Andy Wang is a modern-day warrior with a mission. The 26-year-old has returned to his home country from California, where he grew up, to do what he does best: teach people how to fight and win.
And though the Taipei Brazilian Jiujitsu Academy at which he teaches has been in business only a month, he and his students are already putting the skills they've acquired to test in the nation's first-ever international Brazilian jiujitsu
tournament.
The grappling gets under way today at the Core Pacific Living Mall, when teams from the US, Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan meet on the mat.
While Wang has been studying jiujitsu for the past eight years, his desire to pass on what he's learned to others is more recent.
"There was a world fighting competition in 1998 and the Chinese Olympic judo team was invited to compete," Wang says. "They'd never trained in jiujitsu and they were all beaten ... Afterward I heard people saying `the Chinese suck.' I don't want to ever again hear someone say that Chinese or Taiwanese people suck."
seeking a master
To that end, he returned to Taiwan after answering an ad searching for a teacher at a new academy in Taipei. Sean McCormack, who placed the ad and is general manager of the academy, had been involved with a jiujitsu club for several months prior to the founding of the academy. He says that when word got out that Wang might sign on as instructor, the burgeoning academy quickly got off the ground.
"When Andy responded to the ad, we immediately felt like it was a good fit," McCormack says. "But then people I'd never met found out and called us saying `You guys have Andy Wang coming to teach?' Now even more people are wanting to know what Brazilian jiujitsu is about."
It's about winning a fight. Jiujitsu was exported from its native Japan in the early 20th century on the broad shoulders of Mitsuyo Maeda. He was said to have taken on 1,000
challengers in several countries, including the US where, legend has it, he fought the toughest wrestler at West Point military academy.
Though just 152cm and 72kg, Maeda bested the hulking wrestler. He allegedly never lost a judo-style competition and was defeated only twice in professional wrestling matches.
In his later life, as an immigrant to Brazil, Maeda passed on his skills to eager Brazilian boys, most notably Carlos Gracie and his brothers, who would adapt what they learned and transform it into what's now known as Brazilian or Gracie jiujitsu.
Brazilian jiujitsu practitioners prefer taking an opponent to the ground and relying on arm-locks, leg-locks, striking and chokeholds to force their opponent to "tap-out" or submit. The strategy takes away the advantage of anyone with superior striking abilities and can mitigate the advantage of larger, stronger opponents.
"The first advantage of Brazilian jiujitsu is being able to put yourself in a position where your opponent is weak and you're strong," Wang says. Though about Maeda's height, Wang is by no means a small guy and recalls growing up in a tough neighborhood in LA.
"When I was 16, I walked in to what I thought was a doughnut shop," he said. "It turned out to be a jiujitsu academy. The first thing I saw was little guys beating big guys and I thought the big guys were letting them win. But they weren't. The little guys were winning because they knew more. It was then I knew that this was a practical and applicable martial art."
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