Interview with Igor Asselbergs, Wado-ryu stylist from Amsterdam, the Netherlands

By Ben Haryo

When someone mentioned the Netherlands, most people associate it with the windmills, the Tulip flower, the Hopjes candies, Sinter Klaas (the Dutch version of Santa Claus), and the fact that some area of Holland are located below sea level. If not for the dikes and dams that our smart Dutch friends has constructed so many centuries ago, the Netherlands will be a much smaller place than it is today.

However, the Netherlands is also an European country where we could meet many people who likes martial arts. Many prominent martial artist came from this country, such as Pancrase champion Bas Rutten, K-1 fighter Peter Aerts and Ernesto Hoost, Kickboxing legend Rob Kaman, Sambo champion Chris Doelman, and off course Olympic Judo champions Willem Ruska and Anton Geesink. There is no doubt that Eastern martial arts has found a home in the Netherlands, and I am sure they will be more champions and legends from this country in the future.

The Netherlands is also a place where Wado-ryu is one of the more famous Karate styles around. No less than Wado giants such Mr. Suzuki Tatsuo (WIKF founder) and the late Mr. Kono Teruo have taught classes here. And to this day there are many Wado black belts, both Japanese and non-Japanese, who keep the Wado-flame alive in the land of the Tulips.

While hanging out in the Wado e-group (wadokarate@yahoogroups.com) many years ago, I met Igor Asselbergs, a Wado-Ka from Amsterdam who shares some similarities with yours truly. First, we both have developed a liking to the Apple Macintosh, however he still uses it, while I have to lead a double life of WinTel machine for work, and Macintosh only for occasional fun and nostalgia. Secondly, we were both Taekwondo stylists before switching to Wado. Thirdly, we are very active in the Internet, and thus letting us to share our jokes, anecdotes and training tips. Now the GBI Club Website is very proud to present to you our interview with Igor. Onwards!

1. Your country have a long history of being the birthplace of martial artists. We know of Willem Ruska, Anton Geesink, Thom Harinck, Rob Kaman, Bass Rutten, Peter Aerts and many others. Such a small country and yet so many good martial artists. Could you tell us a little bit about the present growth of Japanese martial arts in your country?

You forgot the real pioneer in the field: Jon Bluming. He was the first (or at least one of the first) to introduce karate into Europe. The Japanese still speak highly of him. He left a lasting impression in Europe as well as in Japan. As for present growth....It's hard to tell, there's no overall organisation for all martial arts. Everyone is pretty much on his own. And unfortunately that characterizes the situation in Holland: a lot of kings running their very own private kingdom.I think that in the last decade the 'soft' arts such as Aikido and traditional arts such as Kenjitsu have grown considerably. I suspect this has something to do with the emergence of the 'new age' movement which was pretty popular in the ninetees. The 'hard' arts such as karate have retained their presence, but haven't grown much. Or at least that's my impression.....

2. We heard that you were a Taekwon-Do stylist before switching to Wado. Why did you choose Wado-ryu amongst other martial arts? Was it hard for you to adapt from Taekwon-Do to Wado-ryu?

It all had to do with finding a good instructor. I was fortunate enough to have had a very able instructor in Taekwondo, Hans van de Hammen, a terrific fighter in his days. When I moved to Amsterdam I needed another intructor. I first started looking around for another TKD instructor, but most of them hardly impressed me. Then I wound up in a Kyokushinkai group. But while I did enjoy the rigor of their training, I didn't like the full contact knock-out matches that they used to participate in. Somehow all this blood on the floor didn't seem my cup of tea. So I looked further. To no avail.Until I came across a book by Hideo Muramatsu called 'Budo: background and fundamentals'. I liked the book, as it seemed to resonate with my previous training in TKD. Funny thing was: while the book was written by a Japanese, it would bring up examples that suspiciously looked like situations in Amsterdam. Could this be true? I picked up a telephone book of Amsterdam and looked for the name Muramatsu. And sure enough, there was one there. So I decided to try my luck and see if he was the writer of the book. After a bit of research I found out he had just opened his own dojo in Amsterdam. I went there to meet him. I expected an old smallish “Mr. Miyagi” type of character, dispersing Eastern wisdom as leaves in autumn. But none of that. I found a large and strong middle-aged Japanese man who grumbled something about a martial art called Wado-Ryu. I was welcome to give it a try. And so I did. Initially I didn't like the exercises in the dojo. I found his way of training quite silly, to be honest. But then he paired me up with one of his senior students, another big strong guy. This guy invited me to attack him with a meageri.

"I don't think you want that", I told him.

"Sure, come on, give me a meageri, strong and fast."

"Ok, have it your way".

I actually expected to hurt him. But since he was stupid enough to ask specifically....And so I fired a fast and strong meageri. But to my surprise I only hit empty air. The big guy was gone. He had vanished into thin air, to reappear immediately on my side. Like a ghost. And even worse: not only had he managed to avoid my attack, he was now in full control of the situation. This was my first encounter with the concept of taisabaki. I was real impressed. Never ever had I experienced anything quite like it. It blew my mind. And so I decided to stick around and take the silly exercises for granted. If sensei had asked me to stand on my head in order to learn taisabaki, I'd gladly have done it.

Switching from TKD to Wado sure took a lot of effort and patience. While most punches and kicks were pretty much similar, I had a hard time getting rid of my blocking reflexes. Trying to do it 'automatically', relying on the reflexes I had developed in the course of 12 years of TKD training, would result in hard blocking. And using my brain to do it otherwise would result in technique that was way to slow. It was real frustrating in the beginning. But I got over it and sensei awarded me a dan grade after only a few years in his dojo.

3. Your country are blessed with resident Japanese Wado teachers whom are still active, you have for example Muramatsu sensei and Ishikawa sensei. Even my country with almost 300 million people only have one teacher who studied in Japan (and that's my teacher). Could you please tell us a little bit about your Japanese Wado teachers, and other Japanese Wado teachers that you have trained with? What are your thoughts about their teaching methods when compared to the teaching methods of other martial arts you have experienced (for example Taekwon-Do)?

First of all: the Japanese have no special talent that would give them an advantage in martial arts. There are proficient and less proficient Japanese instructors just as there are proficient and less proficient 'western' instructors. But the Japanese do have the advantage of a longer history in karate. They started training with the Okinawan masters way back in the early 20th century, while we only started in earnest in the 1960-ties. So it is first and foremost experience that the Japanese have to offer us. As far as the teaching methods are concerned: I took me a while to find out, but Japanese instructors tend to not give everything away for free just like that. To receive all the information an able Japanese instructor has to offer, you generally need to spend a real long time with him and gain his trust over the course of years. He will expect you to put in a lot of time and effort. Only then you'll get to the bottom. And still then you need to wheel and deal to get what you want. "Steal his information if you have to", a friend of mine with a long time Japanese sensei once told me. "Digging for gold" is how another senior wadoka described it. And so I've noticed that some even quite senior instructors have the illusion that they have had full access to all the information. While in fact they only scratched the surface and don't even realize it.

Unfortunately: it's hard to tell if you ever got into the depths of wado, if you have no clue where the depth is.

4. Wado-ryu is known as a Karate style with Jujutsu origins. There is a bit of "controversy" about this unique heritage, because in one side we have people insisting that Wado is NOT Jujutsu at all, and in the opposing side we have people insisting that Wado IS Jujutsu, because we do have techniques and strategies derived from Jujutsu embedded in Wado. What are your thoughts about this?

I don't think I'm qualified to throw in my opinion. But fact is that Ohtsuka sensei was quite proficient in Shindo Yoshin Ryu Jujutsu before venturing into karate. And fact is also that there's a world of difference between Shindo Yoshin Ryu and Wado. Even though under the hood of wado there may be some distinct jujutsu features. And even though Shindo Yoshin Ryu has a lot to offer to a wadoka with a keen eye.

5. There are recent "academic research" which concludes that boys who took Karate tends to become more violent, more prone to "starting fights using weapons such as knife and clubs". I am very much surprised with this. I live in Indonesia, which is considered as the most violent, most dangerous and the most unsafe place in Southeast Asia. And yet, I never seen a Karate-Ka became a thug, and most thugs I have encountered doesn't know any Karate or any Budo at all. What do you think?

I have seen karateka being thugs. Though I doubt if karate made them that way. Karate is what you put into it. If you choose to use it to break people's arms, you can do so. I don't believe karate has some intrinsic feature so that it turns bad people into good. But I don't believe the opposite either: I don't think people can become bad by practising karate. Fact is that most people do learn some dicipline in karate class. They have to, else the dojo will become quite messy pretty soon.

8. Last question Igor san. You are a Macintosh user. These days there are less games for MacOS than for Windows. Would you be interested if someone make a 3-D Competition Karate game for the MacOS?

Not interested at all. I spend enough time behind the computer as it is. And for me karate is something that is practised in the dojo. (Although I do use a laptop computer with a webcam to monitor my own technique...)

Thank you Igor san for this lovely interview! Those who are interested to learn more about the Dutch Karate scene and maybe train a bit when visiting Amsterdam can reach Igor at safe@tricolore.com.

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