PERSOIIAtPRG]IIE:ToyotaroMiyazakifhePerfec]lechnicianby Herman Petras

Mr. Miyozoki is o quiet, modest mon who'd rother fighl thon tolk obout i l .

He's cool, corelul ond close lo being the perlect korolelo. . .whelher perlormingkofo or in kumite. Speclolors oppreciole him. . .opponenls odmire ond rerpecl

him. He's os fqsl os o str iking snoke. . .ond iust.os dbodly.

If you've ever seen him fight, you'll know thefollowing description barely scratches the surface oftruth. If you haven't seen him in combdt, a newdefinition of karate awaits you.. He's Mr. Ice-nerves himself. Calm, cool and

collected is a cliche when applied to his subtle,fearless technique. He stands firmly, feet plantedin the hnrse stnnr:e, patiently waiting rvith handsquick as a lizard's tongue to catch a careless fly.He barely rnoves, though kicks and puhches fromdetermined opponents rvhiz by inches arvay from hishead. He doesn't scream kiais every five secondsand

throw wild, off-balance purrches every ten; hewaits and waits. . .and waits. And when you makeyour mistake, he scores, sometimes so fast, youdon't even realize you've been hit! It's been saidby many top karatekas that he has possibly thefastest punch in competition today.

Born in Tokyo, Japan, Toyotaro Miyazaki beganstudying karate at the age of sixteen with MasterTomasoburo Okano, incidentally, received his firstdegree black belt. from Master Funakoshi withinone year, a feat aceomplished by only two othermen in Master Funakoshi's lifetime. Muyaaaki

t l

Mr. Miyarokioims his fomous side kick oi Bernord Pierce, his porlner in doio in Jockson Hts., New York.

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could to manage the English language and putup with a,host of questions. He was humble,modest, anxious to be of assistance, but as quietas the way he fights. To get him to talk abouthimself in any detail is quite an achievement initself. He smiles shyly, almost blushes in fact,and nods his head in affirmation rvhenever heagrees and says, "I think so." When he doesn'tagree, he shakes his head and says quietly, al-most apologetically, "I don't think so." He's aman of ferv rvords!

He has been in America two years now and

received his first degree black belt after threeyears of concentrated study. To more readily aPpreciate this fact, one must remember that inJapan, black belt certificates are not run off

daily on a multilith machinel They are earned,and the only wa.y a karateka can earn one is toexcel in his craft. Mr. Miyazaki does that, andmore,

Ai his small, but intimate dojo in JacksonHeights, New York, which he shares in par-

tnership with his friend and co-instructor, sandan,Bernard Pierce, Mr. Miyazaki tried as best he

Men who hove fought him hove only lhe greotest re3Fect lor his obitity, Joe Hoyer considers him the best f ighter he's met.

is a third degree black belt. In Japan, he ex-plained, the teaching emphasis is on form, onbalance, on the kata. They teach form overand over all the time so that you get betterand better," he said. Mr. Pierce who sat inand occasionally interpreted for us offered, "Whatthey don't tear.h is instnnt lcamte!"

"American's are very strong," Miyazaki said."They fight very good." "But it wasalso broughtout that Americans give points for techniques thatwouid not be expected of a white belt in Japan.let alone a black belt here in tournament play.There are no points scored for a shuto, whetherto the head, the back or the face. Certainly nopoint is allorved for a kick to the groin. This isthe American influence. In Japan, points are giv-en for reverse punches and front kicks and ex-cellence in technique. These are the areas in whichMr. Miyazaki excels, needless to say.

The Japanese rely solely on balance and ex-ecution, plus their incredible speed. All theseequal strength. If there's no balance, there isno focus. The opponent, therefore, theoretically,could survive the blow. However. rvhen the kickor punch is executed with balance, rvith pre-cision and focus, then, and this is not so theore.tic, the opponent would,not survive. And that isthe essence of karate; the one all-powerful death-blow, not a series of jibs and jabs and shutos tothe buttocks! Form, they insist, is all-important.When you have form, there is less risk of beingawkward, off balance, of getting hit with a less-than-per{ect blow. "In Japan", Miyazaki rvent on,"they teach the way of karate." In America, un-fortunately, they seem to teach the "way of thetournament" (author's quotes)!

It is this form, this balance that has enabledToyotaro Miyazaki to lvin ten of his trvelve tour-naments (not trvo dozen as another magazine mis-quoted). There is never an unnecessary move on

A view of how it looks when his fontosticol ly fosi reverse punchbreoks through defenses, os i l hos done r,. .ny l imes, qnd scores,

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Mlyoroli ls o ruperb counlerpuncher who generolly woils for his opponent to commit him:elf before delivering hls deodly blowr,

his part. He appears to just stand there, eyes fix-ed on his opponent , watching, waiting, and then.. .zap! There's a foot in your face!

Because his Master, Mr. Okano, was not amember of a controlling organization in Japan,Miyazaki was not allorved to participate in tour-nament competition. His first tournament play wasin California shortly after he had arrived fromJapan. It was his first loss. There might have beenany number of excuses given for the loss, e.g.:American style karate differs markedly from theOriental; Miyazaki had never fought in tourna-ment competition before; he was unfamiliar withscoring system, etc. However, these would havebeen just what they sound like; excuses.

'Mr. Miy-

azaki offered the one and-only reason for the loss:Ron Marchini, the man he fought that night.

"When he starts his attack," Miyazaki remember-ed, "He is-very fast. He is very strong. Someother people I have fought may be a little faster,but Ron Marchini is the strongest. Yes, I think so.It was the first time I fought here, that tourna-ment in California, and I lost. I think I got thefirst punch in. The next time he got the puneh.Next time I did the roundhouse kick, he got thepunch. One referee gave me the point, but theother referees gave him (Marchini) the other points.

Miyazaki's most recent tournament (and secondloss) was at the Richard Chun 1969 Universal OpenKarate and Tournament of Champions. He waspitted against the inimicable Joe Hayes that night,and Hayes rvas ultimately crowned Grand Champ-ion, defeating everyone he faced. Mr. Hayes alsoprovided an interesting opinion and insight intoMiyazaki. Asked who he considered his toughestopponent, sometime after the townament, duringan interview, Mr. Hayes said: "My best com-petitor, the one I really enjbyed fighting with, whogave me a really hard time, rvas Miyazaki. Hefights just like me, you know, the same style.It's like fighting yourself. He makes the aircrackle. He makes everybody crackle!" Smilingto himself as though he were picturing again thatfantastic bout, Hayes went on; "He's so shortyou know . He's beautiful. He's cool. Like, he justgets under your skin. He's fantastic. The firsttime I fought hirn in Master Cho's tournament(Miyazaki rvon that one, by the way, on a closedecision). I just felt so great about fighting him,because it was something I'd never experiencedbefore, fighting a great competitor like him. AllI cah say is, it was unbelievable, fantastic. Iwor-rldn't mind fighting him a thousand times over.

(Continued on page 60)r4

Trias, was biased and asled for a

change before he would continue' Steen,on" Jf th" judges took over the refereeposition and Ttias assumed his judge's

seat.[,ewis' matches with Artie Simmons

were an anti-climx to tbe previoLrsbout, There were 3 matches of twomirutes each with a total accumula-iion of points declaring Lewis the

Grand ChamPion tbe second Year in a

row,After the presentation of trophies'

Dirk Mosig wdked uP to Joe Lewisend said that someday someone biggerand shonger would do the same. thingto him, and it slmost started all overagain. Lewis chaltenged Dirk, who

dZchned. Then Lewis made the offer

to snyone on stage or within hearingdistarrce. E reryoni on stage backed up

a couple of steps, and Lewis walkedto the lobbY.domnp"ts,'Wottg Slocki-a judge in the

metch, "Moore was luckYLewis &dn't hll him' Hishead was hitting the floorand bouncing uP into an-other Punch. I didn't thinkMoore was going to walkawaY ftom it."Ic Lauis I' Have You seenhanY of Vic's matches? HealwaYs goes for the face' Idm't like that' I alwaYs gofor the bodY. OnlY once inthe Intemational s did Ihita man in the face and that

' was an accident and mis-take for me. MaYb€ on th€street, if I were defendingmYself, I would go for theheed. but not in tqrma-ment. So I taught him alesson."

. Vic Moore - (who was act'ing as if he were going toclimb uP on stage to fightLewis again and had to li€qui€ted bY Janet Walgr€n;nd Jim Harison) "The

match wasn't fair' I wantmY Fint. I got a Point toLewis' head and theYdidn't award it to me' Theh€ad is mY main targetarea. The bodY is lewis'main tarqet area. Whenthey eliminated the h€ad,it gave Lewis a big advan-taqe."lim Hanison - "The fightisn't over yet' IfVicdoesn'tshut up, I'm going to hithim. too. I'd rather not doit in the tonrnament, butif that's what it comes toI will. Vic thinks he'stouqh, and I think I'mtouch too. MaYbe some-day we'll find out who isbetter."

If a special troPhY were ever given

for raw iourage and self discipline, my.,.rte for the winner would be for RardyHolman of Peoria, Illinois RandY,a brown belt, was fighting for Ist daceheavvweisht and a chance to fight for

lst tlat riight in the finals. He drew a

he"a hu"tei. On the first clash hescoreda seiken to the ribs and received the

same to the mouth. One cut, no Point'on the second clash he struck a lightcontact slluto and received a deep cut

approximately 3/'1" longabovethenose'After the doctor's examinatron, lt was

recommended theY take a break'While the referees discussed the doc-

tor's opinion' Randy stood- at attention*ttit. ii" opponent wandered aroundthe ring stopping to converse-with hissensei.

-WithG tlirty minutes, the match

began again. Both boys attack€d, clash-ing and getting in some- body blowsBut as Randy retreated, he was.hit in

ibu f""" "giin

with detiberate hardcontact. Thii time it was a cut on thenose, and the doctor thought it had beenlioken, after thb leferees, HarrisonandTrias, discussed the situation, it wasdeclded to disqualifv his opponent for

unnecessary contact The doctor saidRandy should go to the hospital forstitcies and medical treatrnent, butRandv wanted to compete that even-ing, io only went to the motel to rest'w-n"" nanilv went on stage to fight

for fust pl,ace, his oppone-nt ofthe even-ins. nuiv Funtez, withdrew from thefigiit b""au." h" had a disloc-ated shoul-dlr from the eliminations and didn't feel

he could continue. Randy was awardedffrst place in tnown b€lt kumite and lstob"J itt bto*n belt kata, which heLad won before the kumite eliminations'

TOYOTARO MIYAZAKITHE PERFECT IECHNI-

CIAN(Continued from Page 14)

He's a geat competitor."In thit Toumament of Champions'

Uiv"rtt i ai"pt"va the icy-nervedtechniqw and form that has made nlm

PERSONAT PROFILE:

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