West Sound women are taking advantage of various forms of martial arts being taught at Twin Tigers Martial Arts Center in Bremerton

By Ann Vogel

For The Sun

Missy Beard is a gladiator looking for an opponent.

At 140 pounds and standing 6-1, the 26-year-old security worker at Central Kitsap High School has been kick-boxing for four months, hoping to get her name on a fight ticket.

"It's hard to find a woman in my weight division to fight," she said. "I think when they learn how tall I am, they back out."

Beard is being trained by Vern Miller, owner of Twin Tigers Martial Arts Center in Bremerton. Miller's gladiators are typically young men bursting with energy and an ability to heal quickly. But Beard and a half dozen other women are among the new brand of gladiators under Miller's tutelage.

"Gladiators are good for us as a society, less brutal than war," said the 48-year-old master of Chinese martial arts. "We have an aggressive side that needs to be acknowledged and channeled into a socially acceptable outlet."

Miller has produced regional, national and world champions in kick boxing and in a traditional system of kung fu called choy li fut. With his wife, Carol Ognibene, a kung fu world champion, he also teaches tai chi, a slow and powerful moving meditation that improves health and concentration, Miller said, and lowers blood pressure.

"I started kick boxing to take out my aggressions," said Beard, who graduated from Pacific Lutheran University with a degree in elementary education. She hopes to eventually become a police officer. "After working all day, mostly with kids who are in some sort of trouble, I like to take my aggression and put it to productive use. I like the contact and the workout, too. Kick boxing builds self-confidence and is a lot of fun."

"The sport of kick boxing has become more popular in the last 10 years," said Ognibene. "The sparring is very practical because you learn skills such as distance, footwork, defense and offense, and how to apply skills learned in a traditional martial arts system in a competition."

Miller arranges a fight card every couple of months between his kick boxers and others from Vancouver B.C. to Vancouver, Wash.

The fight tickets are similar to that used in boxing, with skill, weight, and gender divisions. Boxers wear headgear and shin pads, but, according to Miller, injuries are rarer in kung fu and kick boxing than in other martial arts.

"When I get hit, it doesn't really hurt," said Beard. "It just makes me compete harder."

The roots of the Chinese martial arts Miller teaches reach back to the Chou dynasty (1111-255 B.C.) and even earlier. "The choy li fut system of kung fu originated in China's Shaolin Temples 250 years ago," said Miller.

"The temples were refuges for revolutionaries during the Boxer Rebellion and during the revolution against the Manchus."

Miller, who holds the title of master, is six generations from Chan Heung, the founder of the choy li fut style.

He mastered the art under the tutelage of the fifth generation grand master who now resides in San Francisco. The fourth generation great-grand master lives in Hong Kong.

"Kung fu incorporates many other styles of martial arts, such as judo and karate," said Miller. "Traditional kung fu has it all -- grappling, joint locks, punches, pressure points, weaponry, meditation, and internal energy techniques."

Traditional kung fu is both a form of exercise with a spiritual dimension stemming from concentration and self-discipline, and an unarmed mode of personal combat. However, Miller also offers instruction in weapon forms, moves that teach how to use everyday implements for self defense. Weapons include a garden hoe, paper fan, and umbrella as well as spears, swords, and staffs.

Many traditional kung fu moves imitate the fighting styles of animals: dragon, snake, crane, leopard, and tiger. The dragon style is considered the most difficult to master. Miller's dragon forms are featured in the April 1997 issue of "Inside Kung Fu" magazine.

Like Beard and others at Twin Tigers, Ognibene, too, wanted an attitude change when she started learning kung fu. "I didn't like feeling helpless or like a victim unable to defend myself," she said.

Now she, Beard and others are gladiators.

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