Fight clubs bring combat to campus

Two enter, one leaves. The phrase alone incites images of gladiator battles in the heyday of the Roman Empire or pistol duels among gentlemen when the American colonies still were being settled.

Civilizations have been teaching the art of one-on-one combat for centuries, and through time their methods have been honed to a point of deadly precision.

Mixed martial arts and organizations like Ultimate Fighting Championship have become popular venues for Americans to vent a desire for violent competition, but the barbaric actions inside the “Octagon” can be traced back to cultures and classes throughout the world.

MSU has eight fighting clubs with origins in Japan, Greece, Korea, Thailand and Northern Europe, each specializing in their own way of doing one thing — taking down an opponent.

But the way these styles evolved from brutish beginnings into the sports they are today is as important as the fights themselves.

Born from battle

Originating from the fabled Japanese samurai, kendo is an advanced sword-fighting style that was used in the Middle Ages to ambush armies and storm fortresses on battlefields.

Although it may seem like the samurai were able to slice through opponents at will like Uma Thurman, that perception isn’t completely realistic, said Ron Fox, instructor of MSU’s Kendo Club.

Only about 10-20 percent of injuries on Japanese battlefields were the result of swords, Fox said, because aerial weapons like arrows and guns were more effective during large-scale battles.

But when a solider finds himself facing an enemy in close combat with only a sword, few styles are as effective kendo, said Fox, who has practiced the art for 26 years.

“Here’s something which is conceptually really, really simple,” he said. “You take a stick and you clonk somebody on the head, you clonk them on the wrist, you clonk them on the abdomen or you make a slash to the throat. And yet there’s incredible complexity both in trying to get those actions to be pure and efficient and also make it so that you can succeed in those actions.”

On the other side of the world, aristocrats in Northern European society were perfecting their own way of vanquishing foes through swordplay.

“Back in the day, it was seen as a high-class sport,” physics senior and MSU Fencing Club member Ryan Majewski said. “But these days it’s all about fun.”

Fencing is a sword-fighting style similar to kendo, but one small difference in method distinguishes one style from the other.

Fencing was created primarily from using a foil, which is a slender sword used more for thrusting than for strikes, as in kendo.

Because of this choice of weapon, fencers only use one hand to hold their weapon, allowing them to stand sideways while fighting, minimizing any exposed areas, Fox said.

MSU Fencing Club assistant coach Eric Carlson said individual skirmishes often are short, which means the first fencer who goes for a point or counterattacks a point can be the one who wins.

“They call it physical chess because you’re always thinking about what you’re doing,” Carlson said.

With bare hands and feet, the average Tae Kwon Do expert might not fare well against a sword-wielding counterpart. But although the Korean martial art only utilizes hands and feet as weapons, it has influenced American sport more than many other martial arts, said Ron Southwick, adviser and instructor for the MSU Tae Kwon Do Club.

Tae Kwon Do was one of the first deadly martial arts to evolve into a full-fledged sport, which played a large role in influencing modern martial art competitions, Southwick said. The Koreans were some of the first people to organize tournaments and successfully push to make Tae Kwon Do an Olympic sport.

“They really changed the way we do tournaments in this country and competition in this country all around,” Southwick said.

The modern duel

In 1964, MSU became the first college in the country to award credit for a martial arts course, beginning with its Tae Kwon Do program, Southwick said.

Since then, the Tae Kwon Do Club has been traveling to tournaments across the state — and even the country — to see how MSU’s talent matches up against the competition.

But Southwick said physical ability is not what it takes to be a good Tae Kwon Do fighter.

“The most important quality is desire,” he said. “I’ve seen the lowliest person that I never would have expected to become a Tae Kwon Do individual really turn out to be a good one.”

Environmental economics policy senior and Tae Kwon Do Club member Mike Murphy has been competing for 16 years and said his focus before a fight has improved noticeably.

“Some people get really nervous,” Murphy said. “But I’ve been doing this for so long, I just relax and think about how I’m going to beat my opponent. Jitters were gone a long time ago.”

Since the samurai were pushed out of power in Japan in the 1500s, razor sharp kendo swords have been replaced with bamboo staffs, and duelers can don as much as 25 pounds of armor, Fox said.

Criminal justice freshman Jaehong Ha has been practicing kendo for eight years and said its style has allowed him to match up well against bigger fighters in tournaments.

“In kendo, age, how much power they have and how fast they are is not important,” Ha said. “Smart people have more speed.”

And even though the fighting style is vastly different, speed is equally vital in fencing, Majewski said.

“I’ve always liked martial arts and physical sports that involve two people fighting,” Majewski said.

“It’s really quick; it’s reaction, quick thinking, strength and speed.”