Chu Zhen Dao Freestyle Martial Arts

First up, credit where credit is due. Big congratulations to Geoff (Tank) & Trish Todd and the rest of the Team at Fight Times Magazine.

I remember when Fight Times started, then called New Zealand Martial Arts Magazine. I also recall some people thought it was the end of the magazine being a martial arts magazine now run by a C.Q.B stylist. Well unless you’re not interested in Martial arts in NZ or you have been living in a cave, you have to commend these people on taking a good publication and producing a magazine that can hold its own with any other Martial Arts publication produced on this planet!

The changing face of Martial arts in this country is universal, the more it changes, the more things remain the same. From my own stand point commercialism is the new face and the scourge all in one. You have guys like Tank who is out spoken and often has his credentials questioned, Ian Waite who is again out spoken and yet another pioneer who has brought the martial arts to new levels. Again people lining up to take a shot and try to pull themselves up by tearing other people down. Last decade we called it “tall poppy syndrome”. Love them or hate them, we all have to acknowledge the impact people (and there are many others, these were just the first two that came to mind) have made on the martial arts scene.

I noted last week someone asked me if I knew this Tank Todd guy. I replied “yes I did”, at this point wondering if there really was anyone left in NZ who didn’t know something about Tank. My mate asks, “so is he the real deal or what”? I guess no matter how hard you work or how much you impact in your chosen fields, there is always going to be someone still trying to discredit you (although this was not a discredit it was merely a “should I take his course” question to which I replied “ HELL YES”! Then of course, you have the opposite end of the scale, there is always going to be guys promoting themselves claiming to have skills they don’t really have, who are equally out spoken and yet still manage to rip off so many people along the way. Luckily we are all governed by the universal truth, we get everything back! About the only thing that has changed is, today the battle field is a court room not open country.

The age old question of which art is better is still amusing to me. Many instructors preach, “Every art has something to offer”. This is true wisdom; however, it comes from being able to distinguish what art suits your current needs. For example, a good body guard needs to be competent at striking and grappling, however being intelligent is more essential. What the majority of people don’t seem to get is, a good body guard is ALWAYS going to remove his principal from a bad situation before it ever gets to striking or grappling. I tell the new-bee’s at my gym, “if what you want is to be able to get into a situation where someone attacks you in a stand up punching and kicking brawl Muay Thai will suit your needs”. The problem is, once a great Thai Boxer is on the ground he’s up the proverbial creek.

Competition is always great and there are many that do not allow punches to the head, that’s fine for the competition, problem is the majority of street fights, (and there have been many), that I have personally been involved in, did in fact allow head punching. I’m NOT knocking the competition element. I accept why we run competitions in this way. My issue is when we say it’s purely a safety factor, yet we allow kicks and knees to the head, like that’s never going to cause any damage.

There are many masters I have not trained with, there are many systems I have not studied, BUT I have studied with every qualified person in a legitimate system that the opportunity has allowed me to. Personally I have studied from God’s own all the way to China and back and I will continue to do so as long as I am physically able to.

What makes a great Martial Artist? The ability to absorb new information, and integrate it into your own system AND the ability to filter out the rubbish along the way and avoid people who promote themselves as something they are not. What makes a great Martial Arts Magazine? Well keep buying and reading FIGHT TIMES and you will see.

On behalf of myself and my team at the Chu Zhen Dao Martial Arts Academy, we wish to congratulate you all at the magazine, and we are all looking forward to another 10 years of the same quality. Happy 10th Anniversary.

Brian A Twomey
Chu Zhen Dao (Founder)
A.M.A.H.O.F Board of Directors 03/04