As a child of the 80's, some of my early exposure to fantasy martial arts themed movies included films like The Karate Kid, The Last Dragon, and Big Trouble in Little China. While these movies part with the reality of martial arts in many ways, they can give you a fun ride as long as you suspend your disbelief.

One of my favorites films of this genre, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, features an ex-cop who is trained to be a deadly secret agent. When I looked up the movie years later, I found out it was based on a popular series of adventure novels called The Destroyer. The series was created by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir and first published in 1971. The series has remained successful enough that book 146, Guardian Angel is due in May 2007.

As with most movies, Remo Williams isn't an exact match of the source material, but I feel the essence of the story is the same. Sometimes the books themselves don't even match the source material, since there have been different writers contributing to the Destroyer series over the past 3+ decades.

The Premise:

In the 30 or so books I've read from The Destroyer series, the basic premise is pretty simple: When very bad things happen, it's up to Remo Williams to save the day!

The Good:

Martial arts action

The Bad:

Martial arts action revolves around a fabricated fighting style that trivializes all the other martial arts. (Unfortunately, many martial artists criticize other styles in real life, too...)

The Bottom Line:

The Destroyer is a fantasy adventure series with 145 books and growing -- you're bound to find a story that interests you in there somewhere.

Maria and I did a photo shoot over the weekend in the studio and at the Palace of Fine Arts. Can you tell I enjoy climbing?

If you're interested in martial arts or action movies, check out District B13 (a.k.a. Banlieue 13). The movie is a showcase for the skills of French martial artist and stuntman, Cyril Raffaelli, and Parkour founder, David Belle.

For those who don't speak French, the action will more than make up for the inconvenience of reading subtitles. Parkour won't seem completely new to anyone familiar with the style of stuntwork perfected by Jackie Chan. But there is enough freshness that District B13 should not only keep you entertained, it might inspire you to find new ways to scale your urban surroundings.

Here is a How-To guide for one of the "easy" (and potentially dangerous) Parkour movements: How to run up a wall and flip

As part of my ongoing martial arts studies, I'm now helping to coach Swai Jiao under Sifu James Man Chin. This doesn't mean that I'm an expert at all, but that I have grasped enough of the basics to help others progress.



So, what does Shuai Jiao mean? Here is the Wikipedia definition:

Shuai stands for "to throw onto the ground", while jiao may have two meanings: the first and oldest stands for "horns" and the second and recent stands for "wrestle" or "trip". Shuai Jiao therefore means either "to throw onto the ground using horns" or "to throw onto the ground through wrestling".

So, what is the correct way to spell "Swai Jiao"? In short, there isn't a correct way to spell it in English. As with many Chinese words represented in English, there are several spelling variations. Some of these are:

Mandarin
Swai jiao (Swai-jiao, Swaijiao)
Shuai jiao (Shuai-jiao, Shuaijiao)
Shuai chiao (Shuai-chiao, Shuaichiao)

Cantonese
Sut Gao (Sut-Gao, Sutgao)

Here are a few interesting links:

The physics of Judo -- These concepts could apply to Swai Jiao.

The physics of Aikido -- These concepts could also apply to Swai Jiao and Eagle Claw Kung Fu.

The physics of breaking boards -- Although it is titled "Kung Fu Science", this web site has little to do specifically with Chinese martial arts. Board breaking is usually associated with external martial art styles such as Karate.