Tucson's Original Jujitsu Lineage — And the Instructor Carrying It Forward

Most martial arts gyms in Tucson will tell you they have experienced instructors. Fewer can tell you exactly where that experience came from, who passed it down, and how far back the chain goes. At Boxer's Rebellion Martial Arts, we can — because lineage isn't a marketing talking point for us. It's the foundation everything else is built on.

This is the story of how Tucson's oldest Jujitsu program found its current home at BRMA, and the instructor who has spent his life making sure that tradition doesn't just survive — but thrives.

It started in 1962

Long before most of today's martial arts gyms existed, the Holck family opened Tucson's very first Jujitsu school. Dai Shihan Joseph Holck was a man of serious martial credentials — among them, his role as the Jujitsu co-founder of Kajukenbo, one of the first American hybrid martial arts systems. In Tucson, he established a Jujitsu lineage that would outlast decades of changing trends and the ebb and flow of martial arts culture in this city.

His son, Professor Vinson Holck, continued that work. A 20-year veteran of the Tucson Police SWAT team and a military hand-to-hand combat instructor, Vinson Holck wasn't a martial artist in the academic sense alone. He was someone who used his training in the field, daily, under conditions that tested everything he knew. What he taught wasn't theory — it was a system continuously refined by genuine necessity.

"The Holck lineage wasn't built in a gym. It was built on the street, in the field, and in the kind of situations most martial artists only ever imagine."

Where Paul LaPointe comes in

Paul LaPointe began his formal martial arts training at age nine and never stopped. Over decades of study he built deep experience across multiple systems — Okinawan Karate, Jujitsu, Judo, and Kung Fu — eventually earning black belts across disciplines and developing into one of the most credentialed instructors in the Tucson area.

It was his time under Professor Vinson Holck, beginning in 1994, that shaped the core of who he is as a martial artist. Paul trained under Holck with a commitment that went well beyond casual study — regularly logging ten or more hours a week on the mat, traveling across the Southwest to compete, and consistently placing in the top three. By the early 2000s he had earned a place as an instructor under Holck, teaching alongside his mentor while continuing his own training. He didn't just learn the system. He lived it — and then he helped pass it on.

When Holck retired from teaching, Paul didn't wait for the lineage to find a new home. In 2008 he opened his own school, ensuring that what the Holck family had built in Tucson since 1962 would continue without interruption. That school became what is today Boxer's Rebellion Martial Arts. When Holck passed in 2017, the lineage was already in good hands — it had been for nearly a decade.

"Lineage is accountability. It means the person teaching you was taught by someone who staked their reputation on passing it on correctly."

A lineage timeline

1962

The Holck family opens Tucson's first Jujitsu school. Dai Shihan Joseph Holck — Jujitsu co-founder of Kajukenbo — establishes the lineage in Tucson.

1994

Paul LaPointe begins training under Professor Vinson Holck — 20-year SWAT veteran and military hand-to-hand combat instructor.

Early 2000s

Paul steps into an instructor role under Holck, teaching alongside his mentor while competing across the Southwest.

2008

When Holck retires from teaching, Paul opens his own school — ensuring the lineage continues without interruption. That school becomes Boxer's Rebellion Martial Arts.

2017

Professor Vinson Holck passes. The lineage he built is already firmly established at BRMA — carried forward by the student he trusted to teach it.

Today

Paul LaPointe teaches Tucson's original Jujitsu system at Boxer's Rebellion Martial Arts — over 60 years after the Holck family first brought it to this city.

Why lineage matters — and why ours is rare

In an era where anyone can watch tutorials online and open a gym, lineage is one of the few things that can't be faked. It's a chain of accountability — a documented record of knowledge passed from person to person, tested and validated at each step. When you train at BRMA you're not learning from someone who pieced a curriculum together from seminars and videos. You're learning from an instructor who trained for nearly two decades under a man who spent twenty years using these techniques in active law enforcement — who himself learned from the family that brought Jujitsu to Tucson in the first place.

That chain is real, verifiable, and genuinely rare. No other gym in Tucson can make the same claim.

What it means for you as a student

Practically speaking, lineage means the curriculum you're learning has been field tested at every level. The techniques weren't assembled from a book or borrowed from a seminar circuit. They were taught, drilled, corrected, and pressure tested over decades by people whose jobs and lives depended on them working. That's the standard everything at BRMA is held to — and it's why we train the way we do.

When you step on the mat at Boxer's Rebellion Martial Arts, you're stepping into more than sixty years of Tucson martial arts history. We think that's worth something. We think you will too.