I began in the martial arts in December of 1982 after I “retired” from high school football.  

During my football days before the beginning of my martial arts career.
Me in my senior year at Barberton High School (Ohio) in August of 1982.

I was a star player for the YMCA team, the Oakdale Red Devils, from the 4th through 7th grade. The trajectory to stardom continued as a member of Barberton’s 8th grade U.L. Light Junior High School football team. Things changed quickly during the summer after 8th grade when seemingly the entire team went through a growth spurt. They all became bigger and faster. I was stuck at 5’8″, and my physical attributes did not improve from the 8th to the 9th grade.

In other words, I was too short and too slow. My dream of playing for Notre Dame and winning the Heisman went up in smoke. 

I continued to play football until my senior year in high school for fun, for the camaraderie, and to get chewed old by a hard-ass coach with the scariest laser beam glare (“Johns, I’ll bounce your g-ddamn ass off the wall if you don’t do it right!“). My team was, hands down, the best 1-9 team in the entire state of Ohio. Looking back at it, those were fun times. However, I was never to regain the glory days of my YMCA and Junior High careers. I don’t think the Hall of Fame will call me anytime!

Early in my life, I don’t know exactly when I became fascinated with martial arts and engrossed in the Saturday afternoon Hong Kong kung fu flicks.

I remember being fascinated with a movie called “Street Gangs of Hong Kong”; amazingly, there is a YouTube clip.

If you are not able to view this video, go here.

After my famous retirement press conference (held in the family room of my house), I knew that I had to get physically involved in a new endeavour as an outlet for my energy. Two good friends were training in Kwan Ying Do Kung Fu in a basement kwoon in my hometown. They loved the training and urged me to begin training in martial arts. Steve Ong, a classmate one year ahead of me, provided additional encouragement. His father was Grandmaster Feeman Ong.

In the beginning, I started with Kwan Ying Do Kung Fu in December of 1982 and trained through August 1983, when I left to attend Notre Dame.

I also trained in the summers of 1984 and 1985. Bob Keen and David Jacobs, two tough gentlemen, were my main instructors. Lots of emphasis was put on stances, conditioning, and forms.

If you are not able to view this video, go here.

Every class started the same way. We bowed in and settled into a stance routine that lasted half an hour.  This consisted of holding various stances with stillness and strict form. It was a traditional conditioning exercise. I thought I would die the first time I did this. My legs were so rubbery for the remainder of my first class, and I could barely walk the next day. I quickly got used to it as I did this routine every day. We did a fair bit of forearm conditioning and other types of conditioning. Forms were emphasized quite a bit. Being an 18 to 19-year-old, I loved the conditioning. I always felt physically charged after each class. However, during my time there, we did not spend much time on self-defence techniques.

Most likely, I had not advanced sufficiently in their curriculum to get into self-defence techniques or applications of the forms.

My motivation for getting into martial arts was a mixture of needing a new outlet after my football career, being a martial arts fan, curiosity, and a feeling that I didn’t fit in this world. Frankly, I was not thinking in terms of self-defence or fighting. Being a “hard of hearing” person who felt that I didn’t fit into the hearing world or the deaf world left me feeling like I was in the Twilight Zone (many of my hard-of-hearing friends have had the same feelings). I was hoping that martial arts might help me with this somehow. I must admit that life experiences before my involvement in martial arts and later in life kept those nagging doubts alive.

It took some time, but martial arts have helped me navigate these issues well. Bottom line: go with the flow. Duh. :-) The battle has never been with the world; it has always been within. My reasons for being in martial arts naturally changed to its current focus on self-defence.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the beginning of my martial arts career.

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