Free Tengu by John Donohue Page A

on their sleeves. Some outfits looked more like billboards than uniforms, which, in some ways I suppose, they were.
    Yamashita doesn’t use belt colors for rank. You need black belts in a few systems just to get in the door of his training hall. The uniforms we wear are all the same: plain, deep blue, and utilitarian. My teacher isn’t interested in advertising, or in making you feel important. As far as he’s concerned, you earn respect through competence, and that’s something revealed through movement, not fashion.
    Groups of students demonstrated the kata- like routines they called hyung . I recognized a few of them as being similar to the Japanese Heian series. A less charitable observer would have said they were copied, but I’m a font of tolerance. The movements were crisp and hard, the control at a very good level.
    There was a lot of board breaking. The Korean styles are big for this. Twelve-inch squares of pine, an inch thick, were snapped in two in various ways: knife hand technique, back hand, lunge punch, front and side kicks, elbows. The crowd loved it. One of the junior instructors broke two different sets of boards held on both sides of him with a double flying side kick. I got tired just watching it.
    There was a brief intermission, then the Army demonstration team was introduced to enthusiastic applause.
    Hanrahan strode up to the microphone and gave a brief introduction.
    “Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, I’m Staff Sergeant Robert Hanrahan, part of the demonstration team for the United States Army’s Martial Arts Program. It’s a pleasure to be with you today and see so many of these fine athletes.” There was more polite applause.
    “The Army Martial Arts Program is composed of techniques such as strikes, throws, and holds that are meant to assist the soldier to close with and defeat his enemy. More than that, it’s also a system designed to instill every aspect of the warrior spirit in each trooper.
    “This close combat program was revamped in 1996 with the input of leading martial artists. It’s undergone continuing refinement and today includes combat-tested martial arts skills and close-combat training techniques that are combined with core Army values and leadership training.”
    You could hear the crowd growing a bit restless with the explanations. They were an action-oriented group. If Hanrahan’s canned commentary got much longer, he’d lose them.
    But this was obviously a well-practiced routine. While Hanrahan spoke, the demo squad was setting up floor mats behind him. They finished just as he wrapped up. “It’s our pleasure to be able to show you some of the more physical aspects of the art here today, part of the skills we’re proud to display as soldiers in the United States Army.”
    Basically, it was a good, solid demonstration of effective self-defense. There were no frills. They were obviously a fit bunch, and they were pulling their blows, but they went through a series of attack and defense vignettes that showcased their ability to break out of choke holds, immobilize various strikes, and bludgeon an attacker into a helpless heap. They used their boots a lot and I didn’t blame them. The basics were a meld of judo and karate-like techniques combined with the more ruthless propensity for target areas typically banned in martial arts schools that worried about the cost of liability insurance.
    I watched closely. After Micky and Art had told me about Baker, I took some time to try to find out what I could about what the Army was up to. There were some short video clips on a Web site, as well as text outlining the history of the system, but there’s no substitute for watching people who train in a particular style move for an extended period of time.
    The soldiers finished their demonstration, put away the mats and then sat back down with us on the bleachers. They weren’t even winded.
    Then the regular activities resumed and things wound their way down. For a