Cage Fighter!

The article below was sent by a former student of mine I taught when he was a child in the 80's. I started him off in the arts, he grew up and became an attorney, and trains with Cung Le in San Francisco. Great to see how some of "my" kids turned out.

The Recorder March 5, 2007
CORPORATE PARTNER TAKES FIGHTING TO ULTIMATE LEVEL
It's a shame attorneys aren't allowed to kick people in the face and wrestle them to the ground when merger discussions aren't going so well. If they could, Khoa Do would be making million-dollar deals every day. The 35-year-old corporate partner at Greenberg Traurig's Silicon Valley office practices what's known in extreme sports as ultimate fighting, although the preferred term, he says, is "mixed martial arts." And he finds working on deals can be a lot like facing down an opponent in the ring. "It's about strategy; thinking big picture," he said. "When you're going into a negotiation, before you step in you've got to know who you're negotiating with and what their strengths and weaknesses are. And we're taught to do just that in mixed martial arts." To the unschooled, mixed martial arts looks pretty much like two people beating the daylights out of each other with punches, kicks and just about everything but eye gouges. But as Do explains, the sport requires a great deal more discipline than it appears, physically and mentally. "A lot of people, they watch mixed martial arts and they think it's a 'thug sport,'" he said. "I think it's very intellectual. ... It goes beyond the physical. It really does." Do, who as a child fled Vietnam for the United States in 1975, grew up in Chicago and has been studying martial arts since he was in third grade. When he came to California in 1998 to work at the height of the Internet boom — for Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati — he somehow found the time to get into the "ultimate" world, "to keep healthy and keep in shape." He joined Greenberg Traurig in 2004, becoming a partner and one of the founders of the firm's East Palo Alto office. When he's not pulling all-nighters putting together mergers, he practices three hours a day at a special gym in Milpitas, under the tutelage of Cung Le, a celebrity in the mixed martial arts world. But it's been tough for Do to train as much as he would like, with all the M&A activity lately. "I haven't worked this hard since I was a first-year at Wilson Sonsini," Do said.
— Jessie Seyfer

Khoa says, "I watched several of your technique demonstrations on YouTube. My favorite will always be Leaping Crane. To this day, I still remember every detail of this orange belt technique (including the extensions). Also, I think it is awesome that you incorporate the philosophy and history of each technique into your instruction. Nowadays, the younger kids just want to learn how to fight without understanding the deeper substance of martial arts. You are doing a great service to us all by keeping the intellectual spirit alive."

OK , instructors, this is another example of why it's so important what we teach and how we do it when working with kids (and adults).