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Page 1: Miyazaki sensei

OFFICIAL

ct|trEoE tmRlIE l]ilt IilE t|ryMptc$?

Page 2: Miyazaki sensei

Tong Dojo's lst 0penKarate Championships

by ,41 Weiss

The rvorrl rvas out long before thetournamer)t u as hdcl. Tbis event wouldbe the top one of the season. I t wouldbethe Tong Doio \ f i rst. but thatreal lydidn t nrntter.

- lhe\ had l) l f t ic ipatedin

: \ o n rany t o r r r r r an ren l \ l n l he pas t f ewyears, hacl f ielded so many f ine playersand produced so many great demon-strat ions (rvalking off with more tro.

phies than an-v other doio). that theywould be assured of the necessary co-operdtion of the top senseis in thearea. And being they hacl been in somany tournantents. they had obviouslylearned, by the mistakes of others, justwha l no t t ndn . An , lDamonrnd Py th iasEDterprises were the prodtrcers. Ob.viously, they hacl learned what not todo at their f i rst tournanrent at theHilton and would not make the sanremistakes ag4n.

Yep! The Tong Dojo's lst Open Ka-rate Championships held at \ , lanhattan

Center on June lst was going to be thetop tournament of the season. Thegreat combr'nation of Ceorge Cofield andThomas LaPuppet would make surethat it was the best, the biggest, thegreatest. They told us that, and wehadfaith enough to believe it and evensay so in a previous issue of this maga-zine. Well, i t wasn't thebest. . . .thoughit may well have been the biggest andlongest ever held. And the mistakesothers had made In the past weremade here...only they seemed largerin size because of the great scope ofthis event. What should have beenan enormous success proved to be a greatdi salpointment.

Oh, there were fine moments. Therewere magniffcent demonstrations bylUoses Powell, Ronald Duncan, PeterUrban, Jerry Thompson, Bob Engleand the Tong Dojo. But these momentscould have been condensedinto aperiodof about one hour, while the tourna-nrent lumbered along for over5Yzhours.

Even the bouts, the main features ,of any toumament, were slow and un-eventful. We were sure we would havethe opportunity of seeing the best ofthe East Coast talent. Instead, exceptfor Toyotaro Miyazaki, who is alwaysa joy to watch, we saw contestantswho exhibited very little, if any, ka-rate talent. Perhaps we expected toomuch. But we can't be fully blamedfor that. Lfter all, we were led to be-lieve that it would be "too much."

The tournament actually began onthe evening of May 23rd at a meetingheld in the Presidential Suite of theNew York Hilton, whereCeorge Co0eldand Thomas LaPuppet presentediihetournament rules to the senseis whou'ould be acting as officials. The toneof the meeting made it obvious thatthere would be no room for discussion.The top senseis were being told whatthey would have to do and were notbeing asked for their opinions or sug-gestions, Questions could be asked,but only for clarification of pointsmade. Suggestions were discouraged.

It was emphatically stated that con-tact to the face where blood was drawnwould result in immediate disqualiff-cation. The same penalty would beimposed on anyone leaving the ringthree tr'mes in a bout. These wereperhaps the two most important pointsmade at the meeting....two pointsthat resulted in a great deal of con.troversy at the ehminations a bit oveta week later.

The eliminatjons on June lst werescheduled to start at about 8 AM,Because the hall was not in propercondition, they had to be ddlayed acouple of hours. One sensei, who ar-

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rived at 7 AM, had to wait outside theCenter with cont€stants for well overan hour before he was allowed in. Hetold us he was refused admittance,even though he was an official.

We arrived at 10 AM and can honestlysay that those at the door were under-whelmed to see us. We were imme-diately told we would not have thefreedom of the floor and would haveto remain either in the balcony or ina small area at'the foot of the stepsleading to the balcony. We could ob.serve and take photos from that area....no place else. If we sat down onthe step!, we couldn't view the pro-ceedings. If we stood, we were in theway of contestants movjng in and outof the eliminations. We well under-stood the reason for keeping contest-ants and senseis off the floor unlessthey were officials or actually com-peting. It was obviously done to avoidthe arguments and confusion that weusually ffnd at eliminatjons. We cannotunderstand why these restrictions wereapplied to the press.

We are not claiming we deserve spe.cial privileges. But to do our job pro-perly, we must have the freedom toview what is happening so that wecan report it objectively. We are cer-tainly experienced enough to stay outof the rings and out of the hair ofcontestants and officials alike. Andbeing there were only three magazinespresent, we certainly would not have"mobbed" the floor. Of course, wewere assured we'd have freedom ofthe house at the tournament (whichwe did), but we were also led to be-lieve our presence at the etiminationswas undesireable. We were told, notasked, that "you really don't want towatch this mess." We definitely didwant to watch it.

The preceeding is to explain whywe will not be able to effectively ieporton the eliminatr'ons. What we observedftom our confined area was the usualamount of rough-housing, though therewere perhaps fewer arguments becausesenseis were kept off the floor unlessthey were working. We saw AaronBanks, Rex Lee, Sgt, Donald Bohan,Chuck Merriman, Lou Lizotte, RalphChirrico, Mr. Klein, Ed Mcciath, FraDkRuiz, Albert Cotay. . .all acting as offi-cials. We saw facial contact take placewithout the promised penalty of imme-diate disqualif icatjon being imposed.There were men acting as Sgt.at-A^rmswalking around ordering people off thefloor. We question whether or not thesestringent restrictions were necessary.Could men have been kepl in l ine in aless militaristic fashion? We're inclinedto think so.

In the lower division eliminations,l 6

ToyotoroMiyozoki mel Gonzoles Erodford for the Grond Chompionshiptitle. He took it in "sudden deolh" period with roundhouse.

there was a great deal of unecessarycontact. There seemed to be a greatdeal of anger....but because we wereviewing ftom a distance, we couldn'tdiscover the reasons for it. We mustadmit there were no displays of dis-respect by contestants that we couldsee....but we were told later, by menof top rank, that there was very littlerespect shown to them by the menpatrolling the floor,

In both the green belt and brownbelt rings, we did see some fine tech.niques. . .some excel lent f ighters. Mostof there men u ire obr ioudy el iminatedbecause the talent displayed later onat the tournament left a qreat deal tobe desired.

After two hours of watchinq from ourarea of confinement. u'e decided tol eaye . We were r ( con r l , l i s l r i ng \ e r )I l t t le.

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At I:,t5 PM, we joined the crowd infiont of Manhattan Center. Perhaps wewere naive. but we thought this touFnament would start fairly close to thescheduled2 PN{. We stood for about anhour in the middle ol this growingmassof senseis. contestants and fans. Wedidn't particularly like it, but it gaveus the opportunity to speak to somesenseis and get their reactions to theeliminations. Because we couldn't re-port for ourselves, we had lo gel theooinions or experiences of others^

The first man we spoke to was ChuckMerriman, &h dan, who was morcthan just a bit angry. In fact, he wasfurious about something that happenedto one of his students.

"My student, Charles Anderson, wasfiehtinq in the black belt eliminations."he told us. There were four judgesand a referee. So. ..the rules weremadebeforehand that if there was facial con-tact made and blood \^/as drawn, itwould mean automatic disqualificatronThe rule was reitterated here in frontof my student wilh a bleeding mouth.

Thev thev turned to the other manand'eave him a warning and said ifhe hits asain he would be disqualif ied....no[ withstanding that my stu'dent is standinq there with a bloodymouth, How and wh1 he got his isimmaterial. . . .he got hit So then' hefousht asain and qol hit in the cv<anlsot knocked down cnd PossiblYknocked out. . .we had to Pull him offto the side....Now he can no longerffght. He's sti l l in the contest but hecan no longer fight.

'

"But th; disqualification occurred,didn't it?" we asked.

"A.fter the second facial contact"'was Mr. l{erriman's answer. "Had theman been disqualified after the firstcontact, my man could have gone on.Now I won't allow him to fight. Hiseve is closed."

trlr. Merriman also had a complaintabout the kata eliminations. He, as afourth deeree black belt, objected tobeing judged by shodans (lst degreeblack belts). He felt there were manyhigh'ranking sensei3 present who could

have been called upon to judge thesecontests. This satne complaint wasvoiced bv three other senseis we metin the stieet. Obviously, it was legitimate. We also heard, but can't confirm,that Toe Hayes, a fine competitor andone who could have added a great dealof excitement to the tournament, alsowalked out because he was unfairlYtreated.

We also met Cary A.lexander waitingin the street, He explained that he wasupset because of a situation that oc-cured over which, he said, he had nocontrol. He had wanted to supportGeorge Cofield because Mr. Cofieldhad been so good about supportinghimand others at their tournaments. Hehad asked his men to register as con-testants, but as far as he knew, onlythree had shown up. He did not be-lieve in forcinq his men to compete,was his comment. However, because ofthis failure of his men to appear, hewould not be called upon to act asan official. In fact, though he hadshown up to personally lend a hand,he would now become just anothermember of the audience. Again, whatwe hoped we would not see at thistournament, was running rampant. . . .dissension, misunderstanding, anger.

The tournament finally started at3:35PM...one hour and thirty-five min-utes late. Ed Nlccrath, the Voice ofKarate, served as commentator andintroduced Mr. Cofield and ThomasLaPuppet. Mr. LaPuppet and Edlvlccrath then gave public recognitionand trophii:s to the many senseis whohad helped with the tournament. Itwas an impressive list, and certainlyone that proved the karate communitythought a great deal of Cofield.LaPuppet and the Tong Dojo.

Mr. LaPuppet explained as the verycapable Hawk Frazier and PanamaJones demonstrated the point system,

The toumament finally got underwaYwith Ntr. Nakamura as Chief Refereeof the Under.Creen Belt bouts. Thefirst was a slow, uneventful match thatwas won by Jon Jones. Sgt. BPhan,as a corner judge, could only shrughis shoulders as comment on the tech-niques and talent shown.'i he second bout in the division wasbetween Bob Foster and DougBennett.Both men moved slowly and weaklyand shorved very poor technique. Thebout ran two minutes with nothinghappening. Bennett tmk the matchwitha half point he collected sornewherealong the l ine.

The bout to decide Position in thisrlivision was betrveen W lr'lolina andUob Foster. There was one extla con'testant - f ive instead of four. Molinaopenecl quickly with a fast, well-eiecuted reverse wheel kick. It was thefirst good move of the evening A se'cond reverse wheel kick by ltlolina wasperfectt it caught Foster in the stomachand gave Molina ,l Point. A clumsyflying shuto by Foster fell short and\lolina finally took the bout with a

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; , :

Georoe Cofield tokes out one of the Wilder lwins during TongDoio'i demon strotio n. l i wos excellent...but o bit too long.

.qqi*

one of the best of ihe evening's demonslrot ions wos given by senlei Ronold Duncon'

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round house kick to the chest.The bout for first and second places

between Jon Jones and Doug Bennettwas another example of poor fomr andclumsiness. Molina. who had to sett lefor a lesser posit ion, was farbetterthanejther of these men. The expressions onthe faces of the judges showed whatthey thought of the abi l i t ies of thesecontestants. Because no Fojnts werescored in the two minutes alloted forthe bout and because lhe judqe'

couldn't honestly decide a winner, aone-minute "sudden death" periodrvasrequired. Lgain, the judges voted a tieChief Referee John Kuhl broke the tiewith a half-hearted vote for BennettHe won the t i t le, but certajnly didn t

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prove an,vthing b-v i t .l r ' tol ina fought Dobbin todecidethird

and fourth places. ivtolina again sho*'edhe was better than all the others andalmost immediately took hjs first 7,point with a purch to the midsection.There was no offensive action bYDobbin, and lvtolina easjly took thebout and third place.

The Under.GreeD Belt kata was wonb!'James Wil l iams. His sensei, Fredl lamilton. \r 'as one of the judges.

Though we agree that Williams desewedfirst place, we question the practice ofsenseis judging their own students.Had the original rules been used.scofing from one to ten by each judge,

with the highest and lowest scores

being discarded... there would be noreason for objection. I f a sensei scoredhigh for his student, it wouldn't countanyway. But this wasn't the case.WilUams won with a score of 26points.Obviously, all scores were counted

A frne demonstration byJerry ThomP-son followed, but like most of thosewe \!'ould see this day, it was far toolong. As we have said before, we thinka long demonstrat ion, no matter howwell i l is done, i \ not near as effect iveas a good short one.

The f irst of lhe bouts in the JuniorDivision \r'as between K. Cooper andDjck Stewart. Cooper received the first

Ui point wi th a perfect roundhouse thatthe audience really appreciated. Cooper

Page 6: Miyazaki sensei

turned his back for a fraction of asecond, and Stewart took advantage ofthe situation and scored y2 point witha punch. Both boys worked fast andhard, and Cooper took the decision witha clean, hard shuto.

In the second match, G. Wil l iamsfaced Dwayne Mariani. Wil l iams movedfast and furiously and seemed to begett ing at the smaller Mariani, forcinghim from the ring. However, he didn'twr'n any points because of lack qfveri f icat ion. Wil l iams f inal ly took thematch with a half point he rvon witha shuto as t ime was cal led.

Mariani met Richard Stewart to de-cide third and fourth places. An almostimmediate attack by Stewart with a

reverse wheel kick won him the first7: point. l\'lariani evened the score witha strong punch. I t was st i l l t ied astime was cal led, so a 3O-second "sud-den death" period rvas necessary.Though both contestants worked hard,neither could score in this short, extraperiod. A call for judges flags produceda tie. The Chief Referee broke it byaward ing t he dec i s i on t o Benne t t . Ma r i -ani had to settle for 4th place.

It might be wise to mention, at thispoint, that the early matches werecompletely confusing. No one seemedto know who was fighting who forwhat spot. I f we had trouble keepingup with the action, the audience musthave found it r'mpossible.

K. Cooper fought C. Williams todecide first and second places. Cooperopened fast, charged with a shutoand rvon the first score. However, thelarger Williams forced the ffght, scoredtwice and won the Junior Division tit le.

The first of the Pee we; Divisionbouts was belween Larry Thorntonand Charles Long. A side thrust kickby Thornton took Long off his feetand gave him the first 7z point. Thishalf point was enough to give thebout to Thomton.

Teddy Taylor easily defeated TalDonaldson in the second bout, whichmeant Donaldson had to meet Longto decide third and fourthplaces. Long,though much smaller, moved in fast

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and won the ffrst 7r point with afast puflch, He was then floored by akick to the head, but returned to takethe bout and third place with anotherstinging punch to the body.

Larry Thornton then met TeddyTaylor to decide the first two spots.A side kick brought Thornton his firstr/.r point. and I his was enough to winhim the Pee Wee Division title.

Peter Urban followed the small kara-tekas with a demonstration. He led offwith some slow, ftee sparring thatseemed to wear him out. But he fin-ished magnificently by breaking flyingoire-inch boards with punches. His stu-d€nts then . demonstrated take-downtechniques that were fast and exciting.Katas by Al Cotay and Mr. Orangeended the demonstration which, thoughgood, was also a bit too long.

Nick Adler won the questionablehonor of refereeing the Woman's Divi'sion kumite. He certainly didn't seemoverjoyed by the assignment. AnnetteCranston, who had injured her ankleduring the eliminations, was automatic-ally awarded fourth place. Only threeof the contestants would compete onstage.

The first bout, if you can call i tthat, was between Debbie Ferrar andRosetta Smith. It was an uneventfulmatch that went well into overtime.Miss Ferrar won the decision, and theaudience seemed overjoyed .... that it

Miss Ferrar then fought...or met...April Holmes. Again, we witnessednothing that resembled karate. It's

N

The oudience reolly opprecioted lechniques of mini-korolekos.

r I tJlllt&i L rlu'l,i|"{!?!w '

Ulysses Edwords finolly begon to show old form in bout for lhird ploce ogoinst Khoito.

Page 8: Miyazaki sensei

enough to say Miss Holmes took thedecision of the bored judges and ffrstplace.

A demonstration by Bob Engle followed. We saw some excellent kataand the application of kata. I t .vas agoocl performance and certainly enjoy-able.

One of the high points of the daywas next on the program. It was atruly nagnificent demonstration of de-fensive techniques *i th variousriveapons by Ronald Duncan. l{r.

Duncan's fast, fabulous performancebrought the audience out of their seats.We'd also like to compliment Mr.Duncan's assistant...who took all hissensei threw at him and kept comingback for more.

A judo dentonstration by Ell iottFarrell followed. and though he per-fo rmed ex t remely we l l . i t uas h i . n r is -fortune to follow NIr. Duncan. This tsljke having Ed McCrath follo*- BobHope.

Though it was getting late and there

were still many bouts to bc fought,Moses Powell and his students rverecal led upon to put on their dcrnonstra-tion. If we groaned a bit \'\, hen jt wasannounced, we immediately chirrrgedour mind. I t was just about the bestwe've ever seen. Nlr- Porvell is a su-perb technician and his students, frommini karatekas up. shorve' l abi l i t ierwe've rarely witnessed. I t 's io l \{r ' .Powell's credit that all his strdentsshowed signs of excel lent training. Wehave to echo the words of one senieJsit t ing near us; "I never real ized justhow good he was."

Sgt. Don Bohan rvas Chief Relereefor the Creen Belt Di-visioa bouts.Steve Thomas met an aggressive, cd.pable Emesl Devoe. * ho mo\ , 'd inconstantly with leg s*'eeps, punchesand high, well-executed kicks. Heneverstopped moving and rightfully uon ihedecislon of the judges.

The second bout, between BarryHansen and Mike Barbi, startedquickly. Hansen rushed into a punchthrown by Barbi but quickly' evenerlt he sco re w i t h a rha rp . f r \ l . l r u l o .

In a "sudden death" periocl. neithercould score or win the call of thejudges. Addit ional t ime had to be al-lowed, and i t was in this period thatBarbi took it with a punch t,) thebody.

Because Hansen was ir jured i i r i l isbout with Barbi and could nc, ionge:'comp€te, he was autornaticdl lY

(Continued on page 25)

Peler Urbon, Bob Engle ond Jerry Thompson gove l ine demos. Iheoud ience chose t he bes t w i t h t he i r oDo louse . . . .w inne r wos U rbon .

KUMITECRAND CHAMPION

Therewos olsoo iudo demonstrolion by 3rd don Ell iot Forrell.There were too mony demos...ond most of themron loo long.

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. Tong Doio's I st OpenChompionships

(Contlnued from Page 21)

awarded fourth place. . .with the thirdposition going to Thomas.

The bout for the two top spotsbetween Barbi and Devoe opened withBarbi moving in with a flurry of kicksand punches. But a near'perfect wheelkick by Devoe threw him off balanceHe was now open for a punch thatdrove him ftom the ring and earnedthe first /r point for Devoe. A round-house to the stomach gave Devoeanother % point, the match and theCreen Belt title,

The Green Belt Kata followedand then Lou Lizotte came on stageto act as Chief Referee for the BrownBelt bouts. Walter Johnson facedWillieWinffeld, w-ho opened quickly with aroundhouse and a wheel kick, both ofwhich were blocked. Johnson movedin with punches that fell short. Win'ffeld shot out a side kick that Johnsonblocked. He then countered with aseries of ineffective punches. Neithercould score in the bout or in the additional "sudden death" period. A showof flags declared the bout a tie. Mr.Lizotte broke that by declaringJohnsonthe winner.

Thebout between James Cooper andLamar Thornton was a fast and furious one. Cooper was the more aggles_ive, but both men displayed excellentform and abjlity. It went to Cooper,but Thornton deserves praise for hisperformance.

Thornton immediately had to meetWinffeld to decide third and fourtholace. He moved in fast. but Winfieldiuccessfully stopped his drive untilThomton came up with a punch thatbroke through his defenses. It was theffrst score of the match A reversewheel kick by Thomton later in thebout gave him third place in the di-vision.

In the bout for the division title,Cooper rushed in and scored imme'diately, A furious Johnson attackedand both fighters had to be separatedThey shook hands but were at it againa few moments later...both throwingpunches to theface. Cooperwent down,and a doctor had to be called. It wasthefirst injury inthe finals. Thedoctorwould not allow Cooper to continue,but he was awarded the match andthe division title.

A demonstration by the Tong Dojofollowed, It was preceeded by an intro-duction of all the blackbelts connectedwith the school. It was an excitingand competently performeddemonstra-tion that included defense techniquesby Mr. Cofield and Mr. LaPuppet,a beautifully synchronized kata by theDynamic Duo, the Wilder twins, andddmos by Hawk Frazier, PanamaJones

and all the other students of Mr. Co-ffeld. As we said, it was good. But itwas much longer than it hed to be'and much of the effectiveness of itwas lost. The toumament had nowbeen in progress for over four hours,and most of us were just a bit tooweary to be overly appreciative ofthe efforts.

We finally were presented with theBlack Bett finals. Mr. Cofield was theChief Referee. ln the l ightweight divi 'sion, the first bout was betweenToyotaro Miyazaki and ThomasLewisLewis opened with two quick kicksthat Miyazaki avoided by just back-ing away. As usual. Mr. Miyazakimoved only when he had to. preferringto watch his opponent and wait foran opening. It was a slow, carefulbout until the verv end, and thenLewis threw out a roundhouse thatwas beautifully blocked by Mivazaki,who countered with a fast, Perfectpunch that won him the bout

Monroe Monow then met RayrnondCrump. A reverse wheel kick byCmmpfell short. Both men movedveryquickly,throwing a flurry of hcks andpunches.Crump was particularly fond of thewheel kick and used it often. Thebout ended with no score on eitherside and both men considerably slowed.In the "sudden death" period, Crumpseemedto be "psychedout" by Morrowand as he came in cautiously, he wascaught by Morrow with a punch to thehead. Morrow took the bout with thisonly score.

Crump then met Lewis to decide thetwo bottom spots. Crump seemed tobevery nervous. Lewis threw a reversewheel thst made Crump bounce away.Crump ffnally came to life and droveLewis ftom the ring with a seriesof kicks. A clash in the middle ofthering didn't bring any score for eithetman, and the bout was forced into"sudden death." Lewis was made to"hit the deck" by a high wheel kickby Cmmp. He moved quickly, butcouldn't penetrate Crump's defenses.The bout went on, with neither manbeing able to score. It was ffnallystopped and a show of flags was calledfor, Two reds and two whites left thedecision up to Chief Referee Cofield,who awarded third place to Lewis.

In the bout for first and secondplaces, Mr. Miyazaki moved as cau-tiously and carefully as ever, A mag.nificent counte(-puncher, he is bestjustafter his opponent commits himself.The bout was slow because Mr. Morrowwasn't about to commit himself care-lessly. A "sudden death" period wasnecessary, during which time Miyazakitook the bout andlightweight title witha fast reverse punch.

The Black Belt Heaqrveight boutssaw Mr. Oyama as Chief Referee.Ulysses Edwards squarcd off against

Gonzales Radford, Edwards, a usuallyexcellent ffghter, seemedto have slowedconsiderably. Both men proved to befine technicians but not excitingfighters. Again, a "sudden death"period was necessary and Bradfordfinally took it with a punch.

The second bout saw a dull, form-less ffght between Klentaki Raf andKhaifa. Both men were big, but neitherseemed to have developed techniquesor'power. They made a lot of noisebut produced very little action. Theyboth thiew many clumsy, inefiectivepu'nches. . .completely lacking in focus.Raf was ffnally awarded a score andthe match for a weak roundhoule.The judges decision seemed tobemddeout of desperation rather than hon€stbelief that the blow had connected.We heartily supported the decisionrather than see the match contrnue.

Edwards showed his old form in hisbout with Khaifa by driving in with aftont kick and punch immediately andwinning his first point. A few secondslater, he won third place with a rcve$ewheel kick to the chest. This was theEdwards we remember.

Raf and Bradford then met to decidethe top spots. Raf, a clumsy ffghter,was thrown all off balance by Bradford.He moved his feet far more than in hisprevious match, but he wascompletelyinefrective. Biadford, thoughmuchbet-ter, couldn't score with a clean blowand a "sudden death" period wasneces$ary. Bradford finally took it witha fast, clean punch to the head.

Before the Grand ChampionshiPbout, Miyazaki cornpeted againstEdwards to decide first and secondplace in Black Belt Kata. Both wereexcellent, but Miyazaki was just enoughbetterto win the top trophy, his secondof the evenjng,

Miyazaki made a clean sweep ofthetop trophies by taking Bradford in theGrand Championship bout. Too La-Puppet served as Chief Referee in afight that saw both Miyazaki andBradford working very carefully. Tlrcywere so carefirl and cautious,'the boutwas almost uneventfirl and had to gointo "sudden death." Mtyazaki ffnallygot his opportunity and ended it \titha oerfect roundhouse.

lnd so it ended. It was 9rl5 PMand we were completely &atned. It\ras u4doubtedly a financial success.At least 70 percent of the auditoriumwas fflled (until about 8 PM, whenpeople began wandering off), but itwasn't what we had hoped or expectedto see. We had expected to see a care-fu lly planned, well.coordinated exhibi-tion of kamte. We didn't. We hadhoped for a tournament that would bea model for those of the future. Itrlasn't. Yep, it was the biggest andlongest we had ever witnessed. It'stoo bad it couldn't have been the best.

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UiITTX.}AL ONT

RATPtoi

Grond Chompion, . loe Hoyer, f lonked by Richord Chun (left)

ond Koreon Generol Consul toNewYork, KyuSup Chung. (Below)

Joe Hoyes' speed quickly overwhelmed the veleron Bob Engle'

1969 UniYersal. ' t.

in

0pen Karatechirffiship

UniYersalTournament ofChampnnsI

I[ 0x;

by Marc Crand,all

One of these days there's going tobe a miracle in the karate world. I t 'sgoing to be greater than the partingof the Red Sea and more wondrousthan water tumed to wine. It s going

to be nrore incredible than reincarna-tion and therefore, Iess believable. Butit toill be. For in the beginning willbe the WORD, actual ly two words;ONTIME! And everytoumament there-after wi l l . trr t on l ime, and al l senseisr v i l l ac t l i ke ma t r r re adu l t \ , s c t t i nghealthy examples for their young stu-dents, They rvill display wisdom andpatience, viftue and compassion, allthe attributes which theoreticallyaccompany the man with the blackbelt!

And also on this day of days, cornerjudges and chief referees will havebeenappointed earlier and will be seatedin such a manner that they may reachthe fighting area with no delay, andthey will do this willingly, actuallyshowing enthusiasm when cal ledupon.

And it is further written that on thisday. karatekas, those about to enterinto combat, will be waiting patientlyin the wings for their names to becallei and will come at the first call,not be dil ly' dallying around. forcing themoderator to cal l them several t imes,

T)

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The motch between Bob

therelrr r lclaying the proceedingsfirrt i rer. Ancl u'hen ther clo come forth.thev t i l l at al l t imes remember thatthe\. r lrc not engaging in mortal combar.t ha l i l r \ r o i r ccc \ \ : r r ) t o l ea re one :opponent beaterl and bloody on theftoor. B.ttrdint is the key word intour.nament conrbat. )ot mmpage!!!

. \ l l this rvi l l be on this great day.r\nd i t rvi l l be arvesome and people'ni l l nrarvel at i t . . .and wonder whythe hel l i t never happened sooner!\ \rb). tournametrt directors wil l ac-tualll bc consirilerate of ticket- holders,wil l sct ' to i t that as much as pos.sible t i l l be i lone to see that theyget their money-s wotth.

ln the prel iminaries at RichardChun's tournament. (Jul ia RichmanAuditorium. Apri l 19. 1969) FredHam-i l ton ancl Karriem Allah contested thejudges ( lecisions that their studentshad lost their respective matches, Nlr.Allah even q,ent so far as to call theother sens€' is punks' and to throwup a luriversal chal lenge to al l present.This kind of behavior is inexcusableunder l lny circlrmstances, but is mademore absurd by the fact that Mr.Al lah is a black belt, a sensei, there-fore a leacler. \Vhere will he lead hisstude\ts with that att i tude? Perhaps i tis best not to speculate. I t is certainlyto the credit of the other senseis thatMr. Al lah s chal lenge was ignored.

A part icLrlarly unfortunate aspect ofthe prel inr inaries.. is that of al lowingkaratekas s ho arr ive late to f ight onlyonce or twice as compared to thoseu'ho correctl) i rr ive on t ime and mtlstf ight practic:r l l -v evenone in sight be-fore the,v cirn cor pete in the f inalsEither nrake the' latecomers f ight an30

excillng of rporlrmonshlp, retpod ond

T. louic foiled to br€ol boordleoping over 7 men {obove}. BobEngle blocks kick thrown byEobrow (right). (Below) 6th DonYomqmoto leods Chuck Me.rinron,8ob Tobni, Chris DeEoge in kqto.

equal number of opponents, or drolrl hem cn l i r e l y f o r a r r i r i ng l a l e . A f ewenforced rule:. arourrd here miqht bringabout some much-needed organization.

Okay, so the prel ims here were l ikethe prel ims at nearly every other event.Le l s go t u t he l o | | r namen t . An l t l r i nqdifferent? Well, -vou tell us.

First of al l , there was onl), one entrance for t icket-holders to passthrough. * 'hich of course created abott leneck of sorts. (Jn top of that,

the table rvhere the ticket.s were beingsold partially blocked that oneentrance. N_o\r ' why in the narDe ofsanit) ' couldn't that table have beenplaced to one side or else more en.trances made avaifablel' There wereother doors, but they were al l locked.This. among other things, held up thestart of the program which wassupposecl to commence at 8 PM. Itstarted nearly an hour late.

After the playing of f i rst the Ameri-

Page 12: Miyazaki sensei

can, therr the Korean National Anthen.there u'as a speech b) the honorarl,president ofthe championsh\). an ir l tro-duction b) ' tol lrnament director I lasterRichard ( ihrn and severdl honora4awards and f louers bestowed uponhinl by ir t tract ive Korean ladies. \BCtelevision cameras whirred away,taking fbotage of the events for ftrturetelecast. The cameramen, by the way,d id nn t m in r l a t a l l h l ock ing t he v i ewof those poor crrstorners {,ho paid

$5.00 nnd $6.00 for their seatx. Theysimply took charge and no one lnauthority rrsked them to use a l i t t leconsideration. despite the fact somecustomers approached the stage andfair l l threatened to throw the camera-rnen off. Srrch is the strength ofNBC,I guess.

The f irst rnatch pit ted Wii l iam Doyleagainst Ceorge walker (white belts).I t was a slow. drr l l . rrneventful matchthat went into overt ime. during whichlUr. Doyle rnanaged to win. This and

Cilberto \{cFarlane and GeorgeVelez went at each other l ike seasonedpros. There were flying side kicks.spinning back kicks. shuto chops,reverse punches ancl a *hole series ofaudience-pleasing clashes. There wasve ry l i t t l e con tac l . r ah i ch i n i t se l f i sa major achievement at these events.And wha t l i t t l e t hc re ua r l ac l i ng i ntechnique. and I assure you i t wasvery l i t t le. was made up two-fold byheart and courage. Thesetwo boys werewell-matched and though one of themhad to lose. they eqtral ly deser"e praiseand encouragement for their excellentshowing. Thel are a credit to thesport. NlcFarlane f inal l l turned the

lrovn Or.an

l isted as the Junior B Division l l -!.4.years-old bracket, Roberto Rerrewaspitted against Edward Cunningham.What made the match absolutely ridi-culous was that Rene was a "black

belt" and Cunningham a white belt .Adding absurdity to ridicule. Cunning'ham showed better form, if you wantto call it that and probably wouldhave won the match except for toomuch contact which caused his dis-qual i f icat ion. 4nd to top everlthingofr, no one, not one solitan Personin authority on that stage challengedthe fact that a black belt ua\ f i ' thl inga white. Sensei John Kuhl at ring-side called the attention of a senselon stage who said someihing about itbeing alright, that it was Junior Divl'sion, (whatever that meant!). Fourcorner judges and a chief referee anda whole stage ful l of emincnt senseisfailed to nullifo the bout or at leastexplain why it was allowed.

Well , i t was a disaster. Neit her f tghtershowed any real techniqrre. After aninconsequential clash or two. Cunning-ham lowered the boom like a woods-man felling a Redwood. FIe caughtRene with a shuto chop lo lhe [ace.breaking his glasses and dropping theblack belt to his knees. Broken glasslay al l over the stage. No one cameforth with a broom. Rather. they triedpicking the infinitesimal pieces up byhaud. I t was just al l too r idiculous.Fortunately, for Rene- Sensei PeterUrban was on hancl to administer f i rstaid unti l a nurse came along. The boutwas held up for later continuance. atwhich t ime, Rene and Cunninghamagain clashed. Rene then leaving thestage with a blerding mouth lactual lyI thought he had bit ten his tongue!)and Cunningham was disquali f ied. Mr.Urban again administered to thewound.

Sensei John Krrhl who hadwitnessedall and judged most of the preliminarybouts felt that there was a good cropof brown belts. In the f inals. however,the bout between Lamar Thorton andJohn Ascencio left a little to be desired.Mr. Thorton won the match but wedidn't see too much in the way offinesse or focus.

Chlvin Wilder displayed excellenttecbnique in winning lst place in thenien's kata competit ion. FI is snap kicksand punches were especial l l im-pressive.

Carlos Fanel, in taking lnd placein board-breaking. went througha series oi shuto chops, front kicks and

3l

i -most of the other lnltches betq,eeD .:i:i.:, tables on a very determined Velez

lesser belts n ere ir lrout i ls excit ing to i ; l i with a spinning bacl Lick to the stom'watch ns grass gro\\ ' i l lg in Cerltral ach area.ParL. Thel al l corr ld have taLen a And wouldn't you know lt , r ight onlesson fiorrr t\'!o contestirnts in the the heels of this very rvonclerful bortt7-10 Iear'old tge bracket. Junior A Di came a match of such opposing valuesvision.

' l -hese kit ls cornered the marlet as to shower discredit upon the sport

on ..nrr ir{r. desire Lrnd enthusirsnr. and the part icipants. ln what was

31

llnd*Groen .

4 , . . . . . . . . . . . .

Woman't

. lr 2 . .

3 . . . .4

Page 13: Miyazaki sensei

r - : - + -

i iql ---**

The best bouf of the evening wos tretween Miyoroki ond Hoyes. {obove) A verypleoseci tournoment director, Richord Chun, with hi5 trophy, o pot of f lowers.

eil;ov,, ienrpi) techniques to break fiveriifii'rari sets of trvo three-quarter inchboards. l . Louis took Ist place but Iefthis ii.st performance in the pre-l inl i ! \ i i iFs, unfof iunately. He set upseven rrcii in a row bending over withar' :rs ir i ter locked. at the end ofwhichlie had trvo men holding boards. Mr.Louis then went to the farthest end ofthe stage, ran and leaped over the menand struck the boards with a flyingside l<ick. His first attempt caughtthe boards a little low and the se-cond knocked them out of the handsofthe holders. During the prel ims, Ir ' [r .Louis hacil broken the boards on thefirst ar\.

In ? kata, kumite and board-breakingexhiLi ' i ron rvhich fol lot 'ed, 6th Dan G.farnanroto rlisplayed studied concen-irrt icn and precise execution. He drewmrch cleserved and spontaneous ap_plause.

In the middlerveight Black Belt Di-vision there was sone confusion as towho rvould fight whom due to HawkFrazier 's insistence he f ight Joe Hayes.cle:jpite the fact that Frazier's right eye*'as bandaged shut and he was, in hiso g . n , , v o r < l s . ' a l m o s t i n t o x i c a t e db . , au 'e o f t he pa in -L i l l i nq d rug r t he<ioctor had shot him full of. Midway

32

through the match, Nlr. Frazierrequested and rvas given the micro.phone. He announced to the audiencethat he r lns in great pain, and was notsupposed to f ight.. .but was going tofight an1'wayl I then took it upon my-self to ask \1r. Frazier why he insistedon fighting when he was in such ob-vious pain and serious danger of doinghimself i rreparable injury. He saidthathe had to prove something to himself.Well, only the good Lord and HawkFrazier know just what it was that hehad to prove and maybe the Lord iswondering because there's certainlynothirrg N{r. Frazier had to prove tous.We've seen him fight before. we'rewellarvare of his skill and courage, there.fore rr'e are in the dark as to this un-necessarl, cl isplay of bravado.

'f he fight resumed. Hawkloughtwltn

caution and good defensive work Hedidn't seem to be too adversely affectedbv his injury. though he did wear aconstarrt look of pain, After severalclashes. blocked kicks and punches byboth contestants, Joe Hayes scored ahalf point o'ith a punch to the mid-section and t ime ran out. The audience,appreciating Frazier'e courage andHayes' win, applauded heartily,

Joe Hayes then went on to show

Page 14: Miyazaki sensei

Miyorokl, o fine lororeko who i: courious ond derrberot€ with his mover, wos overrun by the quick, dfiving Jos Hoyst.fantastic form for the rest of the even. ffi!1:? &!-rl$-I' '...iffirr.cing, actually getting better as theevening wore on. He decisioned Mr.Jones for lst place in theMiddleweight,Division with a punch tothe midsectionln overtjme. During the regular match,Hayes had scored with a punch to theface and Mr. Jone.\ with i , ide l ick tothe midsection.

In the Healyweight Black Belt Divi_sion, Carlos Malina scorej with a re_verse punch to the midsection over E.Mickens early in the match, thencoasted along merely protectinq hislead. There were a few clashes, butl i t t leactron or consequence. Time ran outwith Malina ahead.

Ki Chung Kim and Bob Enqel squaredofr, in the Tournament of Chimpions f i .nals and lhe evening took on a wholenew aspect. Tension and e,xcitementactually began to mount. Mr. Kim andMr. Engel showed a great deal of re_spect lor each othFr's talcnt. circl ingano rookrng lor the r ight opening, con_serving energy and making each attackprecise and swift . Both men on of_lense, and defense were superb. Blocksand kcks were executed cleanlr. l \ l r .Kim scored f irst with a driving iound.house.kick to the stomach. Vr. Engel.roused now. swif i l ! countered with alast and turious barrage ending rvi lha tantastic side kick to the face. Tirnc,dn ou t and t he ma lch wen t i n l o \ ud -den death.

u vtf,sAl otdl

TTRATIt{rt{olrlllrt*t". r

MllchellBobrow, lry os he would, couldn,f cqtch lhe conslontly flying Hoyes.

4

Mr. Kim resumed the attack, but Mr.Engel maintained his excellent defense.Al one point. it appeared from whereI sat. that \ lr. Engle had scoreo apoint, a shuto chop that nearly tookNlr, Kim's head off, but no point wasgiven. Mr. Engel also felt he shouldl1 'q b i .n g ivpn the po in r . shak inghis head as he walked a slow circle,then mumbling something to one of

the Korean. corner judge\. He neverlost tus calm. however. Fighl inq re-sumed and both mcn again and;kedand defended superbly. Mr. Kim threwsome perfect-form side kicks and Mr.Engel let loose with a few roundhousebeauties of his own, but all wereblocked. Bob Engel finally won out on arather interesting decision. He qor

(Continued on page 4A)

33

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1969 Universol Open€hompionships

(Continued frcm Page 33)

throush Mr. Ximls defense with a force'ful side kick to the stomach, and twocorner Judges raised their flags. Thetwo Korean corner iudges, on the oppo'site side who actually had a slightlvbetter view of the clean shot, did notcall the Doint. The chief referee exer-cised his powers and awarded the pointard match to Mr. Engel. Mr' Engelmade a point of mumbling somethingagain to the Korean judge. this timewith a smile of satisfaction.

It should be mention€d here that inthe course of the evening, with rareexception, the chief referees were mag'nificent, handlinq their bouts with theease and efficiency one automaticallyattributes to black belts of such highstanding, I wish the same could besaid for some of the comer judges whoplay follow the leader when it comesto raising their flags instantly uponseeing a point scored. All too oftena comer judge will see one flag raised,reflect upon it a moment then raise hisown flag to coincide. This is groSslyunfair and I feel it is up to the chiefrefdrees to cancel the decision or makethe guilty judge clarify it. Mr. George'Cofield has done tlris any number oftimes when he is chief referee and itcertainly makes for a fair match. Thesecorner judges areblack belts with sharp,cat - like reflexes, therefore they shouldbe able to call a point without hesita-tion.

The 2nd match of the ffnals saw JoeHayes facing a very cool, calm anddeliberate Toyotaro Miyazaki Mi-yazaki was a study in icy nerves as helet kicks and punches thrown by Hayesskim by, inches away before he wouldstep in and mount his own attack,Hayes had to shift from offense to de-fense with incredible sp€ed in order tothwart Miyazaki's ceunterblows. Therewere several clashes and a couple ofexcellent roundhouse kicks blocked byHayes. Miyazski, his eyes never oncestraying from a fixed point on HaYes,

, moved rery slightly while ffghting.He waited, almost daring his oppo-nent to attack, and when he did,moved just enough to get out of theway, no more than absolutely neces-sary, There wete a couple more clashes,some flags raised. but.not enough, towarrant a declslon. l lme was callecland the bout went into sudden death.

Obviously both men were well-matched, and it really is a joy to seethis kind of bout. It almost made themuch earlier at rocities bearable. Watch-ing Hayes execute his magniffcent !ly'ing side kick is another joy in itself.You can seldom catch him preparing it;tt's suddenly thzre; a lithe, sinewy

. body frve f€et in the air and a footin your face. It's really a beautY!At one time near the end of the match,Hayes inched his way forward andMiyazaki inched his way backwardthe complete length of the fightingarea, always maintaining the same dis-tance between them. Such was theconfidence and respe,ct each showedthe other. Tension built itrclf steadilvas these worthy opponents clashed andclashed again, fantastic defenses caus-ing the stand-off. Hayes finallv endedit all with a driving lunge Punchto the midsection. Two white flagsand the chief referee's decision laterand Hayes had dispqsed of yet anotheropponent.

Bob Engel's bout with Mitchell Bo'brow was interesting in that Engelseemed almost disdainful of Bobrow'He didn't artPear to be fighting aswell as he htd with Kirn; his tech-nique seemed off somehow. Bobrow,meanwhile, appeared content to defendand counter rather than mount a pto'lonsed attack. There were severalclashes of no consequence. Engel ques'tionins the chief referee at one timewith no action taken. Either Engel hadlost his otecision or Bobrow was reallymore effective thsn he looked' but thematch seemed to drag in frustration.Enqel was working uP a latheringsweat irving to qet through to Bobrow.and Bobrow just kept fending off theattacks in that deceptive' diffidentstyle of his. lle sometimes looked asif he's bored with what was haPPen-inc! Whereas Engel was red-faced andsweating, tiring somewhat. Bobrowcould have put Katie Winten to shamewith his ice-blue cool. Time was event-ually called and the match went intoovertinE.

Engle was beginninq to look a littlethe worse for wesr, exasperatedthat hisofienses weran't getting through, andBobrow, well, Bobrow was just there.that's about all that can be said. Heblocked every{hing Engel threwat him,but failed to mount asolid attack ofhis own. It may be what ultimately costhim the match. He seemed too contentto merely defend. Finally, it wasatiredand impatient Engel who leaPed inthe air and came down with a tre-mendous shuto choP that defiedBobrow's defense. The onlY Pointscored but enough to win.

Joe llayes was then called forth tofieht Carlos Malina. Hayes. showinqhehad lost none of his dextedty, caughtMalina's charge, a determined sidekick, before it could be completed'stepping in so that the kick went bYleaving him fret to throw a Punch toMalina's back. Of course no Pointwas allowe.d (Korean system) but itwas an excellent defensive move. Thefirst noint came about during whatlooketi like ,

- 'L men threw

almost simultaneous prnches, Malinawalklng away thinling he had scored.But the judges rul€d that HaYes hadscored first with a punch to the chest.Malina came right back with his ownversion of a flying side kick, and abeauty it was at that, but HaYeswas right there one moment and gonethe next. blocking the kick and throw'ing a tremendous spinning back kickthat would have won the match had henot been out of bounds. It was one ofthe prettiest moves all night, and therehad been some fantastic ones. As itturned out, time was called a few se-conds later and Hayes, in absolutelygreat form, was declared the winner'

A demonstration by the honorableKae Bae Chun showing different formsof fighting techniques, karate andjudo,brodcht e,nthusiastic response from theaudience and allowed for a bit ofcomic relie,f. Mr. Chun displayed tre'mendous versatility, toying with his"opponent" in such a way as to leaveno doubt in anyone's mind that werehe in earnest, he could have destroyedhim in the wink of an e-Ye.

Aaron Banks did an admirable job ofmoderating the full agenda keepingevents running as smoothly as possibleand injecting bits of wry humor when'ever the occasion permitted. It is notan easy task, and a too-often under'rated one. but Mr. Banks was equalto it.

The second-to-last bout of the longevening saw the ubiquitous Mr. Hayesmatched aqainst Bob Engel. If it was along night for us, imagine if you can,how long it must have been for JoeHayes who had been fighting most ofthe day. Despite this, however, helooked and acted fresh and readytogo,a tribute to his excellent physical condi-tion and his fighting technique whichallo!0s him to conserve energy.

Bob Engel began the matchwithtwoquick side kicks which HaYes deftlYblocked, delivering a spinningback kickof his own that was, in the opinion

. ofthe judges, without focus There werea few tentative moves, a little fakinghere and thcre which evoked smilesfrom both combatants, and then Hayesmoved in quickly to score ffrst with apunch to the face. Engel came backfiercely with two more quick sidekicks,parried expertly, however, by Hayes.Enee-l then delivered what looked likean excellent back kick,but nopointwasallowed; lack of focus again be,ing thereason. Engel looked as though hedisagreed, but said nothing. He mightstill have been dwelling on it, foralmost immediately after, Hayes letflv with a punch to the ribs thatscored point and match. Engel couldonly shake his head and smile wrylyto himself. Thete was no disputingthat call and he nodded in agree-ment. (Continaed on Page 5I)

r|il

Page 16: Miyazaki sensei

1959 Universol OpenChompionships

(Continued from page 43)But don't go away yet. Th€re's one

more mat ch before t h e C rand Chamnionis recognizcd. though l m fairl l certainthat by then the audience had alreadycrowned their favorite. Poor Joe Hayes,because he had not foushi Mitc'hellBobrow, despite the fact that Bobrowhad lost to Engel and Hayes hadbeatenEngel, had to fight again. Don't askwhat would have happened had Bobrowwon the match, because it would anrrearthe evening would have gone on intoinfinity. Bobrow would have had tofight Engel because Enqel had beatenhim earlier, and if Engil had won, hewould have had to fight Hayes becauseof the same reason, and if Hayes hadwon. Bobrow would have,..oh, what'sthe use? Fortunately, Hayes preventedall that by winning the match.

With not much time to rest be-tweenbouts, Hayes squared off against asurprisinglyaggressive Bobrow. Unlikehis last bout, Bobrow waded dght intoHayes with a sedes of side and backkicks. But Hayes was up to the attackwith his excellent defense and aftera couple of clashes, drew first bloodwith a swift punch to the midsection.Bobrow retaliated with a punch to thechest at the same time Hayes wasthrowing another punchofhis own. Theresultl a clash. Hayes put Bobrow onthe defense immediately with an ex-citing reverse kick, but Bobrow de-fended against it with calm delibera-tion. Another clash saw simultaneouspunches thrown, and barely a momentpassed when both men again attackedonly to clash once more. Botb Hayesand Bobrow were emitting tremendousenergy. At times, pure vibrationsseemed to ffll the stage area wherethese determined combatants facedeach other. A moment later, however,it was all over. Hayes. with almostblinding speed movpd in. catchingBobrow with his guard just a little bitdown, and scored with a punch to thechest. Point and match.

And so, a smiling, happy, none-the-worse-for'wear, Joy Hayes, who hadraised the hands o( all his opponentsin victory despite the fact that he haddefeated them. now raised Bobrow'shand. But Bobrow raised Joe's handand let him stand alone, center staqe,a most fftting tribute to a most ex-ceptional champion. Joe Hayes wasin what can only be described assuperhuman form that night. Thereisn't much a poor mortal can do whensomeone is really tumed on like that,Congratulations. Supermanl