Wednesday, July 22, 2020

A note for my students about Jim Keenan



 
Jim and I never really trained together.

 

When I first entered the internet age he and I met, discovering he lived nearby in Massachusetts.

 

He came up to watch my t’ai chi group and afterwards we discussed many things.

Here are some of the notes I saved from that meeting. They have meaning but not for now



Over the years from time to time he would visit and we again discussed much. We might watch videos I made, We often watched Chinese movies with  English and Chinese subtitles. Then he would translate what was spoken and what was written in each language, explaining each was saying something different.

And at times we would meet at a mall in Salem and just talk as friends.

 
One time he brought his students up and I gave them a small clinic.


 

Foremost we were friends, and that friendship continued over the years.

 

Then when I became disabled and for a year worked out how to keep doing my t’ai chi, when he saw my video of it, he came up and awarded me a certificacte to teach that t’ai chi version. I never expected anything like that.


 

Another time he came up and showed me how to practice an empty hand version of the opening of Tokomeni No Kon without a bo, just empty hands.




 

Then at the beginning of 2020 as a surprise he put together that book for me from some of my blog posts.


 

 

Note:

 

Note: where Jim started in Isshinryu in the Pittsburg area, as time passed he studied a great many things.

 

When Jim was stationed in Israel he was able to study Krav Maga with the founder Imi Litchenfeld. While the same art there were two subtle versions. The version for the Israeli military and the version for the Israeli civilian self defense.
 
 

When Imi Litchenfeld died the Israeli’s asked Jim to return and teach the original civilian version to children, as they recognized he was skilled.

 

At one time Jim had an article in Black Belt Magazine about PaQua/BaGua.






 

 

 

 

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