Pat's Excellent Martial Arts Adventure, Part
2: the 1985-89
Over the next few years, I continued competing in whatever
kickboxing fights and full-contact tournaments I could. I went to
L.A. to train with Guro Dan et al. as often as work and graduate
school would allow. In 1985, I competed and won the National Burmese
Bando Boxing Championship. In the Spring
of that year, I traveled to L.A. to train with Guro Dan and
to collect data for my masters thesis.
Guro Dan had said I could stay in the school
while there, however, upon arriving, he invited me to stay with
him. Just another example of his kindness to me over the years.
I spent a couple weeks there, training and traveling around with
Guro Dan, Larry Hartsell, Chris Kent, etc. It was an amazing
time, to be sure and it would set the stage for all of my future
trips to L.A., where, in addition to training with Guro Dan, I
would travel around him to his own training sessions and act as
his uke. I got thrown around a lot, and hit a lot, but I sure
got a lot of learning out of it, too.
Also during that year, I and two of my students decided to
spend part of the summer doing a martial arts walkabout, a Kwai
Chang Caine sort of thing. During our adventure, we would find our
way to places like Sifu Larry Hartsell's Academy of
Martial Arts in North Carolina , Sifu Francis Fong's Academy
in Atlanta, and the Bando Summer Camp in Athens, Ohio.
In 1985 I,
and several of my students traveled to Youngstown, Ohio for one
of Guro Dan's seminars, which was hosted by a gentleman
named Lou Wolk. We would go to a number of Guro Dan's seminars
in Youngstown over the next few years and i would be
fortunate to serve as Guro's demo assistant for them. On a side
note, Lou was the man who first introduced me to the bagel, now
on of my favorite foods.
In the spring
of 1986, I sponsored Guro Dan
for a seminar for the first time. He asked if he could come in a couple of
days early and train with my Bando teacher, Professor
Collins. This was his first exposure to Bando, and he really
enjoyed it. Guro Dan also agreed to have a
lecture/demonstration for the combined GWU/UMCP clubs the
Thursday before the seminar. Don Garon and Sarge Edwards
came in early as well and we all had some great training
sessions. The workouts with Guro Dan, training with
Professor Collins, the lecture, and the seminar all went
extremely well.
Later that
year, Don Garon and I took Guro Dan out to Athens, Ohio to meet
and train with Dr. Gyi, head of the Bando system, for the first
time. Aside from having to ride with Don from Pittsburgh to
Athens (anyone who has driven with Don understand what I mean),
the time we spent with Dr.Gyi was awesome. It was quite exciting
to see these to martial arts legends meet, talk, and train
together. This event would set the stage for Guro Dan to
continue his training in Bando under Dr. Gyi, as well as for Dr.
Gyi to give frequent seminars at the various Inosanto Academies.
During that same time period, Don and I, along with Steve Braun,
were asked to do a tournament demo of Guro Dan's newest form
of full-contact stick fighting, which consisted of 6-one
minute rounds with no rest between rounds. Each round would
be fought using a different weapon, single stick, double
stick, long & short stick, staff, dagger, and empty-hands.
During the summer of 1987, Guro
Dan and Simo Paula came out for a week to train with
Professor Collins and me. It happened that Guro and Simo had gotten
married the weekend before and this was their "honeymoon".
During is the week they were here, I had them, Professor
Collins and Betsy, his wife, and Steve Braun out to my place
in Baltimore City for a barbeque. As a surprise for Guro and
Simo, I had a small wedding cake made for them and we
celebrated their nuptials at an impromptu reception. It was
a great time since in addition to Guro and Simo getting their
Bando training from Jon and me, I got to spend much private time
training with them as well.
That Fall,
I accepted a teaching position at at Howard Community College
in Columbia, Maryland. Ever since my early training with
Professor Collins, who himself is a community college professor,
I had wanted to teach at a community college where I would not
only (hopefully) have an impact on students lives, but it would
give me the time to maintain my own training.
In November, after being contacted by
an old student from the UMCP club and at the request of
several HCC students, I began the HCC martial arts club
which has continues today and has grown to include
Plato's Cave. Guro Dan and Simo
Paula came out for another seminar in that following Spring
(1988). They would come out and conduct a number seminars in
Maryland during the late 80s and early 90s.
During the late 80s, in addition
to kickboxing competitions, some of my people and I began to
compete in full-contact stick tournaments along the East Coast
including the East Coast Championships and the North American
Championships. Don Garon and some of his people also compete in
many of these tournaments. Much fun was had by all.
more of 1985-89 to come.....
Pat's Excellent Martial Arts Adventure, Part
4: the
1990s
