Collegiate Times

Bill Woodward, right, a 42-year-old third-degree black belt in Goju-Ryu practices with Tech junior Nandi Stoja.

While searching into the hidden world of Uechi-Ryu fighters at Virginia Tech, I encountered a daunting boundary between them and myself. The gateway featured a mural of the most intimidating and ferocious creatures that come to mind when thinking of martial arts.

Overhead, a dragon appears from hiding to roar dangerously close to flammability. Beneath crouches the head of a wise and knowing tiger. To the left, a crane raises its wings in preparation to strike a Cobra Kai in the face.

Despite my fears of getting crane-kicked by Daniel-San, I clicked through the homepage and ventured further past this front of spliced images. There was no going back, no backing down.

It was especially tough to get to that point considering that this organization lurks in the shadows of the "full club listings" for sports on Tech's Web site, invisible among other hyperlinked clubs such as clay target and cycling.

Further digging revealed that components of Uechi-Ryu (pronounced "way-chee roo") are blatantly noticeable in both American and Japanese culture.

Much like Mr. Miyagi in the eternally revered "Karate Kid" movie quadrilogy, the traditional karate style Uechi-Ryu hails from Okinawa, Japan. Kanbun Uechi founded this brand of karate, which bases its techniques on the movements of three animals that, many years later, would become tremendously glorified in cinema: the tiger, the dragon and the crane.

Simply punching "karate" into www.vt.edu's search engine produced all the results I needed, which included a far more advanced Web site than a typical club sport - which this organization is not, but instead is registered as Tech's martial arts organization - including the proper pathway to contact their Sensei.

Ben Hilburn's eyes darted across War Memorial Gym Multipurpose Room B on Sunday while the class fired fists and feet in unison. Computer engineering graduate student by day, Sensei by night, Hilburn slipped tips to his students between repetitions of the words "ichi, ni, san, shi." This mantra traces back even further than Uechi-Ryu's development in the early 20th century, as it translates simply to the Japanese words, "One, two, three, four."

At no point during warm ups did any of them practice the unstoppable "crane kick" that Mr. Miyagi taught young Daniel-San back in 1984. When I asked Hilburn Sensei - who stands at a very Ralph Macchio-esque 5-foot-7 and 135 pounds - about the absence of a move that involves thrusting arms up like wings and lifting one knee, he destroyed the myth that Generations X and Y have grown up with and held so dear.

"Wherever you get hit from, you're going to fall over. So, that's not our cup of tea," Hilburn said.

"I know (that) scene in karate kid. ... Everything we do is meant to be defensive and on balance, so something like this where you're up on one leg totally vulnerable, that's not quite us."

Hilburn Sensei would admit there is indeed a move in black belt styles similar to "the crane," so we can all carry on cherishing childhood memories.

The other two animals of the Uechi-Ryu trifecta found global fame in the Oscar-winning film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" back in 2000. Like Uechi-Ryu, this film draws upon Chinese styles of martial arts for its finished product.

"'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' is principally about Kung Fu," Hilburn said. "Uechi-Ryu came from a Chinese style called Pangai-noon, which is directly connected to Kung Fu and Wushu ... as far as defensive blocks are concerned."

Hilburn then rattled off a circular block that seemingly no fist or bamboo pole or Chow Yun-Fat could penetrate.

Kanbun Uechi developed his masterpiece after becoming disillusioned with the fight schooling he encountered in China in the late 1800s, yet he drew upon their many revered forms of Chinese martial arts in crafting his own.

While Uechi-Ryu focuses on self-defense, this does not expel physicality from weekly practice, but in fact magnifies it. This caught the eye of Tech junior Nandi Stoja two years ago.

"I came with a friend. He decided not to stay, because he thought it looked weird and there was a lot of beating going on," Stoja said. "(It's) just conditioning your body to take hits. So he didn't like it. ... I thought, 'That's pretty awesome.'"

Stoja and 1989 Tech graduate Bill Woodward worked in a pair much like the rest of Hilburn's class, trading both takedowns and advice. Woodward, 42, donned his third-degree black belt in Goju-Ryu, while absorbing moves in his latest style of interest.

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