Street Lessons, A Journey

Loren has been involved in the martial arts since 1965, training in karate, jujutsu and the Filipino stick fighting/blade art of arnis, earning many degrees of black belt in each.
I’ve known Loren for 52 years. I first met him on my 14th birthday; karate lessons were a present from my mom. I arrived at the class one hour late, precisely when the beginning class ended. Rather than shoo away this kid who had an obvious look of disappointment on his face, Loren had one of his students give him his first lesson. I never quit from that day forward.
I remember all too well how Loren ran our classes.  He punched, kicked, and drilled harder and faster than any of us. He would be dripping with sweat when the class ended—and he was the teacher! He was quite an inspiration for me. This type of training continued for a year or so, and then we all got the news that he was headed for the Army.

"This book is hot hot hot!"
"From one who has been there."
"One of the best martial arts authors ever.”
"I love Loren's humor.”
"Street knowledge."

As a martial arts student and teacher since 1965, Loren has trained hundreds of students, competed in dozens of tournaments, and trained with many true martial arts masters.

Loren was never a martial arts movie actor or a tournament champion. Instead, he applied his skill set over and over in the extraordinarily mean streets of Saigon, Vietnam as an Army MP and as a police officer in a large city.

He was involved in shootings, riots, and more fights than he could ever count. He worked as a bodyguard for presidents, vice presidents, an assortment of political candidates, a high-profile religious figure, an infamous criminal, and others. The path he traveled in the military and law enforcement required him to call upon his martial arts abilities over and over.

Those experiences—he considers them opportunities— taught him much about violence, the martial arts, and the human condition.

Street Lessons is about his journey.