Senior Instructor: Sensei Ryan Dewitt

     Hello.... my name is Ryan Dewitt. My martial arts experience has been pretty short, but intensive. The first time I became interested in the arts was when I saw "Karate Kid". I had never really thought about martial arts until I saw this movie. Although an interest had been sparked, I never did any training as a kid. Growing up in Houston, Texas gave me plenty of opportunity to do so (lot's of dojo's), but regrettably I never took that first step.

    At the start of my Eighth grade school year, my family moved to a small town in East Texas called Nacogdoches. This is where it all began.

    A few years passed, yet I still had not gained the strength to enter a dojo. I still had the desire and it was getting stronger! One of my neighbors asked me to go to one of his Taekwondo classes and check it out. I told him I might, or might not go with him the following week. As luck would have it, I was reading our school newspaper the next Monday. There was an add for a martial arts class called Matsukaze Budo. It read as very interesting, and a little dangerous.

    A few weeks later I built up the courage to go see what Matsukaze Budo was all about. As I walked through the front door I saw two men lying on the ground. One guy was squealing like a little baby, and the other was laughing while giving instruction. Come to find out, the guy giving the instruction had one hell-of-an ankle lock on the guy that was screaming.

     The two men were Professor Joe Lansdale and Sensei Chad Francious. The Professor invited me to come to the next class and join in the training. I returned that next Thursday and participated in the class. After that night, my life would be changed forever.

   I signed up and started training twice a week. The class was split into two different sections. On one side, Sensei Terry Thoburn taught Aikijitsu, while the Professor taught Maverick Kenpo on the other. By the time the Fall of '96 had rolled around, Matsukaze Budo found itself going through changes. Our two instructors found they were following different paths and decided to go their separate ways. I decided to stay with the Professor and remain with him to this day.

    Professor Lansdale combined his thirty plus years of martial arts experience, his own concepts and principles, and devised the system of Shen Chuan. With the help of his top students, Sensei Eugene Frizzell and Sensei Coy Harry, Shen Chuan has become one of the most powerful and diverse systems I have ever seen.

    I received my black belt in Shen Chuan on June 8, 1997 under Professor Lansdale. After that I never looked back. A door was opened in me that forever changed my life. Since that time I have immersed myself in the martial arts and have tried to diversify my training as much as possible. To which I achieved a first degree black belt in Shen Chuan's StickBoxing Division and a second degree black belt in GM Pellegrini's Combat Hapkido. I am currently a 2^nd degree black belt in Shen Chuan, and a third degree black belt in the Aikijitsu division. I hold a Senior Instructorship in Shen Chuan as well.

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