Nov 2008
It was forty years ago today
26/Nov/08
I’m old enough to remember Paul McCartney signing that old Beatles song. Well, it has been just over forty years ago now that Allen Steen announced that I had earned a black belt. Those weren’t easy to come by in 1968. In fact, Mr. Steen gave probably the hardest exams in the United States in those days. It is difficult to believe that four decades have passed since that day. I never would have thought that the martial arts would change my life the way they have. I know I would not be the person I am today if not for the arts. Actually, as I think about it, it isn’t just tae kwon do, ju-jutsu or kobudo (the arts I hold black belts in) that have changed me—it is the people that those belts represent. It is those instructors, those fellow practitioners and yes, my students, who have molded me for over forty years.
That’s why it was so great to see some of those faces last Saturday. Bob Woerner was the second black belt on my family tree of black belts. Tom Thompson, Paul Hinkley, Joseph Battino and Buddy Matthews, all predate the days I started teaching at the Richardson YMCA in the mid 1980s. Mr. Woerner and Mr. Thompson also trained under Allen Steen, James Toney and Jack Erickson at the original Texas Karate Institute in Snider Plaza in Dallas near SMU. It was especially meaningful to see Mr. Toney and Mr. Erickson at the event as well as former world champion (and Black Belt Magazine Man-of-the-Year) Roy Kurban. Roy and I came up through the ranks together and met several times on the mat (in spite of his gracious remarks on Saturday, he usually won those meetings).
I don’t have the space to mention all the names of the people who were at the surprise party (and I know that many more of you wanted to come but couldn’t) but I do want to say that it was touching to me that the only two young men I have ever promoted to black belt at the age of twelve were there. Max Rodriguez and Thomas Merhout were outstanding students at the time and continue to impress me and others with their skills and, more importantly, with their character.
In fact, it is the character of ALL the people in the AKaTo that make me proud to be a martial artist. So I want to thank all of you for being a part of my life for forty years. I also must thank my wife, Linda, for putting up with decades of evenings at home while I trained and taught. I am especially proud of my son, Rodney (who was the only one of my four kids to earn a black belt—by the way, I never pushed any of them to train). Rodney and his wife Ginny drove in from Louisiana that afternoon to attend the party and then drove back that evening! Finally, all you guys need to thank Judy Barnett for spending so much time arranging the event. And Mr. Proctor really put one over on me, I didn’t suspect a thing!
That’s why it was so great to see some of those faces last Saturday. Bob Woerner was the second black belt on my family tree of black belts. Tom Thompson, Paul Hinkley, Joseph Battino and Buddy Matthews, all predate the days I started teaching at the Richardson YMCA in the mid 1980s. Mr. Woerner and Mr. Thompson also trained under Allen Steen, James Toney and Jack Erickson at the original Texas Karate Institute in Snider Plaza in Dallas near SMU. It was especially meaningful to see Mr. Toney and Mr. Erickson at the event as well as former world champion (and Black Belt Magazine Man-of-the-Year) Roy Kurban. Roy and I came up through the ranks together and met several times on the mat (in spite of his gracious remarks on Saturday, he usually won those meetings).
I don’t have the space to mention all the names of the people who were at the surprise party (and I know that many more of you wanted to come but couldn’t) but I do want to say that it was touching to me that the only two young men I have ever promoted to black belt at the age of twelve were there. Max Rodriguez and Thomas Merhout were outstanding students at the time and continue to impress me and others with their skills and, more importantly, with their character.
In fact, it is the character of ALL the people in the AKaTo that make me proud to be a martial artist. So I want to thank all of you for being a part of my life for forty years. I also must thank my wife, Linda, for putting up with decades of evenings at home while I trained and taught. I am especially proud of my son, Rodney (who was the only one of my four kids to earn a black belt—by the way, I never pushed any of them to train). Rodney and his wife Ginny drove in from Louisiana that afternoon to attend the party and then drove back that evening! Finally, all you guys need to thank Judy Barnett for spending so much time arranging the event. And Mr. Proctor really put one over on me, I didn’t suspect a thing!
Thoughts on enlarging your training
09/Nov/08
We just had our black belt exam in kobudo this last Saturday. Ten people lasted the entire curriculum out of over 50 who have attended at some time or other during the last two and a half years. It is a testament to not only these martial artists but to the instructors who have spent extra time making sure each student received the training they desired. I can single out Randy Miller as one teacher who has offered many hours of his own time. Of course the students themselves have to make the effort to train. Congratulations to everyone. You can see some photos on the current gallery and the list of promotions on the news page.
It has been a long road for the AKaTo kobudo classes over the last sixteen years since Mike Proctor, Jon Baughman and I developed the original curriculum. We have taught at the Richardson and Garland YMCAs, at the Cooper Fitness Center (where the classes are now regularly held) and some of us can even remember the bank rotunda in downtown Dallas. We started the class because too many times martial artists become bored with the same old thing. I’ve trained and taught for over forty years and have yet to tire of wrapping my belt around my waist and heading off to class. But I realize that isn’t typical. Still, I like to learn new stuff as much as the next person and some of my most exciting times in the martial arts have been when I took up something new like when I first started branching out into ju-jutusu and later kobudo, both with Ted Gambordella. Meeting Jon Baughman over twenty years ago through Bryan Robbins at SMU and later Garrett Seaback enlarged my exposure to traditional weapons. Of course Mike Proctor had already had much practice and training with the traditional approaches. So I wanted to give some of the AKaTo members (then the STA members) some of the same broad exposure to other arts.
So now we wrap up our sixth class of kobudo black belts we look forward to a seventh session starting in April of 2009. The thought occurs to me that I’ll be sixty years old when we promote students of of this group to black belt sometime in 2011. I’m not done learning new things yet and I hope you have the same attitudes. Perhaps you’ll be one of the new faces at the next session.
It has been a long road for the AKaTo kobudo classes over the last sixteen years since Mike Proctor, Jon Baughman and I developed the original curriculum. We have taught at the Richardson and Garland YMCAs, at the Cooper Fitness Center (where the classes are now regularly held) and some of us can even remember the bank rotunda in downtown Dallas. We started the class because too many times martial artists become bored with the same old thing. I’ve trained and taught for over forty years and have yet to tire of wrapping my belt around my waist and heading off to class. But I realize that isn’t typical. Still, I like to learn new stuff as much as the next person and some of my most exciting times in the martial arts have been when I took up something new like when I first started branching out into ju-jutusu and later kobudo, both with Ted Gambordella. Meeting Jon Baughman over twenty years ago through Bryan Robbins at SMU and later Garrett Seaback enlarged my exposure to traditional weapons. Of course Mike Proctor had already had much practice and training with the traditional approaches. So I wanted to give some of the AKaTo members (then the STA members) some of the same broad exposure to other arts.
So now we wrap up our sixth class of kobudo black belts we look forward to a seventh session starting in April of 2009. The thought occurs to me that I’ll be sixty years old when we promote students of of this group to black belt sometime in 2011. I’m not done learning new things yet and I hope you have the same attitudes. Perhaps you’ll be one of the new faces at the next session.