Great Grandmaster Denis R. Decker

November 15, 1942 - December 20, 1997

Founder of Chi Ling Pai ® Gung Fu

Denis Decker was one of the most extraordinary martial artists of this past century. He was an exceptional martial arts genius who could crank out a form at an amazing speed that was just as beautiful to watch as it was deadly. He would perform movements that were aesthetic, powerful, and practical. And when you crossed hands with him, and he wanted to make a point, all you saw were stars.

Many martial artists who are good at kata or forms are not necessarily good at fighting. And many martial artists who are good at fighting are not necessarily good at doing forms. Master Decker was great at doing both, and much more. He was very capable of immediately shutting down professional kick boxers, traditional and non-traditional martial artists, and he would dominate them in split seconds. Master Decker called his unique brand of gung fu martial arts Chi Ling Pai ®.

Master Decker cross trained with many other martial arts masters and he taught many, many martial artists across the U.S.A. Master Decker had a unique way of communicating and teaching his martial arts. He had his own unique vocabulary and concepts for describing and teaching the internal martial arts. A great amount of knowledge and understanding in the martial arts came from this man.

POWER AND COMPASSION.
Master Decker was not only a great martial arts Master, he also had a heart of gold and was a great friend. He was a compassionate person who cared about other people and his relationships with them and he helped other people. In fact Master Decker usually taught others for free! The only expectation that he had was that you tried, that you were loyal to his gung fu family, practiced good behavior, and a medium priced dinner at a restaurant after class that all the students would pitch in to pay. Friendship and loyalty was very important to Master Decker.

As an example of this man's generosity, at one time a student who was relatively new to his school and in his younger years left his key locked inside his car. The tradition after class was to head down to the local restaurant in town, Maria's Italian Cuisine in Manasquan, NJ, and have a dinner while Denis would tell 'war stories'. These would be stories of his adventures in life and the people he had met, some quite fantastic. Some of these stories were exaggerated, but all was in fun and good humor and you could usually tell which stories were stretched and which were not.

Well, the time was probably around midnight and the bar was closing for the evening. The students would go outside the restaurant and continue their conversations with Master Decker. This young man soon realized he was locked out of his car and could not make the 35 minute drive home that evening. No locksmiths were available and it was sometime after midnight. This was also the era before cell phones and the internet.  So how did this story end?

Master Decker actually lent this young man his own car so he could drive home, retrieve his spare key, and drive all the way back to Manasquan to get into his own car.  That was more than an hour round trip. Although he could hit like a mule, Master Decker was compassionate and he had a heart of gold.

AN INSPIRATION FOR US ALL.
Einstein wrote that inspiration is more important that knowledge. That is quite evident when it came to Master Decker. Master Decker was very creative and he understood the Chinese Gung Fu basics extraordinarily well. So well in fact that he could make up a form on the spot and the people around him, even experienced teachers from other arts, could not tell that this was a new invention or arrangement of movement. They would believe it to be a traditional set or form.

Sometimes Master Decker would try to tell the other martial artists that he had created the form or pattern but the people would not believe him, demanding to know the “traditional lineage” or origin of the form or kata. So Master Decker would usually come up with some story to describe his new creation's history to avoid petty conflicts. He was that good.

AN EXTRAORDINARY TEACHER.  

After learning the basics of the system and having some experience in Chi Ling Pai®, a typical student’s encounter with Master Decker could go something like this: Master Decker would show some application of movements or a drill. The student would repeat the movements or drill with a partner or in the air by themselves. Then, Master Decker would observe and walk around the classroom. He would stop at one of the students and ask them to demonstrate the movement. The student would repeat the movements asking a question.

Master Decker would then answer the question by repeating the movements, but this time he would demonstrate the same technique or pattern in a slightly different way without making mention of the change to the student. The student would scratch their head because now things were somewhat different and ask what was done differently? Master Decker would usually utter something like, “Son, you were not paying attention”.

Again, Master Decker would repeat the same movements, but now done slightly different a third way this time. The student would again scratch their head and go back to practicing. The reason for that behavior was that Master Decker was trying to elevate the student's understanding from fixed patterns and movements to a creative, living expression of the martial arts.  Master Decker would usually state that the “advanced moves are just the basics done very well”.

SOME INFLUENCES OF MASTER DECKER.

JUDO.
Master Decker also held black belt ranks in Judo. He was a Judo Master having trained as a child in the art.

JUJUTSU.

Master Decker was a friend of Wally Jay, founder of Small Circle JuJitsu.

KARATE.
Master Decker was a high ranking black belt in the Tracey Kempo system and other styles of Karate.

PAI LUM KUNG FU (WHITE DRAGON).
Master Decker was a friend and student of Daniel K. Pai, an extraordinary Chinese Kung Fu and Okinawan Kempo Karate master. Master Decker was a high ranking master and leader in the Pai Lum Kung Fu system before he left to form his own brand of Kung Fu.

AIKIDO.
Master Decker held high black belt rank in Aikido.

SILAT.
Master Decker had studied with such notables as Willem de Thouars in the Indonesian fighting art.

KALI, ESCRIMA, ARNIS.
Master Decker was also trained in Arnis, the deadly Filipino art of weapons and hand fighting.  He knew and trained with Remy Presas, the founder of Modern Arnis, and others.

WEAPONS FIGHTING.
Besides the knife and stick, Master Decker was also well trained in the classical Chinese weapons such as the staff, spear, sword, butterfly knives, and hand axes. He also had training in Japanese sword fighting.

MORE.
Master Decker met, shared knowledge with, and cross trained with many other martial arts Masters over many years throughout much of the continental U.S.A. and also abroad in Japan while he served in the U.S. Military. There is too much of this to mention and there is much material about this on other Chi Ling Pai ® web sites. The author apologizes in advance if he has left anyone out in this web page.