Arizona Karate Instructor - a Who's Who in Martial Arts, Science & Engineering, the World & a Little More

So, what does karate, kobudo, samurai arts, self-defense, art, martial art, writing, geology, public speaking and astronomy have in common? We can only think of two things - Grandmaster Hausel & Who's Who.

2017 was another good year for a valley martial arts instructor and geologist. Grandmaster Hausel of Gilbert was notified of selection for awards acknowledging his lifelong dedication to martial arts, geology, writing, and more! 

Along with General Colin Powell, Hausel was selected for the Albert Nelson Marquis Who’s Who Lifetime Achievement Award and with Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee, he was selected for Who’s Who in Martial Arts. 

Earlier, in 2017, the Hall-of-Fame martial arts instructor was notified of his selection to (1) Great Men & Women of Science, (2) the Cambridge Certificate for Outstanding Scientific Achievement and now for (3) Best Martial Arts Teachers in Phoenix for Expertise. And we can now add (4) Who's Who in Martial Arts, and (5) Who's Who Lifetime Achievements.

Grandmaster Hausel taught martial arts for more than 3 decades at the University of Wyoming prior to moving to the valley to teach at ASU before opening the Arizona Hombu dojo in Mesa. But overall, he has been training in martial arts for more than 5 decades and teaching for nearly five along with writing more than a thousand books, articles, professional papers, maps and scientific abstracts, presenting about 400 professional talks around the continent, sketching, lecturing about geology, martial arts, and astronomy. 

Hausel teaches karate, kobudo, self-defense and samurai arts to adults at the dojo at the 60 W. Baseline Center. Grandmaster Hausel began martial arts training in 1964 as a long-haired member of a rock n' roll band known as the Churchmen. Since he started training in martial arts, only a few days have passed when he has not trained or taught martial arts during the past 50+ years. Even when he was in the Army, he trained at night in the barracks, and when he worked as a geologist from a tent in Montana, Wyoming, Australia and Alaska, he still trained in karate.

He attended an international diamond exploration conference in the Western Australian outback and accepted a challenge from the Japanese geologists-martial artists to break tops off of silicified termite mounds using a classical karate chop known as 'shuto' - it was every termite for itself. 

In Alaska, training was challenging. At night, he would return to camp and practice kata until mosquitos covered him from head to toe. Never harassed by bears - but one other geologist was treed by a bear that ran off when another camp geologist shot it between the eyes with a .357 magnum. The bear left with a red streak and headache. 

Then there is the other side. The Hall-of-Fame geologist with 45 years experience found gemstones, gold and diamonds and authored hundreds of books, papers and abstracts. His geological expertise helps in breaking rocks and teaching his students about rocks and what types of rocks are breakable with the bare hands and which ones are not.

According the Hausel, "Ok, ok, I'm crazy about martial arts - I love to teach martial arts and it is rewarding to me to see  my students progress, and enjoy what they are learning. We have a fantastic group of adults at the Arizona Hombu dojo in Mesa that includes accountants, research professors, professors, scientists, engineers, school teachers, retirees, physical therapists,  nutritionists, personal trainers who range in age from young adults to retirees. All my life I've taught adults at four different universities".

In the 1980s, Hausel mapped 1,000 square kilometers
of complex geological terrain at South Pass, but in the
evening would return to his tent and practice karate.

Inducted into Who's Who Legends in Martial Arts

Hausel in 1988 in search of gold in Alaska. When he wasn't digging for gold
he was fighting millions of mosquitos just to practice karate every evening.

In the Australian outback, Hausel would compete with Japanese black belt-
geologist to see who could break the tops off these termite mounds in diamond
country.

In recent years, while exploring for gold and copper in the Silver Crown district of
Wyoming, Hausel found time in the evenings to train in karate.

Martial Art in Arizona

Train hard and sweat  now -
for sometime later, you will likely be attacked on the street.

The origin of martial arts colored pencil sketch

It was about 1989 or 1990. I was finishing a five-year research project related to gold at South Pass Wyoming and submitted a group of eight 1:24,000 scale geological maps for publication including a compilation map at 1:48,000 scale for the entire greenstone belt and its gold districts. Our draftswoman, Fiddy, who was a very good artist suggested I would be a very good artist based on my maps. Huh? Me?

I laughed at her comment and indicated I was challenged by 'stick figures'. She followed up with a comment that seemed to have kick-started an unused part of my brain - "You should try sketching like you map, focus on details in small areas and let it grow into a larger picture."

That seemed to make sense - so I tried and was shocked that hidden in my brain, were the tools for sketching. Thank you Fiddy! So, I decided to do a variety of sketches of things that interested me. And of course, some were related to martial arts and in particular to Shorin-Ryu Karate, Kobudo, Samurai arts and self-defense.

So, while growing up, going to college and working as a professional musician, astronomer, geologist, author, martial arts instructor and professor, I had no idea that this talent lay hidden within me.

Okinawan sunrise sketch

In 2013, I was presented a special award at the Juko Kai National Clinic in Texas. I was presented the honorary title of Meijin Wajutsu. And in my opinion, Juko Kai International is the most prestigious martial arts association in the world, so this was a great honor. 

At first I was taken back by this title. Me a genius? I never received very good grades in school, but the more I thought about it, the more I started to feel comfortable. Yes, I was creative in music, geology, art, writing and martial arts - so isn't this what genius is about? It was clear many martial arts groups and associations as well as geological groups had also recognized this characteristic in me. Over the years, I had been inducted into several Halls-of-Fame for martial arts and geological research. In the martial arts, I can visualize techniques before anyone tries a new technique and I can vocalize how to do these techniques. So for me, a person who is engineering-challenged, martial arts have been perfect because of its artistic overtones. But I think, at least for genius, when applied to me it relates to interest and how I pursue that interest - it has little to do with IQ.

Stop in our dojo and say 'konnichi wa' . You can check out our martial arts and some of our martial art in the dojo. We are located on Baseline Road between Chandler, Gilbert and Mesa, Arizona. Just click on

MAP TO OUR DOJO.

Hi Seas pencil sketch

What I hope to see in my backyard sketch