My son had reached the ripe old age of fifteen when he got around to asking me to teach him martial arts. I had twenty years experience at the time. I knew a dozen different types of karate, and didnt know which one to teach him.

Living in Los Angeles, I decided to teach him karate. The problem was I had a half a dozen systems of that art. So which version should I teach him?

I began to look at the different systems, and from each I began to select what were, in my mind, the best techniques. After that, I went through the forms and chose the ones that held those techniques. Finally, I made little changes in the forms so that the techniques were all represented.

That was the hardest class I ever taught, and it lasted a year. There were five other students, and the size and amount of bruises was amazing. Even after all this time, when I meet those fellows again I see them grinning like eagles.

Karate is designed for self defense. You dont ever want to use it. If you have to use it, however, youd better win, or why did you bother in the first place, eh?

My son was walking to work one day. The sun was bright and shining, and it was a typical Los Angeles day. He didnt have a care in the world as he sauntered down the sidewalk.

Hey, man, got some change? It was a bum, and my son said no and shook his head, and he noted that while the first bum followed him, there was a second bum. The second bum walked around the corner of the building that my son was walking past.

I said I want some money! The first bum came at my son, and my son backed up faster. Suddenly a body came flying at him from the rear, and my son knew that the second bum had circled the building and was making his attack.

Aaron spun and executed a kick to the chin of the second bum, and the bum fell backwards on the sidewalk. The first bum, meanwhile, had grabbed his shoulder, and he pulled Aaron around to hit him, so Aaron whirled underneath the attack, executed a block, then slammed the bums head between his elbow and knee. The bum Aaron had kicked had gotten to his feet, and he moved towards Aaron, who hit him in the chin again, and sent him sailing six feet through the air and into a meter pole, which pole bent over severely.

The fight was over, and Aaron looked around in confusion. Shrugging his shoulders, he continued on to work. The bums were bigger than him and had outweighed him, but his art, the art I had created out of the meanest, nastiest, most functional karate I knew, had worked.

Its been a while since that fight, and I dont teach that system anymore. Ive learned a lot since then, and moved on. Still, that art, that very breakthrough art, which I called by the name of Outlaw Karate, really worked.