Episode 794 - Sifu Rick Cropper

Sifu Rick Cropper is a Martial Arts practitioner, instructor, and founder of the Kaizen League.

I’ll credit it to sparring. We whack each other but we love each other, we trust each other, we push each other, nobody’s got weird attitude at all. We’re there to improve but we’re there to help each other. It helps keep me accountable to everything I do…

Sifu Rick Cropper - Episode 792

Internationally recognized holder of a 8th degree black belt in the Chuan-Fa branch of the Kajukenbo self-defense system. Sifu Rick Cropper is one of the most widely respected, and highly sought after Black Belt instructors in the Pacific Northwest. Having Over 50 years of martial art experience and having taught thousands of martial art students, Sifu Cropper's teaching style and methods are highly praised. Sifu Cropper's accolades are many, including training multiple Black Belt World Champions, ranked in the top 21 sports karate school in the world, promoter of the Mighty River Classic Martial Art Tournament, and promoting many students to black belt, including master rank.

In this episode, Sifu Rick Cropper discusses his journey to martial arts, future goals, and the Kaizen League tournament. Listen to learn more!

Show notes

You may check out more about Sifu Rick Cropper on mightyriverclassic.com

Show Transcript

Jeremy Lesniak:

What is up everyone? Welcome. You are checked into another episode of whistlekick Martial Arts Radio. This one's 794 with my guest today, Sifu Rick Copper. It's a doozy. I'm Jeremy Lesniak. I founded whistlekick cause I love traditional martial arts and I am investing everything I have and everything I am into this global pursuit, community, sport, whatever you choose to call it. And if you wanna see all the things that we have lined up, the things that we're doing to help students and instructors and school owners and competitors and promoters and all those folks, go to whistlekick.com. It's the place we put everything. Everything at least links off of there and we're adding stuff all the time. You wanna know all the stuff that we're adding? Well, you should probably join the newsletter list. You can do that from whistlekick.com. But our mission here is to connect, educate, and entertain the traditional martial artists of the world. And we're trying to get every single person to train for six months. I believe that would make the world a dramatically better place. I bet you see the value in that too. If you wanna help us out in our mission to do that, well, we've got lots of things you can do. The first thing you could do, you could go to whistlekick.com, you can go to the store and you can find maybe some sparring gear or maybe a shirt or maybe a hat, or maybe an event, or join the newsletter list. There are so many things going on over there that I can't even tell you all of them, but actually, if you join the family page, whistlekick.com/family, we have 'em all listed out there, as well as some bonus kind of exclusive, not kind of, it is exclusive behind the scenes stuff. Our show, Martial Arts Radio, what, some outlets refer to as the top traditional martial arts podcast. Actually, I had the traditional, they just call it the Top Martial Arts podcast in the world. We're pretty proud of that and we work hard to keep that title, has its own website, whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. Two episodes each and every week because we, well, we're trying to connect, educate, and entertain you. We love you all. We love traditional martial arts. The team here is fanatical about delivering the best possible value that we can. But if you go to that website, what are you gonna find over there? You're gonna find every episode we've ever done. Coming up on 800 episodes. Show me another way that you're gonna find that much awesome martial arts content and not spend a nickel, oh wait! Nope, there's nothing. There's nobody out there delivering more valuable free content than whistlekick because we love what we do. Now, if you love what we do, and hopefully some of you, well, I know some of you, quite a few of you in fact, contribute to our Patreon because you wanna see, you wanna show the value, you wanna keep this thing going and you, let's face it, you want the goodies that we throw you. If you contribute to the Patreon, two bucks a month is where you can get in, goes up to a hundred dollars a month, but you've got tiers in between with all kinds of cool stuff. Go to patreon.com/whistlekick and check out the stuff that we have available there for you. People rarely stop because we crush it. My guest today, Sifu Rick Cropper. I met Sifu Rick at Free Training Day Pacific Northwest, which we held for the first time in 2022. And I have to say, I don't know that I've met anyone with more energy. This man is intense, and if you think our episode today is intense, training with him is more so. Now, I don't know too many people who, well, you know what, I'm gonna give stuff away. I don't wanna give stuff away. I had a blast, and I have no doubt that this could have been a six hour episode and he wouldn't have lost steam. We are going to have him back as long as he's willing because I had such a blast and stories are amazing. There's history, there's just great stuff going on in this. Enjoy. 

Rick Cropper:

Thank you for having me on your whistlekick podcast. I've been looking forward to this for a while. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I have too. Since I met you and said to Andrew, I was like, we gotta have this guy on the show. And he's like, I was gonna say the same thing to you. And happy birthday. 

Rick Cropper:

You know what, this is absolutely insane. I cannot believe I'm 62 years old. It's insane. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I can't believe you're 62 years old. 

Rick Cropper:

It's insane. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

You have more energy than almost anybody I know. What's your secret? 

Rick Cropper:

Oh, praise the Lord. It all comes from the Lord. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Well, it's gotta be more than that because there are plenty of people who will, you know, offer up and… 

Rick Cropper:

Okay. So I'll credit it to sparring. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Okay. 

Rick Cropper:

I credit it to sparring. Okay. Here's the deal. I have a best friend, a trusted friend. His name is Doug Bertrand. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Okay. 

Rick Cropper:

Now there's a lot of elite. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I've heard that name by the way. 

Rick Cropper:

There's a lot of elite point fighters who've come from this part of the country. The first one being recognized as Dan Anderson. Okay. Doug Bertrand is from a different planet. This guy is the most amazing point fighter there ever was. I've known him for 30 or 40 years. I think I've been sparring with him every Friday for 27 years. He's got a huge school. Everybody calls it Bertand’s Palace. It's a double decker school. I just spar with him every Friday morning for 27 years. Doug Bertrand, former NASCAR World Champion. And then another guy I've known for 40 years, Marty May, NBL, former NBL World Champion and a new guy to the group, Isaac Atkins, who's 6’5, 22 years old and is the current World Karate Union champion. He won that in Wales Europe, like the week before my tournament. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Okay. So you hang out with some heavy hitters? 

Rick Cropper:

I don't know if he, well, elite point fighters. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. That’s what I mean. I don't mean necessarily contact heavy hitters, but so… 

Rick Cropper:

We whack each other. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Oh, I believe it.

Rick Cropper:

But here's the deal with these guys. We love each other. We trust each other. We push each other. Nobody's got weird attitudes at all. We're there to improve, but we're there to help each other. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

And so it's like, Hey, what did you do? I went like this and I went like this. Well, what did you do? Hey man, your defense is really good. So we're there to help each other. But we're there to push each other and it helps keep me accountable for everything I do during the week. Because going to Friday's spar is like going to a tournament. Okay? 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Okay. 

Rick Cropper:

So this is what I do, four to five days a week in a row, I do a 24 hour fast. Four to five days in a row, a 24 hour fast. This is why I do it because I wanna be light. Everybody has reach on me. And then the 22 year old kid… 

Jeremy Lesniak:

And for folks who aren't watching, how tall are you? Because this is relevant. 

Rick Cropper:

I'm 6’3 and a half. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Try again. 

Rick Cropper:

No, I was six feet tall up in high school. 6’2, add platforms. I’m 5’6 and I weigh 140. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

At 62 years old, the way I stay light is I do that 24 hour fast, five days a week. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

So are you eating once in between? 24 hour fast, eat, then 24 hours again? 

Rick Cropper:

That's what I do. Okay. So I have two cheat days. Okay. After I spar on Friday, It's a cheat day. I mean, I'm heading right for WinCo to get cheesecake man, and hamburger and bacon and cheese, because I'm gonna eat a cheesecake. I mean, it's my cheat day. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah.

Rick Cropper:

Saturday's another cheat day. Okay. Sunday, sometimes it's a 48 hour fast, but I'll only eat, I'll eat once in the evening. I won't eat at all Monday during the day. I work four tens, Monday through Thursday. I eat nothing while I'm at work. I train while I'm at work. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Okay. 

Rick Cropper:

And I'll tell you my, oh, if I'm gonna be some place for 10 to 12 hours and not train, that's not Rick Cropper. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah.

Rick Cropper:

And they let me train. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

What do you do? What kind of work you do? 

Rick Cropper:

For 38 years, I've worked for, it's now the Georgia Pacific Paper Company. I'm a forklift driver. I've been there 38 years and I'm 62 today. so I'm getting ready to retire. But, where were we at? Oh! So at work, on my eight o'clock break, this is what I do pn my eight o'clock break, a hundred pushups, 300 sit-ups. Okay. And then I go into my yoga poses for my stretch. Cause I got arthritis in my hip and I got no ACL, I mean, I have to exercise, I have to stretch just to be able to walk.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Sure. 

Rick Cropper:

So my eight o'clock break is a 15 minute break. Hundred pushups, 300 sit ups, 260 leg lifts and then I do my yoga. Then I go back out to work and I drive a forklift and I load trucks. So whenever there's like a break, I go hide somewhere and then I go, I grab the seat, the handle that's on the seat of my forklift, and I throw side sidekicks. 10. Then I go to the other side, 10. Then I go round kicks, 10. Round kicks, 10. Then I go to hook kicks, 10. Hook kicks in. Then I go to my two part kicks, sidekicks, sidekick, wheel kick, wheel kick, hook kick, hook kick. Same thing on the other side. Then I go to my three part kicks. Oksy. Sidekick, sidekick, wheel kick. Wheel kick, wheel kick, boom! So I do try to do that once a day or sometimes twice a day. And then on my lunchtime, I'm either talking to my girlfriend or I'm training at lunchtime too. And I'm not eating nothing. What I'm doing is I'm, we have water stations everywhere. I'm sipping a little bit of warm water. Actually, if it's warm water, I hammer it. Cause you can't hammer cold water cause it'll freeze your throat. And I'm drinking, I'll pour, cause we get free coffee at work. I'll pour about this much coffee in a cup. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Little bit. 

Rick Cropper:

Water it and I'll sip that up or I'll do tea. So all day long I'm not eating, I'm staying hydrated. But not over hydrated because I like to cut weight on Monday and Tuesday and be a little bit dehydrated because I ate all those cheeseburgers and all that cheesecake during the weekend. So, and then Wednesday is when I start hydrating. That's getting prepped for the Friday spar. Okay. So all week long I'm getting ready for the Friday spar. And then here's how else I get ready for the Friday. At 60, in my 60s, I'm sparring better than I have in my entire life. And I've been sparring since I was like eight years old. I'm sparring better in my 60s than any time in my life.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Now when you say better, when you say you're sparring better, be more specific. Is it just you're sparring smarter or are you also faster, you have better movement as well? 

Rick Cropper:

I'll explain it to you right now. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Okay. Okay. Please. 

Rick Cropper:

So I've been sparring forever. Okay? And there's, for some reason, when I'm sparring in the Northwest, I struggle to win. But if I'm in New York, if I'm in Maui, Maui, Hawaii, where I won that, in Maui, Hawaii, Texas, I'm out there just rocking and I win. And I'm like, what's, how, what's the deal there? There's something going on there. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

And I'm like, you know what? I'm in totally great shape, how come I'm always winded? How come I'm always winded. This is, there's something going on here. So, one of my students turned me on to a Joe Rogan podcast. I didn't know anything about Joe Rogan had a podcast, but I was watching George St. Pierre and Joe Rogan. And George St. Pierre was talking about when he fought Michael Bisping

and beat him, he actually had a colostic, ulcer. He was sick. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I didn't know that. 

Rick Cropper:

And he got really sick after the fight. And he said he found a doctor named Jason Fung, Montreal, Canada, who's healing him of his ulcer by time restricted eating and fasting. I'm like. So I started watching all these YouTubes of this Jason Fung guy, and I started finding out how beneficial fasting was.

So that four years ago, that's when I started doing my fasting. So I got lighter. So being lighter made me faster. Okay. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yep.

Rick Cropper:

It was less pressure on my joints because there's arthritis right here. There's no ACL, no meniscus here, and I gotstuff going. So I'm lighter, so it's on my body. So then, I started, how come I winded all the time and I'm in really great shape? So I started Googling breathing for boxers. Okay. There's a guy, his initials are JT, okay? And his podcasts or his YouTubes are called Precision Striking. And I learned how to breathe properly from watching this dude's YouTube. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

What’s he doing differently with the breath? 

Rick Cropper:

I had found out that I had, I would take a big gulp of breath and just go out there and throw a million techniques and then jump back, take a nut. So, I mean, I had been not continuing the flow of breathing. So now I'm, my breathing is excellent and I play this guy's, when I go to work, I got a routine. I'm listening to Joel Ostein, then I'm listening to JT, and then I'm listening to Dr. Patrick Cohn. And I'm gonna talk to you about Dr. Patrick Cohn. So I've learned how to breathe. I've learned how to breathe in offense, I’ve learned how to breathe in defense, I've learned how to breathe on the outside, I've learned how to breathe when you're in the pocket. The idea when it comes to breathing is you have to have a constant flow. But I had to be mindful of that. Okay. And self-talk. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

You gotta keep breathing. I gotta keep breathing. Okay. And when I spar those guys, I talk to myself when I spar. They just know that. Keep on breathing, dude. Stay relaxed, stay relaxed. So I'm light from the fasting. Okay. I'm breathing because I learned not, look, I've had a bunch of great teachers, but no one taught me how to breathe. I mean, they taught me how to Kiai and stay composed and nobody taught me the art and the science of breathing. And you wanna know what, here's how you live longer. Nose breathing. We are supposed to be breathing in and out of our nose. Our mouth is not meant to be breathing. So, I mean, I'm practicing breathing like all day long. So I got my breathing thing down where I don't have to be mindful of it, but sometimes I gotta remind myself so I self-talk. So I'm also sparring better because I don't know how it happened, but I wanted, I said, okay, my mental game's off somehow. So I started googling mental strategies mm-hmm. for athletes and how to handle anxiety and pre-game strategies. And I came across this dude, his name is Dr. Patrick Cohn, and his YouTube is Performance Sports. He's outta Orlando, Florida. It was kind of like when I first opened my Bible, I didn't, when I first got my Bible, I didn't know what to do. So my friend at church said, just open a proverb. So I just opened a proverbs and I started reading Proverbs. I wish I would've known that long time ago. You know how, oh my God, I've been making all these mistakes and all I had to open this and not make mistakes. Well, this guy, Patrick Cohen, he made me realize all these mistakes that I was doing mentally. Positive self-talk does not work for me. It doesn't work. Ok. What I was doing is I had split focus, especially with when I'm in the Pacific Northwest fighting because everybody knows me. They're staring at me, they're staring at me, they're looking, I gotta perform. I gotta perform. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

You're gonna see 'em later. 

Rick Cropper:

And so I'm not thinking about what I'm supposed to be thinking about a hundred percent. And that's exactly what's in front of me. When you're sparring, that's all you think about is what's in front of you, what your eyes see and stay in the moment. But I had been distracted by everything that was going on around me. Cause hey, that's Rick Cropper. We all gotta watch him. And I'm like, oh man, I got a really good, good. So I don't do that anymore. I just focus on what's in front of me. And my pregame strategy is this, self talking, keep the flow of breathing going, keep the flow of breathing going. Protect the center line, protect the center line. Stay relaxed, explode, explode. So it's a bunch of stuff. And this has only happened like maybe in the past year or so. And like my sparring partners are like, dude, dude, you have step up. What's going on? I said I learned and you taught me, you taught me. Cause I'm fast, but I had a, a problem not getting, being able to get my breakfast in at these guys, right? And then Mari said, you gotta go back to old school like it used to be. Okay. Keep your hands like this, old school. And instead of always throwing the back bitch, shoot the jab. And then this way too, your hands not only in offense position, but they're defensive and like if somebody throws something at me, I don't have to do any of this. It's just here and I can go from there. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

So there's another way of how we help each other. So, and then I've learned it recently. I've learned about, are you familiar with brown fat? 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yes. 

Rick Cropper:

I just found out about brown fat this week and how to activate. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

So for the audience who doesn't know the difference between brown fat and white fat adipose tissue, et cetera, give them prime.

Rick Cropper:

Okay. So, I wanna go back to, let me start talking about the fast again and what the fasting does. Okay. After a certain amount of time, I don't know if it's nine or 12 hours when the cells are depleted of calories to eat thatthe cells start eating fat. And the cells also start eating misshaped proteins. Misshaped proteins are what causes autoimmune deficiencies. Okay. Cancer, diabetes, and all that stuff. So you fast, your cells are hungry, there's no calories. They start eating all this garbage. Well, the cells have a lysosome which is like a garbage disposal. It eats all this crud and it spits out brand new healthy cells. How cool is that? It's eating your fat, it's producing excellent cells. And then I got turned on to Wim Hof. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Oh yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

Okay. And I'm like, that dude, I learned about controlled stress. Controlled stress through the cold. Okay. So now every day I do a cold shower. I try to do two minutes, I do my hot shower, then I do my cold shower. Okay. What that cold shower does is it activates the brown fat. Brown fat is like a heater or a radiator or something like that. And that also attacks all the bad stuff that's in your body. Okay. So I'm doing all, and I'm eating well. I don't, I haven't eaten fast food since I fought in the NBL World Championships for the last time, like 17 years ago or something. I cook food. I mean, I don't get enough sleep. That's the only thing because I get up early, I work all day, I teach, and then I go cook whole foods. I go in there, I got food and I cook. I don't eat food outta boxes. I don't eat processed stuff. Maybe every now and then, but I mean, I cook, I get vegetables and meats and omega 3s, so eating, avocado, the fish and stuff. So I'm this, all this stuff, you know. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

You're doing a lot of good stuff. 

Rick Cropper:

Yeah, I'm doing a lot of good stuff. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Actually, there's a, I'll give you a, I mean, it's generally considered bad form to talk about other people's shows, you know, on your show. But, you know, I'm gonna mention a show that you might find interesting cause the guy's not too far from you. Ben Greenfield. 

Rick Cropper:

Oh, Paul. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll watch. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I've learned, I've learned a ton from Ben's show and so to the audience, if you're digging the stuff that, see who Rick's talking about today, you might find Ben's show interesting. It's not a martial arts show by any stretch, but it is a show about, he would probably call it human optimization. 

Rick Cropper:

But the dude's whack. He does some crazy stuff. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Nuts. He's absolutely nuts. 

Rick Cropper:

Ok. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

He's so extreme, but, you know… 

Rick Cropper:

Check this out. Check this out. I was watching him on the Joe Rogan podcast. Oh. I found out about, I start, after I started watching Ben Greenfield, I started getting grassfed beef and stuff like that. But he uses double extreme. He talked about how he'd go in the sauna and then he'd go into the cold water immersion. So I said, and at that time, I've been in my house two years now, but after my divorce, I lived in an apartment down the street here for 13 years, and there was a sauna. So I did the sauna and then I watched Ben. He said, well, you should try this. So I went and I got about six bags of ice and I filled up the bathtub and then I put it in the bathtub and I went and then, and my apartments had a beautiful gym. And basically I was the only guy in there like all the time. So I went and I did my brutal workout, and then I went in the sauna, and then I went and I jumped in the ice tub. Guess how long that lasted? 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Not long the first time. 

Rick Cropper:

About two seconds. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah.

Rick Cropper:

I don't do that anymore. I do cold showers and I tried to do two minutes, but I learned that from, um, Wim Hof and I do his guided breathing sessions in the morning too. I'm up to a minute and a half of breath hold. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

We've tried to get Wim on the show and he's so busy. 

Rick Cropper:

Oh my God. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

There's a lot of carryover for martial arts. A lot of stuff I think people would dig. I actually just found, and cause I bet when you tell people about the cold showers, they freak out. I can't do that. I can't do that. 

Rick Cropper:

Yeah. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I found a thermometer that threads in line with my shower head with a digital readout. So every day I'm bringing the temperature down at the end and I'm down to 69 degrees as of this morning. 

Rick Cropper:

Well, here's what's crazy and here's what's sad is we're meant, our bodies were meant to be able to deal with extremes.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Right. 

Rick Cropper:

That's how we were built. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Right. 

Rick Cropper:

Okay. But what's going on now is everybody just wants to be comfortable like all the time. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

68 degrees is nice. Climate controls a beautiful thing. 

Rick Cropper:

And you know what? I can just do this and they'll deliver pre-made food to me. So everybody's like, they're like shortening their lifespans by making their lives too easy. And so I don't make my life too easy. Okay. You know, I don't make my life too easy. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

There's a phrase you use that I think it sums up what you've talked about so far. Controlled stress. You're intentionally stressing at what seems to be an appropriate dose at the right time, knowing what the effects are going to be, balancing all that out and getting a result. And, you know, the best example, most people don't think of it this way, but lifting weights, that's controlled stress. You're breaking your body down. 

Rick Cropper:

Absolutely. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

So it repairs itself and improves in a direction that you want. 

Rick Cropper:

Yeah. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

And everything else you're talking about is along those lines makes sense.

Rick Cropper:

But here's what's crazy about the whole thing about not taking care of yourself is God gave us a body and our job is to take care of it, right? 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

And the deal isn't, unless you've been buried under a rock. Now there's, it's so easy to find the information on how to take care of yourself. I mean, back in the day before, I mean, it wasn't, but now there is, but it takes a motivation.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Right and that's the key. That's the key is you have to want to, and sometimes it can be hard. It can, you can get stuck in that trap of not feeling good so not having the motivation to do the things that will make you feel good and be motivated, something's gotta break you outta that cycle.

Rick Cropper:

Well, here's what broke me outta the cycle, is the Friday spar. It's the Friday spar. I got three of the best guys in the country there, and I wanna bring it. I wanna bring it. And you know what? I've been sparring with Doug Bertrand in our small group for a long time. And I'm always the mature guy, not really. I'm always the oldest guy. I'm always the short guy. And my thought process for so many years was, you know what? I'm training with these guys cause they're the best. And if I can do one thing right, it's a good day. What a terrible mindset. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Setting the bar too low. 

Rick Cropper:

It's a terrible mindset. I don't do that anymore. I go, you know what, these guys want me here because they know I'm good. I'm pushing them to make them better. I'm bringing my game. And then, but hey, are you familiar with Psalm 144:1? 

Jeremy Lesniak:

No. 

Rick Cropper:

Praise be to the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle. It pumps me up. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah, I can tell. You need that on a shirt. 

Rick Cropper:

And I straight up. I straight up on Friday mornings. Usually when I pray it's like, thank you, thank you, thank you. My kids, my kids, my kids, my girlfriend. But Friday morning, no. I go right to me. Lord, you train my hands for war and my fingers for battle. You train my fingers for battles so my arms can bend the bro bronze. This is what I'm asking you today. I sparred better today than I ever have in my entire life. Make my hands and feet faster than lightning. Let them hit their mark, let my defense be incredible. Let my legs move me all over the place. Let me breathe, let me breathe. And then I'm ready. And I go in there and I bring it and it's so much fun. Let me tell you what, halfway into that stuff we're kiain, we're laughing. We're, it's the endorphins are just like exploding and it's just, I really, I don't know if  there's gotta be other people, but it's such an incredible thing every Friday. I just can't, it's unbelievable. And I just, I don't know if it, there's a lot of martial artists I don't think that even understand sparring or how beneficial it is. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I agree. 

Rick Cropper:

And you have to have the right sparring part because sparring can be dangerous. And that's how a lot of schools, they're, is it called attrition? They lose students because of the sparring things that people get this and that, this and that. And I had a school in Portland for 30 some years, and I teach 400 classes a year for 30 years. But Friday I'm like, no, Friday belongs to me. And Friday was my spar day. And it was just a black belt spar .And it was a good thing. I mean, I had Al Dacascos, he'd have his world champions from Europe come in and all the top guys here snd it was a good thing for a long time. But then, people started coming into that thing that I shouldn't have let in there. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

And it got to where like world champions would come in there and I have to like babysit 'em cause they're trying to like, knock each other out and stuff.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Egos. 

Rick Cropper:

Egos. And then, I'd have guys coming in there into my own school.The wolf ain sheeps clothing. And these guys were trying to like hurt me and knock me out. So, I mean, so I shut it down and man, God, people were like totally upset with me. You're an evil dude. You shut down the Friday. But you know, it wasn't good for my students because my students would come in and spar and these guys would beat 'em up. Wait a minute, that's my family. And then, so now my students aren't sparring, and now I'm bringing my students to tournaments. And these guys are awesome, but they're acting scared.

And it's because these guys were pounded. Done deal. So then it was just my group. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

Okay. And then hat was my Friday evening spar. But I had my Friday morning spar with Doug Bertrand and those guys. So, it's very important if you wanna be a point fighter or if you wanna get the benefits of sparring, that you have to be with the correct people. People that trust you, you trust them, you're trying to improve, good attitudes, excellent technique, and super competitive. Because we really push each other. I'm a point fighter, you know, Hey, I got a self-defense system. It's pretty excellent. We do the Kajukenbo, Kenpo hardstyle forms. And then we do this northern silams. The style that I train and I teach now is the Kajukenbo cuanta system. Okay. I don't know if you know the history of Kajukenbo, do you? 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I know a bit. We've had, you know, we've had a few folks on, you know. I think it was Hackleman's episode. He went into the history a bit.

Rick Cropper:

Well, let me tell you about my branch and I know I'm running…

Jeremy Lesniak:

Please. 

Rick Cropper:

I know I'm going on rabbit trails and… 

Jeremy Lesniak:

That is my favorite kind of episode. Honestly, there's no agenda here. It’s you telling stories. 

Rick Cropper:

Okay. So the Kajukenbo system was developed by five young Hawaiians in the late 40s, early50s. And the leader was Adriano Emperado who has sat on my couch. I cooked chicken and pork adobo for him. My kids call him Uncle Sijo. Okay. So he knew us and hey, do you know who Al Dacascos is? 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah, of course. 

Rick Cropper:

Yeah. He's been like texting me every day for like, past two weeks, like multiple times. He's my eldest daughter's godfather.

Jeremy Lesniak:

We gotta get him on the show. Help us get him on the show. 

Rick Cropper:

Okay. What I'll do is I'll talk to him as soon as we're done here. Sweet. He's not my teacher, but he's my teacher. He's actually the person who groomed me. Groomed me how to act and how to be a black belt. I've known him since I was 22 and I'm 62, so I've known him 40 years. Matter of fact, I was showing my students last night, I have all these inside kung fu’s and karate Illustrates with him on the front cover and he’s autographed all. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Cool. 

Rick Cropper:

Yeah. I have a relationship with him. And I think my daughter talks and texts back to him more than I did. Cause that's just a godchild. And he, and she wins grand championships doing the form that he created back in the 60s. But anyway, let's get back to Kajukenbo again. It was developed or it was put together in Oahu in the late 40s, early 50s by five young men. And Adriano Emperado was the founder. It was predominantly Kenpo Karate. Okay. 70s, late 60s, early 70s, kung fu started getting really popular and Sijo Emperado was, man, I really like this kung fu stuff. So he started getting kung fu from the Chinese masters there in Oahu. And mostly what was being he brought into the Kajukenbo system was Southern Kung Fu. Okay. So you had, in the beginning it was Kaji Kenpo, and then when they started putting the Southern in it turned to Kajukenpo Tum Pai. Tum Pai means the central way. Well, Al Dacascos, he started getting together with some of the Chinese that were here on the mainland in the Bay Area. You know Wong Jack-man? He's the one that fought Bruce Lee, Ron Liu, who else? Camian. And so Siku Al started learning the Northern Silam forms. Okay. [36:14:12] 6, 7, 8, and nine. And so he had a meeting with Sijo in Oahu at the top of the Cosmo in the restaurant and he started talking about, Hey, Sijo, you know, I'm learning all this Northern Chinese and I think it would be, you know, really good to incorporate it in. And, you know, Sijo’s kind a roughneck and everybody’s scared. At first, he's like, no. But anyway, he got the blessing from Sijo Adriano Emperado to incorporate the silam forms and all that type of movement into the Kajukenbo system. So Sijo's like, okay, it's not Kaji Kenpo anymore, that's this. And it's not Kajukenbo Tum Pai because that's Southern. We've gotta come up with a new name for it. So that was the birth in the 60s of Kajukenbo Chu’an Fa. Al Dacascos and his very good friend Al Dela Cruz, introduced the Chinese form to Sijo and got the blessing to add it in. And Sijo said we have a new Kajukenbo now, Chu’an Fa. Okay, so now there was three forms of Kajukenbo. There was the old school, which was Kenpo. Ok. Hard style Kenpo. And then the next style was Tum Pai central wave which had the hard style kenpo, but also had the soft, because it had Tai Chi and it had the southern systems. And then it evolved to the third system, which is Chu’an Fa. Okay. Chu’an Fa had the Sil-lum’s. So we're considered, yeah, we got the hard style, but we got the soft style too. And then the fourth branch of Kajukenbo is Wun Hop Kuen Do. Wun Hop Kuen Do means multiple fist way. And that's Al Dacascos is, that's his system. His. So there's four main branches of  Kajukenbo and mine is the Chu’an Fa branch. Okay. So, and, but you know, the forms are, I love the forms. I really do. I used to have like a bad memory except for girls’ phone numbers. I'm just, Hey, you told I'm being real? 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I'm laughing not out of judgment, but out of understanding. 

Rick Cropper:

Okay. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

We remember the things that are most important. 

Rick Cropper:

So, but here's the deal. I gotta tell you about a brain fart incident. So, I mean, I've always been a point fire. So,  and then I want you to ask me about my martial art trail here later. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah.

Rick Cropper:

But anyway, there was a time when I said, you know, I need education because knowledge is power and I'm kind of lost right now and so let's go to college. So I went to college. I got some good stories, dude. I went to college and I'm gonna make this one. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I've heard some of your good stories. 

Rick Cropper:

I went to college and then, I'm in the typing class, typing 101, right. Then like yeah. I'm just beginning typing but all these girls are going, oh oh oh. But the guy sitting next to me is laughing at me, right? And I'm like, dude, what are you laughing at? And I gotta be friends with that guy. His name was Scotty Waterman. He goes, you know, I see you got that Dan Anderson sweatshirt on. Cause Dan Anderson, my idol, you know, I known Dan Anderson for like 50, almost my whole life. And he used to have a tournament called the Portland ProAm. And I had my Portland ProAm sweatshirt on and he goes, Hey, you do some karate or something? Yeah, I do some karate or something. He goes, you know, we got a karate club here at Mount Hood Community College. Yeah. And I, and looked in there, oh, three credits. I'm sure I can get at least a B in this. So I joined the karate club. It wasn't karate.

Jeremy Lesniak:

What was it? 

Rick Cropper:

It was Taekwondo. And the instructor was actually Grandmaster Tae-hong Choi. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I’ve heard that name. 

Rick Cropper:

Oh my God. And I got stories about him too. MasterTae-hong Choi, he's passed, but  he was like probably the most, maybe one of the most respected Grandmasters in the world. Taekwondo Federation, anywhere in the United States. So I entered his class, ok. And lemme tell you about the first day I entered his class. And then I'll continue and I'm… 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah, that's all good. 

Rick Cropper:

I want to make you laugh on stuff. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

You're doing a great job. 

Rick Cropper:

Okay. So, second semester, Hey, I'm not taking typing class no more. That's just too stressful. Now I'm gonna do karate in business. And so I signed up for the karate class and the first day of karate class, I walk in late. Because it’s a big campus and I’m lost. So I'm locker room, and I'm like, dude, how old was I 21 or 22? I was in my early 20s. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

So you've got, you know, what, 12, 13 years of training under your belt at that point?

Rick Cropper:

I started when I was four. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Okay. 

Rick Cropper:

And we’ll talk about that. But I'm still like cocky dumb. So I put on my kung fu uniform and my black pants and then I think it was for Christmas, I got the white instead of the black kung fu top with the front, it was the white one. Cuz you know, I look like Bruce Lee, right? So I walk into this Taekwondo class, like 10 minutes late. The class is packed with all these guys with the white pullover and the black, and MAster Choi looks at me and he goes, pajama man. And right away he goes, everybody make a circle. And I'm like, oh, oh, I've been here before. Goes, pajama man, nobody knows me. He doesn't even know me. Oh, he might have known me cause you know, I'd been going to tournaments forever and I'm just, I'm well known on that thing. So, pajama man in the circle. I'm not warmed up in my head. Then he goes, Boomer in the circle. There was this guy from the East Side of Portland. His name was Boomer Fleming, and he's like, was a well known psycho crazy street fighter. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

How tall is he? Lemme guess. He's like 6’7 or something ridiculous. 

Rick Cropper:

No, no. He was an average dude, but the dude was on steroids and all. I mean, he was, I mean he looked like Hulk except he wasn’t green, he was white and blonde hair. I’m like, oh man. Okay, whatever. I already knew what these Taekwondo guys are gonna do to me. They’re gonna try to kick my head off, right? That's what they try to do. SoMaster Choi set me up to get knocked out in front of all his buddies my first day and I'm pajama man knocked out. Okay. Bow. Bow. What did they say? I can't remember the Korean terms, but fights on. The first thing this dude does is he tries to cut my head off with a spinning hook kick right off the bat. This is what I did. I seen it coming. I slid underneath him like I was going into second base cause I was a baseball player forever. Boom. And I busted him in the groin with a sliding drop kick. And he's like, and I up and I get back the line and he's looking at me like this. Okay, go. So, you know they're pretty much straight, right? 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

Back and forth and they can't kick you unless they can set you up and it's hard to set a person up who's moving. So I'm moving and I don't know if they're taught that, but that particular club, they always had their hands down. And I'm just like, oh, I got something for that. Whack! I cracked this dude with a back fist. So now he’s worried about low and he’s also worried about high. I said, almost, I'm gonna go in the middle now. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I'm getting some real Bruce Lee vibes. Not just the pajamas you're wearing, but just the way you're talking about that back fist. That sounds likeunder the drag. 

Rick Cropper:

Hey, I never read a book in high school. All I read was inside Kung Fu, karate Illustrated, official Karate and the [45:48.0]. I still passed. Let's get this guy outta here. No. So anyway, I faked the backf fist.Boom! I hit him with the vertical punch that I learned from Fred King. Bang! Three points, games over. But you know what? That dude was cool about, he ended up being a friend of mine. Yeah. And all those guys… 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Oh, it should be. 

Rick Cropper:

All those guys started accepting me in. Okay. But Master Choi didn't accept me in for a long long time because I was doing Kajukenbo with this, when I say BA, you know what BA means? I was training in, in a basement with the most BA Kajukenbo Street fighters that got kicked outta all high schools in this basement and doing my Taekwondo. So my Kajukenbo teacher's mad cause I'm doing this and he's mad cause I'm doing that. But I'm just like, well, the deal is isI'm a kung fu guy now, and I'm a Kajukenbo guy and I'm using the Taekwondo as an inoculation. I wanna know what they do cause I'm gonna fight those guys out there. But I made friends with those guys and I also did Taekwondo too because one time I was injured and Master Choi used to have a massive tournament every year at Portland State University downtown. And it was always like on the one side of gym is the black uniforms and the other side this, the white uniforms, and in the middle is the coliseum. But there were these Mexicans that were young Mexicans that were going to Portland Stateto get their degree, but they were Taekwondo guys and these guys were the most beautiful kickers. And I think I might have that 30 year old video disc up in my attic here. But these guys would put these 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 kit combinations together. And I'm like, oh my God, this is just beautiful. This is just incredible. I can't even, oh. So I wanted to learn how to do that stuff. And so I learned how to do that stuff. So, and I made friends with these Taekwondo guys and a small group of us. I mean, we're still talking to, and some of those guys that were in that Taekwondo class are now my black belts. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Nice. 

Rick Cropper:

That I've known for 22, 40 years or something. So I converted some of them. And then, you know,  I've been throwing a tournament for a lot of years. And in the beginning I, cause Master Choi connected to his school, he had a martial arts store and I'd go, Hey, MAster Choi can you bring the martial arts store to my tournament and so you can sell gear and make some money and na na na na na. And so he did that for years. But I don’t know if it’s the first time or second, he goes Rick. He didn't call me Rick.

He called me Lick because he couldn’t say R’s. Lick, come sit down in my office. And I'm like, oh, he's gonna scold me again. But he didn't scold me. He goes, Hey, Lick, you're a big guy now and this responsibility be good. I go, I'm not a big guy now. I'm 5’6, he goes, you know what I mean! So he actually ended up protecting me and being a counselor to me even though I was a Kajukenbo black belt and even though, you know, he protected me a bunch. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

He saw, sounds like he saw something. 

Rick Cropper:

Well, cause I never quitmartial arts. You know how, I mean, come and go, come and go. Come and go. I mean, I never quit. You know? I never quit. And, you know, I've been around. I got a name and not everybody's my friend. I have friends, foes, enemies, and a roaring lion trying to devour me. And there had been people that would come into his school and his store and talk bad about me. And you know what he would do? 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Throw 'em out? 

Rick Cropper:

He'd throw 'em out. He'd throw 'em out. I mean, there would be, there's other schools cause I, you know what, I'm a member of the martial arts community. I'm like the godfather of martial arts community. Hey, I'm here for everybody, you know, Hey, we're competitive in the ring but you know what? We're all martial arts and I'm here to do whatever I can for you. And most, and I, you know it, but doesn't matter how, who you are, you're gonna have people that don't like you or whatever. And so there's other people all over the place who've had my back, which makes me feel good. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Sure. 

Rick Cropper:

You know, so.anyway, what rabbits are we on now? 

Jeremy Lesniak:

You said you started training at four. 

Rick Cropper:

Oh yeah. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

There are very few people I know who started training that young. I'm also one of those folks who started at four. I wanna hear about your early journey. 

Rick Cropper:

Well, here's the deal. I have a mom and dad, and I have a grandma and grandpa. But I spent most, my grandma and grandpa raised me. Let's be honest with you. My mom, I've found out that, I think what she had was a post-traumatic stress disorder because at like three or four years old, the wars going on. She's in the island, she's Filipino. I'm half-half. My mom's Filipino on her island that the Japanese invade. First thing they did was they killed her grandfather and she had to hide in the jungle for years and years and years. And so she had a really quick, nasty, mean temper. And so my mom and dad had a troubled marriage and dysfunctional, and it was too traumatic for me. So I spent a lot of time at my grandma, grandpa. So my grandma and my grandpa raised me. My grandmother taught me how to be a gentleman. My granddad was a professional boxer. He was German, but he fought under the name Mickey O’day the Fighting Irishman. Okay, so at four years old I had horse hair, leather, horse high leather gloves on Everlast, and he taught me boxing. He had three sons. He never taught any of his sons how to box, fish, or lace up their boots. He taught me how to box, fish, and lace up my boots. Okay. He was a lefty. Okay? So I first learned how to fight with my right side forward, and what he taught me was jab, cross, hook, uppercut, and slips and how to make those combinations. And  he also told me if you missed the hook, then you hit him with the elbow which was not legal, but it's now, right? Dirty boxing. So like, and I'm a loner kid. I have a sister, but, and I played baseball and I had friends, but I was kinda like a loner kid. So I spent time, a lot of time at my grandmother's and underneath they walked down the stairs to the basement, underneath the stairs was the stash of boxing gloves. And there was two main support beams in the basement. Okay. So I'd lace up those boxing gloves and that was my macawarra. Yeah, boom, boom, boom, boom. So I go down there with the boxing gloves, bang, bang, bang, bang, and slip. He didn't teach me footwork. He taught me the four basic punches and how to slip and how to make combinations. I learned my footwork because my grandpa had a leather recliner and it was like, completely off limits to everybody in the world except me. And whenever a big fight was on, he said, Ricky sit with me and I sit in the recliner and we'd watch boxing. I'm still a boxing fan. I train like a boxer. I watch Lomachenko, and Pacquiao, and Tyson all the time. All the time. I train like a boxer. I train like a wrestler. I train like a martial artist. But, so we'd watch, and most of the time the big matches were Muhammad Ali, right?

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

So that's, I would watch his footwork. I would watch his footwork. So I would dance around the beam like Muhammad Ali and I enter with the punches that my grandfather taught me. So that was my first experience of unarmed combat was boxing. That's four years old. Sometimes, I mean, I, sometimes I would be with my parents and we'd have things going on and there'd be martial artists and martial artists would ask my dad, Hey, when did Rick start, you know, learning how to fight? And my dad said in the womb, cause, you know, cause my granddad. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

But then at six years old, my uncle Ken entered me in a wrestling program at Madison High School which is six blocks from my grandma's house. Lemme tell you what about that program. I don't think that they would let coaches do what they did to a six years old. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I’m sure they would not. 

Rick Cropper:

They had a rope, climbing up and it’s like 20 feet up, you’re 6 years old, do it! Do it! And we're running stairs and we're running hallways and it was just brutal training on six year olds. Six, I think it was six up to 12 years old. It was to get kids ready for when they went to high school because they had like the killer wrestling team. So they were like prepping kids to when they got to high school to be ready to be on there. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

So that's where I learned how to train really hard at sit in wrestling. And I did that for like three or four years and never lost a match. Never lost a match. But when I was growing up in my grandmother's house, there was always a lot of teenagers around and I'm just a little kid. And they used to do this deal where they'd grab one arm or two arms and they'd swing me around as fast as they could and my arms would dislocate. And they popped my arms back in and do it again. So here's the deal. When you're young and you have that kinda injury and you don't get it fixed, it's gonna follow you your whole life.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Sure. 

Rick Cropper:

So, that's kind of what ended the wrestling thing because I can't cause my arm's gonna pop out. And I played baseball for a million years too. And so, then what was it? What was it? Oh, my uncle went to the Navy. Okay. And one time when he came back from the Navy, he had a magazine. And it was a Judo and Jujitsu magazine, okay? And the Judo and Jujitsu magazine came up missing. Yeah. I inherited that for myself. So I mean, I studied that thing and I studied that thing and I studied that thing. And then I used to take my little allowance and there was a Rexall Pharmacy and Fountain, like four blocks from my grandma's house, and Tracy's Kenpo karate was right next door to it. Okay. So I take my allowance and then before I go in the drugstore, I'm just, my nose is pressed against her watching 'em do Kenpo and this thing's really cool. They got black uniforms on and I'm watching all this stuff and then I go in there and I get my cherry coke, my iron on. And I don't know if you remember this magazine, but way back in the day,there was a magazine called Official Karate. Do you remember that one? And in Official Karate I read it, but the most important thing to me is it was show these hot tournament fighters and it would show their techniques. Okay. So I  read that and I'd practice those techniques. I practice those techniques. Okay. And then, what was it? What was it? Oh, and then do you remember a guy named Aaron Banks? 

Jeremy Lesniak:

No. 

Rick Cropper:

Okay. Aaron Banks is a New York guy and once a year on the ABC Wild World of Sports that Aaron Banks Martial Art Exhibition. And so once year, I'm in front of that TV watching that. And then, okay, so I'm really starting to, I'm really, man, so the, it's like starting to grow in me, this martial arts thing. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

And how old are you at this point? 

Rick Cropper:

I don't know. I don't know. I can't, cause I'm 62. I got Alzheimer's coming on. I'm joking. I dunno how young. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Okay. 

Rick Cropper:

And then what I'd start doing is I would take that allowance too, well, first off I would open up the phonebook cause that's old school. So the phonebook. And I'd go to the martial arts section and I'm looking at all these martial arts schools and some of them had pictures and stuff. And then I had learned how to ride the bus. Right. And I'm way too young to like, be doing stuff on my own. Okay. But I'm doing stuff on my own anyway. So I find a school, I don't know if, I find a school and I, cause I usually on the weekend and I get on the bus and I go to these schools and  I do the same thing I did at Tracy's Kenpo.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Stare through the window. 

Rick Cropper:

Yeah. Stare through the window. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

Stare through the window. Stare through the window, and then I'd ride the bus home. And then there was a store called Anson Oriental Imports. And I'd save up my money and I would go there and I'd buy all the books, you know, all the Chuck Norris books, the Camion books, the Eric Lee books. I know Eric Lee too. And so, I don't know if you call it self-taught, but I was just like totally interested now in martial arts. So I'm boxing, I'm wrestling, I'm interested in martial arts. And when I did spend time with my dad and my mom, it would be on the weekends. And if I was with my dad,he was the captain of the Olympic weightlifting team for Portland State. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Oh, okay. 

Rick Cropper:

So it would be in the Portland State weightlifting gym and, you know, no lunch, nothing to drink. And so there's just a watered fountain and I got no toys, but there's a universal gym and there's a bunch of dumbbells and stuff. So I go in there and while my dad and his partners are practicing for a competition cause my dad was competitive.  I'm like, I dunno how old I'm 6, 7, 8, 9 or something. 10. I dunno. I'm in there on the universal gym, like pumping. And so I started working out, I didn't know was working out. And I think that helped me in my wrestling because I do a double leg takedown and I'm small too. I just be like throwing guys. So I started training young and I started really getting interested in martial arts and so I started begging. Oh, Dad! Please! Come on, dad! Oh, you're a baseball player, I want to do this karate stuff. And so the Kenpo, Tracy's Kenpo School, they moved, but they just moved down the street next door to Marty's guitar shop. And I used to spend time in Marty's guitar shop too, just looking at guitars. Cause I love lead guitars. So my dad signed me up for the beginning Tracy's program. Okay. So that was my introduction. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Was it Tracy's because it was close? 

Rick Cropper:

Yeah. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Okay. 

Rick Cropper:

Yeah, it's in the neighborhood. Okay. Okay. So, and that's, it was all grab arts. It was all grab arts and it was like, it was not large classes, it was just, it was one on me and an instructor. And I think the instructors were usually blue belts or something like that. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Okay. 

Rick Cropper:

So it was all grab arts. But then that thing ran out. My dad didn't sign me up again, but there had been this dude hanging around my grandma's house that was friends with my aunt and my uncles, and he's like one of the dudes. And his name was Danny Anderson. And my dad's like, we're gonna go this karate tournament thing here in the Memorial Coliseum Basement. Okay. So, we went to the karate tournament. The karate tournament that time was called the Western States Karate Championships. And it was put on by Bruce Terrill, who's the founder and the leader of Oregon Karate Association which now is called The Wing Dao System. But back in the day it was called Wingmon and Dan Anderson was part of that. And so now I'm getting my first exposure of guys fighting each other, and I'm like, oh, I dunno if you can see this, but the hair's already standing up on my arms and on the back of my neck just talking about this. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

So I'm like, whoa, whoa. So I started the beg thing again. Dad! I’m gonna do that. I wnat to do that. Well, you know, it cost my, well, this is what happened. I have a sister and I love her and all that stuff, but I'm like the black she, and she's the golden child. So one time I'm begging my sister's there and my sister had been doing gymnastics. I'm like, she do gymnastics, I wanna do karate. My sister goes, Hey, I wanna do karate too. Oh, okay, I’m gonna sign you guys up. So my dad signed us up. Oregon Karate Association on a hundred and sixth and Sandy Boulevard. So, lemme go back a little bit. My mom's Filipino. Okay. My dad's Caucasian and one thing my mom did was she was always bringing Filipinos from the island over here. They would stay here and she would get ‘em a job, find ‘em a husband, and do all that stuff. Well, she used to get ‘em a job at a place called United Medical Laboratories. And it was in Park Rose over here and I lived, that's way over here and I'm living over here. And on the drive over there, before you get to United Medical Labs, there was this building on the hundred and sixth and Sandy, they had a big, huge dragon painted on it. A green dragon, trimmed in gold, and it just look cool and it said Kung Fu on it. And I'm just like, and you know, I mean we're, cause what we used to do is early in the morning, during the weekdays, my mom and dad get up, drive everybody to the United Medical Laboratories. Drive my sister and I to my grandma and grandpa's, they go to work, we're hanging out. So every day I'm driving by this dragon in the Kung Fu. And I'm like, I'm gonna be in there. I'm gonna be in there. I'm gonna be in there. I'm gonna be in there. So finally, I talked my dad, well, my sister wanted to do karate, so he signed me, my sister and I up, and my aunt Janet. My aunt Janet, who just passed away. She's my guardian angel. She's my guardian angel. So my grandma, grandpa, and my aunt, even though I had a mom and dad, those are the three that I really credit to like raise. And when I didn't have shoes, my aunt would bring me shoes. When I, I mean, my, my aunt was, she was my guardian angel. She gave me my name. She named me. My name is not Rick Cropper. My name is Enrique. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Oh! 

Rick Cropper:

Enrique. She gave me that name. That's my name. Enrique. My nickname's Rick, but she gave me that name. So it was, it was my sister, my aunt, myself that joined that. But the person who had that school there had moved. Okay? His name was Sid Lopez. He was Kajukenbo and he moved to Idaho, but another karate person moved in there. And it was Oregon Karate Association moved in there. The instructor's name was Bruce, and at that time it was called Wu Ying Man. Wu Ying Man, I believe is the formless way. So we never learned any forms in there and as we never learned any kata in there, and we actually never learned any street in there. It was all point fighting. And these guys back in the 70s, they were the stuff. They were really hot point fighters and because I got turned, so turned on by watching Dan Anderson fight, I'm like, yeah, right on. I wanna do this. I wanna do this. So, that, so I was off and on with Oregon Karate Association from like 10 all the way to maybe junior year. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Okay. 

Rick Cropper:

Junior year of high school. And I'll be honest with you, like I said, you know, and I would, I was a point fighter, so I point fight. But then again I had that bad shoulder, so I'd point fight and sometimes I get injured and then I could, you know, so I was still dealing with this injury. I mean, I was a good point fighter, but then I get in there, there goes the arm again. So, that was like maybe a dark cloud over my point fighting thing at that time. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Sure. 

Rick Cropper:

I'm a Karate Illustrated Black Belt magazine inside Kung Fu Maniac. Okay. In my bedroom, at my grandma's house and my parents have just stacks and stacks so that I, you know, I'm not lying, really. The only thing I read cover to cover in high school was all those magazines and the [1:10.26].

Jeremy Lesniak:

I believe it. 

Rick Cropper:

And matter of fact, that whole time that I was with Oregon Karate Association, I was black sheep there. I was like, they're always mad at me. Because I wouldn't go in there like this. I'm like… 

Jeremy Lesniak:

You're doing your own thing.

Rick Cropper:

No one was doing Bruce's thing for cover. Bang, bang, bang. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

The way you wanted it is not the way they wanted. 

Rick Cropper:

Yeah, but it was working and they're getting mad. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Right. 

Rick Cropper:

But you know, Bruce Terrell loves me now. Bruce Terrell now still calls me Ricky. Ricky, Ricky. So these guys were mad at me and hated me, they still, they loved me now because I never quit. I'm still doing it. So anyway, I'm reading these magazine. Oh, when I was at Oregon Karate Association in the locker room, there was a magazine. There was a bunch of magazines, but there was one on top. I'm like, if inherit this thing, I'm probably get, you know, probably in trouble. So I read it and on the cover of it was Benny the Jet  Rodriguez. Okay. And I read that thing over and over and over and over again. So Danny Anderson was like an idol for me and Benny the Jet was an idol for me. Benny the Jet. Benny the Jet. Benny the Jet. Danny Anderson. Okay. So those are, and then I can't remember when it was or how old I was, but everybody, you know, when my dad, I did spend time with my dad. It was in the gym or he'd take me to a movie. So first movie he took me to was James Bond Goldfinger. And I'm still a James Bond fan. I even, like, when I go out sometimes I dress like James Bond and I like James Bond and stuff like that. But he took me to Enter the Dragon. Was it Enter the Dragon first? Yeah, Enter the Dragon. And I'm like, oh dude, you wanna talk about the fire now? The fire is lit. And I'm like, I'm doing karate. I think I love Kung Fu. I think I love Kung Fu. And so, I don't know was, cause I think he took me to a Math May that day and I think I got on the bus or went to JCPenney’s with my allowance. And I bought a, the white t-shirt and some black sweatpants. Cause I wanna look like Bruce Lee. Right? And then, my grandma had a broom. And this is funny cause Boston tells his story too. My grandma had a broom and we had dogs over there and there was a shoot that we used to put clothes in and it go down next to the, but next to the shoot there was all the dog chains, right? You can tell where I'm coming, getting to right? So I took the broom and I took a dog chain and I went in the basement and my great-granddad was a plumber, and my granddad after boxing, he was a weld. So there was a lot of tools, right? So I went down there and I put the broom in the vise and I saw that sucker. Yeah, I couldn't, and I got the [1:13:46] and I cut that dog chain. And then I got, this is dangerous, amd I got this hammer and some nails, right? And then I found some red spray paint, right. And when those dried, I went out in the front yard and, and I started doing the nunchuck like I saw Bruce doing. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

How many times you hit yourself in the back of the head? 

Rick Cropper:

No, that's not the first bad thing that happened.

Jeremy Lesniak:

That's what I did when I made my own. 

Rick Cropper:

Oh no, I got a story about that too. I gotta store, dude. I got a story about that too. But no, the thing came loose and there was the front door, and in front of the front door there was the storm door. And the storm door had a screen and it was glass there. So I went from, oh! Grandpa’s gonna kill me. So that's a funny story. But anyway, so I'm just Bruce, come on man. Bruce Lee is a lot of the reason a lot of us are doing what we're doing, including me. Hey, I love Dan. Sifu Dan, Professor Grandmaster. I love Sifu, I love to see Sifu, but you know what, I didn't get to those guys unless it was Bruce Lee. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Directly or indirectly, still the most influential martial artist in the world. 

Rick Cropper:

Yeah. And then, oh my goodness. Then after that one, he took me to see Return of the Dragon and that's with him and Chuck. You know, and so super duper heavily loving kung fu now. Now, I’m reading these magazines and I’m starting to see Al Dacasco’s on the cover and I’m starting to read his articles. So these guys are tearing it up in tournaments all over the place. Not in just sparring, but in, but they've got a street self-defense system. A street self. So, and they're all Filipino. And I'm Pinoy, I'm half-half. I'm Filipino too. So, and I'm just, wow. And I'm started reading what Kajukenbo is. It's karate, judo and jujitsu, kenpo and Bo. Bo is for Chinese boxing, which is kung fu. But it's not just, the Bo is not just Chinese boxing. It's because all the founders of Kajukenbo, they were all boxers. They're all boxers. Okay. So a lot of the punch counters that we teach is all coming from a straight right cross. Okay. Because in Hawaii they had was boxing, judo and kenpo. So a lot of the punch counters are somebody's trying to throw a right cross. And then I'm really getting interested on this guy named Al Dacascos. He's Filipino. He's on the cover of all these things. He's tearing it up and he's got a wife, Malia, and she's just incredible. And then so, so you got Al Dacascos. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Hold that a little closer to you. It's off the camera. There you go. 

Rick Cropper:

Al Dacascos. Al Dacascos. Al Dacascos. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

They're all signed. 

Rick Cropper:

Al signed and autograph at my 22nd or 23rd birthday party. I had a party. All of a sudden he shows up with my teacher and I got this cause you know how guys are. All my trophies, I was renting my mom and dad's house, big house. And then the fireplace was not really a fireplace, it was a trophy cabinet. So, and up on the, what do you call that, the mantle fireplace was this. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Mantle fireplace.

Rick Cropper:

Yeah. and I'm like, oh my God. Oh my God. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

And was that your first time meeting him in person? 

Rick Cropper:

Yeah. Sifu, Sifu, will you sign this? And so look, he's, on my 23rd birthday, he signed that. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

That's so cool. 

Rick Cropper:

Yeah, he signed all of them. So, I mean, I've got a relationship with him, but that's the first time I met him and I think it was like a week or two after that, we all ended up in a tournament in Yakima, Washington.

And it was thrown by a karate master that's really, really super well known. And it was a lot of white uniforms there. And there's a couple black uniforms and I had a black uniform on. But I was tearing it up. I was just tearing it up and he's on the sidelines like this. And then I got to the championship match and I was tearing it up, but you know how things happen sometimes and I got totally robbed. But I didn't freak out or nothing. Like, you know, come here man. Man, you spar pretty good you know? But you got greased. How do you feel about that? So that's the first time he saw me fight. And what rabbit trail are we on now?

Jeremy Lesniak:

Well, this is actually, we're gonna have to have you back cause I know we've barely scratched the surface.

Rick Cropper:

Oh, you barely. [1:19:14].

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. Yeah. You know what, we'll work with Andrew and we'll get you scheduled for a round two, heck, maybe even around three. But I wanna make sure that we get some time, cause you mentioned it that you have have a tournament and my understanding is it's a rather large tournament in your area.

Rick Cropper:

Yeah. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

And you've been doing it for a while. So let's talk about that and then we'll wind up. 

Rick Cropper:

Okay. So my tournament is called the Mighty River Classic. November 4th this year was the 23rd annual. But if it weren't for the global Pandemic, it would've been the 25th. Okay. So it started in the Madison High School gym. Okay. Which I always had this dream of someday I'm gonna throw a martial art tournament in the high school that they threw me out of. No, But the first tournament I did at Madison High School was called Kajukenbo Tournament. It was me and Senior Grandmaster Al Dacascos together was the first tournament I did at Madison High School. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Oh, cool.

Rick Cropper:

So he taught me, we got together, oh my God, 4 to 600 Kajukenbo competitors from all over the world. There were people picking me up and swinging around, kissing me and hugging me. And so this is great. I didn't know who they are but this is pretty cool. But then my first two tournaments, mighty River Classic one and two was in Madison High School 20 some years ago. And then I moved to Vancouver and then we had it at Hudson Bay High School down the street. And it started to grow. Hudson Bay High School was really cool because there was a big basketball court there and the bleachers, and then there was a mezzanine. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Oh yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

And then, we had some tournaments there, 400 competitors. It started small hundred. I remember one year I had 125 pre-registers and everybody’s like, dude, it’s gonna be massive. You’re going to have 4000 people there and like I had 125 pre-registered, like126 people showed up. But the one year, I only got 25 pre-registrations. I dunno what's gonna happen. And then it blew up like 425 competitors. There was like a Rolling Stones concert, people waiting in line. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

And so, we had to change the way we did that. So it was there for many years. And then the lady that helped me, she retired and then somebody else came in and they weren't as helpful as she was. And so, we moved the tournament across the river to the Shiloh Inn in the ballroom. Shiloh Inn is by the Portland airport and we did that a few years, but we grew outta there. And I'm like, I don't know where to have a tournament anymore. I don't know what I'm gonna do. Well, everyday, I drive from Vancouver to Portland, North Portland, where I work in the harbor and then back, and then I'm stuck in traffic on the way home and I'm just like, where am I gonna have a tournament because they want $12,000 for one day over here, $8000 and where do I have a tournament. I'm stuck in traffic and I go like this. On my way back and forth from work to home and home to work, I passed the Portland Expo Center where I went to my very first tournament. It's like, whoa, wait a minute. That's a good place. Something's going on here. So I called them up. So we moved the tournament to the Portland Expo Center. They give me a haul.

They don't gimme a hall. I ran a hall at 60,000 square feet. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Wow. 

Rick Cropper:

Seven rings, 60,000 square feet. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Big space. 

Rick Cropper:

Plenty of room. So we did that 2019, and then we got everything ready to go. 2020, bang! Pandemic. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yep. 

Rick Cropper:

Okay. But there's, for me, there's silver lining in the pandemic. I did the Zoom thing for a while that I said, Hey, I'm done. This is what we're gonna do people when things get better again, then we'll reopen a school. And so I just started, me and my daughter started solo training. Solo training, solo training. But I'm praying, bring it back, bring it back. And every time I go by the Expo Center, I'm lifting my hand and bring it back, bring it back, bring it back. Well, it came back, so this year was the first year that the Mighty River Classic came back since the pandemic. And let me tell you what, oh my God. They have some new management there. And that the person that was helping me set my tournament up and that the Marriott Hotel and my bank and Minute Man Prep, I have all these people that I take absolutely this much credit for the success of my tournament. It's all these people doing their expertise making my tournament. Yeah. And basically I just try to stay out of the way and try not to do too much dumb stuff. But when I do dumb stuff, these people help me not do the dumb stuff. The tournament was massive. It was huge. It was smooth. We had competitors. We've had competitors from New Orleans, from Houston, from Austin, from all over the, I mean, boom. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

Plus my daughter is a very popular person and her group of martial arts friends, because now we have, it's really easy to talk to somebody. They're all world champion point fighters, and so we had, all her friends were there and the, so the tournament has grown, but it's not a karate tournament anymore. It's a martial art event. It's actually turned into like a martial art family reunion. The competition is like part of it, but just everybody loving on each other. Everybody enjoying each other and there's stuff to do. We have point fighting seminars the night before. You know, Ryan George, 13 time world champion, Malia's best friend, Aubrey Brunner does a seminar. We have a meet and greet at the Marriott Hotel on the river, which was right across the street from the tournament venue. And when the tournament's done, we have an after party where everybody dress. A black tie party. Everybody dresses up nice. And we're visiting and we're dancing. And guys that just gave each other black eyes are like high fiving and stuff. And so it's not just a karate tournament, it's turned into like, it's a, like a reunion of martial art people from all over the place enjoying each other. And I'd be, I'll be honest with you, I took something that my pastor used to do before Covid. Before he would start his sermon he goes, you know what, everybody, let's take five minutes and just go enjoy fellowshipping with everybody.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

And everybody's just loving on each other. And so I do that now, but I tell everybody first, and I'll tell you why I started my tournament many years ago and why I started the Kaizen League. For that five minutes at my tournament, it's as loud as a rock concert. Everybody is smiling. Everybody's shaking hands. Everybody's high fiving, everybody's giggling. And I tell everybody today, everybody, we're gonna love each other. There's a lot of stuff going on out there, but in here, we're gonna treat each other with courtesy and respect, and we're gonna love each other. Hey, it's a, it's sporty man. There's gonna be conflict. You know what? We’re parents, and we're teachers and we're school owners. We're gonna show everybody, we're gonna teach everybody how to get through conflict and get to a resolution respectfully. So that's how I set my tournament up. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Awesome. 

Rick Cropper:

Hey everybody. We're gonna be good to each other no matter what. And you know what? Nobody acted weird at all. A thousand people there. Everybody treating each other right. Nobody acting weird, nobody getting hurt, but competition at the highest level. And you see guys, the black belts are out there. They're they're bringing it. But if there's a good point, bro, good job. I mean, there was like respect between fighters. It was, it's such a good vibe. Look, look, my hair's standing up again. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I see it. And you know that we kind of have the overarching theme of our conversation today that it's about respect. That if you lead with respect, everything else falls into place.

Rick Cropper:

Well, okay. I don't know if you, you know or have heard about the Kaizen League. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

No. Please talk about it. And you have a website for the tournament too. I wanna make sure we get that

Rick Cropper:

I'm the founder and the president, first president of the Kaizen Invitational Sport Martial Art League. CJ Mayo is now the president.

Jeremy Lesniak:

He’s been on the show.

Rick Cropper:

He's a perfect person to be in that position. But when I was in the something, something, something league, and I went to their something, something, something World Championships, I noticed how much unmartial art behavior was going on. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

People in the crowds are fighting with each other. People in the crowds are harassing the judges. Competitors are acting like spoiled. And the whole thing was just like, and I brought students and my students are like, Sifu, what's going on here? And I'm trying to explain, well, this is what's for martial, I said, you know what? It's crap. It's garbage and it's not right. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Rick Cropper:

It's totally, totally not right. And you know what? I used to be a big sports fan. I'm watching sports, basketball especially, but I'm watching young people who are making millions of dollars, who get a foul called on them, and then act like a spoiled brat. And that's on media. And then what happens is that transfers, it gets inside of the people watching it. And then it came to the martial art tournament. So I'm like, oh my God, that guy and that kid that's acting. So I'm like, I'm done with that. I love basketball, but I don't watch much sports anymore. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I don't blame you. 

Rick Cropper:

Yeah. Because of the disrespect that they brought into our thing. So I'm like, you know what, when I have my chance, I'm gonna start a martial art league because every part of the country has a sport, martial art tournament league or multiple leagues, but nothing in the Northwest. But we had the Westpac, which is part of the NBL and we had a tournament here. What do they call it? The Pacific Jewel. I used to compete there, but, and actually, I was chief referee of a lot of the largest tournaments in the NBL. But I'm like, you know, when I have the opportunity, I’m gonna start a league here and it’s gonna be based, it's foundation is to be respect. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I love it.

Rick Cropper:

And honor. And the correct character, and I'm no a perfect person, but it's gotta be built on the tenants of good martial arts, which is not the fighting kick. It's been a morally well-balanced character. Having good character and teaching them. Okay. So I had a chance to do that when the Westpac went away, but another guy did it first. But this dude ended up taking everybody's money, ripping him off and split. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

It happens, unfortunately, more than it should. 

Rick Cropper:

And I think that happened, I think that happened before the Pacific Jewel and the Westpac went away. But I was at the last Pacific Jewel tournament, and then I'm saying to myself, okay, this is the golden opportunity to do what I've been dreaming about. So what I did was I contacted Jerry Pennington. Do you know who Jerry Pennington is? Grandmaster Jerry? 

Jeremy Lesniak:

He's been on the show. 

Rick Cropper:

I contacted him. I contacted CJ, I contacted David Carmen, tournament promoter and I contacted Dennis Elliot. Okay, so these are, they're promoters and they're well-known people in the martial arts community. And I felt that I could trust these guys and I said, Hey, this is what we wanna do. So that was the beginning of our executive council. And what we did for like a year or a year and a half, is that we'd meet at my apartment. And they love coming there cause my daughter's a like a novice chef and she'd have all kinds of food. So, oh, we're gonna get something to eat. So what we did for a year and a half is we came up with all the rules and the bylaws and all the stuff. And a big help was the Dojo League back East. Hachi Pennington has a relationship with them and he got their rules. And then, so for a year or year and a half we went, and then we started the league. I think the league started in, I think we're in year six or seven or something. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

That's awesome. That's awesome. If people wanna learn more about that league and your tournament, is there are websites and things for those things, right? How do people go deeper on that?

Rick Cropper:

I think it's…

Jeremy Lesniak:

I know we've got at least one in the notes. 

Rick Cropper:

kaizenleague.us, I think it is. And it'll have, you know, the tournaments listed. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Right. 

Rick Cropper:

But I'll call CJ when we're done here, I'll call CJ. All the tournaments listed, but it says what this league was built on. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Great, great. Cool. And yeah, we'll have that in the shownotes. 

Rick Cropper:

I'll be honest with you, I have absolutely zero, uh oh, running outta battery. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Oh, you got enough for us to finish up? I can see you, I can hear you. 

Rick Cropper:

I have absolutely zero tolerance. Zero patience for disrespect. Zero, zero. And I tell people at my tournament for a long time, Hey, but if you do act, then I'm gonna personally walk you out to the parking lot. Don't care who you're, cause it doesn't belong here. And they know I'll do it, but I haven't had to do that this year. Oh my God. There was so much love. It was incredible. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

That's great. And that's what I'm finding at other events is anything that had to take a hiatus, people came back and they were so grateful. Because they realized what they had missed. Now, if people wanna get a hold of you, we gotta, we gotta wind up here. I'm sorry. 

Rick Cropper:

Yeah. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

If people wanna get a hold of you, email, social media, anything like that that you can share with folks?

Rick Cropper:

Yeah. They can email me at sifurickcropper@gmail.com.

Jeremy Lesniak:

It's about as easy as you got. 

Rick Cropper:

Yeah. sifurickcropper@gmail.com. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Awesome. And so now the last thing I'm gonna ask of you, it's… 

Rick Cropper:

You know, we've only scratched the surface. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I know we've only scratched the surface. I do, I do. I always ask the guests to kind of provide the final words for the episode. So what is it you wanna leave the audience with today? How do you wanna sum up our conversation? 

Rick Cropper:

Hey, I wanna, especially, I wanna talk to the senior students. No, I wanna talk to all the students, all the teachers, all the school owners, all, everybody is, we have a responsibility as being martial artists to show the non martial art community the benefits of the martial arts. And first off, I don't wanna start with the physical benefits because there are plenty physic, it's about the being a good human being. Not perfect, because there was only one perfect. Okay. But let us show them that we're good people. We have good moral character. And actually, the physical stuff is for health. This also is, it's our insurance policy.Because you know what? The world's full of good, you know what? The world is also full of bad. Nobody's allowed to hurt us or our families and we're allowed to defend ourselves. And if we’re allowed to defend ourselves, yout martial art better be on point. It better be on point. Because you know what? If you get into an altercation, it may be the last thing or not, but be good. Make sure your art is strong and pass it down and love people. Be tolerant because that's another thing. You know what? Don't fight outta anger because that's just not right. You know? Don't fight outta anger. But see, I like to fight. That's why it goes far. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

We're definitely gonna have you back. Thanks for coming up. 

Rick Cropper:

Yeah. Cause, man, I still got tons of stuff, man. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I told you this was a great one. I told you it was high energy. If you were anything like me, as you listened to this, you were jazzed, you were juiced up, you were okay. I gotta go train. I gotta go do something right. As soon as I was done, my heart rate was up. I just, I felt like I could go run a marathon just by talking to this man. Being in his presence, even more intense. Sifu Rick, thank you for coming on. Thank you for sharing part of your birthday with us and absolutely honored, and I look forward to the next time we talk and am super pumped to get to meet, well, see you again, train with you again, and look forward to when that happens. Audience, whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. Photos, videos, links, show notes, transcripts, all the good stuff. Sign up for the newsletter. Maybe leave us a tip, look at the other episodes that we've done and share this stuff with other people. We grow when you share, and selfishly for you, when we grow, we attract new awesome guests. So keep that in mind. If you have a martial arts school, consider our consulting services. There is no obligation. If you wanna talk to me, I give everybody a free hour. We we're not at a point yet where I can't find ways to schedule that. So until that happens, I will give anybody who is interested a free hour. It's the best way to find how our philosophy translates into the consulting side in the way that we can help you and your school grow. Do you want more students? We can do that. Do you want more profit? We can do that. More revenue per student. We can do that. Do you wanna improve the culture of your school? We can do that. Do you want to train up an assistant instructors  so you're not working 25 hours a day? You can do that too. Reach out to me, jeremy@whistlekick.com or what if you wanna bring me in for a seminar? I love teaching. I love sharing the things that I'm passionate about. Beyond this show there's physical stuff, physical training that I'm passionate about, and it applies equally regardless of your style. So reach out. We can talk about that too. Now, our social media for whistlekick is @whistlekick. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, I missed some others, but just search @whistlekick, you’ll find us. That's it. That's the end for now. Until next time, train hard, smile, and have a great day.