Episode 324 - Lao Shi Rod Huus
Lao Shi Rod Huus is a martial arts practitioner and instructor. He is the current owner of Wu Chi School of Self Defense in North Dakota.
My Sifu... he would tell me Rod, clear your mind, don't think about so much at one time. Just let stuff happen as it does.
Lao Shi Rod Huus - Episode 324
There are many of us here who were brought by our friends to martial arts as a bonding activity. What separates our guest today is the journey he took in the martial arts. Since he has no knowledge about fighting, Lao Shi Rod Huus was discouraged at first because he was left in the lower ranks and this is the part where he showed his strong character. From being a discouraged martial artist, he rose through the ranks and now, he is both a seasoned martial arts instructor and the owner of Wu Chi School of Self Defense. Listen to find out more!
Show Notes
On this episode we mentioned Bruce Lee and Dashi Gary CecilYou can visit Wu Chi School of Self Defense here.
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below or download here.Jeremy Lesniak:Hey there, welcome to whistlekick Martial Arts Radio episode 324. Today, I'm joined by student of a multi-time past guest, instructor, school-owner of his own right, Lao Shi Rod Huus. My name is Jeremy Lesniak. I'm the founder here at whistlekick, I'm the host for Martial Arts Radio. I've got the best job in the world; I get to talk about martial arts and work on martial arts and train in martial arts and call it my job. Man, I am blessed and so much of that blessedness is thanks to the support of all of you listening. I truly appreciate the messages, the tags, the purchases that you make of our products. It all really goes a long way. It means so much to me so thank you for doing that. Check out the show notes at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. Sign up for the newsletter while you're over there. We don't send it out very often - once or twice a month, maybe - and really just kind of give you an idea of what's happening behind the scenes, throw you a discount once in a while, tell you about new projects we've got going on, maybe give you some behind the scenes on something to do with an episode, you know. We keep it light, we keep it kind of fast to read through, you know we're not sending you a book. We're definitely not gonna spam you, we're definitely not gonna give your address out to anybody or sell it or anything crazy like that. We just want another way getting in touch with you. That's all.My guest today, Lao Shi Rod Huus, is a really thoughtful man, clearly a passionate martial artist, someone who really, it seems his life was transformed. Maybe not transformed it but it at least formed by martial arts and now he's sharing all that with his students and he's here today to share all that with you. So I'm gonna step back and welcome him to the show. Lao Shi Huus, welcome to whistlekick Martial Arts Radio.Rod Huus:Thank you very much Jeremy for having me on. I appreciate this opportunity you've given.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. I'm sure we're gonna get into it. You have a connection to a past guest, actually a multi-time past guest. Listeners who have been around for a while are wracking their brains saying wait, there are only a few people who've been on more than once and they're probably trying to guess who that would be and your title, of course, is a clue but rather than give away all that stuff now, we'll let them sit. We'll let them wonder who it is that you're tied in with.Rod Huus:That's awesome.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah. I like leaving the audience in suspense, you know. We don't have commercial breaks on the show and if we did, you better believe I would leave the juiciest stuff to on the other side of the commercial break. I don't know how old you are but you know, I'm knocking on 40 and that was a big thing that prior to DVRs and binge shows, man they would do that all the time on TV or even... Do you remember two-part TV shows?Rod Huus:Actually, yes. I've watched series where like they all just, they'll kind of cut it off where you're like oh man, I really want to know what's gonna happen next and you gotta wait for like six months to even see the next part of it.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah. One of my least favorite things was you know, you're watching an hour long drama and there's five minutes left in the show and there's no way they're gonna wrap up this predicament that everybody's in in five minutes so you know it's going to a two-parter. Then you gotta wait another week or you know depending on how it falls, you knowRod Huus:Right.Jeremy Lesniak:Maybe months. There's a bit of it in that synergy with martial arts there, isn't there though?Rod Huus:There is, yeah.Jeremy Lesniak:Well of course, this is a martial arts show. This is not TV talk or something I'm sure there are plenty of shows out there where listeners could talk about movies and TV. So let's talk about martial arts. Let's talk about how you started in martial arts so take us back, what was that first martial arts class for you?Rod Huus:So basically, when I started in martial arts, I had a couple of friends bring me into it and they told me to come check it out because I was actually, I did like maybe one or two classes that they were in for a Karate class and then they transferred over to the Kung Fu class that we're now all part of. And I went to this class and I was watching what they had to offer. A lot of the forms or the katas were, at the time, were very Karate-like. We have now had them change so you're getting more of a Kung Fu aspect with more of the animals are kind of coming out in them to kind of introduce you a little bit to some of the animal styles. But at the time, I was sitting and watching. I looked at the sparring and I liked the sparring for the fact that I've seen that they were doing full contact which a lot of schools around this area don't really do. So I was intrigued about that. The thing about this is when I first got into it, had no fighting experience whatsoever so I really didn't know what I was doing. So when I first got into it and they started introducing me to kicks and stuff, I felt like I was kind of like more of the outcast in class because I was still warming up to things. And at the time, I don't really think there's anybody my level. Everybody was upper level so they already knew what they were doing. My one Sifu who we now have a tournament for and who passed away here a few years back, he would notice this and he took me aside and he was like okay Rod, I want to go over some Aikido with you. And I go Aikido? I go, Aikido, that's interesting. I never have done Aikido or I've never really heard of it. So he was showing me a lock and we always like to have fun with things. You know, we say when you're in martial arts, you should have fun with it and if it ever becomes not fun then maybe you should rethink what you're doing. I've enjoyed this ever since I've been in it but at the time he was like telling me well does this feel like it would be effective when you had me in a wrist manipulation? I go, I mean right now no, not really. And then he actually did the twisting motion to it and I was flying in the air. And I was like okay, I see the effectiveness in it now. We got a good kick out of it and ever since then I fell in love with martial arts. And ever since then, me and my Sifu, we would sit there and we would do demonstrations and stuff and while we were doing demonstrations, he would always like whisper in my ear and go like okay, are you ready? And I'm like well what do you mean am I ready? And he's like, can we do this move? And sometimes we would play with things where we would over-exaggerate things so we can have fun with people and stuff. I didn't realize that's what he was trying to get at and he did this Aikido move and he really did and I flew in the air. And it looked like I was over dramaticizing it but I wasn't. He actually went off and did it. But things like that and outside of class like that was the big thing that got me - is that we're like a family-oriented school. So like when you join our school - and that's the thing I love about the school here right now - everybody is so welcoming. You go into a class and the first thing that's gonna happen is you're probably gonna have one of my students come up, shake your hand, introduce themselves, tell you hey if you have any questions or anything, you know, let myself know or whatnot, and sometimes they get to the punch before I can even get to it. So I like how we're so family-oriented and like my Sifu and me, we would talk on the phone almost like a daily basis and stuff. We talk about martial arts but we'd also talk about life, about how things are going so it wasn't just about the arts. It was about, you know, the interaction, it was about knowing that everything was okay with each other and just making sure that life was good on both ends. So that was another thing that drew me into our school - it's that we had that link and we had that togetherness with each other and it turned into like a family-oriented thing. And that's kind of why our school is a smaller school. It's because normally, when you come into it, here in Grand Forks, a lot of places are more competition-oriented where... when you come into our school, you get this more family vibe and we're more real life-based with our training. So you know, if you're outside, something happens, you get into this predicament and you have to do something, you're gonna know that hey I can do this or that and you're gonna be able to defend yourself at that point. So that's something... that's another thing I really like about school, too. Because back when I was in grade school and stuff, because I didn't know how to defend myself, I have people picking on me and stuff like that so it got to the point where I was like you know I need to learn something that's going to teach me how to be able to deal with some of this stuff so I don't have to go through all my life, you know, having people pushing me around. So knowing that, as I was progressing in school, that I was also getting better, was something I was grateful for and definitely, that was one thing too with me and my Sifu. He would always like you know, tell me things I needed to work but then would say you're doing really good at this and that. And I was always so hard on myself thinking okay, now you're just trying to be nice to me because I really don't think I'm doing that great at this or that. Until I got to my like blue belt, which is a higher rank in our school, then I started going okay I see what he was seeing now and I guess I wasn't really seeing where he was coming from at that point in time. And the thing was he was really a great instructor. He was really good at Aikido, he was good at the fighting part of the art so I mean, he knew what he was talking about. For me, I've always been harder on myself to just keep improving myself. And the thing is that we have about 12 or 13, I can't recall just right off hand, instructors now. We just had a tournament and I had one of my advanced students actually test for black belt and she just became a black belt here at the tournament after the test. And it's kind of funny because all of the black belts in our school, up until this point, have all been males so she's been the very first female to get a black belt in our school.Jeremy Lesniak:Nice. I'd like to go back and talk a little bit about this family piece because this so far has been the common thread in everything you're talking about is this family connection. You're talking about a smaller, a more intimate school. You're talking about a grouping of other schools, of instructors. You're talking about the way you felt as a kid talking with your Sifu, like you said, almost everyday. And that's something that a lot of the folks listening are either going to completely understand or have no idea. It's something that I see, is nearly binary - it either exists very deeply or it doesn't exist at all when I visit schools. Is that something that you were, let's start here, is that something that you were kind of missing in your life? I guess I'll ask a deeply personal question. Did you have a strong family life or was that something that you saw in your training that you were missing?Rod Huus:You know, in all honesty, I grew up in a small family. I had my mother, my father, my brother, my sister, and my grandmother who were all strong... they were all strong family figures in my life. But beyond them, I mean I had friends, I didn't really have a huge family bond but then I came to this school and... I guess a good way to kind of put it is from what I've seen here, where I live, you have martial arts schools where you can build friendships. I mean there's concepts, there's some good training that goes on but really, and I can't really speak and say that this is absolute but, from my understandings talking with others who have been parts of these martial arts groups, everything stops in the class. I mean all the communication, all the interacting, it happens in class and then you leave that class and you're doing your thing, everybody else is kind of doing their thing, no one really is concerned about what the other is doing. Whereas in our school like we build that bond with our students and that's, to be honest, that's really what's so special about our school - we want to build that relationship with our students. Because we want to know who we're training, we want to know that at the end of the day, the person who came into class isn't gonna be somebody who's gonna misrepresent our school but it's not just that. We want to build on your well-being and our school is all about personal development. So that's another thing with the ranking, it's a little bit more odd than most places where...Jeremy Lesniak:Okay, tell us about that.Rod Huus:Okay. A lot of places, you'll train and then there will be a date set. Okay, we're gonna test this day for this rank and everybody at this level, be ready to go for this rank. And then the test happens, you either pass or fail. The one belt all of our schools in our organization test for is black because you become an assistant instructor. I, for my school, test a blue belt because you're a high rank, you become a leader almost for the lower levels. And I do the test because I want to make sure that you got everything from below that rank all squared up and you can teach it and you're good to go there. Other than that, our ranks are based off of the instructors' prerogative. So the instructor watches the student and goes okay, you're developing good here and stuff, you might need some work here. But we're not constantly like saying hey, you know, work on this, you're doing super good at this. We kind of go day by day and when we feel completed or you've gotten all the rank requirements or you've completed your personal development, how we feel you should, then you'll get a rank at that point in time. So there's no hey get ready to test in this day or that day for most of the ranks. Most of them are just kind of the instructor gives it to you when the instructors sees fit. For me, I have... Actually, so now that I just said that I have a lady in our school who just got her first level, I also got another student who was a first level for two years who just got his instructor rank, second level. So now I've got both of them to give me input and you know kind of tell me hey, do you feel like this person's improving the way they should be? And again, this goes back to knowing the person like... that's why things are a bit more personal in our school is because we want to know who we're giving ranks to and making sure that everything is justified in what we're doing.Jeremy Lesniak:Let's talk about how you feel about that, that testing system. Of course anybody listening, you know, is probably looking at that and thinking that that's different. It's not completely unheard of, you know I've certainly known and even been part of schools that test in that way, but tell us what you like about that. What are the advantages for you as an instructor to having that more... freeform isn't the right word but that kind of openness with rank for your students?Rod Huus:For me personally, I feel it takes a lot of pressure away. I know people can have some anxieties with predetermined testing and whatnot. I think this takes that away. Not only does it take that away but it gives you that opportunity to develop yourself. Like for me, in our style, when you become a black belt, we want you... I mean we have set requirements so I mean it's not like hey do whatever you want, reset the whole curriculum and stuff like that but we want you to have your own piece of the pie, I guess, to speak still. So we want you to put your ties on things. So like my school here is more of a Tiger school because I have more of a Tiger mentality whereas my second level I was talking about, he... The way my mentality is it's more of a fire type mentality where my second level has a more water type mentality. So if he ever start a school himself, he'd probably add more of the crane acts aspects that he does and he would have a different way of teaching than myself. So no one black belt is going to look similar to the other black belt. And I know a lot of arts come off doing that. Taekwondo for one, I know they... from what I've seen, and again we're in the North Dakota area, but it seems like they want everybody to know one specific way of teaching and then that's how it needs to be done.Jeremy Lesniak:Sure. Well that's not exclusive to Taekwondo that's most martial arts. And we'll a small tangent now as we talk, you know we'll get there - we'll talk about who you're tied to because this is starting to mirror a bit of the conversation I had with that gentleman not too long ago - most traditional martial arts, the intention is here's what I was taught, I am keeping it pretty close to what I was taught, and I'm handing it to you very close. So you have... In most schools, there may be some permission for individualization but it's still within the same framework. And what you're talking about is an openness not only for what you choose to do yourself but the framework itself, what you choose to teach your students, is much more open. And of course anyone who listens regularly and especially listens in order knows that we're talking about Sifu Gary Cecil who, just a few weeks ago, we had a great conversation about Wu Chi Kung Fu and the philosophies around it. And that's really what you're starting to talk about here, isn't it?Rod Huus:Yes. Yes, he's my other Sifu.Jeremy Lesniak:Okay. How did you get connected with him?Rod Huus:So he... Dashi Gary, he started the organization here back in the 1990s. I wasn't quite here yet at that time but he had a spot in a small mall that we have over here. And two of his black belts, one that I talked about already, my one Sifu who passed, Ryan Carden, he was under Dashi Gary as well as another black belt who is now Sifu as well. Like I said, my friends brought me in it and I mean our name wasn't Wu Chi yet. We were still under the name Fire and Water at the time. And basically, that's when Sifu Ryan Carden when we had a spot in the downstairs part of a company that we were renting a space from, when they brought me there, it was like a week, two weeks, of me being in the school that I was pulled aside by Sifu Ryan and taught Aikido and that's basically when I fell in love with it. And then there were points where Dashi Gary would come and do seminars and stuff and I was introduced to him when we were on a place in Demers in Grand Forks here. And he had a seminar and he needed an uke and I was volunteered as uke. I didn't really know Dashi so well. So Dashi did this technique to me and I'm used to being taken down and stuff but there was a point where I believe he got me into a wrist grab and then he did a punch to the stomach and he kicked on my leg. But the thing about this was he really did it and I wasn't expecting the real hits to happen. So after he did that to me, I kind of went up to my other Sifu and I was like hey, thank you for letting me know that was gonna happen. We got a kick out of it. It was all in fun but that's when I found out like when Dashi does stuff, he does it more real time, more impact, to show the effectiveness of it. And then we just started kind of talking and he was getting acquainted with me and my background and we were still figuring out what styles I was gonna be as far as an animal style. And I was flip-flopping between either a Tiger Stylist or a Bear Stylist. Bears, in the way we teach the bear style in our school, it's a bit more passive so it doesn't really attack until you get close in on it. I 31:40 I could have been a bear stylist but after Dashi saw me spar and then do techniques, he was telling my other Sifu he's a Tiger style and so we're putting him on tiger. So that's how I came to be a Tiger Stylist, because of how he's seen my mannerisms and basically striking first when I sparred and doing my takedowns quick and fast and just getting them over with, still showing the effectiveness of them. After my first level, basically he kept monitoring me throughout the years and since then I've gotten every rank that I have under him, by him personally. And after first level, usually that's how it normally goes. I mean now we're becoming a little bit bigger so whoever is your head instructor, at whatever point you're at, can advance you so high up. So like right now I'm a third level black belt, I can advance somebody up to a second level black belt, I had a head instructor rank, but I can't go any further than that. So like the what-ifs, like now, my recent second level that I was talking about, if he tends, some time down the line, to be ready for a third level, he would either have to come from Dashi or I would have to be a fourth level to do that.Jeremy Lesniak:Right. I think we've got a pretty good idea of you and who you are and what makes you tick. Now of course, we've really only had one question so-to-speak that we've chewed through and I always like doing that. I like to get a sense as to who it is that we have on the line. It gives us some direction for where else we're going to go. It's the basics so-to-speak and you know. Let's move now into a bit more of the, I don't know if I want to say the meat, but you know some more complex things that require us building on what we've already learned about you.Rod Huus:Okay.Jeremy Lesniak:And here's uh, I don't want to say a simple one but one that I always enjoy, if you could train with anyone from anywhere in time, anywhere in the world, you know, we've invented a time machine, let's pretend, who would you want to train with?Rod Huus:That's a great question. You know, in all honesty, it's been a great honor training under my one Sifu, Sifu Ryan, and I mean training under him, to me, had been a blessing. If there's someone else to train under, I would say probably Bruce Lee. I mean I grew up all my life watching a lot of his movies and training and stuff so that would be a privilege if I was able to do that.Jeremy Lesniak:Certainly, the most commonly mentioned figure on our show despite being probably being 40, 45 years since his passing something like that.Rod Huus:Yeah.Jeremy Lesniak:Absolutely amazing. You know, let's face it he's still the most famous martial artist. What would you hope to learn from him or what would you hope to train?Rod Huus:Just his fighting philosophy always intrigued me. I mean his conditioning as well for like the speed he had was just crazy ridiculous. So you know, getting his you know toward the speed he had, understanding his fighting philosophy from like his personal perspective. I know that he does have a book that has a lot of the philosophies and stuff that he went over but just personally picking his brain and a lot of his fighting would be awesome.Jeremy Lesniak:I agree. Are you a fan of his movies?Rod Huus:Yes, I am.Jeremy Lesniak:Which one is your favorite?Rod Huus:I have to say Enter the Dragon.Jeremy Lesniak:You know, it seems to be everybody's favorite and there are some rare exceptions when some will say, you know, Game of Death or something. But in each of those cases, those folks seem to have watched that movie first. Whatever your first Bruce Lee movie is, seems to be your favorite Bruce Lee movie. And for me, it was Enter the Dragon so that is my favorite one. I mean just... so classic, I mean so many years later, right?Rod Huus:Right. And I don't know, I could be wrong on this, I've heard stories that when him and Chuck Norris did the auditorium scene, that Bruce Lee was asking him to film it as an actual sparring session not just like... not just you know, go by move by move but actually just...Jeremy Lesniak:Not choreograph itRod Huus:Yeah, choreographing.Jeremy Lesniak:I certainly can't speak to it but that would seem consistent with so many of the things that we've learned, even with some of the newer things we've learned recently about Bruce Lee, right? I mean the man was a, I don't want to say a perfectionist, but so driven to creating the best thing he could in each circumstance. And of course with someone like Chuck Norris on set, you know it's gonna be good, why limit it?Rod Huus:Right.Jeremy Lesniak:How fun would that have been to have been on set and watch Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris and spar, just... I would give many things to watch that.Rod Huus:Right? That would have been so great to see that happen.Jeremy Lesniak:Are you doing anything outside of martial arts? Do you have any hobbies? Anything that...Rod Huus:The only thing that I have going other than martial arts, I mean I used to wrestle as a kid and then like me and my friends, for like a past time, we would always get into watching professional wrestling. Sitting down, just kind of seeing what matches are going. I mean again, as we got older, we knew that everything was choreographed and you know, they know who's gonna win, who's gonna lose and stuff like that. But it was very entertaining as kids, for us to be watching that and cheering our favorite wrestler and all and stuff.Jeremy Lesniak:Nice. Do you find much synergy between wrestling and martial arts?Rod Huus:I mean, kinda. This is kind of funny in a way. As I was growing up, I watched wrestling and like there's a lot of moves in wrestling that I was like that's cool but would that actually work? No, that wouldn't actually work if they're actually doing it. So as I grew and as I watched, I'm seeing this character, Shawn Michaels and you know, I was like okay he's really good wrestler. He's got very good conditioning, he tells a really good story in the ring and stuff. And he did this, he got known for this kick and it was like a side thrust kick but he always did it to the face. And I always, because of the practicality of the move, I was always intrigued by that maneuver, I got into martial arts. And funny thing about it is one of my favorite moves in martial arts is the side kick. Between the side kick and the spinning back kick, both of those are... I really like both of those moves. In side kicks, I almost train religiously, coming off the front leg, in close or at a distance. So like that's a big move for me to teach when I teach it.Jeremy Lesniak:Okay, right on. It's no secret that life has stumbling blocks. My favorite question to ask our guests is for them to tell us about a time in life when things were challenging and how your martial arts, in whatever way that manifested, allowed you to overcome that challenge.Rod Huus:I would say one of the biggest challenges for me was... I guess I got to that I can think of so, as I came up in my training and stuff, I had a lot of tension in me. And being able to relax, it was difficult. But my Sifu, he would tell me you know, Rod clear your mind, don't think about so much at one time. Just let stuff happen as it does. So I tried doing what he said but it just wasn't clicking. I was like how do I not think about what I'm supposed to be doing in the ring? And it was this process that I was fighting with over and over and over and finally I got to like, I believe it was my red belt getting close to my black belt, and it started clicking. You see the opening, take advantage of the opening, don't sit there and pre-think, okay I'm gonna do this move beforehand and it's gonna work out in the sparring match or whatever. So as I got more comfortable doing this and just letting things come as they will, then I started flowing more with like a lot of my striking. So one thing I like to do is, let's say if I throw a strike and it gets blocked, to actually let that momentum just carry my arm around, do something like a hook or something that where there's opening on the other side of the guard or what have you. So starting to kind of full blow my punches and kicks and stuff and let them kind of do their own thing as an attack is blocked or whatnot. Also, using blocks as attacks is another thing that I started incorporating into my school. Because a lot of us forget that just blocking something doesn't mean that it can't be used as natural strike and breaking down a person's weapons as well. And that's probably the best form of defense, almost, because if you can break down a person's weapons, like the arms and the legs, and render them useless then you've basically won the fight at that point. And technically, you didn't have to really hurt anybody in the process of that as well.Jeremy Lesniak:Yes.Rod Huus:The other thing is teaching. When I first got my black belt, I... There's such a different between knowing requirements, being able to do everything that's required of you and then going off and actually teaching a school or teaching a group of students how to do these things. You know, I went through a phase of where I've had people come into my class and my class was either too exerting or there wasn't enough competition. I mean I know that no matter what, there's gonna be a flaw that somebody sees and what they want in their training and then, you know, there's always gonna be a school out there that has that for them. But for me, it was one of those things, and again this is probably going back to being hard on myself, I felt like I was feeling so... This actually goes back to that relationship with the students. Once I started understanding how to interact better with the students and kind of hear what they're saying without them like coming up to you and go on hey, can we like change this and do this and that. Like just listening to what they're saying to you in the moment of things and taking that into account and learning what motivates that person and keeps them enthralled with what you're doing. And again, that's kind of got a double-edged sword there because that person, not everything they like or excel and get enthralled about is gonna be the same as another person. And I've gotten to the point where I kind of interchanged or I tried to involve as much from each person as possible. Like that's the thing about our classes too, is we have more of a mixture class where not everything is set that one day. Like we don't have a routine on a daily basis. Like each day, when you come into our school, there's gonna be something different that you're doing and besides the attended requirements, the first hour and a half of class is gonna be something different. And it's gonna keep guessing and I found that a lot of students like that because they get a taste of a little of this, a little of that, and it keeps them coming back and enthralled in what we're doing. And that makes it fun for me, knowing that like I'm grabbing them, keeping them coming and helping them improve. Because in the long run, and I said this to all the black belts in our school here, is that in the end, everything that I'm doing, I do it for the school. Like even if for some odd reason, we're in a bind and doors have got to close, I'm not just gonna stop everything and leave the students going okay, this is where everything ends. Now you kind of take what you have and figure things out. I'll figure a way out to keep training those students and keep them improving on their development and on the school's development as well. So even if things do get hard, I strive to keep things going and I would never ever shut the door on students and just end things even if it came that way business-wise. And again, like Dashi Gary said, when we teach, any income that we get in our school goes right back to say the rent or what other building you're in or the equipment or anything the school needs. None of it goes to the instructors at all.Jeremy Lesniak:I understand. You're certainly not the first person on the show to have that kind of dedication to your school, to your students, and to really hold it in that high regard, that place in your life. And it's something that I always appreciate, something that I've really been honored to be part of it various times in my life with schools that I've participated in. What are your goals? If we look out over the next five or ten years, what are you hoping to accomplish either as a martial artist yourself or for your school or maybe some other third category, having said?Rod Huus:I mean one goal that would be nice is if I did have any black belt under me leave and go live somewhere else, maybe having another school develop... In all honesty, I would really like to see the students we have now progress, get their black belts in our school. And I mean just basically be able to continue that process and make people better. The biggest thing for me is the outcome for the students and them achieving that, the highest level they can become much. A lot of the students we have now, I can see a lot of them being really good black belts if they, you know, stick to it. One gentleman in our school, and this is what I mean about family bond thing because I know I keep going back to that, but he... I'm proud of everybody 54:52 we have black belt student. But this gentleman, we had a tournament just recently that I mentioned and when we started the competition, this gentleman, he was one of the first people to start cheering on each student that went through the obstacles like the... if it was that or the sparring or the forms. He really supported everybody in the group and actually, it's kind of funny because I... So Dashi Gary, when we're at this tournament, if you do things to honor our school and Dashi sees your improvement, he'll sometimes just sporadically do an advancement, kind of like what I say we do in our schools anyways, kind of okay now, you know, you're at this level. And he ended up getting his green belt at the tournament. That was more for his effort in the sparring and whatnot but he also got an award later that night for they caught the Wu Chi Spirit Award, which is basically doing what he was doing and like holding our school to that family-like bond by cheering the other students on from both schools that were competing, having fun going and helping people. It was a great day for our school and in general and whole. I met a lot of really good people from a fellow instructor school and I feel like he as well is gonna have a lot of really good black belts on as a lot of his student come up because a lot of the people have that focus and determination and that spirit in them. And I think, as our Kung Fu society grows and all, there's gonna be things that the black belts that are in our college as of right now are gonna start learning from these students that are up and coming now. I can say right now, I mean I'm learning some things and I think, you know, I'm learning some things from my second level student that I don't think I would have thought of before. And as a teacher, you know... Some teachers, I think, feel like hey you don't know everything I know but you're good enough. And not that you have to teach another student everything you know but I feel as if as an instructor, the student that you're training should be as good if not better than you at the point of being like a black belt to speak. And that's kind of where my effort is and I honestly feel like a lot of the black belts underneath me are at that level where they're as good as I am. And you know, I can challenge to say that some are getting even better which I'm proud of and I think that should be like a big goal for any black belt training student.Jeremy Lesniak:I hear you. This has been good stuff and this seems like a good time to start to wind down. So let's start with this, if folks want to reach you, if they want to know more about your school, you know, anything you want to plug, tell us about that. We'll make sure that we drop it in the show notes, whistlekickmartialartsradio.com is the website. So go ahead with that.Rod Huus:Okay. So yes, if there is anybody that wants to come and check our school out here in Grand Forks, North Dakota, we have a Facebook page, it's under Wu Chi School of Self Defense. That's been our main page. I mean I don't have a website or anything at this point but a lot of videos and posts are on that Facebook page that you can read and go over. You get a week to see if you're interested in anything that we offer and if in that week, you decide that it's not for you, that's fine. Then you have the option of seeking out other martial arts. Other than that, I mean we do kickboxing classes, Aikido classes. Our adults classes are basically a mixed class that go for two hours so that was the classes I was kind of talking about that were mixed with a bunch of different activities. Other than that, that's...Jeremy Lesniak:Okay. That's alright. Now, we'll make sure that we drop those over there and of course we always ask our guest to send us off into the mist with some great stuff. So what parting words would you offer up to the folks listening today?Rod Huus:If you have a passion for the martial arts or if you're seeking out to do a martial arts, I would encourage to do so. And if you are in the martial arts and you're really enjoying the martial arts, I would encourage you to stick with it, keep your determination, you focus on it even if you know, you want to incorporate other arts into that as well. I know, in my school, I welcome people to seek out different things as well. You know, if they want to learn Jiu Jitsu, finding a good Jiu Jitsu class, adding on to what you already know. Be proud of what you're doing and keep that passion for the school you're in. Also, seek out and maybe bond with some students, make those friendships, make that family connection because in all honesty, it's good to have positive people around you and good to have people who talk you. Sometimes people don't have that so to have bond with other people is very helpful. And I encourage to try to start it.Jeremy Lesniak:I don't think there's any question that Lao Shi Huus is passionate, is dedicated, is really immersed in the martial arts as not only a practice but a lifestyle. I suspect that if we were to find some crazy surgical, meditative physical way to separate martial arts from him, there wouldn't be a whole lot left. I really appreciate your time, sir. Thank you so much for coming on the show. And thank you to all of you for listening. I appreciate your time, I appreciate, as I said in the intro, your support. It means more than you will ever truly understand. Head on over to whistlekick.com, see everything that we've got going on - products, projects, and other things to take that support that you show all of us and turn it back around and support the traditional martial arts. If you want to get a hold of us, find us on social media, we're @whistlekick. I am jeremy@whistlekick.com, if email is you preference. And that is all I have for you today. Until next time. Train hard, smile, and have a great day.