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Mr. Shawn Knight is the President of the American Institute of Kenpo; He is also the Director of Operations for the International Martial Arts Council. He is ranked a 5th Degree Black Belt in Ed Parker’s American Kenpo, a 6th Degree Black Belt by the Combat Martial Art Practitioners Association, and is currently completing the UBBT with Tom Callos. Mr. Knight is a Professor of American Kenpo and Kickboxing at Pima College and was inducted into the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame in February of 2006. Mr. Knight and his wife Rebecca own and operate the AIK Headquarters School in Tucson Arizona. Mr. Knight travels across the country teaching and serving the American Institute of Kenpo as well as the International Martial Arts Council. Mr. Knight’s greatest rewards in the art are those felt while in the service of his fellow Black Belts. There is no doubt that Mr. Knight will be found in the service of his students and friends “Until the Last Day”.
Shawn David Knight was born on September 28, 1973 in Boulder Colorado to his father David and mother Pamela; he has two sisters – Karen and Becky, both of whom were older and from his parents’ previous marriages While Mr. Knight was still very young, his parents drifted apart and eventually went their separate ways. Shortly afterward, his father David suffered what would be the first in a series of heart attacks that would eventually claim his life. Having been so young, very few memories remain from that period in his life. The one moment that has stuck with him through to adulthood was being told by his sisters that his father was near death. Being naïve and young, Shawn chose to find out for himself if this was so. Face to face, and with a child’s quiet directness, he simply asked: “Daddy, are you going to die?” His father replied with tears in his eyes, “No son, I’m going to be just fine”. That was the last memory he would have of his father; he was five years old.
Shortly thereafter, Shawn Knight’s life would begin a rapid, downward spiral. His mother became involved in a string of abusive and unhealthy relationships that would throw her life, as well as the lives of her children, into a years long cycle of turmoil and uncertainty.
 A brutal cycle of violence, drugs and instability would permeate the remainder of Mr. Knight’s early childhood. For good or ill, with that instability came frequent and sudden changes of address. One such change would bring Shawn to Tucson Arizona. Fortunately, with that move came the first in a series of positive, stabilizing influences that entered his life around middle school. The uncertainty and instability in his life was mitigated in large part, to the teaching of his grandfather and mentor, Earl Brown, who Shawn called Papa.
During his sophomore year of high school, Mr. Knight experienced yet another traumatic event that would shape his young life. While visiting his girlfriend in the parking lot of the rival high school she attended, he sustained an injury during an attack that nearly caused him to lose his left eye. This incident shook Shawn to his foundation. After a childhood of being controlled, intimidated and abused he found those feelings of helplessness had returned to him. The fractured orbit and various other injuries took time to heal. When they did, Mr. Knight made a decision to enroll in classes at the American Kenpo Karate Academy’s 22nd street school in Tucson. From the moment he set foot on the mat, Kenpo had Mr. Knight in its grip; he knew that he would not only become a Black Belt but had found something that he would spend the rest of his life doing if he could. It became the discipline and stability he so desperately craved – and was missing from his childhood. Almost immediately Shawn’s life changed, in every way, for the better. His focus improved as well as his ability to quiet the demons from his past.
It was at AKKA on 22nd that I had first met Mr. Knight. It was immediately evident that he was fascinated with the art and trained like it. But anyone who has spent any time in a dojo of any kind can attest to the fact that there are scores of beginner students who come into the school the same way, only to eventually have the passion fade with the newness of it all, and eventually move on. What separated Mr. Knight from all of those more transient students was the completeness with which he let it permeate his life. From the near daily attendance to the sparring and conditioning classes at the school, to the “shrine” to Kenpo that he had built in his apartment, Mr. Knight had found a home in the school, and the school benefited every bit as much as he did. He brought a passion and enthusiasm to his role as a student, which he would soon bring to his role as a teacher.
Mr. Knight began teaching within a year of his enrollment, then assisting in the management of the school shortly after. After spending the next two years training and attending a community college in Tucson, Mr. Knight was approached by Master William Packer, the now late head of the American Kenpo Karate Academy, with an opportunity: A school in Pueblo, Co was without a manager, and the young, freshly minted Black Belt was being tapped by Master Packer to fill the role. The opportunity was jumped on by Shawn who within a couple of weeks landed in Pueblo ready to “make his bones” and show his worth to the organization, he was 20 years old. Being so young presented problems in “his” new school, but those obstacles were overcome on the mat and seldom reoccurred. Shawn owned and managed the Pueblo School for the next five years (1994-1999). This is a time he looks back on with fondness and mentions regularly many of those he had the privilege to teach in those days: Santiago Barela, Jacob Rhodes, John Rawlings, Chris Jensen, Rob Graff, VallieRae & Norma Mead, Marc Diamond, Ben Johnson, the late Keith Simons, Matt Miller, Eric Segall, Stan Moore, Jeff Lohse, Paul Livengood, and many others.
Following a series of personal and professional difficulties, he sold his school in Pueblo and moved back to Tucson returning to teach in the school where his training began. Shortly after returning to Tucson, he took a job working for the department of corrections and during this 12 month period he trained a bit less than he would have liked, teaching only part time.
Mr. Knight recalls his decision to make his stay at the Arizona Department of Corrections a short one:
“Partly due to my training and partly due to my belief that it would be the “bad boy” thing to do, I volunteered to work with maximum security inmates. During this time I had several opportunities to test my Kenpo. Unfortunately … a fellow officer was stabbed and nearly killed; I was able to disarm [the inmate] without personal injury, although not in the “Perfect Weapon” fashion… Shortly after that experience I decided to teach full time again.”
Mr. Knight’s second marriage blessed him with the opportunity to adopt a son, Louis. Louis was born on June 22, 1997 and he was adopted by Shawn on April 30, 2001. The importance of Louis in Shawn’s life cannot be overstated. Louis is called “little Mr. Knight” in the studio but he prefers to call himself “the future owner”. It is moving to see the immense love that Shawn has for Louis and the relationship that they share together. Although Shawn and Louis’ mother are no longer together, they maintain a friendship and share time with Louis.
In September 2001, Mr. Knight opened the Broadway School in Tucson, whose day to day operations are deftly overseen by his wife, partner and senior student, Rebecca. It is Mrs. Knight’s seemingly endless supply of energy and enthusiasm that is the engine that drives the school forward, under Mr. Knight’s steerage and guidance. It is in Rebecca, that Shawn has found not only a partner in his life and business, but an equal in passion and deep seeded love for the art.
Despite the post 9/11 economic downturn in late 2001 and 2002, Mr. Knight willed and squeezed a slow, steady growth out of an unruly and seemingly resistant business. He looks back of the challenges of that period:
“A month before the grand opening, a portion of my planned financing fell through. I ended up sort of over extending myself financially. I often say that I planned the school around the “If you build it they will come” concept. Well, I built it and at first they didn’t. There were months where it was two or three new students coming through the doors. It was certainly not as it was planned to be.”
 It was here that I came to renew my own training under the tutelage of my long-time friend. I was amazed by what I had seen develop within Mr. Knight since the time I had trained with him so many years before. Still there was the trademark passion for the art, but what had developed to compliment it was a leadership that drew students and former students to a brand new school that had neither a visible location nor any particular advertising budget to speak of. I saw very quickly that my experience of returning after a training hiatus was not a unique one, as faces that we had known over the years began to emerge from out of nowhere to train with Mr. Knight.
This school would become the place where the American Institute of Kenpo as well as the International Martial arts Council was founded. Mr. Knight had seen through personal experience, what the norm was in regard to how martial arts organizations ran. He decided that there was a better way to run things that it was essential to provide continual and sincere service to those who sought to be affiliated. It was with this in mind that Shawn met with Andrew Pilch for breakfast and AIK was born. In two short years AIK has quadrupled its membership and IMAC is 40 schools strong. Mr. Knight continues to live a life of dedication to his students and his art, creating an environment of growth and learning with an eye on creating a roadmap for others to hopefully find the value from Kenpo that he himself has:
“I have logged thousands of hours on the deck and countless hours in the council of my students, Black Belts and friends in the art. I teach because I feel that in the service of my students, my Black Belts and my friends in the art I have a unique opportunity to guide and strengthen those in need of direction. To give them what Kenpo has given me is my highest goal and my lifelong wish.”
-Shawn Knight
 As someone who has likely used more than my share of those “countless hours” Mr. Knight has logged, I can safely say that the Kenpo community is better off having the passion and vision that Shawn Knight has brought, and continues to bring, to the art.
- Vincent Salvatore III (3rd Degree Black Belt & Lifetime Student)
 Andrew Pilch is the Vice President and Co-Founder of the American Institute of Kenpo. He heads up the AIK Kickboxing Team and trains under Mike Winkeljohn who has produced many top MMA Fighters. Mr. Pilch serves as President of the International Martial Arts Council and was inducted into the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame in February of 2007. In addition to all of his professional duties, Mr. Pilch and his wife Daylene home school their three children. Mr. Pilch is a tremendous asset to AIK, IMAC, and his students alike. His passion to serve is legendary among all that know him and he is a credit to his lineage.
Andrew Pilch was born 1977 in Charlottesville, Virginia. In 1980, at the age of three, his family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. In those early years it became apparent that though he was a good child he was unskilled at communicating with other children. Perhaps this was due to the difference in the culture and mannerisms on the east coast in comparison to his new home. Whatever the reason it was rare that he had more than one or two friends at any given time as he grew up.
In elementary school Andrew’s parents became concerned about his underdeveloped social skills so they signed him up for soccer in an attempt to help him make friends. His father even volunteered to coach the team. Unfortunately for both him and his father Andrew had no natural talent. In fact, it became readily apparent that he didn’t have coordination or motivation to play soccer either. There is still an ongoing debate between his father and him as to who was more traumatized by this experience.
Thinking that perhaps soccer just wasn’t his sport Andrew’s parents decided to sign him up for baseball. Somehow he ended up on a team that became an all-star team. Unfortunately for him this only served to highlight his complete and utter lack of dexterity, strength, endurance, focus, and control of his body in every way imaginable. When it was his turn to bat it was common to hear his teammates sigh because they knew he would strike out. After a season of sitting in the outfield and dreading every game Andrew was sure that Baseball was not the sport for him.
During this time Andrew’s parents also noticed that he was really struggling with his school work. He was falling behind in every subject and his reading skills were nonexistent. After running him through test after test he was diagnosed with dyslexia, a learning disability. Due to this disability and his inability to understand what his classmates were learning Andrew found it harder and harder to communicate with the children around him. Even though he was good at avoiding fights he often times found him the target of his classmates ridicule.
Tension in the household between his parents didn’t help Andrew with his mounting problems. Shortly before his transition to middle school his parents separated and divorced. It was at this time that Andrew’s mother told him that he had to choose another sport. Seeking a sport that would benefit Andrew his mother talked to some of the other parents in their neighborhood. It was at this time that a parent from the soccer team that he had played on recommended Karate. Unfortunately Andrew had tried an after school Tae Kwon Do class the year before and didn’t last a month. Playing another sport was the last thing that he wanted to do but with the choices presented he chose Kenpo Karate. His dislike of failing others was a major component in that chose, and he figured his lack of skill and ability would only really affect him in a sport like Karate. At the age of nine in 1986 Andrew Pilch inadvertently merged his life’s journey with Kenpo.
 Andrew was enrolled in the American Kenpo Karate Academy (AKKA) run by Mike Winkeljohn. Over the next few years, like most youth, he had the multiple instances when he wanted to stop training. His mom always found a reason that he couldn’t. She would tell him that he had to wait until he tested for his next belt or that their contract wasn’t up for a few more months and he had to keep training until then. At the time this would frustrate him. Now days he jokes about how his mom just liked to watch Scott Marlowe, one of Mr. Winkeljohn’s senior instructors, torture and harass him in class. In hind sight he wouldn’t change a thing. Andrew is extremely grateful for the tactics his mother employed, devious as they may have been.
During his middle school years Andrew underwent many changes. He overcame many of the challenges he was facing due to his dyslexia. Things he just couldn’t understand suddenly were making sense. By the time he finished middle school he was reading at a college level and excelling in many of his classes. Looking back he credits his experience in the Martial Arts to the turnaround in his academics.
In addition, to developing his scholastic skills his physical prowess underwent a complete change as well. The weak and uncoordinated child was quickly fading into the past. By the end of middle school, he was able to compete at most sports at a decent level of proficiency. Though he developed skills needed to be competitive in other sports Martial Arts was always his primary focus.
During this time of his life Andrew spent much of his time with a Rick Crouse a good friend and his parents. Much of his work ethic was developed by observing how they interacted as a family and how they ran their business. Rick was always a few belts ahead of him and Andrew was always striving to equal the skills that seemed to come to Rick so easily. When Rick started attending Kickboxing classes shortly before they began high School it was only natural for Andrew to do so as well. Kickboxing was not a natural skill for Andrew but he had learned from his experience in the Martial Arts that if he applied his self and kept working at it he could develop the skills he needed.
Around this time Andrew also began teaching. He fondly remembers one of the first times that Mr. Winkeljohn had him run a class. Mr. Winkeljohn was in a rush and told him that he needed him to start a class while he made a few calls in the office. After giving Andrew brief instructions on how he wanted the class to be bowed in Mr. Winkeljohn stepped into his office and shut the door. Andrew jokes about hearing five or six locks slam into place. He lined the class up and told them that Mr. Winkeljohn had asked him to start the class while he was making a call or two but not to worry because he would be out in just a second. As warm ups finished the door to the office was still closed so Andrew assured the class that Mr. Winkeljohn would only be a moment or two more and got them started kicking and punching pads. Again when that was completed the door had not budged. Starting to feel like he was on the receiving end of a big joke did the only thing he could think of, he reassured the class that he was sure that Mr. Winkeljohn would definitely be out any moment. The whole class went that way and finished with Andrew bowing them out.
During his last year or two of high school Andrew began training in the ground fighting arts in addition to the Kenpo and Kickboxing. Though they were all distinct in their own ways Andrew found that they all had similar undertones that linked them through the application of physics, concepts, and principles.
 In June of 1995 Andrew Pilch earned his senior 1st degree black belt training under Mike Winkeljohn. After taking half a year of college Andrew came to the realization that he wanted to spend his life sharing everything he had learned in the Martial Arts. With the support of his instructor he started learning how to run a school. In the summer 1997 Andrew married his high school sweetheart. In December of 1997, Andrew Pilch earned his senior 2nd degree black belt training under Mike Winkeljohn.
A year later Andrew was offered the chance to have his own school. The catch was that the school was in Tucson, Arizona and it was failing. If he took the offer he would have four months to salvage the school and turn it around or it would close doors. In return, the owner offered to give Andrew half ownership in the school. Without a penny to their name Andrew and his wife packed their bags and made the move.
It was late 1998, when Andrew and his wife arrived in Tucson. The school was in far worse shape than he was led to believe. Andrew applied the lessons he had learned from his early days in Kenpo. Heading the guidance and recommendations of Mr. Winkeljohn and dug in his heels and brought the school around.
Unfortunately, the offer to give half ownership of the school to Andrew was done on a verbal agreement and being young and inexperienced in the business world he did not get the offer in writing. When the school started being profitable the owner was no longer willing to give up any of the ownership.
In spite of the broken agreement Andrew continued to work hard and grow the school. During the next several years Andrew also expanded his realm of experience to full contact competitions. During that time in his life Andrew competed in fifteen full contact MMA and Kickboxing competitions. As his family expanded Andrews ability to train properly for competitions was not adequate for him to continue competing competitively so he has shifted his focus in that area to training others for competition.
In 2000, Andrew’s wife delivered their first baby boy. At that time it became more important to Andrew to be more than just a school manager. Andrews’s wife went to school and got a degree in medical coding in an attempt to save enough money to buy the school however with a new child the funds that were needed were never quite available.
In June of 2000, Andrew Pilch earned his senior 3rd degree black belt training under Mike Winkeljohn. In 2002, with a second child on the way, Mr. Winkeljohn provided the small miracle that Andrew and his family needed. He bought out the school owner and arranged for Andrew to make payments on the school. Once all the payments were made in 2005 Mr. Winkeljohn turned the school over to Andrew.
In early 2000, another AKKA school was moved less than two miles away from Andrew’s school without proper notification or organizational approval. After several discussions with the president of AKKA it was mutually agreed that it would be best for all parties involved if Andrew went his own way as his instructor, Mr. Winkeljohn, had done about year and a half prior.
Not sure what he wanted to teach or how, Andrew gave his instructors and students the option to transfer to the AKKA School that was now right down the street. Only two or three decided to make that transfer. Everyone else put their complete trust in Andrew. Knowing that he would only have a few months at best to effect a complete curriculum transformation he contacted Shawn Knight. Mr. Knight was running an AKKA school in Tucson as well. Andrew also knew that he had a large library and reference materials from many of the Kenpo organizations in the Unites States.
Shawn Knight wanted to meet over breakfast to share what he knew about the world of Kenpo. During that meeting Shawn stated that he was having personal problems with AKKA and that he was interested in working with Andrew to reorganize. Not really knowing much about Mr. Knight Andrew was wary at first but as time went on he came to know Mr. Knight and who he was. Andrew has never regretted the decision to work with him. Shawn Knight and his family had become more than a business partner, he became a trusted friend.
The next month was spent trying to decide if they would join another organization or build their own. Between them they had almost four decades of experience in the Martial Arts to draw on. Looking at all the available information and applying their own experience they decided to build their own organization. In late 2005, the American Institute of Kenpo (AIK) was founded.
 While researching the different branches of Kenpo they decided their students would benefit most from learning Ed Parkers Kenpo. This presented the first of many challenges they had to overcome because AKKA taught Tracy Kenpo. This meant they would have to re-train their entire staff and bring all the advance belts up to speed in a relatively short period of time. Andrew and Mr. Knight used the similarities between the two branches to bridge the gap and within sixteen months they had effected a complete transition for the entire student body. It was during this time of transition that Pilch’s added a third child to their family.
In 2006, Scott French a school owner in El Paso, Texas saw the value in the teaching methods the AIK used and became the first of many schools to join Andrew Pilch and Shawn Knight. It is Andrew’s goal to provide a stable and effective system of teaching that will serve and benefit the American Institute of Kenpo’s members beyond his days. Andrew Pilch has dedicated his life to AIK and will serve until the last day.
In March of 2007 Andrew Pilch was recognized as a senior 4th degree black belt by many senior belts. Included among them were his mentor and instructor for over two decades Mike Winkeljohn, and his new friend and respected colleague Ed Parker Jr.
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