TEACHER SPOTLIGHT 

SENSEI DAN JONES

JANUARY 2003
 

SENSEI DAN JONES

Congratulations goes out to Sensei Dan Jones for being the Teacher Spotlighted for January 2003.

Sensei Jones has been studying the martial arts for over 30 years.  He was born in Springfield, Illinois. Dan's father was a minister and as a result he grew up in several towns throughout Central Illinois.  Dan considers Bloomington and Gibson City to be his hometowns.

    Dan began his study of the martial arts when he was only eleven years old.  He was very small for his age, was not doing well in school and was getting into fights on a regular basis.  Dan's mother decided he needed the discipline and with the help of a college student, who was boarding with the family, Dan was introduced to Shoto-Kan Karate at a dojo in downtown Bloomington, Illinois.  Amazingly, Dan's grades went up and he no longer was getting into fights.

    Dan studied Shoto-Kan for only a short time before he was introduced to Tae Kwon Do.  At this same time Dan was also heavily involved in sports.  In high school in Gibson City, Illinois, Dan was a state qualifying pole-vaulter, wrestled at the 105 pound weight division and started varsity as a defensive corner back on the football team.  Dan's high school football coach was quoted as saying, "Not only was Dan the smallest player in the conference but also one of the toughest." All teams were conference champions and state qualifiers.

    While attending Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois, Dan joined what happened to be Master Joe Smith's first class, it consisted of only six students.  Dan knew right away this was the style he was going to dedicate his life to studying and he began working out seven days a week, two to four hours a day. Soon Dan became Master Smith's senior student and would be Joe's first student to earn a black belt and the only student to ever to earn his black belt in only one year.  Dan is the only remaining student, of the original six students, to still be studying Isshin-Ryu.

      Dan was a full-time Police Officer for thirteen years. Most of that time was spent with the Addison Police Department on the West side of Chicago.  In 1993 Dan transferred to the DeWitt County Sheriff's Department and from 1997 to 2001 he was the Practical Training Manager, a curriculum developer and control tactics instructor with the Police Training Institute at the University of Illinois.  In February of 2001 Mr. Jones was offered and accepted a position with Nims Associates Inc., a computer technology company, in Bloomington, Illinois.

    Dan is a state certified Field Training Officer, Crime Scene Investigator, Master Control Tactics Instructor, Police Firearms Instructor and Master Law Enforcement Trainer.

      In 1997 Dan was named "Executive of the Year" by the O.K.U. and in 1999 he was inducted into the World Karate Union Hall of Fame.  On June 16, 2001 Dan was promoted to 9th degree Black Belt by the Okinawan Karate-Do Union (OKU).  Mr. Jones has given presentations on control tactics and training methodology to several Illinois State Agencies, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Canada and the Russian Police in St. Petersburg, Vladimir and Moscow.

       Mr. Jones is the author of the book, KARATE-The Isshinryu Way. Distributed by National Paperback Books.  He strives to continue the tradition and legacy of Master Joe Smith, the Okinawan Karate-Do Union and the Isshin-Ryu Way. "Sensei Jones is one of the driving forces in the Okinawan Karate Do Union, he has proven himself time and time again to be one of the most dedicated martial artist around today" Stated KKO President Louis Velazquez. He is our choice for January 2003.