Not Just for Kicks : Martial Arts Expert Hopes Expertise Brings Film Fame, Fortune

Trieu Chung Ha says he has never thrown a punch in anger, and probably never will. Nonetheless, he’s building a dream with his fists.

When he was 8, Ha escaped Vietnam by boat with his father, a former officer in the South Vietnamese army, and a younger brother to begin a new life in the United States.

Now 23, Ha, a fifth-degree black belt, is considered one of the top martial arts experts in the world. Last weekend he won the kata grand championship--which stresses precision technique--for the third straight year in the Ed Parker international karate championships in Long Beach.

Ha and his brother, Dong Quan Ha, who was a finalist this year, hope that their performances in the 31-year-old tournament may lead to successful acting careers such as the ones enjoyed by Chuck Norris and the late Bruce Lee, who got their first big breaks when they were spotted competing in the prestigious event.

Along with their father, Quoc Huy Ha, an eighth-degree black belt who is just a notch from the highest ranking in his martial arts style, the Ha brothers have already appeared as stuntmen in a couple of movies.

Dong Quan Ha is currently in the cast of a television pilot that would compete with the popular “Power Rangers” series.

All this is good news to the Ha family, who only last year thought their American dream had ended when the martial arts school they operated in Westminster, Vo Dao Vietnam Dojo, burned down. Without insurance, they lost everything in the fire, including trophies, training tapes and uniforms for their students.

“My brother and I have to continue competing in tournaments to let people know that our style exists,” said Trieu Chung Ha. “This style is very unique and it earns respect from other (martial arts) schools.”

He said that winning tournaments enhances the reputation of their martial arts style, which combines Japanese, Okinawan and traditional Vietnamese fighting techniques. Eventually, they hope, the reputation will attract new students and allow them to reopen their school.

Since the fire, the Ha family has been forced to hold classes at the Westminster Boys and Girls Club, which, they said, is not equipped for martial arts lessons. Student enrollment has fallen sharply.

“This is the mission of my father, my brother and myself: to build a (martial arts) school,” Ha said. “Without a school, you can’t teach your art and your technique.”

Trieu Chung Ha, who is also a law student at USC, impressed judges at the two-day Long Beach tournament with his mastery of the unusual technique.

“He’s very flexible,” said Leilani Parker, who has run the tournament since her husband, Ed, died three years ago. She said Ha can point a leg straight up in a sort of standing split, which nobody else in the tournament could do.

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In the kata or “forms” competition, participants fight an imaginary opponent, trying to score points with precise punches and kicks.

“You must show your concentration by your facial expression and the power coming out from your arms and legs,” Trieu Chung Ha said, adding that it takes years of training and daily practice to perfect the execution.

Ha and his brother train at least eight hours per day before a competition, including four hours of sparring every day. There are days, he said, when he doesn’t feel like training, “but I don’t have a choice really. My father makes us do it.”

Parents who have enrolled their children at the Has’ martial arts school cite the discipline the Has instill in their students.

Mihn Pham credits the school with keeping his 17-year-old son, Tuan, busy, particularly on weekends, and with teaching the boy respect for elders.

In addition to martial arts lessons, the school, which attracts a largely Vietnamese clientele, teaches family values and Vietnamese history. The teachers have named punches and kicks after kings, dynasties, mountains and rivers in Vietnam.

In March, the elder Ha bought a 16,000-square-foot vacant parcel in Garden Grove, where he hopes to build the school under a new name, Quyen Dao Vietnam. They are remodeling a cottage on the overgrown lot, where they now live, and hope to convert it to an office with sleeping quarters.

But for now, the family has no money to build the school.

“My father has used all his energy in trying to reopen the school,” Trieu Chung Ha said. “With the school, there will be a foundation (for) his style.”