It was great to reconnect with Mr. Chuck Sullivan at the Bob White Invitational. I don't think I'd seen him since 1988 at the Ed Parker Tribute in LA. What a pleasure to talk with him.
We spoke of people we knew and some kenpo history. He had an observation that so many of us had parallel history; working with the same man in the same system but not meeting. Which was one reason why Bob White's event was so cool. It gave many of us a chance to connect or reconnect.
I had quite a bit of undisturbed time talking with him. With all the people around it would seem like a "hi/bye" thing but nobody tried to horn in on our conversation. There were a few polite hands on a shoulder to let us know they were present but no distractions. I am grateful for that.
Mr. Sullivan is credited with creating the set we know as Staff Set. He freely acknowledges that he learned a longer staff set from Mr. Parker and re-worked it. I had seen a video of that long set many years ago and can't remember where. Mr. Sullivan told me he took out some of the repetitious moves and got up the nerve to ask Mr. Parker if he could show it to him. According to his account, Mr. Parker said that's the version they'd use from then on. And the Staff Set was born.
While I had him I asked him about something I'd heard that Danny Inosanto had created the Stance Set as was shown in the Secrets of Chinese Karate book Mr. Parker wrote. I had doubted that info but wanted to hear from someone who was there then. Mr. Sullivan told me "Danny was too young" to have done that back then.
It was an enjoyable few minutes to spend with a man who has done so much for our system. He looks great and has tremendous energy, too. My thanks to him for spending time with me and to Bob White for making the meeting possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment