Lloyd Kennedy

My story begins in 1963, when a little 10-year-old sucka named Jonny used to beat me down and steal my toys at school. One day Jonny took my fire truck, a birthday present from my mother, from me in front of my little girlfriend, Linda. I couldn’t let that go by. His butt had to be whipped. To make a long story short, Jonny beat the crap out of me.

When I got home, my Daddy decided it was time for me to learn to defend myself. He took me to my uncle Chester’s place. When we got there, good old uncle Chester was either loaded or drunk. These two fools, both WWII vets, proceeded to show a 10-year-old child how to break necks, arms, and legs, and how to poke out eyes. For me this was great, as I could now break Jonny’s neck, impress Linda, and look good to people of Watts, California, where I lived. I also knew that if I broke Jonny’s neck, the news would get back to my 5th grade classmates, and they wouldn’t mess with me either. When my Mother got wind of this, all hell broke loose, and my father found a self-defense class for me at The Boy’s Club. Enter Frank Coleman, an 8th Dan Jujutsu and WWII hand to hand combat instructor. I studied with him from 1964 to 1973.

In 1972 I received my black belt in Combat Jujutsu from Frank Coleman, and I must admit I had a rather large chip on my shoulder. After I joined the army I needed to rethink my training, which was always focused on street combat. While stationed in New York, I realized that there were many Jujutsu instructors, but my first loyalty was always to Frank Coleman. I ran into a couple of street boxers in Brooklyn, and as long as we were in close I was all right, but at too long a range I ate knuckles for about a minute. To make a long, painful story short, I got beaten down. And if that’s not enough, I came back to California for a visit and got beaten down in San Bernardino. I couldn’t understand why I could not defend myself. When I asked Frank Coleman, he said that I was not well rounded.

I started to think back to my 9 months of Kali training in the LaCosta system and started to combine that with my combat Jujutsu. But I still wanted to have better empty hand skills. I realized that Kali has great empty hand skills, but I hadn’t been able to study it long enough, and no one I knew where I was could help me. I went back to Coleman, who gave me some basic boxing and low kicking techniques. I still wanted to learn more, as I wanted to be street effective in both New York and California. When I returned to New York, I was fortunate to study with such street-orientated teachers as Antonio Periera, Moses Powell, Don Jacob, and Little John Davis. I knew that I was on the right path. When I got back to California in 1980, I ran into a fool named Johnny Gomez, a Jujutsu man from Texas who is easily the meanest man I’ve ever met. His classes were 2 days a week for 3 hours at a time. These classes were rugged as hell. Johnny Gomez only taught only 9 things, but all of them could be used in many different situations. After 2 years with him I knew how to effectively break most of the joints in the human body. Johnny Gomez also taught me how to make my grip more powerful and my fingers stronger, as did Frank Coleman.

Later I studied Pankration with John Anderson, who taught me most of my leg locks. I also got a lot of locking information from Yang Ming with his Chin-na. Then I met an African wrestler who taught me to keep moving with broken rhythm. His name was Tari Ahmeer Muhamad. He worked with me on non-stop movement. I could never seem to hold him in place long because of the great movement he had. At that time Johnny Gomez worked with me on controlling my anger.

Two more people who had a great influence on me were George Kirby and Wally Jay. George Kirby had a great influence on me because of his focus on environment training, in parks, against walls, in bars, etc. George looks like a push over, but he will take off his glasses and put a major hurt on you. From Wally (Small Circle) Jay I picked up many intricacies of locking. I really appreciate what these two excellent Jujutsu masters have taught me.

While I can’t lie and say that I have a rank or certificate under the Gracie banner, I will say that I remember those early Torrance classes back around the early 1980’s. Their workshops and seminars were very thorough. The bottom line is that there are a lot people who are jealous of the Gracies because of the success they have had at whipping people who lied to us for almost 35 years trying to get the general public to believe that once you got your black belt from somebody you were automatically became a deadly man or woman. I remember those early comic book ads. Don’t you?

In the summer of 1989 Frank Coleman promoted me to 5th Dan. To formulate my own method of combat, I needed to take all that I had learned, keep what worked the best for me, and throw away the rest. At the present time I have studied Jujutsu for 40 years and taught for 28 years. With all of this I still feel that I am learning every day.