Your friends at IMAC, USA welcome everyone who will be joining us for the 2nd Annual Martial Arts Olympics East-West Open. We look forward to sharing this extraordinary experience with you in April 2008; and, wish you the best of success at the East-West Open. In addition to organizing a once-in-lifetime trip for the competitors and spectators, IMAC USA was challenged to select a team to compete in the Olympic 'Battle of the Continents' which will feature fighting teams representing Asia, Europe, North America; and, the host country Russia. As a result, IMAC's scouting team set-out on a nationwide search to find the most outstanding American martial artists. With so much exceptional talent here in the United States, this mission proved to be demanding, but also extremely rewarding. We'd like to share with you a few great stories; and, martial artists we've had the pleasure to meet along the way. Athletes, that you can call teammates. Together, we will show the world the talent, heart and soul that America has to offer. In addition, we?d like to introduce to you the United States team.

Dan Netherland - (Cont.)

Storms, poverty, sickness, snakes, polio, each form a picture of Dan Netherlands’ life.

Netherland taught advanced students, the inner secrets of the martial arts through doku (a poem either in seventeen syllable haiku or 31 syllable, waka format). These doku revealed truths the students could use, see, know, absorb, and use in their own lives. Netherland himself had thrived on heroic stories like ‘Old Toby’ and ‘Great Uncle Ralph’. These heroic stories served as an inspiration for him, helping him to imagine and believe in the unthinkable.

Bill Netherland, Dan’s father, told him stories of ‘Old Toby’. Old Toby was a giant man, black and strong, who worked at a cotton gin unloading bails of cotton. Old Toby would back up to a wagon pull a bail of cotton onto his shoulder, then walk across the yard placing it for delivery. Bill said Toby could do this all day long. What makes this story remarkable is that Toby was well up in years; and, had a clubfoot. How much does a bail of cotton weigh? Five hundred pounds! Toby could have been an American tall tale legend.

Uncle Ralph was stricken with polio on one side of his body, but the other side was a giant of a man. Uncle Ralph could chop wood all day long with a double blade ax, using his one good arm. He could wrap a one-inch grass rope under his foot then around his hand, yank and break it. He could lift a loaded wagon while a wheel was changed. He could lift a bull yearling off the ground. He hunted with a heavy 10-gauge shotgun, shooting it one handed. Crippled great Uncle Ralph was a giant just like Old Toby.

When Netherland was three, on a sweltering August morning, Sara, his mother, returned to the small country house to find a large snake about to crawl upon the bed where he was sleeping. Screaming, she called Bill and other field workers, they came running. The snake was finally killed. The venomous snake measured over six feet long. No one had ever seen such a big snake as that before. Country people started talking.

In 1949, the three-year-old child was having great difficulty with basic body movements. Upon examination, it was discovered that Netherland had the dread disease, Polo. This was the same crippling disease Great Uncle Ralph had. Polio was greatly feared in the 40’s and 50’s. Thousands of people contracted the disease. Many died while others were crippled for life.

Polio is a viral disease that appears in three forms. Abortive Polio - flu like; with high fever, sore throat and respiratory infection. Non-paralytic Polio - is similar to the above but has sensitivity to light, with neck and joint stiffness. Paralytic Polio - has all the above with muscle paralysis, due to nerve damage. The polio virus attacks the governing muscles in the limbs. Respiratory difficulty can lead to death. The virus can shut down any and all muscle function in the body. Though the acute illness could last only weeks, the resulting damage to the nerves could last a lifetime. Netherland had to deal with post polio syndrome some forty years after it went away in his teens. Post polio syndrome, (PPS), is a painful, crippling aftermath of the original virus. Damage done to the nerves by polio, in his youth, brought about acceleration of nerve degeneration in later years. Crutches, Braces, wheel chairs and the iron lung, all became the badge / banner of polio.

Netherland would enter the armed forces during the Vietnam era, receiving all honorable discharge. He then entered the field of law enforcement, ultimately obtaining the position of Police Patrol Division Captain, Juvenile Division Captain, S.W.A.T. Team Commander, and Tactical trainer teaching armed and unarmed tactical combat, police urban street survival and arrest methods against armed/unarmed, sing and multiple assailants. Later in his career, he became a Diplomatic; Executive protector (bodyguard); and, Director of Protection and Security for The World Arab/U.S.A. Trade Association. A man of constant evolution, he than became a minister, author and educator. He received a ministerial degree from “Bereau Bible College”; Masters and Doctorate of Divinity from “Columbus Bible College”; and, a PhD from “The Alabama Oriental Studies Institute”.

He has traveled the world bringing inspiration, courage, motivation and hope to people of all national backgrounds. He specifically likes to encourage the disabled and disadvantaged, believing anything is possible with the correct mindset. He would do all this while raising a family of five. He would also do battle with heart disease; decreased lung capacity; diabetes; arthritis; and, his age old nemesis - polio.