An Interesting Story Involving RyuTe

I found this in the comments section on an old post that came up when I was searching for something else. Make of it what you will.

‘Grand Master --- ----- of ------- ----- Karate’ isn’t just a name I pulled out of my hat, he at least was (perhaps still is) a martial artist practicing in Tulsa, OK (he had a website a few years ago, but it no longer exists and I haven’t been able to find it on the wayback machine). My encounter with him was in the fall of 1994 when I went to Tulsa to attend a seminar/demonstration put on by Taika Seiyu Oyata of Ryu-Te.

Taika Oyata was demonstrating some of his knockout techniques for which he is famous, when a member of the audience interrupted the demonstration. He had a long mullet with glasses, and was wearing a tank top with a dixie flag that said “------- ------ Karate”. He introduced himself as ---- -----, a karate practitioner in Tulsa.

To keep it short, he said that he didn’t believe that Oyata’s knockout techniques were real, and he brought one of his students for Oyata to demonstrate on to prove the technique’s authenticity. To Oyata’s credit he kept his cool, but instead said that ----- himself could come down and he would demonstrate the technique on him.

So when ---- ----- was ready, Oyata hit him on the neck with his fingers, and ----- summarily dropped like a sack of potatoes. Oyata then revived him, helped him up, and demonstrated it again. And again. In all he demonstrated his knockout technique on Mr. ----- 5 or 6 times, from different openings and positions. When he was done, Mr. ----- slowly got up, thanked Taika Oyata for the demonstration, and returned to his seat, remaining silent for the rest of the seminar.

I didn't link, obviously, and I left the man's name out, because I didn't want anybody who might be crawling the web for mentions of this guy's name to get his thong in a wad over the story, as seems to have happened in the other post's comments. I just thought it was interesting.

My own instructor knew of this guy and this story; the way he tells it, the man went on to teach "kyusho-jitsu" at his own school (before it closed, long ago), on the strength of having been to one or two of Taika Oyata's seminars--which illustrates something of importance: if you are going to study martial arts, it's worth taking the time to figure out exactly what's being taught, who the teacher learned from, and whether or not the system itself is solid. You might be surprised to find out the true lineage of some of the teachers in your area. In mine, I am quite convinced that at least a couple of them either have created their own systems from what they were able to learn on video, or have just made stuff up out of thin air. But by golly, they have paying students...

You know, I've not yet been knocked out by a nerve strike. There's no doubt in my mind, though, that they work. I've been on the receiving end of enough nerve techniques that either left an entire limb buzzing as though I'd stuck my finger in an electric socket or felt like a red-hot icepick was being shoved through my anatomy. That sort of thing does have a way of convincing a person...