Each of us had our reasons, some were bullied, some needed confidence, some wanted to have no fear, there is more. Oh yes and some wanted to compete and prove they are the best, some did and others met reality and quit. Even if you become the best it is for a short time but they will still have the general skills to be able to protect themselves if they have to. I see people laugh at some of our guys who say we can’t compete in the ring because our Art is too dangerous to use in the ring, which opens the door to ridicule. I don’t like the way it was said and believe it makes us look foolish however I see both sides. Most of us who searched for the art we wanted to learn to better protect ourselves in Los Angeles (me, in Compton, that was a fun place) were limited to only a few arts. Took me 2 years to find a Chinese who would teach a white man. I found Ark Wong and Jimmy on the same week. Both were good but Jimmy impressed me for his aggressiveness, power, confidence, smoothness of motion and he trained for the streets. With ring rules they did work with our style but nothing says that the ring people could not branch out with street techniques just as we could borrow some of their moves. I always learned tactics from other styles, if I could start over I would also learn some Catch Wrestling. Many have discussed learning Chi Na which Jimmy first called Aikido’s, but I pushed hard to use proper Chinese names and finally over time we did it. He had 5 typed out with each having 2 or 3 variations. Over time we got many more embedded in the lessons, there was a large variety. I found these tapes if you have interest in viewing a whole bunch of them, this guy is good and I like his leg and foot stability when he makes his move.
Ron Gatewood
