Bill ‘Superfoot’ Wallace Neil Kirkland

In the West the golden era of the martial arts was the 70s and 80s in my opinion. Bruce Lee had exploded on to our screens then sadly passed, Chuck Norris was fighting wars on every frontier and new clubs were opening in every church hall and scout hut. One man though was blazing his own trail, Bill Wallace, who fought and beat everyone put in front of him, did some acting and realised Hollywood wasn’t for him, but also continued to teach and pass on his amazing skills (including Elvis as one of his students). He also retired from his professional kickboxing career with an unblemished record of 23-0 which was no mean feat.

Before getting into Karate, Superfoot also trained in Judo & Folk-style wrestling, he was forced to discontinue his Judo because of an injury he suffered to his right knee during practice.He then began to study Shorin Ryu Karate, while serving in the U.S. Air Force. After entering the point fighting tournament scene and achieving success there, he switched to full-contact competition. He focused on his left leg because of the Judo-related injury to his right knee, using the right leg primarily as a base, hence the nickname ‘Superfoot’ rather than ‘Superfeet’!

So as a child and a teenager in that era ‘Superfoot’ was a legend to me and they say never meet your heroes as they may disappoint, but I did just that 10 or so years ago and he didn’t let me down!

So fast forward to Sunday 17 October 2021, I’m like a child excitedly waiting for Santa because Bill is coming to Cambridge again for the first time in 4 years and he’s the first seminar we’d hosted since that horrible virus started doing the rounds.

Now I have One rule when it comes to seminars and that they must be completely inclusive as that is what Adaptive Martial Arts UK & Ireland is all about, promoting the inclusion of people with all types of disability into martial arts. Bill has done several seminars for us and is always the consummate professional who makes everyone welcome and caters for all the abilities in the room.

The room on this chilly Sunday morning was packed! With people from as far away as Wales having made the journey down. There was a variety of styles and of course a vast spectrum of abilities. As soon as Bill entered the atmosphere was electric, everyone was there for one reason and he didn’t disappoint. There was one other bonus, this morning Ken Herrera joined Bill for the seminar. Ken is another amazing martial artist who is one of very few men to have graded to Black belt under Bill, Chuck Norris and the late Joe Lewis. He’s also been a great friend and supporter to Adaptive Martial Arts UK & Ireland over the years, so it was the icing on the cake to have him there as well.

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Neil Kirkland, Bill Wallace and Ken Herrera with the ‘Red Pandas’ — Adaptive Martial Arts UK & Ireland

All seminar images in this article appear courtesy of Nasser Butt 92

What people often forget about Bill is that not only is he a phenomenal kicker, they’ve put a speed radar on his left leg and clocked it at over 60MPH! But his hand speed and skill is amazing too.

So after a warm up and the obligatory ‘Superfoot’ stretching session, everyone starts nice and simply with a jab and a cross. Add a hook to that combo, nice and relaxed, jab, cross, hook………then BAM! There it is the ‘Superfoot’ sidekick! Set up perfectly and timed exactly. You can see in that moment why Bill was so successful as a kickboxer.

Bill got everyone paired up and working, while him and Ken went round seeing what everyone was doing and tweaking techniques or in some cases adapting the drill to suit the students abilities. They had time for everyone and fielded a barrage of questions, some instructors could learn from these two martial arts greats how to engage with a large group of relative strangers as we’ve all been to seminars and courses where unless you were a favourite or obviously super talented you will pretty much be ignored for the duration.

As the seminar progressed Bill showed how the timing and set up work for this on the surface basic combination, but as the layers and subtleties were explained, it didn’t matter what level you were at from white belt to high ranking Dan grade everyone learned something. I think that’s the secret of a great seminar, that everyone goes home with something, they’ve had questions answered and they feel like they got some quality one to one tuition so it was personal too.

So if that’s the secret of a great seminar then Bill Wallace with the help of Ken Herrera was a Masterclass and I for one can’t wait to welcome them back again.

From a martial arts point of view Bill is iconic and if as a student you get the chance to train with him, do it! If as a school you get a chance to host a seminar with him, do it!

From a personal point of view, Bill has supported Adaptive Martial Arts UK & Ireland from the beginning and when that other famous martial artist, Carl has had some health issues, Bill has always been one of the first to send a message of support and I know that means a lot.

I guess in summary, what I want to say is that Bill ‘Superfoot’ Wallace is still my hero and he’s never disappointed. 93