Shotokan
Some Great Martial Arts Quotes
I found some quotes that begin with Bruce Lee and end with Bruce Lee. Enjoy!
To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts lies in its simplicity. The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, the less wastage of expression there is.
- Bruce Lee
You may train for a long time, but if you merely move your hands and feet and jump up and down like a puppet, learning Karate is not very different from learning a dance. You will never have reached the heart of the matter; you will have failed to grasp the quintessence of karate-do.
- Gichin Funakoshi
Aikido is not a defensive martial art. Being defensive is a terrible way to go through life.This means be proactive. It does not mean hit first.
- Dojo wall
The ultimate aim of karate-do lies not in victory or defeat,
but in the perfection of the character of its participants.”
- Gichin Funakoshi
A black belt is nothing more than a belt that goes around your waist. Being a black belt is a state of mind and attitude.”
- Rick English
The art of the sword consists of never being concerned with victory or defeat, with strength or weakness, of not moving one step forward, nor one step backward, or the enemy not seeing me and my not seeing the enemy. Penetrating to that which is fundamental before the separation of heaven and earth where even yin and yang cannot reach, one instantly attains proficiency in the art.
- Takuan
He who knows not and knows not he knows not, He is a fool- Shun him. He who knows not and knows he knows not, He is simple- Teach him. He who knows and knows not he knows, He is asleep- Awaken him. He who knows and knows that he knows, He is wise- follow him.
- Bruce Lee
Truth has no path. Truth is living and, therefore, changing. Awareness is without choice, without demand, without anxiety; in that state of mind, there is perception. To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person. Awareness has no frontier; it is giving of your whole being, without exclusion.
- Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee And Albrecht Pflueger. Albrecht Who?
With today’s post I’m really going to sound like an oldtimer.
But what has to be said, has to be said.
Albrecht Pflueger is probably THE karate master/sensei who (besides Bruce Lee, of course!) inspired me to start taking Shotokan karate classes in the first.
And like Bruce Lee, I have never met Sensei Albrecht Pflueger (yet).
It’s funny actually, because way back during the mid 70s while living in Germany, I stumbled across a paperback on “Karate – Jiu Jitsu -Judo /Modern Self-Defense” at a local department store. I thought it was pretty cool, never having looked at martial arts before.
I was more into soccer football and trying to date girls. Ha ha.
But I digress, sorry.
Anyway, I really had to scrape the money together to get me this book. Yeah, I know 2-3 bucks in those days was more than today.
Several days later on a Saturday I had the dough and off I went to the store that carried the book.
If you’re not that familiar with store hours in Germany in those days, stores normally closed at 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
I was running late that day, but I somehow made it just in time before they closed for the weekend to become the proud owner of mentioned paperback.
Whatever happened to that book anyway? Hmm, probably got lost in all the moving throughout the years.
To me that little paperback by Albrecht Pflueger made all the difference.
Albrecht Pflüger is in my humble opinion together with Juergen Seydel THE karate pioneer in Germany. Remember Juergen Seydel introduced karate to Elvis Presley while stationed on Germany in the late 50s.
Many consider Albrecht Pflueger also one of the first karatekas in Europe.
In 1957 Sensei Pflueger began studying Jiu Jitsu under Ago Glucker in Stuttgart.
He then switched over to Judo and in 1962 he attained 1st Kyu.
As a 23-year-old karate brown belt, he founded a martial arts club near Stuttgart and shortly thereafter in 1965 he became a 1st Dan black belt, certified by JKA-instructors Kase, Kanazawa, Enoeda and Shirai.
Sensei Pflueger has ever since been writing books, promoting karate in Germany in a number of functions in the karate associations as well as teaching at his local club (Karate TSG Leonberg) and countrywide seminars.
And after all these years come to think of it, Sensei Pflueger is actually a mixed martial artist in the true sense:
7th Dan Shotokan-Karate, 2th Dan Jiu Jitsu, 1st Dan Aikido as well as 1st Kyu Jūdō.
And there you have it: Albrecht Pflueger (along with Bruce Lee), the guy who ignited my interest and passion for martial arts.
Jean Frenette, Performing Goju-Ryu Karate Kata And Beyond
Lately, I have been following a number of my fellow martial arts bloggers publish rather intriguing and very insightful posts on the intricacies of kata.
And I must say, while reading these posts I have been learning or better re-learning after many years of not practicing or even performing Shotokan karate katas, which I happen to have thoroughly enjoyed in a former life.
During those kata-filled years there was a Franco-Canadian Goju-Ryu karateka, by the name of Jean Frenette, who really infused the love and excitement for kata in me like no one I had ever experienced before.
He exuded incredible energy and unmatched esthetics all while somehow masterfully combining slow and fast portions of each kata that he displayed.
His superb skills helped him win a stunning five World Championship titles.
Here is a real classic demo reel of Jean Frenette performing with music and I know it’s probably more artistic than martial for some people’s taste, but technically it’s way up there.
And great performers like Jean Frenette most certainly have inspired quite a large number of people to start and even continue their martial arts/karate practice. That’s definitely a good thing.
What I also found interesting about Jean Frenette was that after a very successful karate career he moved on to the movie industry.
One of his earlier roles was in Police Academy 4, in which he played a karate instructor.
During the years he has been a stunt performer in many, many movie productions.
As of late, he was the stunt coordinator in movies such as ‘Eye of The Beholder’ starring Ashley Judd as well as ‘The Aviator’ directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leo DiCaprio, Kate Beckinsdale, Jude Law and many more well-known names in Tinseltown.
His extensive karate training continues to come in pretty handy for Jean Frenette as a stunt performer and now as a stunt coordinator.
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