Karyn Turner (born 1946) is an American martial arts expert who has been variously known as “The Queen of Kata”,"Karyn Turner: Kung Fu's Queen of Kata and Kumite", Inside Kung Fu 4(7):30-33, September 1977. “First Lady of Kung Fu”,“Woman of the Year”, Black Belt 29(8):61, August 1991. and “The Mother of U.S. Kickboxing”.Gregory, Jane: "The lady is a champ: Karyn Turner is the mother of U.S. kickboxing", Chicago Sun-Times, September 4, 1988. Named as the “most outstanding woman in the history of martial arts” by

Black Belt Magazine ''Black Belt'' is an American magazine covering martial arts and combat sports. The magazine is based in Hollywood, California, and is one of the oldest titles dedicated to martial arts in the United States. History and profile The magazine was ...

in 1978, she was the first woman to take a double victory in both fighting (

kumite Kumite (, literally "grappling hands") is one of the three main sections of karate training, along with kata and kihon. Kumite is the part of karate in which a person trains against an adversary. Kumite can be used to develop a particular tec ...

) and form (

kata ''Kata'' is a Japanese word ( 型 or 形) meaning "form". It refers to a detailed choreographed pattern of martial arts movements. It can also be reviewed within groups and in unison when training. It is practiced in Japanese martial arts ...

) in the International Women’s Karate Championship, a feat she accomplished in 1976. She was the first woman to enter men's divisions at the World Championships in kata and weapons (steel whip), and to become World Champion in the men's division in both. At the peak of her career in 1977, she entered twenty-three tournaments and swept three divisions, including men’s weapons kata. In 1990, Turner was the first woman in history to be nominated into the Black Belt Hall of Fame as “Competitor of the Year”, the same year she was selected by Black Belt Magazine as their “Woman of the Year”. In 2009, she was inducted into the

Martial Arts History Museum The Martial Arts History Museum is a museum in America devoted to the history of martial arts located in Glendale, California. It was created as an educational facility teaching young people and visitors about art, culture and tradition and h ...

“Hall of Fame”. Born in

Lyons, Kansas Lyons is a city in and the county seat of Rice County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 3,611. History For millennia, the land now known as Kansas was inhabited by Native Americans. Although Co ...

, Turner graduated from Westminster High School in

Westminster, Colorado The City of Westminster is a home rule municipality located in Adams and Jefferson counties, Colorado, United States. The city population was 116,317 at the 2020 United States census with 71,240 residing in Adams County and 45,077 residing i ...

in 1963. At the age of 19, she began training in

tae kwon do Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In a ...

, before switching to

kung fu Chinese martial arts, commonly referred to with umbrella terms Kung fu (term), kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (sport), wushu (), are Styles of Chinese martial arts, multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater Ch ...

, specifically the wun hop kune do technique taught by Al and Malia Dacascos. She began competing in official events in 1975 and retired from formal competition in 1979, at which point she formed the “Hard Knocks” troupe demonstration team, which performed for three years. Upon her retirement from competition, she also entered the field of promoting, starting her own promotional firm, Superfights, Inc. in 1979. As President of Superfights, Inc., and serving on the executive board of the

Professional Karate Association The Professional Karate Association (PKA), later Professional Karate & Kickboxing Association, and now effective from March 1, 2022 PKA Worldwide was originally a martial arts sanctioning organization, now transformed into a martial arts promotio ...

(PKA), Turner was an innovator in bringing mixed martial arts to cable television, promoting kickboxing’s first pay-per-view event, Superfights, on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

in 1982, and securing kickboxing’s first major sponsor with the Adolph Coors Brewing Company in that same year. Eventually, frustrated with the small percentage of TV and promotion revenue’s shared with promoters and fighters, Turner led a revolt by ex-PKA promoters to found a new association and to wrest control of the sport away from the PKA. The nascent Promoter’s Association, started in 1985 in Denver, became the

International Sport Karate Association The ISKA (originally International Sport Karate Association, later also called the International Sport Kickboxing Association) is international bodies regulating sport karate and kickboxing matches. It is based in the United States. It was es ...

, and Turner served as its first Commissioner.Van Winkle, Robert, “Rebel kick-boxing promoters get control, TV deal to boot”, The Denver Post, July 26, 1987. Turner retired from active promotion in 1991. Turner published “Secrets of Championship Karate” with Mark Van Schuyver in 1991.

References

External links

Inside Kung Fu cover
September 1977, Vol 4, No. 7.
Secrets of Championship Karate
by Karyn Turner and Mark Van Schuyver (Google Books link) {{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Karyn American female karateka American female taekwondo practitioners American wushu practitioners 1946 births Living people People from Lyons, Kansas 21st-century American women 20th-century American sportswomen