Sensei John Kay

 

I was born October 28, 1946 in Chicago. As a youngster growing up I had quite a few serious bouts with illnesses. The worse occurred in the summer of 1952. One day, I awoke, got out of bed and immediately fell to the floor. My mom took me to a clinic, which was crowded with young kids who were battling an outbreak of polio. I was lucky and by the end of the summer I had regained use of my legs however, for many years afterwards my legs were weak. Growing up I was easily dissuaded from physical activities with the other boys and girls preferring to read science fiction. Of course, I tried some sports (baseball and football) but all my attempts resulted in miserable failures and sometimes injury (concussion while playing football at 13 years of age and a bodyweight of 86 pounds). Somehow, I made it to 18 years of age and I enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. I weighed 132 pounds. Four years later, 1968, I weighed 136 pounds. I was pretty pathetic and had a nasty alcohol addiction.

 

In the fall of 1971 I first met my teacher Ngo Dong at the University of Florida. I was attracted to his charismatic personality. In February 1972, I started classes in Cuong Nhu at the U. of F. with Master Dong. At that time, he referred to me later as, “that bearded guy who smelled of beer?” My life in those days was a void and karate filled the emptiness.

 

My Karate training evolved from physical exercise to a mental and spiritual passion. I received my black belt two years later, February 1974. It was at this time that Master Dong taught me the Monkey Form (Hou Quyen) Master Dong had allowed me to help teach from late 1972 and by 1974 I owned a commercial dojo in Gainesville, Florida with my partner, John Benson. As the years went by, I increased my training to a level of near fanaticism.  For several years in the mid-1970’s I performed 2,000 pushups, 7 days a week!

 

In 1974, I met my future wife, Ricki, who was the 2^nd best thing that ever happened to me. Without karate, I would never have found such a wonderful partner. We married in 1980 and moved to the Seattle area.

 

We started the first Cuong Nhu Dojo in the Northwest - Komokuten Dojo. One of it's first locations (1982) was at Riverton Heights Elementary school.

 

Over the past 30 years I have continued training in the martial arts covering many areas, including Nunchaku, grappling, Tai Chi, Jujitsu, and Karate. Our school, Fairwood Martial Arts, is operated with my whole heart. I have tried to offer the members of our community the same love and concern that Master Dong gave me thirty years ago.

 

My goal is to continue teaching the martial arts with my wife and family. We treat our students like members of our family. I can best sum up our instructors' teaching philosophy in one sentence. “I will teach each class as if it were the most important class I will ever teach”.