Our Black Belt Hero.

This video may be disturbing and contains violence 

Tom Castonguay and his mom Chris began karate back in the 80's.  Tom was about ten.  His Mom watched in the back intently until one day one of the Black Belts asked if she wanted to join.   They have both achieved the rank of 2nd dan.

Tom, or TC as I call him was a quiet boy who always showed up and dedicated himself to martial arts.  After getting his Black Belt he and his mother, both became instructors in the school.  Once Tom became a young adult and graduated from high school, he decided to follow his passion for the military and joined the army where he excelled.  He aways mentioned how our karate school's demand for excellence and hard training prepared him for life as a military man.  He went on to serve for several years and was involved in the gulf war.

After leaving the military he followed his next dream of becoming a sheriff in Austin, Texas where he married a lovely woman and is the father of two girls.  He is a seasoned police officer and I have stayed in touch with him over the years.  Recently when I was touching base with Tom, I asked how things were going and he said he has a tough year.  I thought he was referencing the pandemic until he sent me this clip.

This video is actual body cam video of him responding to a distress call involving a woman and child.  He was wounded in this shootout so be prepared.  In the future we plan to host him in a seminar on how our martial arts program prepared him for life.  After a long discussion my favorite comment from him was "your martial arts program takes sheep and makes them sheep dogs".   Think about it, this is a powerful statement.  

I plan to do another post dissecting this video and how we can learn from it.  I look forward to the presentation of this Black Belt hero!

Master B
 

Grandmaster Ed Parker

Grandmaster Ed Parker, founder of American Kempo was a legend in the martial arts world.

This is my day with the Grandmaster.

Several years ago I attended a KRANE tournament hosted by Tony Cogliandro up in the Boston area.  Tony had been training with Ed Parker for a few years and hosted him as a special guest.  Parker was to be a judge in my black belt rings that day.  As usual at that time I had a pretty good day and was able to chat with him after the event.  As you might think he was heavily in demand.  We took this photo and we went our separate ways.

Over the course of the year Master Parker traveled all over the world teaching and meeting thousands of new people.  It was again time for Tony’s event and I was looking forward to attending. As soon as I entered the gym I turned to see Master Parker was again in attendance.  He walked over to me, shook my hand and said “Hi Mike, competing again this year?”

I was floored.  With all the people he knows and meets every year he remembers my name!  I was stunned and honored with that moment.  It was then I decided to attend his long running and prestigious event in Long Beach, California.

The internationals had been a who’s who event over the decades even having a famous Bruce Lee demo there a few years before.  The afternoon before I went to sign up with one of his daughters.  In New England a tournament was about 40.00 with extra events being about 10.00 additional per event.  The internationals were 80.00 per event, two events 160.00, wow!  When I mentioned our sliding scale to the Parker daughter she just laughed, she said you are not in Connecticut anymore!

I wanted to pay my respects to Master Parker (in Cali they called him Mr. Parker).  I was escorted into a private back room where he sat on a throne like chair taking audiences.  Very regal indeed.

I did take first place in weapons there and met Professor Toro Tanaka who was standing at the edge of my ring when I was competing.  Only about 3,000 competitors that day.

A memorable day with the Grandmaster.