ChunJiDo Blog

As I near 50 years of age and over 30 years in the martial arts, I find myself reflecting on my martial arts journey more and more. As I look back on all of the challenges and accomplishments I had in my training, starting a dojo, helping students earn their Black Belt, developing an organization, and now expanding that organization worldwide, I have to take a deep breath, smile a little inside, and say, “Thank you, Lord!”

It is by the grace of God, the support of my very understanding wife, and the trust of the many loyal students, families, ChunJiDo Black Belts, and fellow martial artists that I can honestly say I am happy with where I came from, where I am, and I feel confident in what I still hope to achieve.

Through the years there have been many struggles, critics, and those who thought they knew better than I did on what I needed to do or where I needed to go, but through it all there was a voice inside that kept saying, “Don’t give up, keep the fai...

An amazing realization occurred to me this week. Today like no other time in history martial artists are starting to come together to share ideas, philosophies, and friendships. In a single day I talked to a good friend and Chunjido International affiliate in New York who trains in Hawaiian & Filipino arts, sent an email to another affiliate and friend who runs a Kyokushin organization in the Ukraine, and signed a promotion certificate for an affiliate in Pennsylvania who received this rank from a Jujitsu Grandmaster Chunjido International affiliate in Florida! In addition, I also corresponded through email, phone, and Facebook with several other Masters and Grandmasters throughout the USA, Saudi Arabia, and Spain… all without ever leaving Indiana!

As martial artists we should continue to nurture these friendships and value the relationships that we are developing across cultural and system boundaries. When I founded Chunjido Internat...