who is the best martial artist you have met and why?

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Kung Fu Forum
21

A short list

  1. Chuck Norris
  2. Grandmaster Sensei Takeshi Ukeno ( I never trained with GMS CTS)
  3. Ashida Kim
  4. William CC Chen
  5. John Kim
  6. Nitro (from American Gladiators–a specialist in Hop Gar)
  7. Paulie Zink
  8. Kurt Thomas (of Gymkata) [he got a bad reception in Gymkata, but the fight
    choreographer was to blame. He ruined my script].
  9. Francis Fong
  10. Ted Wong
  11. William Cheung
  12. Keanu Reeves
22

My Sifu Mark Houghton,

he opened my eyes to many things..he took away all this mysterious bs in cma..which I was believing in (sort of)..Before he became my Sifu I already had 20+ years experience in ma..he kinda made it work..like he opened the door that always been kept shut..he also goes with the time..even still using traditional training tools ,I mean you see the school and get dreamy eyes cos of the way it looks like ashaw brothers movie set..once u train in there you have a rude awakening..Pain but at the same time development,improvement and understanding of ur style..
Then my Sigung Lau Kar Leung,he literaly takes away your breath with his knowledge..
hes pure kung fu and for his age (70) FIT as hell…

23

I forgot the why’s

  1. He starred in some of the worlds greatest action movies, especially the MIA series, where his martial expertise was used to great effect in saving his fellow Americans from oppression. He was also fantastic in the Return of the Dragon, although the alternate ending (far worse in my opinion) where Bruce Lee lives and defeats Chuck Norris (rather than dying at his hands in a vicious reverse DDT), angered me very much. He was a fantastic martial arts instructor, and an even better wingman.

  2. Only second to Chuck on this list. Had I trained with Grandmaster Sensei Chan Tai San, I’m sure he’d be in the number 1 slot. But alas…

  3. Ashida Kim. He taught me everything I’ve ever needed to know about the missile dropkick.

  4. William CC Chen. You wonder why his tai chi is so combat-superb and my ninjitsu is so internal? Share and share alike, I say.

  5. John Kim. He trained hard. Iron Kim taught me the value of forgoing sleep, paying large sums for martial knowledge, forsaking the collegiate world (hence my demand that my students obtain a Master’s before training at my commune, so they, too, will come to despise their institutionalized learning), and Shao-lin fundraising.

  6. Nitro was a master of Hop Gar, as well as pugil-stick boxing. My pugil-stick is 10X better than the average master’s because of this training. And I can do it on a small round pedestal raised 30 feet in the air above a sand trap. But I still can’t defeat Sigung Nitro.

  7. He let me get my hands on his monkey. A fantastic style.

  8. Two words: Pommel-horse.

24

I would have listed myself, but it seemed a little vain. I’ll leave that honor to someone who has trained in one of my seminars.

25

Wong Guan Quan, Li Siu Hung, Joe Keit, Lance Zabata, Chow Keung,
Those are some of my current faves :smiley:

26

Mega Foot,
You forgot Jeff Speakman, David Carradine, Vandamm, and Steven Segaul

27

I did not.

I thought Carradine ruined Iron Circle, Van Damme snubbed me at a dinner party, and Steven Seagal smells like bad pinto beans.

28

Not a complete list, but just general people, except for the first two, that have helped to shape my outlooks to some degree or another.

  1. My dad.
  • Taught me to many life lessons to list on a forum. Boxing was one.
  1. Both of my grandfathers.
  • From them again the list would be very long but it was from both these veterans that the gleem of interest in ww2 american close combatives took form.
  1. Colonel. Rex Applegate (ww2 combatives)
    Met him at a knife convention. It was a honor.
  2. Massad Ayoob (shooting)
    Able to translate skill sets above anything I have ever encountered.
  3. Maestro Gavin Griggs (fma/panatuken)
  • Wicked hands, lots of dirty up close tricks, nasty panatuken. Showed me that there was a lot more to fma than just burned rattan. Taught me the concept of “play”
  1. James Keating (bladework/fma)
    Riddle of Steel baby!
  2. Etienne Savlia (boxing)
    -old school style, despite his age he had full body locking power, knew more than a fouling tactic or two.
  3. Sifu Robert Debillis (chi tao ch’uan gung fu/stripped down chinese kempo)
  • The love for martial arts all started here a long time ago, the mystery, the misconceptions, the fun. Man had hands of blue collar steel and a nasty temper to boot.
29

not going to make a list, but I just got back from a weekend doing DaitoRyu Aikijutsu with Roy Goldberg, and I was truly astonished at the skill of this man. Also got to train with Dara Masi of Hakko-Ryu Jiu-Jutsu, and again, the skill level is nothing short of amazing. Oh yeah, and the pain…:eek:

30

mega-foot (John Takeshi)

I attended one of his super awesome seminars and was enlightened.

Mega_fist

I met him in a secret temple for a death match, he spared my life and taught me the true way of the Judo katana.