Page 106 - Martial Science Magazine Special Edition 2015

GOLDEN EDITION 2014
DEBBIE

GOODMAN

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED
IN MARTIAL ARTS?
INTERVIEW
I didn’t get started in Martial Arts at a martial arts supply store, I set
until I was almost 29-years old, al- out to find an “authentic” Kung Fu
though I’d been interested since I School.
was a child. I was deeply influen-
ced by the TV series “Kung Fu”. I found John Cho’s Kung Fu Club
In the late ‘80’s, I’d been dating a at the Chinese Consolidated Bene-
local nightclub musician. He also volent Association/School of Con-
had another “girlfriend” I was fucius in a remote area of Fresno.
unaware of. She threatened me to We only trained 2 days during the
stay away from him, or she was week, and on Sunday mornings.
going to “knock my teeth down my A year later, John Cho opened a
throat”. That’s when I decided it school that was much closer to my
was time to enroll in Martial Arts. home, making it easier for me to
I tried a month at a local Shotokan train almost everyday. When John
school, but it just didn’t seem to Cho held his Grand Opening, we
By: Henry Binerfa click with me. I then found a school invited all the other school owners

that taught a “blended” style, but in town. It was my “job” to invite
after a year-and-a-half or so, I Stuart Quan, as his dojo was right
found that I didn’t like some of the across the street from where I was
things that were going on in the working at the time. Stuart and I
school (Mostly having to do became friends, and he invited me
with Black Belt instructors to help teach the “Mind, Body, Spi-
THE taking advantage of the fe- rit” program to the Boy’s & Girl’s
male students!). After picking club. I was immersed in Martial
Arts at that time, studying Kung Fu
up a book by Douglas Wong

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