early '70s. The founder of my system told me that I should requite up my dream of being a forms champion considering I didn't have any money and couldn't afford to go to national tournaments.

"He was correct. I was broke. But instead of giving up my dream, I worked extra jobs and saved. I even cleaned the schoolhouse to pay for my lessons. I was determined to bear witness him incorrect. I fabricated the money [for] the trip — and I won my first grand-champion title."

worst Communication: Don't stone the boat.
To this day, she's nonetheless haunted past some of the worst advice she received, Sheperd said. "In the early '80s, I began a entrada to create a rating system for women'due south forms and was told, 'Don't rock the boat.' At the time, in that location were still some men who didn't want that to happen."

I had been invited to be the head judge in men'south sparring at a national tournament. I walked in, carrying scoring flags and ready to starting time the match, when a agglomeration of men freaked out. They grabbed the flags out of my hands, and a scene started — merely I was told non to rock the boat, so I didn't.

"I should have spoken my heed and stood my ground. Standing your ground and speaking the truth is more than of import now than e'er — for yourself, your beliefs and your country."

Terry L. Wilson is a freelance writer and jujitsu practitioner based in San Diego.

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Source: https://blackbeltmag.com/-2657224336

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