Episode 694 - John Giordano
John Giordano is a Martial Arts practitioner and the founder of The National Institute For Holistic Addiction Studies (NIFHAS).
The discipline, focus, inner energy is not just a physical thing. its getting in touch with the light insiode of you,. It’s not about beating anybody in fighting, it’s about avoiding all of that…
John Giordano - Episode 694
Who would have thought that driving by a martial arts school and thinking they’re better than the ones inside it would have a profound impact down the road? John Giordano, the founder of The National Institute For Holistic Addiction Studies (NIFHAS), fell in love with martial arts that would eventually get him to train in different disciplines such as Karate, JiuJistu, and Judo. Throughout John Giordano’s career, he would get the following accolades:
Inducted into the Ultimate Warrior Hall of Fame in 2021
Inducted into the World Martial Arts Congress Hall of Fame in 1996
5 time US National Karate Champion
Metropolitan AAU Judo Champion
1oth Degree Black Belt in Karate
1st Degree Judo Black Belt
1st Degree Black Belt Vee Jiu-Jitsu
Growing up the son of a heroin dealer and trying to cope with the trauma of being molested as a young boy, he fell hard into drugs and alcohol. Over thirty-five years ago, at the urging of his family, John Giordano entered rehab and devotes his life in helping those who are in the same situation as he was before.
In this episode, John Giordano tells the story of his journey to the Martial Arts and his journey with addiction and mental health. Listen and join the conversation!
Show Notes
Visit John Giordano’s website at www.JohnJGiordano.com
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hello everyone and welcome. This is whistlekick Martial arts radio episode 694. My guest today, John Giordano. I am Jeremy Lesniak, I'm your host for the show I founded whistlekick. Why? Because I love traditional martial arts. And so I wanted to do some stuff to support and encourage traditional martial arts and traditional martial artists, we do quite a few different things. So, if you're new to our show, to our company, I would suggest that after you listen to this episode, you head on over to whistlekick.com or heck, maybe even go while you're listening. And you can check out all the things that we do. It's a bunch of really cool stuff that we're doing, we're adding new things all the time.
And one of the things you're going to find over there is our store, it's one of the ways that we cover the bills here, try to, you know, move things forward. And if you use the code PODCAST15 and get 15% off a sweatshirt, or some protective gear, or a training program, maybe a gear bag, lots of cool stuff over there. So go check it out, we're adding new stuff all the time, the show whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, get its own website, and you probably guessed what it is, if you didn't know already, whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. The show comes out twice a week, and the entire purpose behind the show. It's to connect, educate and entertain traditional martial artists worldwide. If you want to support the work that we do, there are lots of ways you can do that. You could make a purchase, maybe tell a friend about us or join the Patreon.
If you think the shows are worth 63 cents apiece, well, maybe you'll consider supporting us at five bucks a month and you're actually going to get more content so that 63 cents is even lower per episode had a lot of ways you could look at it. We're proud of the work that we do. We are thankful to those who contribute in whatever way that you do so. And if you want the bullets of all the ways you can help us in our mission, as well as a constantly rotating mix of behind the scenes stuff and discounts and some really cool things. Check out whistlekick.com/family. Over the years, I've had the honor of speaking with a number of martial artists who got started pretty early on, they were there in the first circles of what I would consider the modern iteration of traditional martial artists in the United States.
Today's guest John Giordano is one of those folks, he wasn't there at the very, very beginning, but he was there pretty early. And today's conversation talks a lot about those early days and the differences in training methods and philosophy. And on top of it. Bottom line is martial arts. As he put it saved his life. fascinating conversation. Lots of name dropping going on in this one. This man's connected to a lot of people that we've had on the show and plenty of others that you've heard of elsewhere. So stick around. This is some good stuff. Hey, John, welcome to whistlekick Martial Arts Radio.
John Giordano:
Hey, it's always a pleasure. I appreciate your shows that we can share information with the world.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, yeah, we get to talk about martial arts, which was better than the other maybe doing martial arts. Maybe someday we'll have hologram technology. And this show will be us doing martial arts from afar. That would be fun.
John Giordano:
I think they're working on that, by the way.
Jeremy Lesniak:
They are, I don't know how far off they are. We'll find out. If it happens. Maybe we'll do this again. No. Well, I start off, generally in a pretty obvious way. But I think it's necessary because it gives a context for everything else we're going to do. Why just start training?
John Giordano:
I'll tell a funny story. Okay, I was in. I'm from the South Bronx. I was 14 and a half. I was in gangs. And we were driving by freedom. I had a car we were driving to karate school by saying, you know, I see how tough this karate guy goes. Let me go. Maybe I could kick his ass. I don't suggest that, by the way, for any of the students. And so we went upstairs and it happened to be a class and we were watching the class wait for the end like a challenge to the karate teacher. Right. That just shows you how smart he was.
Jeremy Lesniak:
At 14 year, we're gonna challenge the adults.
John Giordano:
Well, I was a street fighter. I figured I was the toughest kid. What the hell. So anyway, it was getting late. And my father was very strict. So I had to get back home. And then I told my dad that I wanted to do karate, and my mother didn't want me to do it. My father said, no, he's doing it. And at the time, this was in 1962, you had to be 15 in order to join the class. So my father had signed a letter and I brought the letter and it happened to be a jujitsu class. But what did I know? I didn't know Jiu Jitsu. Karate is the same stuff to me. You know. So we got in, and they taught us how to roll out and how to fall. And then they put us in a circle, and the teacher was teaching how to block a punch.
So we asked for volunteers because they raised my hand right away. And as he was talking to the class, I tried to sneak punch him in the head. Well, that's not a good idea. All I know is I winded from point A to point B, I was on the floor with this little round face looking at me with a foot in my throat. Well, let me tell you something, I fell in love with the martial arts right there. Right there, I got out of the game. And I joined the class. Why? Because it was something that to me was unbelievable. And it was a chance to avert some of my anger. My father was a heroin addict. Daily went to jail when I was 12. When I was eight, I got molested when I was a kid. I used to be overweight, and kids used to pick on me and, you know, typical story, I think, for a lot of people. And I just found a way to direct all that negative energy into a positive way.
Jeremy Lesniak:
How much of that transition was that event? You, you know, kind of operating within the bounds that you were used to and being sneaky and it not working? And how much was the person the instructor because I think a lot of people would have said, you're out you're done. You're never coming back. And it sounds like that's not what happened.
John Giordano:
Well, I had a lot of instructors, because this particular structure was Dennis, his name was and he studied with Mr. Visitacion, who was doing Vee jiu jitsu as another famous grandmaster. And I went up to study with him also. I studied with a grandmaster [00:07:28-00:07:29], aka jiu jitsu. I studied with let me say a lot of teachers. Chuck Merriman, I studied with him and came with us to come into the dojo and teach us. I started with Nakabayashi, shotokan and judo. And then jiu jitsu. And then Moses Powell. Most people know what that is, I guess. We were brown belts together. And we started with Mr. V. So that's where I got my black belt from in judo and jiu jitsu, and also in Shotokan Judo. And I was so and I used to go six days a week to the dojo, and on the seventh day I would practice at home. And I became the metropolitan judo champion. And I was on the jiu jitsu demonstration team. I loved it, I couldn't get enough. So I joined with a friend of mine. And when they walked in, it was Saturday, we had classes on Saturday where everybody worked out different arts worked out at the same time, and being on a training day was just a workout thing. Anyway, we used to work out with the karate guys, and we used to beat them all up. Right? So the karate teacher got pissed off and was talented at Judo Jiu Jitsu. You know, teachers look, if he wants to be in karate, he has to join karate class. They can't just come in and fight with my students. So one day, I walked in, and my friend was in a karate class. So what are you doing in the karate class? He's like, joined. So yeah, I'm joining too. So I went up to join the class and at that time, there was a new teacher that came in and that was Grandmaster Frank routes. And he studied on the Peter Ervin and we went there and he was a Marine di I mean, it was the craziest class we ever had.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Crazy. How?
John Giordano:
Well, we used to walk on the concrete. We used to do duck walks all around the dojo. The legs fell off. In the summertime, we used to shut the windows and the doors and put on the heat. Guys were throwing up. In the wintertime they used to open up the doors and everything and turn off the heat. And if it snowed out we would run around in just our gi pants with no shoes on around the neighborhood back into the dojo. It was a very, very rough class.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sounds like that's an understatement. And did you like that aspect of it?
John Giordano:
Did I like it? At the time, I didn't like it. But I wasn't going to give up. Okay, yeah. Why? Well, because that's who I am. You know. So what winds up happening is if you want to learn a flying kick, he used to give a live sword. And you had a flyover of a life sword. What are the guys who call them lead feet? We hit the toughest school, literally in New York. It sounds like it. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I can't really fathom that style of training.
John Giordano:
Yeah, we trained. I mean, we used a whole lot of shoes and our hands when our arms extended for who knows how long they are, arms felt like they were on fire. You know, we learned how to add a block, they would put us up against the wall. And another guy would be in front of us and they would put a belt behind the other guy. And he would come with a sheen. i That's a slanted, you know, sword. Okay, bamboo sword. And you couldn't go backwards and you had a lot to face but had a punch to the body and the other guy had a block that close quarters. And if you backed up, he would hit you with the shield. So that's how we learned inside fighting. Okay, a lot of motivation there. If they train that way, if I taught the way I taught years ago, and the way he taught, we will probably be arrested for abuse. So yeah, but we trained, it's a martial art and we trained martial art wasn't really trained about the sport, you know? And so I wound up quitting judo, jujitsu after becoming a black belt, and I am full time in karate.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I will talk about that transition.
John Giordano:
Well, they all were fighting because Judo matches were on the same days of the karate tournament. And sometimes the karate tournament was on Sunday, the judo match was won on Saturday. And it just became too conflicting.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So you need to pick one. It sounds like the culture kind of had to pick one. Yeah.
John Giordano:
So I love fighting. I always love fighting. And so I picked karate. And it was pretty wild. Right? I was so fortunate to learn from so many of the top teachers in the country. And for a long time there were a lot of national karate championships. You know. It was this pretty wild and then I got to meet all the top martial artists who are my dojo brothers, Louis Delgado. I don't know if you know when these people.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I know a lot of these names.
John Giordano:
Yeah, [00:12:52-00:12:54]. Oh, and Watson, they had all these different guys with freedom, Ruben. And all my dojo brothers, Ron Van Clief. So, you know, Ronnie just put me into the warrior of Black Belt Hall of Fame. With 50 Other grandmasters, it was the wireless experience I've ever had in my entire life. We were on Zoom. And there were 50 guys from around the world accepting the award. And each one of us would get on and we would accept the award. So it was pretty, pretty cool.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Nice. Sounds like quite an honor given. You know, with the names that you're mentioning, I'm expecting there were some other big names probably on that, then we'll call.
John Giordano:
A lot of people from all over the place. And, you know, the martial arts has changed tremendously over the time. And Grandmaster Urban lived in one of my homes in Florida. He was late and we used to sit and talk all day long.
Jeremy Lesniak:
What would you talk about?
John Giordano:
Life, what goes on in life. You know, he was a different guy. We just talked to him privately. That he was very eccentric, you know, a lot of different things. But he's very, he was brilliant. And he's the one that gave him my 10th thought. And I turned it down. So I said, look, I said Sensei, I don't deserve that. He says John, you became a champion. You have… I don't know how many black belts they're all champions. And students. He said you beat addiction because I'm a recovering addict. I'm 38 years recovering. So he says you beat that and you help a tremendous amount of people who else deserves this other thing. Okay, so that's when I got my 10th degree black belt.
Jeremy Lesniak:
What talking about that relationship with Peter Urban you know, that's a name that if people know that name, they know how significant that name is. There's someone who I mean, I don't think you can tell a story of martial arts in the United States and not talk about Peter ever.
John Giordano:
Well, you know, he moved me when I'm 15 years old. When we used to win the tournament, we had to bring the trophies to his dojo, and give him the trophies. So you know, he was always, I will never forget it. When I was in Washington as a green belt, I was fighting a [00:15:31-00:15:33] tournament. And I was watching Mike Stone fighting at the same time as Hawaiian Mike stone. Yeah. And Mike was fighting. And I'm watching. He's jumping all around the place. Right? And these other guys are static, they're not moving. And he was just beating the hell out of them. I said, Wow, what a cool way to fight. Because back then everybody was standing there, nobody moved and either got a statement, one stance, a red cap stance, or some kind of a stance, you know, and that's the way they were fighting, but he changed it. So I started to do that. And I started to beat everybody up. And one time I was fighting and Grandmaster Ruben was the center referee. He goes Giordano, why are you running around? He said, since he has no disrespect, but it's hard to hit a moving target. And besides, that was really... And today everybody moves around and jumps around. Nobody, you know. Only trouble is today, unfortunately, it's seen back then they use what we call light contact.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, I know what you called light contact. Yes. Right.
John Giordano:
It was kind of like a zoo. Sometimes what was going on, you had a guy come over a couple of chairs. Well, you didn't hit him too hard, or you know, whatever. So today, it's a game of tanks. And it's not even resemble fighting. Like we know, we knew it. There was supposed to be a maiming or killing blow. It had to be at least an institution which is close to the opponent. Okay, we'll call like contact with most of them. That's what it was. It was completely different. Today, you know, I go to a tournament in Orlando, the US Open? Well, one of my students, Michael Sawyer, he's the one that runs it. And he was my student when he was a, you know, beginner purple belt, I remember. And he's such a wonderful human being. When I go there, he gets on the bike. He says, if it wasn't for Grandmaster Giordano, we wouldn't have this tournament here. And like you said, I really had an impact on his life and was nice. That was really, really humbling and really cool. You know. I was fortunate to train with some of the top guys at Grandmaster [00:17:58-00:17:19]. It was also a famous grandmaster. I don't know. Be with him.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I've heard that name.
John Giordano:
Yeah, well, he taught Louis Delgado, he taught [00:18:07-00:18:09]. Watson, he taught Ron Van Clief, he taught all these guys cherisher you know, and he was another interesting person, you know, and I haven't since I was a kid, so everything as time went on, I didn't study Hakkoryu jiu jitsu, Grandmaster. That was another interesting thing they used to do. They used to fight with their arms extended out. And they used to use pivoting like Aikido okay when they struck the Trump people and a lot of straight arm attacks, and it was a very interesting system. A lot of pivoting there was different kinds of jiu jitsu and Vee Jiu jitsu. that is so Mr. Visitacion, the same one that Moses Powell studied when we both had a black belt from him, was Filipino fighting.
Also, we used to do knife fighting on his stick fighting, and we never used fake knives. I never taught with fake knives either. Always a real knife, but you lose respect for the weapon. And the rubber knife routine and things like that. Okay, understand the safety but look in reality, you know, when fear strikes, the mind closes down. So you need to go and learn under the most stringent conditions. Even though today you can't do that. But you have all kinds of problems. But sure, that's the way we taught. That's the way we learned. And I used to teach the blind also. My black belt was one of the first blind black boasts of the national karate champion.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay, now let me ask the obvious question that I'm sure you know, I can hear listeners later. You weren't just throwing blind people in with live blades. There must have been some variations in how you taught them.
John Giordano:
No, no, no, not with that particular number of knives and stuff like that. When I was teaching the blind guy, he had retinitis pigmentosa. He was about 95% blind, so he could see a shadow. But if you move, you disappear. And David became a national karate champion, kata forms. And I also put him in the fight one time, and I put him at a tournament and the tournament director said, You can't make him blind. You can't have him fight. I said just don't tell them they'll tell their fighter. Okay? And if you if you don't allow them to fight over to sue you for discrimination. So they let them fight. Go went good. I bought it because the ring was shoulder to shoulder right about any beat the guy. So then I brought the cane out, and I tapped off, right? The guy sat down and cried. Literally the guy crying got beat by a blind guy.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Think I might too. Yeah, I think I might, if I got beat in a fight by a blind guy. That's the subject of, you know, kung fu films like that don't really happen. But here it really happened.
John Giordano:
Well, most of the people know David, you know, Master was promoted after 40 something years of training. And, David, the way I taught him was really interesting. I'm trying to teach him and he's not understanding what I'm saying. Sure, what direction do you know, when you can't see our directions, that's different? Right, so I had to blindfold myself to teach them. And that's how I taught him.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Did that change anything for you?
John Giordano:
Oh, yeah. It gave me his reference points. And we did it by touch. And I mean, you know, forms are intricate. Yeah, and, you know, directional and the way the techniques move and, and outperformed. And David won a lot of tournaments with that. So that was the most interesting story I ever had. I will never forget, he is walking down the street. And he's bumping into walls, because he didn't want to use a cane when I first met him. So he comes into my karate school and he goes, I want to learn karate. I said, Listen, I mean, you know, stop using drugs or something like that, you know? So no, I don't really smoke pot, but I don't use drugs. He says I'm blind. So I said, Well, okay, sign this paper in case you die. Okay, I don't want to be responsible.
We got discouraged. He says, I want to become a black belt. So he said, Okay, so I put them on the map. And when you go to stretch, David, he couldn't pick a field of two, two feet off the ground. He used to scream when we were stretching them on the wall, right? And fall down on the floors, I use them. Your audience is not gonna like what I say. But I used to get them to get up. Right? So he got up. And then eventually, okay, when he started the fight, as soon as he got touched, he would scream and hurt even though he didn't really get it. Right. So, you know, we kept banging him around, we got used to that. And nobody wanted to fight it because he really couldn't see you.
So what he threw a kick or punch, you usually either got hit or got hurt. There was no control. But David was incredible. He was one of the best students ever. And the hardest to teach. And it was, you know, I if you want to be a good teacher you have to be a good student. And you really have to learn, you know, from other things and other people because you only can take people as far as you are. So then I was teaching people with handicaps, no arms, no legs, and one leg. All kinds of different people.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And like you made a name for yourself, if you can teach, teach a blind person. You could teach somebody with one arm.
John Giordano:
Yeah, yeah. We had one guy in class. I still had the old way of teaching. So one guy had one arm and had a stump. And it was very tender and used to that one up, like, kinda like a block with the stump, you know? And I said, You got to block then, you know, you have to learn how to block I get. So I used to hit him with a stick with the scheelite and toughen up his arm, and then he was able to block it. You know, the old way of teaching was kind of like kind of, I guess you would say abusive in a way. But it worked. You know, just like when I went to China, and I went to the Shaolin Monastery a couple of times, and he did a special show, for me, it was really cool. And I watched how he, I mean, they trained like animals, they're like, running upstairs with water. And just like you see the movie. So, you know, and it's hard training and self defense, it's a martial art, not so much the sport part.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I have always thought of that, that old method of training as not necessarily the best for everyone. But for those who could handle it. Well, you know, gosh, you were trying to go.
John Giordano:
But you see, here's the deal. Who knows who can handle it? You know, most people come in, when people don't understand when the person comes into a karate class. He's really saying, I'm giving up my manhood because I want you to teach me how to fight. So most people don't, and what it's all about, it's not so much the physical, it's a lot to do with the mental because you have to face your fears. And if you're afraid, of course, you're not going to function properly. If you get too emotional, you're not going to be able to fight properly. So you have to learn how to control that. And how else to learn if you don't put them in combat situations. See, that's what I believe is missing in the martial arts. Because today, because a lot of these kids think they could fight in the street, they can find kick spinning kicks.
When I was a bouncer, I was a bodyguard, you know, I did all that nice. Works very well. You know, a lot of these kids think that you know, you hit a guy once he's gonna fall down. That's not true, either, was really not ahead. So I mean, the whole concept of the martial arts has changed. Now, there are some schools that really teach what I consider the true martial art at the sport, in some way but the true martial art. And the way we learned that you had to be at least the Green Belt or purple belt, if I remember correctly, in judo and jiu jitsu before you can go up and rank in the karate class. So we were already a black belt. So it didn't matter to me.
Jeremy Lesniak:
What was… Because you talked about there is kind of, maybe not animosity, but some tension. What was the thought of requiring that?
John Giordano:
Well, because first of all, karate, originally, in Okinawa, you know, they sweeps and throws all kinds of things. Now, I think if I remember history, Kanō Jigorō came over. And they took a lot of applications because of political reasons. And they wanted to be able to teach the masses and make it very simplified. So that originally was in karate. But it was not taught anymore. And some of the teachers teach it, but you know, a lot of them don't. And, you know, in close fighting, and how to sweep better, use your elbows, how to use on bars, how to use jokes, all of that stuff is very valid. It's not just jujitsu, it's a martial art. So, to me, you become well rounded. And that's the most important part. the discipline and the focus, and using your inner energy, okay, to apply your techniques, it's not just a physical thing. It's getting in touch with your delight inside of you. And it's not about beating anybody up or fighting. It's about avoiding all of that. You know, people think, Oh, the karate guy you gotta fight all the time. No, no, you should always be aware of one of our tenants. And karate was gentle in life, but ferocious and combat. And that's the way I learned. He had to be quick to seize opportunity. So all these different sayings and tenets were instilled in me for the little boy. And the best way to fight somebody is not to fight them. Most people don't get that part. You know, especially today, you know, you get sued and go to jail. You know, you could hit somebody, they fall down, hit the head, they die. You know, people don't think about that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Who really wins in that situation?
John Giordano:
Nobody. And you know, and what the martial arts are not to me is to create better human beings. Not just to be a fighter or, you know, catch the guy and all of this, it's to be a better person. You know, and it takes the mind of martial arts as a vehicle to get to that destination.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Agree. Yeah, that's better on the show. Frequently, martial arts make people better. Absolutely. Listen, we all need that. We're not all going to get in a fight, hopefully, very rarely, if ever, but we all can benefit from, you know, some of these, these other things wrapped around the physical trainer that come from the physical discipline.
John Giordano:
When taught properly. And that's important when I say taught properly, because a lot of teachers don't teach properly. Unfortunately, the more about the 20 minutes that you add and all that stuff. It's really about how to be disciplined, out of focus, how to face your fears, how to be kind, you know, there's a lot of tenets to the martial arts that changed my whole life in many, many different ways. And when I started using drugs, I didn't start using drugs until I was 20. And then I went on that journey with the drugs and the alcohol and all this other kind of stuff. till I was about 37.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay. So can we talk about that? Because, I think it's often really easy to put in a situation, you know, somebody who doesn't train could listen to up till now in our conversation, they can say, you know, so we started doing martial arts, he's got five years of martial arts under his belt, clearly it didn't work, it didn't do anything for him, he turned to drugs. Obviously, life is more complex than that. And you gave us some ideas of where you were coming from. You know, you mentioned the environment you were growing up in and everything.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So can you talk about why you went into drugs and why you came out?
John Giordano:
This is the deal. You know, just because you learn something, knowledge is power, but without action is worthless. Hmm. Okay, so I had the knowledge, okay. But I met a girl and, you know, we started partying together, you know, typical thing that starts off with foreigners, and this was in the 60s. So, I mean, what he was doing drugs, everybody was partying, and, you know, it was that kind of crazy time and, and who realized that, you know, that it would be so severe and wasn't as severe as it is today, I believe. Not that it wasn't severe back then.
But compared to that, and what was interesting was, you know, I started to get more and more crazy. I started to use my martial arts completely opposite to what I was teaching. And when I used to do collection work for the smugglers. I used to sell drugs. I used to teach the cartels, bodyguards self defense. It's in my book that we can talk about later. And what happened when I got clean, and I went to treatment, and like I said, I'm coming up in 30 years in recovery without relapsing, congratulations, went back into my life in a different way.
I will never forget that after I got out of treatment, and I said to myself, I want to compete and win state championships. Well played out, just starting there. We're going to start in about a week. So I said, I wouldn't go into it. So it was like I haven't, I think, competing years. So it just decided to add this. I took the state championships, but it was so funny. I was fighting Joe Hess' blackbelts. And he was a big 6’3 guy, for you, which was Don Johnson's bodyguard.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That says something.
John Giordano:
I got into it. And I beat him. But after that, after the match, I looked like I lost, my gi was torn off me. I was like, but even Holly Walker was all banged up. They call that winning, but I don't know what they want to call it. But you know, and that's how I started again, you know, back into the martial arts, and I was very lucky all along. But I took the wrong directions. You know, and it didn't the drugs didn't start really having a bad effect on me a negative effect until later on in the last five years. Actually. Interesting to know more about that. Well, what would why the will I did I mean, let me put it to you this way. Let me see. 1965. Okay. And I think I just started smoking pot I was doing so I don't remember. But what happened was I had the United States International Karate championships, and we had people from all over The world come to the tournament. It was my tournament and at that time it was your tournament you could not fight in the tournament. Okay, so we had to teach dancing. So I was a professional dancer also.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I came in. Okay, did you have time for this?
John Giordano:
Oh, wait, if you read my story, like everybody else's like to me. So what happened was when I first came to Florida at 17 and a half, okay, I went into a dance school, yes, with a pretty good dancer. You know, my mother was a semi pro dancer, and I learned how to dance. And I came in, I said, I want to teach dancing, and the guy said to me, alright, let me go out to the pool, and see if we could bring some people in for a complimentary dance lesson that we used to sell him dance lessons. So I got most of the pool to come in. And he was watching me dance. He pulled me aside. He says, Look at you, you're not a bad dancer, but you're not a dance teacher. He said, but you're a hell of a Salesman. So he says, here's what we're going to do. You're going to come into the private room, I'm going to teach you a few steps, you're going to go back out and teach them and that's how I used to dance in a nightclub.
We used to have a Tuesday night, our and a Friday night where they call it mumble jamboree, where all the dance teachers from all the hotels in Miami Beach would come and we all would dance with our students. So anyway, all these black belts came in my well my dojo brothers because I was having trouble with the Florida black belts. When I first came to Florida, they didn't like a New York boy coming to Florida. Have it? You know. And what happened was I was with John [00:36:47-00:36:50] who introduced him. Johnny's coming to Florida. Okay, so maybe you could take care of them. So what happens I let myself digress for a second. How I got my black belt, okay. Karate. Well, I'm going to Florida and I didn't have all my copies bound and stuff like that. And I wanted to get a black boat because I had a black belt, judo, black jiu jitsu. I wanted to have a black belt coming down to Florida. And Grandmaster was kind of pissed off that I was leaving because I was one of his top black belts. So he said, okay, you want a black belt? Okay. You have to win. Gary Alexander's. was the biggest problem in the country at the time, and I hope you're familiar with that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It was a… He was on the show very early on. Yeah, very kind man.
John Giordano:
Yeah. So his tournament was the biggest tournament in the country. And then it was a [00:37:47-00:37:49] tournament in Staten Island the next day. So he says you have to take first place in both tournaments. If you went to blackbelt. I said to Sensei, can I take the second one of them at least? He says okay. So I fought about nine times. In Gary's torment, the 10th time I won, and I took those places in the tournament. Then I fought in Staten Island the next day. And I was going against my dojo brother, Carlos Serrano. And I used to wear a judo gi. So you know, Judo is very big. So what happened, Carlos to a psychic, and it was like four inches away from me, you know, because it hit my D. And they gave him the winning code. And he said, no. So it was for first and second. So I took second. I said, look, I don't care. I'm going to get my blackbelt. I don't really care. So when I went to Florida, I went to Johnny [00:38:52-00:38:54] in the school which was in City Hall. They had a little play at the festival where they would teach right in the lobby there. So I went there and I said, Remember me said say, oh, yeah, I remember you from Europe. Say once you get up so I get up. i Come on. I come on the mat. In the area where he goes, You want to fight, you want to spy, I want to do Kumite. They said sure. What's black belt? You want me to fight? Oh, no, no, no. I want you to fight this brown belt, purple belt, whatever it was. So I sit down and I'll fight to black belts. It's another fight he literally notices. It was Steve Beatty. I don't know if you know that name.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I don't.
John Giordano:
Yeah, he was this big, big weightlifting guy to beat all the black belts anyway. They were sandbagging him so you know. So anyway, he was a real tough kid that really tried to hurt you. So I bow in with him. And we're joined around. I throw a kick to his head. I pull it back nice. He threw a sight and kicked off my ribs and if I didn't block it, he would have broken my ribs. So he looks over to the Chivas and Chivas smiles at him. So I still look up from New York. I set them aside and this is about okay, so I came running in, I hit him with a short back kick, picked them up in here, dumped them on the floor, we couldn't breathe. And I bowed out. They said, thank you very much. But no thank you, have a nice day and I left. So from that day on, I had black belts every month coming to my school trying to beat me up. I would beat him up and send it back home. This true story I mean.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We've heard this style of story a number of times enough times from this generation that that but I have no doubt I've heard the stories.
John Giordano:
What happened was when I threw my tournament right we the guys came into the nightclub and there they were dancing on the stage that we go dancing, beating the next day, and they're all laughing. Oh, yeah. You want to want to do it fine. You could but your guys cannot referee you. Because all the guys came down from New York, you'll shave their heads, Louis Delgado, Overwatch and Runnymede, all in pink bound to support me. Hey, as the rule is, because it was having such a hard time with all the black belts down there. So what wound up happening was, you know, back then when you lined up, they lined up next to each other, you fight the guy next to you. So they keep on playing musical positions, putting the best guy next to me. So I had a fight about eight times. And I got to the finals, and Louis Delgado got to the finals. And now they put Louis and I against each other so he can eliminate me.
So Louis and I clashed, Louis fell to the ground and made his knee. So Louis, what do you do when he says you got to fight him? He says, I can't fight anymore. I hurt my knee. So Louis disqualified himself and I'm fighting a guy named Bob Bremer. Bob Bremer was like, 6’4 but he was a real big guy. Okay, he was one of the toughest guys and he went to Okinawa to beat up all the okinawans. So, here I am, and the place was dead. Silence. You can hear when we talk about him. Now Bob would come running out people, they would run away. Okay, because he came like a freight train that you hate. But this kid from New York doesn't run away. So we kept clashing, clashing, I got a point you got to point. I got a point you gotta point. Now the last point, a guy in the audience and I can't believe this happened.
I got the picture. I don't know if I'd sent it to you. All right up the winning point. But you can see how big he was. He was when we went up in the air. I'm punching him in the mouth. Alright. And the whole place went like bananas. It was crazy. And I beat him. And that's how I started my reputation in Florida. And he and I became really good friends and Bob was the kind of guy that didn't become friends with that many people. I called him up and he said it was an honor to fight you, which was that he was really a good, good fighter. You know? And that's how basically I became, you know, known in Florida.
And I brought a nice ego to Florida and 65 and all my black belts. Herbie Thompson, I don't know if you heard that name before. Heard. He's one of my black belts. He has all his students I taught in Liberty City in Overtown. We have an American community and most of my black belts are black. And it was a really funny story. Hearing him Herbie had a school in and what do you call it? [00:44:06-00:44:08]. Anyway, he said, `` Would you come down and teach my class with me?” I said sure. So I came down. i Here I am here with a handlebar mustache. I'm wearing my karate gi, shoes. And I walk in the front door. And I was the only white guy there. Okay, I'm from New York. I don't know about color. So you know who the heck knows. So anyway, I walked in, they were shooting pool, everybody stopped shooting pool and looked at me. I walked into the weight room.
Everybody stopped picking up the weights. And I walked to the back of the class. So a weightlifter comes back and he goes Hey, white boy. Do you think I can kick my ass? I said yeah. I said well, why don't you get on the mat so his arms were big as my thigh. He tried to sneak punch me and I round kicked them in the solar plexus and dragged him to the ground. As you can't breed my teacher, well my student works and he goes, Oh, I see my teacher. Now Herbie used to be a gang leader in Liberty City. And then he went to Vietnam and fought with Tiger Kim. And he really respected a really tough kid. So that's how I started getting my students, they would come in, I would fight them, beat them up, and they would join. That's just the way it was.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Not a solid recruitment strategy.
John Giordano:
There wasn't. This is how you recruit. Dang, kids. They don't respect you, unless they know you. tough enough to beat him up. I didn't want to beat him up. But, you know, they tried to beat me upside down, defending myself. But anyway, and we went to all kinds of tournaments. We were the toughest school in the state of Florida, one of them anyway. And we went to New York, we fought in the tournament's in New York, we beat most of the people. Muslim lay black belts are world champions. We also had the Miami Vice karate team. And they had the Budweiser team. They had a whole bunch of teams back then. Oh, yeah, we traveled all over the country competing. And I was coaching it then there was Powell more there was Reggie, there were all these guys who won both fields. Joe Anon, there were all kinds of old champions. Okay, kickboxers, karate, guys, all kinds of guys on the team. And we would go around competing for about a year and a half. And I competed in, I think about, I don't know, 35/40 tournaments. So I want a lot of I wasn't fighting, I was doing forms, because I challenged myself because I had a hard time with form finding, I always love fighting.
So that was easy for me, but to be disciplined, and have to focus and have to do it a certain way. That was hard for me. And so then I really practiced and I did that. I did say copy, which was a difficult contract. And I think I wouldn't. I don't know how many trophies I had. I just took off the letters and threw away the trophies because we don't get to do it all with these things. But that's what we did. And we beat the Budweiser team. [00:47:25-00:47:28].
Jeremy Lesniak
That's a big deal.
John Giordano:
Nobody beat them only you know, they're they had a what's his name on Tae Bo. Billy is a friend of mine. Awesome. So Chuck Norris, I know the walls, I can hold the guys. But even Bruce Lee, when Louis Delgado went to California, he worked out with Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris and all the guys. They wanted me to come to California to teach the movie. I said I want to go to California. And I was in Florida. So I was doing plays at the time, a kabuki theater place, and I sent that over to go. But Bruce Lee heard about me teaching the blind that door, all his stuff. So he sent me a letter that he was sending a student to me in Florida to train at a blind school but a regular student. Because you heard from Louis and all the guys about me and all this kind of stuff. That's okay. And never kept a letter because he was mostly gonna. And that's how I got with Bruce Lee. And one of my good friends who's a writer, he's the one that wrote the legend of Bruce Lee.
Oh, yeah, he knows the family, Alex Ben block. So you know. And the way I met Alex was, see what I did was, I had the International Karate championships and people from all over the world came to compete. And I said, you know, I want to do something different. I want to do art mixed with sport. So what I did was we had the finals at night, right? And then very limited. And then we would have a commercial icon break, you know, in between a 20 minute break. And then what I did was I wrote a story about a young Shaolin kid trying to be a Shaolin monk. And we had a storyteller offstage, and we had white face makeup on. We had people hidden in the audience and what I did was put into the storyline, karate demonstrations. Those were his challenges. So I do a thing or a blindfolded cut a cute cover of somebody's stomach blindfolded. I do break concrete on fire with my head. That wasn't too good after already going nuts. I don't have to be more than that. But anyway. And we had, like all kinds of different demonstrations, guys praying. And I did a thing where I saw this guy in a magazine catching arrows, right? If he could do it, I could do that. Right?
Well, I didn't know we use a 10 pound pull bow, I use the 40 pounds 30 feet. Not too smart. Anyway, we put a full chip on the arrows, I had a practice and it was put my eye out. You know, I could make four hours arrows at 10. That's not bad at all. Now, but it wasn't good enough for the show. Short. So what I did was one of my black belts was the archer. So this is a crazy story. So what happened was, he was supposed to shoot this arrow at my chest. And I was supposed to move out of the way. Right? And continue fighting, do whatever I was doing at the time. So we had to put a plywood side stage so the arrow wouldn't kill the curtain guy. So, Bobby, what happened was he was an epileptic also had an epileptic seizure. Think about the bow. He had a guy with a bone.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So it was like a bad combination going in.
John Giordano:
Yeah, well, that was really. So it happened 20 minutes before he had a seizure. And nobody wanted to go near because he was flailing around. I went in like a dive down. And we went into a closet, all the glass jars with screws will fill on top of us. So I'm rubbing his temporal lobes. I finally know, you have to before you start swallowing his tongue. And he finally came out of it. And we had about, I don't know about 15 minutes to go before I had to go on and do this arrow thing and that kind of arrow that we used was a hunting arrow with the blades on both sides. Yeah, okay. I was a little nuts. There were a lot of things like that were pretty crazy.
Anyway, I said, Bobby, you do this man. I said, you know, you gotta shoot this at my heart. If you mess up, I'm dead. Is there another way I can do it? Sensei says. Oh, okay. So here I asked. And he jumps out. And he starts talking like a Japanese. And he goes to shoot the arrow at me and let me tell you something. I don't know if you ever experienced anything like this. I was so scared. And I realized that scaly really was okay. When that arrow was coming at me. It looked like it was going in slow motion. That happened to me once before when I was in a car accident. It looked like it was slow motion.
And I just barely turned away. And it sliced my uniform. And then went into the blu-ray and almost killed the curtain guy. On the other side. Yeah, it went through the board but not and not to hit him. Right. So afterwards I jumped backstage. So why didn't you shoot it the way I told you, you should use the full blessing. He said Sensei, you could even see the arrow.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It was only when you thought he had slowed it down.
John Giordano:
It slowed it down. But that's how the brain works. I remember we were in a car accident and believed we flipped over. And everything looked like it was in slow motion. And that's what happens to the brain. I don't even call it speeding up or slowing down. But I saw everything going on as we would as we were flipping through. As a matter of fact, I broke my back in that one. And I broke three transfer processes. And I threw the girl I was with out of the car then I couldn't get up was like somebody put a hot poker in my back. And I crawled out on my hands and knees and I went to the hospital. And the guys telling me to lay down I couldn't even stand up. So they finally took an x-ray and stood up barely. And they're looking at the X ray. And I'm looking at him saying I don't think that line belongs there. No, no, no, no. It's like it's normal. Well, I went back to the United States. And you know, put me in a wheelchair with a plane and they said you lucky to lose yours, you're only calling it. I don't know what your organs are or something. I forgot what he said. Anyway, I went to the doctor, and I kept on doing electrical stem electrical stem for three months every day. And then I started teaching karate again. After three months, the doctor said, how do you do that? I said I don't know. It's crazy. So that's some of the crazy stories that go on in the martial arts with me anyway. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, I want to correct myself because I said Gary Alexander. I was thinking of someone else. My apologies he hasn't not been on the show. If that happened, that was really recent. So yeah, it was recent. Yeah, we'd have to look that up. And we're done because he's been on the shortlist for a long time, somebody I'd love to have on the show. But I do want to talk about the book, I'm going to guess that a lot of the stories you've told us are similar. They're probably similar to other stories in the book. And as someone who has written a couple books, I know how much work goes into them. So I always like to ask authors. Why did you want to write a book?
John Giordano:
Okay, well, you know, I deal with addicts and alcoholics. And one of the like I said, one of the leading experts on addiction. You know, I only went to the ninth grade. My family was a mafia type family. My uncle was a hitman. Matter of fact, my uncle went to a wedding when I was 20. And the caterer insulted my uncle at the wedding. So he killed him the next morning. So, yeah. Oh, yeah, you're gonna get the book gonna read all about that effect that might be making a movie out of it. Sandy from Below Deck, the television show she wants to be my producer. And then because of all the layers of this book being molested, my uncle killing the caterer of my family, being a mafia kind of family, you know, my journey through everything, and car, my karate, and all this other kind of stuff. And what winds up happening is that I only went to the ninth grade. And here I am, by electoral over the world and neuroscience conferences, I wrote three books and co-authored another book. I worked with 25 universities, doctors, scientists and researchers. I put all my karate energy into the fiction field.
And I want to talk karate to addicts and make them like they're fighting their addiction. That's all. And so what happened was I said, you know, I need to write this book to show people no matter what education you have, no matter what family you come from, no matter if you're an addict or not, no matter how down you go, just never give up. And when I wrote in the book on the back of the book that says, There is one thing in the world, one special lesson, one constant. Let me see something. Oh, okay. Wait a second, guided me through the turbulent water of life. This infinite rule, which most people know, but ignore, or who simply do not follow the life lessons. That is no matter what, no matter the circumstance, the obstacles that people are getting our way, or things that slow us down, follow this one simple rule. Never give up on your dreams. Never let go of your passions, and especially never give up on yourself, or a God of your understanding.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So that's deep, that's heavy stuff.
John Giordano:
When I show people well, it gets a little heavier. When I went back to school, I got my GED. I did and I owe this to my karate training, by the way. You know, I got back on board with what I learned how to be disciplined, how to be focused, you know, have never to give up no matter what. And there are no failures in life. They're only lessons. It's what you do with those lessons that changes your life. So what I did was eventually, I started a treatment center. Early on, I got betrayed by my doctor, by my therapist, I've been through a lot of stuff. And anyway, I started this company with $300. But 18 years ago, in 2012, we sold it for 45 million.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Wow. Congratulations.
John Giordano:
Okay, that's my journey to success for people to show to me, if you would have told me this years ago that that's how I would have wound it up, I probably would have punched you in the face. You know, thinking you make fun of me.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It would have surprised me if you punched me in the face given what we've heard.
John Giordano:
So, you know, and that's in this book called The Kid from the South Bronx Who Never Gave Up. So if they wanted, it's on Amazon. It's on Barnes and Noble. That's what I do with my life. Today. I lecture, I do podcasts, you know, helping people to show them guidance. You know, sharing information. You know, I don't tell anybody what to do. I just say, here's what I learned and if it fits for you, use it. If it doesn't, don't do it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So here's a question given that, you know, there has been a thread of challenge throughout your life and some of it was self induced. So that was chosen. beneficial? Probably all of it in some way was beneficial. Would you have changed any of it?
John Giordano:
That's an interesting question. I had another guy ask me the same question. You know, why would I have changed? Absolutely nothing.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Not even the worst parts?
John Giordano:
Not anything, because everything led me to where I am today. See the run, no coincidence in life. All our journey's lead us to where we are. So why would I change something?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I don't ask that question often. But I don't think anyone has ever said anything other than that. Because especially the folks who have been through, I think, the heaviest stuff because it's usually when I ask it, they recognize that it's where they are, and then they're digging out or escaping, or whatever verb you think of, from that stuff. It took all of that stuff, to create the situation to get them out to launch the company that could be grown and sold off. And, you know, would you be doing the work that you're doing helping people now if you hadn't gone through all of it, right, like, you were on your path?
John Giordano:
Well, you know, I took all my karate training and applied into the addiction field. And I became one of the leaders in the addiction field, and alternative medicine. And I learned some stuff that is so wild, that I just learned a new thing. Matter of fact, three weeks ago, something blew me out of the water and I don't usually get it so we met about something, you know, just go. Yeah, that sounds good. Let me see. I always do things. I experienced these things myself. So if I'm going to tell you about something, I want to go through it. Then I want to see other people that got through it. So I don't think I was hypnotized. So I just came across this doctor who a friend of mine is a lobbyist in, in Washington, and he deals with putting bills in with the senators and all kinds of stuff. And he also is with alternative medicine. And it turns me into this doctor, and you know, I have back pain. And I throw karate and have two hip replacements, you know? And so I said, Okay, I'll go. So I called a chiropractor. Look, I practice good, but some are bad, some are good. This is not like a chiropractor. You ever been for two? I said, Okay, so I went there and there's an NFL player there. There's a senator there. All kinds of different people in the waiting room, they will tell me the story.
So he said to my son, okay, so I went in. And that was the weirdest experience I've ever had to be honest with you. He says, He gave me some tests. And he says, Okay, I want you to close your eyes and put many margins in place. So much in place. So it's alright, open your eyes and six feet away and I've turned to the right. I go, how the hell did I get here? Okay, so he's explaining to me how my body's off. Okay, how my vertebrae are off and how my balance in my brain is off. I said, Okay, so we go and one leg is shorter than the other than they have. It's about three quarters of an inch and it's shorter. So when I slip sometimes, okay, so, I go get an x-ray of my neck. Right? He deals with the atlas. Do you have this as the top bone in your vertebrae? Okay, well your nerves go through and your blood supply to your brain. So we went there the next day. I gave him the CD with the x-ray on it. He looks at it and shows me my neck, what's going on. It's impeding my blood flow to my brain. And another part of the neck is impeding my nerves down to my spinal column. puts me on a table. Now wait to hear this. This is what blew me away. Okay. He does not touch me with his hands. Okay. He is ashamed that he redeveloped it and it puts this little bar right towards my neck just barely touching it. You don't feel anything? He calibrates it and sense of frequency to your atlas and realigns it. Okay, and he asked my wife to come to the end of the table, and look at my feet.
They even touched me. I said, what? I get off the table. I have no pain. That's not where it ended. My wife. Same thing. Now the next morning. I see better, huh? I'm saying what the hell is this? Okay, and I haven't. My mood has changed. And so will my wife, so will go on. This is really, really weird. I'm looking older as I'm talking to the doctor. And he's explaining to me why this is happening. They work with PTSD and work with depression. It works with all kinds of different pains. And you know, in addiction, when people come to get detox, what happens is the right medications, they go to injury, they take opiates, opioids, okay, so we get them off relative, but now what do they do with the pain? Okay, we tell them to stretch to yoga and stuff like that works, okay, but not really. Okay, to the point where they don't want to go back on opiates, and they go back. This technology is unbelievable. I also work with hyperbaric medicine HBot I work with amino acids. I do a lot of stuff. That's why I've been. Currently I'm in 77 medical and scientific peer reviewed journals. So that's where karate brought me. And I really believe it wasn't for karate. I wouldn't be talking to you today in the way I am.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sounds pretty clear that without karate would have been a very different outcome and very different. Likely a very exciting and maybe shorter life.
John Giordano:
I was going to live past when I was in gangs at 14. Anyway, 15/16 I think I'll be dead. Yeah. No people shooting at you and trying to stab you. And, and I'm fibers from the fort, which neighborhood in the South Bronx, which was where Fort Apache was the police station. They wrote about it in Time Magazine since I was from the worst neighborhood in the whole United States. I had to sneak home at night. So nobody knew where I lived. Okay, that's my background.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's a story. So before, before we close up, I just want to remind folks, you mentioned the book. If I recall, you have a website? Yeah, so people bought that.
John Giordano:
Yeah, it's John, the initial www.JohnJGiordano.com. And the book is about The Kid from the South Bronx Who Never Gave Up.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And so this is where we start to wind up. I'll throw an intro and outro on this later. But this is your final shot to talk to the people listening. So what do you want to leave them with? What final words do you have for?
John Giordano:
Well, since it's a martial art show, learn martial arts from a teacher that has the proper character. And just don't say Do as I say, not as I do. And was teaching you how to be a better person, not just a better kick or a punch? As best I can tell him.
Jeremy Lesniak:
One of my favorite things about this episode was that just when you thought the story had a path, it veered. And a lot of times when we think about someone's path shifting, we see it as a negative. And in this case, in every instance, it was a positive, yielded something more in different better. And I love that martial arts have the power, not only to create those transitional points, but help people move forward. Mr. Giordano talks about how he taught. But what martial arts truly did for him was beyond becoming a martial arts instructor. He found additional ways to take what he learned from the discipline he developed through his training, and use it in various ways to give back. So sir, thanks for coming on. Had a great time talking. I appreciate all that you shared today.
Hey, listeners, head on over to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. If you're not already listening to this episode from there, and check out the photos that he sent over, check out the links, and I hope that you'll consider checking out his book. If you're supporting us and the work that we do. Well, you've got a lot of options. We've got some books, you can find them on Amazon, we've got our patreon account, patreon.com/whistlekick. And of course, if you want the easiest freest thing that you could do, you could share this episode with someone that you may think would appreciate it. You want to bring it to your school, maybe have me teach a seminar. I'd love to come join you just reach out. We'll find a way to make it happen. If you pick up something at the store, don't forget the code PODCAST15, save 50%. And if you have guests or topic suggestions, maybe some general feedback, find something on the website that you're like, hey, here's a way you can make that better. We want to hear all that and even more emailing Jeremy@whistlekick.com. Our social media is @whistlekick. Until next time, train hard, smile, and have a great day.