Monday, July 27, 2009

Roger Paschy - Muay Thai pioneer - France




Sport:
Karate
Name: Roger Paschy
Subtitle: In the Footsteps of Bruce Lee
Info: Roger Paschy first started learning karate at the age of 16. Eight years later, he was a budding world champion. Born in Saigon, Paschy has at his command all the secrets of this martial art. He performs each attack in masterful fashion and with a strength which for a long time meant he was the most respected exponent of karate in Europe, along with the Frenchmen Dominique Valera and Gilbert Gruss. Because he wanted to know and understand thoroughly the other martial arts, this world team champion (1972) started studying the disciplines of budo known as the nunchaku and the bo. For seven years, he worked with the master Kitamura, a fifth dan in karate and in kobudo, in his dojo at Nara in Japan. His progress in competition was rapid, and in his very first appearance in the French championships he finished third (1968). He was selected for the French team in 1970 and stayed with it for five years, during which he won three European championship titles and one world team championship title in Paris. As a representative of the Police Sports Association, Roger Paschy was unfortunate to find himself having to fight such exceptional sportsmen as Valera and Gruss in the days before categories were divided by weight. After the appearance of a lightweight category, he became European champion and towards the end of his career as an "amateur", he almost made it to the winner's rostrum of the 1975 World Championships in Long Beach, where he was beaten by the Japanese Murakami. In 1976, he changed direction and became the cinema's second Bruce Lee when he appeared in Christian Jacque's film "Doctor Justice". As full-contact European champion once he had turned professional, he soon relinquished his title in order to devote more time to his forthcoming book on Karate: technique and efficiency.

ROGER PASCHY Born May 17, 1945, in Saigon, Vietnam
AWARDS AND RECORDS French champion 1973,1974,1975 World team champion 1972 Individual semi-finalist in World Championships 1975 Individual European lightweight champion 1973, 1974, 1975; team 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975; finalist 1974. Fifth dan as karate instructor Roger Paschy in action before he turned to acting


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