We have Clay Barber on the phone and Clay Barber is a former teammate of mine.  He’s a former U.S. National team member, former U.S. National team captain; he’s won medals – multiple medals – around the world and today we’re going to have a little interview with Clay.  So, Clay, for today we’re going to be focused a little bit on your career and what martial arts has meant to you and I just like to ask you a little bit about how if you wanted to talk about how you got started in martial arts and taekwondo. 

 Clayton Barber:  Sure, no problem!  Basically, when I was a young boy I used to watch those old Kung Fu flicks that Bruce Lee put out and drove my father mad basically.  So but this is about it – I watched them every single day.  So my dad used to work in a movie theater in downtown Dallas and that was his job; he was a policeman and he would take me on the weekends to watch those kung fu movies and they would play in those theaters.  And one day I said, “Dad, you know, I want to take karate.”  Of course, I don’t what it’s called at this time.  You know, I just said karate or kung fu or whatever.  And he’s like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Whatever, son,” like that. “Sure, sure, sure.”  So I bugged him and bugged him until he said, “Fine.”  And then one day he dropped me off and we went down to the Taekwondo School and it happened to be Lee’s taekwondo in Mesquite, Texas and the rest is history.  I walked in and on the spot signed a lifetime membership and I never looked back. 

Nexus:  Wow!  So when you walked in, your dad walked you in; you guys went to the right school the first time which is, wow, what’s really some kind of divine providence there.  And then on top of it you signed a lifetime…signed up for a lifetime membership right on the spot. 

 Clayton Barber:  Yeah, exactly.  At that time…it was quite a while ago; it was about 30 years ago.  It was $500 and at the time I think that’s really saw the passion and what I was trying to do. I was doing other sports at the time. I was doing soccer and I had a lot of energy and I was trying to look for an outlet and when I walked in, Master Lee kind’a saw that. His name is Chang Sik Lee father of Dong Lee of Lee’s taekwondo.  He saw that, so on the spot…and he was a small businessman trying to do an start-up kind of company and he said, “Look, I’ll give you a lifetime membership for $500.”  And we bought it hook-line and sinker and my dad really took to it and he said, “Fine.”  And I never looked back.  So, to put it this way it was a good investment for my father and a good investment for my life. 

Nexus:  And so how old were you when you signed up? 

Clayton Barber:  I was about 10 years old. 

Nexus:  And did you train with and …how old is Dong? 

Clayton Barber:  He’s the same age as me, we’re both 42. 

Nexus:  So you signed up and Dong Lee was there and then you and Dong, you guys meet like right off the bat or how did it go? 

Clayton Barber:  Yes, we met right off the bat and he was there.  It was funny, because I went into the office and while we were in the office meeting Master Lee and everything Dong was kicking the bag.  And as they began to talk (Clayton’s father and Master Lee) and things like that, I kind of snuck out of the office and I went over there and Dong was kicking the bag and I started kicking the bag and I started kicking the bag with him. And it was funny because I had on these real baggy red soccer shorts and I was just a little pip squeak we just started kicking the bag.  And from that point on, we really went from white belt to black belt together and we were about to leave the original two students of that school.   

Nexus:  Wow!Clayton Barber:  It was quite serendipitous to say the least and it was a great opportunity and I kind of knew but I didn’t know it at the time but there was something special about it and I remember from that day on I went there every single day for the rest of my life essentially. 

Nexus:  So that is just fantastic because Master Lee – Grand Master Lee, I should say – has built quite a dynasty there in Dallas, Texas, has so very good schools; it’s produced a number of very good athletes.  So that’s interesting that you and Dong all kind of grew up together in the school because they’re like brothers then huh? 

Clayton Barber:  Yes, we are.  I always Master Lee my Korean Father.  A lot of times I would sleep at school or ask to spend the night at Dong’s house and we would watch Bruce Lee movies and kind of memorized all the movies word for word.  Master Lee would feed us Korean food and it was my first day with the kimchi and it was… He’d always tell me, he said, “If you eat your kimchi you’ll become faster.”  So I went out and bought a bunch of kimchi and started eating at home. If you have ever eaten kimchi is it quite has a smell and I brought it into my house and my dad was kind of blew a lid and eventually threw it out because it’s really smelly. 

Nexus:  [Laughter] Yeah. 

Clayton Barber:  So I kept telling my dad, I said, “Look, if you eat this, dad, it’s going to make you faster.”  He said, “Okay, sure.  Here, eat an orange.” 

Nexus:  [Laughter] That’s funny!  So let me ask you, Clay, I mean you’ve been training for a lifetime and martial arts Is definitely a part of your life and I usually tell my students that particularly when somebody joins, they join for one or two reasons and when they stay in it their reasons, go from 2 to 4, and 4 to 8 and 8 to 16, et cetera.  Until there’s one part…there’s a time in your life where a switch kind of happens where you can’t even remember your reasons anymore.  I mean they become so multiplied and so numerous that it becomes part of you and you can’t separate yourself from the art.  And so with that in mind, how do you feel…do you remember that time where it became…or taekwondo became all inclusive for you or became so much a part of you that it helped to define who you are? 

Clayton Barber:  Yeah, I did.  I mean, obviously, when I walked in the door (Lee’s Taekwondo) like I said earlier, I mean it was… I knew that’s what I wanted to do.  So I found something I couldn’t do.  I was small…for sort of the typical American sports like football and basketball and it was something that I can individually take away all my energies and put into, do you know what I mean?  And at the time, I was just wanted to go full steam ahead; I didn’t really quite know that I would be there for the rest of my life at the time.  But as it went on and went on and went on, I started to sort of take to it characteristic of my life, learning the very original sort of basic tenets of it: discipline, respect…  Like there’s a plan to it and things like that.  It really started to form the character of whom I was and that’s what I liked: a place like Master Lee’s and he was becoming a father-figure – I had two influential guys in my life – my regular father and then Master Lee; between those two men and with taekwondo it really shaped who I was.  It allowed me to have an avenue to excel.  There was a couple of times where we go through a semi burn out stage because in that time when you start 10 years old, you get into high school and you start to get sort of like, “Okay, I’m going to start some other things.  I’m going to try this or whatever like that.”  But I never wavered from it because right away I started to win tournaments and become good.  Obviously when you do things, people will give you accolades; they give you applause or they think you’re good.  Well that started to become a battle a little bit; do you know what I mean?  And people begin to say: “You’re pretty good.”  And I was like, “Really?  I am?”  So I began to believe in myself and get praise many other ways that I wasn’t getting in other areas of my life.  And I was an okay student in school, an average student, but this really allowed me to be the best and to show people, “Look, I’m really good at this.”  And that’s how it formed out for me. 

Nexus:  So what would you say would be like the four biggest…if you had to like to distill it down and all that’s difficult to do but just humor me and what would you say would be like the four biggest benefits you’ve got out of training taekwondo? 

Clayton Barber:  Well, that is why I learned to have a goal.  I learned to have discipline and I learned to respect things around me and not only myself but my family, friends, teachers, in the community, have things liked that; it was beneficial and kind of helped me in doing that.  And second of all, it gave me a platform that I can shine in. Do you know what I mean?  Because you have to…at that age you don’t really understand finding the purpose but it was byproduct of that because it allowed me to have a purpose and that’s what every…sort of I think that every child needs and every person needs eventually; it gave me something to shoot for.  The onus that I learned in taekwondo allowed me to not only see within the context of taekwondo and that world, but outside of that I started to fill again in other avenues.  My family, I started to excel in that, my friendships with people; I started to do better in school and I think it’s beneficial in all areas. 

Nexus:  I think that’s…I love what you had to say and specifically I’m just focusing on one thing that what you focused in and you talked about having a platform to shine and something that provides a purpose because in many years of training and training, beginners all the way to Olympic champions, I have seen the damage that can be done when a child doesn’t really have a sense of purpose and I also have seen the incredible heights that can be achieved when the same child, the same practitioner has a sense of purpose.  So I think that’s just…I think that’s fantastic; I couldn’t agree with you more.  And you touched on competing and I know a little bit about that because we were teammates and we lived together at the US Olympic Training Center, but I’d like you to, if you could, tell the listeners a little bit about what that experience was like and being a permanent resident athlete back in the early 90s, late 80s at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. 

Clayton Barber:  Well, I’ll start actually from the very beginning; I’ll summarize this very quickly.  When I first started competing, I started competing at white belt and Master Lee, in order to sort of train us, took it to every single tournament there was around town – everything you could possibly go to.  We went to every local tournament you can find and back in those days that is all they have was local tournaments and then they had one national format.  And one of the things that I carried over, it allowed me later on to see and the story that I tell people is that my first five tournaments I lost, okay?  I lost; and I couldn’t understand why. 

So basically from white belt, yellow belt, green belt, blue belt, red belt; I lost all the tournaments I went and I was good but I just couldn’t figure out why I was losing, right?  And it started to really mess with me because I saw myself kicking really well, I saw myself bringing the right passion I had the right stuff but I lost.  So basically it really hit one day when I became black belt and I remember it and I went to the junior nationals and I won and it was the first time that I ever won it was actually not from a local level but it was on a national level.  So I think by me losing so much, I really understood adversity at that point and I mean, it was like, “Wow!  And then I won forms and I won sparing and I never, at that point, I never looked back and then from that point on I had won the next three or four years of my life; I never lost again, right? 

And then I went to another phase and then as I started to get up there in the seniors, then I went to my first senior nationals and then I lost again and I took sort of a bronze medal.  And that’s not when you said… That’s what a reality check and it gives a more mature perspective.  And then from that point on I pushed again, pushed again, pushed again, pushed again; I would lose the tournament, win the tournament, lose the tournament, win the tournament; and then finally, finally, finally, my goal was to become national champion and then I became national champion.  And that point on I basically got an invitation to come to the Olympic Training Center in 1988 and at that time the ’88 Olympics was the first time the taekwondo was a demonstration sport and Master Sang Chul Lee was the head coach of the whole program of the U.S. Olympic Committee.  And he invited me up as he saw potential in me; he thought I had a decent shot at making the Olympic team.  And of course I went to Olympic trials in 1988 and I did not make the Olympic team; I broke my foot the second fight and just third place at the Olympic Trials. But that lesson taught me so much in my life that it allowed me to…again, to… I fought adversity at s young point in my life and then I saw adversity on a mature point in my life and that allowed me to keep going and never give up.  And that was the indomitable spirit aspect I think that I finally comprehended in martial arts that allowed me to have much more success later in my life. 

  1990 Olympic Training Center Taekwondo Team 

Nexus:  Well, I love that story, Clay, and knowing you I knew most of it but I never get tired of hearing about it because I think that that’s one of the hallmarks that people really need to focus in on is that martial arts and taekwondo can teach you and will teach you these life skills that will help you to overcome adversity because so many people quit so easily.  They try something once or twice and if they don’t get it, they quit and they don’t ever even begin to conceptualize the loss of not fulfilling their potential and never really conceptualized…what their potential really was or what their potential could be.  I mean, I can listen to those types of stories all day and I’m just…I really think that that’s the message that or one of the messages that really should get out there to people to understand is that we’re going to touch on this, too, is the media but a lot of times the media glorifies different aspects of martial arts and a lot of them good, some of them not so good.  It just depends who’s the writer, who’s the director; but they don’t really touch enough upon this type of lesson because it really is powerful and transforming and not everybody understands that.  So I like…

Clayton Barber:  Go ahead. 

Nexus:  No, go ahead, Clay.  Go ahead. 

Clayton Barber:  So I think that, yeah, because I think that lesson is the lesson itself of life.  And I think that…and sometimes in today’s times or different times it’s what I’m teaching that a lot to, say, a younger generation or to our children as being parents or mentors or coaches and things like that that it’s okay to lose because you have to, when you fall of the bike, you have to get back up and get back up on that bike and it’s okay to fail.  And it’s like President Lincoln went through six campaigns before he became president; he failed six times before he became a president and it’s an important lesson to learn from that perspective.  So I always…I’m teaching and coaching it’s good sometimes that people lose; because, in this generation we want it all about now.  We want it now; we want the victory now.  We focus on feeding self-esteem based off on that and I’d say instead of feeding self-esteem based on victories, I’d say feed character based off your defeat.  And that’s more important to me individually to show someone and take them to art of life than anything else you can possibly imagine.  But what’s important is you have the right people there to mentor them through that process and because if not, then of course they don’t quite comprehend it, do you understand what I’m saying? 

Nexus:  Yeah, I certainly do and I think that statement of creating character based off of defeat is very powerful and that most people don’t understand that; most people find defeat in defeat and most people sometimes actually find defeat in their victories.  They don’t allow themselves to actually be victorious but most of the time, you do find your biggest victories in defeat if you don’t quit, if you don’t give up; and I think that’s just a fantastic statement.  I wanted to ask you what lesson do you think, if you can just distill it down to I know and this is a difficult question and maybe nonsensical but what one thing do you think you carry with you that strikes your mind right now that’s most important that you learned from martial arts and carry you through the rest of your life? 

Clayton Barber:  Well, that’s what I’m just saying is learn the adversity and never give up.  The indomitable spirit try, try, try, try again.  I was thought that if you first don’t succeed the first time, try again.  As oppose to what you just stated is most people they try one time and they give up because they don’t get to have the prize out of life.  And I think that’s the biggest lesson that I feel some…everything that taekwondo gave me and that helped me in every aspect in my life because it’s never been an easy road for me and I tell people that I wasn’t the most talented when I first started out but I tried hard to be good that I became very talented at what I did by virtue of my work ethics.  So I carried that over as I grew up a young man and when I got on my own, I needed that lesson every single day of my life all the way up into my fighting career to when I retired to when I went out to Los Angeles to get into the movie business and that’s what’s to me I think allowed me to succeed in everything that I did and that lesson like adversity.  And that defined my character and people who do know me understand that about me is that I don’t give up and I don’t accept certain defeat that it’s defined me.  I try again and I try again and I try again and I try again until I’ve achieved what I’m trying to do.  Do you understand what I’m saying? 

Nexus:  That is a cornerstone of true martial arts.  I have to ask this question because most of the time when people talk about competition and people talk about winning and especially when you were an athlete, a competitor, on the level that you were around.  And most of the time people talk about the times they scored the big knockout, all the shiny gold medals they have or when the television came to interview them or… It’s more the glitz, the icing, almost the illusion on top and when I hear you speak, you speak more about the ethics that you’ve learned along the way and you don’t really dwell on all the gold medals and the television interviews and all of those things.  And quite frankly, Clay, you were a supremely talented athlete and I’m saying that from somebody who…I was on the national team with you, has won medals around the world as well and was trained and mentored and brought up world and Olympic champions and a stable of athletes that were quite impressive.  You were amazing and yet you still don’t talk…you don’t speak about how awesome you were and aspect.  So leading up to this question, what way do you think ethics, because I think you’re speaking more about ethics.  What way do you think ethics should play in competitive martial arts? 

Clayton Barber:  One thing, ethics is everything.  I think sportsmanship, character, ethics, all the things and everything.  Because if you don’t have those, then you have chaos and you’re really not teaching someone the life lessons that they need later on after they finished taekwondo.  For me, taekwondo is a part of my life; it’s not everything in my life.  It’s only one story of my life.  Do you understand what I’m saying? 

Nexus:  Yes. 

Clayton Barber:  And that’s why it’s like…it’s very easy to be carved into…talk about achievements.  Yeah, so I achieved a lot but I failed more than I have achieved.  So I’m not going to sit around and dwell about 10 percent of what I did well, I’m going to talk about the things that define me 90 percent to my brothers, because those are the happiest times of my life and going through those life lessons, I met friends and people and things that helped me later on in my life as opposed to the victories cake.  I never…it’s like, “Okay, great!”  And then I have…my peers, they say things about me is great, but I’m not…in my knowledge, I’ve learned and I’ve gotten sort of pseudo wiser and I keep trying to learn. 

I believe that ethics and character or everything involved in athletes and organizations and things like that.  And you don’t quite get it all the time and that you have to find a way to not let…if it’s not just right there present in front of you, let it dictate you on what you’re trying to do because you could always lead by example.  You don’t have to follow someone over a ledge because they’re not doing things right.  So one thing I’ve learned right now is always, always do what is right, period!  And you must make yourself uncomfortable or unpopular around people, but when I do that I know that I’m doing the right thing.  I know that if people are uncomfortable then I know that I’m doing the right thing and that makes me happy.  Do you understand what I mean?  

Nexus:  I think that’s fantastic.  And later in your career, you decided after you retired and move into a realm of movies and television and you have done quite a lot there, can you tell us a little bit about what that was like breaking into that industry? 

Clayton Barber:  Yeah, it was a very similar thing.  I mean, coming for circle, I got inspired to do taekwondo via the movie.  And usually when I was at the Olympic Training Center I always carried like movie posters around, I put them in my room and my nickname was Mr. Hollywood and things like that.  And at this time I was very young, I had delusions of grandeur and I was like, “Okay, I’m going to become the next big star,” and all these things.  And I was really enamored of the glitz of it, being sort of pulled into that direction.  I’ve always been a fan of movies and I wonder if sort of give it a shot. 

So, when I retired, I’ve done everything that I could possibly do; I feel like taekwondo…I’ve achieved what I wanted.  So I basically set off on a journey again; these are the same lessons that I did to students of taekwondo after a 10 to 12-year journey, I went out to Hollywood with nothing.  And I went out there with basically $6 in my pocket and I slept on people’s couches and I went out there with the same exact beginning training that I had in taekwondo and I started from the very bottom again and that’s how my story began in movies.  And then by the way, I started working on small pays and non-union pictures and being an extra and carrying bags and things like that for no money.  And then one day I got a break; a door opened and a gentleman who had a show in Florida called WMAC Masters that I’ve worked on, which was a TV series for children was a doing a movie called Batman and Robin.  And he said, “Robin is going to be part of the next movie which is the fourth installment of the film it and Chris O’Donnell was going to be the guy; you look pretty much like Chris O’Donnell.  I’d like you to come in and meet the director.”  So I did and came up to Warner Brothers and I got the job.  And I didn’t believe it because I’ve worked for two years out there with no money and that’s why I was able to build a career upon that by getting that job doubling Robin in the movie.

And looking back on it now, almost 13, 14 years later, it’s been a fascinating ride and a very similar journey that I had in taekwondo.  I had more failures than I had success even though I’ve worked in a lot of movies and been a lot of changes of stuff and I’m very proud of it and I met a lot of people.  I never read that industry defines me; I never got lost in it.  I never sort of looked at it like, “Wow!”  I just said, “Look, this is what I want to do.  I did and when things looked bad in it or people weren’t ethically right, or their character was bad, I found a way to sort of steer away from that eventually.  And by that I found my happiness, I found my true place. – being a star or the glitz of the whole world trying to find it.  I was used to that at some point.  Now obviously when I first went out there, I did have sort of delusions of really what I wanted to do. But along the way an inner voice came talking into me and that’s when my inner voice would say, something’s not right.  This being in front of the lights here and being in all these fake Hollywood movies and stuff, it’s like, “Okay, great!”  It’s an achievement but it’s not anything in life; it’s just another part of life.  And I was happy that I was able to sort of step back from that and achieve everything I want to do in that and not let it define me.  And I really don’t try to talk a lot about it; you don’t see a lot of stuff in the internet about me, the taekwondo or the movies, because I’m, just kind of like used to sort of propagate myself, to push myself out there like that.  I really let things stand by how they are, let them come to me and then do it from there.

Nexus:  I think that’s a really strong testament to your training, to your parent’s upbringing your…and Master Lee, what he must’ve taught you when you were young and the ethics and skill and discipline that you…and strong sense of self that you developed through training and martial arts that you were able to survive that because we all…maybe not everybody but some of us know people who have gone into that industry and have really lost themselves because they don’t have a strong sense of self and it’s no different than a kid going in to high school the first time or somebody going away to college the first time and not really having a strong sense of self or self-confidence and being molded by the surroundings rather than shaping their surroundings and that’s awesome.

Clayton Barber:  Yeah, I have a lot of friends out there at the very beginning, I went out there and I saw them lose themselves.  I saw them get sucked in by materialism and fame and stuff like that.  And I’m not going to lie to you, in the beginning like I said, I chased them in the very beginning because I didn’t understand it.  Really, I didn’t because I was getting to something new; it was like starting fresh again.  But as I started to lose, we go down the wrong path, because of the things that I learned through martial arts and the things that was instilled in me by my father and through my instructor and the lessons that I learned through losing and failure and so like that’s…I started to talk to myself; I started to have an inner voice who’s saying, “This is not right.  This road is not the right road.  You must walk the right road.”  And when I started walking the right road, I really started to have an even more success again because I stopped letting people and money and credits and people…you’re this and that, blah, blah, blah.  It defined who I am.  I just said, “Look, I want a job.  I like doing this.  I’m going to do it; I’m going to do it well.”  And I did that. It really hurt me to see things around me and people crumble, getting involved with drugs or failed marriages and things like that and I just said, “You know what?  That’s not what I want to be.  That’s not where I want to go.  I’m not going to let it define me,” and I tried to stand within myself.

And I think by doing that later on as I got older, that’s where it equipped in me on a stage of my life when I say that wisdom really, really kicked in. And I hope that in the future I can try to teach my son and I teach my athletes and things like that; I give them that type of life because it’s very easy to get enslaved circumstance, that you’re sucked in to something that’s really not real; it’s not a reality at all.  And I know people say, “Well, they see Avatar.  They see the Blade movies and they see this and they’re like, “Wow!  I’ll be like that!”  And they watch the pop culture that’s all around TV and stuff.  Well I hate all that; I despise all of it.  I always felt people…I was working in the movie industry; I don’t worship and it doesn’t define me.  It’s a job and it’s fun; and it can be cool but you cannot get lost in that.  That’s very important point for people to understand.

Nexus:  Well that’s awesome.  And I just…it can’t be more impressive that you have to say but I want to kind of look at the fun side of it a little bit.  I know you’ve been in Batman and Robin; I know that you’ve been in…I think, was it the Planet of the Apes that you worked on as well?

Clayton Barber:  Yeah, I worked on Planet of the Apes.

Nexus:  I think I have a list here that may be accurate, How the Grinch Stole Christmas; I mean, were you the Grinch?

Clayton Barber:  Yeah, I was the Grinch.  I did a lot…a double one of the cats can’t tell you or remember the character’s name actually right now but we did fall we had to kind of rolled down a mountain and stuff and actually broke my leg on that show.  It was fun but it was interesting work with Ron Howard and Jim Carrey.  It was a fun show to work on.  I also did both Blades – Blade I and Blade II – and then I got a really cool opportunity working this comedy called Zoolander with Ben Stiller and basically played the character of Zoolander was when he was doing the sort of martial arts flips and something like that.  And for that show I got to work creatively with the stunt coordinator at the time was Brad Martin and we… sort of create the context for the Zoolander character and so I trained Ben two months in New York.  And he basically came to and he said, “Look, Clay and Brad, I want you guys to come up with the stupidest thing you can come up with.”  We’re like, “What?”  We’re like, “Okay.”  So we watch a bunch of monkey Kung Fu movies and just really the most hideous things you’ve ever seen.  And, Ben…“So that’s what I want.”  And so we went off and we just try to get as stupid and retarded as we could and he said, “Okay, that’s the character of Zoolander.  When he turns into this, that, and that’s what I want and that’s what we created.  So that’s what was a fun show for me because it was a comedy and a more relaxed environment.  I love that movie.

Nexus:  That sounds fun.  Who are some of the other stars that you have the opportunity to work with?

Clayton Barber:  Well, quite a few obviously.

Nexus:  Just some that stand out.  I mean, I don’t want you to name drop or anything like that, it’s just I think this is kind of a fun, light-hearted side of it and it’s also important for people to see that there’s another outlet besides competition or when competition is over that this maybe something they might be interested in.

Clayton Barber:  Sure.  And I’ve worked with Stephen Dorff and Wesley Snipes, the Blade stuff. I worked with Guy Piece on Time Machine. Arnold Schwarzenegger, I got a chance to work with him.  And let’s see Chris O’Donnell.  I got a chance to work with Sammo Hung, a famous Chinese martial artist and movie star on a TV show called Martial Law, which is a great treat for me because I always wanted to do some of the Hong Kong action stuff because that’s what I watched from the very beginning.

Nexus:  Right.

Clayton Barber:  It really was a big treat to work on that.  And basically I worked in the movie, Avatar and The Last Air bender.  I got to work on that.

Nexus:  You know, I just watched that film, Clay, and I wished I would’ve known; I would’ve try to look for you and sometimes I would go to the movies and tell my girlfriend at the time, “Hey you know, my friend, Clay, is in this.  Let’s see if we can find him.”

Clayton Barber:  Most of the time you can’t blink because it’s real quick.  So I got a wig on and the makeup because usually I’m on the receiving end when you do fight scenes where usually the bad guys…or the star usually is beating us up, do you know what I’m saying?  And sometimes you get to play sort of character or acting part.  I was in a Mel Gibson movie in Mexico where I played this assassin that walks into this prison in Mexico with two other assassins and they kind of had the standoff with him. And of course like in a typical Hollywood movie and then he throws a grenade at me and he blows me up.

Nexus:  [Laughter]

Clayton Barber:  So that’s going to be a fun one.  They made a meat puppet, basically like a duplicate of me or like a dummy and put a beard and a hat like the character I was playing with glasses shooters and they blow it up.  And then they cut it really quick so you can’t really tell that it was a human being.  And that was kind of a fun experience getting blown up by Mel Gibson.

Nexus:  [Laughter] That’s pretty funny!  So, Clay, let me ask you, what kind of…if you can just give some advice to the young competitors right now, what would it be?

Clayton Barber:  Well, I would say, “Look, study your history.  Pay attention to the classical aspects of martial arts because the basic foundation of martial arts is the essence and the key to victory.  And I think that if you go back and study basics in a proper form, I think that it will allow you to excel further and further than you can possibly ever imagine.  Because I think the problem that contemporary athletes have while maturing in taekwondo is that they don’t learn the basics.  They go straight to just kicking and the flash kicks and this and that.  It’s disheartening to me when I look an athlete especially U.S. Coach, and they can’t even do a proper sidekick.  And I’m asking myself, “Why?”  They don’t have the sensibility to even do a proper, proper sidekick – or even a basic hook kick.  It’s just pade chagi round kick and yes, some of those guys are pretty good and they’re fast, but they don’t have enough weapons; they’re very one dimensional.

So I would say, really, really, really, really focus on the basics and study your history because if you don’t study your history it’s almost impossible to really comprehend where you as a martial artist, if you want to consider yourself an artist stand contemporary history.  And that’s important because most of these people are going through life and a career in taekwondo whether it be short lived or long lived, it’s not really understanding the context in which they stand and it’s very important that they do understand what kind of impact they’re having.  So they know they’re all making a difference, do you understand what I’m saying?  Because I think that the athlete today is just focusing again on the winning and the adulation of all of this and that, but if you take away that and you stand them in a room and you have them to do just basic, basic fundamental taekwondo martial arts, they can’t do it.  And it’s a terrible thing to see; it’s a travesty to see martial arts grow that way in my opinion because I was brought up in the basics and I went to the modern way of taekwondo and I think that some of the things that perhaps people have said about me was that, “Wow, you had really good basics.”  Do you know what I mean?  And I always heard that coming from my peers, they said, “Wow!  Your basics are good!”  And I was like, “Really?  Well, thanks!  I appreciate it.  So you can thank my instructor, Master Chang Lee.”  And I know now those basics tells me to compete in the movie because I went there and I can do a proper side kick, I can do a proper hook kick; I can do all those things that you need to have.  Whether you’re performing poomse or whether you perform in sparring, children and people need to have basics.  And again, I can’t stress enough to study the history of martial arts as well as taekwondo so they can understand where they are and what they stand for.

Nexus:  And that’s some excellent, excellent advice and just fantastic advice; I’m not going to add to that but I will ask you one final question.  There are probably a number of people who are going to hear this interview and say, “You know, I kind of want to break out into the film industry.  I don’t like to do…become a stuntman or move into that area.”  What advice would you have for them?

Clayton Barber:  Well, the first thing I would say, “First, you got to have a goal; you’ve got to have passion, a complete desire to want to do it; and you’ve got to have hard work because it’s going to be a rough-and-tumble ride; it’s not going to be easy.  You’re going to be told “No” a thousand times; you’re going to be rejected a thousand times.  And unless you have the ability to say “No, I can, I can, I can you won’t succeed out there because it is a tough man’s game.  And so you have to have that dream.  I don’t really like to use dream so much as I did when I was younger because I think dreams are sort…it’s more of a goal and a purpose.  But I believe that anybody can do it because me, I was a small town Texas boy who had no money, no nepotism no help or nothing but just a desire and a passion to what I’m doing.  And when I went out there, I’m doing nobody – I’m doing nobody; and I was able to make it happen for me because of those aspects.  So if you really, really want to do it, you got to have those.  And then of course, there are instances where you can…you will know somebody or you know somebody.  You might have that ability to allow you to open a door; but believe me, whenever a door opens you got to walk through it because if it’s shut, it’ll stay shut.  Do you know what I’m saying?

Nexus:  Yes, definitely.

Clayton Barber:  So that’s the best advice I can give that you’ve got to do it.  Make sure you do it and give your whole heart to it because if not, if you do it halfway, you’re going to go there, you’re going to come back to see this and then you’re going to have to figure something else that you want to do in life because… And then that’s another thing; if you just went out there to achieve fame and money and things like that, please don’t do it; I’m telling you, don’t do it.  That’s what I was teaching my children, that’s what I would say to anybody – don’t do it – because I learned from the lessons of what I did.  That made me sick and sad when I did that until I was able to turn myself into a better path.  And so I know in my own experiences that if you chase that, you’re not going to get it; you will not get it because it’s just one of those things went you want something bad enough that it’ll never come to you sometimes.  You’ve to sit in the middle of the room and let it come to you.  Do you know what I’m saying about that?

Nexus:  I know exactly what you’re saying.  It’s all about motivation and it’s about where your center is and if your center is correct, you’ll find victory in every circumstance and you eventually have everything you dreamed of and more and I’m a strong advocate of that.  And I just want to thank you, Clay, for taking the time.  I know you’re busy; I know that you have…you’re working on a number of film projects right now and I know that you have typically a full day.  So I thank you for taking the time to do this interview and to have a voice out there and to try to reach out to the young martial artists out there to learn something and learn something positive in such a positive tip is the way you put it.  I really appreciate it.

Clayton Barber:  No problem but I appreciate and it was my pleasure and you can call me anytime.  I love to teach; I love to mentor and we get one life and we get one chance and before I go, I want to pass down everything that was given to me from my mentors and from the people before me and I think that we should all be like that instead of being self-centered and selfish.  So I would love to get back anytime that you need it and anytime you need me I’m here and I have a lot to say.

Nexus:  Well, I appreciate it, Clay.  Thank you very much!

Clayton Barber:  You’re welcome!

But the new “Karate Kid” is not entirely driven by nostalgia.The first film, released in 1984, with Pat Morita as the wise old mentor and Ralph Macchio as his protégé, tapped as many archetypes (the polite Word for clichés) that it could have been made at any time the new version be duplicated his story, but the action moves to China, where the title character, a 12-year-old called Dre (Jaden Smith, the son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, producer on the film), with his mother, sherry (Taraji P. Henson) has moved.

The move appears to make a big difference. “The Karate Kid” is very long (2 hours 12 minutes), dramatic thin and acted wrong, but it was filmed almost entirely in China, Beijing, and it usually has a unexotic, lived in sense of place unusual in current films of Hollywood.(And this is not quite a Hollywood movie, but rather a Chinese-American coproduction.) There are visits to the great wall, forbidden city and Temple of a mountain, but usually there is the lively hustle and bustle of workaday Beijing.

Dre and sherry have moved there from Detroit, flights of sad memories of Dre’s father’s death and looking to the nature of the employment which is gone from the Motor City. it is a rough transition for Dre. He falls victim to a group of bullies whose Captain Cheng (Wang Zhenwei), a star pupil in a quasi-fascist kung fu academy. The Dre in love with Mei Ying (Han Wenwen), an aspiring violinists, doesn’t help matters, because she’s a friend of the youth of Cheng, the main bully.

Enter, grumble and shuffling, a humble handyman who turns out to be of Jackie Chan. you don’t have to be familiar with the first “Karate Kid” — or even with the trailer for this one — to know what will happen. There will be strict training, starting with the repetition of a simple, menial task, in this case, the take-off and putting up a jacket (instead of the car resins in the first film). There will be revelations, misunderstandings and montage sequences that somehow not the story go faster. Then the final confrontation with the bad kung fu kids (not be called “The Kung Fu Kid”?).Rehabilitated. Vengeance exacted. Tears shed.Lessons learned.

As I said: archetypal. And not so terrible, especially for younger children still not jaded by repeated exposure to triumph-of-the-underdog sports movies. but it has to be better, with a richer sense of the relationships between Dre and the adults in his life, and a sense of cultural curiosity to the enthusiastic geographical reconnaissance. It doesn’t help that Mrs Henson, by far the most dynamic presence in the film, but you could say that about almost everything they, like “the Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Hustle & flow is” — is limited to a few scenes of scolding and to worry about.

And the Director, Harald Zwart (“The Pink Panther 2″), doesn’t make enough use of Mr CHAN the best assets, namely his deadpan functions and whirling limbs.His clumsiness in English would be less of an issue as Jaden Smith not such a rigid, recessive actor. he may have been lively and charming, but it is not always possible to tell where Dre’s cool, self-protective attitude stops and Jaden restrictions begin.

However, you have no other choice but to root for him — the actor and the young kung fu adept. is this “Karate Kid” as good as the original? no, but it’s better than the prosecution.But why bother with nostalgia?It is probably good enough.

“The Karate Kid” is rated PG. it has bullying and fighting.

THE KARATE KID

Opens on Friday nationwide.

Directed by Harald Zwart; written by Christopher Murphey, based on a story by Robert Mark Kamen; Director of photography, Roger Pratt; edited by Joel Negron; music of James Horner; production designer, François Séguin; costumes by Han Feng; produced by Jerry Weintraub, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, James Lassiter and Ken Stovitz; released by Columbia Pictures. Running time: 2 hours 12 minutes.

WITH: Jaden Smith (Dre Parker), Jackie Chan (Mr Han), Taraji P. Henson (sherry), Han Wenwen (Mei Ying) and Wang Zhenwei (Cheng).

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He is the only man in the party who is not. She was the Bar Refaeli, Sports Illustrated swimsuit model.”The Leo DiCaprio girlfriend,” Mr. St-Pierre de manager, Shari Spencer, yelled about a thundering R&B hit a few moments later, after watching the encounter of a few feet away. “She and Leo partied with you. “

Mr. St-Pierre, who as part of a weeklong promotion tour of New York appeared to his profile, dipped his head in mock shame, exposing the scars in his closely cropped scalp. As Mr. St-Pierre, a 29-year-old Quebec native, really wants a face that mixed martial arts to the mainstream sells, he must embrace the A-listers as excited as they seem to want to embrace him.

Mr. St-Pierre has a rabid following among testosterone-fueled, under-35 head-banger types listed in another era, rallied around Hulk Hogan.

The sport has shed some of the stigma that under the leadership of senator John McCain to take off as “human cockfighting.” Years after the ban some of his more openly prison-brawl maneuvers, such as lies-kicking and her tow, mixed martial arts is growing in decency and give boxing a run for its money. last year, the Ultimate Fighting Championship — the most visible company for the promotion of the sport — tallied nearly eight million pay per view purchases, a record by each company, including all providers of boxing and professional wrestling, said Dave Meltzer, that such figures for his newsletter, Wrestling Observer, and for the Yahoo! Sports tracks.

Top attacks have attracted celebrities like Mr DiCaprio, Mandy Moore and Jessica Biel. and some fighters have already incursions into the mainstream — a former champion, Chuck Liddell, showing off his mohawk “Entourage” and “Dancing with the Stars.”

But if the full-contact sport comes to the next step and graduate from a profitable niche obsession for a franchise with broad cultural call — with more cross-market tie-ins, corporate sponsorship and lucrative television contracts, the way that Nascar did in the 1990s — it would help to come up with a couple of handsome, very presentable ambassadors.

Mr. St-Pierre, which is still in his athletic prime, says he is ready for the task.”I try if that guy who the sport to the mainstream,” Mr. St-Pierre said about a Thai dinner, evening of fashion parties.”I want to be the guy that made the difference.”

Last year he was appointed fighter of the year by si.com, and he is a celebrity coach to “The Ultimate Fighter,” a reality show on Spike. when he arrived in the Armani party, he had hardly left the Escalade when a young man with an Australian accent him for a handshake approached.

Mr. St-Pierre also appears as a safer option to sell from the sport to soccer moms than some of his brethren trash-talking.The polite Canadian was one of the first fighters of his organization to be displayed in a suit on post press conferences He has soft ice.-blue eyes and boyish smile, and during the dinner he told in his soft Quebecois accent how he took of martial arts as a child because he is so ruthless was bullied at school.Unlike some fighters, he has only two tattoos, a an IRIS on a calf. it is a similar pattern to the new SAP logo — his initials — that Mr. St-Pierre hopes will represent its brand.

Indeed, his manager-a former investment-banking consultant in her 40s who in a pillowy Georgia rhythm speaks — seems to visualize the fighter, which already deals with Gatorade and Under Armour, as a marketing force that transcends his sport. that is why they settled New York media tour of the television interviews outside his sports job, a meet-and-greet with editors of GQ, Details and a press conference with Serena Williams to announce a new charitable foundation in partnership the mission skin care line.

“We want people to think of him as Georges St-Pierre, then athlete, fighter,” she said in Escalade like the shot from the party to the other party.

But for that to work, Mr. St-Pierre must steel itself for the tireless salesmanship that it takes to be a celebrity. that night, he seemed about five-ninths committed to prospect. Slouched into the dark Cadillac, he batted away questions about ambitions with one word comments.

Mixed martial arts may be larger than boxing? “Absolutely, “he said, as he knocked away on his BlackBerry, trying to arrange a night of clubbing with friends afterward.

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The garden also has a co-promotional deal with Bellator Fighting Championships, a smaller mixed martial arts organization based in Chicago, that fights on a garden run theatre in Chicago and a theatre in Boston.

“The world’s fastest growing sport seems a perfect fit shower” world’s most famous arena, “said Scott O’Neil, President of Madison Square Garden sports.

If income for some leagues and teams fell during the economic downturn, are pressed for mixed martial arts continue to grow. Saturday u.f.c. event takes in at least $ 4 million in ticket sales.

Melvina, Wisconsin Lathan, President of the New York State Athletic Commission, support for the legalisation of the sport, and momentum to be punished seems to grow with the State budget deficit.

Lorraine A. Cortés-Vázquez, New York State Secretary, favored the legalization and regulation of mixed martial arts in an op-ed articleshe wrote for the Times Union, Albany.They took out the possible economic benefits, among other issues.

Gov. David A. Paterson included a proposal to legalize the sport as a way to make money in his budget proposal in december. but when Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch a five-year financial bailout this month presented, he didn’t mention all specific programmes.

The u.f.c. is the hope that the economic potential of the events in New York will keep up mixed martial arts as a part of the statement of revenue plans.

“We have people from all over the world to our events fly,” said Dana White, President of the u.f.c. “That’s a lot of hotel rooms, a lot of merchandise.” And this week, the much-ballyhooed in New York for a sport that there is prohibited.

O’Neil saw no contradiction in the promotion of an event for another arena.

“We have press conferences for numerous events not place here,” he said.

O’Neil denied that the garden was working to make a point by showing how much revenue can generate a fight if they were in Manhattan.

The u.f.c. was just business as usual, an event in the most visible way in an important market, said White.

“This is not a little cult following,” he said. “We have millions of fans. “

The number of fans has grown with the number of States sanctioning of the sport.A lobbying effort led by Marc Ratner, Vice President of regulatory affairs with the u.f.c., has resulted in 44 States sanctioning of the sport.

“It’s not a question of whether we will be penalized in New York, but when,” said Ratner.

But the sport opponents are not to tap out.

Member Bob Reilly, an upstate-Democrat opposes the sport on moral grounds. He’s not even with the Paterson projections that the sport in $ 2 million per year would bring to the State.

“It’s violence because of violence,” said Reilly. “And violence begets violence. “

White countered by saying that his sport can not for everyone and that “there are fewer serious injuries in the u.f.c. than in competitive cheerleading.”

Bjorn Rebney, the President of Bellator, is not involved in the lobbying effort in New York, but welcomes the fact that the garden is getting involved in his sport. his tournament-based organization has a deal with Fox Sports to televise battles with NBC for a weekly televise Highlight show.

“If you receive a call from Madison Square Garden, you pay attention,” said Rebney.

He added, “If the u.f.c. was to keep a large pay per view in the garden, it would be thinking of the Ali fights.”

Reilly works to prevent that from happening. He sent a letter signed by 47 members of the 150-seat Assembly to the Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver questions that the punishment of mixed martial arts is removed from the budgetary procedure. but if that attempt fails, he said, of the State tax problems are too big to be held up by a fight over mixed martial arts.

“Then I will probably not vote against it,” he said. “Because this is only a small part of the budget. “

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Abdul Aziz, a practitioner of martial arts for 45 years and a karate sensei for 25, compares his hands with two protective, potentially deadly weapons. Mr Aziz, 53, who in Claremont Village in the South Bronx was growing up, began at age 8. For the last decade, he has taught karate for children on the Harlem children’s zone file of the diet and fitness Center. (“Truce” stands for the Renaissance University for Community education.) He also teaches for the New York City Housing Authority. He lives in the Bronx.

Abdul Aziz, 53, a practitioner of martial arts at the Harlem children’s zone file diet and fitness Center, with a student. Mr Aziz, who in Claremont Village in the South Bronx was growing up, began at age 8.

The no-frills karate kid: I was this Chihuahua kind child, a large mouth with a small body and a fighter attitude. Fortunately I got in martial arts, because all my energy was negative;I was not a bully, but I much combat. it was a hard, gang-riddled district; for a time I was in the Black Spades.

Brother as a teacher:My older brother, Yahkie Allah Sensei, was the ultimate street fighter. I learned my first karate from him. By 16, I was teaching in my own dojo in the room translucent in projects, you know, where the baby strollers and bikes were held. They let us use for classes.

Karate masters who mattered most:In addition to my brother, it was Derrick Williams: in 1978, he took me to my first tournament and helped me to visualize win. of course there was grand master Reno Morales and Grand Master Nathaniel McBride.And Abdul Hakim Bilal. He gave me my aikido training and got me off the street and in contests in my teenage years when I was on the wrong track. Now I’m a sixth degree black belt in five different martial arts systems.

Will do no harm:I hit someone on the street, I go to jail in five seconds.

Setbacks: My worst injuries are a compressed radial nerve that crippled my hand for a year; a stroke in 1999; another battle in 2006 me with blood vessel damage in my head, so I had to stop fighting in 2007.

Sensei of many names: My name is born Charles e. Williams, Jr., I changed the Kendu Allah when I was 12, and thought I was God.I was a Muslim, but not a true Muslim. my father was on his deathbed when my youngest son was born 21 years ago, and he me to call him Charles e. Williams III begged, so I did. No, my son has not changed his name! I have five biological children and four steps. I have twice divorced.

In 1993, I went to a service on the mosque, and it was as if the imam said to me, if God created me a message sent by him;that’s when I changed my name to Abdul Aziz and became a fully-fledged Muslim.Only Allah is Allah.

Dojo etiquette:Anybody can someone learn how to kick and punch someone else in the face.I call what I positive impact training.My greatest tension is that more than 300 of my students went to the University after they let me.None of the men in my class can wear their pants hanging off their ass: I’m like an Olympic coach about that. no negativity. no bitterness. Certainly, my kids are dangerous: I have small 8-year-old girls in my class that a grown man could knock out and good for them; it keeps them safe on the streets, but also nature teaches karate. Karate is the art of fighting without actually fight. or starting the fight. Karate ni sente nashi: there is no first attack in karate.

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Wilson Yip from “Ip Man,” a biopic with a distant relationship with the real lives of the Chinese martial arts master of the title (whose students included Bruce Lee), is a proletarian kung-fu movie. for the first time given the bourgeois good life in South China in the 1930s, Ip (Donnie Yen) heroic status achieved only after war compels him to use manual labor and leads him to the learning of a factory workers how to defend itself against bandits.

The film was a box office hit in China (and its sequel, “Ip Man 2″, one of the world’s top-grossing foreign language films this year will be).That may have had less to with the excellent combat sequences, directed by Sammo Hung using one of Mr Ip sons, than with the calls to nationalism and, in particular the heavy-handed presentation of the Japanese as giggling sadists or ruthless killing machines.

All in all, the film is a first exhibition in the ruthless and regrettable shift of a natural, allusive, romantic Hong Kong-style and to an aesthetic mainland studio that is stagebound, literal, overstuffed and sentimental — such as the big-budget Hollywood weepies or the 80s and the 1960s. The phlegmatic Mr yen fits well in this scheme, but a much better actor as Simon Yam, who is the owner of a factory is largely wasted, didn’t get a chance to use his talent for sly comedy.

The fanboys and girls don’t notice that such shortcomings in the midst of the displays of wing chun Kungfu — the extras and body double rooms do some impressive acrobatics — and those with a penchant for great historical tearjerkers will be happy too. the rest of us can Polish our John Woo and Johnnie To DVDs.

“Ip Man” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian) for bone-crunching violence.

IP MAN

Open on Friday in Manhattan.

Directed by Wilson Yip;action choreography by Sammo Hung;written by Edmond Wong and Chan Tai-lee;Director of photography, O Sing-pui;edited by Cheung Ka-fai; music by Kenji Kawai; production design by Kenneth Mak; costumes by Lee Cock-kwan; produced by Raymond Wong; released by Well Go USA and by way of derogation from films in the Cinema Village., 22 East 12th Street, Greenwich Village in Mandarin with English subtitles. duration: 1 hour 47 minutes.

WITH: Donnie Yen (Ip), Simon Yam (Zhou Qing Quan) and Hiroyuki Ikeuchi (Mr. Miura).

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NEW YORK is packed with closed doors, hidden communities and secret places. we pass by them all the time, without a hint of what’s inside, above, or, in this case, below.

Andy Bhagwandat, links, and Hara Sherman during a battle simulation. More photos»

It’s been almost 12 years ago, I happened upon one of them, the Budo Institute Kokushi, a dojo for training in the traditional Japanese martial arts, secluded in the basement of the New York Buddhist Church, Riverside Drive near 106th Street. The Dojo has no character and is not announced.

You can not miss the Church, though. Standing watch door is an arresting superhero-size bronze statue of Shinran Shonin, a 12th-century Japanese Buddhist monk.A bell ringing and walk three flights — and the Dojo reveals itself in phases.

First come the sounds: the kiais, or exclaim, associated with punches; and the big thumps up as large bodies flying through the air and land on the company mats with a blow of the arm to reduce the impact Then the sights.: men, women and children dressed in gis or white cloth training uniforms.There are smells, too: the funky, musky flavours of sporting effort. Nobody shatters boards. that’s all for show, anyway.

46 years, has the Dojo is monitored by the sensei Nobuyoshi Higashi, which the classical Japanese martial arts of aikido, judo, karate and his own Kokushi-ryu Jujitsu teaches, old, deadly Japanese fighting techniques that he reinvented in a safe, practical self-defense applications.

Mr Higashi grew up in Japan, where he rose to high grades in Kodokan judo Tomiki aikido and karate.He came to the United States in 1964, the Gospel of the Japanese martial arts. He continues to learn today, six days a week, with the help of his son, Shintaro, who is training for a shot at the United States judo team in the Olympic Games of 2012 — as well as other trusted students.

To watch the pinpoint time, acrobatics, the power and grace of the advanced students, special skills to succeed here.I felt that way the first time I visited a class, on a Saturday morning in 1999 with my son Jack, 8.He was not interested in organized sports and needed to burn out of an abundance of energy. I had the opposite problem-I had just pushed past 40 and needed to thwart lethargy, but the lone drudgery of running or swimming a dislike.

As I watched the students training, throwing themselves through the air, as they practiced zempo kaiten ukemi (roll forward), I felt my back and my doubts rise. But Jack and I were in this together, and almost 12 years later, I’m still (such as Jack until he went to the University) five times a week, for aikido and Jiujitsu classes.

As a new student from on the mat, you know nothing of these other men and women; All the usual signs of status and character — clothing, jobs, cars, jewelry — absent. In time you will learn that they come from all corners of the society, all ethnic groups and all social levels. some are special athletes, intent on competition. others see the Dojo as simply a place to practice or even a place for spiritual fulfillment.

I remember thinking years ago that it was funny that a martial arts dojo housed in a church. now I think it makes perfect sense that.

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“The lies!” cried Madison Schiavi.

Madison, an 8-year-old with a reddish-brown ponytail, had no words minced with her quick (and correct) response to the suggestion that they “talk about some important places we can hit.”

Erika Barolli, 10 proposed “Pop their eardrum!”. “Or the eye socket Guts “.

Jamie Arute, 37 a muscled man, dressed in black exercise gear, nodded a lot before the seven young costs in his studio here. just to make sure that they got it, Mr Arute — an instructor in Krav Maga, the Israeli combat technique whose starting point is “your attacker blowing away, then execute” — added, “then kick them in the rib, trek, other round kick, and you take it to the city!”

He turned to an onlooker.

“We talk a lot about hit in the face with a palm control,” he explained, “but there are some other good parts that we can strike. we want to know where to hit to make some damage.”

Krav Maga is enjoying an unusual burst of popularity among American children who might otherwise karate chops. born in the Jewish quarter of Nazi-infested Bratislava, then part of Czecho-Slovakia, in the 1930s and embraced by the Israel Defense Forces after the establishment of Israel in 1948, spent Krav Maga (“contact” in Hebrew) decades in America as cult activity within a handful of gyms in Los Angeles and New York.

But in recent years the lievers technique is entered as a martial arts class in towns and villages across the country. Among the students are children whose parents worried about “stranger danger,” women who want to protect themselves, guards in psychiatric hospitals and teenagers afraid of high school bullies.

The spread of Krav Maga follows the silent approval thereof by the police services, including those in Chicago, Memphis and Lubbock, TeX.Government agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration and the appointment, in conjunction with — not surprisingly — the army, Navy, air force and Navy, his training in the technique for at least a decade.

Now even Hollywood gets in on the Act. For his role in the romantic comedy “Killers” studied Ashton Kutcher method for several months. For his real-life role as a groom in his upcoming marriage to the pop singer Katy Perry, so did Russell Brand — as a way to get into shape, not to gird for prior lovers that reception may stop responding (hang).

At Premier Martial Arts, the Studio that Mr Arute opened in March 2008, train approximately 100 school children per week in the fine art of cracks attackers to pieces. Tuition fee is € 2000 per year for unlimited classes.

There are no Zen-like movements, à la Obi-Wan Kenobi. It’s all about getting down and dirty in the interest of saving your own skin.

“Well, let’s go to two hands chokeholds,” Mr. Arute cried.

The children move linked from, the other a throw against a wall, hands around the neck, and the victim with a signature Krav Maga with regard to the increase of a curved upper arm, then down and turning out the hold.

Krav Maga is regularly taught at the Israeli schoolchildren and is even acknowledged by the Israeli Ministry of education, but would this work in real life?Can a child really prevent an adult four times as big?

Yes, urged Mr Arute.Madison’s father, Richard Schiavi, who owns a tree stump grinding company, nodded.

Abel Kahn, a certified Krav Maga instructor in Hamilton, N.J., was more cautious.”If a child is efficient and can respond with speed, it is possible to get out of the situation,” he said.”And if the child is taken by force and violence, the child will be other opportunities to get out.”

What if the child is trying to practice on a brother or sister, maybe, or the family cat? At each lesson reminds the Mr Arute students who only defensive moves, and are used only in case of serious danger.

“It’s about managing your body and self discipline,” he said.”You don’t just take a swing. but if a stranger trying to grab you, fight over.”

Because Krav Maga still a mom-and-pop track no one company is, how many studios have opened in recent years, or how many traditional gyms classes have added in the discipline.But a Web search shows hundreds of new Studios open in recent months from Raleigh, NC, Katy, TeX., and various associations that are fighting to “explain” instructors.

One of them — Krav Maga worldwide in Los Angeles — says that some 240 training centres all over the world, with each centre have anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand members, half of them women.

Krav Maga offers in addition to teaching skills that the students hope they never-to-use, a good workout. by the end of Mr Arute 45-minute class — including wind sprints, push-ups and punching against black pads — the kids were sweating.

He explored the basics always back road opposite your attacker before. Never hit the ground — you vulnerable. Stay in the fight. remember to breathe. A simple technique that seems to work surprisingly well: as a stranger through the wrist grabs, create a ball with your grip hand, bring your other hand to grab the ball and pull quickly. then turn and walk.

Joshua Neff, 6, declared the class fun. “You get to protect and know what to do if you are in danger, “he said.

Madison Worthy, 11, that school in a rough neighborhood of New Haven’s assist, nodded. She said there was almost a dozen fistfights in the course of her school during lunch; a teacher had suffered a concussion; and in February, the principal had been hit.

“It is a scary place,” she said of her forehead, dripping sweat. “I know I am strong, but I want to know how to use my strength, if I must. “

Mr Arute nodded. “This is not to be used if someone your parking lot at the Mall. “

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The nearly 800 judoka who descended from Tokyo from all over the world last week to compete in the 27 world Judo Championships arrived with one goal in mind: to win.And already had little doubt that the women in Japan would dominate Team, the team of men would rate anybody guess. after a series of disappointments in the past few years, the victory in unusually short supply.

After a lackluster performance at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which they won only two gold medals, their weakest show ever, the malaise went from bad to worse at the World Championships 2009 in Rotterdam. for the first time, they came at home without a gold medal. the World Championships in Rio de Janeiro in 2007 and the Asian Games 2006 showed letdowns too.

Many people were wondering if the results meant that the Japanese men team could lose its traditional coup on the sport.

Heading into the World Championships, was the pressure on the team to pull itself out of the malaise or another knockout round of humiliation, this time on his own turf.(Tokyo not is host of the event since the Second Edition in 1958.)

On the first day of the competition on Thursday, the men got off to a good start, winning a gold.The coach, the former world champion Shinichi Shinohara, said he was happy but wouldn’t really satisfied until his team took at least two more.

With so much riding on this tournament, had Shinohara decided to exercise more control over its players training to a comeback that would show the world that Japan continues to see was a force to be reckoned with in the sport that made it.

Rather than let players make their own preparation, as usual, Shinohara forged a boot camp with a daily regimen that included at sunrise get up and run 10 km, or 6 miles.

The training should have borne fruit.On Monday, at the end of the five-day tournament, were the Japanese fans at Yoyogi National Gymnasium, where judo was inaugurated as an Olympic sport in 1964, jubilant. the team had made his comeback, and then some.

The men’s team earned four gold, one silver and three bronze medals.In 2009 she won a silver and a bronze.

In team totals, men and women, Japan dominated, with 23 medals.France was second, with six medals.

Although Japanese players declined to comment, their achievements made one thing clear: their shape is as good as it ever has been, if not better.

But of course, the tournament was not without interfering with the top-ranked judoka in the world, Takashi Ono, was knocked out early, and the No. 3 seed, Keiji Suzuki, found himself useful sent in the first round.

So had what the cause of the decline of the Japanese men team before the turnaround?

Milos Mijalkovic, a 32-year-old Serbian judoka who for many years, Japan has studied chalks it up to fiercer competition. “Nowadays, many other countries are improving their judo, “he said.”If you look around, you see there is not only judo power of large countries such as France, Japan, and Korea, but many others, too. “

And not only his Japanese judoka face a greater number of tougher opponents, they also have had to negotiate the unknown area of non-traditional judo moves.

Purists believe that foreign elements the game degrade, and not to forget to Japanese at a disadvantage. Naoki Murata, the author of many books about judo and the curator in the Kodokan Judo Museum in Tokyo, stated that “some athletes come from countries that thousands of years of history of wrestling, so that they are used for attacks of the legs,” which got them away with until earlier this year, when the international Judo Federation unorthodox leg grab throws prohibited.

And so he is pleased with this kind of rule change, aimed at the recovery of judo in the more traditional form.

The Djibouti team coach, rowdy Kamini Abdourahman A. Raguib, includes also refurbishing this. “Japanese judo is the classical style, “he said,” but in some other countries it is mixed with other species of the battles, such as wrestling or sambo. In Japan you good technique, which is what Japanese judo is about, and that’s why we can’t stop them. “

Like many lovers share mark law, the British author of “the Pajamas game: a journey in judo,” this respect for the Japanese form. “They are much more subtle players and use more technology than force, “he said.”It is not enough to just smash your way through it. of course, you have just enough force to stop your European brute, but using technique against him is the true spirit of the game.

“And of course,” he added, “the home-field advantage doesn’t hurt much, either.”

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Mr. Hung, 58, is known as the “Big Brother” of the Hong Kong kung fu movie.The famous big Hollywood actor go not the route that Mr CHAN has pursued, but remained mainly in Asia, where he has directed, produced, choreographed or acted in approximately 200 films. He is best known as a fight choreographer, working behind the scenes with stars like Mr CHAN and John Woo, and plays an integral role in the development of the genre kung fu.

He was presented a lifetime achievement award last week at the New York Asian Film Festival, which runs through July 8. It shows four of his works: “Eastern condors” (1987), a darkly humorous war in Viet Nam-era movie that is said to have been an influence on Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds “;” “Kung Fu chefs “(2009), a comedy; and the two films of the “Ip Man” (2008, 2010), a biopic of the Grand Master of Wing Chun style and Bruce Lee’s early sifu, with fights choreographed by Mr. Hung.

The entertainment business is running in Mr Hung family.His grandmother, Chin Tsi-Ang, was one of the first sword-wielding martial-arts actresses, and his grandfather was a Director.

Hung Kam-bo born in 1952, he was trained in the now-obsolete Peking Opera School tradition, in which parents of young children sent to live on campus and pupil under a captain who them martial arts, acrobatics, taught singing and dancing.

“I was never good at school and was always fighting in the streets,” said Mr. Hung. “so they sent me to learn.”

On 9, he was sent to be trained near Tsim Sha Tsui Kowloon, he was a young student named Chan Kong sang met-, it was Jackie Chan. under the school management, she was Executive child stars in a company.

“We woke up early in the morning and worked until 11 at night,” said Mr. Hung. “There was a small, square wooden stool, and we had to do a handstand on it for an hour. Of course the children. I lived there for seven years. “

Decades later, in 1988 played Mr. Hung his former master in “Painted Faces,” a drama that the boys Spartan life shows.”Our real suffering,” he said, “was much worse than what we in the movie.”

Mr. Hung said he didn’t learn kung fu specific until after graduation.He Also spent a year studying a variety of fighting styles, from China and other Asian countries.

He established himself as an action Director, choreographing the extended control screens for which Hong Kong films are known, and sometimes fighting itself. He plays the posh Shaolin monk, for example, whom Bruce Lee in the opening of “Enter the Dragon” battles (1973).

By the 1970s, the 1980s and 1990s, Mr. Hung involved in numerous films, the Hong Kong studio system was churning out quickly and inexpensively.He specialized in B-movies so beloved by the audience here.

Hong Kong film began developing his own style and moving away from stylized Mandarin language costume dramas.Filmmakers began using bawdy humor, urban environments, tight hand combat shots and the rough Cantonese of the streets.

“Kung fu movies have to deal with the rest of the world,” said Mr. Hung. “you couldn’t keep on doing sword-fighting in epics. people wanted superheroes.They wanted something fast and new. “

From 1998 to 2000 he starred in “Martial Law,” a CBS primetime TV drama, in which he a kung fu-fighting Chinese agent played.

Like everyone else in the movie business Hong Kong does Mr Hung more work in China, as it opens and grows as the entertainment industry. that said, he noted that “the local Hong Kong taste is getting lost in some movies.”

“I wish there were more kung fu movies,” he said. “They are a part of our culture. but there are no young new stars there. Who created a new generation of kung fu movies now? If all the young actors want to star in romances, what they need to learn kung fu for? “The sex scenes?

Mr Hung three sons — Jimmy, Timmy and Sammy — have acted in various projects with him, but he said that he wasn’t going to push them. “I want them to see the world for themselves, “he said.

He said he was pleased with the award in New York, but that certainly does not represent the liquidation of his career. Once the festival ends, he plans to go back home to Hong Kong, he said, and start shooting again.

“I’m not quite ready for a lifetime achievement award,” he said. “It makes it sound like I’m going to retire soon, and I feel like I’m just getting started. “

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