CT082 Worth Every Minute with Don Sonney

CHOP TALK: Karate | Martial Arts | Okinawa | Japan

This week, long time karate practitioner Don Sonney joins the show.. Mr. Sonney started his karate career in 1964, training in Shotokan Karate in Gary, Pennsylvania under Artis Simmons, who was one of the top karate competitors of the era. He then went on to train in Shuri Ryu with, James McLain in his Cleveland dojo. Don Sonney competed against, worked out with some of the top karate men the time, including Dr. Mel Wise, Phil Koeppel, Robert Trias, and was a close friend of the head of Matsubayashi Shorin Ryu, Takayoshi Nagamine. Now, everyone thinks of Nagamine as an OKINAWAN martial artist, of course, but he actually lived and had dojo's right here in Ohio. Mr. Sonney also discusses what made the United States Karate Association such a unique and successful organization, and shares his thoughts on the changes that karate has gone through during his career.

Don Sonney's martial arts training led to join the Ohio Highway Patrol, him becoming the self defense instructor for their Academy, he was selected for the Ranger program (which was the pretecessor of the SWAT Team), he had an extensive undercover career working for the Highway Patrol, Secretary of State, and the FBI. We will get into his fascinating law enforcement career in next weeks episode, so make sure you check back in. Amazingly his first undercover assignment was at the Kent State riots, (which, as I record this on May 4th, 2020, was exactly 50 years ago today). He also worked on cases, and with people, that were depicted in the 2011 film Kill the Irishman starring Ray Stevenson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Val Kilmer, and Christopher Walken, and the book To Kill the Irishman by Rick Porrello

If you would like to know more about Don Sonny, you can contact him directly, on facebook , or you can reach out reach out through the Chop Talk Facebook page, or send an e-mail to [e-mail] and I will get you connected.