Don Warrener
Don
Warrener began his karate training March 15, 1966, in Hamilton,
Ontario, Canada, under Benny Allen who also taught Wally Slocki,
Teddy Martin and Tony Faceti.
He
was promoted to shodan (1st degree black belt) in 1968 by Benny
Allen and the legendary Richard
Kim of San Francisco, California. He won the Canadian Championships
in 1968 and in 1971 won the Eastern Canadian Championships.
In 1973 he broke the “Guinness World Book of Records”
record for brick breaking when he broke 3,744 bricks in 4 hours
and 40 minutes.
In
1978 he was introduced by his then sensei, Richard Kim, to
Gogen “The Cat” Yamaguchi who asked him to represent the
Goju Kai in Canada. He refused as his loyalty remained with Richard
Kim. But he did return to Tokyo on several occasions for training
at the dojo of the “The Cat”.
During the late 1970s, he started the “Voice Of The Martial Arts Magazine”, and “Masters Publication” now run by Annette Hellingrath. He also started to develop a system of teaching large numbers of students and karate school marketing which eventually developed into over 9,000 students by the late 1980s, the opening of over 32 professional schools in Canada and the selling of 105 franchises.
He,
in fact, was the first person in the world to teach martial arts
business seminars.
In
1985 he began the lengthy process of restoring a national monument,
and with the aid of his students, restored the historic Hamilton
Custom House (20,000 sq. feet) which was originally built by Queen
Victoria. (Click
here to view a 3.4MB video clip of the Custom House.) He was
presented with the Heritage Award of Canada in 1991 for his efforts
and contributions by the Federal Government. The building
was scheduled to become a college for martial arts instructors but
due to circumstances beyond his control it was eventually turned
over to the Provincial Government as a museum, which it is today.
In
1993 he was asked to become the vice president of the World Karate
Organization and eventually held the largest International tournament
ever in Canada with over 27 countries and 1,200 participants, with
over 700 Black Belts alone.
He
has written well over 250 articles for virtually every magazine
in the world, including Italy, Germany, India, Australia,
USA, Sweden, etc. He has also written six books in total and
co-authored another six.
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In
1997 he started to compete again and won the European and
Pan American Championships in both forms and weapons forms in the
Masters Division of the WKO.
Then
in 1998 he made a radical move and moved to sunny California, where
he presently runs Rising Sun Productions with his partner Isaac
Florentine, a well known martial artist and Hollywood action film
director. Their library is now over 650 titles and they were
responsible for the release of Elvis Presley's pet karate project,
“The New Gladiators”, and “The Life and Legend of
Bob Wall”. They undoubtedly have the largest collection of
unseen historical martial arts footage in the world, including names
like Kano, Funakoshi, Elvis Presley, and Bruce Lee.
Mr.
Warrener is also the liaison for Jean
Claude Van Damme to the martial arts world and is responsible for the development
of his fan club, as well as assisting in creating opportunities
for Mr. Van Damme within the worldwide martial arts community.
As an example, he is responsible for the development of Mr. Van
Damme’s new chain of worldwide schools on a technical level,
and as an advisor for the martial arts business strategy of the
franchises. He is also a half owner of Mr. Van Damme’s
web site and his product line.
He
continues to teach seminars around the world and for his senior
students in Canada: Phil
McColl, Conroy
Copeland, Tosha Lord, Tom Burtnik, David
Turkoski and Vic
Granic. In England, for friends Jon Jepson and Jim
Wilson; in Brazil for Antonio Flavio Testa and Marco Ferreira;
and in Scotland for Robert Smith.
He is presently in the middle of writing the history of three of the top names in American martial arts: Richard Kim, Hidetaka Nishiyama and Joe Lewis, as well as working on a script for Jean Claude Van Damme’s all new Bloodsport.
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