 We often visit the topic of Kempo on this channel with its rich history and various styles there is a lot to talk about. Today we have a special guest with us. Many know him from the Karate Kid Tournament as well as the eventer and stunt performer of the Crank Kick. However, he is also a 10th degree Grandmaster teaching Kempo and Filipino stick fighting in his Murrieta School. He was inducted into the 2019 Kempo Hall of Fame and today he's with us to talk about the history and evolution of the art. We offer a very warm welcome to Grandmaster Darrell Vidal. You've mentioned that in previous interviews that your brother and Bruce Lee were your inspirations to get into the martial arts. How did you start your martial arts journey? Yeah, that is how it happened. In the early 70s my brother in San Diego started taking some karate classes and then I think what happens typically is the older brother does it and brings it home and uses it on his younger brothers. So I'm the youngest of three. I say that jokingly but he did teach us. He would show this is how we learn to punch and this is how we learn to kick and so I was immediately following his lead and learning the movements. Then we moved to Chino, California which is like closer to Los Angeles and one of our neighbors was a martial artist both in Filipino stick fighting and in Kung Fu and so he had a gym at his garage and we would train with him there and you know learn to kick the bag and do some light sparring and then my brother and I both with one of my neighbors joined up a the community you know Chino parts and community karate program with my instructor Joe Rosas is still my sensei and started from there and that was like 13 years old and that was where I got started. What were your expectations like what was in your mind and what you expected when you walked into your first class versus your impression when you left? Oh wow what I left I mean we're talking about a span of you know a decade or so but I think I think one of the things that happens when you go train in a park in rec and I think it's kind of reflected in the karate kid because you know when Daniel is first talking about it with Mr with his mom right after he gets into the first fight she says well you took karate and he says not at the Y and I always kind of equate that you know taking karate in a park to the rec is kind of like taking it at the Y and you know you know so it's it's not an official dojo it's a it's a community shared space and you know you don't have you know all karate trophies and memorabilia and weapons that you might see it's it's basically a shared space it's only at dojo when we're there and and so I think that's always a little underwhelming for people that walk into a class and say oh this is the parks in a rec karate you know it's it's not like an official dojo we don't have all the punching bags all lined up and you know speed bow or whatever the the implements are you know you're walking into you know a shared space and but you know I think you know there's as well as anybody Daniel is that it's really the quality of training that you get there you know the the implements can help a lot but you know they can also be a hindrance if not used correctly so that's and that's the reason I continue to teach through my mirror Mike said the myriad of parks in rec is because I you know it allows me to have a regular job train you know in the evenings and offer a very cost-effective you know program that I can encourage families to train together you know because I can discount that the rates and and you know just making it very affordable to to families and I think that's that's how I answer it so your question was you know what was my expectation going and coming when it's the same sort of thing you know I joined up and here we are in a shared space it was like it's not a real karate dojo but as soon as I saw them lined up and training and joined up with them I I felt fine you know I didn't feel like this was going to be any kind of second fiddle you know martial arts and then when we would go to tournaments and we would compete you know we were we were competing right along with everybody else by the time I finished with them I mean I didn't really technically finish because I I got older got married moved away but I would still go back and visit so but I think that the space changed significantly over the years you know they would you know now they annexed as part of the room to use for daycare you know place got smaller or they redid it so it changed physically in a few ways but it was still that you know shared community space and it always you know had a sentimental part in mind when I go even if I go back there now I still feel a little bit sentimental about you know this is where we started training you know 40 plus years ago and I also remember hearing you in a previous interview saying that Bruce Lee was one of your influences and got you in the cross training how did that transition you into doing different arts and what arts did you try the first kung fu movies that we were exposed to even before Enter the Dragon where those those funny Shaolin movies you know five fingers of death and the guys would blow up and jump over trees and you know I had hats that they could kill you with so those were the first ones and and they were so funny because I looked back and you know you can remember this sort of fighting in my my brother and I would we would go out and you know in the yard and mimic those moves and so it's so far from you know what really what training is really like but you know it really it really hit home with us but then well I think the first Bruce Lee movie that that I did see at the theaters was a Chinese connection and that's where you know I think Bruce Lee revolutionized you know martial arts in the movies and then in terms of cross training so I talked about my neighbor and one of the books that my neighbor had was the Tao Jikudo Bruce Lee's book and so you know it's it's interesting it's really a flip through book you know you can you can go through it and read up all the different stuff and the drawings that he has but he talks about his his kung fu Chinese boxing you know his grappling as I was going up the ranks you know I trained with my instructor in Kempo but then in as a freshman in high school I also started wrestling which is I think you know everybody needs to have some some grappling some wrestling and then at as a junior I started boxing I joined the local Chino boxing club and you know started straight boxing and that's kind of where I learned to punch you know because it's a different it's a different punch something that you follow through on and really put it in and it really affected my my karate sparring because it it it it caused me to you know hit people the face harder so it also affected my my point sparring because I would hit people and get disqualified and stuff like that so that was the next thing and then as you as you you know kind of follow in Bruce Lee's step you know you have to go and explore Wing Chun so I you know read all the books that were available at the time which are very sparse but I did have a friend of mine who who went away and traveled to Seattle I believe and studying with James DeMile for a while who was one of Bruce Lee students and he spent you know close to a year there and then when he came back I trained with him extensively and kind of by osmosis learned a lot of the Wing Chun that he had brought back and so I always gravitate to Wing Chun because I still feel it's part of my roots but I don't hold any kind of you know ranking or formal you know belt or anything in Wing Chun so I would say you know Kempo wrestling boxing Wing Chun and then the screamer you know Filipinos explains are really the core of what I trained in I'm particularly fascinated in the Kempo aspect because we both have Kempo backgrounds a little vastly different but it appears like the roots of our systems do kind of cross paths at some point what can you tell us about your instructor Joe Rosas and the style of Kempo that he taught right Joe Rosas's instructor was Danny Guzman who worked had a black belt both from Ed Parker as well as Bill Rosaki and Bill Rosaki as you know was the student of Ed Parker so the system though that we trained in was not similar to Parker's system so I don't know necessarily where Guzman got his other stuff because if you look into if I talk to him which you know we've had several different times where we don't talk about his training you know they always seem to talk about John Leone and James Betosi you know these guys are names that you hear and and they're mostly coming out of Hawaii but they're not you know they don't branch into directly into Ed Parker's you know American Kempo and so when I look at our system it looks a lot more like a Hawaiian style that that I've seen out there so I actually see similarities with Kaji Kempo and some of these Lima Lama systems when I look at their katas and look at their their self-defense techniques they seem to have a lot of similarities but I don't think that we can draw a direct a direct connection because you know we get we have our katas are kind of one two three four five you know they just go by numbers but they're fixed katas and they're shared between our school and and all of other Dan Guzman's other students who we can name off you know Dave Torres and George Franco and Cordero these were colleagues of my instructor Joe Rosas and we all shared the same katas we would compete with the same katas and tournaments so that all came from Dan Guzman and I couldn't tell you at what point you know how much of that was developed by him how much he got from Masaki and how much of it you know was shared with with Ed Parker's American Kempo. That's interesting you showed me an infographic showing a little bit of lineage that went back to Adriano Imperato would you say that there's any similarities between Kara Ho Kempo or the Hawaiian Kempo that William Chautau? I would have to say yes but I couldn't tell you what parts of it because that lineage that I saw was given to me by a person who's done a lot of publishing and history and documentation of Kaji Kempo and he trained with us for a time and then went on to train under Kaji Kempo and his higher his higher rankings from Kaji Kempo so at a certain point he actually separated from our school and then and that's about the time he started to really do a lot of you know report writing articles and and doing history and research and I respect the work that he's done a lot but I can't I can't say that you know his writings and works reflect directly onto what we learned under Joe Rosas because at a certain point he actually we separated so Kara Ho is a name or a style that I had heard being part of our lineage. If I go back and find you know some I think I can go back and find some certificates at the wall that say like Kara Ho Kempo Karate and I don't really know you know the whole history of that that that lineage. The Kempo that you're teaching now is that the same curriculum that you learned with Mr. Rosas or have you made any modifications? I've made additions so you know I took our original curriculum which was you know and it's kind of a standard curriculum it's you know four-quarter covers, katas and then self-defense techniques and I haven't really changed the katas much I'm pretty much teaching them all the way through kata eight kata five is kind of your own kata but all the way to kata eight pretty much the same way that he's still teaching them in his his school and we teach it at our school. The self-defense techniques I added on to them based on you know my additional training with both you know Eskima or Filipino stick fighting and some jujitsu that I had trained in and and other you know the grappling arts wrestling so I would take the the initial you know two or three moves technique and then add a follow-through or take down or arm lock or something to it that's what we continue to train in but I've established that you know it's on 30 years now so I've been teaching those systems for for 30 years. Yeah I wanted to ask you about the kata too I watched an interview with you and William Christopher Ford and you guys were walking through some of the kata steps and you made the comment that the first four kata resembled more of the old traditional Okinawan karate whereas the later kata was more flowy like the Japanese or the Chinese martial arts was that initially like intended by design or were they just adapted from different source material? Yeah you know I think I think it's the way it evolved because again I'm teaching them the way that I learned them but I was always told that at a certain point the founders you know started to incorporate more Chinese style into into the system so you saw these softer moves you know the more oblique angles and you know even some jumping just jump kicking moves that you know weren't in the traditional karate so that's how I think they came about but it's interesting because you know through the years and going to you know a lot of the events I go to I've met some very well studied you know older gentlemen who trained way back in the old days with Parker you know with you know Douglas Wong and some of the stories that they'll tell you are about you know Ed Parker coming and then training with these kung fu guys and adding some of that kung fu into his curriculum now I don't want to start any fights or anything but you know I think you can see it you can see it when and you can you can read about it but I couldn't I couldn't dissect it for you. Yeah no Ed Parker Kempo it's definitely a melting pot and you know I thought it was just a couple of arts when I first started training but as I expanded out and explored other arts like I started taking judo jiu-jitsu a couple years ago and I started to see just how much of how much judo was already infused in the art that I didn't know was there I know there's some sansu in there there's it's quite a mixture so it's interesting to see where those influences come from and do your techniques kind of show the same merit thing where the earlier techniques are more linear and Japanese resembling and then the later techniques the self-defense techniques are more Chinese martial arts? Well I wouldn't equate it as Chinese but I would definitely equate it as more complex you know as opposed to block punch punch kick you know type of technique where you know they're incorporating more stylized movements you know multiple strike hits you know a takedown an arm lock you know some things that that you don't see in you know like traditional karate. And that fifth kata you mentioned where it's kind of up to the student to create their own is there a specific mindset that you guide them on or that you're looking for or is it just to let them do a free exploration what is what is the goal that you're looking for for student generating their own kata? That's a good question and I'm glad you asked it. It happens for our our green belt right you learn kata one through four up through blue belt and then for for your green belt your your first requirement for green belt is kata five and you have to develop your own kata and the requirements that we lay out to them are you know it has to have 30 moves you have to know how many you know striker how many opponents you have you have to be able to explain what you're doing as it each move and you have to know where you start and where you end but we don't have a specific you know you can you know do this or do that but we do kind of say use moves from katas that you know use moves from the self-defense techniques that we teach you know the techniques and use moves that you use sparring and and so you usually come up with pretty pretty consistent types of karate although every now and then you'll see somebody doing you know something that came out of a movie that you know we never taught or something like that but yeah that's kind of how we set it up. Not just stringing the longest sequence together for the sake of it. Yeah no punch punch punch kick kick kick you know. And I like that you actually have it in the middle range of the curriculum because like it was American Kempo we have a thesis kata for when we're going for a black belt that's where we have to construct ours and kind of the same idea but I like that you put it earlier in a system to kind of see and give that challenge early on because it's it can be overwhelming for a lot of students I mean I've got I know a lot of people who myself included that was overwhelmed you know with the expectations for developing the kata especially for black belt but to introduce it that early I like that and I think that's I think that's a great way to acclimate the student and to understand the art at deeper levels earlier. Yeah I agree I think one it shows it puts a little initiative back on to them and say okay now you're getting we consider green belt like a senior belt so you're going to getting ready to get to this level where you're going to be considered senior belt you know you're going to need to do this and then for our black belt we you have to have a weapons kata which you have to develop on your own so that's kind of like step two and then you have to have your theme and you have to have your own self-defense techniques so it's the same sort of thing of developing other stuff on your own in addition to you know that kind of flies. At Parker Campo sometimes people look at or like wow there's like 154 self-defense techniques it looks ridiculous but as I start to my deeper dives start to realize that it's not so much 154 individual techniques but they're all really just variations of a handful of them and it's interesting to kind of see how one technique takes an idea and it breaks the part and reverses it from another technique so in your system your self-defense techniques do you encourage a lot of mixing and matching or alteration on the student's part or do you prefer that they learn like the absolute basics of where they are versus trying to graph techniques together. Yeah the latter we basically you know especially at the early stages the first three sets you learn them as you know learn them as they're taught the only adjustments that we would expect you to make are you know you know your size your weight your leverage points you know your disabilities you know obviously we expect you to learn how to work through those and be able to apply them to your opponent but we don't have them you know do anything outside of their own development that that isn't part of the structured you know technique by itself so it's not until like you said the mock belt level where they're going to come up with their own you know ideas for self-defense and and then they have full control of everything and I also want to ask about your your logo I love your logo with the eagle and the dragon because we have the the dragon and the tiger what's the significance of the animals in your system yeah shall I bring it up I think I have one handy right here so this was the the logo that my instructor Joe Rosas had and it's the American eagle and the Chinese dragon so it was the you know the unification of the United States and China in the systems and then you know the coloration is something that that I changed because his coloration is slightly different but yeah that's that's the basic premise is the Chinese eagle in American the Chinese dragon the American eagle so it has nothing to do with eagle fang eagles don't have fangs and I was speaking about logos I do kind of I've always had a curiosity about the one that you had on behind you the locus valley logo um that was the what you wore in the karate kid is that a real school a real affiliation or was that completely fictionalized uh yeah completely fictionalized I you know I didn't see it until I showed up there on set and they gave me a gear and then the back of it uh and then you know it wasn't it wasn't until very recently uh rewatching the karate kid or some clips from it that I realized there's at least one other guy that has has it on so he would have been my uh you know my dojo classmate but I don't I don't know I don't remember the guy and we didn't train together it was uh I was so disappointed in season four when I saw the locus valley logos and you weren't there I was like ah where are you yeah you weren't the only one but I do I I do have a side story is is that uh one of the one of the guys okay there were at least five of them right that had the logo uh one of them contacted me he's the guy that was actually in in season four sequence where he fought and you know did uh was in the tournament wearing that key and he actually contacted me and said hey you know um the guys that are wearing are the the locus valley logo are all real karate guys they all really trained just like I was brought in you know as kind of uh you know fill in the blanks if you will uh to have some and and he said that they were they actually had a disc this really you know honored me but they they had some discussion about trying to do things that get picked up in the show that reflect you know what I had done in the movie so he had told me that he did some Wing Chun moves and another guy did one of the flying kicks that I did but when it came out uh in the cut you know you really can can see it in those moves so good story well I stand by I stand my previous statement that I think locus valley and that you guys should have completely swept the tournaments because there's there's no question thanks thanks since a but it's um there's a curiosity because I mean besides all the aerial moves that you did in the movie um you did a lot of evasion and spinning back kick moves is that reflective of how you fought tournament at the time or was that also just choreography for the film um some of it is um I I think uh just just has a little backstory um when I used to compete a lot um I started to learn these jumping kicks which I would see either in a karate movie or from Bruce Lee or um you know in another tournament somebody else did it and as as I became proficient at those moves I wanted to create a kata that had that used them so by the time I was a brown belt um I was actually I had a kata that had pretty much every move I I do in the karate kit was in this kata you know from drop backspin and jump backspin to you know the circle kicks all those things I was doing and so when the director was scouting um he went to an actual tournament that I was competing in he saw me do that kata and so he allowed me to highlight every one of those moves you know basically and use them in in in the in the film uh and uh so when I kind of I didn't really have an audition because I just invited me to to join them uh at the at the rehearsals but but when uh they introduced me to Ralph you know I did that kata and you know kind of as hey Darrell show them the kata that you do you know and I did the kata and they were like wow okay so then they knew what what they kind of wanted to work with but in terms of of sparring you know the jump but the backspin uh and the drop backspin I actually have used you know in sparring uh you know obviously back hooks or you know round kicks all those things but in terms of like doing jumping uh you know the circle kicks or you know high jumping back flying kicks I definitely would not be doing those uh in straight sparring or tournament fighting my my tournament fighting was more uh as close I could get to cheating because I would I would definitely use the groin shot when it's legal right if if they were gonna allow it I was using it I was gonna kick you in the groin and then hit you in the face and and if I that scored I'd do it three more times you didn't learn how to protect your groin you didn't learn how to protect your groin I was gonna kick you there hey the way I look at it if you get hit there it's your own fault for not blocking it exactly yeah I have a I have a colleague that I spar with on a regular basis and you know it's friendly sparring but he goes to that groin shot and it's just so many times I'll go and throw kick or I'll throw a move and I'll hit him or he'll duck and next thing I know I feel this uppercut right to my cup I'm like how did you even get down there how did you do that so quickly no I don't I don't attack with the hand to the groin but you know the little quick kick is something that we would use since you've had a lot of tournament experience one of my favorite things about the first film is just as far as techniques go the first tournament feels a little bit more realistic in terms of what they do versus like in Cobra Kai there's a lot of flashy jumpspin yourself but in the first movie it's basically round kicks front kicks side kicks for the most part and I'll reflect if where was that film compared to the tournaments at that time I mean it's all choreographed but I think I think Pat Johnson's application or training it was really reflective of what Pat Johnson was doing with the Cobra Kai guys in training which was you know kind of mostly times you know and they didn't they didn't spar obviously you know you can't let actors spar with each other because they might get hurt and you know so so and you know people who spark and kind of look and say oh yeah they really don't know but then you would see somebody else and they would have been a real karate guy and you could see kind of how they move so I would say that and there's also another fact that when they did the first karate kid they also threw some tournaments in LA called the karate kid tournaments and and they had they were actual tournament they had a lot of the same people could show up and they would run the tournament just to introduce and promote the fact that this movie was being made but also to expose a lot of the cast members to what a real karate tournament looks like but when we did get around to choreographing the fights a lot of I mean I didn't choreograph them I was there I saw I would be giving tips and helping out helping Pat out and and we were trying to make them you know look like a you know attack response you know scenario that you might see in point system as opposed to you know doing just pure flash type of moves so one criticism I hear a lot and I hear this for a bunch of different artists people who were not necessarily experiencing Kempo or certain styles of karate they often say well if Kempo's so good how can we never see it in sparring or how can we never see it in in competition are there any signs that you you could advise people to look for what kind of telltale signs watching the person fight that might indicate they are a Kempo practitioner that's a really good question I don't know if there's there's techniques that you could that would pinpoint it you know but but I will think I would think that you know the the lead back knuckle punch combination is is pretty much a straightforward combination that we all use you know and a lot of a lot of people when they start sparring will start with the you know the lead round kick but step up round kick you know because you know you're at distance and so they don't you know how to close except for throwing a kick and that's fine but you know you you're still coming in with that kick and if I see it I'm going to block it and counter it so one of to me one of the first you know level jump that you can do is when you can learn to close using your hands only you know so you're you know you're doing this measured distance thing ranging in ranging out and then you take the opportunity when you're aged in and then and then closing with your hands by that time you know the kicks are out of out of rain or you know too close and then you're coming in with a few sloth of strikes so that's that's kind of the telltale that I'm looking at is saying okay look that you know so much of it to me is rain is the distancing in the range and so I'm watching how close they're fighting you know if it's all far apart you can tell they're just you know playing with each other and doing fake moves and then but when it comes right down to it how did they close you know what were what techniques did they use to close and get the distance you know were they using a faint you know how did they bridge the gap you know what did they follow through with how did they anticipate the counter all those type of things is kind of what I'm watching what I'm watching fighting so less things that a layman would pick out versus someone who's actually training the art they know what to look for yeah yeah I would say the layman doesn't doesn't know you know you could kind of pretty much do anything and they would say oh wow that's karate you know but you know someone who's watching is saying oh I would have seen that you know or if he'd have done that I would have done this you know if he'd have stood on one leg and did this I would have just stepped back and say okay I wait till he puts his leg down but I'm gonna smash him if only John you knew that one yeah I know I know so what are you hoping for the future of your students and where do you hope that they'll take empo in the future yeah I like that question you know because I I kind of looking for you know how how it continues you know I have two sons they both got their black belt but they you know they're having their families and their careers and so they're not they're not continuing their training with me right now and then I do have my key students who still help teach and train and and carry on the system so I am wondering who who takes over Vidal Kempo karate you know when I fall over or decide to retire and quit and it's not a matter of it still Vidal Kempo karate you know it would be you know Joe blows Kempo karate after that but it would still be part hopefully that they would see that of my instructors with the karate which is we we call Rosas Kempo karate association so we have our association that has all our our black belts cumulatively of all the schools that have have come from here and and so you know for the future you know I would want one of my students or maybe a few of them to to carry on training here and branch out I mean it's already happened a little bit but you know over the years I hope it continues and if somebody wants to learn more about your program at school where could they go is there any any good resource for them to follow up on yeah they could if they want to sign up and their local to Muriela they could go to the Muriela parks direct you know Muriela to City Muriela website go to our recreation they could sign up there but I also do because of the pandemic I've started doing online private lessons so if they wanted to reach me on my Facebook my my Facebook is beat all Kempo and they can message me there I'm pretty pretty accessible on social media and then on Instagram also they can find me at the stupid name which is called at rock breaker boy before I understood Instagram I just kind of okay this is my handle rock breaker and now it's stuck I'm stuck with it now so but to be fair though there are pictures of you breaking rocks on there oh yeah I can break rocks um just to kind of wrap this one up which some have a couple of fun questions for you just kind of off the cuff if you're with absolutely what are your two favorite martial arts movies the first one based on story and the second one based on just a guilty pleasure hmm well guilty pleasure definitely enter the dragon I mean I can pick up and watch that anytime the problem is is anybody who watches it with me and this is states this is true for Seinfeld in the office is they're going to get mad because I'm going to say all the lines before and it was entered the dragon it's even worse because I'll I'll do it and you know in dub Chinese oh why don't you just take on 45 and settle it so but I do like the discussion about different movies and and and so I think there were several generations of of revolution in in martial arts movies so you know I think I think above the law with Silas de Gaulle's first first movie is great even though he his movies became different and his martial arts and whatever I think the way that they highlighted aikido in above the law is a lot it's very enjoyable to watch then um on Bach you know it was really the first time they brought you know boy tied to the forefront and I love the way Tony John you know beats crap out of people you see the boy tie and and and Donnie Yan in the man series you know and my love for each other those are the things that that I really enjoy in martial arts movies I'd like to you mentioned about the evolution of martial arts movies and how they've gone over time because I've been drawn to the perfect weapon because at that point before that movie came out I'd never seen Kempo in film I didn't even know that was Kempo when I saw it and that was kind of revolutionary but I like looking at the 70s 80s 90s and where they are now just seeing the evolution of how the martial arts are portrayed on screen and like even that with John Wick I mean it's really fancy and crazy but there's still a lot of grit and realism in there it's a fascinating study just to see from point eight of absolutely where American cinema has gone with it yeah yeah I mean to bring up John Wick I think you know Keanu Ruiz has done a lot for you know just just just martial arts mayhem if you will because he brings a lot to it you know with you know his judo and his jiu-jitsu type moves and and just the the straight up you know practicality of what he does mixed with the shooting skills you know I'm also a weapons a shooter so and people ask me you know and I'm sure they ask you why do you need guns if you're a martial artist you know it's like well because other people have guns so you need to be to be adept at all weaponry right so that's why you know I think a lot of us gravitate toward that naturally but you know we talked about the movies and I always you know you asked about storyline in movies and I was hard pressed to find a martial arts movie with a good storyline you know I but I think John Wick does accomplish that because to me one of the big weaknesses of martial arts movies was how do they deal with guns you know yeah does the does the guy you know why are there no guts I mean end of the dragon there's no guts and so you have these you know these massive fight scenes with marines of people but there's no guns well Steven Seagal was kind of one of the first people that dealt with you know guys with guns and you could see how Aikido you know deals with that application John Wick obviously he melds the two together and you know his his experience with his training in shooting and his three-gun competition and his jiu-jitsu and all that stuff I think I think he's done you know great things and bringing all those arts together yeah John Wick is kind of in this sweet spot of blending I mean some parts where I just pure fantasy I mean it's let's not lie it's a popcorn film but right this little details in there it's like the moves he does like you say he doesn't just disarm the weapon he actually will disarm he'll he'll divert seeds control and use it while he's doing practical grappling moves and like little details like um when they were shooting them underwater actually detail the bullets actually spinning like you know absolutely travel I mean just a little I love it when they pepper in little flavors of realism in there like that because now you've got this fantasy film that's believable and it just wraps up I don't know like this John the John Wick movies are kind of in the little special place for me in that aspect well I mean along with that and it goes it's a you know it goes to his his weapons skills is the number of times he reloads because I actually have gone through and counted you know based on the gun that he's using if he's reloading at the right time and you know it's usually you know six seven eight maybe it's 15 depending on the gun he's using but you know he loads reloads and he does it well you know he's very adept at it and and that's what you want to see you know you don't want to you know watch two stone which is one of my my favorite movies and then have you know dark holidays shooting off 15 rounds no off of two six guns what makes you laugh I don't know we've had some good laughs here I like good comedy you know I've mentioned both Seinfeld in the office my wife and I are still going back and watching reruns of those those series and you know we can we may watch a serious movie and switch over to finish the evening with a Seinfeld episode and it's sickening for them because I know you know I'm rattling off the lines and it you know it is tedious for them I'm sure but we get a laugh out of it so those are the ones that make me laugh now a karate you know it's kind of a joke for me because I will tell I will actually you know tease my younger students if I see them laughing I'll say there's no laughing at karate and then of course that that makes them laugh more and you know I'm trying to get them to to stifle the laugh but being kind of silly at the same time so yeah I think I'm a fun loving person so ultimately I don't take myself one thing is I just don't take myself too seriously so what turns you off well martial arts that take themselves too seriously yeah I mean and I don't want to disparage anybody but you know you'll see people who have a new style named after themselves or you know they hold 10th degree black belts and three different styles I mean I'm not saying that's not can't be done you know but you know I think it it starts to instill a little bit of skepticism so you know that's why I don't have a lot of videos because I don't I don't I mean but me doing martial arts because I don't see myself as you know it's a centralized source for you know either my system or another system or so I like to you know just say my karate kind of speaks for itself come to class train with us I think you'll you'll find a nice mixture of of traditional karate along with some pressure testing you know some life sparring and just an even mix of that you know I don't want to hear somebody you know just prophesying about you know all the greatness of this history or this lineage and you know ultimately it's it's really what you teach me and what would I teach you or how we work together and benefit from it you know past or present fictional or real who is your dream sparring match you know and I know people take hits for saying stuff like this but I'd love to spar with Bruce Lee because a lot of people actually go back and say you know Bruce Lee didn't spar a lot maybe he did maybe he got a lot of street fights but it's not you know widely filmed there's like what two or three videos from 1968 where he did some sparring but it's still in a very controlled situation it wasn't in a ring it wasn't with judges for points so I would like to go with it at go at with them and people would say oh you couldn't take Bruce you know Bruce Lee is the greatest of all time and you hear that discussion with different people but you know I it wouldn't be vindictive or for malicious we would go and you know if he's that much faster and got better technique then you know make wait the floor with me or what but you know I can understand that because it also part of it too seems like you just almost want to feel what it's like to experience that too if someone who is such a phenomenal wonder if you just kind of want to step in ringing just kind of experience that yeah absolutely and you know it you never really get it unless you are training so you know I have met so many people Betty Kina as Don the dragon Wilson you know I'll be able to event I'll see these guys just like man I would love to to get in the ring and just you know just trade some of these kinds of people those would would be a couple of guys that that I definitely want to you know trade blows with just for fun what is the question that you wish people will ask you and then we're going to ask you that question oh wow well you get some in-depth things that really make me think what is the secret to success in martial arts what is the secret to success in martial arts I think it's all about personal discipline committing yourself to learn a system and learning it you know getting your black belt in it and then sharing it with others I like cross training I think it's important to cross train but I think I think you should you should get one of them you know get a black belt one of them so that you have that that you know that certification that validation for that system but also know that system in and out you know I don't you know it's one thing to say okay I've got my green belt in here and I'm gonna move about here and and and so and you know what you come show that person can can protect himself and and pressure test it without with different things but I think there's a personal there's a amount of personal accomplishment in getting that showed on and and getting those strikes but then in addition is how do you give back you know do you do you in turn train others and and from from my school as soon as you're a brown belt I start to enlist you and have you train because you know this just as well as any of us is you learn when you teach because you know now you're saying okay well we're doing this move and then you have to explain why you're doing that move and you know the practicality and the correct way of doing you and you have to ask if you're doing it correctly you know are you doing it the way that I'm describing so the most that the most validation comes from when you teach and then after that has read its iterations you know you learn so much and I always you know whenever I'm training even teaching classes or teaching one of my sick fighting classes I come back and I say what did I learn today but it is about about how you communicate with others and and how you you teach them the way of your system excellent excellent I mean fantastic thank you so much for sharing that with us of course of course yeah it's such a refreshing experience to have a conversation with someone with a different background in Kempo and still be able to find common ground on the positive aspects the systems have to offer we'd like to thank Mr. Vidal for his time and sharing his experience with us now he will be back with us in the next episode discussing Filipino stick fighting and how to get the most out of your training I would also like to extend to 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 so be sure to visit his channel and we've provided the link to that in the description below be sure to give the good old crank it to that notification bell to get the alert when the next week's episode drops thanks for watching