Author: TSMA Page 163 of 200

Arizona polymath, Grandmaster Hausel, remains as  one of the top martial arts instructors in the world. He was awarded the Instructor of the Year, the International Instructor of the Year, Man of the Year, Grandmaster Instructor of the Year and Grandmaster of the Year, and inducted into several Halls of Fame for both martial arts and geosciences.

Hausel began training in martial arts in the 1960s and later taught at four universities. He was certified in 2 dozen martial arts and certified as grandmaster of traditional Okinawan Shorin-Ryu Karate in 1999. In 2004, he was promoted to Judan (10th degree black belt). Recently, he became one of only a handful of martial artists to ever be awarded the rank of Junidan (12th degree black belt)since the early 19th century.

Soke Hausel teaches martial arts to adults and families on the border of Gilbert with Mesa at the Arizona School of Traditional Karate.

If Steven Seagal needed a little something extra to round out his repertoire of action film star, energy drink creator, martial arts master, musician, and reincarnated lama, this just might be it.

On Thursday Steven Seagal and his good buddy Vladimir Putin opened up a martial arts center together in Moscow.

With the opening of the new martial arts center Seagal helped Putin launch or re-launch a Soviet-era style mass physical sports program for Russian kids

Christopher Rappold started studying martial arts when he was 13, but he always loved watching Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee on the screen kicking and spinning away.

“I was always into the Kung Fu theater, Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, and I was always amazed how they could walk into an adversity and have total calm,” Rappold said. “I thought martial arts would be that vehicle to show me that calm.”

Rappold started Personal Best Karate over 20 years ago. He said when he was 13 a friend brought him to a martial arts class and he’s been going ever since.

“Now it’s been 30 years,” he said.

Rappold started in a blended system of Tae Kwon Do, which included boxing and grappling and other styles of fighting.

Rappold said he studied with seven-time world champion Billy Blane.

“It was really cool at the time,” he said. “He was a seven-time world champion, and it was a personal goal I set to see if I could be that good. He mentored me; I even babysat his kids. He was unbelievable.”

Rappold, originally from Easton, went to Bridgewater State and got a bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology.

“I had an eye on what I wanted to do, which was open Personal Best,” he said.

Rappold also studied with many different masters and won 1995 and 1997 Martial Artist of the Year Award from the U.S. Martial arts Hall of Fame.

Personal Best now has five locations, and while Rappold attributes much of his success to his hard approach, he said there were some factors of the time that you might not expect.

“In the beginning it was hard work and the Ninja Turtles,” he said. “In 91’ the Turtles were huge. We had good mentors and hard work, followed by the Power Rangers.”

Rappold said he’s since studied many different styles, traditions and influences from all over the globe, including Japan, China, Brazil and the Philippines.

“I’m somebody who’s had the good fortune of studying with a lot of good people,” he said. “I’m constantly studying and training. Because of my experience I get to train with some of the best people in the world.”

Rappold said he got to meet one of his idols during his career, Chuck Norris, during his time in training and competitions.

“I’ve met Chuck Norris probably a dozen times,” he said. “He was very complimentary when he saw me compete, and we’ve also raised money for his organization over the years.”

Rappold said it was a different time for martial arts schools back in the 90s. The schools were, as he put it, more intimidating and less welcoming then they are now, and he said he wanted a school to be inviting and welcoming.

“At the time parents weren’t allowed to watch,” he said. “From my standpoint, I’ve always felt very strongly that parents should be right there and see and hear what we do. In 91’, martial arts schools weren’t very warm and inviting. It wasn’t an atmosphere of service to the students and families. We were one of the first schools in the area that embraced that at a very high level.”

Rappold added that teaching instruction is very important at his school, so that all instructors have also been trained in teaching as well as martial arts.

“A practitioner of martial arts and a teacher of martial arts are two totally different things,” he said.