GMG's Personal Development Story!

GMG’s Personal Development Story!
Join us as Grandmaster Al Garza takes us on the journey of how he got his start in the martial arts, business ownership, and personal development training over the past 50 years. This was so much fun to shoot. We hope you enjoy it!
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[@ShorePatrol762]

I’m Zach Harris, and my older brother is Frankie Knight. Frankie was one of G.M. Garza’s first students as I believe he began at “Al Garza’s American Karate Club” in the late 70’s, maybe even about ‘76 or not too far off it. He was born in ‘68 and had to take TKD going into Jr. high at Dunbar and McAdam’s Jr. high and Dickinson was a rough town. I began training at that old Blue metal building on Holly and it was huge! The training room had three large full sized match rings and then there was a conditioning room with short and full heavy bags, speed bags, weights, weapons hanging everywhere. In the front was a large merchandise room where you could buy pads, gi’s, those old karate jeans by Chuck Norris. My parents like G.M. Garza very much. He was VERY strict on pupils and pushed “MIGHT FOR RIGHT” meaning if he heard you used his teachings outside of self defense or the defense of someone else in school for example, it could give his business a bad name in a small town. You were punished, or even suspended from training. If you got into a fight in school or out of school, you had to sit down with him and tell him bit by bit how the fight unfolded. For him it was crucial that you could not walk away without risking getting hurt turning your back but, he did not encourage his students to run in fear from anyone! You stood your ground. He didn’t want no punks either! He was a great mentor for so many boys and a few girls. TKD I learned from him gave me confidence for a chubby, red headed freckle faced kid with glasses well into adult hood. I was a student there from about 1981-1985/86 or so, my parents had divorced and mom couldn’t afford training for me anymore then we moved to Seabrook so I lost touch with training. I continued trying to keep up stretches and kata on my own and in Seabrook there was a huge Vietnamese population that kids had been taught things too. Being the new kid from Dickinson moving in and being bullied in Jr. high, I was fortunate to have Al as my teacher in those early elementary years. In 1986 my brother Frankie joined the ARMY and took karate to Monterrey, CA, then the invasion of Panama in 1989. Al Garza was a stand in father to so many boys in Dickinson back in the 70’s and 80’s who had no fathers at home! Great man!

[@ChachoGSX]

I remember the school on Holly.