Martial Arts Legends of the Past

Dr. Ron Stone

American Dragon Martial arts Academies

Clermont, Florida

For no apparent reason I began compiling some of my favorite martial arts stories.  They are martial arts tales which I have either heard, or have personally told for almost thirty years.  This is the first part in a series of three of my favorite martial arts legends.   I do not vouch for their accuracy or authenticity, only for the interest they generate when told.

1.  The Martial Arts Legend of Mind Over Body: ( my title, not my story)

            I heard this martial arts legend over twenty five years ago and for some reason it stuck with me.  As it was told to me there once was an ancient Japanese Karate dojo with two very different students.  Both of them were black belt masters of Karate and both desired to be the very best that they could.  The first master however was dedicated to personal harmony and practiced his Karate Katas (forms) constantly, for hours on end, all the while striving for perfection. 

The other martial arts master believed in matching his skills against others in combat and had little if any use for forms.  He eventually left the martial arts school and gained fame for picking and winning fights all over the countryside.  Over time however he became obsessed with match-fighting his old classmate from the martial arts school.  Finally he waited in hiding and cornered his opponent on a deserted road where he promptly boasted of his martial arts skill and challenged the other martial arts master to a fight.  He would give him no other choice but combat.

Just as this second more aggressive martial arts master was about to attack however, his old classmate began performing one of his Karate Katas,  (kind of like Daniel did in one of the Karate Kid sequels …again my words ).  The skill and absolute perfection of this martial arts performance so stunned and impressed the attacker that he immediately realized that to proceed with the fight would mean to face certain defeat.  Of this he had no doubt.  Instead he bowed, turned silently, and walked away, never to be heard from again.

Moral of the story…   The martial arts are about trying to be the best you can, not about trying to best others.

Martial Arts Legends of the Past: Part 2

Dr. Ron Stone

American Dragon Martial arts Academies

Clermont, Florida

This is part two in a series of three articles about my favorite martial arts stories. I hope that you enjoy it. I do not vouch for their accuracy or authenticity, only for the interest they generate when told.

2. Martial Arts Legend: The Night Stalker  (again my title)

If my memory serves me (and it gets foggier with every pasing year) I believe I read this back in the 70’s in some martial arts magazine.  Again I can’t vouch for it other than to say true or not it is a fun martial arts story.

It seems that there was this talented martial artist who found himself all dressed up in a tuxedo and on his way back from some social function.  As it turns out he ends up deciding to travel home on the New York subway.  (I know, it sounded strange to me too when I read it.  After all who wears a tux but can’t aford a taxi?)  At any rate he ends up alone on a dark and deserted subway station platform late at night facing a street gang of hoodlums (my generation’s term for gang bangers).  As the gang approached the martial artist obviously intent on robbery and doing him more than bodily harm, the martial artist weighed his options.

The martial artist’s choice?   Well that’s where the fun begins.  His choice was to back himself into a corner to avoid being surrounded and silently face the gang.  Suddenly the martial artist rips off his jacket and shirt and drops to his hands and  knees.  He then began slobbering, snarling and actually barked at the gang.   When faced in the dark with this crazy bare-chested man drooling, snarling, growling and barking at them down on all fours, the gang members all turned and fled for their life into the night screaming “Werewolf, Werewolf!!!”

The martial artist then put his jacket back on and went home with a torn shirt, a dirty tuxedo, but no bodily injuries.

Moral of this martial arts story…..  Don’t underestimate the importance of the psychological factors in combat.  Or… It’s better to lose your shirt than your life.

Martial Arts Legends of the Past: Part 3

Dr. Ron Stone

American Dragon Martial arts Academies

Clermont, Florida

This is the final part of a 3 part series of articles about my favorite martial arts stories. I hope that you enjoy it. I can vouch for their accuracy or authenticity of this final story because it happened to me personally.

3)  The Martial Arts Teachings of Kwai Chang Caine

By 1974 I had been in the Unversity of Florida’s Judo club for three years.  In those days I was a big fan of David Carradine’s character on the popular Kung Fu television series.   Caine always preached humility and had a passive philosophy which for some reason was very appealing to me at the time.  ( will admit however that I had been raised a John Wayne fan and sometimes the western desire to kick butt conflicted with the Kung Fu mindset.) 

In  those days it was unheard of to hear people discussing their martial arts skills or rank outside of class.  Then as now, one simply did not boast about the martial arts.  In fact it was not unusual to know someone for years without realizing they held black belt rank. 

Okay, so back to the story.  Back in the day, a small group of my dorm friends and I got into the habit every weeknight of gathering around a small circular fireplace in the lobby after dinner and discussing politics, sex and religion for an hour or so. 

School had just resumed for the year and our group began to reunite around that fireplace we usually did  with one exception.  The was a newcomer to the group that I hadn’t yet met.  If memory serves his name was Jack.  At any rate Jack must have been a future Obama supporter because he didn’t seem to agree with anything I said. 

When it was my turn to make some political point or another Jack suddenly pointed a finger at me from across the circular fireplace and very angrily told me to shut up.  (Actually he said “shut the @@&& up).  Unaccustomed as I was to any kind of violent behavior in this group of friends, I was stunned and truly thought he must surely be kidding.  I then proceeded to make a joke of the matter which only served to anger him more.  “I told you to shut your mouth.  One more word out of you and I’ll have to shut it for you!” was his abrupt and rather response.

I was so shocked at the anger directed at me from a total stranger over something so insignificant as a friendly college discussion that I just stared at him.  Before I got physical however (the John Wayne instinct in me), one of the girls in the group put her hand on my knee and whispered that she didn’t want me to fight.    The fact that I had a big crush on her at the time factored in somewhat, so I just sat there and stared back, all the while squeezing the chair’s arm so hard I actually perforated the leather with my fingers. 

Jack then proceeded to boast to the group about how lucky it was that I had decided to to back off since he was a serious martial artist.  To this day I really don’t know which made me angrier; getting insulted in front of the group, being bullied without responding, or listening to him boast of the martial arts outside of the dojo. (that Kung Fu dilema again)

In accordance with the martial arts teaching of Kwai Chang Caine I just had to get up and leave.  I did so quietly and as I left I heard him bragging of his yellow belt rank. (serious hard core martial artist that he was).   I had so much pent up anger in me that I promptly threw up after reaching my dorm room.  I spent the rest of the night with a migraine and an ice pack on my forehead.

A couple of days later there was a knock on my door and I opened it to find this very same Jack asking to come in and appologize.  As it turned out, he had heard some unfavorable things about me from someone I knew to be a drug using, cheating lowlife.  Jack explained that even before we had ever met he had formed a bad opinion of me  based on this fellow’s faulty information.  Jack went on t explain that once he found out more about me and discovered the truth about that other fellow, he began to regret his actions. 

    Jack also explained that he had subsequently learned that I outranked him in the martial arts and was impressed with the fact that rather than rearranging his face I had taken the high ground and simply walked away.  Jack finally admitted to me that he had learned a valuable lesson about the martial arts.

I told him truthfuly that I felt it took a big man to admit his mistakes and then invited him in for a beer. (All right so sue me, my roomate and I kept a few against-the-rules brewskies hidden in our dormroom.)  We eventually parted on good terms (beer will often do that) but I will have to admit that as things turned out Jack eventually would stil remain a jerk at heart.

The bottom line is that after that I felt a lot better about my decision not to butt heads.  Looking back at it thirty years later I am very proud of my behavior, but will secretly admit that I still regret not leaping over the fireplace and proving my warrior spirit in front of al the girls.

Moral of this martial arts story:  Never discuss politics, sex or religion!

Or:

Don’t mix your martial arts role models’ philosophies

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