Hey there. Thought I'd introduce myself since I'm new to the
group. My name is Eddy Schumacher. (I don't like hiding behind
anonymous screen names. If you can't be honest about who you are,
what's the point?)
I started my martial arts study as a Boy Scout when my Scout Master,
who had lived with his family on Okinawa, started showing me some
joint manipulation, striking conditioning, nunchaku, and other
stuff. Nothing formal. But I'd always had an interest from reading
ads in comic books to looking up karate related materials in the
school library.
But it wastn't until I turned 21 that I began formal study (even
though as a Mormon missionary in Argentina I would occasionally
break boards and bricks, or do little demonstarations for the
curious country folk). At that point, 1982, I enrolled in Fred
Villari's in Provo, Utah while attending BYU. In 1984, a green
belt, I left Utah, and eventually found an offshoot group in KY,
under Jim Wright and his pupils who'd left Jim Brassard in MA. Was
almost to black and on the instructor track, when I went back to
Utah and began teaching under the Villari banner in 1987.
When the Villari/USSD split occurred, (and I was at a meeting in San
Clemente when Villari went off about the business woes of running
two separate coastal operations and constantly travelling to monitor
New England and the West Coast, and Charlie Mattera began the move
toward separation.) I went with USSD.
I eventually left USSD, came back, and split permanently in 1993.
Since then I still practice Kempo and Kempo principles, but have
primarily taugh Okinawan karate. I earned a Black Belt in Shotokan
under one of Funakoshi's direct students, and have trained with
Shaolin monks for whom I helped get visas to the US. Still, Kempo
concepts are the core or template of how I interpret all the orhter
arts I've been exposed to. You can, if you care to, access a more
complete account at my web site,
http://www.russbo.com/seidokan/seidokan.htm
or see my current pursuit of physical training at
http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/kinkoshinkai
I've read a couple years worth of old messages, and looked at a few
web sites of members. It seems to be a decent group of folks doing
what they love the best they can, and while the posts seem
infrequent, I think it will be worth-while to be here.
Looking forward to the exchanges of info.
Eddy Schumacher