Fred Villari

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Great Grandmaster Frederick J. Villari, founder of Shaolin Kempo Karate, has passed away. He brought, at least, thousands to martial arts and lives on in his style, his students, and his students' students.

 

[Dirty Dog]

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[Xue Sheng]

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[Buka]

R.I.P

 

[hoshin1600]

While it was David Carradine that first peeked my interest in martial arts, it was a kempo school that I first stepped foot in. I met a lot of good people while there. For all the controversy, you got to hand it to Fred he wanted to turn karate into a huge money making buisness and he succeeded there.

 

[Buka]

While it was David Carradine that first peeked my interest in martial arts, it was a kempo school that I first stepped foot in. I met a lot of good people while there. For all the controversy, you got to hand it to Fred he wanted to turn karate into a huge money making buisness and he succeeded there.

Mister Villari was originally a draftsman, worked for the father of one of my students. One day he put in his two weeks notice and told his co-workers he was going to open Martial Arts schools all over the country and make a fortune.
Like Verbal Kint in the film The Usual Suspects, he was "the man with the plan.”


It sure as heck worked. If I remember correctly, at his peak, he had over 250 schools world wide.

His World headquarters was in the town next to mine. Over the years, dozens of his students came to my dojo and asked if we could train them for their upcoming tournaments. We always obliged them, never charged them, never took advantage of them, and always kept it quiet. (They weren’t allowed to train anywhere outside of their own dojo.)

In order to properly help them, I went to one of their yearly point tournaments to see how it was run and what the scoring tendencies were. To tell you the truth, it blew me away. Especially the Kata.

The tournament had so many competitors it was difficult to believe. To give you a "for instance”, at any other Kata competition in New England judging was done by a panel of five judges. At the Villari competition it was one judge who was judging three people all doing Kata at the same time. Often, different Katas. There really wasn’t any other way, there were just too many competitors. So many that the tournament was held in two gymnasiums at the same time. It was the first time I had ever seen the tournament officials wearing headsets so they could communicate.

But I watched and took detailed notes. Trained the folks that came to me in both Kumite and Kata. Every single one of them either won or placed. I was glad for all of them, told them they could drop down any time, but at no time did I ask them to join.

Many of the same ones came back every year, just before their annual tournament. I’d see them walk in and ask, “Tournament time?” And we’d do it all over again.

 

[kevinsstelly]

Frederick J. Villari was a great man! He had a wonderful training that changed the world for the better!