Bill “Butch” Dobich holds the Indonesian martial arts seventh degree Poekoelan Black Belt – a rare distinction. A formidable opponent in world class martial arts tournaments, Bill seldom returned home without the winning trophy. But as you will find as you read his life story, it wasn’t always that way.
Bill’s life story expands into the story behind the story. It is a must read for anyone interested in the history of martial arts and its various forms or anyone that may be considering learning and practicing any form of the art. It includes a comprehensive instruction guide and reference material for students of Poekoelan, starting from their first day on the mat through to the highest Black Belt status.
This memoir, written in novel form, is the true story of a legal immigrant family that had a price on its head, a dream in their hearts and a chance to come to America. The Wetzels were Dutch-Indonesian colonists living in South East Asia until 1950 when they made a harrowing escape from Muslim rebel insurgents in Indonesia and fled back to Holland. It includes family pictures and exclusive historical photos and brings transparency and truth to a complicated family history and disparages past vicious rumors and attempts to rewrite the history of the Wetzel family. Their journey brought them from Holland to the United States in 1956 where the family patriarch, Willy Wetzel, built an American dynasty around a successful family business bringing a previously close kept secret of Indonesian style martial arts to mainstream America.
Poekoelan Kung-Fu