Episode 1108 - Sensei Jesús Jiménez

0:00We see Karate as sometimes as a sport, sometimes as a personal defense thing, but for me it's a science. You have to learn body mechanics, you have to learn physics, you have to learn how the body reacts to a punch. You have to understand angles, you have to understand gravity. Welcome, you're listening or watching the another episode of whistle kick martial arts radio. And today I'm joined by Sensei Jesus Jimenez. Jesus, how are you today? I'm very good. I'm honored to be here with you and in chat with you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, I'm excited to chat with you as well. But before we get there, maybe we have a listener or a person watching who's never seen an episode of the show before. And if that's the case, welcome. Thank you for joining us for this conversation.

1:02If you would like to check out all of the other shows that we've done, you can check out whistle kick martial arts radio.com. And you can find the over 1100 other episodes that we have available. You can find them all there for free or in any podcast player, Spotify. You can watch the videos on YouTube, all of that stuff is there. And at that website, you can also find a link to send up for our newsletter. So you can get notified when every email, an email when every episode comes out. You can also find show notes and transcripts of every episode. It's all there. And if you want to find out about all of the stuff that whistle kick as a company does, you can do that at whistle kick.com. Maybe you want to buy some sparring gear. Maybe you want to buy some, uh, some apparel. Maybe you want to buy a training program or some books. All of that stuff you can find at whistle kick.com. But enough about us. Let's talk about you. Hey, Zeus, how you're having a good morning. I hope I am. It's the ladies have a great day for me. I start very early this morning here in Puerto Rico at three o'clock.

2:05It's two o'clock for you. But I like to I'm an early guy. I like to wake up early and and go to my life around. Yeah. Well, you know, they say the early bird catches a worm. So you're out there catching worms. Well, I tried to. I tried. Let's let's start at the very beginning. It's a very good place to start as Julie Andrews has told us. So when you look at your life and how martial arts came into it, what's your origin story? Where did martial arts start for you? Wow. It started thanks to my sister. My sister took me when I was 11 years old to a judo class. And I started I started practicing judo at 11 up to maybe my 15 years old.

3:08And then my father moved to my hometown that I live now in Guayama that is in the south part of the island in Puerto Rico. As a matter of fact, the sense my sense in judo, his brother was a black bone in karate. And he was a black bone in the state that now I practice issue with karate. I never practiced with him, but he was one of the first in Puerto Rico to be a black bone in shibyu karate. So maybe I my story started there related to karate. And what was it like doing judo as a child? It was very good. I was a very child. And my sister wants to put me in a move and try to show me how to defend myself.

4:08So she took me to this judo class. And that improved my personality. I get more confidence and I start socializing more with people because I don't go out of my house. Gotcha. And when you then started training karate, judo and karate can be very different. And I say can be because there are a lot of karate classes that use a lot judo as well. And it can be very different. Talk about that transition a little bit for you because that's, you know, 15 years old. That's a pretty pivotal age. Well, let me take this. I stopped practicing karate at 15 because I told you I moved to Wayama. And in Wayama there was a judo club, but I but I didn't win there because I used to live in the country of my hometown.

5:10And if I want to go to the town, then I have to take a car or a bus and a class what we're at night. And my father said, no, I'm not going there. So, so I stopped practicing until my 18. I was a senior in high school or a junior, a junior in high school. When a friend of mine told me they're open, there's a new school of karate here. And they opened it and I'm going to visit you want to go with me say, yes, let's go. But that time, but that time I was a basketball player. I was in the varsity. And also I was a center in the volleyball, in the volleyball team. So I said, well, let's go there. It was a summer. I said, that will help me to be in shape if I want to join there. So I went and I saw the class and I like it. So I joined the class and from there, his history, I have been there from since 1978.

6:18Wow. And talk a little bit about what that was like. So 1978, that's, you know, in the 70s training back then ran the gamut in terms of the type of training you were doing. So talk a little bit about what it was like for you as an 18-year-old starting karate in Puerto Rico. Well, I started karate at 18. And, you know, but that time you never use, we never use gloves. We never use shin protectors. It was burn, burnocles, you know. And my sense in that time was very concerned in basics. He makes you practice basics. And for a while, then when you were, you have a little bit more knowledge than you start practicing the komita. In that day, we used to practice komita only on Fridays.

7:20So you have the regular class Monday and Wednesday. There was the fighting class. That class was packed. Everybody wants to fight at that time. And the discipline that I didn't have, maybe Hugo, because I was 11. And the discipline that I didn't have in my basketball experience, I had in karate. I got in karate. It wasn't that difficult for me to make that transition from Hugo to basketball to volleyball and to karate. It wasn't that difficult. Now, did that discipline that you had for karate? Did it transfer over? And did you start to have more discipline with your basketball and volleyball? I was so disciplined that I quit basketball and volleyball. Wow, okay. I love, I love, you know, it's like a first love, you know, I love so much karate.

8:25When I started that I started forgetting about basketball and I started forgetting about volleyball. And I'm period. I study karate. And what did your parents think of you starting? You know, they obviously were okay with you starting judo at 11. They had to have, right? They were bringing you there and now you're starting to become an adult. Did they play any part in helping shape your, you know, getting there or things like that? They did not forbid me to practice karate. But they did not support me practicing karate. So if I want to practice karate, I have to make all the work in my house first. Then I have to work my, to study and then I have, if I have time, then I can go to the, to the karate school to the do you. And I, because I want to be in karate, I did, I did everything. And if, if you translate, if you, if you translate that to discipline, yes, it was a discipline.

9:33But it's the only way I can show my father that I was committed to, to my, to my martial arts. And they are, oh, go ahead, sorry. And it helped me also in high school because I was a very poor average student. And believe me, when I say I'm a very poor average student, I was a very poor average student. When I start karate, my, my grades went up. And, and that helped me to get into the university. Now did your parents ever get on board? And we're, I mean, they must have. Did they have anything to say after you started your grade started getting better? Did they ever make the connection that you're doing better in school because of karate? Wow. Okay. My father was a, was a doctor in anesthesia, and I said, you're like this.

10:34And he was always, he was in the hospital. So my mother was the one who was in my house, the most part of the time. And she was not interested in learning something about karate or how I was. Children was aware of that. And she didn't want to. So, now, in, I've never been to Puerto Rico. So I, I don't know the demographic very well, but were there tournaments or things like that? Did you know for a lot of, for a lot of martial artists here in the States, there's lots of tournaments all over. Is that something you ever got into? Yes. If you, if you go back to history in karate in the late 70s and the early 80s, the tournament were, were burnocles. You don't have chin protectors. The only thing you have was a mouthpiece and, and a growing protector.

11:37Everything was almost burnocles. There was a small glove that you put in your hand, but your knuckles were exposed. So it, it doesn't matter. You, you were to get hit with the knuckles. So the tournaments were, were that way. And we, we used to go to tournaments a lot in, from the, in dojo. And I learned a lot of, and I knew many people in, in those days, that were, they were terrific fighters. As a matter of fact, in my school, in, in, in my high school, with me was taught in Chiki, solia, that he, he became a full contact champion. Later, and, and we, and we used to practice together sometimes. But it was a very sporadic, very, very real times when we practiced. But, but that experience helped me to go through, through all my, my, my life in karate, you know, the tournaments, the people you know.

12:39And the vision that I had of karate was as, in those days, was a sport one. It was a sporadic practice. I, I just like to, to go to tournaments and, and, and perform katas and, and, and, and, and fighting to meet it. But the essence of karate came later in my life. So, I definitely want to talk about that, but really quickly, you're talking competition, doing forms and doing sparring, which was, which was your favorite? Were you a, were you a kata guy, or were you a kumite guy? Well, I was a kumite guy. Hmm. I was a kumite guy, but then I start loving kata. Hmm. And now I think I have a more kata man now, but more oriented to, to basics.

13:40And, and, and I, and I, and I use, I love the kata because the kata, everybody say, is the book of the, of the Bible of your techniques and, and your karate. And it's true, but we have to go to the simple. First, you have to know the A, B, C, and then you, you can write your sentence, you can write your paragraph. And, and for me, the kata is the paragraph, is the, the whole, the whole book. And you have to go to basics, always. Now, you mentioned that at that time, it was all about the sport kata, but it was later on that you really found the essence of kata for you. So talk a little bit about that. And how did that come manifest for you? Well, that come, that came to me on when I was in the university. And it was because when I go to the university, I was, I was round billed. And by that time, I, as a rumble, my sense of left the dojo.

14:43And he left, he gave the dojo. So I can take charge of it. So I was a college student or a university student, with now a new depth in my shoulders. And I have to take care of a dojo. I didn't want the dojo to be close. So I have to commute from my university to my, to my hometown. And I, my, my teacher's teacher that was a water tobi cooling, master, where master cooling, he allowed me to, to open the dojo as a rumble. And he appoint two other black bills that were in the north part of the island. To take charge of, of me so that I can advance in my carade. And they were one Francisco Lopez. And one the dojo's Lopez.

15:43They were brothers. And they, they, they helped me to understand Cata. They helped me to, to love how, how to perform, how to analyze the catas. For me, they were advancing their time in dissecting and bringing something from the catat, that you didn't saw, that you have to look for it, and you have to discover. And, and they were, by that time they were very young. One Francisco was studying medicine. And, and one the dojo's, the, the younger brother, he was studying engineer, by engineering. So, so they were young, but they were very bright, and they're still very bright. And they helped me in, in that aspect of carade. Then, in, in, in university, I met another black bell from Kyokushinkai.

16:45And then I start practicing at the university with them. Today's, I, I used to have class Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. And I practice with the Kyokushinkai in, in my university. Tuesday and, and Thursdays. So, so I, they also gave me another version of carade and Cata. Kyokushinkai is a more, it's like almost like Washi Ryu, a more physical style. And I made very good friends with them, friendship with them. And they, they showed me so many things, small things about, Kihong, about basics, that I need, I never experienced. So, then I start doing that. And, and they, and they introduced me to other people from Shotokang.

17:45And, and then I start, just combining their, what they were, they, what I learned from them, with what I learned from Master Kulin, and trying to, to figure out my personality in martial arts. And my belief. Now, you open your, open the, or needing open the school, but you were, you were set in charge of running your school as a brown belt. Up until then, you know, you're in your early 20s, probably you said your university. Yeah, how much teaching had you done up until that point? Wow. I, I had my dojo when I was, when I got to the university, I had my dojo for, for maybe one year before that. Then, when I took my black belt in university, when I was promoted to black belt, the fees of the, of the school went up,

18:47and I couldn't pay. So, I close it, I close the school, I went to a, I moved to a community center that I didn't have to pay. And, in college, I opened a school, I talked with a, a administrator of the university, and he allowed me to use a, a room near the, the gym. And I started, I started having my class there. And, and I think that was the, the moment that I learned more from my students, than from, from, from my teachers, because you can expect everything from a black belt, but you don't, you can't expect nothing from a white belt. Yeah. And, from there, that I started learning from there. And I, and I got this motto, if you, if you, we can say it, but the technique is only good, if a weak person,

19:50or a woman, or a very young guy, can perform it against a, a bigger guy, or, or stronger, upon. So, I started to concentrate on that, and I wasn't in university. Now, you mentioned that you were, you had your school, you're at university, you're doing your classes on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. You start working with the Kyokushin Kai students on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And then, you know, branched out into Shodakon, met other people. Can you talk a little bit about how you were able to differentiate learning these different arts? But teaching one art, and did you work towards really keeping those arts a little separate from your students, or did some of that training in the Kyokushin Kai, did it start to bleed a little bit into some of the stuff that you were teaching your students? Magnific, I like that question a lot.

20:53It's very, you know, perfect. I'm going to, if you read the book of Jit Kondo of Bruce Lee, he says, at first, a punch for me was a punch. Then he became more than a punch. Then, now that I know martial art, a punch is a punch. So, for me Karate, at that time, a kick was a kick. A punch was a punch. The only difference was, if it's what, vertical, this was the difference. So, it makes a complete sense when they were explaining to me how to move and how to fight. So, it's no difference. We see Karate as sometimes as a sport, sometimes as a personal defense thing. But, for me, it's a science.

21:55So, you have to learn body mechanics. You have to learn physics. You have to learn how the body reacts to a punch. You have to understand angles. You have to understand gravity. When you see that, you say, hey, what I have here? You have extension, contraction. I have so many things that I have to learn that I don't have time in one day or two days or in a class. So, when I discovered that, I said, now what I'm going to do? Because I discovered that thanks for Shotokan and for Kukushinkai. Excuse me, you know, where am I now? And I knew that I can apply that basic things to my Karate.

23:00Then I said, oh, now I understand my Karate. That's why I make this movement, this shift in here. But they didn't explain that shift in. And, you know, in Okinawa, they call Tenshin when you move from one place to the other. And when you shan angles, then why I move to the front and not to the back? So, it was a salad of techniques and questions that came to me in that part of my life. That it made me study. It made me go to the gold and sit down and study a little bit of thesis that I hate physics. I have to tell you, but then I have to read about it. I hate medicine. But if I want to hit the macchiwara, I have to learn how the impact what is going to cause on my locals.

24:07So, I have to read, I have to study about the human body. And that makes me go from there, then to the pressure points, and then to the manipulation. And from there, it was a very slow period of time of learning by myself. Because my sense, it wasn't here in Perrico. He was Maryland. So, when fans got, he traveled to Perrico twice a year, and I didn't have to pay nothing to him. He did it for free, he did it for me, and he was a father figure for me on all these days. Sadly, he died. But it was a good experience. It was a learning experience. I learned that in one time of your life, you become your own sensey.

25:13So, when he would come down to Puerto Rico, I would assume he was there for more than a day. So, talk about what that training was like for you, because you only had him a couple times a year. And so, you're teaching your own students, and then he comes down and all of a sudden, not, and I don't want this to sound like, when you're teaching students, you're not learning from them. I recognize you definitely are learning from your students. But now, your instructor comes twice a year, you get to be a student. That's a very different experience, especially for someone who only gets out a couple of times a year. So, at that time, I can't imagine that, you know, it was as easy as it is today to just jump on the video conferencing software, like we are now. So, what was it like for you when he came? Well, when he told me that he was coming to Puerto Rico, I do nothing only to be with him. He stayed in my house.

26:14So, we wake up early, and we start, the first thing, we start checking my positions, my catas. If I have a dab, I have to discuss it with him. So, that requires me to, to, to, to, which prior, his, his, his flight, I was working with all my, my doubts with, with everything that I have to have in a paper. So, I can ask him, and not forget, and not, do not forget. But he was a very good teacher, and he didn't, and he didn't want you to over-learn if you cannot handle. But he was, when he showed you something, he was, you got it, then he moved forward. So, I learned that my best way to learn from him was, I told him, only show me three steps.

27:17It was easier for me, showing three steps, and repeat those three steps ten times, twenty times, then I told him, give me three, three more steps. And that way, I, I suck it into my body and, and, and, and develop them. So, it was easy, he was very strict in basics, he was very strict in catas. And when he was here, we didn't make committed, because he was concentrating more in advancing me, through my, through my weapons, through my, and through my, through my carapet. And so, you just mentioned weapons for the first time, did you have a favorite, what, what was your, your favorite weapon to work with? I like, well, let me make a, I should not note here. Each of you have weapons, like show me, you have weapons.

28:17And, what's your view, and go, they don't have weapons, they have to go outside the door, you to learn Komodo. So, I learned my weapons, official view, with, with my, with my sensei, and, and the bow was my, my favorite weapon. Then, I have, I went to a seminar with a guy called Kimowol. And Kimowol was a student of Seiko Higa in Shinpo Matayoshi. And he, he was a 70 degree black buff from both of them. And Kimowol, he, he left in Okinawa for 15 years, then he came back to the States, but he married a pericom woman and he came to pericom. And he brought, Matayoshi Komodo to pericom, and he brought Goyorrio from the line of Seiko Higa. So, I had the opportunity to, to know him in that seminar.

29:19Then, I liked the way he showed Komodo, and I started practicing with him. And he went back to the States. Then 2000, 9 or 10, I don't recall the, the year. They came back to pericom. And he contacted. And we, and then I read, I, I just get involved with him in karate. I retake the classes and the pass and all the stuff and my notes and discuss it with him. And I start Matayoshi Komodo. And my favorite weapon to answer your question is koa, is koa. The, the, the hook. Is that, would you say English? Yep, just, just, just describe it for the audience, because not everyone will necessarily know what that is. What, koa, koa is, it's a, a guard, like a garden tool that you can use to scratch the floor.

30:24And, and, and for me, it's the most dangerous weapon that you can have. Yeah, in, in a lot of schools, they would, the English word would be a hoe. A hoe. Yeah. So, thanks you for the correction. No, no, no, that's okay. You know, is, is it very dangerous weapon when you, when you learn that weapon? A block is, it's as dangerous as a strike. You know, and, am I like it, but, you know, the other weapon that I like is the, or the, or, the or, the or, right? The or, yep. Yes, is, I like that, that weapon. Okay. Now, so your instructor would come down to Puerto Rico a couple of times a year. Did you overhead to the U.S. and do any training there with Homer with others? I used to, I used to travel every year to, to the humble go you.

31:24So, my teacher comes twice to Puerto Rico. I go one to practice with him. And at first, I stood with him two or three weeks in his house. And he stood in my house two weeks at first. Then, that changed for one week and one week from each other. And, and the good thing is that the more, the more you practice with your sense, you know, where he's going. And, and he's easier when, when you stay with, with that, with, with him in his house. So, those, those things helped me a lot. Puerto Rico's a very small island is, is, is smaller than Lake Michigan. You can put Puerto Rico in Lake Michigan. And, and we, because we're so small, we have this idea that when other style brings their sensei, they make seminars and you can go.

32:24Or, or their idea to their school. So, you can be with their sensei. So, I had that opportunity and I, and I, and I grabbed that opportunity. I practiced with, I killed with Jamada. I have, I had that opportunity to practice with him. There's a 90-degree blackboard, I think, a 10-degree blackboard now. He's from my hometown. But, he lived in New York. And, he practiced Jiu-Jitsu. So, when, when he came here, he introduced me to Jiu-Jitsu. So, I learned from him. So, it was very easy for me to learn from others. In the States, I went to New York. I practiced with Maria Melendez. She was a blackbill, official real character, of course. I practiced in California. I don't, I forget his name. It was a Kung Fu guy. And, I was, I had the opportunity to go there and practice with him.

33:26And, the good thing is that I was sure of money in my pocket. And, he told me, go and, and sleep in my dojo. And, clean the dojo and classes are free. So, I did it. I remember going to, to, to Long Island. And, and of course, I was a student. I didn't have money. And, I used to buy, it's this small burgers that they sell. And, I bought a, a bunch. So, I can eat it during the day. And, and I practiced there. And, I learned, I wanted to seminar there, where a guy's name was Chamberlain. But, this was a Kung Fu guy in Chinatown. And, it was very interesting. It was very interesting. Learning from them. Having other experience. And, and the karate in, in the United States. And, the karate that I practiced were different,

34:28because there were different cultures. So, yes. I was going to say that leads perfectly into the next question. I was going to ask, which is, you, you talked a little bit about the martial arts culture in Puerto Rico. And, it sounds very inclusive. It's obviously, as you mentioned, Puerto Rico is a very small island. So, I have to imagine, you know, pretty much, probably, all the martial arts schools around. And, it sounds like you have a very different culture and, and a, a respect of working with each other. And, I'd love for you to get into that a little bit, because most of our audience, that will be, could be a foreign concept to them. Well, I don't know everybody. I know a lot of people, but I don't know everybody. And, I don't like to practice with everybody. But, I learn from everybody. The good thing about being small, when you go to other, other, other people that learn different styles.

35:30You have, you, you have the opportunity to learn from them. What they like, and what, and what's the more important part, or what's the, how they, they emphatic something. For example, I have a good, very good friend of Taekwondo. And, you know, the Taekwondo people use a lot of legs. And, I want to improve my legs. So, they, they gave, they showed me styles, some exercise, so I can be more flexible. But, I learned from them. From Jitsu. I learned, I want to learn how to make a code, at codegage. So, I went to them, and they showed me how to make a codegage. And, I killed, I, I, I asked the, the sensei, I want to learn Irminagi, and he showed me Irminagi. So, so, I didn't want, I, of course, I'd go to this, to this, uh, schools.

36:30As a student, I don't go, I don't know, I don't know, as a, as a sensei. Uh, I, I, I say always that you don't have to lose your enthusiasm to learn something new. So, you cannot be a teacher, going to another school, to learn from something, you have to go as a student. And, when you're a sensei, you're used to tell people how, what, what they have to do. When you're a student, now you receive the, the command. And, and you receive the explanation. And, that's the moment when you learn. And, you can compare what you know, what, what they're telling you. You don't, you're not going to argue. Just, you take it, you, you analyze it, and then, if it's good, you, you're going to, to have it in your repertoire. If it's not good, you throw it away. And, and that's the way it is. You know, in the past, if you go to Okinawa history,

37:30the teachers were able to get together and practice. Um, and I'm, and here I have to make a jump until a story that Kimo will told me. Kimo will told me that when he was in Okinawa, he got to say Kohega as a second degree black girl. And he was only allowed to be at the, at the children's class. Then he moved to the senior class. And there, and then he noticed that there were a group that practiced late in the day with everything close. And, and he went to his sense, he said, I want to meet those guys. He said, well, I cannot, I have to, I have to talk with them. If they, everybody allowed, allowed you to be there, then you, you're welcome. And when he go there, he said, when they allowed him to go there, he said,

38:30there were all teachers practicing. There were no rank. There were no leader. There were no sense. They were just practicing their techniques. So, it does my goal in my karate, yes. Because everybody wants to be a boss. The boss, everybody wants to, to be in command. But not everybody wants to be a student. I like to be a student. Now, you mentioned the karate that you were learning in Puerto Rico. When you would come to the States, it would be different. Maybe not the karate itself, but the culture. Can you talk a little bit now about the differences between training in Puerto Rico and the training you did in the States? Yes. There was one, in the States, there was more sport oriented. My sense, Toru Kulin, he told me, I like sports,

39:33but I'm not in it. So, for me, that was good, because I didn't like that orientation of sport. I like more self-defense. I want my karate to work in the street. If I show something to you, I want you to come and say, since I survived this, this situation. And for that, you have to show your student that he has to think. Sometimes, I punish them, don't solve things. You have to think. And my sense, it told me, when I talk to him about that, about how I see karate, he told me, karate is only as good, as the brain that tells the hand, when and how to hit. And that, and that's why philosophy. Toru Kulin used to tell me always that, always.

40:34And the other thing that I love about the States, and I'm talking about the order of issue in which I start, it was an orient, a family-oriented group. And when you put, in a group, politics, when you put in the group, roles that are really in a mixed sense, sometimes in special martial arts, the family concepts start to dilute. And that happens in every place, that happens in every place. So what, what grabbed me, with my sense, it was his family-oriented vision of karate. And yes, it's very different, the States, from Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico, we used to, to use more self-defense training.

41:35If you, if you follow my, what I told you, you see that I talked, I talked to you about Yigitsu, Aikido, Judo, and, and karate. But, if you see, the main goal is to defend myself, to be able to do something street. So, that's what, I saw that difference. And it's still, it's still a big one. In Puerto Rico, there's a very, a lot of sport in karate. But in the United States, there's a lot of sport. And it's, it's not, it's not bad. It's that the life of a, of a sport man, is a short one. You know, when I was 18, I can flip, I can make flips, I can, I can jump, and, I'm 65, I can do that. You know, so, it's very difficult. Yeah. Now, what is your karate training,

42:35like, you know, I know that, since I cooling passed away a few years ago, you're training and what you're teaching now, I suspect it's very different from what you were teaching 25 years ago. Talk, talk a little bit about what, what is it like now for your training? Both, you're training and you're teaching. Well, let's go first for the teaching. If you take, if you take one of my black balls, of my first black builds, they're more aggressive, they're more fighters, but talking about the sport vision. If you take now one of my black builds, you see a guy that want to finish the fight as soon as you can lose your life. So you have to, to be like that. And it's more practical,

43:36my karate now. I really believe that my hands have to be a strong, that if I hit you, at least you can, you can feel something. So I train Machiwara. I make a lot of training in Machiwara. I make a lot of, a particularly high body condition of the body, because everybody wants to hit, but not everybody wants to like to be hit. So, so you have to train your body, so you can absorb that hit, and a lot of persons are going to give to you. I make my student be more intelligent in the way that they have to study. You know, sometimes you don't want, but you have to study. And when you go back, and when you go to the Kinaw, when you see what they do, they read the books for the old guys. For the old – for a Center Road, two centuries ago, they have books,

44:36and they read those books. They have the Babiichi, they have, they go reengining a show from Miyamoto Musashi, they are of war. They learn, they read it, so they learn, because you have, you have to be a – you have to educate yourself so you can be, to bring something good from your students. So you have to make your students study. I don't like essays, I don't like to make students to write essays because it's like I want to hear from you, but you think by writing, I don't like that, I want to learn that talking to you. What do you know? There's a lot of history in martial arts, yes, it's good to know it, but it's good to know because you want to learn from them how they deal with a situation so you can deal now. Kimowo used to tell me, and I talked about Kimowo because he lived in Rukinawa for 15 years, he used to tell me that in Seiko Higado, they used to have a doctor there.

45:43So if somebody gets hurt, the doctor takes charge of the person and the doctor was a black also. So we don't have that in the States, we don't have that in Perico. So we have to be more aware of the health of our students than something else. You know, if you have a very good class, a very good student, you have to take care of it and a good class is the class that nobody gets hurt. So it's quite different, but it's because culture is because culture. And you have to adapt to the culture. When I go to the States, I adapt to the culture. If you go to New York, they practice martial arts different from South and North Carolina.

46:46Completely different. If you go to Tennessee, they practice different because it's their culture because that part of the environment, getting to the people and you have to do with it. Yeah, and that makes sense. That makes sense. Now, what does the future hold for you? If you, you know, what do you hope to be training the next like if we get together in five years, what do you hope that we talk about? I like, I hope to people to understand that that Cata is the vehicle, but the engine is basics. It's the basics. And we perform Cata's in front of Amiro, but we don't see our techniques.

47:50We perform basics in front of Amiro, but we do not correct our techniques. So we don't use, we don't know how to use the Amiro. And, and what I want to, to, from here to five years, if we met together, if we practice together, I only want you to get from that experience, all that I can give you that makes sense. For example, if I want to put a pressure point in, to hit a pressure point, I have to tell you, if you want to, to use a pressure point, it doesn't work when somebody's attacking you. It doesn't work because if the person comes fast to you, it will be very difficult to you to

48:51to hit a pressure point. If you want to make a joint manipulation, if the person is attacking you, you're not going to be able to join manipulation. You have to head first, then make the joint manipulation. So you have to combine. So the older you get, the more accurate you have to be, because you're getting slower, weaker, you're getting more experience, you have more experience, so you have to use that in your events. And one thing that, that Karate Kata, due to you, you see the positive thing in Katas, everybody see, oh, Katas is good, because it shows you techniques, yes, but also the Kata creates bad habits. And one of the bad habits is making the hikite, going to the wet, to the waist,

49:53to the punch. So you don't do that in a real fight. So when, how I go from here to here, and make my student understand that it's not kumite, because it's also memory. When you throw a punch, and you see the student doing this, and there's a gap. And we have to build on it. In five years, I won you, when we talk, we say, hey, Jesus, I learned now that I can't do my Katas from here. Good. You know, but if you want to learn your Katas from here, then you have to learn how to use your shoulder, your elbow, your head, your wrist, everything is linked. And we forget about that. And I want to use it in five years, saying, hey, Jesus, I'm learning how to use the hip, or I learn how that a blog is not a blog is just a deflection. Or, or I learned how to use angles instead of going

51:00straight, because the Katas shows you in a straight way, but you don't find the straight way, you find angles. And, and that's all that I want you to learn from here for five years. Awesome. Now, if our listeners want to reach out to you, maybe you said something that resonated with them, or maybe they're, they're visiting Puerto Rico and want to reach out. How can, how can people get a hold of you? Oh, they can, my phone number is seven, eight, seven, four, two, two, nine, two, two, two, very easy. They're, they, and I learned that, I took that phone number because I forget numbers. So that's why they can, they can call me. I am, I'm, if they can call me 24, seven, I am, I can answer the phone and go back to sleep very easy. The thing is this, they can contact me if they, I used to like to work out, not in the dojo.

52:04The dojo is a place that, that you can train, that you can sweat. I prefer the beach. I prefer we go to the beach. I prefer YouTube practice in the sun. I prefer YouTube practice over stones. I prefer YouTube practice in taking a swimming. You know, I prefer to do that because you have to change when you are in, in, in, in the sun, your duchess are not the same. When you practice over stones, ah, your foot is so hurt that you have to be shawful and move different. So that shows you the real thing, how to move in different environments. When you're, when you're, when you're in them. Excellent. All right. And I'll, we'll put that phone number in the show notes as well so anybody can, can find it and get a hold of you. And, you know,

53:07for the audience listening or watching, go to whistle kick martial arts radio.com. The show notes for this episode will be there. And for every episode that we've done, you can sign up for our newsletter there. Whistle kick.com to find out about all the other things we do. Maybe you want to check out one of the events that we host around the country. All of that stuff can be found there. Hey, Susan, I want to thank you for coming on the show. And I want to throw it back to you now just to kind of close us out. What do you want to leave our audience with? What words do you want our audience to resonate? Anything maybe that resonates with you that you want them to know? Learn from everybody. And think the good, the good, the good things and throw the things that don't work for you. Carate is an open book. The only thing you have to do is read it. And there's a different now people who write the books. Don't be ashamed to go to a school and say, I want to learn from you. Nobody knows everything. So you practice, you have to practice hard and practice

54:16often. If you don't have the time to practice, at least throw upon 10 times to 10 times, which is and at least practice one technique a day. That's all I can tell.