WATCH OUT for GRANDPA-san!

 

Teaching the art of 'tameshiwari' outside geology museum
at University of  Wyoming in Laramie (UW photo service) in
the 80s, 90s & into the 21st century. 

A martial artist from Gilbert enjoys training in martial arts as much as he enjoys rocks, stars, writing, research, music, and Sindonology. He began training in martial arts in 1964, when safety equipment for full-contact karate included an athletic cup and a lot of guts (no padded gloves, boots, or head gear), and the entire body and head was considered a target. But through time, after training in more than a dozen martial arts and earning several black belts, he was inducted into several Halls-of-Fame for martial arts, science, and polymath.

During a sojourn to mosquito-infested Alaska to consult for WestGold in the late 1980s, Soke lived in a tent and searched for gold in a region surrounded by bears, caribou, and extremely aggressive mosquitos. But, he continued to train in karate and kobudo and by time he left the Kuskokwim Mountains, the group of geologists found the mother lode: one of the largest gold deposits discovered in all of history. 

Back at the university, he periodically took breaks from field research after walking all day in the hills at South Pass, Seminoe Mountains, Rattlesnake Hills, Laramie Mountains, and Owl Creek Mountains of Wyoming, to kick and punch flies, trees, and rocks. And his lightning fast reflexes saved him more than once from the fangs of rattlesnakes.

While researching diamondiferous kimberlite in the State Line, Iron Mountain, and Indian Hills districts of Colorado and Wyoming, as well as consulting for various companies on a number of diamond deposits in North America, he initiated research on colored gemstones. On a trip to the Australian outback to study rare diamond deposits associated with olivine lamproite (one of the rarest rock types on earth), he found himself among pesky noSeeUm flies and YesISeeEm kangaroos and crocodiles. He and a group of Japanese karate-geologists were challenged by breaking silicified peaks of termite mounds using shuto uchi (knife-hand strikes). The mounds were perfect targets for tameshiwari (rock breaking) since they had conical-shaped tops on mounds of 5+ feet or more, and were as hard as concrete.

When he wasn't breaking rocks with a geologist hammer, he was breaking rocks with his empty hand. Soke is a certified kyoju (professor of martial arts) by Juko Kai and taught karate, kobudo, jujutsu, samurai arts, and self-defense classes and clinics in the Departments of Physical Education, Kinesiology, Extended Studies, and Club Sports. He also offered annual clinics to ROTC, Religious Studies, Faculty, Staff, Students, Sororities, and the Public, for over 30 years at the university. In-between classes, clinics and research, he traveled to consult for mining companies, lectured to 400+ groups, and wrote and published nearly 1,000 abstracts, professional papers, magazine articles and books. 

Part of his training regimen included stadium stairs, weight-training (squatted 800-pounds at a body weight of only 160 pounds), and lots and lots of kata, bunkai, and body hardening (shitai kori). And like any other martial artist, he periodically pulled a muscle or two, injured his lower spine lifting too much weight and was one busy guy! Soke suggests people get physically old when they lose too much strength in their legs. Thus, it is very important to exercise one's legs if you plan to use them. He indicates one of the best exercise he knows for legs is to get two grandsons (or daughters) and place one on each foot, and then go for a walk! And don't forget about your arms!

Today, grandpa/Soke trains in a local gym in Gilbert, Arizona after retiring from the university, the Wyoming Geological Survey and consulting. You may see him at the gym stacking 720-pounds or more on a leg press. In April, 2023, he was seen lifting 5-times his body weight at 175-pounds: he squatted 900-pounds using a leg press. A few days later, he squatted 920 pounds. But he indicates that the incline leg press is nothing like squatting free weights, where one must focus on balance and have a strong back, legs and knees. He notes that at his age "it's just nice to be able to walk around". 

When not in the gym, soke teaches a small number of black belt students in Mesa and provides training for a group of seniors at his church. His seniors feel better prepared in today's society after learning to use canes, car-keys, pens and even a short sticks known on Okinawa as hanbo, tebo, and kubotan - and even magazines! 

He has dedicated much of his life to learning karate as well as kobudo (the ancient art of weapons/tools for self-defense) and is searching for local church groups in Gilbert, Chandler and Mesa, to teach free, weekly self-defense classes in 2024-05, as well as a possibly teaching social groups (seniors, women, etc) in the East Valley.