Sherman Oaks Karate

Tomorrow (July 1st) is Mouses birthday. I believe she will be 42. Time is flying by.

 

So

So My name is Patty and yep I trained at Sherman Oaks karate studio and yes I was part of Elvis Presleys friends and because of my karate and association with Mr Norris, I hung with the Presleys for 7 years. I'm writing my book right now.Jeremy Sweet is a musical engineer. My son was a Power Ranger and did the Twentieth century fox theatrical release, TURBO A POWER RANGER MOVIE..and Jeremy Sweet did the music for that movie at the SABAN building on Wilshire Blvd.Small world.I talk to pops occasionally, hes a pharmacist and is working and also is doing a martial arts magazine for the internet..Mouse is a wife, a mommy, and does marathons and still trains..

 

Also, I am a Black belt.

 

Welcome to Martialtalk.
Knowing Elvis, you probably know Dave Hebler. I worked in the same recording studio at MGM studios where Elvis recorded for his documentary 'That's The Way It Was'. Unfortunately, I was in the studio 30 years after he was

 

I was a student at Tarzana Karate from 82 to 85. Dennis Ichikawa was a great instructor. Had a lot of great times, memories and learned a lot. I remember Ron Ponell coming their to teach as a guest instructor on occasion. He tought us that lunging / flying back fist specifically for tournament fighting. I used that, but was mostly a counter fighter.

I remember competing at Sherman Oaks and the team fighting event. I recall the intensity from all of us (all studios). A few of the Sherman Oaks boys were fresh off winning at the Internationals in Long Beach. It was Tarzana vs Sherman Oaks vs Bob Kozdin vs the Hwang Rang Do studio that was located off Topanga / Vanowen (I forget the name).

Great times!

 

I grew up in Sherman Oaks in the 60's and started my karate training there. The Chuck Norris school was on Ventura Blvd, just off Van Nuys Blvd. I agree with much of the history above and that he sold out to some fitness corp., licensed the use of his name and that it did go downhill. My dojo was just a couple blocks away.

Before Chuck took it over, it was indeed Joe Lewis' dojo, but Joe did not have it long for several reasons. Before that, it was a judo school. Don't know about the Paul Mitchell thing. Never got into performance competition and moved away.

Several references were made re: Ron Pohnel. I met him a couple of times at my dojo as he was friends with the other black belt there, the late Johnny Atkinson. They were well known Southern Calif. tough competitors back then. Another one was the late Ken Firestone, originally also a black belt from Johnny (who had his own school by then) in Tarzana down the road and who later on affiliated with Norris TSD. He was very successful on the tournament circuit. He moved to Hawaii, perishing in a car crash some years later.

There is a lot of karate history in the Valley, and Southern Calif. in general. So glad to have been around then.123