Chuck Merriman - America’s Greatest Ambassador For the Martial Arts.
Chuck Merriman was born in
Connecticut and beganhis martial arts training in Judo in 1960 under Korean
Judo master Soo H’Wang and Nakabayashi Sadaki Sensei’s.
Soon after in 1962 he started into karate under Chris Debaise. Then in 1966 while living in New York City he began training with the legendary Peter Urban at the introduction of Sensei De Baise.
Then in 1970 he opened his first dojo calling it Karate International and then in 1980 he was inducted into the most prestigious Hall of fame in the world “The Black Belt Hall of Fame” as Instructor of The Year.
He was a featured performer in Aaron Bank’s Secret Oriental World of Self Defence during the 1970’s plus he became a body guard for both Diana Ross and Gene Simmons of Kiss the rock group.
During the late 1960’s and early 1970’s right thru to the 1990’s he was considered one of the top competitors in kata and was dubbed by many the karate kata king.
His students have been international winners around the world in both the traditional events and the sporting events. Names like Jean Frenette, Domingo Llanos are but two of the hundreds of top competitors he has trained. But not only did he train top kata competitors he also trained some of the early kumite champions like Ron Martin and many others.
When asked what is favourite kata he said it continues to change as you age in the early days it was Sei Unchin and the horse stance was a favorite of mine but now I would say it is Shi Sho Shin as the stance s are higher and easier to do for me.
He has trained in too many countries to mention but including China, Japan and Okinawa.
Then in the early 1990’s he travelled to Okinawa where he became a student of Miyazato Ei’ichi Sensei a direct student of Chojun Miyagi. He had found his home.
After countless trips to Okinawa to do research and train under the master he was finally promoted to 9th dan and then in 2015 he was presented with a 10th dan in Montreal Canada by his students and friends who recognized his life time of work and dedication to the art of Goju Ryu Karate.
Learn more about Chuck Merriman Sensei and his legacy from these titles-
