Anyone remember cult '70s television series, Kung Fu?
It starred the late legendary David Carradine as a Shaolin Temple monk traipsing in seemingly aimless fashion around the Wild West playing a flute and attracting trouble, often simply for being Asian. But anyone expecting that show to deliver fightfest-after-fightfest worthy of a Bruce Lee action flick generally ended up being left sorely disappointed.
The pace of Kung Fu was meditative, the action sequences were few and far between, and when they did come were startlingly brief, suggesting the martial art was more inclined towards the cerebral and spiritual than physical. The basic premise appeared to be that learning how to break a dozen terracotta tiles with one well-timed downward stroke of the edge of a hand, or walking across a carpet of rice paper without leaving footsteps, was more a means of gaining access to the higher ground rather than a way to beat up bullies and would-be assailants.
In a similar way, a local man is channelling the new aggressive style of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) to attract students to sign on for a new sport and recreational course being offered through NorthTec. As one of the directors of the Far North MMA club, course tutor Tahuri Tibble said the North Tec Vocational Studies Sport and Recreation Group Level 2 course had been designed to provide a "new pathway" for students, and give them a "new lease" on life.
"Young folks all know UFC. They [my students] will tell you how much it's improved them, you can see it in their development. They are earning something new," he said, before emphasising the course was not at all about learning the art of self defence. A qualified MMA instructor, Tibble said the "sports-based specific" course was designed to "re-motivate" students, could even help some avoid falling into the abyss of what some term 'inter-generational welfare dependence' in Kaitaia.
