 She holds black belts in several different martial arts, including eighth-degree grandmaster in Tang Sudo. In more than 100 competitions, she was world champion five years in a row, holds the undefeated worldwide record in forms, and was the first and only woman to win in weapons competition against the men in North America. Many know her for her extensive career in martial arts films, which includes being one of the first Americans to break box office records in the Hong Kong film industry and has over 60 film credits to her name and counting. She is also the first female to be featured on a martial arts publication and stands as a powerful role model for women all over the world. She's here with us today to talk about overcoming obstacles, setting goals, and how to get the most out of your training in the martial arts. Ladies and gentlemen, we welcome the queen of martial arts herself, Master Cynthia Rothbrock. So one of our goals on this channel is to provide a platform for martial artists to get a bigger idea of the martial arts community as a whole and how to find the value in all different arts. So first of all, Mr. Rothbrock, I'd like to thank you so much for joining us today. Oh, my pleasure. Thank you for inviting me. I'm particularly interested in your robust mix of martial arts. You've got quite a different list of experience from Taekwondo to karate to Chinese martial arts. When you started, what was your motivation to begin the martial arts and how did you pick the first one to start with? Well, when I started, there weren't a whole lot of martial arts schools. There was one. It was the Scranton Karate School and now that was it. What got me interested in it is my girlfriend's parents owned a health club. And on Sunday, they would close it and clean all the equipment. And my friend and I, we were like 13, would come in and we would just play around, do rolls in the exercise area. And afterwards they would come in with their karate uniforms on and they would start practicing their forms. And I was always kind of an out of the box kind of kid. So anything that was different or unusual, I always wanted to do. So I was like, what are you doing? And they were doing, well, we're doing karate. We were learning how to defend ourselves with our hands and feet. And I was fascinated by that. And I thought, wow, that uniform is really cool. I'd like to have one of those. So I went home, told my mom, I said, I want to sign up at the Scranton Karate School. And that was the start of it. Excellent, excellent. So what was your first impression? So when you saw what they were doing and what you had in your mind versus right after your first class, how did your impression of the class change from your expectation? Well, my friend's parents weren't in it. Obviously, my friend didn't want to do it. And I was the only girl in the class. And I was very intimidated by all the guys. And at that time, back, we're talking about like the late 70s. So at that time, it wasn't a business. It was like, you either hang in here and be tougher. You move along. You can't make it in our school. And it was tough. I mean, I had a hard time just thrown right in with the class, like trying to punch, trying to shout. I just felt, I felt, oh, no, what did I do? My mom signed me up for four months. So I was like, OK, it wasn't what I expected. But let's give this a try and see where it goes. So when you changed from different artists, because again, you've got such a robust mix, when you went from one discipline to another, did you experience any sort of a culture shock? Or was there an acclimation period when you started in New Art? No, there wasn't actually because I started in Tung Sudo when I stayed in there. Almost I was ready to get my second degree black belt. And at that time, one of the students from the Tung Sudo School started doing kung fu. There was a kung fu school that opened up. And I saw them do the movements. And I thought, well, that's really interesting. It's different than the Tung Sudo. You know, you're doing fluid movements. You're doing very flexible, low stances. So I wanted to do both of them. So I signed up at the kung fu school and also the karate school. And at that point, my coordination was really good. And when I saw these moves, I felt like, oh, this is a good fit for my body. So it was actually an easy transition for me. But during that time, my instructors found out that I was doing both. And the schools were in competition. So I had the choice I had to either stay with Tung Sudo or kung fu. I couldn't do both. So it was a hard decision for me. But I ended up saying, OK, I'm going to try the kung fu. So it wasn't really a tough transition for me because I was already a black belt and I already understand movement. So it's just applying it to the new material, basically? Yeah, it was just basically it was actually a little more challenging for me because you're doing very low stances to the ground. And I thought it challenged my physicality a little bit more. And I already had a really strong base with the Tung Sudo, with the kicking and things like that. So it was just a whole different challenge for me to do. And I think that's kind of what I like is I like to find challenges for myself and work them out. So after you did your film career, you opened up your own school, correct? I actually had my own school before I started filming. Technically, I started teaching for my Tung Sudo teacher at Scranton Karate School. Then I ended up opening up two schools in the Pennsylvania area. And then I moved to California. And my goal was actually to compete out there and study with Roger Tung. And I ended up staying in California and opened up two schools in California. So that was all previous to me doing my first film. Are these schools all Tung Sudo, or did you throw in a mixture of different influences that you've learned? I actually was teaching the Kung Fu style. It was Pailong Kung Fu, but I was teaching the kicking style the Tung Sudo way. And I found that I had an excellent way to teach the Kung Fu because I was used to coming from a very powerful system that was very hard to a system that was fast and fluid. So what I did is I combined the power with the fluidity. And I think I had that advantage there on teaching people to do fluidity, but to do it very strong. So since you've had so much experience mixing arts, I've noticed that in recent years, cross training is becoming increasingly popular. And with so many people mixing different arts together and mixing ground fighting with BJJ on the scene, but yet there's still this debate of which art is better, what works in the ring, what doesn't. What advice can you offer people who are looking into cross training and how to keep a healthy perspective on it? Well, first of all, I'm a traditionalist at heart. And I think when you do pick up a style, you should learn that style completely. Once you come very proficient in that style, then you can branch off and building your repertoire of martial art moves. That's what I would suggest. But there's so many styles out there now. And I think what I would recommend is going to the schools and watching and seeing the atmosphere, seeing how the students are and seeing what appeals to you as a person because everybody's body type is different. Some people might not want to go into a style where they kick all high, or it's like a little bit acrobatic or it's just ground techniques. So I think it's just finding a good school and then finding the style that fits your needs the best. You stand as an incredible example for women in the martial arts, not just in your film career or in competition, but just as an icon in the martial arts community. What lesson or what would you like women to draw from your experience in the martial arts? I think that I guess the lesson is, is once you start martial arts, it becomes a lifestyle to you. And I don't just mean spiritually and physically, but also mentally. The things that you learn in martial arts, you can apply to anything you're gonna do in life. Whether for me, it was the biggest lesson I learned from martial arts is not to give up or not to accept failure because if I would have, I wouldn't be where I am today. I wouldn't be doing martial arts because after my third class in tongues to go, I was ready to quit. And my mom was like, I know you started for four months, you're going for four months. And I've realized the reason, I wasn't any good as they had a bad attitude. So I think martial arts gives you like a positive attitude outlook. Now it's like when you get proficient, it gives you the feeling to give back to the community, which is basically what I love doing is just teaching martial arts and just giving people like, I do seminars across the world's ideas, how to be a better martial artist, how to train better. With MMA, we've seen a lot more women compete on a professional level. What is your opinion of the competitive landscape today for women? I love watching women fight. I mean, I just went to Smash Global and I was with Don Wilson and they had women fighters there. It was the first time, I think in 10 years that at this event they had women fighters and Don's like, oh, I don't like to see it. I don't like to see women get punched. And Davey Pang and I was like, Don, really? Come on, I like it. I think for women that really want to do MMA, more power to you, just train hard and do your homework. And I think for women that want to do MMA, you can't just do the MMA. It's good, like you get someone down on the ground, but you get paired up with someone that's an excellent kicker or martial artist. Getting them down is not that easy. So I would say on that particular, when you need the supplement of having a good kickboxing base as well as ground fighting or taking someone on the ground. But I enjoy watching the men and the women fight. Are there any changes that you'd like to see in the future of martial arts with women's competition or do you think it's headed in the right direction currently? I think it's headed in the right direction. I remember when they first started, I was in watching some of the first ones that there were no rules at all. And I was like, wow, people want to get in there and do that. And then it got banned for a while. They banned it because people were getting hurt because there were no rules. And then they put the rules on it. But I think women are really making a name for themselves in the MMA now. We're seeing a lot more women fighting and a lot more events holding women's fights. Now I'd like to use your experience and tournaments to segue into our topic of goal setting. You would set a goal for yourself to complete the World Championship title for five years in a row undefeated. How did you, what was your motivation for that particular goal and what kind of criteria did you set for yourself? Well, the first year I became number one in forums. I set the goal that I wanted to do with five years undefeated. And we're talking about competing over a hundred times. It's not just five times. It was like probably at least 20 times a year that I was competing. And I just, for those five years, all I did was kind of just live martial arts. I mean, I had my school. I would train in the day. I would train my students at night. I would train with my students after class. I would do things that would make me better. I would do like I started gymnastic classes so I could get better. I did ballet classes so I could get more flexible. I just, you know, was a hundred percent into getting better and better and better. You know, I went to China for eight weeks when it wasn't open to, you know, people to come in. It was still like, you know, very hard for Americans to get in. Went with Roger Tongue. And I would just do anything. That was my main focus. That's all I focused on is martial arts training and just doing my best, being my best. And I kept challenging myself because, you know, when I was number one, like after two years in a row undefeated, people are like, oh, we want to, you know, beat Cynthia. So I would have to think of harder routines, harder things to do, you know? And I kept upping my game to myself to stay on top. So it, you know, during those five years, you wouldn't see me skiing. You wouldn't see me hiking. I was only doing martial arts. What made you choose the number five years? I thought it was a goal that would not be easily defeated. You know, I know there's some people that say, well, I'm seven times champion, nine times. Well, they might have just competed once a year or something like that, but we're talking like over a hundred competitions of being undefeated. So I thought it was a very hard goal for someone to break. So that's kind of what I said it. And on my fifth year, I actually got involved in movies, which kind of went, oh, okay. So now I can transition from competing professionally for five years into movies. So kind of everything just like fell in place for me. But I really didn't want to retire, but I wanted to go out number one. I've seen other people, you know, that have been number one and then they would lose and you know, and I just was like, no, even though I still want to compete and even today, you know, when I see competitions, I feel like, oh, I still like to get out there and perform. But you know, that was it. That was the time I achieved what I wanted to and it was time for me to move on. And luckily I started doing films right after, right actually during my fifth year of competition. That must have been a challenge just to schedule along with all the training. Because by the time you're in your fifth year, you're talking about always having an up your game. So doing that on top of doing films, how did you balance that time? Yeah, it was really hard because I remember I was shooting Yes, Madam with Corey Union and Michelle Yeoh. And I would go, oh, I have to go to Minneapolis to compete, you know, and then I would fly out there and I'd have jet lag from flying from Hong Kong. And then I would compete and then I'd fly back and then I'd be on the set that day, you know, and it was really hard, but I did it. And I remember I competed in like three competitions during that year. And then karate illustrated held the ranking system and they're like, you're so far ahead of everybody, you don't have to compete next to you. So I was like, oh, good, you know, so I was happy that, you know, when I found out that, yep, I did the five years, number one undefeated. What would you say was your most challenging tournament experience? My most challenging one, I would say competing in weapons against the men, because the whole time I competed, I never had a division where it was just women. I never had a women's grand champion. I was always competing against the men. I think like the AK Nationals, the first time I won the overall grand champion against the men, which was really a big honor. In 1982, I won the weapons division for the whole North America, which again was really hard to do because at that time it was still hard. I remember like lining up at Bill Pickle's tournament in Canada and there'd be about like 95 men and two women, you know, in the weapons area. So I say that was probably my hardest because I felt like that I couldn't just be good. I had to be so good that, you know, I'd have the audience on my side and the judges couldn't say, you know, because at that time I think there was still a little bit of like, you know, oh wait, the woman beating the man. That's not too good, you know. So I just said, I just got to go above and beyond what I normally do. So that again led that little fire under me to train so hard ferociously and just, you know, be the best that I could be. And you were the first female to defeat men in weapons, weren't you? Yeah, in 1982, yeah, during the whole karate illustrated rankings. And then way after that I ended up and when I retired from competition then down the road, they had women's grand champion and then they had women's weapons. But yeah, during my time, actually when I competed in my first competition, it was just women. And I was studying five and a half months. I was in Orange Belt in Tung Sudow. My teacher put me in the competition and I was doing form and I took second place. The black belt took first, black belt took third. And at that point I realized, wow, I beat all these black belts and I've only been studying five and a half months. I can be the best in this field. So that's actually what started me into training really, really hard with that goal for competition. Yeah, so that last year, so you were competing and then when Golden Harvest came up to you and they approached you to start doing movies, is that something that you were apprehensive about to begin with or were you already thinking about a film career? Like how did you view the opportunity when it was first presented to you? Well, I never thought of a film career at all. I mean, I was still focusing on competing in my school but when I used to train with Chim Leong in New York City, he used to take us to Chinatown and I used to see all the Hong Kong movies after we would train and I would watch Jackie Chan and I would love his movements and I would come home and I would start, oh, I remember he did this move, this was awesome and I would do it and stuff like that. So I never really ever thought I'd do a movie and what happened was is Yun Kui was in LA and they were auditioning for a guy. Actually they were looking for someone to be the next Bruce Lee and they called the West Coast demonstration team that I was on because the guys were like phenomenal and they said, bring all the guys down. So we went down because he said, Ernie said, should we bring the girls? And they were like, yeah, they're really looking for a guy and Yun Kui said, I want the girls. So when I did my first movie, yes, madam, I went over there with the idea that I was just gonna do one movie. Well, here's another adventure in the life of Cynthia Rothrock. Someday maybe when I have kids, I could say, look at your mom was in a movie and I was on the poster, you know? And that's what was in my mind. I really didn't think it was gonna be a career and when we finished that movie which actually took eight and a half months to shoot that whole movie, it was such a box office hit that that's when Golden Harvest approached me and said, you know, we wanna sign you up for a three picture deal. So then I was like, wow, I love doing this. I love doing the movies. I'm not competing. I said, all right, I'm gonna have to leave my school but yes, that's what I think I'm destined to do is now go on and do movies. So then that's when it hit me that, wow, now I wanna have a career doing film. But at first I thought it was just gonna be like one little crazy thing that I did in my life. Just a quick little notch on the checklist but then it turned out to be something much more than that. Yeah. So the sad thing too is that not only, you know, do you have this tournament accomplishments, you're also one of the first American actors or actresses to even have a successful film career in Hong Kong. What was your experience? So your expectation going into your first film versus the series of films you did and coming back into American cinema, what was your outlook on this, the Hong Kong and the movie filmmaking industry as a whole at that point? Well, you know, I didn't know anything about filmmaking and I thought, I remember flying into Hong Kong thinking I'm going to Hans Island, they're gonna dress me up in Chinese clothes, I'm gonna have black braids, razor blades in my hair on me, totally. And I get there and they're going like, no, you're just gonna be Cindy and that you're from Hong Kong and you're a cop. And I was like, oh, and I wear regular clothes. They're like, yeah, so I had no idea that was gonna happen. We had no script. So each day we would get the lines we had to do. And I remember my first day was an all night shoot. I never even stayed up all night, you know? And I'm nervous, so I don't sleep during the day and now I have an all night shoot. And it was really, it was probably the most, it was the, in yes madam, it was the fight scene in the airport, which is the most, one of the most complicated ones ever. So I had to do that. And I've learned at that point, there was one move where I had to jump on a wall and come off and kick. And I had a hard time doing that at first, you know? And I just kept doing it doing and I finally got it. And I think what happened is the Hong Kong choreographers were like taking it like easy with me. Like, you okay? You okay? And at that point they realized, hey, she's tough. She could do all these moves, right? So they started throwing everything at me and not knowing anything about filming. I was just like, I'm just gonna do whatever they say. Oh, that stunt is really hard. I could get killed on that, but hey, they want me to do it. I'm gonna do it, you know? So I just, I had no expectations. I had no idea. So whatever that maybe someone that has done films prior would have said, wow, that's a little dangerous. You shouldn't do that. Or, oh, you have no lines, you know? You don't know your lines until right before camera. You know, but to me it was like, oh, this is how movies are done. So I just accepted everything that they threw at me. And I think they appreciated that, you know? And they liked to work with me. And that's why I had a very successful career filming in Hong Kong. Did you find a transition into American cinema easier after what you'd went through in Hong Kong? Oh, definitely. It was like, it was like a walk in the park. Because we did, well, actually it was when I first did martial law because when I did the China O'Brien and now we're cheating surrender that was still with the Hong Kong group. So my first experience without the Hong Kong group was yes, Matt, I was martial law. And I was like, oh my gosh, I don't even need to wear pads when I'm doing these fight scenes, you know? It was easy for me because the shooting schedule was shorter. The fight scenes weren't as complicated. They were pretty similar. So yeah, there was a big difference, you know, between transitioning from American, from Hong Kong to American films. But to me, it was like a lot easier. And safer too, I imagine. Oh yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, I wasn't doing the stunts they had me doing in Hong Kong. And you were under a different name in Hong Kong, weren't you? Well, my name was Cynthia Ralfrock, right? They called me Cindy because Cindy was a lot easier to say than Cynthia. And actually when I grew up, everybody called me Cindy. It wasn't until I went professional that I thought Cynthia Ralfrock sounded better than Cindy Ralfrock. But they had a hard time saying Ralfrock. So it kind of, they called me Lothalock, which kind of sounds like Ralfrock. So it was Phulock, and my first name, Law, Miss Law. So it was actually their translation of translation of Ralfrock to Lothalock. So how did the scorpion kit come about? That's like one of your trademark moves. How did you, was that something you were already doing? Was that something that the Hong Kong films had you do? No, I actually developed that. What that was is, never I told you when I was competing, I would do everything to get better. So I was doing ballet, and I was on the West Coast demonstration team and the ballet class that hold your hands on the bar and try to hit your head with the back of your foot. Well, I did, and I almost knocked myself out. And I went, oh my gosh, that's an awesome kick. So then I got George Chong, and I said, George, I said, put me, because we were doing a lot of demonstrations. I said, put me in a headlock, and I kicked him up, almost knocked him out. And we're like, oh my God, that's awesome. So we started doing demonstrations. And when I did, yes, madam, Cory Yoon said, is there any of your favorite techniques? And I said, well, yeah, I said this kick that I do, and I do it on Dick Way in the end. And I started doing it in all my films because I was like, okay, this is gonna be a trademark. And it's been called the scorpion kick. It's been called the Rothrock Sting. But yeah, that's how that kick came about. Can you tell us a little bit about Black Belt Theater? That's you co-host that. What is that? Yeah, what it is, it's on Jungle Plus and my co-host, DeFond Johnson and I, we look at older, well, maybe it's not so older, but pretty much like some of the movies from the 60s, which the 70s, which I've never even seen martial art movies from that period. And then even up to some current ones, some of mine, and we watch them and we review them. And we do about four different segments in between the films. And it's kind of, it's an interesting combination because I'm the martial art expert. DeFond is a comedian and he's like a high TikToker. You know, he got all these followers on TikToker. He knows nothing about martial arts. So it's kind of interesting the, you know, the things he comes up with and the things I say. So it's fun, but I love doing it because I'm watching all these movies that I never saw before. You know, and some of them are so bad, they're hysterical and some are good, you know? So it's fun. So we have, I think right now we have like about 13 episodes that people could watch on Jungle Plus. Excellent. So it's interesting, like, I like to see this effort to preserve the older films because I took a look at Jungle Plus and there's quite a bit on there. And like you said, there's a lot of films that people might not come across these days. So I think it's important to preserve that era of film. So from your perspective now, looking at these older films and taking your experience from the films that you did and looking at the films from today, what kind of trends in martial arts cinema have you seen developing and where do you think it's going? Okay, that's an interesting question because the earlier films I've seen, it seemed like the stories were lacking and it was more just the fighting and then more as it developed, stories became better. I still think the golden era of filmmaking was the 90s when we were doing the Hong Kong movies because if you look at those movies, there's no special effects. There's no hardly doubles. Maybe you had a double if it was like an extreme, extreme, extreme dangerous stuff but all the fighting were the people fighting. And nowadays the trend is to have the actors having doubles mostly that look just like them, a lot of CGI, it's different. So some of it I like, some of it I don't like, but I still like, I think if you look at any of those Hong Kong films and even some, even before my time, the fighting still holds up good even though it's like 30 years later because it's good fighting. And I kind of like that and it's not like your typical bar fight punch, punch, that it's very complicated fighting techniques at work. And I think that's actually one of the reasons why your films are so loved here because at that time they came out, the bar fighting, the simpler fight scenes were what we had here. And Hong Kong was so far ahead of American cinema in terms of the actual choreography and the fight scenes. So when your movies came on the scene, it was like, it was stuff we hadn't seen before. So, you know, there's Chuck Norris and the American Ninja and the movies of the 70s and 80s but seeing the Hong Kong generation of films and just the anti-upped on the choreography was out of this world. So do you think that that contributed to where film has gone now? Where it's kind of like your tournament experience where you say every year you had to one up yourself, cinema the same way. So now we've seen this new type of fighting and after a while, Hollywood has to kind of keep adding to it to kind of one up itself. I, it's kind of hard to up that, that fighting from the Hong Kong people then. I really don't see how you can up it so much. I think what Hollywood has done is like, you're looking at a film that maybe was $500 to $1 million to shoot. Now you're looking at them like $250 million to shoot. You know what I mean? It's so much special effects and stuff like that that it's kind of gone that route a little bit. Like some of the movies, I think it was Sherlock Holmes, right? Where Robert Downey Jr. is doing some Wing Chun. And I love that. Cause I was going, Oh my God, he's really fighting. I was like, I didn't know he was a Wing Chun stylist, right? But see, I like that fighting. I don't like it when it's too, all special effects, you know, I, that's not my kind of fighting. So even today, if someone said, if you wanted to do a movie, what would you do? I would say, I would like to do a movie and fight the same way like I have in my Hong Kong movies. And you got to realize too, a lot of people haven't seen those because these movies weren't popular in the United States. Now people could see some of them on Amazon Prime or they could see them on YouTube and see the fighting. And they're like, oh wow, you know, that's like awesome. But they weren't really popular, you know, the Hong Kong films until, I would say, in the last couple of years and some companies from all over the world now are remastering them and coming out with better quality, but keeping the same fights because they still, they still, you can't be, they can't be beat. And I don't think there's too many Hollywood actors that are doing action pictures that aren't really martial artists that could do that. Do that. I like that you touched, yeah, I like that you mentioned budget because we just recently spoke to someone who was one of the trainers for Keanu Reeves for John Wick and he explained that when you do a film on that scale, he says, you get about six months to prep the actors and work with them and have all that mat time. And now you're talking about what the Hong Kong films have in the smaller budget, did you guys, what kind of prep time did you guys get? Was it like, did you do stuff last minute? Was it on the fly? Or did you have months ahead of time to prepare and choreograph all your fight scenes? I have never done a film in my life that I got to prepare a fight scene. It was always right on set. And you know, you had to be a good martial artist to do that because they're throwing like 30 moves at you. Here, here's the moves that are, okay, we're ready to shoot. And you're like, ah, you know, and it's almost kind of like your mind has to take place because you can't remember all that. You just got to react to what's coming at you, which is probably one of the hardest things in filmmaking that you could do. But yeah, so you see, you have like, like, kill Bill. You know, they took U.M.A. Thurman for about like six months to a year, you know, to train for what she did, you know, because they have the budget to do that. But no, even if it wasn't a Hong Kong movie and it was just like a U.S. movie I did, we just learned the fight scene right before we were ready to shoot and then did it. And I heard in the previous interview, you were talking about when you injured your knee and that you didn't want to stop filming to stop for surgery. So you actually, you kind of, what you reversed your choreography to your other leg to kind of compensate for that. What kind of control did you have over your choreography? Did you generally get to make that kind of decision making or did you have a strict guideline to follow on set? Well, I heard it first when I was shooting. I actually heard it back home. I came home for a couple of weeks and I was training at my school and I was doing a lot of jumping kicks. I did jumping hook kick came down and my knee went like that. And then I had to go shoot Shanghai Express. And I kind of, you know, as a martial artist, you have a lot of injuries, you have pain and I just learned to deal with it. So I just like, for Shanghai Express, just plowed through it. But now I'm shooting, writing wrongs where I'm the lead and I have so much fight scenes with you in view and they're so complicated that there were things I could not do with my knee. So I had to change it to the left side. And I just said, can I switch that and do that with my left leg? And they go, yeah, yeah, that's no problem. We just did it. And I thought, oh, in writing wrongs, I thought, oh my gosh, it's gonna look terrible because, you know, most of us are a dominant side kicker, you know, and my dominant leg was my right. Now I had to do everything on my left for that movie. And when I saw the movie, I couldn't even tell. I was like, oh my gosh, it looks good. So it's good, you know, when you practice both legs because you never know, you know, when something like that would happen. But yeah, no, they were, if something I knew, you know, I won't be able to get up and walk from that, they let me reverse it on the other side. I recall you saying that after a while, when you went back to get a look at it again, that it had almost stabilized itself because of all the exercise you're doing in the martial arts, that you basically had the muscetone and support that your knee kind of kept itself supported? Well, you know, what happened is then I did magic crystal and then it went out during that and I couldn't walk. And they're like, oh my gosh, I'm like, that's all right. I'll just like plow through it. So I did go to see my orthopedic surgeon, right? And at that time he said, well, you know, you totally, your ACL is gone, it's not even there. He didn't ever arrive and he said, I don't know how you're doing what you're doing or how you're even walking. And he said, but if we do like, if we do an ACL replacement, it's gonna be four to six months recovery. And I had commitments already. So I said, no, I can't do that. So he said, you know, I want to do a test why you could do what you could do because most people can't even stand with no anterior crucial ligament. So I remember going in and they had this, like they sewed actually this like kind of, I don't even know what it was like electrodes or something into my legs, like little pinching of skin. And they would go run, run backwards, jump, do this, do that. And they did a study why I can do what I'm doing. And it came back that my hamstrings and my quads were so strong that that held my knee in place without the anterior crucial ligament. And even to this day, I still have not gotten my knee fixed because I can still do what I do, you know? And I, you know, I do these strenuous hikes and I do all this crazy extreme adventure stuff. And, you know, I can do it. So maybe someday I will get that knee replacement, but right now I don't have to because I know how to do things, what they want me to do, but I might have to just like, oh, switch it up a bit here and there, you know? That's actually, I find that really personally inspiring because I have in the injury myself a smaller one, but it's, I'm getting to the age now where it's starting to become an issue, but seeing that there's ways around these obstacles. And that's actually a big thing, big theme of our channel is that we have a lot of viewers who are apprehensive about joining martial arts or they're worried about continuing to training, whether it be from age or injuries or they're not sure what art to train in. What advice can you give somebody who has these apprehensions, how to take these obstacles and make them a little bit less overwhelming? Well, you know, no matter what injury you have, if you have a good instructor, they can work around it. You know, I've seen people that were in wheelchairs that couldn't use their arms and legs and still, you know, learning how to defend themselves. You know, you can work around an injury and you have to realize though, you know, I've been training almost 50 years in martial arts and my body is taken abuse because, you know, I was doing like Wushu where I jump up and kick and land on the floor and do, you know, doing like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kicks a day. So what the abuse I put on my body, the average person doesn't put on that. But if it's like a knee or a wrist or an elbow, you know, you could, you know, you may, you're not going to go out in competition, but, you know, you can definitely learn the art. You can definitely learn self-defense. And I really think no matter what your disability is, a good instructor could work around that and still teach you how to be proficient in martial arts. And at the same time, you know, I'm such an adamant person about everybody should know martial arts because, you know, not only are you learning how to defend yourself or someone else, you're getting the best physical exercise your body can have. So, you know, it's like, you know, two birds with one stone. I like that you talked, you said that about taking the abuse over the years. Again, a lot of our viewers and also we recently did an episode with Master Sean Kelly about the Zen of Kempo. And it takes a look at these lifelong martial artists who've been doing it 30, 40, 50, even 60 years. And they're at a point now, they can't do the jump spinning stuff. They can't do the competition anymore, but it's about shifting your mindset to what you can do and what your body's able to do and keeping yourself, you know, healthy. And so do you have any advice for people who might be just starting the martial arts? Is there anything that people or younger martial artists might tend to overlook or take for granted that they might not realize until it's a little bit later in their career? No, I think, you know, there's good pain and bad pain and whatever you're doing, whether it's martial arts, it's yoga, you know, any kind of physical sport you're doing, you know what your body could take. And I've realized what good pain is and bad pain. And bad pain, you don't wanna push it because then you can injure yourself. But, you know, I remember, you know, having shin splints from martial arts. You know, I remember blisters along my toes. I remember I couldn't jump for a while. You know, you just work with it, you know, like I'd take my foot up, take my ankle up, you know. And it heals eventually, but I think, you know, don't be crazy like me and abuse your body, but just, you know, take it at an even pace, you know. And, you know, I think you can't be afraid if something is hurting to tell your instructor, oh, that hurts like, you know, sometimes like, I'll be teaching a seminar and someone will say, oh, yeah, I have a pulse growing muscle or I have this or my stomach, I just had surgery, something, you know, and you have to, the teacher has to compensate for whatever ailment you have so you can continue to train safely. And you say, I like that you say that everyone should train in the martial arts because, you know, we have a mix of audience and there's people who like to compete and people who just, they're trying to rehab an injury or people just want a healthy hobby. And the funny thing is the number one question I get all the time is people ask me, am I too old or is it too late for me to start the martial arts? And I'll get this question from teenagers. I'll get it from 80 year olds. I'll get it from everybody. Is there a point where it's too late to start the martial arts? For me, never. I mean, you could be 90 and still started. I mean, first of all, you'll never hear that line in my life that I say, I'm too old to do that. I don't accept the old thing because if you think you're too old, you're gonna be too old. You know, your body is gonna say, oh, I'm too old, I can't do it, you know? And obviously you have to know your limits but, you know, try. And like I said, you know, you could have someone maybe that's like, there's stories of women that were 90 years old and got a black belt. You know, they still, maybe, yeah, they can't do the jump kicks, they can't do that. But, you know, like if, say for example, if I could not kick, maybe I have like, I just can't do it, you know, my hips or knees, I would study Tai Chi, I would study Wing Chung. I would study a style that would be fit for my body, you know, what I could do, you know? Maybe if you have a problem kicking, you might wanna go to a style where they kick lower, you know, maybe a Japanese style, you're not kicking high. But I think there is something out there for everybody, a style that's like I said before, it's finding what fits your body, you know? And maybe that's trying a couple of introductory courses at different schools, you know, and feeling it. But yeah, I get that too, like people will say, oh, yeah, I'm too old to do that. And I'm like, no, you're not, you know? It's like, yeah, so that, yeah, I will disagree that I think at any age and it's never too late to learn martial arts. And with your experience competing in your film career and everything, if you could send a message back to yourself when you were starting, what would that be? When I was starting, I guess I could say, it's gonna get better. It's gonna get better, don't give up, don't worry. Don't be a defeatist, try harder, you know? Because like one of the things, when I was doing it, we had to do a lot of pushups. Like someone would talk, someone would do something, everybody would have to do 50 pushups just because they did it. That's just how it was in the day, you know? And I hate a pushups and I just changed my attitude saying, you know what, I love pushups. I love pushups. They're good for my arm, they're good for my chest, they're good for my calories, burning it. I just changed my attitude. So I always tell people, if there's something you really hate doing, it's probably what your body needs the most. So what's next for you? Are there any goals that you're pursuing at the moment? Well, yeah, I still, I always like set. I don't know if, I would say it's goals, but I have challenges that I wanna do. I started, when COVID happened, I started scuba diving and it's something that I really found a passion for us. So I have this thing where I wanna dive like everywhere in the world that I can, that's good diving, so I have that. I am, Sunday I leave to shoot a movie and then two weeks later I go to Switzerland to shoot another movie and back into doing films and in between films, I teach seminars around the world and I also, if I have a free time, I like to travel and I like to experience for me. I wanna, I kinda live like, today's your last day, how would you live it? And it doesn't mean you have to do something grand. I mean, it could be like, hey, I love walking my dogs. I'm gonna take my dogs or hike. So I just try to do things I like to do and I have a whole list of adventures that I wanna do and I'm just like checking them off as I have time to do it. So it's funny because in Vegas, I'm getting the legend of the year award and it's funny, I've gotten a lot of legends of the time or whatever and it feels like I feel like, oh, me? I'm just starting and just I got all this other stuff to do. I haven't done all this, you know? So, you know, I think it, you know, mindset has a lot to do with the quality of your life. I'm looking forward to seeing anything else you're doing and also since you mentioned scuba diving, I wanna throw a request out there an underwater martial arts film. Oh, you know, I just read a script where there is and it's a lot of ocean stuff and people are scuba diving, but not I, but I'm gonna see if they can add something in there because I would love to do that because I love like being under the water so much, you know? And that would be awesome. So I'm hoping that that will come about. The people felt like a zero G grappling of sorts. That'd be cool. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, there's so many things I haven't done. Like I haven't done a horror movie, which I'd love to do. I haven't really done a comedy, which I'd love to do. I'm about to do a Western, which I've always wanted to do. So, you know, there's so many, so many things to do when COVID was happening, I created the Cynthia Ralph Rock Association. So that's a new journey in my life is devoting a lot of time, a lot of videos, a lot of different things to teach people in the association to make it a little bit special for them. So I think, you know, I'm always, always have something I wanna do, you know? I think if we keep our minds stagnant and like bored, we don't feel like we've done anything productive or creative, you know? So I'm always trying to, you know, find things that'll help like that. And I think that's one of the keys to life is feeling not old and staying happy. What are your two favorite martial arts films? One that you like for a story and one that is just a total guilty pleasure for you? Oh, martial art ones. I would say I always liked Enter the Dragon as a classic. You know, the one with Chuck Norris or Return of the Dragon, it is Return of the Dragon. So that's one that I like to watch for fun that I could watch over and over again. And what was the other one? It was, so one was... Your favorite martial arts, the best story, the one that you like for its story. The best story? I like the Karate Kid, which turned into the Cobra Kai. Yes, that's kind of story-wise, I like that story. Everyone who watches this channel knows, I'm like, that's like my number one favorite film. I've done so many videos on Karate Kid, so that's my favorite answer of yours. I didn't know that, I didn't know it, so. What makes you laugh? I think I laugh a lot. There's so many things that make me laugh, but I think one of the things that makes me laugh a lot is my boyfriend always imitates me. He's always imitating me. That makes me laugh so much, because it's true, but it's funny, but yeah. So I mean, I do that every day. Can you imitate the martial arts part of it though? No. No. What turns you off? Off? What turns me off? Negativity. When people are negative, that turns me off. What is your favorite unwritten rule when it comes to the martial arts? Unwritten rule, I'd say, don't worry about how you look, just try your best. So I think what happens, a lot of us have that rule that, oh, I'm afraid to do that because I'm not gonna look good. And I would just say, it doesn't care, nobody cares how you look. It's your journey, it's your progression, so don't worry. Don't worry if you look terrible, you make mistakes, it's all good. And the last two questions are, what is something that you wish people would ask you? And that'll be your final question. Oh, that I wish they would ask me. I know what I wish they'd don't ask me, but let's see, ask me. I think I like, ooh, that's a tough one. Nobody has ever asked me that, so there you go. You get that one, what did we say to ask me? I'd say, about my daughter. Tell us about your daughter. No, I'm really proud. She's gonna be 23, actually, in a couple of days. And she doesn't come to too many martial arts events with me, so she's not really out there in the public, but she's very beautiful, very creative, smart, and soon to become a hypnotherapist. So I think that's like one of the, that is the best thing I've ever done in my life is have my daughter, so of course, I like to talk about her. Awesome, so she's not into the martial arts at all? She studied when she was little. It's very hard to teach your own child. I started and it'd be like, no, I know that, I know that. So then I actually went and brought her into a friend's school and I didn't like how they were teaching her because I was like, no, you're not teaching her, right? So then I started teaching at her school and it'd be funny because I was mom, I'm the teacher, that she'd go around and start correcting all the students and I'd like, Skylar, you're not doing it right. Don't correct them, right? And they'd be like, get out of here, get out of here. But then one thing though that she's always grown up with is awareness, and that's just as important as knowing how to defend yourself is awareness and she knows some things and recently she said, she said, mom, will you go do some boxing classes with me? And I was like, absolutely, let's do it. So yeah, I think what happens is, I'm around martial arts my whole life and what I do is kind of a turn off for your child. They kind of wanna run the opposite way of what you're so involved in and your whole world is. I mean, I taught kids for a while. I can't even imagine the pressure an instructor would have had teaching your daughter knowing who her parent was. Oh yeah. Well, you know what? She actually went into dance and she was on a professional dance team. She's very flexible. She's absolutely more flexible than I am. I would have loved for her because I thought, oh, when I have a child, it's gonna be a mini me. It's gonna be mini me. She's gonna be out there. And I've tried to get her in some of my films and she could have been in it, but she's like, no, I don't want to. I was like, okay, all right, whatever. I've learned, as a mom, that you have to let them find their own way. That's a lesson that I had to learn because I was like, no, you gotta go to college. You gotta do this and you gotta do that. And they do, they do find their own way. And sometimes it's a little bit longer for others. Sometimes it's shorter, but we're always learning lessons. Fantastic. Well, I just want to thank you once again. Thank you so much for taking this time to speak with us today. It's a privilege having you on the show, I think with your experience and the symbolism what you say in front of the martial arts is a great asset to our community. And I just want to thank you for everything that you've done. And we look very much forward to any new projects you have coming up on the horizon. Oh, thank you. Well, thank you for inviting me and I'll see you someday, somewhere on the road. I'd like to extend a huge thank you and appreciation to Ms. Rothrock. It was truly an honor to have someone with her accomplishments, share her insight and experience with us today. You can find out more about her on her website and follow her adventures on her YouTube channel. Both links are down below in the description. That'll do it for today's episode. Please let us know what you think in the comments below. And if there's any other martial artists who'd like us to talk to you, let us know. Thank you so much for watching. We'll see you next time.