Bruce Skywalker..?

Bruce Lee is a phenomenon still. As a kid I grew up on his films in the years between the Star Wars episodes. I believe Bruce was my first superhero, or maybe it was Clint Eastwood in "For a few dollars more." These are actually heroes from my father's time and they were so cool, so mucho machismo...

_{source: Wikimedia Commons}

Today I'm remembering them because I stumbled upon a couple of fan-edits that actually mix Bruce with the world of Star Wars; watch the video with Bruce wielding light-nunchaku, it's a delight to watch. Bruce Lee was a huge inspiration for me and had at least as much influence on me becoming me, as Star Wars and Luke Skywalker did; that's why the video immediately caught my eye. Because of Bruce's coolness I did martial arts for almost two decades, first Judo and later Karate, both kyokushinkai and shotokan. This taught me a completely different perspective on how to be a person, than western culture shows us.

One huge difference is how to deal with an opponent and how to RESPECT an opponent. When martial artists bow to each other and the referee, that's not a throw-away gesture; it's a true and deeply rooted form of mutual respect. In western sports it's normal, even expected for the winner to rub the face of the loser in his or her loss, to humiliate the losing party, as if that makes the win more glamorous; winners yell and cheer while losers quietly slip out the backdoor in shame, tail between the legs. There was this Dutch judoka in the 1960s who forever gained respect and fame by becoming world champion, beating the Japanese champion, in Japan. Anton Geesink will never be forgotten:

Antonius Johannes Geesink was a Dutch 10th dan judoka. He was the first non-Japanese judoka to win gold at the World Judo Championship, a feat he accomplished in 1961 and 1965.
_{source: Wikipedia}

_{Bruce Lee: Be like water (Inspirational)}

But an even better reason to never forget this man is how he showed the western world what it means to respect your opponent. I don't remember exactly in which match it was or which championship, I only remember it was one of the matches in Japan. Anton Geesink had just won the match, and his coach wanted to jump up and cheer; Anton reacted lightning fast and held up his hand, indicating to his coach to sit down and be quiet. He then first bowed to his opponent and then to the referee. And only then he allowed his coach to show some joy. I saw this years after the fact, as a teenager in the late 1970s or early 1980s, but this impacted me a lot. The almost completely Japanese audience was immediately in love with him after that.

You see, your opponent is not your enemy. There's a big difference, one I hope you can all feel. You should be grateful for your opponent, because without him or her or them, you would not have been able to be victorious in the first place. Assuming that all opponents do their very best to win, within the rules and on the level playing field, you can thank your opponent for the opportunity given to hone your own skills even further, and it doesn't matter if you've won or lost; this is always true. This is such a world of difference with modern popular western sports, that all this may sound alien to some or a lot of you. Or maybe not.

That's one more reason to leave you with the world's most famous martial artist wielding weapons from a galaxy far far away ;-)

_{Bruce Lee Lightsabers Scene Recreation (Battle of the Heroes Edit)}

Dear reader, After some searching I found the match of Anton Geesink I was talking about; it was the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games. Watch closely when he gets up after the match; you can just see him holding back his coach and teammates. From the text with the video:

To celebrate his victory, Geesink's teammates rushed onto the tatami to hoist him on their shoulders. But Geesink quickly dismissed them with a gesture of his arm. Before joining his teammates in celebration, he first bowed to Kaminaga, acknowledging his opponent. This courtesy left the 15,000 spectators in awe.

So, here's Geesink keeping everybody's cool, right after winning the first gold medal in the judo open competition:

_{First Judo Open Champion - Antonius Geesink | Tokyo 1964 Olympics}

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