Hanshi Ron Carlson

“My first introduction to the martial arts was in 1954 when, at the age of 17, I joined the U.S. Marine Corps and was introduced to hand to hand combat.” Ron was assigned as a military policeman in the San Diego area at the end of the Korean War.

“A lot of G.I.’s were bringing back Martial Arts from Okinawa, Japan, Korea, and China. My first Kempo teacher was a brown belt in an Okinawan system and we would train in our off duty time and on weekends.”

Upon his return to the Denver area in 1958 there were only two martial arts schools in the area, both teaching Judo. In 1963, Ron’s Judo and Shotakan Karate instructor returned from a three week trip to California to announce that the school was changing to Kempo and Gung Fu. Ron has been in love with Kempo ever since.

“I was introduced to Mitosi’s Kosho Shori Ryu Kempo in 1981. In around 1986 I merged the Kuo-Jen Lu Kung Fu system which was developed by a dear friend, Sifu Wayne Welsh and his senior student Sifu Ray Tarkington.” That merging gave birth to Gow-Ren-Lu (“The path to becoming a better human being”) Kempo and Gung Fu, the system that Ron has taught since 1994.