Steve Doss: Showing Off Bruce Lee Moves in the Early-1970s Navy

By Herb Borkland

Among other distinctions, cardio kickboxing and Impact Fitness entrepreneur Steve Doss grew up down the street from kickboxing pioneer Jim Harrison and knew pre-fame Chuck Norris. He trained with Bill Wallace at Elvis Presley’s legendary co-owned Tennessee Karate Institute and, in Corpus Christie, learned from pioneer karate champion Pat Burleson.

Herb Borkland: Where did you grow up, and what did your dad do?

Steve Doss: I grew up in Kansas City. Dad was a business man.

HB: How did you first hear about martial arts?

SD: Jim Harrison lived next door. His school was across the street from the high school I went to. He ran two floors: one for judo, the other for karate. Sparring was a bunch of men beating each other up and bleeding. Harrison’s [style of] kickboxing was holding up your hands like a boxer and jumping around.

I was a little scrawny guy and I was scared to death, but I took some classes. I never saw Jim, but I took karate from Steve Mackey. I met Chuck Norris when he just got back to the States and competed in Jim’s first tournament.

HB: Turning point?

SD: I joined the Navy in 1975 because I thought they’d send me to Japan to learn karate. It was the heyday of Bruce Lee movies, and everybody wanted to learn martial arts. But nobody knew them — except me. In boot camp, I was using hand combinations and kicks.

I went from [training with] Jim Harrison to Bill Wallace. We were stationed outside Memphis, and I’d trade watches so I could go take classes at the Tennessee Karate Institute founded by Bill Wallace, Patrick Wrenn, Elvis Presley and Red West. I trained there from November ’75 until May ’76.

Later, while in the Navy, I was stationed in Corpus Christie and worked out with Pat Burleson and Demetrius “The Golden Greek” Havanas. I had won state championships and was the number-one brown belt in Texas. But, that first night with the Greek, I went back to being a peon. I got my black belt from Demetrius. He’s the reason I stayed in martial arts.

When he died, I opened my own first Austin, Texas, school in 1984.

I was the guy that introduced cardio kickboxing. I did about a thousand seminars in most every city. By the way, the inventor wasn’t me, and it wasn’t (Tae Bo creator) Billy Blanks, either. It was a friend’s wife; she called it “Karobics.”

Ever since Jhoon Rhee invented musical forms [in 1975], they used music to do karate moves. One day, I was on a commercial flight, thinking that I could do the same thing with kickboxing. I was talking to some women and they were fascinated. One girl said, “Call it cardio kickboxing.” Yes!

So, I started classes and we were the sensation of Austin — cover of the newspaper, different locations cropped up, lines out the door. I gave seminars, did VHS training tapes and a marketing manual. Big international fad!

HB: Future?

SD: Now I’m with World Kickboxing Champ Abel Villareal’s Karate Club. We do a 30-minute Impact Fitness workout, which is exactly what customers want, to tone and burn body mass.

Herb Borkland is a veteran black belt who can be contacted at [email protected]