Athletes - Robert Trias

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	Athletes - Robert Trias

Robert A. Trias (1923 - 1989), known by some as "the Father of Karate in America," founded the first commercial karate school in the United States. He also developed Shuri-ryu karate, an eclectic style with roots in the Okinawan Shuri-te tradition.

While serving in the United States Navy during World War II, Robert Trias was stationed in the Solomon Islands. There he met Tung Gee Hsing, a Chinese missionary of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, who offered to teach Trias some martial arts in exchange for lessons in American boxing. Trias, who was the Navy's middleweight boxing champion at the time, squared off in the ring against Hsing to teach the old man a lesson for pestering him. But it was the old man that taught Trias a lesson who found himself unable to land a single punch against Hsing. Hsing taught Trias some Hsing-I as well as some Okinawan Shuri-Te karate, which Hsing had learned from Choki Motobu on Okinawa. Trias received his first degree black belt on July 10, 1943.

Later Trias was transferred to Singapore, where he studied with Hoy Yuan Ping. Hoy Yuan Ping's instructor was Hashinosuka Fukuda, of the Tenshin Shinjo School of Kempo ju-jitsu in Japan. He also studied Goju Ryu from Gogen Yamaguchi in Japan and from Roy Oshiro in the United States. He also held 6th dan black belt rank in Kodokan Judo studying under Yaju Yamada in California. He also studied the Yawara stick under Frank Matsuyama. In later years, Trias became a student of Yasuhiro Konishi and Makoto Gima. Trias was promoted by Konishi to 9th dan in 1964. Gima promoted Trias to 10th dan in 1983.

When Trias left the Navy in 1945, he began teaching martial arts in his backyard. Later, in 1946, he formed the first commercial karate school in the United States. The school was in Phoenix, Arizona, where Trias also served as an officer of the Arizona State Highway Patrol for 18 years utilizing his self-defense knowledge. In 1948, he founded the United States Karate Association (USKA). The USKA networked returning U.S. service men who had learned martial arts in World War II and later, the Korean War. Trias became the United States' liaison with Korea, Japan, China, and Okinawa for many years as a karate pioneer. In 1955, he promoted the first karate tournament and was instrumental in promoting the first world karate tournament in 1963 in Chicago, IL. His rules for tournmanet competition are still used today with slight variation.

He is the author of The Hand is My Sword, Karate is My Life, The Methods of Shuri-ryu, The Pinnacle of Karate, and The Supreme Way.

Trias' ecclectic style was known at various times as Shorei Goju Ryu, Shorei-ryu, and Shuri-ryu. , the , and all trace their roots to Trias and his USKA.

Trias died in 1989 of cancer leaving the Shuri-Ryu system to his daughter Dr. Roberta Trias-Kelley. In addition to Trias-Kelley, Trias designated Chief Instructors to propagate Shuri-Ryu: John Pachivas, Robert Bowles, Pete Rabino, Dirk Mosig, Ridgley Abele, Michael Awad, and Dale Benson.

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Athletes - Robert Trias

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