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In 1965, most of the people in my circle of acquaintances had not heard of karate. “Kar-a- what?” a couple of them asked when I told them I had started taking lessons. “Is that Chinese food or something?” And they weren’t trying to be funny. People were somewhat familiar with judo back then, since it had been portrayed in several old World War II movies. But except for a few cities around the country where returning servicemen form Okinawa and Korea had established schools, karate was mostly unheard of.

I remember my first day walking into the Oregon Karate Association and seeing those pajama-clad guys kicking and thrashing all over the training floor. Man, these guys could beat up anybody, I remember thinking in awe.

Although I was a pretty big 19-year-old as a result of lifting weights since I was 13, I had never been good at sports, probably because I wasn’t terribly interested in playing them. But something swept over me that first day as I sat along the wall with my mouth hanging open, watching those warriors moving about in their deadly dance. I knew, just as clearly as I knew my name, that karate would be my life. I joined on the spot (monthly dues were only $7 then) and the fighting arts have been part of my life ever since.

That was 1965, and I’m still training in spite of the fact this part of my body really hurts and this other part here doesn’t even bend anymore. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that the martial arts can be a little taxing on the ol’ bod’, especially when you do it decade after decade as I have. But bad shoulder, trick knee, trashed elbow, busted fingers and all my other maladies aside, I wouldn’t change a thing that has happened to me during my long martial arts career. They have been wonderful years in which I have met some incredible people (and not just a few weird ones), traveled, taught, and enjoyed a way of life like no other. The fighting arts have kept me in good condition, physically and mentally, and they saved my precious hide many times in the war-torn streets of Saigon during the Vietnam war and in the mean streets of Portland, Oregon where I served 25 years as city police officer.

It’s a profound understatement to say that karate has changed since I began. What I teach today and how I teach it is so remote from how and what I learned many moons ago, that it’s barely recognizable as being the same. Of course, there are martial arts schools stuck in the ancient past, but most have recognized the need to evolve with the times.

While change isn’t always a good thing, there is much that has changed for the good from when I began, for that matter, even in the last five years. New techniques have come along as well as new and better ways to execute basic movements. There have also been new discoveries in ways to train, both physically and mentally. For example, as a white belt, I can remember many classes where we squatted in a deep horse stance and threw hundreds of punches. Did we get good at this? Sure, I developed a tremendous reverse punch. It would be hard not to get proficient at something you do over and over again. But considering the volume of hours that we spent on this ancient exercise, its value as a practical technique is virtually nil. I never once used the horse stance when I sparred in class or in competition, and I definitely never used it in the dozens of street battles I had as a cop. While I did get strong from the exercise, I know now that there are many other ways to develop punching power that are far more interesting, practical and result producing.

Some of the old ways of training were hazardous to one’s health, joints, tendons, muscles and ligaments. Today, there are better and safer paths to proficiency, because modern sports medicine and nutrition have invaded the ancient fighting arts and brought sense and science to the way we develop the mind and body.

I’m a strong advocate of using the mind to push beyond what we think is our limit. There are lots of instructors who talk about incorporating the mind in training, competition and self-defense, but they speak of it in mystical terms that leave their students wondering what the heck they are talking about. Many times students don’t understand because the instructor doesn’t understand either. All too often, he is trying to sound like a white-bearded sage sitting in the lotus position on the peak of Japan’s Mt. Fuji. This is unfortunate because there is no need for confusion and mysticism in this area of training. Learning to incorporate the mind in karate training should be no more complex than throwing a reverse punch.

It’s good when students are loyal to an instructor and to a fighting style, but it’s not good when they blindly follow whatever the instructor tells them. I did that and wasted my first three years of training. But I didn’t have much to compare it to then because information on the fighting arts was sparse. Today’s students, however, live in the information age. There is no reason to lack knowledge of techniques and training ideas when there is such a plethora of educational material available everywhere you look. There are now thousands of schools in the United States, making this country a melting pot of martial arts instruction. Additionally, there are many excellent books (ahem … like this one), instructional videos, magazines, CD roms, and Jackie Chan movies (just kidding about Jackie Chan). Getting these instructional aids will educate you and open your eyes to the truth. The more enlightened you are, the more easily you will see what is valid and the more intelligent will be the questions you ask in your search for even more knowledge.

It’s my hope that you find this book to be an encyclopedia of training and fighting ideas no matter what karate discipline you follow. The book is divided into two sections, “Physical Training” and “Mental Training” with a total of 18 chapters, each offering 5-20 major topics covering dozens of ways to help you be a better fighter.

I have had the pleasure of teaching the martial arts for many decades to students in my school, private students, police agencies, private security companies, mental health organizations, and various city bureaus. The slant in my personal training and teaching has always been toward surviving a real fight, therefore I can’t help letting that prejudice slip through in this book. While I’m happy to report that the training tips I offer have worked for students in the harsh reality of violent encounters, I believe you will find that many of them will also help you in competition, or can be easily modified a little for the specific requirements of sport.

There is a method to my madness here, though it may appear at first glance to be a hodgepodge of concepts, principles and techniques for virtually all areas of the fighting arts. It would have been easy to write a book of 5000 ways to fight better, but it would have cost you as much as your car. So, because of space limitations, I have limited the ways to those that I have found especially valuable in my training, competing and my job as a police officer. I have also included a few that were given to me specifically for this book by instructors I hold in high regard because of their knowledge, ability and their track record of success in real-world confrontations. I have also tried to give credit here for information that I have gotten from martial artists I’ve talked with over the years, trained with or read about in books and magazines. I’m sorry if I’ve left anyone out, but having been punched and kicked in the head since 1965, my memory isn’t what it use to be.

A word on the writing

While women make up a significant percentage of martial arts students, for ease of writing, I have used “he” instead of the awkward “he/she” and “him/her.” I have also used the word “karate” as a generic term and hope I’m not offending readers involved in the many other kick/punch fighting arts.