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WOMEN'S SELF-DEFENSE Cindy Rothrock on the Known Limits

TEACH SELF-CONFIDENCE Prepare to Win

FEAR OF CONTACT Proper Training is the Key to Courage

PERSEVERANCE Living the Art for Life

R.D.A. Plan on page 75

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ILLlJSTR.A..TED APRIL 1983 Vol. 14, No 4

CONTENTS FEATURES 20 SELF· DEFENSE FOR WOMEN: THE KNOWN LIMITS-Pretty National

Forms Champions Cynthia Rothrock has some refreshingly pragmatic views on a topic of enduring interest.

29 BORN TO BE WILD: BILL CLARK SURVIVES HIS SONG-He survived stolen car chases wi th police, fought five dollar smokers everywhere, sowed some wild oats, became a professional wrestler, and decided one day to find out what this new stuff called karate was.

36 FEAR OF CONTACT - Many students are scared of being hit, of accident· Iy hitting somebody else, of losing cont ro l. Dan DiVito believes in rigorous physical conditioning and a ki nd of warm gradualism that begins with slow·motion drills.

44 TEACH THEM TO WIN - James R. Melton knows that every champion has good basics and that every champion believes in his own ability. In teaching the martial arts, careful coaching and sel flessness are almost everything.

48 A WULF IN CHAMPION'S CLOTHING- A couple of years back, a supple blond kung fu stylist hit the A circuit like a tornado. He'd come from Hamburg, Germany. Lucky for some forms competi tors, he returned in a few weeks. Don't look now, but they say he's coming back.

72 TRADITIONS-Once upon a time a young man with a brand new black belt set sail from Japan to Hawaii. It was about that time that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Both the man and hi s prized black belt were to be in for a surprising future.

THE SATURDAY KICK & SUNDAY PUNCH

52 LARRY KELLEY KICKS UP A STORM IN FLORIDA-Larry Kelley put some lubricant along his hip joints, some fi re in his heart, and caught a plane for Florida to collect some dues.

56 SLIPPING UP ON UNREALITY IN OKLAHOMA CITY-For more than a year·and·a·half, " Nasty" Anderson had managed to win every other A·rated tournament no matter where it was. Ray McCallum ended that. Then he faced Billy Blanks.

60 LOOK FOR A BIG CHANGE IN THE NATIONAL STANDINGS-From the look of things as we come down to the wi re, the nat ional ratings for '83 are going to be very interesting indeed.

DEPARTMENTS About the Cover: Two-l imo National Women's

6 Editorial Forms Champion Cyn· ...... thia Rothrock looks as =---8 Readers' Forum gooa s tanding slill as

15 Calendar she does in the middle of

66 Regional Ratings one 01 her larms. KI 's Marcia Mack look the

80 Dojo Directory photo. PAGE 48

FEii iF orking Through Fear with Conditioning

nd Caution

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J by Hadith Lundell

I Many beginners in the martial arts are secretly uncertain

/hether they will ever be able to ieliver or accept kicks and

W punches in either combat or * sparring without flinching. Many

mid-level students are held back from true progress by their fears of being hit, while others are deathly affgijd_of injuring some-

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one through a lack of self-control. Naturally enough, there are others who enroll with boxing or streetiighting ex­perience, all too eager to hit. Dan DiVito, Hollywood tae kwon do teacher, believes that to become a truly skilled martial artist is to develop simultane­ously in mind and spirit and body_

Contact, DiVito believes, is neces­sary for the martial arts student before he can come to a necessary apprecia­tion of the levels of force. A mastery of technique is only half the battle, he maintains. A conquest or subjugation of fears is essential before the student can learn to feel and move with an op­ponent's reactions. How ought a stu­dent to prepare for contact then? DiVito calls for both education and conditioning.

Under the guise of education, DiVito would introduce the topic of chi or ki, not, he recognizes, a universally ac­ceptable topic among all martial art­ists. Chi, says DiVito, is the quality of energy emanating from the human spirit, an energy that has different qualities at different times.

Although he believes that some in­dividuals naturally have more of this energy than others, DiVito claims that every accomplished martial artist can and should learn to make use of his chi, either to destroy or heal. As a self­professed "creator" in the martial arts, DiVito believes he can help a student open the chi within himself and learn to develop it to a level where he can make different choices in different situations.

Originally trained in tae kwon do by Choi Chang Hae in Chicago, DiVito has since expanded his base, earning a black belt in the stick-fighting and soft style of modern arnis under founder Remy Presas. "I am foremost a martial

Though trained in Korean karate, DiVito teaches a series of sanchin·llke breathing exercises to students who want to acquire the ability to withstand blows. 38

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artist and respecter of all styles," DiVito enthuses. "Personally, I will evaluate and make use of anything I consider functional in creating drills for students, the same as I would do in combat. Creativity is essential for work· ing certain people through different areas of difficulty."

One exercise DiVito finds especially helpful is to have his students execute techniques against one another in slow motion, carefully subtracting all snap and focus from the technique in order to allow participants to observe and tolerate at the lowest level the full mo· tion of the punch or kick.

From such a position, a participant can tell his attacker how much harder he can strike, gradually developing a tolerance for more impact and penetra· tion-all, of course-at his own speed. In such a way, DiVito believes, the force can be confronted little by little, reach· ing levels acceptable to both parties.

Both parties? Yes, the attacker also learns from the drill. According to the muscular five·foot, eight·inch tae kwon do and arnis teacher, the attacker learns that it is possible to strike with· out inflicting damage-using almost the opposite of focus or kime. Paradox­ically, he also learns more about how to strike to inflict maximum damage.

"When you feel a neck with the edge of your hand," says DiVito, "you learn about how to be precise in striking your targets, what it feels like to hit a neck. From the point of view of the person be­ing struck, he learns how to move with the force, and that being hit in the neck need not be as traumatic as he might have imagined at first. It is an almost perfect way to learn to control and con­front levels of force. "

Modified slightly with a soft style approach, this drill allows the recipient of the blow to rotate, deflect each blow from straight on to glancing. DiVito uses an elaboration of this basic mo· tion in teaching streetfighting drills. By employing a continuing shift of head and shoulders, DiVito enters into a "flow" similar to that used in arnis. In such a stationa<y dance, he is able to deflect punches and kicks by having them glide past Cheekbones and graze pectoral muscles. Such deflecting movements may be employed in a more mobile sense as well, allowing the students to make use of a larger space.

Along with being "rolled off," kicks

The abdominal areas and the legs are . vitally important. DIVito lays much stress on deep stances. Isometric exercises develop neck muscles and help a fighter deal with head contact.

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"Stretched" wrestler's bridges are great for the neck. DiVito has offered money to students who hoped to keep up with his abdominal workouts.

and strikes may be "bounced off," DiVito says. Whereas the deflecting drills make use of soft style evasive motions, the bouncing off dri ll has its roots in sanchin (immobile) breathing and hard style karate methods. Used irr tandem, DiVito believes that both ap­proaches are complementary and lead to a greater ability to stand up to violence. "A ball bouncing off a steel wall," is the way the Hollywood teacher describes the effect of a strike against a martial artist trained in sanchin breathing. By contrast, the soft style, evasive motions are said to "make you feel like a feather in the wind, or flow­ing water." In the same way that force can travel harmlessly through a pile of feathers or under the surface of the water, DiVito insists that much physical power can be harmlessly dispersed through these methods. They should, he notes, be practiced in the presence of a qualified instructor.

As the student's ability to perform the slow speed drills expands, he be­comes more sensitive to an approach­ing movement. Then he advances to the next stage: learning to take an at­tack with closed eyes. By not relying on viSion, he is forced to use other senses more fully; he will develop an expanded awareness of the importance of bal­ance, distance and space. If the at­tacker's mot ion level is too high, it can be reduced until the reCipient is able to feel a hand coming toward him. If he's unable to do this, DiVito tells him, ':Take the blow." Receiving a strike, even from a knife with its blade folded in paper to prevent a cut, the student feels the continuation of the entire ac­tion and gradually is able to stop flinch­ing, both physically and mentally. This drill can be done standing, kneeling, ly­ing down or in virtually any vulnerable pOSition. By working toward a full com­munication of the blows, the partici­pants begin to lose their fears of being hit. When this level is reached, more at­tackers are introduced until five or six can be dealt with-eyes stil l closed.

Asked about the significance of his own weight training and conditioning program, he says, "pumping iron is just a complement to martial arts. Lifting doesn't haye to make you slower or in­flexible if the quality of movement and intention are maintained. Whether you intend to become stronger, bulkier, to stretch, or to combine speed with

power, your movements must be filled with awareness'," he says.

About the danger of giving too much too soon, DiVito says it is essential to use a "gradient approach." The teacher must always evaluate an individual'S ability to proceed. "Beginners must never be hurt or overwhelmed, even in exerCising," he stresses,

With respect to conditioning, DiVito stresses a continuous motion in train­ing. Of particular importance in his view are horse stances and other low stances, push-ups and si t-ups. While he refuses to push a student beyond what the student can endure, DiVito himself is known as a fanatic about training. He once offered a year's free training to anybody who could make it through a particularly grueling seSSion, and there have been rumors that he has offered rather fabulous sums of money to anybody who could match him move for move in an abdominal-conditioning workout.

Music is one of the things that DiVito considers an indispensable train­ing tool. "A spirit of rhythm can take you further when you think you can't do any more. Slow, shifting stances until the muscles begin to burn. These things are essential," DiVito adds, "be­cause the foundation of power in the martial arts is to be found in the stomach, waist and legs-those areas. The development of chi depends on such a foundation." DiVito, who has promoted five black belts, requires both conditioning levels and evidence of chi in those he promotes.

For Dan DiVito the idea of learn­ing martial arts is not to learn how to harm another person. He trains himself and his students with an eye to having a choice- including the choice of merely defusing an attacker'S will to strike. The ability to kill may be needed when it comes to saving a life, yet DIVito insists that the martial artist should also be a healer. By overcoming fears and developing the tools of choice, "we become able to confront evil without being overwhelmed by it. We become aware of precisely what is needed in a situation, whether it is avoidance, deflection, or acceptance of the blow. In return, we can strike at any of many levels of force. We can make use of the intent to frighten, the intent to injure, or the intent to destroy. By practicing the comprehension of movement, a martial artist can develop the abi lity to deliver and receive blOWS, as well as the power of choice, the capacity to shape a sit­uation with chi. That," adds DiVito, "is the real solution to fear and pain." Ki