Pictured is Grandmaster Richard Andrew King, founder of the Kiado-Ryu system and the Karate Institute of America, known to his students as “Mr. King” or, simply, “sir.” Most weeks, Mr. King is in charge of selecting a photo, but this week he is taking a much-deserved holiday and has left the duty to someone else. Thus he becomes the unwitting subject of this week’s photo highlight. Needless to say, without Mr.
Pictured here is the main gate of the Shaolin Monastery in Henan, China. The Shaolin Temple is the seed of the Karate Institute of America. From this revered iconic structure, the art of kenpō—meaning “fist law or fist rule”—was born. From kenpō, the KIA curriculum was developed and expanded to create its artistic and technical breadth, depth, and diversity.
Matt Emig is not a KIA student, but he is one hot nunchacku expert. Check out his double nunchaku kata at the 2007 Twin Towers Classic. It’s fun to watch. For those of you who are nunchacku experts, check out the small number of chain links and the width of the chuck handles. These are the reasons for the speed of the weapons in his routine.
Karate expert, Lyoto Machida, knocked out Rashad Evans for the UFC Light Heavyweight Title Saturday night, May 23, in Las Vegas, NV. The knockout occurred in the second round. The video link is below. Pay particular attention to the hand blitz Machida unleashes at 9:59, until the knockout at 10:25. It began with a straight left reverse punch followed by a hand blitz, typical of sparring matches at the KIA, in which Machida never let up until he knocked out Evans with a punching flurry.
Recognize these cuties and their gorgeous smiles? If you’ve been checking out our KIA photo of the week, you will. They are Jenny and Ryan Vail, Jon and Janice’s children. The family lives in Colorado and blessed us with a visit in the Fall of 2008. The twins were the subject of our November 17 photo of the week. Jon and Janice have both studied at the Karate Institute of America, and would have continued, but destiny moved them to the Centennial State.
Greg “Maddog” Bendel is the 14th Black Belt of the Kiado-Ryu (now second dan), receiving his first dan in December 1990. Greg works full-time as a consultant for Hewlett-Packard, assisting customers to prepare for, manage, and survive disasters. He serves the community in Orange County Sheriff’s Department Search & Rescue Reserve Unit, serving as sergeant for the Command, Control & Logistics Squad. Greg is also the very proud father of two beautiful sons, Hunter and Marcus.