Episode 572 - Dr. Nikolai Lee

Dr. Nikolai Lee is a Martial Arts practitioner and instructor. Dr. Lee is the Secretary General of the American Hapkido Alliance.

My father was special forces army so, he is the headmaster of our school. He is very serious in whenever we train, we train with intent and intensity so that we are prepared for that moment whenever it happens.

Dr. Nikolai Lee is a Martial Arts practitioner and instructor. Dr. Lee is the Secretary General of the American Hapkido Alliance. My father was special forces army so, he is the headmaster of our school. He is very serious in whenever we train, we train with intent and intensity so that we are prepared for that moment whenever it happens.

Dr. Nikolai Lee - Episode 572

It is unusual for a martial arts instructor to be called a doctor but our guest today is not your usual martial artist. Dr. Nikolai Lee has been around Martial Arts since day one. He is the son GM James Faralli and the whole family trained but not him. Dr. Lee didn’t want anything to do with Martial Arts but the fateful day of 9/11 has given him an encouragement to finally train so that he can defend himself properly. In this episode, Dr. Nikolai Lee talks about his medical journey and how he started his Martial Arts journey. Listen to learn more!

Show Notes

In this episode we mentioned Grandmaster James Faralli.
You may know more about Dr. Nikolai Lee’s work on Instagram and Facebook or at portorangechiropractor.com.

Check out his YouTube Channel here.

Show Transcript

You can read the transcript below.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Hello, you're listening to whistlekick Martial Arts Radio episode 572 with today's guest, Dr. Nikolai Lee. I'm Jeremy Lesniak your host on the show, founder here at whistlekick where we love traditional martial arts. It's why we do what we do. There's a good chance that that's why you're here, checking out what we do. If you're a traditional martial artist, if you're passionate about the arts, you can go to whistlekick.com and see all the things that we are doing for you. The traditional martial artists throughout the world, you can find a store over there and yeah, we sell some stuff because, making the show, the other things we do, it's not free. So by showing you some stuff, it helps offset the costs and you can even save 15% on anything over there with the code podcast 15 and lets us know that the people buying things, love the show, helps us understand where to spend our money in the future. Now this show gets its own website whistlekickmartialartsradio.com that's where you're gonna find every episode that we've ever done with photos and videos and links and transcripts and all kinds of good stuff to help give you more context on the guests and the subjects that we bring to you each week. We bring you two episodes a week and we're looking to connect and educate entertain all of you. And if that means something to you yeah you can buy something and support us that way. You could also support our Patreon patreon.com/whistlekick you give as little as two bucks a month and we're going to start giving back stuff to you, above and beyond the things that we already do. The more you spend the more we give you, whether you realize it or not. Today's guest has actually been on the show, he just never said anything. Today's guest, Dr. Nikolai Lee has been a passionate martial artist for a large portion of his life, and he grew up in a martial arts tradition. Well he's here to talk about that and his time in health, medicine, however we want to call it, we talked about that. Talk about a lot of different things and it's a great conversation with someone that I consider a friend and I had a lot of fun. And so, here we go. Dr. Lee, welcome to whistlekick martial arts.

Nikolai Lee:
Hey Jeremy how's it going?

Jeremy Lesniak:
Great. How are you?

Nikolai Lee:
I'm great man. Great, excited for today. 

Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, me too. We've been talking about this for a little while and, you know, you hold the distinction and that you've kind of been on the show before. I don't know that there's anything, there might be one or two other people who can say that, and the listeners right now we're going to Jeremy's would stop with the inside jokes. Stop with the vagueness, what the heck's going on. And the first thing and I'm gonna phrase it this way because we have a little bit of a background with each other. And because we talked about it beforehand, let's get this out of the way, doctor. Let's unpack that for a minute because that's not a title that you see used very often in martial arts context.

Nikolai Lee:

Yeah, yeah. So, okay, so for, let's say since 2012, and actually one year before that I was working as an EMT. I was working as a paramedic. And I absolutely loved the job. It was a lot of fun. A lot of crazy moments as you can imagine. But, you know, kind of a newsflash for most people. The pay is horrible. And the lifestyle can get a little rough. So I switched over to the hospital life and I was like I really like working in the ER, it’s a lot of fun. And I was like, you know, I want to do something, you know, a little bit more, not that I didn't think a paramedic was important, but I just I wanted to be the one making the calls, you know, so I start deciding where do I want to go from here and talk to a lot of people on both sides of the fence and I thought about going MD. Although I think medicine is incredibly important and it very much has its place and we need it as a martial artist, the holistic medicine aspect really kind of spoke to me. You know, growing up and I'm sure we'll get into the 04:17 around the martial art that was kind of ingrained with me. So I started looking at chiropractic. And, you know, you hear these stories growing up about, you know, their quacks and this and that and, you know, there's a lot of stuff I won't go into there but I started doing my own research, you know, somebody who's medically minded. And I'm looking at all this different research and Chiropractic and I'm thinking wow this is kind of cool. So, I call up Daytona State. I'm down here in Florida and so I called Daytona State and I say hey, I want to go to Palmer, I've heard it's a really good school. What do I need to get in. So I send them, they say you know send me your transcripts, so instead of the transcripts. And they said yeah so you need a bachelor's degree to get in cool I'm like and what she said anything, I'm like, you're kidding me. So we looked at the transcript and they said yeah so you can get a Bachelor's in supervision and management, it's like a business degree. And I'm like, okay, sure. So I did that, I really wanted to get going in school I was tired of being a paramedic tired working my butt off for their money. I was working two other jobs at the same time, and decided to go back to school. So at this point, I had three jobs and a full time load knocked out the bachelor's degree in six months, and I had to get special permission from the dean to do that, ended up in chiropractic school after all that. And then in September, amidst Corona, I have graduated and am now in practice. 

Jeremy Lesniak:
Congratulations. 

Nikolai Lee:
Thank you. Thank you. So, when we talk about the title thing. I'm definitely not a man of titles, you know, I don't think that somebody is defined by their title. It's simply for me, it kind of describes what they do and their position. You know, and we talked about this a little bit earlier before the show that, you know, in the school I am Senior Master Lee. If you and I were to see each other on the street, I'm Nikolai. If we were to see each other at the practice, I'm Doctor. So growing up I had to kind of get used to using multiple different titles for the same person depending on where they were. You know, so for me it's, it's more about just describing what they do and it shouldn't be a definition of who they are. So,

Jeremy Lesniak:

I agree. 

Nikolai Lee:
Yeah, we were a little confused on which thing to use here so that's how we landed on Doctor.

Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, and the thing that I find interesting about calling you doctor is that within the martial arts, we have, it's not across the board but we have a really strong thread that pops up from time to time. With this notion that if you have the ability to hurt, you should also have the ability to heal. And just within my experience that tends to show up more so with practitioners of Chinese martial arts. 

Nikolai Lee:
Yes. 

Jeremy Lesniak:
And I can't say that it's exclusive to that, but that's where I'm used to hearing it when we talk to people on the show. And I think that, yes, this is a martial art setting and I think no doctor may not be the most correct way to introduce you for a martial art show. When I think it says so much about who you are. And I think it leads us into, not only the conversation that we had, but I think it gives the listener some context for the other things that we're going to talk about. And I think that's really, as you kind of said it I'm gonna say it in a different way. That's all the title is it helps us frame our reference for who is it we're interacting with. If I say, you know, within Japanese traditions if I say hunchy. I'm going to conduct myself maybe I shouldn't but I am, I'm going to conduct myself a little differently with hunchy somebody versus Sensei somebody else. Yes, because that title equates to or at least it should much more experience and thus I would assume, knowledge, and within most martial traditions, we tend to equate that to a level of respect. 

Nikolai Lee:
Yes, very much so.

Jeremy Lesniak:
So that's where we are.

Nikolai Lee:
Very much so. And I think, you know, you'll tend to use that title like if somebody really respects you, they will make it a point of, excuse me, they'll make it a point to call you, you know sir or ma'am. For instance, or Mr., you know, rather than calling somebody Hey Joe, or saying Hey Mr. Smith, there's a big difference there and respect. And that's kind of a cool point you made.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah, and I think lately I'm seeing a lot of stuff and actually I've seen some stuff. As a result of Cobra Kai you know, we don't stamp these things but Cobra Kai season three came out a few days ago and people are chewing through it. So there's a lot of conversation in martial arts discussions around Cobra Kai, and you know, the title, the topic of titles is coming up and there's new discussion and argument and, you know, of course, everybody's right. And, you know, the only reason I mentioned that is you brought a perspective. I can call you and I'll make this example, I could call you. Nikolai with the utmost respect you could hear it in my voice. I could also call you doctor sarcastically. Respect doesn't necessarily equate to the title use, but it should guide it, I think. 

Nikolai Lee:
Yeah, I would agree.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Let's get off of that good conversation but let's get off that because I feel like I'm talking far too much and I'm really uncomfortable with it in the context of this show it's not a Thursday episode. This is an interview. So let's do it let's do you know the question I'm gonna ask. When did it start? When did martial arts pop into your life?

Nikolai Lee:
So, this is interesting. You've had a couple people on your show with some similar backgrounds. I was not one of those who, you know, at 10 or 12 or whatever the age maybe their parents decided to put them in martial arts which I think it's a great thing by the way, for the development of the kid. But I grew up around martial arts from day one. Our Association, it's the American 11:23 Alliance. I was, I'm a, I'm a youngster to a lot of people so I was born in '89. The association was created in 1993. So I've grown up around this since the beginning. Essentially, it was created by my grandfather Grandmaster Jimmy Brown and my father Grandmaster Jimmy Braley. So, from the time that I was a little kid I was constantly around it, you know, I was constantly around classes and seminars and my mother train, my father train, once my father remarried, my stepmother also train. I mean it was just a huge part of my life. But I never trained in the beginning. Whenever my father and my stepmother were living in Texas at the time, I'm sure a lot of people remember, September 11. That was a massive day that changed a lot of lives, regardless of the political schemes or all the different stories that have come out of it. It definitely changed the world. And for me that was the first major events that happened historically, you know, in my lifetime that was the very first major huge one. And I vividly remember, I was in sixth grade. And I was in Miss Williams English language arts class. The principal came over the intercom and ordered everybody to turn on their TVs. And it was right whenever the planes had gone into the Trade Center, and you know we're kids and we're watching this happening and, you know, it's hard to understand the world when you're that age, you know, you think you do but you really don't. So we're watching this happen and we're trying to figure out what the world is going on. Well, like I said a while ago my dad and my stepmother were living in Texas. They were living over in Richardson, which is near Dallas. Dallas, Fort Worth area and I was flying over there usually once a month by myself to go visit them. The first couple times I had you know stewardess has helped me and stuff but I kind of got to where I was pretty good at navigating the airports. So I was flying over by myself and they, you know, meet me at the airport type thing. And mind you this is, you know, 2001 area that I'm flying back and forth. Well, the bombings, I may have excuse me, September 11 really hit me personally because I'm thinking, my gosh you know I've been flying on these planes.  

Jeremy Lesniak:

And you're 12?

Nikolai Lee:
Roughly, and I'm like I've been flying on these planes and I'm like, what if that was me? You know, what if I was the one on that plane? And it really kind of stayed with me, it really bothered me. I'm like, you know, I wonder, did any of these people fight back? You know, what was going on? So I decided that, you know, if I was gonna be on this plane and it could have been anywhere other than a plane but that's just what stuck with me. You know, I wanted to be able to fight back. And if it was say a terrorist attack, you know, could they win. Absolutely. But I was gonna give them a fight. And that's kind of where I was. So I told my dad. You know, I thought about it for a while and I told him I was like you know listen I, I really want to start training. You know I want to be prepared. It had nothing to do with being around other kids or wanting to go to tournaments, or anything. You know, because if something happened while I was on that plane. You know, and I could prevent somebody from dying or, you know 1000s of people from getting hurt or even just, you know the person next to me. I wanted to be prepared. And I kept thinking about it.

Jeremy Lesniak:
15:55 and I hope I'm not gonna derail you too much, maybe just a little. As you know as listeners know when I hear people talk. I pick out nuances in the way they describe things and what I'm hearing you talk about is not keeping yourself safe, you're talking about keeping other people safe. 

Nikolai Lee:
Yes.

Jeremy Lesniak:
And that's not a typical mindset for a 12 year old. Do you know where that came from?

Nikolai Lee:
Kind of my parents’ divorce fairly young. And I think from there on, and I've had a great relationship with both of my parents, even though they were not together. I think I became very protective of them. So it was kind of like, protecting like not that they needed some 12 year old to protect them. But I think it was more of protecting, what you have, because that means everything to you. If that makes sense and I think that's probably where it developed.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Let's continue.

Nikolai Lee:
Let's see where was I, yeah so March 2002, my stepmom was a at the time she was a biochemical engineer working for a company called CH2M Hill in Texas, that’s how we ended up there. And she kind of decided, you know that really wasn't who she wanted to be anymore, you know, with the engineering world. Over time, you end up doing a lot more paperwork than you do active, type building whatnot. And she just wasn't really feeling it anymore. So, after her doing research she decided to go to chiropractic school. And then they moved to Port Orange, we're actually at the mid Orlando. Excuse me. Um, she started going to school in Port Orange, she was commuting. So that's how they ended up back in Florida. And then the following September, September 2002, and I was 13 at the time. Um, that's whenever I finally started training. I would kind of my dad's house every other weekend; I live primarily with my mom. I'm originally from Lake City, Florida, which is in North Florida, and it's about two and a half hours north of Orlando. So I was traveling back and forth. They would come to get me and take me home and everything. I wasn't driving at 13 but yeah, well, you never know. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

It is Florida.

Nikolai Lee:

It is Florida, you know crazy things happen, but, yeah so I would come down here and I would only be able to train every two weeks. You know people are, are kind of spoiled and we're kind of used to the fact that oh we get to go to class multiple nights a week. Up in Lake City, there wasn't much, there was a Taekwondo school, although I respect the art that was not what I wanted. It was not what I was looking for. So, Basically I was training by myself as a child, and then having a hardcore training session every two weeks. You know, three hours south of me. So it was a pretty slow pace. You know, there's only so much you can do when you're by her and you don't know what you're doing. So, yeah, that's kind of the short version of how I ended the training. But, you know, if I can real quick you know there's a lot of people out there who you may not feel like you have a story. You know, you may think that your story is just run of the mill run, you know, you started training when you were six or seven and you just kept going since or you found it as an adult but you think there's nothing special about it.  But in all reality, there's a lot special about it. You know, you don't realize the kind of connection that you can have with another person until you talk to that person. You know, for years I thought that my story was nothing special. And I'm sure 2020 made a lot of people think about their lives. And it kind of showed me that, you know, September 11 was a big day in history. I mean, we still, you know spread. Remember it's in that and what happened. That's really what kind of spiked me training that am really what got me there. So if you guys feel like you're, you know, you don't have a story. I'm sure if you take a second and think about what got you there, why did you start training? Why do you keep training? You'll realize that you have a lot bigger story than you think.

Jeremy Lesniak:
I agree I think everyone does. I think we get so wrapped up in the normalcy of our own lives, our own why that we forget that. If we present the details in the right way, if we're honest with ourselves, you know, we all live these exceptional lives. And that exceptional life may not be every aspect of it but it's a moment here and there. You know, it's the time when you know somehow the car missed you, and you didn't die. Yeah. Or you weren't on the plane that crash. And I think historically we do we do a bad job of recognizing that exceptionalism in our own stories and I'm glad that you pointed that out.

Nikolai Lee:
Yes sir. 

Jeremy Lesniak:
When we were talking about titles. And I brought up the connection between Chinese martial arts and my observation of the frequency with which trainees martial arts practitioners, learn some kind of healing modality. You kind of chimed in there and I'm wondering if that resonates for you, was that at all the impetus for you becoming an EMT and a paramedic.

Nikolai Lee:
Oh yeah, so the paramedic and EMT was a little different story. But I think if you look at the whole thing as a healing art, you know, so take EMT, paramedic, chiropractic anything in order to heal somebody or do something. Martial arts and medical are really the same thing. It's just different applications of it. So like for chiropractic for example, if you think about you walk into a room and there is a light on the ceiling. And there's a light switch on the wall. If you turn on that light switch that light bulb should come on. If it doesn't, then that shows you one of three things, there's a problem with the bolt, the wiring or the switch. So our job as chiropractors is to figure out why is that bulb not coming on and how we can fix the issue. So, you know, if somebody has, you know, a little inflammation around a nerve root or a lot of inflammation around nerve root that can control one of the organ systems or control musculoskeletal like, you know, muscle spasm or they're having, you know pain shooting down their leg, or they can't feel their legs, you know, whatever the case may be. Our job is to figure out what is causing that and how can we fix it, you know a lot of people think that all we do is adjust the spine in a lot of states including Florida, where primary care providers. So we can treat naturally the entire body. Now what's cool about that is that directly connects with martial arts specifically for me Hapkido. In Hapkido, our job is to learn how to, and I don't mean the moral compass aspect of it but physically we are looking to do harm on some level, if we're having to use Hapkido, that doesn't mean that we're dislocating or joining or breaking the bone that just means that we learn. You know if you hit here It hurts in a certain way. If you do a certain type of joint lock. The pain is coming from here and I'm making a point whenever I'm teaching my students to explain to them anatomically. Why does this work? So really it's the same thing, you know, whenever we're doing an adjustment as a chiropractor. I'm putting a joint back into place to work normally, whereas a Hapkido practitioner, I'm taking the joy out of place to not work correctly. So it's really the same thing from two different sides. Does that making sense?

Jeremy Lesniak:
Yes, it does. Yeah, it's you know it's interesting. We talked before the show listeners, I'm sure you guys put that together, there's always like, almost always there's kind of a pre-show. You know when I mentioned that I've had some close people in my life that are chiropractors and you still have that kind of new shine from Cairo School of being very particular in the way that you present things about what you do and I'm finding that really fun.

Nikolai Lee:
Yeah, yeah. And honestly, a lot of the reason for that is because you know it's starting to diminish now because there for years there was a huge separation of natural healthcare and medical healthcare. Like, they just, they did not get along, they did not play well together. 

Jeremy Lesniak:
And I think you've even used the word quack at some point. you know. some people still see chiropractic and as fringe medical care. And you know I'm not one of those people, but there are all sorts of different variants of chiropractic care, all sorts of different martial arts and you know what, I'm sure that any of you could point to some martial arts and say I know about that one over there and you can see the same thing about some flavors of Kira.

Nikolai Lee:
Oh yeah, that is 100% true, you know, there are good Kairos and bad Kairos, there's good MDs and bad MDs. It has to do with the practitioner, not the art, you know, and 

Jeremy Lesniak:
Were we talked about that before? Oh yeah, on the show, like every week.

Nikolai Lee:
Oh, look at that. Yeah, and honestly man it's, most of the time it's because people don't really understand what we do. They believe what they've been told, but they don't understand why, you know so that's a big part of it, but I think you know I was medically trained, before I ever became a chiropractor. So I've got the medical mindset, but I like to treat it naturally. And I'm pretty objective about my findings, you know, so it's kind of a cool blend like I'm glad that God took me the long way around. And maybe a paramedic first, because I've had this exposure to a massive amount of health care that a lot of people never get, you know, I didn't just go through and I'm not, you know, swinging and chickens and voodoo dolls and all that junk. I'm not doing that I'm a medical testing with a natural treatment.

Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, I never been to a doctor that swung chickens but that sounds like a good time.

Nikolai Lee:
Oh yeah, yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak:
I've not been to a school and swung chickens, 

Nikolai Lee:
You know I haven't either but it could happen.

Jeremy Lesniak:
Did I taught the goose story on this show.

Nikolai Lee:
I don't think so.

Jeremy Lesniak:
Apologies if I have told the goose story and people have heard this, but if you haven't heard it I'm going to share it because it's really darn close to a swinging chicken story. So, it'll be brief because, how are you getting me to talk so much this is weird. 

Nikolai Lee:
You're welcome. 

Jeremy Lesniak:
I grew up in rural Maine. My mother had a business partner who owned a farm. We were visiting, I was probably four, the farm had a goose, geese are the meanest animals on earth and this was one of the worst. Yes, there was one person on the farm one of the farmhands who this goose liked, and it would let him pet her. Everybody else had to stay away, and she would chase her. So, routine was we would go up to the farmhouse. Do you see the goose? We look for the goose, didn't see the goose. And, you know, this is old, this is this is how old you know this is because I I'm like four or five years old in the front seat of the car, not in any kind of booster seat. It gives you an idea of the age. And you don't see the goose get out. Goose comes out of the bushes is in between us in the door my mother doesn't even think I don't think I'm pretty sure she hadn't even been training at that point, picks me up by the arms and hauls off and golf clubs me through the goose, the goose runs away. Go in the house, the husband's there at the kitchen table, trying not to die laughing. 

Nikolai Lee:
Oh my gosh.

Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, many of you describe yourself as weapons, you are weapons. I have literally been used as a weapon by another person.

Nikolai Lee:
Oh my gosh that is great.

Jeremy Lesniak:
So now I'm gonna try to pull it back from that ridiculousness,

Nikolai Lee:
Thank you for sharing that though that is spot on. I love it. Very.

Jeremy Lesniak:
Thank you for indulging me.

Nikolai Lee:
Very proud of the story I like it.

Jeremy Lesniak:
I agree, it's rare that has a germane segue into conversation.

Nikolai Lee:
Got to use it.

Jeremy Lesniak:
But I use it whenever possible because it's the best story. When martial artists do things that are not martial arts, when they're things of incredible passion, and we've heard from people who that is. Medicine in some way or another sport, dance, faith, music, inevitably, one borrows from the other. The music is inspired in some way by the martial arts, the martial arts is inspired by the music. I can't imagine that you're going to be the exception to the rule here so I'm wondering. In what way has, are you okay if I collectively refer to it as medicine?

Nikolai Lee:
Yes, yes. 

Jeremy Lesniak:
How medicine has influenced your martial arts? And how martial art has influenced your medicine?

Nikolai Lee:
Oh man and entirely, like, okay, so if you want to know the next level of martial arts, and I'm not even saying you have to go be a doctor or a nurse or a paramedic or any of those things. If you want to learn next level, learn anatomy. Because it's very cool to understand if you're going to hit somebody. For instance, in there right underneath the right ribs, okay right at the bottom of the rib cage there. That's 31:35 on most people unless they're very. So, if you're telling or teaching somebody to hit in this area because it hurts. And they can feel that hurts. And they know you're bright. It's a whole next level to be able to say I want you to hit specifically the liver under the ribs. You know, it just brings it next level you start understanding. Okay, well, whenever I go to do a roundhouse. Why do I need to pivot that bottom leg? You know, it's just little things, you know, and break falling. Why do I need to rotate my body a certain direction? You know, so it really will take your martial arts and bring it next level that you just said. It makes you think deeper and then you're able to very succinct and how you teach if you teach. When it comes to the reverse, if you've ever been adjusted as a, you know from chiropractic. The emotions are very specific. So if you throw a punch at somebody and you have a bent wrist. I don't think I have to tell you how that's gonna go bad. So, if you adjust somebody wrong, you can very much hurt them and yourself. So technique is everything it really does matter on, how's their head rotated? Where are your wrists? Where your hand is it in the specific spot, how's the rest of your body, because you can really mess up somebody else and yourself if you don't know technique. As a paramedic it completely changed my mindset entirely. You get a very similar high from fighting as you do whenever you're in an emergency situation. They're very similar. So being able to handle yourself in an emergency, really speaks to how you're going to handle yourself if you ever have to use your martial arts, which I have in those two worlds have collided in the ambulance. And that is an incredible adrenaline.

Jeremy Lesniak:
That sounds like a story.

Nikolai Lee:
I can only tell you a limited amount because of patient information. I will tell you that this person was not in their right mind. There was there's two different instances, one was a cocaine addict who had was a very nice guy when he wasn't on cocaine. But when he was, he was trouble, and it usually takes multiple people to take him down. And I didn't have to use some blocks that I learned in Haikido in order to hold them in place to get him out because he was kind of at a place where he was a little bit dangerous for others. I didn't hurt him but enough to at least controlling. The other one was a couple who had decided to cut each other with knives, had to fly one of the people out. The other one to the ambulance, they were acting a little crazy turned out clay also had a knife, and I had to take the knife for him. So that's, there's been more than that but that's all I can say.

Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.

Nikolai Lee:
Because of patient information. 

Jeremy Lesniak:
But I get it, we get it and, you know, 35:12 are something that you want to know, ignore those lawsuits or, you know, yeah, they can bury.

Nikolai Lee:
Yeah, you know,

Jeremy Lesniak:
you don't have to be in the right to file a lawsuit people forget that.

Nikolai Lee:
Right, right. Very true. So out of respect for that. I'm gonna say limited but the two worlds very much collide; they're very much as similar high. And honestly, nothing can prepare you for a fight except for a fight. You know, so, by having yourself in that mindset. It really makes you know, or really helps you understand how you're going to handle yourself. You know, are you able to stay level headed or are you going to freak out. You know, so.

Jeremy Lesniak:
How did you do that first time?

Nikolai Lee:
What do you mean, I'm sorry.

Jeremy Lesniak:
Well the first time because I would imagine that, you know, we haven't talked about, if you've had to use your martial arts training. Let's say on the street, outside of some kind of medical context but you know let's put that aside for a moment, even if you had, there are times when you don't expect to get in a fight and going to work is one of them. I have never been at my job and thought, What was like someone's gonna go down about now like that that's in, you know, certainly there are people who have professions where that is the case law enforcement, for example. Unfortunately,  from anecdotes that I've picked up. It seems like that's happening more and more in a medical context. So yes, first time where it came up, I imagine that you were shocked, surprised, concerned. You know, what was going through your head and how did that go?

Nikolai Lee:
To be honest with you, have you ever seen the movie The Last Samurai?

Jeremy Lesniak:
Of course. 

Nikolai Lee:
Do you know the scene? Whenever, and I'm sorry if you guys haven't seen it at this point but shame on you if have it. 

Jeremy Lesniak:
It's been out for a while.

Nikolai Lee:
Yeah, yeah. So there's a point to where Ahlgren is going to rescue Katsumoto, where they've already arrested them. And, you know, he's told, I forgot he's name though. Apologize. Basically, those guys are told to follow Ahlgren if he ever goes towards Katsumoto. And then he does, then they need to kill Ahlgren. Well, the whole fight happens. And Ahlgren takes on I believe it's five other guys. And then he kind of flashbacks, after the fight, like the whole thing happens and then everything slows down the word realizes that it happened. It was a very similar context to that I'm not saying that I'm a developer, but it was, it was kind of like that to where it happened so quickly it registers that it happened after the fact.

Jeremy Lesniak:
Training kicks in.

Nikolai Lee:
Yes, and honestly So, a bit of backstory and I can't say a lot about this either unfortunately but my father was special forces army. So, he is our head Grandmaster of the school. So he is very serious on whenever we train, we train with intent and intensity, so that you are prepared for that moment, whenever it happens, like we don't have that the school is very traditional and very intense, you know, it's not sunshine and rainbows. We do have good times, don't get me wrong but it's not about you know everybody being happy all the time. He's very serious on. You know, you guys need to be ready so if something does happen, you're the one that can respond. And I think because we train that way. It prepares them more, you know, nobody can ever be fully prepared until they're in that moment. But we can do everything we can as instructors to at least get them ready.

Jeremy Lesniak:
I get it.

Nikolai Lee:

Yeah. And that was kind of a tangent from the question but we still got there.

Jeremy Lesniak:
And every episode we've ever done has been a tangent. Yeah, this whole that's the best part about the best stuffs on the edges I love it, I love it. So let's keep wandering, you know, as you've grown up, you know with martial arts so close to home. So core to your upbringing. I mean, the way the way you described your childhood, it was like you were waiting to get back there. And I could imagine that it seems like we can define what you do as martial arts and other. And now medicine seems to kind of overlap you know the two are have some synergy there. So we're all says martial arts taken? You know you haven't to my knowledge, saved any, and this may come across sarcastically and I promise it doesn't mean it this way. You haven't to my knowledge prevented any planes from being hijacked. Your original intent for getting in hasn't transpired and hopefully never does. But you've continued on, it's become, it sounds like core to who you are.

Nikolai Lee:
It really is. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Why have you persisted? Why has it led you on this path? I'm sure you've spent some time thinking about it.

Nikolai Lee:
I really have. Truthfully, it has become. It's ingrained in who I am. Yes, but it is also about the other people that I'm surrounded with, you know, I had my intense on starting and why I would want to start. And I'm a natural teacher that is very much who I am. So it's really cool. You know in a school you have all these different people regardless of your size of school, whether it's, two of you or whether it's you know 500 of you. You have all these people who have different reasons for being there. So, to help them develop them is one of the coolest things in the world. And, you know, I think we all start martial arts at some level where it's about the fight, or it's about defending yourself. And it is so far beyond translating from that at this point. You know it truly is. It's part of my identity, it's part of who I am. It's about the discipline of yourself. And also helping others attain that. You know so i guess for instance like the first black belt I was able to produce. He was a student of my father's, whenever my father was younger, and he was younger as well. And then, you know, life took them in different directions. And he came back and we started training together, he lived in Lake City as well. And if he's listening this he knows exactly who he is. And that really kind of helped develop me as a martial artist because he knew that I was a new master. And he was patient with me and that development. I knew that he wanted to develop his 42:43 and his skills and he had his reasons for training. So we were really able to, to have a bond there. And, you know, life has kind of take us in different directions, we're still friends to this day. But martial arts has a way of doing that it has a way of bonding people together. And as an instructor, I am so blessed to be able to have the students that I have around me and I'm blessed to be able to train with my father. I'm blessed that we were able to lead a school like we do. Every one of them have different reasons for training. You know so like I always tell people I don't want to create a copy of my Haikido. I want to help you develop your Haikido. There's no reason that you should be like me, need to be yourself and develop it within that. And that's kind of where martial arts is taken, you know, it started with a plane and being able to help people and it's still about helping people but now it's about them helping people. You know, we kind of have a saying that we want to develop a community of modern warriors to where like they stick up for the little guy, regardless of how they are, who they are, you know, that is I love teaching. I love training. And it is so such a large part of who I am. I have an amazing wife, who for years supported me in training like she has constantly been there, and is now training herself. 

Jeremy Lesniak:
Makes it easier.

Nikolai Lee:
It does, and you know we had to set some boundaries and some guidelines because you know maybe an instructor in the school and her being a student. I think that can very much work, but there has to be boundaries and guidelines. Yeah, I'm really blessed man, I'm really just kind of surrounded with this amazing group of people and martial arts has allowed me to meet so many amazing people like so many of my heroes that I grew up reading about newspapers now in magazines. I know them personally. I could call them friends, you know, so it's just it's, it's crazy to where it's taken me, you know, I was middle of nowhere backwoods Lake City to, you know, knowing all these amazing people in martial arts, I never even thought I would get to do what we're doing now. You know, so I'm incredibly grateful, of where it's taken me. It's just changed my life fully.

Jeremy Lesniak:
I can relate to that sentiment, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Nikolai Lee:
Oh yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak:
That's 45:31and the goal of your school to produce and you call the modern warriors. If that's a thing that you all talk about I imagine that you talk about what it means to be a warrior or at least modern warriors. Hopefully you might share with us. What those conversations sound like? What that definition might be?

Nikolai Lee:
You know, it's pretty simple. I think it's living by a code, you know, you're not just going off on a whim, or what's popular. You don't make the choices that you make because they're popular; you make them because they're right. You stick up for the people who can't stick up for themselves and perseverance. I mean I think we all have felt that for 2020. I mean that was a rough year and God is behind us. You know, there's nothing magical about the first but they're kind of was at the same time. So, you know, it's just, it's about the pursuit. It really is. It's about constantly pursuing to make yourself better than the world around you better.

Jeremy Lesniak:
Now, you mentioned your father and folks may have pieced it together that, you know, when I said at the top of the show that you've kind of been on the show before that's what I was talking about you were you were there, you were in the background, if I remember correctly, you were literally on the call the entire time as tech support. So what's changed between that and now that was three years ago?

Nikolai Lee:
I think it was around two.

Jeremy Lesniak:
So, let's use that as a marking time. And I want you to tell us what's changed. We've talked about quite a bit of it, I'm sure, and maybe there's nothing here you know we'll go on to something else but let's change for you in terms of martial arts.

Nikolai Lee:
Yeah, so I was recently. I say recently, I guess it's been half a year now, but I was recently promoted to sixth degree. Thank you. And with that, also promoted as the Secretary General of American Aikido Alliance. And I think before that I was serving as the administrator, so that's where a lot of times I would end up with tech support or, you know, taking care of like the daily activities of the school. And I think it's really cool because in the past few years. I'm now living in Port Orange, because of going to school here, opening practice here. My father also lives here. So, our relationship has really deepened. And I think he is. He has seen how much I truly care about our development, and our school, and protecting our values. You know I have nothing against commercial schools. And that works for some people that is very much not who we are, to describe as we're a very old school, non-commercial we care about training, and that's just part of what makes the American Aikido Alliance. Like that's part of who we are. And I hold that in a lot of high esteem. So I think putting so much into the school and then physically living here. My relationship with my father, with our students has completely deepened and completely changed my life. I'm not to mention my wife training now. So it really is ingrained in our household, and not just something that we do. Yeah. It's kind of crazy like there has been so much happened in the past couple of years especially on the family side, you know we've had quite a few dynamic changes in our family on both sides of the family that has been a lot to go through. So the martial arts has really helped us 50:18 in that too. I don't know. I wouldn't think that somebody was able to change that much in only a few years but it very much happened.

Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, I bet if we go back and, you know, we don't need to unpack this more but if we go back to. It'll probably halfway through the show when we were talking about normalcy. And our lack of perspective at times on our own progress. You know, for me, that's one of the beauties of New Year's Day, it's a, you know, it's a line in the sand okay. What happened last year? What's happening this year? You know it's a nice opportunity to take a step back and reflect. So let's talk about the future. Then how about what's coming. What are your goals? What are you looking forward to hoping for fighting to implement, you know whatever verb fits best there.

Nikolai Lee:
Man, I've got so many things.

Jeremy Lesniak:

I'm not surprised.

Nikolai Lee:
I have goals, my friend okay so if you want to talk about like two physical things. There are two things I really want to happen. We normally get to the Korean martial arts festival every year. And that has been a totally life changing thing to meet other martial artists with similar interests, you know, growing up in backwoods Lake City. And then moving here that that was kind of the first big martial arts event that I was able to go to. And since getting a node Chief Master Tom Gordon, that runs it, he's allowed. You know, several of us from our school to physically teach there. So it's just been, you know, mind blowing. They got canceled last year because of 2020. 

Jeremy Lesniak:
because COVID.

Nikolai Lee:
Yeah, whatever. But they got cancelled. So he's currently planning on doing it this year, and we're all excited because you know we've made friends there. I've met a lot of good people there that I continue to stay in contact with that live all over the US.

Jeremy Lesniak:
Thank you, free training day.

Nikolai Lee:

Yes, it's a free training.

Jeremy Lesniak:
You have to I have to have the word, you're allowed to forget.

Nikolai Lee:
Yeah, words are hard, you know, yeah, right. Too much of the brain, man. But yes, I really want to do that. Now that I'm in practice, you know that may be able to actually happen. Something else I would like to do long term. And I'm still working out the details of this. You know how throughout the world there's destination training camps to where like you can go like, you can go to this Taekwondo training camp and pay X amount of dollars. What I would really like to do is to develop a facility in which martial arts schools can rent them for their own camps. So, have like training areas you know outdoor training areas, indoor, lodging, you know, somewhere that they literally pay a flat fee. And they go to this area. And they're able to use that as a destination training. I think something like that would be really cool.

Jeremy Lesniak:
An event facility that is specially catered instead of having big banquet halls, you have to roll in mats and bring the chairs out, there is always mats and no chairs.

Nikolai Lee:
Yes, it is.

Jeremy Lesniak:
I'm game, take all of my money. Let's do it. 

Nikolai Lee:
Yes, I'm serious. And if any of you out there, copy my idea, please don't. This is not something I have copyrighted but it is something I've had in my mind for a while and I think honestly with what we've gone through in the past year. It has made all of us realize how important community is. And I think to be able to do training camps and stuff like that only deepens those communities. So I think it's really important to do something like that. I'm still working out details. And of course you know there’s a liability thing and everything to figure out, along with that but that is definitely a long term goal that I have in mind.

Jeremy Lesniak:
I hope that you get it off the ground and, and I'll be honest, if, if there's room for one there's room for far more than one. Yeah, millions of martial artists just in the US. And, you know, there are there are destination trainings. Oh yeah, it was a Master Ian Armstrong and I believe it was for 38, no I don't have them all memorized I quickly checked before I said anything has a retreat a Kung Fu retreat in Thailand, you know these things do exist. But what's different about yours that you're talking about is that it's kind of, I would call it hot swappable for different groups.\\Yeah, that's super fun. Yeah, it's almost, you know, just literally a facility that you can use. And I have a couple of spots in mind; I don't want to give those away. But I have a couple of spots in mind that I'd really like to do something like that and it. You know I'm looking it will be in Florida. So I'll kind of leave it at that but that's super fun. 

Nikolai Lee:
Yeah, it's almost, you know, just literally a facility that you can use. And I have a couple of spots in mind; I don't want to give those away. But I have a couple of spots in mind that I'd really like to do something like that and it. You know I'm looking it will be in Florida. So I'll kind of leave it at that.

Jeremy Lesniak:
But you know once we're done let's talk because I've done some work in a different enough but similar vein that I can might be able to lend some thought.

Nikolai Lee:
Yeah and you know honestly I've learned one of the best ways to get your goals just, is to speak it into existence because it helps you realize that it's real. And then it also will help introduce you to the people who can help you get there, you know, none of us, you know, build this empire in a day like it takes one person with an idea but then they usually need people to help them.

Jeremy Lesniak:
And how are you going to make it? We're gonna do it if you can't even talk about it. 

Nikolai Lee:
Exactly.

Jeremy Lesniak:
If you're not willing to talk about it if you're too embarrassed to say what you're doing, how are you going to do it? How are you going to feel when you take that first step when people look at you funny.

Nikolai Lee:
Exactly, like I'm sure you went through the same thing at the beginning of whistlekick it was an idea, 

Jeremy Lesniak:
Past tense? That's still going on my friend. 

Nikolai Lee:
Oh yeah. Very much so. But it took that it took that first initial big step, I mean, man, you want to talk about freaking whenever I decided I mean I'm not old, but whenever you decided to go back to school and you've already had a career, and you're like yeah, I'm gonna restart. That's scary. I mean, it's a quarter of a million in student loans. That's a scary thing to step into, but it takes that initial step out, you know, take that initial step out to get off the couch and go find a school and train. You know, anyways. Yeah, tangent.

Jeremy Lesniak:
If people want to find you, you know websites, social all that stuff, you know, what would they type into the interwebs?

Nikolai Lee:
Okay, so, from the chiropractic perspective. I'm working at radiant health care project in Port Orange, Orange Florida. If you Google it, it will come up. But that's where you can find me there. I really, I mean I love working with everyone. There is no patient I don't like working with, honestly. Give it time but yeah for now. But I really love working with martial artists because they really understand what we do, and I love working with medical professionals, because they ask all the right questions, they challenged me to be better and I love it, I think it's a good thing. We also run. I'm on Facebook. We run the American Haikido Alliance on Facebook; we actually have their own page. That is how I would recommend getting in contact with me. That's really kind of the best way. It will either be me or my wife responding. And also, I recently started producing some YouTube videos. They are not high budget expensive videos. But what my whole goal was is to explain different concepts of martial arts. And why did they work in atomically. Um, you know there's a lot of those out for like sports and stuff but accurate, I couldn't find anything like that from martial arts, I checked. So explaining the theories behind it, why does it work? So if you type Nikolai Lee martial arts on YouTube, you'll find a few videos there as well. I'm not related to Bruce Lee, differently. But I wish I could say that that'd be super cool.

Jeremy Lesniak:
But then I would ask you and I wouldn't because Shannon Lee has been on the show so people know I don't do this but the joke would be well, you know, then we wouldn't talk about you, talk about him.

Nikolai Lee:
Oh yeah, yeah. No offense to the Lee's, they're fantastic, but I'm a different Lee. But yeah, that's where you can find that.

Jeremy Lesniak:
Awesome. All right. And, you know, you know how we do this next part. So, how do you want to close out you know what final words do you have for the folks listening.

Nikolai Lee:

So here's where I stand on this. There are different ways about going into martial arts okay so there are some who really devote and I think you actually did an episode on this. There are some that really devote their life's work to one art. And then there are some that devote their life's work to being in as many arts as possible. And there for two totally different reasons you know some want to be very well rounded. And that's a beautiful thing and you should be. Others want to truly master something. I would fall into the category of trying to truly master Haikido. I have not studied any other arts but Haikido. But I've made that my life's work. So what I do, instead of closing myself off only to Haikido. I constantly seek out other martial arts and go hang out with them, go work out with them. Go experience something that you don't normally experience you need that exposure. You know, about a year ago. We found an Aikido school that wasn't far from where we live, and we got together with them, because they share a common lineage, and there were a lot of things that were similar. I've gone to BJJ schools; I've gone to 1:02:14 school. I've gone to Pi Chan's Kung Fu school in Orlando, you know just whatever I can do to be exposed, is what I like. So I really want to master what I do and expose myself to others. So I guess my final word would be to be a sponge. You know, you need to respect everyone, regardless of their rank, regardless of their age, regardless if they've been training for one day, 30 minutes or 8 years. Because I guarantee you they have something to teach you. It might be what you don't want to do, you know you'll learn something about how you react to that person or they'll teach you. You know, we're so used to oh you know somebody does a, you know, front kick reverse punch and they land with that front kick toward well that's not exactly how the world works, and white belts don't know that. So there they will react very different than the person who's been trained to fight. Or like if somebody you know you need a good okay, somebody who can take a fall, and the white belt doesn't know how to fall, you know you need that, you need to know how the normal person is going to react. So be a sponge, really just kind of soak in knowledge, and then throw away what you don't need, throw away what doesn't work with you. So that was kind of a long answer to your question but we got there.

Jeremy Lesniak:
One of my favorite things about this show is how it's connected me to so many people in so many places. I have friends all over the world folks that I feel like I know them even though I've never met them, maybe you feel the same about some of the people or, you know, honestly from some of the emails I get some of you feel that way about me, and it's a lot of fun. It's one of my favorite things about this world that we live in today. So, I don't think there's any other way any better way for me to say thank you to Dr. Lee. Thank you, I appreciate your friendship and your support, and thanks for coming on the show. If you want more head over to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com every episode has a page, although itself, but the links photos, a transcript and sometimes even more, you're down to support us at all of our work, you have lots of options so you can make a purchase at whistlekick.com. You could also leave a review by a book on Amazon help out with our Patreon, patreon.com/whistlekick and if you see somebody out there wearing some of the whistlekick on, say hello. If you've got feedback or suggestions email me jeremy@whistlekick.com, our social media is at whistlekick. I'm done for today so until next time train hard smile, and have a great day.