Charlie Wishon Becomes a Disciple

Master Chen Zhonghua accepted Charlie Wishon as a disciple on July 17, 2016.

On July 17, 2016, Master Chen Zhonghua accepted Charlie Wishon as his 201st disciple at the workshop held in Iowa City. Todd Elihu emceed the ceremony and many other disciples were present including Levi Sowers, John Upshaw, John Dahms, Brennan Toh, Kelvin Ho, Hugo Ramiro, Xavier Santiago, Jeff Clevenger, Bruce Schaub, Erwin Ramthun, and Chris Dusek. At the conclusion of the ceremony, Master Chen briefly spoke about the privileges, responsibilities, and ethics of being one of his disciples.

Charlie Wishon started practicing martial arts at the age of 11 in 1988. After practicing Taekwondo for 6 months, he stopped after realizing he could not use it to defend himself. In 1993, he started learning Jeet Kun Do from Steve Todd. A year and a half later, Steve started teaching the Willem Dethouars system of Kuntao Silat from Bapak Willem, and Modern Arnis Kombatan under the tutelage of Grandmaster Ernesto Apresas, Sr. In 1999, Steve acquired his master’s degree from Grandmaster Ernesto and would soon go on to create the system of the 5way method. Charlie adhered to the practices of Kombatan, while learning and teaching the 5way method. In 2005, Charlie acquired master’s degrees in the 5way method and Maju Bela Diri Pentjak Silat. Around this time, he also learned the Ying Lung Xing Tzu Kuntao of Laoshi Wayne Welsh. In 2009, he reached the level of Independent Master in the 5way method and Maju Bela Diri. In 2012, he became a full instructor of the Kapatiran Madirigma system of Grandmaster Shelly Millspaugh.

Also in 2012, Aaron Bartholomew introduced Charlie to the Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method. By 2013, Charlie was solely practicing the Practical Method. Charlie now teaches the Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method in Arkansas, USA.