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Frank Dux - The Real Hero of Blood SportI had just returned to LA after a year in Israel. During my year in Israel I began training in karate and I was looking to continue during my summer back home in Los Angeles, before going to college in New York. My friend Robert said, "Why don't you check out Steve's brother, Frank, he teaches some sort of martial art'. Nah, I said, I'm not looking to train with 'a friend's brother', I'm looking for something serious. "But he is serious", Robert insisted. OK, I would check it out. I found the store front with the sign that read "Dux Ninjitsu". I came in and filled out a new student form. It asked, "How did you hear about us?", I checked the box that said "other" and wrote, "Studied with his brother in yeshiva in Israel".
I went into the class, checked out all the cool ninja stuff on the wall, and joined the class. Frank was not there yet. Turns out over here he is called 'Shidoshi' which is ninja title and rank from Japan. During the class Shidoshi Frank walks in, standing about 6 foot five, tall and muscular, he looks straight at me and says, "You know my brother Steve? How is he doing?" After class he told me I could train for free as long as I want. It was a great summer, I spent as much time at the dojo as I could. I wish I could have stayed and been tested but my plans to go off to college had been set. I will always remember that summer. One day after class we were just sitting around, talking. Frank, Shidoshi, starts telling us about an offer from Hollywood to do a movie about his experiences in the Far East, something about some new actor. I recall saying "That's great Frank". I totally forgot about that conversation, until several years later at a Friday night dinner. Some boys had noticed my somewhat disfigured hand and figured I must be some karate master, they arranged for the family to invite me for dinner. During dinner one of them asks about my hands. I tell them I train in karate. The calluses came from doing push ups on wood at the Kyokushin Oyama dojo in New York. "Aha! I knew he was a karate expert" one of the boys said. They asked whom I had trained with and I mentioned "Frank Dux". I said, "Come on, how could have heard of him? You're not from the Valley!" They said "from the movie, the greatest martial arts movie of all time, "Blood Sport". I told them I had never heard of it. They were shocked, "You, a student of Frank Dux, never saw the film!". Suddenly a vague memory came to me, sitting on the dojo floor and Frank saying something about Hollywood, China, a movie. It began to come back to me. That week I went out and bought the movie. It is, in my opinion, the best martial arts movie ever made. In terms of Frank Dux the martial arts legend and all his many and impressive accomplishments, there are many sites on the web where you could read about that, for me, he will always be the great guy, the great teacher and friend I met all those years ago in LA. He is still an inspiration to me, and through me to my students over the years. By the way he just completed a comprehensive martial arts encyclopedia, keep your ears open, it should be out soon. |