The Story of Joe Perez

Sometimes the best lessons of the martial arts are not necessarily learned in class or taught by your instructor, and almost always they take years to learn. This past April I celebrated my 45th year studying the martial arts. As I look back to the first four or five years of my training I realize that Saturday’s were the most important day of the week. My regular classes were at least three days a week for at least an hour and a half each day. They were rigorous, challenging and perhaps the most enjoyable thing I’ve ever done in my life.

For 3 hours each Saturday however, after both the Judo and Karate classes were finished, there was three hours of free practice. No formal instruction, although there was always someone around to answer a question, we were free to practice what we were learning in our regular classes. It was a big treat to watch the higher grades practice on Saturday’s because it was the only time we had an opportunity to see what would come next in our training. Our classes were strictly segregated by rank, and when your class finished you weren’t permitted to stay around to watch the next class. Frankly, Sensei Pereira, as he was called at the time, chased you out the door.

Saturday’s were also one of the days that private classes took place. Usually it was one of the instructors who gave these classes to people who wanted and paid for this special attention. To be picked and used by one of the instructors as the uke during one of those private classes was a big deal. You had to be able to follow directions well, your ukemi had to be excellent, your stamina great, and your ability to withstand pain substantial. You were the instructor’s uke as he was demonstrating a technique and you were the private students uke during the course of his class. Occasionally, and I mean very occasionally, Sensei Pereira gave those classes himself. Needless to say, to be Sensei Pereira’s uke was a very big deal.

It was one Saturday in 1966, that I met Joe Perez. Joe had come to Sensei Pereira to learn Jujutsu. He was a tall, young, strong man, unremarkable and indistinguishable from the rest of us except for the fact that he had cerebral palsy. People with Joe’s type of disability have many types of problems with balance, coordination, and focus, but Joe wanted to learn. Sensei Pereira called me over to where Joe was standing and for the next six weeks I was Joe’s uke. Sensei Pereira was an excellent teacher and in some ways I felt like I was the one getting the private class. Joe worked hard and in spite of his disability made progress. He asked questions, tried very hard, and had a wonderful attitude. After a while, Joe changed his private classes to some time during the week and stopped coming on Saturday’s. I went on with my training and forgot about him, just another one of the thousands of students who passed through the Miyama Ryu system.

Joe however, did not forget and last fall I was invited to the house of an “old student” who wanted to see me. When I asked who it was, his name did not ring a bell until I walked into his apartment and saw him. His face hadn’t changed much, older as we all are, with the same smile, and the same attitude and resolve I had seen in that much younger man. Over dinner and between our stories of Shinan Pereira, Joe told me something about his remarkable life.

Joe’s father was a boxing trainer and was determined that Joe’s life would be much more than his disability. He screwed pipes along the walls of their apartment so Joe would learn to walk and tapped a rubber ball inside of Joe’s hands so he could exercise the muscles in his hands and wrists. He pushed him to lift and move and make himself strong. It all must have worked, because over Joe’s lifetime he has accomplished great things.

In 1985 he entered and completed the NYC Marathon. As a weightlifter, he competed in the 1985 US Nationals and won both Silver and Bronze medals. In the 1987 London World Games he won a silver medal. In the Barcelona games of 1992 he was awarded a Bronze medal and he competed for and was given a place on the team going to the 1992 Seoul Olympic Games. Along the way he married, held a regular job, and lived a remarkably regular life. Throughout his life Joe has lived well above his disability and constantly pushed himself to achieve more.

With all of this, he never forgot his time in Miyama Ryu. At dinner that night he asked me to help train him again, and I agreed. As he’s aged his disabilities have made some things more challenging but Joe continues to work with the same desire as he did as a young man. He is focused and determined and I have every confidence he will achieve whatever goal he sets for himself. Proficiency in the martial arts first requires an understanding of one’s own body and the finding of one’s own center. It is only in this way that balance can be understood and without an understanding of balance there is no martial art. Joe understands his body as well as anyone I’ve ever seen and is well on his way to developing a real center. This is a great accomplishment for any student of the martial arts, let alone one so physically challenged. Joe’s story is one that should inspire all of us. It is a story of constant curiosity and learning, a story that demonstrates what can be achieved through will and determination. It is a story of shaping your own life and pushing yourself to the absolute limit. I am happy to be able to speak about a very small part of that story, one that is still being written and from which there is much to be learned.

The Nature of Kuzushi

For most of us balance is not an issue. We wake up in the morning, role out of bed, put our feet on the floor, lift our bodies up and begin to walk. If we are healthy and our inner ear is functioning properly, our bodies internal gyroscope finds our center of gravity which gives us our sense of balance, our muscles and limbs find their coordination and strength and we proceed to move and walk an continue with our daily activities.

While we take our sense of balance for granted, our bodily immediately knows and feels when it is out of balance and in danger of falling. It tries to transmit this information to us almost simultaneously and if successful, we are able to reorient ourselves, compensate and take some preventive measures, like taking an extra step or grabbing on to something or some one, before we actually fall. Our ability to stand erect and remain balanced is one of the true gifts of our anthropological evolution. There is however a moment, a second, when we, or our bodies are not really sure if we can compensate, if there is enough time to compensate or how to compensate for being unbalanced. It is that moment, when the body is unsure of what to do, when it is vulnerable, that we wish to exploit.

When we stand and walk naturally we are centered and in balance. Our bodies maintain this balance through a complicated series of communications between our eyes, ears, limbs, and brain. If the interplay between the organs is interrupted for even a moment the brain must relay this information back to our muscle and skeletal system in order for it to make the necessary adjustments, lest we loose our balance and fall.

To attack or be attacked requires the body to make multiple adjustments to this, both delicate and sophisticated system, in order to maintain our strength, center of gravity and balance. The breaking of our opponents or attackers center and thus his balance while maintaining our own is the essence of kuzushi. The act of breaking an opponents balance, their equilibrium, to take or replace their center of gravity, negates their strength while enhancing our own and renders their movement or attack futile.

The body is quite sensitive to this feeling of unbalance and will react swiftly to rectify itself, so any attempt to unbalance must be done swiftly and without notice. When we are pushed or grabbed our first instinct is to push and grab back. In many instances these reactions give our attackers bodies the information they need to readjust their center of gravity, their balance and remain strong. When we are punched, or attacked with a weapon, the way in which we try to block or try to stop the attack, telegraphs the same information and is counter productive to our defense.

The creation of unbalance and lose of center must be subtle and imperceptible to the attacker. Any attempt at readjustment once the movement begins must create pain and further unbalance and negate or absorb the attackers momentum. The movement should be over before it begins. The Kuzushi of an attacker can be felt by degrees within a circle or inches on the floor. To disrupt it requires an understanding of both motion and movement, what creates weakness and what creates strength, how to create an undisturbed line of force, position and posture which will allow you to counter balance an attack and apply your desired technique.

A Symbol of MiYama Ryu JuJutsu

In 1965, shortly after I began taking classes in MiYama Ryu Jujutsu, then Professor Pereira (He was Sensei or Professor Pereira from the opening of the school in 1960 until 1973 when he became Shinan) asked my father to help him remake a ring that he wore and that come into disrepair. My father was a jeweler and a model maker and so about a month later, he returned a brand new model of that ring to the Professor, as he liked to be called and charged him $35.00. I still have the model for that original ring, a man’s gold black enameled signet ring with the Japanese kanji for the word “Bushi” or samurai cut into the center of the ring. That ring became a very important symbol in the history of Mi Yama Ryu, because Shinan allowed only those students that achieved a Black Belt in Mi Yama Ryu JuJutsu to purchase and wear that ring. Over the years my father made many rings and pendants for students of Mi Yama Ryu JuJutsu, and after my father’s retirement, so have I.

Throughout the years I have come to appreciate the beauty and symmetry of Japanese calligraphy and have made and designed many different kinds of jewelry using the various ways of writing Japanese kanji. Because a single kanji may be used to write one or more different words, each word, a combination of several kanji tell a story or invoke an image to the reader. Even the way the letter or kanji is written can evoke and sense of strength or boldness, softness or continuity.

The making of jewelry is actually not that different and uses many of the skills that one learns through their study of the martial arts. It takes a good deal of time to learn the physical skills needed in the manufacture of a piece of jewelry. How to use and handle the tools you need, to control them in your hands and guide them to do what you wish them to do is not so unlike learning how to use any weapon a sword or a jo for example. Your ability to perfect these physical skills requires more than time, it requires patience and focus, the staying power needed to learn a new technique or a new way of moving. Persistence and repetition make a better jeweler as they do a better martial artist

Having learned these skills over time and with the help a good teacher you eventually begin to feel energized by new projects, new designs or in the case of martial arts new challenges and new techniques. You begin to stretch your skills to adapt them to these new challenges and you build on the skills you have already learned to create more intricate designs, to learn higher level techniques. As a jeweler you work more efficiently, you can begin to visualize your designs long before they are ever completed, as martial artists our movements become more polished more subtle. Our technique has gotten better.

While we all strive to become the best at what we do, and as perfection is not truly possible, I have found that my two “arts”, that of MiYama Ryu JuJutsu and the art of making and designing jewelry, have complemented each other and the skills learned in each discipline has enhanced my ability to practice and learn the other. For that I will eternally be grateful to my father, who was the best of teachers and to Shinan Pereira who comes in a really close second.

Promotion Procedures Of MiYama Ryu Jujutsu

Fire And Passion Of MiYama Ryu Jujutsu

MIYAMA RYU JUJUTSU: SELF-DEFENSE OF THE FUTURE?

MIYAMA RYU JUJUTSU
SELF-DEFENSE OF THE FUTURE? - By John Lewis

The number of theories proposed to explain the anatomy of human character are as numerous as the years which have taken Man to ask such a question. Irrespective of personal persuasions as to his genesis and development, conflict stand's as the fabric upon which history was woven. It is equally clear that when the mask of civilization is torn from man's face by hatred, frustration, despair or stupidity the expression that remains is violence. As such for centuries countless individuals have devoted their minds and bodies in pursuing and devising methods to enable man to protect himself from man. They sought to understand a world where violence was, as it remains today, man's most predictable expression of his temperament. Each perceived the reality of man's violent way. However, a few recognized that, if tempered by a code of conduct, this potentially destructive force could be channeled into socially beneficial pursuits. One significant result, precipitated by attempts to codify violent behavior, was the emergence of the Martial Arts. Each "art" possessed the truly individual flavor of its creator's experience, thought, ability and bias for explaining the nature of violence and the perfection of violent action.

A contemporary heir of this legacy, one who has dedicated a lifetime to the study, contemplation and communication of his knowledge to others, is to be found at Tremont and Third Avenue’s in the Bronx, New York. Here, at his dojo, which stands like an enclave, Shinan Antonio Pereira perpetuates the Martial Arts. This man like his "art" is a most interesting study in contrasts. His formal training spans over four decades and has carried him from the streets of the Bronx to such sequestered lands as the Philippine Islands, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. More intriguing than these places are the men who have been his mentors. Japanese "masters", American soldiers, "Aussie' commandos and savage Moro warriors have in varying degrees shaped his thought. Notwithstanding his rather unorthodox background in the fighting arts, he has attained an impressive list of documented credentials in Ju-Jutsu, Judo, Aikido, Jodo and less familiar systems. Indeed, it would not be excessive to state that these experiences were gained at a cost few, but the most ardent practitioners of the arts, could appreciate. This knowledge, aided by his uncanny ability for near total recall, was synthesized to find incorporation in a form (circa 1960) which he referred to as MIYAMA RYU JUJUTSU---THE SCHOOL OF THREE MOUNTAINS.

An analysis of the historical literature, pertaining to the fighting arts, reveals that it would be unreasonable to assume the existence of any system other than JuJutsu which holds a superior claim to the designation of "focal" or "principal" Martial Art. JuJutsu is a collective term used to identify and define several dissimilar systems of hand-to-hand combat. Such diverse techniques as throwing, choking, punching and kicking, joint and bone locking and so on were employed within its framework. L1kewise, these techniques were adapted to the use of several varieties of edged or bludgeon type weapons. Whereas Judo and Karate have matured, in stature and visibility, to become celebrities throughout the world, JuJutsu enjoys no such reputation. Unlike these arts, JuJutsu is not organized into large international federations nor does it possess contest or sportive elements. Finally, JuJutsu's punishing physical rigors and lack of emphasis on rank, would not realistically attract popular support. However, these conditions are not viable indicators of the objective worth which the fighting art has for self defense purposes.

Shinan Pereira's *MiYama Ryu (style of) JuJutsu* is as unique as the man himself. Assuming a single word was required to define his system, the most accurate synonym would be "eclectic". That is a specific approach which brings together several different theoretical positions to formulate a single composite theory. MiYama Ryu has derived its techniques from five basic theoretical positions of self defense: classical JuJutsu, Judo, Karate, Aikido and what might be defined as Free¬style western street fighting. Its heritage is ancient and modern, a legitimate offspring whose parentage is Oriental and Occidental. Shinan Pereira's cognizance into the essence of personal combat, consummated this most unlikely of marriages. Although each culture possesses its own characteristic approach to the dynamics of violence, he understood that no single method could hope to keep pace with the rapid changes in the environment, social conditions or the technology of weapons. His awareness of the shape of violence in the past, perception of it in the present and contemplation of it in the future are the threads which bind MiYama Ryu into a viable force. Thusly, the system was fashioned into a style of self defense which respects the lessons of the past and when fused to those of the present possessed the flexibility to meet exigencies of the future.

Possibly, the most unique aspect of this art is its commitment to the reality that is self defense. A realization based on the trilogy of confrontation: adversary, art and defender. Each technique studied and rehearsed on the mat has been subject to and survived "natural selection" by the sternest of arbiters---the street! This approach requires a meticulous attention to the detailed execution of every self defense tactic, a most noteworthy hallmark of Shinan Pereira's teaching style. His gospel, practice I. is fundamental in preparing the student to contend with urban violence. The tyranny of practice is exemplified in his demand for perfection from the student, if not in actual execution, at least in spirited fierceness against the opponent. Such resolution is often misconstrued by the casual observer as being fanatical. Nevertheless, few could deny that Shinan Pereira’s grueling brand of physical and mental preparation pays off 1n the highest practical util1ty. This discipline, excruciatingly exacted 1n the dojo, has often been decisive when a student has been faced with the actual prospect of defending his person against another.

Otherwise it is doubtful that one could account for the disproportionally large number of police officers found to be members of the Tremont School.

The Tremont School of Judo, Karate and JuJutsu was established in 1960. During the years it has been in operation over 20,000 men, women and children of all ages have received training in the Martial Arts. Currently, there are over 70 registered Black Belt members of Tremont. Today, the Tremont School enjoys the reputation of being the oldest and largest institution of its kind in the greater New York metropolitan area.

Shinan Pereira is, at times, judged by his detractors to be petulant and uncompromising; to his students he is an unrelentless taskmaster, yet held in what could only be described as reverence. Possibly, one explanation for such a divergence of opinion, even among his closest colleagues, is that he remains surprisingly aloof from those devices of commercialism and excessive self aggrandizement which have plagued so many of his contemporaries. Whatever the reason, one judgment is surely correct that is: his art and he are like no other.

Appointment Of Shihan Lewis Palzer as Dai Shihan Of MiYama Ryu Jujutsu By Soke Anthony Pereira Jr.

I have …………… appointed Shihan Lewis Palzer BB#24 as the new Dai Shihan of the Ryu. Shihan Palzer has been involved in the Mi Yama Ryu system for over 40 years and meets all the requirements set forth by the Shinan for this position. He was trusted and respected by my father and he has my full faith and confidence. I give him my best wishes and believe he will work tirelessly to grow and maintain the standards of Mi Yama Ryu.

In the Spirit of Miyama Ryu,
Anthony Pereira Jr. Soke
February 22,2006

Endorsement Of Dai Shihan Lewis Palzer By Roy Goldberg Shingen, Daito Ryu Kodo Kai Aiki JuJutsu

Lewis Palzer is the most technically skilled Miyama Ryu practitioner and teacher of this eclectic art originated by Antonio Pereira Shinan. Lewis is one of Pereira Shinan’s senior most students and his 24th Black Belt. His depth and understanding of this art could only be found in the late Shinan himself. I recommend any practitioner of Miyama Ryu or individuals interested in this combat Jujutsu art to seek out this excellent practioner.

Roy Goldberg Shingen

Daito Ryu Kodo Kai East Coast Representative

Senior Student of Kiyama Shihan

Antonio Pereira - The Maestro Of Motion