 Last week we had Grandmaster Daryl Vidal with us discussing the attributes and evolution of Kempo. Master Vidal is often recognized for his appearance in The Karate Kid, but even more impressive, he is an accomplished martial artist with extensive experience in a variety of systems including Kempo, Wing Chung, and Filipino martial arts. He is a seasoned competitor, holds a 10th degree black belt in Kempo, and he's a member of the Kempo Karate Hall of Fame. Now he's back with us today to talk about his experience with Filipino stick fighting, some of the critical aspects that are often overlooked and how to get the most out of your training. What is your experience with the Filipino martial arts and why do you think it is among the top of the martial arts for weapons combat? I started very young. It was one of the first arts that I was actually exposed to because my parents used to have a guy that they would call a faith healer. Whenever they had a sprain or an ailment, we would go see this guy. We called him the faith healer, but he was actually a Filipino arts person. He would make the lectures and do massage. After I talked to him some years after I had become an adult, he basically said he's like a chiropractor. He just bone alignment and massages. But he had some special talents and he taught it with his kids because he could take your hands and kind of feel your palms and say, oh, look, you've got hemorrhoids. Or you have asthma. I don't know how they did that. Maybe that's based on something real. Maybe a chiropractor knows that. I don't have hemorrhoids. But they would do some stick fighting. And that's where I first kind of saw it and heard the clock clocking of the sticks. Then it wasn't until we moved to Chino, California, where we met up with a neighbor who had some experience with stick fighting and had taken classes with Danny and Santo. And so that was my first exposure. And we would use sticks and start learning some of the more common pattern drills, like the sixth count and blocking and blocking some disarmament. But it was more rudimentary stuff. And he didn't have an official rank. And then probably over the years, I think I counted. And I probably had as many as five or six other people who I trained with. Some of the people that I would train with would be what I call seminar guys. They would go to a lot of seminars. And then what I found, what I would learn from these guys is, they have one or two things that I could get from them. And then they didn't really have a lot of other depth. So I would take those drills and then use them and learn them. And then there was one guy in particular who spent a lot of time with stick fighting guy, Tim Tackett, I probably just heard his name. And I learned a ton from him. We would do all kinds of different drills. We would do pattern drills, reaction drills, pressure testing, blade drills. I probably garnered the most of my experience from him and the most of my practical experience. So I really absorbed it, but I could never say, you know, this is Cali, this is Arnis, this is Eskima, this is, you know, this system or that system. So over the time I would teach people what I know without really having, you know, a name for it all until I finally decided I wanted to teach it, give some formal instruction, even though I don't have this kind of certified ranking. So I developed my own curriculum based on what I know. And it's pretty deep. I mean, it has, you know, six levels and it has, you know, all these, all the things that I've learned, you know, everything from pattern drills to reaction drills, like I said, and I've made it a kind of a complete system with, you know, double sticks with single sticks, with knives and stick and knife and empty hand. So I created that whole curriculum and then I established it in here in Murrieta under the Murrieta Stick Fighting Club. So that's how I teach it. That's the curriculum, you know, I don't proclaim myself to be, you know, grandmaster of, you know, Filipino stick fighting. It is really, I'm teaching the Murrieta Stick Fighting Club curriculum. And that's not good enough for you too bad, you know. You can still come in here and I'll still smash your fingers with the best of them. So, yeah, that's kind of the way that I do it. Well, what can new students joining your class expect in terms of starting out with early classes or like versus what they might find in a traditional college school or another school like that? Well, I don't know how they would be different. But I think what they can expect is that we'll be banging sticks right from the start. When one of the main things that's different about Filipino martial arts is you start with weapons and then you learn how to transition from, you know, two sticks and one stick to eventually bladed weapons and then to the empty hand. So it's kind of like reversed from karate when you start, you know, empty handed and then you gravitate towards weaponry. And then so, you know, that's why I don't teach kids because you're probably going to get your head or your finger smashed early on. Because, you know, we're hitting sticks and, you know, we're, you know, we're getting live work done with different types of sticks, right? I know I try to, you know, some people like to little skinny ones. But I always make sure that we're training with different weights and, you know, types of wood so that you're feeling the different types of reaction from striking with sticks. And, you know, ultimately you're getting your hand smashed. We wear gloves, you know, when we're doing certain drills so that you can hit them in the hand and hit them in the knuckles and pretend to cut them in the hand and cut them in the knuckles so that we're trying to do a level of that more practical, experiential training. So why is doing it reverse a more practical way versus like having them do just the motions with the empty hands first just to get the motions down and then adding the weapon in? What is the reversal benefit? Yep, that's a good question. I think, I think the way I might express it is is that one is karate is kind of form-based. You know, you learn a form, you know, a stance, a method of doing these things. But thick fighting is flow-based. You know, what we're trying to do is develop an understanding of the flow of the stick, you know, because the stick is a completely different manifestation of weaponry versus the hand. The stick has momentum and inertia and flexibility and distance, right? So there's all these things that make it better, but it's very different from the empty hand. And the flow aspect of it comes from the end of the stick and the momentum of the stick, but it also translates to your footwork and your movement. So by learning the stick first, you're learning a longer range of interaction with your opponent because you're farther away. And then as you learn to get closer, either by getting close to a grappling situation, a disarm or a takedown, now you're closing on your opponent and that's changing, you know, kind of the interaction with it. So it's kind of like moving from long range interaction into, you know, closer range. And I don't want to leave the impression that I think you have to start with weaponry, but it is the way that we indoctrinate you starting with the sticks and feeling the stick and trying to learn, you know, how to not only manipulate and create the momentum and the energy of the stick, but also how to deal with the momentum after a strike and the follow-through. You know that if someone uses nunchucks but doesn't know how to deal with the follow-through, they're going to hit themselves on the elbow or on the head and it's the same with the sticks. If you don't know what you're doing and you hit that stick, it's going to bounce back and hit you right in the head. So, you know, there's that whole aspect of dealing with the flow, learning the flow and then dealing with the flow and the reaction of the stick. And there's that expression where people say that, you know, a weapon is just an extension of a limb. Do you feel that that's a little simplification or do you think that's a fair statement? No, I think it's a fair statement. I definitely teach that in Kimpo when we're teaching about using the bow staff or using any other implement, you know, that's pretty much true for any other implement. But in this case, since the stick can be of varying densities and flexibilities, you have to know how to deal with that, you know, how that stick reacts. So, it does vary a lot in terms of, you know, what you're using. In fact, a lot of, I don't have one right with me, but Filipinos will use a very light retan stick, very thin, you know, like let's say it's three quarters of an inch thick retan with the skin shaved off. So, this creates a very light stick that bends a lot. Well, you know what, go ahead and hit me with it. It's not going to hurt me unless you really know how to apply that stick to the right target, you know, in the right way. Otherwise, you know, you're going to flay all around with it. I'll probably knock it out of your hand if you're taking off your hand and hit you with it, you know. So, you mentioned the six count drill. For those who are not familiar with it, what is it for? Like what are the core principles that it teaches? Okay, so, yeah, one of the main pattern drills that we work on is called the six count. And it starts from this, the stance, you know, I don't have two sticks, but, you know, it's using the sequence of movements. I'm mimicking them here and here with it. So, the angles are coming. We're working with these two basic angles right here. And I'm throwing the sticks at my opponent and following through with this standardized pattern. And what we're learning is the flow of the sticks, controlling this flow of the sticks, but also building muscle memory in attack angles. And the correct wrist position for when you're hitting something. I have something here. This is a practice knife that I have on my desk, along with my balasong and my battle axe over here. But, you know, a lot of people don't have the understanding of the position your wrist needs to be in when you're hitting something. So, you know, you'll see people hitting or, you know, but, you know, in actuality, when you make a strike, you know, your wrist has to be in this position as you follow through. And so that's one of the core things you're learning when we're using this pattern drill. Plus, that pattern becomes a muscle memory drill. So, if you came at me, let's say with this, you know, number one strike over here, I'm going to use this block and then I'm probably going to fall into that pattern to hit you, you know, six plus times in various targets coming off of this one, you know, muscle memory drill that I have. So there's a lot of different pattern drills, but the sixth count is probably the most common one where you'll see if you do a search on YouTube, you'll see everybody from karate people to, you know, a lot of Filipino people doing the sixth count. And you'll see a lot of iterations, a lot of different methods for using it, a lot of different footwork that goes along with it. And there's a lot of different height zones. Notice, like, there's the heaven six, the high six, and then the standard and the low. Do the core principles and mechanics change from different heights? Yeah, it's one of the concepts is about angles of attack. So, you know, the heaven six, for instance, is all using these one and two angles. The straight six, which incorporates the low strike, incorporate this horizontal angle of attack. And then when you get down to the earth six, you know, we're using these downward angles and even getting down low and then hitting at an upward angle. That's what they're really incorporating. But it's on a constant movement-type drill. A lot of Kimpo systems have stick fighting. And I've always kind of, I don't want to say been critical of it, but I've always been skeptical of it when they say that they're mixing Cali or Filipino stick fighting with karate because every time I see it, it tends to have degraded into this one, two, three, four. And they're really learning, they're learning the pattern, but they're not learning the flow. And so if you did that to me, you know, right when you stopped, you know, I'm probably just attacking with a Kimpo technique. I'm glad that you mentioned that because in the previous conversation, and I've been trying to think about my head, you made the comment that the footwork and stick fighting, the footwork and Kimpo are incompatible. How is that so? And is there any way to marry them together? Yeah, okay. I might have misspoke if I say incompatible, but I would say completely different. And to the point where I don't want to have my lower belt students take both from me. And for one of the reasons is if you come to my karate class, I'm going to tell you how to stand in a cover right in a very structured way. I'm going to say, you know, your feet are going to be this far apart. You know, your center line will be here. You're going to be one inch off the center line. Your feet will be at this angle. Your knees will be like this. Your hands will be like this. Your shoulders will be like this. If you come to my stick fighting class, I will say there's no stance except that your right foot is forward or that your left foot is forward. You know, and then we're going to do all this, these work, and I'll be very involved with the footwork, but it'll never be in a structure of, okay, you're in this stance, and then now you're in this stance. It's going to be like you're here, and then you're going to transition to this move by stepping this way. It's always going to be center of gravity. It's always going to be based on, you know, a center of gravity, but it's never going to be like 50% weight forward, you know, toe facing out this way. Our general concepts are like both feet are aiming in the same direction, okay, and they're aiming at the target. So those are the kind of the principles that we talked about. And that's why I say they're dissimilar. So it's less regimented program. It's a much more fluid concept than with the footwork. Absolutely. That's why I say I've talked about flow, you know, flow base. It's, you know, your body is moving according to where your target is. And if you're moving oblique, you know, this is, you know, through your Keppo is, you know, you move at an oblique angle and now your target is over here. You can't just move over here and, you know, keep attacking in this direction. Your target is just as fluid as you are. So, you know, your ability to address the target and where you're attacking is just as important, but it's not through a structured stepping. It's through flow-based stepping. So flow-based footwork. So what are some good practice habits a student can use to get from that robotic pattern drill that they might have learned at the beginning and get more intertwined with the footwork and more of a smoother flow? Well, you know, it's funny that you said, I was just thinking about it because, you know, how many times have you learned a, you know, one-step drill, right, where you say, okay, I'm going to come in with this punch. Then you're going to do this inward block and, you know, this technique. And you find that you're not stepping according to the technique. You know, the technique says you're just going to step forward and then you're going to do this move and then you're going to step back and you're going to do this move. Well, what if that doesn't work? You know, are you held to that? Well, if I'm doing the short technique correctly and I'm going to be judged by that, then I have to figure out how to make it, you know, work, even though, you know, my opponent is shorter or taller or prouder or whatever it may be. So, you know, it really is fluid according to the needs of the situation. And it's expected to be a free flow as opposed to, you know, a structured drill. And I like how you mentioned where you have your students train with different weight sticks. And that's something that's missing in a lot of classes, especially Campbell classes. So how would that translate to, do you think that actually helps the student, whereas if they're in a real situation that they might be able to pick up another item, whether it be a stick or an umbrella or something, how can that knowledge and practice translate to an everyday item or tool that they can get their hands on? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, Bruce Lee used to talk about, well, I could roll up a newspaper and use that in the place of a stick. If I have a very light stick, I'm probably going to hit you twice as many times as I would with a heavier stick for multiple reasons. One is that I can move it faster. But two is that it's not going to inflict the same type and amount of damage that the heavier stick might do. But to translate that to other implements that you might pick up, once we start going from two sticks and then to one stick or to a heavier stick, a shorter stick, a bladed weapon, a pen, you'll start to see the variances of both range and striking the part that you're using to strike with. So if I have this knife, I know that I'm going to want to try to strike with the blade or the point. I'm not going to try to strike with the back or I'm not going to strike with this part unless that's my particular technique. And so it's kind of prepping your hands and your body to deal with the different compliments of what that weapon might offer. Yeah, and this is so many varieties. It was something like an umbrella. Not only do you have a stick object, but now you have something that has a hook at the end of it too. Absolutely. And then you have something that will probably break. You know, the handle will come off. Oh, I think open up. I can't see. There's so many things that can happen. Or you can open up in the skier their vision too. Exactly. Exactly. You can use it like that. I'm sure somebody in the Kingsman did that, right? Probably. Yeah. It's interesting because, and that's always fascinating to me too, at least in the American camp, we don't really have too many official weapons. Like, you know, Okinawan arts, they've got their traditional weapons, but for some reason I've noticed that Kempelwitz are always drawn to the Kali sticks. And it's been everyone I know, all my instructors have ever taught with it. Do you think that there's something inherently attractive to it based on the style of martial art? Or do you think it's a product of media, like say the perfect weapon that popularizes it? Why do you think so many Kempelwitz are drawn to the stick fighting? Yeah, you know, that's a question I've actually pondered myself. And I know, I think, you know, I've only seen the perfect weapon once, so I don't know it by rote, like I know, enter the dragon. But I will tell you that in enter the dragon, Bruce Lee had a scream of sticks or they were called a scream of stick. They're really, they're two big black sticks. And the way that I would describe his use of them would not be a scream alike. I would say he's, you know, he's hitting people with two sticks because he's, you know, he's fast and he's doing these things. But I don't recognize pattern drills or the patterns that he's using or the combinations or, you know, things that I might, I might use if I was in a fighting situation. Of course, I don't think you, you know, it might not look like what Bruce Lee was trying to accomplish in that. But to get back to your question, I think there's, there's legend or out there that says that there's a natural connection between the two. In fact, I think it's Jesse Encap actually has a video that says that they have a common, you know, a common root or a common history. But I don't see that. I don't see it in the flow. I don't see it in the way that I teach it. But he did show a, you know, a pattern drill that we use. It's a short sombrano drill. And I saw him using it. But I've seen it, you know, appear in many, many self-defense videos, videos of people using knife fighting with Filipino techniques. But I don't find that as a parallel in Kempo. And like I said, when I visit other studios who are teaching sticks and they, for instance, I see them do a kata. This has happened many times. I see a karate competitor go to a tournament, do a kata with double sticks and they'll do this mechanical six count. I think they have to do it. I don't know why. But to me, that is not the Filipino fighting way. It is a karate method of using two sticks. I've also actually seen, in some karate videos, where they have two sticks or one stick. And then they'll show, okay, like if you came with this angle over here, if I was doing it using my secret club, I would, you know, use this or this type of block, a roof block or a shield block. Well, they would have that, a more mechanized movement for that. So they would have this or they would do this is the block or this is the block or this is the block. They would be much more mechanical, much less flow base, but I can see that they learned it from, probably learned it from a stick guy. So I don't know, I can't answer that question. I ponder it myself. Are there any martial arts that you feel are more suited to blend with stick fighting? I think, I think, I think boxing and Muay Thai are wood because they're not using, you know, a structured karate type base, right? In boxing and Muay Thai, we're getting power off of the body moving forward while you're striking as opposed to the body's connection to the ground in a static, you know, transition where you're hitting you and it's because my strong base is how I'm reflecting or imposing that power on you. Whereas if I hit you with the right cross, my body may be moving and I'm coming off my heel and I'm actually just standing on the ball and my rear foot moving forward. So that power is projected from my body moving, not my body being static. So I think that is, tends to be more similar to, you know, my stick fighting where my body's moving as I'm striking and then we're moving into another move as I continue to strike. Whereas in karate, you know, I'm going to hit you here, I'm going to move this way, I'm going to hit you here, but most of my striking moves are not a combination of striking and transitioning body at the same time. Now a lot of martial arts, since we're talking about measuring weapons with other styles, a lot of karate systems and self-defense systems will implement self-defense techniques against firearms because a lot of them, and Kempo included many ways, is lacking. Do you feel that Filipino stick fighting is a lot more of a practical art for weapons self-defense against items such as that? You know, I'm not going to say that one's better than the other, but you know, since we're dealing with the weaponry right up front, I would say that the Filipino practitioner is more ready for the high-speed movement of a implement coming at them. And you can, you get a, I think, Inesanto calls it retina retention, you know, where your eyes are used to seeing the outer edge of the arc and then you start to react based on that as opposed to something that's coming at you from close distance, close range or short trajectory like this. So you're better, you're more able to deal with it. The realistic Filipino stick fighter or knife fighter will tell you you don't ever want to get into a knife fight. You know, you're going to get cut. You may die. You know, so, you know, I always warn my students when we're training is, first of all, you know, when we have a practice weapon, always treat it just like a gun, always treat it like it's a live blade. When I see you, you know, take this knife and hold it this way. Hey, you just cut yourself. You know, if you came in and you actually cut me, I'm going to proclaim you cut me. I'm cut, you know, because I always try to to create that level of realistic that, you know, any touch with the tip of the or the edge of that blade, you're cut and now you're bleeding. So I think, I think you are karate training with a knife. It's like, step forward and he's going to do this one stab. It's like, well, you know, that never happens, right? I'm going to come in and stab you or stab you like this or I'm going to come up by you and cut you from the throat. You know, it's so much more lethal in the way that people, you know, use and use a knife that I think I agree with you that, you know, I think they they're just rudimentary. The karate response to the knife fight is just, it's rudimentary. It's not without value, but it's rudimentary. So it'd be fair to say that the best defense against weapons is really to understand how they'll use the weapons first and understand what their limits and capabilities are. So that way there's at least a better understanding there. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. You can't go learn a bunch of knife techniques and use it without, you know, getting cut. And what do you think about the drills that people do like with the chalk or the marker and try to do the marking on them? Do you think that's an effective way to train? Yeah, I mean, I think it shows it shows contact, you know, and it'll it will it will force you to try to avoid getting cut and making contact. So it'll expose that, you know, so I think it's value in that. I think that's what's before probably messaging, but we did the episode a while back about that electric taser knife. Oh, yeah. You got it there. Yeah, I have it right here. What I find interesting though is like, you know, in class, you know, we don't use real blades or use like the dull metal blades or the wooden blades and it always feels like there's a sense of complacency with it because there's no real threat in the classroom setting. And this is advertised as a self-defense tool, which I don't really see it as a tool because it's basically it's plastic, but it's got along the edge right here. It's got like it's got electrical contact. So when you actually activate it, it's supposed to be a taser, but it doesn't really work as such. But as far as a training tool, I love the psychological aspect that comes with it because we've done this in class and it's a major step up from a wooden knife to when you have your training partner all of a sudden coming at you with a your brain is like, I don't want it to touch me and it just seems to heighten the level a little bit. What are you thinking on something like that? I agree with you is that it can be valuable for training but as a self-defense weapon it might give you a false sense of security because if you're a big dude coming at me and I tase you with that I don't think it's going to drop you. You're probably still going to grab me and throw me across the room. But from a training standpoint yes, I mean it's more definitely more threatening and give that user the experience of threat because it's like you said you got a wooden knife it's not going to hurt me so you're very lackadaisical about how you do your technique and if you're not doing it like we do where any experience with the edge of the blade we call it out then you're going to become you won't be threatened by the blade. Now when we use, when I use a practice blade I'm going to cut and you're going to feel it oh, that would hurt but you'll feel the slicing action of what you're doing or if I get you with the point there is a point there and it's not going to penetrate you unless I try to stab you with it but you'll feel it. Yeah, this thing is not going to knock you out but it has a bite to it so I think it's got, I mean it might be a deterrent in the self-defense situation but I just like that all of a sudden that the brain goes to that don't-touch-me mode Yeah, I think that's valuable if you feel a threat I think part of that training has to involve real fear and so if that device creates some real fear and you shoot some adrenaline into your body and now you're experiencing you know nervousness, I think that's good that's good Do you have any advice for anybody who's looking to join a stick fighting school? Any things they should look for an instructor any red flags to look out for? Well, I have an open mind because when you go and initially look at stick fighting it might look it might not look as powerful as an MMA or karate, you know and if you go into an MMA gym and you're going to see people working in a heavy bag and sparring in with gloves on inside a ring we're not going to have that we're going to be clacking sticks and it might seem a little tame but those sticks will inflict a lot of pain so just have an open mind about it and then if you see a big variance from your master karate training you have your mind open to the fact that it's not all about this stance, it's going to be more about what your body position and how vulnerable you are and how ready you are to respond to something Since we talk about movies sometimes I got to get your opinion on this when it comes to movies and weapon usage I personally have two pet peeves the first is I hate it when movies or a character has a weapon and they deliver 20 good strikes to a bad guy's face looking at the perfect weapon on this one and the second pet peeve is movies where the actors the fighting is so choreographed where it looks like they're more trying to tap each other's weapons versus actually trying to strike the body like something you see in Star Wars what are your pet peeves when it comes to weapons and movies and are there any movies that you feel demonstrate more realistic weapons fighting It's a great complex question because almost all the sword fighting you ever see is it's stage and some of my favorite ones like Princess Bride the sword fighting with Princess Bride or any of those Errol Flynn Robin Hood type of movies where they're doing cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck the sword and no sword fighting is really like that and I'm not a sword fighting excerpt but I am a big fan of it so that is one of my pet peeves that sword fighting is so unrealistic when you see it in the movies and I can only think of a couple of instances where the sword fighting is depicted accurately one of them is called the doolists and you may have never seen it but it's actually one of the original movies by Ridley Scott and who's in it I can't even remember, Harvey Keitel and they have a different sword fighting and it is sword fighting they're going and he does a short sword right into the guy and it's one shot and it pierces his lung and he guy goes down that's what it would be like it's not like you go on forever and you go around in a circle it's really boom boom and he pokes them once in the lungs and you fall over that's how lethal it is so a lot of the times when I see weapons used in movies I think I have the same kind of pet peeves oh he hit on me but then again you know and it's just like karate too people are pretty tough one punch and one strike of a weapon to a person who trains is probably not going to take him out if we were on the street and you cold talk a guy who doesn't train he's going down he's going to fall flat on his head he doesn't know how to roll up but if you're in a bar and it's an MMA guy who's been training you're probably not going to hurt the guy it's going to take three guys to kick him out of the bar because he's going to be roughing up people even if you finally get him so those are one of my pet peeves is people that or when it's when it looks like and even John Wick does this he hits someone and the guy is done you need to hit a guy multiple times or really cold cock and clean before he's out in the fight and then he'll come back so I think those are one of the things that I enjoy and not enjoy the scene in movies I like when you mentioned Princess Bride because there's movies like Star Wars where the sword fighting is the spectacle of the scene and you can tell it's all about the dazzo and the acrobatics of the lightsaber sitting each other but something like The Princess Bride and I think we see this mirrored in a lot of martial arts films is that particular scene it's not realistic but it's telling a story it's telling a story and that tells back to the martial arts films like Pat Johnson the one reason I love his choreography so much especially I grew up with the Karate Kid Ninja Turtles and the Mortal Kombat movie and what I love about his fight scenes are his fight sequences advance the story they don't just stop just to show a fight sequence there's story developing and characterizations happening within that choreography and I think there's a huge difference between the spectacle and story development I agree with that the whole initial sword fight in Princess Bride is teaching you about the training of what the guy's name is I can't remember Indigal, Indigal Montoya and his father and the styles that he practices and the fact that he can fight with either hand and you know definitely when you make the scene fun like that the expositions it's much more it's better than just having two talking heads doing something while delivering story with it absolutely he showcases it throughout the movie so although that they do a bit of the clacking because you don't want to pierce somebody's heart in a fun movie like that it's still very enjoyable I just want to thank you again so much this is really an interesting insight into Filipino stick fighting hearing you tell us about this in comparison to the way you teach Kempo and how it's really two different worlds so I just want to thank you so much for the time you spent with us and to go over this and to educate us a little bit on some of the deeper levels of the Filipino martial arts well like I said I always learn something when I go out to do anything I love interacting with you because you're a learned martial artist you hold rank you've trained in different styles and you ask big more than what is your style and how did you get started I liked our interaction I appreciate it a lot and don't forget is the crane kick legal yes we did an episode on that too okay but thank you so much I really appreciate your time I appreciate it hopefully we can do it more I'd like to extend a thank you to for his insight and for spending his time with us I think there's a lot of good advice here for anyone who wants to implement weapons into their practice or sharpen the skills that they currently have we hope to have them back on the show and we invite all of you to share your experience and thoughts in the comments down below I would also like to extend a thank you to Sensei William Christopher Ford for providing us footage from his own channel Sensei Ford has a wonderful series as he talks to prominent instructors of other martial arts be sure to visit his channel and we've provided the link to that channel down below in the description so check out last week's episode if you missed it thanks for watching and we'll see you back on the mat next week