Protection
Make no mistake: martial arts is self-defense at the core. If it cannot protect a person when things get ugly, then something has gone soft in the wrong place.
Martial Arts
Self-defense at the core. Family around it.
I started martial arts in 1981. I am a long-standing member of the Ordonez Kajukenbo Ohana, a 5th degree black belt in Kajukenbo, and an 8th degree black belt in Kenpo Karate. That sounds like rank talk, but rank is not the point. The point is practice, pressure, lineage, restraint, and family.
What Kajukenbo means to me
Kajukenbo means open expression, evolution, practical self-defense, and family. It is not museum work. It is not fake mystical posturing. It is a living system that keeps its feet on the ground and its eyes open.
The Ordonez Kajukenbo Ohana is a true ohana. Like all families, we bicker, talk smack, help each other out, love hard, get annoyed, and still know where the line is: no one outside the family gets to be mean to us.
Influences
John and Donald (sadly, passed from this earth, but Don will never be out of our thoughts, teachings, and hearts) are my most impactful instructors. Over the years I have trained with hundreds of excellent people across Kenpo, Eskrima, Danzan Ryu, Kajukenbo, and related self-defense traditions.
What stuck was not just technique. It was the vocabulary for discipline, fear, family, humility, impact, restraint, and getting back up without turning into a bully.
What martial arts should teach
Confidence
Training should help people stand up straighter in their own skin. It should teach calm under pressure and respect for the room.
Community
Good training makes people stronger together. It gives them shared language, shared standards, and a place to belong without pretending life is clean.
If martial arts only teaches you how to hurt people, it failed. It should teach you when not to.
I currently teach at home, in the backyard. Simple, direct, family-scale, and real.