Our Staff

Our Instructors & Staff Members

Our Instructors have spent many years devoted to training in the martial arts and have attained a certain level of expertise to qualify them as teachers and also mentors.

Through extensive testing, certification and tournament level competition, our staff has attained mastery in this martial art and now enjoy sharing their skill and passing it on to their students.

Here are a few of Independent Karate Schools of America's instructors and other staff members, starting with Floyd Burk:

Floyd Burk (10th Dan, Senior Grand Master, Founder-Sr. Technical Advisor to IKSA)
Floyd Burk’s martial arts training began in 1970.  This training, Japanese shito-ryu, was held in the den of his father’s attorney’s Riverside, California residence.  Later Burk began training in shorin-ryu karate and then American Karate.  Burk opened up his first karate school in Upland, California in 1980.  Burk relocated his school to Norco, California the next year and established a school in Rancho Cucamonga, California in 1983.  While Burk no longer has schools in these locales, karate programs are still operated there by students and/or students of students and other colleagues.

   Burk and his wife Martha, moved to San Diego, California in 1991 where they launched two commercial schools, and two community service karate programs.  These are four well established and flourishing entities which bring much pride to the Burk family who have worked hard at making them a success.  Burk’s schools are called Trad Am Karate, a name which is short for Traditional American Karate (TAK), the system Burk founded back in the 1980’s.  There are more than a dozen affiliate TAK programs throughout the United States.

   For the past 25 years, Burk has been training under Grandmaster George W. Owens of Russellville, Arkansas who teaches his own system known as Honto-ryu karate.  Honto-ryu is a system that utilizes karate’s hand and foot techniques, aikijujutsu’s limb and joint manipulations plus pressure-point attacks and defenses.  Included in this combat system is an emphasis on the training, research and analysis of traditional Okinawan and Japanese kata.  

   The Burk’s have a son Jeremy Burk (married to Jennifer) and are the proud grandparents of two girls, Ali and Paige.

Danny Chapman (10th Dan, Senior Grand Master, Co-Executive Director IKSA)  Email
In 1985 Master Chapman joined the Independent Karate Schools of
America (IKSA), a worldwide support and sanctioning organization
allowing the dojo to be chartered by Master Floyd Burk, the founder
of the IKSA. Master Chapman serves as the Co-National Director of the
IKSA and is the Director of the IKSA Annual Training Seminar. The IKSA Annual Seminar is a worldwide gathering of member schools and is hosted annually by the American Karate Academy.
Sensei Chapman is recognized as a “Grand Master”, a member of the IKSA “Society of Soke” (the founder of his style), and has the title of “Hanshi.”Grand Master Chapman began training in the Martial Arts in 1981 and started teaching in 1983. In 1994 Sensei Chapman founded the American Karate Academy in Franklin, TN. The dojo affiliated with the Concord Road YMCA in August 2001.
Master Chapman is a member of the teaching staff at the world famous Karate College Camp (held annually in Radford, VA). Sensei teaches sparring techniques and strategies at the camp. The staff includes such legends as Bill “Superfoot” Wallace, Renzo Gracie and Dr. Jerry Beasley.In June 2015 Master Chapman was inducted into the inaugural class of the KC Hall of Fame. In September 2018 Master Chapman was promoted to 10th Dan by GM Burk and GM Bill "Superfoot" Wallace.
Master Chapman is a husband to Rennae and has  3 children and 5 grandchildren. He has a Bachelor of Science degree and a Masters of Education degree from Middle Tennessee State University. He retired in 2017 after teaching for 40 years at Franklin High School.
Master Chapman’s hunger for all things “martial arts” powers his
daily training ethic and he continues to grow as a martial artist
through guidance from his Sensei, Grand Master Floyd Burk, 10th Dan, (10th degree Black belt).

Lisa Heitke (9th Dan, Grand Master, Co-Executive  Director, IKSA)
Master Lisa Heitke is a Co-Executive Director for the Independent Karate Schools of America. She holds the rank of  9th Degree Black Belt and Soke of Freestyle United Arts and has been pursuing knowledge and personal growth in the martial arts since 1984. Her training includes Tae Kwon Do, Tai Chi Chuan, Aikido, Archipelago Combatives and Kyusho Jitsu. Master Heitke teaches Freestyle United Arts at Pardeeville Martial Arts in Pardeeville, Wisconsin. GM Heitke was a student of the late GM Bernie Fritz, creator of FUA. She also teaches self-defense seminars for men, women and children. Master Heitke has been inducted into the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame as "Outstanding Female Martial Artist" and "Master Instructor of the Year".

For more information about the Independent Karate Schools of America staff or training programs, please contact us at 615-794-4330 or by clicking here.