Surprising martial art practitioners

[ninjanurse]

Years ago (? 1985) our sensei organized a "little seminar" for local students and invited a few of his "friends" to offer some of their expertise. After the seminar, he invited us to dinner at his house (something we did frequently after training) and when we arrived, his "friends" Professor Wally Jay and Toru Tanaka were sitting at his kitchen table! Needless to say it was a memorable night!

[Groinstrike]

The entire Bujin Clan is comprised of unlikely martial artists

A workaholic plumber

A roofer who looks like a surfer

A gutter installer who dropped out of high school yet loves beethoven

A philosophy professor who by the way is a devout passifist

A beautician/computer repair man

A chiropractor

A D & D nerd/Cop

A Political scientist Major/Juvenile corrections screw/Muay Thai wrecking machine

And thats just the black belts. I would be scared of any one of these people in a fight as they are all bad men who should be feared.

As for me im your everyday School teacher turned Cop.

[CTTKDKing]

First off, cool topic. That said, I grew up in this church in Connecticut, never studying martial arts until i hit adult hood simply because my mom could never afford it for me, so most of my extra curricular activities were through the church. One weekend we were brought up to a river in a state park near by, with one of the boys groups for a day of swimming and hiking and on the way home we stopped at a McDonald's for dinner.

All the kids that were with us got our food and sat down and one of the volunteer adults (quiet man in his mid 60s) went up to order an ice cream. We were watching and this semi-gang member looking individual and a couple of his buddies thought it'd be funny to try and scare our old friend. He just ignored them and brought his ice cream to his seat.

Later on he was waiting by the side of the bus while we all boarded and as we finished getting on the gang member people came out and threatened him again and this time they tried to push him around. The first guy pushed him and as the second guy cocked his hand back to throw a punch, what happened next happened so fast I'm not exactly positive how it all went down.

There was a side step to avoid the punch, a couple step under wrist locks and a bunch of tossing, and then the 3 of them ended up in a pile on the ground. It was one of the quickest and most controlled things I'd ever seen and I've currently been practicing marital arts for about 10 years myself. As it turns out the older gentleman from my church was x-special forces and had a 3rd degree black belt in Aikido. He also practiced wing chung for years over seas when he was stationed there in his younger adult time in the military. I would have never known that about this man if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. It was quite amazing to witness and when I got to ask him about it after we were at home he just shrugged and said "I feel bad about having to hurt those young fellers, but I know they wont be permanently injured from what I did to them, and I hope they learned something". LOL

[bushido_man96]

Cool experience there. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[sensei8]

Cool experience there. Thanks for sharing it with us.

I agree!!

[ShotokanMaster]

When I was at the gym I meet this 2 guys one was wearing a T shirt with the Shotokan logo that said Way of japan and the other 1 wearing regular T shirt after that we became friends after 4 years i found on that they are my nephews instructor so I joined and they are my sensies in Shotokan how amazing isit.

Also when I was in college I meet this guys who work at school and he became my classmate he turn out he knows Karate Tai chi and Eskrima and we became best of friend since his 45 now and im 35 and him and I are still best friend to this day

[T3chnopsycho]

cool topic

Well in the dojo I train we had this old man. I think he was well over 80 probably closing to the 90. But he still trained regularly with all the other adults and was probably something around 1st or 2nd kyu.

Unfortunately he died a few years ago while I was still a bit younger so I never really had the chance to learn to know him.

For me one of the most interesting people is my Sensei. He is now probably nearing the end of his fifties. I don't know how long he trained but he is a real genius. He has such a great understanding of the art and also trained a lot of years under our soke. He built up the whole Swiss Kimura Shukokai Karate even though he is well to say it nicely not talented in organization. And he is a very kind person and keeps a very close contact to everybody in the dojo. He literally knows everybody he has trained (well more than 100).

And what's best his lessons are just great and his British humor (He is British) makes it all the more fun

Cheers and keep up posting stories

T3chnopsycho

[kensei]

My grand father on my moms side came to Canada and was a butcher, a general contractor and also...well he boot legged home made Vodka to the states....besides that I remember him as a butcher and he had these great big hands, he was a really great person and a great grandfather.

I remember one day in his shop this guy came in (Shop was in bad neighborhood to say the least), he asked for a steak and then pulled a knife out and wanted all the money in the till. Grandpa took that kid out like he was standing still, he tossed him to the floor and broke his arm with a armbar then picked the guy up and with one punch KO'd his partner and then rolled funny and brok the guys ankle. My grandmother called for the police, but they really were not needed.

I was amazed that this almost 70 year old could do all that....turns out he was a golden gloves boxer in the states and also a Sambo fighter from Russia.

Who knew? He never said a word about it. My mom told us years after he passed that he used to triain behind the shop and then take a train to fight, be gone a few weeks and back home to work like it was no big thing.

[kensei]

One more, my instructor is in his 70s now, 72 to be exact and even when I met him, he was in his 40's he did not look intimidating at all, he is 5'2" and a small Irish guy. About 7 years ago he was working as a security guard in a small shop down town. He would greet people and just kind of hang out and help people out with thier stuff.

His boss knew him from training with him and one day this REALLY big dude came in and was bugging people and they sent him over to deal with the guy. Apparently he dealt with him, he wont talk about it and says that things like this make him sad to talk about.....but the guys boss, whom I know fairly well, told me that it was kind of a blur, the guy thought he would shove my instructor and with a swift kick to the guts and a wrist lock the guy was outside and puking his guts out....proving once again "booze and a lack of intellegence will make you sick".

My instructor in his 60's would best athletes in their 20's on the floor. Crazy stuff like that make great stories, but man they are fun to watch as well.

[Lupin1]

People get surprised when they find out I do martial arts (I don't tell too many people). I'm a school librarian with a pretty academic, bookish focus. When I was really overweight, people seemed shocked because I guess I didn't seem like I did anything physical. I also used to be a lot quieter and meeker and I still am in some settings, but I'm becoming a bit more gregarious due mostly to my summer job which requires a lot of energetic interaction. Now people aren't as shocked, but it still seems to throw them off a bit. I like that.