Mr. Rick Hughes began his martial arts career in the early 1970s while in the U.S. Air Force, stationed on the island of Okinawa, where him and other soldiers enrolled in an Okinawa Te school off base.

Five years later he began studying American Kenpo under Mr. Ed Booze, who was a student at the time of Mr. Richard "Huk" Planas. After the school closed, Mr. Booze continued group classes at a local dance studio in the Long Beach-Lakewood area where got some occasional private time with Mr. Planas.

As a green belt he opened and ran a Kenpo program at the Los Cerritos YMCA to be part of his Black Belt Thesis. After this, he began to regularly attend classes at Senior Grandmaster Edmund K. Parker's West Los Angeles Studio, which was ran by Mr. Larry Tatum.

It was in 1979 that Mr. Hughes earned his 1st Degree Black Belt with Mr. Parker on the board. Mr. Hughes later became a direct student of Mr. Parker's and was promoted by him up to 5th Degree Black Belt. He was direct student of Mr. Parker from 1980 up until his death in 1990.

In the early 1980s he began to work with Mr. Booze again, and they started Protection Now, which was a a "protective companion" type of bodyguard service. Mr. Parker helped keep him busy in this capacity, with various jobs thru the years.

Over the years, Mr. Hughes was the IKKA Regional Director for southern California and traveled to many association schools to assist them in running a smooth operating school.

He also founded American Silver Tiger Kenpo in 1991 and became a National Director for the Original American Kenpo Karate Assocation (OAKKA); the latter of which disbanded in 2004.

As of Feb. 3, 2007, Mr. Hughes was promoted to 9th Deg. Black Belt by Mr. Frank Trejo.