About Professor Whittle

Southwest Texas State University - San Marcos, Texas

Dan completed his active duty with the Air Force about 1972 and moved to San Marcos, Texas to attend school at Southwest Texas University. He continued to teach at Bergstrom and he started a Kajukenpo club at a community center in San Marcos. Dan wanted me to come to San Marcos and assistant instructing at the community center.

There was a group of us that would commute to San Marcos to participate in the new club. The first class in San Marcos was huge.

In 1974 Sensei Dan Baker promoted me to black belt and I took over the Bergstrom Kajukenpo Club.

Whittle at Bergstrom AFB 1975

Jay and I kept the Bergstrom Club going and continued to assist at San Marcos. Ben Calvo moved away or quit coming to class after Dan left. I do not remember.

Dan moved the San Marcos club from the community center to Southwest Texas State University campus. It was an intramural activity and was very popular. We worked out in an area similar to a dance room adjacent to a gymnasium. It had wood floors and a mirror on one wall. We later moved the class to the mezzanine in the gymnasium.

When Dan graduated from SWTSU he took a coaching job at a high school inTexas. He left me in charge of the San Marcos club. I was not a student at the university and I was not a faculty member. The Kajukenbo Club put together a constitution and created a club that hired me as an instructor to teach the class. We had a small fee monthly that went into a new club fund for club related activities.

SWTSU Kajukenbo Club 1977

Jay completed his active duty in the Air Force and moved to Shreveport, LA about 1976. I stopped teaching at the Bergstrom Club and focused on the SWTSU club until I moved to Arizona in 1979.

Sifu Donald K. Nahoolewa

Jay and I took the Bergstrom group to a tournament in Abilene, Texas in 1975 and met Sifu Don Nahoolewa. I had never seen another Kajukenbo school at any tournament we had ever attended. I introduced myself to him and told him about our clubs in Austin and San Marcos. I inquired about coming to Ft. Worth to study from him and he agreed as long as I had permission from my instructor. I contacted Dan for permission and he encouraged me to learn as much as I could.

Whittle and Vera at Abilene Tournament 1975

I began driving to Ft Worth almost every Saturday to study from Sifu Nahoolewa. His school was in a local strip center. He had several black belts and they taught me as much as I could remember on every trip. This went on for three years. Most of the Kajukenbo that I teach today is what I learned from Sifu Nahoolewa. It is also worth mentioning that Sifu Nahoolewa never charged me any money for teaching me. It was enough that I would drive from Austin to Ft Worth to learn from him.

It was Sifu Nahoolewa who changed the spelling of Kajuke'n'bo to Kajuke'm'bo. He organized the American Kempo Association and was President until he retired in 1983. I was a regional director for the association from 1975 to 1979.

Sifu Nahoolewa awarded me my 2nd degree black belt and Instructors Certificate in 1975.

He awarded me my 3rd degree black belt and the title 'Sifu' in 1979.

Southwest Texas State University Karate Team

Dan returned to SWTSU in 1976 to work on his masters degree. He did not take over the existing Kajukenbo Club. He started a new class that was focused on tournament competition with other universities. He still taught the Kajukenpo that he had taught me but he was developing a team approach to competition within the Texas school system. He was very successful with his team. SWTSU was the number one Karate team from its inception and continued for as long as I knew about them.

Craig Speer and Jon Button were promoted to their black belts in 1977. They both assisted me with the SWTSU Kajukenbo Club until I left in 1979. Craig took over the classes after I left and taught at SWTSU until he opened his own school in Austin.

Speer and Button at BAFB

Arizona

My employer relocated me to Phoenix Arizona in 1979. I had decided before I moved that I wanted to study kung fu and take a break from teaching. I joined a Shaolin Kung Fu school not far from my house. Judd Tomaiko was the instructor and Gene Chicone was his teacher. I attended classes there for one year in 1980.

I met my wife Amy in Phoenix and began pursuit of my career in earnest. We moved six times over the next ten years and lived in four different states. During this period I did not teach Kajukenbo.

In 1990 Amy and I decided to move back to Phoenix. I sold my business in Newport Beach, California and we bought a home in Chandler, Arizona. I had decided before moving that I wanted to start a school again and called Dan Baker and Jay Vera to tell them my plans. Dan promoted me to 5th degree black belt in 1990.

In 1991 I opened a school in Gilbert, Arizona in a small shopping center. Classes were Tuesday and Thursday nights and Saturday mornings. I could only do this part time while I worked during the day. I looked for a different venue to teach classes and checked into the local community college. They set me up with a space and the same time periods I was currently teaching. I transferred all of my adult students to the college in 1993.

Danzan Ryu Jiujitsu

Sifu Nahoolewa taught a group of techniques called 'Throw Combinations'. I suspect that they were developed with assistance from Sam Alred. Sam Alred was a black belt in Judo before he met and joined Nahoolewa's Kajukembo school.

I wanted to learn more throws and grappling techniques and decided to join a Jiu Jitsu school. I found a school near me in the phone book that taught Danzan Ryu Jiu Jitsu. I had good luck that day! The instructor was Sensei Kirk Jaeger. His teacher was Joe Holck one of the original Kajukenbo founders. Kirk was an excellent instructor. He was very detail oriented. I studied Danzan Ryu from 1991 to 1996. I have integrated throw, lock and choke techniques from Danzan Ryu Jiu Jitsu into our Kajukenbo class syllabus.

KSDI Seminars

I met Moses Williams at the KSDI Seminar and Tournament in San Jose. He came to the tournament with Dan Baker. Moses' teacher had retired and asked Dan Baker to take Moses as his student. Moses background was in Kenpo and Hung Gar Gung Fu. Dan gave him rank in Kajukenbo that he felt was equitable with Moses skill level. Moses is one of the best martial artists I have ever met. We became friends and over the few years he taught me Hung Gar Gung Fu sets and Quans.

In 1997 I was promoted to my 6th black belt and given the title' Sigung'. Moses Williams performed the honors and gave me his 6th degree black belt. When Craig Speer was promoted to his 6th degree black belt in 2002 I presented him this same belt.

I met Professor Joe Davis at the KSDI Vallejo Seminar in 1997. He was the 3rd black belt promoted by Alejo Reyes. My teacher Don Nahoolewa was 1st, Richard Piralta was 2nd and I think Lee Hart was 4th. He had one of Don's old manuals and wanted to know if I knew the punch counters and how to do his form number 5. When we talked more I discovered that he knew the Alphabets and I asked him if he would teach them to me. I made a few trips to San Francisco and met Professor Davis at Professor Bautista's school and then later at his home to learn the techniques. He also taught me 10 hand techniques he learned from Al Dacascos.

In 1998 I met Olohe Solomon Kaihewalu at a martial arts function in San Diego. He performed some Lua techniques on the stage and I knew that I wanted to learn Lua. When I approached him about studying from him he pretty much just blew me off. He said he was only training his existing black belts. Later at the 1999 KSDI Seminar he taught Lua weapons and open hand techniques. Moses Williams, Tyrone Epps and I stayed with him all day.

I brought Olohe to our school in Arizona for a seminar in 1999. I joined his organization that year and have been his student ever since.

Dan promoted me to my 7th degree black belt in 1999. I wanted a certificate from Sijo Adriano Emperado and was awarded my 7th degree black belt by Sijo Adriano Emperado in Honolulu, Hawaii at the KSDI Seminar and Tournament at the Pacifica Hotel in 2000.

American Kajukembo Association

Donald K. Nahoolewa came out of retirement to establish the AKA in 2002. He wanted to organize the schools that had direct lineage to Alejo Reyes and Joe Emperado into an association based on common techniques and training methods. He asked me to join the association to support him in his effort to create a board of senior instructors who would teach the baseline techniques and be responsible for black belt certifications.

The AKA board awarded me my 8th black belt in 2002. The board members at the time included Don Nahoolewa, Sam Alred, Richard Piralta, Gerald Chavez, Jerry Wright and George Jackson.

Maricopa Community Colleges

I have been teaching Kajukenbo at Chandler-Gilbert Community College since 1993. During this period of time I have promoted seven black belts. All of them are active in the club and teach or assist instructing. In 2002 we added classes to the Williams Field location. In 2004 we opened classes at Mesa Community College and in 2005 we began classes at the Red Mountain location.

The community college offers students affordable adult classes in a professional school environment. We offer college credit and non-credit courses in the physical education department.

Hawaiian Martial Arts LLC

Hawaiian Martial Arts LLC offers classes for adults, teens and children.

We teach the following arts:

KAJUKENBO       HAWAIIAN LUA       DAN ZAN RYU JUJITSU

Kajukenbo Self Defense Institute of Hawaii (KSDI)

March 2011 SGM Donald Nahoolewa and GM Daniel Baker recommended my promotion to 9th degree black belt. The Board of Advisors for KSDI approved my promotion to 9th degree black belt at the 2011 KSDI Tournament and Seminar. I was whipped with Sijo Adriano Emparado's belt by SGM Dichi Emparado and the attending BOA members. GM Daniel Baker gave me the "Kiss of the Dragon" with Sijo Emperado's belt wrapped around his fist.

SGM Dichi Emperado presented my certificate of promotion to 9th degree black belt at the 2013 KSDI Tournament and Seminar. The certirficate was dated July 9th, 2011 and signed by all the attending grandmasters.

American Kajukembo Association (AKA)

SGM Donald Nahoolewa and the presiding members of the AKA board of directors presented me AKA Certification for "Grand Master" rank at the April 2013 AKA Seminar in Abilene, Texas. This certificate is from my "Ohana". Joe Emperado - Aleju Reyes - Donald K. Nahoolewa.