Episode 10: Master Brendan Goodall
Master (James) Brendan Goodall: Episode 10
This week's episode of the show is with a man I know very well, Master Brendan Goodall. I've known him for my entire time in tae kwon do and am happy to call him friend and brother. (We're not related by blood, but his family has been very kind to me). Past listeners will notice the lack of a formal title in addressing Master Goodall - and that was intentional. Brendan and I agreed that in order to give the best interview possible, it needed to be natural... and calling him anything but Brendan would have been unnatural.We had a good time with this chat and in listening to it later, I think that comes through. This was also the first time using the portable recording studio, and I was quite pleased with the quality. Our discussion had some interesting turns, including a point where you get to learn a bit about me and my martial arts background. I truly hope this one is as fun to listen to as it was for us to record.~Jeremy
If you'd like to watch our new "enhanced" version of the show on YouTube, you can check it out here.
Show Notes
Master Brendan Goodall
Movies - Drunken Master, Black DynamiteActor - Michael Jai WhiteBooks - A Killing Art: The Untold History of Tae Kwon Do, Tae Kwon Do Art Of Self Defense
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below or download here.Jeremy Lesniak:Hello everybody and welcome to episode 10 of whistlekickMartialArtsRadio. My name is Jeremy Lesniak your host for the show and the founder of whistlekick where we make the world's best sparring gear and some really great apparel too. If you're new to the show you can learn more about whistlekick at whistlekick.com and you can learn more about the podcast at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. On today's show, we have Master Brendan Goodall, a Taekwondo practitioner from Vermont. Unlike many guests on the show, I've known Master Goodall a long time and I know him quite well. We sat down recently to test out the portable recording studio we've built and we ended up with a great interview. No matter how long you've known someone they always have more to say. Which is probably why I had so much fun talking to Master Goodall or as he's asked me to call him during our conversation, Brendan. So here it is. Brendan welcome to whistlekickMartialArtsRadio.Brendan Goodall:Hey how is it going Jeremy.Jeremy Lesniak:It's good, how are you?Brendan Goodall:I'm doing well.Jeremy Lesniak:Listeners might hear a different a different audio quality at this because this is the first interview that I've done in person so thank you Brendan for breaking me in, breaking the new equipment in I appreciate it.Brendan Goodall:Well you know it's one of my favorite things to do be a guinea pig try new things out.Jeremy Lesniak:So, a lot of ways we could go with that, we're not going to go with any of them.Brendan Goodall:That's fine then go 01:20Jeremy Lesniak:So why don't you tell us a little bit about your history with the martial arts when you started, all that.Brendan Goodall:Okay, so I started in the large booming city of Randolph, Vermont, population 2000 people. Way back in August of 1997 and I started my main style is Taekwondo, my only style is Taekwondo actually, it's Taekwondo. And I started with one of my favorite people in the world Master Randy Rotta like I said when I was 7 and behind all of that I had an overwhelming urge to be either a ninja turtle or a power ranger. They both kind of stuck with me throughout my 19 years in the martial arts but I don't have a lot of hope of getting blasted with radioactive 02:10 and I'm not really a teenager with attitude anymore so now I'm just training because I found something that I really really enjoy doing.Jeremy Lesniak:And you lack 02:19Brendan Goodall:Yes.Jeremy Lesniak:That's a shell for those of you that aren't nerds like Brendan and I.Brendan Goodall:Not nerds connoisseurs.Jeremy Lesniak:Sure enough, okay and what variant of Taekwondo do you train in?Brendan Goodall:I train in, I've done both actually. When I first started we did Olympic style Taekwondo, that's WTF for you people who are out there and then gradually went around when I got my red belt we switched back over the ITF Taekwondo which is what I continue training in now.Jeremy Lesniak:Okay, and that's an important distinction. For people that don't train Taekwondo because of the sparring is different and the forms are different so.Brendan Goodall:Yeah WTF Taekwondo is much much more publicized because it's an Olympic event and let's face it a lot of the knockout videos on YouTube you see are usually WTF Taekwondo because they tend to be a lot more fun to watch.Jeremy Lesniak:Why did you get started?Brendan Goodall:Like I said earlier, the big reason is I want to be a power ranger but what happened was my mom was looking for something for me to do like I played all the sports I did baseball, I did soccer, I did basketball. I stopped doing basketball very quickly because I was very2 bad at it but I started Taekwondo in a summer program I think I did that for 2 years and then apparently, I showed enough moxie behind it that my parents let me actually start taking Taekwondo which was probably the best decision that we've all made.Jeremy Lesniak:Cool, okay and why have you stuck with it?Brendan Goodall:I found, I've always thought about this a lot. I found Taekwondo as a great way to identify myself as a person. It's done a lot of things for me you know it's given me the ability to express myself when I might not know what to say. And it's given me the ability to talk to people which is something I'm not great at. I like talking, don't get me wrong but sometimes knowing what to talk about is a hard thing.Jeremy Lesniak:I can attest to that.Brendan Goodall:But I think the big reason is it's fun and this one's more for martial artists who train 10+ years. Old masters story time is the best thing ever, just hearing about the old days. I think if anything else happened in my life, I would give up my right hand just so I could continue listening to people tell stories about the old days and how much fun they had and all the connections and relationships that they've built through martial arts.Jeremy Lesniak:Right, and you're left handed.Brendan Goodall:That too.Jeremy Lesniak:So, it's important that people know that.Brendan Goodall:I'm very left handed so losing my right hand actually wouldn't be that big of a loss.Jeremy Lesniak:Okay and of course that's kind of the impetus for martial arts radio is getting people to tell their martial arts stories cause I mean it's really just selfish I just want to hear 05:14 stories because I haven't heard them all.Brendan Goodall:Yeah.Jeremy Lesniak:I get to hang out and listen to it first. So how about you tell us your best martial arts story?Brendan Goodall:I don't know if this is necessarily my best because but it's definitely one of my favorites to think about. I was sparring for grand championship at a tournament a couple of years ago and we were tied like 4-4, 5-5 and I just thought I've been kind of playing it patient this entire fight. I blitz him as soon as the judge says go so I do that, I blitz him I have this startling slowdown of life as I'm blitzing him but if I'm too far away what if he moves, what if he hits me first, what if I miss. I tend to miss every once in a while, when I go for a blitz from super far away. But then and I won and in that 10 second exchange, I felt like it took 2 minutes just because of all the things I was thinking about and it really clarified for me like you know martial arts is fun because it's a game of reaction.Jeremy Lesniak:Do you have any other stories that you might want to share?Brendan Goodall:Sure. I'm going to kind of jump around in the questions and I'll delve more into those but one of my best friends is named Fred Forsberg, he's also a martial artist and we've known each other for about 10 years since I started competing as an adult in Taekwondo tournaments.Jeremy Lesniak:He's actually scheduled to be on the show, at some point in the near future.Brendan Goodall:Shame with plug folks.Jeremy Lesniak:I don't know what episode that will be at so I get foreshadowing plug.Brendan Goodall:Look forward too, that'll be amazing. But Fred and I have talked about this a lot like for as close as we are now, Fred was always the guy coming up on the tournament circuit. He was that person I ever wanted to beat because no one could seem to touch him and he told me straight up like for the first 4 years I knew you, you were cannon fodder. You were just that fight I needed to fight to get on to the next one. But then you know we got to know each other more, he started coming up to my class every once in a while, and we actually became friends. You were still cannon fodder but I like you more and that's always one of my favorite things because that's how relationships develop through martial arts, through hitting each other, talking with each other. Trying to beat the bejesus out of each other and I think they make better friends because of that.Jeremy Lesniak:But did you get to know someone pretty well when you compete against them routinely and you get to see them at their best and less than their best or watch them progress that it gives you a perspective on who they are that makes a good foundation for friendship?Brendan Goodall:Very much so, oh I just thought of another one.Jeremy Lesniak:Sure.Brendan Goodall:So, I'm a very visual learner and one of the things that really helps with 08:04 learning forms. So, I might have learned a couple out of rank forms a couple of years before I was supposed to. So, I learned one of our fourth dan set of patterns so that would be our master patterns called moon moo, it's the pinnacle of all Taekwondo forms. It's the most technically difficult, if you can't do it it just doesn't look right and you can't hide behind other things that you're good at in that pattern but so yeah, I learned that as a second dan and one day my instructor had a moment of I forgot what rank you are so he told me to go work with Moon Moo on with one of our fourth dans and I told him Sir I can't do that he outranks me and he's like oh good point go work on whatever you want to. Well the fourth dan I was supposed to work with on this called me over to help him anyways because he's a mean person and he wanted to get me in trouble I have to think. So, I did I was working with him on it and I'd like to think I was doing a fairly good job but one of the other masters walked in and he was like what are you doing? He told me to sir I had to. So that earned me the nickname from for a couple of years it stuck quite well called the foreign exchange student, because I didn't quite understand how things were supposed to go but I tried hard.Jeremy Lesniak:Fair enough, I haven't heard that story, I like that one. So, let's move on a little bit, obviously you've spent a lot of time in the martial arts and it's certainly shaped who you are. How would you say it's made you a better person?Brendan Goodall:In terms of growth in myself in martial arts, Taekwondo taught me that I like to learn. I mean that's something that a lot of kids go through like oh this is boring I don't want to do it. Taekwondo is fun enough for me that it kind of helped reinforced the fact that maybe school can be fun? Maybe there are interesting things that they're trying to teach us and it doesn't just have to be, ughh I got to wake up so early and must go deal with this for 6 hours so it really helped me buckle down and focus because it made me start looking for things that interested me and that's kind of how I've carried myself through and it's helped me grow as a person because what's like if you're not trying to learn something.Jeremy Lesniak:I would agree with that cool. And what other than Taekwondo do you like learning about?Brendan Goodall:Well, I'm going to, shameless plug I'm an engineer I do, I design mostly roads so I really like learning about things like math and weird as it sounds I like learning about dirt and concrete too. They're kind of job specific but they're still interesting.Jeremy Lesniak:Has your knowledge of concrete helped you learn how to break concrete?Brendan Goodall:It's taught me that If I do try to break concrete, I'm going to make my own.Jeremy Lesniak:OhBrendan Goodall:Cause I can make really bad concrete.Jeremy Lesniak:So that you could have a leg up on everybody if you go to competition bring your own concrete blocks.Brendan Goodall:Exactly, make 11:13 parking lot.Jeremy Lesniak:There you go and you could perhaps make concrete for other people that want to do cheat in competition.Brendan Goodall:Not cheat, give themselves a strategic advantage, let's call a spade a spade here.Jeremy Lesniak:True that, alright so let's shift gears a little bit now. Think about a low point in your life that the martial arts has helped you move through and carry on and tell us about that.Brendan Goodall:I'm going to just kind of lump in the deaths of people close to me, because like a lot of people I deal with grief through physical expression so hitting stuff mostly and Taekwondo is always been that safe place where I can do it because a lot of people there are going to understand if I accidentally thumped them a little bit harder than they think I should or you'll have a very good instructor like master Rotta was who would make classes so incredibly hard that you had to focus on what you were doing and that kind of helped air out all the bad feelings that you could have and that's always been the way I have dealt with it like my grandma passed away recently and luckily I was down in Randolph. I stopped in and I saw master Rotta and I felt so much better after an hour and a half of just Taekwondo on teaching and helping people get better in hitting them a little bit.Jeremy Lesniak:Oh I'm sorry about that, of course for your recent loss but sounds like you've dealt with it well and you've dealt with this other well and it's a kind of an interesting recurring theme that's starting to come up and of course you know as we're recording this only 4 episodes have been released so there are several episodes that have been recorded and edited and just haven't gone live yet so you wouldn't have heard them but it's kind of a recurring theme that's carrying through was that martial arts is helping people deal with grief that that's kind of been the low point that a lot of people are selecting to talk about you know loss of significant relationship or death and that their time in martial arts their ability to maybe turn it up a notch or to engage in more intense physical training has been their stability through that loss. So, it’s not surprising that you're identifying that same thing.Brendan Goodall:Cool, do you want a low point in martial arts?Jeremy Lesniak:If you'd like to share one?Brendan Goodall:Sure, in 2011 I moved up to Burlington and for a month I tried to drive back down to Randolph every night we had class and then you know I'm just try and maintain that relationship but...Jeremy Lesniak:With your instructor in RandolphBrendan Goodall:With my instructor and everybody in Randolph, but the big problem with that for me was for a very long time in that school I wasn't really working with people with the same caliber. There wasn't anyone around to push me so I was...Jeremy Lesniak:You were the high rank in that schoolBrendan Goodall:ExactlyJeremy Lesniak:I can speak from experience.Brendan Goodall:And I had great people like Jeremy there but with such a busy life that he had he couldn't be there as much as I had necessarily needed him to be so I kind of felt like I was being stagnant in my martial arts training because I wasn't always the most self-motivated person I didn't know how to push myself to the next level and I've always believed that you need people to push you to that level. So, I was really maintaining that connection out of respect for Master Rotta who has done more for me that almost anybody outside of people I'm related to by blood.Jeremy Lesniak:True.Brendan Goodall:And so, I would you know you get stagnant, you get bored, you start thinking like what am I going to do? So luckily through martial arts I've developed a gigantic extended family and I found that moment of I'll just go train with Master Rotta's step son, Master Leonard Yordan and I was kind of nervous because A I didn't want to have that talk that's like telling your parents you're ready to move out or...Jeremy Lesniak:Even by changing who you're calling, your primary instructor.Brendan Goodall:Exactly or breaking up with someone or telling your boss of a job that you love that you need to leave and I flipped flopped back and forth like maybe I can do it, maybe I'll stop and kind of take care of myself for a little bit and I finally sat down and had that talk with Master Rotta and I had been in contact with Master Yordan quite a bit because as my instructor steps on I was fairly close with that school to start with and he was also the only school I had thought about going to is like while I'm in Burlington that means Master Yordan I know there are lots of great schools but I know him, I'm comfortable with him.Jeremy Lesniak:And he was and he ran classes close to where you were?Brendan Goodall:Yes, very much so.Jeremy Lesniak:OkayBrendan Goodall:And it's really scary to have that conversation and when I did it you'd just feel better.Jeremy Lesniak:Name someone other than the people that you've referred to as your instructors that have had let's say an important role in your martial arts upbringing.Brendan Goodall:Alright, I'll start with you know one of the usual ones. I’m going to go with my dad because he was the money behind me training going to tournaments doing everything for a very long time and he made it clear to me from the start if I don't see you putting the work in I'm not going to pay for you to do this. So, it always kind of gave me that extra incentive of yeah, I should probably still like this otherwise I’m not going to be able to do it and he, that simple statement right there always motivated me to work hard always kept me in the moment with what I was doingJeremy Lesniak:OkayBrendan Goodall:He was also very close friends with Master Rotta through interactions when he worked at the bank. So, you know there were those nights dad will come to pick me up from class and he'd look over and he go you know Randy, that's Master Rotta's first name for people like me who aren't supposed to know that. He doesn't look tired, oh you know you're right go kick the heavy bag, how long sir, until you look tired, okay sir. So, I'd like, he usually gave me a number of like 400 kicks or whatever and like I blast through the first 75. I'd get distracted by like a breezer or something they said because I wasn't the most focused of child all the time but I got by and I had lost count and I was like you know where I was at sir, yeah 1, yes sir, thank you. So that was always a fun little interaction that we had with him there. I don’t know can I do a shameless plug of how great a friend we were way back in the day?Jeremy Lesniak:I'm going to make you pick one more if you're going to talk about me.Brendan Goodall:Fine, I've got plenty.Jeremy Lesniak:That's fine.Brendan Goodall:Alright, yeah, I'm going to go with you Jeremy I mean we met when I was 16 and I was kind of hitting one of those, there's not really any good people here for me to work with. I’m the senior rank there's no one else my age I'm not saying we're the same age but you're closer than most everybody else and we've been a great amazing team ever since then I'd have to say.Jeremy Lesniak:It's true.Brendan Goodall:And just the fact that you can walk in we both have things that we're good at that we both need to work on like I was very good at helping teach you the forms and re-teaching the forms and maybe some of the more Taekwondo-ey aspects of what we're doing because let's face it a punch is a punch and a kick is a kick and...Jeremy Lesniak:For the most part.Brendan Goodall:You're decent at both of those.Jeremy Lesniak:I’d like to think so.Brendan Goodall:And you were always very good at helping keep me focused, making me actually want to get better physically and working with me on presence cause I'm kind of unassuming. Always like being the guy who likes making jokes, I'm not really good at the whole I'm a serious tournament demeanor or that kind of stuff and you kind of help me find something that works. I'm not the guy who's out there screaming, yelling and looking like I want to rip somebody's head off but you helped give me that sense of I know what I'm doing and I'm good at it and I've always appreciated that.Jeremy Lesniak:Thank you.Brendan Goodall:Alright you said I have to do one more.Jeremy Lesniak:You have to do one more.Brendan Goodall:This one's kind of out of left turn and I can say what I want about him because I know he's not going to listen to this. When I started Taekwondo, there was this kid named Kobe. He’s a couple of year younger than me but he's been training since he was like 4. So, when I was a 7-year-old white belt he was probably a 7-year-old high blue belt and I remember the first major testing I went to he was testing for his black stripe which is right before black belt and Kobe's natural ability was something that always astounded me because I knew it was something that I didn't quite have but just the ease which he did things that some of the adults won't even try like breaking boards he was always looking out there like 21:11 10 boards I kick it'll be fine. I'm exaggerating obviously but he was that kind of kid and his work ethic was always impressive to because you know he was on the tag end of us doing like national competitions and things like that so he had that incentive to work harder than everybody else which in turn helped pull us forward and make us all better at the same time. He also had a mom and a grand ma who worked merciless with what he was doing and is someone like I said who'd been always focus very well, that there correcting of him in the middle of class when he was working on things helped me a lot too because I had a feeling that you know if he's doing that wrong I’m probably doing that wrong I should fix it too and I have to say that probably got me through a lot of things that I might have been doing wrong like bending my knees wrong in stance, punching lazily, no throwing a good kick. So, it was always cool having someone younger than I was out there who could be such an icon and a pillar of martial arts excellence.Jeremy Lesniak:Cool, alright well those are 2 really good ones and me so 22:27 judgment about me.Brendan Goodall:Judge him poorly.Jeremy Lesniak:Everyone else can judge me, that's fine. Alright so you've mentioned a few times about your, that you've spent time in competition. Have you always done competitions? Is that something that goes back pretty early in your martial arts career?Brendan Goodall:I started competing when I was a yellow belt so yeah pretty much since the beginning of my martial arts career.Jeremy Lesniak:Is that something you've done consistently throughout or have you taken breaks?Brendan Goodall:I've never really taken a break, I might have missed a couple of tournaments here or there because of other things that came up that were probably slightly more important but I've been pretty consistent.Jeremy Lesniak:Okay, and I assume then that you enjoy it?Brendan Goodall:It's getting slightly less fun than it used to be but yeah, I enjoy it a lot.Jeremy Lesniak:What did you love about it then you know if we go back, what was, what are the highlights of competition for you?Brendan Goodall:The camaraderie, the people that you compete with I mean for me I competed pretty consistently with like the same small group of people up through black belts so we got to be pretty close through going out there trying to beat each other at forms, breaking, sparring and that was a really fun group of friends and it opened up a wider group of friends and family for me that was kind of nice to have.Jeremy Lesniak:Ok, cool and you said martial arts competition has kind of waning for you now, why is that?Brendan Goodall:I think just because I've been doing it for 19 years I mean, I've gone out I've won my grand championship trophies I've had my bad days, I've had my amazing days. There's unless I find that I guess I either need to find something that remotivates me to compete like going to different tournaments meeting new people but I've done a lot of it and I'm kind of at the point where I don't need to compete and if I want to compete I will but I don't feel obligated to do it anymore.Jeremy Lesniak:Okay.Brendan Goodall:It’s like helping out.Jeremy Lesniak:What did you, if you could pick one thing that you learned about yourself from competition what might that be?Brendan Goodall:I can't take things personally.Jeremy Lesniak:Okay, tell me more.Brendan Goodall:I'm going to say my favorite thing to do in competition right now is forms because it's the one thing out there you can't say you did worse because of everybody else in there. Can't say the judges were biased towards that person sparring, the holder sucked at holding the boards, my 25:16 broke in the middle of my pattern and I couldn't finish because it stabs on me on the face. It’s the one thing where I'm the only person who can say whether I'm going to do a good job with this or not and if I don't get the scores I did as long as I felt like I did a good job it wasn't such a big deal. I'd still a little grouchy if I don't think I do it, did as well as I should have but it doesn't last and I don't hold it against anybody else who might have scored me lower than I think than I need to.Jeremy Lesniak:Okay, 25:49 lesson to learn.Brendan Goodall:The hard lesson to learn25:53Brendan Goodall:I was as good at it for a very long time.Jeremy Lesniak:If you could train with anybody, any martial artist, living dead that you haven't trained with however you've trained with quite a few people and some very amazing people, who would you want to train with and why?Brendan Goodall:I've got a couple, this one completely involves people that I've already trained with. My current instructor Master Yordan train did like the bulk of his super amazing martial arts training at Johnson college in the early 80s so I always like to remind him a lot. When I was born, if I could I would go back then and I would meet all these people that I hold in such high esteem way back then and see what they were like before they age caught up with them and doing so many super human feats when they were so young. And just see what the difference is were back then. If it was a person that I had never met before which is probably more what you're going for.Jeremy Lesniak:Both are valid I think it's kind of a neat idea, you can answer it a bit differently than other people have but yeah.Brendan Goodall:I got to be different. I will go train with Jhoon Rhee or Hee Choo and both of them strictly because of what they've done for the martial arts like I'm sure most people have heard of them you've seen them do the bit parts of the angry old Korean master in movies and they just always seem like amazing people and what they did to get to where they were like they came over on the international team or the demo team way back in the day and they were just like I'm going to stay here. They broke off from General Choo and lived their life and made their living from the bottom up teaching people martial arts I would love to spend time with them and see exactly what it was like for them to go through plus Jhoon Rhee is the most in shape 80 something year old man I've ever met.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah.Brendan Goodall:And I like being put to shame like that sometimes.Jeremy Lesniak:It would be interesting to, it will be interesting to see cause you know he won't die. Chuck Norris in his 80s you know when he get about 10 years for him to catch up with Jhoon Rhee but you know maybe there should be some debate not so much about Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee but Chuck Norris and Jhoon Rhee, cause they're both alive and older but amazing.Brendan Goodall:Yeah, I remember I was skimming through you tube videos for martial arts thing so like Jhoon Rhee does a hundred push-ups for his 80th birthday so I was like really? and he did them in like a minute.Jeremy Lesniak:And, how were they?Brendan Goodall:They were better push-ups than I've seen a lot of people do. Did them on his knuckles, there was a point he was counting, he got bored he started talking with some people while he's still doing push-ups. I think he kind of just took his hands off the ground, put them behind his head and he's had a really good time and that's the kind of dedication that you really want to have and I think meeting him would be one of the coolest things ever.Jeremy Lesniak:That would be cool, yeah, he's a pretty amazing guy. You mentioned you know those 2 gentlemen appearing in movies, do you have a favorite martial arts film? I know you watch quite a few.Brendan Goodall:No, I've never seen a martial arts film in my life, it's only three quarters of my movie collection. I think over all my I mean like a lot of people who I have heard say and this is for the Taekwondo department I love Best of the Bes it's one of my favorite movies but I think overall my favorite martial arts movie is Drunken Master just seeing Jackie Chan out there and having a fun time with martial arts which wasn't something that people always saw way back in the day. It was always ugh you got to be tough, you got to be strong, you got to be fast. Not go out there and act like a drunk lady. Okay.Jeremy Lesniak:It's amazing that movie is still held up pretty well.Brendan Goodall:It's such an amazing movie.Jeremy Lesniak:Do you have a favorite martial arts actor?Brendan Goodall:Michael Jai WhiteJeremy Lesniak:Okay why.Brendan Goodall:He's for me always been that good blending of the old school rigid fast linear martial arts people and like the new school look at me jump up I'll spin around for a minute and half take you then land. And just in terms of White he can do being a 6'2" professional fitness model tight physique.Jeremy Lesniak:YeahBrendan Goodall:Is one of those amazing things out there and hearing his love for the martial arts how much he’s done for it how much he says it's done for him, he's another person I'd really like to meet if only to see how many times he could bench press me.Jeremy Lesniak:A lotBrendan Goodall:ProbablyJeremy Lesniak:Yeah, he's a cool guy he, the more I've come to learn about who he is, the more I've come to respect him and obviously it's not hard to respect his martial arts skill but you know and you can respect a person for who they are you know that's a whole lot of dynamic.Brendan Goodall:And he can do non-martial arts movies too but if you want to see a hilarious martial arts movie with him watch Black Dynamite.Jeremy Lesniak:OkayBrendan Goodall:It's like old Blaxploitation films you know oh crap who's the guy in end of the dragon with the afro?Jeremy Lesniak:YeahBrendan Goodall:Yeah like he did that kind of movie and it was the funniest thing I've ever seen like the opening scene in the movies and ad for malt liquor.Jeremy Lesniak:Okay, I'll link that in on the show notes pageBrendan Goodall:I appreciate thatJeremy Lesniak:And then I think I'm going to have to watch that myself.Brendan Goodall:I'll let you borrow itJeremy Lesniak:You have it okay, it shouldn’t be a surprise. In addition to your quality academy award level film collection I know you're an avid reader, any martial arts books that you'd recommend to people?Brendan Goodall:Yeah, I can always pull off a couple. The first I would recommend is kind of more just for Taekwondo people. I guess the second one is too, but the first one's the actual encyclopedia in Taekwondo that General Choo wrote when he was developing the art, not so much for like the techniques but the why he made things the way he is. His theories on what a martial artist should be like, what they should do. How they should carry themselves, it's kind of interesting especially when you think of the inconsistencies between you should love everybody, respect everybody ladadadada and yeah, we're better than karate. I'm not saying we are but that was pretty obviously throughout his writings and it was good stuff. The other one is called the Killing art just because it delves into that part of Taekwondo that...Jeremy Lesniak:It is the book I bought you for Christmas.Brendan Goodall:It delves into that part that no one really wants to talk about like, the seedy dark underworld of Taekwondo and the fact that General Choo was very very driven person and he didn't have time for anyone else and just the interaction between the Korean government and him as he was trying to create Taekwondo and like they'd send these masters over there and they'd have them kidnap Korean34:00 expatriates. I'm not sure what the technical term is but they kidnap them bring them back to Korea so they can be re instituted into the motherland and just all the it's like reading a Robert 34:13 book. All this spy stuff and it's like how did that happen, you've got to be kidding me. He killed that many people during the Vietnam war my god.Jeremy Lesniak:It's interesting cause this book's come up a couple of times with other interviews and it seems like it's something that people that are passionate about Taekwondo should really consider making part of their almost curriculum something that maybe it shouldn't be required reading you know that's a little bit too strong but anybody that's really serious about Taekwondo and history should consider reading because it adds a whole different dynamic.Brendan Goodall:Yeah, I would agree with that because it's one of those books that for me kind of opened my mind to what might have actually happened as opposed to well he told me it was like this, he told me it was like that, Taekwondo is all nice and kind of friendly now. I mean there's still those obvious tensions but it's not as bad as it used to be and it's interesting to see like well if this had happened this way where will we be right now? Or would we even be here training, that kind of thing and like you said I love reading and it's a bad day if I don't read. I recommend everybody keep reading paper not kindle.Jeremy Lesniak:Do you have any martial arts related goals for the future?Brendan Goodall:Yeah, I guess so, I mean it's a really strong goal it sounds like something you've thought about often.Jeremy Lesniak:I do think about it often it's just how far do I want to take it. My 35:57 I want to get my 5th degree I know I'm not up for that for a very long time but it’s still something I want to do because it opens more doors than what they're willing to teach me.Brendan Goodall:Okay and I guess I want to be the eternal student and always learning things so I want to get better at teaching because I'm going to, disclaimer I have no interest in opening a school. It's never been a driving force behind me but, I understand the why I have to be good at teaching. I need to be able to impart knowledge to other people so that we get that next generation of martial arts superstars and I know that the way I understand things isn't always the right way, it's not always the easiest way. It's generally speaking kind of 36:50 out there but I know that I need to be able to adapt to you know the 6-year-old who can't quite understand why you need to punch hard or the adult who doesn't quite get why something needs to happen like this because they might have done it differently at one point and I really want to start getting better at that being able to express myself that everybody gets it.Jeremy Lesniak:It's a great goal.Brendan Goodall:Cause I really like that Aha moment. I understand it now, I can do it.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah there's a lot of joy to be taken from teaching something to someone and realizing that they've learned, you've helped them learn that without what you were showing them they may not have gotten to wherever they are and you know I found that I learned just as much if not more teaching people as I do as a traditional student.Brendan Goodall:Yeah, I definitely learn more teaching people like patience, got to lot of patience.Jeremy Lesniak:Especially with the kids, right?Brendan Goodall:YupJeremy Lesniak:Do you have any parting advice, any last words for people listening?Brendan Goodall:Listen to yourself, I know it's kind of vague and out there but I'll explain a little bit more. Basically, you're your biggest attractor you are the only person who can stop you from doing. Whatever you want to do where you think you need to go in the martial arts, so listen to yourself but then just say you know what I'm wrong, I'm going to prove myself wrong because proving myself wrong I'm going to prove everybody else, to everybody else that I can be everything that I need to be and also stretch every day. That's the, that's something that I kick myself in the butt about everyday only because I can't kick myself in the head anymore.Jeremy Lesniak:You used to be able to kick yourself in the head?Brendan Goodall:YupJeremy Lesniak:IntentionalBrendan Goodall:SometimesJeremy Lesniak:Okay I don't remember this is before I met you.Brendan Goodall:This was when I was like 8 I have a tendency to throw like a high front kick or an 38:58 kick and I kind of club myself in the forehead with my 39:00. I don't know if that was just bad posture on my part but.Jeremy Lesniak:It's a combination of bad posture and maybe some incredible flexibility.Brendan Goodall:Yeah way back in the day.Jeremy Lesniak:That's cool, well maybe you can ask your mom maybe she has got some pictures of that, that would be fun.Brendan Goodall:I hope not.Jeremy Lesniak:Well I'm going to find out and if they're there I'm going to post them.Brendan Goodall:Thanks.Jeremy Lesniak:No prob, alright well cool thanks I really appreciate you coming on and testing out the portable interview rig we had a couple of bubbles but we figured it out and if people are hearing this it workedBrendan Goodall:YupJeremy Lesniak:So, if they're not hearing it they won't knowBrendan Goodall:ExactlyJeremy Lesniak:So, we're kind of protected there, really appreciate it and thanks for being on whistlekickMartialArtsRadio.Brendan Goodall:No problem I had a great timeJeremy Lesniak:Thank you for listening to this episode of whistlekickMartialArtsRadio. I had a lot of fun recording it and I hope you enjoyed listening. A big thank you to Master Goodall, for being a test subject and being so candid. Please be sure to subscribe to the show so you never miss one of our weekly episodes. If you like the show we'd really appreciate a 5-star review on iTunes, stitcher or wherever you download your podcasts. Believe it or not, these reviews help us grow quite a bit. You can check out the show notes with the links to all of the books movies and more that we talked about and those notes are over at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. while you're there if you want to be a guest on this show or you know someone who would be a wonderful interview please fill out the guest form. And of course, if you'd like to learn more about the great products that we make at whistlekick please check us out on the web at whistlekick.com. Train hard smile and have a great day.