studying in the 60's and early 70's

[tshadowchaser]

It sometimes saddens me when I realize just how few of us that started studying way back then are still around. Most of those we studied with are long gone and we now inherit the title of “those old folks”. So I was wondering just who among you studied in the '60's or early 70's ?
For those much younger we did not have the internet so we could not google a system or form we had to learn from an instructor or maybe even from books or magazines. Instructor where few and far between, some of us had to travel more than an hour just to find a school.
I myself started studying with a small group of friends in the mid 60's. We got most of our instruction form a few books and the occasional magazine article. Once in a while we would travel about 70 miles to the nearest school and sit and watch for a night then go home and try to practice what we saw there. My first real school experience came in 1970.
So again I will ask who is still around from those days.

 

[Sukerkin]

I'm not quite so deeply 'rooted' TS {Yeah, Chinese Martial Arts pun attack! } as I started in the arts as a result of going to see Enter the Dragon with a bunch of mates . So I'm a late-70's 'sapling'.

 

[Xue Sheng]

When I started (Jujutsu with Kan Sensei) Enter the Dragonhad not come to yet but it did shortly thereafter so I have been here since theearly 70s but I missed the 60s. I was too young to train in those days.... nota lot of young kid’s classes then.

TS. If it is any consolation, just by time in you could be a member of MAD

M.A.D. - Martial Arts Dinosaur Association :EG:

 

[ATC]

Early 70's start for me. My school was about 20 miles away, not to far away. But after some time my mom could not afford the lessons any longer nor could drive me everyday so I had to keep learning from friends that continued going. I would go to their houses and they would teach me what they learned in class.

Black Belt Magazine was also a teacher of sorts as we would read it in the store (never bought) studie the step by step photos and then go out to a field and practice what we thought we saw. Once I got older and could get around myself I found a stable place to be trained.

 

[elder999]

My dad taught my brother and me some of the judo, karate and boxing he'd done in the Navy and college, when we were moving out of NYC, starting in about 1968.

My first formal class was June 28, 1971. It was-after years of constant badgering, and my mom getting convinced that it would be good for my breathing-my birthday present, so this year's birthday marked 41 years in martial arts.......back then, I wound up sparring with guys from Fred Hamilton's dojo, and meeting him, and Peter Urban's dojo, and meeting him. I started in tae kwon do with Duk Sung Son, and wound up training kyokushin karate with Tadashi Nakamura and Shigeru Oyama, having Willie Williams and William Oliver as seniors, anm meeting Joko Ninomiya as a kid.

I trained in judo with Yoshisada Yonezuka and Katsuo Watanabe-both of whom have to be in their 70's now, and still on the mat every day. Occasionally, I'd get some judo from Allen Coage, who won bronze at the '76 Olympics and went on to become the professional wrestler, "Bad News Brown." I'd also regularly get beaten in shiai by another kid named Mike Swain.....:lfao: He was around all that time, but I didn't start training in Antonio Pereira's Miyama Ryu jujutsu until 1983.

Alot of others-lots of people, some of whom are famous, and quite a few who are no longer with us:Antonio Pereira, Duk Song Son, Allen Coage, William Oliver, Fred Hamilton, Peter Urban, Mas Oyama-who I got to meet and train with in Japan, back in 1980-all gone.Williams sensei-a genuinely humble and kind man-survived being hit by a car while riding his bike, sustaining injuries that would have killed a less-strong man, and no longer teaches martial arts :asian:

(Thanks, Sheldon, for reminding me of how I get closer to being a jiji every day....41 years? :lol: )

 

[geezer]

I didn't start training in the Asian martial Arts as early as some of you. In the 6O's I followed my big brother into wrestling while my next door neighbors went of to do that Karate stuff with some guy named Master Robert Trias. They'd come over and show us how to break boards like old My Hand is my Sword Master Trias could. I mostly just bruised my hands! Like Sukerkin I didn't get into the MA myself until after I saw Enter the Dragon. Then I bought some books, made myself a nunchaku in wood shop, and proceeded to beat myself up real good.

It wasn't until '76 that I joined an actual kung fu school, and by '79 I found my way into the system that I still train today. And I still have so much to learn before I'm through...

 

[Gentle Fist]

I am such a newbie! Started in 1986... Most of you were collecting stripes on your black belts by then

 

[Buka]

In 1963 I saw Ed Parker on The Lucy Show. Oh, I was so hooked, I just knew. On April 1, 1970, I took my first class. I was an April Fool to be sure. Been a fool ever since.

 

[arnisador]

I got serious in 1977 with a brief foray into what i now assume to be a Kenpo variant called "American Self-Defense" and then quickly into Isshin-ryu. I had taken some short courses before that, when younger. Hard to believe it's been that long.

 

[James Kovacich]

I started in Kajukenbo in 1973 in my church hall. When it closed I did Hapkido until I ran into another Kajukenbo school at a tournament and joined them in 1976ish and that lasted for a few years. Most of my 1st 5 years was Kaju. I liked to party way to much and faded in and out of training until my sister married my next instructor a 4th degree at that time in Bujutsu Taiho. He trained me traditional Karate and Judo, full contact and weapons and we meditated a lot.

Just what I needed!

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk

 

[seasoned]

Played a little karate in the Navy in the early 60s. Joined a dojo in 1966, made black belt in 1970. It was the only dojo in a city of around 175,000. Lost many of my early dojo buddies including both my sensei.
Even now I still enjoy training, but, a lot of water has gone over the dam, so to speak.

 

[clfsean]

In the 70's I was a kid on my family's farm. There was a town about 30 miles away on the road to "the big city" for us (Macon, Ga... HAH!! Big city...) that had the famous "KARATE" sign above the doors in the normal "Hai Karate" logo fashion. But my parents couldn't get me up there for any kind of regular class. But in 1981 when we moved to the the big city (Atlanta), I was not transitioning well from farm life to city life so my folks enrolled me in the Taekwondo club at the Lockheed rec center. My dad worked at the plant. Thanks to Thanksgiving break from school, I had my first class Wednesday morning November 25 1981 (they had two classes on Wednesdays, morning & evening to accommodate shifts), but no kids classes at that time. Then another that evening in the normal evening class and never have looked back.

 

[yak sao]

I started MA in the summer of 1981. 5 buddies and I were sitting around on the hoods of our cars when the conversation turned to MA.
We got our courage up and went to the local kung fu school and attended class.
They never made it past that first class, but I was hooked. This summer marked 31 years for me.

 

[oftheherd1]

Began studying TKD under Jhoon Goo Rhee in Washington, DC, about late 64-early 65. What a great teacher and practitioner! He was then a 6th dan, when TKD only went to 8th dan. Studied something around a year, give or take. My schedule in the Army got in the way and I really didn't do anything more of any consequence until about 1985/6, when I took up Hapkido. I stayed with that for several years, learning and teaching. Stopped about 12 years ago due to health reasons, and that turned into laziness. I am slowly (very slowly) trying to get back in to it.

 

[Cougar]

Picked up techniques from two different exchange students in Louisville, KY in mid-60s. First formal training started in Fall 1970 in Richmond, KY. Been going at it since then.