Artists of Motion

Sifu Ron White out of Pittsburg, KS, USA here today. He was a tremendous tournament competitor in the Midwest and has trained multiple champions as a teacher. His lineage in the kenpo world includes the Joe Dimmick RIP lineage as well as training for a while with Tom Kelly RIP. Currently he’s with the IKCA under the IKCA Chuck Sullivan lineage. Great chat with a solid dude.

Coming to us from Vallejo, CA USA is James "Bear" Roberts - Hanshi. Bear runs the Modern Warrior Arts Academy in Vallejo and takes us through his training history and gives us an overview of his Iron Cauldron system he's putting together to help people learn to use their bodies effectively and harness our tremendous internal energy abilities in a positive way. This is a fantastic chat - find Bear at https://www.modernwarriorarts.com

Marcus Thornton holds the title of Renshi and is an 8th Degree Black Belt (2024) in Seibukan Jujutsu under Julio Toribio. He is a professional child educator and care specialist who has worked for the US Navy for over 25 years and brings his knowledge and expertise to help everyone he works with on and off the mats. Enjoy - this was a fun episode to record!

Our guest this episode is Master of the Arts, Kenpo, Angelo Collado from Southern CA, USA. He’s been in the martial arts since the late 1970s, primarily in the kenpo lineages under notables like the late GM Frank Trejo and GM Yosh Furuya. He’s a 14x winner of the Long Beach International Karate Black Belt Forms competition, 4X IKC Grand Champion and 5x European IKC Champion. He was Inducted into the Masters Hall of Fame in 2000, and has taught internationally in several countries over the years. He founded ASTASIA (ah stah cia) with his son, his tactical and edge weapon system based in kenpo principles. Hear all about it and more on this episode of the Artists of Motion!

Mr. Terry McCord grew up in Huntington Beach, CA and started training in 1982, with formal training in several arts. He has studied karate, aikido and later found his calling in the arts in the American Kenpo lineages. Today he runs American Kenpo Consulting out of the great state of Texas, USA. His personal expression has evolved into Direction Method Weapon or DMW Kenpo. Hear about his Journey on a great episode of the Artists of Motion Podcast!

Season 2, Episode 10 brings us 2018 Kenpo Karate Hall of Fame Inductee Associate Master Todd M. Durgan from Washington state, USA. Todd has studied several martial arts and is the head  of Phasic Kombatives Integrated. His specialty is in Contact Manipulation and he’s been featured in a couple of books, most recently as of recording date the third edition of the Journey by Tom Bleecker. He’s developed a series of Kenposters which are training aids for kenpo systems, and is presently working on the followup to his Constituents of Contact Manipulation” book he released a few years ago.

Season 2, Episode 9 brings us Sensei David Caban hailing from Colorado Springs, CO USA. He’s got more than 25 years of training in the martial arts in several different lineages. He’s certified to instruct both Math and Physics at the high school and collegiate level. He’s a veteran with almost 20 years of service with the US Air Force and we thank him greatly for his service. We were recording during a bit of a blizzard going on outside his dojo, so we’ll apologize in advance if we have some connectivity shenanigans. Enjoy the episode and if you're ever in Colorado Springs, look him up!

Our featured guest today is “Coach V” aka Viran Ranasinghe out of Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. Primarily focused training and teaching Tang Soo Do and Kenpo, he oversees a large school with multiple disciplines taught every week. He’s a distance runner in his spare time with a degree in Business. 

GM Michael Persons got his start in 1966 in Downey, CA at the kenpo studio owned by GM Joe Dimmick, and trained under that lineage for 36 years. Along with GM Andre Oullette he was one of the first two promoted to 10^th Degree Black Belt by Grand Master Joe Dimmick in Sam Pai / 3 Shields Kenpo in May 1996. Today he is a published author, and in the martial arts arena he is the head of 7 Winds Kenpo, teaching privately in South Carolina. Hear about his journey, what he's doing today with 7 Winds Kenpo, and the fantastic books he's written and those soon to be published.

He's an International Martial Arts Instructor. He's an author, he's a musician, he's a family man, and he's on the line with us for Season 2, Episode 5...this is Mr. Michael Miller from Pennsylvania, USA. He's owned his school since the early 2000's and has studied under some of the biggest names in American Kenpo, to which he's added training in numerous other disciplines. He was an undefeated amateur boxer, a wrestling coach, and trained with Joe Lewis for the last four years of Joe's life. I had a blast chatting with Michael, get to hear about his writing projects and about how martial arts have influenced so much of his life outside the dojo. Enjoy this episode, it was a fantastic conversation!