Swords are sharp … and cutting. The word “Shuto” is defined as a hand used like a sword in striking. Jerry “Shuto” Alston, the 28th Black Belt of the Kiado-Ryu (1994), not only used his hands as cutting implements on his opponents but he also used his mind as a cutting instrument to whittle his adversaries down to size.
In fact, one of Shuto’s greatest assets, if not his greatest asset, is his mind. Jerry Alston is smart, sneaky smart, and he has won many competitions and matches using his number one weapon—his intellect.
In this pictorial collage we get a glimpse of Jerry’s prowess, skill which led him to many competitive championships in martial arts kata, group performance, and self-defense events. He, no doubt, would have had more championships if Whitefire, lacking control, had not knocked him out a couple times during practice and even bounced his (Shuto’s) head off the floor during a self-defense competition, which they won no less! I guess bouncing heads off the floor influenced the judges enough to give Shuto and Whitefire the championship!
Posing with Jerry in this 1987 photo taken at the Karate Institute of America in Lake Forest, CA, are Genny “Cougar” Edge (blue belt) and Rose “Renegade” Hoberg (then Guck; green belt).
Jerry and his wife, Dawn, have been married for 19 years. Dawn is multifaceted, her interests centering around art in its many forms. She has run a small antique business and is currently studying fashion design.
Jerry is now Senior V.P. of Central Engineering at QLogic Corp where he has worked for 30 years. QLogic makes high speed networking infrastructure products for fibre channel and Ethernet, with a focus on host adapters, switches, ASICs and boards.
One of Jerry’s hobbies is music engineering. In fact, he and fellow Black Belt Steve Vertun (KIA Black Belt #39) will be publishing a music CD soon, so be looking for it. Pretty creative these KIA Black Belts!
For fun, Shuto has taken up golf and plays every Saturday and Sunday! He belongs to the local Coto de Caza Golf & Racquet Club. His favorite golf courses are Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill.
And get this … Jerry “Shuto” Alston is such an accomplished golfer (thanks to his KIA martial arts training, of course), that he has a “Hole-in-1” to his credit! Well, maybe not because of his martial arts training, but maybe a just a little. His fabulous “Hole-in-1” serendipitously occurred on his 54th birthday (5 March 2011)! Need proof? Check out the following photos, the second of which is Jerry picking up his now famous “Hole-in-1” golf ball from its cup.
How sweet it is and … how very rare! Great job, Shuto!
As you can see, Shuto is still looking very young while the old guy in the red shirt is aging quite rapidly. Yet, we can still walk, laugh, and enjoy memorable times together.
As always, it is absolutely wonderful to reconnect with Karate Institute of America students. We were all such a dynamic part of everyone’s life during that time of our lives, and it was, indeed, a memorable, positive and worthy time.