Fighting Black Kings

[Bulltahr]

Great photo! one to treasure for sure.......................

Yeah I really should try and get in and train at Honbu, it's just that I'm allergic to cities....................

Would love to get to the Go-En week, wrong time of year for me tho.......

[JR 137]

Wrong time of year for me too. I'm a school teacher. Taking a few days or even a week off at the end of the year isn't going to happen. Too many important things to prepare for and wrap up. No ones mentioned how much it costs either. I'll probably head down for the weekend and stay in a hotel for a night. It's a 2 hour drive for me, so it's manageable. A lot of people from my dojo want to go, but no one knows what it'll cost. I'm sure several people will do what I'm planning on doing.

[JR 137]

I was talking to my CI about this movie last night after class. He trained with several of the guys in the movie when he was in Kyokushin and followed Nakamura to Seido. This includes the 4 main guys and several others who are in the background. He's not in it the movie though.

He said that day in and day out training wasn't as intense as the movie depicts. Some of it was day to day stuff, but a lot of it was an elite group training specifically for the tournament and for the camera.

He said the shodan test in the movie was an exaggeration, and was exactly like black belt and kyu tests were though. Shigeru Oyama was every bit as intense off camera as he was on camera. Nakamura has a more reserved personality on camera, and that's exactly how he was off camera. He's mellowed out a bit as he's 40 years older now, but he's still pretty intense at the appropriate time.

I met a few of the now Seido guys from the film at that workout a few months back. I didn't realize who most of them were.

Even without knowing this stuff, it's still a great film. A real life Bloodsport meets 70s blaxploitation.