Arizona Karate Grandmaster Looks Back at Golden Anniversary

Soke Hausel celebrated 50 years of
 martial arts training. O'Sensei Bill Borea (right) presents plaque from the student body to Grandmaster Hausel 
in recognition of his 50 years of training. Soke Hausel has been inducted in more than a dozen Halls of Fame
 around the world and taught martial arts at four different universities.

Karate, Kobudo and other traditional martial arts have been part of Soke (Grandmaster) Hausel's life for more than 50 years! This love of traditional martial arts began in 1964 after the Beatles invaded the US. For those who are too young to remember the invasion - it had a profound effect on most teenagers.

On Sunday nights, families religiously watched the Ed Sullivan show. In those days, most only had three black and white channels, no play back, and yet it was more entertaining than cable or satellite TV today. According to Soke Hausel, "We had no idea who these four British musicians were or what they were about, but they changed many people over night". As Soke tells the story...

The Churchmen, Rock n' Roll Band, about 1964. Left to right -
Jan Hart, Steve Paulos, George Allen and Dan (Soke) Hausel

"When I attended school the next day, everyone was talking about the invasion. I wanted to be a musician - just like millions of other kids around the world. So, I took up the guitar. I purchased a Gibson Firebird - can you believe it, I just saw a similar guitar selling for $28,000 on ebay. I paid a little over $100 for mine! Later, three other guys (Steve Poulos, Jan Hart, and George Allen) found me and we formed a band called the 'Churchmen". We became very popular in Utah and started playing at concerts and parties every weekend but soon we realized having long hair had drawbacks - rednecks wanted to shave our heads and rough us up because we were different. Today, I have no problem with rednecks - some of my heroes are rednecks.

Luckily, right next to my former junior high school was a karate dojo - the Black Eagle Federation - so we all signed up for kyokusinkai karate and trained with Sensei Tom Anguay. That was my start in martial arts. More than 50 years later, I've trained in several martial arts. Many doors opened for me because of my affiliation with the University of Wyoming where I taught martial arts classes and clinics for more than 30 years, and because of my association with Juko Kai International. 

The Churchmen became a very popular
band at the Terrace Gardens in Salt
Lake City in the mid to late 1960s.

A few years later, the Churchmen broke up and I joined another band - the 12th Night, but it wasn't my kind of band. We played for university venues and in pubs, but I didn't like playing in night clubs. About that time, I started teaching guitar at the Music Center. But one day, I had enough and gave up my career as a professional musician and sold my Firebird for a few hundred dollars and started working as a tour guide and astronomy lecturer at the Hansen Planetarium. I had stars in my eyes.

Today, I train 5 to 6 days each week in martial arts (you've probably seen me at your gym in Gilbert, Mesa, or Chandler and teach 8 classes each week. When I was a professor of martial arts at the University of Wyoming, I taught a few thousand students karate, kobudo, jujutsu, samurai arts, self-defense, martial arts history and women’s self-defense while developing a prestigious martial arts program at the University from 1977 to 2007. Previously, I had taught at the University of New Mexico and University of Utah. When I moved to Arizona, I taught a few classes at Arizona State University in 2007 but then opened a martial arts school (or Hombu dojo) on the border of Chandler, Gilbert and Mesa. And, I started teaching Zonies to break rocks with their hands, rather than a rock hammer.

Steve Paulos and Dan Hausel (Desert News photo)

More than 50 years ago, karate was different as were the instructors (sensei). In 1964, bullying was encouraged and karate training was brutal - but at least no one ever took a bullet even though guns were very common and often seen in many teenager's truck windows in the parking lot on campus. We even had a target range under the high school where members of ROTC trained with .22 caliber rifles. 

I elected to continue martial arts for the rest of my life. Traditional martial arts should be a lifelong commitment - not a fling, but it is rare to find anyone who can make that kind of commitment. 

Traditional karate provides opportunities to get in shape, meet others with like minds, make lifelong friends, and learn pragmatic self defense. Traditional martial arts are about earning everything. One major difference between traditional and sport martial arts was pointed out in the original Karate Kid movie. Remember Miyagi-Ryu Karate (traditional) and Cobra Kai Karate (sport)? Traditional karate is about courtesy, self-respect, and respect for others. Those who train in traditional karate practice it as if it is a weapon and we all learn self-confidence. Every single person I trained in traditional karate came out much more positive and self-confident. Those in sport karate train as if it is a sport or game. Personally, I have no problem with sport, but after 50 years I understand this significant difference that is unrecognized by the layman. There are some good sport karate schools and organizations, but this form of karate does not be focus on self-defense but rather on trophies, sparring, and periodically bullying - but there are both good and bad sport practitioners - just like we see in the NFL and in other sports. Unfortunately, there are a lot more sport karate schools and this has resulted in scam artists opening martial arts schools - many purchased diplomas or fabricated their own. In traditional karate, most everyone knows everyone else and everyone's instructors, so legitimacy is everything and it is very difficult for a politician - err I mean scam artist, to sneak into the system.  On Okinawa, the birth place of karate, nearly all karate schools are traditional.

Today, I teach karate classes and other martial arts to adults and families at the Arizona School of Traditional Karate (aka Arizona Hombu) on the border of Gilbert and Mesa. We have may students scattered worldwide: many are university professors, teachers, engineers, scientists, doctors, lawyers, social scientists, law enforcement agents, artists and some are common laborers. My son Eric, daughter Jessica and grandsons are all proficient in karate. It is my hope that you too will follow the karate path."

The 12th Night Rock n' Roll Band with Dan (Soke) in front center about 1970 (Photo courtesy of University of
 Utah)

Traditional Karate



Torii gate in Japan

One would need to search the corners of the Earth to find anyone who has not heard of karate. Karate was created on a tiny group of islands known as Okinawa. Because of pragmatic combat effectiveness, karate spread throughout the world in the 20th century after it had been revealed to the public such that today, almost every person has a general idea of what karate is.

Many fighting sports in the world try to mimic karate and incorporate karate-like techniques; but just because someone kicks and punches does not imply they know karate let alone understand martial arts. Any school boy or girl will kick and punch under certain circumstances, but this does not mean they are karate practitioners. Unfortunately, few people understand the difference between sport karate and traditional karate. Even those who practise karate, most do not understand there is a dramatic difference between sport and traditional.

'Aerial Karate' - color pencil sketch by Soke Hausel

Sport Karate, as pointed out by Tsuneo Kinjo from Okinawa, has two branches - kata and kumite. In sport Karate, kata is practiced more like a dance contest with a fashion show - performed for trophies with a general lack of understanding of bunkai (pragmatic self-defense applications). Kumite (sparring) in sport karate is also about winning and losing. Those who train in sport karate wear padded gloves and try to out-score each other requiring many unfocused techniques. The Father of Modern Karate, Gichin Funakoshi of Okinawa wrote, "The purpose of Karate lies not in defeat or victory, but in perfection of its participants".

Traditional Karate is very different. It is about perfecting oneself and as stated by Chojun Miyagi, it is also about "... training oneself to be able to overcome an opponent with a single technique". This is why those who train at the Seiyo No Shorin-Ryu Karate Kobudo Kai hombu in Mesa, Arizona, are taught to develop maximum focus and work towards a skill of a one-punch knockout: not a knockout in a ring or cage, but a knockout that may save your life during an aggressive attack on the street. If a person has to use more than one technique in self-defense, they stand to lose the battle and possibly their life.

Gichin Funakoshi, pencil sketch by
Soke Hausel

By definition, a martial art requires not only martial combat technique, but also esoteric value to guide a martial artist along an ethical and moral path. Think about it for a second. How many politicians are you aware that train in traditional martial arts? 

But traditional martial and politics are antipathetic towards one another. Traditional martial arts requires honesty, ethics and morals. Politics requires a broken polygraph, which is why politicians are rarely seen in a traditional martial arts dojo.

'Okinawan sunrise', pencil sketch bo Soke Hausel