A superfoot adventure

The 22nd of October 2013 I met one of my heroes and idols in martial arts and life as well. He was the former middleweight champion of Full Contact Karate on the magic night 14th of September 1974 with his friend Joe Lewis (Former Heavyweight champion).

The man is Bill Wallace or better known as Superfoot. But let's start from the beginning....

After a bad leg injury I found out the story of a famous and great american karate champion named Bill Wallace. He won all the tournaments he joined in the sixities, he was a wrestler, a judo player and finally a karateka. He started training during his military service but a torn ligament in the right knee caused him to give up judo. As a karateka he won all the titles thanks to his amazing flexibility, speed and accuracy. Especially with his left leg, the fastest in the world. Not being totally satisfied of karate tournaments " no contact"rules he was in the first american team during the first karate contact competition. He obviously won and manteined his title until 1980, when retired from competitions.

As soon as I discovred his story and his awesome fighting strategy I bought his books and started apllying his advices in my karate training. In 2013 I looked for "bill wallace seminar" and I found an event in England, so I decided to join the event and to attend the seminar. With my girlfriend on the 20th of October I flew to London and 2 days later in Chatham, Kent, I met Bill. He was very funny and easygoing asking me a lot about me and Italy. I was the first italian to attend one of his seminars in the last 25 years. I asked him a lot too about his experience in karate and fights. The seminar was awesome, I got a bunch of advices and concepts about stretching and kicking and fighting as well.

This is probably one of the best seminar I have ever attended.

At the end I got a couple of photos with Bill and his signature in his book. He is amazing and very inspiring; 68 year old but still faster than the majority of young karateka. I learnt a lot about his method and his person, that's why I hope to meet him again soon; I'm tryng to bring him back again one more time.

After the seminar we went out for dinner with him and few other people, we spent a lovely evening and I had the honour to sit beside one of the most famous karateka and champions of all time. He is more humble than famous I think, that's why he is one of the best example of the "Do" in martial arts and life. Our convesation about karate, sport and life will be precious for me for the rest of my life.