I recently got the chance to talk to Gold Coast Martial Arts Hall of Fame organizer Joe Williams. Joe is an instructor of Atemi-Ryu Karate. It’s a system that has a combination of Karate, Judo and Ju-jitsu. His main instructor for this system was Daryll Sweeny Joe inherited the system in 1992 when Grand Mastser Sweeny passed away. Joe describes Sweeney as a great Judo man ahead of his time. His theory was to take the Karate Ju-Jitsu and Judo and put it all together. Mind you this was in 1959 before Bruce Lee and JKD. Back then people considered his system a neglectic system. They thought his system wasn’t worth a dime. At that time martial arts was taught in the traditional pattern. If you were learning Goju thats what you would be taught.. If you were learning Shotokan thats what you would be taught. There was no incorporating other arts into your system. Thats what made Daryl’s art so dynamic. Overall Daryl liked Karate and Ju-Jitsu, but he really had the love for Judo.

Joe also has trained under Joe Hess and Master Buster Simmons. Joe started his martial arts journey in 1968 learning Judo. At that time he had a friend who’s father was a Michigan State Trooper and would teach them Judo. He thought it was pretty neat seeing bodies thrown around. He then trained under Daryll Sweeny at Broward Community College. He later met Joe Hess at the police academy and started to train with him.

Joe opened up his school in 1988. He is currently teaching at TY park and at the Police Athletic League. Joe has worked for the Broward Sheriffs office for thirty five years.

Joe also inherited the Gold Coast Martial Arts. The Gold Coast Martial Arts was created in 1959 by Daryl. He created this program as an outreach program for independent schools. These schools were untraditional and had no way collectively to work with other organizations and other schools to achieve any success. The function of the Gold Coast was to have seminars, tournaments and have camaraderie where they can all work together. The Gold Coast has been taken to the next level with the Hall of Fame banquet, and the up and coming masters seminars. They also will be having a tournament circuit. This month the Gold Coast will be holding a seminar featuring Kenpo great Ed Parker. They have divided Florida into five regions. All the regional directors are seven and eight degrees Dan. Their board of directors are nine and ten degrees Dan. They also do promotion verification and recognition. This is helpful to teachers who don’t have the ability to go up in rank due to their teachers passing away, relocating or even quitting. It’s very similar to what the USKA and the World Championship Council does. One of Joe’s future projects is making a quarterly publication which will have the Florida Masters of the martial arts.

“There are a lot of instructors who are not getting the credit that they deserve”.

I asked Joe out of all the martial arts legends which stands out the most. He said Joe Hess.

“Joe is such a great person. He will literally give you the shirt off his back. If there is anything I need he is always there. As far as the martial arts portion is concerned, my god there is not one art form that he does not know. He is so well versed in Jujitsu, Judo and Kung Fu forms. Ask him anything about martial arts and he knows the answer to it. He is a walking encyclopedia and a walking video. I have never seen him get stuck on any technique. He is simply a great martial artist.”

Vincent Marcceti was another legend that came into Joe’s mind. When Daryl Sweeny passed away Vincent became Joe’s mentor. Joe did not know how to run an organization. Vincent led Joe down the path of meeting people and networking. He is also a great Jujitsu instructor.

I asked Joe if he has seen a change in students as the generations go by? He has seen changes in the students philosophy and way of thinking. Having said that Joe feels that schools have to change their teaching methods to keep up with todays youth.

I asked Joe if there is anything he could change in the martial arts world what would it be? Joe would like to see more camaraderie. He’d like to see schools helping each other.

“I would like to see people living in harmony. Just because you know a different art, it doesn’t mean that you can’t work together”.

My final question for Joe was as a child who was your role model? Joe’s answer was as a child who didn’t love Bruce Lee.