Let’s face it, sometimes in the Karate world even a great, respected and well thought of accomplished martial artist can erupt and become something negative. That is the case of Jay T. Will. Jay Will was a highly accomplished and sought after American Kenpo competitor and instructor. When I was a kid I heard his name all the time at tournaments throughout the 1980’s. He was well known because he was a multi-time national champion, martial arts movie actor and stuntman…but mostly, in our area, it was because he was from Columbus, Ohio which is only about 3 hours drive. I never met him but, as I grew older in my Karate training, he became a lesson that I heard many instructors use to help their students understand how to remain humble and out of trouble.
Jay T Will had trained under the infamous founder of American Kenpo, Edmund Parker Sr. as well as the Tracy brothers who were one of the first to franchise martial art schools across the United States. In his limelight, Will, was an educator who was on staff at Ohio State University and taught, as well as lectured on martial arts there. Anyone who watched some of the Kickboxing fights, most notably the Professional Karate Commission or Professional Karate Association, will remember him as a primary referee who had a presence on most title matches and bouts of importance in the 1980s. Will was named PKC referee of the year in 1982-83 as well as Karate International Magazine’s referee of the decade. He had also done a TV series on self defense that was highly popular on the local channels in Columbus, Ohio. He was Black Belt Magazine’s instructor of the year in 1976 as well!
Sounds like a true success story doesn’t it? A Karate guy who had a school, won some tournament titles, became a very sought after instructor having taught at a collegiate level and went on to become a movie star as well as referee many of the top title Kickboxing fights of the time…but it all came crashing down in 1985. According to the articles Will’s martial arts studio located at 133 SW 5th Avenue in Columbus, Ohio as well as his home, was raided in one of the largest cocaine busts in the state of Ohio at that time. Will was found with 90% pure cocaine that was suspected to have been bought in Florida and held a street value of almost $800,000. When they raided his school they found over $124,000 in cash laying around as well as other incriminating items. The narcotic officers held off the press release in hopes that Will would give up his source, which he never did. It is safe to say his career was over and he was heading to prison.
Jay T. Will did serve some time in prison and eventually was released. His school was taken over by one of his students and there, at least to my knowledge, still exists a Jay T Will Kenpo school in Columbus, Ohio as I write this. Jay Will died from cancer in 1995 but not before many rumors spread that he was stabbed and other things in relation to his death.
So, what can we learn from Jay T. Will’s story as martial artists? Simply that being a black belt, even a highly respected one and accomplished one, doesn’t guarantee good character. These days I see all sorts of martial arts advertisements that state how their school will instill confidence, respect, self esteem and great character traits. There was a heavy shift focusing on this method, instead of being focused on self defense / combatives, in the mid 90’s. In my area I have been training for 42 years as of this year. I have watched schools open and close more than I care to remember. I have seen people open schools and run these cookie cutter ads touting how great they will be a building integrity, respect and other character values that are very important in life. While you will never hear me to claim to be perfect I have to say that, knowing the history of martial arts in the USA like I do, many of the esteemed masters and pioneers of martial arts were anything but respectful and some of them had huge character flaws as well…just like Jay T Will did.
There is an individual in my area who had one of the most famous names in Karate and Judo across the USA but he was quite the scoundrel and was very quick to beat up people. While he was highly respected by others in the martial arts, even having garnered him induction into the prestigious Trias International Society, he was very rude and mean towards others…especially if you weren’t part of his inner circle. I once attended a seminar at his dojo only to feel like I was fighting for my life against his students. About half way through the seminar I walked out because I was tired of the constant bullying that was taking place during my time there. Over the years the stories I heard about this man made me respect him less and that is even true after he passed a few years back.
So, as you can see, just because someone is great at martial arts they may have missed out on the character values that were supposed to go hand and hand with learning them. Jay Will is just one example of hundreds of more that I can think of, or have personally witnessed. Being great at something is amazing but losing one’s self in the process, getting arrogant or rude and disrespecting others is not the true the sign of a real black belt or martial artist. Sadly there are a lot of schools out there these days where they are very much a “do as I say, not as I do” type of environment. Luckily I learned that all of my actions should be aligned with all of my lessons in my dojo at a young age. Teaching Karate has, in all honesty, saved my life and changed me into what I hope is a good person. The fact that all of my students, and their parents, eyes are on me kept from going out, getting drunk, getting into fights and worse. The students in my dojo always came into my mind when a situation arose like those and I simply walked away because I didn’t want them to see my name in the paper for beating some moron up since I don’t teach that as part of our Karate. Luckily I grew up seeing situations like what happened with Jay T. Will occur and, as I grew into the Sensei role on my journey into Karate, I always recounted this as a lesson on what not to allow to happen.
We, as black belts, set the standards our students are expected to live up to. If we are rotten, filthy scoundrels who are getting in trouble all the time then we should not be teaching the martial arts to others as we have no capacity as leaders. None of us will ever be perfect but that should never stop us from considering the impact our actions, especially in our personal lives, will have on our students. We, as teachers, must learn from the lessons of those who failed the character part of what we do then apply it to become better people and help our students to do so as well.
Sadly it seems, when an instructor starts making lots of money, they often fail at this so I am very thankful for my two little dojos that keep me taken care of but never will make me rich. Regardless I have never placed money in a valued position over integrity anyway…and I pray I never will.
Steven M. Franz, Shihan
Rokudan, Shorin Ryu Shorinkan
THE DOJO SHORINKAN 