I put this here, because I believe Jim Wagner needs equal, fair time. But, warning...it does seem to include a Ron Baliki-esque Style romance story...? Wha?Wagner recalls me, recalling and then explains I am wrong...“I first heard of him when he advertised in old Black belt, (late
80s? early 90s?) using a photo of him and Dan Inosanto (taken at a
seminar). He was flogging himself with Dan…misleading…and making the
Inosanto community mad for a period, not allowing any seminar
pictures with Dan for years. Thanks to Jimbo, he set a pattern of
suggestively making himself what he is not.”
Now we come to outright lies. First of all I never advertised in
Black Belt in the late 80’s or early 90’s. My first HIGH RISK article
came out in 1999 thanks to Editor Robert Young who took a chance on
me. You have to keep in mind that when I first approached Black Belt
magazine there were no articles in any martial arts magazine around
the world about terrorism, the use-of-force continuum, using air
guns, stage blood for knife training, virtually nothing about
criminal tactics, nothing on school shootings or snipers taking a pop
shots. It was all about the traditional martial arts and a story here
and there about the new UFC. My HIGH RISK articles in Black Belt
magazine, and then in Budo in Europe, opened the door to the many
people on the reality-based band wagon that you see now when you open
up a martial arts magazine anywhere in the world. It took me ten years to get my ideas out there, but now there is no stopping it.
But, going back to the late 80’s and 90’s, no, I was not advertising.
I first met Dan Inosanto in 1977 at the Aspen Academy of Martial Arts
for a solid month of training. Jeet Kune Do and Filipino Kali were
virtually unknown then. That same year Dan told Black Belt magazine
that he feared that Filipino would die out. Of course it didn’t, and
he is credited for reviving it and making Jeet Kune Do popular. I got
to hear the stories about Bruce Lee and the history of the Philippine
martial arts because Dan gave me a lift each morning from my hotel
room to the training site 20 minutes away.
At the Aspen Academy of Martial Arts Dan’s first wife approached me
and told me that her daughter, Diana Lee Inosanto, had a crush on me
and if I would be willing to take her to the dance that the Academy
was having on the last day. I was 16 years old, she was 14, and it
was a nice pleasant one-time date.
Dan found out that I lived in California only 45 minutes south of his
school and he invited me to train at the Filipino Kali Academy in
Torrance. From 1977 to 1980 I tried to go up as often as I could.
Usually it was twice a week. It was great because sometimes there
would only be a few of us, and we’d get a lot of individual attention.
When I went into the United States Army Dan wrote me a letter, which
I have kept to this day. He was always an encourager and I never once
heard a negative thing come out of his mouth.
After the Army I hooked up with Ted Lucay Lucay; another popular JKD
and Filipino Kali instructor at the time under Dan Inosanto. After
several months with him I started teaching Jeet Kune Do and Filipino
Kali privately for a few years and dropped in occasionally at Dan’s
new school, Inosanto Academy, located in Marine Del Ray (near the Los
Angeles International Airport).
In 1987 I was teaching Jeet Kune Do and Filipino Kali out of my home
in Orange, California. However, shortly after I started blending some
of my military training with several other systems I had studied over
the years. Eventually this was all to evolve into the Jim Wagner
Reality-Based Personal Protection system on January 21, 2003.
From time to time a mutual student would tell me that Dan “gives his
regards.” Over the years I simply lost contact with my former
teacher. Yet, I credit him for his revolutionary ideas back then
which laid the foundations for me to eventually start the reality-
based self-defense movement.
It would have probably have been a good idea for this well-known
instructor to have contacted Dan Inosanto or Diana Lee Inosanto
before going public and making accusations that I was “misleading.”
The only one I believe to be omni present is God Almighty. Yet, this
instructor seems to think that he knows all of my relationships and
my motivations. There is definitely some “misleading” going on, but
it is not coming from me."
<<<<<<>>>>>>>
And there you have it boys and girls...is Wagner's reply.
I just would not make that up for fun. I did not and would not make a lie on you, there Sgt Jim. This is what I remember. If I am wrong, I'll be the first to admit it. So now..you all readers decide. We report. You decide. (see the ad below) Not sure how God Almighty got into this?
Sgt. Jim, you came on real strong about this unimportant one? And with just a whole heaping mountain of extra side junk and you even got in there a little Wagnerism-
"It was great because sometimes there would
only be a few of us, and we’d get a lot of individual attention."
There it is. That is a Wagnerism, that obsessive, inserted compulsion to pad-extra and advertise your special training and skills. You are good, man. You are good. But, you could of said to me, "Hock's is dead wrong, I never advertised before 1999."
Anyway, we also got through that romance story, you handsome, irresistable lover boy you. Next let's get to something important, like those 140 Counter Terrorism missions...NO SWAT TEAM, and his true HHS International connection, and those questions on the other thread.
Hock