American Karate System

The following article is from December, 2005; our 10th on-line edition, and Mr. Lieb's final Christmas message. Our tiny martial art style has survived and grown because of the dedication of those black belts he loved and entrusted to his dream. Ernie's message is 12 years old, and yet so current. Believe! in the words of our founder.

"Style"

As you know, our style represents America. It is the only style specifically designed for the students in our country. There are now many other styles and organizations who put the word "American" in front of their name.

If you go all the way back to the 60's, and even the early 70's, you will only find the "American Karate System" representing our Nation as a true American style of Karate.

In the early days of Karate in America, it was dangerous to say that you represented an "American" style. You where then viewed as a threat to the styles from China, Korea, Okinawa and Japan. Today, that animosity is pretty much gone at all levels in Karate. The A.K.S. is now at the forefront and highly respected by all styles. Of course at times, there may remain a bit of animosity toward us. But that is caused by the A.K.S. students' ability to win in tournaments, at all levels of competition. This is a normal human emotion in any sport.

I am honored to think that I may have opened the door to this dream. However, without the sacrifice of all of our A.K.S. Black Belts and students, we would have never succeeded. Many of our original A.K.S. Black Belts are now getting older. Although, they will never admit it. I am going to be "566' [wink] years old next April. Many others are not far behind me in age. Although if you ask them, they will tell you they are only "39" [the Jack Benny syndrome!!].

What the A.K.S. needs now, is for our younger A.K.S. Black Belts to start slowly taking over the reigns. They must prepare themselves to run our style in the years ahead. That takes a great deal of work, dedication and the ability to continue on the right road to success.

For a small Karate organization such as ours to have 14 Master level Instructors, "Senseis," is almost unheard of; even so in a larger organization. Our master level instructors have a minimum of 30 years in the Art, and some have over 40+ years of martial arts training under their belt. So you can see, they have spent a virtual lifetime representing our style.

I use the word "our Style" because it belongs to all of us. When you read our Karate history, you will see many of our teachers at the top. Not only in our style, but also in their private lives. Our people are highly educated, hard workers, and certainly have the ability to succeed in whatever field they choose to be in.

So I ask you, our new A.K.S. generation of Black Belts, to please consider taking over certain responsibilities in the years ahead so that my dream, and your dream, may continue. That it may continue to represent the only true American Karate Style of martial arts.

Merry Christmas and a properous New Year!

Ernest H. Lieb 10th Dan
The American Karate System U.S.A. & Germany

Some Mr. Lieb Stories

by Dave Thomas 8th Dan

During the time we trained with Mr. Lieb, he would often share some of his experiences to solidify a point, share a funny experience or teach a lesson. Here are a couple that he shared.

He was explaining that when you compete, you use every opportunity to gain an advantage over your opponent. For example, if you are sparring outdoors turn your opponent so the sun is in his eyes.

He said one time he was fighting for Grand Champion at a tournament in Bowling Green, Kentucky. He said the guy that he was facing was pretty good; so he offered a ringside seat to a very attractive young lady in a short skirt. He made sure to get her a seat directly behind where he would be in the square. He said during the match, his opponent spent more time looking at her than he did at Mr. Lieb. "I won pretty easily," he smiled.

In the late 80's, Mr. Lieb visited Steve Thurkettle's school in Mustang Oklahoma. The plan was to test Steve for 3rd Dan on Friday, then the whole club would attend the Sooner Games on Saturday. The Oklahoma Sooner Games is a statewide athletic competition that hosts a large karate tournament.

Steve told me his testing was four hours long and hard. "Mr. Lieb kept me going up and down the floor til I thought I would drop." In the end, Steve earned his rank and good night's rest.

Steve said the next day his whole club caravanned to the Sooner Games. With Mr. Lieb at the tournament, every one of his students excelled. His two brown belts eliminated everyone else and fought each other for first place. Steve said every student placed and it was one of his proudest times as an AKS Black Belt.

Steve said the funny moment at the games was during the Black Belt rules meeting. He sat down with Mr. Lieb to his right. A Black Belt he didn't know took a seat to his left. Steve noticed the guy was wearing an AKA patch on his uniform. He said the conversation went as follows:

The conversation ended at that point as they started the rules meeting. At the end of the meeting, Steve stood up and turned to the 'Other Guy,' "I'd like to introduce you to my Instructor. This is Mr. Lieb, he came back just for this tournament." The Other Guy shook his hand and avoided Steve and Mr. Lieb the rest of the tournament.

One of his most memorable stories happened upon his return from winning the Tae Soo Do Championship. He said, "It was my first night back, and I was feeling pretty proud. I told my teacher I wanted to spar that night."

Mr. Kim smiled, "You did very well and I am proud of you, but I don't think tonight is a night for sparring."

Mr. Lieb said he was insistent that he wanted to spar, probably to the point of being disrespectful to his teacher. "I probably sounded like I was challenging him."

Finally, Mr. Kim relented and agreed to spar. Mr. Lieb said, "I remember squaring off and the referee saying begin. I'm still not sure what he did, but when I came to, Mr. Kim leaned over me and said, "I taught you everything you know. I haven't taught everything I know."

Thank you Mr. Lieb for the lessons we share and learn from.

Dave Thomas

The following article was taken from December, 2015 Punchline . . . still worth repeating today!

A New Year - A New Approach

by Fred Reinecke

Well, it's the end of the year, and I would like to start by wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

I joined the AKS while going to school at Muskegon Community College in 1975. I had come from a Tae Kwon Do background. When I first met Mr. Lieb, I was taking his class the fall of my first semester of college. I enjoyed what and how he was teaching, and I noticed right away the difference in training with a style/organization that had so many members. Not that my previous clubs weren't members of larger organizations, it mostly seemed that they were just small clubs providing training. From club-to-club everything was similar, but different with regard to technique names, ranking procedures etc. In 1975 the AKS seemed to really have it together. Not only did we have it together, we were constantly trying to improve. Since then, we have codified all of our techniques along with publishing a hand book, establishing yearly seminars and a summer camp. All of our existing clubs are as close to teaching the same as we probably will get. I reminisce about this because it has been a good 40 years.

Now it's 2015 and Karate is no longer at the top of everyone's to-do list. All of our clubs and classes are smaller. There seems to be so many other things to do. In most business organizations that I have belonged, the motto is, "Grow or become stagnant and die." Well, as an organization, we must do better to try to attract more students. Here are five suggestions to help you get students in the New Year.

First, sales and advertising are the key. Make sure you have a lot of business cards and pamphlets. Nowadays, you can go online and design a business card using Vista prints or many other printing services. You can get 250 cards for $10.00. Then pass out the cards and promote your school. Make sure your students have these cards, and pass them out on a regular basis.

Second, utilize your existing students base. Have monthly contests to see who can bring the most friends to class. This is especially important for the teenage and adult members of your club. These ideas also work for children's classes, but remember that the biggest drop-out from karate is children. Those teenage years are tough because they have too many other things to do. Sometimes they come back as young adults, but that is rare. Our target market should be those adults that never did but always wanted to try karate. In this day and age of scary stuff, stress how karate training builds confidence and personal security.

Third, try running self-defense clinics that attract outsiders to your class. If you're a member of a church or any other social organization, try introducing self-defense classes with a connection to your karate class. Other types of clinics, such a Bully Busters could be used to attract kids to your children's classes.

Fourth, we need some of the younger Black Belts to take the initiative and go out and try teaching on their own. This is probably the hardest to do of these suggestions. Holding a class takes a real commitment, but without new clubs we will not grow. So to try to start small. Consider teaching at your house. Most original Karate schools in Okinawa were just in someone's back yard. Some other location ideas could be at a church or school gym. Or maybe through area Community Education programs. Remember, even if you are only teaching out of your garage, you still should use the previous suggestions to grow your class population.

Fifth, as you are talking to potential students, use the catch phrase, "Reality based instruction." Somehow, because of MMA and other martial arts marketing, the public does not believe studying karate is as effective as it once was. It's all about perception. We all know that everything we teach is, and can be, as deadly to an opponent as any other martial art. We just have to emphasize this to our potential customer/student.

In closing, I hope these suggestions help you to remember that we have many experienced instructors that can answer any questions you might have about training, teaching, and running a karate school.

Happy New Year!

Fred Reinecke 8th Degree AKS
Assistant Chief Instructor