June Rhee and Muhammad Ali
Amazing meetings sometimes give us fate. My great friend Grigory Pototsky, a famous Russian architect, called me and invited me to his studio. Basement on Gogolevsky, and how many amazing people from all over the world came to him. And this time I managed to meet and talk with an outstanding person, June Ree, who was the legendary teacher of Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris and Mohammed Ali, as well as the personal trainer of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Jun Ri is one of the most famous martial artists in the world.
In the United States, where Master Ree moved more than half a century ago, he is the most popular personality - it is not for nothing that he is called the father of American taekwondo. The winner of a huge number of various wrestling and public awards, the owner of the tenth (that is, the highest) taekwondo dan Jun Ri is on the list of the most prominent immigrants in US history. He served as an adviser on physical culture and sports during the administrations of Presidents Reagan and Bush Sr., was responsible for conducting the sports part of the celebration of the 200th anniversary of US independence and was proclaimed overseas as the Man of the Century in martial arts. He is on the White House Asia and Pacific Affairs Commission and has been improving the fitness of US congressmen for over 40 years.
Even the President of Korea, Lee Myung-bak, called Joon Ri the most outstanding Korean in the history of the country.
He credits himself with teaching Bruce Lee how to kick and crush objects.
Chuck Norris, like Schwarzenegger, were not his students. In 1989, the ambassador of the Soviet Union in Washington introduced Jun Ri to Anatoly Kolesov, one of the leaders of the USSR Sports Committee. After a serious conversation with him - and after 48 hours, martial arts schools in the USSR were legalized. Junri didn't think it was just a coincidence.
Jun Ril was a Korean and was very proud of this and that the main martial art of his country - taekwondo - was so widespread. Now they are engaged in 70 million people in 189 countries around the world. In fact, many Japanese martial arts are much older than Korean taekwondo. But his art has won the greatest popularity in the world.
Jun Ree told me about Mohamed Ali's cutting punch. He met Muhammad Ali in 1976 when Ali was preparing to hold an exhibition fight in Japan against karateka Antonio Inoki. He was a very strong athlete with an amazing kick. Ali's office contacted Jun and asked him to show him how to defend against Inoki's punch.
This fight was another opportunity to get an answer to the age-old question: who is stronger - a boxer or a karateka?
Therefore, Jun Ri said to Ali: "Don't defend yourself, but strike!" Already at the very beginning of the battle, Inoki fell on his back and tried to injure Ali with blows to the knee. The American easily dodged these blows, but could not reach the lying Japanese. As a result, all 12 rounds of the fight went according to this scenario, and a draw was announced. Jun then brought Ali to Korea where he performed in front of a million people. And a month before, Ali defended his title in a fight against Richard Dunn in Munich. Jun then said to Ali: "You must have a lightning-fast crushing blow." Jun could instantly break boards of different thicknesses. And this he taught Ali.
Junri told me that taekwondo was not popular in Korea before. Public opinion was against this martial art, and many taekwondo fighters were social outcasts. No wonder his father forbade Jun Ri from martial arts. So it had to be done in secret. Joon Ri became interested in martial arts at the age of 15 and eventually thought: "Well, why is your father so negative?" So he decided to leave for the USA, and later founded the first taekwondo school there. Jun Ri traveled a lot around the world. He was very interested in how to gain strength and, most importantly, the sharpness of the blow, which is a decisive factor in martial arts and boxing. He found the answer in Mexico. In the ancient recipes of the Aztecs for the production of chocolate. Elite Wars of the Aztecs, after eating chocolate according to this recipe, could chop off the head of a horse with a wooden sword! This is possible not only due to strength, but also due to the super sharpness, power and speed of impact obtained thanks to this amazing chocolate. This punch is so extremely important in the victory of the boxers.
Jun Ri recommended this chocolate drink to Ali. He used it - and won many victories. After the fight, Ali was asked: "This is something new. How did you learn to hit like that?" - "This is the blow of Master Jun Ri," Ali replied.
Jun Ri said that many boxers eat chocolate before a fight. The usual one they buy at the store. For example, like Taysen. But they do not achieve such power of impact and sharpness as Ali.
Jun Ri was in excellent physical shape. He did not drink alcohol and does not smoke.
He teaches people not to drink. Two years ago, he performed in Korea in front of children and their parents. "Drink and smoke well?" he asked the guys. "No, master!" he replied. What is good for children is good for their parents. In the same way, everything that is bad for parents is bad for children. So he said, "If your parents drink, drink you too, so that they will be ashamed."
As for the physical form ... At the age of seventy, Jun Ri did a thousand push-ups a day. With me, he did push-ups from the floor a hundred times!
We talked about Love for about five hours, which is his main philosophy in teaching his many students in his schools. At the end of the discussion, Joon Ri said that I was approaching the concept of Love too scientifically. Of course, from a philosophical point of view, in my opinion, it is impossible to clearly define the concept of Love. And therefore Love is used as an absolute truth and based on this conclusions are drawn.
I'm showing Jun Ri my scramblers. They were very interested in him. He said that the most important secrets on the combat training of the Warriors in the ancient world were encrypted. However, as now for the elite units. Of course, I was surprised by Junri's story about Aztec chocolate. But then, having found historical documents not only of the Aztecs, but also of the Jesuits, I realized that such elite chocolate can activate the internal energy of a person in a special way. No wonder the elite units of the NKVD, when thrown into the rear of the German troops, took special chocolate with them in order to effectively carry out a combat mission. And during the time they had numerous clashes with the enemy. And often hand-to-hand, When a single punch to the enemy could mean a lot for the successful completion of a combat mission.