Floyd Burk
Floyd Burk |
Floyd Burk is a San Diego-based freelance writer and martial arts instructor with 35 years of experience. He has trained in many styles, including shorin-ryu karate, shotokan karate, shito-ryu karate, American karate, full-contact karate, Chinese kung fu and jujutsu. Currently a contributing editor, Burk began writing exclusively for Black Belt and its sister publications since his first article appeared in the Decmember 1994 issue of Black Belt. Burk, an avid martial arts researcher, began assisting with the recurring State of Taekwondo column in February 2001 and has penned many installments of the column which covers the current trends and interesting topics on the Korean martial arts. Additionally, he contributes feature articles and content for Black Belt Times on a regular basis. He has interviewed a number of martial arts legends and luminaries, including David Carradine, Bill “Superfoot” Wallace, Joe Lewis, Jhoon Rhee, S. Henry Cho, Hee Il Cho, Soon-Ho Lee, Eric Lee and Olympic athletes Steven Lopez and Nia Abdallah. Burk’s martial arts training began in 1970. In 1980 he opened up his first karate school in Upland, California. Burk relocated his school to Norco, California the next year and established a school in Rancho Cucamonga, California in 1983. While Burk no longer has schools in these locales, karate programs are still operated there by students and/or students of students and other colleagues. Burk is also the co-founder of the Independent Karate Schools of America (IKSA). The IKSA was established in the early 1980s to represent independent martial artists who stood for honor, integrity, indomitable spirit and loyalty. For the past 20 years Burk has been training under Grandmaster George W. Owens of Russellville, Arkansas who teaches his own system known as honto-ryu karate. Honto-ryu is a system that utilizes karate’s hand and foot techniques, aikijujutsu’s limb and joint manipulations plus pressure-point attacks and defenses. Included in this combat system is an emphasis on the training, research and analysis of traditional Okinawan and Japanese kata. To contact him, send e-mail to floydburk@yahoo.com Click here for more profiles! |
