Funny the things you find in old magazines.

[frank raud]

I was recently gifted with a library of martial arts books and magazines from a good friend of mine. Started flipping through a copy of Black Belt from 2009. First thing I notice is a letter to the editors from someone I know. Keep flipping pages, there's an article on Jow Ga kung fu. Now, I know more about Japanese arts than Chinese, but cool to see an article about an art I see constantly discussed here on Martialtalk.

Pick up another magazine at random, the world journal of martial arts summer 1978 edition. List of kickboxers and their ranking. For middleweight ranking, Bill Wallace was the champion back in the day. The man who would replace him, Jean Yves Theriault, was ranked 8th.

Among the books I received were the Jeff Imada balisong manuals and David Steele's Secrets of Modern Knife Fighting. Pick up another magazine at random, (Warriors March 1981) there is an article on knife fighting featuring both David Steele and Jeff Imada.

 

[Deleted member 39746]

Its quite amusing when they have to "modernize" the language used from books written ages ago. Like they have to censor some of the choice words used for some types of person and change the writing structure it for it to make sense to the modern reader.

Having a interest in historical systems, it does come up now and then. Always to some bemusement.

 

[geezer]

Its quite amusing when they have to "modernize" the language used from books written ages ago...

I agree. I always prefer the original texts as long as it is in English, of course. I don't know what's wrong with schools today that people can't even read the old standbys without updating the vocabulary and spelling!!!

 

[Flying Crane]

I agree. I always prefer the original texts as long as it is in English, of course. I don't know what's wrong with schools today that people can't even read the old standbys without updating the vocabulary and spelling!!!

View attachment 22427

A bit from Beowulf?

 

[geezer]

Yep. Some real old school English! Of course I can't read even a bit. Knew a Dutchman (actually a Frieslander) who could read it out loud and understand every word ...once he figured out the archaic letters.

 

[Flying Crane]

Yep. Some real old school English! Of course I can't read even a bit. Knew a Dutchman (actually a Frieslander) who could read it out loud and understand every word ...once he figured out the archaic letters.

It’s a favorite, I’ve got a few translations, including Tolkien's.

I always thought i would like to try my hand at a translation, but then I would need to get educated on the old English. I haven’t gotten around to it.

 

[Buka]

I was recently given three karate mags from the early seventies. I think I posted a pic of their covers already.
But reading one of them late last night I came upon this gem. It's Bruce Lee seeing off Chuck Norris at the airport after the filming of Return of the Dragon. They're so young!

 

[JR 137]

I started reading Black Belt Magazine around when I started college; ‘94/‘95-ish. My college had it in the library because there was an intro to karate PE elective class and the MA club. There were some very interesting things in some of those issues from that era. Two things stick out:

Royce Gracie (may have been one of his brothers, but I doubt it) wrote an article about his diet. Some highlights were he only eats one large meal a day; he avoids certain combinations of foods because they’re toxic together; he eats some meat because it gives him that animal edge.

Bas Rutten wrote about weight lifting. He said he thinks it’s detrimental to martial artists for the most part. He said when he does lift, which is rare, he’ll do simple and light weight movements that mimic what he does in the cage. He doesn’t press overhead because he doesn’t do that in the cage.

All I could think of was these guys are successful despite what they’re doing, not because of what they’re doing. I also thought maybe they were writing this to throw off opponents who read the article, but most likely not.

Pretty hard to believe pro athletes were really doing these things. A few readers really blasted them in the letters to the editors section in subsequent issues. They defended their methods by basically saying their records/success speaks for itself. I remember being an 18/19 year old guy who played sports most of my life, just starting out in karate, and thinking “are MAists really this stupid and old-school?”