Welcome to the Evolving Man Project’s ‘Evolved Man of the Week’ profiles. Each week we will highlight an individual that embodies what it means to be an evolved man, famous and non-famous men alike. The world needs to know their stories and deeds. This week’s honor goes to the teacher, business owner, instructor, and karate sensei, Randall Ephraim.
Mr. Ephraim is a Yon-dan. He Has been teaching in Charlotte N.C. since 2007 when he arrived in the Queen City of Charlotte North Carolina. Randall Ephraim began his love for karate at the age of eleven when he started training briefly with Shihan Clyde Coy in 1974 in white plains N.Y.
In 1976, he began training Universal GoJo for eighteen months. Mr. Ephraim took a break from Goju for a while to return to train Wing Chun at the age of 18 with Sifu Tony Watts for eight years until taking another break from martial arts to raise his young family. Mr. Ephraim returned to martial arts training in 1995 when he brought his son to train with his old instructor Professor Toney Watts. Who was then under the Sanuucus Ryu jujitsu organization who was taught by the late Dr. Moses Powell. When Professor Watts closed his school, Mr. Ephraim decided to go back to his roots and return to Oyama Karate. Mr. Randall studied under Shihan Sakai for seven years and received his black belt in 2004.
Mr. Ephraim placed 2nd place in the World Oyama invitational in 2005 and in 2006 he got 1st place in the tournament. Mr. Ephraim decided to move to Charlotte N.C. and with the help of Sensei William Brown of Kyokushin Organization has been teaching Bushiken Karate since then. He dojo gained national attention in early 2019 for all the right reasons.
In early January, a man who apparently was attempting to kidnap a woman off the street made a big mistake when he followed her into a North Carolina karate dojo. Mr. Randall Ephraim, the head instructor of Bushiken Karate Charlotte Dojo, says that he was tidying up the studio earlier that week when the woman ran into the building.
“There were still some kids in the dojo being picked up by parents and a couple of adult students cleaning up when a young lady came through our doors and stated that someone was trying to harm her, … “Shortly afterward, a big male entered the building. Not knowing what he wanted, I assumed he was inquiring about classes. I asked how I could assist him, and he stated that he was there for the lady. She insisted that she did not know him and tried to kidnap her.”
The 47-year-old perpetrator had reportedly tried to force the woman into his car just outside of the facility. Ephraim simply asked him to leave, but the kidnapper refused and began “aggressively swinging” his way further into the dojo. Ephraim then took action and forced the man outside where the perpetrator unwisely attempted to attack the instructor. According to Ephraim, the man was “dealt with accordingly.”
Although the man was later taken into custody, he first had to be wheeled away from the scene on a stretcher before being taken to jail and charged with drug use and kidnapping.
Mr. Randall Ephraim showed the assailant, ‘who really is the master’; and proved that the good Samaritan is alive and well in these times. Today we honor Randall Ephraim as our Evolved Man of the Week.
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