About Us

    My name is Chris "Norm" Thompson.  Originally I started training in the martial arts back in early 1990.  During the first couple of months there I earned the nickname 'Norm' for the way I trained.  It's a name I've had ever since.  One time when I switched styles under a different teacher, I started the classes with my real name.  Within two weeks time, the name 'Norm' was back.  It's to the point now where a lot of the people that know me in the martial arts community don't even know what my real name is.  Personally I don't have a problem with it, but sometimes it can confuse people a little. 

    As for my training in the martial arts, I originally started taking Okinawan Go-Ju Ryu Karate back in March of 1990 under Sensei James Coker.  After 12 years I had attained the rank of a 3rd degree black belt in Okinawan Karate and a 2nd degree black belt in Okinawan Kobudo (weapons) being certified in the Kobudo under Master Frank Van Lentin. 

    During the eleventh year of training in the Okinawan Karate, I also cross trained with my current teacher in Jeet Kune Do, Sifu Eric Winfree.  I found that the JKD (Jeet Kune Do) method was more along the lines of how I wanted to train and more importantly it was geared towards the reality of how fights actually occurred on the street.  During the first year that I was with Sifu Eric, I was exposed to the Filipino Martial Art of Kali.  Since I always had an affinity for weapons, at first I thought that this was just another weapons system.  I was very happily surprised to see that Kali is much more than that.  It is such a vast and comprehensive system, that I knew I could train in this for the rest of my days and never learn all that it had to offer. 

    After several years, I began training directly under Sifu Eric's instructor Guro Kevin Seaman.

Since that time I have earned my Apprentice Instructorship (2nd level instructor) and the title of Guro in the Filipino Martial Art of Kali.

I now also teach the Filipino Martial Art class at Cornell University.

Contact Me:

You can use the following link to contact me with any questions or comments that you may have. 

chris@empiretrainingblades.com

Phone:  (315) 288-0075