"...My base style is Chinese Kenpo - lots of Katas, lots of techniques, lots of
sparring, (a few weapons), and the system is based on the five animals. When I
had reached third black in that system, I felt like the locks in the program
could be more effective, the weapons more extensive, and the martial Tai Chi I
was learning more powerful...in fact, at the time, I was not impressed with the
Tai Chi, but I kept doing it because I thought with all the stuff I read on it there
must be more than I am "getting". So I went off and trained in Arnis and
Balintawak, becoming an instructor under Remy Presas and Bobby
Taboda/Peter Ball. I brought in Wally Jay for Jujitsu seminars to my schools along
with Joe Lewis, Chuck Clark (Aikido), Jeet Kune Do people, Jin Heng Li (Wu
Shu weapons and Tai Chi), along with Jerry Cook, sensei Oyata (Okinawan
Kempo), Rick Moneymaker from Dillman's group, plus many others.
I read the wandering taoist series and thought "if this guy is still alive I need to
train with him,"within a month I was, and from Kwan Saihung I learned the original
5 animal forms from Shaolin (which I teach), along with extensive Tai Chi
essentials, along with Hwa To's 5 animals, and the 24 marrow washing and chi
gung sets. With all that knowledge I saw how the stuctural integrity that Tai Chi
developed improved my Balinatawk, Kenpo, Kung Fu ,and weapons, and I used
some of the keys to integrate into and develop my locks and Tai Chi programs.
Wally Jay inspired the 16 lock drill I created - and I created the programs from the
point of view that if I were a beginning student how would I want to be taught."