This month has been two years since the passing of one of our legends in the Martial Arts, Kaicho Butch Velez of the AGK.
“Will Claphan, Mike Sutton, Bill Negron, Roy Davis, Butch Velez, John Sliger Milton Rodriguez, and Keith James.”
Kaicho Velez, in my opinion, personifies the statement many make. “I am a martial artist.” Many have little or no knowledge of the meaning when they say I am a Martial Artist. I have had only three mentors in the M/A. Richard P. Baillargeon, (1930-1989} Butch Velez, (1946-2021) Hugh Kelly, (1940) and all were direct students of Kosho “Shogo” Kuniba” (1935-1992) who was the adopted son of Kosei Kokuba and founder of the Seishin Kan Dojo. Wherein teachers like Choki Motobu and Kenwa Mabuni were spreading their arts. It was from this lineage that the younger Kuniba developed Motobu-ha Shito-Ryu.
My loyalty has and always will be to my three martial art mentors mentioned above. Challenges, disagreements, and misunderstandings along the way are part of any learning process. I have had my share with all three, but I like to think that our differences strengthened our friendship. I have seen backstabbing and lies brought against my three mentors, and I will not hesitate to refute any attacks.
Kaicho Velez and Mr. B often talked about those that did and were backstabbing them. And now that they are gone many are using their names to personify their failed attempts to create their on self-worth.
Kaicho Velez and I would make it a point to communicate with each other weekly, especially every Sunday. He often mentioned how some would attack him on his heritage and AGK. “American Goshin Budo and Kobudo” Kaicho would get a little heated up talking about how he was verbally attacked and treated. As I told Butch, if you teach long enough, you will have those students that show potential just to leave after a few short years usually due to ego, followed by a mental concept that they have become more enlightened than you and their way is better. I told Butch your heritage and credentials speak for themselves. You have nothing to prove to idiots.
As a teacher I have learned to watch a student’s facial or body expressions as if they doubted me. These could be the early signs of future problems.
I had my first experience with this about twenty-two years into my teaching. At first, I dismissed this as a part of a
student developing trust in me. It was as if I was always trying to prove what I said or did. Instead of getting better, it got worse. I showed several of these students where the front door was. As I explained to Kaicho. Times have changed; people now think that they have all the knowledge they need in just a few years of training. Knowledge that takes a true martial artist a lifetime of commitment.
One of these students sent me an email stating that there was a time when the student became the Teacher. I responded by simply saying, Not in my lifetime. He went on to say that he is what Martial arts is all about. “EGO” need I say more.
Time and experience do not seem to apply to a martial art genius. It truly amazes me how these very people or quick to backstab and make accusations by phone or email. When you call-um out, excuses abound. I have been waiting for one particular person now for five years. I think I will put him in the category with a few others as a no-show.
Misunderstanding and communication problems will always exist; how you handle them is what counts.
Any misunderstandings I may have had between myself and my mentors never brought me to the level of disrespect or backstabbing. We would discuss differences like grown men, learning to give and take, and coming up with solutions, keeping friendship, student and Teacher relationships intact. That is what loyalty, integrity, and friendships are all about. These, in my opinion, are the traditional values of the Martial Arts.
Kaicho Velez was a Martial Artist, and that M/A was a lifelong journey toward self-improvement of mind, body, and soul. And the practitioner would be challenged mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. It leaves the student with a profound sense of confidence in ones-self. That was Kaicho Velez.
He will be sorely missed by all that knew him and called him a friend, brother, and Teacher.
“Shogo Kuniba, Ricahrd P. Baillargeon and Butch Velez.”
I SEE YOU’VE TRAVELED SOME
This two-year Memoriam will have personal statements from some of Kaicho’s friends.
“Roy D. Davis, Butch Velez, Bill Negron.”
“John Sliger”
It is hard to believe that it has been over two years since my Teacher, mentor and Friend, Butch Velez, Kaicho, died due to complications caused by Covid in September 2020. Although the pain of loss has somewhat faded, his passing still affects me, he left a hole that will never be completely healed over.
I met Kaicho Butch at a very large martial arts seminar in Reno, NV. At that time, I was training in a Dojo that was teaching Hakko Ryu and Goju Ryu and I was struggling with understanding the concepts of some of the teachings. I talked and trained with Kaicho Butch in the corner while the seminar was ongoing. He cleared up some of my training in a weekend with what I had been struggling with for years. If any of you knew Butch, you would know that he had studied Hakko Ryu stateside and in Japan for many years. You would also know that Soke Kuniba, and he put together the Goshin Budo format loosely based on the way Hakko Ryu had been laid out. From what Kaicho told me that when Soke Kuniba first stayed with Butch in Stella, NC, his English was not very good, but better than Kaicho’s Japanese. So, to get over their language barrier, Butch brought out his Hakko Ryu manuals that were in Japanese and that started served as a guide and a bridge in their training that was to become known as Goshin Budo. There are some that may debate that fact, but when I see their techniques that they describe as Goshin Budo, it is apparent that they lack the skill and/or experience to be making any comments on a jujutsu system based on suppleness. Many look as if they are practicing “wrestling in a rage” as Kaicho would call it.
A Seminar Kaicho and I did in 2013
Kaicho Butch had a wide array of interests, with martial arts just being one of them. He was a practicing healer, a Shiatsu practitioner that many would travel a long distance just to get an appointment. The one thing I was always amazed at about him was his ability to interrelate his many passions to some common core techniques. Watching him practice shiatsu, sometimes I could not tell if he was doing Goshin Budo or karate in the way he moved his hands and body. When he was demonstrating his martial arts, he always brought in an element of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Kaicho Demonstrating Massage Techniques
Even when he was doing his chores on the farm, he would be training his martial arts, moving in a particular karate
stance while pushing a wheelbarrow or the way he lifted the feed. His movements were intentional, with a purpose that was deeper that what a superficial look could understand. There were always layers in the teachings from Kaicho Butch, some even now, I am just beginning to understand.
Kaicho Butch was a spiritual person whose temple was the outdoors. It was much more than words, but his deeds, in the way he worked his land that, showed his faith. I sometimes think I made the drive to Stella more for our walks and conversation around his pastureland than for the training. As I think back, sometimes it is hard to tell where I learned more, the fields or the dojo.
Kaicho Giving Melissa Sliger A Riding Lesson At The Farm
Although Kaicho Butch Velez served in many occupations and roles during his life, the influence he had on my life and training will never be forgotten. I was truly blessed to have Butch as a Teacher and a friend.
“Bill Negron”
This will be the two-year mark of the passing of my Friend and Sensei, Andrew “Butch” Velez, Kaicho.
Butch Velez was a proud Vietnam Vet. Conservative in his political views and a man of faith. He was a candid person without reserve or secretiveness. He knew many people but was cautious of who he lt in his circle.
Kaicho, as we referred to him, used to call himself a “dumb country boy from Jacksonville.” If you knew him, you’d know that was the farthest thing from the truth. Kaicho grew up on his father’s farm. At the farm, he learned the skill of welding and was given welding jobs by his father at the young age of nine. After serving in the Army during the Vietnam era. He worked in Camp Lejeune as a welder for 30 years.
Kaicho was somewhat of a “Renaissance Man.” In North Carolina. he was a licensed barber a massage therapist (Shiatsu), a beekeeper, a horseman, operated a sawmill, and several other pursuits that I can’t remember.
He enjoyed telling stories of how he and Soke Kuniba, both bachelors at the time, would stay up late cataloging, recording the AGK curriculum, and downing a few beers along the way.
I believe most of us best remember Kaicho, along with the collaboration of Soke Kuniba, as being the founders of the American Goshin Budo and Kobudo (AGK). Kaicho was a skilled martial artist. He was exceptionally skilled in pressure points, joint manipulations, Shiatsu, and energy flow.
There were a lot of people that did not know that Soki Kuniba put Motobu-ha Shito-Ryu into two categories. The Japanese version and the international version. Kaicho spoke of this often and told me he would show me real Motobu-ha kata. One is the Hamahiga No Tonfa. Kaicho passed away before I could learn it in its entirety. I took it on my own to try to
finish the kata as my way to remember him.
“JW Fox”
Remembering Kaicho Velez, It’s been two years since we lost our dear Friend. I miss our late Sunday evening talks. Kaicho wanted a picture that I had of Joe Lewis that I received during a seminar I attended in Asheville, NC, where I was training in 1983. He regularly reminded me of that picture, so I decided to make him a larger version than I had and gave it to him at Mr. Mike Holme’s place, where we met up for a Saturday training session, and boy, was he surprised when I pulled that picture out. I believe that he told everyone there about it that day. I was so happy to see him light up full of joy and that he enjoyed that picture as much as he did. Kaicho was a great friend, Teacher, and mentor. We will all meet one day again and pick up right where we left off.
As befitting a Masonic Brother. You will be missed by many but will be remembered by those who loved you the most.
Freemasonry, like that of a true Martial Artist, unites men of good character who, though of different religious, ethnic, or social backgrounds, share a belief in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of mankind
Kaicho Roy D, Davis III, and the rest of my brothers in Bushido, we Miss you. “Kaicho Butch Velez 111.” NKJU®/NKJUI®
AGK Butch Velez Kaicho Sept.2022 Memoriam
NKJU ® National Karate Jiu-Jitsu Union and National Karate jiu-jitsu Union Int. davisroyiv3@gmail.com
Sept 2021 NKJU® Bulletin
All NKJU® & NKJUI® Bulletins are under Copyright and shall not be altered from their original form without written permission from Kaicho Davis.
