(the following post was about one martial art. Just take the post and
slip into the slot for Kenpo Karate what you do and then read it for
you. Dr. John M. La Tourrette)
Why did you ever decide to do Kenpo Karate?
I've been asked this question a thousand times (or more) in the 37
years I've practiced, studied, researched and taught Kenpo Karate.
AND I go back into my mind and remember the first time I heard about
Kenpo, thinking forward to how I was actually convinced about the
validity of Kenpo Karate and it's principles of fighting.
So this post is about CONVINCER STRATEGIES and NOT about Kenpo
Karate, right?
I was a senior at Southern Oregon College (1966) and was a member of
the Okazaki Juijitsu Demonstration team that was giving a giving a
demo at that college. Part of the team was a Kenpo man from Hawaii by
the name of Harry Kim. I never thought much of him, and I'd never
seen him work out. I knew I could kick his skinny ***.
CONVINCER STRATEGY- If I believe what you do does not work on me, I
will ignore it.
His portion of the Demo was a full-contact fight with a rather mean
boxer, a boxer that I personally never wanted to mess with. Harry
Kim devastated that boxer like he was 6 year old retard. The boxer
never had a chance. Harry just front snap kicked him then hit him a
couple of times and the boxer quit. I figured Harry Kim was
just "lucky", and promptly dismissed the bout.
CONVINCER STRATEGY- If what you do works on someone that I am afraid
of, I still probably ignore what you do as valid. Why? Because I need
to see "proof" several times before I can believe.
About a month later Harry Kim gave a Kenpo Karate DEMO at the college
talent show. It did not place, but my jaw hit the floor. I have never
seen anyone move like that. I wanted to learn it. Harry was
graduating from college in a couple of months and refused to take on
any clients.
CONVINCER STRATEGY- I saw him move in ways I wanted to move. I saw
him do a 10 minute demo that did get my interest. I was ready.
I went into the Army. Because of my 4 years of college and my
aptitude for foreign languages, I went into the branch of the Army
called the Army Security Agency. After Basic Training I was stationed
at the Presidio of Monterey to learn the Korean language. It was 9
month training, 6 hrs a day, 5 days a week. Just before graduation I
was talking with a couple of newbie's that just arrived from Military
Intelligence basic training.
We got to talking about the martial arts, and the short guy with black hair
wanted to know if I knew anything about Mass Attacks. I asked him what he meant.
He then had me stand to his right side and had his friend stand to his left side
and told us to grab him. Before I could blink an eye, he had struck both me and
his friend BEFORE we could move. I was flabbergasted. I had no clue on how he
did it. I was sure he must be a high level black belt. I asked him his rank. His
reply, "I'm a green belt in Kenpo Karate".
It pissed me off. I felt like I'd wasted 16 years of training.
CONVINCER STRATEGY- I had Kenpo Karate effectively worked on me. The
BEST convincer strategy. I was now totally convinced about it's
effectiveness, but was going to Goodfellow Air Force Base. No Kenpo
Karate there.
The next time I saw Kenpo Karate was right after I'd ETS'ed from the
Army Security Agency and was teaching at a small Dojo called the
Medford Judo & Karate Academy in 1970. This guy from Sacramento came
in and he'd trained with Steve Fox. He became my student and while he
was my student I picked up some of what he did. It was Kenpo Karate.
At that time I was teaching Taekwon-do and was not much impressed
with what he was doing with his Kenpo Karate. He was easily defeated
in sparring, and sparring success really counted with me.
CONVINCER STRATEGY- I'd been doing Taekwon-do 6 days a week for 4
hours a day for almost 3 years. I was good. I was fast. I did win
tournaments in Korea and in the United States. Mr. DD, who came from
Steve Fox, was easily defeated in the sparring class, and his kicks
were ugly and ineffectual. I did not pay much attention to his Kenpo
Karate. That previous success erased the effectiveness of Kenpo
Karate from my mind.
I did love the martial arts, and even though I was going for a
teaching credential at SOC, I wanted to teach karate for a living
because I loved working out so much.
One evening I opened a Black Belt magazine and I saw that old Joe
Lewis ad, the one where Joe was hired by the Tracy Kenpo organization
to be their front man.
I thought the ad was ********, but I kept going back to that ad. That
ad ate away at my mind and my guts and I kept wondering, "what if
it's true?"
One evening, drunk on my butt, I did write a letter answering that
ad.
The next week I received a telephone call from Jim Tracy, and then he
came up to Oregon to meet with me. We decided that after my
graduation I'd go to Portland OR to learn the necessary Kenpo Karate
and the business aspects so I could open my own school.
CONVINCER STRATEGY-I was willing to learn something I did NOT want
(Kenpo Karate) to get a skill (business) that I did want.
I graduated from SOC in June 1973. In July 73 my wife Lynn and I
moved to Portland and I became a manager trainee at the Sandy Blvd.
studio run by Bob A. I hated the school. I hated Bob A. as a fraud
and a moral coward. I had no respect for him and since he owned that
school, I had no respect for that school or what it taught. So I
hated the Kenpo Karate, but I was doing what was necessary to get the
job done and the skills I wanted learned. I worked from 10am to 10pm.
I taught hundreds of students their Kenpo Karate; I learned their
business practices. I did that routine 5 days a week for 6 months.
NEGATIVE CONVINCER STRATEGIES- Things that STOP you from continuing.
See above paragraph.
Here's the strange part. I did NOT like Kenpo Karate. I could beat
all the people at that school in sparring. They couldn't kick. They
couldn't fight. The owner told me I needed work on X and Y, but would
NOT dress down and show me why he was qualified to tell me about
sparring and working out.
CONVINCER STRATEGY- If they can't do it to me, then they can't do it.
The only skill that they had was business (which I had to drive to
Salem to study with Jim Mitchell. Jim Mitchell is a different and
more pleasant story.).
CONVINCER STRATEGY- When any WANT is big enough any "how" will work
for you! Think on this one.
6 months had gone by. Bob A. told me that because I could fight so
well he wanted me and a few of the others to enter in the upcoming
tournament by Bruce Terrill and Super Dan Anderson, the Western
States Karate Kung-Fu championships.
So I did. I fought. And since I'd NOT been practicing my Taekwon-do,
my kicks were slow, ineffectual and easily seen. I like to fight even
if not properly prepared. I started using my hands, a tactic that I
never used when I'd fought before in Korea and in the US.
I went in on this big guy with a 3 punch blitz. It was a simple
split second combination, Left Sun punch, right reverse punch to the
gut, and left vertical punch to the nose.
The Korean referee said, "No power, no point", and then the big guy
passed out and buckled to his knees. That reverse punch had more
power than that Korean thought. Because the Korean was trained in
lock-out karate he could NOT see nor accurately judge Kenpo Karate
hands.
CONVINCER STRATEGY- The Korean master could NOT see the strike.
Knowing that really made me feel good. Having a hand speed so fast
that others from other styles could not see it meant they would be
putty in my hands in a real fight.
CONVINCER STRATEGY- The invisible punch skill had tons of power!
Anyway, I wasn't disqualified, and I fought my way up to the finals,
just using my hands. In the finals, I accidentally broke this cop's
nose (he writes books on the martial arts & doesn't like me) and I
was disqualified. So I took 3rd place.
CONVINCER STRATEGY- In my mind, losing a match by disqualification
was NOT losing. Back then, if a judge or a referee could not see what
I was doing, I'd just hit them harder and harder until the judge or
referee could see it. That means that the opponent sometimes got
hurt. We had no safety gear back then except tape. So we'd tape our
hands so our knuckles wouldn't break.
My wife had filmed all my matches on Super 8. I reviewed them
afterwards to see what I could have done better. I was surprised at
the hand work. Very fast, very deceptive, and totally UNSEEN by those
people who were NOT trained in Kenpo Karate. And I could see room for
lots of improvement to make them even better!
CONVINCER STRATEGY- Clarification of expertise and skill from a
source that was I could watch again and again, to see for MYSELF.
That's when I decided to take Kenpo Karate and to master it. That's
also when I added to it my kicking skills from the Taekwon-do. That
was 1974, 4 years after I'd started with Kenpo from Steve Fox's
student.
I'm very slow to change from what I do successfully to anything else.
After first noticing Kenpo Karate in 1966 it took be another 8 years
to realize that Kenpo Karate had some of the best and most effective
principles out there.
Does that mean that I'm slow? Or does that mean something else much
more important?
Hopefully you have enjoyed this simple story about CONVINCER
STRATEGIES, and how YOU can easily use them with others when you
explain what you do with Kenpo Karate.
And here's a few simple questions for you.
What went through your mind that caused you to start training in
Kenpo Karate?
How were you CONVINCED that Kenpo Karate was the martial art for you?
Why have you stayed with Kenpo Karate after seeing all the other neat
systems?
Dr. John M. La Tourrette
Neuro-linguistic Programming Trainer (NLP) 1980-2007
Kenpo Karate Student & Trainer 1970-2007
Ph.D. Sports Psychology Columbia Pacific University 1987
