As of 2021 my martial involvement has spanned 58 years. Starting at 12 I was motivated to start martial arts because of being attacked on the first day that I was coming home from Junior High School. Nothing happened that day, but I asked my Father about self-defense and indicated I should be able to protect myself. I asked him about taking lessons and he agreed.

My first teacher was some kind of Kung Fu teacher but my lessons were limited. Soon in the fall my Dad said there was a Karate Class at the University where he taught. I began going to classes on Saturday and Mondays. The Karate was a mix of Japanese and Okinawan Karate. A lot of basics and a little bit of Kata or form. The main thing we did was spar and then after a few months we began to go to lots of tournaments.

The next four years my teachers would change, but I would end up competing in tournaments for the next ten years. I became involved with Daniel Pai and the Pailum Association. Pai had an art he claimed was from his grandfather. I could write volumes about my ten years in this Association. At any rate I will move on to a teacher named Christopher Casey

Mr. Casey was one of the more brilliant people I have met in the martial arts world. He was not a gifted athlete, but he had a gifted mind and what he developed for his martial art was eventually the art I had been looking to learn. It was a realistic study of martial arts. I was use to the tournament fighting which back then was with no padding. While there were controls on some of the tournaments as far as contact, most of the one's we attended were people trying to knock you out with foot or hand. So the pressure to me was similar to a real fight, while the rules like any sport does not come to the level of realistic fighting.

The problem with realistic fighting is the training. How do you train safely and still train understanding the violence and effects of real fighting. Takes a lot of effort and creative thinking to address this problem.

Although I studied with Daniel Pai until 1976, I began with Mr. Casey in 1971 as Pai encouraged me to go down to Atlanta and learn from Mr. Casey.

In the beginning Mr. Casey's biggest boost for me was learning about chin na and grappling. After the first few years I began the study of Mr. Casey's Chinese Boxing which was a Synthesis of Chinese arts both external and internal. Casey was able to love the styles he studied, but objectively develop a fighting art that was efficient and high probability. I had a lot to learn in this new art. I was able to study much closer to him starting in 1976 as I became his indoor student.

I did have to chase him from city to city as he moved around a lot, but finally he settled in Stanford, Connecticut. This is where I had my best training with him. He passed in 1986 and I was the President of the organization he had started in 1981 called Chinese Boxing Institute International. He had a board of directors consisting of many of his teachers. At that time I had a lot of thinking to do to evaluate and make sure I could organize and remember the things that he had taught. So the next four years were critical and important to me as his teachings came together more and more.

Moving to Florida in 1988 I was looking for possibly a good internal artist in Chen Style Tai Chi. Mr. Casey told me to look out for one and one just happened to walk in my studio one day. Gaofei Yan gave me a great start to Chen Tai Chi. He was quite knowledgeable and was a good teacher. He brought his teacher over, Chen Quanzhong and he stayed with us for about a month three separate years.

After about 7-8 years, our paths went different directions and I was able to connect with world famous Chen Xiaowang of Chen Tai Chi. After a time he made me an indoor student and I was able to host him in the US around 15 times. He is one of the best at teaching one the correct internal posture. As one begins to get the posture and alignment, the next challenge is to move keeping the same posture. Chen Xiaowang was generous with his time and teaching and I was able to learn a lot.

As Chen Xiaowang's traveled less to the US, I was able to connect with his nephew Chen Bing. What a great person Chen Bing seemed to be. I was able to host him in the US maybe a dozen times for a week. He is quite skilled and one of the best in Chen Tai Chi Family.

So while this is a very brief overview of my path, I have certainly increased my activity with other seniors my age teaching the internal arts. At the same time I have maintained enough connections with the younger generation in CBII to keep teaching and coaching the Chinese Boxing method of Mr. Casey. In 2019 I formed an LLC called the Chinese Boxing Instructors Association. The purpose was to encourage growth and to hope a younger generation could be trained in this unique art. We are hopeful to build it up so there is a strong contingent to carry on our art.

In this brief history, I would be wrong to not give credit to many of my students through the years that contributed to helping me have an education with these teachers. I will mention a few, but there are others who might not have stayed with me but also contributed for a time. They are as follow in no particular order. Of course my wife has contributed the most behind the scenes. Next year will be our 50th anniversary. My kids Jason, Carla and Meredith have from time to time contributed to my business as well. They were sometimes unwilling models in my books:)

Buddy Benford
Mark Yates
Rick Lupe
Allen Brown
Earl Morgan
Ken Mills
Melvin Howard
Sam Locklear
Cameron Tao
Richard Ralston
Anthony Caucci
Joe Rea Phillips
John Witherspoon
Doug Smith
Ray Hager
John Bernazolli
Rick Schmoyer
Greg Beck
Alan Baker
JC Hughes
Felice Mandell
John Ivey
Harvey Morantz
Keith Buckhalter
Michael Parker
Yamil Cabrera
Nelson Fleming
Frank Pomeranz
Wallace Berry
Mike McClure
John Wilson
Robin Ellinwood
Jeff Hollar
Tom Curry
Bill Graves
Gary Bratt
Mark Bayne
Lou Gabrielle
Bryan Lewis

The names above either have helped me in a lot of projects through the years, or have contributed financially to my journey or have promoted CBII a great deal through their teaching..

A few others that went other directions or were colleagues that crossed paths with my journey contributed a significant amount to my journey are:

Dave Everett
Rick and Gary Laird
Karl Milcavage
Jack Lannom
Steve Alsup
Gary Huff


As I said there are others that did this for a period of time in my journey but went a different direction. That is of course fine but just wanted to mention some people here who have contributed a lot.