Quotes

Martial Arts Talk: Conversations with Leading Martial Arts Authorities
Mark V. Wiley, Tuttle Publishing, 2000, ISBN 0-8048-3182-3
Interview with Curtis Wong (page 256):

Throughout your travels and appearances, who were some of the stranger martial artists you crossed paths with?

Well, the strangest thing that ever happened to me was when this one time we kept getting letters from this guy named Rodney Sacharnoski. The letters said that he could take a baseball bat shot to his throat and nothing would happen. I thought this guy was totally nuts and I didn't want to put him in the magazines. I ignored him, but he just kept writing.

Then one day I was at work cleaning the office on Saturday and three guys in suits walked in. One of the men introduced himself as Dr. Rod Sacharnoski. Even though they all looked like decent people, I thought there was going to be trouble. They asked if they could do a demonstration for me right then and there. I told them to hold on; I was thinking lawsuit. I mean, if someone were to get hurt and I am the only one from the office present, it would have been their word against mine as to whose fault it was. So I told them that I would set it up for them to come back the following day to demonstrate, when I would have a proper audience of top instructors from the area present and we would have our cameras and recorders ready to go. They agreed.

I called Ed Parker, Tadashi Yamashita, Tino Tuliosega of the lima-lama system, Kim Kahana, James Lew, and Harry Wong. So the next day we all got together, and Rod Sacharnoski and his guys did some stuff that was so scary, I 'm telling you, that my arms literally got cold.

Our guys hit their guys in the eyes and balls and head with bats and punches and kicks, and it didn't phase them. This was some real stuff because it wasn't like they were hitting each other; we were doing it to them. Scary. I'm telling you, man, if you had seen this you would have fainted. Even Ed Parker said he couldn't believe his eyes and that he had never seen anything like this in his life. In fact, Ed left early because the whole thing just scared him. And Tino had this big Samoan black belt hit this guy right in the temple, and nothing happened. Then Tino got scared. We had one guy stand in a horse stance and one of our guys kicked him square in the balls with front kick. The kick was so hard it lifted the man off the ground - but no damage. So then I asked them, what if you placed your head against the wall and someone kicked it? Now, you know, there is no room "to give" in a situation like that, so we figure they would back out. Well, they didn't. I'm telling you, this guy placed his head against the wall and one of our guys did a side kick smack into his temple. We all started to panic when we heard this loud crack sound on impact. But this guy just stood up as if nothing had happened. We all got the chills.

The next day Ed Parker called me and said, "Curtis, we got to get to know these guys, they are amazing." And it wasn't just one guy; all of his students could take the shots without showing any signs of damage. Ed became good friends with Rod; they even appeared in a movie together.

That event was probably one of the highlights of the martial arts for me. They actually performed the same demonstration on a televised episode of " Wide World of Sports," but it bombed because everyone thought it was fake. But they were unbelievable, and the nicest guys. I have since lost contact with Dr. Sacharnoski, but I know he is still around. I don't know how he does it, but he is one of those martial artists who is truly for real.