Uechi-Ryu.com

Thank you, Van. My sentiments exactly. Bi-Polar Bears and all

A family man from Kill Devil Hill in the NC Outer Banks won the light contest.

Ted Kresge will be back again next year. Thousands of cars drive by his place just for the lights.

Kresge peaks ... his residential power bill goes off the charts ... $1300.00 in December.

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There is much to make of every moment.

I met Kresge once back in the 70s when he came to our dojo once. I was real young and didn't talk to the man, but I did get to watch him work out in the class and I can tell you, like Van sensei said, he was a bundle of energy. Very strong.

There are many stories about him and GEM sensei and their feud, but the bottom line is that he did have regular correspondance with Uechi sensei, and supposedly had all of his pictures for his book checked by Uechi sensei, had an extensive martial arts library that would be worth a ton in these circles had he not given it away after he found Christ, and went off with the fledgling USKA under Robert Trias. It was Trias and the USKA that awarded Kresge whatever high rank in karate-do he attained. I don't think the USKA certificates stated he was ranked in Uechi, but I don't remember.

Lastly, I think it would be wrong for us to speculate that Kresge, however strange it seems, to be bi-polar, or anything else as it is not within anyone's scope here to diagnose that without the proper credentials and testing. Let the man be. I hope he's happy with the Xmas lights and his seclusion.

mike

The troubling post no longer exists.

Bill

It has been reported by some that the reason for the excessive volume of Kanei Uechi's kyohon was partially due to the size of Ted Kresge's tome. The committee who put it together didn't want their work dwarfed by Ted's. So instead of 3 or 4 really good books on the style, we have this massive book which few bought and now is a collector's item. Heck... I'm afraid to open mine up any more because it's so fragile and it's worth too much. Piecemeal however this work will continue to stimulate and inspire the curiosity and imagination of martial artists for generations to come.

What comes to mind with this thread is the 1946 Frank Capra movie It's a Wonderful Life. The protagonist in the movie, played by Jimmy Stewart, felt he never was able to achieve his big dreams because of the responsibilities he felt compelled to meet. At a very troubling point in his life on Christmas Eve, he muses on whether his life really mattered to anyone around him. An angel comes to him and is able to show him just how different the world would be without him around. It reinforces the theme that our lives affect many others around us, no matter how unspectactular or troubled they may appear to be at any one point.

I see an echo of that theme here. I see Ted having greatly influenced the course of events in the Uechi world irrespective of what he did or did not achieve on his own personal front. And with the Christmas season coming upon us, we see someone who puts great energy into dazzling and inspiring others.

Not a bad life...

- Bill

The feud, as so often the case, was one-sided. Anyone who knows me, know that the door is always open. Often time, the term "feud" comes about, when people who don't get what they want from me, (or others) will create reasons why they did what they did, putting the blame on others, instead of taking responsibility themselves for their actions and situation.

I stopped supporting Ted, once his karate "morphed" into a quasi religious cult and I received many letters from former students, relating his strange behavior in the dojo.

The same is true of Terry Dukes.

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GEM
"Do or do not. there is no try!"

what the fck is Bi-polar ..............do you mean Schizophrenic .........Ya know I hate the way these labels get changed all the time .when I was a kid we had "spastics and Mongols"........don't got them no more ...........have they been cured??
As to the fred guy...whatever .guess we have to decide what we mean by Karate.before we judge who is good at it and who isn't...............and if he wants christmas lights good for him ( I hope he realises it is a Pagan festival .and that Jesus was actually baptised by John the Baptist on January 7.which is why we have "Christmas" when we do ").......but hey if he's a whacko he won't have done his research so he won't know this ...........and so I guess what he said about Uechi will blow up the same hole
Van
Is Harry Benfield "passed" to use an American euphamism..............

Jorvik

Well, let me put it this way, my friend.

The past does not exist, but only the ‘present’ of the past_ and that is called ‘memories’ _

Likewise, the ‘future’ does not exist but only the ‘present’ of the ‘future’ _ that is called _hope_

The only thing that has the probability of really existing _ is the present _ of the ‘present’ _

So what does the present of the ‘present’ tell us about what has ‘passed’ about Mr. Benfield?

Sorry for the brain twister.

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Van

Bi-Polar =def. a Canadian Bear that can 'swm both directions'? [grin].

And Van shows another dimension of his multi-faceted intellect. In a paper I wrote eons ago I defined

PRESENT =def. THE INTERACTION OF THE PREDICTED FUTURE WITH THE PREDICTED PAST.

It summarized the observation that our 'conscious' actions trail the action by about 1/10 th of a second and that the PASTis always being reconstituted with the same predictive operators that apply to our 'Kalman filter' tracker.

Uechi experts know that one aspect of the Kata is facilitating the supression of the 'conscious editor' which interfers with fast response action.

A very Merry Christmas to all.

Hello I am looking to buy Ted Kresge's Encyclopedia of Karate from any person willing to sell it. Ted was my teacher in the late 60's and early 70's.

I last saw Ted 2 years ago during Christmas (my family live 5 blocks from his house). He looked good and still had that energy I remember. It has been almost 40 years since I have been his student but he is still my most honored teacher. He did not just teach me Karate but life skill that I now pass on to my students.

David
iowarehab@msn.com

Mr. Kresge promoted exactly 52 students to shodan. I know this because I am #52 and was the last one he ever promoted before retiring permanently. It was October 8th, 1983.

If you have the list of students it would be good historically to document them. I believe my sensei is on the list as well, although possibly later than shodan. I've thought about putting together a Uechi family tree several times.
A big task but not impossible.
There are rough skeletons of lineage charts here and there.

F.

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Sans Peur Ne Obliviscaris
www.hinghamkarate.com

I did not know them all by any stretch, but I can name a few:

Tim Kelly (Tim was a classic stylist, tall, thin, intense, & intelligent).

Jay Thomas (Jay was a tank!, short & stocky, solid as a rock)

Don Quinte (Don was a wonderful person, I'd heard he was robbed at gunpoint sometime in the later 80's and was unharmed).

Mark Emmerson (Mark was one of my early instructors from time to time, When Tosh & Ric Martin first came to town, Mark went to meet them to see what they were all about. I believe he sparred with Ric).

Tom Alexander (Tom was a super nice, extremely talented sensei. He moved like lightning).

Mike Bittel (Mike continued to train and teach for many years after Kresge's retirement)

Kresge's main dojo was located at 5907, 54th Ave N. in St. Pete during those years.

I had nothing but respect for Mr. Kresge even after he'd changed his path in life. I did not keep in touch with him regularly, but I did see him from time to time up until about 1995. As far as I know, he still puts up the lights.

He was once a drag racer and raced a 1969 Camaro in the early 70's. If you knew him much, you'd know his favorite food was meatloaf. It was sad for all of us when he decided to retire to seek Jesus, but nobody could change that. His beliefs were unwavering and if he's correct, then he's made the right choice.

Sometime after all that, I continued to train and teach. I trained with Tim Kelly for a short time, and eventually trained with Frank Gorham (spelling?) for an even shorter time. There was some question as to whether or not my Shodan certificate from Kresge was valid because it wasn't from Okinawa. I didn't care about that and didn't feel I needed anyone else's validation or approval. At one point, I was asked to do a Seisan kata for Mr. Gorham. When I was done, he said "if you want a certificate from Master Kanei, I will get you one" just based on that. I thanked him but declined. I was honored, but at the same time, I didn't want to be disrespectful to Mr. Kresge. I was his very last blackbelt student and that was good enough for me.

Some years later, I saw Ted and told him that. He smiled warmly and thanked me. He is an extraordinary man.

If you got what you wanted from Mr. Kresge, then that's all that matters.

I hope you continue your training, and enjoy every day of it.

- Bill

Thank you Sir.

I continued to train for 12 more years or so but haven't in a long time. Many life changes, several surgeries, and just growing older in general, I left it behind me.

There was a time when I was living in North Carolina I trained with a Korean school across from where I was living. I walked in and asked if I could work out there and the owner said sure, let me think about how to work that out go ahead and warm up. There was a small class in process being led by a brown belt I think. The man was trying to teach a student how to do a jump kick of some sort, but the student just wasn't putting it together. I raised my hand and asked if he'd mind if I offered a hint, he said sure. So I did and the student nailed the kick on the next attempt. I didn't realize the owner had been watching through the office window so he asked me to come in and sit down. He said "You can train here for free as often and as long as you want, all I ask is if my students ask you a question or need help, you help them". That was awesome. I stayed in the area for maybe 10 months or so and enjoyed that time. I even ref'd some tournaments the school put on.

The older I get, the more I realize most things in life people think they have control of are illusions. We can only control our own actions and attitudes to the best of our ability. As time passes, most people forget the specific things you said or did, but they never forget the way you made them feel... I'm proud of many things I've accomplished, but not all of them. I hope when most people think of me, they have positive thoughts although I'm sure not all of them would.

That being said, it wasn't about getting what I wanted from Mr. Kresge, it was about being content with what I'd been a part of that was from then on, just a part of history. What I wanted didn't matter.

I find myself these days wanting or desiring more than anything to simplify my life. I used to think being Mr. Kresge's last Shodan made me special. While it was an accomplishment to be #52 out of many thousands, I'm no better than anyone else.

Sorry for the rant. If any of you want to find out more names of Kresge's black belts, you can find Mike Bittel @ mikebittel.com and contact him. He'll know more than I do.

At one point, there was a girl who worked at Weeki Wachi Springs as a mermaid. I think she made Shodan but I never knew her name. There was also a man named Dwight Newcomb I think, his nickname was "Speedy" because he was blindingly fast. There was also a man in his 50's or so named Lad, but I can't recall his last name.

Thank you.

Most excellent.

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Van