User:Joe Howard (Martial Artist)/sandbox

Joe is an American martial artist, activist, writer, social media host and has achieved a lot in his life. He became well known in the spot light in the early 2000's after winning numerous martial arts championships and went undefeated for a while. Joe is the host of his own social media documentary show called Martial Arts Styles: A Brief History of. He is also a former captain in the United States Civil Air Patrol (CAP) which is the official uniformed auxiliary of the United States Air Force. He has held many positions and received many awards. Joe has also been an American Red Cross volunteer. He has a masters of arts in applied behavioral science with a major concentration in criminal justice and social problems.

Early Life
Joe was born in 1985 in Ohio, United States. At age 4, he started watching the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon and various Ninja and Bruce Lee movies. From there at age 4 he started learning martial arts. In 1992, he met a Japanese immigrant named Kenshi Hiroshi who was an 8th Dan black belt in Tengu Ninjitsu and a former Soke of the Tengu Society. Joe underwent Tengu Ninjitsu training and in 1994 grandmaster Kenshi Hiroshi passed away in his mid-80's. Joe continued to train in the Tengu arts while looking at other styles. In 1993, he started watching Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and became a hardcore fan.

Joe has stated many times that his childhood hero is Jason David Frank who played the green and white Mighty Morphin Power Ranger because Jason David Frank himself is a martial arts expert and the way he did martial arts and because of his personality, he was able to inspire Joe. Joe was constantly bullied at school and outside of his home by gangs, drug dealers, and drug-addicted bullies due to the fact that he was a Power Rangers fan and because other kids were jealous of him. In 1997, he joined a Shito-Ryu Karate school and his cousins Taekwondo school. After he received his 8th Kyu belt in Shito-Ryu, he left Shito-Ryu and started learning Shorin-Ryu while continuing Taekwondo. In the late 1990's, Joe created a wrestling fan club called Rated-X. The fan club would then transform into a group of friends playing shenanigans on corrupt city officials including school officials. The Rated-X group was popular and well known. The group came to an end about 3 or 4 years after its founding. Since the fallout, rumor has circulated that Joe may revamp the group. When asked about it he stated that he has great ideas, but he is not looking to revamp it.

Rise in the Spotlight
In early 2000, Joe decided to compete at the Battle of Columbus martial arts championship. This would be his second martial arts tournament, his first was sometime in 1997. After winning the tournament he continued to compete in other martial arts tournaments. In 2001, he competed in the Arnold Schwarzenegger Battle of Columbus martial arts championship where he first came into contact with corruption and politics in Taekwondo. After that tournament, he took a year off from competition. In 2002, his martial arts stardom rose higher as he competed in some of the nations biggest tournaments. During his first tournament in 2002, he had tonsillitis and went against doctors orders to compete. In one part of the competition, there were only three fighters including himself. Joe wound up losing a straw contest and had to fight twice. His first fight was tough on him as the tonsillitis was harmfully affecting him. He did win the fight, but was in a lot of pain. His supporters urged him to throw the towel in and walk away, but he felt that he had to continue to fight. When the second fight came up, he was exhausted and felt weak. When the referee told both Joe and his opponent to fight, Joe's adrenaline took over and he executed continuous multiple roundhouse kicks. His opponent had a tough time blocking the kicks and maneuvering. Joe's instructor yelled across the mat telling him to slow it down. He stopped for a second and then kicked his opponent in the head with a right rear roundhouse kick knocking his opponent out. The match only lasted 25 seconds. The knock out was heard across the United States as he would later travel that year to the National Championship in July and people told him about the knockout.

About a month later after the knock out was heard, Joe competed in the Ohio Taekwondo State championship where he took first place. After winning the State title, he received surgery to remove his tonsils. About a month later, Joe disobeyed doctors orders and competed at the National Taekwondo championship in St. Paul, Minnesota. There Joe went up against an opponent who's instructor had connections with the United States Taekwondo Union (USTU) (the organization running the tournament and later changed their name to United States of America Taekwondo). Because of this connection just like the 2001 Arnold Schwarzenegger Battle of Columbus, Joe experienced corruption and politics. In the fight, his opponent used illegal techniques to score points, but whenever Joe himself did the same thing he would lose points. In the end, Joe came forth place in the National championship. After the tournament, Joe swore that he would never compete in big-name tournaments again. Then in August 2002, he would compete in his last tournament before 2007. Joe won the grand championship and walked away from martial art tournaments to go back to his roots and focus more on realistic self-defense. While staying with his Taekwondo and Shorin-Ryu Karate instructors, he continued to study on his own.

Return to the Tournament Spotlight
In late 2005, he joined a different Shorin-Ryu Karate school and became one of the main instructors. He was not planning to return to competition, but instead, he coached his students at competitions. All through 2006 and part of 2007, Joe was annoyed by the martial arts tournament director who bugged him to compete in his tournaments. Joe refused and said that he just wanted to coach. In March 2007, Joe gave in and decided to compete just to stop the tournament director from annoying him. Joe did not give it all he had as he did not want to compete. He wound up coming in second place in the tournament and did not care. Afterwards, he stated that he did not want to compete again and that is when the annoyance started up again. From March 2007 to September 2007, the tournament director bugged Joe to the point where he almost walked away from the Shorin-Ryu style completely. Then in July 2007, he decided that he was going to compete, but he kept it to himself. Because Shorin-Ryu Karate katas are simple and easy, and because some of these competitors bring katas outside of Shorin-Ryu into these tournaments, Joe knew he had to create his own katas and that he did. In September 2007, Joe competed and won the tournament. The kata he used was called Bushi Damashi Shodan. In October 2007, he competed again and won and the kata he used was Bushi Damashi Nidan. He then went on to win the November tournament and used Bushi Damashi Sandan. When the December tournament rolled around he did not want to create a new kata and therefore used Bushi Damashi Sandan. He placed 1st at the December 2007 tournament and from there secretly went back into tournament retirement. In early 2008, he was awarded the 2007 Karate season plaque for coming into 1st place in all three black belt divisions (kata, weapons kata, and fighting). Joe was a bit upset that the tournament director could not even spell his name right on the award. When asked if he wanted it corrected, he stated that he wants to keep it the way it was because it shows the stupidity of the tournament director.

In March 2008, Joe coached students at a tournament and was approached by the tournament director who a year prior kept pressuring him to compete. Joe informed him that he no longer wanted to compete and instead wanted to teach and coach. From there the tournament director called him a waste of talent and Joe layed into him with his own words saying that "he (the tournament director) is an over weighted political martial artist who when executes a front kick winds up kicking his own stomach and that the reason why he wants him to compete in his tournaments is because of his past Taekwondo fame which would help his dying tournaments make a come back". From there Joe refused to even go to his tournaments to coach and in August 2008 wound up leaving the Shorin-Ryu Karate schools that were associated with these tournaments. In 2011, Joe returned to help out a dying Shorin-Ryu school that had connections with the tournament circuit, but the instructors wanted him to demote himself as punishment for walking away in the first place and refusing to take over the school. He saw the writing on the wall and this time not only did he walk away, but he made sure he would never go back.

Hardcore Martial Arts
In 2004, Joe begun studying Muay Thai, but at a slow pace. From 2004 to 2012 his studying of Mauy Thai was the main focus for him in the martial arts. In 2013 his knowledge of Muay Thai expanded greatly along with the study of Silat and Escrima/Kali/Arnis. In 2013, He started training at a school called Aegis martial arts. The head instructor was a master from the Philippines who is a master in an Indonesian martial art known as Silat and the Filipino martial art known as Escrima/Kali/Arnis. He even trained in Mauy Thai under him and his second in command who was a detective. For the first 2 years, he did a lot of Muay Thai studying under another American who worked within the martial arts school. Joe stated his years of training with Aegis brought back memories of when he trained with grandmaster Kenshi Hiroshi. Some of the hardcore Muay Thai fights he had with his American instructor was intense and at one time got very violent as the two squared off in a racquetball room. Joe executed a beautiful spinning side kick right into his instructor's solarplex. His instructor became more aggressive and got in close to him, grabbed his head and slammed it against the wall of the racquetball room. Joe turned around in disbelief with a smile on his face and said: "what the hell was that?" Joe's instructor stood there with his hands in a Muay Thai guard and Joe and his instructor went at it aggressively. In the end, they shook hands and laughed.

While with Aegis, he also studied a new martial arts system called the Approach which is a system based on an ancient Thai martial arts called Krabi Krabong. Joe became one of very few Americans to learn the Approach. The Approach is an easy and realistic self-defense system created in England and security personnel from all over Europe and China travel to England to learn it. His Approach instructor was an American who lived in England for many years and trained directly under the system's founder. After leaving Aegis sometime in 2015, Joe became a bit upset due to the fact that he had to move on to other things and find a career. He said many times that Aegis was the best martial arts school he has ever trained at in Ohio. After leaving he continued studying martial arts on his own and included the Filipino martial arts and Indonesian martial arts. He even advanced his Mauy Thai training with Muay Boran and Krabi Krabong.

The Tengu
The Tengu Ninjitsu Society/Clan is an ancient society of skilled martial artist who studies the mysterious martial arts form of the Tengu. Like most styles of Ninjitsu, the Tengu is still shrouded in mystery. Grandmaster Kenshi Hiroshi who was Joe's first martial arts instructor was a former head of the Tengu Society. Traditionally, you have to be a 10th Dan black belt to be the Soke but, the Tengu had to sometimes break that rule on special occasions. When Kenshi Hiroshi decided to move to the United States in the early 1990's, his younger brother also an 8th Dan black belt took over. Grandmaster Kenshi Hiroshi vowed to never teach his deadly art to anyone while living in the United States. Then, in 1992, Kenshi Hiroshi met a young Joe Howard and saw his love and passion for martial arts. Therefore, Grandmaster Kenshi Hiroshi took it upon himself to train him, but limited his training due to how young Joe was at the time. In 1994, Kenshi Hiroshi decided that he wanted to open up a martial arts school nearby and Joe would be his first student there. He even petitioned to have Joe inducted into the Tengu in Japan as the first and only non-Japanese to be a member of the society. But, at the time Kenshi's brother was the Soke and Kenshi's petition was denied as it would break a strict rule that has been in place for hundreds of years. One of the traditions of the Tengu Society is that every member must be Japanese. In 1994, after grandmaster Kenshi Hiroshi passed away, Joe moved on with his studying of the martial arts and even without the guidance of Kenshi Hiroshi, he was able to advance his Ninjitsu training which caught the eyes of the Tengu Society. For years, Joe held himself back from ever using what he knew in fear that he would get into trouble. It was not until 2013 when that fear went away and he realized that in today's world it's kill or be killed.

In 2014, Kenshi Hiroshi's son, Hiro Hiroshi took over the Tengu Society as the new Soke at the rank of 8th Dan black belt and then in 2016 contacted Joe Howard. For years, Kenshi Hiroshi's family kept a close eye on Joe's training and because Joe was Hiro's father's last student and his father wanted him as a member, Hiro broke protocol and inducted Joe into the Tengu Society and also promoted him to 5th Dan. In ancient times, most members of the Tengu died testing for the 1st Dan black belt or at that time the equivalent of the rank. Still today it is extremely hard to even get promoted to 1st Dan black belt. Before his 5th Dan promotion, Joe was a 4th Dan black belt in Taekwondo and Shorin-Ryu Karate and walked away from both styles not too long ago. Hiro Hiroshi has stated that Joe has gone beyond expectations in the martial arts and has advanced himself to where he deserved the promotion without having to fork over money or being a political martial arts suck up like most people are today especially in the United States. In 2016 after his promotion, he was asked if his 6th Dan was anywhere in site. Joe responded by saying that it's not about the belt and that he was not even looking for a promotion as he gave up on the belt rank system years ago. He also mentioned that the 5th Dan promotion was his most honorable promotion as he looked at it as a way to show honor to his first mentor, Kenshi Hiroshi. He also stated that Kenshi Hiroshi's vision of seeing him as a part of the Tengu finally came true. As of today, Joe Howard is the only non-Japanese member of the Tengu.

Bushikan-Ryu Karate
During the 2007 Karate tournament season, Joe created 3 katas to help him win the tournament season. He did win the tournament season and after the December tournament he slowly started working on his own system. Then in 2011, the 3 Bushi Damashi katas he created was combined into one kata which would become the most important kata in his system. In 2016 while in Thailand, he advanced his workings on his system and named it Bushikan-Ryu. This would be a hybrid style of Karate that features other martial arts such as Muay Boran, Krabi Krabong, Silat, Ninjitsu, Arnis, Black Flag Wing Chun, and Shorin-Ryu Karate. The weapons training is similar to the Filipino martial arts and Kendo/Kenjitsu. While in Thailand, he worked on the kata system for his style. Out of the 12 katas that are a part of Bushikan-Ryu, only 3 are traditional to Shorin-Ryu Karate but, with a slight difference to it. In 2017, Joe stated that his plans for the kata system is simple and that is to never sell out the kata by changing the techniques every year or few years. He also stated that while in Taekwondo and Shorin-Ryu Karate, the forms systems also known as poomse or katas kept changing and that the traditional way of doing each kata is lost in history. This problem created issues involving each student learning the same kata in a different way and caused confusion. Sometime in 2017, Joe introduced Bushikan-Ryu to the Tengu Society and the society voted to recognize his style putting the highest ranking Karate master in the Tengu Society as Joe's Karate mentor and Karate belt promoter. Later that year, the Soke of the society, Grandmaster Hiro Hiroshi had Joe promoted to 5th Dan black belt in the Bushikan-Ryu art under the Tengu Society banner. Bushikan-Ryu is also known as Bushikan-Ryu Karate. Joe has stated that even though it is a hybrid style of Karate, he does not consider it a style of Karate but, as a style of many martial arts. It does however resemble Karate as the katas are more Karate like especially the 3 katas found in Shorin-Ryu Karate.

As a member of the Tengu, Joe is eligible to learn other arts. Because he has a lot of training in Kenjutsu and Bojutsu, he was welcomed to learn Kabudo which is the Okinawan weapons martial arts. Bojutsu is a major part of Kobudo therefore Joe has brought his Bojutsu skills in to practise Kabudo. He has decided to start over as a white belt so that he can relearn Bojutsu within Kobudo. As for Kenjutsu, Kenjutsu is completly seperate, but the Tengu master behind the Kobudo art is also a Kenjutsu expert and is training Joe in both Kabudo and Kenjutsu.

Denying the Martial Arts Hall of Fame
Since 2009, the martial arts community worked hard to get Joe into the martial arts hall of fame. After Joe was nominated, the presidents of each hall of fame contacted Joe to inform him of his hall of fame nomination. They also informed him that it would cost between $100-$500 for him to be inducted. The individuals who nominated him did not even know this. This news upset him as he realized that it was all about making a profit off of someone else's years of martial arts dedication. Joe refused to accept the hall of fame offer and admitted that he would feel low if he accepted it. From 2009-2014, Joe would go onto refusing every hall of fame opportunity as it was costly. He stated that "being inducted into a martial arts hall of fame is an honor and should never have the nominee or nominator pay for it. Paying your way into a hall of fame is dishonorable and is no different then the fake black belts out there who buy their rank and not earn it. I truly believe that these hall of fames prey on fake and legit martial artist in order to make a profit. Shame on them!"

United States Civil Air Patrol
2010-2014

In the Summer of 2010, Joe joined the U.S. Civil Air Patrol (CAP) as an officer without rank. The Civil Air Patrol is the official uniformed auxiliary of the United States Air Force. He had to train for 6 months before being promoted to 2nd Lieutenant. He had to take numerous tests, fill out paperwork, and complete a level. After he joined, he was given 2 Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) positions as the drug demand reduction officer (DDRO) and leadership officer. Do to Joe's leadership experience in martial arts and knowledge of drugs because of his criminal justice degree, the commander at the time felt that he would be great for those two positions. From 2010-2014, Joe continued his CAP work as the DDRO and leadership officer. He was in charge of coming up with ways to inspire others to stay drug free and to become leaders. In early 2013, Joe was promoted to 1st Lieutenant. He has held several MOS positions as a part of Squadron 282 from 2010-2014. These MOS positions include drug demand reduction officer, leadership officer, aerospace education officer, supply officer, emergency services officer, homeland security officer, and search & rescue officer. Although he has held many MOS positions, his most important at the time was as drug demand reduction officer and leadership officer as he was needed for those two positions. While he was with squadron 282, twice he was asked to become the new commander of the squadron but, he declined as he was to busy with college. From 2010-2018, he was a member of the ground team 3 search & rescue team. This is considered a special forces like team within CAP.

2014-2018

In the Summer of 2014, Joe transferred to Squadron 285 which was the senior squadron located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. There, he was put into a different MOS as he became the administrative officer and personnel officer. These two MOS positions were much different then what he was used to. As the administration and personnel officer, he was 4th in charge of the squadron and was responsible for putting others in MOS positions, paperwork and records, and along with the professional development officer, was also tasked with overseeing training. In June 2015, while working for the U.S. Postal Service, Joe discovered a body. He quickly sprung into action and performed CPR like he was trained to do. Unfortunately, even with the assist from the sheriffs and EMS, the man could not be revived. Joe was nominated for the life-saving award in CAP but, was not awarded it as no one could revive the man. In December 2015 on Christmas day, he was promoted to the rank of Captain. In February 2016, Joe was given the MOS position of search & rescue officer. This was the second time that he was put into that position.

In April 2016, he moved to Wyoming from Ohio which later in 2017 he stated that "moving to Wyoming to become a federal law enforcement officer was one of the worse decisions I made as Wyoming is like a toilet." Because of his success in Ohio with CAP, his squadron commander asked him to stay on with Ohio Wing CAP as the squadrons administration and personnel officer as he could work long distance on the computer. As for the search & rescue position, he would keep that as well due to the fact that he has great knowledge in search & rescue and can use it in a state that can see extreme weather. Joe lived only about 2 to 3 hours away from the nearest squadron.

In October 2016, CAP decided to start an unofficial squadron where Joe was living. While he stayed on board with Ohio Wing, he also became the squadron commander of the sinks canyon rescue squadron in Wyoming. In February 2017, he encountered a man from France at an Asian restaurant in Utah. The man was choking on a bone that he accidentally swallowed. Joe sprung into action and executed chest thrusts saving the mans life. CAP decided to award him with the prestigious life-saving certificate, ribbon, and medal. In August 2018, Joe left CAP and decided to use his skills and knowledge to do other things in life. Since 2013, Joe was also a part of a special operations CAP team that trained in extreme survival, combat, and rescue. This would later be known as CAP Special Operations where Joe also trained officers in hand to hand combat and extreme situations.

American Red Cross
Joe joined the American Red Cross in 2012 while serving in the Civil Air Patrol. The training he received from CAP helped him with his training in the American Red Cross and his CAP and FEMA certifications were highly valuable to the American Red Cross. Like CAP and FEMA, he became certified in many fields in the American Red Cross and was a member of the disaster action team and was a certified First Aid/CPR/AED instructor. Shortly before his departure from Ohio, Joe was able to accomplish a very hard task by getting the U.S. Civil Air Patrol and American Red Cross to sit down at the same table and come up with plans and ideas to work together when it comes to disaster relief and national security. The talks were successful but, at the end the Ohio Wing CAP emergency services officer wanted Joe to take his spot as the new Ohio Wing CAP coordinator to the American Red Cross. Joe informed him that he could not do it due to the fact he was moving. While serving with the American Red Cross, he has been on many fire calls and other emergency services calls including hurricanes hitting New Jersey. In June 2018, Joe's American Red Cross membership expired and he did not renew it.

Martial Arts Styles: A Brief History of...
Martial Arts Styles: A Brief History of... is a YouTube show hosted by The Real Joe. The shows season begun in December 2017 with the oldest known style of Karate, Shuri-Te. There are a total of 16 videos with each lasting between 2-6 minutes in length. Right now Joe is into his third season which will wrap up in November 2020. He said that he will indeed work on a fourth season. This 2-6 minute show is about a brief history of a perticular martial arts style.

Spirituality
Since 2004, Joe has been studying Buddhism and since then has expanded his mind in the spiritual arts. At one time in 2007, he was training to become a Buddhist monk. Although he never became a monk he has stated before that one day he will become a monk. In 2004, due to the fact that he was deeply spiritual, Joe was able to learn a form of spirituality and martial arts that only a few have been able to harness. This consisted of harnessing electricity from a light bulb and seeing the electricity on the finger tips. Joe was able to harness this gift for a few years until he lost the concentration to do it again. Joe has vowed to relearn it but, to go even further and learn how to make his body light up. This is known as the Aura. Legend says that the Aura can be mastered through deep meditation which can empower the inner body to spark an Aura anytime the mind is cleared during any event. Another legend to getting the Aura is through trickery. In 2020, Joe took several spiritual test to discover his true belief. At the end he found that his beliefs are geared more toward being a Shintoist. Joe said that he is a believer of Shintoism while at the sametime believing in traditional Buddhism.