Lineage - Terry
L. Bryan, Kyoshi
Special Thanks To His Teachers
Born
and raised in the hills of eastern Tennessee, from a very
young age I was taught how to hunt and fish, live off the
land and respect nature. The beginning of my martial arts
training began in the mid 60’s while I was still a teenager.
I have been very blessed to have had many gracious instructors
that have shared their knowledge with me freely over the
years. I know that there is nothing I can ever do to repay
these kind individuals for their gift, but would like to
take a moment to try and just say thanks.
In the beginning, it was a Walley Scott and Morris Cassell
that took me and several other kids in the neighborhood,
and used their knowledge to keep the local kids out of trouble.
The combined experience of these two individuals was mostly
what they had learned overseas during their time in the
service. We didn’t earn belts or learn a style, but simply
learned self defense tactics against a variety of attacks
- I guess an American Jujitsu Style.
In
1970 I graduated from high school and joined the Air Force
as a security police dog handler. My studies became more
formal as I joined the American Karate Black Belt Association
while stationed in Texas. My direct teacher was Ken McDowell
and Chuck Loven; but the influence of many of the early
karate pioneers would go on to impact my karate training
for years ahead. In the early 70’s we would all go to Fort
Worth to belt test and there we would train, fight, and
party with instructors like Pat Burleson, Allen Steen, Dennis
Goecher, Skipper Mullins, Roy Kurban, Billy Watson, Ed Daniels
and many more. The style of fighting then was called American
Karate and was basically a modified heavy contact Tae Kwon
Do that used a lot of hand techniques. Any fighter that
traveled to Texas in those days would readily admit that
Tex Kwon Do fighters were real tough. The attitude of taking
a technique that worked for you, no matter what system or
country it originated in would continue on in my training
for years to come.
When
I left Texas, I found myself being stationed in Thailand.
There I found a new love with Muay Thai. Although I continued
my Tae Kwon Do training on base, it was downtown that I
found the hardest workouts that I have yet to experience
anywhere else in the world. Numerous coaches and teachers
worked with me during my 18 months at Utapio, Thailand.
Myself and a couple of other Americans even found ourselves
in the ring during our off duty times to test our abilities
with the locals. I retired with 4 wins and one loss, but
with injuries that would haunt me for the rest of my life
- bad back, bad knee, scar over eyebrow from a great elbow
shot, ect. It was during one of these rehab times that I
was introduced to a soft style of Chinese Kempo by one of
the villagers where I lived downtown. I found the contrast
of the very hard Thai Boxing and the Chinese a great blend.
Understand that at this time the Thai’s were inviting all
countries to compete against them - and I watched kick boxers
from Japan, Kung Fu experts from China; literally every
style that would take up the challenge were getting knocked
out in the first round. I even saw a couple of people get
killed in the ring in Bangkok. I did recognize that the
average Thai boxer lasted about 5 years and after that had
to retire and so if I were going to practice in the future,
I would continue in another art.
When
I returned to Abilene, Texas I continued my involvement
with the AKBBA. I opened my first karate school in Coleman
Texas in 1973 under the watchful eye of the AKBBA. It was
during this time that I met a man named Duk Rogers. Sifu
Rogers was a Chinese Stylist, former combat controller,
a Secret Service Agent and was very good. Teaching a traditional
Shaolin style his attitude was one of “ you have already
been corrupted by the hard style arts and will never be
able to do Kung Fu correctly, but I will try.” Another instructor
that came to our school and had a great impact on my training
was Rex Kimball. A student of Kim Soo of Houston and Fred
Abshire of New Mexico, he seemed to me of having the perfect
blend of Chinese softness and the Korean hardness. Since
he worked a weird shift, he would teach class after he got
off at 11 pm. For over a year, I would come back to the
dojo at 11:30 for an 1 ½ hour class with this man. I will
never forget a sparring session with Rex and Randy “Tex”
Cobb. Randy was a brown belt at the time and very good,
and I watched as Rex played with him with his Chinese movements
and scored at will. Randy had already taught me the reality
of fighting someone that is really big, mean and strong
by using pretty sport techniques, but that night I knew
that technique will overcome power with enough training.
It was at this time that I got orders to go back to Thailand.
This
time I was stationed in Udorn, Thailand which is in the
north. I continued my Thai Boxing and even played with some
Kajukembo on base. I found myself living far away from base
with a couple of other K-9 troops in a bungalow compound.
It was in this village that I met a man - Sifu Pivasuite
- that I ended up training with for over a year. His style
was Chinese but heavily influenced by Indonesian and Burma
arts. His 5 animal system was excellent for self defense,
and his style of teaching was noble and sincere.
My
return to the states found me back in Texas, this time in
San Antonio. I initially trained at the War Hawk gym on
base and had the pleasure of working out with people like
Zip White, Roger Reese and many more of the top fighters
in the state. I later helped open a dojo downtown with Jon
Lawenski. In 1977 I found myself getting out of the service
and getting married. From there we moved to Wichita , Kansas.
We
ended up living in a small town called Newton and found
myself gravitating to the local recreation center. Not being
impressed with the local karate program, I began training
and helping to coach the boxing program. It didn’t take
long before people found out I was a black belt and they
knew that there was another black belt in town and they
started trying to set us up. Well, this man had trained
under Sam Price in Goju and everybody knew that I was a
black belt in TaeKwonDo. Well, the sparring session was
nothing like you would expect. He was throwing great kicks
and I was trying to sweep and punch. Eric Alexander and
I went on to become great friends and I probably learned
as much from him as he did me. Eric and I put on the first
full contact karate match at the state golden gloves competition
in 1978 and he and I would help get karate accredited as
a PE credit at Wichita State University along with Fred
Harvey. Years later I would ask him to come to Colorado
to help me run my schools.
Although
I had gotten out of the Air Force, my wife was still active
duty and we found ourselves going to Wright Patterson AFB
in Ohio. While I was finishing my BA at Wright State University,
I started a club at the local YMCA. I traveled downtown
to study Arnis with Manuel Taningco and studied Shaolin
from Sifu Jackson and Sifu Kenyata, who were students of
Dr. Woo from Ohio State University. I also began training
with Master Joe Mayle in his style of Chinese Kempo - Shaolin
Mu Ying Dow. Master Mayle has always been a great friend
and teacher, and continues on today. After my YMCA class
grew to over 100 students, we moved to a commercial location
in Fairborn. It was during this time that I met a man name
James Fields. Sensei Fields had studied with Shihan Toma
of the Seidokan fame and held a 6th degree black belt. I
fell in love with this Okinawan style, the perfect blend
of Chinese circular techniques and hard style. I incorporate
the Okinawan katas into my curriculum in 1981 and have taught
those katas in my classes ever since. Sensei Fields promoted
me to 5th Dan in Seidokan Okinawan karate before I left
to go to the Air Force Academy in Colorado. I also held
a 5 th Degree Black belt under Joe Mayle in Chinese Kempo.
Colorado
was to become a place for my training to take a quantum
leap. As I checked out the local schools I found the Air
Force Academy karate club to have the best quality martial
arts around. I ended up taking a leadership role in the
club and became their head instructor but in reality I learned
as much from them as they did me. I had the privilege of
inviting many guest instructors in to train the cadets including
Bill Wallace, Ray Mc Callum, Dan Swenson, Joe Mayle, and
more. My wife got selected top go to Texas A&M to get
her Ph.D. and so we left for a couple of years before returning
to Colorado Springs. While in College station, I met Raymond
Montoya, who became a student and friend and was a local
police officer. He was, and is, a great student and teacher.
My
return to Colorado Springs was met with the challenge of
opening my own dojo once again. Wanting to do things right,
I began looking for someone that was successful in business
but was also a great martial artist. I found those qualities
in Kyoshi Jim Mather. As a mentor and teacher he guided
me to running an operation of 4 schools and 1200 students.
In a never ending desire to make sure I was teaching the
best quality martial arts available I continued my studies
with Brendan Lai of the Preying Mantis system and Master
Mayle. It was during this time that I backed away from open
tournaments because of the lack of respect I saw in these
events. I found that the USA Karate Federation was more
of my liking because of the respect and dicipline they emphasized.
Lead by George Anderson, the USA Karate Federation had individuals
that became my mentors like Ridgley Abele, Johnny Linebarger.
Tokey Hill, and others. One of these mentors, Frank Hargrove,
introduced me to a Dan Smith who was an expert on the Okinawan
kata that I trained with. I found out that Shihan Toma had
learned his kata from a student of Zenryo Shimabukuryo and
decided that I wanted to learn the original versions of
the kata taught at the Seibukan. He introduced me to Zenpo
Shimabukuro and have trained in Seibukan karate under them
since 1990. Two other instructors that have made an impact
on my life in the last few years is Dan Kennedy from Kansas
and Roger Greene from Oklahoma. I have also renewed my training
in Kojosho Kempo under Fred Absher, which has created a
new level of energy in my training. I have also begun my
journey in the internal arts under Ken Cohen, a brillant
teacher of Chi Kung (QiGong) and the internal arts of Hsing-I,
Pa Qua and Tai Chi Chuan. I also had the privelage of training
with Master Gu Ping, who came and lived with me for a year
and taught me the authentic version of Wu Tai Chi Chuan
which he learned from Li Jing Wu, one of the top Wu Stylist
in all of China. I am perplexed on how much there is to
learn and only one lifetime to learn it, but these individuals
have done everything in the world to help me on this path
of learning.
I
know I have left out other instructors that have impacted
my life in the martial arts, but please note that I will
try and return the favor by the only way I know - teaching
the best I can to the most students I can. Thanks for everything
you have given me.
Respectfully,
Terry Bryan, Kyoshi
