“The Phone Call From Ed Parker That Changed My Life Forever!”
It was 1977. I’d been with Ed about a year, and I asked Jim Mitchell, “What does one have to do to get Ed’s attention?”
Jim looked at me and said, “Write a thesis”. That was it. Nothing more. Nothing less. Jim turned and walked away. He was done talking.
I knew what a thesis for a college MBA degree took. A lot of research. A lot of study. It had to be between 40 to 80 pages. And it had to be professional and of high-quality.
But I did not know what a thesis for Ed Parker meant. Nor was I aware of what was required from him. I knew of only one fellow that had written a Kenpo thesis that resonated with me. It was the “Medical implications of karate blows”, by Brian C. Adams in 1969.
I did talk with some of my Kenpo friends like Dale Petite and Tom Kelly. It seemed like most folks that did a thesis, wrote a few pages, and they were done. In fact one man wrote 3 pages about how Kenpo was like water, and that was it. I was disgusted with him and with his feeble attempt.
I figured that a thesis should mean something, and should have valid and practical information in it. And should be more like a doctoral dissertation, rather than a homework assignment for a 3rd grade class-report on volcanoes.
I started thinking about a topic, about some idea or concept that could add to the well-being of Kenpo practitioners and could add to the martial arts.
I love books. I’ve always loved to read and study. So I went down to the Book Shop and went through their bookshelves looking for an idea that would trigger my creativity.
My fingers kept going back to a small book by handgun expert Jeff Cooper. It was titled “Principles of Self-Defense” and it had 23 pages in it (the current issue has 43 pages).
It was $5 bucks, which in 1977 was a lot of money for 23 pages. I finally bought it. Took it home. Studied it. Wrote in the margins. I knew the book was important, but I could not consciously “connect the dots” between that small pamphlet and a thesis for Kenpo advancement.
After reading the book and thinking about a topic that would fit me well, and fit the martial arts well, I fell asleep with that topic on my mind.
I woke up in the middle of the night! I had a title. “Mental Training of a Warrior”. I got up out of bed, grabbed a pen and notebook and started outlining the chapters of the book, based upon my 26 years in the martial arts and my 6 years in Kenpo Karate.
Three months later the book was done. It was horrible.
I was so disappointed with it that I threw it away. I tossed it in the garbage can.
I’d written what others had spoon-fed me and “not” what I really felt and believed. It did not have in it what I’d personally learned from my experiences over the years in the US, Korea, and Japan.
I started over again from scratch. I would write out each chapter by hand. Cut and paste with scotch-tape. Rearrange the chapters until they fit and were properly in sequence.
My pregnant wife Lynn would type out the chapters on an electric typewriter on the kitchen table.
Lynn was so pregnant that she could barely reach the keyboard, but she kept typing away.
Three months later the new version was done. I felt I’d done my best. I hoped that Ed would appreciate it. The orginal thesis was 352 pages long!
I had a copy made of “Mental Training of a Warrior”, and sent it off to Ed in Pasadena. A month went by. Then another month went by. I just about gave up hope.
One afternoon the office telephone rang. I picked it up and said, “Idaho Karate Kung-Fu Association, how can I help you”?
A deep voice says, “How are you John? This is Ed PAWKER. (That’s how Ed pronounced his name, “Parker” with his Hawaiian accent”)
“Hello Mr. Parker.”
Ed: “I just got back from Latin America. I’ve been giving seminars down there, and I’ve been gone a couple of months… just got back in town from Chile.
I’ve been reading over your manuscript…(Ed paused a few seconds)…
“…It’s NOT a thesis…” (Another long pause, and I started worrying that it wasn’t good-enough)…
Then Ed laughed. When Ed laughed he always laughed from deep down in his chest…and I could just see that big grinning smile on his face as he said…
“No John, it’s NOT a thesis…It’s a BOOK! Get it PUBLISHED! It’s That Good!”
And that’s how my thesis turned into a book. Ed liked it so much that he MADE ME GET IT PUBLISHED!.
My sincere appreciation goes to Ed Parker, Jim Mitchell and Tom Kelly for getting me motivated back then in 1977.
And that “is the start of the story”.
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