combat
Emil Farkas, “Sensei To The Stars” And A Lot More
Having taught, among others: Herb Alpert, Fred Williamson, Dennis Hopper, Lalo Schifrin, Sherry Caffaro, Mike Connors, Peggy Lipton, Raymond St. Jacques, Irene Tsu, Peter Fonda, Linda Blair, Al Ruddy, Lou Adler, Paul Williams, Ted Mann, James Cann, Phil Spector, Barry Gordy, Jeff Barry and Lorenzo Lamas, our featured martial artist has been dubbed “Sensei To The Stars”.
Research shows that Emil Farkas is more than that. A lot more.
Hungarian-born American martial arts instructor, author and fight coordinator Emil Farkas started his martial arts career while still a youngster, and before age 20 he had earned his black belt in both Judo and Karate.
Both his parents were Holocaust survivors, and young Emil was born in the Hungarian town of Munkacz right after World War II, and grew up in an Orthodox home.
When he was 7, young Emil started getting into fights with some of his Hungarian classmates and he decidedto study judo at the local sports club.
In 1956, after Soviet tanks crushed a short-lived uprising, the family fled and ended up in Toronto.
Farkas quickly learned that anti-Semitism had preceded him across the ocean and so he was driven to put all his energy into his judo classes and trained almost every night.
Several years later, the first karate instructors arrived from Japan and Okinawa and Emil Farkas was immediately taken by the athletic kick ing and punching techniques. He became so proficient that he earned his first black belt in judo at 17, and in karate at 18.
In the mid-1960s, the Farkas family moved to Los Angeles and 19-year-old Emil looked for a job to support himself while attending college. He became a bodyguard to music industry mogul, Phil Spector.
In 1970, Farkas’ career really started to take off. That’s when he founded his own school, the Beverly Hills Karate Academy, which he still runs today. The timing was also good to attract Jewish parents and their kids, especially after the Israeli military victory in 1967.
Working for Phil Spector helped Farkas meet actors and screenwriters in Hollywood. As martial arts movies started to become popular, Farkas was in constant demand as a stunt and fight coordinator, training stunt doubles, and working with cinematographers on “choreographed action” or fight scenes, in Easy Rider, Killer Elite, Mannix, Spiderman, The Hulk, Mission Impossible and The Fall Guy, just to mention a few.
Sensei Farkas used the long waiting time on the movie sets to write books on the martial arts. He has co-authored numerous books, including the authoritative “The Original Martial Arts Encyclopedia: Tradition, History, Pioneers.”
As a martial arts instructor, Farkas now focuses mainly on “street-effective self defense” through Shotoka, a branch of karate that Farkas developed.
Today he is one of America’s most respected martial arts instructors and is without a doubt internationally recognized as a leading authority on the martial arts.
Currently, Sensei Farkas holds a 7th degree Black Belt in Karate, 4th degree Black Belt in Judo and a 4th degree Black Belt in Ju-Jitsu.
Not surprisingly, he is also an accomplished expert in realistic street combat, having worked as a bodyguard for many years.
In 2000, Farkas and Benny “The Jet” Urquidez founded the Los Angeles Film Fighting Institute, which was one of the first schools of its kind in the United States to teach martial artists the intricacies of stunt work.
In 1995, Farkas founded his own federation, The United International Martial Arts Federation, whose goal is to promote traditional martial arts worldwide.
Emil Farkas has shared his vast martial expertise as a Hand-to-Hand combat instructor to the Canadian Army as well as Women’s self-defense instructor at UCLA.
He has been on the cover of all major martial arts magazines including Black Belt Magazine, Karate Illustrated, World Karate, Inside Kung Fu, Combat, Fighters, Official Karate, Combat Karate and Budo.
In 2000, Farkas was inducted into the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame.
Hats off to Sensei Emil Farkas! ”You have come a long way since your childhood days in the Hungarian town of Munkacz.”
Are Fire Fighters Actually Martial Artists?
Just think about it!
Are fire fighters actually martial artists? Huh?
Well, according to the definition of martial arts in general and martial artist in specific that I found on wikipedia, I think the question is justified. Here’s why:
Martial arts are systems of codified practices and traditions of training for combat.
While they may be studied for various reasons, martial arts have very similar objectives: to physically defeat other persons and to defend oneself or others from physical threat.
In addition, some martial arts follow a particular code of honor.
Combat, or fighting, is the purposeful violent conflict intended to establish dominance over the opposition.
A practitioner of martial arts is referred to as a martial artist.
So, let me try to dissect the definition and explain where I am going with this.
Martial artists practice and train for combat.
The objective is to defend oneself or others from physical threat.
Combat being the purposeful conflict to establish dominance over the opposition.
Fire fighters practice and train for combat, too.
Their objective is also to defend especially others from physical threat (caused by fire et al).
Their combat or fight is clearly the purposeful conflict to establish dominance over the fire and whatever threats that the fire can cause and/or damage (physical, psychological, material) that can occur.
So, looking at practice, training and objective, let me ask the question again:
Are Fire Fighters Actually Martial Artists?
Maybe you agree or maybe you disagree with the defintion, but a couple of things are for sure:
Fire fighters have to train hard and carry heavy equipment to go into dangerous places and scary situations other people like us try to get out of.
Fire fighters are usually the first ones to arrive at these dangerous places and scary situations.
Let’s all just thank a fire fighter today.
Let my voice be heard: Fire Fighters Rock!
Check out these video clips right now – you won’t regret that you did:
Krav Maga – Martial Art Or Not?
Is Krav Maga a martial art or not?
As far as Krav Maga practitioners are concerned it’s more about martial than art.
Now what does that mean? Good question.
For some, traditional martial arts appear to be too rigid and simply too tradition-bound.
Krav Maga strives to be a ‘defensive tactics system’ which means it has to constantly adapt to situation and circumstances.
It is NOT a sport. It is about self-defense that will get you home safely.
Krav Maga incorporates elements of many martial arts themselves.
Krav Maga has been the prime fighting system of the Israeli Defense Forces since the State of Israel was founded in 1948.
Imi Lichtenfeld, who created Krav Maga (Hebrew for contact combat), was the Israeli military school’s chief instructor for physical training and Krav Maga.
He already developed the concepts of an effective self-defense system while still living as a Jew in Eastern Europe and fighting fascist thugs in the 1930s.
Years later in Israel, Mr. Lichtenfeld continued to refine the system to base it on the body’s natural instincts under stress and making it a very aggressive, “never quit” combat system.
Check out this video clip and as always viewer discretion is advised.
Do not attempt without a certified instructor and not before consulting your physician!
So, is Krav Maga a martial art or not? Let me know what you think.
Guess Who Didn’t Get In The Hapkido Beginners’ Course
Here I am really psyched about learning more of the Korean martial art of Hapkido.
This is what I have found out about Hapkido:
The term Hapkido itself consists of three words which are
hap ‘coordinating’
ki ‘energy’
do ‘way’
Let’s just settle for ‘the way of coordinating energy’, shall we?
Hapkido is a form of self defense that uses joint locks and techniques of other martial arts.
It also incorporates traditional weapons, including the short stick, cane, rope, nunchucku,
sword, and even the staff.
As a Hapkidoka (does that sound right?) you learn how to apply long and close range fighting techniques, using dynamic kicking and percussive hand strikes at longer ranges and pressure point strikes, jointlocks, or throws at closer fighting distances.
Hapkido is all about circular, non-resisting movements, and about controlling your opponent.
You learn the advantage through footwork and body positioning to get leverage, so you can avoid using strength against strength.
Hapkido was developed from Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu or a closely related jujutsu system taught by Choi Yong Sul who returned to Korea after WWII, having lived in Japan for 30 years.
This system was later combined with kicking and striking techniques of taekkyeon and tang soo do.
But back to me being all psyched about starting with Hapkido.
The latest publication of my local county’s Parks & Recreation Fall Activity Guide listed
a beginners’ course with 8 lessons for a really reasonable fee which defintely got my interest.
So, I call the program coordinator who tells me that they needed just one more participant for the course to take place. Sounds like a plan to me!
I jump into my car and head on over to their offices to sign up.
There I am filling out all the forms as diligently as you would expect from any serious,
law-abiding martial artist.
Then the program coordinator drops the bomb after I had completed all the filling out stuff:
“Sir, you are aware that this course is targeted to kids from 6 years and older?”
Well, now that he brought it to my attention, I was. Thank you very much!
While I processed this new and vital information, I asked him to tell me what the average
age of the other course participants who had signed up so far.
Guess what his answer was!
“Six years old.”
Well, I don’t know about you guys, but that is not the kind of course yours truly wanted
to get in.
I was looking for something more like what you see in the video below, just click
on the YouTube link:
If you have tried Hapkido or have been a practitioner for a couple years now, let me know about your experience. I really want to know.
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