Abdominals: “Has anybody seen Richie?” by Tom Furman

Tom Furman

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Apr 4, 2019

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Richie Barathy, in the photo above was a practitioner of American Combat Karate. He had a background in Taekwondo and later found himself in the rough and tumble dojo of Nisei Karate founder, Frank Ruiz. This school was populated with the likes of Louis Delgado, Herbie Thompson, Owen Watson and others. Richie paid rent by bouncing in NY in the 1970’s and by later teaching his brand of karate. He was blind in one eye due to an injury and had incurred Lupus early in life. Doctors told him he wouldn’t be physically active and he defied them by training rigorously.

He, at one point, met Howard Tague, A practitioner of Japanese jiu jitsu and other arts. He was also a hypnotherapist and devout weight trainer. [Realize, back in the day, weight training was less common in martial arts.] Sensei Tague sparred the battle hardened…