 I'm Rusty Komori and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys Varsity Tennis Team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. My books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game are about leadership, character, and creating a superior culture of excellence, which is what this show is all about. My special guest today is a martial arts grandmaster who fought against Chuck Norris and became friends with Bruce Lee. He is the legendary Sifu Al Dacascos, and today we are going beyond martial arts. Hey, Sifu Al, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Thank you, thank you, thank you very much for having me on. Sifu Al, you have so much wisdom and I'm so excited to talk to you about so many things today, and I know that you grew up in Kalihi. How was it growing up in Kalihi? Let's go back, you're talking about the 1960s. I mean, there wasn't too many houses out there, and you know the word Kalihi means the edge, don't you? Okay, and being the edge of the city, I mean, going up into the valley, they were hardly anybody's up there. I mean, at the end of my street from in Kalihi Valley on Nihi Street, beyond that, going heading towards the mountain, there was no subdivisions, no nothing. We were probably the last two houses up there in the valley. So there was really nothing to do except with the other delinquents that I would say that was hanging around in the area. So growing up in that part was the old days, pretty much barefoot and pigeon-language, brought out what you're doing, coming all that kind of stuff. And then we go to the mainland and the language begins to change. So Sifu-L, how did you start getting interested into martial arts? All right, let me just make a small indent right now. Just call me L, okay? Sifu is a Chinese word for teacher, but I have a lot of feelings about that. And when we're talking like this, I'm just L, yeah? Now, as far as getting into the martial arts, it was sort of ingrained into me because at the first I lived and grew up with my grandparents on the island of Kauai. And my grandfather, we lived on a place called Camp Seven, which is where he did all his sugar cane cutting and things this way. Because on the island of Kauai, they had camps, Okinawans were there, Japanese, Chinese, and Portuguese in there, and the Filipinos had their own camp. So we had Camp Seven. And growing up in Camp Seven, I got into the martial arts by watching my grandpa. Matter of fact, 5 to 7 o'clock in the morning or on that time. He and his group of people would be practicing martial arts. In a circle, the houses were all around, but it was sort of like a circle. For me, it was like a big arena, but it's actually a big parking lot. I mean, I'm looking at it now at about four or five years old. So everything then is big. And watching then do the Filipino fighting art called Estrima or Kali was very interesting. I knew nothing else but just watching that. And the Filipino fighting arts of Estrima and Kali is actually using weapons. And those times, because they were cutting sugar cane, they were using bowler knives. Those knives that they would cut into sugar cane fields. And that became a norm. And sometimes when they were practicing without the bowler knife, then they were practicing with sticks. They were averaging about the length of your hands. It would be between 26 to 29 inches long. And they would practice it. And yes, naturally, I would just kind of practice. I didn't really knew what I was doing. Well, I actually never knew what was going on. It's just that everybody else was doing so it just became ingrained in me just watching that. Eventually, I got into the other arts as I moved from Kauai to Oahu. So Al, I want to ask you about your family. I mean, you have a beautiful family, your kids and your grandkids. Do all of them know martial arts? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Yes. If they wasn't formally taught, they was watching all the time what we were doing. So, you know, it became something that was normal for any reason. They didn't even knew that it was learning martial arts. It was just like playing soccer or, you know, things like that. So, yeah. Now, Al, you know, you've been on tons of magazine covers. I mean, throughout all these decades, I mean, it's fascinating to me. What are your principles that you teach in martial arts? Well, and you be talking about our values. Yes. Yeah. You know, first is going to be integrity, loyalty, honor. These are pretty much the core. And then from then come other principles really start off with that, you know, then become disciplined self-respect, self-esteem and all the others that combine into it. You know, getting into virtues is that tons of virtues, so many of it. You know, like I always encourage my students, I just put up maybe two or three of them and let that go into the head and just let that manifest into something strong. Once they have that, then, you know, we lead on into something else. When I was teaching in Portland, Oregon, every Monday on the bulletin board before they go into class, I would have a virtue that we would talk about. We would drill on the virtues all day, all week. And then the following Monday, they would repeat after, repeat what they saw, the sayings and how it helped them. And the virtues actually was a heavy part in the martial arts because it's character building. And the good character was, you know, the martial arts, it's only going to physical parts. You need to have, you're going to have to have the moral and ethical and spiritual all combined to actually develop some good students. Like you, I read your book and I knew you use the four Ps, you know, which is great. And I can see how, you know, we cross over on a lot of things, we parallel a lot of it. And I guess with people going into the field of coaching, you know, we also play many different roles. I know that I like the word coach, but I also like the word educator, because you know the difference between the teacher and the coach and an educator. And so I don't like to put myself too much in a teacher's role, because it's only one sided, you know, I like to be as an educator this 24 seven, and then and be with them so they can come at me at all the time, you know. Anyway, that's the way that we built up the virtues and, and like you, I've jumped on a lot of people that never never told the line. I mean, I never made them do 150 100 push ups or anything that way. Like the way you did. We did push ups, but we would put weights and we would sit on the back. And maybe now and then slap them on the face and say, you feel that. It's just that, you know, in a martial arts, you have to desensitize them because they're going to get hit anyway. You know what I mean. So it was sort of like teacher at first teaching him something and then coaching later. You know, I read your book and you're, I really love the stories in your book and, and I want to ask you if you can tell me about your connection with Bruce Lee and how you both ended up becoming friends. Oh, okay. That's a, that's a story in itself young. When I lived in California on the street, I was not on the street. Actually, in Santa Land or California I had a school on East 14 street. It was a storefront school. And I lived in the back. And, and it was on a Sunday. And, you know, you can see inwards because there's all like, you know, showcase windows first. And you could see in, but I mean, I could see out but they couldn't see in because it was dark. I just happened to, you know, get up and just walking to the office to my front office. But as I was walking I saw this two Chinese guys looking in inside trying to see what was going on in there. And I recognize the face. And I didn't actually know who they were. I didn't recognize the face and I didn't, I didn't put it together until a couple weeks or couple weeks, a couple of weeks later. I was performing with my students at the Oakland Coliseum we were doing demonstrations. And as we were doing demonstrations on stage. I saw these two Chinese guys sitting in the front row legs cross, you know, and scrolls. And one of them was smoking a cigarette which was James Lee because he was a very heavy smoker and then this other Chinese guy with this thick glasses. And I knew I said, and that that looked like a guy that was watching and looking at my in the window. And after I did my demonstration. I was not up and left. I think they only came there to see me perform. And at that time, you know, being 26 years old, I was pretty feisty I could jump up there I could do kicks and I did a multi man attack where I had eight people attack me. And I did demonstration just did flow and everything and after that. The demonstration they left there's the only reason why they came there. And the way that we actually became friends was just that my school was located located in Oakland and his. My school was located located in Oakland and mine was located in San Lanzo just a few miles away. And I had very good students. So did he had good students and at one time, one of my students and one of the students met at a party. And they got into a confrontation about, you know, I take, you know, food from C4L is it well I think kung fu from Bruce Lee and, and they started going back and forth explaining ideas and, and things and, and it was that my, my student actually got the best of him, Bruce Lee because Bruce Lee student was practicing what they call Winshun style of kung fu, which is straight in straight in ours, we don't use that the concept because you're going straight in, go against power against power it's not going to work. Okay, so our type of defense is angles and then come in, slip off to the side. So as he's stood in came in my student went off to the side and dropped him, you know, the fight actually escalated and after it was done, it was like, you know, our school is better than your school and blah, blah, blah. Now, on top of that, there was a party that was going on at the same time, you know, well which was the same party, and they had said that yeah well C4L had knocked Bruce Lee off his horse. Now, when they say knock person off his horse in kung fu or karate they stand into what we call a horse stance, you know, standing like this and, and, and C4L came and hit Bruce Lee and Bruce Lee was knocked off of balance. Okay. The problem that they had a lot of noise and music at the same time. And what they did was they mistook C4L me. And C4L, C4L Novak, C4L Novak was over 300 pounds so he could easily knock Bruce Lee off his horse. I was 125 pounds I mean that's a different story and Bruce was about the same at that time. About 125 both of us were about the same same thing. So the word started to go around town that C4L beat Bruce Lee. Yeah, he beat his butt for about a year and a half and, you know, it was sort of like escalating and you know when rumors pass from one person to the other. All it does is just get like, yeah, he beat his butt and all that kind of stuff and, and naturally, you know, I'm thinking oh man this is really getting bad because looks like I'm going to have to really fight him. And so it was, it was about a year and a half later that I did competition at the International Karate Championship in Long Beach, California. And I was doing a form competition, you know forms is just like gymnastics, you know, you know that what they call it single gymnastics things. And I was doing my forms and everything this way. And I had one and I was as I was getting my trophy. I saw Bruce Lee sitting down in the front row, you know, blue, blue jacket, white, white pants, you know, and just kind of looking at and just doing this, you know, like that, you know, and just looking at him, I just kind of nodded and everything else this way. And I was thinking, Oh boy, I think he's going to meet me right after wisdom we're going to have a confrontation. So after, after I got my trophy, I went straight down to him and he says hey Bruce, you know, there's, there's things that were going around up in Northern California about you and I, you know, and you just kind of look me look at me and just kind of put his hands on the sips a little bit, and he just had that kind of look at me and I think, Whoa, here we go. So I put my trophy down and I crossed my hands. You know, I'm just kind of waiting for things and he said you know what I don't worry about it. It's us. We don't make trouble for ourselves is the student this makes trouble for us. And I look at me I'm going, Whoa, that was good. I put my shoe cans and he was, he would talk and he said, you know, by the way, he said, I know the form that you did is called low on tune. I said, Yep, that's absolutely, absolutely right. And I told him what I thought you don't like forms and say yeah well I used to form I used to do forms before, you know, and we started talking and then we went into the lobby and we stayed for about two or three hours just talking and made the connection there. So we started and over the over the year over the years of months, it was just like casual things notes back and forth until he went to. Where did you go, Hong Kong. Yeah, and started to get named actually was doing the green horned and I think at that particular time he had just done maybe one or two episodes of the green horned so we saw him jump up in the air and kick all that and we're really fascinating. He was a promoter at that time was promoting Bruce Lee, you know, Kato, you know, in the green horned. So you know his popularity was coming up in the into into the film industry, mine was coming up in demonstrations and competition to people, promoting martial arts or kung fu at that time but in different areas. We became friends that way and then when he passed on. I can remember the day he passed on I was actually living in Denver, Colorado, sitting down and the news flash that, you know, kung fu movie star Bruce Lee passed away and total shock. And so within within three weeks, you know, a couple of people that I knew in San Francisco we go on the plane and get on the plane and hit it out towards Hong Kong and it was just a total mess there I mean, I mean so many newspapers was getting into business because it was promoting promoting Bruce Lee and the rumors they had with his with his actress and so forth was going on and, but I had first hand account of actually what was going on because that eventually you know, Linda Lee and the family, you know, became became very close and they were telling me all kinds of things. And Brandon Lee, the son and Shannon, and Linda used to come up to Denver, Colorado and go skiing with us. So he was like, you know, after he had passed on I think the family is going to kind of grew close. Mark, my son Mark and Brandon Lee got close until Brandon Lee himself got passed on. So it was something like that. I find it so fascinating, you know, that how you guys had like these rumors about you guys happen and then and then it was just, you know, how you connected and then became friends and you guys have that mutual respect with each other. And I want to talk to you about my books real quick, Al. You know, you mentioned earlier about the four Ps. And you know how I talk a lot about creating that superior culture of excellence and, and that's really what what you're about. That's what Bruce Lee is about. What. Talk to me about your culture of excellence that you're trying to establish in your schools for all these decades. Well, we have we go to the, what I call the first five phases of learning. And I say I go to I call it primitive, mechanical, technical creativity and fluidity, the process of learning. For me, anyway, you know, everything as you, as I say, you know, it's actually perspective and sensibility anyway. And when I talk about, you know, persons coming into the school and learning, you know, they are very primitive known, nothing about the martial arts and sometimes have nothing about character building. So it's so primitive to them when I talk about integrity, when I talk about honesty or loyalty, or things this way and I have to be able to teach them that. So, you know, from the primitive stage, it becomes the mechanical stage like pull out your book. This is the page you're going to learn and so forth, this way, then it becomes technical how when why it works. Then because they understand this, the first three, then I say is okay. Now it becomes creative. How can you be creative and use the principles of loyalty in your life, or how can you show honor or respect or love. Well, now you know, creativity is now is thinking, we're beginning to start thinking all of that they said okay now that's great you got it. Now, how can you be fluid and just let it flow out of your life. How can it be so natural. I said, you know, it's got to come with passion. And when you do things, you're gonna have that vocal the tonality the facial that body language to put it all together. So once they get that, you know, I said, Okay, now we're going to another five phase. And the other five phase is being aware, being first, being fast, hit hard, and don't stop. And that's martial arts, martial arts thinking. Okay, but let's go ahead and put it into a different way. You know, be aware. I said be aware, be aware of your surroundings. The other people that you're connecting with the way you're talking to them the way they respond to you. Be aware of your environment in the sense that you know you may be attacked from the blind side or or front side or things this way. Or if you're into business and you're into stock, you better be aware and get up early at three o'clock in the morning get on the New York Stock Exchange and become to find out what is going on going on. Be aware. I mean be aware can be a lot of things, you know, about your health your everything else. And then comes be first. Actually, you got to be first. Because you know if you're not up there just punching in I mean you're going to be with the bottom line is just like going to a buffet. You know, I say I'm going to wait and by the time you get there there's nothing. Okay, so you got to be somewhere in between or in the front. Okay, be aware of be first. And then it is that whenever you do things is going to be fast. Now, right now be fast. Okay, so that can go into many different areas. Once you into that be fast mode. The next step is hit hard, which means actually putting the full energy into it putting the passion do it just just do it. Okay, and then the last one is don't stop. That means a consistency. You're putting all this together in all that type of I mean it works in great working business and relationships and business and martial arts, especially and when I put them into that sense. Then they understand that you know heck man I'm getting into this competition over here that you know and competitions for me is kind of kind of different and you know this you know, on competition you actually know who you're going against. You know the school you're going against or you know the person you're fighting. You know his weight you know his history. You know everything about him how he's been training and everything. But out of the street. It's what you call ambush attack that really gets you because you don't know who this person is and what he has. So that means I have to be double aware of the environment, because this person might be, you know, about 300 pound gorilla, you know, and, and he's probably got a whole family behind of him. So that means if even if I beat him up I got to worry about grandma who's going to hit me on the head with frying pan, you know, and his cousins. So all of this is totally different. The part that is competition and sport versus what's out in the street goes out on the street. Like in the tournament I understand it I always used to tell my students you said when you get into a tournament competition. Yeah, you got to think as if this is your last fight in tournaments tournaments you know you have a first place second place grand championship and everything in war second place is dead. Okay, that's dead that's it so you got to be able to put yourself. You are this is that this is the you put your mind frame of mind and go all out so if you understand be aware of what's going on, you know, be first hit hard. Basically let me start against you yet it's okay. Be aware, be first. Yeah, be fast, hit hard and don't stop. These are the principles, or I say the golden nuggets that I instilled into them, as well as basically you can see the spiritual and the emotional and you can come into it, and it and it's into woven so, so, so much into the fabric of their learning that we can take it out. It's there. You know, it's funny that when you get into a school and they call me seafood. You know, I'm not a really coach at that time I am a seafood because it's a teacher role. I tell you you do you don't answer back you just do. And after they get out of school I turn into the educator and and a coach where I said okay now you already got all this technical skills over here. And, and now let's sit down and figure out how we can make it work for you because you know, everybody's got people that's going to be extroverts and introverts and that's pretty much, you know, observation and then let them talk and as much as they talk, you know, in a court of law they say the first person that talk loses, you know, and and there's the same thing to let him talk, you know, just find out everything that he got, you know, and then I said okay now I can assess what he has and just take it from there. Well, your son Mark, you know, is, I mean he's been on a ton of movies he's a great actor he's a martial arts master. I loved his role on Hawaii five oh as wolf fat, and then he was the chairman on iron chef. Why, why is Mark successful. What. Childhood, you know, everything started from childhood I mean you know, my wife and my wife and I I mean came, you know, my wife was a martial artist you know she became a real good martial artist and we, you know, we already instilled into the kids the discipline the respect, integrity and everything and a humblest and humility. And you know he's known among this, among his colleagues in the acting world he's very humble, you know, I'm he don't go around bragging or things this way. He knows it what he don't have to brag he already know what he can do. You know, so it's the idea is just that you know he was trained so well that you know he was it was really well well prepared. We instilled with him so he saw a lot of things and you know with my wife and I you know sure we were arguing things this way but it was never in front of the kids, you know, they never saw that part. What they saw was oh they're so loving the so things and you know so in other words it was part of them it was only when they got a little bit older that they kind of understand that nothing is really black and white I mean, like a yin yang. I mean there's always in the white fish is always going to be a black eye. You know, I kind of explained to me say nobody's perfect. You see but we give you this idea, you know, and this year so that you start off good this way. Because, you know, in the early stages, you know, this is where you, this is teaching stage you know one to six or one to eight years old. This is where they everything is being absorbed matter of fact, you know, today right just before coming I was ironing my shirt. Okay, and I always think I am so lucky, because when I was young my mom taught me how to iron my shirt. You know, how to clean the house and how to cook and everything I said you know, it was this kind of teaching that stated stated me so she was the greatest, greatest influence of me learning good my father was a disciplinary. And that's when I saw the belt in the stick, you know, but but for my mom, you know, and my kids, you know, they were brought up this way. And yeah, I did spank Mark and Craig, a couple of times only because they got out of hand. And you know they say in a Bible you know don't spare the rod you know what I mean, just so I lied on get on your side. Bam. I said okay now you remember now, you're not going to be writing out on the street like that, the way without your helmet on and so forth whatever it was that you know, well that was kind of a discipline that we had. But after that I would feel so bad and I never did after that time I never did, never did hit my kids I mean if I did that now I probably be in jail for child abuse. I gotta say you know spanking it worked and I want to ask you one more thing before we wrap I mean, I could I could do three hours with you I mean you have so much wisdom but I want to ask you about the difference between a warrior and a fighter. I mean you're known worldwide I mean the Costco's name is highly respected on the entire planet, but what is the difference between being a warrior and a fighter. Okay, let's let's put it this way. Yeah, I get into tournaments and that's in that I'm a competitor I'm a fighter, because I'm fighting for a trophy. Okay, that's I'm fighting for an honor or reward or something this way. And sometimes I fight for cash as a fighter. Hey, you want to fight in this tournament. Well how much, maybe a thousand okay I'm going, you know, I'm a fighter, you know, warriors on the other hand, he has a lot of principles he fights for cause in a region. You know, I'm just, I'm not just going to go fight over there to beat up this person over you. He's got a hole up to my morals and my integrity, because I got to live with this. You said I mean, so there's a separation between a warrior and a fighter or fighter will go for anything a warrior, you know, he's a little bit more into staying up to his moral and ethical virtues. Now that makes sense that's well said and I want to thank you so much for taking time to join me on Beyond the Lines today. It's been a pleasure, anytime. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit RustyKamori.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I hope that Al and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.