FEATURED AUTHOR
SENSEI MIKE REEVES
 A practitioner of martial arts for more than 30 years,
Sensei Mike Reeves chose long ago to place particular emphasis
on breaking―tamishiwara in Japanese―because
of the endeavor’s symbiotic requirements of great
mental strength and raw physical power. Today, as a four-time
Guinness-certified world record holder in breaking and
nine-time International Sport Karate Association World
Breaking Champion, Sensei Reeves is arguably the world’s
foremost authority on martial arts-style breaking. A 7th
degree black belt in the Isshinryu style of karate, he
holds the world record for most wood boards broken in 60
seconds—an astounding 415.
Although some in the martial arts community tend to dismiss breaking
as being a bit “gimmicky,” Sensei Reeves’ position is
that those people remain ignorant of the historical significance
of breaking in the martial arts culture. The origins of
breaking go back to the very inception of martial arts,
when subjugated peoples of the Far East were forced to
rely solely on their bare hands and feet for self-defense
when private ownership of weapons was outlawed by regimes
fearful of popular uprisings. Additionally, hundreds of years ago the
armies of many Asian nation-states relied heavily on breaking as a means
to enhance their soldiers’ ability
to penetrate the wooden armor worn by opposing forces.
In short, the practice of breaking has been used for centuries
to both develop natural weapons (i.e., bare hands and
feet) and serve as a test of
that development.
It was from this historical perspective that Sensei Reeves chose to embrace
his specialty, and so while he continues to enjoy the challenges
associated with competitive breaking, he is also highly
interested in the practical
applications of breaking and natural weapons development. Sensei
Reeves is interested in seeing breaking skills realized
by “regular
folks” so that they may be better prepared to defend themselves
and their loved ones should the need to do so ever arise.
 It was with that goal in mind that Sensei Reeves, along with coauthor
Bob Yetman, created the book Power Breaking, released
by Paladin Press in January 2004. A straightforward, authoritative
manual, it differs from previously released books on the subject by gearing
the instruction to the person who has little to no formal training in
classical martial arts.
While the project was still in its planning stages, it became clear that
a companion video would be a natural complement to a book
that deals with such a dynamic pursuit. Thus, Power
Breaking for Sport and
Self-Defense was born. The video contains detailed instruction
on basic breaking, hand conditioning, and street applications
of the demonstrated breaks, as well as some bonus footage
of Sensei Reeves destroying towers of concrete and stacks
of boards. From the outset, it was Sensei Reeves’ firm
desire to produce a video that would serve as a solid,
usable guide to assist viewers in the pursuit of natural
weapons development, and he believes that goal has been
achieved with Power
Breaking for Sport and Self-Defense.
 As
much as Sensei Reeves continues to enjoy breaking and practicing the arts
he loves so dearly, he derives equal gratification from serving as a hands-on
teacher to others who are willing to work hard and persevere in their
drive to become champion breakers and martial artists. Sensei Reeves has
relished his role as a martial arts instructor for decades and currently
runs a well-known karate school in the Orlando, Florida,
suburb of Apopka. It is not easy to be a student of someone
like Sensei Reeves, who applies the same exacting standards
to his karate charges as he does to himself. Although he recognizes that
not everyone will become a world champion breaker or fighter, he believes
there is no excuse for not making a champion-like effort in one’s
training. His belt tests are famous (or, rather, infamous) to
those who have endured them. In addition to technical
proficiency at the requisite martial arts skills, Sensei
Reeves demands a high level of physical conditioning and
all-around toughness from his belt candidates—and
he tests those characteristics thoroughly. When it comes
to developing martial artists, Sensei Reeves is strictly “old school.” He
believes such an approach is always in the best interests
of the student; not only do his students appreciate that
the belts they receive are genuinely earned,
but they gain the confidence that comes with knowing that
they can readily utilize their martial art
to defend themselves on the street should that become necessary.
In addition to his work as the ranking in-house karate instructor at
his school, Sensei Reeves is constantly in demand nationally
as an instructor, trainer, and speaker. His celebrity
pupils include Cincinnati Reds shortstop Felipe Lopez, former Carolina
Panthers running back Marquette Smith, and rock guitar legend Pat Travers.
He also appears regularly in front of packed stadiums and arenas to demonstrate
his unique skills and frequently speaks to corporations about how to forge
greater mental toughness and resolve among employees.
A growing media presence, Sensei Reeves is regularly seen on the ESPN
family of networks’ broadcasts and rebroadcasts of the highly rated
International Sport Karate Association’s U.S. Open/World Championships
and has been featured on such diverse television programs
as Ripley’s
Believe It or Not! and the Spanish-language Sabado Gigante.
He recently completed shooting a featured role in a Hollywood
film starring Pat Morita, who received an Oscar nomination
for his role in The Karate
Kid.
In spite of the demands that go along with Sensei Reeves’ notoriety,
his first love will always remain helping others become
proficient breakers and skilled practitioners of self-defense.
To that end, he is already in the early planning stages
for writing additional instructional manuals on breaking and general self-defense.
His book on combat conditioning (working title “Ultimate Combat
Conditioning for the Street Warrior”)
is scheduled for release under the Paladin banner in January
2005, and he is enthusiastic about the prospect of collaborating
with Paladin in the coming years to continue bringing high-quality,
hard-core breaking and self-defense instruction to the public.
Q & A
Paladin: Tell us about how you teach your students
to apply breaking skills—involving
strikes against static targets in a structured setting—to the more
dynamic, unpredictable nature of self-defense on the street.
MR:
The thing to remember about the application of breaking
to the street is that what you are applying is the ability
to strike with great force, the kind of force required
to smash through boards and concrete. Accordingly, the
work to develop breaking-level capabilities entails long,
arduous periods of hand conditioning and training against boards and concrete.
Then, if and when you must strike to defend yourself on the street, you
are already capable of unleashing your blow with a force and resiliency
that is much greater than that developed by working, say,
a canvas heavy bag.
Paladin: What is the single most important advantage that your students have
if and when they should ever have to fight for real?
MR:
It is difficult to come up with a single attribute that
is more important than any others, because there are so
many important components to being a competent practitioner
of self-defense. I think that for my students,
the answer lies in the benefits of the grueling training
I put them through. We spar constantly, and we place great
emphasis on physical conditioning. We train, train, and
train some more. I never cease to be amazed at the poor
physical condition that I sometimes observe in other martial
artists and supposed experts at self-defense. The simple fact is that
I will always bet on the fighter who possesses greater resiliency and
physical toughness over the one who may have an advantage in technical
proficiency but lacks true combat-ready conditioning.
Paladin: Do you need to have natural size and strength to succeed in
breaking? In other words, are breakers born or developed?
MR:
There are two answers to your question, and they are the
same two answers that you would probably receive if you asked
these questions about swimming or running. To become a world championship breaker,
it’s probably fair to say that there has to be some measure of inherent
talent—perhaps a threshold for pain that is higher than average
or a natural ability to focus that escapes most people.
However, anyone who is willing to spend some time regularly
working on natural weapons conditioning and practicing breaking can indeed
develop significant breaking capabilities. The issue, then, becomes one
of adherence to training: are you willing to regularly train to get good
at this or not?
Paladin: An important element of your breaking and
self-defense programs is exterior conditioning, or toughening
vital areas of the skin. You don’t
find this in most other training regimens. Is it really
that important and, if so, why? How is it accomplished?
MR:
Conditioning the outer surface of the body to make it more
impervious to pain and injury is something that remains amazingly
underaddressed in the self-defense arena. We obviously know
that your contact weapon in unarmed combat, as well as in
breaking, is a specific part of your body. It only makes
sense, then, to train that contact point in such a way that
the level of pain and injury you will experience as a result
of executing a strike is going to be as minimal as possible.
The short answer to how it is accomplished is by simply exposing
that body part to repeated strikes against a surface that is harder than
itself. Over time, the nerves in that area begin to deaden, and the skin
and underlying tissue harden. Having said that, it should be obvious
that not every part of the body lends itself to such conditioning.
For example, head breaks are popular in competitive breaking,
but the head is hardly a good candidate for this kind of conditioning.
Paladin: In your book and video you stress the importance
of mental conditioning and physical conditioning. Is one more important
than the other when it comes to breaking?
MR: Successful breaking
is the result of a highly integrated symbiosis between the
two. When I prepare to smash through a stack of concrete
blocks, I know two things: I have spent many hours preparing
my body for the task, and I will be able—for the few seconds preceding
the break as well as for the split second it will take to
actually complete the break from the moment of impact—to channel
all of my mental energies into the task at hand. I would love to
tell you that one is more important than the other, but that
would suggest that a superiority in one area can compensate for a deficiency
in the other, and that’s
not the case, at least not at the world championship level.
Paladin: What are some of the essential elements of mental conditioning?
MR:
Mental conditioning as it applies to breaking an inanimate
object involves several components, including visualization
and pure focus. Visualization as
a technique involves “seeing” yourself complete the break
as you’re actually doing it. Visualization is not as important
in the breaking of a single wood board, but it becomes
very important when preparing for much more difficult breaks.
One of the keys to effective visualization is to have already
completed at least a few breaks, because it is the remembrance
of those successes that helps you visualize your success
in your upcoming, more challenging effort. Focus addresses
the issue of being able, for a very brief period, to completely
block out any thoughts of the other things going on in
your life—the challenges
of your job, marital woes, problems with a child, even
whether you have to go the bathroom at that moment—so that every
last bit of your mind is thinking about one thing: the
break. It is not easy to focus with that sort of single-mindedness;
it takes a great deal of practice.
Paladin: You train SWAT and other law enforcement personnel
as well as martial artists. How can officers benefit from your training?
MR:
In the same way that anyone else can benefit from it. By
being better equipped to strike a criminal with a much
greater degree of impact, the police officer can enhance
his own survivability (as well as his chances of capturing his prey).
Of course, in the case of these good people, the training is of even greater
relevance, since the likelihood that they will have to employ it in defense
of their own lives is much greater than the likelihood that the civilian
will have to do so.
Paladin: You have also worked as a bodyguard for various celebrities. How
did you like that?
MR: Being a bodyguard is a lot like
being a private detective, as I understand that job to
be: there is not much action. We’re all used to seeing
these occupations portrayed very glamorously on the silver
screen, but it’s not really that way. Still, you get to meet very
interesting people. I guess the truth is, though, that
if a lot of these celebrities did not have any kind of
visible security detail in place, there would be all sorts
of problems popping up for them. Ultimately, bodyguards
act as deterrents, because the likelihood that a citizen
is going to want to tangle with a professional bodyguard is very slim.
Still, you can never completely dismiss the possibility of that happening,
which is why the smart person seeking to hire a personal protection specialist
will retain one with solid skills.
Paladin: The wooden armor worn by Asian armies of the past is a little-known
aspect of the roots of martial art breaking. Where did you learn about
this?
MR: As a serious practitioner of the martial arts
for more than 30 years and one who is fortunate to have
been able to train under the great masters of my style,
Isshinryu, I’ve
had ample opportunity and reason to study the roots of
martial arts in general and breaking in particular. There
are many examples in Asian military history of the widespread reliance
by armies and warrior societies on natural weapons conditioning. Consider
the Hwarang Do, a 7th-century warrior society that existed in what we
now call Korea, whose battles with warriors of rival kingdoms included
the well-known use of their breaking skills to penetrate the armor of
their foes.
 Paladin: Tell us about your Guinness World Record breaks. How did Guinness
verify your accomplishment?
MR: The people at Guinness
use different methods to certify their world records. One
way is by having an actual representative of Guinness on
hand to observe the event. An acceptable substitute to
the Guinness folks, and the one that has been used to certify
my world records, is to have two sworn police officers
on hand to act as certifiers of the integrity of the world
record effort, as well as to provide both video and still photographic
evidence of the world record-setting event. From there, a package is assembled
and submitted to Guinness for meticulous review. Assuming it all checks
out, the world record is officially granted. The nice thing about my situation
is that because my world record attempts have all been so well publicized
and closely covered by a wide variety of media outlets, as well as cocertified
by other sanctioning bodies, there’s never been
even a hint of a question as to the records’ legitimacy.
Paladin: Rumor has it that you will appear on the David Letterman show.
Is this still going to happen?
MR: As with all such things,
itineraries and plans are constantly in flux. My manager
is currently negotiating proposed late-night talk show
appearances. (It’s
nice having a manager because I am able to let him worry
about those things, and I am left to concentrate on what
I do best.) I can tell
you that I will be appearing shortly on Fox Sports’ Best Damn
Sports Show Period with
Tom Arnold, as well as the WB’s Steve Harvey’s Big Time.
Beyond that, FHM magazine recently completed a feature piece
on me that will appear in the October issue, I am in negotiations
with the folks at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! to attempt
another world record for broadcast on their show, and I
will appear with Pat Morita in a spoof of The Karate Kid that
will be released in theaters early next year. So I am
grateful to be able to say that my dance card is pretty
full right now.
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