Jennifer Miles interview with AAU National Chinese Martial Arts Chair Dave Pickens

How long have you been doing CMA?

I began doing Chinese Martial Arts in 1965, I started teaching it 1973. I actually started in martial arts in 1961. I’ve been 44 years in Chinese Martial Arts specifically.

Why did you choose CMA as your sport?

Well I also ran track and field, played football, baseball, tennis, boxed, golf, and bowled as a kid. I think it was a combination of many things that made me become a Chinese Martial Artist. I found it enhanced my abilities in many other sports through improved concentration and self discipline, but most of all was the founding building blocks of Chinese Martial Arts “the philosophy”, that has  held my interest all these years.

One quote for instance says that contest doesn’t really compare abilities, but though comparisons it gives the player a fair assessment of the individual’s capabilities to display and perform techniques. Now as a kid that always thought winning was everything… this really took learning humility, humbleness, and coming to grips with reality.

Any martial artist no matter what the style that stays involved can understand when a person says martial arts becomes a way of life. I find the longer I practice it keeps me in good health, great spirits, and I continue to make so many friends of all types of backgrounds that have the same positive attitude as a result of studying.  For me this was in the Chinese Martial Arts.

Why AAU?

As I mentioned I ran track and field back when I was in the 6th grade and in the summer I was going into the Junior High School 7th grade our home town had its 150th Anniversary Celebration. Part of the celebration was a track meet that was sponsored by AAU. It was a very positive experience and then I started looking at all the different supports the AAU supported, swimming, baseball, basketball, even Ali was an AAU member in boxing. So I developed a very high opinion of the AAU.

Over the years I have been involved with a number of organizations.  When I was approached in 1988 at an event in Houston I became very excited to hear that the AAU had a small but dedicated group of people representing the Chinese Martial Arts. I was hooked immediately and I became a member.

Over the years I have been a District Manager, Regional Director, National Vice Chairman and National Advisor and I have watched as we have slowly grown and better organized our mission purpose. The people that we have involved today are about promoting the Chinese martial arts for the sake of the art, which I believe will open up many new doors in the future. Helping to develop people with the thought we have inside our AAU CMA Logo” Wu De” honor bound, which we believe is the most important part of holding any type of competitions. Our out going National Executive Board of James Man Chin, Rick Clark, Franc Gomez, and Curt Hardison along with current members National Vice Chair Dug Corpolongo, Greg Watson, Ty Nunez, and Glenn Guerin have done much to bring the AAU- CMA up to date in the way we adopt rules, select our leaders, and run events.

Our newest National Executive Board members Charlie Wilson, Greg Butler, Michael Aronson, and Tom Pardue will have the job to introduce the AAU CMA to the Mid West as the National Championships move to St Louis in 2010. This is where we believe the next big growth for the AAU CMA is currently taking place.

As my term of office comes to an end next year we will show just how democratic we have become with members deciding who the next National Chairman is as well development of our next short term plan and reviewing how we are doing with the long range goals we set.  This organization is becoming the gem we envisioned it could become.

About Dave Pickens
AAU Nation Chairman or Chinese Martial Arts
Dave Pickens is lives in Austin, Texas and is the Director of Central Texas Martial Arts. He is an instructor in Chinese Long Fist, Shuai Chiao, and Tai Chi
He also is former college and military instructor who also instructed state and local law enforcement officers.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Chinese Martial Arts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.