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Rick Berry Sensei |
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Rick Berry was born in 1939 in the city of Chester, Pa. He has been training for over 40 years in the martial arts. In the 1960's Rick studied under Steven McKnight and quickly made is claim as the hardest working, most dedicated pupil in the class, he advanced so fast that when time came for his advanced Red (Brown) belt test he was skipped over from 2nd Kyu Red directly to 1rst Dan Black Belt by the legendary Grand Master Chung-Koo Kim of Korea. Rick worked very hard to make sure that he would represent his Teacher and his Black Belt to the highest level.
In time The instructor Steve McKnight would move on to another field that would take him away from teaching the Martial Arts. Rick is known for always uplifting and promoting others and there abilities, rarely does he promote himself but this time someone else was doing the promoting and it was Rick’s ability that would land him as the Head Instructor of the AKA Chester Branch.
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As the Head Instructor of the school Rick form a very close relationship with the Grand Master himself
Chung-Koo Kim, learning all he could from Kim and mixing his own experiences with the Ji-Do Kwon, Rick developed strong students who could stand up to any opponent with pride and respect. Master Kim would come down to Chester and spend time with Rick on and off the mat, he stayed at Rick’s house and they shared a lot of good times, Kim was very surprised at how good the women in Rick’s class could fight he expressed to Rick that they had a very strong martial spirit and could stand up to any man and give him a hard time, you couldn’t make the mistake of fighting them like they were women you had to fight them as if they were men or you got wiped out on the fighting floor. Soon the word got out that there was this Karate school in Chester and they were producing some strong fighters and strong thinkers.
Rick was approached by some of the top leaders in Chester to bring his Karate program to other areas in the town so that his teachings could help make a change in the youth of the community, Rick knew that this was going to be a hard thing to do since he had a full time job during the day, but he always taught us that you have to prepare yourself to walk right through the door of opportunity when it comes your way, not to waste time trying to get prepared or you will blow the opportunity.
Rick soon opened up a school in a very tough section of Chester, 3rd and Norris St. Rick called his new school The Quiet Storm Karate Club, which later became the name of his Fighting System, The Quiet Storm Self Defense System. Grand Master C. K. Kim Blessed the Founding of Ricks new school and would come down to Chester form time to time to help conduct belt promotions with Rick, as time moved on Rick would start to conduct his own belt promotions using a panel of his own black belts because the school was growing in size and Master Kim was not always available to come down to conduct test.
The reputation of the school started to spread and other martial artist would come down and watch the class and some would even come to challenge, sometimes Master Berry would put his red belt student out there to handle the challenge or maybe another black belt, but we all would love to see when he took on the challengers. Most of the ones that challenged ended up joining the school, I will not give any names but they know who they are.Over the years Rick developed one of the finest run, most successful Martial Arts Dojo’s in the Delaware Valley, respected by all other Senior Masters in the area, The likes of Grand Master S. L. Martin, Master Ossie Wright, Master Thorton of
Camdem, NJ, Master Pat Burns, Master JC, Master Rick Passetta and Master Fred Scott of Aston and the list go’s on. Professor Berry and his students moved on to become top compettitors in the tournament circle and Grand Champions in Kata and Fighting. Professor Berry has been asked to do many demonstrations and Seminars and is the Co-Founder of The
U.M.A.R.A. Federation along with Grand Master S. L. Martin and Master Pat Burns.
He is a member of the Dr. Moses Powell Hall of Fame and also holds a 5th Dan in Aikido and has rank in Jiujitsu and is the Author of the book “ Stepping Off the Mat “. He is the Founder of Aikido Kokikai, Swarthmore and the Founder of Aikido Kokikai, Delaware and teaches Aikido as a college course at Swarthmore College.
Professor Berry will be 67 years young on his next birthday and is still teaching and demonstrating the Martial Arts just as strong as he did when he was in his 30's. He is a Martial Arts Master that teaches the Spiritual, Mental and Physical understanding of the experience called life. If you would like to know more about this man and his teaching, the doors of the House of the Quiet Storm are always open. |
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