Thomas Martin | 3 time Martial Arts Hall of Famer - We're Kicking It | The Stories Behind the Legends and warriors of Martial arts greats

Episode Transcript
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Jose Flores (00:00):
Get the privilege to talk to the legends and

(00:02):
warriors or the martial artsworld. Today I am being joined
by none other than ThomasMartin. Mr. Martin is a black
belt in various systems amongstthem. Judo, campo bkf Campo and
Taekwondo. Mr. Martin, how areyou, sir? I'm good night. Good
to be here. Nice to have youhere. Again. Thank you for

(00:22):
coming in. Thank you. Thank youfor your time. I appreciate it.
Thank you. Yeah, this is this isgreat. So, you know,

Thomas Martain (00:30):
Mr. Nunez is here with us losing the news.
But I remember the first time Isaw you, it was 2002 2003. With
Collin vandusen. Right. I justremember walking in his studio.
There was a little hallway. Idon't know if you remember back
then. Oh, yeah. I see thisperson with this green gi. And
this look. And I was like, Whois that? I mean, I felt that the

(00:54):
vibe that? I don't want to messwith this person. Right, Nigel?
hyzer. How are you? Pleasure tomeet you.

I mean, I felt that I was like, wow, who's this
person? Ever since then? I'vebeen a fan. Well, so for those
who don't know, you, can youtell us a little bit about
yourself?

You're on me.

But you know, by even recognizing me, but yeah,
I've been in the martial artsfor a while.

Probably a good 4546 years.

started when I was like eight years old.

Kind of fast forward it

you know, I've been out of the martial art world, I
used to be extremely serious.
Extreme. Lee serious. So I'vebeen out for probably a good
solid 10 years, where I kind ofmore focused on family more
focused on career. And, youknow, kind of took that path.

(01:56):
Now. Let me back it up. Yeah.

Start out when I was eight years old, my uncle
Louis, you know, my eighthbirthday, said, A, I'm giving
your mother money, which was mymy, my, my mom's brother,

who was a Vietnam vet. Master Gunnery Sergeant and
Marine Corps, which I did notknow until later on. In my life.
I thought I was the only marinein the family found out not even
close. So

he paid for martial art classes when I was
eight years old. And I hadn'tstopped training sets.

Not at all a good No, no. That's why I'll just say
well keep going. Yeah, it'sreally weird. Brought up and
brought up in Georgia. Allright.

Like I said, I'm from. I'm from Marietta,
Georgia. But my family is aroundMilledgeville and other parts of
Georgia.

Since slavery, since then, we've always been
there.

But

grew up in Marietta. That's where I started
my martial art training. UnderLarry mclr.

Larry mcore, to me was more like a dad more like
a father figure.

He kicked my butt.
You know, he held me to taskmade sure. I've never had
anybody that made me pay for nothaving good grades. He made me
pay. And I carried that on to myown training of my own students.
I held them accountable, justlike I was held accountable.

Larry was a great influence all the way up
until he pushed me out of theschool.

Because he said I had a, an anger problem. And he
wanted to balance me out better.
So I thought he was kicking meout. I thought he was kicking me
out of the school. I'd beentraining with him for a good
strong,

oh, six to seven years. You know, and he's
always, you know, he was alwaysthat male figure that I aspired
to be like, and he helped. Heturned me over to master wat
NaVi, in Smyrna, Georgia.

Plays called defense arts. He was he was a
specialist in judo. judo. He wasa Japanese Judo practitioner.

I think he also did some Judo stand up style,
but Judo was his main main flow.

He held me over to him. And I thought he was
abandoned me. I thought myinstructor was like, pushing me
away. No,

he was very much involved mess whatnot. Me and
him were close, close friends.

Being from Georgia, being that I'm a black male,
American. So I thought, Well,great. He's just throwing me
away just wants me to come hereand I was the only black

Kid, adult, whatever, I was the only black
in the school. So I really feltkind of out of place. And I was
never allowed to come to or tobe on the floor. And this was
traditional Japanese judo. Forwood springs in it. It was a
hardwood floor raised. It hadspring system in it for falling.

(05:21):
There were never a mats, we hadthick mats on the outside, where
you could practice hard falls,or hard throws. But pretty much
we always practice on there. Iwas never allowed to get it get
up there on the wood part.
Probably.
I was probably 13 or 14. Soyeah, I was known as 12. Holy

(05:44):
crap, I was 12.

So 12 and 13. Right around that area.

Yeah, I wasn't allowed for maybe a good year.
To even touch that top. I had tolearn all this other learning
how to fall learning how toroll. I cleaned the floor every
day twice in a class once when Igot there. Yeah. And then after,
right before I left, it was myjob, my job in about three other

(06:10):
people. But it always changedbut I was constant. And the
other people that helped mechanged. Yeah. And it was
traditionally we'd roll up atowel, he would kind of throw
some stuff out there, I guess itwas wax. And we would like a
crab like a like a, we call likea bear crawl, bear crawl kind of

(06:31):
thing, where we would hold on toit and just push off and slide
the towels back and forth on thefloor. And I would do that I had
to cover every inch than theother, we would go online and do
it about 10 or 20 times. Andthen I would finish it up. And
my finishing up would be goingup, down, up, down, up down. And
then he was finished. So thatwas my childhood being

(06:56):
introduced to judo. I had to dothe tension, the the What do you
call that bicycle tubes. Okay, Ihad to do that every day in the
class. Well, long story short,though, after that year, and I
was allowed on the floor for thefirst time. I didn't understand
as a kid, I was just ambitious.
And I wanted to learn I wantedto prove myself. Well, all this

(07:18):
time, I didn't know he wasbuilding me up to really do what
he and I became like, highlycompetitive. To the point where
I was like winning tournaments,tournaments back in those days,
were like five bucks, oh, toenter.
So I'd asked my mom for moneyand, you know, every weekend,

(07:43):
and then I'd ask her for a ride.
And what I'd end up doing isgoing with one of the adults in
the in the, in our school injudo school, and I end up
competing, and we're talkinglike two years down the road two
years in. And I was I was good.
I wasn't very, and I neverthought I was good enough. I was
always proved myself alwayslike, I gotta push to do this. I

(08:06):
want to be I don't want peopleto think that I'm less than, you
know, or I'm or I don't belonghere. So I pushed hard. I pushed
hard. All through my highschool. One of the biggest
secrets in my high school and Iwent to a southern kind of a
small town, Marietta HighSchool, shout outs, Marietta

(08:26):
High School. Here we go. Also toMarietta high school. I went
back recently, a couple of yearsabout it. Oh my god, almost 10
years ago, but I went back and Ifound out my high school is now
the junior high. Oh, Marion HighSchool is a whole new place. But
But my whole time in highschool. I competed. I wasn't

(08:48):
competitive. I would do karatetournaments and I do judo
tournaments all the time. It butI didn't play sports in school.

Okay,

I didn't. So everybody was looking at me
like, you'd look like you're ingood shape. But you don't. Like
I remembered I was doing a thisis a funny story. This is a
crazy. One of the pep rallies.
Well, I was in the drama club.
Right. Okay, I didn't do anysports dude. No, it wasn't the

(09:20):
biggest secret is I was a highlycompetitive martial artists in
high school. But nothing and noone knew. I didn't tell a soul.
No one. I repeat, no one knewexcept one person. And I'll come
back to that. Yeah. So I'm doingmy stuff. And, you know, being

(09:41):
all secret ninja, right. So I'mdoing this pep rally and the
drama club did a little skit.
And in that skit, there was atable about three feet high. And
we were doing our skit and froma standing position I just put
right on top of the table. ThereTrack without bending my knees.
And the track coach goes, Hey,have you ever thought about

(10:03):
running track? football coachcomes over a year playing
football. So it was kind of it'sfunny, but I never did. I never
played high school sports. I didget involved with the tennis
team because I was forced to notattend or did not at all. And I
think I only played for like twoweeks, and then just get it

(10:27):
done.

You stick to any sport, martial arts, martial
arts.

Well, growing up, I was a swimmer swimmer.
Yeah, I swam for a club. Andthat was my love outside of
martial arts. Swimming was mylove. So I was good with the I
do freestyle breaststroke. Andthen I did a medley relay. And I

(10:55):
was really good. Matter of fact,I took state championship at the
age of 11.

No toss.

Yeah, so that was the other thing I did
outside of that, but nothingever. Nothing ever ended in for
like high school sports oranything. So

So let's go back to that one person that knew you
were practicing martial arts?
Who was this person?

Um, Gordon Island. Gordon Island. Just is
the best guy I could have evergrown up with. He was my best
friend. Okay, that's right. Hehad a sister by the name of
Avery. Great Dad, you know. AndGordon, I grew up in the same

(11:36):
little complex. And I met him.
Funny. That's a funny story,too. I met him when I came back
as a foreign exchange student.
My freshman year I was a foreignexchange student in the
Netherlands. So when I cameback, first thing he ever said
to me was Oh, world traveler.
Are you doing? Right? So GordonGordon was a just a very

(11:57):
eclectic, intelligent, dude. Wayover me. But Gordon, used to
fence he did actuallycompetitive fencing. He he was
very open minded about doingthings and experiencing stuff.
Just a great dude. And we wentthrough our whole high school

(12:22):
experience. He's the only onethat knew that I studied martial
arts and I studied seriously.
And that I competed with andI'll tell you that, the weird
thing about that, Gordon, todayis one of the I would say one of
the high members of a martialart organization. He is a black

(12:47):
belt. He owns a school. And he'sone of the top status people of
that school. So much so that hehad there's other there's other
branches of his school, like inother states, and he's the
representative that goes to allof them and keep them connected.
His wife has a black beltmartial arts. And it was funny

(13:07):
because I was his firstinstructor. He He taught me
fencing. Okay, and I mean,really taught me fencing. And I
taught him martial arts.

It's incredible.
Yeah.

Oh, the side of our house. It's kind of funny.
And we did it in secret, youknow. And today, he is this real
martial artist, you know,

incredible. And these to keep up with Gordon,
you know,

what I saw a couple years ago, he actually he
and his family traveled in a RVfor a year traveling around the
United States. To stop off andstopped off and I met his kids
and, and his wife and, and, andsaw him and seeing him. Man, it

(13:54):
was 25 years. 30 years. Wow,even more than that, but yeah,
it's been a long time. So whenwe saw each other again, as soon
as I saw him, yeah, that sameguy. Yeah. Yeah. Great, great
guy. Shout out to to Gordon.
here's, here's how Gordon Gordonwent to. Like, I went to the

(14:16):
Marine Corps. So I went to aMilitary College, straight out
of high school, went to aMilitary College, went to the
Military College for about ayear and a half ran out of money
scholarship ran out, everythingran out. And and that's another
story. My, my biological dad,who was never in my life
wouldn't put up the money. Andhe could. That's not a judgment

(14:40):
call on my part. He actuallycould. But what took my mom to
court and said, No, I'm notgoing to support this kid. I
don't care if he is a cadet andwill be an army officer. We're
not supporting him. And Iremember being in uniform and my
cadet uniform in Milledgevilleand the judge leaning over and

(15:02):
telling me, he goes, son, I'd beproud to have you as a son. He
goes, but I have to, I have to,you know, the law says, I gotta,
you know, I, it's gonna go onyour dad's favor, because my dad
bought a lawyer the whole nineyards. So I ended up from that I
ended up going to the MarineCorps, because I was so pissed
off. I was like, You know what,forget it. I'm gonna go, I'm

(15:25):
just gonna go. I'm gonna go forthe Marines. And me thinking
that because I was a I wentthrough pleading hazing. I went
to Fort Knox, Kentucky for armyofficer boot camp. I thought I
was ready for the Marine Corps.
No. I put my foot in thoseregain yellow footprints and

(15:49):
realized I was not in Kansas nomore. But yeah, long story
short, I ended up you know,Gordon ended up being a great
influence on my life.

That's awesome to hear. Yeah. Then. So Marine
Corps. How did How was thatexperience for you?

You know, what I think is probably the best thing
I could have ever done. Thebest, because

when you started you, I mean, you said, your
instructor said you had angerissues, but you're the one of
the nicest and homeless personI've ever met.

He's dynamic.
Here's a dynamic being raised bya southern mom, very ambitious
mom.

Unknown (16:40):
Who

I didn't have an anger issue. In my own mind. I
wanted to prove myself to myinstructor. Okay, so every time
I did anything, I did it at135.999%. Right, I did it way
over. So and we didn't havepunching bags, because I started

(17:02):
my martial art career in abasement of a library. And our
punching bag was a rolled upcarpet, shag carpet. So you
know, the base, the bottom ofthe shag carpet is really rough
and right. So I learned thepunch and punch properly by
having many many bloodyknuckles. And I remember my

(17:25):
Larry klore, my instructor toldme, Hmm, well, I guess you
should quit that. I don't thinkyou can take this. As in my
mind, that just, I got to dothis. So I, I practice, you're
talking, I was on a mission. Soevery day, I would punch the

(17:46):
pine tree out in the back of ourhouse. And I punch it until I
got it to where my punch landedsolid and stuck. And never
dragged, never never bolted towhere I could punch the base of
the carpet. And I wouldn't ripmy skin off layer by layer.

(18:06):
Clear flat. And that was anambition. I mean, I would throw
I probably train an hour, twohours at home. And then go in
class. Get bloody knuckled cry,wrap them end up taping them up
and you know, and the whole timemight Larry Just look at me like
four kids. You need to quit.
Why? Yeah.

Wow. So what's the whole purpose and you to the
Judo school to learn how to calmyou down even

more, he would ask me to kick or punch or do
anything. I would do it fullbore. I would do it full bore.
And sometimes, a lot of times,he would tell me Okay, stop,
stop, stop, stop. I keep going.
Because I wanted to prove myselftill I want to let him know that
he's not wasting his time. Iwant to be there. Because that
was one of his things is if youdon't want to be here, you can

(19:00):
go. Right, you know, so I justwanted to tell him I wanted to
be there so I yeah, I was youknow, I would spar I wasn't a
good fighter. I was a verypeaceful kid. So I would just go
ballistic and just you know,like in a berserker rage. And
you know, end up looking like atotal idiot. But that's how I

(19:22):
would function. And he wouldsay, hey, you look you can cool
it down. And I was like, Yes,sir. And do it again. And do it
again. Stupid. So but anyway. Sowhen I when I was that was the

(19:43):
viewpoint of Larry was like,Dude, this kid needs to get a
grip. And I didn't realize themore I tried to prove myself,
the more I tried to show himthat I was tough enough and hard
enough and I can take anythinghe dished out. I mean a lot of
times my classes and I was intears wow I would be riding my

(20:05):
bike home just in tears. So Iyou know I really want to just
to prove myself well every timeI try to prove myself he would
make the assessment of this dudehas an anger problem so but I
was a great student I was verymindful I was very respectful
but he saw that and said youneed to get a handle on so send

(20:28):
me the master what Nabil was wasawesome it was awesome master
Awad Nabi me having that gear soit felt longer but probably
about a good solid year of notgoing to the mat just doing all
the outside peripherial workoutsand training and then finally

(20:48):
bringing the onto the mat he wasvery Japanese traditional. I did
it made me focus even more. If Ididn't follow everything to the
detail. He would hit me with ashinai and hit me hard. It
wasn't a little tap like to getmy attention it that should I

(21:09):
slept that bamboo slapped. Andhe was dead serious. Wow. So
that brought me to the realityof I need to follow instructions
I need to fathom to the detail.
So me being with Master watNabil helped a lot. I'm saying

(21:33):
that, you know, as an adult, asa as a trained fighter, a train
instructor. Back then I thoughthe hated me. I thought, you
know, I better not get out ofline. And I better not quit.
Because my instructor sent mehere. And I better not quit
because I don't want him tothink that, you know, me being

(21:53):
the only kid I was one of thefew kids. And me being the only
black kid there. Oh, no, I gotto prove myself. I have to prove
myself. So it was it was it wasa battle. You know, there were
there were times I didn't wantto go because mess what Nami did
what I tell you, he hit me withthe shonai we're talking bloody

(22:15):
welts.

And can you explain it as shanaya? You said it's
bamboo. But for the people thatdon't know what it is. Okay, can

you explain it as chinai is a is a bamboo.
Kindle sword. It's a practiceKindle sword. It is split bamboo
with a leather handle. And ithas it's it's tied in three
places and has a a leathernormally a leather cover on the

(22:44):
top tip to make it safe for forstabbings. But also it's used
for strike. So you can you canhit someone full power with a
strike full power and not killthem. Not on them. But on bare
skin. Yeah, you feel it? Youfeel it. And here's here's the

(23:05):
funny thing. Everything that Iand this is something that I
think every martial artist willunderstand everything that my
instructors did for me, and thethings that resignated and
really made a difference for me.
I carried on with my ownstudents. Okay, so the the

(23:26):
holding them accountable fortheir grades that wasn't just,
you know, trying to make themgood citizens or no, it was
because, hey, my instructor didthat to me. And it helped me it
really helped me. I mean, Igraduated with from high school

(23:47):
with very decent grades gradesgood enough to earn a
scholarship. And it wouldn'thave happened without it
wouldn't have happened. And theshehnai my students are very
familiar with the shy. One ofthe traditions is even my 19
year old I break channeis onthem. Yeah, he call it child
abuse, right. But here's thefunny thing, every single one of

(24:11):
or every single student thatmade it beyond the initial, I'd
say nine months of being in mydojo ended up being champions,
or ended up being verysuccessful competitive fighters.
Okay, so, you know, almost likea rite of passage. None of them
were harmed in any any way longterm. And as a matter of fact,

(24:34):
one of the gifts I would getalmost every Christmas with
would be particularly studentsthat I broken ish nigh on. They
would give me a shinai I knewShana. They're basically saying,
Yeah, well, someone else isgoing to go through what I went
through.

Yeah.

So I guess it's happy to all the BS.

Yeah, I mean, it's so many different ways now to
teach. I mean, obviously, youcame up with very traditional
martial art way, way back then.
I mean, anybody could relate toI seen the old school kung fu
movies, where the instructor Itwas hard under understood it. So
you grew up in that grew up,back then that was the way the

(25:22):
student, it was the only way

to Yeah. And to compound that being a Marine,
and being a combat marine. Andme being a marine combat trainer
didn't help. But here's, here'sthe thing that was most unusual.
Now, you, I have to say that,you know, everything was
tempered, and everything wasvery planned out. It sounds

(25:53):
brutal, but it really was theconcern, and I'll give you an
example. I would say probably agood 40% of my students. I still
know they're still in my life. Iwould say maybe about 20% of my

(26:14):
students. I met their children'sbirth. I am at every birthday
party. I am involved directly intheir lives. It's awesome. And
it's it's a gift from God. It'snot. It is something that has
made me more whole. So, yeah,it's great to be an instructor.

(26:38):
It's great to develop champions.
It's great to be recognized. Butthat's the gift. The gift is the
relationships and the respect ofthose relationships and the
ability to be in someone's lifein your life is enriched because
of it. That's awesome. Wow,that's,

that's incredible.
Yeah. I mean, you were We werejust talking before you were
talking about how you'reinvolved with most of your
student. Yeah. And now you'retelling me that that's
incorrect.

Yeah. That's a blessing. That's a blessing from
God. They're, they're in they'revery old, well accomplished. And
they they always credit me andsaying, you know, a, you taught
me, one of the mottos of our ofour school is perseverance.
Like, if you see our patch,you're gonna see the word,
perseverance. Well, that wastaught to me by Larry mcore.

(27:34):
That's what that was his motto,perseverance. I carried it on in
my life. And it helped me. Imade it through Marine Corps
training. I made it thespecialized combat training. I,
I made it through because ofLarry Marine Corps. You know,
that wasn't an accident. It wasmy mom saying, Dave, you can do
anything. Anything you put yourmind to, you can do it. And

(27:57):
Larry saying, you will get itdone. You will you If only
failure is you quitting? Are yougoing to quit? And that was
childhood. So, yeah, everything,everything plays into another.
Everything is connected. Peopledon't get that, but everything's
connected. That is true.

Oh, man, that's, that's crazy. Just getting that
in is like going through my headis like it's true. Yeah, yeah.
And so let's backtrack to youruse at the tournament. So that
you do any sparring with like,kanske and you said you're
striking wasn't as well. Right?
So who you learned striking fromor, okay.

Okay, as I was coming up, and here's the thing
that was really weird. As I wascoming up, it was like a
traditional, but I would dokarate style punches, where they
would be chambered quick andfast, a shuttlecock kind of
thing. And, you know, chops andeverything like that. And very

(29:05):
effective for the tournament. Sothat was an end the tournament's
back in the day, I want you tounderstand. I'm 57 years old. So
the tournaments back in the dayback in the 70s, when I was
fighting, so I probably broke inthe tournament's about mid 70s,
all the way up through the 80s.
Up until, like, 87 is when thelast time I remember doing a
tournament, you know, in myyouth, and they really, they

(29:27):
weren't, they weren't what youwould think of tournament's
today, you know, the Koreanmartial art style. There was no
pads back then. There was no,there was no hand pads. It was
just yeah, you could wrap yourhands if you know you want to
look cool, but it was all barefist bare feet. And you didn't
get a point because you cameclose to them. You got to a

(29:50):
point when that person wentdown. Well, that person stopped.
You know, so it was real. So,during that time, that's where I
learned to develop using my legsand my hands and my hands. But
in that traditional style when Iwent into the Marine Corps, that

(30:12):
veracity that skill set,particularly Judo, mixed with
with the Taekwondo, footmovements and change, change ups
helped me a great deal. As amatter of fact, it actually,
I'll credited for my, my littlecombat experience, saved my
butt. butt. I started realizing,being on deployments, I went on

(30:40):
three West packs, or two and ahalf West packs. And every time
I went on a West pack, which issix months on deployment, as an
active active ExpeditionaryForce, a ready expeditionary
force for the United StatesMarines, on Navy ships going all
over the world. And getting Iwent to Thailand, and might come

(31:01):
on, I was like, What? 1920?
Crazy, weirdo dude. All right.
And most of the time you'rechasing girls. Most time you're
on deployment, you're chasinggirls, drinking as much beer as
you can humanly consume. Well,that wasn't my pursuit. My

(31:22):
pursuit was I found out Thailandhad a martial art. And I was an
I actively in a taxi saw themtraining in a dirt patio area,
or dirt front yard. I wantedthat. So I actually tried it.
But I found out then my handswere ineffective. And they were

(31:44):
trying to teach me but there wasa language barrier. And they
only had so much tolerance forstupid American. So you know, so
I'm trying to learn it. And I'mtrying to relate my martial art
experience instead of justgiving up and, you know,
becoming what Bruce Lee say, theempty vessel, right? Yeah, I was
just trying to melt their styleinto mine, which I should have

(32:08):
just stopped and learn my tie.
So, you know, I'm trying tolearn it. And, but from that
experience, I realized, I don'thave any hands. I don't have
that good boxing hands, youknow, and one of my buddies was
a boxer. And he was like, yeah,let me let me help you and ship

(32:30):
out, we'll train you. All he didwas kick my butt every day. He
was like, no fee, can't do this.
Can't do that. We're just gotbox. And he just, he just handed
my butt to me. So realizing thatand then I started training in
some Filipino martial arts whenI was in the Philippines a lot.
Because that's all I pursued.

(32:53):
Right? That was my makeup dude.
And all my buddies are outwomanizing, and having a good
time, which is nothing wrongwith it, you know, you're doing
what you're doing. But my bigthing was, okay. Gotta have a
beer. And I'm going to find amartial art place. Right? And I
did that though. I found atraditional karate school that
taught Filipino style fighting,Cali, and all that stuff. Little

(33:15):
did I know, I'll move it. Butlittle did I know that that was
going to be a very big part ofmy life. But yeah, I finally
learned hands. When I got out ofthe Marine Corps. I started
training with Mike first Kimballinstructor.

(33:41):
I'll tell you, that guy just didit did so much for me. Coming
out of the Marine Corps, youknow, you're coming out with
that mindset. I came out where Ilooked at civilians, like why

(34:05):
aren't they working harder?
Okay, I think pushing harder.
You know, it was very weird.
It's very weird. And right nowI'm at a loss, I'm just add more
memories. But we'll get back tohis name and everything. I'll
give you that. But what he haddone is expose me to Kimble,

(34:27):
which was hands from heck. moreways to hit and strike a person
than you could shake a stick atit. And you couldn't shake it
fast enough. And I'm thinking,well, this is not gonna be You
can't do this in real life. Andthen I met his group. Holy crap.

(34:48):
Holy crap. And this is on thewest side of Long Beach. Oh,
yeah. It was on Westside LongBeach right off and right on
Santa Fe. But yeah, we're Navyhousing used to be.

Okay. Well, I know that I went to Stevens middle
school,

so not too far away. Oh, not too far

away. We're nearby.

Yeah, yeah. So Steve's Middle School is inside
the neighborhood there. Yeah.
Okay. If you go out to Santa Fe,there was a little laundromat.
And then there was the, it wascalled Tiger crane, Kimbo. All
right, and but it's theoriginal. It's not the type of
crane that I've heard storiesabout lately. It was the actual
one, the real one, the real, thereal, the real deal. When I met

(35:39):
him, my wife, my wife isFilipina. So I met my wife in
the Philippines. We ended upgetting married. She came to
United States. We've beenmarried now. 34 years. Oh,
congrats. Oh, yeah. So. So we,you know, I would run I would

(36:00):
have these heavy steel circlesin my hand, my wife and I would
run two, three miles every everyday. And I would see, I saw a
school didn't know what Kimblewas. I had no idea. No clue. Ran
pass, took stuck my head in sawthis white male biker looking

(36:22):
dude, with the little littlegut. And real nice, you know,
cool. kind of rough around theedges. But I'm like, it's cool
dude. And he said, just sit downand watch. And he must have had
50 students in the class. Kidsgroup was probably a good solid

(36:43):
50 trained in a littlewarehouse. We used to be a
mechanic's garage, but turned itinto a school. Holy crap, dude.
Those guys. And I didn't knowbeing from Georgia. You know, I
didn't know anything aboutgangs. I didn't know anything

(37:04):
about anything. But what he wasdoing was pulling guys out of
gangs and pulling them intomartial arts, and keeping them
out of gangs that talk andtraining these guys beyond what
anyone should be trained in.
That was my experience oflearning hands and getting a

(37:24):
good understanding. But I reallydid not learn hands until I met
Muhammad grammas Muhammad ofbkf. And my instructor and him
were close friends. So theywould come over and be calf used

(37:44):
to use the school for training.
And myself and Calvin wanek, whois also one of my classmates,
great, great guy. He now worksfor Metro PD in Vegas. Great
guy. He, he trained with themfor kickboxing. And I was like,
dude, I want to learn kickboxingI want to learn. So I started

(38:08):
kind of hanging out, invitedmyself to learning and they're
the ones that really taught meboxing, like real boxing. And it
the funniest thing was, again,I'm new. I'm new to California,
I'm new to Long Beach. And whatthey had done was I was so far

(38:30):
behind them, they had boxingskills and skills, period. So my
legs were good. I didn'tunderstand movement. I didn't
know how to work a ring. So theysent me to this Hispanic guy.
Okay, this is bad guy wasprobably four foot nothing.
older guy, probably in his 50sor 60s. He, this dude did things

(38:51):
to me that would torturous. Buthe taught me boxing without even
outwardly, he would tie my feetwith with a rope and say stay on
the line and move and keep thekeep the rope tight. And you got

(39:13):
to and then he taught me how tomove, move on a line, shuffling
my feet. And then he taught mehow to take one foot off and
pivot. And my pivot was soperfect that I was walking on
these two parallel lines. And mypivot was so perfect that I
could pivot and be on one lineand still increase my power and

(39:34):
my movement and you know, and hejust made me to where I was a
competitive amateur kickboxerthat moved from competitive to
professional in a matter of twoyears. That is insane. Yeah, no
matter of two years. And thatwas that was my kind of

(39:55):
breakthrough and and the kind ofthe basis For my the llama kempo
system that I teach todayit's a mixture of all of that.
It's the mixture of thedisciplines of boxing and, and
in the Kimbo that I learned andthe influences that Judo and I
merged it. nobody's talkingabout mixed martial arts. Yeah,

(40:19):
right. Well, my thing is, Istayed in each martial art and
practice that martial art to itsfullest. It wasn't I was I
wasn't dabbling. No, I was init. I was in it. That's where I
lived. When I started winningboxing, I didn't even really
have any respect for boxingbecause the reality is, I was

(40:42):
just a traditional martialartist that was like, I don't
know boxing is holy crap. Youknow? I've had my butt handed to
me by more boxers. So know that.
They call it the sweet science.
It is the sweet, sweet science.

(41:03):
The it is a sweet science. Yeah,but I ended up teaching. That's
what I taught my students. Mystudents ended up learning. Kind
of a hybrid version of Kimbo,which is a llama kempo system of
basically being a very attunekickboxer with that, that knows

(41:27):
how to use and incorporatetraditional weapons. You know,
they can they'll switch and beable to switch and throw hook
hook punches and overhead,overhead hooks, and then
original come from nowhere. Sothat's that's kind of how they
were brought up and trained. AndI think that was one of the, one
of the successes of my school.
And that's how, that's how I wasable to, unbeknownst to me,

(41:49):
because it all happened at theend of my professional career.
But I, I ended up getting threeseparate martial art Hall of
Fame's over a period of well,over a period of two years, I
got out of 2000, and women 1999and 2000, I got my first Hall of

(42:13):
Fame induction in 1999. I wasinducted with Eric Lee and a
handful of great martial artiststhat I didn't believe I was even
supposed to be there. I'm likelooking around going Holy crap,
these guys. These guys, man. Youknow, I really did. I really
did. I mean, I was joking. And,and I was lucky enough, they

(42:37):
asked me to do a demonstration.
At it's called the shuba forceor international martial arts
Hall of Fame. And at the sametime, across the street from
that event, was the Was it thethink of some music awards?

(42:58):
Right, right. So you have allthese martial artists on one
side of the street and the MusicAwards on the other side street,
busy street. But I brought mystudents with me, we did it, we
did a demonstration. And thedemonstration brought the room
to tears of these hardenedmartial artists. And I'm trying

(43:21):
to think there was a fewcelebrities there too, that are
in the comedy world. I'm at aloss now to remember him. There
was a black comedian. talksabout martial art. I'll remember
the second but he was there.
There was some other moviepeople. And yeah, everybody was
in tears. Yeah, it was it wasyou know, we're very fortunate.

(43:45):
They asked us in advance. Three,I think was three weeks that I
got a letter in the mail. Andfrom that three weeks saying
you're being inducted into aninternational martial art
holophane under under thatgroup, and they asked me, would
you mind doing a demo, and wejust kind of put it together,

(44:05):
threw it together? And did itthere. And it was we got so much
and here's the thing that'sreally bad. The student that
videotaped it died of cancer.
And we are still looking forthat tape. But a whole but the

(44:25):
great thing is a whole handfulof my students were able to be
with me during that night. Sothat was a great thing.

Yes, that is that was a great thing that people
didn't because now you just pickup the phone and everyone has
it. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. That was a funny thing too. Because a lot
of people were like, dude, you Iwish you like I did have
students that would. One of mybig things that I think is a
weakness in my own character isI didn't like videos taken and
and pictures taken duringclasses, right just didn't like

(45:03):
it. I thought it was adistraction that was
unnecessary. Now, in retrospect,I'm like, dang it, I wish I
should have man. And a lot ofthe competitions that we went
to, we were a poor school. Weweren't like, you know, a few of
our parents were solid, standingon solid ground. But you know,
pretty much always on the westside of Long Beach, which is a

(45:26):
decent area. Don't

get me wrong, it's

a really nice area. But myself, we didn't have
the resources where we owned acamera and we were going to
videotape and back in thosedays, there were no phone
cameras. Yeah. You look like areporter from Channel Seven
News. Or, you know, if you ifyou have frickin, you know,
camera, and a lot of thecompetitions that I was in

(45:49):
kickboxing all that stuff. Therewere always people saying, Hey,
I got you on tape, you know,call me and do this. And you'd
end up calling them and theynever come through, or it's hard
to get in touch with them. So,yeah, over the years, a lot of
my students and their parentshave taken videos and like I
said, one of the main peoplethat did Greg brown might say

(46:17):
it, great student, great humanbeing and passed away from
cancer. His daughter was one ofthe top students I've ever
trained ever. Dominic was anincredible in she's an
incredible woman now. You know,graduated from she graduated

(46:38):
from a southern college went toChico. Not Spelman, but one of
the black colleges in in thesouth. Graduated, you know, and
she's out. She She has actuallykind of like a YouTube channel

(47:01):
for fashion and stuff that she'sdoing. Great. Great. You know,
that's awesome. Fantastic.
Fantastic. You know, like Isaid, a lot of my students, I'm
so proud of them as people. Youknow, yeah. train them and they
want all these championships.
Oh, that's wonderful. And someof them became Pro. You know,

(47:22):
some of them went pro and someof their children are pros now.
Wow. You know, they're fightinglike, before the podcast we were
talking about one of my studentsowns a gym, out of out of
Lakewood called The Body Shop.
And Tonio McKee, who's thecraziest guy you'll ever want to

(47:42):
meet? But love him to death?
Because Antonio's has no knee.
He's known me through thehardest times, dude. Wow. Cuz I.
I know, I'm kind of going allover the place. But
keeping keeping that in mind andTonio met me at a time where it

(48:03):
was very hard, you know, Iowning a school. I, I went, I
became a respiratory therapist.
So I went to school forrespiratory therapy. And in the
interim, because I didn't knowif I was going to pass the state
board or not. I said, hey, I'vebeen doing martial arts for the
last couple, you know,seriously, I'm gonna open up a
school. So I ended up opening upa school taking the state board

(48:26):
exam, passing it, passing it,and the school was already
opened them. Oh, so all myattention was on the school. And
I kind of let my respiratorytherapy, which you know,
sometimes I regret and sometimesI know God's in charge. And, and
if things happen, exactly whythey happen. They happen for a

(48:47):
reason. But I push really hardin the martial art world. Well,
Antonio, met me when I think thefirst time he met me, I was
actually I met him. I actuallysaw him in his own a beeper
business. That's how far back itwas, right? Well, you know, the
beeper business in Long Beach,but what he met he actually we

(49:10):
actually taught, I was in analley, in Long Beach on the west
side of Long Beach. And I had amattress taped around a
telephone pole. And I wastraining for a fight that I was
going to do in Vegas, big onefullcontact continuous fighting.
All right. So I'm training andhe drives Luckily, throws a few

(49:33):
expletives out and said what areyou doing? And I said, I'm
training for a fight. And he westart talking and we've been
friends ever since. And he'she's seen me through the good
times, bad times. Great, greathuman being. Well, I was able to
what as I was, bullet, let'stalk about AI at that point in

(49:56):
time. martial artists, kickboxers that not make a lot of
money. Okay, let me give you anexample. As a boxer, if I was an
amateur boxer breaking into thepros, I can make 10,000 bucks as
an advanced amateur. And thenonce I broke into Pro, I'm going

(50:20):
to make an eight, six digitincome, I'm gonna make a six
digit on certain fights. Youknow, even if I lose, I'm going
to make six. Right? kickboxing,I'd be lucky to make 3000 bucks
1500 was the norm. Wow. Andyou're taking heck a shot, same
punishment sometimes worse.

(50:43):
Right? That's. So at that pointin time, I was also doing
Wilmington, fights, Wilmington,warehouse fights. So I would
fight in warehouses or parkinglots in Wilmington. And then I
would do Long Beach beachfights, which, you know, pretty
much you would just, you wouldhear about it, say, Hey, we're

(51:05):
going to meet up while forocean, right at, you know, six
o'clock, and it gets dark atseven. So it only lasts about 30
minutes. So they have two fightsgoing on the beach. You know.
And so it but you could win somefast money. And so I did that

(51:25):
for a second. Just to earnenough money because I at that
point in time I had my my firstson was born, had to buy milk
and buy diapers. You know, soliterally fighting for a living.
Yeah, that's, that's what I did.
But I never had my, in my mind,I never pursued it as like, this
is going to be my profession. Iwant to be the No, I just

(51:46):
fought. Because the fighting.
And I never if I was smarter,looking back, if I was smarter,
I would have gotten betterrepresentation. I would have
marketed myself better. Youknow, I would have probably got
a whole heck of a lot further.
At least, notoriety wise. But nowriting wasn't my key thing. My

(52:07):
key thing was training goodpeople to be lethal in decent
human beings. That was my thatwas my push. I did my
self gratification. I might likeI said my three Hall of Fame

(52:28):
inductions surprised me. Wow.
Because they there was nowarning. There was no who who
are watching. You know, one ofthe things that was said to me
for the first Hall of Fameinduction that I got. And the
second one from the Mastersgroup back when Spry is the
handle it was hey, we've beenmonitoring your school and you

(52:52):
over a period of a decade, like10 years, you've developed over
400 champions. Wow, I'm like,how do you know what? I don't
even do that? Well, they said,we're looking at the stats,
we're looking at the amateur,competitive things. And then we
also know You fool. We know whoyou are. Yeah, we've seen you.

(53:14):
We all know you from the martialart world. This is what you've
done. And we all sat down andagreed. Yeah, you should be
recognized. The mind blowing Ithink I had no clue. I don't
know. And I'll be very honestwith you. Those Hall of Fame
inductions. The most humblingand great thing to be recognized

(53:37):
for what you do. But the bestthing are my students. Okay,
that's the best, right? Becausethey're living breathing
examples of your training. Andthey, they constantly tell me
constantly tell me see if youhave I wouldn't have met you.

(53:57):
Seafood. If I didn't get allthat training. We're talking
about I have students who endedup going all gamuts I have a
student who are a handfulstudents who got very high
degrees, new nuclearengineering, physicians, FBI,
all of these students, highlyexceptional, but I also have

(54:22):
students that went to stateprison, or they went to county,
and they they were literallytheir martial arts skills,
things like train them savetheir lives. I had a student
call me on the phone telling mesee, I love you. I love you. I'm
like, okay, what's going on? Andhe said, Yeah, I got stabbed in
counting. And this happened thishappened. But in he goes, I use

(54:44):
this and I did that. And he goesThank you see for like, thank
you, I I wouldn't even be livingI wouldn't be breathing in.
That's horrible. But it's all sogratifying. And those same
students are living better livesnow. Because I didn't turn my

(55:05):
back on him I, I told him Hey,look, you you are better than
this and you need you need tocome out of that world. And
today they're they're livingbeautiful lives. That's good to
hear. Beautiful, beautiful. Andit's funny too, because that's
that's everything. That'severything I accolades and you

(55:27):
know, and it's funny, I've donethe gambit of all martial arts,
and I know I'm all over theplace right now, but, but I've
done the gambit. I've I've donefight coordinating for movies,
I've done weapons, weapons,training, firearms for movies,

(55:47):
I've done all that stuff. It'scool. But that's not that. It
always falls back to the martialarts and always falls back to
the type of people that I'vebeen exposed to. And my
students, I would say, you wantto boil it down to its basic

(56:09):
element. It's about you guys. Imean, I've known you since you
were a young kid. That meanseverything you let's go back to
column column vandusen Power ofOne founder. Yes. Colin and I
knew each other back when wewere just we'd fight anybody

(56:30):
that looked at us weird. I'm notI don't want to put calling out
and I'm saying all thisrespectfully. Yeah, totally
respectfully. With with a greatdeal of love to but calling used
to be a bad way. You know, Kalinwas no joke. And we were boys,
we were just best buds in themartial arts. And we've been in

(56:58):
incident student parking lots.
hotel lobby.

You brought that up? I think he told me the story
ones are in the frozen but Ithink you guys were in an
elevator. And for some reason orother you guys got up on the
wrong floor. And there was agroup of people already

Well, that was already a disputed already it
started. Yeah. martial artworld. Yeah, it wasn't like, you
know, we watch bad guys now.
That we had interaction withYeah, we Yeah, we had to do we
have to deal with? Yeah, and Andbelieve me, we walked away
laughing.

They did. It did it.

So yeah, I mean, combat news is is legit. Right?
legit? And he's one of the fewmartial artists, karate guys.
And there's a lot of them, buthe's one one of them. That Yeah,

(58:04):
you don't want to run up on him?
You know? And even. We're oldernow. You know, this is back in
our, our 20s and 30s. You know,but yeah, still wouldn't want to
run up on him. He's a beautifulhuman being. I want you to
understand. He's not some bigheaded tough guys now.

(58:25):
Absolutely. Not. Absolutely not.
And I don't want to portray thathe. He's a very thoughtful, very
kind human being who it was verygenuine and loving. You know,
let me make that infinitelyclear. But if he's nobody, you
know, he's nobody to play withnow he's not.

So let's go back because you're about to tell
your story on the Philippines.
Yeah, martial art. So walk methrough that now.

Okay, well, I was exposed to it when I was in
the Marines. unbeknownst to me,if you would have told me when I
was a marine in the Philippines.
Hey, dude, you're gonna marry aFilipina? I say you're nuts.
That is not gonna happen. Dude.
I'm not gonna be that guy. No,it's not gonna happen. Well,
sure enough. I definitely did.
And like I we just had ouranniversary.

Oh, congrats. And 34 years 34.

Yeah, we're married at eight. Oh, no. doing
the math. Right. Yeah, yeah,definitely. And what's what's
crazy about that is her familyis part of the sablon style that
they'll say part is the sablonstyle. Well, my Maestro is a

(59:48):
family member. celadon yoCastillo, who was a guerrilla
fighter in World War Two. Allright, fought in the mountains,
you know, horseback Yes.
Japanese in the Philippines,he's the real deal. The dude,
the dude, Scott hit heads up,blade, the blade with Japanese
during World War Two. He's thereal deal. And he actually
taught law enforcement andmilitary up until his elderly

(01:00:13):
till he was elderly, because hewas a world war two that he got
dual citizenship. Well, he kindof the family kind of said, Hey,
why don't you go into the UnitedStates go stay with with Sarah
Thomas, and train him? Oh,because he's as he as our girl,

(01:00:34):
he has our little baby girl. AndI'll tell you a story. I'll back
that up right after I tell youthat. But he said you got our
baby girl over there. A he'sinto it. So finishes training,
finish the family's training.
Because Because the doseyPotter's organization. And I

(01:00:56):
don't think it's like the don'tsay parties. But it's the some
one style of fighting is what hetaught me. And the swallow
style. So when he came over he,he actually started and finished
my training in his 80s, or inhis late 80s. And he actually

(01:01:17):
had two strokes. Oh, while doingmy training over like a year and
a half. But a year and a half ittook to train me up to where he
said, Okay, I'm, I'm a teacher.
And what was weird about hewalked with a cane, walked very
slow. But you put a blade or aCollie weapon in his hand. Dude
was a monster. He's a 19 yearold freaking crazy, dude. You

(01:01:39):
know, it was amazing. Nowbacking that up. I always tell
the story about when I met mywife's family. And we went back
to where she's from, which is norunning water, no electricity,
no, nothing. All right. And as Iwas, as we were coming to visit
the family, first time ever,this was back before we've, as a

(01:02:02):
matter of fact, we went back mywife was pregnant with my first
son. And the men kind of said,Hey, brother, and I'm like, Why
are you calling me brother? Isit because I'm a black guy? Is
that is that the reason? Ididn't know that? Yes, I'm
actually their brother. Youknow, they're, they're my two

(01:02:23):
years. They're my, you know,they're my, they're my older
members of the family. So theytook me through the side,
they're over there drinkingunder, under on a table under a
little little roof there. Andthey started showing me Do keep
in mind, we did. We backed wewere literally off the plane,

(01:02:46):
we're actually still trapped. Soshe is off talking to family.
They take me off, they show mesome stuff, you know, and
they're they're just kind offeeling the out and I didn't
know what they were doing. Theydon't know who I am. I don't
know who they are. later downthe road. I got my eyes split
open. My lip was split open intwo places. And I had a few

(01:03:10):
welts on my arm. Or bruises onmy arm and I don't bruises. I
really don't. But those returnsticks. Yeah, they do what they
do. Right. So my wife sees meand she just goes off and she's
into gala, which is actually noteven at the gala. I think she
was speaking for Zion. So andshe's just going off, and I

(01:03:33):
didn't realize what they weredoing. And what they were doing
wasbecause I had their their girl.
She's from a pretty largefamily. I had their girl who
helped raise them. She helpedraise most of her brothers and

(01:03:58):
sisters. I took that girl fromthe family. And they didn't know
if I was able to protect hertake care of her. They didn't
know that. So what they wantedto do is find out number one,
where my heart was to show meskills and abilities that I

(01:04:25):
could protect their little girl.
I didn't know

Jose Flores (01:04:37):
I get a little emotional yet. Okay, so

Thomas Martain (01:04:41):
her brother Leto told me we believe it And he he

(01:05:02):
said, and he didn't speakEnglish very well. Matter of
fact, Do you speak English? muchat all. But in English in his
broken, he probably practicedit. He, he looked at me dead, my
eyes said, take care of mysister.

Yeah, man. That was everything, and that type of
thing.

So, learning to Filipino martial arts was
something that, you know, was arite of passage kind of thing.
I'm very fortunate to learn it.
And I actually have a studentright now, who has taken it to a
whole different level, because Itaught from martial arts as
Filipino Martial Arts in myschool, too. So my students

(01:05:55):
learned knife fighting, and inCali, and they learned the
principle, but they also did itin real life. Oh, we had, we had
free for all where, Okay, I'mgonna stab you. And I'm gonna,
I'm going for it, I'm gonna stabyou. And we had aluminum and
wooden knives. And it's great tolearn to principle. But it's

(01:06:19):
even better to do it. Andbecause of that, I got better as
a as a practitioner in it and asan instructor, but my students
actually know the reality ofblades, they understood the
reality of, of distance andmovement, and, and a lot of
principal fighter fighting withknives and stuff. I don't know

(01:06:43):
if it's based in reality or not,but it's just, you know, it is
what it is, but from my limitedexperience. And so donyo was
always about being lawful andethical. You know, don't, don't
kill a person when you can, nameor disarm them. Don't don't
mean, disarm a person when youcan just and disarming wasn't

(01:07:07):
even the goal. But he alwayswent less. No, always less if
you can kill, don't, don't everkill, he said, and that was one
of his principles don't everkill. When you could, you know,
disable them and get them downeither. Or if you have to
disable, try your best to justjust cause pain, and make them

(01:07:30):
pause and get them in a betterposition. And he said, if you
can avoid the situation avoidedcompletely. No, he always had a
step down from what, what to bedone. Which when it gets my
Marine Corps mentality, whichwhen it gets by fight mentality,
and it was a good balance, butmy and my students learn, going

(01:07:51):
back to my students learn thereality of it. It was never just
we would learn the principles,they would learn how to parry
and block and redirect and dostuff. But they also had to
learn that the real side of it.
So they got to a point where,you know, we had to incorporate
Judo and grappling into that tolearn how to do things. It was a

(01:08:17):
great experience. But But I haveRalph Ralph, live Ralph antilla
Santos, but Ralph tele isprobably like one of the top
Collie practitioners right nowin Southern California. And he
studies under a Filipino masterthat he's taken his skills,

(01:08:42):
mastery, absolute mastery,ridiculous and he's one of my
top black belts. So everyeverything plays into another I
have students who have beenstudents of mine for 20 years.
And now one of them Clark orsome we call them Chuck Dora
buttons Clark. He's Wing Chun.
And now he's one of the top WingChun guys in the world in the

(01:09:07):
world and actually has gone sofar as that it men's son, and
his family lineage has acceptedhim completely. That's awesome.
Completely. It's great. So it'ssuch a small world it's said you

(01:09:29):
know, yeah, they they learn thellama kipple system they have.
Everything is based in thereality of fighting everything
is based in you know, theethical and moral side of it,
but they go off they do otherthings like Antonio Antonio's
MMA. His Son, AJ, he fightsBella Torre now and he's

(01:09:54):
undefeated. I think he got 12 to18 matches undefeated. tendency
he very much under an Tonioteaches them the llama kibble
system, like kicking movement,everything. So it's great, you
know, things, things go on waybeyond me out of my hands. You
know, you plant the seed, andthat's it.

And so, obviously now you're because when we're
talking since I'm out of themartial art world, right, you
know, right. Now, I'm just gonnasay, Do you ever get that itch
back? Like, I want to go back orevery day, every minute?

I'm not gonna lie. One of the one things I was
doing the career I'm doing,because I'm in law enforcement,
and I was when I went into lawenforcement, martial arts was
one of my big things. Still, Imean, it never went away. So I
would go, I think back in 2003,I went into the what's called

(01:10:59):
the police and fire Olympics,and fought in the police and
fire Olympics. That's FBI, DEA,all police agencies from all
over the world, the whole worldcome together in an Olympics,
and everything from baseball,soccer, everything boxing,
everything you could imagine,including martial arts. And from

(01:11:21):
there, I've earned three goldmedals, the silver and a bronze
and the grand championshiptrophy from the police Olympics
over a period of two Olympics.

That is crazy.
Yeah, good. Yeah.

But that was early on in my career. I was
2003. And I think 2005 is when Idid the police Olympics. I did
it in San Diego, and I did it inSan Francisco. The later on in
my career, I was a I was I got achance to work with some
incredible, incredible forceinstructors. Now, I had been a

(01:12:00):
force instructor since 2003. ButI would say 2018 or 19, I became
a force instructor for theacademy for LA County Sheriff's
Academy. And man, I'll tell yousome incredibly talented,

(01:12:22):
skillful. I mean, to the bone,skilful, knowledgeable, martial
artists and fighters, who arepart and I was very, very
blessed to be even in the roomwith them. Just in the room, and
I'm saying that Yeah, okay.
Martin, you've done a lot. Yeah,happen a lot. But I don't know
everything. Like that. So, youknow, going with this group, I

(01:12:48):
had an opportunity to be exposedto crop Mugu. You know, and had
to get certified in it and learnit, because that's what the
sheriff's department does.
That's their, that's theirmethods and skill set for
teaching everyone. And it's agreat, well organized

(01:13:10):
curriculum, to learn, remindedme very much of each m Ru,
karate, very much even down tothe techniques. But a lot of
real world stuff. Some stuff Iagreed with some stuff I didn't,
but not my business. Because Ihad to learn it. It's part of my
career. But also to some of thepeople in my group and some of

(01:13:36):
the people I work with. Holycrap, just incredible. Guys and
girls who are just dedicated tothe martial arts and passing it
on for law enforcement, so theycould be very effective. Yeah, I
truly believe that. You know,there's a lot of good

(01:13:57):
departments a lot of there's,you know, there's more ways than
one way to skin a cat. Right,right. But I truly believe our
department has done a great job.
And, you know, my, my Sergeantwho is a crazy man was my old

(01:14:18):
boss. He's the my old boss. Buthe's a great guy. Great, great
human being. I was very, veryfortunate to be part of the 14.

Oh, man. That's awesome. Oh, Mr. Martin, you
have my brain right now. It'sabout to explode. It's like to
I'm all over the place. That'sawesome. I mean, when I got a
hold of you,

Unknown (01:14:50):
I think

I was not expecting I will. I knew I was gonna get
some good stuff, but this iswhere we will be on there. What
I prepared for this was awesome.
Cheers. I loved it. Yeah. No,this was awesome. So I mean, you
don't have to, but I always liketo surprise people with this.
any parting words, before weleave anything you would like to
say, before we leave.

Um, one thing, go back to what I was talking
about. Mike Davis, Sergeant MikeDavis is probably retired by
now. The department, but I'mpersonally as a as a man, I want
to thank him, you know, forgiving me the opportunity to be
with the unit, and all all allthe guys. Bridgette and all

(01:15:34):
those people in the unit, verythankful to be a part of that.
Now, fast forward, partingwords. I think martial arts has
been probably the best thingthat I that has ever happened to
me. It's given me the strengthto do and stay focused in my

(01:15:58):
life. When I left the MarineCorps, I was legit marine cousin
drinkin fighting, you name itlike nobody's business, or it
was respectful, very much incontrol. didn't want to do
anything outside of you know,military law and everything. But

(01:16:20):
yeah. I've I've been in a coupleof fights and bars. Yes, I have.
But the the main thing of it is,martial arts is formed me and
and kept me at a standard when Ileft the Marine Corps. And I'll
give an example of that. When Ileft the Marine Corps, I stopped
drinking completely, nevertouched a drop since it wasn't

(01:16:43):
that I had an issue wasn't thatI had a problem. It was I knew
if I was going to marry thewoman that wants to marry and
bring her to a foreign countryand be responsible for alcohol,
no part of it. And then becauseof the martial arts. Alcohol was
never part of it. It's not. So Iit kept me straight. It kept me

(01:17:04):
on on a path where nothing wasimpossible. And I will tell
everyone This and this is justmy point of view. That martial
arts saved me. My students savedme. very fortunate.

We're very fortunate to be here today, sir.
Mr. Martin, thank you for binghere today Thank you, everyone
at home for listening. Mr.
Thomas Martin, ladies andgentlemen. Thank you so much,
sir. Thank you.

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Thomas Martin | 3 time Martial Arts Hall of Famer

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Thomas Martin | 3 time Martial Arts Hall of Famer