The Long Beach International Karate Championships — is an International Karate and martial arts tournament in Long Beach, California. It is well-known due to several appearances of the famous martial artist legend Bruce Lee, and his use of the one inch punch. At the invitation of Ed Parker, Lee appeared in the 1964 [1] and performed repetitions of two-finger pushups (using the thumb and the index finger) with feet at approximately a shoulder-width apart.
In the same Long Beach event he also performed the "One inch punch",[2] the description of which is as follows: Lee stood upright, his right foot forward with knees bent slightly, in front of a standing, stationary partner. Lee's right arm was partly extended and his right fist approximately an inch away from the partner's chest. Without retracting his right arm, Lee then forcibly delivered the punch to his partner while largely maintaining his posture, sending the partner backwards and falling into a chair said to be placed behind the partner to prevent injury, though his partner's inertia soon caused him to fall to the floor.
Raymond Dinnen won the 1999 International at the age of 29.
His volunteer was Bob Baker of Stockton, California. "I told Bruce not to do this type of demonstration again", he recalled. "When he punched me that last time, I had to stay home from work because the pain in my chest was unbearable."[3]
Lee also appeared at the 1967 Long Beach International Karate Championships[1] and performed various demonstrations, including the famous "unstoppable punch" against USKA world karate champion Vic Moore. Lee told Moore that he was going to throw a straight punch to the face, and all he had to do was to try to block it. Lee took several steps back and asked if Moore was ready, when Moore nodded in affirmation, Lee glided towards him until he was within striking range. He then threw a straight punch directly at Moore's face, and stopped before impact. In eight attempts, Moore failed to block any of the punches.[4]
The only existing, high quality footage of Bruce Lee sparring to ever exist was filmed with the very same 16MM colour camera that the rest of the demonstration was filmed with. The sole proprietor of this 8.5 minute long video is a California based company by the name of Rising Sun Productions. The owner of this company and reported discoverer of this video among many other rare martial art-videos is a student of Ed Parker, Don Warrener. The world waits further for Rising Sun to release this footage as it would provide visual evidence of Bruce Lee's skill as a martial artist, rather than the stories from people who trained with him.
Raymond Dinnen won the 1999 Long Beach International Championship.