Mr. Planas began his Kenpo training during the late sixties in Fresno, California under Sigung Stephen Labounty and Sibok Tom Kelly. After helping Mr. Kelly open a school in El Paso, Texas, Mr. Planas went to Pasadena, California to work with Ed Parker. He was just a brown belt when he began this. He received his black belt and all subsequent rank up to his seventh degree through Ed Parker. While at the Pasadena school, he became the manager for the school for several years. He was also the Executive Vice President of the IKKA for the last ten years of Mr. Parker's life.

When Mr. Parker died, the IKKA regrouped itself without any of the major figures on the board. Mr. Planas and Mr. Joe Palanzo worked with the WKKA. He was promoted to his eighth degree black belt in 1991 and in 1995, several of the associations came together to promote him to 9th degree black belt.

Even though his expertise is in Kenpo, he has studied many other arts, including Judo, Kung Fu, Tai Chi, Shotokan Karate, Silat, and the Filipino arts. He can also crack a mean bullwhip.

Mr. Planas has been featured in Black Belt magazine twice, first in 1992 under an article on "Who is the Rightful Heir to Ed Parker's Kenpo?" (as found in the KenpoNet's Flame) and in 1997 on an article about Kenpo's rules of Motion. He also has a video series out dealing with the hows and whys of the forms, from Short Form 1 up through Long Form 6 but some essential basics and fundamentals.

He is also known as the Instructor's Instructor as he teaches the "whys" of Kenpo, not just the "hows" based on the rules and principals of motion. He draws a crowd for seminars held all over the world, and many travel many miles to have the opportunity to work with him. His events are also listed in the KenpoNet Flame. I myself have traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, Lafayette, Indiana, and Kentucky to work with him, and those are long drives. But, it was worth it a hundred times over.