Halloween Awareness

Michelle Manu interviews Gordon Richiusa

Do NOT try this at home

As I was about to post a flyer for my upcoming series of Archery Instructor Certification classes, one of the members of the Laguna Woods Archery Club (I am the current president) sent me this video. It demonstrates that an amazing level of archery skills can be (and has been, throughout history) developed with determination and practice. Enjoy!

Archery Certification Class--continued training

Raise the market value of your dojo, dojang, studio, temple or club with Instructor Certification from the United States Olympic sanctioning body (USAA) and receive multiple benefits for you and your students, including training videos, texts, and insurance issued through USAA. Become a certified USA Archery and National Field Archery Association instructor. Broaden your client base, by including certified archery instruction into your program, or increase your individual marketability by becoming USAA certified.

What: Level One Instructor Certification

When: March 7th 2015

Where: Whispering Sage Ranch and Martial Arts Academy, 23864 Japatul Valley Rd., Alpine, California. Just outside of San Diego.

Cost: $120 (This includes $40 for USAA training manual, official tests and other required applications. Students are advised to obtain training manual prior to the certification event, whereas $40 will be deducted from the cost of the training.)

NOTE(S): USAA membership, SafeSport certification and a background check are NOT required for  Level 1 certification. However, a RANGE PASS is required for Level 1 Instructors to run USAA sanctioned programs (JOAD etc.). A Range Pass is $15. This can be obtained later, if needed. The process for SafeSport certification is free and a certificate is issued online. Applying for membership to USAA and getting a background check (both valuable in marketing) can be obtained online through USA Archery.

Contact Whispering Sage Ranch at: olivierlucy@hotmail.com or Gordon Richiusa (of Five Birds Martial Arts, who will be instructing the course) at fivebirds@mac.com or 949-206-0977 for more information or to register.

See the attached, official USAA notification.

Archery Coach Training, Sanctioned Events, Special Skill Survey

            Many of you know the name Gordon Richiusa. His 51 year history as a martial artist led him to found Five Birds Martial Arts, as described in the Rick Burgin article of the Traditional section of WorldWideDojo.com. He is a member of The Legends, Masters, and USA Blackbelts Halls of Fame and has received awards for his writing, and is well regarded as an educator (California Teaching Credential) and innovator in a number of other areas. Gordon Richiusa is on a quest to bring the worlds of competitive karate together with competitive archery, and he is uniquely qualified to do it.

            His martial arts teachers included Bob Ozman, Mike Eaves and Frank Dux for whom he taught “Special Skills” classes from the 1980s to the present. One of those “special skills” is archery. “I started shooting a bow when I was ten, about the time I started karate classes with Bob Ozman. I was on the archery team in high school and have also studied kyudo (Zen Archery) in Los Angeles and Hawaii. My students were routinely introduced to archery as just another form of meditative martial art.”

            Gordon Richiusa is campaigning to bring the worlds of competitive martial arts and competitive archery “officially” together for the first time, and he wants YOU to join him. Not only is Gordon ranked as a Grandmaster (7th degree black belt, in Dux Ryu Archery and considered the Director of Dux Ryu’s Archery program), and is the president of The Laguna Woods Archery Club, but he also is US Archery Association certified as a Level 2 Instructor by this, the Olympic Archery sanctioning body.

            What does this mean to you? Gordon Richiusa is offering archery training AND TEACHER CERTIFICATION classes. USA Archery Level 2 instructors—such as Gordon Richiusa--are authorized to teach classes, run sanctioned events AND CERTIFY coaches and instructors as Level 1 Instructors for USAA. If a USA Certified Instructor (this includes Level 1 instructors) is running an event, it is USAA supported! Support includes everything from training videos to liability insurance!

            Certification in Five Birds Archery (specifically geared toward martial artists—including Dux Ryu certification) can soon be obtained ONLINE at The Martial University and through Five Birds Special Skills, and may lead to USAA membership and certification. Five Birds Martial Arts (a member of the Dux Ryu organization) focuses on preparing students (whether they are traditional martial arts students, or members of some other completely unrelated pursuit such as the Boys and Girls Club, Scouting, public school or intercollegiate team) to learn to enjoy the sport of archery, from certified instructors within their own discipline, and to prepare for the upcoming inclusion of archery (without cultural limitations or distinctions) into the formerly closed worlds of either martial arts or Olympic Sanctioned competitions and events.

            By allowing your current martial arts students to learn archery as a “Special Skill” under these conditions, we can move closer to bringing the western and eastern versions of the wonderful sport of archery together in a meaningful way, broadening your client appeal, while giving you and your students greater opportunities to pursue success and significance.

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN BECOMING A CERTIFIED COACH, ADDING ARCHERY TO YOUR CURRENT CURRICULUM OR HAVING ARCHERY AT YOUR NEXT EVENT?

Email: Fivebirds@mac.com                                                          or CALL: 949-206-0977

Five Birds Martial Arts and DUX RYU

It is with a sense of great honor and humility that I present a recent acknowledgement from Dux Ryu. After 50 years of training, and 30 years of my association with Dux Ryu and Frank Dux, I've been honored with the rank of 7th degree black belt in Dux Ryu Archery. I pledge to continue to promote archery as an open example of martial arts and to bridge the gaps between the martial arts communities. Look for multi-sanctioned archery events with Grandmaster Alfred Urquidez in the near future, and note the signature of Grandmaster Sky Benson on the above certificate. Sky was a student in my classes when he was just a boy, and I was teaching for Frank Dux in North Hollywood. This signature (along with Frank Dux's and the other unique features  such as the Five Birds stamp at the edge of my photo, to prevent duplication) makes this certificate extremely special to me. Stay tuned, also for upcoming joint efforts between myself and Frank Dux, as well as other members of the Ryu.

bloodsport 2 producer Michael Criscione january 5 2014

Here is Mike Criscione's (producer and director of Bloodsport 2) recent interview with my friend, Justin Ray Harvey:

Tom Laughlin/Billy Jack creator has died

Tom Laughlin died on Thursday, at the age of 82. Known by the character persona of Billy Jack, a character he created, Laughlin was a unique link in the timeline of martial arts and movies, as we transitioned away from a narrow, Asian-centered view of the warrior philosophy, toward a more realistic and broad view that honors indigenous cultures from around the globe, and have traditionally governed themselves according to Core Human Values, Traits and Conditions as outlined in the Five Principles of Everything. In fact, in that book I tell a story about a young man whose interest in Billy Jack helped to open his eyes to a healthy life, which had eluded him in his earlier years.  The following--in memory of Laughlin’s passing and to express how important his contribution was to many-- is an excerpt from The Five Principles, where Billy Jack was referenced:

Movement and stillness, tension and relaxation, thinking and feeling all have appropriate times and places. Human beings, exercising a proper responsibility to all the forces that surround them, learn to balance their lives with these contradictory forces, so that they can receive the benefits of all.

The definition of “beneficial” is also always subject to the peculiarities of the time, place and situation (as we've seen in a previous chapter). Again, we never know when a piece of information is going to be of use to us. Likewise, we never know how our actions or words are going to affect others. I often tell the following story to my students: Before I worked as a teacher in L.A. County Jails, I worked with emotionally disturbed children at a facility called Hathaway. During my close to seven years there, I worked with hundreds of kids and learned a lot from each of them. During this time, I was working on obtaining my Master of Arts degree and on my first black belt. Part of the job was that we lived in a house with about twenty kids for two and a half days each week. Staff was rotated so that there were always two “house parents” on duty at all times. While living in the house for my shift, I had to practice martial arts while the children were asleep. One boy, about ten years of age, sneaked out to watch me while I practiced and we formed a strong bond.  The reason I let him hedge on his bedtime and his unusual attachment to me was that he was a half white/half Indian kid who had formed a strong bond to a character in the movie, BILLY JACK. This character was also half-white and half-Indian, a Viet Nam War vet who had returned to the reservation to save an Indian School from local evils. The local evil took the form of unscrupulous white ranchers who were illegally hunting and capturing wild horses for the dog food trade and who also hated anything related to Native Americans or hippies. Billy Jack's tools for keeping the kids safe were his hands and feet and “Green Beret tricks” he'd learned while serving in Viet Nam. Oh, I forgot to mention that Billy Jack had a signature black, round-topped, flat brimmed hat. The boy who wanted to watch me at night-we'll call him Little Billy--also wore one of these hats. Little Billy had been badly abused by adults growing up, I was told, and when I made the connection between Little Billy's heritage and his association with the Billy Jack character, I realized that it made him feel safer to know that someone was practicing martial arts in the same house where he slept, just as wearing the Billy Jack hat made him feel less vulnerable. I also encouraged Little Billy to be proud of his Native heritage and told him about some of my teachers and of the great heroes of the American past who were his ancient relatives. We shared some good moments together and eventually he was removed from the therapeutic environment of the Village.

Now, we need to flash-forward about 20 years. I was teaching ESL, GED preparation, drug and alcohol abuse prevention and high school diploma subjects within the L.A. County Jails to the inmates, sitting in my classroom with about 50 inmate-students when the phone rang. This was a little unusual, in itself, since I got very few calls in jail. However, what was stranger was when I picked up the receiver and a voice at the other end said, “Hello sir. I'm looking for Gordon Richiusa, sir.” Immediately there was recognition.

“Little Billy? Is that you?”

“Yes, sir. I didn't think you'd remember me sir.”

“Billy,” I said, interrupting. “Have you been in the service?”

“Yes, Sir,” he responded. “How did you know, sir?”

“Billy, you can stop calling me Sir,” I said, and then quickly added. “I can't believe this. How did you get through on this line? How did you find me? Why are you calling?”

Billy told me that he had left the home where I worked with him, had gotten his high school diploma and his black belt and then joined the service. He had served honorably and was discharged after which he had pursued him heritage and found his maternal grandfather on the Piute Reservation in Nevada. His grandfather was a medicine man in the tribe and had agreed to teach Billy the old ways.

“Congratulations,” I told him. “But, why are you calling me now?”

“I was in a ceremony recently and I had a vision of you telling me the one thing that had changed my life for the better. I just wanted to let you know and to thank you.”

For some reason I was stunned. Billy told me that he had been hunting for me for a couple of weeks, going back to Hathaway then following leads until finally finding out that I was working in jail. He then had to get the education department's phone number and convince a few receptionists to put him through to the phone I was talking on, all because I had finally said something memorable that had benefited someone's life in a profound way. I couldn't wait to hear what these words were that had affected him so much that he felt he had to find me.

“So what did I say?”

“You told me that there are two ways to breathe.”

I admit that I was a little deflated. This did not seem profound at any level and I did not immediately remember the context in which I had imparted this questionable wisdom. “Could you please explain?” I asked.

Billy went on to remind me that often the children in our care would have what we lovingly referred to as, “freak outs.”  These were emotional displays, tantrums of monumental proportions in some cases. Billy was legendary in his writhing, howling and frothing exhibitions, so much so that during one episode four grown adults where holding him down in a panic shouting directions such as “Calm down! CALM DOWN!”

When I saw what was happening, I lay down on the floor next to Billy's head, with my face next to his and said, “I know this is going to be hard Billy, but these staff members are not going to let you go until you calm down. When you calm down, they will calm down. I want you to try something. Just notice the way you are breathing.” He was near hyperventilating, rapidly panting between growls. Try thinking about nothing else except your breathing. If you can slow your breathing, you will relax. When you relax, they will let you go.”

Billy said that not only did it work in this situation, but also it was probably the most significant piece of information in his later successes. You never know what affect your words or actions are going to have on others. The best we can do is to deal with every situation honestly, honorably and with respect that each action may be of far greater significance that we realize in the heat of the moment. As a person who calls himself a teacher, it's a big responsibility that I take more seriously now. I thanked Billy for calling me and got his permission to tell this story to others.

  

TO BUY THE BOOK, THE FIVE PRINCIPLES OF EVERYTHING, CLICK HERE.

Below is a theatrical trailer for the movie Billy Jack, which basically tells the story in brief: