MASTER BARTON BOEHM'S PATH TO PEACE

THERE’S MORE TO MARTIAL ARTS THAN KICKS AND STRIKES.

- CHRISTOPHER NYERGES

Barton Boehm held his left palm forward. He smiled and said he didn’t want any trouble. His right hand was behind his back, holding his birch staff. As the “at-tacker” approached, Boehm’s right hand rapidly swung the stick through the air with a whoosh, striking the shins of the man ... who fell to the ground.

Boehm was demonstrating a simple technique that he teaches in his private Seiken classes.

I met Barton Boehm in the late 1970s through my association with the nonprofit, WTI. Its founder, Richard E. White, introduced Boehm to me as a martial arts master. His path to becoming a master began a long time ago.

While serving in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War and on shore leave, Boehm inadvertently met a master living in Japan and eventually moved into his home, becoming his full-time student for five years. The story of their meeting and subsequent time together is remarkable!

As I got to know Boehm better, I became his student, taking classes in his home dojo. There, during my private evening classes, I learned about holds, getting out of holds, falling and punching, as well as all the ways to quickly avoid a fight—or to never start one in the first place. But, for me, the highlights of the evenings were always the discussions we had after each of the workouts. It was then that he would share his philosophy of martial arts, developed from his Japanese training.