Gordon Doversola
| Gordon Doversola | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 1 December 1934 |
| Died | 19 April 2011 (aged 76) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Martial Arts Trainer |
Gordon Doversola (1 December 1934 – 19 April 2011) was an American martial arts expert who specialized in the Okinawa-te school of Karate. He taught various film and television celebrities.
Gordon Doversola was from Hawaii. He was born on 1 December 1934. His family was of Hawaiian, Chinese, and Filipino origin, and he retained a strong sense of his cultures. He started to train in jujutsu when he was eleven, and then was taught kenpō by James Mitose. He also boxed as an amateur in 56 bouts. Doversola was proficient in other martial arts when he came across Okinawa-te, which he claimed he had learned from Taiken Nagusuko, who had been taught the art by Kehei Motobu. In reality, Doversola created Okinawa-te as an effective and aggressive street fighting art that combined techniques from other martial arts he studied.
Doversola was one of a number of karate instructors who began teaching in the 1950s, some of whom had learned while posted to Okinawa or Japan by the army. Others were Ed Parker, Cecil T. Patterson, Donald Hugh Nagle, George Mattson and Peter Urban. Doversola moved to Los Angeles in 1957, where he opened one of the city's first karate dojos and taught Okinawa-te karate. He founded the Okinawa-te Karate Organization. Doversola taught the martial artist Joe Lewis (1944–2012).
The cover of the 15th issue of Black Belt (March 1965) had a photograph of Doversola executing a flying side kick in an Okinawa-te demonstration. According to Doversola, Okinawa-te is thought to have originated with martial arts brought to the Ryukyu Islands from China. Because the Japanese did not allow the locals to practice fighting, they developed methods that seemed harmless but were designed to counter Japanese martial arts, and used weapons derived from farm implements. Weapons thus resemble pitchforks, staffs, paddles and other harmless objects. The fighting technique is sometimes called the forerunner of modern karate. Doversola claimed that, "In some ways we are more traditional than many kung fu schools, in that our art is derived directly from the monks, or so it is said."
...
Wikipedia