Brian Gates
Brian Gates, Jr.
Father & Son
Patton, PA

Instructor of the Month
&
America In Defense
Certified Instructor

"Developing the Homing Instinct"

 By: Gregory Story

Communities are close knit in the coal mining country east of Pittsburgh.  The folded hills rich in timber and minerals and picturesque valleys carved by the Conemaugh River and its tributaries are no stranger to tragedy on a monumental scale.  In the 19^th century, hundreds perished hereabouts in the Johnstown Flood.  Scores more were killed recently when the fourth airplane hijacked on 9/11 crash-landed in a local meadow.  For Brian Gates, the devastation was made personal because this fourth airliner hit only a few miles from his home.  Also, ten people who lived nearby died in the disasters of that day.

“We always felt safe in this country, but you naturally take a different outlook on life after staring into the crater like I did just minutes after the impact.  There was nothing recognizable as a plane.  It looked like a hole carved by bulldozers that had been burned out,” Gates states.

Learning of the America In Defense (AID) program through the Internet, Gates saw the program as his way to help fight the war on terror.  The four-hour AID course is designed to give flight personnel training in awareness and self-defense, and Gates had worked for years as a martial arts instructor and executive bodyguard.  AID classes are given free of charge by a staff of volunteers.

“I can’t recall if Bob Wall called me or I called him.  Then David Krapes called me.  They both admired my background in martial arts,” he says.

One thing Gates remembers for certain.  He was certified as an AID instructor on April 17^th of this year, the first person in Pennsylvania so designated and the 43^rd overall.  Gates had met Bob Wall earlier at a convention sponsored by Chuck Norris, and the pair had trained together.

Gates traces his martial arts interest back to childhood when he would watch Bruce Lee in the Green Hornet.  As soon as he got his license in 1980, Gates began driving twenty-seven miles a minimum of four times a week to the closest martial arts school.  Tall but very thin, he hoped the instruction in Tae Kwan Do would keep people from picking on him.

“My motivation changed in a few months to wanting to teach people how to defend themselves," he says.

Working for four years as a bouncer at a bar taught Gates how to diffuse tense situations.  He began competing in karate tournaments in 1982 winning numerous events such as the Pennsylvania full contact kickboxing heavyweight division in 1990.  After a lengthy retirement from competition, Gates won two gold medals two months ago at the International Karate Championships in Trinidad, West Indies.

“I’d been invited to coach, but at the last minute someone on the team had to cancel.  I got the call at 9:30 at night and had to drive four hours to DC to catch an 8:00 a.m. flight.  All of a sudden here I was matched up with a guy fifteen years younger, two inches taller and twenty pounds heavier,” he recalls.

Describing himself as an angular fighter, Gates works the angles to take and deliver glancing blows.  He credits much of his success to the training he received in Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan from Hwang Chul Hwang whose father originated the system and from Joe Lewis the undefeated world heavyweight kickboxing champion.

“Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan is a very well rounded system of Chinese and Korean martial arts that gives equal emphasis to the use of hands and feet, and I went right to the source to learn,” Gates states.

He opened his first martial arts school in 1985 in nearby Patton and reopened the school a year ago as a way to be close to his twelve-year-old son Brian.  Gates had been doing executive protection work for clients such as Sally Raphael Jesse, which kept him away from home a lot.

“Twelve through fifteen’s an impressionable age.  A time when a lot of boys can take a wrong turn and get into something bad like drugs.  Martial arts is something Brian and I can do together,” Gates says.

The younger Brian has been training with his father since age three.  A free spirited lad who enjoys snowboarding and biking, Brian calls martial arts fun and playfully describes his favorite subject at school as lunch.

As proof of how self-defense training can give people the confidence to do anything, Gates cites the AID classes.  Typically, students start out thinking they couldn’t possibly defend themselves against Gates who is 6’2” and weighs 250 pounds.  Midway through the session they’re shouting, “yes, we can, let’s roll.”  By the end, they have him down on the floor.

“Four little girls, six little girls can take me down.  Students tell me after class they don’t have the fear anymore.  I know I’ve made a difference.  They’re telling themselves ‘yes, I can.’  It’s an electrifying feeling for me,” Gates states.