Geoff Thompson is a BAFTA-winning writer, film-maker, spiritual teacher, and martial artist. He has written prolifically in a wide range of genres, including books on spirituality, self-help, self defence, and martial arts, and scripts for film and stage.
No Retreat, No Surrender is a 1985 martial arts film directed by Corey Yuen in his American film directorial debut. It is the first title in the No Retreat, No Surrender franchise, whose plot lines and characters are mostly unrelated. It stars Kurt McKinney, with a supporting cast of Jean-Claude Van Damme, J.W. Fails, Kathie Sileno, and Tai-chung Kim. The film was released in Italy on October 20, 1985, and in the United States on May 2, 1986. McKinney performs as Jason Stillwell, an American teenager who learns martial arts from the spirit of Bruce Lee. Stillwell uses these lessons to defend his martial arts dojo against Soviet martial artist Ivan Kraschinsky.
Cynthia Ann Christine Rothrock is an American martial artist and actress in martial arts films. Rothrock holds black belt rankings in seven styles of martial arts and was a high-level competitor in martial arts before becoming an actress. In 2014, she was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame.
Minoru Mochizuki was a Japanese martial artist who founded the dojo Yoseikan. He was a 10th dan in Aikido, 9th dan in Jujutsu, 8th dan in Iaido, 8th dan in Judo, 8th dan in Kobudo, 5th dan in Kendo, 5th dan in Karate, and a 5th dan in Jojutsu.
Jailhouse rock is a name used to describe a collection of fighting styles that were practiced or developed within black urban communities in the 1960s and 1970s.
Alexander James Gong was an American Muay Thai kickboxer.
The International Traditional Karate Federation or ITKF is the international governing body for Traditional Karate. This organisation was founded by Hidetaka Nishiyama. In the early 1990s, Nishiyama's refusal to align his ITKF organization with the World Union of Karate-Do Organizations (WUKO) caused the International Olympic Committee to suspend its recognition of WUKO as amateur karate's international governing body. According to the IOC decision 101 from 1993 the ITKF and WUKO had been due to merge and form a unified karate organization under the IOC suggested name of WKF. The IOC further indicated its intention to recognize the merged WKF should ITKF and WUKO successfully fulfill the IOC 101 decision guidelines, but this did not eventuate. The WUKO eventually became the World Union of Karate-Do Federations in late 2008.
Combat Hapkido is an eclectic modern Hapkido system founded by John Pellegrini in 1990. Taking the next step in 1992 Pellegrini formed the International Combat Hapkido Federation (ICHF) as the official governing body of Combat Hapkido. Later, in 1999, the ICHF was recognized by the Korea Kido Association and the World Kido Federation, collectively known as the Kido Hae, as the Hapkido style Chon Tu Kwan Hapkido. The World Kido Federation is recognized by the Government of South Korea as an organization that serves as a link between the official Martial Arts governing body of Korea and the rest of the world Martial Arts community. The founder of Combat Hapkido was very clear in his statement that he did not invent a new martial art. He stated "I have merely structured a new Self-Defense system based upon sound scientific principles and modern concepts. For this reason Combat Hapkido is also referred to as the "Science of Self-Defense". Combat Hapkido is a new interpretation and application of a selected body of Hapkido techniques. The word "Combat" was added to Combat Hapkido to distinguish this system from Traditional Hapkido styles and to identify its focus as Self-Defense.
Kokusai Budoin, International Martial Arts Federation (IMAF) is the oldest continuously operating Japanese organization promoting international Budō. The organization, founded in 1952, has headquarters in Tokyo, Japan and is a member of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Allen R. Steen is an American martial arts practitioner, teacher, and promoter. He was taught by Jhoon Rhee, the "Father of American Taekwondo", and was the first of Rhee's American students to reach black belt standing.
Takayuki Kubota, also known as Tak Kubota, is a Japanese-American karateka, known as the founder the Gosoku-ryu style of karate. He holds the title of sōke (grandmaster) for his development of the Gosoku-ryū, and is the founder and president of the International Karate Association. He is also the inventor and holder of the trademark of the Kubotan self-defense key chain.
Anthony Young is an American martial artist, teacher, and practitioner of the Goju Ryu Karate style and founder of the Tony Young All-Star Karate Academy. He is also a sport karate competitor.
Togakure-ryū (戸隠流) is a historical tradition of ninjutsu known as the "School of the Hidden Door", allegedly founded during the Oho period (1161–1162) by Daisuke Nishina (仁科大助), who learned his original fighting techniques from a Chinese monk named Kain Dōshi. However, the history and early lineage of Togakure-ryū may be impossible to verify due to the antiquity of the time period and its claimed historicity has been disputed by Watatani Kiyoshi, writer for the Bugei Ryūha Daijiten. After Togakure, the title of Sōke was recorded by Toda Shinryuken Masamitsu to have been passed down through other practitioners that kept the style secret from the outside world.
Limalama is a Polynesian art of self-defense, created and founded by Tu’umamao "Tino" Tuiolosega (1931–2011). Tuiolosega created the word "Limalama" as a portmanteau derived from the Samoan language words lima (hand) and malamalama (understanding). Tuiolosega defined Limalama to mean "knowledge and understanding", and translated it as "hand of wisdom".
The 1984 World Karate Championships are the 7th edition of the World Karate Championships. They were held in Maastricht, Netherlands from November 21 to November 25, 1984.
Nobuyoshi Higashi is a Japanese American teacher of Tomiki Aikido, karate, and judo, and the founder of Kokushi-ryu jujutsu. He is a 10th dan in jujutsu, 9th dan in judo, 7th dan in aikido, and 7th dan in karate. His style of aikido includes defenses against knives.
James "Jimmy" Pedro Sr is a former national level judoka from the United States and an alternate for the US 1976 Olympic judo team. Jimmy Pedro started Judo at the age of 19, earning his black belt in 2 years. Jimmy won the black belt division at the 1971 Taka Invitational Tournament, and went on to win the 1972 New England AAU Tournament. He earned bronze in the 1974 Senior Nationals, and bronze in the 1974 Pan American Championships. Jimmy trained with Olympians Jimmy Martin and Pat Burris and was selected to take part in the 1975 American Team to Challenge Europe's best judoka. In the US National Championships, James earned a silver in 1978, a bronze in 1979, and a silver in 1980. In 1978, Jimmy Pedro was selected to the Black Belt Magazine Hall of Fame as a judo coach. He coached his son, Jimmy Pedro who became the first person from the U.S. to take home two Olympic medals., and went on to be selected as the 2012 US Olympic Team Assistant Coach.
Sijo Saabir Quwi Muhammad is an American martial artist and police officer.
Kaisai no genri (解裁の原理) is a theory and set of rules of thumb which were used by Gōjū-ryū karate masters to extract the primary fighting applications (Oyo) encoded into karate kata by the creators. These rules were historically kept secret and passed on to the most senior students of a school only near the death of the head of the organisation. Without such a rule set describing how kata are constructed, the likelihood of deciphering the original combative meaning of the movements in the kata is very low.
Karate was first introduced to American service men after World War II by Japanese and Okinawan karate masters.
