The history of how this Manual of the Lost Techniques was developed is an interesting one. For those who know my other writings on Kenpo topics will know that I normally do not give much personal details or ‘name-drop’. However, the people involved with the background of this material are very notable. It is hopeful that practitioners of Kenpo from the 1960s and 1970s will experience nostalgia, and the new practitioners of our art will get inspired from how we trained in the developmental days of Kenpo in America.

Part 3 – From Masterless to Masters – 1984 to 1990

As Joe Lewis suggested, I contacted Al Tracy. I had never spoken to him before, but we hit it off well from the beginning. Gary must have mentioned me to him, because he called me ‘computer-brain’, too. I purchased the newly released Tracy Kenpo Belt System manuals and videotapes. In 1984 I had become promoted to nidan (second degree black belt) under Al Tracy. After comparing the list that went to godan (5th degree black belt), I noticed several techniques that were missing. Some of the techniques were renamed, others combined as variations, but there were over 20 techniques that were not in the system. I collected all of the techniques that were not in the requirements of the Tracy System that we had in the 1970s and wrote the first version of the ‘Lost Techniques’ manual. I used these techniques as a supplemental belt after shodan.

In 1984, I had started a school in Crestwood, KY and trained with a college friend, Brett Bursack. Brett was a lot like me in ability, so we trained all of the time at the University of Louisville and at my Crestwood school. Brett came from Columbus, Ohio and studied at Jay T. Will’s studio. Jay T. Will taught basically the Tracy System, however, he used his own name instead of Tracy’s because of his fame as a nationally ranked fighter and owner and referee for PKA (Professional Kickboxing Association). Brett and I built up a student base in Crestwood until I had enough students to open a commercial, full-time school back in Louisville.

In 1985, I began to read Ed Parker’s new Kenpo book series, Infinite Insights Into Kenpo. I honestly did not know that there was a connection between Tracy’s Kenpo and Ed Parker until I saw the family tree in volume one. Al and I talked about Ed Parker and what the differences are between the systems. Eventually I called Ed Parker and started studying his system outside of my school. I felt that it would cause confusion if I suddenly switched systems, and at that time, I had no reason to.

In 1987, when I opened my full time, Tracy’s Kenpo Studio, I was also a graduate student at the University of Louisville in the physics department. I would attend class in the morning (quantum mechanics, stellar astrophysics, etc.), open up the studio and teach the morning class, then go back to the University to teach undergraduate physics classes, and go back to the studio to finish the day. Brett would fill in the afternoon when I was at the University. Brett also taught some of the group classes as well as some of the great guys from the 1970s. Tracy Schiller, Paul Bryant, and Joe Renzi joined in to teach and utilize the facility. Tracy taught group classes, and Paul and Joe taught sparring. It was after a few months that I realized that the American mindset had changed about the martial arts. The heavy hitting approach nearly wiped out my school as it did in our original school in 1980. So, I had to adapt and change how we trained. The real training had to be reserved for the hard-core elite. Even Brett’s class had to change. Brett would usually completely exhaust the students. It took a long time to realize the general population was not interested in real martial arts training – only the fantasy that they could receive by getting belt ranks. Because I would not promote rank to those who did not meet the standards, these students would drop out. Eventually, my school was close to closing the doors.

When my brother was a senior in high school, he started to get serious with Kenpo training. In the late 1987, Eric began to teach private lessons at my school. We had decided to close the doors when my lease ran out in March 1990. Because we had some devoted students, we could not just abandon them, as we were when Gary had to move away. So, we had to figure out a way to continue to teach. The Tracy System is so intensive with the hundreds of variations of techniques; it is necessary to learn with private lessons. However the Parker System only has 154 techniques with no variations - perfect for group classes. So, in 1988, I had Eric to start teaching the Parker System to his students and I would continue to teach the Tracy’s students. In this way we were able to transition the school to a group class only school when we moved to the new location in a community center.

During the period of 1987 to 1990 Eric and I had contact with many of the legends of the martial arts in America. Al Tracy had decided to move his headquarters from Seattle, Washington to Lexington, Kentucky. Lexington is only a one-hour drive from Louisville. For a few months, Al Tracy had changed his headquarters to my address while he set up his new, and current, headquarters. Al would come to our school every week to pick up his mail. We would then film his videotapes in my studio. Eric and I were his ‘dummies’ to be tossed around, and his wife, Pat, would run the cameras. Al was very impressive in his strength, control of his opponent, and how he could control his environment while he taught, always hitting the perfect camera angle. On one particular occasion, Al was teaching his videotape on, “How to Teach a Private Lesson”. He used one of my purple belts, a boy about 10 years old who was the son of Brett Bursack’s boss. Eric and I watched how, without using a clock, Al was able to end his 30-minute private lesson exactly to the second. Al said that his years of teaching experience gave him an internal clock. I believe it!

Routinely, we would get calls from people who claimed to know Bruce Lee, etc. These were either prank calls or from brain-damaged individuals. One time a guy wearing combat fatigues came out of an armored personnel carrier. He said that he knew Bruce Lee, Funakoshi Gichin, Hank Slemanksi, Chuck Norris, Ed Parker, Joe Lewis and many others. He even claimed to have judged a point-karate match where Chuck Norris beat Joe Lewis. I thought, “yeah, right. How can I get rid of this guy?” So I invited him to participate in class, which was about to begin. I was in my office and started hearing a very loud booming sound, and the floor was shaking. I looked out into the classroom where Brett Bursack was teaching and saw this guy, in his 50s, wearing a red and white barred belt hitting our heavy bag. I have never seen such power. I later found out that he was telling the truth. His name is Bill Dometrich, and brought Chito-Ryu to American after he had been promoted to sandan by Funakoshi Gichin. Bill’s dojo was in Covington, Kentucky, which is about two hours away. He came in many other times and told true stories of the greatest of American Kenpo and worked with Eric on his kata. Bill was in the original Airborne with Hank Slemanski. Hank promoted Elvis Presley to shodan, before Ed Parker began training him.
Having the Tracy National Headquarters set up at my address brought in others, as well. When Jay T. Will got out of prison; the first place he showed up was at my studio. He said that was looking for Al Tracy to see how he could get his studio going again.

On another occasion, a voice on my answering machine stating, “Hey, this is Joe Lewis. I’m in your area and I thought that I would drop in to see you.” As usual, I considered it a prank call. But, later in the evening, Joe and his wife came walking in while Eric was teaching class. We talked for few hours. He was asking for Jim Stewart and Gary Avery and was disappointed to hear for how their school closed in 1980. I explained how we had decided to go to an all group class teaching Parker’s Kenpo. Joe warned against it. Instead, he wanted to promote his new video series on his fighting method (an excellent video series). Also, he demonstrated his new passion at that time – shoot boxing. Joe’s knowledge of Kenpo was very strong. He demonstrated techniques, like Kimono Grab, and alterations to techniques, like Sleeper. He taught some of his neck cranks, sleeper holds and joint locks. We now teach Sleeper with the Joe Lewis alteration, which guarantees a knockout.

At that time Joe was about 42 years old. Yet his speed was still blinding. After Eric’s classes were over, Joe had demonstrated some of his speed demonstrations that he learned from Bruce Lee. The first was where Eric was to hit Joe with a defensive sidekick. Joe would have to shuffle forward and slap Eric on top of his head. Joe had to travel about 6-8 feet. Eric was already allowed to have his kick cocked and ready to go. Eric had just been promoted to shodan, and his sidekick was extremely fast. However, as soon as Joe was perceived to move, Eric kicked empty air. Joe not only tapped the top of his head, he had gotten completely behind Eric. The other demonstration is one that Bruce Lee conducted at the Long Beach International Karate Championships. Joe had Eric to place his fist in front of his nose. Again, Joe was to shuffle in and tap Eric on the head. Eric’s job was to block, or even make contact with Joe’s strike. Joe said that it would even count if Eric touched his strike on the recoil. Ten times out of ten, Joe succeeded. Joe said that it was one of the challenges that Bruce Lee had offered at the Long Beach Championships. Ten out of ten Black Belts could not succeed. (This demonstration will be taught in detail in the Elite-Fighter’s Seminar Series #3).

During our transition phase Eric and I had many contacts with Ed Parker. Ed had wanted our part-time transition to be successful. He called from a movie set where he was choreographing the fight sequences for Blake Edward’s new movie, Peter Gun. It was very encouraging that he had taken time out for us to do this. Ed liked what we wrote and how we executed our techniques. In 1988, he had promoted me to 4th degree black belt. I had already been promoted to yodan (4th degree black belt) a year earlier from Al Tracy. Eric and I had been researching and submitting to Ed our versions of the technique write-ups and the draft to our Family Groupings and Master Keys of Kenpo Manual. He liked our materials and encouraged us to finish. Ed had realized that much of his American Kenpo organization was fractionalized; yet holding onto him for validity. He had plans to start a new videotape series to unify his system. Only two tapes were completed before his death. The sponsors of his series were to be his regional representatives. About eight actually participated. Eric and I were two of them (our names are in the credits of his two videotapes). He sent us raw video copies of the way he wanted the Kenpo techniques to be executed. We used those videos to fine-tune our manuals, which were titled, the Unabridged Library of Contemporary Kenpo – (Library of Kenpo for short). I asked him why he was not using some of his highest-ranking talent for this series, like Huk Planas, and Lee Wedlake (I had been taking lessons from Huk when he came into town for seminars that we hosted). He said that he did not want the personality conflicts and egos in his organization to create any further division. Instead, Ed chose little-known students, and even martial artists from outside the Kenpo community to demonstrate the basics in those tapes.

Ed had me to start writing in his IKKA newsletter a column titled, “Kenpo Physics”. He wanted corrections to be made in the areas of science in his system. There were, and still are, misapplications of physics principles in Kenpo. Ed wanted his system to be scientifically sound, and didn’t take offense when I told him what principles and terminologies had been taught incorrectly. In October 1990, Ed had told me that he wanted Eric and I to join him in Texas the following spring, where he would teach us how to present Kenpo in seminars. Ed also told me that he was arranging for Paramount Studios to promote Jeff Speakman’s new movie, The Perfect Weapon, at my school as Jeff toured the nation. Ed died in December of 1990. Paramount contacted me and tried to work out some of the logistics. Instead, I met with Jeff in Cincinnati, Ohio. We met at the Wah Mei restaurant, and ate a wonderful banquet-style lunch where Jeff answered questions from reporters. We then went on to the University of Cincinnati where Jeff demonstrated for the athletic and drama departments. Jeff is a very articulate man, and one whom Ed Parker thought would spearhead his newly re-created organization. However, the Kenpo world was not ready to accept Jeff as a leader and, therefore, the creation of numerous Kenpo organizations began.

Throughout this period, Eric and I had continued to collate techniques that were once taught in the Tracy’s and the Parker’s system. The Lost Techniques of Kenpo Manual was finally complete. Finally, on March 30, 1990, Eric and I had to close the doors to our full-time Tracy’s Kenpo Studio and begin to teach the Parker System, part-time. Although nothing was ever said, we felt as though we had let Al Tracy down. It wasn’t until we had contacted Al again in 1996 to find out that he never held a grudge against us – only wondered what took us so long to get back in touch with him again.

 

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