Al Tracy
Judan
(10th Degree Black Belt)
Founder of Tracy's
International Studios of Self Defense.
One of Ed Parker's earlier Black Belts
The Tracy brothers began their martial training in fencing, boxing, and wrestling. They embarked on their study of Kenpo with Ed Parker and one of his first Black Belts, James Ibrao, in 1957, while attending college as pre-law students. Over time they developed a close relationship with Mr. Parker, and soon after Mr. Parker turned all the teaching of beginner and intermediate classes over to the Tracy brothers, who would develop an order in which the techniques would be taught, and the advanced classes were run by James Ibrao.
Al Tracy was the powerhouse of Ed Parker’s studio, and, as seen in the brochure used in 1962-64 by Ed Parker, Al Tracy did all the breaking demonstrations. The Tracy brothers would also run Mr. Parker’s studio when he would periodically return to Hawaii.
There has been question as to whether or not Al and Jim Tracy received their Black Belts (Shodan) from Ed Parker. In the Family Tree listed in the original "Infinite Insights", by Mr. Parker, you can see that Al and Jim Tracy are listed as Black belts under Ed Parker, first generation. They also have the largest number of Black Belts listed under their tree!
Al and Jim Tracy were promoted to Black Belt (Shodan) January 2, 1962. The certificate was dated January 7, 1962. In the spring of that year, the Tracy brothers opened their first studio in San Francisco, which was named Kenpo Karate Studio, and was the northern branch of Ed Parker’s organization. It was there that the Tracy brothers created the three new Kyu ranks and the Kenpo "colored belt system". Ed Parker adopted the new 8-kyu system, but rejected the colored belts until finally converting to the Tracy color belt system in 1966. The Tracy brothers also created belt manuals (which contained 40 techniques per belt at that time) and gave the techniques names, like Attacking Circle, Raising the Staff, etc.
The Tracy brothers opened a second school, in Sacramento, in 1962, and a third, in San Jose, in 1963, and later changed the name of the schools to Tracy’s Kenpo Karate.
Ed Parker turned the Kenpo Karate Association of America (KKAA) over to the Tracy brothers and then formed the International Kenpo Karate Association (IKKA). The Tracy brothers agreed to join the IKKA, on the condition that they could keep the standards of teaching of the KKAA for their own students.
Ed Parker promoted Al Tracy to 3rd Degree Black Belt on December 4, 1964. The certificate is from the IKKA and is signed by Ed Parker, Mills Crenshaw, Stan Hall, and Charles Sullivan, and witnessed by Charlotte Connor, the wife of Tom Connor.
The Tracy brothers later opened schools throughout California, as well as other states, and formed the Tracy’s International Studios of Self-Defense.
By 1982, Ed Parker had changed what he called American Kenpo, so much so as to make it in Parker’s own words, "no more than 10% Kenpo." It was around this time that the Tracy’s completely broke from Ed Parker.
Al Tracy’s Kenpo Karate remains to this day teaching "Original/Traditional" Kenpo as taught to him by Ed Parker.
The Tracy’s International Studios of Self Defense is a worldwide organization, based out of Lexington, Kentucky, comprised of over 1,000 schools. It is the largest system of affiliated schools and the longest-running self-defense chain in the world.
Grand Master Al Tracy has organized the largest “gathering” of Kenpoist in the world. A true historic event called "The Gathering of Eagles”, which took place in Las Vegas, Nevada, February of 1999. The Gathering brought together over seventy masters, representing Kenpo, American Kenpo, Shaolin Kenpo, Wun Hop Kuen Do, Lima Lama, Kajukenbo, etc., and included some of the biggest names in Kenpo; James Ibrao, Thomas Mitose, the son of the late James Mitose, Al Dacascos, Ralph and Rob Castro, William Chun, Sonny Gascon, Bart Vale, Larry Tatum, Dave Simmons, Adriano Emperado, Richard Lee, Sig Kufferath, Tino Tuiolosega, John McSweeney, and the list goes on and on. Between 1100-1200 people attended the event, coming from all over the globe, with a choice of five seminars at any one time and eighty overall.
The second Gathering of Eagles took place in 2001 and was attended by approximately 1500-1600 people. The event also included the son of Choki Motobu, Chosei Motobu, Koshiro Tanaka, Ron Sanchez, Steve Labounty, Bob White, Bart Vale, James Ibrao, Thomas Mitose, Steve Finn, Roger Green, Dave Simmons, Pat Munk, Larry Tatum, Adriano Emperado, James Stewart, Dave German, Tim Teausant, Joseph Simonet, Sid Gee, Greg Mattson and many, many more.
Grand Master Al Tracy has also been a wealth of information and should be honored as an innovator for his work in spreading Kenpo throughout the world and bringing the Kenpo community together with events like the Gathering of Eagles.
Grand Master Al Tracy was inducted into the Blue Grass National Hall of Fame in June 2000.
Grand Master Al Tracy passed away on October 31, 2017.