- Taekwondo family makes Olympic history.
Siblings Mark and Diana Lopez of Sugar Land, Texas, won Olympic trial matches at Veterans Memorial Auditorium to join their brother Steven, a two-time gold medalist, on the American team.
- Brazilian jujitsu comes to Cambridge.
“Now, we want to get more roots with the Brazilian community, advertise in Brazilian media in Cambridge.”
Selivanov is in a prime location for such expansion. A 2006 city demographic report shows that 30 percent of city residents are between the ages of 20 and 30, and that Portuguese or Portuguese Creole is the fourth-most commonly spoken second language in the city behind Spanish, French, and Chinese.
- Jackie Chan has two new movies coming out this soon: The Forbidden Kingdom with Jet Li and The Fist Foot Way.
The Forbidden Kingdom” (co-starring Jet Li) comes out this month…”The Foot Fist Way,” about a tae kwon do instructor who goes on a pilgrimage to meet his martial arts hero, is also out this summer…
- Michelle White opens a new dojang above a seafood restaurant.
Formerly known as 2 Your Door Tae Kwon Do, White has changed the name to Tucker’s Tae Kwon Do & Kick Boxing…White began teaching martial arts in 1991 and holds a third-degree black belt in tae kwon do. She used to compete and won state and national titles in the early 1990s.
- Icelanders make Shotokan Karate a family affair.
Brian holds a first-degree black belt. Ivy is a third-degree black belt (the higher the number, the more advanced the training). Nicole and Brett Losey are second-degree black belts.
The man with whom they train, Steve Pohle, who runs the only Shotokan Karate dojo on the Peninsula, is a sixth-degree black belt and has trained in the sport since 1972.
- First blind person to receive his black belt in karate now a TV star.
Dawson Ko, 24, received his black belt in karate in March 2007, making him the first blind person in Australia to earn a black belt. He also won a bronze medal at the World Seido Karate championships in New York in 2006, beating 41 competitors in the men’s brown belt event.
- Punch Kick Choke also has some MMA videos up.
- Japanese Jujitsu Blog has a new post up which discusses how their art is evident in other styles.
It’s funny how you start to see the techniques of your martial art in other styles.
Last night I came across some great videos about Kalaripayattu, Eskrima and Systema. Watch the videos and see if you can spot any Jujitsu techniques!
This post and the blog are worth looking at and also has some excellent videos up. In fact, they highlight something called Russian Systema which looks way cool! I found the art’s website here and you can see a list of their U.S. schools here. Just when I thought I’ve heard it all:
As the roots of the Russian Systema are in the Russian Orthodox Christian faith, the belief is that everything that happens to us, good or bad, has only one ultimate purpose.
Despite a link to religion it appears to be a military-style martial art. Go figure.
~BCP
