OHANA MARTIAL ARTS ASSOCIATION
Helio Greca - Brazil
Helio Greca began his studies in Martial Arts in 1988 practicing Judo and actively participating in the state competitive circuit of the early ’90s. An unconditional martial arts enthusiast, he experimented with all forms of combat that arose in his path (even participating in a world Sumo championship!).
At that time he initiated his studies in Chinese arts such as Wing Chun and Northern Shaolin Kung Fu. Compulsively devouring all martial arts literature that fell into his hands, he often ran into one name: Ed Parker. Thus, his interest in the art of Kenpo Karate was born, an art completely unknown in Brazil at that pre-internet age. After watching the movie Perfect Weapon had his first visual contact with the art and was completely hooked by Kenpo. There was only one problem: there was no one teaching this system in Brazil.
When an injury caused the loss of one of his kidneys and became impossible to continue in competitive practice, he started dedicating himself to the self-defense aspects within the martial arts. Through this approach, he finally found an instructor who taught a system derived from American Kenpo. Once again he embraced the learning opportunity, graduating as a black belt in 1998.
Always dedicated to deepening his knowledge and with the goal of finally learning the art created by SGM Ed Parker, he migrated to American Kenpo in 1999. In order to fulfill this objective, he joined associations such as LTKKA from Master Larry Tatum, WKKA from Master Joe Palanzo, and American Kenpo International from Master Tony Cogliandro.
Thus, he became responsible for bringing the art to Brazil, founding the first national association of the sport in 2001, and maintaining the oldest Dojo and the oldest Kenpo website in operation in the country.
In 2015 he had the great honor of being accepted as a member of the Ohana Kenpo Karate Association by Mr. Rich Hale, finally finding his home and his definitive family within Kenpo Karate.
