John Bell

"We live in a 'Microwave Society.' Everything’s got to happen real quick, but that’s not the way in martial arts. Getting a black belt is an opportunity to start learning again."
John Bell

“So many people were calling themselves masters at a tournament I attended last year, I felt like I was back on the plantation during slavery times,” John Bell exclaims. “But it all comes out in the wash. If you’re really a true master, someone locally or nationally will know about you.”

Plenty of people recall the way, Bell burned up the martial arts tournament fight scene back in the early 70’s reaching 7th highest in the world ranking in the PKA Heavyweight Division. One of Bell’s many accomplishments that led Bob Wall to honor him recently with a nomination to Living Legends of Martial Arts.

“I beat the number one and number two guys in back to back fights at The Four Seasons Hotel, Las Vegas in 1973. Until you complete on a national level, you’re always going to wonder how your skills match up. Fortunately, the guys I trained with were excellent martial artists. Some more skilled than I,” Bell explains.

In the dojos he’s run, Bell has always made it a point to seek out the most renowned individuals to teach particular aspects of technique so students could learn from the best.

“Some of people who taught me how to improve my kicks were a hundred percent better than me so I would invite them to teach a class on kicking at my school. I ran into a number of these guys for the first time in 30 years at the Jerry Piddington Roast in Charlotte, North Carolina. I’d like to thank Rick and Randy Smith for the great job they did on that,” he states.

Bell indicates his instructors had profound effects on his martial arts career. He began formal instruction in Cleveland, Ohio with Al Gene Caruliai in the Kajukenpo style attaining a black belt in 1972. Developed in Hawaii where Caruliai came from, the style places considerable emphasis on completing moves with a throw or sweep, which helped ease Bell’s transition to Kodokan Judo. Under instructor David Praim, Bell did additional training at the Karate Institutes’ sister school in Detroit alongside students Everett “Monsterman” Eddy, Johnny Lee, Rob “Dragon Hogan, Ken Dallas and Mike Sullivan.

Bell also achieved notable tournament success in kata.

“Throughout one year, I met with Master Hidy Ochiai at different tournaments to learn a single kata from him. He’d show me one part in Texas then another in Indiana, another in Ohio until I had learned all of the form. Then came the hard part. I had to spend many hours repeating it to make sure it was right. That’s the art of martial arts. Too many people today are in it for promotion,” Bell says.

Now a teacher at the Diagnostic Facility for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Bell indicates his philosophy of education is the same as that of martial arts, namely that “there’s always a different way to teach people if they don't understand what you are trying to convey to them.” His penchant for using others to help teach his students still applies.

“I’m not up on the language young people use so if I can get one of their peers to explain to them, all the better. Like in martial arts though, when things become difficult, they don’t want to take those extra steps needed to be successful. They lack discipline and perseverance to transcend to the next level of learning,” Bell states.

These stalwart traits are what he ascribes as the hallmarks of a Golden Age of martial arts tournaments back in the early 70’s. The music was extreme, the karate even more so. He attributes the greater intensity of fights in that era to the fact that many of the combatants had come back from Vietnam.

“These guys had fought in combat situations, so the matches were very, very intense. Sometimes they’d call getting knocked out light contact if the competitor could continue to fight,. At big tournaments, the attitude was if you’re good enough to be there, you can handle the heat,” he explains.

Bell clearly misses the “honor, discipline and loyalty” of that bygone era. One way he’s found to get that feeling back is through WorldBlackBelt’s America in Defense (AID) program. Staffed by volunteer instructors, AID offers a daylong program in awareness and self-defense to airline personnel.

“Flight attendants won’t be Bruce Lee in a day, but they’ll know what’s available to them. One of the people who took the course helped disarm the shoe bomber. Another identified four of the highjackers as being on an earlier flight. They were making a dry run and kept getting up to use the restrooms and talk on cell phones,” he says.

Bell has been moved by the emotional response AID students in Washington D.C. have had to the mention of 9/11. Some had known people aboard the planes that crashed into the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania. Whether coworkers or friends, it was like loosing family.

“I have learned that a single word can be more devastating than injury, than being shot or stabbed. Just saying 9/11 caused some people to break down,” he relates.

His long time friend and fellow martial artist George Baker introduced Bell to AID. He had taught police officers self-defense and weapons tactics so Bell was familiar with that type of training. His own background as a pilot acted as a further inducement.

“There was an airport behind my house in Hanover, Pa. I started taking flying lessons, and my background in martial arts gave me discipline, kept me alert, and helped me out as a pilot. You only need to hear a plane engine sputter once to pay attention. When it happened to me, during a winter flight, I kept my head, turned on the carburetor heat and started looking for a place to land if the situation turned into an emergency, which thankfully it didn’t, “ he recalls.

Between his stints as a martial arts instructor and current work in corrections, Bell did bodyguard work for " The Temptations" and celebrities and other musical groups. He attributes enjoying variety in his life to being born in Japan, and raised in Germany and various U.S. bases as a military brat. He’s adept at finding parallels to his various careers.

“AID is all about being safe, and martial arts is like an insurance policy. You may not need it, but it’s always good to know it’s there,” he states.

If you would like to contact John Bell, you may do so at johnbell@worlblackbelt.com

By: Greg Story gregstory@worlblackbelt.com