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A candid interview with John D. Koeshall - Part 1
What is your background in martial arts?
Well, the journey has been long, exciting, and very random! LOL! I will try to give you a brief overview of some of the "highlights". I began training martial art when I was 16 yrs old at our local YMCA. The class offered was a kickboxing/karate class...and so that is what I took! I was very hungry for anything that was related to the martial arts and so I also began studying judo a short time later. When I was 19 I began studying what I was told was a "blended version" of American Kenpo and Fu Jow Pai (Tiger Claw Kung Fu). Later I found GM Chuck Sullivan and GM Vic LeRoux of the IKCA and began to study kenpo karate... which I still do to this day. In 1989 I had the good fortune of attending a seminar with Master Chai Sirisute, Sifu Larry Hartsell, Guro Dan Inosanto, Sifu Rick Faye, Khru Greg Nelson and many other notable JKD/Kali instructors. From that moment I was hooked on JKD, Muay Thai, and the Filipino Martial Arts. I had the good fortune of going to Japan when I was 21 where I trained in Aikikai Aikido, Ashihara Karate, as well as Chen and Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan. In 1992 I moved to Minneapolis, MN to begin training with Sifu Faye. While in Minneapolis I studied numerous arts through the MN Kali Group as well as other instructors whom I sought out. In 2003 I met Paul Vunak and began training in JKD/Kali directly under him in his PFS organization. He instilled a love for BJJ in me and I began training with the Gracie Barra family under Prof. Flavio Almeida. Like I said....random....
I know you have a real love for BJJ, where are you training at this time?
That is right. I love the art and science of BJJ. It truly is an amazing study in leverage, economy of motion, emotional control, and many other things that I prize in Jeet Kune Do. When I moved from Southern California to outside of Dallas, Texas, I moved away from the Gracie Barra family. However, I was fortunate enough to find Master Carlos Machado in Dallas. Now I feel very fortunate to be a part of his BJJ Family. It is an honor and a privilege to be able to train at his academy.
Can you tell us about your organization?
Thru The Fire is quite simply a group of like minded individuals seeking to become better at the practice and transmission of the art and science of Jeet Kun Do. We are constantly seeking to standardize the way we pass on the art, not to stifle growth or individuality (which is so important to the development of ourselves and the art), but rather to promote an objective path to bring about skill and, eventually, mastery of the art. To do this we believe we must present a base level of skills, or a skeleton if you will, from which to allow the individual students to explore, grow, and develop their own interpretation of the art. We as a group also prize teamwork and the support of our members rather than infighting and unhealthy competition. It is also my hope that the practice of this art, the lessons that we learn in and out of the training hall, and the friendships and brotherhood that we form will allow us to be positive influences in our world.
So you are traveling a fair amount with instructors in 5 countries?
Yes, I have traveled quite a bit teaching and working to standardize the knowledge base of our TTF family. Even though we have representatives in the United States, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, and the UK our goal is that the base of knowledge will be consistent throughout all of the instructors so that we can produce a group of students who are consistent with each other and with the overall goals of the organization.
I currently make trips to the UK at least 2 times per year... in the spring and autumn. I REALLY enjoy these trips and have nothing but high praise for the TTF Instructors Group in the UK. They consistently are top notch in all that they do! Clive Elliott has been training privately with me for 5 years now and is heading up the TTF Instructor Development Program in the UK. He is not only a fantastic martial artist and instructor, but he has also become one of my nearest and dearest friends.
What is your aim with the TTF program and how is it different from other JKD instructorships?
My aim? Hmmm, I guess my aim would be to honor my instructors by passing on to others the wisdom they have so freely given me. I believe to truly honor them is to truly seek what they seek... not just to blindly follow them. I believe to only regurgitate what is given to you isn't really to honor, but to be lazy. In the JKD world we say that we prize self-perfection. We say that we seek to move forward and to develop ourselves and our arts. How many JKD instructors are just follow a rote memorization of what they were taught without truly "absorbing what is useful, discarding what is not, and adding what is specifically their own"? I have had the distinct privilege of being influenced by some of the top martial artists in the world. The Thru The Fire Organization started as my expression of what I have learned from them, but is now growing to be much more as a result of the instructors who are a part of the organization.
More specifically, I conceived the TTF program after a conversation I had in 2005 with Sifu Vunak in which I was asking his opinion as to why there was such a discrepancy in the levels of JKD instructors I had seen. He said, "John, 9 out of 10 JKD instructors have no idea what JKD is". That statement startled me. Why is it that we have these incredible training methods and art, and yet 90% of instructors don't even get it? It was then that I began thinking about my own students, and began sketching out the beginnings of what would become the TTF Instructor Development Program. The program is designed to walk students through a guided, progressive curriculum which will give them a strong understanding of not only what we do and how we do it, but also WHY we do it. The program isn't designed nor was it ever intended to be an exhaustive course. It was rather designed to build a strong base from which students can explore, grow, and create. Because I believe we need to be better teachers of the information, there is also a strong element of how to teach built into the program.