| Article Index |
|---|
| Dan Inosanto: Master of Martial Arts |
| Page 2 |
| All Pages |
NOW playing in theatres across America is the exciting Denzel Washington movie The Book of Eli. The movie’s setting is some 30 years after the final war when America has become a wasteland. Multi-awarded Best Actor Awardee Denzel Washington plays a warrior in the movie committed to bring help to a ravaged humanity. And Denzel credits Dan Inosanto, the immortal Filipino American martial arts master, for helping him prepare for the warrior he plays in the movie which is a combination of a John Wayne cowboy hero and a master samurai.
Highly regarded as one of Martial Arts’ greatest instructors and ambassadors of all time, Dan Inosanto is the Book of Eli’s martial arts trainer. He personally trained Denzel Washington for eight months, who only has high praises for Dan.
"Dan is one of the greatest martial artists in the world. He’s a great friend. At 70 plus years old, he travels almost every weekend somewhere around the world to teach classes. Dan’s young masters under him, who are in their 30s, talk about how they can’t catch up with him. He’ll do a kung fu class at 10, a capoeira class at 10:30, teach another class and then do this and that. He proves that you’re really as young as you feel," Denzel said in an interview reported in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The protégée of Bruce Lee, Dan Inosanto was chosen by Lee to head the jeet kune do organization before his untimely death in 1973. "I feel he picked me because I have the ability to teach," said Inosanto in an inteview around that time, "although in his opinion you’re not a teacher, you’re a guide. But basically, that’s probably where my forte lies to pass on the artwork and to share knowledge."
Born in 1936 in Stockton, California, Daniel Arca Inosanto was raised in a Filipino household. When he was 10, Dan got his first instruction in the martial arts from his uncle who taught him techniques in jujitsu and Okinawan karate. But at that time, he was more interested in playing softball, football or running track. While getting his BA Degree from Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington, Dan won a track conference with 9.5 seconds in the 100 yard dash. In his senior year, he was the leading ground gainer for the football team.
After graduation, Dan trained in Judo under Duke Yoshimura. In 1959, he entered the United States Army and became a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division. During his tour of duty, he was stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where he was exposed to various styles of Kenpo Karate.
In 1961, Dan was discharged from the military service and he moved to Los Angeles, California. He worked for a while as a Jr. High School Physical Education teacher, which became his primary career for a few years. He looked for an instructor in the art of Kenpo and he found the "Father of American Karate", Kenpo Instructor Ed Parker. For the next several years, Dan trained with Ed Parker and attained a black belt in the Kenpo system.
It was Ed Parker that first inspired Dan to study Filipino martial arts. Dan went to his Filipino father, who introduced him to the three most prominent Filipino martial arts instructors at that time -Max Sarmiento, Angel Cabales, and Johnny Lacoste.
In 1964, Parker was organizing his International Karate Championship and he asked Dan to escort one of his out-of-town guests around town, Bruce Lee. Inosanto was impressed with Lee’s nontraditional, yet highly practical, approach to training, and he became one of Bruce’s students. The two shared a close friendship over the next nine years, until Lee’s sudden death in 1973.
"For two years I trained simultaneously under both Ed Parker and Bruce Lee," he said.
"And on Saturdays I taught part of the day for Ed and part of the day for Bruce."
In the years that followed, Inosanto developed closer ties with Lee, appearing in episodes of the Green Hornet television series and Lee’s last film, Game of Death, unfinished at the time of his death.
Dan was groomed by Bruce Lee to be his successor in the art of Jeet Kune Do. Inosanto developed a hybrid philosophy of martial arts, choosing elements from different systems that all led to one common goal: fighting proficiency. Lee told him to "take what is useful [from each art] and discard the rest." In 1967, Inosanto became the only student Lee ever awarded a third rank in jeet kune do, the level Bruce considered necessary to teach the system.
| Comments |
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
