Coming to America part 2: Just when you thought it was safe to come back to Instagram…the return of 80's Danaher and the V neck sweater…This photo is from my last day in Auckland new zealand, at the airport waiting for my plane to the land of my birth, The United States. Here I am with my old side kick, Kemp – himself a formidable martial artist from the same era as myself- the era of standing striking as the paradigm of all martial arts (to this day, Kemp had one of the best sidekicks I ever saw in my life – full splits and perfect kick control even in near vertical axis at 225 pounds!). Just a few months after this photo was taken my whole conception of martial arts would be turned upside down and my American Journey would begin. Soon after my arrival in New York I began working as a nightclub bouncer and began working with wrestlers and Judoka, two arts I had ignored (such was my naivety I did not even consider wrestling to be a martial art at this time). hard experience quickly revealed the errors in my thinking and I began the study of grappling. Ultimately a series of fortuitous events took me in the direction of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Renzo Gracie. In time, even my earlier conception of standing striking tactics and techniques would be completely overturned with the arrival of the Young Georges St-Pierre and his approach to standing striking integrated with takedowns – what he called “shoot Boxing.” If I had known that day at the airport how much I would change and in what directions that change would take me and what I would go through to make those changes – perhaps I would have turned around and gotten off the plane! Nothing is more rewarding and uplifting than the feeling of positive change in your life – even when it overturns long accepted beliefs and dogmas. I am infinitely grateful to all the people who helped me on that journey and hope that I can help other people on theirs (only in martial arts, not fashion )
