Professor John Bishop
John Bishop
is a graduate of Cerritos College and the University of Redlands. In 2004, he
retired from a fulltime law enforcement career that spanned over 32 years.
Having started his career in California law enforcement as a Police Cadet with
the Cypress Police Department in 1972, he went on to the Whittier Police
Department in 1974, where he worked as a Police Officer, S.W.A.T. Team member,
and Detective. In 1981 he transferred to the Orange County District
Attorney’s-Bureau of Investigation, where he worked as a Criminal Investigator
for 23 years. He retired from the O.C.D.A. on August 6, 2004.
In 2004, he was appointed to serve as a county commissioner by the San
Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. He currently serves as the Vice
Chairman of the San Bernardino County Fish and Game Commission.
His martial arts training started in judo in 1958, at the age of five.
His judo instructor was his father, Jack Bishop. His father, a former Marine,
had learned judo at the Kodokan while stationed in Japan after the Korean War.
After returning to the United States he taught judo at Camp Pendleton,
California, and later at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. John’s judo training
continued informally for 4 years before he choose to pursue other sports and
activities, which included 4 seasons of freestyle wrestling
while in high school.
In 1974, at the Rio Hondo Police Academy, he took classes in Koga Jutsu
, a form of Aikido developed for police officers by Sensei Robert Koga, a Los
Angeles Police officer, and black belt under Koichi Tohei. He continued to
practice this method for several years, and went on to teach gun disarming
techniques while working for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
In the early 80’s he trained in shotokan karate
, at Cal Poly Pomona College, under Shihan Ray Dalke’s staff.
And in 1984 he started training in kajukenbo/kenpo karate
, under Sensei Joe Rosas.
In 1991 he sought out Grandmaster Gary Forbach for advance kajukenbo training.
Since then he has been a personal student of Grandmaster Forbach (9th degree
black belt).
In kajukenbo he received the ranks of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree black belt from
Sensei Rosas. He received the ranks of 4th and 5th degree black belt from
Grandmaster Forbach.
He was honored in 1998 by kajukenbo founder, Sijo Adriano D. Emperado with a
promotion to 6th degree red/white belt.
In 2002, he was promoted to 7th degree red/black belt by Grandmaster Forbach.
And in 2005, he was promoted to the rank of Professor 8th degree
red/black belt by Grandmaster Forbach.
In addition to his martial arts training he has completed several hundred hours
of police firearms, self defense and s.w.a.t. training.
He has taught martial arts for the Chino Valley Y.M.C.A., and has also taught
for both the Upland Recreation Department, and the Chino Recreation Department,
before moving his classes to the Diamond Bar Recreation Department in 2000. He
has also taught women's self defense and police defensive tactics.
Since 1989, he has worked as a freelance journalist writing over 65 articles
for; Inside Kung Fu, Inside Karate, Black Belt, Inside Karate's Master Series,
Inside Kung Fu Presents, Martial Arts Professional, Martial Arts Success, Kick
(Germany), Martial Talk and Centuron Negro (Spain) magazines. He has
also appeared on the cover of the July 1995 issue of Inside Kung Fu Present's
.
He was also a major contributor to the book, The Ultimate Martial Arts Question
and Answer Book,
by John Corcoran and John Graden.
In 2006, he wrote the most comprehensive book ever written on the Kajukenbo
system: Kajukenbo-The Original Mixed Martial Art.
As a result of his research and journalistic endeavors, John has gained a
reputation as a historian in the areas of kajukenbo and the Hawaiian styles of
kenpo. This reputation has spread to the internet, where his research material
has been used on many kajukenbo and kenpo websites.
His participation has also been sought out by some of martial arts discussion
forums on the internet. At this time he acts as a administrator of the Kajukenbo
Café ((www.kajukenbocafe.com/smf))
discussion forum, and a senior moderator at the Martial Talk forum (www.martialtalk.com
).
