Episode 642 - Sensei Linda Lane
Sensei Linda Lane is a Martial Arts practitioner and instructor at her school: Kensho Karate Cumberland.
We’re not trying to do new things, we’re taking our old things and really seeing what we can find in there. Finding what’s efficient, where the body mechanics are, making every person have their own tool box of what they think would work for them…
Sensei Linda Lane - Episode 642
Transitioning from dancing to Martial Arts isn’t new in our community, however, the motivation of our guest today is more than the movement. Sensei Linda Lane started her martial arts journey a little bit later than usual, but for her, it’s the purpose of the Martial Arts that made her switch to Martial Arts and later on bringing her family along.
In this episode, Sensei Linda Lane tells the story of her journey into Martial Arts from dancing to training as well as having a dojo of her own with her family. Listen and join the conversation!
Show Notes
Check out Sensei Linda Lane’s dojo at shikonryu.com Kensho Karate Cumberland.
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hello, and welcome. You're tuned in to whistlekick Martial Arts Radio Episode 642. With today's guest Sensei Linda Lane, I'm Jeremy Lesniak host for the show. You've probably heard from me before, but if not welcome, thanks for joining us. Everything we do here at whistlekick is in support of the traditional martial arts. It's something I'm very passionate about something the rest of the team is passionate about. And honestly something that you all the listeners are pretty passionate about. And if you want to go deeper on all the things that we're doing, because we do a lot more than this show, head on over to whistlekick.com. Check out the stuff that we make, the other projects that we're involved in our social media, there's a ton of stuff. And that's really the best place to start. So, head on over there and get started. And maybe while you're there, you find something in the story you like and you can use the code PODCAST15 to get 15% off.
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I had an absolute great time with Sensei Lane. Oh, what a wonderful conversation. And just someone that I really appreciated. Meaning, I get the feeling that you're also going to appreciate meeting her in this context anyway. You know, it's kind of a one-way meeting for you. But I think I did a pretty good job speaking for all of you and giving you an opportunity to connect. So here we go. Sensei Lane, welcome to whistlekick Martial Arts Radio.
Sensei Linda Lane:
Hi, Jeremy, how are you today?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'm great. How are you? I'm great, too.
Sensei Linda Lane:
I'm really happy to be here talking to you today.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'm happy to have you here. I really do have the best job in the world. I get to talk to martial artists about martial arts and call it work. This thing that most people would love to do, and you know, they get fired for. I mean, it's my job. How lucky am I? Really lucky?
Sensei Linda Lane:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, we're here to talk martial arts. And we're going to start out in the most predictable way possible, because it all stems from there. How'd you get started?
Sensei Linda Lane:
Well, I'm one of those people that got a very late start in the martial arts. I've been a dancer all my life and just found a lot of joy in movement. And as I became a young adult, body mechanics involved with dance really fascinated me. And then there came a time where I kind of aged out of the dance world, and I started my family and whatnot. And then I had kind of a somewhat critical health issue, one that I'm well past now. And the thing I knew I needed was exercise and you exercise would be the most healing thing for me. The closest thing to my home was a school of martial arts. And the word ‘arts’ is what caught me because this was an art.
I didn't like the gym. I didn't do well in those kinds of environments. So, I gave it a shot. And I walked in. And I just kind of found everything I loved about dance. With the added purpose. There's a purpose to the movements in the martial arts. So that was how I started. I got my son involved when he was very little because it was much more practical to bring him along with me to a class than it was to hire a babysitter. And so, my son kind of grew up in the arts along with me. And we went on to open a dojo together for a while and whatnot. And it's been a great, it's just been a great family experience. My husband, again was a gym rat. And I said, well, what's the point of all of this workout that you're doing is that has no purpose. And he thought that was something he couldn't argue with. And the next thing I know he was hooked. So, it kind of became a family thing for us.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Very cool. Very cool. Now I want to go back you hone in on the word ‘arts’ and I assume assign on a building or out front of a building that said martial arts near your home. I would imagine, given that you said you started later in life, you had some preconceived notion about what martial arts was. Do you remember what you thought going in?
Sensei Linda Lane:
Well, I had grown up watching The Karate Kid and all that stuff. And quite frankly, at a very young age, I'd had a boyfriend who had trained I think, with George Bizzarri in Rhode Island, and he had told me that martial arts, Kata was okay for women. But you know, women did the kata, and the men did the other stuff. So of course, being a young woman in the 70s, I believed that, but he did introduce me to Bruce Lee. And I really fell in love with the young lady who played his sister, Angela Mao, I just fell in love with the beauty of her movement.
And as a dancer, I said, well, I can just like dancing, or at least fighting. So, I kind of went in with that idea. And then needless to say, you know, my paradigm shifted as I continued my journey. But seeing a woman seeing was really important to me, because as a little girl, I was told I couldn't play baseball. And this was for girls. And that was for boys. You know, during those times, so I guess Enter the Dragon kind of was my introspection. What the martial arts could be.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure. You're not the first person to come on the show that made a transition from dance to martial arts. Can you tell us a little bit about your dance background? I bet we'll find some similarities. And then as we go forward.
Sensei Linda Lane:
Well, I was one of them. I was you know; I danced as a little girl and did tap ballet and jazz and all of that stuff. And one of the opportunities I had as a fairly young child of 12 was I was actually invited to teach. And that actually developed my sense of teaching, working with young children, and also what it's like to be a young person teaching other children, which is something that I've done a lot with, in my dojo, I do a lot of peer leadership. So, I can't say I had the best of training, I wasn't looking to be in the New York ballet or anything, but there was just a huge amount of joy for me in that later on, in my 20s, I did find a more serious ballet school. And that's where I really developed my sense of center and posture, and the importance of body mechanics, I learned about my own body, the good things in it, that worked well, and the bad things in it, that didn't work well.
But I also learned in ballet, that there was a very specific conformity, you had to really have a perfectly straight spine, you really had to be a very symmetrical person to be able to get up there on point and perform beautifully. And I just wasn't born with the right physical attributes as much as I loved the workouts and the bar and just dancing. So, I think that's a lot of what I took in into martial arts is being able to go from being a student, you know, to a teacher, and having this huge respect for the body mechanics, I see myself as less of a scholar in the martial arts and more of a someone who analyzes the qualities of movement and the essence of touch and things like that.
So, it's almost been kind of an organic education, in that matter, then less and again, being an older woman, being a small person, being on the south side of 60. You know, hitting hard and being, you know, a UFC fighter is not my path. But what I do know, again, is the essence of movement, quality movement and body mechanics and trying to find efficiency and movement. So, I do think that the dance background really prepared me to head into that direction with teaching in the martial arts.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right on. Now, some of the words you're using are words that I use, you know, talking about movement efficiency, one of the words that was coming to mind as you were talking, I would imagine that as you stepped in to martial arts, because of your dance background, you had excellent proprioception. For listeners who may not know that word, I would describe it as knowing how to get the result out of your body that you want, you know where you exist in space. Did you have... I would imagine you had some advantages with your dance background stepping into your training, but maybe also some disadvantage, some inherited movement patterns that you had to unlearn. What was that experience like?
Sensei Linda Lane:
Well, that's a great question. The difference I always tell people that the domain differences between dance and the martial arts is that number one in dance, it is the music that is your motivation to move. And in martial arts, it is the attack, that is your motivation to move, and dance, we try to breathe in and lift our bodies up to find our core and balance. And in the martial arts, we exhale and we bring our bodies down to route ourselves.
In my early experiences with training, the dance didn't really help me at all, except that it gave me the dedication and the drive. And I knew that if I practiced and I try hard, I get the rewards of the stronger muscles and things like that. Being in the US, you know, the kind of systems and martial arts that was offered was kind of limited. And, you know, this certainly a militarily militaristic attitude from a lot of the male dojo owners teaching the Kempo in the Taekwondo schools here.
So, it was kind of, you know, this is how you do it. And that's it, you know, so, I did spend a long time just kind of doing what I was told. And it certainly did serve me well, because I have an understanding about what that's all about. But with the invention of the Internet, and the ability to communicate internationally, I've been able to feed my curiosity and take my journey in directions that I never would have been able to do, if I just, you know, stayed in those same dojos, and just did as I was told.
So, the dance did help a little bit with my attitude towards training. But it didn't really help me with what I was being told to do. And now that I have kind of let go of a lot of those shackles, and been able to pursue my own curiosities. At this much later age, I'm able to connect what my experience of dance was back to, you know, the roots of actual movement and touch and how that psychologically affects people.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay, okay. The vocabulary you're using, as you're talking about movement, tells me that you've gone pretty deep on some of this stuff. Is that a recent thing? Or did you grow up? Okay...
Sensei Linda Lane:
It is kind of is.
Jeremy Lesniak:
How did you get there? These aren't words I hear most people I use in conversation.
Sensei Linda Lane:
I was a little American Karate clone. I thought I had to hit hard. All the things I didn't like about myself was things that my body just wasn't built to do. And this is going to sound really insane. But I found the internet. And I found my beloved Jesse Enkamp, the karate nerd. And he came to the US, very close to me. And I took the opportunity to go to seminar because I had been following this young man's blog, you know, having a son of my own, I found his experiences wonderful. And he pretty much just simply changed my philosophies that it was okay to be who I was, it was okay to find what works for me, that we're all he says this all the time, we're all trying to get to the top of the mountain, but we all can go up on our own path.
And it was almost like this young man from the other side of the world, just gave me permission to be myself. And on top of that, at that seminar, he introduced me to Hanshi Patrick McCarthy, who completely blew my mind with the scholarly knowledge that he had. And he told me that it was perfectly okay to be curious and to ask questions. And it was the release of this curiosity and the empowerment to ask questions that sent me on this journey beyond, you know, the people who I had outgrown. And I had this desire to deconstruct what I had learned. Where did this come from? These people that came to America, they hadn't been training in Japan their whole lives, where did it come from? I went to open ours with Jesse and that Jane [00:14:34-00:14:35] and I met my beloved, Nakasone Koichi. And I felt like I found the source. And it sounds kind of corny, but it was such an epiphany for me because not in not in this audience.
But the things that I knew and loved and felt good about. I could see where they came from within all these other arts because Jesse gave us an experience of several styles Nakasone Koichi. I immediately connected with him, because, first of all his top student, Maki Taguchi is a female. And she's amazing. And she's a top fighter. And she's a wonderful human. And he used her for all of his demonstrations. And he actually picked me out of the audience to come up, because he could see how my eyes will lit up by what he was saying. And I've been to train with him a couple of times. And while I would never call myself, his student, I really adopted some of his major philosophies over the past few years, that have really changed how I feel about myself, and how I feel about my dojo. And what I feel my mission is to teach. So the internet was pretty much infinity, I guess you could say.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, I think no other technology has provided more infinities over the years than the internet. It sounds like yours was nothing but a positive one, though.
Sensei Linda Lane:
Exactly.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I think we could we could point to a few things where people maybe their epiphany is weren't serving them. But on a go back, these changes, these philosophical adoptions, that led to change, could you go a little bit deeper on laying what those changes were?
Sensei Linda Lane:
With the traditional stuff I was doing. It was point fighting, there was this curriculum of self-defense, they throw this punch to do that, if they throw that punch, you do that. It didn't seem practical to me. During this time, as I was searching for information, I dug deep into the Kempo system that I had been taught. And I found a woman by the name of Kelly Aerosmith. And I reached out to her on Facebook. And I found out that she having been a US champion in point fighting and a highly regarded martial artists back in her day, I would say about the 70s, maybe the 80s. She gave up on the martial arts on the day that she was suddenly attacked, and she was unable to defend herself with everything she knew. And she drove her passion into the realm of personal safety where she still is today. So, tell and I really connected and he began training me online, in the mindset of personal safety. So, here's someone who was a great martial artist, but saw what was being taught as martial arts not being in value for keeping kids and keeping people safe. So that was there.
Then I go, and I meet Nakasone Koichi, who says that everything he teaches in the martial arts is for the purpose of personal defense. And he demonstrated that with there's some teaching techniques and some things that I've taken from him that I'm putting into my school and I'm experimenting with, and they work, I found a common denominator between Kelly Aerosmith in South Africa, and Nakasone, Koichi and broken out. So, that told me right there, I was on the right track. So, what I did, kind of bravely, I must admit, is I threw out point fighting at my school, throughout sparring throughout rules. I took all of the curriculum I had, and I'm reworking is still a work in progress. I'm not changing it. But I'm trying to find ways that make it practical and useful against everything. An example would be, you don't say, okay, he throws in a right front puncher, or it's a grab. When we're practicing our self-defense, every attack is random. So, if what you have doesn't work on everything, then it's not useful for you. So, it's become a personal journey for each person within the curriculum. The students still do that Kata, they still do their Kabuto. We definitely happy to be touching each other and working on Jiu jitsu right now. But there is that goal that if you need it, you have it.
So, you know, with the smaller dojos you know, with the smaller, my dojo is almost become like my little science lab, to kind of work on this stuff. And I'm kind of excited because I think I'm on a really good track in America, from what I see, everything's just my opinion, please, please people understand that. It's just my opinion, I see the martial arts and personal safety as being to specifically different things. What I'm trying to do is create a bridge between training kids and people in the martial arts, to the personal safety. And a lot of it has to do with just the way they think about it. We all know, you know, from the look at all of these wonderful instructors like Ian Abernethy, who I had the opportunity to meet, so Jesse Enkamp as well, where he really thinks outside the box, you know, practical Bunkai. I mean, all you have to do is change the way you think and everything you've already had, or have becomes new and wonderful. So, with that in mind, we're not trying to do new things, we're taking our own old things, and really seeing what we can find in there and finding what sufficient where the body mechanics are, what, you know, making every person have their own toolbox of what they think would work for them.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure. You know, you dig into some really good and important stuff, stuff that we've talked about quite a bit on the show the idea that martial art is not necessarily the best methodology for personal defense. A solid martial arts curriculum can include personal defense. But if one was to take a big step back and say, “Alright, I want to make people as safe as possible to defend themselves should a random attack occur”. There are a lot of things in martial arts that we're not going to worry about. But that doesn't mean martial arts are useless, because everybody's got a different why. And what I'm hearing from you is that you have multiple why's, and you're trying to reconcile all of these things, which sometimes are at odds, and find a way that checks all of your boxes, and codifies your vision for what your school should be.
Sensei Linda Lane:
You kind of get me, Jeremy.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I do. Because I think you and I have a tremendous amount in common.
Sensei Linda Lane:
That makes me happy to hear because, you know, in doing this, I did sacrifice, you know, I'm not in a system anymore. I went rogue as they say. And I needed that because, and I'm not creating my own system. And I'm not making Linda Lanes, karate. I call my school Kensho which means to discover yourself self-enlightenment. And I'm very transparent about everything I teach. I tell them, what is Nick Cerio’s Kenpo? What is Shotokan? What is Shōrin-ryū, what is Gōjū-ryū, I teach the kids in a traditional manner, with Japanese terminology. So, if they went to a dojo, hopefully anywhere in the world, they'd be able to participate in a class, you're trying to give them that universal education. And I don't stamp my name on anything and pretend I invented it. Like so many of my teachers did it for me.
Jeremy Lesniak:
One of my favorite sayings of my own this developed over years, there are only so many ways that you can move the body and only some of them makes sense within a combative context. You know, other people have said similar things.
Sensei Linda Lane:
I say exactly the same thing. The common amongst us all, is our joints move the same way. You have a brain we have a body. And when we learn to use, you know, those mechanisms to that to our best ability, the common denominator is we all are a lock is a lock, you can't lock and risk any different way than the locks that that exists in Jiu Jitsu. So, like I said, I guess those common denominators like the common denominators between the philosophies of my mentors, I also was very fortunate to meet a man by the name of David Lindsay here in Rhode Island, and he's kind of the resident scholar in this area, and he saw the way folks were treating me and he loved my curiosity, and he kind of took me under his wing as well. And he also has the same vision of the universality.
You can't have that word out of everything, you know, that common denominator, he would give me causes of different styles and we'd explore you know, the mindsets behind each and it really goes back to what I say a movement is a movement. It's only the way you think about that movement. That makes it different. So, you know, the symbol of my school is the mountain, Son and the water, the mind, body, spirit. And that's the essence of Ken Bowen in Okinawa, to my opinion is that it's just this unification of the mind, body and spirit and just making you the best that you can be. And hopefully along the way, get some tools that you can use if you need them.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Let me preface what I'm going to ask you with the fact that you are not, I get the sense that you think you may be in the minority in some of the things you're thinking and saying, you are not. You and I are very much on the same page. But I'm going to read between the lines here and you even underscored it for me the way others were treating you. There's been something that's gone on as you've made this transition, it sounds like out of what you were doing and to what you are now doing. That. Sounds like you caught some flak.
Sensei Linda Lane:
Well, I did.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Are you willing to talk about that? You don't have to name names.
Sensei Linda Lane:
Yeah, I will talk about as I think I'm very; I think I can do that in a very diplomatic and practical way. Like I said, I was in a system that was very good to me, it was a Kenpo based system. I did own a school. And I was the only female school owner of course, and while the Grandmaster of a system, I have to say, for quite a long time was very good and generous with me. The other males in the system, they used to call me the cupcake school, and they, I did horrible things like require face coverings for my kids. And I didn't allow children to have a lot of head contact. So I was, you know, they were very old school. And I took it as a mother, I took a great responsibility for the safety of my children. Having a husband whose knees got blown out when he was a child playing hockey and seeing what he went through as an adult with this injury haunting him, there's no way I want a child to have an injury that's going to haunt them as an adult. So that was really super important to me. I think a lot of it came out where I was considered subpar. But yet whenever we had tournament's my students want everything.
So, you know, sometimes you're not popular for the reasons you think you should be. And there actually came a point where these men got together, went to the Grandmaster and said, if either she goes, or we go, and I give him credit, I also was his biggest earner at the time, I was bringing the most money into the system. And he said, “Well, she's not doing anything wrong. She's just doing things differently than you”. And all of these men splintered away. And I became known as that trouble making woman who ruined the system. So as a result, here, it was a little painful, you know, and I stayed with this Grandmaster. I was very loyal to him for a while, but then, I think I outgrew him and this is a little betrayal, here and there and whatnot. And I think sometimes it's hard for somebody who isn't continuing their journey of learning because they feel that they have everything they need to have a student with this incredible curiosity.
So, we parted on the best of terms, but it also left me alone. Forget, you know, except for thank God for David Lindsay. He really continued my training and his words to me, I'll never forget was Linda, the best revenge you can make is to get better than all of these guys. Let's make you really good at Jiu Jitsu. And it was just like a nice place to put myself. So, I've been working with him for many years. And then when I met Jesse on the internet, and I met the people through the Karate nerd experience, I found my tribe, I found people that valued me that thought I was cool. That loved my crazy Rhode Island accent. The connection, the love I have for these people and even again, I keep saying my beloved Nakasone Koichi. He's just someone I just felt such a deep connection to when I went back to open hour. He made time to work with me privately, because he knew how passionate I was to teach his philosophy.
So, the pandemic hit and it's been really tough, but thanks to Buju TV, I've been able to kind of keep up with some of these instructors and I already have plans to go back as soon as I as soon as travel is allowed. So, at this late point in my life, I feel like the biggest blossom of my journey is happening. So, if anything, I could tell people, it's just never too late to start, when your body starts to be older, and not what you what you were as a person, you just got to kind of reevaluate what you have. Because, gosh, there's way to use it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I agree. Alright, let's go back, let's unpack some of that stuff. And I think you did a beautifully diplomatic job of explaining that. And what you've talked about is not unfortunately, it's not as rare, as you may think, you know, we've heard similar stories, I get a lot of stories before and after these recordings, folks, you may not realize all the stuff I know, I said, I can't talk about.
Sensei Linda Lane:
I think, you know, obviously isn't the best place to get, you know, a true traditional martial arts education, just because of the origins of where everything came through, I think it's changing. Now, there are some amazing traditional schools, you know, around now, but it's just kind of that militaristic influence on what was brought here, and it's kind of macho and all of that stuff. And God, you know, deity kind of stuff. And I just think it's the shaking of it off, I think...
Jeremy Lesniak:
You remember how almost all of us, in the United States, and I would assume in what we would generally call the West, most of us trace our martial arts lineage to a person who learned what they learned while serving in the military.
Sensei Linda Lane:
And this is kind of an opinion that my, again, my teacher, David Lindsay shared with me, he said, you know, you have all these Americans that went over there, and probably became brown belts over there. And then they came here and started systems. And the funny thing is, when I went back to Okinawa, I could see that what I had was part of it, but there was so much more to it. But and again, it goes to that essence of touch, it goes from that heart pounding, banging, cracking into that super gentle, you know, manipulation that involves the mind, you know, and the body. And those Americans didn't get there before they came here and said, this is it, this is everything you have to know. So, it's, again, it's just my opinion, but I think it holds a little bit.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And you're not the only one with that opinion, there's a lot to be said for that, we hear these stories over the years that, you know, people were taught differently, because they were American, or they were taught a reduced curriculum, or they were taught an expedited curriculum, because they knew they wouldn't be there forever. You know, whatever it is, I think there's a lot of synergy in that aspect of what you're talking about, also, with these other contemporary Kempo instructors of yours, who didn't like what you were doing. And here's why I think that the two relate. If we look at what we know, whatever you know, today, as a martial artist, if your assumption is that is all I need to know, were all there is to know, all I want to know, you're pretty much done training. And one of the things I think we see, with a lot of martial arts school owners who've been doing it for 20/30/40 years, for whatever reason, whether it's boredom, whether you're tired, or they just don't want to start over whatever it is, they put a cap at whatever they know.
And here you come doing things not only differently, which they probably would have been fine with, if you weren't as good if your students weren't competing at a high level at competition and winning over their students. If you just turned-out crummy students, they probably wouldn't have cared that you were different. You were different, and you got results. And so now, that forces them to have to find some way to remain the hero in their own story. This is one of my big worldviews shift over the last couple of years, recognizing that everyone has to be the hero in their own story. Otherwise, things really fall apart for us. So, you expose these massive gaps where they could be better, and they couldn't handle it. And so, they had to do the only thing they knew how to do which was discredit you in some way. And then when that didn't work, they just ignored you. They put up their blinders, they walked away from this organization. And we see this unfortunately time and time and time again. And one of the things that I see when I talk to people, people who I have had the opportunity to work with that are wonderful martial artists, honestly, the ones that have the most to share are the ones that are most willing to admit that they don't know everything.
They keep that white belt mentality with everything that they do. And yeah, doesn't mean they don't own a school, it doesn't mean they don't teach a class or classes, or guide students from white belt to black belt at a world class caliber. But it means they recognize that there's other stuff in the mix that they don't know. And they're open to learning it. And I'm not going to name names, but actually, you name three big names, folks who have been on the show, and all three of them have that mindset, they're all willing to learn from others. And positive, I'm hesitating, whether I'm going to name this name, I'm not going to name this name, even though this would be a very positive thing. Somebody who came on in the first 100 episodes, completely changed my mindset on this, this was someone who was headlining an event. And once he was done teaching, sat on the bleachers, watching, essentially, “nobody's teaching their events”. And he wasn't just watching respectfully, he was watching to learn, and it blew my mind.
Sensei Linda Lane:
And I think, again, is as much as the Grand Master that I had. I owe him a lot. I think it was because when his teacher died, he felt there was no other teacher for him. And he didn't embrace the internet. And I think he just again, when you feel like your cup is full. That's where you are. And my students. Since I've been traveling and learning the students that have been with me for a really long time, I've just loved the evolution of the material and the ways of thinking and every time when I say I hate to leave you guys, when I'm going away to train and they say Sensei, when you come back, you always have great things for us. And I give them a little taste of things. And I do again, I don't brand anything as my own. I tell them where it came from, I tried to give them a smorgasbord of information. Like when I was a little kid, it was tap ballet baton twirling, it was a little bit of everything.
So, they can find their own journey. I don't want disciples, I want people, like you said that too, can go anywhere in the world, or to any dojo and feel okay to step in and take a class. So, I think by simplifying that, it opened my door. And quite frankly, I wear a white belt in my dojo, I don't wear a black belt, I wear a white belt when I teach. And part of it is to symbolize the fact that I am not rankle by a system at this point. And that, while rank is very important for children and people to understand their progress, their journeys between me and them. And it's not about things. It's about finding that. So, again, it is very unique, but it's made me happy. And I have to say with the pandemic, a lot of the younger students dropped off, I did a lot of zoom teaching like everybody else. But a lot of the younger kids dropped off. And I've been hesitant to pick them back up again, because closings could happen again. And quite frankly, on the pressure of not having to make a buck, by having all these little kid classes has really given me the energy to pursue the art more with the serious students.
And again, going to open our eyes. It made me feel okay with this because they kind of joke around that every taxi driver damn probably owns a dojo, that they won't give you a loan for dojo and open now unless you have another. So, I actually took a small second job, so that my dojo can, you know, take care of itself, and I don't have to be dependent on it financially. And taking that off my shoulders, I really think is giving me this opportunity to continue to grow. And I actually do have so much admiration and respect for the people that do a great job monetizing their dojos I just think they're amazing. I've tried to do it. And again, at my age, I life just has to be enjoyable. It wasn't enjoyable for me.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Not for everybody.
Sensei Linda Lane:
It's not.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's okay.
Sensei Linda Lane:
You're right. It's okay. And it's so funny that people like you and again like Jesse, and like “Hi, I'm Hanshi McCarthy” and my Jiu Jitsu teacher and my teacher in South Africa. Kelly. That's exactly. It's just why is it that just having people tell me it's okay was all I needed. So, I'm here to tell everybody, it's okay.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I have no way of determining the statistics on this. But my gut, just from my time training over my life, this show, the other things that we do, the majority of martial arts schools are part time. That is my sense, just not necessarily by numbers of students, but by numbers of entities, numbers of schools, the majority, as far as I can tell, are part time, the owner, the instructor has another job, at least to supplement.
Sensei Linda Lane:
Well, in our neck of the woods, a lot of those small dojos were not able to manage with the pandemic and whatnot. So, there's been a lot of those going away. The [00:41:05-00:41:06] as you will. And again, I hate to chastise them, because they're making a buck they're doing, you know, they're doing something I'm not willing to do they know how to make a buck. And they've gotten more into child care, like, you know, after schools, and they got buses in their ship and people in and like, I tried to make it my job to educate people that there's just different kinds of karate schools or martial arts schools, and you really need to know what it is you deal with? Is your kid going to be entertained? And get social skills? Or are you looking for a place to really teach them karate? So, I do think the bigger schools are doing very well. And I think there's going to be more than for that reason, because they've been able to embrace the pandemic and make it useful to them.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And it depends on where you are, because I actually... There are a lot of there are places and specifics that I'm thinking of now where the opposite is true. That because the entirety of the income for that person, or in many cases, people, a whole slate of people was based around in person classes, and they weren't able to maintain and jobs were lost, whereas the part time schools that owner, now they lost some of their income, but they still have their full-time job, they tighten their belt, they put a couple months on credit cards, and the school survives.
Sensei Linda Lane:
I think the bottom line is, it made us all make big decisions about what we wanted, it certainly made me decide that I wanted just to take a path that was different, it really is. So, I'm kind of grateful, in that aspect of it and again, at my age is really nice to only bite off as much as I can.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Here's a question, because you've been through a lot, there are a lot of changes that have occurred, and I would expect philosophically more than anything else. So what if you had the opportunity to take all this knowledge, all this perspective that you have now from all these travels and engagements with people can go back and go back to you know, the first few years of your training, and you get to put a fork in the road, you know, you can follow the path that you followed, or you can kind of skip ahead in a sense and take this knowledge and run with it would you have taken this path?
Sensei Linda Lane:
I would love to have had a school like mine when I was a child because I was always interested in karate, but girls didn't do karate. And that's one of the reasons I dance. So, I would have loved to have a school like mine. But I don't know that I would change anything. And there's been a lot of satisfaction in deconstructing what I was given the spin very, it's made it my own a little more than that. So, in hindsight, you know, it's the old hindsight saying, you know, would I love to be a young person knowing what I know is an adult. Oh, hell yes. I'd love to be a teenager again; I'd make a lot of really good decisions about myself. But as far as the martial arts goes, you know, not everyone can start as a child and, you know, not everyone's journey is just that it's the journey. Not everyone's a big strong guy. Not everyone's a UFC quality fighter.
Not everybody can hit the mat now and not everybody can, you know, break bricks but not everybody has to everybody wants to get and that's just it, not everybody wants to right now again, I've developed this tribe internationally. And I've actually been in talks with some of my colleagues, one in Mexico, one in the UK. And we're looking to pull together some personal safety information that the dojos can share that will be more successful, whether they add it to the curriculum or whether, again, my mantra is to bridge the gap with their martial arts training. So, we're starting to collaborate a bit internationally, with the focus on the needs of the children in each of our countries for safety. For example, the needs of a child in Mexico are very different than the needs of a child in the US. So, we're trying to kind of come together a little bit. And I think that's going to be another exciting chapter down the road.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sounds really cool. I want to go back to the white belt. Okay, let's unpack that a little bit. Because it's interesting. It's really interesting to me, and I've got some questions, because I haven't seen it done. I mean, I'm happy to put on a white belt. When I step into someone else's school, I put on a white belt, most often I was wearing a white belt last night. And I have no issue with that. what I'm wondering is, first, when you're at the front of the class, in your school wearing a white belt, has that created any confusion among newer students, or parents or anybody else stepping in?
Sensei Linda Lane:
Well, quite frankly, it's kind of hasn't, which I thought was really interesting, because I would say just what is this thing around my waist changed who I am or what I am, you know, and they I wrote a blog post a very detailed blog post about why to Sensei Linda, wear a white belt. And if anyone has a question, I just send them there. And it's really kind of cool. And again, I have to credit, Jesse Enkamp, he's had an impact in my life, I joke around those online relationships can work because I met him online. But he came out with a kind of a novelty belt called the Shodan belt. And while all of my colleagues had these black belts that they were rubbing against trees, and, you know, trying to wear out, so they looked like they had these raggedy black belts around their waist, which no one in Okinawa would be caught dead with if their belt looked crummy, they'd buy a new belt. But Jesse came up with this idea of a white belt that had black underneath that.
And as I was evolving from the need to be endowed with rank by others, for financial purposes, needless to say, I thought this is perfect to me, I'm going to take this belt. So, I got this white belt. And I've been wearing it for several years now. And it's just starting to show a little wear. And it's like, this is my journey, because I'm going to be giving myself a black belt by the time this is black. And look at the green belt now. And when I go to Okinawa, I can't wear it, because I would never wear anything but a white belt in anybody's class. And the funny part is, nobody's ever questioned it. And all I can think of is, I mean, my husband is at the dojo. And for a long time, my son who's a huge guy was at the dojo, but nobody questions that the person in charge and the authority is me. So, I guess I kind of carry myself in a way that that needs no question. That's the only thing I can think of.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's perfect. You answered all my questions on that subject as to thank you. But what I've also badging this and you know, it doesn't surprise me that Jesse came up with something that cool, you know, he's a great guy.
Sensei Linda Lane:
And he is a young man. And, you know, again, I follow his journey, and I just found him to be such an interesting individual. And again, I've had people knock me because oh, I need that, you know, he's born right. And I'm like, the guy speaks like five languages. But anyway, you know, like I said, these are people who would not put on a pink belt. And that was the thing about Jesse, that he eliminated he found our tribe, just by saying you have to wear a pink belt because nobody I ever trained with ever put on a pink belt. I mean, they used to put pink belts on kids as punishments, right? Oh, again, again, what does a belt say? You know, it's and that and again, like I say, I really contributed a lot to Jessie and allowing me to express the way I already felt open late. And like you said, the whole belt thing is, you know how many really.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I want to make a Willy Wonka belt, that's your rank progression and reverse black and then like a thin layer of brown over it. And then, you know, kind of weird away and you get these rainbow patches, I think they'd be kind of cool.
Sensei Linda Lane:
It is. And again, you know, I love wearing again, nothing makes me feel more. I don't know, I just love wearing a gear, it's not spandex, you know, it's just, it just makes you a human being. And it means your people can grab you and slap you and it protects your body. And it there's something about it that makes us all the same. And I think that's what's a beautiful thing about again, [00:50:49-00:50:50] has events where he's opened the door to again, when I say people like me, Americans like me with no pedigree would never be allowed into the dojos of these masters yet, [00:50:36-00:50:38]. So, I call the jewel of Okinawa.
He is just like, allowed people, he feels your passion. And that man has treated me so well that it's actually brought tears to my eyes that someone would be that nice. And give me the opportunity to train with all of these different people. And sometimes that's all it takes is just giving people that opportunity. It's not about their pedigree, it's not about their athleticism, it's not about their talent, it's about the enthusiasm they bring into the room. And the amount of effort, enthusiasm and effort, I really only think she needs my opinion.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I agree, if you care about what you're doing a work hard at it, eventually, you're going to learn some stuff.
Sensei Linda Lane:
Absolutely. And again, these people that gives these opportunities, you know, I've known people that have trained in open now and I've known people that have got, but like you had to have some secret password to get in the air or some you know, and there was ranking issues. And the funny part is the great masters, there are the sweetest most lovely people in the world. And by [00:52:07-00:52:08] giving regular people like me access to them. It's done nothing but strengthen the art. So, you know, I kind of like where things are going in the martial arts for me, especially. And like I say, it's never too late. I mean, I'm looking forward to the next 10 years I have, and you know, in training in the arts.
Jeremy Lesniak:
If people want to find you, website, social media and stuff like that you're willing to share?
Sensei Linda Lane:
Sure. My dojo was called Kensho Karate in Rhode Island, I do have a website, it's called shikonryu.com, shikonryu.com is a crazy name of a tournament form we used to teach. But you know how it is you get yourself a website name and you keep it. I'd say my school's kind of small and exclusive at this point. I like serious students. But at the same time, you know, I have been pursuing personal safety. And I've been doing things I do go and give talks and I am open to going to places and you know, those who will have me. And at the same time, I'm always looking to make my tribe bigger. So, if there's anyone that's like minded or, you know...
Jeremy Lesniak:
You shared a lot of great stuff, but this is where we're going to wind down. So, what are your final words to the audience?
Sensei Linda Lane:
Well, I guess my final words are that martial art is for everyone. If you have a child who doesn't like sports isn't very athletic, maybe quiet, maybe real smart, bring them to a traditional martial arts school, they will thrive there. And like I say, if it's on your bucket list, do it. Because you're never too late. All you're going to do is learn about yourself, and how to be your most positive and efficient you.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, I really enjoyed that conversation. And I'm sure all of you did, too. I want to thank you, Sensei Linda for coming on the show. I want to thank those of you listening, for your support and for listening to a conversation that I really enjoyed. You know, every time we do a show, I try to put myself in the place of the audience to ask the questions that you would want me to ask to represent you. And I feel like that went really well this time. I think we all came away with a better understanding of who she is, and where she's going and where she's been. And my favorite part of all that is understanding her. We get to understand a bit of our own journey. And yeah, I'm just I'm philosophical today. I don't know Why. But thanks for coming on the show.
Thanks to those of you listening now, if you want to help us out, if you want to help make sure that there are future episodes that we can continue to do the things that we do and do bigger and better things in the future. Help us out, spread the show, tell people about what we're doing. Pick something up at the website, sign up for the newsletter, join the Patreon. It all helps to those of you who have done those things. Thank you. I really appreciate it. Don't forget, we've got a really cool strength and conditioning program that you can check out at whistlekickprograms.com, it's really inexpensive and bizarrely effective, probably because I made it with some really solid martial arts principles and the latest science. So, check that out. I want to thank you for your support for listening. And let me know if you have any feedback Jeremy@whistlekick.com. Until next time, train hard, smile and have a great day.