Tales of the Incredible Hoke Robertson

The other day while performing reconstructive hand surgery on an elephant trainer I was reminded of the time I was in the World Championship Chi Sao finals held in Albania. Chi Sao as most of your know is the Chinese Wing Chung Gung Fu method known as "sticky hands" and made famous by my good friend Bruce Lee. Basically, the two trainees or opponents stand face to face and do arm and hand techniques to immobilize their opponents arm and hand movements while trying to strike the opponent. Seeing a competition between experts is a blur of movements as arms and hands block, grab, pull, push and strike. It is the ultimate in hand-eye coordination. The year was 1962. I had made it through my many matches without too much difficulty due in large part to my near constant training with Bruce. The only match that gave me any real trouble was the quarter-final with Soo Kweek of Korea, quite possibly the fastest human (hand speed) the world has ever seen. However, Bruce and I noticed that he favored his right side and so I did a double feint, or “tre-koo” move and it was over almost before it began.

In the final I was matched against the Albanian legend, Turac Beznaeic known as the "Spider-man." Turac had a tough life being born with three fully functional arms. Of course this made his childhood difficult and prevented him from being a normal person until he discovered Wing Chun Gung Fu's sticky-hands. He took to it like a Lapp to a reindeer. Anyway, Turac's third arm gave him no small advantage in Chi Sao, and he quickly rose to the pinnacle of the sport; seemingly unbeatable. When he and I met, he had won the past 13 World Championships. Well, knowing I had my work cut out for me Bruce and I decided that I would need to use one leg to help counteract Turac's third arm. Turac was stunned when I began to counter his arm movements with my legs and I saw the cloud of doubt creep into his normal confidence. Cameras recording the event were near useless as the speed of our movements was faster than the shutter speed of any commercial camera at the time. At one point there was a soft low rumble that some say was the sound of our arms breaking the sound barrier. Eventually my better stamina prevailed and as my left foot slapped his right cheek the ref yelled "ipong" which means "point." The world was stunned at my victory and Bruce and I felt very satisfied that the new martial arts system we were working on was worthy. Thus was created Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do. As amazing as that experience was, it pales in comparison to the following year's European Ballroom Dancing competition when Turoc's three-legged sister and I were a team. Man, could that girl move! HOKE ROBERTSON