Instructors: Doug Jepperson
Sensei
Doug Jepperson, 6th Dan
Head Instructor, Jepperson Karate Dojos, Park City and Sandy, Utah
Board of Directors of WUKF USA
Director, USA Wado
Member Wado Kai
Sensei Jepperson began teaching karate in 1980, for his first instructor, Toshio Osaka; then in 1986 founded his own school in Nashville,Tennessee. In in 1990 he founded a school in Sandy, Utah and went on to expand his program in Park City in 2005.
His passion for teaching karate comes from a love of people and a desire to improve their lives through a continuing development of personal confidence in what “they” can accomplish. When it comes to his students, “I try to remember my first loyalty is to my students, before anyone else.”
Sensei Jepperson has also taught AAU Wrestling, Women’s Self Defense in Sandy, Utah and was a Women’s Consultant for the “Battered Women’s” Shelter. He has been involved with the US Army Special Forces at Dugway, Utah, the Tennessee Drug Enforcement Agency, the Salt Lake Police Academy under Toshio Osaka in addition to weapons training.
Sensei Jepperson began his karate training in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1966 under Ed Parker, founder of American Kenpo. A few years later, Toshio Osaka, 8th Dan Wado Ryu, moved to Salt Lake and Sensei Jepperson switched schools after seeing one demonstration of Sensei Osaka’s technique.
Sensei Jepperson is one of the very few practitioners of Wado to receive Dan grading in all three groups of the Wado style – Wado Kai, JKF under the Founder Master Hironori Otsuka, Wado Kai JKF with Toshio Osaka, Wado Kai, JKF with Tatsuo Suzuki, Wado Ryu with H. Ohtsuka II, Wado Kai JKF with T. Mano, WIKF with Tatsuo Suzuki 8th Dan Hanshi
He has trained in Japan several times and was lucky enough to train at Nichidai (Nihon University), the top karate college in Japan as well as H. Murasai in Kyushu.
Sensei Jepperson has had all of the top Wado instructors in the world teach at his own dojo, including:
- Shihan Teru Arakawa, coach of Nichidai and technical head of Wado Kai
- Saiko Shihan Hironori Otsuka II, head of Wado Ryu
- Hanshi Tatsuo Suzuki most senior Wado instructor in the world 8th Dan Hanshi
- Shihan Toshio Osaka
- Shihan Masafumi Shiomitsu
- Shihan Kiyoshi Yamazaki
- Kazutaka Ohtsuka the grandson of the founder Hironori Ohtsuka
- Toshio Takahashi
- Shihan S. Kurobane, and
- The All Japan Team Coach Seiji Nishimura to name a few.
Sensei is also close with the famous Japanese Martial Arts author Kiyoshi Arakaki, who wrote the seminal “Secrets of Okinawan Karate.”
Nowadays, Sensei Jepperson would say his biggest inspiration for teaching comes from his own students, who continue to amaze him to this day.
Sensei Jepperson competed from the 1970s to his last tournament in Curaçao in 1995. As a participant, coach or referee he has been a part of many World Championships from Athens, Greece to Tokyo, Japan and from the Pan American Championships to National Championships here in the States.
He has been involved in the following organizations: AAU, WUKO, Wado Kai, WIKF, Wado Ryu International, USAKF, and USNKF – NCAA as a division 1 wrestler and AAU Boxing.
Sensei has erased his list of tournaments and asks you instead to review his students’ extensive experiences and victories in competitions around the world. He is more proud of their accomplishments than he ever was of his own.
Sensei Jepperson received a B.A at the University of Utah with majors in English and Architecture. He then did post-graduate work in the Graduate School of Architecture. Years later, Sensei returned to school while living in Tennessee to study for his MBA at Vanderbilt University’s Owen School of Management.
In addition to karate, Sensei has been involved in many businesses and associations:
- Started a new manufactured housing venture, Interstate Homes of Tennessee
- Management consultant creating the first independent Physical Therapy Network in Utah
- Reimbursement consultant for the APTA
- Member of the Medical Group Manager’s Association
- Opened a law office management consulting firm, Integrated Management Services
- Started a new print business, Poster Perfect
- Started a new consulting business, Franchise Support
- Principal in a new community newspaper, The Sandy Home Town News
In his free time, Sensei has worked as a writer and/or publisher on the following publications:
- “Crazy Horse Chronicles,” writer, layout design and cover design
- “War of the Mormon Cow,” writer, layout design and cover design
- “Black Robe Woman,” writer, layout design and cover design
- “Two Fires in the Night,” writer/publisher/or what
- “Tatsuo Suzuki’s, My Life,” layout design, editor and design, cover and layout
- Technical manuals for factory-built housing, writer/publisher/or what
- “Design Approval Manual for Modular Housing,” submitted to HUD, US Home, Doug Jepperson, author and all drawings
- “Modular Housing Applications,” author and design
- “The Only Photograph of Chief Crazy Horse,” conducted Crazy Horse forensic research on tintype
- “Dojo Tales,” writer, has been submitted as a treatment for screen play
Sensei has lived in Utah, California, Tennessee and now back in Utah. He used to be an avid skier until his knees made him stop. He played softball all through high school and college. He enjoys racquetball and truly loves tennis. He has recently been taking golf lessons and is learning how to scuba dive and is venturing into the graceful sport of ballroom dancing. Let’s hope his wife’s feet survive.