June 20, 2024 • 44 mins
Unlock the secrets of Hapkido and Judo as we explore the transformative journey of Scooby, also known as Ryan, who took the reins of the Sioux Falls Hapkido and Judo Club from Master Jeho Sam. Learn how this thriving club grew from a humble start with just eight students to a bustling community of 50 to 60 dedicated martial artists.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What is going on?
Welcome to the next episode ofthe Fit and Healthy Sioux Falls
Show man.
We are in for a ride today,kind of down memory lane.
I've got an awesome guest withme.
I call him Scooby, others callhim Ryan, but we're going to
dive into the Sioux FallsHapkido and Judo Club and what
(00:21):
it is all about.
Let's dive in to today'sepisode.
Mr Scooby, what is up, bro?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Hey, cj, it's nice to see you again, dude, I love it.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
So do people call you Scooby.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Everybody calls me Scooby.
Everybody does, I've beencalled Scooby since high school.
It's one of those things thatkind of kicked off and then
really just stuck and I neverreally got rid of it, to tell
you the truth too.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
There have been stints in our relationship where
I have actually forgot whatyour name was Sure, sure.
I'm like Scooby what in theheck is his real name?
And I just I got stuck becauseyeah, scooby, and really Scooby
and I, you know we met, we meetlike right away 2015.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, it was.
I was moving out of the frontof the building and you were
moving into the front of thebuilding and I was moving to the
back, to the back.
We were in a transition periodwith the martial arts dojo as
you came in, so that's kind ofwhere we kicked off what we have
now to tell you the truth.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, the martial arts dojo, the studio that I
moved into.
You did not own it at the time,right Like in the beginning,
when you guys were in the front.
It was owned by someone else,correct, and you took over
ownership when you transitionedinto the back of that building.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yep, that's correct.
Also, it was Master Jeho Sam.
Yes, he had been teaching forprobably 30 to 35 years at that
point, from what I remember.
Yeah, he was about my age now,to tell you the truth, about 47,
somewhere close to 52, I dobelieve somewhere in there and
it was just.
I think he felt it was justkind of his time to move on.
(02:25):
I was in a good spot to justkind of take over and start to
rebuild in a different type ofplatform, change the name and
focusing on a little bit more ofHapkido and Judo, because he
was a Hapkido, judo andTaekwondo master Just amazing to
watch, kick and strike.
It was awesome.
But yeah, he was kind of justworking his way out a little bit
was a hop, keto, judo,anti-quando master just amazing
to watch, kick and strike, itwas.
It was awesome, uh.
(02:46):
But yeah, he was kind of justworking his way out a little bit
, yep, and I just kind of pickedup the pieces with a few of the
other black belts and startedto grow.
Shoot, nine years ago now.
Yeah, so I'll be.
Yeah, man, it's been.
It's been a wild ride.
It's amazing where we've gonefrom um, starting from about
eight students I think we're at50 to 60 at this point, that's.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
That's about where we kind of like to be comfortable
with so yeah, but yeah beginningof that is really a neat thing,
so yeah, explain to to ouraudience and re-explain to even
me.
Um, remind me what is Hop Ketoand then what is Judo.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Sure, um, that's really nice.
I'm going to go into it alittle bit.
I really started with theHopkido program because I was
big into just self-defense Okay,wanting to be able to take care
of myself.
And Hopkido best way to put itis like the MMA of martial arts.
It's actually meant to fightother martial arts.
It has to do with kicking,striking you learn Jo throws,
(03:46):
you learn ground submissionssuch as arm bars and chokes and
pins and so on and so forth.
But it's a really fundamentalmartial art.
So I really really like thatone.
It came around 1920s.
I'll give you a little historylesson on it because we have
kind of a direct lineage to it,which is really crazy, being
from South Dakota, oh cool.
So it started in 1920s, choiYoung-Sool, and then he
(04:10):
eventually had about 15 students.
One of them was one you'll knowis Bong Soo-Han, and he's
actually came to America in the60s and he's in a lot of what is
it like Bruce Lee movies and soon and so forth?
Yeah, he did a really good joblike Bruce Lee movies and so on
and so forth.
Yeah, he did a really good jobof marketing Hapkido and so on
and so forth.
Our grandmaster, sang-yong Leewas also one of the original
(04:35):
students, but he was promoted bya gentleman named Ji-Han Jae.
Okay, and he was also one ofthe original students.
Why he was promoting.
How the dynamic worked out, Ican't give you that information.
Sure, but he moved to americaas well, didn't have the same
promotion ideas as uh.
You know, bong suhan as muchdid more of a private lessons.
I think there's only one schoolof his in california, um, and
(04:57):
then jihan j his promoter isactually in the 60s and 70s was
the instructor for the uh.
In the 60s and 70s was theinstructor for the South Korean
Secret Service.
Oh, wow, yeah, so Hapkido comesin a real strong point out of
Korea.
Yeah, so I really like theconcept of it.
It's very practical.
It's very to the point whenGrandmaster I'm sorry, yeah,
(05:20):
grandmaster Sim, grandmaster nowhe was Master Sim back then.
He's made it a few more yearshe went with a couple other guys
and met Grandmaster Lee and hehad simplified and made it a
little bit more destructive.
We'll say, okay, more street,practical.
Okay, because if you look atHapkido like, say, on the
(05:48):
internet, and so on and so forth.
It looks really fancy, very, youknow, very choreographed and
stuff like that.
But the style we teach is morestreet, practical.
It's to the point.
You know one, two, three, fourmoves.
We want to be done with thefight.
We don't want to ever fightright, but we have to.
We want to win.
I always tell my kids and myadults it's better to win the
fight and go home and be withyour family.
You know, there's no reason tobe that tough guy and prove a
point.
It's just easier to walk awayif necessary.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
But yeah, and so Hapkido is is self-defense yes
sir.
And for adults and kids, yepand men and women.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yes, okay, it works great for everybody, women
especially.
I really like Hapkido as like aprecursor to even opening
yourself up to other martialarts, and that's kind of how it
worked out for me.
Once we started learning how toblend throws with punches and
Hapkido, then I'm like, well, Ineed to learn Judo Sure because
now what is Judo?
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah, right, so now.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Judo is created in 1882 by Jigoro Kano, and it is
all about basically grabbingonto somebody and manipulating
their body, getting them offbalance in a certain way shape
or form, and you use your hands,your hips or your feet to take
them off the ground and put themon the ground.
So it's kind of like an oldsamurai way.
It's used as a sport.
Now it's an Olympic sport.
(06:59):
I mean, it can be aself-defense as well too.
It's however you want to put it.
We focus on the sport aspectbecause it really puts you out
there For one.
We want to take people up inthat level and that sport aspect
if they wish.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Is judo a belt-specific sport, like a
white belt you start and then ablack belt in judo, or no?
Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
It goes white, yellow , orange, green, then it goes
brown, brown, brown and then youget your black belt and I don't
know why they do the threebrown belts.
I never did do much researchinto that.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
So you literally get three different brown belts.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Well, you keep the same one, and it just gets
really dirty.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Gotcha, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Basically is kind of how that goes.
But judo is all about takingsomebody off their feet.
Either throw them on their back, uh, they land on their side,
or you can take them down andpin them, choke them and some uh
armbar them as well.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Sure finish and is it ?
Is it fun?
I actually just went.
We have a coach, coach seth,okay, um, who is uh, into like m
Cool, and I actually just wentto my first fight ever.
The LFA was in town, sure, sure,and I know like the only thing
I know about any of this stuffis literally that I used to hear
(08:15):
you guys doing it behind when Iwas in, you know, opening Fit
Body, and you guys were behindus.
So, like, that is the extent ofmy knowledge.
I never took Taekwondo, sure, Inever did any of these programs
Right, and so he just gets,coach Seth gets excited beyond
belief, which kind of reminds mea bit of you when I talk to you
(08:37):
about any of the Hapkido orJudo or any of the stuff that
you were teaching.
Yep, because I can see thepeople that do this there
becomes a very big passion in it.
Yeah, but to my, my point thatI guess I was getting at is when
I was watching these LFA fights.
They're they're MMA and theywere like the ones we were
watching.
There was like three rounds andI think they're like five
(08:58):
minutes per round.
Is that like how judo is played?
Or or, or performed?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
No, yeah, you said it right, we call it playing.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, okay, it's a game.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
It gets serious more as you go up.
But we call each other playersYep.
And then I just tell, even withmy kids, yeah, let's go play a
game.
Yep, it goes by ages Okay,three minutes on up.
Okay, three minutes for theyoung kids and four minutes for
the seniors.
For a round.
For a round, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
And how many rounds?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Only one, one round, only one.
If nobody scores or if you'retied at the end of the match,
then you go to golden score andthe first person to score wins
After that.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
So yeah, three minutes done and then golden
score, yep, and there's apenalty system too.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
So if you get three penalties and you do something
incorrect, step out of bounds,grip wrong, touch somebody's
face, you get three penalties.
It's called a Han Sakamaki, andthen you're done for that match
.
Okay, you're not kicked out ofthe tournament, but you're out
of that match and you lost.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
The opponent won.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Yes, basically, basically.
So the judo aspect is just judois one of the hardest things
I've ever learned.
I'm actually learning jujitsunow too, and we'll get to that
shortly, but judo is one of thehardest things you ever learn.
Why?
Let's put it like judo andjujitsu they're basically the
same thing.
They've just divided it up overthe years, which is okay,
(10:23):
because they both take a reallylong time to learn.
It is hard to manipulatesomebody else's body while
manipulating your body to getthat person out of the ground.
I mean, if you've ever been ina wrestling match with somebody
and you try, and it's not easy,you know what I mean.
So it's very, very difficult toand that's the thing with
judoka.
Is that perfection?
And we call it?
Actually, a buddy of mine, djput it in a really good way it's
a moment in time.
(10:44):
That's all you get in judo is amoment in time.
You've got to catch them whenthey're stepping.
You've got to catch them whenthey're moving.
It's like when that foot comesdown to the ground.
That's all you have.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Because you're both trying to ground yourself,
you're both trying to find thatsplit second where you catch
them off guard, totally, becausethat's like that's all you get.
And even, even and I'm justgonna relate it back to watching
these mma fights, becauseliterally I just watched them
here over this last weekend,recording this.
But what I noticed is when yougo to the mma fights at least my
(11:19):
first time ever being there Icould even tell by the crowd.
The crowd thrives off of thekicking, the punching, the
fighting.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
But that actually happens very little, correct.
What happens more is just likeholding on to each other.
But what I noticed, and justlike any workout, whenever
you're doing like a isometrichold, where you're just holding
like a plank, for example,correct, or a wall sit, you just
hold your body in a specificflexed fashion.
(11:47):
Yep, next thing, you know thebody and the muscles they start
shaking and the next thing youknow, the body starts sweating
because it's like you are justyou're exerting so much energy,
so much effort, yeah, and you'renot moving Right.
It's like you are givingeverything.
It's like everything you haveand you're not going anywhere.
Correct, and so I could seethat, and so I get to your point
(12:08):
is how you get that splitsecond, and until that split
second happens, you're givingeverything you have, just to not
give them the split second.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yes, yes, and I'm kind of glad you brought that up
, because part of judo is calledone of our tenets is maximum
efficiency with minimal effort.
So like being in that tightposition like you're talking
about.
We try to train them to not bethat way.
We want them to be really,really loose and controlled,
sure, and then when you findthat split second, that's when
(12:37):
you move, that's when you go toit and then that's when you hit
it.
You know, but like judo is justhow else can I put it?
It's like fighting a 200-poundRubik's Cube that fights back.
You're trying to solve thatproblem and it does not want to
be solved very easy.
Yeah, but putting part of thethings that I really was
(12:58):
focusing on, too, when we weredoing the Hop, keto and Judo
program, is putting martial artstogether that complement each
other.
Sure, and I'm not out to knockany other martial art to each
their own.
Yeah, you know, everybody hastheir own skills at what they do
.
And if it makes you happy, rockand roll.
And if you're successful in it,rock and roll.
(13:20):
I don't like the politics ofcertain things.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, just kind of like youpromote the same way as the way
I promote, I feel, is you wantto surround yourself with people
that are going to make youbetter.
Yep, no egos, no showing off,no bully type of system in our
dojo, ever it's.
Everybody helps each other out.
Yeah, and we're not out to beateach other, we're out to beat
(13:44):
the people that are out therethat don't like us.
You know what I mean the punksand so on and so forth.
We always hope that we neverhave to use it, but it sure is
fun learning with your friends.
Even when your friends catchyou and they get you in a good
move, you're like good job, man.
Yeah, you got me.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, it's really cool, I mean, and again, this I
think kind of does correlatewith a lot of different um types
of martial arts, but there'sthere's always, like you see,
like the three or four words andit's like respect and uh, like
you know what I mean like and itteaches, it teaches the
students of the martial arts,these different core values,
(14:21):
almost, if you will, as, and Ithink that's why, a lot of times
, like kids will gravitatetowards this, because they love
learning this sport with likefoundational principles behind
it, like we're not just fightingto fight, no, and in today's
world I feel like you see a lotof that.
(14:41):
You see a lot of fighting justto fight, yeah, and like what is
the purpose?
And so this helps kids and then, obviously, as they grow into
adults and so on, but it helpsthem learn a set of principles.
What are kind of some of themain principles, I guess, that
are instilled in um, in anyone?
But it's specifically the kids.
(15:02):
Like when kids enroll inHapkido, in Judo, what are some
of the principles that they'regoing to learn?
Speaker 2 (15:08):
The three that I focus on mainly are respect,
humble, humility and patience.
Okay, I feel that any way, anyshape or order you put those
three, they're going tocompliment each other.
You have to humble yourself toknow that it's not easy to learn
a technique.
You have to respect yourpartner and not hurt them as
(15:31):
you're doing the technique orgive them what they want, and
you have patience to go througheverything that you're learning.
So the nice thing is martialarts is a team sport but
everybody grows individually.
Same concept as Fit Body.
It really is.
Everybody's there just to getbetter.
Yep, so I really really pushthe respect, the patience, the
(15:53):
humble.
I do it a lot in my teachings.
You know, I feel I'm anoffshoot of the parents as well.
Yeah, because parents, you know, come to me too.
You know like I need a hand.
Yeah, I do it to my mom stillLike.
I do it to my mom still Like.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Mom, what do I?
Speaker 2 (16:06):
do.
Yeah, you know.
So I treat all the kids like Itreat my kids Like I'm going to
bark at them a little bit, likeI bark at my kids.
They don't get away with stuffthat you know.
If you can't get away with thatin my house, you don't get away
with it in my dojo.
You don't talk to your parentswhen you're on my mat.
You know that type of thing.
We try to re reiterate, um, allof those things that the
(16:28):
parents are looking for as welltoo, and I think it actually
kind of translate to the parentsas well I mean, in my common
sense it should.
If they're listening as well,then we're all kind of working
together towards the same goalfor their kids and whatever
we're looking for to accomplish.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
What age can a child start your guys's program at?
And your guys's program, thename of your dojo, is sioux
falls hop, keto and judo,correct, correct.
So what age can somebody startat sioux falls hop, keto and
judo?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
I try to um the thing with uh, it takes a long time
to get through my programs.
Yeah, a lot of people havedelusions of grandeur of, like
I'm going to start my kid offsuper young and get him to
national champ by seven.
Blah, blah, blah.
I do my best to take my timewith that because we do have a
lot of time.
(17:20):
We start around five years old.
Okay, I try to keep just threeor four five-year-olds in
because they're a little bitmore fun than the rest of the
class.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
You know what I mean A little more rainbunches, they
are.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
So they take just a little bit more focus.
So I try to keep that numberdown, but I go all the way.
I mean I have five-year-oldsall the way up to 55 right now.
Yeah, so I push more towards.
I'm going to honestly say Ipush more towards.
You know, eight or nine yearsold for kids to start martial
arts.
Sure, that gives it a niceamount of time for them to get
(17:55):
through high school and to moveon and to get through the entire
program.
Yeah, because martial arts iskind of a lifelong thing too.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
But we don't give belts away.
You know, I only test kidsmaybe once a year and you have
to earn it.
Yeah yeah, oh yeah, definitelyhave to earn it.
Your attitude has to be good.
You have to be good at home.
You have to have good grades.
There's no acting out outsideof there and then showing up and
being like, okay, I'm good togo.
No, we don't allow that either.
You know we promote that andguide that with the parents as
(18:25):
well too.
But yeah, we just try to keepit on that forward-moving
process with the younger kids.
But I'm not about pushing kidsthrough a program and making
money.
I'm about growing people'slives and making them stronger
through the concepts of whatwe're doing.
We may never fight, but we'remaking our bodies stronger.
(18:48):
I've always thought it's betterto be.
My best.
Philosophy is it's better to bea warrior in a garden than a
gardener in a war.
If I never have to use it, Idon't want to use it, I tell
them don't go brag about it.
Put it in your pocket becausepeople want to challenge you, so
just use it.
When you use it, keep yourfamily safe.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah, and I think too there's been times I know only
a couple times, but you'veactually come to Fit Body and
you've taught some likeself-defense a couple of times.
Do you guys offer that at yourdojo from time and time again,
like where it's just likespecific, hey, this day, this
time, we're doing self-defense,or have you now more sort of
(19:25):
kind of included that you learnself-defense when you're in our
program?
Speaker 2 (19:29):
You know it.
Kind of you do both, okay,Since COVID hit, of course, I've
had to pick up something off tothe side, yeah, so I'm a little
bit more busy now, so theself-defense classes are harder
for me to incorporate into mysystem.
Yep, we did have classes for ayear.
It just didn't kick off as muchas I wanted it to.
(19:50):
But we do get calls.
I'm working with somebody nowthrough a church that we're
going to try to work the programthrough and stuff like that too
.
But honestly, self-defenseclasses are a great place to get
a good sense of awareness andto start build your confidence.
Yeah, but once you actually getinto a physical confrontation
(20:12):
and it's scary and you don'tknow what to do, you really
ultimately need that training toreact without thinking.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
And to learn how to work with that fight or flight
mode or panic.
So I like self-defense classes.
I think they're great forawareness, but ultimately, if
you want to learn something, youneed to.
You need to learn how to, howto battle and put yourself
through that type of situation.
Hopefully, I say, we never haveto use it.
Yep, but even just a little bitof confidence in some people
(20:43):
really goes a long way.
It goes a long way.
No is a big word.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
You know what I mean.
Yeah, so, yeah, absolutely.
And so for a person, if theywanted to get started in hop,
keto or judo, uh, with you guyslike, how does that look?
What's the, what's the processgoing to look like for that with
you guys, I'd like to offer atwo week trial.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Okay, uh, I like to do the-week trial because it
gives you a chance to do bothmartial arts.
Basically, all the instructorsare the same.
We have like six black belts inHapkido, six black belts in
Judo, so they get lots ofdifferent knowledge.
But I like to do a two-weekprogram because it's such an
extensive program so you can getto see if you like the kids
(21:25):
like the program, like theinstructors.
If you don't, such as life, ifit's not what you're looking for
, okay, but, um, you know, italso helps us to start grow our
relationship.
You know, it's easier to.
I feel it's easier to looksomebody in the eye and talk to
them and know where they'recoming from than texts and
emails and stuff like that.
Cause you kind of what doesthat mean?
You know, and you keep goingback and forth, so, and you keep
going back and forth, so I liketo get them in the door and
(21:46):
talk to them and then we canfigure out what goals are and
stuff like that.
Two weeks free.
My website isSiouxFallsMartialArtscom.
It has the schedule on there.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
What is your schedule ?
Mostly nights, to tell you thetruth.
Hop Keto is Monday andWednesdays at 630 to 730.
Okay, kids Judo is so basically, monday and Wednesday is
Hapkido and Tuesday, thursday isJudo, Got it.
And then Jiu-Jitsu follows from7.30 to 9.
Okay, after all of thoseclasses, I do believe, yeah,
(22:19):
he's got a Friday class as well.
No, no, I'm sorry, I'mrephrasing.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Saturday class at noon is what he's got.
Okay, and yeah, that's on thewebsite and obviously, if they
are interested and whatnot andchatting with you, they can
learn more about that.
For sure, does your studio workin the way in which if you sign
up for Judo, then you're doingJudo, or if you sign up for
Hapkido then you're doingHapkido, or is it?
I am a member of your club andyou can do kind of both.
(22:49):
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (22:50):
It's kind of complicated at the moment I wish
it wasn't, but I'm working withanother coach at the moment and
we're with the jujitsu coachtogether.
So basically, if you sign upwith me for Hapkido and Judo,
you can do Hapkido and Judo atthe same time.
If you are looking for justlike a grappler's package me and
Coach Sawyer with the Misfitsyou can do like judo and
(23:11):
jiu-jitsu and we have a packagebetween us that we kind of
discuss in the dojo Because hekind of takes care of that Sure.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
It's a little more custom package.
I take care of mine.
He's growing and we're workingon the growing type thing which
is good for both of us.
Yeah, absolutely, Absolutelyyeah absolutely, absolutely yeah
.
And in a given class you callthem classes, yep classes, just
a regular class.
In a given class could you havelike five-year-olds upwards of
like 50-year-olds in one class,or no?
(23:41):
It's broken.
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Actually, I'm glad you brought that up because I
focus my Hop Keto programtowards families.
Okay, you brought that upbecause I focus my Hop Keto
program towards families.
I have a kids class 10 andunder on Wednesday nights for 45
minutes, but the Monday andWednesday 630 class I promote
(24:04):
families.
I think it's great to have adad come in with their daughter
and learn how to take care ofthemselves.
They can practice together athome.
Yeah, On top of that, you know,it builds the family
Everybody's stronger.
Who wants to come into a housefull of martial artists?
Speaker 1 (24:14):
You know what I?
Speaker 2 (24:15):
mean Right, but I can't do that with judo as much,
because it's just a little bitdifferent.
But with Hapkido I can.
Definitely.
I push them as family classes.
More family, yeah, morefamilies you can bring in.
I cap.
You know, my family pricingcaps off at four people.
So you can have eight peopleand you're going to pay the same
(24:36):
as four.
Oh, sure, I just don't believein emptying family's pockets.
Sure, just to learn somemartial arts and to make your
family safer, yeah, so I justkind of leave it at that.
Yeah, yeah, I try to do thebest I can for families.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yeah, that's very cool.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
So that's kind of how that works.
Other than that, too, why didyou personally let's talk a
little bit about like you andyourself, why did you want to
get into martial arts and,speaking of which, before that,
have a second to think about,maybe why you wanted to get in
Sure.
When did you get started?
What age were you when youstarted martial arts?
Speaker 2 (25:06):
I started at 30 years old, okay, and I just happened
to have a friend who was goingto J-Ho's gym, yep, and we were
big into, I mean, ufc was justcoming out.
I think it was like UFC 50 orsomething like that Chuck
Liddell, randy Couture days, youknow what I mean Steven Bonner
and Forrest Griffin, all thatkind of stuff.
(25:27):
So I knew that I needed to getinto it.
It was a choice I had to makebecause I wanted a standing art,
yep, and I wanted a ground art.
So I was this close to going toNext Edge, okay, because they
were doing Muay Thai andJiu-Jitsu, yeah, and I was like,
well, those two are pretty well.
After watching MMA, I wanted tomake sure I put two things
(25:48):
together that made sense, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
You know, because you got to have standing and you
got to have ground.
In my opinion, I think nextactually I know that's where
Coach Seth goes- oh really, he'sthere too.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Yeah, yeah, coach Bruce is a great guy.
He's got a good program going.
He's been growing like crazyand I just kind of there was
only four in the Hop Keto classand we just kind of got into it.
Yeah, I just dug it.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Like the discipline of it.
I was shouting loud, I waskicking hard.
Everybody else was like dude,you know, like chill out, and
I'm like no, this is my thingnow.
I'm having fun, yeah, and likeall the stuff that.
Master Sim taught you could tellwas legit.
(26:41):
It wasn't foo-foo.
You know what I mean.
I didn't want to go to a mcdojo, yep.
And yeah, like the guy workedme out, made me puke.
My first class I was.
I did so many tricep push-upsdude, I thought I was tough and
I think I sat in a chair forlike three days with ice packs
just popping pain pills.
But I told him I was like I'mcoming.
I was like I'm never, just waitfor me.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
You know, and then it kind of just started from there
and eventually the judo programgrew.
I was just into the hop keto tostart with, yeah, and then the
judo program grew and everythingjust kind of snowballed into
that.
Yeah.
But I started when I was about30.
I didn't want to be 40 yearsold and out of shape and not be
able to do anything about it.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
So 38, because you're 47?
46.
46, okay, so 37,.
38 was about the time you tookover.
Yeah, right, yeah.
So you'd been doing it for sixto eight years with Jay.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
With Master Sam yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
And then, as it came time, and honestly, him closing
down his portion of the studiowhen he did turned out to be the
biggest blessing for me, oh,yeah, because I had no idea what
I was looking for, sure, andwhen I found I had Jay-Z, who
was my realtor, yeah, and hebrought me.
He's like, hey, there's thismartial arts studio that's going
(27:52):
to be downsizing.
I want you to come look at this.
And I don't have a clue whatI'm looking for.
I need to open a fit body.
I'm like I'm over in this gym,what do I need?
And when he showed me that space, I still remember there was
these dragons on the wall andwhen we painted over the dragons
, we did our best to cover themup, but they continued to seep
through and it was like a coupleof years these dragons were
(28:24):
popping through the white paint,taking out a repaint.
I remember that, contending tocover up the dragons.
But then you moved to that backportion of that facility and it
just worked out really well forthe both of us.
Yeah, and I think that you andI both, I just can remember you
know, I was opening Fit Body,you were taking over the Hapkido
and Judo, and there'd be timeswhere we would sit there and in
middle of the day there wasn't alot going on for either of us
at that point.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
yeah, at that point, uh times are different now?
Speaker 1 (28:41):
yep, but we would.
I'd maybe pop back into yourdojo and just chit chat with you
like, hey, how are we gonna getsome more people in here?
And we'd just talk and we'dfigure out, you know what we
could do, and we'd do somedifferent things.
And I remember you'd pop in thefront like, hey, you know
anything about Facebook?
We were just talking, trying tofigure out what the heck we were
going to do.
And we shared a back hallwayand we shared a bathroom, and I
(29:05):
think that both you and I hadsuch the like, let's make it
work mentality, totally when youknow, our landlord, even too,
was like, well, who's going topay for what and what?
And we always worked it out,yep, yep, and we just we didn't
(29:26):
know what we didn't know, and wejust worked hard to service
whatever person walked throughour door.
And then we tried to figure outhow could we have mutual
clients, how could, maybe, howcould maybe if the kids are
going to judo or Hapkido couldthe mom or dad come?
to bootcamp or vice versa, andand we even worked some of those
things out and that's how I Imet, um, some of the awesome, uh
, chloe and her mom, holly.
That's right, that's how I metthem, and I even helped holly
(29:47):
with some, uh, other stuff forher full-time job now doing
emceeing of different things,and it's just been been crazy
how you never know who you'regoing to meet.
Nope that here we are, almost10 years later.
Yeah, and what was it?
Maybe two weeks ago I shot youa text and I was like, hey, I'm
just trying to get more exposureto different health and
(30:09):
wellness type of things in town.
You want to come on the podcast?
And here we are and we met in2015, 2014.
Yep, is when we originally met.
Yeah, um, and it's wild, yourwife, um, and you were clients
forever at at the gym and youknow you'd pop over there and,
man, it was so much fun when wecould have, I think, even times
(30:31):
you'd bring even some of all ofyour instructors over and we
would all work out together andyou'd be almost like a
requirement that you're like heyguys, before we do our training
tonight, we're going to go doboot camp.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yep and we just had fun.
It was a blast.
It was a blast.
I remember doing that Saturdaymornings yes, you know, renting
the space or whatever what I hadto do, push them through, and
then we'd go truth, like if Iwasn't doing my dojo, I'd be at
(31:01):
Fit Body.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
That's, that would be, that's,that's my next step, you know,
just to stay into shape and tokeep going when after I get too
old, or whatever you want tocall it.
You know, yeah, uh, but yeah,that was always fun.
(31:23):
I always enjoyed sessions.
You know, we could feed off ofeach other and that's really
nice because we were both inthat same position of here we go
.
You know, like, what did wejust get into?
Yeah, we got passion.
Now, what?
Yeah?
So, yeah, uh, and it'sdefinitely been.
It's been a great rollercoaster of a ride, but it's
definitely holy cow.
The things you've accomplishedin almost 10 years and the
things that I've accomplished in10 years.
Wild for what we're doing isand out of Sioux Falls, South
Dakota, for that matter it'scrazy Like, yeah, we're taking
over the world from South DakotaAlways been my goal, yeah, so,
(31:44):
yeah, it's been absolutelywonderful.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Tell me you were mentioning, before we started
recording that, something aboutthe only registered Hapkido.
Or you said that your guys'club is the only has the only
registered.
You're telling me what was it?
Yeah, we actually.
It's three things, which iswonderful.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
We're the only hop keto within god knows how far
okay never really heard of anyother hop keto.
We're the only nationallyregistered uh judo club in the
state, which means that, uh,your promotions and everything.
Now there's a registration feeand that's such as life.
You know that always goes forthings, yep, but your promotions
don't go null and void Likethey're nationally recognized oh
(32:24):
cool.
You can bring your card to anyjudo club in America and be like
you know, boom.
Whether they want to recognizeit or not is fine.
But nationally you'rerecognized and once you get up
in ranks then you start.
You know placing and you knowgetting points for tournaments,
and then you know, then you'reon the national roster.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
The other thing we have, which is kind of ironic
because five years ago yesterdayis when we met Coach Sawyer.
Yeah, my buddy Chris and I hadstarted.
Mainly Chris forced me becausehe's my good friend of mine.
He's like you do what you did,sue.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
I was like okay, fine .
Speaker 2 (33:02):
You know, I took off all my gis and all my ropes on
my body and then he laid on meand killed me in like two and a
half minutes, which is pressure.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
So is jiu-jitsu.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
You don't wear a gi, not in the style that we do.
Okay, we do all no-gi jiu-jitsu, which is very, in my opinion,
user-friendly.
Sure, you don't have to buy agi.
You can show up in your shortsand t-shirt.
Eventually, you're going to buythe cool stuff that everybody
else is wearing, don't get mewrong.
Sure, sure, but yeah, you canshow up in your flip-flop shorts
and t-shirt and just start tolearn.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
And you do this barefoot, Yep barefoot on the
ground, yep, yep.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
And the 10th Planet style is just so much fun.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Yeah.
And so I remember for myself.
I mean, I'm veryunknowledgeable in the martial
arts world, sure.
And I remember even thinkinglike what's a gi?
Sure.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I didn't even know.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
So maybe someone that's watching or listening to
this episode, maybe they're alsolike what is a gi?
Yeah, that makes sense.
So what is a gi?
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Gi is just the uniform that we wear.
It's usually made out of aharder um thicker canvas.
Okay, so when we're like when Ihad my hot keto uniforms, they
weren't as thick and we werepulling arms off when we were
doing throws, like we're pullingsleeves off of people's
uniforms, ripping them so yeah,so these are a little bit uh,
tighter and that just standardcolor is white for judo.
Got you, um, when you intonationals you need white and
(34:16):
blue for competition.
But you know, gi is just, it'sbasically a canvas kimono is
what they call it, and it'spants and a coat.
Yeah, pants and a coat and abelt, and you just tie your belt
around it.
You're good to go.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
And do you literally use like so, if you're a one of
the three brown belts, yes, orany colored, but do you
literally use that belt to tieyour gi?
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Yeah, it just goes over like a regular standard
belt keeps your kimono crossedor keeps your gi crossed and
attached.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
And so when you start , that's your white belt.
Right you get the white belt,and then, as you go up, you get
the other colored belt andthat's the belt you tie it with
Yep, and that is a gi, yep.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Okay, that's how the gi works G-I A gi, g-i yeah,
just G-I yeah.
Okay, it's a fun one, likeheroes, you know like how do you
say that one, because it'sspelled so many different ways
too, like a giro, A gyro, a gyro.
Yes, yeah, it was always fun.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Okay, so that's what a gi is Is just shorts, t-shirt,
no shoes, rock and roll, yeah,okay.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yeah, and it gets really, really interesting and
the great thing you know like weare the only just strictly
no-gi practicing club in SiouxFalls.
Okay, we do the 10th Planetsystem.
No one else is doing the 10thPlanet system.
What?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
does that mean?
Speaker 2 (35:32):
10th Planet is something that came up.
And speaking of MMA, eddieBravo, I'm sorry, john Jacques
Machado created it and he was ajiu-jitsu player and he's only
got like two fingers, twofingers, and he's only got a
couple fingers, so he had towork on underhooks and overhooks
because he couldn't grip.
Yeah, so that's kind of whereit started from.
(35:53):
It's more of an MMA style.
I'm going to say I started from.
It's more of an MMA style.
I'm going to say I mean, alljujitsu is an MMA style.
Okay, but a lot of thepositions for the 10th Planet
Jujitsu is meant for not gettinghit in the face.
If you're on your back, there'sways to hold the guy to you to
where you don't get hit andstruck, and so on and so forth.
So that intrigued me and that'swhy I kind of just started that
(36:17):
program.
Plus, you know everybodyalready, kind of there's a
couple different places thathave a gi jiu-jitsu program.
So yeah, as a business you wantto separate yourself in some
way different.
Yeah, absolutely uh, we justhappened to run into sawyer who
was moving into at a tournament,the local tournament here in
sioux falls yeah and he was theonly one there.
It was funny because he won allhis matches.
(36:38):
But they were two sorriers andthey messed the names up, so he
ended up taking the bronze.
But he just humbled, smiled andkept going yeah, dude is super
laid back.
Sure, amazing, coach knows hisstuff, super awesome.
Yeah, very creative.
That's the fun part aboutjujitsujitsu is like I always
tell them I don't care how I die, as long as it's cool.
(36:59):
You better do something cool tome.
Sure, you know what I'm saying.
Sure, so actually stepping intothat as a white belt and taking
off my black belt a coupleyears was a very interesting
type of situation.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Probably like pretty humbling right.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Super humbling, yeah, because you have a little bit
of pride in your black belts andstuff like that.
Yeah, but you learn thatthey're meant for certain
situations, yeah.
So now I have a standing, athrowing, and I'm working on my
ground techniques.
I don't know what I'm going todo with it at almost 50.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Sure but.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
I'm just staying in shape at this point.
I just really like the program.
My youngest son, Cole.
I train with him in jiu-jitsu.
Okay, how old's Cole now, oh,he's 12.
Oh man Dude, he's like 150pounds too.
He's like no joke.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
Wild.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
He's only like 15 pounds lighter than me.
He just needs the height.
You know, my oldest is justgraduating college this week.
Actually, oh my goodness, yeah,dude, yeah, dude, noah's
graduating college this week.
Yeah, that's wild.
He's 6'2" 190.
You know, I don't know, mustskip a generation or something
like that.
Lucky kids, yeah, but they'regoing to be some big boys
Because I do remember for youkind of gaining weight was
(38:07):
always difficult.
Oh, it's almost impossible.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
Yeah, you've got like a super fast metabolism.
You stay very active and I doremember that was something
always like.
And that is for for the averageclient that I work with and
even for myself, like I fallinto the category where I don't
have any problem gaining weight.
Um, I definitely have problemkeeping the weight off and
losing weight.
Sure, I wouldn't say problem,but it's more difficult for me.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Yeah, right, and as we get older, it's harder.
Yeah, yeah so.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yeah, so that's just wild though.
Yeah, noah, graduating college,cole training with you.
Yeah, it's wild man, super,super cool.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
And he actually got me a couple weeks ago.
I was playing soft with him andI shouldn't have been, because
now he's starting to get strong.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
And he took that split second.
He got it.
He caught you on your splitsecond.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
I was so happy.
Yeah, I was like boy.
But now he got a little, he gottoo happy and I had to bring
him back down a little bit.
But yeah, that's what you want,I mean as a coach, as a dad.
Eventually your students shouldcatch you.
Yeah, I mean you always havetricks, but if you taught them
right, then, yeah, they knoweverything.
(39:14):
You know, you know what I mean.
So it just kind of falls intoplace.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Yeah, that's awesome, and so, as it pertains to
Hapkido and Judo with Jiu-Jitsu,you know, the whole thing of it
is that I really just hope thatour audience understands that
health and fitness and workingout, moving your body there are
so many ways, and so, really,one of the things we've been
really working on is bringing ondifferent guests to this show
(39:39):
that have a knowledge differentthan mine, but it is encouraging
movement, it is encouragingwellness, is encouraging taking
care of your body, mind, bodyand soul.
The whole works, and so I justlove that you have this program,
that you have this gym, thatyou're passionate about it.
I love that, even through theups and downs of life, you have
(40:03):
continued to find a way to keepit going.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Because, from a business owner, I understand
it's difficult and there aresacrifices that I'm sure that
you've had to even make withyour family and with those that
you love to keep this thinggoing.
And that's just.
It's awesome and it should besomething that you should be
proud of, which I know you areTotally, and I really want just
our listeners to know thatthat's an option.
(40:29):
You know there's many optionsin town for moving your body and
staying in shape and doingsomething, and maybe, if you've
tried something that you justdidn't love, whatever type of
fitness that might be, try morethings.
Absolutely, get out there andtry more things.
What we'll do is we'll put alink in the description of this
video or in the description ofthis episode so that people can
(40:50):
find your website and on therecan they find a spot to be able
to get a hold of you and thenmaybe even claim like two free
weeks.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Yeah, totally, totally.
There's a trial free.
And then they just email me andI say absolutely, come on in
whenever you're ready.
Cool that type of situation.
If you'd like to, you can justcome in as well.
We are at 3504 South MinnesotaAvenue.
We're actually not far, we'rejust across.
I can see your building from mybuilding.
So we're just on the other sideof Minnesota, there behind,
actually, someplace gone, soit's going to be like Heartland
(41:18):
Computers and stuff like that.
So we're not very far from thecentral location.
But I agree with you 100%, andwhether it's martial arts or fit
body or whatever, everybodyjust needs to find their niche.
That's it.
And even if you can do it withyour family, that's even better.
Yeah, but stay in shape, stayhappy.
(41:39):
And I still wonder why we likebeing sore to stay in shape.
But you know, that's just partof the thing that we go Part of
it right.
It's almost the prize of okay, Idid a good job.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Yeah, and I don't mind that part either get off
your couch, go have some fun,grab a friend and find something
fun.
You know, and with that I thinkthe thing with it is like if
you don't choose to go make yourbody sore in effort of getting
better, in effort of staying inshape, if you don't choose to go
find that sore, then whathappens is that sore finds you.
(42:13):
That's right.
And so I kind of feel like gofind it, because either way,
you're going to end up at apoint in life where you're sore
and I'd rather it be your sorebecause you chose to go move
your body and make your bodybetter, strengthen it.
Then, for all of a sudden, youdefine yourself at this point in
life where it hurts to walk.
It hurts to move it hurts to getup and down off the ground and
(42:37):
and the truth is which is a sadtruth, but unfortunately that is
what happens it does.
If you don't choose to takecare of your body.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Yep, and I tell you what I'm 46, still doing martial
arts, and I don't mind the soreand I feel great every day.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
You know, it's like I can tell myself that I did
something that was worthwhile,yeah, and I can compare myself
to some others and I'd like totake them along on my vision of
my journey with me.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
You know, health and fitness, however you get it is
just super important for yourbody and for your mind as well.
I always tell my students aswell the day you don't want to
go is the day you need to go.
Yes, the hardest day is alwaysthe best day.
Yep, for some reason you don'tknow why you just have to keep
that positive thought process ofsomething's going to happen
today and I'm going to be reallyglad that I went Plus here.
(43:25):
You got to make sure thatyou're paying attention to your
work out there.
You don't want to get punchedin the face, so it kind of shuts
your mind off, and you've gotto focus on what you're doing,
be present.
Yeah, yeah, you got to bepresent.
You got to be accountable forwhat you're doing and make sure
you give it 100% of whateveryou're doing too.
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Or else it's not going to get anywhere.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
That's right.
Well, I love that you guys Letthat kind of go with you
throughout the day is be present, put 100% into what it is that
you're doing and just know that,whatever stage of life that
you're in right now, in a yearfrom now, it could be 100%
different, and for the better,if you would just decide today
to take action.
Thank you guys for joining uson this episode of the Sioux
(44:05):
Falls Fit and Healthy Show.
What I'll do is I'll pop thatlink in the description.
You can meet my good friendScooby in person.
Scooby, just thank you so muchfor taking the time to be here.
I appreciate it, my man.
You guys like, subscribe andshare this episode, because it's
only because of you liking,subscribing and sharing that we
can keep making this for freefor you.
(44:26):
Have an awesome day, you guys.
We'll catch you on the nextepisode of the Fit and Healthy
Sioux Falls Show.
Bye, you guys.
Peace, have a good day.
What is going on?
Welcome to the next episode ofthe Fit and Healthy Sioux Falls
Show man.
We are in for a ride today,kind of down memory lane.
I've got an awesome guest withme.
I call him Scooby, others callhim Ryan, but we're going to
dive into the Sioux FallsHapkido and Judo Club and what
(00:21):
it is all about.
Let's dive in to today'sepisode.
Mr Scooby, what is up, bro?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Hey, cj, it's nice to see you again, dude, I love it.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
So do people call you Scooby.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Everybody calls me Scooby.
Everybody does, I've beencalled Scooby since high school.
It's one of those things thatkind of kicked off and then
really just stuck and I neverreally got rid of it, to tell
you the truth too.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
There have been stints in our relationship where
I have actually forgot whatyour name was Sure, sure.
I'm like Scooby what in theheck is his real name?
And I just I got stuck becauseyeah, scooby, and really Scooby
and I, you know we met, we meetlike right away 2015.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, it was.
I was moving out of the frontof the building and you were
moving into the front of thebuilding and I was moving to the
back, to the back.
We were in a transition periodwith the martial arts dojo as
you came in, so that's kind ofwhere we kicked off what we have
now to tell you the truth.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, the martial arts dojo, the studio that I
moved into.
You did not own it at the time,right Like in the beginning,
when you guys were in the front.
It was owned by someone else,correct, and you took over
ownership when you transitionedinto the back of that building.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yep, that's correct.
Also, it was Master Jeho Sam.
Yes, he had been teaching forprobably 30 to 35 years at that
point, from what I remember.
Yeah, he was about my age now,to tell you the truth, about 47,
somewhere close to 52, I dobelieve somewhere in there and
it was just.
I think he felt it was justkind of his time to move on.
(02:25):
I was in a good spot to justkind of take over and start to
rebuild in a different type ofplatform, change the name and
focusing on a little bit more ofHapkido and Judo, because he
was a Hapkido, judo andTaekwondo master Just amazing to
watch, kick and strike.
It was awesome.
But yeah, he was kind of justworking his way out a little bit
was a hop, keto, judo,anti-quando master just amazing
to watch, kick and strike, itwas.
It was awesome, uh.
(02:46):
But yeah, he was kind of justworking his way out a little bit
, yep, and I just kind of pickedup the pieces with a few of the
other black belts and startedto grow.
Shoot, nine years ago now.
Yeah, so I'll be.
Yeah, man, it's been.
It's been a wild ride.
It's amazing where we've gonefrom um, starting from about
eight students I think we're at50 to 60 at this point, that's.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
That's about where we kind of like to be comfortable
with so yeah, but yeah beginningof that is really a neat thing,
so yeah, explain to to ouraudience and re-explain to even
me.
Um, remind me what is Hop Ketoand then what is Judo.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Sure, um, that's really nice.
I'm going to go into it alittle bit.
I really started with theHopkido program because I was
big into just self-defense Okay,wanting to be able to take care
of myself.
And Hopkido best way to put itis like the MMA of martial arts.
It's actually meant to fightother martial arts.
It has to do with kicking,striking you learn Jo throws,
(03:46):
you learn ground submissionssuch as arm bars and chokes and
pins and so on and so forth.
But it's a really fundamentalmartial art.
So I really really like thatone.
It came around 1920s.
I'll give you a little historylesson on it because we have
kind of a direct lineage to it,which is really crazy, being
from South Dakota, oh cool.
So it started in 1920s, choiYoung-Sool, and then he
(04:10):
eventually had about 15 students.
One of them was one you'll knowis Bong Soo-Han, and he's
actually came to America in the60s and he's in a lot of what is
it like Bruce Lee movies and soon and so forth?
Yeah, he did a really good joblike Bruce Lee movies and so on
and so forth.
Yeah, he did a really good jobof marketing Hapkido and so on
and so forth.
Our grandmaster, sang-yong Leewas also one of the original
(04:35):
students, but he was promoted bya gentleman named Ji-Han Jae.
Okay, and he was also one ofthe original students.
Why he was promoting.
How the dynamic worked out, Ican't give you that information.
Sure, but he moved to americaas well, didn't have the same
promotion ideas as uh.
You know, bong suhan as muchdid more of a private lessons.
I think there's only one schoolof his in california, um, and
(04:57):
then jihan j his promoter isactually in the 60s and 70s was
the instructor for the uh.
In the 60s and 70s was theinstructor for the South Korean
Secret Service.
Oh, wow, yeah, so Hapkido comesin a real strong point out of
Korea.
Yeah, so I really like theconcept of it.
It's very practical.
It's very to the point whenGrandmaster I'm sorry, yeah,
(05:20):
grandmaster Sim, grandmaster nowhe was Master Sim back then.
He's made it a few more yearshe went with a couple other guys
and met Grandmaster Lee and hehad simplified and made it a
little bit more destructive.
We'll say, okay, more street,practical.
Okay, because if you look atHapkido like, say, on the
(05:48):
internet, and so on and so forth.
It looks really fancy, very, youknow, very choreographed and
stuff like that.
But the style we teach is morestreet, practical.
It's to the point.
You know one, two, three, fourmoves.
We want to be done with thefight.
We don't want to ever fightright, but we have to.
We want to win.
I always tell my kids and myadults it's better to win the
fight and go home and be withyour family.
You know, there's no reason tobe that tough guy and prove a
point.
It's just easier to walk awayif necessary.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
But yeah, and so Hapkido is is self-defense yes
sir.
And for adults and kids, yepand men and women.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yes, okay, it works great for everybody, women
especially.
I really like Hapkido as like aprecursor to even opening
yourself up to other martialarts, and that's kind of how it
worked out for me.
Once we started learning how toblend throws with punches and
Hapkido, then I'm like, well, Ineed to learn Judo Sure because
now what is Judo?
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah, right, so now.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Judo is created in 1882 by Jigoro Kano, and it is
all about basically grabbingonto somebody and manipulating
their body, getting them offbalance in a certain way shape
or form, and you use your hands,your hips or your feet to take
them off the ground and put themon the ground.
So it's kind of like an oldsamurai way.
It's used as a sport.
Now it's an Olympic sport.
(06:59):
I mean, it can be aself-defense as well too.
It's however you want to put it.
We focus on the sport aspectbecause it really puts you out
there For one.
We want to take people up inthat level and that sport aspect
if they wish.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Is judo a belt-specific sport, like a
white belt you start and then ablack belt in judo, or no?
Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
It goes white, yellow , orange, green, then it goes
brown, brown, brown and then youget your black belt and I don't
know why they do the threebrown belts.
I never did do much researchinto that.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
So you literally get three different brown belts.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Well, you keep the same one, and it just gets
really dirty.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Gotcha, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Basically is kind of how that goes.
But judo is all about takingsomebody off their feet.
Either throw them on their back, uh, they land on their side,
or you can take them down andpin them, choke them and some uh
armbar them as well.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Sure finish and is it ?
Is it fun?
I actually just went.
We have a coach, coach seth,okay, um, who is uh, into like m
Cool, and I actually just wentto my first fight ever.
The LFA was in town, sure, sure,and I know like the only thing
I know about any of this stuffis literally that I used to hear
(08:15):
you guys doing it behind when Iwas in, you know, opening Fit
Body, and you guys were behindus.
So, like, that is the extent ofmy knowledge.
I never took Taekwondo, sure, Inever did any of these programs
Right, and so he just gets,coach Seth gets excited beyond
belief, which kind of reminds mea bit of you when I talk to you
(08:37):
about any of the Hapkido orJudo or any of the stuff that
you were teaching.
Yep, because I can see thepeople that do this there
becomes a very big passion in it.
Yeah, but to my, my point thatI guess I was getting at is when
I was watching these LFA fights.
They're they're MMA and theywere like the ones we were
watching.
There was like three rounds andI think they're like five
(08:58):
minutes per round.
Is that like how judo is played?
Or or, or performed?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
No, yeah, you said it right, we call it playing.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, okay, it's a game.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
It gets serious more as you go up.
But we call each other playersYep.
And then I just tell, even withmy kids, yeah, let's go play a
game.
Yep, it goes by ages Okay,three minutes on up.
Okay, three minutes for theyoung kids and four minutes for
the seniors.
For a round.
For a round, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
And how many rounds?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Only one, one round, only one.
If nobody scores or if you'retied at the end of the match,
then you go to golden score andthe first person to score wins
After that.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
So yeah, three minutes done and then golden
score, yep, and there's apenalty system too.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
So if you get three penalties and you do something
incorrect, step out of bounds,grip wrong, touch somebody's
face, you get three penalties.
It's called a Han Sakamaki, andthen you're done for that match
.
Okay, you're not kicked out ofthe tournament, but you're out
of that match and you lost.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
The opponent won.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Yes, basically, basically.
So the judo aspect is just judois one of the hardest things
I've ever learned.
I'm actually learning jujitsunow too, and we'll get to that
shortly, but judo is one of thehardest things you ever learn.
Why?
Let's put it like judo andjujitsu they're basically the
same thing.
They've just divided it up overthe years, which is okay,
(10:23):
because they both take a reallylong time to learn.
It is hard to manipulatesomebody else's body while
manipulating your body to getthat person out of the ground.
I mean, if you've ever been ina wrestling match with somebody
and you try, and it's not easy,you know what I mean.
So it's very, very difficult toand that's the thing with
judoka.
Is that perfection?
And we call it?
Actually, a buddy of mine, djput it in a really good way it's
a moment in time.
(10:44):
That's all you get in judo is amoment in time.
You've got to catch them whenthey're stepping.
You've got to catch them whenthey're moving.
It's like when that foot comesdown to the ground.
That's all you have.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Because you're both trying to ground yourself,
you're both trying to find thatsplit second where you catch
them off guard, totally, becausethat's like that's all you get.
And even, even and I'm justgonna relate it back to watching
these mma fights, becauseliterally I just watched them
here over this last weekend,recording this.
But what I noticed is when yougo to the mma fights at least my
(11:19):
first time ever being there Icould even tell by the crowd.
The crowd thrives off of thekicking, the punching, the
fighting.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
But that actually happens very little, correct.
What happens more is just likeholding on to each other.
But what I noticed, and justlike any workout, whenever
you're doing like a isometrichold, where you're just holding
like a plank, for example,correct, or a wall sit, you just
hold your body in a specificflexed fashion.
(11:47):
Yep, next thing, you know thebody and the muscles they start
shaking and the next thing youknow, the body starts sweating
because it's like you are justyou're exerting so much energy,
so much effort, yeah, and you'renot moving Right.
It's like you are givingeverything.
It's like everything you haveand you're not going anywhere.
Correct, and so I could seethat, and so I get to your point
(12:08):
is how you get that splitsecond, and until that split
second happens, you're givingeverything you have, just to not
give them the split second.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yes, yes, and I'm kind of glad you brought that up
, because part of judo is calledone of our tenets is maximum
efficiency with minimal effort.
So like being in that tightposition like you're talking
about.
We try to train them to not bethat way.
We want them to be really,really loose and controlled,
sure, and then when you findthat split second, that's when
(12:37):
you move, that's when you go toit and then that's when you hit
it.
You know, but like judo is justhow else can I put it?
It's like fighting a 200-poundRubik's Cube that fights back.
You're trying to solve thatproblem and it does not want to
be solved very easy.
Yeah, but putting part of thethings that I really was
(12:58):
focusing on, too, when we weredoing the Hop, keto and Judo
program, is putting martial artstogether that complement each
other.
Sure, and I'm not out to knockany other martial art to each
their own.
Yeah, you know, everybody hastheir own skills at what they do
.
And if it makes you happy, rockand roll.
And if you're successful in it,rock and roll.
(13:20):
I don't like the politics ofcertain things.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, just kind of like youpromote the same way as the way
I promote, I feel, is you wantto surround yourself with people
that are going to make youbetter.
Yep, no egos, no showing off,no bully type of system in our
dojo, ever it's.
Everybody helps each other out.
Yeah, and we're not out to beateach other, we're out to beat
(13:44):
the people that are out therethat don't like us.
You know what I mean the punksand so on and so forth.
We always hope that we neverhave to use it, but it sure is
fun learning with your friends.
Even when your friends catchyou and they get you in a good
move, you're like good job, man.
Yeah, you got me.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, it's really cool, I mean, and again, this I
think kind of does correlatewith a lot of different um types
of martial arts, but there'sthere's always, like you see,
like the three or four words andit's like respect and uh, like
you know what I mean like and itteaches, it teaches the
students of the martial arts,these different core values,
(14:21):
almost, if you will, as, and Ithink that's why, a lot of times
, like kids will gravitatetowards this, because they love
learning this sport with likefoundational principles behind
it, like we're not just fightingto fight, no, and in today's
world I feel like you see a lotof that.
(14:41):
You see a lot of fighting justto fight, yeah, and like what is
the purpose?
And so this helps kids and then, obviously, as they grow into
adults and so on, but it helpsthem learn a set of principles.
What are kind of some of themain principles, I guess, that
are instilled in um, in anyone?
But it's specifically the kids.
(15:02):
Like when kids enroll inHapkido, in Judo, what are some
of the principles that they'regoing to learn?
Speaker 2 (15:08):
The three that I focus on mainly are respect,
humble, humility and patience.
Okay, I feel that any way, anyshape or order you put those
three, they're going tocompliment each other.
You have to humble yourself toknow that it's not easy to learn
a technique.
You have to respect yourpartner and not hurt them as
(15:31):
you're doing the technique orgive them what they want, and
you have patience to go througheverything that you're learning.
So the nice thing is martialarts is a team sport but
everybody grows individually.
Same concept as Fit Body.
It really is.
Everybody's there just to getbetter.
Yep, so I really really pushthe respect, the patience, the
(15:53):
humble.
I do it a lot in my teachings.
You know, I feel I'm anoffshoot of the parents as well.
Yeah, because parents, you know, come to me too.
You know like I need a hand.
Yeah, I do it to my mom stillLike.
I do it to my mom still Like.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Mom, what do I?
Speaker 2 (16:06):
do.
Yeah, you know.
So I treat all the kids like Itreat my kids Like I'm going to
bark at them a little bit, likeI bark at my kids.
They don't get away with stuffthat you know.
If you can't get away with thatin my house, you don't get away
with it in my dojo.
You don't talk to your parentswhen you're on my mat.
You know that type of thing.
We try to re reiterate, um, allof those things that the
(16:28):
parents are looking for as welltoo, and I think it actually
kind of translate to the parentsas well I mean, in my common
sense it should.
If they're listening as well,then we're all kind of working
together towards the same goalfor their kids and whatever
we're looking for to accomplish.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
What age can a child start your guys's program at?
And your guys's program, thename of your dojo, is sioux
falls hop, keto and judo,correct, correct.
So what age can somebody startat sioux falls hop, keto and
judo?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
I try to um the thing with uh, it takes a long time
to get through my programs.
Yeah, a lot of people havedelusions of grandeur of, like
I'm going to start my kid offsuper young and get him to
national champ by seven.
Blah, blah, blah.
I do my best to take my timewith that because we do have a
lot of time.
(17:20):
We start around five years old.
Okay, I try to keep just threeor four five-year-olds in
because they're a little bitmore fun than the rest of the
class.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
You know what I mean A little more rainbunches, they
are.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
So they take just a little bit more focus.
So I try to keep that numberdown, but I go all the way.
I mean I have five-year-oldsall the way up to 55 right now.
Yeah, so I push more towards.
I'm going to honestly say Ipush more towards.
You know, eight or nine yearsold for kids to start martial
arts.
Sure, that gives it a niceamount of time for them to get
(17:55):
through high school and to moveon and to get through the entire
program.
Yeah, because martial arts iskind of a lifelong thing too.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
But we don't give belts away.
You know, I only test kidsmaybe once a year and you have
to earn it.
Yeah yeah, oh yeah, definitelyhave to earn it.
Your attitude has to be good.
You have to be good at home.
You have to have good grades.
There's no acting out outsideof there and then showing up and
being like, okay, I'm good togo.
No, we don't allow that either.
You know we promote that andguide that with the parents as
(18:25):
well too.
But yeah, we just try to keepit on that forward-moving
process with the younger kids.
But I'm not about pushing kidsthrough a program and making
money.
I'm about growing people'slives and making them stronger
through the concepts of whatwe're doing.
We may never fight, but we'remaking our bodies stronger.
(18:48):
I've always thought it's betterto be.
My best.
Philosophy is it's better to bea warrior in a garden than a
gardener in a war.
If I never have to use it, Idon't want to use it, I tell
them don't go brag about it.
Put it in your pocket becausepeople want to challenge you, so
just use it.
When you use it, keep yourfamily safe.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah, and I think too there's been times I know only
a couple times, but you'veactually come to Fit Body and
you've taught some likeself-defense a couple of times.
Do you guys offer that at yourdojo from time and time again,
like where it's just likespecific, hey, this day, this
time, we're doing self-defense,or have you now more sort of
(19:25):
kind of included that you learnself-defense when you're in our
program?
Speaker 2 (19:29):
You know it.
Kind of you do both, okay,Since COVID hit, of course, I've
had to pick up something off tothe side, yeah, so I'm a little
bit more busy now, so theself-defense classes are harder
for me to incorporate into mysystem.
Yep, we did have classes for ayear.
It just didn't kick off as muchas I wanted it to.
(19:50):
But we do get calls.
I'm working with somebody nowthrough a church that we're
going to try to work the programthrough and stuff like that too
.
But honestly, self-defenseclasses are a great place to get
a good sense of awareness andto start build your confidence.
Yeah, but once you actually getinto a physical confrontation
(20:12):
and it's scary and you don'tknow what to do, you really
ultimately need that training toreact without thinking.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
And to learn how to work with that fight or flight
mode or panic.
So I like self-defense classes.
I think they're great forawareness, but ultimately, if
you want to learn something, youneed to.
You need to learn how to, howto battle and put yourself
through that type of situation.
Hopefully, I say, we never haveto use it.
Yep, but even just a little bitof confidence in some people
(20:43):
really goes a long way.
It goes a long way.
No is a big word.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
You know what I mean.
Yeah, so, yeah, absolutely.
And so for a person, if theywanted to get started in hop,
keto or judo, uh, with you guyslike, how does that look?
What's the, what's the processgoing to look like for that with
you guys, I'd like to offer atwo week trial.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Okay, uh, I like to do the-week trial because it
gives you a chance to do bothmartial arts.
Basically, all the instructorsare the same.
We have like six black belts inHapkido, six black belts in
Judo, so they get lots ofdifferent knowledge.
But I like to do a two-weekprogram because it's such an
extensive program so you can getto see if you like the kids
(21:25):
like the program, like theinstructors.
If you don't, such as life, ifit's not what you're looking for
, okay, but, um, you know, italso helps us to start grow our
relationship.
You know, it's easier to.
I feel it's easier to looksomebody in the eye and talk to
them and know where they'recoming from than texts and
emails and stuff like that.
Cause you kind of what doesthat mean?
You know, and you keep goingback and forth, so, and you keep
going back and forth, so I liketo get them in the door and
(21:46):
talk to them and then we canfigure out what goals are and
stuff like that.
Two weeks free.
My website isSiouxFallsMartialArtscom.
It has the schedule on there.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
What is your schedule ?
Mostly nights, to tell you thetruth.
Hop Keto is Monday andWednesdays at 630 to 730.
Okay, kids Judo is so basically, monday and Wednesday is
Hapkido and Tuesday, thursday isJudo, Got it.
And then Jiu-Jitsu follows from7.30 to 9.
Okay, after all of thoseclasses, I do believe, yeah,
(22:19):
he's got a Friday class as well.
No, no, I'm sorry, I'mrephrasing.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Saturday class at noon is what he's got.
Okay, and yeah, that's on thewebsite and obviously, if they
are interested and whatnot andchatting with you, they can
learn more about that.
For sure, does your studio workin the way in which if you sign
up for Judo, then you're doingJudo, or if you sign up for
Hapkido then you're doingHapkido, or is it?
I am a member of your club andyou can do kind of both.
(22:49):
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (22:50):
It's kind of complicated at the moment I wish
it wasn't, but I'm working withanother coach at the moment and
we're with the jujitsu coachtogether.
So basically, if you sign upwith me for Hapkido and Judo,
you can do Hapkido and Judo atthe same time.
If you are looking for justlike a grappler's package me and
Coach Sawyer with the Misfitsyou can do like judo and
(23:11):
jiu-jitsu and we have a packagebetween us that we kind of
discuss in the dojo Because hekind of takes care of that Sure.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
It's a little more custom package.
I take care of mine.
He's growing and we're workingon the growing type thing which
is good for both of us.
Yeah, absolutely, Absolutelyyeah absolutely, absolutely yeah
.
And in a given class you callthem classes, yep classes, just
a regular class.
In a given class could you havelike five-year-olds upwards of
like 50-year-olds in one class,or no?
(23:41):
It's broken.
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Actually, I'm glad you brought that up because I
focus my Hop Keto programtowards families.
Okay, you brought that upbecause I focus my Hop Keto
program towards families.
I have a kids class 10 andunder on Wednesday nights for 45
minutes, but the Monday andWednesday 630 class I promote
(24:04):
families.
I think it's great to have adad come in with their daughter
and learn how to take care ofthemselves.
They can practice together athome.
Yeah, On top of that, you know,it builds the family
Everybody's stronger.
Who wants to come into a housefull of martial artists?
Speaker 1 (24:14):
You know what I?
Speaker 2 (24:15):
mean Right, but I can't do that with judo as much,
because it's just a little bitdifferent.
But with Hapkido I can.
Definitely.
I push them as family classes.
More family, yeah, morefamilies you can bring in.
I cap.
You know, my family pricingcaps off at four people.
So you can have eight peopleand you're going to pay the same
(24:36):
as four.
Oh, sure, I just don't believein emptying family's pockets.
Sure, just to learn somemartial arts and to make your
family safer, yeah, so I justkind of leave it at that.
Yeah, yeah, I try to do thebest I can for families.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yeah, that's very cool.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
So that's kind of how that works.
Other than that, too, why didyou personally let's talk a
little bit about like you andyourself, why did you want to
get into martial arts and,speaking of which, before that,
have a second to think about,maybe why you wanted to get in
Sure.
When did you get started?
What age were you when youstarted martial arts?
Speaker 2 (25:06):
I started at 30 years old, okay, and I just happened
to have a friend who was goingto J-Ho's gym, yep, and we were
big into, I mean, ufc was justcoming out.
I think it was like UFC 50 orsomething like that Chuck
Liddell, randy Couture days, youknow what I mean Steven Bonner
and Forrest Griffin, all thatkind of stuff.
(25:27):
So I knew that I needed to getinto it.
It was a choice I had to makebecause I wanted a standing art,
yep, and I wanted a ground art.
So I was this close to going toNext Edge, okay, because they
were doing Muay Thai andJiu-Jitsu, yeah, and I was like,
well, those two are pretty well.
After watching MMA, I wanted tomake sure I put two things
(25:48):
together that made sense, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
You know, because you got to have standing and you
got to have ground.
In my opinion, I think nextactually I know that's where
Coach Seth goes- oh really, he'sthere too.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Yeah, yeah, coach Bruce is a great guy.
He's got a good program going.
He's been growing like crazyand I just kind of there was
only four in the Hop Keto classand we just kind of got into it.
Yeah, I just dug it.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Like the discipline of it.
I was shouting loud, I waskicking hard.
Everybody else was like dude,you know, like chill out, and
I'm like no, this is my thingnow.
I'm having fun, yeah, and likeall the stuff that.
Master Sim taught you could tellwas legit.
(26:41):
It wasn't foo-foo.
You know what I mean.
I didn't want to go to a mcdojo, yep.
And yeah, like the guy workedme out, made me puke.
My first class I was.
I did so many tricep push-upsdude, I thought I was tough and
I think I sat in a chair forlike three days with ice packs
just popping pain pills.
But I told him I was like I'mcoming.
I was like I'm never, just waitfor me.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
You know, and then it kind of just started from there
and eventually the judo programgrew.
I was just into the hop keto tostart with, yeah, and then the
judo program grew and everythingjust kind of snowballed into
that.
Yeah.
But I started when I was about30.
I didn't want to be 40 yearsold and out of shape and not be
able to do anything about it.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
So 38, because you're 47?
46.
46, okay, so 37,.
38 was about the time you tookover.
Yeah, right, yeah.
So you'd been doing it for sixto eight years with Jay.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
With Master Sam yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
And then, as it came time, and honestly, him closing
down his portion of the studiowhen he did turned out to be the
biggest blessing for me, oh,yeah, because I had no idea what
I was looking for, sure, andwhen I found I had Jay-Z, who
was my realtor, yeah, and hebrought me.
He's like, hey, there's thismartial arts studio that's going
(27:52):
to be downsizing.
I want you to come look at this.
And I don't have a clue whatI'm looking for.
I need to open a fit body.
I'm like I'm over in this gym,what do I need?
And when he showed me that space, I still remember there was
these dragons on the wall andwhen we painted over the dragons
, we did our best to cover themup, but they continued to seep
through and it was like a coupleof years these dragons were
(28:24):
popping through the white paint,taking out a repaint.
I remember that, contending tocover up the dragons.
But then you moved to that backportion of that facility and it
just worked out really well forthe both of us.
Yeah, and I think that you andI both, I just can remember you
know, I was opening Fit Body,you were taking over the Hapkido
and Judo, and there'd be timeswhere we would sit there and in
middle of the day there wasn't alot going on for either of us
at that point.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
yeah, at that point, uh times are different now?
Speaker 1 (28:41):
yep, but we would.
I'd maybe pop back into yourdojo and just chit chat with you
like, hey, how are we gonna getsome more people in here?
And we'd just talk and we'dfigure out, you know what we
could do, and we'd do somedifferent things.
And I remember you'd pop in thefront like, hey, you know
anything about Facebook?
We were just talking, trying tofigure out what the heck we were
going to do.
And we shared a back hallwayand we shared a bathroom, and I
(29:05):
think that both you and I hadsuch the like, let's make it
work mentality, totally when youknow, our landlord, even too,
was like, well, who's going topay for what and what?
And we always worked it out,yep, yep, and we just we didn't
(29:26):
know what we didn't know, and wejust worked hard to service
whatever person walked throughour door.
And then we tried to figure outhow could we have mutual
clients, how could, maybe, howcould maybe if the kids are
going to judo or Hapkido couldthe mom or dad come?
to bootcamp or vice versa, andand we even worked some of those
things out and that's how I Imet, um, some of the awesome, uh
, chloe and her mom, holly.
That's right, that's how I metthem, and I even helped holly
(29:47):
with some, uh, other stuff forher full-time job now doing
emceeing of different things,and it's just been been crazy
how you never know who you'regoing to meet.
Nope that here we are, almost10 years later.
Yeah, and what was it?
Maybe two weeks ago I shot youa text and I was like, hey, I'm
just trying to get more exposureto different health and
(30:09):
wellness type of things in town.
You want to come on the podcast?
And here we are and we met in2015, 2014.
Yep, is when we originally met.
Yeah, um, and it's wild, yourwife, um, and you were clients
forever at at the gym and youknow you'd pop over there and,
man, it was so much fun when wecould have, I think, even times
(30:31):
you'd bring even some of all ofyour instructors over and we
would all work out together andyou'd be almost like a
requirement that you're like heyguys, before we do our training
tonight, we're going to go doboot camp.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yep and we just had fun.
It was a blast.
It was a blast.
I remember doing that Saturdaymornings yes, you know, renting
the space or whatever what I hadto do, push them through, and
then we'd go truth, like if Iwasn't doing my dojo, I'd be at
(31:01):
Fit Body.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
That's, that would be, that's,that's my next step, you know,
just to stay into shape and tokeep going when after I get too
old, or whatever you want tocall it.
You know, yeah, uh, but yeah,that was always fun.
(31:23):
I always enjoyed sessions.
You know, we could feed off ofeach other and that's really
nice because we were both inthat same position of here we go
.
You know, like, what did wejust get into?
Yeah, we got passion.
Now, what?
Yeah?
So, yeah, uh, and it'sdefinitely been.
It's been a great rollercoaster of a ride, but it's
definitely holy cow.
The things you've accomplishedin almost 10 years and the
things that I've accomplished in10 years.
Wild for what we're doing isand out of Sioux Falls, South
Dakota, for that matter it'scrazy Like, yeah, we're taking
over the world from South DakotaAlways been my goal, yeah, so,
(31:44):
yeah, it's been absolutelywonderful.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Tell me you were mentioning, before we started
recording that, something aboutthe only registered Hapkido.
Or you said that your guys'club is the only has the only
registered.
You're telling me what was it?
Yeah, we actually.
It's three things, which iswonderful.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
We're the only hop keto within god knows how far
okay never really heard of anyother hop keto.
We're the only nationallyregistered uh judo club in the
state, which means that, uh,your promotions and everything.
Now there's a registration feeand that's such as life.
You know that always goes forthings, yep, but your promotions
don't go null and void Likethey're nationally recognized oh
(32:24):
cool.
You can bring your card to anyjudo club in America and be like
you know, boom.
Whether they want to recognizeit or not is fine.
But nationally you'rerecognized and once you get up
in ranks then you start.
You know placing and you knowgetting points for tournaments,
and then you know, then you'reon the national roster.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
The other thing we have, which is kind of ironic
because five years ago yesterdayis when we met Coach Sawyer.
Yeah, my buddy Chris and I hadstarted.
Mainly Chris forced me becausehe's my good friend of mine.
He's like you do what you did,sue.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
I was like okay, fine .
Speaker 2 (33:02):
You know, I took off all my gis and all my ropes on
my body and then he laid on meand killed me in like two and a
half minutes, which is pressure.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
So is jiu-jitsu.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
You don't wear a gi, not in the style that we do.
Okay, we do all no-gi jiu-jitsu, which is very, in my opinion,
user-friendly.
Sure, you don't have to buy agi.
You can show up in your shortsand t-shirt.
Eventually, you're going to buythe cool stuff that everybody
else is wearing, don't get mewrong.
Sure, sure, but yeah, you canshow up in your flip-flop shorts
and t-shirt and just start tolearn.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
And you do this barefoot, Yep barefoot on the
ground, yep, yep.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
And the 10th Planet style is just so much fun.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Yeah.
And so I remember for myself.
I mean, I'm veryunknowledgeable in the martial
arts world, sure.
And I remember even thinkinglike what's a gi?
Sure.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I didn't even know.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
So maybe someone that's watching or listening to
this episode, maybe they're alsolike what is a gi?
Yeah, that makes sense.
So what is a gi?
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Gi is just the uniform that we wear.
It's usually made out of aharder um thicker canvas.
Okay, so when we're like when Ihad my hot keto uniforms, they
weren't as thick and we werepulling arms off when we were
doing throws, like we're pullingsleeves off of people's
uniforms, ripping them so yeah,so these are a little bit uh,
tighter and that just standardcolor is white for judo.
Got you, um, when you intonationals you need white and
(34:16):
blue for competition.
But you know, gi is just, it'sbasically a canvas kimono is
what they call it, and it'spants and a coat.
Yeah, pants and a coat and abelt, and you just tie your belt
around it.
You're good to go.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
And do you literally use like so, if you're a one of
the three brown belts, yes, orany colored, but do you
literally use that belt to tieyour gi?
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Yeah, it just goes over like a regular standard
belt keeps your kimono crossedor keeps your gi crossed and
attached.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
And so when you start , that's your white belt.
Right you get the white belt,and then, as you go up, you get
the other colored belt andthat's the belt you tie it with
Yep, and that is a gi, yep.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Okay, that's how the gi works G-I A gi, g-i yeah,
just G-I yeah.
Okay, it's a fun one, likeheroes, you know like how do you
say that one, because it'sspelled so many different ways
too, like a giro, A gyro, a gyro.
Yes, yeah, it was always fun.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Okay, so that's what a gi is Is just shorts, t-shirt,
no shoes, rock and roll, yeah,okay.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yeah, and it gets really, really interesting and
the great thing you know like weare the only just strictly
no-gi practicing club in SiouxFalls.
Okay, we do the 10th Planetsystem.
No one else is doing the 10thPlanet system.
What?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
does that mean?
Speaker 2 (35:32):
10th Planet is something that came up.
And speaking of MMA, eddieBravo, I'm sorry, john Jacques
Machado created it and he was ajiu-jitsu player and he's only
got like two fingers, twofingers, and he's only got a
couple fingers, so he had towork on underhooks and overhooks
because he couldn't grip.
Yeah, so that's kind of whereit started from.
(35:53):
It's more of an MMA style.
I'm going to say I started from.
It's more of an MMA style.
I'm going to say I mean, alljujitsu is an MMA style.
Okay, but a lot of thepositions for the 10th Planet
Jujitsu is meant for not gettinghit in the face.
If you're on your back, there'sways to hold the guy to you to
where you don't get hit andstruck, and so on and so forth.
So that intrigued me and that'swhy I kind of just started that
(36:17):
program.
Plus, you know everybodyalready, kind of there's a
couple different places thathave a gi jiu-jitsu program.
So yeah, as a business you wantto separate yourself in some
way different.
Yeah, absolutely uh, we justhappened to run into sawyer who
was moving into at a tournament,the local tournament here in
sioux falls yeah and he was theonly one there.
It was funny because he won allhis matches.
(36:38):
But they were two sorriers andthey messed the names up, so he
ended up taking the bronze.
But he just humbled, smiled andkept going yeah, dude is super
laid back.
Sure, amazing, coach knows hisstuff, super awesome.
Yeah, very creative.
That's the fun part aboutjujitsujitsu is like I always
tell them I don't care how I die, as long as it's cool.
(36:59):
You better do something cool tome.
Sure, you know what I'm saying.
Sure, so actually stepping intothat as a white belt and taking
off my black belt a coupleyears was a very interesting
type of situation.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Probably like pretty humbling right.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Super humbling, yeah, because you have a little bit
of pride in your black belts andstuff like that.
Yeah, but you learn thatthey're meant for certain
situations, yeah.
So now I have a standing, athrowing, and I'm working on my
ground techniques.
I don't know what I'm going todo with it at almost 50.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Sure but.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
I'm just staying in shape at this point.
I just really like the program.
My youngest son, Cole.
I train with him in jiu-jitsu.
Okay, how old's Cole now, oh,he's 12.
Oh man Dude, he's like 150pounds too.
He's like no joke.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
Wild.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
He's only like 15 pounds lighter than me.
He just needs the height.
You know, my oldest is justgraduating college this week.
Actually, oh my goodness, yeah,dude, yeah, dude, noah's
graduating college this week.
Yeah, that's wild.
He's 6'2" 190.
You know, I don't know, mustskip a generation or something
like that.
Lucky kids, yeah, but they'regoing to be some big boys
Because I do remember for youkind of gaining weight was
(38:07):
always difficult.
Oh, it's almost impossible.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
Yeah, you've got like a super fast metabolism.
You stay very active and I doremember that was something
always like.
And that is for for the averageclient that I work with and
even for myself, like I fallinto the category where I don't
have any problem gaining weight.
Um, I definitely have problemkeeping the weight off and
losing weight.
Sure, I wouldn't say problem,but it's more difficult for me.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Yeah, right, and as we get older, it's harder.
Yeah, yeah so.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yeah, so that's just wild though.
Yeah, noah, graduating college,cole training with you.
Yeah, it's wild man, super,super cool.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
And he actually got me a couple weeks ago.
I was playing soft with him andI shouldn't have been, because
now he's starting to get strong.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
And he took that split second.
He got it.
He caught you on your splitsecond.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
I was so happy.
Yeah, I was like boy.
But now he got a little, he gottoo happy and I had to bring
him back down a little bit.
But yeah, that's what you want,I mean as a coach, as a dad.
Eventually your students shouldcatch you.
Yeah, I mean you always havetricks, but if you taught them
right, then, yeah, they knoweverything.
(39:14):
You know, you know what I mean.
So it just kind of falls intoplace.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Yeah, that's awesome, and so, as it pertains to
Hapkido and Judo with Jiu-Jitsu,you know, the whole thing of it
is that I really just hope thatour audience understands that
health and fitness and workingout, moving your body there are
so many ways, and so, really,one of the things we've been
really working on is bringing ondifferent guests to this show
(39:39):
that have a knowledge differentthan mine, but it is encouraging
movement, it is encouragingwellness, is encouraging taking
care of your body, mind, bodyand soul.
The whole works, and so I justlove that you have this program,
that you have this gym, thatyou're passionate about it.
I love that, even through theups and downs of life, you have
(40:03):
continued to find a way to keepit going.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Because, from a business owner, I understand
it's difficult and there aresacrifices that I'm sure that
you've had to even make withyour family and with those that
you love to keep this thinggoing.
And that's just.
It's awesome and it should besomething that you should be
proud of, which I know you areTotally, and I really want just
our listeners to know thatthat's an option.
(40:29):
You know there's many optionsin town for moving your body and
staying in shape and doingsomething, and maybe, if you've
tried something that you justdidn't love, whatever type of
fitness that might be, try morethings.
Absolutely, get out there andtry more things.
What we'll do is we'll put alink in the description of this
video or in the description ofthis episode so that people can
(40:50):
find your website and on therecan they find a spot to be able
to get a hold of you and thenmaybe even claim like two free
weeks.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Yeah, totally, totally.
There's a trial free.
And then they just email me andI say absolutely, come on in
whenever you're ready.
Cool that type of situation.
If you'd like to, you can justcome in as well.
We are at 3504 South MinnesotaAvenue.
We're actually not far, we'rejust across.
I can see your building from mybuilding.
So we're just on the other sideof Minnesota, there behind,
actually, someplace gone, soit's going to be like Heartland
(41:18):
Computers and stuff like that.
So we're not very far from thecentral location.
But I agree with you 100%, andwhether it's martial arts or fit
body or whatever, everybodyjust needs to find their niche.
That's it.
And even if you can do it withyour family, that's even better.
Yeah, but stay in shape, stayhappy.
(41:39):
And I still wonder why we likebeing sore to stay in shape.
But you know, that's just partof the thing that we go Part of
it right.
It's almost the prize of okay, Idid a good job.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Yeah, and I don't mind that part either get off
your couch, go have some fun,grab a friend and find something
fun.
You know, and with that I thinkthe thing with it is like if
you don't choose to go make yourbody sore in effort of getting
better, in effort of staying inshape, if you don't choose to go
find that sore, then whathappens is that sore finds you.
(42:13):
That's right.
And so I kind of feel like gofind it, because either way,
you're going to end up at apoint in life where you're sore
and I'd rather it be your sorebecause you chose to go move
your body and make your bodybetter, strengthen it.
Then, for all of a sudden, youdefine yourself at this point in
life where it hurts to walk.
It hurts to move it hurts to getup and down off the ground and
(42:37):
and the truth is which is a sadtruth, but unfortunately that is
what happens it does.
If you don't choose to takecare of your body.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Yep, and I tell you what I'm 46, still doing martial
arts, and I don't mind the soreand I feel great every day.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
You know, it's like I can tell myself that I did
something that was worthwhile,yeah, and I can compare myself
to some others and I'd like totake them along on my vision of
my journey with me.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
You know, health and fitness, however you get it is
just super important for yourbody and for your mind as well.
I always tell my students aswell the day you don't want to
go is the day you need to go.
Yes, the hardest day is alwaysthe best day.
Yep, for some reason you don'tknow why you just have to keep
that positive thought process ofsomething's going to happen
today and I'm going to be reallyglad that I went Plus here.
(43:25):
You got to make sure thatyou're paying attention to your
work out there.
You don't want to get punchedin the face, so it kind of shuts
your mind off, and you've gotto focus on what you're doing,
be present.
Yeah, yeah, you got to bepresent.
You got to be accountable forwhat you're doing and make sure
you give it 100% of whateveryou're doing too.
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Or else it's not going to get anywhere.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
That's right.
Well, I love that you guys Letthat kind of go with you
throughout the day is be present, put 100% into what it is that
you're doing and just know that,whatever stage of life that
you're in right now, in a yearfrom now, it could be 100%
different, and for the better,if you would just decide today
to take action.
Thank you guys for joining uson this episode of the Sioux
(44:05):
Falls Fit and Healthy Show.
What I'll do is I'll pop thatlink in the description.
You can meet my good friendScooby in person.
Scooby, just thank you so muchfor taking the time to be here.
I appreciate it, my man.
You guys like, subscribe andshare this episode, because it's
only because of you liking,subscribing and sharing that we
can keep making this for freefor you.
(44:26):
Have an awesome day, you guys.
We'll catch you on the nextepisode of the Fit and Healthy
Sioux Falls Show.
Bye, you guys.
Peace, have a good day.
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