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Zoran -> Martin Alcala Autobiography (Mar. 12th, 2007, 6:01:31 AM)
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A Personal Journey in Martial Arts
In the spring of 1966 in Los Angeles while I was senior in high school I was introduced to karate. My friend Luis Garcia and I practice together or I should say he was teaching me what he knew, Luis was a purple belt in Kenpo. I was always interested in all types of sports. Martial arts were something I thought of trying since my ninth grade, but I did have not the opportunity to do so. I kept pretty busy lettering in high school three years in gymnastics and went to all city championships twice. In the summertime I played baseball for seven years.
I was the type of kid who wanted to be good and used the time with Luis to go over the basics before I would meet with his instructor. I borrowed a uniform from Luis, it was to big for me, Luis is over six feet and I am five feet six inches tall. I just rolled up the sleeves and pulled the pants up and went to class. It was April of 1966 at Alpine recreation park in Chinatown, Los Angeles I met Grand Master Richard Nunez my teacher. At that time Master Nunez was a third degree black in Kenpo Karate, associated with but not under Ed Parker’s American Kenpo. Master Nunez’s head instructor was Dan Guzman out of San Gabriel and East Los Angeles. I was in heaven after my first lesson. I loved the physical combatant style that Master Nunez taught. Master Nunez always had control in his class but if two guys of similar capabilities wanted to kumite heavy he would let it happen to a degree. We didn’t have protection pads for our fists or feet at that time so we came back from class with a lot of bruises if you were allowed to kumite heavy. The class had all nationalities because we were in the heart of LA with Mexican, Chinese, Anglo and African Americans. From this diversity of races it proved to be the best way in the early days to learn this new form of sport and self-defense. Because martial arts was new to the general population and not just for the Asians or Polynesians we had a lot to prove to ourselves and others that this is for real. Master Nunez taught a self-defense system of strikes and blocks that must work in the street as well as in the sparring ring or tournaments. Master Nunez believes in reality not just the movements that are pre-staged for demonstrations to make the instructor look good. If the techniques work in class they must work for you in any altercation in the street. This philosophy of getting to the real and pure movements of martial arts is what Master Nunez has been striving for in his Forty-five years of teaching. Taking the best from judo, karate, kung fu, aikido, grappling and boxing and mixing it up for the individual to use in any situation has been the mainstay of my martial art training and teaching.
I studied under Master Nunez for eighteen months and was promoted to Brown Belt in Kenpo in 1967. Master Ed Parker tested and promoted me at Master Nunez’s studio in East Los Angeles. I am very proud of having Master Parker’s signature on my diploma. In fact Master Parker judged my first tournament match when I only had four class sessions with Master Nunez. That was Master Nunez’s way, if he thought you had something to show he would encourage you to try it. Master Nunez has instilled in his students not to be afraid of trying, because without trying you would not know your own potential. I guess that is why I was drawn to this way of life, martial arts, because you can test yourself and know your strengths as well as your weakness. Knowing yourself as an individual has been important to me. What I can accomplish today and what I want to accomplish tomorrow you can see very clearly with martial arts philosophy. The reason why I know this to be true is when you are learning a technique, trying to master it by yourself and then execute this technique in class, you begin to realize you are bound only by yourself, not by the opponent you face. The test of your knowledge and physical training is being able to execute your movements without hesitation and if your opponent changes his direction of attack then you must adjust and continue your movements. You really learn fast in class what you can do and cannot do at that particular moment. This training enables you to improve in all aspects of martial arts as well as in life’s occurrences of set backs and challenges. Once you see the improvement only through hard and thoughtful training, you start believing in yourself and start knowing your potential as a human being. Your self-esteem grows and you look at things differently in that you can obtain your dreams and goals by working hard and not giving up.
When I made the grade of Brown Belt I entered into the Army. A year later I was in Thailand and stationed in the northeast section of the country for seventeen months. While I was in the Army I taught Kenpo to GI’s at Ft. Mommath, New Jersey and in Thailand combat training to Thai soldiers. While I was in Thailand it was the first time I witness Muy Thai boxing. I was impressed by the dedication and fearless attitude the fighters had. In those days their boxing skills were poor and I could see if you were able to get close you could cancel out their thunderous kicks to the legs. In one of my training sessions in Thailand I was asked to work out with a soldier who was a Thai boxer. In my younger days I always said yes. I had seen Thai boxing matches in the near by town so I looked for the same style of fighting to come from this Thai. We didn’t have gloves we just agreed to go easy, but I knew from my teenage days boxing with my older cousin who was a boxer, boxers never go easy. He did exactly what I thought he was going to do. He was using sweeping low kicks to my legs and when I stepped to the side or went forward in a forty-five degree angle his legs missed me. I was able to get close and strike to the head and face, not hard but enough to let everyone know he was being hit at will. The Thai was big in stature not tall but built like a bull from the neck down. If he had connected I would have been injured. In my limited time of teaching as a first-degree brown I didn’t have the Savoy that instructors should have. However in time I did learn to look and see and try to understand how people move and react to each other. I believe this learning helped me not be on the receiving end of this Thai’s attack.
After the service I was in Los Angeles going to college and I met with one of the students of Master Nunez, Don Lombardi. Don was a few years younger then myself. I haven’t seen Master Nunez for about three years. Being away from home and the way people are always moving around so much, I lost contact with my instructor. As soon as I could, I went to Montebello YMCA to meet my instructor in the spring of 1971. From 1971 to 1981 I trained with Master Nunez. I received my first degree black in December 1972 and my second degree in 1974. During that time I was an instructor for Master Nunez at San Pedro YMCA. I also opened up my own school in Highland Park. Along with teaching and promoting tournaments I also trained full contact fighters for our system. We had half a dozen fighters and one of them was Vito Falco who was fifth in the world in the welterweight division in the WKA. We fought in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Canada. In 1977 in Calgary, Canada I took two fighters Vito and a light heavy weight. They both won beating the western Canadian conference champions. Vito won by knock out. The main event that night included Benny “The Jet” Urquidez against one of the top kung fu instructors in British Columbia. I worked the corner of Benny and from that advantaged point I could see clearly why Benny was the best in the world at that time.
In 1981 I changed my career goals, I was working for Walt Disney in corporate accounting and I wanted to change and work in the film and television industry. I was lucky in finding a job in television and from that time forward I have been in the entertainment industry working as a freelance Auditor. Here are some of my past credits I worked on the first season of Walker, Texas Ranger in Dallas with Chuck Norris. I was fortunate to work on Miami Vice for five years in Miami. I have worked a show in Vancouver, Canada working on a feature with a great actor Al Pacino and Robin Williams. I know martial arts have been of great help to me in my confidence to go after my goals in the entertainment world. Now at the age of fifty-six, it is a good feeling to feel comfortable with one’s work. But at the same time not complacent, there are new creative goals I want to achieve in the film industry. I have four scripts I have written and I am starting to push them now and we will see what the future holds for me.
This brings me to the third time of my involvement with my instructor. I was working at a post production house in Hollywood in the early summer of 1997 and I saw a young man who worked there wearing a t-shirt with LimaLama written on it. From that chance meeting I was able to locate Master Nunez in Whittier, Ca. Because of my work and the many times I was away on locations filming, I lost touch with my instructor from 1983 to 1997.
I drove to Whittier and met with Master Nunez at Gold’s Gym. I started training again in 1998 and received my third degree in NO-KA-OI October 1999 and my fourth degree in November 2003. There is loyalty I have for Master Nunez because he is my first instructor. I did however trained with other instructors. I had training in Shotokan, Cho La Fut and Kenpo over the years when I was not training with Master Nunez.
I found many differences in other systems or styles of martial arts, but in truth, it was the approach to teaching was the largest factor. There are those instructors who firmly believe only their style can work effectively and no other style is capable or strong enough to compete with theirs. This teaching is not in Master Nunez’s philosophy.
It is not the weakness of a particular style that I am speaking of, but in seeking the truth of the movements and the execution of those movements. Master Nunez has always said seek your own knowledge and try everything you can to make you a better person. No one style is the supreme martial art but the taking of all the best of the different martial arts will give you a well rounded curriculum. In 1967 in the fall Master Nunez formed with Sol Esquivel, John Marolt, Haumea “Tiny” Lafiti the LimaLama Association with the Grand Master of LimaLama Tino Tuiolosega in Southern California. LimaLama is Samoan in origin and migrated to the Hawaiian Islands with Tino’s family. These gentlemen created LimaLama into a martial art association with a curriculum in the early days. LimaLama is soft flowing hands in forms but explosive with whipping hands when executed properly for offensive techniques. LimaLama is very close to Kenpo but utilizing more boxing techniques with breaks to the bones. For many years Master Nunez taught the style and curriculum of LimaLama originated in the sixties. As the years went by and through experimentation, process of elimination and creating innovative techniques Master Nunez founded and created a new system of martial arts called The Institute of NO-KA-OI. NO-KA-OI was originated in 1992 and officially offered to the martial arts world in 1995. Sometimes changes must come and are expected if you need to grow and not be stagnated in a rigid and uncompromising martial art curriculum. The modern physical training methods of today help you achieve higher plateaus of accomplishments. Being away has given me a fresh look at what Master Nunez has to offer in his training methods. I know in the black belt curriculum it is very difficult and sometimes confusing because your brain has to work many movements with both sides of your body. But this is the beauty of this art NO-KA-OI you are forced to see from both sides of the body, no matter if you are on your right side or left. I like this style of having to think on your feet quickly and decidedly. For me No-KA-OI is the best and I can create my own movements that fit my ability and personality. That is the strength of NO-KA-OI, you can grow with this martial art and you can give your creative ideas and thoughts to enhance NO-KA-OI as a black belt. I feel at home with this martial art.
When I was teaching one of my brightest moments is when a parent came to me and thanked me for helping his child in developing a higher esteem of himself. That is why I will return to teaching to explore the possibilities of achievements with the young people. For right now I am helping Master Nunez in any way I can with tournaments, building a web site for No-KA-OI and promoting the art.
I am producing a video for our system of martial arts under the direction of Master Nunez. This video will have all the aspects of training plus the history of our system and where we are going in the future.
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