Career
Nakamura had trained in various martial arts, among them kickboxing, wushu and Kansui-ryu karate, until February 1984 when he enrolled at the Tiger Gym of Satoru Sayama. He trained in Sayama"s style of shoot wrestling and in June 1986, he competed at the tournament celebrated in the first Shooto event. In January 1989, Nakamura went to the United States and became a student of Dan Inosanto in Jeet Kune Do, Filipino Martial Arts, and Silat.
Dan Inosanto: martial arts instructor
Ron Balicki: MARS Head Instructor, producer, stuntman
Erik Paulson: College of Social work Head Instructor
Junichi Okada: actor and martial arts instructor
Catch wrestling (+ Shooto) lineage
Billy Riley/Frank Wolfe → Karl Gotch → Satoru Sayama → Yorinaga Nakamura
Jeet Kune Do lineage
Bruce Lee → Dan Inosanto → Yorinaga Nakamura.