Stafford Norris
Springfield, Massachusetts, United States
About
My path started back in the 1960s with Isshin-Ryū karate. It gave me discipline, structure, and my first real taste of what it meant to be a martial artist. But it was Bruce Lee who lit the fire that never went out. Watching him tear down the walls of "style" and preach the philosophy of using what works, I knew traditional forms alone weren't the whole answer. That question drove me for the next two decades.
Through the 70s and into the 80s, I kept searching, and that search led me, in the late 1980s, to Sifu Paul Vunak.
Immersed in Jeet Kune Do Concepts and the Filipino Martial Arts, I found the missing pieces I'd been hunting for since I first saw Bruce Lee on screen — a living, evolving system built on real combat truth rather than rigid tradition. I earned Sifu Vunak's blessing, and in 1989 I founded Diversified Fighting Systems in Western Massachusetts, built to carry that lineage forward — honoring Bruce Lee, Dan Inosanto, and Sifu Paul Vunak with every class I teach.
I also owe a lot to Thomas Cruse, a big influence on my studies over the years and a good friend to this day.
Decades later, I'm still teaching — running small, private classes out of my home, passing on the same fire that was lit for me nearly 60 years ago, one student at a time.