Successful Street Applications

[TenTigers]

I'm always a little skeptical of teenagers telling stories like this, but we'll give Kyle the benefit of the doubt for now.

Kyle was discharged after a "brief stint" in the armed forces. I wonder on what grounds was he discharged?
I dunno. My "Spidey Sense" tells me it sounds more like Kyle is prone to exagerration.

[GeneChing]

five seconds seems a little long for that move...

Man learns the hard way not to threaten martial-arts expert
By Chris Freiberg
Originally published Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 12:00 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 11:39 a.m.

FAIRBANKS — A Fairbanks man got more than he bargained for when he pulled a gun on a veteran martial artist last week.

Jeffrey Walker, 44, said he was minding his own business shortly after midnight Wednesday at Townhouse Apartments when he received a call from the neighbor below him that his two year-old was being too loud.

“He just starts berating me, saying that if I can’t shut the kid up, he’ll shut him up,” Walker said.

Walker, a former firefighter who has lived in Fairbanks for only about a year, thought his neighbor would call the police or the apartment manager to complain.

Instead he showed up at Walker’s front door with a .45-caliber handgun. Walker, who has studied the self-defense system of bojuka since he was 25, leapt into action when he saw the man pull the gun out of his hoodie.

Walker grabbed the barrel of the gun and lifted it up with his left hand while simultaneously using his right hand to push the assailant’s wrist and arm into his own head, effectively using the butt of the gun like a hammer.

“It only took about five seconds,” Walker said.

While his girlfriend called police, he continued to hit the man until he stopped resisting, though he says the instructor who taught him the disarming move wouldn’t have been so kind.

“My instructor would have shot him after taking it away,” he said.

Walker began studying bojuka when he was 25. Its creator claims that it teaches people who to eliminate threats with a variety of blocks, grapples and strikes that are committed to muscle memory. While studying bojuka, Walker was able to reach level 3, which is the grade just below becoming an instructor.

“The guy who taught me said at the time ‘Right now you have to make a conscious decision you are going to do this if it’s ever going to happen. You can’t hem and haw,’” Walker said.

He felt that if had not disarmed the man, he was going to be shot, as well as his girlfriend and child. Instead, he was able to disarm Eric E. Backlund, 38, of Fairbanks without a shot being fired. Backlund has been charged with third-degree assault, a felony, in connection with the incident.

When police arrived on the scene, they found him sitting in a pool of his own blood with Walker standing over him. He was treated for facial lacerations at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital before being arrested.

He later told police that bringing a gun into the situation was “monumentally stupid,” according to a criminal complaint filed in court.

Fairbanks police Sgt. Robert Thompson said that there was no doubt that Walker acted in self-defense, but he warned that the situation could have had a very different outcome.

“You don’t want to try to disarm someone if they have a gun in that situation unless there’s no other option,” Thompson said. “But it’s not something that I would recommend.”

Thompson said that in nearly 20 years on the police force, it was the first time he had heard of a civilian successfully disarming someone with a gun.

As for Walker, he was packing up to move Monday morning in case his alleged assailant got out on bail.

“I told the owner of the apartment complex I don’t feel safe here,” he said. “He could start shooting through the floor next time.”

[GeneChing]

I wasn't sure where to put this, but I knew I had to post this on our forum somewhere...

Amazing Art must See 60th Narcissus Pageant

[sanjuro_ronin]

I wasn't sure where to put this, but I knew I had to post this on our forum somewhere...

Amazing Art must See 60th Narcissus Pageant

Well done.

[Mas Judt]

Simply brilliant

[pyrodeity]

five seconds seems a little long for that move...

heyyyyy i meant the whole incident not just the disarm

[GeneChing]

A successful street application that can get you on Ellen

February 10, 2009 | Posted at 6:00 AM
An Unbelievable Speed Painting Demonstration!

Lisa Wong decided to take up speed painting as her pageant talent after being inspired by an episode of Ellen! Watch and you'll see how quickly she picked up the skill and added a whole new dimension -- by painting with the canvas upside down!

[Lucas]

A successful street application that can get you on Ellen

impressive. the fact that she had a kungfu atmosphere to her performance, and that she painted bruce lee made it actually worth watching. plus she's a cutie.

although to be fair, she didnt really paint it just upside down, but from 3 angles it looked like.

now if she could do taht on a constantly rotating canvas, i would be very impressed.

i didnt know you were such a big ellen fan gene.

[GeneChing]

19.02.2009
Would-Be Thief Gets Martial Arts Surprise

Thieves usually have to be worried about being knabbed by the police, not homeowners

Being a cat burglar isn't all it's cracked up to be. Sure there's the adrenaline rush of getting away with a bag full of cash and jewelry, but as one German thief found out, it isn't always an easy task.

A general warning to any would-be robbers out there: make sure your intended victim isn't actually a martial arts expert.

Police in the northern German city of Bremen say a 25-year-old thief snuck into house in the port city, made his way upstairs to a bedroom, and began to go through drawers and cupboards looking for anything of value.

There was plenty to take, it seems, in the form of jewelry, but the robbery was cut short when the intended victim -- who just happened to have a black belt in judo -- used his martial arts expertise to overpower the intruder and hold him until police arrived.

Police say the thief, whose name has not been released, was carrying a knife and could be the man they've been looking for in connection to other robberies in the area. He is being held by the district attorney's office in the nearby town of Lueneburg.

Lucas - I had a girlfriend that was into stand-up comedy, so I caught Ellen way back in the day and thought she was funny. I didn't follow her on TV, but I thought she was good in Nemo.

[GeneChing]

I used to train in San Leandro. Five&Dime represents!

Self-Defense Strategy Thwarts Kidnap-Attempt on Boulevard
By : Robert Souza : 5/19/09

The self-defense lessons 14- year old Devin Ervin learned in Ron Esteller’s Martial Arts classes helped him get out of a dangerous and frightening situation that unfolded on Castro Valley Boulevard last month.

At Esteller’s busy San Leandro studio, Ervin explained he was heading home from visiting a friend one night and ****zed past a homeless man near Wisteria on his skateboard when another man flagged him down with a $5 bill in his hand, asking him to take the money and hand it to the homeless person.

“I told the guy I was late and had to get home, but this guy seemed forceful and got really loud,” Ervin, a soft-spoken and polite Canyon Middle School student, explained.

Moments after taking the money to the homeless person, the other man approached Ervin in attempt to pull him in the direction of a black van that was parked in an adjacent lot.

It was at that point Ervin applied the techniques he had learned in Esteller’s martial arts classes—getting free by twisting and turning in the opposite direction of the suspect’s grip, then running at top speed across Castro Valley Boulevard.

“He was really determined to get me and really forceful,” Ervin said. While he talked, a group of youngsters practiced rigorous movements from Esteller’s anti-abduction strategies and techniques program, dubbed “Survey, Avoid, Flee, Engage” (SAFE) at the martial arts studio.

“A lot of these kids think that things like this can’t happen to them, but they do,” said Esteller, a Castro Valley resident who has practiced martial arts for the past 41 years. “It’s crazy it happened in Castro Valley.”

Esteller says he got the martial arts bug at age 13 watching TV’s “Wild Wild West” show with James West, who used the same martial art of Kajukenbo that Esteller has studied and taught for decades.

For 15 years, Esteller was a volunteer instructor at the San Leandro Boys and Girls Club on Marina Boulevard, then opened his own studio 10 years ago.

“The program I teach is to keep kids safe. If they can’t avoid—or run from—a situation, it will give them the tools to engage as a part of physical defense,” he said.

Ervin says Esteller’s martial arts classes and the SAFE program give him confidence and self assurance. “Before I had the attitude that I couldn’t be touched. It never occurred to me that this could happen. What I learned here helped me to think fast in that situation,” he said.