Author: TSMA Page 170 of 200

PALM BEACH GARDENS — Stanley and Adele Janow’s transformation from average to avenging takes seconds upon their arrival at Hwang’s Martial Arts.

The North Palm Beach couple visits the Fairway Drive studio to master the punching, kicking and choke-hold defenses of Krav Maga self-defense — the kind the Israeli army made famous — at their combined tender age of 147 years.

The Janows, 18 months shy of their 50th wedding anniversary, have taken private lessons twice each week since March. Their sweaty, spirited, vigorous workouts belie their ages — and, their instructor says, set an example other seniors can follow.

“The Janows are by far my oldest students,” said their instructor, Kristina Hwang, whose experience with the Janows has made her think of starting a self-defense class for seniors.

“The fantastic thing is they actually do physical self-defense moves and not just talking about safety. It’s given them a lot more mental and physical self-confidence.”

The Janows recommend taking self-defense — which they took up at the suggestion of their daughter, Lori Beth — to their peers.

“You need exercise, and you read in the paper all the time about elderly people getting mugged or attacked,” said Stanley, 77, who spent years as a chemist and a salesman and manager for a pharmaceutical company and who now runs his own business. “You need a natural defense to ward that off.”

Both Janows say they have received excellent health benefits from their self-defense training.

Adele, 70, said exercise such as Krav Maga can help seniors keep their minds sharp and avoid problems such as osteoarthritis, breaking bones and herniated disks. Stanley said his blood pressure, cholesterol and weight all are down since starting the workouts.

“Before starting, I was having difficulty twisting off the cap of my water bottle or getting out of my chair,” said Adele, an attorney and a retired speech therapist.

“Now, we are working on springing up off the floor into a vertical position.”

Junki Yoshida, the man behind Yoshida’s Gourmet Sauces and named as one of the top 100 most respected Japanese in the world by Japanese Newsweek magazine, will be in Billings on Friday for the third annual Karate Tournament and Seminar.

The eighth-degree black belt of Japan Karate-do Ryobu-kai, will hold a karate seminar Friday as a fundraiser for the YMCA Strong Community Campaign. He will instruct a class of traditional Japanese karate, a style of karate to which he credits much of his success.

“I use a lot of philosophy of karate in my life,” Yoshida said. “Karate isn’t about destroying objects or causing pain. It’s about concentration and discipline. And determination.”

Yoshida, 62, from Kyoto, Japan, began studying and practicing karate at the age of 6 after a bully beat him down with a baseball bat. He said he was relentlessly teased by kids. But, he said, he finally realized that he had to turn his anger into determination.

By the time he graduated from high school, Yoshida was a second-degree black belt. In 1968, at the age of 19, he bought a ticket to Seattle, after failing college entrance exams, in hopes of chasing the American dream.

With $500 in his pocket, he worked odd jobs eventually earning his green card.

He enrolled at Highline Community College in Seattle, where he studied English and traded teaching karate lessons for tuition costs.

“Since I came to America, so many people have helped — I always must be giving back,” Yoshida said. “It doesn’t matter how small or how large, giving back is important.”

He said karate and martial arts is all about giving back to a community.

“It’s not about breaking boards and bricks and destroying objects like the Bruce Lee movies,” he said. “We try to avoid that in our teaching of traditional.”

Yoshida has been appointed Japan Karate Federation’s Chief Instructor for the States of Washington and Oregon, by Grand Master Yasuhiro Konishi in Japan. He oversees 13 dojos in three states. In addition to officiating at World Karate Championships, many of his students have represented the United States as members of the U.S. Karate Team under the U.S. Olympic Committee.

He has built a conglomerate of 18 companies ranging from transportation and global logistics, supply chain and packing engineering, restaurants, and an art gallery. He also has three television shows in Japan.

Aside from his entrepreneurial achievements, he also serves on many charitable boards including the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation and Ronald McDonald House Charities NW, as well as being a trustee for the Children’s Cancer Association.

Yoshida’s workshop will be held Friday from 6-7:30 p.m. at Billings Family YMCA, 402 N. 32nd Street. The workshop is $30 per person. All proceeds will provide financial assistance for low-income children and families’ YMCA memberships.

The YMCA Strong Community Campaign fundraising karate tournament will be held Saturday at Billings Family YMCA, 402 N. 32nd Street beginning at 7:30 a.m. The admission cost is $40 for individuals or $80 for a family.

GEORGE TOWN: Wayward youths and former drug addicts may be involved in violence but a 66-year-old Wing Chun master is helping to instil discipline in such lads, by teaching them the martial art.

Cheong Wai Phoe, who is head of the Opera Cho Gar Wing Chun (Cho Gar Hay Ban Wing Chun), believes that learning the martial art would help youths and former addicts gain employment in security firms or earn a living as bodyguards.

“With martial arts movies making a comeback, there are jobs for martial artists to serve in the choreography department and also as stuntmen,” he said, adding that he is willing to provide free lessons.

The Opera Cho Gar Wing Chun is listed in Wingchunpedia (www.wingchunpedia.org), the online Wing Chun encyclopedia website, as one of the major branches of the Wing Chun martial arts system.

The website also mentions Cheong as the last known living student of Sam Chan, who brought the martial arts to Ipoh from Poon Yu Village in Guangzhou, China, and the oldest living Opera Cho Gar Wing Chun practitioner who is ranked.

Cheong started learning the martial arts with Sam Chan in Ipoh in 1963.

“In the 1970s, there were more people interested in learning martial arts, as kung fu movies were very popular.

“I was interested in martial arts as there was little to do during our spare time.

“But nowadays with computer games, the Internet, and Facebook, the younger generation has lost interest,” he said.

Cheong now has over 20 local students who practise the art at the Prosperity God Temple in Paya Terubong, three to four times a week.

He also has foreign students from the United States, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Thailand and Singapore