 There probably isn't a martial artist today that has not heard the name Bill Superfoot Wallace. An impressive martial artist, Mr. Wallace is a professional karate association World Full Contact Karate Champion. Known for his incredible speed, including his lightning fast kick, Mr. Wallace is a well-respected name in the martial arts community and he was amazing enough to talk with us recently about his life and experience in the martial arts. High school career, my wrestling, I was a eighth grader and my father was a football coach, a high school basketball coach and so forth. So when I was seventh, eighth grade, I played high school basketball or junior high basketball because my dad was a coach. I was about five, six, five, seven, weighed 89 pounds from Indiana basketball state. So I played the game. I get into high school my freshman year. I figured, well, I haven't gotten any taller, I haven't gotten any bigger, I haven't gotten any heavier. I weighed 89 pounds as a freshman in high school. So I was the long snapper on the freshman football team. You know what the long snapper is, they got to centers and back to the ponder or the place again. The only reason I was the long snapper is I was stupid enough to keep my head down and snap the ball back. I got crammed every time. There was no three second rule, you know, in high school where you got to weigh three seconds before you crammed a guy. I got crammed right all night and nailed. And then after the football season was over, I said, well, number one, I'm too short for basketball. I'm not going to ever make the basketball team. I'm walking down the hallway and I see these guys in this room wrestling around. And I said, I'm walking, what are you guys doing? He says, we're wrestling. And I went, wow, I talked through the coach's name was Dr. Mr. Clausen. And I went, wow. And he says, you're a lightweight, right? I said, yeah. So I started wrestling my freshman year because it was the only thing to do. At my size, it was the only thing to do. And my freshman year, I weighed 89 pounds. Like I said, I wrestled the lowest, the lightest weight they had was 95 pounds. I weighed 89 pounds. So I would weigh in with all my clothes on, make everybody mad. Then I gained, we gained a little weight. I weighed 130 pounds as a senior in high school. I turned sides and stuck out my tongue. I looked like a zipper. When I, when I got out of this, I got out, I graduated high school. My friend talked me into joining the service. I joined the Air Force. So I get to my permanent station. I want to continue wrestling because it was my little, my first love. So I go, I go into the men's gym and I stalked in the front. I says, do they have a wrestling team on base? He says, well, I don't know what to do. A bunch of guys rolling around in the back room. So I walk into the back room. There's guys looking these women white coats on a white pants around throwing each other all over the place. I said, excuse me. I was 17 year old upstart. I said, excuse me, excuse me. And the guy says, yeah, can I help you? I said, yeah. Anybody in a wrestle? He says, you're a wrestler? I said, yes, sir. He says, all wrestlers. So he takes a little white coat off and we wrestle. I take him down three or four times, put him on his back a couple of times. He said, that's pretty good. I said, well, thank you. He says, now put this little white coat on. So I put this little white coat on and he says, now we're going to wrestle again. Flunk, flunk. I'm going to flunk. Yeah, I bounced off the walls. I bounced off the ceiling and I went, what is this called? This is called judo. I went, wow. 1963. So I said, wow, this sounds like a lot of fun. So I started playing judo. And from judo 1966, I tear my knee up. I'm representing the Air Force with the United States team. I tear my knee up and I'm going to cast from here from my crotch down to my ankle because of the knee. There was no such thing as orthoscopic surgery back then. It was called exploratory. Anyway, so what happened then is I get out, I'm in a cast. My friend says, hey, there's the karate school there. Let's go check it out. That's all I need to say. I'm in a cast and I said, are you in the karate? I said, what? Do you want to do karate? My friend says, do you want to do karate? I said, sure, why not? He says, are you stand up? I said, I have a cast I can't kick. He says, no problem. You stand up. So I stood there right off the bat. I'm doing side kicks. I'm doing side kicks. I leave, come back about a week later and he says, ah, very good. You're back. You're back. I'm doing roundhouse kick. But why is he hitting? Roundhouse kicker. Okay, so I started doing a roundhouse kick and that's where my kicking came from. Primarily from in the leg cast. Can't do anything. So I just stand there throwing kicks and got out of the cast, started training. I defended my title 1976 in Las Vegas against a fighter named Jimmy Colas. And I knocked him out with a kick, a roundhouse kick to the head. And they said it was so fast that nobody could see it. They played it, it was live CBS Sports Spectacular. So they played it back and back differently. Finally, from one angle, they saw where the kick hit him and knocked him out. And the president of the PK at the time, I got him Don Quine, was at a Lakers basketball game. And he's back to the concession stand. He sees the science as super foot long hot dogs. That's where the super foot came from. I would rather be the whole thing. But you know, I wanted to be super foot long. I teach snap speed, quickness, you know, when I throw a punch, most people back, but I want to snap out and snap back. I found out my my my college group, my undergraduate career that guys want to find out why I was fast. The college professors wanted to find out why Bill Wallace is a little white guy is fast. And I found out they found out that when I worked my movement, they would film it and work my movement. The agonistic muscle group is a muscle group doing the work. The antagonistic muscle group is a muscle group that kind of fights against that work. They found out when I would do a technique like a back fist, the antagonistic muscle group would be the tricep is very relaxed. So all the movement comes from the agonistic muscle group. So there's nothing inhibiting the speed. And that's why it snaps out back every time. I hope Mr Wallace was also close friends with another legendary martial artist, Joe Lewis. And he now runs the super foot Joe Lewis systems. What is is is Joe Lewis. I rock enough. We found this out in 1960 when Joe was already champion. We're the same system. He was in Okinawa the same time out with a year and a half before I was in Okinawa. We had the same instructor, same school, Shorin Rukorati in Okinawa, Naha City. So we became friends from 1968 on. We were on the same team together. We spot each other. We sparred each other. And when Joe died, his system kind of promoted me to the highest rank. So I'm thinking well, okay, they want they want me to take over the system because I'm still alive. So we started working together with the Joe Lewis people started working together with his people, my people toward kind of an integration you might say between the system because I'm a kicker and I teach a lot of kicking where Joe was a power guy. I weigh 165 pounds. Who am I going to hurt? But just maybe, you know, I get you to walk into it. So that helps. But so it's integrating of Joe Lewis's fighting system with the super fighting system and and just the ideas. It's not to make anybody one or the other. It's to integrate keep Joe's name alive, along with super foot. And because we were we were showing people together and and it seemed to be doing great. People are with us 100%. We did 1990. No, it was it was we had a blast. We had a blast. We fought late Tahoe. Pay-per-view was a third highest ranking show that that year. The only thing that beat us was two concerts. So that tells you anything. But anyway, yeah, I make a joke about it. Joe and I fought great. We had a great time. He beat the beat the crap out of each other. And the funniest thing is I tell this to everybody. And if you know, when people say, well, this kid will knock him out of this kid will kill him or this kid will do this or this this punch. I hit Joe with probably one of the best hook kicks I've ever thrown in my life. I thought, oh my God, I've killed him. He bats him goes out and oh, yeah. So, you know, you all you can do is throw it. You know what's going to happen. You just throw it. Hope for the best. Well, the century covers carries the videos now. When Panther was around and back in the 80s and 90s, I did I did 10 videos for Panther productions. Since that time, century has bought those videos. Then I've done 10 more for century. So they're on there to century on the video. But training videos on flexibility, kicking, working on speed, working on combinations, working on movement. The older you get, the sneaker you have to get. Mr. Wallace has also made several film appearances, often appearing opposite of Jackie Chan and Chuck Norris. It was always fun watching him in his movie roles, even though martial arts and film aren't quite the same as they are in real life. Well, whatever you see in film, don't believe it. It's not true. The fight scenes I did, I did a film with Jackie Chan. I did a film with Chuck Norris. I did several films with different people and so forth. I did 15 films. I die good. I'm one of the better dyers. The problem with the fight scenes is people go to those movies, they see the fight scenes and they think that's what karate is. So they go to a karate school and they sign up for karate school. They sit there for the first six weeks going, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. And they don't understand it. You have to learn the basic movement. You have to learn the balances, the strength, the weaknesses, the flexibilities and so forth. It just doesn't come overnight. You know, but the problem is, you know, if you look at it in the Oriental philosophy, in the Asian philosophy, how long do you have to learn something? Your entire life. You know, the Asian will say, well, I got forever to learn this thing. And America will give you three weeks. And if I don't learn everything in three weeks, I'm done. I'm out of here. When I started, it was very hardcore. Everything was power. The reverse punch was strong as you could throw it. The kicking techniques were strong as you could throw it. The sparring, you know, I remember sparring, if you hit a guy and knocked him down, a good point, good point. You know, your practice came in control. You hit a guy, I used to go to Texas and fight. You hit a guy in the mouth, knock him out. They gave me like a minute to wake up. If you didn't wake up, you still won. I go, whoa, this is a lot of fun. And I'm from Midwest. My parents were fairly affluent, right? So I've never gotten fights. And all of a sudden, now I go down to Texas, fighting this match, and where the guy says, I'm going to kill you. Okay, I don't think so, but, you know, in the capital system, you know, it's the capital system is primarily a self-defense. So where it's for a smaller person, slight, you know, because of the speed involved and the movement involved. You got the tall, lankier guy, might go to Taquondo because of the kicking aspect, the flexibility aspect, and so forth. You got the bulky guy, the strong guy, Shodakon Karate, which is a very strong, straightforward backup movement. So, and then you've got the the wrestler that might go with the Jiu-Jitsu part of it, the Judo part of it. You know, the guys, and those guys, I mean, my hat goes off to those guys, because those guys take a beating. Just in training, they take a beating. And then go out and do it for real, and then say it's fun. Because we did it back in the old days, you know. I mean, point to our back in this early mid-60s, where MMA matches, because you could throw a guy, you could take him down, you could trip him, sweep him, and we fought on concrete floors. So, it was still the same thing. You could step on him. Now, I do get a lot of comments and stories from our viewers, many of whom have encountered obstacles in their life that's either delayed their training, or prevented it altogether. There's always going to be some moments in life that stand in our way. And Mr. Wallace shared some advice on how important it is to just keep pushing forward and go past that if you can. Keep doing it. Keep doing it. I'm 73 years old. I understand. I have a master's degree in kinesiology and physiology of exercise. I understand if I quit, I die. That's your body. You know, your body's used to doing something in a certain way, and doing something with the heart, with us, you know, the lungs of cardiovascular and so on. And when you quit, everything slows down. You become sedentary, and you just don't do it anymore, and then you just roll up and die. But yeah, I'll be doing this till I croak, you know, because it's still fun kicking people. Love kicking people. I first met Mr. Wallace at a seminar in 1996. He came to our school, and it was a really fun night. I was one of the students he picked out for demonstration, and I'll never forget the experience. He stood me in front of the room, had me go into a fighting stance, and he asked me to try to block his kick when I saw him move. So, I waited. I was ready. Suddenly, I noticed my belt flick, and I stood there waiting from the throat to kick before it dawned on me that he already had. So, that was a real wake-up call to realize that I had a long way to go in my own training. But it was a really valuable experience, and it was really cool to see somebody who was, as accomplished as he was, as a fighter professionally, that he was taking the time to teach and share his experience and knowledge with other students. I did. I was doing seminars as I was competing, you know? It did. You have to understand that I started competing in 1966, and the whole thing was sparring. All I wanted to do was sparring. I wanted to learn technique, I wanted to see if it spars, and I did it. So, you know, for three or four years, I've been doing, I'm sparring. And pretty soon, he just got old. I said, I don't want to do this anymore. And especially with the reputation I had, if you and I spar, and I hit you, I'm a bully. But if I don't hit you, I'm no good. So, you know, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. So the teaching part is fine, just like you said, I'll throw the kick, you block it. And, but now it's fun teaching other people how to work the speed, how to work the agility, how to work the flexibility and so forth. So I get much more enjoyment out of this. But it's still fun kicking people. It's getting the, it's getting the idea crossed. You have to be able to not teach a technique, not teach a movement, but teach an idea. And the idea, because no two people are built the same, there's three of us here. We're not built the same. We have different strengths, we have different weaknesses, different flexibilities, but most importantly, we're different right here psychologically. You're not going to think about it the same way I think about it. He's not going to think about it the way I'm going to be different too. So what happens is as a teacher, that teacher has to work towards you, work towards me, work towards him. To where you can understand the same movement, the same technique. But there's going to be different attitudes. That's why there's, when I first started, came back to the United States, there were basically four karate systems. Shodakans, Gojiru, Shorinru and Shoriru. That was it. But because you and I don't agree on something, you're going to go over here and I taught you, and I taught you, you know, Bill Wallace system, right? But you go next door because you can't do it when I do it. Now you're going to teach the Wally Roo system. Which is okay. It's just a different doing. Look at, look at our sports, our basketball, our football. But football coaches get fired every year. Basketball coaches get fired every year, get hired by somebody else, and they win a national championship. It's how you make it work for you. How do you make it, how you get it across to the other individuals. You know, I would like to see a little less bickering, you know, a little more getting along. But you know, as long as there's, I mean, nations now don't even get along. So if you're a Shoring Roo, which is Okinawan system, Shodokan people don't like you. Which is kind of silly because Shodokan was taken from Shoring Roo. And now you guys don't like the Koreans because they do it all together different than you do. And then the Chinese, all those flowings up, never works. Well, dead for them. So you have to, you know, you have to just kind of take everything with a grain of salt. I try to get along with everything. Whatever you do, might work. Whatever I do, might work. You know? And the only way you can find out is if you try it. Because of my wrestling back there, I was a scissor man. I used my legs to do take the ass, I used my legs to do rides and things like this. So when I started, I was the same man with the judo throws. I used my legs to do the throw, which you might have, or I'd go to your honey, go to your, you know, different throws using the legs. So when I got into martial arts, the karate aspect of it, I wanted a kick. I wanted to do the side kick, the rock kick, the hook kick, the spinning kick, but I can't because of my knee. So, so, you know, you take what you want to learn and play with it. You know, we're all influenced by, by our movements. We're all influenced by our friends, our parents, where we are. Understand, I was in Okinawa. So they're showing root. And that's it. In our sport, in our art, there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of different techniques. Some are designed for you, some are designed for me, some are designed for your cameraman. Our job, going through the art since over, is decide and work on the ones that work for us. I mean, of all the, I've been doing this for almost 60 years. I have five weapons. I have five techniques I use. A side kick, a round kick, a hook kick, back fist, and a hook punch. That's it. But I got those down pretty good. And as we work it, I'll find different ways of working it. And maybe I'll find out in my old age, something else feels pretty good. Hey, wow, I like this. Maybe I'll work it. But right now, I'm really good left side forward. Left leg, left hand. And that works well for me, especially when I teach it in common, in seminars and complications and things like this, to where the people can say, hey, wow, I like the way you did this. And all our job is to do is to feed ideas. Punch is a punch and a kick is a kick. And how you do it is no different than the way I do it. Except you're bigger than me. You're heavier than I am. Stronger than I am. But just maybe, just maybe I'm a little quicker than you are. So maybe I get you to walk into something. And that's where it all comes into, you know. I do seminars all over the way. And I say, well, what does this side kick do? Is it knocks the wind out of people? Not always. Sometimes it might just knock you back a little bit. So I'm safe. Sometimes if you charge it, it knocks me back. So I'm safe. Sometimes I use it as a setup. So it's not designed to knock the wind out of you. Maybe, maybe not. I don't ever know. But have a good time. Because if you have a good time, you'll come back. If you have a good time, you'll have positive thoughts. If you didn't have a good time, you say, well, I don't like this or that. So, you know, all becomes an aid. But most important is have a good time. If you couldn't tell when I was doing my seminar, I have a blast. I learned just as much as the people do. Because I'm going to keep doing it until I do it right. It was a true honor and privilege to have Mr. Wallace take the time for an interview. Meeting him now again is no less impressive than it was the first time. A true competitor and martial artist. Thank you, sir. Just keep kicking. Thank you for watching. If you want to see more interviews, please let me know in the comments. Please like this video and share Mr. Wallace's advice with as many people as possible.