Episode 11: Doshu Allan Viernes
Episode 11: Doshu Allan Viernes
...kids don't quit martial arts, parents quit. Once the parents quit, then the kids will quit.
Today's episode is with Doshu Allan Viernes, a martial arts instructor, competitor and school owner from Maine. I've known of Doshu Viernes for many years and even attended a sparring class with a friend at his dojo back in the 90s. He's the Grand Master of jukado, a style developed by his Mother.Our conversation was a deep one as we explored the psychological benefits of martial arts training during his time in the military. He has some excellent insights that really got me thinking. Doshu Allan has great stories to tell and I'm sure we only scratched the surface during our discussion. I thoroughly enjoyed our time together and I hope that comes through.
Show Notes
Movies - Karate Kid (Original)Actor - Jean-Claude Van Damme - the new Van Damme movie I mentioned this episode is called Pound of Flesh. As I researched that, I was also excited to learn that there's a new Kickboxer movie in production!Book - The Book of Five Ringsjukadousa.com - Doshu's dojoIPPONE Martial Arts Circuit, including information on Doshu's tournament on June 20th, 2015.To contact Doshu Allan directly, 207-854-9408
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript here or download here.Jeremy Lesniak:Hello everybody and welcome back to episode 11 of whistlekickMartialArtsRadio. My name is Jeremy Lesniak and I'm your host, and the founder of whistlekick makers of the world's best sparring gear and some other great stuff. If you're new to the show you can learn more about whistlekick at whistlekick.com and you can learn more about this podcast at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. We're going to try something new here on the show and that's offering discounts to our listeners as a thank you for being an early listener to the show, we're going to give you 30% off at any purchase at whistlekick.com. Just use the coupon code podcast1, that's podcast and the number 1 at checkout and that codes good through the end of June but enough about that. On today's show, we have Doshu Allan Viernes, a martial artist from Maine and the GM of Jukado - a blended style his mother pioneered decades ago. Though my main roots overlap a bit with Doshu Allan's, I didn't know much about him until this episode. Our talk was absolutely full of insights and incredible honesty. I came away feeling very positive and motivated to train harder, I hope it means just as much for you, so here we go. Doshu welcome to whistlekickMartialArtsRadio.Allan Viernes:Well thank you for having me.Jeremy Lesniak:It's an honor to have you, I'm looking forward to, because I'm going to learn a lot about you I know who you are of course we roll in the same circles but haven't really had much chance to get to know you or talk to you so I'm going to be learning right along with the listeners so that's going to be great.Allan Viernes:Sounds good.Jeremy Lesniak:So, let's jump right in, why don't you start by telling us a bit about how you got started with the martial arts and where that was and all that.Allan Viernes:Sure, in fact I started martial arts back in 1964, I was 5 years old. I was training in an Aikido Dojo in Waipahu Hawaii, my instructor that time was 02:00. The reason my parents put me into martial arts back then is I was a severe stutterer. I couldn't focus in school, I couldn't stay still, I was the kid that was always moving around or playing and that's one of the main reasons I started out in martial arts.Jeremy Lesniak:Those are great reasons.Allan Viernes:Yes.Jeremy Lesniak:So, you've clearly stuck with it and you have your own school now so tell us a little bit about that journey. How did you get from then to now?Allan Viernes:Sure, when I started out in Aikido my mom at the same time was taking martial arts. She's, martial art runs in our family. She had plans back then of op, formulating her own style so she wanted to keep me busy. I stayed with Aikido for 12 years I actually 02:58 and she started Jukado which is the art that I am in right now back in 1972. So, I've been in Jukado ever since its inception. My mom retired back in 1996 and I officially became the GM of Jukado and but we use the term Doshu because Doshu is a Japanese term and it means hereditary GM and so you'll hear my students call me Doshu. Currently, I am the GM of Jukado. I run the Jukado organization. We are a very young organization but on the same token is I you know I tell people I said you know Jukado is made up of Kung Fu, karate, Aikido and judo and everyone have heard of those other styles. I like to refer to Jukado as a tossed salad, when you eat a salad and you have the different vegetables this is what Jukado is like. At times, you'll taste a tomato or a cucumber or a lettuce and what my mom has done she's studied in all 4. She picked out the techniques from each one that she felt would be best suited for Jukado and this is what we have the art of Jukado.Jeremy Lesniak:Cool, yeah, I like that salad analogy that's kind of neat. I haven't, you know I've talked with people that are in blended styles before and I was fortunate enough to grow up in a dojo that was very open and welcoming of other elements from other styles but that analogy is perfect. Well I think that gives a pretty good picture of where you're coming from and so you've been around you've got great stories I'm sure and I'd love to hear your best martial arts story.Allan Viernes:Well you know I, I've been thinking of that I mean I have so many martial arts stories but if I had to you know pick one, I'm going to pick the one that I traveled to Hung no not Hungary but I in fact I traveled to Italy part of a Pride of America Martial Arts Tournament, this was back in 1997. The venue was an outdoor, almost like a 3-ring circus and if you could imagine what a 3-ring circus tent looks like it's a big big tent.Jeremy Lesniak:YeahAllan Viernes:It was very professional and the reason I bring up this because at that particular event it was you know there was competitors from of course the USA, Canada, Australia, Hungary, Germany, Italy of course and it was a very you know filled week, we were doing competition and then on that Friday night we had a break and then the next morning all of the first-place winners were supposed to compete for like the grand championship award like most tournaments do. Well they had a professional cleaning company that would come in nightly and clean up the 3-ring you know or the tent. Well, what they did is they collected all of the results and didn't realize that it was something that needed to be kept and they threw it away.Jeremy Lesniak:Oh no.Allan Viernes:So, Saturday morning, I was one, also one of the judges I also competed at it we were looking for the results now this is already 3 days of event and all of the results are gone and so you have martial artists from different countries working together as a team realizing that we're in big trouble right now.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah.Allan Viernes:And so, I mean you know from searching the tents, from searching the trash can then finally we decided to check the dumpsters. There's dumpsters out there and we found the results all in a bag, in a dumpster. This is after like 2 hours of looking, you know I look at that and I think back like wow, you know I mean we would have to do the tournament again.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah.Allan Viernes:And especially when you have a conflict of you know languages if you know what I'm saying.Jeremy Lesniak:SureAllan Viernes:But we all worked together as a team and that's what martial arts should do we work together as a team, we found that after the competition we all sat down had a good beer and you know I thought that was a neat you know scenario or a situation and but it all turned out well for everyone.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah that's pretty unique, I've heard of, I thought pretty much anything and everything happening at a tournament before but I can't say I've ever heard of the results being thrown away.Allan Viernes:YesJeremy Lesniak:Wow, yeah that as you were telling it I was feeling my anxiety level rise what do you do if you can't find them? So, it's a good thing you didn't have to figure that out.Allan Viernes:Right.Jeremy Lesniak:So, you started martial arts quite young and it's clearly been a huge part of your life and now you know maybe even is the biggest pillar of your life at this point.Allan Viernes:True.Jeremy Lesniak:But I'd like you to think about how the martial arts has impacted who you are, who Doshu is as a person and tell us a little bit about some of those benefits you mentioned that your mother puts you in the martial arts when you were young because you had trouble focusing and you were a stutterer. So, tell us a little bit about that and how you've improved as a person through martial arts.Allan Viernes:Well I mean you know as a stutterer that's the one thing that I can remember from you know age 5, kindergarten you know your first grade your second grade is that I could never at that time and in my life, stand in front of my class and read a simple sentence like the dog ran after the ball. I was on a scale of 1-10 a 10 in terms of being a stutterer and I look back and I remember you know kids would laugh because you know it sounds funny if you ever hear someone stuttering I mean if but you know that did affect me back then as a child and the one thing that martial arts did and in this case I grew up in a Japanese speaking dojo where English was 5% and Japanese was 95% and most people today might look at that and think wow that's a set up for failure but you know that's the best thing that could have happen because it leveled the playing field meaning I had to really focus now and the one thing about being in a dojo and I think you can equate to this is that you know when you get in the dojo, everybody is equal and you know back then you know there wasn't any books on how to help a stutterer or back then there wasn't even the term ADD, ADHD. If they had that back then, I probably would have had it but what they did is with you know pure traditional martial art training I had to you know learn these things. I had to eventually learn how to sit still, stand still or you know learn the techniques and when they called your name you had to answer and someone who's a stutterer realizing there's a couple of seconds like if your name is called, there's a couple of seconds before you can actually say here and when they do that time after time, class after class that helped me overcome and today I can stand in front of a group of people, I can you know another thing that really helped to and I'm just going to kind of interject this is that when I graduated from high school back in 1977, I went in to the military and the military and martial arts to me was so alike you know and you know originally went in for a 3-year term tour as you'd say but ended up staying for 15 years took an early retirement back in 1992. So, you know martial arts has really helped me in terms of sticking to my goals you know and believing in yourself first of all, giving you the confidence and but there's a difference between confidence and over confidence you know because some of the things I did in the army, some of the training I probably would have never done if I did not martial arts you know I grew up in the combat arms environment. I jumped out of airplanes, repel out of a helicopter, I went to jungle school, I was a US army ranger, I went to ranger school you know I have all of these certificates and I don't want to sound like I'm bragging but all of those was only possible because someone back then in that dojo believed in me and gave me the chance. Now it wasn't easy at first because I was doing a lot of push-ups and a lot of exercises a lot of cleaning the dojo because I was the one always playing around. I was the one and I think I was playing around because that was my way of covering up my stuttering now that I look back but you know it has helped me tremendously you know and again going into the army, the army was like being in martial arts I mean a lot of the elements are so alike. So, you know it’s helped me, it's helped me till now you know when I got out of the army 13:30 back in 1992 and I immediately opened up my martial arts school and so my school has been here in Maine since 1992 so you know 23 years. The economy kind of tanked several years ago and you know being a martial arts school owner was a really tough thing. Now when I became GM you know I had several goals and one of the goals was to own my own building. I needed a permanent home for Jukado and that's where I'm at today I was able to complete that you know 3 years ago purchased this building and now we have a permanent home.Jeremy Lesniak:That's wonderful. Cool, that's quite the journey and I think there was a lot to take away from that and I hope the listeners really you know this might even be a good section of the interview to go back and listen to it again because you had a lot of really good stuff in there.Allan Viernes:Right.Jeremy Lesniak:So, I'd like to kind of switch gears you know we talked a lot about the positives we're in and then we're going to go kind of to the other end. I'd like you to think about a negative, a rough patch in your life and tell us how the martial arts or the martial arts training or however you want to answer it.Allan Viernes:SureJeremy Lesniak:Helped you move through that or overcome it.Allan Viernes:Well you know first of all the rough patch was at first when I started because of you know being that kid who was a severe stutterer couldn't focus but then I'm going to kind of fast forward I'm going to go when I enlisted in the army. When I enlisted in the army in 1977 I you know you go to basic training, you go to advanced infantry training, individual training and then I went to Korea. I was stationed in the Republic of Korea from 1978 - 79. While doing one of our live fire training exercise an unfortunate situation happened and now I can speak of it freely but you know years ago I didn't realize what was happening. I was a member of a crew and 4 of us got swept underwater in the middle of the monsoon season and if you don't know anything about Korean the monsoon season the water level in the river, 30-40 feet difference. All of my crew members died except me and when I say we got stuck under water, looking at the reports now you know anywhere from 50-80 feet underwater and you know I was what I did when I got sucked underwater now that I can you know I remain calm, I took a, you know I remained calm I went into some kind of a trance. They said when I came up downstream you know was like 5, 6, 7 minutes under water now when that situation happened I went to the army hospital in Seoul Korea for overnight observation and after that they never saw me again. Meaning you know I was back in my unit and years went by and I started realizing every time I'm near water I would you know, like if I was driving over a bridge I would hold my stirring wheel so tight, my heart would beat faster if I would take a shower and close my eyes I would have little you know spots of you know I guess you can call it black out you know what I'm saying.Jeremy Lesniak:YeahAllan Viernes:An I never thought much of it, you know I was in the combat arms and when you're in the infantry or you know airborne and all that stuff you know it was a lot of no pain no gain. You know and you know so I never thought about you know telling anyone about it until when I got out of the army I out-processed and I went through a series of you know testing that they do for all of you know service member leaving and it was found out that I had PTSD from that situationJeremy Lesniak:SureAllan Viernes:And the doctor was kind of surprised that, they said that PTSD can really you know knock a soldier down and when he found out that I was in martial arts he said that that's the key martial arts was a self-medicating thing for me because if I didn't have it he said you would've been much worse, because that caused me to get in front of people, it caused me not to hide in the corner, it caused me you know to I mean be the leader that I am and so you know I can thank the martial arts because I have other friends that have PTSD and you can see the you know the I guess you can say the difference and so in terms of a low point I mean that was a low point but at the same time martial arts really helped me overcome that. Yes, I still go to I guess you can say counselling you know at first, I was embarrassed about saying counselling and stuff like that but now I look at it and say you know it's something that you know any of the veterans that have PTSD that's you know something that we need to do and for me to be able to talk about it now, it's evident that you know with martial arts and counselling it's helped me kind of overcome that.Jeremy Lesniak:Wow that's quite a story and I appreciate you sharing it, your honesty certainly came through and I kind of felt like I was there with you on a couple of points you were talking about being underwater I noticed I was sort of holding my breath. So that's wow I don't know what else to say, wow is really the only word I think that. Suffices`Allan Viernes:Yeah, it's even though it happened way back like I said '78, it's still fresh in my mind you know it's still fresh like god you know you would think that I would forget it after these years but it's still fresh in my mind and I only wish that those other you know members of the team would've made it. It was one Korean soldier and 2 other American soldiers and we were all friend and you know it's an unfortunate situation.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah and maybe kind of fitting that we're recording this just a couple of days after Memorial Day.Allan Viernes:YesJeremy Lesniak:Not that we planned it in this way, I certainly didn't know this story when we started talking but yeah, it's, thank you for sharing that certainly. So, let's pull it back a little bit maybe we can go back to the happier side. Think about the people that you have in your life that have been instrumental in your martial arts upbringing in your career and let's take out your instructors and who kind of rises to the top as the one that was the most influential?Allan Viernes:Well that wasn't, no problems hands down are my grandma. Unfortunately my mom and dad divorced when I was pretty young and so I ended up living with my grandma and when I was going to you know the dojo you know living in Hawaii you know picture the setting it's 80 degrees year round, nice ocean breeze, the beach is always inviting, surf is always up you know and anytime I had classes there is always a friend, or friends that were heading to the beach and they would always ask me if I want to go and I always ask my Grandma you know if I could instead of going to the dojo can I go to classes and my grandma from Day 1 was always saying no you must go to the dojo and when you're done your classes the beach will always be there and I remember her telling me this and I tried and tried and tried but you know I looked now and I looked back and I think wow if my grandma would let me go the beach one time then it would have been second time, third time and it wasn't the problem of going to the beach or the issue of going to the beach it was the issue of whenever there was classes at the dojo something else came up but my grandma made sure that I went to classes and you know I don't care who we are. If you want to learn, one of the best place to do it is hands on in the dojo and you know without that right there I would have not been the person I am today. I probably would have not gotten the benefit of you know my grandma ensuring that I was dedicated and teaching me what commitment was you know because today I see a lot of kids that are so involved in so many things and they love the dojo but in the dojo, is always put to the back burner and they don't get the full benefit of what the dojo is about and you know so my grandma I mean there is no doubt in my mind.Jeremy Lesniak:Cool, yeah, she, wished that she lived long enough to see that you made martial arts such a big part of your life?Allan Viernes:Yes, in fact she was able to come and visit the dojo back in 1996. She actually came up from Hawaii and this is after I became GM and of course the dojo was at the very early stages but you know she was able to you know see that and you know it's I wish she was still around because she was really really ahead of her time.Jeremy Lesniak:Great, nice you know I think for just about everyone that starts young and continue through the martial arts that had a point where they need somebody in their life and it's almost always a family member.Allan Viernes:YesJeremy Lesniak:That kind of pushed them through and I was lucky enough to have that in my mother and you certainly had that with your GM so that's great. So, let's talk about competition a bit, have you done any martial arts competition.Allan Viernes:Well yesJeremy Lesniak:You mentioned the trip to Italy.Allan Viernes:Yes, in fact well you know even before that when I was in the army I competed full contact in Europe we had a team called the Army Karate team and the Army Karate team like if you go to Europe there's an Army Karate team, if you go to Asia there's an Army Karate team so there's different segments you know what I'm saying.Jeremy Lesniak:YeahAllan Viernes:So, the Army Karate team that we had was out of Germany and we had like a 12-member team all different martial arts styles and you know we're all black belts and I fought full contact and when I say full contact it was probably as close as you can get to Kyoshan karate which is the bear knuckle fighting.Jeremy Lesniak:YeahAllan Viernes:And that's what I did for 3 years and then when I left the army I had a choice: would I open up a full contact school or would I go to a more traditional setting and I really thought about this and at that point I said you know what I want to go to a traditional setting so that's what I did I kind of changed over and I did compete you know in your regular Ippon tournaments you know I went to Italy, I went to Hungary and I went to couple other I guess you can say so called world championships and I had fun I mean you know the first several years in Ippon when I first came on to Ippon I competed quite a bit to include judging and you know as I got older start taking a toll but the thing is I did, I competed because I wanted my students to see that whether I won or lost that I could go out there and do it honorably and you know it's tough because you know here I am a GM and nobody wants to think of a GM not winning but on the same token is that you know it's up to the judges and as long as I know I win in there and did my best and you know I was happy with that.Jeremy Lesniak:Sure it's a wonderful lesson to share with your students and it's something that I've heard a number of times from a number of masters that the primary reason they compete is to teach their students lesson or to inspire them to work a little harder or something and for listeners that may not be local to the New England area the Ippon tournaments that Doshu's speaking of, it's the, it's a circuit it's a New England circuit and I'll have a link to that in the show notes if anybody wants to look up a little bit more information on them. So, you've already trained with a bunch of different people, great people all over the world but if you could train with anybody, be they living or dead, who would that be and why?Allan Viernes:Well, number 1 will be Bruce Lee.Jeremy Lesniak:OkayAllan Viernes:And why, because Bruce Lee was he was the person that really well let's take a step back. Years ago, when an American would say take martial arts regardless of what style what instructor, a lot of times he or she wasn't shown all of the techniques. They will only show so much. Bruce Lee was the number 1 individual who said yeah you know what when I teach someone I'm going to teach them everything that I know and I really liked that I mean his attitude or his you know belief in this did because people to resent him but he stood his ground and you know the way I look at it. If you're going to teach martial arts and especially if someone wants to move up the ranks and earn a black belt, they're definitely going to have to learn everything and that's one of my you know main reasons and of course he was also an awesome martial artist himself.Jeremy Lesniak:And I think there are some parallels to be drawn between Jeet Kun Do and Jukado would you agree?Allan Viernes:YesJeremy Lesniak:The pulling together of different styles.Allan Viernes:Yes, it is yes.Jeremy Lesniak:Was there any inspiration early on, was that to that plan to any of your mother's decisions as she was forming the style?Allan Viernes:Yup it definitely has I mean you know and I know it has because you know Bruce Lee was a very prominent figure especially growing up I mean he still is today but I don't think a lot of the younger martial artist realize that you know as much as when we were growing up but yes that affected you know the choices that my mom made in reference to Jukado.Jeremy Lesniak:Interesting, that's really cool. Yeah there are a lot of people today you know the kid’s kind of coming up even if their coming up in the martial arts that don’t seem to know who Bruce Lee is so when whistlekick goes to event we'll often play old Bruce Lee films and it's funny the kids will come up you know is that Jackie Chan is that Jet Li.Allan Viernes:Yes, yes.Jeremy Lesniak:You know they don't know who he is it's kind of a bit of a personal mission to spread Bruce Lee to the younger generation. Here's a great transition so he was clearly a wonderful martial arts practitioner as well as an actor. Do you have a favorite martial arts movie? Be it from Bruce Lee or someone else?Allan Viernes:Well I actually really loved the Karate Kid.Jeremy Lesniak:Which one? The original or the remake.Allan Viernes:The original Karate Kid, I really really loved that because I used that a lot in our teaching or in making you know examples or references because you know in the original Karate Kid you had the school that you know all the fighters came from and then you had Mr. Miyagi and you know you look at him, he's humble and it looks like he couldn't hurt a fly and you know so I use it in reference you know like when I do school talks, I meet with teachers or I you know talking to parents I said this is the dojo that Mr. Miyagi comes from. We're not here to use Jukado inappropriately, we're not you you know because sometimes my kids will come from school and say you know these kids said that their style is better and this and that and I said listen I said that's okay it's not hurting us you know I said if you want to be proud of your style then put the effort to it you know and so I really used that a lot because that's a really you know it applies to today you know so I just love the Karate Kid. I always recommend them going to watch it because the lessons that it shows you you know it again it applies to what is happening today.Jeremy Lesniak:Absolutely. I couldn't agree more, it's one of my favorite films as well. Is there a favorite actor? favorite martial arts actor?Allan Viernes:Jean Claude van Damme, yeah, he's pretty inspiring I mean you know from his physical fitness you know I don't know he just has it all.Jeremy Lesniak:I was surprised that I was just reading something this morning, he's still making movies. There's another movie coming out this year, of course his films aren't quite as prominent as they were in the late 80s and early 90s but he's been making movies for quite a long time. That's fantastic.Allan Viernes:Yeah, it's amazing, he's still doing it and in his famous 33:36 you know.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah well, I don't even remember what it was for but there was the TV commercial last year with him doing the split between 2 semi-trucks.Allan Viernes:Yes, and then as a 33:50 to that Chuck Norris did the one with the airplanes.Jeremy Lesniak:Right, right.Allan Viernes:That was neat.Jeremy Lesniak:That was neat. How about books? Are you a reader any?Allan Viernes:Well you know I have read books. One book that kind of stands is the Book of 5 rings, I really like that I actually have the book on tape because again it really relates to life there. There's you know I think it's a good thing for a martial artist to you know listen to. The reason I have it on tape is that being that you know we travel to tournaments could be half hour tournaments could be a 3, 4, 5-hour tournament and I like to reflect back and it kind of keeps me grounded. It brings me back to my root and make me you know not forget you know there's so many good things, there's so many phrases that it's amazing this is someone that was back you know way before our time and how their teaching applies to us today.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah, it's you know that book is one that's come up through several interviews and it's one that I have to admit I haven't read yet. So, it's on my list I'm going to get there soon.Allan Viernes:Yes,Jeremy Lesniak:So, you've clearly already accomplished quite a bit through your martial arts career. You know you've had the kind of martial arts life that I think most anyone not just proud of but deeply honored to have but do you have any further goals? Anything that you're working towards?Allan Viernes:Yes, I do. Well when I became GM, I had 3 goals set on and I wrote it down and I placed it next to my night stand so I could see it, I could see it and see it. Number 1 was to promote Jukado locally and globally and meaning by going to different martial art events throughout the world so I've been doing that and that's going to be a you know a continually ongoing goal. Number 2 was to get a permanent location because you know then I can set my roots down so we my wife and I were fortunate to be able to buy this building that we're at. It's 2 floors of 5000 square feet on each floor. But you know when you buy a pre-existing building you go with the set up that's there, I wish I could just design it myself but you know what what can you say you know what I mean and that's one thing about martial arts, it kind of teaches you to you know adapt to the situation and we're we just you know made some major renovations back in April and someday I have to invite you down so you can kind of see my space I guess you can say.Jeremy Lesniak:Oh, that would be great.Allan Viernes:But the one goal that I am getting ready to embark on is to write a book on Jukado and it's because it's important I mean you know I am the second GM in the lineage of Jukado. My mom is the founder of Jukado and so my goal is to write a book especially while my mom is still alive and you know and I think it will be good for the, for our art I mean we are a very young art but on the same token is that you know every good thing has to had a start you know and you know so like you know Jukado was established 1972 just like Coke, 1972. Just like the price is right, 197 oh good stuff here you know what I mean.Jeremy Lesniak:That's right.Allan Viernes:No but my goal now is to write a book on Jukado and I actually have a good friend who's an author and she is going to be guiding me along and it's probably going to be like a 1-2-year time frame but that's my goal right there.Jeremy Lesniak:I think that's great you know one of the things growing up in Karate you know none of the founders of any of the ancient arts really put anything down in writing and then as I moved to Vermont I started training in Taekwondo and of course Taekwondo was a younger art and the founder not only wrote some things down, he wrote quite a bit down, and it's been really interesting to see how that has affected the art. It's kept something much truer to what his vision was and you know if that's at all one of your goals I think writing a book would serve very well towards making sure that the founding principles weren't just passed down but straight from the horse’s mouth.Allan Viernes:Well not to interject but, one of the other things that I did for Jukado and this is as a result of being in the army you know I have seen a lot of styles with great instructors and for some unfortunate reason they passed away and there are no guidelines like who takes over and I've seen dojos rip apart because you have people say no I'm in charge, I'm in charge. You know what I'm saying and so I came up with an official Jukado chain of command in the event of my you know, that and I you know the Jukado chain of command will take over and so that our style for whatever we have you know it's not going to because people to fight each other and say like who's in charge, who's this, who's that so I have an official Jukado chain of command for the sole purpose of that and you know because I've seen to many situations happen and I got to thank the military for that because you know this has caused me to you know it's like having a will you know something happens you don't have that will then you leave everything up to the state, you know and so I'm really happy that I have the Jukado chain of command because you know their job or the job the Jukado chain of command is to carry Jukado on to the next century.Jeremy Lesniak:I think that's a fantastic idea and it's one that hopefully school owners and GMs will put into place after hearing this. It's not something any of us want to talk about. I came from working in IT for many many years and of course in technology having things documented is important because if you're the only one with the passwords and you get hit by a truck everyone's in the lurch and this is maybe a little less concrete but I'd say even more important.Allan Viernes:Yes, it's and you know nobody wants to think about the unfortunate but you know life is too precious here and things can change in a moment and you know it's the same as having insurance. You hope you never have to use that insurance but you know something ever happens you have it.Jeremy Lesniak:Well just one final question for you, I mean not that you haven't shared a tremendous amount of wonderful advice already but do you have any parting words for the people listening.Allan Viernes:Yup, basically especially to the parents I mean you know if your child is in martial arts you know I understand that there is so many sports that our kids are involved in but one of the things that martial arts is going to teach them is that time management. You know I have a lot of kids playing sports and I tell them I said you know or to the parents that if they can come to that one classes a week that keeps the connection to the dojo and believe it or not it's going to teach them the time management so that when they're off into college and they have a number of things to do without mom and dad hovering over them that's where martial art training is going to kick in. So, you know that is my advice of course I have so much more advise but on the same toke is that the one thing I want to leave it with is that, kids don't quit martial arts, parents quit. Once the parents quit, then the kids will quit and I know you know and I'm not here to I know some people might but that's the you know a 5-year-old doesn't quit just the parents can quit and once the parents feel that well is you know they're not going to go then yes, the kids fill follow through.Jeremy Lesniak:That's wonderful advice, yeah, I've never thought of it in that way but you're absolutely right.Allan Viernes:But you know again you know it's I love martial arts, I love that we have so many other different styles I love the tournaments, I you know I love working with the kids you know I wouldn't change anything.Jeremy Lesniak:Cool, well now it's your turn to kind of tell us what's going on you know if somebody wants to get a hold of you or is interested in what you've got going on how do they get a hold of you.Allan Viernes:Well 2 things if someone is interested in finding out more about Jukado, we do have a Jukado website it's www.jukado j u k a d o u s a .com I also have the 19th annual friendship tournament coming up on June 20th, this is a Ippon rated event they'll be held in Gorham, Maine at the University of Southern Maine, the sports center. This is an all styles all rank martial arts tournament and if someone would like to you know try something different come on down, we're a couple of weeks away if you need information you know you can always call 207 854 9408 and ask for me Doshu Allen or Allen.Jeremy Lesniak:Okay great and so this episode actually will get released before your tournament, we usually have a couple of weeks of lead time but we're recording this early enough that we can get that out so that's great and we'll have links to all that stuff and anything else that you and I may talk about once we stop the interview in the show notes on the website of course at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. So yeah this has been great I really appreciate your time Doshu and thank you for being here on whistlekickMartialArtsRadio.Allan Viernes:Well thank you for having me Jeremy.Jeremy Lesniak:Thanks for listening to this episode of whistlekickMartialArtsRadio. See what I mean about the honesty? 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