Episode 536 - Sensei Lorenzo Sandoval

Sensei Lorenzo Sandoval is a martial arts practitioner and instructor. He is the head instructor at the Ageless Martial Arts in Las Vegas.

Human movement is what I'm really big on because everyone is different. everyone is going to fight differently. There is no right or wrong style.

Sensei Lorenzo Sandoval - Episode 536

Growing up in a tough home, Sensei Lorenzo Sandoval had to live his childhood as an undisciplined child but everything changed when he learned martial arts. Training for up to 8 hours, Sensei Lorenzo Sandoval started training under his Uncle, who has a lineage of Gichin Funakoshi and one of the first Shotokan Karate practitioners in Las Vegas. Presently, Sensei Sandoval is the head instructor at the Ageless Martial Arts in Las Vegas, he's a successful photographer, and he is creating a video game. If these interests you, listen to the episode!

Sensei Lorenzo Sandoval is a martial arts practitioner and instructor. He is the head instructor at the Ageless Martial Arts in Las Vegas. Human movement is what I'm really big on because everyone is different. everyone is going to fight differently. There is no right or wrong style.

Show Notes

In this episode, we mentioned the movie Sandlot and Brannon BelizoYou can reach Sensei Lorenzo Sandoval on LorenzoSandoval.com for his photography, AgelessKarate.com for his school, or find him on social media using @agelessmartialarts

Show Transcript

You can read the transcript below or download it here.Jeremy Lesniak:Howdy. What's happening everybody, welcome this is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio Episode 536 with Sensei Lorenzo Sandoval. I'm Jeremy Lesniak. I'm your host here for Martial Arts Radio. And everything that we're doing with this show is to connect, educate, entertain the martial artists of the world. If you want to know more about the show, go to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. Now, how do we afford to bring you two shows every week for free, without commercials? Well, we sell some stuff, and we've got a Patreon. And here's what you can do to help support what we do at whistlekick. You can go to whistlekick.com, you can make a purchase in the store, and we're even going to give you a discount, PODCAST15 gets you 15% off. If you want to go a little deeper and if you like the content that we do, please consider this. We have a Patreon account, P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com/whistlekick. And from the Patreon, we give you exclusive stuff. We have blog posts where we talk about the upcoming guests or maybe give you some behind the scenes, we do exclusive audio, exclusive video. And as we roll out new book drafts or training programs, depending on the tier you're in, we release those for free to people in the Patreon so go check that out. Now why do we do what we do? Because we love traditional martial arts. I love traditional martial arts and if you're listening I'm guessing you do as well. You can follow us on social media to see how much we love it all the things that we're doing the fun and the trials and the tribulations. Can you see if say trials without tribulations I'm not sure. I tried too and it did not work. You've got other ways you can help us to sharing episodes, following, linking, reviewing any of that stuff is good and it is appreciated. Today's guest, as with most comes in from a listener suggestion, and I believe today's guest is our first coming to us from the heart of Sin City. That's right. Las Vegas. Sensei Lorenzo Sandoval has lived and trained in Las Vegas his entire life. And we talked about what that means. what that looked like, not only as a kid, but as an adult, as a school owner, as a competitor. We talk about some pretty real stuff on today's show, and I think that you're going to enjoy it. So, here we go. Sensei Sandoval welcome to whistlekick Martial Arts Radio.Lorenzo Sandoval:Hello, how are you?Jeremy Lesniak:I'm doing great. How are you?Lorenzo Sandoval:Good.Jeremy Lesniak:Thanks for coming on. Thanks for doing this.Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah. Thank you.Jeremy Lesniak:All right. Well, you know, we, we talk to a lot of people, we talk to martial artists of all styles all over the world. And everybody does stuff differently. And that's one of the things I love about martial arts is that our paths go in such different directions. I talked to somebody earlier today who, who had a another similar but unique path and here we are, 507 episodes in and we find that everybody's path goes off into some way that reflects who they are. And yet every path has a beginning. And for almost everybody that beginning is, is stepping into a class somewhere at some time. So what's your beginning? How did you get started with martial arts?Lorenzo Sandoval:Well, um, honestly, it was my uncle, he was a third dan under Osamu Ozawa and if nobody knows who Ozawa is, Ozawa is one of the first shotokan practitioners in Las Vegas. And so he brought shotokan to the Las Vegas community. And he was actually trained by Gichin Funakoshi himself. So he trained my uncle um and at the time, you know, very similar story. I was a troubled child, wasn't listening, and I didn't really get along in team sports and I didn't really like. I just I couldn't vibe with team sports or being in a group so martial arts was perfect for me. I had a really abusive stepfather actually. He used to be really bad. But the irony in that was his brother ended up teaching in the martial arts. And so my uncle took the time out of his day and I used to watch him jump, like six feet in the air and do like spinning hook kicks on the paper lantern. It was crazy. So for eight hours until about three in the morning, he taught me basically all the basics from be a basic punch wise and block, you know, the, the works, the basics that most martial arts teach most striking, traditional martial arts teachers. So within that eight hours until three in the morning, I sat in front of a mirror, and I will learn like maybe six moves, and it was very difficult for me and I was very frustrated. Because I wasn't very good at all. I was, I was stumbling upon myself, I couldn't bend my knee, right. You know, there was a lot of things about me in the martial arts. And I'm not very talented. You know, I'm very, I have a lot of heart but when it comes to learning something new you know, I wanted to I have to put a lot of effort into it. And I, I think that's everybody, but I feel like especially me that I have to, you know, put that extra effort. But yeah, that's how I got into the martial arts was my uncle, you know, started me and my very first lesson is in his apartment. And then from there, you know, I just, I fell in love with it, it was an escape. My mother was a psychiatric ward nurse. And so she worked 14 hour days. So it was, it was an escape for me. So, you know, as a 12 year old 13 year old boy, I would have to take the bus in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the city, and I would have to come home like 10pm alone. So most of my, the majority of my childhood wasn't, it was a very lonely path. So, you know, but you know, my mother supported me financially. So I was very, very grateful for that. So...Jeremy Lesniak:Were you aware at the time that this was an escape for you?Lorenzo Sandoval:Um, no. No, when I was a teenager, it was, you know, I had a very, things were always tense at the house. My, with my stepfather, so I never wanted to be home in general. So having karate as a way of life for me was a huge benefit. And I didn't really think anything of it until, you know, as I got older, like everybody, right, so, but my, my, my point was, was I just wanted to be able to just, you know, do something that I really love, and I just fell in love with it. And you know, and that's, that's pretty much it. I could go over the other instructors I trained with, but I'm sure I don't want to trail off too much. So...Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah, that's, that's alright. That's alright. Well, I'm sure we'll we'll get to them. You know, like I said, everybody's journey starts somewhere. It had somewhere and we're gonna, not necessarily in chronological order, but we're gonna we're gonna march down that path, and we're gonna learn a lot about you as we go. But I want I want to stay with this idea of escape for a moment because as, as we listen to guests come on the show as we think about our own personal journeys, martial arts represents something to all of us. And it's important. But the reason it's important in the way that manifests can be really different, dramatically different and are curious. You know, here, you've got this, this beacon, that is martial arts and your uncle, and they're providing you something pretty, pretty powerful and important. And, you know, we certainly don't need to go deeper than that, to speculate what might have been otherwise. I'm wondering about other aspects of your life though at that time, school, friends? What was going on for you there?Lorenzo Sandoval:I grew up in a a loss. So at the time, Vegas is a very hard community at the time because there wasn't a lot of community events that were happening in the city, because most of it was desert. You know, I was born in the desert. You know, I'll probably end up dying in the desert but you know, I got very lucky. A lot of us, you know, school systems out here are very they're kind of treated like women's prisons, you know, they're actually designed out of women's prisons that's a that's a fact. But one of the things that makes Vegas hard is because it's so hot, it's hot. You know a lot of kids don't go outside and play so you know, I was very fortunate in that I lived in a cul-de-sac where I knew group of friends that I was, they actually raised me instead and I grew up with you know, different colors from blacks to whites to Mexicans you know we had you know we and then we just we were like The Sandlot exactly like The Sandlot we played on the cul-de-sac. We we did so many things and we did you know, we play games, we would always hang out. But when I when I started karate, that that all changed a lot more but we still stay close. No, we still talk today but um, the most important thing I think about that is, you know, in Vegas like I'm saying, it's very hard to find that community inside your neighborhood and I got lucky. I got very, very lucky with that because of where we lived at the time so.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah, whether whether luck or fate or somebody watching out for it sounds like, sounds like you made the best out of maybe a less than ideal start.Lorenzo Sandoval:I mean, I'm not gonna lie I've been I feel like it's mostly luck. And I I'm really grateful. I think we all have to be grateful with our journeys. And we have to look at the positives 'coz if you're constantly thinking in the negative mindset, I just don't think that's healthy at all, personally.Jeremy Lesniak:I agree. I agree. Now, you foreshadowed a little bit earlier. You know, your uncle wasn't the only person who trained you. How long were you training with him?Lorenzo Sandoval:I trained with them for like a two classes and then after that the teacher that I had was James Tawatao and James Tawatao now runs the Las Vegas School of Shotokan Karate on Sahara next to the Palace Station. You know, so it's, he's a he's a great, great guy. You know one of the things I love about him is that he has strong foundations and basics like if anybody knows what the karate community is, we we there are three principles of shotokan which is: kihon which is basics, kumite which is fighting, and then you have kata. And then of course, you have bunkai, so bunkai is the application of the kata. But what I really loved about James Tawatao was after Ozawa died 'coz Ozawa died in '97. James took over the Las Vegas School of Shotokan Karate and one of the great things about him was he, he taught me that foundations of basics and stances and, you know, telling me to do things over and over again. And I hated that. It was so boring. I mean, I just, I hated him for making me do that crap. And you know I'd go back and forth. He'd go you know, he count Japanese he'd go, ichi, ni, san and we'd go forward and back and then we do it again, and we do it again. But honestly now looking at it as doing it, martial arts as a career. I mean, James Tawatao really instilled in me and because of that, I I won a lot of titles I won a lot of kata titles. I even fought in Japan. You know, he gave me a really, really strong foundation and that's what schools known for is those those basics as fundamentals. And fundamentals are really important in anything, you know, and people forget about that a lot of times. Sometimes, you don't have to do 20 techniques to hit somebody, you just hit them once and you're good. And that's, that's the foundation that shotokan is that you some people get so focused on, you know, trying to make it so complicated and karate is not that type of of art where, you know, you you make sure it counts the first time but you train so many times that and so many increments to make sure that you know it's it's relevant. That's what James taught me was repetition was key to create a foundation and become a good good black belt or showed on which is black belt so.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah, wow. Now you're you're talking about hindsight and the importance of basics which I get and I'm gonna guess almost everybody listening gets and you're talking about how it felt at the time as a teenager right. Your I've done this, I know this, I don't need to do this 10,000 more times because that's how we all are as teenagers.Lorenzo Sandoval:With, but you know, I hated it, but I loved it too. I mean, I was. I don't know why I just kept coming back and I just think I really wanted to just become, it was just an escape, you know, and it was, the wild thing about that too was it was such a nasty dojo sometimes. You know, the floors would smell like feet and the, the windows in Vegas during the wintertime, it would fog up, it would fog up so much that, you know, our sweat would fog up the mirrors like you're inside of cars. It's just really wild and, um, you know, it's just, you know, and none of my partners were kids, all my partners were, were grown, big, huge, buff, hairy men. And I just remember going, you know, wow why did I go to that and what was really bad, and I love James. But sometimes some of the men would never wash their uniforms ever. So it's like, so it's like, you know, every time they would hit you or there they would take you down you would feel the sweat, you know, on your on your cheek. So it's this...Jeremy Lesniak:Old sweat.Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah, just you know, and I had this guy too, and I love him. I'm not gonna say his name, but he got a huge beard and he had a he also had a, but he was a mechanic so he would just put on his gi he wouldn't wash it. And I'm just like, man, you know not you know, but, you know, it's that's just part of how it was. There was no you know at the time there was no gear, you know a lot of in traditional karate gear wasn't a big thing. You know, we would only we call them socks, you know what socks are?Jeremy Lesniak:I do.Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah, we call them socks and we put them on our hands and you would fight and it was like the spin lawyer cotton in your knuckles. And you didn't have shin guards, didn't have helmet if you got hit you git hit, you know, and it was it was a rough, rough day for me. You know, and I, I remember in that dojo with the wooden floors. If anybody would pull up with motorcycles, you you knew you were into a fight. You know, they didn't care if you're a white belt. They didn't care if you're yellow. They wanted you to quit. So it wasn't like you know, welcome to your intro we're gonna have you, we're gonna make you smile and laugh No, we're gonna make you bleed.Jeremy Lesniak:This is this is the old school way this is...Lorenzo Sandoval:Oh yeah.Jeremy Lesniak:This is really old, old mentality.Lorenzo Sandoval:You know, I tell my students that all the time. I go, you guys have no freaking clue man shut up just. So, you know they they get all these mats. you know my kids are spoiled you know they I bought a mats in my dojo like zebra mats you know like the nice ones you know and you know they get to hit bags, you know and I had to hit makiwara boards wrapped in rope bare knuckle you know, and like. They're like, Sensei it hurts and I'm like, you want me to show you what hurts? So, but you know, you got there's there's a fine line between business, making a living, and having a slower progression and making sure that you can pay your bills and then still attaining the same result. But sometimes it can take longer so therefore they're more encouraged to stay, you know. So that's another conversation.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah, yeah. And, you know, we're we're, we're filling in gaps, right? We know we know you have a school we know you still train, we've talked about, you know, this school. But I got the sense as, as we were talking earlier that there might have been others in between? Was this your, your primary instructor for a long time or only?Lorenzo Sandoval:No, I've had several after that.Jeremy Lesniak:Okay.Lorenzo Sandoval:My main influence was a guy named, oh, he's like Voldemort to me. I never say his name, but his name is Allen.Jeremy Lesniak:Okay. You don't have to.Lorenzo Sandoval:No, no, no, he deserves credit. You know, I love him. I'll always love him. He's my Sensei. You know, we had different ideologies towards the end of our training, but I will always, I will always respect the man who trained me the most and his name was Hiroshi Allen and Hiroshi Allen approach of Hiro of Hiro Karate. He's in Vegas as well, he's he's in Summerlin. He trained me all the way to black belt and, but what's very unique about our relationship and how he trained me, he was more like a, you know, he, he was the only father figure that I really had. And he helped me through a lot of my hardest moments in my life. And, you know, he, he, he basically took me under my wing. And, you know, there was another man before that, which I'll discuss in a second, but to give the most credit was a real challenge because I spent at least 10, 11 years with that man, so, you know, and I became his assistant instructor. I did a lot of things to help him build that school. And, you know, I I assisted in the tournaments, but I remember, I was at a karate tournament, it was the Ozawa cup and Hiroshi just started teaching karate, and he was passing out business cards and he was trying to build his karate school. So we met at the tournament, and I was doing a kata called Tekki Shodan, I was about a purple belt, which is about two years in the martial arts training. And I said, oh my god, you're Hiroshi Allen, you're opening up a school. He goes, yeah. Um, you know, like any martial artists, I'm always very grateful for the people that have trained me. But sometimes there are other teachers that specialize in certain things. Hiroshi was a karate champion 17 times and the national champion. He was also the US coach for the US karate team for the NKF. So, I took it upon myself that I wanted to be a competitor, and I wanted, I felt that at the time as a teenager that if I trained with somebody who understood tournaments, I could get better at karate, and I did. So, you know, I, I spent a lot a lot of time with that man. You know, we would spend hours together, he would train me, you know until 11pm at night, you know, and I became you know, obsessed with the that I wanted to become a US teammate, which I never did. But I wanted to be, I wanted to represent the United States Karate Team and, you know, I never I never got to because...Jeremy Lesniak:Why was that important? We don't realize all of our dreams, and that's okay. But I think understanding what those dreams are and where they come from says a lot about someone. So I'm curious about what that signified for you.Lorenzo Sandoval:You know, I just, I've always been a very emotional man, and an emotional person in general. So I've always felt that knowing what the best is, I can learn from that and attain a skill that most people don't have. So I felt that, you know, fighting on the, United States and I felt like that, you know, knowing that and, but it was, it was a lot of training. I mean, you know, my, I'm not very athletic, you know. I'm okay. I'm pretty average but, you know, there was a lot of really good talent out there. That was that were just, that just were really, really good, you know and and one of the hardest things for me I could never get and I wasn't a natural at was basically fighting you know so even though I'm a martial artist and I fight, when you're fighting at that level it's a different it's a different demand on your body in your mind. You know so they were really fast, they were really good and and i'm doing wrong I'm really fast I'm pretty damn good but when you're fighting at a world level or or national level those guys are incredible. I mean you know they're incredible so and I'm not you know I'm pretty decent and I've scored a few times on some pretty high end athletes but it's hard to stay on that level and um you know to fund it too so money was also an issue you know, you you got to have the diet, you got to you got to be traveling, you got to be fighting all the time. You got to be you know, always on it to stay on that level or even come close. So, you know, and and you know, you're putting your body through a lot, you know, when you're fighting at that level when I realize that, you know that I couldn't afford to have that type of lifestyle, even though I wanted it so bad. It was hard, you know, to come up with the money because you, you either had to come up with the money or train and you had to do both. So it was it was constant, constant battle, you know, so, um, but, you know, I got I got really far and I won a lot of tournaments that were not high end, you know, I won. I won nationals once in you know, and Hiroshi really helped me through that. And I, I did a lot through him. So, you know, there's another guy I want to talk about, but yeah, pretty much that's that was my main instructor, the black belt, so.Jeremy Lesniak:Okay, who's the other person you want to talk about?Lorenzo Sandoval:So his name was Dan Sawyer. Dan Sawyer was out of the organization named, you know, Tadashi Yamashita, he did the American ninjas and stuff.Jeremy Lesniak:Oh, yeah.Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah. So I was under his organization for a couple years I studied Shorin-ryu and if nobody knows what Shorin-ryu is, Shorin-ryu karate is a is a is a predecessor to Shotokan. But he trained me and he was actually [0:22:08 - 0:22:09] to that. And he [0:22:13] to that, that was actually there during D-day. So he's dropping off the soldiers during the war in Germany. So he had a lot of knowledge and stuff. He was just a very old school, but he was in the 70s at the time, by the time I met him, and, you know, he had a, he has a mansion in, in in the here and here in town and behind his house was a huge dojo, and he would train the students in there all the time. And so I ended up you know, training with him for a couple years. I didn't earn any rank with him because, you know, I was bouncing from [0:22:48] I really still love Shotokan. But long story short, he he taught me the component of having confidence and having a good attitude, and teaching me balance in life like he always taught me you know, you have to be able to take care of your family, you have to be able to do this and do that you have to be able to put yourself in a good position 'coz he was a very financially stable man, you know, he had a really good life for himself. Because he was a, he was a show producer in Vegas. So, after the war, you know, he lived in Hawaii, and then he lived in then he went to Vegas so, you know, he built his house in Vegas in the middle of nowhere. So Dan Sawyer ended up you know, doing just a lot of great things. There was a book written about him in Japan, you know, there's, there's a lot of things and everybody writes books, but more importantly, what Dan Sawyer was just a great image just what martial arts can do for a man you know, or any man or woman excuse me. But, um, I'm actually making a video game about him. You know, we're in the process of making a video game. And although...Jeremy Lesniak:Would you mind talking about that, that's that that's a phrase that's never come up on this show in five six years.Lorenzo Sandoval:So, um, you know, a lot of martial artists, they make documentaries they make, they make, you know, they do a lot of they write books about themselves, you know, etc and their knowledge. And I said, you know what, I'm tired of seeing the same thing I want to be different. Why don't I make a video game about my life? That's exaggerated, of course. But make it a video game. So I hired a team of about 15 people. And you know, they're all you know, animators and artists and programmers for video games. And we're in the process of, you know, making it so it's called The Desert Sensei. So if you put #TheDesertSensei, you'll find it all over so but The Desert Sensei is about a two year project that's probably gonna take us a couple years to make. They're making animations for each and every storyline. Essentially, it's about a martial arts master who's trained in the desert, true story whose trained by World War II veterans and he has the the war to the war to mastery is killed in a in a really bad fire in his dojo. So the character which is me ends up you know going through life in a story is through each level so he has to beat every level and that tells a story as it goes. And essentially it's about a martial arts master who who is alone but along the way he realizes that sometimes being alone and being you know, focusing on what you can't, what you are, it will make you stronger and better. And then at the end of the game, you know, he has to face the person who killed his masters. So, you know, that's kind of it's it's kind of like it's fictional, but it's it's still there's a lot of truth to the game and I felt like instead of me writing a book and writing, you know, some sort of um everyone where where everyone does the same thing. I wanted to do something different for the industry so.Jeremy Lesniak:Wow, that that's, that's a big undertaking.Lorenzo Sandoval:It is. It's a lot of freakin' money. Can't believe I'm doing this project but...Jeremy Lesniak:Do you regret it at all?Lorenzo Sandoval:Um, sometimes when I'm sitting there until three in the morning, you know, talking to people, you know, in other countries about my video game but, you know, it's it's coming along really really well. Um, you know, it's, it's you know and right now I'm using my photography business to help pay for it. So, but um you know, it's it's a lot of work. We have a couple sponsors for the video game. We have a sponsor, like a we have a music producer who's sponsoring some of the game as well. And you know, but the artists are brilliant, I mean the artists that have made that put me together and made you know, backgrounds and I mean I'm nothing without these guys. These guys are just I can't take the credit enough like, you know, you have Zahid Magdi. He's from Cairo, Egypt. Zahid is Zahid Magdi, he's an amazing animator. I mean, you know, and then you have Yaya Quasi who, who is just a character, his character development is just amazing. And then you also have [0:27:16] Lamar, who is from Venezuela, and their, these animators, they're just incredible, you know, and then I I also have a very talented programmer, you know, as well, Greg, so Greg is, I mean, these guys, these guys make me look like I know what I'm doing. I mean, I can't, I can't, you know, I'm not gonna take the credit at all 'coz, I mean, without my team, like I would, I wouldn't even I wouldn't even be in this position, honestly. You know, I mean.Jeremy Lesniak:I know what that's like.Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah, so I mean, it just, they're designing this amazing video game for my for me and you know, and they signed off all rights to me, you know, once once I get it gone in the next two to three years when it's when it's done. I'm gonna be selling it on, you know, like any business and...Jeremy Lesniak:Sure, of course.Lorenzo Sandoval:You know, it's I my goal is is not to make it about me, but to make it about the player and make sure the player has a good 'coz one thing about myself is I realized, I really want to be pro service to in every part what I do. I wanna make sure that when these people are playing the game, they experience the story, but they have a lot of fun, you know, and they, they, I want them to be able to, you know, enjoy The Desert Sensei and make sure that they, they just have a lot of fun and, you know, they really love the story about what it has to offer because that's ultimately the goal. I don't, I don't really care about you know, if the story stretches a little bit. What I care about is that, you know, they, everybody enjoys the video game and they they see my, my viewpoint in the martial arts, you know, that means, you know.Jeremy Lesniak:Cool, what's it like seeing yourself come to life in a in a video game? That's is that as surreal as I'd imagined it to be?Lorenzo Sandoval:You know, it is. The first time I saw the character design from Yaya Quasi you know, Yaya, me and him we chopped it up, you know. And he's, he's from Pakistan and so one of the things I, you know, a lot of people are like, why don't you hire American artists and I said, you know, I really loved to but, you know, American artists are really, really expensive number one, but number two more importantly, I wanted because I lived in the desert and I was raised in the desert, I wanted to look at people that lived in the desert or that are from the desert so, you know, I started looking at Middle Eastern artists from around the world and, you know, Yaya was one of them. And what's brilliant about this guy is check this out. You're gonna love this. She doesn't draw with his hand. This is crazy. He draws with the mouse. So he's drawing fully animated animations with his mouse, he didn't even use his hand, no freehand, nothing. So he uses the mouse because in Pakistan, you know, they don't have a lot of money. And they don't have a lot of resources. So you learn to draw with a mouse which is incredible. I mean, you know...Jeremy Lesniak:Anybody who's tried to draw anything with a computer mouse knows that's ridiculous.Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah, I mean if you...Jeremy Lesniak:Very impressive.Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah, I mean, if you go to the to the page The Desert Sensei, you know, the video game, you'll see the artwork is incredible. And it just it looks like a featured animated film. You know, so, you know, and and yeah, you know, he's, he's drawing motorcycles, he's drawing, you know, other characters, he's drawing backgrounds, I mean, with a mouse and so it's just he's an incredible incredible artist you know, um, but Zahid, Zahid Magdi, which is from Egypt, Cairo and [0:30:44], you know, from Venezuela. Their animations, though, that it just makes them look so real. What you're asking which, which is, what's it like? Honestly, it's real. Like I'm very grateful and I don't act cocky at all. Like, I just I just if it's just 15 minutes of fame, right on, you know, like, all I want to do is just, you know, tell my story the way I see it, and people love the game and people see the see, you know, love it. That's that's all I care about, you know, I don't I don't care about, you know, leaving a legacy or anything, a lot of people a lot of martial arts to get into their heads. And honestly, the only thing I care about is if people have fun, and they enjoy it, because, you know, a lot of things that in martial arts there's there's always such a rough, there's always that Yin and that Yang, you know. I'm sure a lot of martial arts talk about that. But with me, you know, if you're gonna have the rough side of martial arts, you also have to have the fun side and the inspirational side and I'm really big on that is, you know, I listen to a lot of inspirational, you know, videos, and I'm a photographer and videographer. So I'm really into that 'coz I'm that millennial generation where, you know, it's a new, you know, I'm part of that Facebook era, that part of that social media group. And I want to be part of that. I want to I want to inspire people one day to look at that video game or look at that, look at my photography and go, you know what, if you can fight I can, I can do art too. So I'm really big on art and expressing myself so.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah. It's not often that we get guests who lean into the artistic side of their persona, their their creative, their creative. Ooh, certainly had some. But I think if I was to categorize most of our guests between left and right brain, I'd have to say the majority of them end up as left brain and that could be some selection bias out there. But I kinda I'm curious how martial arts and photography how how that connects for you how to get started in photography, and something tells me that the two are pretty strongly tied in your life.Lorenzo Sandoval:Well to me, yeah, I mean, I think so. My karate school phone is ringing, I'll answer it. Don't don't don't tell people I don't answer my karate school phone because I'm already. It's ringing. It's probably one of my students asking about belt testing. Um, so I have a huge belt testing and I'm also on another radio show today at 6:30 with the Sport Karate History Museum.Jeremy Lesniak:Did you work?Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah, that yeah. And so I'm one of the, the lead ambassadors for, you know, I deal with the karate side of things, and I don't know why that I don't know why they chose me. They wanted some young guy and I said, I and I said, "Why me?" They're like, well, because you know, your stuff, and I go, okay. So, but okay, so, but uh, what I was saying was, I think photography and martial arts on side because martial arts is expressive, in that everybody is different and I think that's, that's everybody's, everybody has that right to a fight can be randomly, you know, happen and no matter what can happen, you know, they will punch. You don't know how you're going to react. You're going to react based on a few things. You're gonna react on number one, your reflexes number two, your training. And number three, how much of that training did you apply in real combat? You know, so, photography's the same in the sense where I can express myself by showing that martial arts move or that kick in the scenic location, like, you know, like if I want to make the photo a little bit darker, if I want to add texture, if I want to express it, add more light, you know. I have all these other options and all these formulas to make that expressiveness of that art. So my goal right now is to get this camera. It's called a phase one camera and it's Peter Lik uses it. It's a really, he's a really famous landscape photographer, and this is his photography just out of this world. I'm a huge fan of him. And he has a gallery here in Las Vegas out in the Venetian, but more importantly, people criticize him like crazy man on Youtube and stuff. But he's like the Michael Jordan of photography for landscape. And, he expresses himself however he wants. And in a fight, you don't know what's gonna really happen. So let's say you're a Taekwondo guy, right? And you're just really good at kicking, most likely your reaction is gonna be a kick, you know what that mean? If you're karate guy your reaction, and I'm just generalizing, I'm just stereotyping the styles. So if there's any other martial artists, listening to this, you know, I'm just don't think that that's the ultimatum. You know, I'm just saying, you know, if somebody attacks you, your reaction is going to be a reverse punch, you know, as a karate guy, right? Well, what if my reaction as a karate guy is a spinning back kick, which would be normally a Taekwondo guy. So what I'm saying is martial arts is also artistic in the sense where you can literally be and do whatever you want. You know, and photography to me is kind of the same thing where, you know, you can express the art, you know, through that. And human movement is is what I'm really really big on you know, because everyone is different, everyone is gonna fight differently. There is no, there is no right or wrong style, you know, um you know, I mean there are fundamentals to make you fight well and there are fundamentals in each and every concept of fighting or combatives that will make you react a certain way. But as long as you learn how to block and counter, like it doesn't it doesn't what matters is you you win the fight you know, to me, you know, so. I don't know how other martial artists feel but to me, you know, if you get in a situation where you have to fight that's to me that's I think that's a super important thing to be able to use it right away and express yourself right away, artistically, logically. Whatever. Everyone is different unit to me. I've always been a I've always been open to almost anything if they know what they're doing of course. Not I just, I don't just ask a guy randomly or cross street. Hey, if I punch you in the mouth, how are you going to block it? No, I mean, we're talking about other martial artists, you know so.Jeremy Lesniak:We just covered a lot of ground there. There's a lot, there's a lot that we could, we could delve into.Lorenzo Sandoval:I gotta pause I know I got a, sometimes I get excited. I'm trying not to trail on.Jeremy Lesniak:No, no, this is this is if you were to go back and check out all of our episodes. And longtime listeners know this. This is a hallmark of this show is I just let people go. Because it's when the best stuff comes out.Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah, I I think. I think part of the problem is is that um, I wouldn't say it's a problem. I would say it's a challenge. I think with martial artists nowadays is you get a lot of martial artists that just think that they're like these ultimate masters. They walk into these match you know, they have these huge egos, you know, just totally full of themselves. And, you know, we live in a generation where, you know, that people think that they have all these colored different colored belts and they, they don't want to recognize that, you know, you got to keep training, you got to keep, you got to keep, you know, training hard, you got to understand what you're doing, you know. Is what you're teaching gonna work for nowadays? You know, I live in Las Vegas, Nevada, the fighting capital of the world, literally, the fighting capital of the world. I mean, I was born and raised here. Fighters have been going through my life, you know, in this in this in the city my whole life. So, if I'm fighting all these guys that are experts in their field, whether it's Jiu Jitsu or Boxing, whatever, they're really good, they're really good. You can't fake a fight in this in this town. You know, if you're a phony, you're gonna get called out real fast. You know, and I'm not saying I'm the best, I would never claim that 'coz there's a lot of badass people in my town. I mean, you know, and I tell people that I said, Listen, I'm a pretty decent fighter, but there, there's some, there's some scary people in Vegas. I'm not gonna lie. There's a lot of good martial artists, but because of that, it forced me to be better. Because of that, it forced me to make sure that whenever I trained my students, they were learning something that would that would, you know, help them. You know, like, I'm not gonna teach somebody to do a flying sidekick, just for fun. I'm gonna make sure that they they can when they learn it, they can actually use it in a real situation. You know, and that's, that's a really, really important fact. One of the things I think that we forget is you get a lot of these martial arts masters that you know, that they've never sparred. It's all theory. They, all they talk about is theory theory theory. And, you know, sparring is a super important component. Now is there technical and kata and self defense and a lot of martial arts will argue well, that you, you don't. You don't get to use all the rules in in a real life situation. In kata you you learn how to, you know, break their arm and do this. But I mean, of course we don't want that but sparring is the closest thing to a real fight that you can get, right? So what I'm saying is to would mean, maybe I'm just young, maybe I'm just a young karate teacher but to me, I feel that we need to be responsible as martial arts instructors or martial arts in general, to go towards this movement where martial artists are not looking at their ranking, but they're looking at what they're doing as a community and how we're moving our martial arts forward to next generation. You know, my school motto is in age my school is called Ageless Martial Arts. And my school motto here is "Rise Together, Achieve As One". And or if you haven't seen our symbol, it's an A symbol that represents a Phoenix, and Greek mythology, a Phoenix is basically some dies and rises from the ashes. Again, that's why we have gray and blue. Blue is the color of the fire that represents our spirit in our schools. So what I'm saying is, go ahead.Jeremy Lesniak:I like that. I like that, it's a nice visual.Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah. So so, you know, we going back to martial artists that need to understand that we have a responsibility. I mean, as we get older, you know, the old school martial arts that train with, you know, their original masters and stuff like that, we have a responsibility. I feel strongly that as we're training the next generation, we need to realize that we are there to help them be their best but also be responsible in that making sure that the martial arts is is going to work. You know, everyone knows martial arts exists. It's not like the 70s or 80s where, you know, this is forbidden, you know, activity where nobody knew, you know. Martial arts is so well known because of the UFC and especially in my town, you know, it just everybody knows about it, you know, it's not like it's not like a foreign thing anymore. And it's, it's such a generalized thing now, it's like sports or soccer or, you know, those other sports but what's important is that we have to hold other martial arts masters responsible. You know, you have a lot of people better that are just, you know, decimating our image, you know, people are, you know, talking about, you know, no knockout punching and this, this, this chi this inner chi and I just, I don't I don't think that's right, personally. I mean, I know that's a that's a touchy subject. I know I probably won't you know, how to make everybody happy saying that, but I think that people need to, at least at the very least teach people that, you know, we need to, we need to be responsible with our skills and, and make sure that you know, even though we might not be the best in the world, or we might not be the very you know, we might not be UFC fighters, we still should be able to teach techniques that are effective to our to our students, you know, and that's just my my gripe on that. So.Jeremy Lesniak:I agree.Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah.Jeremy Lesniak:I completely agree. Wow. So you just you added you added to the pile of the stuff that I could, that I could get into. I want to talk about your school.Lorenzo Sandoval:Sure.Jeremy Lesniak:I know I imagine that there's some some full circle going on. You know, I imagine that at some point when you decided to open a school you thought about what martial arts represented for you and how impactful it was for you when you got started, you know, what did that journey from student to instructor to school owner look like?Lorenzo Sandoval:It was really rough. I mean, everybody has a story. It was really rough in that I I dropped out of college to do this actually. I didn't really finish school because I kept bouncing and I'm not really good at I was never really good at comprehension. And I later I found out I had ADHD, pretty bad. And now that I think about it, it makes sense. But um, I was really bored with everything, you know, I went to, you know, the a University of Las Vegas, and I finished all my credits in the community college. And, you know, I wanted to actually be a doctor, and I didn't, I wasn't I didn't have the capacity to really get there. But it was very difficult. You know, school for me was really hard, sitting there, reading a book, trying to understand and comprehend was really, really hard for me. So um I ended up going to college and I ended up you know, not doing too well. I wanted I took like this Biology course like five times and it was just it was brutal for me. It was and my and I was an idiot because one of the guys were one of the teachers to add to the pain. My professor, her name was Professor Blizzard. And she had really really bad reviews but I'm really stubborn so I said no, I'm gonna take her course and I took her course and I got I got you know Professor Blizzard if you ever hear this, I love you though. You know she was just this short you know, stocky, old woman who was very, you know, coarse and she the first day we sat in the room in Biology course. And her first line out of her mouth was 50% of you will fail this course. The other 50% of you will get a C, 20% of you will get an A, good luck. That's what she said to me. And I was I was that 50% I got that. But I took her course three times. And I finally passed, no five times, but with two another instructors, but my point is, is that I gave up, you know, college to go into the karate school. And I lived in my karate school in 2012. I was in my young 20s. And I slept in it. My parents thought I was crazy. And I said, no, I really wanna, I really wanna do this. This is something I really love. And I'm really good at it. You know, I spent my whole life doing it. Why can't I make a living? So, um, I, I trained I started before, excuse me, before I opened up the [0:46:42], I started at a rec center. And I had this one I'm bouncing here. Sorry, I'm mixing time.Jeremy Lesniak:That's all right, keep going. Keep going.Lorenzo Sandoval:I had this little girl named Maria and she was Hispanic girl she was she was she was kind of short, kind of stubby, and she was. Her name is I called her little Maria because for six months, I sat in a rec center and this rec center. It's like in the middle of nowhere, like and it's in a very poor community. I'm not knocking any poor me, I'm glad I got to help, you know, less privileged kids and I'm really happy I got to do that. But you know, I went, I taught this little kid kid. And every single day, I had a huge like a like a fan like a, like a rolling pack with all my stuff in it and I had a karate school. And if you look through my Facebook, they would lay blue mats on the mat, and they only paid me $35 a month. And the Rec Center took 60% of that and I kept 40%, so I only found out I was only getting paid $17 a month to teach one student for six months. That rec center so it was a it was terrible. It was really, really bad. I mean, I mean, I'm very grateful for that opportunity.Jeremy Lesniak:What kept you going through that?Lorenzo Sandoval:You know, I just I just loved it. I loved it, you know, I love. I love the fact that I could. I couldn't believe I was getting paid to do karate, in my mind at the time. I mean, I was like, 20, 21 at the time when I did that 22 and I just couldn't believe that somebody was paying me to teach karate. To me that I mean to most karate people, they're like, You're crazy. You're not getting paid what you worth, but to me at the time, you know, as I was doing karate as a job, somebody was giving me money, to teach him how to punch and kick and teach him the values of martial arts and to me, I realized right then and there, I knew what I wanted to do. You know what I mean? So that that was a really, really big moment for me. And I don't know, I hate talking about myself. So it's, it's, it's but to me, that was a very pinnacle moment. So I said, you know what, I'm gonna stick with this. So for six months, I waited it out. And then more kids started coming. And then they started, you know, training with me. And a couple of those kids ended up getting black belts from the wreck, which was about that's ten oh wow, it's been 10 years now. That was 10 years, 2010. But time flies.Jeremy Lesniak:That's huge. Now what? Let's let's go back. Let's talk about that. Six months, one kid $17 a month.Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah.Jeremy Lesniak:I I've been to Vegas once. I know that it's a big area. I'm going to guess that that $17 might have covered your gas.Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah. Yeah, I didn't even pay my gas, no. But I wasn't being about the money. I was thinking, oh my god, I get to do something that I love.Jeremy Lesniak:Right.Lorenzo Sandoval:This was this was, you know, like, somebody is trying to learn from me, but I was just an assistant, you know, because I just got my black belt. And, you know, I love my Sensei, but me and him kind of had a, we split apart, you know, like, like every martial arts instructor or another student, they always separate from their instructor that always happens, you know, and but at the time I had no teacher. I was I was I had no, I was no longer training at the capacity that I wanted to so I realized that, um, you know, I wanted to start doing this for a living and I was born and raised in this town and, you know, I felt I felt kind of like, well, you know, I know my city better better than anybody else in the world. You know, I should be a community leader in the in, you know, in my town, so that I know, maybe that was a little bit of entitlement. Maybe it was cockiness, or maybe it was confidence, whatever you want to call it. I felt like I wanted to be a Vegas-born person that would help the city grow up and be part of that, because a lot of kids grew up in the city not having humility or having somebody who was born here, a lot of people come from California, it's a very transient town. So I wanted to be one of the first born and raised people in this town to show people that people that are from Vegas, could could also be good, you know, members of society, and also have a great life living here, you know, not just worried about the casinos and the, and the and the gambling and the drinking in the bar is that all happens in the inner city, but the outskirts of our city, you know, I wanted to be a representation of that, that I could still be a great role model to these kids growing up. And I hope that doesn't come out cocky.Jeremy Lesniak:No, no, no.Lorenzo Sandoval:I just want to show yeah, I just I just wanted to show that you could still come from aka Sin City, but still great, good members of society. And that's, that was that was the back of my head for many years. Because a lot to people that talk bad about Vegas, they would always be like, oh, Vegas sucks. Oh, Vegas is nothing but you know, this and this and I was tired of that. So I wanted when people ask me, they're like, where are you from? And I'm like, I'm from Vegas. They're like, really? I was like, yeah, born and raised. I love it. You know? So, I love I love the dirt. I love the dry heat. It's just some love so.Jeremy Lesniak:It comes through for sure.Lorenzo Sandoval:Where are you from, by the way?Jeremy Lesniak:I'm in Vermont.Lorenzo Sandoval:Oh, I've been there.Jeremy Lesniak:I'm about is really?Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah.Jeremy Lesniak:The opposite of Vegas as you got.Lorenzo Sandoval:I went to. I went to a wedding there. I drove actually. I drove across the country to go to Vermont.Jeremy Lesniak:Really? Wow. When was this?Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah. Terrible. This was um, in 2020. What is that? 2014? Yeah, I drove from Vegas to Vermont for a wedding. My best friend was getting married. He's...Jeremy Lesniak:Can you remember where the wedding was?Lorenzo Sandoval:Ah no I don't remember.Jeremy Lesniak:We we've got a handful of towns that are really known for weddings and I'm kind of in the middle of quite a few of them.Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah, yeah, it was not this little church. You know, it was like, it looks like a fairy tale. You know, I'm not used to seeing leaner trees. So, to me it is just like, I feel like I'm in. I feel like I'm in like a dragon's forest. You know, when I see trees, so it's.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah, yeah. And I felt like I was inside of dragon's mouth when I came out to visit Las Vegas.Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah, yeah.Jeremy Lesniak:I do not love the heat or the dry.Lorenzo Sandoval:Oh, I love it. I love it because here's why there's no bugs trying to kill you. There's no, there's no spiders. There's no humidity. You know, it's great. You know, it's like, I can literally stand in the middle of the desert and not sweat. And people think I'm crazy. And that's one of the reasons why they call me the Desert Sensei 'coz I know, all the places around the desert. You could drop me in the middle of Nevada, and I would know how to get home.Jeremy Lesniak:That's awesome.Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah, you know.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah and you could ypu could do the same thing with me here in in quite a few spots in New England. The Desert Sensei, how did you get that moniker? That's, it's very, again, a good visual. We've had a lot of really powerful visuals of who you are in our conversation today.Lorenzo Sandoval:Well, I appreciate that. And, you know, I'm sure you interview a lot of people and I'm, I'm sure there's a lot of great, great martial artists that you've interviewed. And, you know, like I said, I get uncomfortable talking about myself. But the Desert Sensei, um, I just felt like it was a really good ring. You know, I was born in the desert. I was raised here, I was trained here. And it just it was The Desert Sensei was, it just had a good ring to it, you know, I just felt like it was very accurate to what the game was trying to portray, and actually my school logos on the karate uniform in the game. So you know, it's, it's a very, very deep meaning to it, because a lot of times when you hear the word Sensei, it's it's a Japanese term. It's a very Asian term. But then when you hear the desert, there's no Asian in that, you know, so, you know, when you hear the desert, you think of something Middle Eastern or something, you know, North American desert. You know, it's it's very Western when you hear that so it's I feel like it's a it's a really good mix of modern and and something traditional, you know, but you know what I mean so that's it was just a very good ring to it and I felt like if you go to The Desert Sensei that a documentary, they did a documentary, just a short clip about me of how I I am I run my dojo and Hurriah and Walter, they created that documentary for me and, you know, he's a great guy. He did a documentary about me and how I ran the school and what's cool about that is when we when we film that, we went out to Jean Lake, it's a it's a, it's a dry desert lake and there was a desert storm that happened. Right in the middle of the desert lake so when you watch that film, I'm doing kata and I'm doing fighting techniques in the middle of a desert storm. It looks awesome. It looks so dramatic and I and I'm really happy that it just it I've just like, I just laugh and I go wow, I'm such a dramatic person.Jeremy Lesniak:That's really cool. That was pretty fortunate seems like something out of what's coming to mind for me is Avatar, the animated series.Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah, you know, I watch it. It's just a 30 second clip but, man, I told I told Walter you know, the the director and the producer, I said, I said, I said, Walter, man, did you see that clip? He's, I'm like, I look like I look like a badass mofo. He goes, more! So, it was a great, you know, it was a great experience. And it was it was great filming it and he he did a hell of a job filming me and you know, Hurriah and Walter. You know, I hope they're doing well. You know, they got hit pretty hard with the viruses. But uh, you know, I know that they have a they have a website and they they have their whole story to up as well so.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah we're gonna get all this stuff linked up in the show notes and in case somebody's new whistlekickmartialartsradio.com in case you skipped over the intro that's that's where we put that stuff. Tell tell us about your school let's let's start to wind down here but I want to know about your school. I want to know how how you go through six months persisting with a with a single student and then you've turned it into your, your career your full time job or at least close to it. How did you get to photography as well.Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah, I got to photography and if you go to lorenzosandoval.com that's my photography page but if you go to agelesskarate.com, you'll see you know, my karate school but essentially, you know, I I just been very lucky. I had a really great landlord, who helped me out through this difficult time but more importantly, you know, I wake up and I get to do the job of my dreams. You know I don't take it for granted I literally wake up to do karate. I can't believe there's not a lot of people that do this and that's the not all people that I can say that do this. And times are really really rough right now for me. I don't know what it's like for other martial art schools but for me Coronavirus you know, COVID hit me really hard. So, you know, we lost a lot of people and I've been trying to teach online but it's just not the same, you know, so, and, you know, I coming to the school, I wake up I, I go to, you know, I call my leads I, I try to you know, prepare, you know, I I order equipment, order belts, I make sure you know, we have belt testing this week. So, you know, I make sure everyone's belts and the tickets are ready to go. You know, I do everything I can to make sure the school and all the members are happy. But, you know, it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work like anything, you know, so I think that what we need to do is my typical day is just, I wake up, I come into the school. And you know, I just I'm in a pretty quiet location. So we don't have a lot of walk-in traffic. So the most of my, most of my leads and my students come from online. So, you know.Jeremy Lesniak:And if people wanna, you mentioned your two websites there. What about social media? Any any other places people might want to check you out, follow you?Lorenzo Sandoval:Yeah so if you want to follow me, you can check out Ageless Martial Arts, that's Ageless Martial Arts. You can find that all over the internet, from Instagram, to social media, to Facebook. And if you want to check out The Desert Sensei, the video game, you can see that you'll see that on Facebook as well. And then also my photography page, Lorenzo Sandoval, you know, fine art photography, you'll see all of that. My wedding stuff as well because I do weddings. But I have my hands a lot, in a lot of things. But you know, I feel like I'm managing pretty well. You know, I think that's every entrepreneur and that's every that's just what we do. Entrepreneurs, you want to do a lot of things. So, but yeah, so.Jeremy Lesniak:I can relate. For sure. This is this has been fun, I appreciate you coming on. And I, I always ask the guests to choose how we're gonna go out, you know, this is your episode we've been talking and you've shared a lot of great stuff with us. You know, in a minute, we're gonna roll out to the outro. So this is your chance to close up this part of the show, and leave the audience with your final words.Lorenzo Sandoval:Um, if there are people listening, you know, I want you guys to, I hope nobody was offended in my opinions. But I think that as a Sensei, as someone who is a young Sensei, you know, I'm 34 right now. So, I just want to say to everybody who's listening, you know, I really appreciate you guys hearing my story. And I think it's awesome that there are so many other martial artists that listen to the show and there's a lot of people that have their own story. And I think that we all have our own story, we have our different way to get to the top and to get to that success. Everybody has their own story and, and speaking of which, I just want to do a shout out to Brennan Bolizo. Brennan Bolizo is a martial arts consultant, he runs one martial arts in San Francisco. He's been helping me a lot too with my business and my, my mindset, I love that guy. You know, he's, he's a great, great guy, and I just I should have said that earlier. But, uh, just an outro I just wanna say that, you know, we need to start looking at how we're going to help more martial artists progress because there's so much technology, there's so much things that are happening in the life that we need to keep up with it. You know, if we want to survive as you know, if you want to keep your style alive or you want to, you know, keep the traditions alive. A lot of people, they only want to teach what they, and they want to hide it. You know, I think that everybody needs to share their knowledge. And a lot of times a lot of masters are very, you know, private about their knowledge. And I just, I believe that the more information that there's out there, it'll inspire more to make us better as a community as a martial arts community. And I think that's super important. A lot of people just think that they're above that, and we need to stop that, we need to realize that. There's, there's so much information and as the older masters are dying, or they're getting older, that needs to be put out. Otherwise, we'll never know what that technique is, or we'll make similar techniques that, that you'll never know what those transcripts are, like, you know, like the Shaolin monks, like none of that stuff was written or put on, you know, it's very rare for them to see it. So you know, they drew it, but I think It's really, really important that we, we share that knowledge and we pass it along as martial artists, you know so.Jeremy Lesniak:You know, I've been doing this for a long time. And I can always tell when someone is willing to put the arts or not just martial arts, but anything that has given them so much. They're willing to put that first. And that's really what I see in today's guest. The projects that he's working on, the things that he's got happening. Sure, there's the hope that they return, at least what you put in. But that doesn't make for a very good investment does it? Unless you consider the betterment of the world as a return, and I have no doubt that Sensei feels that way. So thank you, Sir. Thanks for coming on the show. Thanks for sharing your time. And next time I'm on Vegas, we'll have to connect. If you want to know more, get the links the everything. The social media, the photos, all the stuff related to today's episode, go to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. Find Episode 536 you can search, you can look through lists, there's all kinds of ways to find the episodes. And that's where you'll find that stuff. If you love the show, if you love what we're doing at whistlekick, even attempt as much as I do. If you appreciate it at all, please consider supporting our Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com/whistlekick we give you back. It's not a good way to say that we give back to you for what you give to us. It's another way of saying you're gonna get exclusive stuff that you won't find anywhere else. Of course, there are plenty of free ways you can help us out from leaving reviews and sharing episodes, to talking to your friends about whistlekick, or simply following us on social media @whistlekick anywhere you can think of. And if you see somebody out there, maybe they got a whistlekick sweatshirt or hat on or something like that. Come say hi, introduce yourself. We are building a global community of traditional martial artists and you are part of it. If you've got guest suggestions, email me Jeremy@whistlekick.com. And that's all I've got for you today. Until next time, train hard, smile, and have a great day.