Interview with 10th Dan American Karate Instructor Keith Yates

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By Pete Mills, on 25-01-2008 18:08

Grandmaster Keith Yates has spent the past 44 years dedicated to American Karate and Tae Kwon Do as a teacher, writer and practitioner. He is a 10th Dan Grandmaster and here he exclusively shares his philosophy and outlook on the martial arts with Martial Edge reporter Lesley Jackson.

Keith Yates is at the top of his game after a lifetime dedicated to martial arts. He gained his black belt in the then named ‘American Karate’, or Taekwondo as we know it, at the age of 17 in 1968. After a successful tournament career in America during the 60s and 70s and teaching for many years, he was included in the “Who’s Who in the American Martial Arts” and the “Texas Martial Arts Hall of Fame”. Grandmaster Yates is president of the American Karate and Tae Kwon Do Organisation and serves on the board of several national organisations including Chuck Norris’ Kick-Start Foundation, the Gospel Martial Arts Union and the American Karate Black Belt Association. He has completed a master’s thesis on the spiritual aspects of the martial arts at Dallas Theological Seminary where he currently teaches as an adjunct professor in media and communications.

In 2001, Grandmaster Yates was awarded his 10th Dan by a panel of fellow American martial artists, of whom Allen Steen, Keith’s instructor commented, “few people have contributed as much to martial arts in America as Keith Yates.” During all of these achievements, Mr Yates has fitted in a successful writing career where he has published many articles and books on Taekwondo.

Can you give a background to your martial arts training?

I began my training in the summer of 1964 in Richardson, Texas (a suburb of Dallas). My mom had seen a notice in the newspaper that class was to be offered at the local community recreation centre. Although I was thirteen-years-old I looked younger. In those days martial arts schools were few and far between. In fact, my instructor, Allen R. Steen, operated the only commercial dojo in the entire, huge state of Texas at the time. He was known as the father of “Texas Blood and Guts Karate.”

You mentioned that there were not many black belts in the 60s, what led you to start training? How were martial arts regarded then?

The students, for the most part, were young men in their twenties, either back from the military or those with “tough guy” aspirations. In that first class of mine there were probably three or four kids, a couple of guys in their thirties, one woman, and twenty five or so young men eager to learn to “kick butt.” And that’s the way we were taught. Classes were intense with hard workouts and full-contact sparring (that’s where the “blood and guts” thing came from).

We called it “karate,” although we were actually practicing the Korean version of martial arts which had just been renamed “Tae Kwon Do.” Yes, I know that General Choi first suggested the name in 1955 but it took years for most Koreans to accept it (some, in fact, did not) and by the time the name became more common in the United States we had all been using “karate” so long we just kept using it. Soon, in fact, the term “American Karate” was the preferred term.

Karate (and to a lesser extent, Judo) had the mystique propagated by movies and TV. My friends wanted to know if I could break boards and jump high like Bruce Lee’s character Kato in the Green Hornet television show. But in spite of the aura of mysticism and meditation that people saw in TV’s “Kung Fu” series, we actually spent no time on meditation and the like, we were too busy learning how to side kick someone through the wall!

When I made black belt in 1968 I was just the twenty-second person to have done so under Mr. Steen in Texas. The three areas of the USA that became strongholds of those early days of American Karate were California (largely because of Chuck Norris), New York (where Henry Cho arrived in the 1960s), and Texas due to Jhoon Rhee and Allen Steen.

You mention both Taekwondo and Karate. What did you start with, what did this graduate to and what specific style do you practise (what do you hold your 10th Dan in?)

Well, again, the term Tae Kwon Do (I still transliterate it into three words as was originally done by General Choi) was not widely used in America in the mid-60s. You see, Jhoon Rhee actually used “karate” when he first taught in the USA in the 1950s.

You may know that “Tang Soo Do,” which means “way of the China hand,” is the Korean translation of the original “karate-do.” Mr. Rhee actually practiced Tang Soo Do but decided that Americans simply wouldn’t know what that meant so he advertised “karate classes.” By the time I made black belt the word came down from Korea that we should be using Tae Kwon Do. But Mr. Steen’s school was called the Texas Karate Institute and we had created a national following. So “karate” it remained.

Ten years later Steen had retired and I was teaching my “American karate,” but by then I had advanced in my knowledge and approach to the martial arts and I didn’t like that “kick butt” reputation that term implied. So I began my own association (the Southwest Tae Kwon Do Association) and researched to come up with a name for our system.

Originally I had thought about “Lone Star Tae Kwon Do,” (the nick-name for Texas is the Lone Star state). But then I realised that the Korean translation of “one star” was “Il Song,” the name of the infamous dictator of North Korea. A Korean friend told me that would be like naming your school the “Hitler-style.”

So, I decided on the “School of the Southwest,” or “Nam Seo Kwan.” This would echo the orginal “Kwans” or schools of Korean martial arts after World War II. The system has been recognised by the World Head of Family Sokeship Council and the American Karate Black Belt Association Chin Sook Hage Kwan (who awarded my 10th Dan certification on the recommendation of Allen Steen, in 2001).

"I have never been one to criticize someone else’s approach to their practice or even their teaching. I have, however, discovered what works best for ME." Keith Yates

From your early beginnings in martial arts in the 60s, how do you feel the martial arts have changed over the past 40 years?

The martial arts have had a rapid evolution in the second half of the 20th century. When they first came to the West in the 1950s after World War II they took on a decidedly, well, “Western” approach. We were less concerned with which country or system a technique came from, if it worked in competition, we used it. And competition, that “no holds barred” style, was the proving ground. But even though there was fierce fighting in the ring, there was also a sense of camaraderie that comes from being a small, intimate fraternity.

That was lost by the 1980s. There were more people in the martial arts. Padding was introduced which for some made competition safer but for others was an excuse to just punch harder. And there was a backlash against competition as well. As more practioners discovered the character building aspects of the arts many pulled away and even began to bad mouth the tournament scene. I admit some of that was deserved because tournaments had degenerated into bad sportsmanship and partisanship.

What do you like about martial arts in the 21st century? Is there anything you dislike?

Its hard to categorise the martial arts in the 21st century. There are schools that adhere to the strict traditions of the ancient ways (although many don’t really know what the ancient ways truly are—but that’s a topic for another dicussion). There are schools who cater to the largest common denominator, children (whose parents pay big bucks), and thus must teach simplified karate. Of course there are also schools that latch onto the latest craze, be it “extreme martial arts,” or “mixed martial arts.”

I have never been one to criticize someone else’s approach to their practice or even their teaching. I have, however, discovered what works best for ME. I’ll take the Western approach in that if it works, I’ll incorporate it. I also maintain the Asian approach, which tends to combine the physical with mental, emotional and spiritual development. I enjoy teaching children but I want them to know more than karate “games” and how to defend themselves in a way that doesn’t always involve a kick to the stomach. Much of how I’ve developed my system can be traced to Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee’s philosophy (my grandfather in the martial arts).

What was it about your martial art that inspired you so much, to stay so dedicated for so long?

I have to say I never even thought about quitting. I know that’s rare and I don’t attribute that to any kind of superior ability or attitude on my part. I think I was just fortunate to have had an original instructor who had the charisma to keep me motivated. I have met so many great teachers over the years who have helped me realize the deeper aspects of the arts and I have had friends and fellow students who have inspired me to make it a lifestyle rather than just an avocation or a hobby.

You mention that you were successful in the tournament circuit in the 60s and 70s. What were your major competition wins and what was competing like then? Has the style of competing changed over the years? What is your opinion of this?

I was a teenager and not able to drive across the country to tournaments, I was more successful in regional competition rather than national (although, since my region was the toughest in the nation, I still feel pretty good about those trophies).

You might find it interesting to know that in the early to mid-1960s in the USA there were no breakouts for belt rankings or even for age divisions for anything other than adult men. In other words there were beginner (white belt) men, intermediate (green belt) men, advanced (brown belt) men and black belt men. Then there was one division for kids and one for women (just in case any kids or women showed up).

What that meant was that if there was a twelve-year-old white belt he was likely to have to fight a fifteen-year-old brown belt. And if there was, by chance, a thirty-five-year-old female green belt she might have to spar the eighteen-year-old black belt woman.

Because of that I didn’t win anything as a lower rank but by the time I had made black belt I had started placing in tournaments. Still, as I mentioned above, I didn’t come from the military background of “kill or be killed!” I was an art major in college and karate became my physical art form. So I began to be enthralled with Kata and the intricacies thereof. Not only did I become the state kata champion (1971) and the All-American kata champion (1972) but I was the “go-to” black belt for instructors wanting to perfect their forms for either competition or to know how to teach them accurately. In fact, I wrote one of the best-selling books on kata, The Complete Book of Tae Kwon Do Forms and produced the companion video series.

Speaking of that, what led you to start writing? What would you like to achieve in this area?

Actually, my writing career started with a small tribute piece I wrote for Kick Illustrated magazine. A close friend of mine, Demetrius Havanas (nick-named “The Golden Greek”), was killed in an airplane crash on his way to a kickboxing match. At the funeral was a “who’s who” of martial arts including Chuck Norris who was in town to film a movie. I wanted the public to know the impact of this fight pioneer so I wrote a tribute and sent it in the hopes it would be published. Not only did the editor, John Corcoran, run it but he wrote back saying he liked my writing style and wondered if I could do more for his magazine. I have now written probably over 400 magazine articles including monthly columns for three different martial arts publications.

My first book was the above mentioned forms book and I have now authored nine books and my “Complete Guide to American Karate and Tae Kwon Do,” will release in the first quarter of 2008. I enjoy writing almost as much as teaching and it has become a way for me to spread the martial arts far beyond what I could do just face-to-face.

You have made martial arts your life for 40 years and now you have been awarded 10th Dan. What do you want to achieve now? What are your future plans?

I was kind of embarrassed when the High-Dan Board awarded me that 10th Dan because many people think of that rank as something you get when you’re dead! I am far from finishing what I want to accomplish in the martial arts. There is not only so much more to learn but so much more to share with my direct students and with the myriad of practioners across the globe who wish to understand and live the martial ways.

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