KENPOJOE said:
Hi Folks!
Dear John {and NO, it's not THAT kind of "dear John" letter, LOL!}
Mr. German's association is in regards to Al Thomas' "Budokan" dojo from El Monte,CA where Mr. German learned Mr. Thomas' system of "Budojujutsu". Some of you might be familiar with Mr. Thomas's video tape "The world of martial arts" w/ Al Thomas, in which Chuck Norris did the introduction, John Saxon [of "enter the dragon" fame] did the narration, and benny urquidez,steve sanders,karen shepard,and many other martial arts greats were featured and performing Mr. Thomas' system. Mr. German received the Grandmastership of the Budojujutsu system from Al Thomas prior to his death by cancer. Mr. German mentions about this in his interview on one of the Panther Production tapes.
Mr. German also trained and received instructor's certification in White Tiger Kung Fu from it's direct living Grandmaster Wai Fung Doo, [also known as Doo Wai] Mr. German, along with Brian Adams [author of "The Medical Implication of Karate Blows"]& Parker Linekin, were the main students under GM Doo Wai and were certified under him in Bok Fu as well as Bok mei {white eyebrow}. Mr. German also received certification from the Kuo Shu Federation of Taiwan in regards to his rank from Doo Wai.
The "ninjutsu" you might have seen was either a early reference to the original variation on the "Kenpoman" called the "Ninjaman" which, if you have old issues of Black Belt Magazine, you can still see the advertisments for the product under that name.
Mr. German has always used the term "TAI Karate" to refer to his art over the years. That is the phrase that most people on the west coast are familiar with as the name of Mr. German's art. BTW, John, thank you for mentioning Mr. German in your now famous "kenpo family tree" from that article long ago!
The tern "ne waza" {ground techniques} has always been used in Jujutsu/Judo circles and has always been part of the TAI curriculum from Mr. German's training with Al Thomas. "Kenpo Jujutsu" is the perfect term for the blending of the kenpo into the jujutsu that Mr. German does, and it's one of the smoothest transitions I've ever seen in my martial arts career!
I hope this properly addresses your comments and since you passed by his studio so many times over the years,you should have stopped by a few times! I'm sure Mr. German would have been happy to explain to you just as I have done so now.
I hope that I was of some service,
KENPOJOE
JOE:
In fact I did talk with them, many times over the years. I knew his common law wife Romaine Lum, and several of their students. I knew some of his black belts, namely Daryl Krebs, Ron Sanchez (now with Bob White), "Mac" MacDonald, and Ray Snyder.
There were only two karate schools in our little town (at the time) of 18,000 people. So everyone knew everyone. I remember Daryl Krebs teaching in his garage in Upland. Ray Snyder starting his school on Lincoln Bl. in Cypress. And "Mac" MacDonald starting his school on Mountain Ave in Ontario.
I remember when David's son get stabbed a local party, and almost died.
So no, I didn't get my information from just driving by his school.
And also, I don't think any of the things I wrote were negative. I think the word I used to describe his skills was "exceptional".
He simply tried to make a living here from teaching the martial arts, so he taught what people wanted to learn at the time. And he was very skillfull at what he taught.
It was just that some of his marketing at the time, seemed odd to us. Like you said "ne waza" is simply the ground techniques from judo and jujitsu, not a separate art in itself. To say that you taught the art of "Newaza" (as he advertized it), would be like a karate guy saying he taught the art of "kicks", but not punches and blocks.
The first I heard of his version of "Kenpo Jujitsu" was when he contacted me around 1993 to do a magazine article on it. At the time I was busy doing assignment articles, so we never did the article.
But anyway, no where in my writings did I state that Mr. German was anything but a excellent martial artist. I was merely trying to explain why someone would be confused about what system he taught.
Because like you said, if someone "just drove by his school" on 13th street, in Chino, Calif, or read his Yellow Page add, they would have seen differant arts advertized at differant time periods.
