Episode 27: Mr. Cecil Washington
Mr. Cecil Washington: Episode 27
"You can get a lot of benefits out of the martial arts. Just do them, you don't even have to be a champion."
Cecil Washington
Today's episode is with Mr. Cecil Washington, founder of the blended martial arts style of Cecil Ryu. Mr. Washington trains and teaches in Maryland. His background is diverse, with training primarily in Taekwondo and Judo. As passionate about the martial arts as any of our previous guests, Mr. Washington and I had a good chat, and one that went on quite a bit longer than what we recorded. I thoroughly enjoy talking to our guests, especially when they have interesting things to say. This conversation was full of wonderful tangents, the best reading list yet from a guest as well as wonderfully entertaining stories, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.~jeremy]
Show Notes
Movies: The Karate Kid, Street Fighter (Animated TV Series), Street Fighter II: The Animated MovieActor: Michael Jai WhiteBooks: A Killing Art: The Untold History of Tae Kwon Do, Taekwon-do: The art of self-defence, Kodokan Judo: The Essential Guide to Judo, Taekwondo Grappling Techniques: Hone Your Competitive Edge for Mixed Martial Arts, Bouncer's Guide to Barroom Brawling: Dealing with the Sucker Puncher, Streetfighter, and Ambusher, Cheap Shots, Ambushes, And Other Lessons: A Down And Dirty Book On Streetfighting & Survival, The Little Black Book of Violence: What Every Young Man Needs to Know About Fighting, Fighter's Fact Book 2: Street Fighting Essentials Cecil Washington's Cecil Ryu Facebook Page, Website & TwitterAnd, for those of you that have listened to the episode, you'll understand why this video is here. :)
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below or download here.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hey there everyone and thanks for checking us out it's episode 27 of whistlekickMartialArtsRadio and we're the only place you can hear the best stories from the best martial artists. I'm your host Jeremy Lesniak and I'm also the founder of whistlekick, makers of the world's best sparring gear as well as awesome apparel and accessories all for traditional martial artists. I'd like to welcome our new listeners and thank those of you combing back to the show. Don't forget our great products like our ever-popular base layer, no sweat t-shirt. It's great for wearing under your uniform out to the gym or whatever you're doing and now it's available in even more colors and you can find more information about the no sweat shirt and the rest of our products over at whistlekick.com. All of our past podcast episodes show notes for this one and a lot more can be found over the different website whistlekickmartialartsradio.com and while you're on our website sign up for our newsletter. But now to today's episode, on episode 27 here we're joined by Mr. Cecil Washington he's a lifelong martial artist and founder of the blended style Cecil Ryu. Mr. Washington has extensive martial arts background, primarily in Judo and Taekwondo. Based in Maryland, Mr. Washington has lived a life full of passion for the arts and that really comes through in our conversation. He shared some awesome stories and I really enjoyed speaking with him and with that. Mr. Washington, welcome to whistlekickMartialArtsRadio.
Cecil Washington:
Well thanks for having me.
Jeremy Lesniak:
IT's great to have you here. So, I wanna know more about you, so we've exchanged some emails but unlike a lot of the guests that we've had on the show I don't know anything about you and so I'm gonna guess that a lot of the listeners don't know much about you so why don't you tell us how you got started in the martial arts?
Cecil Washington:
Well I technically got started in the martial arts when I, I'm thinking I might have been 3 or 4 years old. All I do know is I was too young to be on the mat but apparently my mother took us to Tucker Road Community Center Fort Washington, Maryland and we took Judo lessons there from Edwin Takemori and I'm saying this because I barely remember it, I kind of remember going there and being told 02:26 being told you can't you shouldn't be doing this you're too young and I get I remember being mad about it and I must have learned something or done some stuff because when I would get into fights later the judo throws would show up and I thought I was making these things up. So, the reason why my mother put us in Judo is because our cousin, he's GM Lawrence Ford they used to work together he told her it would be a good idea to put your kids in martial arts 02:58 and so you know to a lot of people everything's karate.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Cecil Washington:
So, she put us in judo and one thing I do remember is I know there was one night I didn't go with the rest of the family I guess I had school or something I took a nap or something and my mother came home and she was upset and now I know what happened because some of the people that was there I ended up working with later anyway, it was night that my sister threw my mother in Ippon Seoi Nage, that's a big one arm shoulder throw.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah
Cecil Washington:
And she landed pretty hard and that ended my mother's judo career. But what I did pick up there was the first 4 throws in the in the judo set. I have to fast forward a little bit, there was a guy in my neighborhood, he was dating a lady that lived two houses down and the area that I grew up in I don't really call it suburban it's more like sub suburban, it was like really rural 04:05 few houses back in the woods back then and he was dating her and you know I've watched you know kung fu theater whenever on TV and I hardly do karate so I used 04:15 and so he showed me basically he called dragon fly was really the 3 levels of punching. But he showed me 3 levels of punching and he showed me front kick and side kick and he tried to show me a round house kick but whenever I did that I would fall. And what really got me in a formal classes was one day I think I was a freshman in high school when I was being picked on by this sophomore. He was smaller than me but he knew something I think it must have been some type of capoeira right. So, he pulled a knife on me the day before when I was on a bus and put it to my ear from behind to like intimidate me and stuff right. I was scared at first but then I got angry but I'm and I knew better than try to attack the body that's got a knife. So, I went home and being typical stupid teenager I didn't tell my mother, what's wrong, nothing. So, I should have said 05:11 my mother, my brother knew something was wrong but he let 05:14. So when I go back to school I hide out waiting for the guy to go to his locker cause somebody told me he always puts his knife in a locker. So, I wait for him to put the knife away and then I confront him and I intimidate him and I told him you know I 05:31 leave me alone right. So instead of letting that go, being an adolescent monkey doing the monkey dance. I don't know if you've heard that term before, so I decide to attack the guy but he was clearly leaving cause I thought he's gonna go and get his brother when 05:49 and so I go to attack the guy and I get kicked in the face, then I tried to grab him I get kicked in the face again and the next thing I know this guys is kicking me all up in my face and chest and everything. He's doing a bunch of stuff 06:05 ground I know is like some type of capoeira type of movements and I was pretty much done but then he stopped to gloat. He stopped just enough for me to shake it off so I just grabbed him, slammed him up against the wall 06:23 I kept hitting him and hitting him and hitting him and hitting him and hitting him and hitting him and hitting him and until the principal and vice principal come over there and the principal I didn't know the principal knew jujitsu at the time that's how he was able just to get me off at one arm and the vice principal comes over there and we you know he's 06:44 me the right act above me abusing my martial arts I'm like what are you talking about, what martial arts. So, I beat this one guy up right that knew martial arts so I'm thinking I don't need it but when I went home I kept thinking you know you only beat that guy because you were bigger than him. What are you gonna do if it's somebody that's just our size, you think that's gonna work? I kept thinking of over and over and over again and so I think about a month later I started well I started pestering my mother to put me in martial arts classes. Until she finally puts me in a martial arts class and
Jeremy Lesniak:
I just wanna jump in for a second there, did she know what happened at school 07:28 Yeah, she knew what happened of course she knew what happened, she absolutely knew what happened and she got on my case because I should've told her what happened, what happened a day before and I should have because I had solved the problem 07:44 but you know pride kicked in and so I kept telling her you know I wanna take lessons 07:50 she's like why do you wanna take martial arts lesson when you beat somebody that knew the martial arts. I said no I wanna do it 07:57 only won because he was so small and what if somebody bigger than me whatever so she finally fine right so she signed me up for a class. She didn't wanna sign me up for a class cause I used to have, have you heard of open gym when they let people come in. They had an open gym at the community center and she said I don't know if I really want you doing this because some of these kids they'd go to open gym that kinda rough and I think they're gonna give you a hard time 08:20 you want the karate class and of course I thought I knew better than my mother and I said no mom that won't happen right and of course that's exactly what happened. So, I get there, I get to class and mind you I had only learned one kick that night that I could really do, we went over front, front kick, step side kick which I couldn't do and round house kick which when I would do I would wobble or fall.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Cecil Washington:
So here comes the next day and I get into it with this other guy and this guy I found out worked out the we were in 09:00 over Maryland but he moved out to the country where I was and he knew how to box, he used to work out of Sugar Ray Gym. So, he tries to get me 09:14 no I'm not gonna get into it you know my mother told me not to get in any fights whatever so I'd go to walk off the bus and he confronts me and he won't leave me alone right, so he's standing in front of me and I remember I said one of dumbest things you could say what, what are you gonna do are you gonna hit me? And he cracked me so hard I swear, my eyes went up to the sky you know how in the cartoons they show the little stars and little birds, I saw stars or something and so I shook it off and I thought of fighting this guy and I only knew one kick but I did it over and over and over and over and over and over and over till he's on the ground and then I kept kicking him and then I got on top of him to do what we now call you know from MMA ground and pound right. Now if you can tell your listeners this is why you don't to ground and pound in the street his brother ran up and he kicked me in the mouth. I still had my teeth because apparently from that judo I don't remember 10:18 I rolled I'm serious I rolled out of the kick and came up in like guard.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Wow.
Cecil Washington:
And I was surprised I did it right? and so I yelled at him yahhh right just to block and then the principal I told you the principal was a jujitsu master, he came over there an he's standing in front of me right, now I know he's standing that he's probably thinking you’re gonna have the just do some type of simple deflections if you try to get me down so you're gonna hold me down and then he looked at me and I looked at him and then we had this sort of non-verbal conversation and where I basically said please help me get me out of here 10:58 and so he takes me to the office and he goes into this long diatribe again about how you're abusing your martial arts, now it's like I don't know what you're talking about I only took one lesson and he said well maybe you took it and you were too young to remember taking it and 11:20 but that was when I first got started with formal lessons. I went about 3 years of John Hawkins for his tiger he called it Tiger Hawk Karate it was his own style that he apparently created from what he studied Okinawan karate and Taekwondo and then he stopped teaching and then I went on a Tang Soo Do on a David Dorsey. He was teaching that in another community center. And he used his technique I still remember how just flawless his technique was. He was only a show it on but I swear he looked like about a fifth sixth degree, just impeccable forms and everything and it was only years later when I had stopped for a while and I went back I started looking for classes again I was about 24, I went to a judo class and I got thrown in Tomoe Nage but I knew how to land and first hand 12:19 was teaching a class at the time. She's mad the brown belt throwing me Tamoe Nage but the brown belts arguing with her saying look I could tell he knew something you look at how he landed he knew how to land for it and as though she tells me that she recommends going up 12:34 class up I think that was at Wakeville community center and when I went there that's when I saw Mr. Takemori. So that's basically how I got started in the martial arts as you know I've been bullied someone has suggested to my mother that we take it, she was reluctant but then you know this guy's getting in a fight so I'm only just giving him something to hopefully also discourage me and it didn't discourage me it just made me want to do the martial arts more.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure, and it you know I'm listening to you tell this and I'm it's reminding of some things that I went through 13:15 and I'm sure things that a lot of listeners can relate to but what I'm struck by is your attitude throughout that you know what seems very realistic you know it doesn't have that kind of Hollywood polished that I think a lot of martial arts feel compelled to put on top of their stories. You were bullied you asserted yourself. You were not just looking out for yourself in that moment but you were trying to if I may speculate or you were trying to make sure that you weren't gonna have to deal with this everyday which I think is quite often the story and what we're encouraged to do as kids in martial arts is you know knit the reluctance to use it is so strong that I've seen kids wait too long and I wish more people and I hope more people hear stories like yours and I'm gonna guess you didn't have any issues after that day. Am I completely off base?
Cecil Washington:
Oh man now I have more issues.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh okay.
Cecil Washington:
Oh man, I have to see cause it was I had the guy who was the one the capoeira whatever that was he was the one. I was probably kicking and knocking or knocking or kicking have you ever heard of that style?
Jeremy Lesniak:
No.
Cecil Washington:
It's actually African American martial art, it's you could consider it a stick 14:46 because a lot of people 14:48 that a lot of people that were doing it to either were secretive about it don't tell people or they just pretty much folded in the Taekwondo because Taekwondo kinda does a lot of the same stuff and then after that there was another guy and say I didn't know that there was a kid who went around telling people oh Cecil said this about you, Cecil said that about you right so some of these people who wanna fight me and I'm like why are these people fighting me and fortunately for me a bunch of other people figured it out that I was being lied on cause they said I've never heard him say anything. So, I got into the fight with the other guy, him and his cousin that gut hit me with brass knuckle oh my god that hurts.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh man
Cecil Washington:
He was on to something, I had to do one I had to like basically when he knocked me on the ground I picked his leg out from under him and I basically had him fall so that his head hit the concrete and that stopped him, it was him and his cousin and then there was another guy who he was like, you know how you have those 18 year olds who were like someone in 10 grade my god I think that was the last high school one where he just pretty 16:08 I guess wanted to just try me out and I was under Mr. Dorsey by then so but my technique was a lot cleaner but I was still only like I might have been a green belt 16:20 so I had to start all over in Tang Soo Do, so I was still maybe green blue belt level 16:25 and he knew how to box very well so my face was torn up but I tried to I'll box the boxer and I said no I had enough of it cause you know how some people try to shame a Taekwondo person, well you guys can't do this kick rick you guys don't have any hands and I'm like 15 he's 18 and then I realized this guy is shorter than me so I just backed up and kept kicking him in the chest. I kicked him in the chest like 3 times and then he started shaking a little bit. So then from out of nowhere my mother comes, she pushes she must have learned something she just didn't tell me she pushed us well off out the way she hit him in the arm with a stick she had in her hand, I'm like why are you doing that and the whole time to he has his dog outside trying to tag me too so I’m like kicking at the dog to fight him and I was like you're embarrassing me mom you know she was like you were killing him
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah
Cecil Washington:
I was like no I wasn't she said you yes you were killing him if you'd kicked him 2 more times he would be dead and his parents came out there right and I don't know how she got a hold of it but I swear Jeremy she had his like a 17:39 for the guy his wrapped 17:41 I think she got it from a police and she said if you say anything I'm calling the cops and I'm gonna haul your son off in jail 17:50 he's an adult he's fighting a minor I never had any more troubles on him after that or anyone else after that not in high school that was done. It was only years later that I found out that yes, my mother was right I was killing him because if you hit someone in that part of the chest where I was kicking him you know the dim mak rule 3 to knock down 4 to knock out 5 to kill have you ever heard that
Jeremy Lesniak:
I haven't I mean I've heard somethings about dim mak but educate me.
Cecil Washington:
Well cause I'm not a Dim mak expert I'm definitely a dim mak novice but I do remember it's supposed to be if you hit 3 pressure points in a correct sequence it stuns someone if you hit 4 pressure points or whatever in correct sequence it knocks them down, if it's 5 or more you could possibly kill the person.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Cecil Washington:
There's not some type of mystery you know people try to make it out these on a pseudo mythical thing. This thinking everybody has what do you think would happen to you if I hit you five times in your temple what do you think would happen to you?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'm probably going down.
Cecil Washington:
Yeah, you'd probably die of some kind of hemorrhage or something, right? So, it's pretty much the same thing.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay I've witnessed some impressive stuff with the use of pressure points that we won’t get in to but I've seen enough to certainly lend some credence to what you're saying.
Cecil Washington:
Alright I mean and I mean I'm kicking the guy in the chest I mean it's not like and I was because you know we'd set up the bag and we were hitting the bag I'm hitting him in the same spot each time I probably could have killed a guy at least or in a hospital and I found out that cause I didn't see him at school for a couple of days after that I found out he had been bed ridden for like 2 days for me kicking him so hard in the chest.
Jeremy Lesniak:
How did you feel as a kid you know at 15 hearing that?
Cecil Washington:
You know you think I would feel like I was relieved I would feel like I was you know Mr. Bad A I was just scared and just relieved and kinda worried you know all that cause I didn't in one hand I didn't want the guy to bother me anymore then I was like worried you know could I have killed this guy I mean I don't know you know I had a whole mixture and flooded emotions.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well that's I've gotta say you've got the most colorful answer to that question of any guest that we've had to date but I wanna take a step forward so there's a lot of stories you just told us I mean you wove them together very well and I'm just you know really compelled listening to you so I'm gonna guess you have a lot of other stories.
Cecil Washington:
Yep
Jeremy Lesniak:
And you sound like a great story teller already so why don't you tell us your best martial arts story?
Cecil Washington:
Let me see I got a million, I will say the best one is the one I always like to tell people and nobody believed it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay. I was in the military, I had pretty much stopped practicing martial arts I would still stretch though once I get that habit of stretching at me and I actually got that habit of stretching of me from my mother have you ever heard about Jack Lalaine?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah
Cecil Washington:
She had these Jack Lalane books and she made it a game and she would show me the picture and I would try to get in a pose and so I was just I was still stretching out my lower body I didn't really do much from upper body and I was a marine 21:09 so I think this was about 89 and we're going in when you do reserve boot camp back then because I was basically they call them college recruits so I did the first part of basic training right in the summer then it's back to a year being a normal person and then the second part of basic training which was your school, your they call it 21:35 when you’re not on your military job
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right
Cecil Washington:
So I was supposed to be pencil pusher, supply clerk right and so one day I'm coming from trial hall and I hear a bunch of rockets and I see 3 guys over there arguing and it was 2 guys arguing with this other guy and the other guy was a grand guy who learned Taekwondo from his father, I didn't know that and his name Min and these 2 other guys one guy Pantoja 22:05 , this other guy Divine, they were Divine was a kickboxer guy and Pantoja is a karate guy and so you know the ordeal they're saying oh Korean martial arts suck right? You can't use that on the streets it sucks, Korean martial arts sucks, it's just a bunch of little kiddie stuff right and Min is getting really really pissed and I know at this point he's getting extraordinarily pissed about it. So, I said yeah, I did a little bit of Taekwondo back in the days it's like where did you learn Taekwondo he said from my father. I said guys you might wanna leave this one alone, right? They go oh shut up Washington shut man you don't know what you're talking about. I'm like okay fine so he said you know what I'll give you guys a lesson right? And I'm I was stupid I'm thinking you know ohh we're gonna go over some kicks and punches right and I said can I get in a lesson too, he's oh you want a lesson too big boy this man came up till like my chin so he's yelling up at me. You want lesson fine I give all three of you a lesson, come here tomorrow 23:16 right and somehow, I got back to the first story so I didn't know he was standing up there watching so I got there as well we we're on lunch break I got there at 12 a man standing there he's mad he's putting this bomb on his arms like some type of sticky bomb. He rolled up his sleeve right he's like yeah, I'm gonna show them a really let me show you guys a real lesson. He said you're ready for your lesson I was like yeah okay and so then I started taking off my boots and he's like what are you doing I said we were gonna do Taekwondo right? He goes yeah okay, he goes like yeah okay so I started taking off my boots he goes oh you don't wanna hurt me? I was like what am I gonna hurt you for you've never done anything to me but when I take my boots off he said no no no no okay okay okay I'll tell you what leave your boots on I said I'm not gonna kick at you with my boots because I don't wanna hurt you he said no no no leave your boots on, he's like well my kicks are slow anyway but especially with these boots on but come on man he's like then he insists like no leave your boots on I'm gonna show you something. So, I said okay then the other 2 guys get there you know and they're still laughing ah yeah whatever right, Korean martial arts pfff he said okay attack me and we looked at each other and we looked at him and like what? He said all 3 of you attack me, and we're like what like okay everybody goes serious? No attack me for real I'm gonna show you what Korean martial arts with you. It's like alright so we all went after him first he's like not there, and he's like just kinda do like a J line out of and we all kind of crashed in to each other and then they went after we're all going after with the same time and basically cause he had the bomb on his hand it was sticky, he's doing like stick sticky hand blocking and throwing people around and throwing everybody down. After about 7 seconds everybody has hit the ground but I'm the only one that rolled back up and he looks to me and he's like I can't believe you're still standing. I said I can't believe I'm still standing either. He said okay attack me so I kept attacking him he kept making me attack him and he told me to really come at him I still kept coming after him and he's just basically just pairing pairing or just moving just enough out the way for me to not hit him I said we're doing this this must probably went off about a minute and then he just like had this emotional catharsis breakdown and started talking about you know how he had to be in a gang he doesn’t want to be in a gang and then he cause he was like he was the only Korean in a Chinese neighborhood so he had to join a triathlon or something so he got in a military to get out of the triads. I've not even heard of like the triads of the Chinese gang and also some of my what? He's like I don't wanna do this anymore this is like for bad stuff and he's like and I started talking so and so I'm talking to everyone like you know maybe you could show yourself maybe you could use a stuff to teach like good people how to protect themselves from bad people right and he's going on and then the first start comes over there and he's yelling at him because apparently there had been some type of riot in like a couple of weeks before we got there so he thought this is gonna be a start another one and he's asking me do I want to press charges and I'm like I don't wanna press charges, nobody wants to press charges you know we had gentleman's agreement right and so I get to know this guy and I'm thinking I set the goal of mine here. Here's a guy that learned from his father and guess what happened he doesn't wanna share pretty much what he considered to be like the secrets or whatever with me but guess why he didn't you wanna take a guess?
Jeremy Lesniak:
He got transferred?
Cecil Washington:
No because I did not know the forms, he said this stuff is connected to your forms I was like well my first teacher didn't believe in forms which he didn't and I forgot in the second set the typical forms on the second teacher and he said go back and learn the forms and you'll get it eventually anyway.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay
Cecil Washington:
So, I don't learn the forms now how this is my best story because this hooks in to another story years later and I didn't even remember that but I was in a band and we had a rehearsal and one of the guys in the band got mapped and flipped out and he started yelling at everybody and he was intimidating everyone right and so I went over to him and it's like hey come over here and attack me right and so he comes at me and I'm moving just enough out of the way. First, I started circling and I'm like I've learned to do in high school and then I stopped and when he's coming at me I'm just moving just enough out of the way so that he can't touch me. It would be where I would block that I hid and block. I only had to make contact with him a couple of times but he got frustrated and ran off and everybody's going oh my god that was amazing where'd you learn to this. I'm like I don't know where I learned to do that. We get in the car after that I started thinking and thinking and thinking and my friend Billy, Billy does Tai Chi he was the leader of the band he's like come on you gotta think about where you learned that and I started thinking and then I realized I've learned that was what I learned Min. So, he I didn't even realize the guy had taught me something significant and he had and I think it was that was at that moment I started you know what I really need to go back and get the formal lessons. But that was what really got me back in the martial arts as an adult and that when I started looking for classes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well what I'm struck by listening to you tell that story I mean you know we're when we're talking for a little bit now and even before we started recording and that piece your exchange with this man was so vivid so clear I felt like I was there I could see it and even your language and the intensity of your speech came up as you were getting in to it and it's clear that that was really a transitional point for you when you spoke to it but even if you hadn't I think it would be pretty clear to everyone listening that that moment that minute that you were involved with him getting thrown around and seeing what martial arts you know really could be had quite an impact on you. How old were you at that point?
Cecil Washington:
I was like what 19.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay, so so young but certainly old enough to have some context and you had some martial arts background some life experience so you knew that there was more and so here this gentleman shows you more and it sounds like that kinda hooked you in.
Cecil Washington:
Yeah
Jeremy Lesniak:
Would you say that was if you had to pick a moment was that the moment?
Cecil Washington:
The moment it really hooked me in?
Jeremy Lesniak:
To martial arts yeah.
Cecil Washington:
I would say the moment that truly hooked me in and made me30:29 I knew I wasn't gonna go back was when I was in Tang Soo Do as an adult
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay
Cecil Washington:
And this was in tournament. I didn't really wanna, one of the bad things of actually having real fighting experiences you don't take tournaments as seriously as you should I think because you know it's just a game and because it's just a game you don't take advantage of it for the real battle you didn't have. But I was forced to with Calvin, guy is Calvin 30:58 I hope he hears this cause I've told him this before. Calvin was a brown belt but he's been a brown belt forever so he 31:05 fought probably like he was a master of others and I had to fight Calvin but I mean I really had to get better. I couldn't just rely on my speed and my strength and my flexibility I had to think. I had one match with Calvin cause we both were the finalist there was only one set of blows thrown, mine in his doing the entire 3-minute match and the only reason why I lost is just because of the angle. I came with a hook to the rib he came with a straight punch to his face I had slipped his punch but I didn't get my hook quite in there fast enough where the judges could see it and from the angle of all the judges he won but he had a better strategy. We spent that whole match stalking each other you know what I'm talking about.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, the dance.
Cecil Washington:
And he was I had to check me breathe, every time I would breathe he was feeling my breathing at the start breathing at one point and reposition I knew if I came too close I could feel him getting ready to come in and after he scored that point he just ran the clock out and that match so to prepare for that match I had to do so much soul searching and internal work man. He really made me work after that match I didn't even end up ultimately getting my first black belt in Tang Soo Do but after that match I said you know I have really, I gotta really do what that guy Min told me a long time ago I got really gotta keep it this stuff in order to get it and I like do it in the formal environment.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure, so tell us more about your time in competition like it was a good segue there. You mentioned that, that it was hard for you to take it seriously being that you had some real combat experience. Did that change for you?
Cecil Washington:
Yeah after a while, I only did I haven't really done a lot of competitions I only did some local a few locals here and there. I think what really changed competition for me was when I got in Judo. Now because in, when I was doing the karate type of taekwondo, Tang Soo Do type of sparring competition I will usually place 2nd, 3rd easy right it was really no big deal but when I got to do Judo I was not as good at Judo as I was at striking. So, when I got to Judo I could still first I was afraid of being thrown around because you know those throws it's like they hurt and which they do at times.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Cecil Washington:
But when I got to Judo there was a guy there named Taz, Taz is not competing anymore and Taz already had a black belt in Jujitsu and he wanted to learn Judo. So, every time he when I went out for competition Taz was there and I trained with Taz at the dojo too and a lot of times whenever we were matched up he'd win 2 and then I would win 1 and then he'd win 2 and then I would win 1 so I was like he was better than me but he forced me to adapt and so every time I would get better before he seem to get better to stay ahead. So, I had that experience with Taz and another guy showed up his name was Lemar and Lemar had a similar he had a similar type of background now he's like jujitsu, bjj and judo. I don't know if this guy in his bjj black belt yeah but he's going on to do some MMA and Lemar was another really good competitor. Lemarc, Jaz and Jeff, Jeff I think is a fourth or fifth degree in judo and whenever I had to match up with them I had to think it was just like sparring with Calvin. So, every time I would get better, I'd start creeping up on our heels then it would force him to do something else and then I adapt and then it force him to do something else. So I mean that was one time where I would I knew I was gonna lose a match if I ever went up against Lemar, Taz and I tied a couple of matches with Jeff but it made me better and it got to a point where I was like if I went to a Judo tournament if I didn't see them there I felt like I was 35:23. But just the pressure of trying to it's different than when you're just fighting out in the street or something you trying to defend yourself, you don't have to really have any control or a lot of skill, you gotta be skilled enough to survive but when you're talking about you've got xyz parameters and you have to fight at full intensity with those and can you still pull off what you have to do even though it's dangerous yet you're not trying to kill anybody 35:53 higher level of skill and just 35:56 .
Jeremy Lesniak:
I would agree, I would absolutely agree.
Cecil Washington:
But you can't tell a street fighter that though.
Jeremy Lesniak:
No, you can't. Well you can but it may make things worse.
Cecil Washington:
It's kind of a thing of one of my cousins used to call it you ain't fighting nobody. I think it I can see it's a trap where you could fall into when involved in competition world and also in quote unquote real world where you could really think you're great because you're beating a bunch of people but they're really aren't all that talented. And until you go against somebody that really knows what they're doing it's just like I had one amateur boxing match and I lost the match on paper but I knocked the winner out, the winner had to be taken out on a stretcher but when he threw up his hand to win the match he kept falling backwards and 36:53 Kevin that was doing another, that was doing the same part of Boot camp where I met Min cause 36:58 will tell me take me to take boxing and I said I don't get how I did that to somebody that was golden gloves you see 37:06 he ain't fighting nobody I said you don't understand these titles are from where they are in a little town, it doesn't mean they actually went up against anybody who knew anything I said well I didn't know boxing he said yeah but you had all these martial arts stuff that you did before and a boxing coach we had in boot camp too he did basically boxing and an internal Chinese 37:30 Bagua and Taichi he integrated that into his boxing which means you could punch the guy and he could absorb the punch and shoot him out into the ring.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's good stuff that's impressive stuff you know I've been lucky enough to see some of that in my day and I certainly don't know it and you know it's interesting as we're talking how rounded your background is I mean obviously we can always learn a lot more but you've I like to use this analogy that you know I'm sure you've played Trivial Pursuit you've got the little pie wedges, people call them and I like to say that what every time you train in a different style or with a different person you're adding another piece you know you're trying to round out that circle of course there's it's never full but you're always adding more in and as you're talking I'm hearing you know more and more pieces of that pie dropping in. So, we've heard a lot about your physical skills but I wanna know how the martial arts has made you a better person I mean we heard about you as a kid dealing some rough stuff, I'm sure that that changed you and I'm sure the martial arts has had an impact on all of those changes, so why don't you tell us a little bit about that?
Cecil Washington:
Well I think the martial arts has helped me to stay calm a lot of times to get out of situations and once thing I really should brag about is that because of my martial arts background when I start really started getting into IT we talked about IT and martial arts before the interview, I got picked to go install part of the wide area network for I don't know if you remember when CBS used to be people's drug.
Jeremy Lesniak:
No, we're going back a little bit
Cecil Washington:
We're going way back
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah
Cecil Washington:
We're going back like 90s maybe I say early 90s and I got picked to go on the calls too I ended up doing it all it was supposed to be a 3-phase installation basically uninstall the old system download a bunch of stuff from the wide area network and then install the new hardware and software and basically acceptance test it for the customer. I was only supposed to do the first part but I ended up doing all three because there were some of the neighborhoods around the South-Eastern DC and some parts of Maryland that people were the technicians were scared to go there and so I can't I got called in for an interview. It was this temp company you know how they have those temp companies that we find the techies and we form 40:19
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right
Cecil Washington:
And I went in for the interview and the woman said oh I had she said she had a hunch about me talking to me and I sat down in front of her and she kept looking at my hands right, she kept staring at my hands she kept looking at my knuckles. My knuckles were still dark from 40:37 and so she kept asking me what were your hobbies, what were you in to, what were your hobbies, what were you in to, and she just asked me had you ever done any karate in martial arts and I told her I had and she's like okay this guy is not gonna be scared to go into the areas and I said well I guess you think that because of marine courses she said no no no it's not cause of the marine course cause you're in martial arts and you know I had some I had someone at tech calls like at 3 or 4 in the morning and I wasn't scared you know martial arts has made me you know not afraid to go in the bad situations. I mean I just needed the money but it wasn't until years later till I drove by pass one of those stores where I knew I did an installation I was liked wow I really helped these people here, helped 4 people be able to have this same type of medical access these people on the suburbs I mean cause where I live my CBS has this nice beautiful you know lit up I don't have to worry about anything going out there and I think just the martial arts has given me the courage to keep going on. It's also made me able to you know take criticism from higher ups cause you know from you know from training you have to do that all the time.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Absolutely. Yeah if you can't handle criticism you're not gonna grow.
Cecil Washington:
No, you're not.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You're gonna you're just gonna kinda fall away or more likely you know you're just not gonna make it.
Cecil Washington:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know probably not even gonna make it to your first belt. So, it sounds like your martial arts background has had a lot of contributors. People that you've trained with people that you indirectly trained with or maybe even didn't trained with and we've heard about a couple of those and it actually sounds like the impact from those people might have been bigger than some of your formal instructors. But I'd like you to think of the person, the one individual outside of your instructors that you would say had the biggest impact in your martial arts career.
Cecil Washington:
You know I thought I'd have an answer for that. I will say it has to be if I can if I had to narrow down to just one I can't say my cousin Maurice GM Ford because he ended up being my instructor for a while. Even though he kinda behind the scenes kept nudging my mother to do it but one person would be my mother's boyfriend his name was Nick. Nick was a special forces when he was in the army and he didn't quite talk about everything that he did when he was over I think it was in a Korean war 43:28 some of that he always encourage me to keep training and one thing I got from Nick is about being responsible and sharing knowledge because he knew how to do all types of stuff, he's basically like like Rambo and I asked him to show me the stuff and he wouldn't do it and kept telling me you're not ready and I'm not gonna let you get yourself in trouble by abusing this stuff if I show it to you and he just kept sending me back to class, telling me to go back to class, telling me to go back to class and one thing he told me is like you know you're a very nice guy and a lot of people 44:03 gonna take that for weakness so then you're gonna have to learn a martial art just to be able to defend yourself against these wicked people. And he would say a lot of time he would talk about bluffing and things like that that he'd learn from when he was a gambler and how that apply to dealing with people and I told this story online remember, you've heard the song the gambler?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah
Cecil Washington:
He used to make me listen to that song. He swore everything he didn't know about dealing with people was written in that song and one thing that's definitely true is you gotta know when to walk away and know when to run and you never count your money when you're sitting at a table, somebody might wanna take it from you.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah you know it's funny you said that and I couldn't help it but you I'm actually gonna leave it in so listeners can hear it you know we had a little bit of a LOL right there, you were probably expecting me to 45:06 it I'm just running through the lyrics I mean I don't know a lot of Kenny Rogers songs but I know this one.
Cecil Washington:
Yeah everybody knows that one.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And everybody knows that song and yeah there's a lot of wisdom in that song for sure and that will probably be the first song the we'll link to in the show notes so that'll be fun.
Cecil Washington:
Yeah, he swore about a gambler man and my mother's song is sweet dreams 45:31
Jeremy Lesniak:
Is there martial arts wisdom in that song?
Cecil Washington:
She told me you need to listen to that song. I think she was probably thinking more about relationships but you know there is some wisdom in that when some of the students that you get. Some of them looking for something and some of them want to use you and if you're not careful some of them will wanna be used by you and some of the students they come in there trying to challenge you they want to abuse you some of them right they would just seem like 46:04 they wanna be abused.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, you're the first person to bring music in which I'm all for I'm a big music fan, completely unrelated to martial arts but I DJed for a while so music's a big part of my life but
Cecil Washington:
That's something I found too, like I found quite a few martial artists are also musicians. Like my friend Billy I told you about Billy is now he's pretty much professional drummer percussionist. He literally traveled around the world and studying the drum.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Cool
Cecil Washington:
Well he's not the first person that I've heard that was like martial artist/musician like they gotta give me my Taekwondo black belt 46:48 He's got a pretty good singing voice, he's got a pretty good voice and he plays the I think he plays the drums and the bass. He's also pretty funny too, I'd seen some of his comedy skits he's put on Facebook they're hilarious.
Jeremy Lesniak:
There definitely is a correlation between martial arts instructors and sense of humor. I don't know why there is and you know here we seem to be building a profile of maybe not typical but common martial arts instructors. You made reference too and I'll explain it now during our pre interview we were talking about how we one of the things we have in common is experience with IT, Information Technology Computer stuff which is what I did for the benefit of the listeners that's what I did prior to founding whistlekick but you know we both know quite a few people that are involved in martial arts and technology and there's some synergy there and I think there's also some synergy with humor I think if you're gonna teach martial arts I mean I've taught kids, you've taught kids, you gotta have a sense of humor if you're teaching martial arts to kids.
Cecil Washington:
Yes, kids are funny.
Jeremy Lesniak:
They are funny and sometimes having a sense of humor is the only way to get though a class, class on a full moon, those are my least favorite.
Cecil Washington:
Yeah, I gotta, I run a toddler class once a week and it's only from 9 to 3, to 10 o'clock on Saturdays. Ask my longest class.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I could absolutely relate to that.
Cecil Washington:
I'm looking at the clock ohh it's only been 10 minutes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It takes a special type to teach kids, I'm okay teaching kids I know some that are much much better so yeah. So, who would you wanna train with, if you could train with somebody that you haven't you know and we'll open it up including everybody that's passed on to the other realm, who would you wanna hang out and train with?
Cecil Washington:
Well this is where I know I'm gonna make some people mad.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Go ahead make them mad.
Cecil Washington:
I really wanna train with Sterling Johnson. I was thinking that if I got when I got asked that question I wouldn't be able to say it but I'd show technically I have not trained with GM Johnson because whenever I've tried to get pressure point information from him he just sends me the 49:19 So I met him at a few workshops of 49:24 and I talked to him a few times back and forth so some just say someone I know is still kinda mad at GM Johnson was something that happened probably before I was born I have nothing to do with but I really would like to train with him and have you ever heard of Art Mason out of Canada it's got the Peaceful Warriors.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I've heard that name.
Cecil Washington:
He's got some YouTube videos with his 49:47 of pressure points is just excellent and he's coming from a Taekwondo based and it's the same you know the General Choi you train hard ITF forms.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah
Cecil Washington:
And he really knows to apply those, I would love to train with either one of those. He even have yeah, I really would like to train with 50:05 as far as dead the founders of many styles that I've study and I really would like to train with the founder of Aikido 50:15 cause meditations I've read I really liked.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah
Cecil Washington:
Oh another guy would be we talked to I think he's Wang Jwing-ming
Jeremy Lesniak:
I don't know him.
Cecil Washington:
He's wrote some he wrote the book analysis of shaolin China
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay
Cecil Washington:
He and that would be another really good one, to train with. You know I wasn't in the typical you know everybody wants to train with Bruce Lee 50:43 which oh yeah and I also would like to train with who's living now that I've said Bruce Lee, what is his name you had him on the show he's the guy that's faster than Bruce Lee?
Jeremy Lesniak:
GM Moore, Victor Moore.
Cecil Washington:
Yeah, I would love to train with Vic Moore.
Jeremy Lesniak:
He still trains people mean he's not as mobile as he once was but there are still a lot of people that train with him and learn from him.
Cecil Washington:
Yeah, he just strikes me as very very knowledgeable.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah and passionate about the arts and spreading what he knows too and for anyone that hasn't listened to that episode you might wanna go back and listen to it that was a fun one to record and one that I reflect back on, personally
Cecil Washington:
Yeah that was a good interview.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah thank you, how about movies are you a movie guy at all?
Cecil Washington:
Yeah well when I was thinking about the movie question I wanted to say something different than what everybody says. You could just ask my wife about karate kid she just rolls her eyes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You watch it that much huh?
Cecil Washington:
She's like oh my god is that old man your father or something just give it some rest, she gets so bad after a while like if she come downstairs and she hear Pat Morita she just turn around and go back up the steps. I think for fun I like anything with Michael Jai White in it anything even his bad ones. I hate to say I really like black dynamite
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah that was probably because I wasn't allowed to watch those movies when I was little because that's when they were out and of course my mother wouldn't let me watch them but he's just so funny and he's a really great martial artist
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah
Cecil Washington:
But I think like in terms of a really important lesson that I really could relate to, did you ever watch the street fighter animated series, street fighter 2v.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah going back a bit but absolutely.
Cecil Washington:
Remember the episode where Ryu and Ken get beat by a guy?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I don't have that, that detail of a memory for the show but okay
Cecil Washington:
It's the one where they thought they were hot stuff because they were you know kings of the tournament and then they ran into somebody who was you know better than them who was the grown man and they were supposed to be still kids and so they go out and they get into some street fight and it doesn't go well for them because even though they win the fight because they're kids they're too stupid to realize that people have lost some money so everybody in the crowd tries to murder them basically they're running. I was just thinking you know that's probably something I would have done if I had 53:39 at that age. I could really relate to that I'm always like the street fighter one that's another movie that my wife would see me watch and she just turn around and go back upstairs.
Jeremy Lesniak:
The street fighter movie or the show.
Cecil Washington:
Both especially the one where he's fighting the guy at the beginning.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I don't know that I could I can go with you on the movie on the street fighter movie oh that first one the one with Van Damme's in that one right.
Cecil Washington:
No not that one this is the animated movie.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh okay thank God.
Cecil Washington:
Or anything with Van Damme too I always like even the bad ones 54:14 movie was terrible but I loved it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh it was.
Cecil Washington:
That Van Damme split come on you gotta love the man. I'm I actually consider myself a Van Damme fan I had just that movie I've seen it a couple of times and I just I can't do it, I can't do it I mean I'm there's not a lot in that film that I find redeeming if there's that the dialogues bad the acting's bad and the martial arts isn't good enough to save it for me.
Jeremy Lesniak:
How about actors, you mentioned Michael Jai White?
Cecil Washington:
Oh yeah, he's probably my favorite martial arts actor.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah
Cecil Washington:
Who was the guy who played Bruce Lee in Dragon: The Bruce Lee story?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Jason Scott Lee
Cecil Washington:
Yes, I like him
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah
Cecil Washington:
I really liked that story too like the whole classical myth that I've watched that I wasn't even really doing martial arts because much of the time I was doing hip-hop and it just especially at that time and they do it in rap now it's like there's only one type of rap that's allowed to be the thing at the time and anything else is heresy. Kinda sounds like another activity that we both like you know?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, yeah
Cecil Washington:
There's only one style that's allowed to be cool and everything else was bad and if you break out on your own path, people despise you 55:41
Jeremy Lesniak:
I think there's some wisdom in that I think for everything I think you know cause that next thing always starts from somebody branching out on their own doing their own thing and being willing to not be in not be hip for whatever that time is.
Cecil Washington:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
How about books, you mentioned one earlier you much of a reader?
Cecil Washington:
Yeah you know just was this I wanted to make sure I wasn't going 56:17 So I actually got the books I'm gonna go to them real quick, everybody's probably told you about A Killing Art that's by Alex Gillis. Kodokan Judo by Jigoro Kano right that would be an obvious pick. A lot of people sleep on this book man, I used to read this on a subway and if you just read the text and meditate on the pictures you can go into a meditation state while you're looking at the pictures or reading the text it plays right on in your mind it's an excellent resource for a judo guy
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay Anything by Peyton Quinn or Marc Animal Macyoung, Peyton Quinn's book Bouncer's Guide to Barroom Brawling is a good one 57:04 that one really, it's really just goes over diverse things about real fighting, how to apply techniques. Anything by Marc animal Macyoung, the one that has Cheap Shots, Ambushes and Other Lessons. I would say the language in this one is not very child friendly, it's not it's 57:31 right here I just turned to it and he said something right here - the wisdom is true but you just can't have Marc Animal Macyoung for kids maybe he needs an abridged version
Jeremy Lesniak:
Or a child's version with some cartoons.
Cecil Washington:
One of the little black book of violence by Lawrence A Kane and Kris Wilder. I reviewed this one of my YouTube channels called Taekwondo grappling techniques.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay
Cecil Washington:
By 58:05 that's a really good book, it really shows their interpretations of using this forms the ITF forms of using all those movements and throws and chokes I think he goes up to 58:20 in YouTube and he's good and here's another book and I'm sorry I can't remember the author but it's called Fist Stick Knife Gun.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I've heard of that one.
Cecil Washington:
Yeah, he talks about growing up on the streets just basically the dynamic of violence being 58:38 that's a really good book for the mindset of what those kids have to go through.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Great and as always folks cause I'm sure I didn't even get all those and I'm sitting here with a pen ready so after we finish recording I'll make sure I grab the rest of them from you but you know don't forget we'll have those linked over at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com so people can check out. I always link just to the Amazon page for everything not because we get a cut actually legally we can't here in Vermont get a cut from any Amazon sales anymore but just for convenience cause that's where everyone seems to buy their books.
Cecil Washington:
Oh and last but not the least of course the Generals
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right
Cecil Washington:
Everybody should have that
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, I'd say even if you aren't a Taekwondo practitioner I think one of the things I find really interesting about that book is that it was written out it was as Taekwondo was designed he wrote the book and there are plenty of books on martial arts and there are plenty of martial arts but this is the only one where the conception of the book and the conception of the martial at happened at the same time and it's kinda neat. Yeah, a kids book and from a judo I got Kano's book those are like 2 of the best 1:00:06 if you're learning those arts then you gotta get a hold of those.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So were gonna go off script here as we roll down towards the end but we talked a lot about your striking but you know we got some glimpses in to your grappling you’re judo and as you talk about judo it sound like that's really something that you love. Now most martial artist that I talk to tend to love one or the other, striking or grappling so what is it about grappling that you really enjoy?
Cecil Washington:
Honestly what I like about grappling is I can subdue somebody and not really have to hurt someone.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay
Cecil Washington:
I've had to restrain people who've lost their minds like that you know just going insane. I've had to restrain people that going insane and not gonna hold them down without hurting them I've had to restrain one thing and I actually borrowed this one from Taichi this is like taichi judo fusion, I was on a subway and a guy had a seizure, he was hurting himself and there was 2 nurses there but they looked at me and say can you hold this guy down so I tried to go and 1:01:29 no no no you can't see that. no no no you can't sit on the chef so I had to put my palm against his shoulder blade to hold him down but the 1:01:36 and being able to get close to the ground helped with that. Judo cause you can really use Judo to help people you don't have to just be 1:01:47 you don't have to strike the person you could just hold them if you have to even if they're trying to strike you.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Cecil Washington:
Yeah that's I don't have a lot of grappling experience I mean I've got some you know certainly some self-defense through my various past through the martial arts. I did some jujitsu for a while but yeah, I'd agree that that grappling side there's certainly some joy in it for me when I can manipulate someone in to a position where they can't do anything they're stuck, they're not in pain at that moment but there's nowhere they can go they're trapped and that's really fun.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah
Cecil Washington:
It's kinda like a chess match.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well you know from Taekwondo a lot of times you get a really good work you probably get a few knots on your arm 1:02:39
Cecil Washington:
Yeah
Jeremy Lesniak:
You don't necessarily have to have knots on you get that thing heavy breathing in judo but sometimes 1:02:47
Cecil Washington:
Cool so what's keeping you going what motivates Cecil Washington right now? Any goals, anything you're striving for?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well right now I need to get to my tornado kicks back fluid and my circular jumping kicks back fluid so I went to demonstrate to a foreign student that other day and she was impressed with it but I wasn't 1:03:14 but I got to do it again. I was like why because you weren't doing it up at your head I was like exactly I mean you know. I wanna demonstrate this thing I gotta have them act like they should be like I know I can do them that's one of my short-term goals is to I just got the pride in 1:03:31 cause I've been so busy teaching simple techniques that if it wasn't in the form I haven't really done the kick.
Cecil Washington:
There's the catch 22 as an instructor how do you balance advancing your own training while teaching others then it's something that a lot of martial artist instructors don't like to talk about cause it makes them sound inadequate I think to a lot of people but I don't know a single instructor that doesn't struggle with that finding that balance in time.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Exactly especially you got a job you know I think some of these guys 1:04:10 I don't think they really had the challenge of having to work from 9 to 5 and then come home from that and still going to dojang for 2 or 3 hours but some of them have. The ones that happen to a little more 1:04:25
Cecil Washington:
Yeah there's I think it's the dream of many martial arts instructors that they can focus full time on their teaching but of course that brings with it all sorts of other challenges because making a living from it then goes from goal to necessity.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And there was one guy I was with before a brief really really tiny brief minute but he did give me some businesses that he basically said you know when you have the business you have to be careful that that doesn't become your job because you have to spend so much time getting insurance making sure everything's taken care of prices and all the paper work and everything that you 1:05:03 and not have time to train because you have to keep the building 1:05:07
Cecil Washington:
Right and there's a challenge in holding integrity
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right
Cecil Washington:
That there are some things that you are maybe a little less prone to do with holding people to standards because you know let's face it not everyone likes to be held to a high standard these days and you know if you’re water heaters on the 1:05:33 and you know maybe it's time for a belt promotion or something 1:05:38 seen that happen.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh man oh don't get me started.
Cecil Washington:
Pal I'm sure we could have a whole other episode just on martial arts integrity and save that for another time.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh yeah. So if people wanna get a hold of you or you know see what you've got going on how can they find out more?
Cecil Washington:The best thing to do is to go to cecilryu.org, cecilryu.org that has the links to all the to me 1:06:14 classes I'm teaching and to my YouTube channel and my Facebook page and it's got my yahoo email on that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Great and of course we'll have that linked and all the other stuff linked, you got some good stuff on your YouTube page, I would encourage people to go check it out. You're very thoughtful and very insightful in the way that you approach martial arts which was the reason I wanted to have you on so and I appreciate what you're doing trying to get this community and our greater martial arts community to think and it's something that I appreciate and you know you've got me thinking about some things too which is always fun I'm a thinker.
Cecil Washington:
Well I’m glad you liked that cause you know we're supposed to talk about morals and philosophy and you know I integrate my faith into it too but basically the students really don't wanna hear that 1:07:06 they wanna move so the YouTube channels are good outlet for that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Good and I hope you continue to put out more material that are certainly be following to see when you do so let's close it up what if you had to sum it all up in a couple nuggets of information what would you throw at people, what's your parting advice for those listening?
Cecil Washington:
Just keep at it, sometimes you know you may come into situations where people are giving you feedback that you really don't wanna hear like I used to dream one day oh I wanna be the person to come up with their own style and then kinda go off on their own and then when I finally heard that hey it's time for you to leave the nest and just go out on your own path I didn't feel like I was ready and so that's why I call what I do now Cecil Ryu martial arts like Cecil’s style of martial arts I got graded I asked basically my peers to grade me. I was working with 4th or 3rd and 4th degree, I wrote up a test and everything and he graded me because there really is time you know I thought that in order for me to be able to do that and start working on my own system that I had to be perfect cause you don't have to be perfect you just have to be ready or just on your own path and one thing I thought I really like to say to people, two things first to people that are going for it if they ever going for their first degree black belt don't necessarily 1:08:43 your instructor and think you have to do everything as perfectly as your instructor does cause as long as many years as you try to get your black belt your instructor's probably been a black belt 2 or3 4 times as long as that so you really kinda setting yourself up for failure if you think I have to be at this super high level just to be what a lot of people are trying to say the first step and for all the people who consider themselves to be street fighters, formal martial arts training is harder. I know martial artists go out there and they get beat up I've heard so many stories about martial arts getting beat up I know people that had beat up martial artists that had a lot of formal training but I'm telling you formal martial arts training is difficult, don't sell it short and it's good for you too. Just doing the activity is good you can get a lot of benefits out of the martial arts just doing you don't even have to be a champion. Just going through the motions showing up and find a way to apply it to your life it's great, it's good for you.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Great advice, well Mr. Washington I really appreciate you being here and really thank you for your time and your openness your honesty.
Cecil Washington:
Hey thanks for having me.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Thanks for listening to episode 27 of whistlekickMartialArtsRadio and thank you to Mr. Washington. If you liked the show please subscribe so you never miss out in the future, and if you could help us by leaving a 5-star review wherever you download your podcast, it would really make a difference. Those reviews that help new listeners find the show and you might hear us read yours on the air, if we do go ahead and email us at info@whistlekick.com and you get a free thank you pack including some great stuff shirts, stickers, water bottles we won't promise what's in it but it'll be great ad we're even gonna pay the shipping on it. Please don't forget to tell your friends about the show, word of mouth is the way that this show grows and your help is really appreciated you can check out the show notes with photos and links to everything we talked about today over at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. While you're there if you wanna be a guest on the show or you know someone that would be a great interview please fill out the guest form and don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter. If you wanna follow us on social media we're on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest and Instagram all with the username whistlekick. And check out the great stuff we have at whistlekick.com, gears, shirts, pants and a whole lot more. All made for martial artists by martial artists. So until next time train hard, smile and have a great day.