Was Elvis really a Black Belt?

And who was this man Hank Slamanski whopromoted him to Shodan in 1960?

And where does Ed Parker fit into thispicture?

To put History in its proper perspective I have included this Photo of EdParker and his Family taken outside the Pasadena South Ward (Church) at the sametime frame that Elvis would be promoted to Shodan and started his training with Ed Parker. The Tracy brothers were also Mormons and started their trainingwith Ed Parker in 1957 when they were introduced to Ed Parker by Church member.The Tracy Brothers also attended the same Ward that Ed and his family attended.Note: The young boy is Ed Parker Jr.

Since this is a story about Elvis we might as well let the controversy starthere. At no time did any of the Parker Family; Wife, son or daughters do anyreal training in Kenpo.

Additions and correction to the story: The correct spelling (from militaryrecords is Slomanski - not Slemansky)!

Note: Some years ago I lost the only picture I had of Hank Slomanski. Ifanyone out there has a picture of Hank Slomanski I would like to get a copy forthis article.

Note: Over time I will fill in a lot more about Hank Slomanski!

I have been sitting on this story for more than 25 years. Many times I was tempted to polish it up and send it to either Black Belt or Inside Kung Fu to publish. It would have made interesting reading because it was about Elvis. but for some reason the timing just did not seem right. Also I have been promising that I would put it up on my website.

I am glad that I waiteduntil this time to put out this story. The events of 9/11/2001 give this storytrue depth and meaning.

Another reason I amputting it up on the website rather than sending it to one of the magazines isthat the magazine will publish it in one issue. That issue will be replaced bythe next and very few will ever read it, let alone remember it after a fewweeks.

I plan to keep this storyup on my website as a constant reminder, and tribute to the brave men and womenwho serve in all branches of the military. They have waited over thirty years tofinally get the true recognition they deserve.

HANK - (HENRY) SLOMANSKI (Correct spelling from his military records ):
HeDared

By AL TRACY

Read any article about the late Elvis Presley's status in the martial arts and what do you see?

You see page after page accrediting Presley's rise through the karate ranks to one famous instructor after another. This one promoted Elvis to fifth degree black belt, this one to sixth degree, someone else to seventh degree.

But regardless of the merits of these lofty claims on his behalf, you are left wondering who was the man who awarded the legendary entertainer his original black belt. The records are curiously ambiguous on this point.

However, there is one bona fide reference: in Martial Arts Traditions, History And People by John Corcoran and Emil Farkas (page 370), the authors offer this information on the subject:

"... He (Presley) qualified for 1st degree black belt in 1960 in Memphis with the late Hank Slemansky, a Chito-ryu stylist. Slemansky was killed on active duty in Vietnam sometime in the mid 1960s."

Thirty-two words. That's it.

And poor Hank Slomanski didn't even get a listing of his own. Instead his contribution is reduced to an incidental mention under a listing devoted to Elvis Presley.

Who was HankSlomanski?

Aside from his role as Presley's tutor, Hank Slomanski may well have been North America's first authentic martial arts master.

Hank Slomanski wasmaking martial arts history when there were no martial arts magazines around torecord it -- but you had to be a part of the military with access to themilitary publications to find out about him.

In 1958-59 he wasgiven feature coverage in the military newspaper Stars and Stripes Pacificedition. (Since I was a "Korean Veteran" the military kept me on theirmailing list for years afterwards, no doubt hoping I would re-enlist. Icontinued getting Stars and Stripes long after I had beendischarged from four years of active duty in the Air Force.)

Even in themilitary, which is full of real heroes, Hank Slomanski was a living legend.Standing 6'2" and weighing 210 pounds, he was a formidable fightingmachine.

And let the recordshow that Hank loved a good fight. When he couldn't find any two-leggedopponents, he would climb into a ring and wrestle bears - an opportunityavailable to some of the more adventurous members of the military on overseasassignment at that time.

It was while he wasoverseas that Hank was introduced to Chito-ryu, a Japanese style founded by Dr.Tsuyoshi Chitose. Basically, Chito-ryu is a combination of Goju-ryu andShorin-ryu karate.

When the Korean warended Slomanski was rotated back to the U.S. (in the mid 1950's) for his nexttour of duty. He was attached to the airborne division at Ft. Campbell,Kentucky.

Among other things,he was sergeant-major and jump master, He also happened to be DanInosanto's first martial arts instructor. This was long before Dan Inosanto wenton to become Bruce Lee's most recognizable Jeet Kune Do student and confidante.And yes, Dan remembers Hank Slomanski very well: "He was head honcho -- heran everything!"

Dan remembers Hankas "Mr. Airborne". By 1960 Hank had over 1,200 jumps, all with fullcombat gear -- many in full combat!

101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) (Screaming Eagles)
Although constituted in 1918 as an infantry division, the 101st had to wait until World War II and its redesignation as an airborne division before seeing action.		The Screaming Eagles fought from Normandy to Germany, securing their place in history at Bastogne, during the Battle of the Bulge.  (Completely outnumbered and surrounded by the German Army the German commander offered to let the 101st surrender. To which the American commander sent back the one work reply: NUTS. They fought there way out. From that point on it was understood you had to be "NUTS" to signup for the 101st Airbourn Screaming Eagles.  Currently the 101st is an air assault division based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Almost all ofHank's students were military, which meant they were airborne undergoing typicalairborne training. They started the day at first light by running 10 miles,after which they were allowed a little time to recover from the dry heaves. Thatout of the way, they ran another ten miles with Hank leading the pack!

All beforebreakfast.

So began a typicalday. At the end of it, if you were so inclined, you could study karate with theman who had been putting you through hell all day.

When you enteredthis dojo, you observed strict rules. Rule No. 1: Hank Slomanski was yourSensei, with the absolute authority the title implied. Rule No. 2: you wore akarate gi unless training outside, in which case you dressed in military gear.

In this way thedojo was a blend of two traditions: U.S. military and Japanese martial arts. Offthe dojo floor in tradition military fashion Hank Slomanski saluted all offices:in the dojo, you called him sir and bowed to him! (General Thomas S.Porter, a judo black belt, would observe this same tradition when he incorporatejudo for SAC (Strategic Air Command) personnel under his command).

Dan Inosanto, afellow student when we both trained with Ed Parker, trained with Slomanski in1959-1960 and, nearly 30 years later, remembers the experience vividly. Hankthrew terror into everyone, he says. It wasn't unusual for Dan to look at theman next to him and see him visibly trembling.

One of my earlystudents trained under Hank when the student went airborne, and he later told mean interesting story.

After long weeks ofairborne training it all comes down to your first jump. No matter how youprepare for this moment, you still pray you won't freeze in the doorway.

As fate would haveit his worst fears were realized on that fateful day. He started out in themiddle of the line, working his way to the moment of truth.

As his turn came tojump he stood paralyzed in the open doorway, staring into space, a voicebellowed at him, from just behind him, getting louder -- commanding him to jump.Jump! JUMP!

Mike looked up fromthe yawning space below. He turned to stare into the savage face of HankSlomanski - only inches away.

"I knew I was lookinginto the face of death," Mike told me. "Hank filled me with moreterror then the thought of jumping. I took one step forward and was gone. It wasthe only way I could get away from Hank. All the way down I prayed he wouldn'tremember my name!"

A typical trainingsession at Hank Slomanski's dojo (Fort Campbell Gym) would begin with back falls on the hardwoodfloors. Remember -- these were airborne recruits, and the ability to roll andfall properly could be the difference between life and death on every jump incombat.

If you were"lucky" Hank would take you outside where you could do your falls onpacked sand. Now the bad news: you did your forward rolls on gravel. Next camesetups. The setups were done in rows so that Hank could "run therows", all 230 pounds of romping, stomping airborne sergeant springing fromone tense stomach to the next and onward down the row -- and back again. IndoorsHank did the run bare-footed. Outdoors, he wore combat "jump boots".

With the warm-upsover, the "serious" karate workout began.

Kick, punch, block -- overand over again. And with that out of the way, the class got ready for what thisparticular mode of training was all about: Fighting!

There was no safetygear -- no shin pads, cups or supporters. This was blood-and-guts fighting.

If you didn't likeHank much, this was your chance to get even. You could "go for real".But it was a two-way street: Hank was prepared to give as good as he got. Therewere no wimps, the wimps had been washed out a long time ago. Those that hadsurvived were the best the army had. They were airborne.

By comparison, hiskarate classes made the airborne training seem like an afternoon tea. As DanInosanto recalls, "He ran the class just like boot camp and he liked tomake contact. Until I studied other styles, this is what I thought Karatewas."

Over the years Ihave known a few of Hank's students and they all had certain traits in common.They were all tough! At best, their katas were so-so or non-existent. And theyall loved to fight!

Up to this point itsounds like we have just another tough soldier.

Now, as they say, forthe rest of the story.

Hank Slomanski almost single-handedly changed the course of karate tournaments in Japan, and as would follow, the rest of the world.

In the early 1950sKarate competition had not developed an identity of its own. And as such theearly tournaments were patterned after the Judo Promotion Shaiai: Therewere no rounds; the fight ended with the scoring of an ippon (full Point)or two half-points, no matter how much time had been used. There were no weightdivisions. (Even judo did not use weight divisions until 1964. Since 1977 Judohas established eight weight divisions for international competition.)

In the Karatetournament of that era, you bowed in for your first match and continued to fightuntil defeated. Contact was allowed. There was no protective gear.

When the Japanesesaw Hank Slomanski emerge from the locker room, they weren't worried, despitehis raw-boned size. They had seen his type -- time and again -- in Judocompetition: big, dumb and slow with no spirit when the fighting got tough.

Parenthetically, adecade later in the World Judo championships in 1961 and 1962 and the 1964Olympics in Tokyo, the Japanese would make that same miscalculation. It was theera in which a big tough Dutchman named Anthony Geesink -- 6 feet 6 and 267 --pounds would beat the host country's finest judo representatives at their owngame, first by defeating them in the world championships and then in their owncountry, playing by their rules in the final match against Japans best to takehome the Olympic gold medal. This would be repeated by his fellow country manWillem Ruska in the 1972 Olympics in Munich when the Japanese did not place inthe top eight!

But back toHank Slomanski in Japan. Hank had set aside two days ofhis hard-earned leave for the karate tournament. He lined up and waited his turnto fight.

What happened nextwas the destruction of a Japanese martial arts myth: "size does not matter-- superior technique and spirit will prevail!"

After Slomanskibowed in for his first match he systematically vanquished first one, thenanother, then another of the opponents lining up against him. There were nohalf-points -- all full points, many by knock-out many because an unlucky 130pound body become the target of the fist or foot of 230 pounds of superblyconditioned fighter.

At the end of thefirst day Hank was undefeated. That represented between 4-5 hours of straightfighting: bow in; defeat one opponent -- each one fresh -- bow out; bow in; --defeat another opponent ... each new, fully rested opponent coming at you withhis best technique!

Overnight thetournament organizers worked to bring in and schedule their biggest and mostaccomplished karate-ka against the relentless G.I.

When the dust hadsettled at the end of the next day, there were no fighters left; Hank Slomanskiremained unbeaten. And he had defeated 119 consecutive opponents.

This was a lessonit would take the Japanese some time to absorb, and was best summed up byShigeru Oyama, the great Japanese stylist now living and teaching in the U.S.:

"I studiedculture and technique (when I came here) because if I fight a 150-pound man inJapan and a 220-pound man here, the same technique does not work. You have tochange how you generate power. Timing is everything. The power changes. Istarted everything over. If I hit a 220-pound guy -- I kick him in the face --he is still standing. If I kick the 150-pound guy with the same kick, he is onthe floor. My technique changed a lot when I came to the United States. Thepeople are different -- they're big!"

(Another historicalnote: Shigeru Oyama studied under the legendary Mas Oyama who still retained theold-style fighting philosophy. Shigeru Oyama once completed the "100Kumite" (fighting 100 men in succession without a loss).

In the wake of HankSlomanski's devastating onslaught against Japan's foremost karate-ka, thetournament hosts decided to make major changes in the rules. From that point therules were restructured to include eliminations, where at the end of each roundhalf the competition would be eliminated. And, even more importantly, weightdivisions were established. If these rules had been in effect earlier, Slomanskiwould have beaten only 8 of Japan's best!

It meant the erawhen a tournament victor might fight 119 opponents was officially over.

Hank was born to bea fighter; but like so many professionals after a real war, he was a warriorwithout a war once the Korean "unpleasantness" ended. For him it was ashort, natural step into the martial arts. He was one of the first Americansever awarded a black belt in Japan. How many Americans held black belts inkarate in 1956? Issued from Japan? You could try looking them up, but you won'tfind many.

I am indebted toDan Inosanto, a fellow student (30 years ago when we both studied with EdParker), for much of the information concerning Hank's physical size and forreconfirming the details of airborne and karate training under Hank Slomanski.

By the time I cameinto the Slomanski sphere of influence I was studying Kenpo in Pasadena,California under Ed Parker. This was 1957-60, and another of Mr. Parker'sstudents was a fellow we'll call Jerry -- a great athlete and martial artiststanding 6-feet-plus and weighing 200 pounds.

When promotion timecame around, it was determined that Jerry didn't fit the mold of a Kenpostylist. So Jerry left our training regimen to seek a black belt elsewhere,preferably in a classical Japanese style that might fit his physical structurebetter.

He went to studywith Hank Slomanski.

Jerry had beenwarned to watch out for Hank and his black belts. The word was they thoughtKenpo was "too soft". Jerry was braced. There would be no surprises.

After anappropriate period he was lined up for free style -- everyone wanted a piece ofthis "Kenpo" stylist -- free style with a vengeance. And he all butknocked out the first six men he faced.

Slomanski himselfwalked across the floor towards him. He shook Jerry's hand and told his studentsto go back to being human again. Jerry had made his point.

What followed was afamiliar formula to anyone who knew anything about Hank Slomanski's trainingmethods. For Jerry, what followed was 6 weeks of hell. But at the end of thattime, he had earned his first degree black belt.

The following requirementsfor Black Belt were outlined in a article on the Karate Club in The FortCampbell newspaper The Courier Wednesday January 21, 1959

    Astudent is tested on the following:

           *Anatomy of the human body
            * Setting of brokenand dislocated bones
            * Basickicks, blocks and punches
            * Rolling andfalling
            * The 30basic Karate Throws
            * The 9Karate "Dances" - (Katas)
            * Defenseagainst weapons (close combat)
            * Ability tobreak boards with; Finger-tips, side of palm (sword-hand - Shuto), Fist. Elbowand      feet.
            * Sparringagainst one or more opponents.

And now, shall we talkabout Elvis Presley?

Elvis was first exposed to Karate in 1958 after he was drafted into the Army and stationed in Germany. His first instructor was a German shotokan stylist named Juergen Seydel who taught Elvis at his off-base housing in Nauheim. One nice thing about the military was that you got thirty days of paid vacation (leave) each year. During his leaves in Paris he would take private lessons with Tetsugio Murakami, one of Japan=s top shotokan stylists, who would help pioneer shotokan in Europe. On one occasion he spend nine straight days studying several hours each day with Murakami. With a lot of spare time on his hands Elvis would spend hours training with Rex Mansfield, another soldier stationed with Elvis in Germany. It was during this time than Elvis would also start conditioning his hands for board breaking by banging his knuckles against hard surfaces. Little did he know then that this was something he would need when he finally test for his Shodan under Hank Slomanski. At this time he would also start collecting book on Karate. At this early stage Elvis became very impressed by Mas Oyama and his legendary breaking. Including killing bulls with his bare hands. **

discount hotels in MechelenAfter getting out of the Army Elvis would continue to study under different instructors, but there was no one instructor to call Sensei.

Ed Parker (1931-1960) first met Elvis in 1960 when Ed Parker was putting on a Kenpo demonstration at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. (Both myself and my brother Jim was part of the demo team, we were both brown belts at that time . I did the board breaking with the fists - Ed did the breaking with his feet.) I remember how humble and unassuming Elvis was. He walked up to Ed Parker and introduced himself as Elvis Presley. As if the whole world did not know who Elvis was. This would, be the start of a friendship with Ed Parker that would last until Elvis=s death August 16, 1977. He would start his studies with Ed but at this time he was not ready for Black Belt.

Another historical note might be in order here. Back then, in the '50s and '60s a Black Belt had true meaning. There was no such thing as a four - or 5-year-old black belt. Any instructor who trivialized the arts to that degree would have been laughed out of the country. Judo had established the minimum age of 16 for black belts, and even then you could search a long time without finding a 16-year-old judo black belt.

And so there was nothing else for it -- Elvis Presley was going to have to earn his black belt.

His instructors were understandably reluctant to promote him to that level. None of them had forgotten the derision piled on instructor-author Bruce Tegner when he presented a black belt to Ricky Nelson. Nobody believed for a minute that the pop singer deserved it.

The solution: send Elvis to Hank Slomanski. If he survived, he'd have proved he qualified. One thing stood in his favor: he had not dodged the draft nor taken a soft role in "special services". He had served his country as a loyal American soldier.

Last year I, with my wife, Pat, took a two day vacation to return to Ft. Campbell, on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee (the 101 Airborne "Screaming Eagles" is located on the Kentucky side). I wanted to search the actual military records to confirm what Elvis and Hank had told us. After hours of going through micro-filch of old records and the Camp newspapers I was able to confirm what we had originally been told. The Karate club met at the base gym for 2-3 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. All military personal were invited to attend - especially airborne. But as the Camp newspaper reported only a handful of the toughest of the 101^st airborne attended. As one soldier stated, you have to be crazy to take Karate with Hank - at the end of each training session these guys all come out with blood all over their GI's, grinning from ear to ear - and after beating the hell out of each other go have a cold beer!@

Training was broken down into the following sections: Basics; Kick-Punch-Block - over and over again. Rolling and falling. Close hand-to-hand self defense. Lots of hand-to-hand against real knives and other weapons. As part of the course, and your test for Black Belt, you had to know how to set broken and dislocated bones (happened all the time): no one got sued and the military gave free medical. Breaking of boards - no spacers - no padding only - bare first - and fingers against real boards - Yes part of the test was to break a board with your finger-tips - more about that later. the real fun - Kumite - no pads - no groves - Contact - especially to the body was expected and demanded. And yes Hank took his turn with each advanced ranger. Here was you chance to show Hank what you were made of and (if possible) to get even for all the hell he put you through as a "screaming Eagle"! But as every G.I. found out very early: fight hard, but let there be no misunderstanding. Hank was "The Man." The older recruits would watch and smile as the New Kids, with something to prove, tried to kick the "Old Man's" ass; most encounters ended with Hank knocking out the "wise-ass"! The report was that no one ever tried twice to become "top gun" - your first "ass kicking" by Hank or his top assistant, fourth degree black belt Sgt. Saur, was your official initiation into the real world of "self defense".

This was the world that a young country singer stepped into.

As Hank would tell us later: He wanted to find out what the kid was made of. The first day of training was simply designed to let Elvis get used to the type of training he was in for. To his credit, Elvis was in great shape physically and came through the hard, tough, training drills as well as most of Hank's own "rangers."

Come the second session, Elvis was going to get his first taste of REAL - full contact training. Hank took his top student, 4^th degree Black Belt Sgt, Saur, aside and told him: Keep away from his face, but put him down. I want you to hurt him bad - break a few ribs if you have to. Everyone sat back to watch Elvis to see if he was really the "King" or a whimpering "candy ass." The "match-up between Elvis and Saur started out slowly as Saur was feeling him out and setting up his man. Of course Elvis had watched other fights the previous lesson and realized this was something he had never been exposed to before. Then at a nod from Hank, Sgt Saur exploded with a series of full contact blows to Elvis's body which dropped Elvis to his hands and knees. It was obvious that Elvis was hurt and feeling the pain. Then Hank related, "I saw Elvis slowly get up with that sneer on his face ... then I saw in his eyes what we usually see only in war: Elvis wanted to kill!@

As the two men once again clashed I stepped in to break Elvis and Stg. Saur apart, "Hank further related, "but I found out what I wanted to know. The kid was a fighter - not a quitter@. Also Sgt, Saur would comment that they would occasionally have a beer after training, but he and Elvis never became friends. As a rule Elvis rarely drank, but he made an exception to sit down and have a beer with the boys. Elvis would relate how, during the "bull sessions" he would slip his full beer in front of one of the "dying for another beer@ fighters and replace it with an empty bottle.

And prove it Elvis did. He was awarded his coveted black belt after six weeks of persistent suffering inflicted by Hank Slomanski, and anyone who knew the principals in this little drama knew there could be no favoritism involved. It should also be noted that Elvis was only one of a handful of civilians to whom Hank ever awarded "Black Belt".

The word came back from Hank to my instructor, Ed Parker, about Elvis: "The kid ain't pretty, but he's tough and he's a Black Belt."

Later, as random skirmishing in a tiny country in Southeast Asia escalated into full-scale war, Hank Slomanski was chosen as one of the elite representatives of the original Special Forces under President John F. Kennedy.

"(Elvis Presley) qualified for 1st degree black belt in 1960 in Memphis with the late Hank Slemansky, a Chito-ryu stylist. Slemansky was killed on active duty in Vietnam sometime in the mid 1960s."

Thirty-two words, a handful of lines.

Hank Slemansky deserves better. He's a man we should be telling our students about.

Now that we know his story, perhaps we can.

September 11, 2001 - has made us aware of the need for men like Hank Slemansky. Historical note: I thought that this is where the story would end. But I wanted to finish my research so I could end the story of Hank Slemansky - but fate would take me on another trail.

To Be Continued

** Because of the popularity of Mas Oyama and his killing of bulls my brothers and I would take Ed Parker, his wife and father to the Bull fights in Mexico - to see a real fighting bulls. This will be a story by its self. 

Also little know is the story of Mas Oyama and a fight he had with real bull in Mexico city.

The following is an interesting slant on Karate History - Asrelated by Hank Slomanski - in the Fort Newspaper TheCourier - Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Wednesday, January 21, 1959.

       I was able to obtain several articles relating to Karate and Hank Slomanski -they were all preserved on micro-film and when printed out came out with inB&W negative form so all the type is white against a black background. 

I have re-typed one of these articles forhistorical reference - The actual italics will be indented and in italic. My owncomments will be in red and blue.

Karate Course To Be Conducted On Post

    Paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division and other interested post personal will have the opportunity to enroll in the most unique and perhaps toughest off duty instruction offered to members of the armed services.
    The classes are designed to teach the science of Karate and are scheduled to begin on Feb 2 at the post arena under the direction of SFC Joseph Virtue, a 27-year-old paratrooper from Miami. Fla.

 NOTE; Technically all  the paperwork and administrative details for the (club) were left to SFC (Sergeant 1st Class) Virtue. But the man who really ran all of the Karate was Sergeant Major Henry Slomanski - head of the Ranger Jump School. Hank did all the Karate training and left the paperwork to others.

What makes this so unique?

 Simply this, Karate originated about 2500 years ago. It can only be taught by registered licensed instructors in order to get credit for belt degrees.

Remember this is 1959. The Korean War (which we did not win) is over. 
Karate: No Kids - No wimps - No protective gear - (very, very few females - mostly Judo) NO Tae Kwon Do. Tae Kwon Do did not even come into existence until 1955!

With the exception of Kenpo which developed independent of the Okinawan/Japan Karate - the issuing of legitimate rank in the United States became a real problem. Any member of the United States Armed force who studied any Karate did so for only a very short period of time. And those that did have any rank were only promoted to Shodan. Almost all system had an absolute lower limit of  Sandan (3rd Black) to be able to promote.

For this reason senior instructors mainly from Japan were brought over to the United States to give legitimacy to Karate. The two most notable would be Tsutomu Oshima in 1957 Who would teach at Cal Tech - just a few block for the Kenpo Studio of Ed Parker. When Tsutoma Oshima returned to Japan he was replaced by Hidetaka Nishayama. 

NOTE: Japan understood well the politics of Karate, therefore they strategically placed top Japanese Instructor in major regions of the U. S:
        Takayuki Mikami - New Orleans
        Masataka Mori - New York
        Shojiro Sugiyama - Chicago
        Teruyuki Okazaki - Philadelphia
           The following two would become fierce rivals
        Tsutoma Oshima - Calif. (LA) - A true warrior in the tradition of "Bushido"
        Hidetaka Nishiyama - Great Technician (He came out of the             Japanese college system of Karate - not the traditional Karate studios. One of the finest Katas I have ever seem preformed was by Nishiyama. 
        Bruce Lee would meet Nishiyama at a Judo tournament in Tacoma Washington (both myself and Jessie Glover were there)Granada prenotazione alberghi  where Nishiyama was giving a Karate demonstration. Because of this chance meeting Bruce Lee would develop his kicks following the Japanese kicking system (not from either the Chinese or Korean kicking system. (More details in the Bruce Lee story)
NOTE: In Bruce Lee's original Wing Chun system there were no kicks above the waist. 

Hidetaka Nishiyama  would put out the first definitive book on Karate: KARATE - THE ART OF "EMPTY HAND" FIGHTING in 1959. A book that would set the standard for all Karate books that would follow. This is a "MUST HAVE" book for your Martial Arts book Collection. It can still be found on e-bay in the $50 range. I recently purchases a mint (1st printing) for $35. Make sure the book had the original cover with Teruyuki Okazaki doing this classis Jump Kick! See below!

Click on the individual pictures to enlarge

Okazaki

Nishiyama

NOTE: In the near future I will be written an article "Where did the Karate Masters get their Rank? As an interesting opening it was not until about 1973 that most of Karate got their act together and ended up with the belt ranking system we use today!

     At present the only active registered instructors in Karate (KARA-TAY) are at Fort Campbell. Of the six registered instructors in the United States, one has been discharged and is presently a civilian, the others are military. Two others are leaving Fort Campbell.
    What is Karate? To find out , lets go back to 650 B.C. and the Buddhist Monks of China, Monks were forbidden by their religion to carry, (or use) weapons and traveling from one settlement to another they were easy pray for bandits.
    To avoid this, in the privacy of their monastery, they secretly developed the science of Karate (Kung-Fu) to protect themselves.
The word Kara-Ote (sic) means with empty hands. Actually Karate is a moral, mental and physical science which is progressive by degrees. The serious Karate student is developed in three ways.
    Morally he is taught the four great virtues; temperance, fortitude, prudence and justice. Mentally he learns the control of emotions, patience, alertness and aggressiveness. Physical conditioning and coordination.
    In 1605 the science of Karate spread to Japan and the first school was opened in the providence of Okinawa.
    During this period of history, the Imperial Family of Japan - because of their religion - when praying  left... their armed guards (with their weapons) outside the temple.
    Because of this practice , assassins would usually strike at the Imperial Family while they were engaged in these ceremonies and were unguarded.
    When the Okinawa school opened it became mandatory for all Knights (Samurai) of the Imperial Guard to attend. In this way they could guard the Imperial Family during the ceremonies.
    The belt, warn as part of the uniform, would also denote the wearers degree of ability. For example, a first degree belt was not expected to be able to disarm a man with a knife or lance. His belt, made of heavy fiber, was worn in such a manner as to protect his heart and lungs from the thrust of such weapons.
    Guard duties were assigned by degree held. This general ruling being that the higher the degree, the closer the duties to the person being guarded.
    Eventually, the two men with the highest degree of ability awarded  the red belt and became personal guards to the Crown Prince and Princess,
    The award of red belt was accompanied with the title of Lord of Uano and a suitable land grant. The next highest degree man understudied the two red belts.
    Today, the knowledge of Karate is world-wide but strictly controlled by the International Karate Federation with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan.

NOTE:      At this period of time mid 1950's - The International Karate Federation was one of the major controlling groups of Karate in Japan.

     Degrees are no longer considered in assigning the duties of the Imperial Guard. The degree is awarded now as a symbol of the ability attained by an individual and can only be awarded by Karate Federation Commissioner.
    The practice of the two top men being red belts with one understudy has remained with the society today. The authority to award the red belt is vested in one person - the Emperor of Japan.
    The title of Lord and the land grant no longer go with the red belt. Recent awards have been accompanied with the Imperial Seal and a Doctor's degree in physical education from a Japanese university.
    The two red belts and the understudy are also awarded a small gold fist. It is called the Golden Fist Chief Examiners Badge. Only three men can wear that badge.
    Here at Fort Campbell the methods used to teach Karate will be the same as those used by the Monks some 2600 years ago.
    Fort Campbell is fortunate in having the International Karate Federation Commissioner for the United States and Hawaii here. He is M/Sgt. Henry Slomanski assigned to the Airbourn School, 101 Airbourn Division.
    Sergeant Slomanski is the Third highest degree belt in Karate and presently is the understudy for the two red belts. He is the only American to ever hold this honor and one of the three who are entitled to wear the golden fist.
    As the Federation Commissioner, Sergeant Slomanski is the only man in the United States who is authorized to award the instructors license or degree beyond the brown belt.
    . . . The Karate student may earn belts in the following order; White, Blue, Green, Brown and then the black belts which are awarded by degrees.
    A registered licensed Karate instructor may award belts up to the brown belt, but beyond that, the awards must be made by the Commissioner.

END OF ARTICLE FROM THE POST NEWS PAPER OF 1959