The first time I heard of Joe Lansdale, I was in a Tae Kwon Do class at Stephen F. Austin State University. As a kid I had been interested in martial arts, but I was taking this class just to fulfill the physical education requirements of the university. During these classes, other students and a variety of folks from the community would come and work out with us. One of these was Chad Francois. After class one day, I heard him talking about a guy that taught martial arts that was practical, brutal, and free of katas. The Tae Kwon Do class was primarily stretching and simple kata practice, which I felt was somewhat silly and at the least would require a huge amount of time to actually learn anything worth knowing.

Anyway, I got the meeting place and time from Chad Francois. So, in a day or two, I dropped by the old fire station down by the creek to check out Matsukaze Budo, as the system was known at the time. My impression during the workout (they let me participate on day one, by the way) was that these guys were the real deal. There were two arenas inside the stifling hot room. One was led by Terry Thoburn and the other by Joe Lansdale. Thoburn's side seemed to be more aikido oriented, with dramatic throws that seemed to require little effort on his part. He spent a lot of time that night and during subsequent workouts explaining the role of inner energy or chi and demonstrating little "tricks". Often, I thought many of these tricks were merely that, a trick, and sometimes Thoburn would have a hard time making them work on me and others. When he taught aikido techniques that used momentum and mechanics, however, there was no doubt in my mind that it was real. I have distinct memories of being stretched out horizontally at least 4 feet (seemed like 8' when I landed) off the ground and rapidly approaching the mat. I liked him fine and thought that he knew his stuff, but I never did buy into the quasi mystic aspects that he talked about. To this day I have a desire to learn more aikido.

Joe's side of the room was quite different. There seemed to be a constant blur of movements that ended in a sudden fall to the mat or a yelp or gasp of pain as a joint was encouraged to bend in an unnatural way, followed by serious tapping on the mat or anything handy. The tapping rarely resulted in an immediate easing of pain, by the way. I laugh as I say that, remembering the painful "lag-time" before the actual release. He seemed to rely less on "chi" and more on plain ol' brutal efficiency. Strikes and techniques to a casual observer almost looked sloppy or haphazard compared to what I had seen in Tae Kwon Do. But as I continued to come and learn, I saw that efficiency and effectiveness were the goals and not aesthetics.

I don't remember how long I was there before Joe and Thoburn split the sheet. I do remember that I was a brown belt in rank. I wasn't privy to the circumstances surrounding it and frankly wasn't interested in knowing. It seems like I laid out for a couple of weeks, maybe longer, while it was all sorted out. I remember Thoburn telling me in the grocery store where we bumped into each other that he would quickly promote me to black belt if I came with him. That sounded a little off so I never acted on the offer.

Everything resumed once Joe (referred to hereafter as Professor) opened up at the current location on the loop. The workouts were hard, intense, and my pain threshold was expanded beyond belief. But the friendships and camaraderie made it enjoyable. There just seems to be a certain bond between guys that experience pain and gain together. There were three of us that came through and kinda stayed together through the ranks - Billy Jack Worsham, Paul Britt, and myself. Ryan DeWitt came a little later but quickly caught up to us. (It was almost irritating at the time to see how talented he was and how quickly he caught on.) All three have since gone on to earn multiple ranks and become extremely proficient. Then there was Coy Harry and Eugene Frizzell. Those two were the original of Professor's protégés. They were always two or three jumps ahead of the four of us and gave us the one-on-one attention that allowed us to progress much faster than would have been typical at an average dojo.

One thing that I want to be sure and mention. I was always proud of the professionalism of these guys. To have as much pain meted out every time we met and never have a loss of temper, or hurt feelings, or steams of profanity flying around the room says a lot about the Professor and the students. We had great fun, ribbed each other, laughed through the pain, and learned. For that I'm thankful.

There was a great sense of accomplishment when that black belt was awarded to me. I consider my time at the Professors dojo as time well spent. Hopefully one day soon circumstances will permit me to pick up where I left off. There was always a friendly competition between us four and it's bugging me that I'm so far behind now. One day... It's still in the blood...

Thanks Professor Joe.