Journey

As I sit here and contemplate my martial arts journey, it brings back memories of failure and success. As I began to ponder my failures, I came to the realization that they weren't failures after all, just lessons learned. It's much like the journey of life, when we fail we get up and brush ourselves off and go on. Martial arts is much the same way, we learn from our mistakes, not so much that a techniques is done wrong or right, but that we learn about ourselves. That is the most important aspect of the martial arts.

My Journey began with Tomikiru Aikido. It's a fantastic art and I learned a lot while studying it. I began to use its application in the streets as a police officer; however, I had to modify some of the techniques to make it work. Others that observed me using the art began to tell me that my modifications were actually jujitsu. I searched out a jujitsu school in Baton Rouge and found one that suited my needs. After a couple of years of studying jujitsu I moved to Patterson Louisiana and went to work with the St. Mary Parish Sheriffs office. I found out quickly that there were no jujitsu schools in that area at the time. The jujitsu that I learned, however, was quite useful in the streets of Morgan City. The oil boom was at its height during that time and transits from all of the United States were filtering into that area. Morgan City became a haven for criminals, "CRIMINALS THAT FIGHT." When you went to work, everything you did was an act of survival. You either went home at the end of a shift or you went to the hospital or the morgue. The latter two for me was not an option.

I began to look for a Jujitsu School in the Lafayette area and ran across a gentleman named Dan Rodgers. He was an eighth degree black belt in hapkido. This is the same art that was portrayed in the movie Billy Jack. I know that some of you youngsters don't know who I'm talking about but we old dudes do. I studied Hapkido for a while, and unfortunately Sensei Rodgers died. Mike Norris, who was a student of Sensei Rodgers opened a school and I was fortunate enough to be able to train under him.

Now comes the height of my Martial arts journey. I was told by a friend of mine in Baton Rouge that there was a Wing Chun school in New Iberia that was run by a man named Danny Terrell. He went on to state that if I wanted to learn street defense, I should see this guy. He gave me the telephone number and I called Sifu Terrell. We talked on the phone for a few minutes and he invited me to come to his school and observe. The school at that time was on Admiral Doyle in New Iberia. I was young, I was cocky, and strong, I thought.

At that time in my life I thought nothing could defeat the techniques of Jujitsu and Hapkido. Standing in front of me was a very humble guy who was somewhat smaller than me. I'm thinking I can take this guy. He stretched out his arms and told me to grab him in any lock I wanted to or to throw him any way I wanted to. I'm thinking, he must want a trip the emergency room. I grabbed him in a wrist lock and to my shock he got out of it. I tried several more locks and he got out of them too. I was amazed, but what amazed me more than anything was his humility and his giving spirit. I'm not easily impressed and Sifu Danny impressed me that day and has continued to impress me as my journey with him continues.

As a Police Officer, the things that Sifu Danny has taught me have saved my bacon on more than one occasion. The experiences that I have had with Sifu have greatly humbled me and I will always be forever in his debt.