Sifu Tom Laroche

I have to go home to Kamloops once in a while and being away from the gym is no excuse to stop training. To keep it going I looked up Sifu Tom Laroche, a world champion kickboxer and one of the teachers at the first martial arts school I ever went to, a White Crane Gung Fu school. Sifu Tom is still teaching martial arts after all these years. I dropped into his school to train, and after we got together for an interview. I knew that someone who has been in the game for that long would have lots to say. We talked about the emergence of martial arts from the 70′s until today, his world title, how he got into martial arts, and the martial arts school he runs today.

Delighted to run to you again now, first let me apologies for being such a brat in your class over 30 years ago. I’m flattered that you’ll have me back. You have been doing martial arts for a really long time now, how long is it?

I started in 1976 really serious, but actually we started when I was 18 yrs old when we used to drive from Princeton with my brother and a friend of mine, we would go by car or by bus every weekend and drive up to Vancouver, they would let us stay in the Kung Fu school, and we would train, and then we would go back and train in Princeton during the week and then go back on the weekends, that was my first introduction to martial arts…

A Gung Fu school in Princeton?

Sifu Tom Laroche working with Tyne Hennefet

No it was in Vancouver, but what happened that there was a Sifu, and he came through town and stayed at a hotel that was right across the street from my parents place. And they were practising in this empty parking lot, my brother seen them and was talking to them they invited him up so for the first weekend he went up then he told us about it so we jumped in with him and started going back and forth for a long time and then eventually that phased out but that’s kind of where I got the bug for martial arts, and that was right back in the time when Kung Fu, in 1973 was the #1 show on TV, Bruce Lee had come out with Enter The Dragon, he had just died and his show had just come out, so it was big, real big push on it and that was when we got caught up in that.

(There was) that kind of Kung Fu fever.. and then basically from that point on… eventually I stopped, then I went to Nanaimo for a welding course, and we met another guy who was teaching Kung Fu over there, he was from San Francisco, It wasn’t anything fancy or flashy, it was, you know…  a class. Yet it re-ignited our passion to train again, and then I remember watching Bill Wallace on TV, Superfoot Wallace was the world champion professional world karate association and he was defending his title there and I remember seeing little things along the way that kept putting the focus on it and then… So I moved back to Princeton after my course, and from there I ended up moving over to Kamloops area, and I bumped into a guy that trained with us back in Nanaimo and he told me about the school, and that’s when we really got involved and that’s when I taught you over at the White Crane Gung Fu School, and you were, how old were you?

I don’t know, maybe 10…

So we put tons of kids through that school, and that was right at the time when I was fighting and we had a really successful fighting team, I had won the world title and it was just such a big thing in town here, so we just pumped so many kids through there, so I bump into many now who same thing they come back later when they’re adults, its kind of cool, some of them they actually have schools now in different places.

Sifu Tom Laroche working with student

Yeah, all the way along I really started my serious training in town here with Barry Adkins, of the White Crane Gung Fu School. That was 1976. And we put in about two years of training, we got an invitation to go to China, to Hong Kong at that time, and we competed there and we took a four man team over there, we came back with four gold medals. We were the only Caucasians there, we were told that we were the only Caucasians ever to compete in this tournament. So we won four gold medals, and they invited us back, so we took back a seven man team in 1980, and then we won 5 out of 7 fights there, so they invited us back in ’81, with a 21 person team, 11 fighters and the rest were demonstrators. So two days of fights and demonstrations. They would have a fight, and then a demo, a fight, and then a demo, over two different days, so it was big, they had Gung Fu masters, they had top Gung Fu masters all lined up in tables, like head tables, because the Chinese are really into honouring their masters, and giving them first place, so it was a chance to have them all in front of us, and we were performing, it was a great experience, and out of that, I forget what we won but we won the majority of fights at that one too.

…we took a four man team over there, we came back with four gold medals. We were the only Caucasians there, we were told that we were the only Caucasians ever to compete in this tournament.

And then we went into Guangzhou, which is right next to Hong Kong, it used to be Canton province, we did a demonstration with a Wushu team over there, in an auditorium that held 6000 people. It was totally circular, made of stone, and it was packed to the rim with people. That was a great experience. Then in 1983 we hooked up with a professional tournament, what they called a world championship, it wasn’t like a world title so much but it was like track and field going to the world championships. They had 16 countries involved, and I went there and they had two nights of fights, the first night was elimination, and then the finals, and I won the fight and won the trophy for my weight class. As soon as I got back to Kamloops from there, we turned professional, I was still amateur then. That last fight was sort of a pro/semi-pro fight.

Sifu Tom Laroche working with Tyne Hennefet

Then turned professional, started fighting all the way through western Canada, we fought in Spokanne, Edmonton, that was our main circuit around here. And then in 1983 I was invited to go to Australia, and was the US and Canada taking on New Zealand and Australia. There was a promoter over there, his name was Bob Jones, really well known back at that time and he had schools all over Australia. He had a really successful organisation, he would do camps in the summer. We had these fighters come over, some of them were world champions from the states, or they weren’t world champions then they became world champions later. And people from Canada, and I fought for the Commonwealth title, and we stayed in Sydney right on Bondi beach, and then they had fights in Sydney, Perth, Newcastle, and Melbourne. I fought in Melbourne, flown over for this. So it was a big thing, and I won the commonwealth title. I fought a guy named ‘No Mercy Percy Lanciao’… so I had no mercy on Percy…

…we hosted the fight, we brought him in and I won the world title in 1984, July 12 1984. I remember it well- I had a front row seat!

So right after that when we got back we found out we had an opportunity to fight for a world title, and it was against a guy named Ismael Roblis, from Galveston Texas. So he came in, he was a boxer and kickboxer, very successful, he had 45 boxing matches under his belt, plus numerous kickboxing, he had fought mainly in PKA, but we had fought mainly in World Karate Association (WKA), the Karate International Association of Kickboxing, which was leg kicks, and punching and kicking, so we fought here in Kamloops, we hosted the fight, we brought him in and I won the world title in 1984, July 12 1984. I remember it well- I had a front row seat! It was a great fight, he was a hard, fit competitor, so it was good. At that point, I was told it was the largest audience for an event held in Kamloops, held in the memorial arena, before we got the big arena, the interior savings centre, we had 3000 in there, the stands were packed, the floor was packed. We had such a really good fan base in Kamloops, we had everybody from young kids, right up to grandparents, so it wasn’t like a certain little segment of the community, we had a whole cross section, which was really cool. In ’84 in November, I fought and defended my title against a guy named Alan Watson, he was from Florida, and originally from the Bahamas. I took him out in about the seventh round.

Sifu Tom Laroche working with Tyne Hennefet

That spring we had another title defence, Rick Simmerley from Florida, he had fought Benny Urquidez, tried to fight him and Benny beat him, so we fought him here in town, a unanimous decision, we had a 12 round fight. Later on we arranged to fight Benny Urquidez. Benny was the super lightweight title, (Benny the Jet). He was 140 and under… about 7 lbs under that. And he had already been 135lb world champion, most people in kickboxing knew who Benny was. He was someone who I would use as a focus, a protege, cause I liked his style, he was strong, he was fit, he kicked and punched well, so we had always had our focus on him. Eventually we set up a fight for him, was in 1987. We fought him November in Los Angeles. What happened was there was a vacant title, a guy in Holland, I forget his name, somebody killed him, and he was the world champion, so his title became vacant and it was the World Karate Association Welterweight Title, which was 140 ¼ to 147. So we were fighting, my title wasn’t on the line, his title wasn’t on the line, we were fighting for a vacant WKA title, that was an excellent fight, a 12 rounder. They gave the decision to Benny, I was the first person to ever take Benny 12 rounds. In fact my fight was the second last fight that he had. And then after that he had maybe one or two years later he had one other fight against a guy from Japan, and then he retired. After that I had one more fight defending my title, I fought a fellow, from New Haven, Mississippi. They called him Jimmy ‘The Jet’ Bland, so we fought and it was a 12 round fight and we won by unanimous decision.

…and these two girls were sparring and she really got whacked and I remember she cried during the sparring at first and then the other girl was crying, and then after I said, ‘What do you think?’, she says, ‘I think I want to fight.’

After that I announced my retirement, because I felt I had a new focus coming toward me, I was a Christian already and I had been out already ministering lots, I had already gone and done bible school, and it was where I wanted to redirect my focus more. Really I was in my prime, I was at the top, they were talking about paydays of $50,000, no-one had seen anything like that at the time, there was lots of talk about that. But now with Mixed Martial Arts we are seeing those paydays way above that. I like to think that we had a part in that segment of building up the martial arts and getting it out to the public. MMA is the way now that it has come through, and martial artists are getting wages that they deserve. Boxers were getting million dollar paydays, multi-million dollar paydays… boxers work hard, (but) any mixed martial artist, they work harder than any boxer or kickboxer. There is so much more conditioning required. Whether you are working knees because you are doing Muay Thai, Sanshou which is punching, kicking, or throws, or mixed martial arts its just a huge draw on your conditioning. Now they are starting to get paydays which they deserve.

So you have seen the whole martial arts scene evolve from something kind of special, from the spark that Bruce Lee ignited to MMA now, you have been witness to quite a time line.

Its been exciting because I have been actively involved in it. I’m not competing any more, but I’ve got competitors. I have had one of our guys, he represented Canada in the 5^th World Wushu Championships in Hong Kong, Tyler Walkton, he was only one of four fighters from across Canada to represent Canada. There was about 55 or 54 countries. Another fighter that we had, Tracy Hubert, he went on to win the BC Muay Thai title, the Canadian Muay Thai title, he fought two international matches, for an international title against Canada versus Thailand… did really well moved over to Thailand, and did really well over there.

In that time frame we have seen a lot of different fights take place, different styles, Muay Thai was starting to come in, around 2000. Later then we had one of our girls, Yvette McConnel, she went on to win the BC Kickboxing WKA Amateur title, we have had a lot of fighters in between that. Mixed martial arts has come in. So on our cards now, it is very common to see kickboxing, boxing, maybe a Sanshou fight, which is punching kicking and throws, Chinese style, and the mixed martial arts, which is all on one card, so people are getting a the real thing now, its like a smörgåsbord of martial arts when you go to a tournament.

…‘It’s great to be to be the world champion, but when you’re truly a great world champion, its when you can help somebody else become a world champion… So we are still working on that next champion.

One of our girls Tyme Hennefet, in August she just won the Canadian Featherweight Sanshou title. She won a place on the Canadian team, she went to the world Wushu championships held in Toronto this year and it was over 85 countries involved. She made it to the quarter finals, she is young and and training, she’s strong, she is fighting this coming weekend with one of our other fighters, and then she is going to be off to China, coming here in December, and we are looking for a title fight coming up in the new year, so its exciting, a number of different generations from yourself, how many years ago was that?

30 years ago.

Students Training at The Generation Centre

Thirty years ago! Now here we are seeing a whole new generation coming up, so its been exciting, and I’m right in there I enjoy jumping in there and sparring with the students, I’m fit, so it keeps me healthy, I was just saying to one of our fighters here today that, I can’t think of a better way to make a living. I just enjoy it, I have lots of fun you’re helping people get in shape, you teach them self defence, you help a competitor go into the ring, something that only a very small segment of the community ever even dares to step into. And to see them go in and then take that and add that to their life, to their career, to their family, its exciting to see that.

So you’re passing on your experience…

Well that’s it, and really that’s the job I always had planned in this before, and I always say to our students, if you really want to reach for your very maximum in martial art, you cant just train for yourself. You have to start giving it away. I call it a selfish fight that all he does is train for himself. And there is that time to do that. Sometimes you got to focus on yourself. Somewhere along the way you have to start giving it away, otherwise I believe you limit yourself to the level you can actually obtain. You only can go so far. And I have heard this before: ‘It’s great to be to be the world champion, but when you’re truly a great world champion, is when you can help somebody else become a world champion. And now its not just you, but somebody else. So we are still working on that next world champion.

And you have been running this school for a while?

I have been running this club since 1997, on my own, I worked in Corrections for seven years, that’s when I had retired from kickboxing, I just felt I wanted to make a change, like I said I went to bible college, got ordained as a minister, was out ministering lots, went on several missions to China, been over to Africa, been over to talk to different churches, schools, do a lot of work with schools and young people… But with the training here, we went through quite a transition, with this property I came across it in the year 2000 and I have always seen it for years, a place where we would have our own gymnasium, before we were working out of schools and churches, I ran across these facilities, ended up purchasing it from this fellow who wanted to make a change, he was retiring, and new we’ve got the front building, and it was to be a community centre, what we call ‘The Generation Centre’. A place to cover all different age levels, from young kids, I teach 4-5 year olds, we teach 6-12, teens and adults. We have a class for seniors, our oldest student was in her late seventies, trained up till about 79 years old, and she was in all the time. She had seen a big change in her health, she could hardly move from fibromyalgia, came to prayer meetings and got healed, from god. She got totally healed from where she could hardly move, and now she says she wanted to kickbox. So she started training at 74 years old, and she was running working the bags, she was actively involved in the centre, cleaning, she just enjoyed being here because she was just so thankful for the change that was in her life.

Students Training at The Generation Centre

We have had just such a good cross section, we have had people constantly coming back to visit, people stop for a while then they come back training again. So the focus of the club, I would have to say the majority of the people will never want to fight. So what we want to do is we want to teach some fitness, self defence, just how to improve the quality of life. And then there’s the people who want to spar, we’ll work with them on that, and then there’s the people who want to compete, which is always a very small segment of a club.

Unless you’ve got a big big area population, very seldom could you ever run a club on fighters. Fighters come and go and a fighter thinks there a fighter and then they get punched in the face and then all of a sudden its not fun anymore. Then there’s the other people that get punched, I think about this one woman, we had, I remember, she had been training, really pretty, slim girl, she was about 27, and so we had some visitors come out from another club and these two girls were sparring and she really got whacked and I remember she cried during the sparring at first and then the other girl was crying, and then after I said, ‘What do you think?’, she says, ‘I think I want to fight.’ I said, if you can go in there and take those whacks, and say that to me then you got it. For the fighters its a unique thing. You gotta have somebody that has some grit, somebody that likes a challenge, sometimes its somebody that comes from a sport like football or rugby, or they’ve been involved in wrestling, maybe they’ve been a fighter out in the street, and they wanted to change. Now they can take their energy from a negative and put it into a positive, and see that all they’ve got to do now is learn the technique. So its been good, you know, and I think about that, the reward that comes from an instructor, to see how it’s impacted them, and even for yourself, I mean, this many years and you’re still training, and now you’re getting information out to people, so I like to think maybe I helped a little bit.

It took a long time, there was a gym right across from where I was working, the instruction was excellent, it kept me going, it was a good counterpoint to sitting in a desk writing software all day long.

That’s a good companion! Computers and martial arts.