Episode 828 - Grandmaster Eddie Minyard
Grandmaster Eddie Minyard is a Martial Arts practitioner, instructor, and author.
We've got a few more cute little marks on our belts and, you know, maybe, maybe on the uniform in the sides for some folks. But the bottom line is we're white belts with experience…
Grandmaster Eddie Minyard - Episode 828
There are various forms and styles of Tae Kwon Do and there are different approaches to training and competition. Grandmaster Eddie Minyard draws on his extensive experience to discuss different styles and approaches in martial arts.
Grandmaster Minyard, introduced to Judo in the beginning, became a Grandmaster in TaeKwonDo and has been recognized by prestigious organizations. He has taught and coached law enforcement officers, first responders, military personnel, and numerous students across the United States. He has also incorporated meditation into his Taekwon-Do practice, sharing its benefits with others.
In this episode, Grandmaster Minyard shares his insights on the importance of choice and open-mindedness in martial arts and in life. He emphasizes the need to honor tradition while also challenging it, highlighting the importance of evolution and growth in any discipline. Grandmaster Minyard also discusses his role as a consultant and author, focusing on topics such as health, meditation, and personal growth.
Show notes
You can follow Grandmaster Eddie Minyard on the following social media platforms:
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Show Transcript
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hey, how are you? Welcome to whistlekick Martial Arts Radio. My name's Jeremy Lesniak. I'm your host for the show founder of whistlekick where everything we do is in support of traditional martial arts and traditional martial artists probably someone like you. If you're watching or listening to this show, you probably are a passionate traditional martial artist. It's probably part of your lifestyle. And that's why we do so many different things because life is not just one thing. Life is not just a podcast or a t-shirt. Life is so much more. Now, if you check out whistlekick.com, you're going to see what more we've got going on. Everything from protective equipment and apparel to gear bags, events, training programs, lots of stuff. And if you use the code podcast15, that'll save you 15% on just about everything over there. A couple things are excluded because their prices are already so low, but you know what? Go check it out. If you haven't been in a while, you'll probably find something like there. The show, whistlekickmartialartsradio.com is the place to go for that because we keep it simple and we keep it separate. What are you going to find over there? Transcripts, links, social media for our guests, lots and lots of great stuff. Now today's guest, Grandmaster Eddie Minyard, you're going to find links to his stuff. My conversation with Grandmaster Minyard today is one that I'm going to be really honest. I didn't know where it was going to go when we started out. I had some suspicions. He and I had a couple of very brief conversations. And I am so, so thankful he came on the show. Had an absolutely wonderful conversation that I will sum up with you can both honor tradition and challenge tradition. And in that way, he and I are so wonderfully aligned and it led to a great conversation that I'm sure you will enjoy. Check it out and I'll see you on the other side. Hello. How are you?
Eddie Minyard:
Hey, it's good Jeremy. How are you, man?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Good. I'm glad to be here with you. Thanks for coming on.
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah. Yeah. My pleasure. You know, I'm about diving right in.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Let’s dive!
Eddie Minyard:
And it would be great if we have a big thing coming up in July where we're taking the ashes of Supreme Grandmaster Bok Man Kim back to Korea to be inserted in the National Cemetery. And that's going to be a fairly major event in the world of Taekwondo. So, you know, getting that out there wouldn't be a problem.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure. Well, let's start talking about that. It's already out there. Let's...
Eddie Minyard:
All right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Tell us who this person was and why they're significant to you?
Eddie Minyard:
Okay, great. Both of those things are relevant. So, number one, Bok Man Kim was one of the founders of the art of Taekwondo. General Choi Hong-hi was actually the man who formulated it, but the general pulled together a team of experts around him in martial arts to him to develop the art of Taekwondo, develop the forms, and then become ambassadors for that throughout the world really. So at the time, Bok Man Kim was a major in the ROK Army and had fought in the Korean War, and along with so many of the other original founders of the art, struck up a great relationship with General Choi and was actually instrumental in the development of 15 of the 24 forms that are still used today by the International Taekwondo Federation known as the Ch’ang Hon Forms. So he was very instrumental as a senior leader in, you know, in the art of Taekwondo. I was introduced to him by my own Grandmaster 30, 38 years ago, I guess, and he became a friend and a mentor to me in the course of that time. In the end of his life, he had a studio along with Grandmaster Brad Shipp in New Jersey. Grandmaster Shipp trained with Supreme Master Kim since he was 10 years old. So he really sort of became, you know, a son and a student and a disciple of this pioneer, of the art of Taekwondo. And in the course of all of that time, Master Kim was never really satisfied with where Taekwondo had sort of evolved towards. It had moved away from some of the things that were substantially instrumental in the early parts of the art, it was a martial art. I mean, Taekwondo was a 20th-century art, and it was developed in the military, by the military, for the military. And over the course of time, the art of Taekwondo began to evolve into different directions. Sport direction and others, and they've sort of moved away from some of the use of weapons for example, and some of the more practical aspects of Taekwondo. So initially, Grandmaster Kim developed, wrote a book called Practical Taekwondo which is an important book in art again in the discipline. And he refocused on the art of using weapons including bayonets by the way. Knife bayonets and developed what is known as the Silla, S I L L A, Silla knife pattern, which is still used by the International Taekwondo Practitioner. So, very interesting guy. And then, had a bit of a falling out with General Choi because of some of the changes that General Choi wanted to incorporate and he didn't.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I smile and laugh because General Choi had a lot of fallings out with a lot of people.
Eddie Minyard:
He did. Well, you know what? I mean, I've been training Korean martial arts for 50 years and we can make another list over here, but I'm not going to do that online. But nevertheless, Master Kim developed his own system called Chung Kun Taekwondo, which is basically, you know, total health Taekwondo. So really focused on the internal aspects and incorporated the weapons and enhanced on some of the forms and movements that he had developed previously for Taekwondo. Because over time, you see things differently. I mean, you've been in the arts long enough to know that in certain forms, certain systems, things tend to evolve, right? You see a little bit better way to do it. You don't have the same restrictions that you might've had, you know, 50 years ago or 60 years ago in environment and in thinking. So he took some of those forms and enhanced them in ways that just seemed to make a lot of sense. So he evolved that whole art. But regardless, I mean, you know, people come in this world and people go in this world, so, you know. A few years ago, unfortunately, it was time for Master Kim, you know, in his 80s, you know, to move on from this mortal coil and I was honored to be at his bedside the night before he passed away. And he had been planning a major seminar for his birthday, right around the time of his birthday. So we had this seminar. It wasn't on his birthday, but it was close and we had this seminar and he was in his hospital bed and watching on an iPad. Brad Shipp's mother, who's a nurse, was at his bedside and we ran the seminar, all Masters and Grandmasters in the seminar, it ended at 5pm. Master Kim expired at 5:01 pm. So he stuck it out to the very end. And since that time, Brad has been working diligently with the government of South Korea to have Supreme Master Kim's ashes interred in the National Cemetery, the military cemetery. And it was finally approved. So in July 13th, we fly over and on the 18th, we will be interring his ashes there with full honors. There will be, you know, I will be part of a contingent of about 25 Masters and Grandmasters coming from the U.S. But the International Taekwondo Federation will be bringing an additional group of maybe 50, you know, to this event. So it'll be a pretty big deal.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Wow. It sounds like quite the honor for someone who contributed a lot, you know. I don't know if you know, I do have some Taekwondo taken for a bit. I do have my black belt and so I've dug in a bit. And of course, we've had folks on the show who had varying experiences in early days...
Eddie Minyard:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Taekwondo. So I've picked up some bits and pieces and it is clear why he is significant to you and that he is, of course, significant to you and I'm sorry for your loss, of course. But also, it's pretty neat that you get to be part of something that is for his legacy, such a big deal.
Eddie Minyard:
Right. And I think for the, you know, this is a really good segue into, you know, where are we in Taekwondo today, right? So you had some experience, you've had some of the guests, so you, this is not news to you, maybe some of the people who watch or listen to this, but I mean, Taekwondo, it's been like throw it in a blender. You know, whatever it comes out.
Jeremy Lesniak:
There's a lot of flavors right now.
Eddie Minyard:
A lot of flavors sadly, and you know, less and less unification, unfortunately. And that's because of the disciplines, right? So we have the World Taekwondo Federation, well now just World Taekwondo.
Jeremy Lesniak:
WTA.
Eddie Minyard:
Yes. They got a little over the WTF acronym, I think.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, my favorite part about that is how long it took them to make that decision. The time…
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah, to figure that out.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, not just that, but the time from which they formally said, okay, we need to think about this to the time that they finished thinking about it.
Eddie Minyard:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, this was not a short period of time.
Eddie Minyard:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It was, if I remember correctly, it was something like eight years. Don't quote me on that, but it was, that's what my recollection is.
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah. Yeah. And you know, obviously, the WT and the Kukkiwon space is really formally oriented towards Olympic-style competition. And that's fine because, you know, in Korea, South Korea, it is the national sport of South Korea and they've learned it at every Asian school. And it's really oriented towards like we do with baseball players or basketball players. It's oriented towards creating that next generation of young athletes that can compete on the world stage representing the country, right, the nation. And ITF, on the other hand, has always been more on the traditional side and it's really been more about the martial art, the traditions of the martial art. But then when you really look at what's going on in the world, man, can you pick enough flavors, right? So one thing I will say about WT, and I will be visiting the Kukkiwon when I'm in there, and I have actually studied and trained in WT systems, you know, from the earliest of dates. In fact, in my experiences in martial arts, we've been focused on their patterns, their shifting patterns, you know, they went from, you know, one style to another in basic forms. And I do nothing bad to say to WT or WTF, but they are the one organization that has maintained sort of a straight-line approach to how they teach, how they train the mission focus, or whatever. ITF, on the other hand, it's broken off into, you know, what Kwan were you from, or your lineage, and, you know, are we, you know, global, are we world, are we international, are we, you know. The interesting thing is most of them have actually still stuck with the Ch’ang Hon patterns, the original 24 forms. But with different ideas on, you know, do we do sine wave today, or don't we do sine wave today, you know, in the course of the movement. While I can do sine wave, I'm not a fan, and you know, that's one of the choices.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Me either.
Eddie Minyard:
Right. So, but you know, bottom line, it's this diversity and more than diversity but division that has kind of kept folks away. And, you know, it's like the Yankees and the Red Sox, right?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Great analogy.
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah. Bottom line though, you know, we're all playing baseball and don't put either one or either. If either team plays against the team from Japan, who are you rooting for?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right. It's a great point.
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah, so, it's interesting and there are some groups that are trying to pull some of that together, you know, I'm wearing a shirt here representing my induction into the Official Taekwondo Hall of Fame. Of which there is only one truly recognized, that's recognized by Kukkiwon, recognized by ITF HQ in Korea, and the membership if you were to go and Google up who all are inductees into the Official Taekwondo Hall of Fame. It crosses every discipline. It crosses the, you know, the traditional Chumukwan style folks, the Jidokwan, you know, traditionalist style folks, WT and ITF, all the way back to the beginning of it. And I think that if you look at some of the things, it's run by Grandmaster Gerard Robbins. And if you look at what Gerard has been trying to do with this, it is that bringing together the minds of understanding that we are, as the General once said, one Taekwondo. It's sort of the grand desire. It's just that folks get kind of hung up on, you know, mine's bigger than yours kind of thing, which is, you know, horseshit just between us chickens. So, yeah, I mean, I really look at it and I say, okay, great. Sport for sports sake. Go for it. You know, I mean, I'm never going to be that young man and nor was I ever that young man that would do it 570-degree jump spinning kick while doing three backflips in the air and breaking boards at 15 feet, right?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh, I now know exactly what you're referencing and I suspect a good portion of the audience does too. Those breaking demos are impressive.
Eddie Minyard:
They are impressive, you know, I mean. And not the same, you know, people make fun of it and say, well, they're paper-thin boards. And so what, can you jump up there, you know?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Show me that you can do that without any boards, right?
Eddie Minyard:
Precisely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, and God bless him. I mean, that is a discipline in and of itself. I don't know whether you want to call that Taekwondo-nastics, like the gymnastic approach to Taekwondo, but what, you know, still and all, you have to give big rounds of applause for the strength of our discipline.
Jeremy Lesniak:
If they can do that, they can probably do rather effective things without jumping 15 feet in the air. That's always been my point you know, people will look at some of the flashier things that happen whether in Taekwondo or anywhere else, and I say, if you have the strength and the balance and the speed and the, just the raw proprioception to pull these things off, you're probably going to be a fairly competent martial artist at, you know, normal stuff, right?
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, look at the folks make fun of high kicks. I mean, all of the part of Taekwondo. Well, okay. If I can kick high and do it with power and with focus, well, what happens if I kick you in the shoulder?
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's a lot easier.
Eddie Minyard:
It's a lot easier, but that power and that strength are still going to be there, maybe more so. And the balance, too, that it takes to get to that. So, you know, at 72 years old, I mean, I used to be known as a headhunter when I fought. Now I'm more like a shoulder surfer, you know.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I haven't heard that term. I like that.
Eddie Minyard:
I don't quite have the same extension that I did as a young fighter but I'm still kicking every day.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's awesome.
Eddie Minyard:
So the bottom line is that you have to work within your limitations, understand what they are, and don't denigrate someone else for their technique. You know, I'll tell you a little aside story. I mean, I still travel around quite a bit, refereeing and judging at tournaments all over the country, and I was at an open tournament in Nebraska. And there was a young man who stepped up who was a Okinawan system is going to evade me at the moment. But nevertheless, he stood out there and he did Masai. And he did maybe the most amazing rendition I've ever seen of Masai. Crisp, power, game face, you know, he had everything going 100%. One of the judges, taekwondo judges, and I know the guys, one of the judges gave them a 7.5. And I'm like, at the end of it, I mean, I gave the guy like a 9. 5. You know, at the end of the day, the kid came in second place because he was downplayed. I asked the judge, I said, what's going on? He said, I don't like the way he did the front kicks. Open your worldview a little bit, you know, you have to look at the discipline for the sake of the discipline, not what you think it should be, but is it appropriate? Does it have all the right elements?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Eddie Minyard:
And it's a shame that you don't see enough of that out there that people will open their minds and give that appreciation to the broader elements of the arts.
Jeremy Lesniak:
There's a lot of, this is the right way, or the only way, or the best way, and anybody who does anything else is somewhere between ignorant and wasting their time.
Eddie Minyard:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And makes me sad because you know, even in the history of Taekwondo that you're talking about it came from elsewhere too, right? Pulling pieces from other places and refinement over time as we kind of put things side by side and say let's do this and not this. And I've always said, if there was one art that had it all figured out, we would have figured that out. And that's what all of us would do.
Eddie Minyard:
Right. No, I agree with you. And you're absolutely right. I mean, you know, the General Choi and many of the other original founders were Shotokan sellers, right? I mean, they grew up in, you know, whether they liked it or not under in Japan and under Japanese occupation. Nam Suk Lee, one of the original founders also of Chang Moo Kwan, and then ultimately Taekwondo as well, was a Xuanfa fighter, and he learned it from a Buddhist monk, and then he, you know, he began to just train on his own, what this guy showed him on his periodic trips through town, and then evolved it. But he refused to incorporate any of the Japanese techniques in because he was so adamantly opposed to Japanese. Yet, if you look at some of the original forms, look at Mudokwan, for example. So, you know, you're doing Bassai, you're doing Jong, you're doing...
Jeremy Lesniak:
You're not even changing the names.
Eddie Minyard:
No, they're not. You know, maybe they call it Bal-chae because that's the Korean word for Bassai, right? But still in all, I mean, you know, you really are, some of the movements, you know, as they are in Japan was a Bassai one, Bassai Dai, Bassai uno. I said, you know, a little bit of variation here and there, but even Koryo, the original first black belt form in Taekwondo was modified. There was the original Koryo and then there was as it's performed today, but…
Jeremy Lesniak:
I struggle with the names because I learned so many of my Taekwondo forms in a very short period of time. The lateral form, like you're up against the wall.
Eddie Minyard:
Well, there's a K'poyam is one of them, which is basically all side-to-side movement.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, definitely. It is so close to the Isshin Ryu version of Nahanching. That I learned I cannot keep both in my brain. I've tried, I've spent so much time and they will not both sit in there at the same time.
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah, no, I get you and that's challenging enough. But I grew up, you know, I was moving around a lot as a young post-Vietna. And I've managed to train with some amazing Korean instructors in the course of this period of time. But I learned Sanji, Gangun, Dosan, Wanjo, Yoko, all the basic traditional forms. But then all of a sudden I'm training with a WTF at the time and learning Palgwe 1, Palgwe 2, Palgwe 3. And the differences might be the difference between doing a high block punch and doing a high block punch, you know, but it's the same motions, same steps. It's like, okay, which way do I go now? Which one am I doing? And then of course, they change it to the Taegeuk forms, which was at a whole different flavors. But again, I get you. I mean, you know, but it's like you know, I collect guitars and pocket knives and I consider collecting forms, you know, like that too. I just sometimes pick one. I really like, like, I love Bassai.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Eddie Minyard:
Bassai is a great form, so, you know, I do Bassai Dai or just my regular training regimen, but you know, I'm 72 years old. So my memory banks are not what they used to be. I think I haven't been able to flush the registers as well as I should have. But, you know, now I stick with just a few that I know are helpful to me, keeps my mind, my body focuses. It keeps my breath going so I, you know, I do a series of forms every day just to keep my energy and my focus and my health where I think it needs to be.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You mentioned Vietnam. Is that where you started your training? Was in the military?
Eddie Minyard:
Well, so no, I mean, I actually started training in 1965, maybe even before that. My stepfather was a hand-to-hand combat instructor in the army and then he was in the air force. So I was a military brat. So I was always doing something. So we were learning, you know, keeping the dukes up and doing these various traps and basically the type of, you know, jujitsu stuff that the military was teaching in the late ‘50s, early ‘60s as part of their hand combat program. But when I was 14, I read a book called Judo Boy. And that tripped my trigger. You know, I was, you know, going into, just about to go in as a freshman in high school, and I discovered that all the way across town. I lived in an area in Illinois. I don't know if you're familiar with Illinois at all, but there's an area there called the Quad Cities. It's the place where the Mississippi River divides Iowa and Illinois at that point. There are two towns on the Illinois side and two towns on the Iowa side that they call the Quad Cities, although each of them has suburbs that extend out even further. 24:15 So, a 45-minute bus ride from my house, there was a school that taught Judo. Jesse Mills, Sensei Jesse Mills. So I would go to this school, you know, two nights a week. You'd have to get out of school and go over there, ride the bus over, take Judo classes, and then come back. At the third class, I realized he also taught Shorin Ryu. And I said I like that. That's where I kind of where I want to be. So I started taking Shorin Ryu lessons. And then, you know, things went a different way and, you know, I just couldn't bear the cost or the time to continue to go. So that was my real first exposure, right? In practical wearing white pajamas and jumping around kind of [00:25:03]. I saw a demonstration by the white tiger division of the Army of Korea, and these guys are doing Taekwondo stuff in full field gear. It's the ninth infantry Taekwondo group. They were crazy, badass individuals. I mean, they were so badass that the North Koreans and the Vietnam would do anything they could to keep from having to encounter and fight Korean soldiers. Literally, anything they could do. But I saw these guys, man, they're jumping around in full field gear, right, doing their thing. And I'm like, well, that's got my trigger trigger. Went home in the 1970 and made real good friends with a fellow in Vietnam who was also had taken Taekwondo lessons. So when I got back home, I began to work out with him because we didn't get home right after I did. And I began to experience Taekwondo, but I didn't really find a true teacher until 1973 when I found Master Chung Yun Kim in Davenport, Iowa. And he had been the head instructor for the Korean Marines and was a genuine, you know, bad actor in his own, right? An interesting guy and really focused, and we trained like he trained his Marines. You know, back in those early days of training, it's hard. Strict discipline, you know, you whack with a shinai if you were doing the wrong thing or even the right thing the wrong way or the wrong thing the right way, you know, you would get corrected. And that was my first real exposure to the true art of Taekwondo. I've trained in a lot of other things along the way. American Freestyle, Jiu Jitsu, and you know, Baising Xuan, Kung Fu with my friends out in Illinois, Yili Quan Kung Fu. And then, you know, fighting and training against other Okinawan or Japanese styles, so I've always been open to you know, what's cool about this? What makes this work and how can I incorporate some of that where I'm at while still maintaining the traditional focus that I want to maintain with the art of Taekwondo?
Jeremy Lesniak:
So I'm going to ask a question and on the surface, it might sound like I'm poking at you and I promise I'm not.
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You've just talked about seeing the value in how other styles do things, how things, you know, there's a lot of benefit in different approaches, but earlier we were talking, you brought up, it seems like you were lamenting the loss of standardization within ITF or Taekwondo overall, however, you want to look at it. And I can see those two feelings coexisting, but I'd like you to speak to it because I want to know how you look at those two things.
Eddie Minyard:
Okay, sure. So I think if you're going to, first off, let me say this, that I think that he whose only tool is a hammer soon sees the world as a nail, right? But if you're going to focus in a traditional manner to focus on the art of taekwondo, focus on that art. I'm not suggesting that you violate the tenets of that art or that you dilute it by saying, you know if I just did this way, then it would be better. I'm not trying to improve on something that a lot of people ahead of me developed and got where they are. From my own perspective though, I might find something that might work just a little bit better for me. You know, Baji Quan Kung Fu and the things that I still do today, if I'm in, you know, if I really want to execute a really solid front kick, I will toe out a little bit with my lead foot before I kick with my right foot. It opens my hips better, right? And I think that if you think about those little nuances, as opposed to trying to say, okay, well, when I'm doing Lung Ying or I'm doing Sei-Shan or one of the other advanced forms in Taekwondo, I'm going to look like the general putter in the textbook. Because that's how it was designed to be done. When I'm going to do, you know, when I'm really focusing on that, that's that. But when I go freeform, I'm going to look at these other things that make sense and that I've been able to incorporate into my own personal style in ways that I can use them in that. And I encourage that. I encourage even, you know, my Taekwondo students over the years. I said, look, this might help you a little bit. I mean, Taekwondo with all the kicks that go on in it, and you've probably seen it and experienced it. Biggest complaint, man, that hurts my hips. Even your old friend, my new friend, Bill Wallace, how many, he's had two hip replacements, right?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I think it's at least two.
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Might be past two.
Eddie Minyard:
Okay, yeah, so, you know what happens, guess what? I mean, we kick hard and Bill, particularly, kicks really hard, right? So, and you wind up doing things. So if you can give just a little bit of a tip, maybe make that not happen so much, then, you know, encouraging. Sometimes it's just a matter of paying more attention to what really happens. And sometimes the textbooks don't cover that part of it as well. You know, some of the older texts. You learn these things as you go along that, you know, the pivot when you do your point your lead foot, lead heel at your target step, which should you step in front or in back if I'm doing a roundhouse kick to the side or side kick to the side. Things that, you know, physiologically make more sense, right? Not necessarily change the art to say, you know, Kempo is better than Taekwondo. No. Maybe the way Kempo does this move is better than the way Taekwondo does it. But if you're going to focus on the discipline, focus on the discipline and remember the other things because you might find it helpful to yourself.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So what I'm hearing. I think it does. Let me mirror some of it back to you. What I'm hearing is the art exists as the art, but you also have your own individual expression. And there are times where you stay within the boundaries of the art and there are times where you are expressing things as you are. Because even if we learn, we could go to the same class, start at the same time, learn from the same person the exact same things. And we're still going to have a slightly different take on it because we have different bodies.
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah. I'm with you. I mean, you don't have to go all Jackson Pollock on it, you know. But you can certainly modify your approach to the way you describe something. That's what makes us unique as individuals, right?
Jeremy Lesniak:
The example that I often give is when I used to compete, I would make small modifications to my forms. I knew the competition way that I would do it and if I was back in class, I would do it the way I was originally taught.
Eddie Minyard:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And that was kind of the agreement my instructors made me. As long as you don't forget the quote right way, we don't care.
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah, I'm with you. And I did the same thing. I mean, there were many forms that you know if you're competing in a tournament to win an award in forms, I mean, today you got to get acrobatic in a lot of cases unless you're really in a traditional deal, but there are still certain nuances, right? I mean, if you, if you go strictly with some of the way the taekwondo forms and you see it a lot, right? I mean, I can point to you grand champion winners on YouTube and Taekwondo that are robotic in the way they execute their form because they are executing it precisely in accordance with the encyclopedia, with the manual. And I show you others that will do that form more like the way the Japanese and the Okinawans tend to do their forms with martial intent. And if I don't see that, personally as a judge, if I don't see that martial intent in your face and in your movements, I don't care if you get every movement precisely right. All you did was a dance form, and I had exceptional black belts on it and then counseled them later on why I didn't give them the same number of points as the guy next to me. It's because I think we need to not forget that we are a martial art. And I think that if you look at the way some of the Japanese and Okinawan practitioners perform their kata, it shows that that is the case.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'm completely with you. I used to get accused of, well not accused because it was true, of doing taekwondo forms as a karateka. But I got away with it because my Taekwondo instructor started in karate. So he's like, I get it. I get it. Stop it. But I get it.
Eddie Minyard:
Right. And you know, we talked about, you mentioned Po Eun, the second-degree black belt form in traditional style. So it's basically the one that you would in effect do against the wall. So straight line this way and that way, right? I wouldn't do this in a performance, but when I do that form for myself, I do it almost Tai Chi ish, right? Because there are so many movements there that you can, you can do in such a way that it's about breath control. It's about focus. Most Taekwondo practitioners that I know, advanced black belts, hate that because they don't think it's dynamic, right? I personally think it's a great form for focus, breath control, and discipline. And I do them sometimes very slowly, almost like a Tai Chi movement.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I know someone who believes everything we need for self-defense is contained in one of the karate versions of that form that there's so much complexity that says, every time I think I've found everything in there, I find something else.
Eddie Minyard:
And there's some, I mean, sadly, in most Taekwondo schools, you don't really get into what the Japanese would call a Bunkai, right? It doesn't form. And the whole sense of work in Korea to still that practical application and the variations on that patient, because I think that as you said, there are so many complexities. I can show you how this, you know, in the very most basic form in Chonji, they don't call him Shung anymore because Shung is the Korean word for Japanese for kata, basically. So you gotta, you gotta call him Chon now, right? But nevertheless, the Chonji,
the very first turn to the left and down one.
Jeremy Lesniak:
For folks who don't know Taekwondo, it's very close to your Heian, Pinan Shodan.
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah, 19 movements, you know, separated into two parts basically, and it's all four directions at the day. And the first movement is a turn to the left from a ready position, turn to the left with a front stance, left-hand down block, and then step forward with a punch. So, you know, obviously, you're the most obvious thing is there, is I'm turning to the left and I'm blocking a front kick, and then I'm stepping forward with a punch. One of the other methods is, is that while you're in that ready position, you can grab from behind. So as I'm turning, what I'm doing is I'm hooking my foot inside my opponent's foot, I'm pushing it forward and I'm turning throwing down, thus throwing my opponent who's grabbed me from behind to the ground while then executing that punch forward. So, but you know what, if you look at how many of these things you can think about, so it really comes down to what practical application of that series of techniques or that movement could you use? Back to the hammer and the nail perception, right? Well, I can't use it for that because I don't want this person throwing at me. No. I may be able to use it for a variety of different things and still use that same combination of turn, block, block with the shin even as you are turning following on. So I do think that it takes a creative mindset to get to it. And I don't like the concept of anything being cubbyhole to the point where it's codified, that it must mean this. Because I think all of the practitioners when they were developing these things envisioned something. But you also, as you just said, you always find another thing. What if it was this, right?
Jeremy Lesniak:
And I honestly believe that the more advanced you become, it is that discovery process that is most important in your advancement. You should be able to take what you know and what you've learned over the last few years, even if you're decades in, and go back to that first form you learned and see it in a whole different way. Because if you can't, what are you doing?
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah, yeah, I'm right there with you, Jeremy. I mean, I told you I do a series of forums as part of my daily routine. One of them is Chonji forms. So I always do the first one, and I always do Taonidu, which was the last one in the series. Because I think that's yin and yang, right? It's that beginning and it's that end. But each time you do it, it's a different thing. You know, I'm about to conduct a test here, an examination for a young man moving from fifth-degree to sixth-degree. A pretty big thing for this.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Eddie Minyard:
It's a big step forward.
Jeremy Lesniak:
For sure.
Eddie Minyard:
And I had him here for a dry run not that long ago, and I had another one coming back this way. I said do Chonji. And he did Chunji. I said, now, close your eyes. Now do Chunji. And my expectation is you end where you started, right back to where you begin, you know the drill, right? And unfortunately, you know, unless you really can visualize it, this guy would wind up facing off 30 degrees or, you know, because you lose orientation if you don't really visualize and internalize that visualization. And I think that by doing that internalization, you do evolve. I mean, in your mind, not the form itself, but in your execution, so you'll understand why everything happens in the order that it happens and with the timing that it needs to happen, you know, to get it there. All we are is advanced students, you know, right? I mean, we've got a few more, you know, cute little marks on our belts, you know. Maybe the uniform went up a size for some folks, but the bottom line is that we're nothing more than white belts with a lot more experience, you know, behind it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I fully agree. I love being a white belt. You know, for me, there's nothing better than a learning environment where I'm not being held to any expectations. Because that's where when I learned the best, you know, it's just like. It's not always great being in the back of the room because sometimes you can't quite see people who know what they're doing. But just that, you know, I'm 1 of the 1st people to put on a white belt. It's like, oh, I can I can learn this thing. Right?
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, and I'm sure you've had a similar experience in that the longer you've been training if the only standard by which you determine whether someone has someone, something to teach you is their rank or their time training, you have a smaller and smaller group of people to learn from them. That bums me out.
Eddie Minyard:
I absolutely 100% agree with you. Right. I mean, you know, I think that. Being that open and understanding that, you know, okay, so you got some years behind you, but that doesn't mean you're not still a student, you know. Maybe you're a more serious student because you appreciate those things, right? And how much do you learn from teaching? I mean, I get more back from when I teach even, even the most basic of movements. Right. Let me get this right because I'm trying to pass this on and it causes you to reflect and get deeper in your own understanding.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, there's nothing like running out of ways to explain something that is so fundamental to you. And somebody's not getting and you're going, okay. I obviously need to go deeper into what this is to have a different understanding to be able to explain it to you in a way that you're going to get it or demonstrate it or work, you know, just. The job is to convey that information. The better you know that information, the better you can convey it.
Eddie Minyard:
Agreed. Yep, 100%. And, you know, beyond a certain point in whatever martial art, I believe that really, you know, you are as a practitioner and as, you know, call it master, call it grandmaster, whatever honorific you want to put on there, it doesn't make much difference to me, you know, in the course of all of that you know, you really do need to be wide open about your lack of knowledge and your understanding that it is what it is and it's about your contributions to the art from that point forward, right? How much else are you doing to try to help? Like here, it’s the thing you do right here. I mean, I think this is a beautiful thing.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Thank you.
Eddie Minyard:
David Hodgson has the black belt interviews. He's out of Great Britain and he has some very interesting things too, but he gets a diverse group of people on there. His program, I believe, is primarily focused, if not exclusively focused on Taekwondo, you know, pick a flavor of Taekwondo, but Taekwondo practitioners, whereas my perception of what you do really crosses an awful lot of boundaries.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We're actually actively looking for, you know, if somebody says, I train in this and it's rare, but once in a while say, I don't know what that is, I want to get them on the show.
Eddie Minyard:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Because, you know, it's the arts, but it's the people. It's the, you talked about it as advancement. Advancing not just yourself, but the arts, you know. One of the things I've spent some time and actually, if I may, I'd like to share this with you because I'm curious of your thoughts. You know, we often are presented with these, I guess scenarios are cliches of a prototypical school where the instructor tries to mold the students into their own image. And I look at that and I say, okay. I'm never going to be, let's say you're my instructor. I'm never going to be you. I can train a million years. I could train with you for five years. You could move away and I could spend the next 50 years continuing to work what you've given me. And it's I'm still never going to do it your way. I'm going to be at best 99 point whatever percent of you. And so if I repeat that with my students and they repeat that with their students, now we're getting worse over time. And I think that is so ridiculous. The idea that if we love something, we would set it up in a system that is doomed to degradation. The only way we can do that is you teach me…
Eddie Minyard:
Sorry, this room is off-limits. You have to cut that out.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's okay.
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah, no, you're, you're absolutely right. And it's, you know, not only that, but you're also any mistake, any, you know, that's the way I learned it. I mean, the thing I hate most from my perspective as a management consulting or whatever else is that's the way we've always done it. You know, even if it was wrong, all you're doing is perpetrating an error. And again, as you said, I mean, that degradation begins to take effect going on forward. So it's better to know, man, I have been corrected on things that I thought I was doing right for decades. Bok Man Kim was classic at that. When I train with him in New Jersey, I'm doing a high block. No, you've got to turn 30 degrees. And I mean, he was precise in exactly what he expected to see. And that was from old school, traditional founders' perspective of how it should be done, not some of the things that can't say I was ineffective with my blocks, but maybe not have been that mirror image perfect.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I can always be a little bit better. And, you know, I would imagine that, you know, as you said, an ongoing student, you welcome that you want to get better. Whereas, you know, sadly, if we can go back to this, you know, theoretical that sadly does play out in quite a few schools, the instructors who are molding folks in their image in my observation that they tend to do much less demonstration on their own, you know. To their classes, they'll have, you know, a senior student and then correct them because they don't want to look imperfect, right? And there's nothing less motivating to a student than the belief that someone is perfect and that you will never get to be that good.
Eddie Minyard:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
On the flip side, to show that you are imperfect, that you are working on things is incredibly motivating to students because it gives them permission to not be perfect.
Eddie Minyard:
Right. Well, there you go. And it's an entirely different world out there from the early days, you know, when I began training in Taekwondo with these Korean masters that were first-generation Korean masters. There was no, how would you feel about, followed by whatever you wanted to accomplish. It was, you do it this way. You know, it was very strict and it was very distant. Fortunately, it was also, you know, as close to perfect as you'd ever want to see it from these guys, right? Because they were first-generation guys in the system. And they learned from the founders. So they were imparting that discipline. But then over the course of time, like you said, I mean, you go on and you teach this and you teach that and the next thing that you know, is you find your bad habits being perpetrated, you know, by your students. And then that proliferates against their students. And yeah, so it's, it's a, it's a challenge. But now I think, I sort of pity a lot of instructors today who are teaching. I mean, I think we both know that the average age of a martial artist in the United States, nine?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Probably.
Eddie Minyard:
And you have to talk to them differently. You have to, you know, you have to encourage them differently. You know, you have to motivate them differently because it's a different level of sensitivity in that group than we have, you know, as older school martial arts people. God forbid you should ever hit a kid with the shinai, you know. Even a 17 or 18-year-old with you know, crack on the back of legs with shinai as a form of discipline.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And even if it's not a windup, even if it's a, you know, a startle with some noise.
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, which is basically, you know, with the shinai that's kind of what we were all getting anyway, nobody got that we weren't caned to death. We're able to do a technique.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I've never been caned to death.
Eddie Minyard:
Yes, right. Thank you. Well, it's good to know, otherwise we'd have a very short interview.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We would.
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah, so it's a different kind of discipline, I think, and a different way to exhibit all of those things and correct them. But the worst thing you can do is not, you know, let little Johnny or little Sally continue on doing it incorrectly. First thing I look at when I go visit a school is how do the white belts are tied. If you can't encourage them to teach them how to tie a belt properly, it's going to go downhill from there.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I will say that one of the biggest correlations I see between what we're with general and overall quality of student is belt tying, and I don't just mean it white belt. I understand if someone's new and, you know, they're struggling to remember which way to put the pants on their arms or not. But as I look up, I mean, I've been to schools where black belts, I mean, consistently black belts have their belts tied we're, you know, you got one leg of the belt sticking up in their face. You know, and I'm like, and I look over the instructor and the instructor doesn't tying it that way. It's like, okay, you're missing detail. You're always concerned with detail. And yeah, if somebody's 9, maybe you hold them to a different standard of detail than if they're 35.
Eddie Minyard:
Maybe. I'm not sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Depending on what it is, right?
Eddie Minyard:
Right. Excuse me. When it comes to belt tying, if they're not tied properly, I'm going to untie and tie them myself. And I'm going to show them. I'm going to teach them. And I've been known to do that in classes that I visited as an instructor or as a referee or whatever, basically to say, come here, you know, and show them, teach them the right way. And you know, it's somewhat different and you have to be cognizant of the school. I mean, I think there are some Japanese organology systems that do look for the X in the back of the belt. But in traditional Taekwondo, it's one element of the belt showing. And understanding how to get that, you know, everything proper to do it the right way. It's like making your bed in the morning, right? If you never encourage your children to make their beds in the morning, what discipline do you have? You know, that's the beginning, that's the very first thing of the discipline is you start off in the day. And if you encourage that at an early age snd don't put up with the variations and the flaws, but continue to correct until it becomes second nature. I think what you're generating there is you're generating a more disciplined young adult, and hopefully a more disciplined adult as a result of that. The very basic, smallest of things.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I want to ask a broad question, and it's a theoretical one as well. Let's pretend I gave you a magic wand or a lamp. I'd stolen two of the witches out of it, and I give you a lamp and you've got to wave that wand or make that wish for martial arts in general. You know, let's open it up from being specific to Taekwondo because you certainly have experienced enough outside of Taekwondo that I think your perspective is quite relevant. What would that wish be? What would you wish for the martial arts world? What spell would you cast?
Eddie Minyard:
Good. I think it's a really good question and it's thought-provoking. So I think if I had one wish in the martial arts world, it would be to do away with the politicalization of the various disciplines. It doesn't make any difference. You know, when you get right down to it, your body only moves so many ways, right? There are only so many things you can do unless, and I'm going to take a cheap shot here and I can do this because I've actually been to the classes in Pennsylvania. If you take a George Dillman approach where I'm going to knock you down through this screen using, you know, key energy, that may be stretching it a little bit. But I think that the rest of the martial arts disciplines when you get right down to it, we are philosophically aligned in most ways. We are physically aligned in most ways. Our front stances look like front stances. You know, maybe one's a little deeper or one isn't a little deeper. So let's check all of the judgmental elements at the door and recognize one another as brothers and sisters in an art form, you know. The place I will, you know, I'm a guitar player, right? So I will appreciate a Segovia class classical flamenco guitar player and be mesmerized by it and at the same time, you know, BB King blows my socks off, right? And there's such a vast difference. Tommy Emanuel, the classical guitar player, as an acoustic guitar player. A friend of mine, you know, Norma Kaukinen, who's the founding guitarist for Jefferson Airplane and plays for Hot Tuna. He's a very dear friend of mine. And he had Tommy teach at one of his camps. And he said, I said, what'd you think? He said, I'm just glad I didn't have to pay him by the note. Because he's, you know, he's all over the place. B. B. King played like four notes, you know. But guess what? What are they both doing? They're playing guitar. They're making beautiful music that people, that touch people emotionally. They're doing this. They have the same number of frets on their guitars. They have the same chords that have to be played on their guitars. They just use them in slightly different ways. So let's kind of bring everything back to the fact that if I had my wish in, we are all martial artists and brothers and sisters, you know, beneath whatever color pajamas we're wearing today. Right? So there it is.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Beautifully said and I couldn't agree more. A lot of the work that we are doing is to try and, I mean, you took about three of my catchphrases and read them through there. There's only so many ways that you can move. And we have more in common than we do that separates us. And it is my hope, you know, one of the things that I think is happening and I'm curious of your opinion on this as well. Pre-internet, it was very easy to say, you know, that this is the way, this is the best, you stumbled into the best school ever, you know, and really, you know, essentially lie to students. Because they didn't have the ability to, you know, see what was going on. But that seems to be falling away very, very quickly as the people who wanted to run their schools that way, frankly, get older and pass away. And what we're left with is people who, whether they want to, or they have to are much more acknowledging of the way other people do things and say, well, you know, I guess the way they do this over here isn't that bad.
Eddie Minyard:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And I think that you know, to kind of bring it full circle, that if continuing to try to mimic perfectly over time leads to degradation, the individualization, you know, we talked about the art of Taekwondo versus your personal art, right, be the ability to develop your own personal art by acknowledging what else is going on means you can progress and that the arts can progress.
Eddie Minyard:
Right. Yeah. No, I absolutely agree with that. I've seen it, you know, time and again. I mean, there was a first move to answer southern New Hampshire and you know, I'm still training. I have a dojang on my property. I always have a dojang place to train on my property. But there was a school down the road from me and I, you know, you can train on your own and you can really do well and you, but you do the same things over and over again and you keep your fitness level and you keep your focus on the things you do. But training with somebody else, training with a group of people, I mean, the group dynamic takes effect. And, you know, learning that, just like we said, learning that, that new stuff from somebody else. So there was a school and I won't go into the name of the school or the system because it's not relevant. But it was, it was not a Taekwondo school. And I went there and I introduced myself to the sensei at that school. And I said, look, I'd like to come down and train with you. I said, yeah. He said, there's a Taekwondo school about 20 miles up the road out there. I'm like, well, yeah, I kind of knew that. But you know, you're five miles from my house and I'm interested in what you've got to say. He said, yeah, I think you should look up the Taekwondo school. I'm like, really? Who's threatened here? I'm not threatened. You know, give me my white belt and let me stand in the back of your class and learn these new things. And it really is sad because it goes back to what you said. Who knows? We're really what the lineage, the history, or you know, whatever this individual had, they didn't want really exposed to somebody else who might be more experienced or have different experiences.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know what else I hear in that situation? Someone who was not confident in their skills. That they didn't really know what they were teaching because they were threatened by someone with time and rank. Well, if I can't show it to somebody who's really good, then, I mean, or perhaps there's trauma, you know, there was some trauma, but I've known some traumatic instructors.
Eddie Minyard:
Maybe, maybe, maybe, right? You know, there used to be an old joke about Taekwondo in the early days, in the ‘70s, that a Taekwondo black belt would get on the airplane and soar as a second degree and land in San Francisco as a fifth-degree, right?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yes.
Eddie Minyard:
And I think if you look at some of that, it's not just Taekwondo, I don't believe.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh, oh, definitely not.
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah, man, I spent six months in Okinawa when I was in the Air Force and I came home and I'm a third-degree black belt. Okay. You know, but who's to say they weren't because there was no really way to focus on it. And, you know, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed king man is king.
Isn't that what they say? So I come into a small town in America, and I hang up a sign that says karate and I've got the outfit and I know some of the moves. I don't know the difference, you know, and you could be learning it the day before you teach it to me. As a management consultant, I've become an expert on many topics on the train between my office and the client.
Jeremy Lesniak:
There is, if the role is simply to pass on knowledge or to help people progress, there is nothing wrong with that methodology. Maybe not the best methodology, but it can work.
Eddie Minyard:
As long as you yourself continue to evolve and learn. I mean, if that's the nexus of your better development, good on you. You know, as long as you take that step and you don't continue to, you know perpetrate the, you know, diffusion of what really is going on.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Are there things that you're working towards or looking forward to, you know if we look in the future for you and your training?
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah, for my, I mean, you know, two things. Number one, Jeremy, I am 72 years old, right? So I do continue to train. I train every day. If I do not, do yoga one day, it's martial arts the next day. Sure. There's a continual stream. My wife and I both are really focused on health and well-being. My goal for where I'm at as a martial artist is to continue to try to move the message forward. You know, much like what we're doing today. I was thrilled that you invited me on this program today because I think it's an opportunity to maybe broaden minds. And continue to contribute to the art. You know, the working with a few private advanced Black Belt students. I have no desire to open a new school and teach a bunch of 9 and 11. So it's just not, I'm not going to do that. And I'm not, you know, people have said, and you will open a school and then hire people to do the work. Well, no, who's that? That's not me. Unless I train that black belt from, you know, from day one, or can vet him to a great degree, why would I pay somebody to, you know, and use my name to get further than that? That's not where my head is. You know, as a U.S. Army, former U.S. Army Ranger, I never used that as a means to advance my career. Who advanced me as a human being, I never would use that preference because I honor that too greatly. I was not used the fact that I, you know, deemed a grandmaster in the art of Taekwondo to further a mission just to make some money. I don't need any. You know, I'm pretty okay at the end of the day. I do want to help serious advanced students continue to advance towards mastery, ultimately, maybe grandmastery and so on, you know. And continue to participate in those kinds of opportunities around, you know, wherever the country or the world to move the message forward and to help elevate others into our understanding of the art that really contribute more to the art. You know, I'm a special advisor to the president of the Chung Kun Taekwondo Federation. I'm a regional director for the International Chung Kun Federation. Those sorts of things really mean something to me because it gives me an opportunity to help others grow. So that's my view of my future as a martial artist and maintaining my health so maybe I'm still kicking at least shoulder high for, you know, another 10 years or so, however much longer I have in the shell, you know. And my runway is a lot shorter than it used to be. There's a lot more runway behind me than in front of me. I'm afraid I'm 72 years old.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, it seems like you're, you're taking it in stride and you know, how many of your contemporaries, what even within the martial arts aren't even kicking above the waist?
Eddie Minyard:
Well, and you know what, Jeremy, I've got a pair of century pro fighter pants that lace up the front that I've been wearing and still wear and I've been wearing them since 1978. So at the end of the day, I know an awful lot of folks, and not just in the martial arts that are at my age that are not wearing the same pants size they wore in 1978.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. You've probably, I mentioned it to somebody the other day, that cliche image of, you know, instead of the evolution of man, you know, Homo sapiens, Homo erectus, right? I's first dan, second dan, third dan, and, you know, the belly gets bigger?
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah, in fact, I've seen that image, and unfortunately, it is sad but true. You know, I know a phenomenal sifu kung fu practitioner out in the Midwest who said this is his ball of tea. I'm like, okay. Call it what you want. You know, what you got there is, you know, dairy, cheese, let's break it down to its finer elements, but there's a bowl of cheese, not cheap, maybe, but they can't choices or choices. I mean, it's…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right. Yeah, we've talked about health and we've talked about weight on this show and how it relates to martial arts and that, you know, if somebody comes in and they're new to this show, I don't want you to think that, you know, we're not shaming anyone for, for being where they're at.
Eddie Minyard:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, we all have to follow our choices and, and, you know, if, if being healthy is important to you, well, then it's important to you and you should make it important to you. And if it's not, that's your choice.
Eddie Minyard:
That's precisely a hundred percent. I mean, I'm going to say this and I'm going to say something else. So, I am a vegan and have been for about three years now and I'm not militant about it. You know, it's like the old joke of you know, a vegan CrossFit practitioner comes into a bar, which one did you talk about first, you know? It's like usually, there's so many are so militant about the one thing they really want to focus on that nothing else is appropriate. And for me, it's about choices, right? You're gonna find that there are healthy choices that you can make. I'm a certified meditation instructor. Meditation has been an important life. I was just on the cover of Taekwondo Times Magazine, totally. TaeKwonDo Magazine a few ago, and the whole article that I wrote was on meditation in the martial arts, meditation in TaeKwonDo but in the martial arts in general. And why, you know, let's just take the last part of it, meditation, and leave that, because it is so important in your life, you know. Regardless of, I've had people say, well, you know, that's kind of heathenness. Well, no, you can't look at it like that. I don't care what your discipline is, religious discipline if you even have one, it doesn't matter. If you're religious, remember this, prayer is talking to God, meditation is listening. Meditating and calming yourself and centering yourself is your opportunity to receive from the universe, you know, or from within yourself, however you choose to receive it. But at the very worst case calms your ass down, you know, right? I mean, it kind of puts you in the right place for that moment in time, in this stressful moment. But those are all choices and you know, the hardest people to convince of some of these choices and the benefits of them one way or the other are your own friends and family. And you know, it goes back to the old saying that no man is a prophet in his own hometown. You know, people, people listen to me when I talk. I know you're a consultant as well so I know you get it too. I was a consultant with Deloitte. I got hired by a big company to design a massive telecommunications network for them. And then they hired me to come and run it. They told me away from the consulting firm. Six months into the consulting firm or to the new company, I made a suggestion on a change and they said, don't you think we ought to get an outside opinion? I said, well, I was the outside opinion to come and work for you. So, but the same thing is true. I mean, it's easier for, it'd be easier for you to tell one of my kids about the right things that they should be doing than it is for them to want to listen to dad, because what does dad know? You know, and it's, I find the same thing true in so many cases if you really want to stop a conversation on Facebook, start talking about being a vegan, you know. Immediately you go from 500 likes over here to, you know, nothing on this side, but it is about choice. And it's about arriving at the choice for yourself. If you don't want to change something, if you don't want to learn something new, if you don't want to improve yourself in any way, you won't. You have to want that change. You have to, you know, and all you can do from my perspective is I've told my students and my family, when you look for me, you'll see the back of my head going down the right path. You can follow me, and if you do, maybe good things will happen. Or you can go on over here and, you know, wave at me when we see each other down the road. But you can't force, you can't dictate change, you have to lead towards it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hmm, well said. If people want to get a hold of you, you know, you've put some things out. I've got a feeling some people might want to get in touch, how would they do that? You know, email, social website, anything like that you want to share?
Eddie Minyard:
Well, you know, if you don't mind my totally inane humor that I start almost every morning out on Facebook, my Facebook is Eddie Minyard on Facebook. Edward Minyard on Twitter, if anybody's interested in using that medium. I have a website that is edwardminyard.com. I'm an sort of author. I didn't really go into that, but I've written three novels and one sort of autobiographical book.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Cool.
Eddie Minyard:
I have a website for my books called edwardminyardbooks.com.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You name things very simply, just as we often do at whistlekick.
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You make it easy.
Eddie Minyard:
It's so easy to remember that, right?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Eddie Minyard:
As opposed to my company name which is zerogapsolutions.com.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh, that's a... I like that name. That's a great name.
Eddie Minyard:
It's all about cyber security and information technology and crisis management should be zero gaps in the course of that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yet another technology person in the martial arts.
Eddie Minyard:
And musician.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Huge overlap. And musician. It seems to be one or the other. We don't get too many both.
Eddie Minyard:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, it's a... If I could get all five voices in my head going in the same direction in any given day, I could probably settle down on one thing, but I have a pretty diverse interest set, you know, with things around today.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I can relate to that.
Eddie Minyard:
But it's all art to me, right?
Jeremy Lesniak:
We've covered a lot of ground today in the audience, you know. You've taken them in a lot of different directions, great directions. And I've really enjoyed our conversation, but this is where it wraps up. This is where we end. So how do you want to leave it for them? What words do you want to give them as we roll out?
Eddie Minyard:
Geez, I guess if I were to leave anybody with one word, it would be pretty simple. Open your minds, open your minds. They're not just martial arts, but open your minds in general. I mean, there's two sides to everything. You may not like one side or the other side, but if you don't understand both sides, how can you make a reasonable judgment about where you really want to fall on topic du jour, I don't care what it is. I'm not going to go in any direction. I'm just going to leave it with that. Open your minds, expand your worldview. And then that's where I'll leave it. And I really appreciate you inviting me on the show, Jeremy. Look forward to doing more things with this to pick down the road and maybe getting involved in your symposium again next year to, you know, to do you know, a little practical Taekwondo exhibition, you know in class and as moving forward.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I really enjoyed my conversation with Grandmaster Minyard and I hope you did too. I hope that you got some stuff to think about, some things to contemplate, because I think that that is the best part of what we do. We get you to think. So keep thinking. Grandmaster Minyard, thanks for coming on the show. I appreciate you. I'm sure I will see you again soon. Audience, please be sure to, let's see, what do I want you to do? I want you to go check out the Patreon, patreon.com/whistlekick, starts at two bucks a month. I want you to check out whistlekick.com with the code podcast15 to save 15% on something. I also want you to take a moment and remember why you train. I think that's really important. What gets you out of bed and into your training? It's not something you think about. Maybe you shouldn't. If you want to reach out to me with feedback or suggestions on topics or guests, my email address is jeremy@whistlekick.com. Our social media is @whistlekick everywhere you might think of. Don't forget, I offer seminars. We have consulting services. We do a ton of things, more than I can talk about in these intros and outros. And that's why I push you all to go to whistlekick.com and poke around. I would suggest you do that at least once a month because we're constantly adding. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your support. And I'll see you on the next episode. Take care, everybody. Train hard, smile, have a great day.