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Hotel Robber Nabbed by Good Samaritans Visiting Los Angeles for Martial Arts Tournament

Los Angeles: On November 2, 2011, at around 11:40 p.m., Rampart Division officers responded to a radio call of an “Assault suspect armed with a gun” at a hotel located in the 300 block of
N. Vermont Avenue. When the officer’s arrived, they saw a man on the ground being held by two citizens.

Shortly before police arrived, the desk clerk at a local hotel took notice of a man with a back pack who walked into the lobby and began to suspiciously look around. He asked the clerk about the price of a room, and then pointed a gun at him and demanded money. The suspect walked around the counter where the clerk stood and told him to open the cash register. The clerk, fearing he was going to be shot, opened the register and gave the suspect money.

During the robbery, an elevator door opened, and two hotel guests who happened to be martial arts experts visiting Los Angeles from Oregon for a martial arts’ tournament heard the clerk’s cry for help and immediately took action. The pair grabbed the suspect who was holding a gun in his right hand. During the tussle with the suspect, the Good Samaritans repeatedly asked him to drop the gun and stop struggling. The pair was finally able to wrestle the gun from the suspect and took him to the ground with a leg sweep and then held him on the ground until Rampart Division officers arrived.

The suspect, identified as 31-year-old Luis Rosales, a resident of Los Angeles, was taken into custody without further incident. In addition, a loaded 9mm handgun and the money taken from the cash register were found inside Rosales’ backpack. Rosales was booked for armed robbery with a firearm. His bail is set at $101,250.

 

Martial arts legend Al Novak passes away

San Francisco Bay Area martial arts legend Al Novak, who influenced movie icon Bruce Lee, died Saturday in a Fremont hospital after he was hit last week by a car while sitting in his wheelchair, friends said.

Novak, a Great Grandmaster and last surviving 10th degree black belt in the kajukenbo self-defence style, was in his late 80s. The Fremont resident broke down racial barriers once inherent in the sport, growing up training in San Francisco’s Chinatown, unheard of for a Caucasian in the 1920s and ’30s.

“He was beloved by everybody,” said Greg Lee, whose father, James Lee, was a business partner of Novak’s and Bruce Lee, Hollywood’s first martial arts star who died tragically in 1973. “When you’re a grandmaster, it means you’ve incorporated your own manoeuvres and changed other things around and developed an art, and that’s what Al did.”

Novak’s martial arts career spanned more than 50 years, according to a profile on usadojo.com. He became so accomplished that Bruce Lee would not spar with him publicly, according to the website.

Novak was confined to a wheelchair in 2005 after the van in which he was riding in as a passenger crashed. Both his femurs were crushed.

Even though he could not walk, he still split blocks of wood at the martial arts school he ran in Fremont and commanded enough respect that black belt recipients in their respective arts often wanted Novak to sign their certificates, said friend Jeff Finder.

Novak served on a PT boat during the Second World War, training alongside future U.S. president John F. Kennedy.

Son of martial arts expert who trained Bruce Lee honoured in hall of fame

Son of martial arts expert who trained Bruce Lee honoured in hall of fame

The son of a martial arts expert who trained Bruce Lee, has been inducted into the Combat Martial Arts Hall of Fame.

Leon Jay, 56, has lived in Epsom for the last 21 years, but grew up in Hawaii and San Francisco, and teaches a form of jujitsu, founded by his father, in Leatherhead, Epsom and abroad.

His father, Wally Jay, who was also inducted into the hall of fame, was a renowned teacher having famously trained martial arts expert, actor and director, Bruce Lee.

He said: “When I was a kid I’d come home from school and there would be Bruce Lee sitting on our doorstep waiting for my father to come home from work so they could train together in the dojo behind our house.

“We were living in the San Francisco Bay area in California then and Bruce had moved from Seattle in Washington to Oakland about two miles down the road.

“That was in the 1960s in California, way before Bruce became famous.

“He was a really quick, keen student.

“He sought out my father because he was well respected in the martial arts community all around the world, in fact my father, Professor Wally Jay, wrote the foreword for Bruce’s first book, Chinese Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of Defense.”

Mr Jay followed in his father’s footsteps beginning his martial arts training at the age of just two and is now a second generation 9th degree black belt Grandmaster of Small Circle Jujitsu – a form of jujitsu founded by his father in the 1940s.

He is frequently called upon to help adults and children with learning disabilities and anger management issues and is currently developing a national programme to aid the rehabilitation of young offenders.

His father, Wally Jay, died earlier this year at the age of 93 from a stroke and Bruce Lee’s widow, Linda Lee Cadwell, spoke at his funeral in California.

He said: “She was kind enough to say how my father had changed the way Bruce approached his training, the positive influence dad had had on him.”

Mr Jay and his late father were inducted in to the Combat Martial Arts Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Birmingham last month for their contribution to martial arts.

For more information visit smallcirclejujitsu.com

Byram ex-mayor honored for martial arts expertise

Submitted Photo Richard Bowe, former Byram mayor, was inducted into the International Association of Martial Arts Hall of Fame in November at the age of 73.

BYRAM — As part of Richard Bowe’s extensive training in the martial arts, humility was always emphasized and practiced. For that reason, not many Byram residents know that one of their own is a world-renowned Aikido expert who was recently inducted into the International Association of Martial Arts Hall of Fame.

Bowe, former mayor and township municipal court judge, was inducted into the prestigious hall of fame in November at the age of 73.

“You accept an award like that with a certain amount of pride and hopefully a certain amount of humility,” Bowe said. “It’s not something you set out to try to attain, but when it comes your way, it’s certainly welcomed. … I’m proud of it.”

Bowe specializes in the art of Nihon Goshin Aikido.

“Nihon means ‘Japanese,’ Goshin means ‘self-defense,’ and Aikido means ‘the way of life in harmony with nature,'” he said.

Bowe said his interest in martial arts began when he was a curious child, shortly after World War II. Bowe said the most popular forms of hand-to-hand combat sports were boxing and wrestling at the time; but when veterans, who had faced real hand-to-hand combat, returned home, the 9-year-old annoyed them until the men showed him what they learned overseas.

By 19, Bowe was certified as a Ju-Jitsu instructor by the Sigward Academy in New York City. He then enlisted in the U.S. Army, becoming a member of the 101st Airborne Division — the Screaming Eagles — and the Army Security Agency.

Bowe was then stationed on the Japanese island of Hokkaido for two years, where he studied Nihon Goshin Aikido and earned his black belt. Bowe studied directly with the founder of the Nihon Goshin Aikido art, Master Shodo Morita, and became the first American to be awarded the rank of black belt in the art in 1962.

“This system combines the best elements of the other systems — the striking techniques of Karate, the throwing techniques of Judo and Ju-Jitsu,” Bowe said. “It focuses on self-defense, unlike many of the systems — although very effective for self-defense — that focus on tournament competition.”

Bowe went on to establish the first dojo in the United States dedicated exclusively to teaching the art of Nihon Goshin Aikido in 1963. The dojo is located in Guttenberg, and will celebrate 50 years of practice in 2013. Bowe has also received countless accolades for his knowledge and expertise, and has given demonstrations in North and South America, packing venues suchy as Madison

Square Garden with 20,000 spectators.

Bowe is a 10th-degree black belt, the highest level one can attain in Nihon Goshin Aikido, and has also earned the rank of Shihan. Bowe said Shihan means “teacher of teachers,” a professor in the art — a title he attained more than 40 years ago. He has been instructing ever since.

Bowe is also one of very few Americans to be enrolled in the registry of advanced ranks maintained by the Japanese martial arts authorities, and is considered among the top 10 martial arts instructors in the United States.

The Shihan currently instructs at the Aikido School of Self-Defense in Nutley. He teaches only black belt level instructors, a class generally between six and 12 students. Those instructors then go on to teach their classes.

“Only by teaching can they advance themselves,” he said.

Through his studies of Nihon Goshin Aikido, Bowe said his teachers have taught him the physical elements of the art as well as the philosophy behind it.

He was taught to “harmonize with people,” to deal with upsetting circumstances calmly and methodically — and that, he said, is the “real effect” of his martial art applied to everyday life.

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