After a break and a protein bar, it was time for the “martial arts seminar” portion of the Experience. Now I did some Tae Kwon Do in my teenage years but it’s not something I’ve kept up with decades later beyond a few Van Damme style stretching and light kicking drills after a workout. It was a nice mix of martial artists, Simon Rhee’s students along with aspiring and working stunt people. Simon reiterated the importance of listening in a dojo or on a set. How Martial Arts aren’t just for learning how to fight because that leads to aggression vs strength. Some coordination and listening drills later, Rick Avery showed the group Kenpo Karate’s Five Swords technique, which is more hands based and being in the pocket up close to your opponent vs the kick heavy TKD.
James Lew used a piece of rope to demonstrate camera angles for fight scenes along with reactions to sell the hits. Phillip did a little tap sparring, highlighting how to relax, project your chin and body and the difference of blocking in a kata vs a real fight scenario. At 64, Phillip is lean, mean and light on his feet. Here’s hoping we get some of those beautiful kicks and throws in Best of the Best 5 for a new generation. Then it was time for 12 TKD kicks with Simon and boy, did I feel those decades of not practicing! It’s one thing to throw a roundhouse and spinning heel kick. But the ol’ jump spinning kicks and a 720 kick along with 10 other moves in a row was not something I was going to land today. Inspiring though to see the others practice and perform it in front of the panel.
To start wrapping up, we came up with mini-fight scenes that Lew would record. My friend for the afternoon was into Filipino Martial Arts and had some practice knives with him. Working off the Kenpo Five Swords technique from earlier, we came up with a bit where we’d bump into each other, he pulls out a butterfly knife and open it with a flashy spin, lunge at me then I’d block, strike, control the knife and end it with a Van Damme straight right to the face and kiai shout. It was fun choreographing the scene, tweaking it and stretching it out so it had a beginning, middle and end. We did some more screen fighting drills, selling a big, wide, John Wayne style punch and taking the hit with a whip of the head. All while being a safe distance away because the last thing you want to do is be on set and punch a leading actor in the face, lose production time and probably get fired…
It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a class setting but the camaraderie and community feeling was nice to experience on a truly unique day. Big thanks to Emilien De Falco (Jean-Claude Van Johnson!), Yabetz Cohen Perez and Cezar Galvao for putting this together.
