Back in the day – 1971 – in USAF, Cocoa Beach, Florida! After studying some Tiger Kung Fu and some Shodokan karate, I started studying Okinawan Matsubayashi Shorin Ryu karate under Sensei Sam Palmer, 5th degree black belt. There were around 30 Airmen who started class with Sensei after he got back from serving in Okinawa; after two weeks, there were only eight of us left. Old school Okinawan karate training, 3-5 hours a day, 7 days a week, sweating in a tin roofed barrack under the hot Florida sun. The body was much younger then. One of my favorite memories is practicing kata on a Patrick Air Force Base boat pier under a hard Florida rain. My preferred style is still Ryukyu Kempo but I gained many insights from Sensei Palmer.
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