Karate Master Trains in Auburn

By: Tim Robinson

Auburn – After nearly 63 years in any job, one might think that a person would be ready for retirement. That is not the case for Willie Adams, at nearly 70 years of age, he is nowhere near retirement and he credits karate for his health and vitality.

Grand-Master Adams, a tenth degree black belt in Isshinryu Karate, was in Auburn this last weekend sharing his long acquired knowledge with students at Joslin’s Martial Arts Center.

While promoting the importance of learning to focus as one of the keys of training, he also shared with those in attendance how he personally got started in the martial arts. He stated that he actually got his start in karate at about the age of six when he happened to meet a foreign exchange student from Japan who was working out at a local community center in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. “I was amazed, I had never seen anything like that, I wanted to know more so asked if he would teach me,” Adams stated.

Grand-Master Adams was no stranger to athletics. At the age of 16, he was offered a contract by the Detroit Tigers to play professional baseball, and because his parents would not sign papers allowing him to finish high school with tutors, he put his energies back into his karate training and states that he has no real regrets about not playing the other sport he loves.

In the Sixties and Seventies Adams states he traveled all over the United States competing in U.S. and regional karate championships, even having the occasion to fight Chuck Norris before the better known karate expert became famous. “We had some really good fights, he was tough,” stated Adams, though he would not reveal the outcome of those matches.

One thing that Grand-Master Adams does not have the fondest memories of is the segregation and prejudice that he faced, especially in the south in the Sixties. “Oh Yea, I could not eat in certain restaurants or sleep in hotels that my teammates would go into,” he stated, “sometimes, back in those days there might be only two or three black people in a tournament with hundreds or maybe even thousands of competitors.”

Today he oversees fifteen schools in the greater Detroit area, trains local law enforcement in the use of hand-to-hand combat, and has done everything from run detective agencies to being a Repo-man.

Over the years Grand-Master Adams states that he has studied about ten different styles of martial arts, when asked why he chose Isshinryu, he smiled and said, “because anyone can do it.” He explained that Isshinryu traces its roots to Okinawa, a small island off the coast of Japan. “When you go to Okinawa, you see many people in their 70’s and 80’s still training in karate. In some of the more popular forms of martial arts in the U.S. the style is very rigid and takes great athleticism, but in Isshinryu that is not true, I have an instructor working for me who is in her eighties.”

Having held a black belt for over 50 years, Grand-Master Adams stated that a healthy life style and better focus in life is what Isshinryu Karate is really all about, “you come in, do something physical, work on concentration and breathing, what could be better for a person?”

Joslin's Martial Arts Center11768 Atwood Rd #1, Auburn, CA 95603(530) 820-3131