Eric's Martial Arts Career


In 2009 Eric was inducted into the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame in Nashville Tennessee for the second time. He was also awarded with a, "Life Time Achievement Award" by the Hall of Fame. Reeve was first inducted into the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame in 2008 and he received the award for, "The 2008 outstanding Chuan Fa Instructor of the Year."

Eric began his martial arts training in boxing with his father, later he studied basic Judo at the Belleville Judo Club in Illinois and finally trained in Chuan Fa Combat Martial Arts under world famous self defense instructor/martial artist Bruce K. Siddle. Siddle was five years older when Eric was introduced to him by his older brother Bruce Carr who was a brown belt under Siddle. Bruce Siddle was just out of high school when Eric and about twelve other kids began training under him. Mr. Siddle combined his boxing, Shorinryu, Tae Kwon Do, Jeet Kun Do, Aikido and Shotokan training into his own street fighting art naming it simply Chuan Fa (Way of the fist or Fist of Dharma). He named his school, "The Chuan Fa Academy of Martial Arts and Self Defense" and the school was located anywhere the group could work out, Bruce's home, my parent's garage, apartments etc.

The beauty of the system was two fold, first the students were taught strictly street fighting techniques, second the art catered to the student's strengths and simply bypassed the student's weaknesses. His fighting system by combining all the best fighting techniques from each of the arts he has studied gives the student a huge advantage by supplying a wide arsenal of techniques for every situation. We had the advantage of youth in this original group of students and Bruce was able to develop his now famous techniques through trial and error. There were no children in these early classes and we tested each other's skills, constantly pushing the envelope of both endurance/fighting techniques.

Bruce's teaching techniques were unorthodox to say the least! He would stand at the end of a long hallway and shoot at students with a BB gun while the student ducked, dogged and rolled until he disarmed his attacker. Bruce would arm every student in the class with staffs and then we would go out in the woods to hunt down Bruce hiding among the underbrush. Bruce Siddle would attack us one-by-one in total darkness until he had disarmed every student. Mr. Siddle would have students jump from second story balconies to teach us how to tuck and roll silently without injuring ourselves. Very often Master Siddle would be blindfolded while every student would surround him. He would give the signal and all twelve students would attack him, in less then two minutes every student would be on the ground and he would be the only one left standing in the middle of the room.

In the late seventies our school began to enter combat tournaments and we began to experience success in competing against other schools and systems. Top winners among the point tournaments were Sifu David Seib, his Brother Brown Belt Ronnie Seib and myself. In the early eighties we began to drift apart and I started teaching for the Bi-County YMCA. I decided to stop competing in point tournaments and try my luck at kickboxing. Several times I ran into fellow martial artist Ron Seib as he entered some of the same tournaments (thankfully we were different weight classes). My very first kickboxing full contact tournament was at Maryville College in St. Louis and after fighting twice I took home my very first win and a check for $500. My next big fight was at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel and since I had no coach, couldn't afford a ring man, I took along my good buddy Scott Frillman and together we won three fights taking home a first place check for $850.

My semi-professional kick boxing record was 11-1 all in one year. One day I opened one of the Karate magazines and it ranked me third in the Midwest in semi-professional kickboxing, in the heavyweight division. The one tournament I lost started out badly when I entered the Kansas City Open Kickboxing Championships. My opponent was a huge black guy who entered the ring, took off his GI top and rippled with huge muscles. Before the fight he lined up a brick on top of two other bricks and drove his fist into the stack crushing the top brick, and then he looked over at me and grinned! I ran around the ring for the first round, kicked him in the groin twice in the second round (it only served to make him angry) and he broke my nose/both sinus cavities in the third round! This ended for all time my kick boxing ambitions.

It was around this time I opened my own school and began teaching kids the art of Chuan Fa. I never turned away any child under the age of sixteen for their inability to pay for their lessons. To this very day at my present school I continue to teach mostly poor rural kids whom might never of had the opportunity to study the martial arts without out my, "No child turned away policy."

My final, "Old War Story" is that after being out of tournaments and never being in street fights anymore, I decided to test my martial arts skills to the max. I went to East St. Louis Illinois and took a job as a bouncer at the all black nightclub, "Jam City." I worked the front door for three months and I was such a novelty (being the only white bouncer in East St. Louis) that other bouncers from the other clubs would come to get me to show off in their clubs (Kind of like their pet monkey or something). Although I did get into a few situations, my plan to test my skills backfired, everyone assumed any white boy crazy enough or mean enough to work down there is someone they just weren't going to mess with!