Episode 886 - Shihan Desmond Diaz
In today's episode Jeremy chats with Shihan Desmond Diaz from Florida about his journey through martial arts.Shihan Desmon Diaz - Episode 886
Shihan Desmond Diaz discusses the importance of maintaining health and preventing injuries in martial arts. He shares his personal experiences with injuries and how he stays on top of his physical well-being. He also talks about why he has chosen not to have his own martial arts school and the challenges he faces in finding his home in the martial arts community. He emphasizes the importance of continuous development as a martial artist and the value of learning from different perspectives. Desmond concludes with inspiring takeaways for martial artists.
Chapters
00:00 Maintaining Health and Preventing Injuries
42:03 Not Having His Own Martial Arts School
46:15 Continuous Development as a Martial Artist
51:24 Takeaways
Show Notes
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Show Transcript
Jeremy (00:01.569)
Hey, what's going on, everybody? Welcome. This is Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio. And on today's episode, I'm joined by Shihan Desmond-Diaz. I know we're going to have fun today, because we always have fun. I've been looking forward to talking to you for a long time. And so glad that you're here. To the audience, stick around. This is going to be great. If you're new to the show, check out whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. That's where we drop all the stuff for the show. And check out whistlekick.com. That's where we have links.
Desmond Diaz (00:19.249)
Thank you.
Jeremy (00:30.845)
to everything that we do from our products that you can buy, to our events, to all the other projects that we're involved in. So, Dez, thanks for being here, man.
Desmond Diaz (00:39.138)
Thanks for having me.
Jeremy (00:40.717)
Yeah, I appreciate you. We met. I don't know, do we want to tell the story? All right. So let me set the scene. So it's 2022, and I'm in the Pacific Northwest. I'm in Puyallup, Washington. Puyallup, Washington. And I am at.
Desmond Diaz (00:46.671)
Absolutely. Let's do it.
Desmond Diaz (00:59.646)
Yeah. Puyallup. Yeah.
Jeremy (01:07.189)
a school that has given us a number of folks who've been on the show and worked with Whistlekick and done some great things. And I'm teaching a session at this event. And this guy kind of sneaks in. And he doesn't say anything. He just kind of jumps in and he's doing his thing. And I'm like, who's this guy? Is this guy going to be a problem? Because if you've been if you've ever had someone just kind of slip into what you're doing, it says something you don't know what it says yet.
but you're on guard. You're like, what's going on? What is this person about? Are they, do they have training? Are they trying to hide? Um, let's go just what's going on. And it took about five minutes of watching how he moved to go, okay, I don't know if he's going to be a problem, but he's definitely trained before. He's done some stuff. And then it took about another five minutes to say he's not going to be a problem. Five minutes after that, I was like, can we be friends?
It really, it was very quick. And I just, I had a wonderful time having you in that session and the conversations that we've had before, or rather after and since, we're of similar mind. And I've been looking forward to talking to you on the show for a while.
Desmond Diaz (02:20.567)
Absolutely.
Desmond Diaz (02:24.126)
Yeah, that was a fun experience for me. Typically when I'm in a new area, like even when I've moved to Florida or when I've moved to Washington, I try to get immersed in the martial arts scene as much as I can. It was a little challenging to find people for a while. When I met Mike Shintaku, he mentioned the seminar. I said, you know what, I'm going to go, but I don't like to
Jeremy (02:35.261)
Mm.
Desmond Diaz (02:49.654)
present as, I don't know, like pompous or arrogant. So I just want to come in as a humble guy. That's why I didn't wear my gi. I had it in the car if it was a requirement, but I'd say, you know what, no one knows me. Let me just be my best self, but be quiet, humble. I wanted to see if anybody would recognize that I didn't know anything. I knew when we were walking around, you kept looking like something's different over there. And you know, some of those black belts that I worked with, they didn't recognize it right away.
Jeremy (02:56.017)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy (03:13.053)
Thanks for watching.
Desmond Diaz (03:19.442)
Um, it was actually a little orange belt girl who lightly after working with me said, where do you teach at? And I was like, shh, don't tell anybody.
Jeremy (03:22.225)
Hmm.
Jeremy (03:26.077)
Hmm.
Jeremy (03:32.313)
It's fun to do that, isn't it? I've done that before. I've done that whenever I step into a new school as a student, if they don't know me. And it doesn't happen often. But I show up, I wear a white belt or nothing. And part of what I use to gauge is, how do they interact with me? Do they look at me and say, hmm, you might know some things. Tell me your story, because I think as an instructor, you've got to ask that question.
Desmond Diaz (03:34.821)
It is awesome.
Desmond Diaz (03:49.682)
Yeah.
Jeremy (03:59.709)
Because how do you best teach that student? That student knows they know stuff. They've come in wanting to learn more stuff, hopefully. And if you don't ask that question, how can you best support them?
Desmond Diaz (03:59.859)
Absolutely.
Desmond Diaz (04:07.498)
Mm-hmm.
Desmond Diaz (04:11.914)
Absolutely. And I feel a lot of times I visit schools as a consumer, as a customer, because I have friends and family in different areas and I go, well, I want to go to a school, what do I look for? And I try to help them with that experience by going there just like them with pretending to kind of know nothing, just to see how they're.
Jeremy (04:24.494)
Yeah.
Jeremy (04:33.228)
Mm-hmm.
Desmond Diaz (04:34.454)
instructors interact, whether it's a day class or a night class, because sometimes that changes as well, and to see if people can pick up on, okay, he might have had some experience. Do we approach him differently? Do, you know, if I come in with all the regalia, the bells and everything, I'm definitely going to get a different response. So I don't want that response. I want a natural, organic response just to see how they are.
Jeremy (04:39.441)
Sure, sure.
Jeremy (04:54.487)
Mm-hmm. Right.
Jeremy (04:57.989)
Yeah. So what was it? I said I speculated was I was it Kempo I speculated. I speculated something and it's your Chinese goju.
Desmond Diaz (05:04.01)
Yes.
Desmond Diaz (05:10.051)
USA Goju, Pan-American Goju specifically with my instructor, which we have elements of Okinawan Goju and Japanese Goju Kai, but our base art is USA Goju.
Jeremy (05:11.254)
USA Goju. Okay.
Jeremy (05:23.437)
OK, because you didn't move like any rigid Goju practitioner I'd worked with before. He was moving. He was fluid. And at first, I was like, is this guy Kung Fu? I was like, no, he's not Kung Fu. But you can see it from there. Yeah, I spent half that session working with everyone and the other half trying to figure out what you did.
Desmond Diaz (05:28.33)
Yes, yes. I've been around a bit, yes.
Desmond Diaz (05:36.206)
I'm going to go ahead and close the video.
Desmond Diaz (05:40.267)
Yes.
Desmond Diaz (05:48.73)
Well, you know, I've traveled to a lot of schools. You know, I've never been the person to like go tournament hopping and make friends that way. I've always gone to a dojo door to door. I say, hey, you know, if it's okay, can I train? Can I work with you guys? I don't, you know, I'll come in, very simple and playing it earned my friendship. You know, and I've been to many kung fu schools. I've been to Shotokan schools. I've been to Judo schools, Jujitsu schools. I've spent quite a bit of time with everybody.
Jeremy (05:56.07)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jeremy (06:06.565)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy (06:19.457)
We'll talk in a moment about that attitude, that openness to cross training, because I think that that's an important part of your story. And I think it's the place that you and I really connect the most. But before we do that, we've got to figure out the how, the when, the where, you know. So episode, or rather issue zero, issue one of your comic book as a martial artist, you know, what's the story there?
Desmond Diaz (06:41.914)
Um, so I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Um, always was a fan of martial arts. My dad used to have us watch like Saturday morning, Kung Fu theater, you know, things on a sci-fi channel, bring home movies for us, me and my brother to watch. And I was always enamored with that world of martial arts. And one day when I was, uh, like 11 or 12, I asked my mom, can I join martial arts class and to my surprise, cause she said no for everything. Um.
Jeremy (06:52.037)
Yeah.
Jeremy (07:06.663)
Hmm.
Desmond Diaz (07:10.95)
She said yes, and there happened to be a local karate school at Tome. Um, I don't think she's ever seen me that excited about something. You know, I was good at sports. I was decent at school. I had a talent for things if I put my mind to it, but it was the first thing that like she saw passion.
Jeremy (07:14.542)
Why do you think she said yes?
Jeremy (07:20.059)
Okay.
Desmond Diaz (07:33.978)
And she said, you know, let me nurture this passion. She had put me in things before like piano lessons, tennis, football, you know, other sports. Didn't really resonate with me, even though I was good at them, as much as just like that world of martial arts. We had just come from seeing Rumble in the Bronx and I was just like, okay, now is probably the best time for me to ask.
Jeremy (07:50.365)
Hmm.
Desmond Diaz (08:00.762)
and she went straight ahead with it. And it was probably the best thing, you know, for my journey that could have happened.
Jeremy (08:07.165)
Hmm. Right on. OK. So you get in there, and I'm going to guess that you loved it from moment one.
Desmond Diaz (08:09.741)
Uh, yeah.
Desmond Diaz (08:17.502)
Oh yeah, I remember distinctly that when I signed up, I signed up for a Matsubayashi Shoren school that was nearby. And it was four kids with me.
And those kids had come from watching Power Rangers. And they were just like, you know, I'm gonna come in here and learn flying sidekicks. That's great. I could care less. I was in love with the fact that I saw people cleaning the boards by running with rags. And I was like, oh, I wanna do that. And you know, we spent three months learning how to do a reverse punch. And I'm like, this is the greatest day of my life. Every day. And those kids ended up quitting.
Jeremy (08:48.404)
Hmm.
Desmond Diaz (08:51.342)
because they wanted that flying sidekick and it didn't come so easily. And I was just so in love with the process. I walked a half a mile in my ghee, in a bad neighborhood, back and forth every day. Didn't even phase me that what was going on in my world. I was just like, I can't wait to go to class every day.
Jeremy (09:12.16)
Yeah.
And you know, so did the class end up being you and the instructor eventually? Or did other children come in?
Desmond Diaz (09:20.51)
Um, other children came in as I went up, like as I got to like yellow and orange, they actually shoved me along with the brown belts because I was staying there like, you know, every class, I'd come in for the first kids class and leave at the adults class, mostly because it was cold outside. And I said, let me get as much work as I can before I go back outside. But it was a great experience.
Jeremy (09:44.92)
Yeah, yeah.
Desmond Diaz (09:49.618)
my New York experience did get cut short because my mom went to school, went to get her PhD in Florida around the time that I was like 12, 13-ish. So we moved to child psychology. Yeah, so she went to pursue that in Florida. I had to make a choice, go with her, stay with my dad. I went with her.
Jeremy (10:03.337)
What's your PhD in?
Jeremy (10:07.077)
Okay, that might come back around. Keep going.
Desmond Diaz (10:18.782)
And when I first got to Florida, I didn't know what to expect. I had family. I found out that I had family that did martial arts. Some of my uncles were Florida state champions. I had no idea up until that part. And so that helped keep it alive. And she said, well, go look for schools. Go look around. And I found a couple of schools there may not have been my cup of tea.
uh, you know, some that had a little bit more insane regimens to go to. And then eventually I found my instructor, uh, Armando Colburn at the time, his school had two instructors, one that taught, you know, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and the other, he taught Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. I went to every class every day. All three classes. Yeah. Cause I was just, this is now like.
Jeremy (11:05.905)
six days a week.
How old are you at this time?
Desmond Diaz (11:13.922)
14, 15 now, we're getting into it. Yeah, so it was high school. I tried football for a little while. I just kept wanting to go to class, to karate class. So I dropped football, went to martial arts. I was loving the lessons because like my instructor was more kind. He was strict, firm, but fair. The other instructor was very much about the fitness aspects of things, very aggressive about that.
Jeremy (11:15.149)
Okay, this was your thing.
Jeremy (11:40.199)
Hmm
Desmond Diaz (11:44.626)
I wanted more technical knowledge, so I kind of stayed with my instructor on those Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays a bit longer. Eventually the other instructor left to open his own school. I stayed with my instructor and I've been with him all the way through. When I finished high school, I ended up going back to college in New York and that was a brown belt at the time. And it was, that was probably one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make because I was just...
I didn't want to be away from the dojo. And when I came back to go to college, I actually went back to my first school. And it's interesting. It's like graduating from college and going back to public school. I mean, it sounds a little harsh. But the way that I had been trained up until that point to come back, there was an instance where we were doing our warm up, and I was doing what I consider a warm up.
Jeremy (12:19.953)
What was that experience like?
Jeremy (12:30.618)
Mm-hmm.
Desmond Diaz (12:42.426)
Even the Black belts were like, hey, you know, take it easy. Going a little, save some energy for the rest. And I'm like, I'm not tired. I don't know what you're talking about. So I noticed that there was a gap there. And that made life a little more difficult because I still didn't find the equivalent. So I took a break from martial arts and go through college. In my third year of college, my instructor from South Florida called and said, hey,
I'm gonna test you for black belt in six months. I hope you've been practicing." And I was like, ah, it's a good one. And I hadn't been, you know, I panicked. I flew to Florida, trained with him for a couple of weeks, recorded everything, went home, trained every single day for those six months. Didn't go outside, didn't talk to my friends, didn't wanna be bothered. I was like, I have to focus. And then I went to Georgia, took my first day on test.
passed the flying colors, and they were shocked that somebody far away distance learning still kept up. And I was like, well, it wasn't a keep up, it was more like I crammed and focused in that span of time. But the desire to get that achievement was there. And I made sure once I had gotten that first and, that I would never take another gap like that again, and I would stay involved in the arts.
Jeremy (14:12.273)
The way you talked about this first school in New York versus the way you talked about it when you went back.
Desmond Diaz (14:14.498)
Yeah.
Desmond Diaz (14:19.414)
Yeah.
Jeremy (14:20.869)
Was that difficult emotionally? And I want to tell the audience what I saw, because most of our listeners are listeners. They're not viewers. So they may not have seen in your face what I saw, which was I thought the world of this. And then I realized it did not occupy the position that I thought it did. That I had to.
Desmond Diaz (14:22.742)
Yes.
Desmond Diaz (14:32.886)
Hmm.
Desmond Diaz (14:39.16)
Yes.
Desmond Diaz (14:46.284)
Yes.
Jeremy (14:48.41)
that I had to kind of square peg round hole the way I looked at my original training.
Desmond Diaz (14:54.394)
Absolutely. Now, you know, I have a lot of respect for my original instructor. He was very traditional, very thorough. The environment was good for me at the time, and I had nothing to compare it to. So now when I'm in another environment where I'm, I would say it's a much more loving environment, per se, which is the opposite of what you think of in martial arts. Just very kind, very, you know,
Jeremy (15:10.086)
Mm-hmm.
Desmond Diaz (15:23.038)
we're gonna push you, but it's not gonna beat you to death kind of thing. But I grew tremendously in that, in that space. To come back, I wanted to, uh, you know, with a sense of pride say, look, I've, I've still kept up with the arts. I want you to be proud of me. But when I looked at, there was no progress on their side. I was a little disappointed, a little brokenhearted, you know, because
Jeremy (15:49.521)
Hmm.
Desmond Diaz (15:52.21)
I expected them to be vastly better than me when I came back, because I figured, you know, my always assumption is if I don't see you, you're still growing. And so when I come back and you're not, that was a little bit of a tough pill to swallow because it put me in a position where I didn't know, I didn't fit in.
And that was a little hard to deal with.
Jeremy (16:17.157)
You got on the moving sidewalk while they were walking along the concourse. Yeah, I've, I've experienced that. I get it. And it's.
Desmond Diaz (16:21.395)
Absolutely.
Jeremy (16:28.293)
You know, martial arts is kind of a rare place where we evaluate people for their character, but also for their skill. And those things are independent. You've probably known instructors as I've had, where I tremendously respect their skill, or maybe their teaching abilities. But they are horrible human beings. But when we're talking about someone, or in this case, some people that you love.
Desmond Diaz (16:43.49)
Yes.
Desmond Diaz (16:47.11)
Absolutely.
Jeremy (16:58.593)
And now that's a tough conflict. I love you, but you suck.
Desmond Diaz (17:04.546)
Right. And I will never say things like, you know, I could probably beat them up or anything, but it's just like, there is no progress in how they're teaching or there is no progress. There's no growth in those students that I might have left. You know, like, you know, if you were at a higher position than me when I left and I come back and I'm at a slightly higher position than what I left, you should be way ahead of me.
You know, like I should still be coming in like, man, I can't wait for you to show me stuff. And they're looking to me.
Jeremy (17:39.265)
I was going to ask, did they recognize it? So if they recognized it, were there conversations around how? Did somebody come to you and say, how are you so much better?
Desmond Diaz (17:42.156)
Yeah.
Desmond Diaz (17:50.61)
One of the instructors that was there, he usually steps in and out, but he was there that day and he was just like, what have you been doing? This is a huge growth.
I just said I was showing up every day in class, just like I was here. I didn't think I was doing anything in particular. I will give my instructor, my sensei now, a huge credit, because there was something he did to me that showed me an impressive character trait. When I came in, I was beginner intermediate level of this Matsubayashi Shoren rule, nothing of Goju.
And I was holding on to that. I was just like, yeah, you know, I'm gonna learn your stuff. But also remember, I got this and a tournament came up relatively soon. He said, would you like to go? I said, sure. He said, well, do you like to practice some of the forms you wanna? He was like, no, I was like, no, I'm gonna do these forms. And he taught me one anyway, he said, do what you want. I went to the tournament, I performed my assurances, I think it was like pin-on-yon-don or something.
And I tied with somebody. And at that moment, I said, you know what? I'll try one of the Goju forms that he taught me. The only problem is I didn't really practice it that well. So I messed up all the time. Right. And I messed up the form, and I lost. And he never admonished me. He just said, see you in class. And I said, OK. And I said, you know, maybe when I'm in this space, I play by these rules. I'll put away my other stuff.
Jeremy (19:08.733)
because he didn't think you were going to use it.
Desmond Diaz (19:27.146)
and focus on what you're teaching me. And that has always been a valuable trait, like empty my cup and be ready for it to be filled. And he's always treated me like that.
Jeremy (19:43.129)
We all need to have that moment, right? If we come out of some martial arts tradition where we're happy with what we've been doing and life takes us away, it's not easy to just say, I'm going to set all of this down. I'm going to pretend I am not this person that I am not this training, that I don't have these relationships, that this didn't make my life better. And I'm going to start over and just wipe the slate.
Desmond Diaz (20:11.49)
Hmm.
Jeremy (20:12.241)
But for most of us, we end up with some moment, like you're talking about, where we realize it's important to be able to do that. Doesn't mean you can't pick it back up again, but the ability to be able to fully put it down is so valuable.
Desmond Diaz (20:24.718)
Mm-hmm. I 100% agree. It's made a world of difference in my life outside of martial arts and within it.
To have, that's why I like going to dojos and humbling myself and training in their style. You don't need to make it special for me. I just need you to, I just wanna be a part of what you're doing and let me just fully absorb that and support what you're doing in that space as well.
Jeremy (20:57.655)
All right, so. If I if I've got the timing right, so school in New York, you come back, take and pass your first on. You go back to New York.
Desmond Diaz (21:08.646)
For a little bit. At that point, we're getting, I guess now we're getting close to, at least as far as my mind, closer to 9-11 time. I had a couple of setbacks with my family. I had a death in the family. My grandmother's house burned down. There was just a lot of stuff going on at the time. I took a...
Jeremy (21:09.724)
Okay.
Jeremy (21:25.634)
Oh no.
Desmond Diaz (21:31.054)
took a mental sabbatical and went to live with my uncle in Buffalo for a few months. And then my mom had asked me to move back because she had a health issue which required surgery. And she wanted me to come and visit and just take care of her. I said, sure. I stayed for a couple of weeks. I worked at the job that she worked at, which was a physical therapy company. They offered me a full-time job. I said, well.
Sure, I'm not doing anything in particular in New York. It gives me a chance to come back and train. I love it. And so I moved back, jumped right back into training. I was there all the time. Now we're teaching. We're in a different location, bigger space. Now we'll...
You know, I'm working with my sensei's sons. We're all also black belts. So we're all like, we're training with each other. We're teaching. We're having a great experience as we're going on. This is now close to, I want to say 2004. And I went to, I did a lot of tournaments. Didn't really care for the process, the politics. Wasn't for me. Still had a good time. I had a great experience. I won't take that away.
My last tournament was the US Open. I said, I'm gonna go there, try my best, leave it on the table, retire and be done.
Jeremy (22:57.757)
For folks who don't know about the competitive, the sport martial arts landscape, the US Open is one of the biggest, if not the biggest in the US.
Desmond Diaz (23:06.806)
Yes, absolutely. Usually by 40, 50,000 competitors, hundreds of divisions, people come from all over the world. That's like where the who's who of sport karate go to compete at. And it was in Orlando, so I figured I could drive up there. No one knows me. I went by myself, nobody else in my dojo.
which was always a theme. I would go to tournaments by myself. I just wanted to see what was going on or where I'm at. And I think I might've placed like fourth in my divisions. But at that time, the 18 to 29 division had like 60 people. Learning the rules of that was also educational. I met a lot of people there after my performances.
Jeremy (23:56.869)
And if I if I remember if I've got the timing right on this, that was a fairly stacked division then too. I don't know if you're going to name drop. I wouldn't be able to, but.
Desmond Diaz (24:02.666)
Yeah, you had it.
Desmond Diaz (24:06.93)
I couldn't remember a bunch of them, but like a Jody Tension was competing there, or Mike Chat students were there. Those guys were in that space. I didn't know any of them at all until after. Hey, no, until once I was done competing. Once I competed, completely done with it, I was like, cool, I'm happy with my life. Just go back to my dojo and train. I say, you wanna fast forward maybe six months to a year, a documentary comes out called Extreme Martial Arts. And...
I knew what it was. I was like, that sounds dumb. I don't care to watch it. And my mom was like, are you sure? And I'm like, yeah, I'm good. And I was at a friend's house. And he said, hey, I'm going to put this documentary on. I didn't know what he was talking about. But I saw the logo. And I'm like, oh, great. And we're going to watch this. And they're talking about Mike Chet's student at the US Open. Still wasn't connecting anything. I looked at the pictures. I go, oh, I think that's the one. I want to one of those. And then I saw my face.
And I was like, no, I don't remember them having cameras. And then they're doing the little segments which chopped up and I see me performing. And I'm like, huh, weird. And I see me performing again. I'm like, huh, that's different. And from just those little segments, my phone started blowing up. People are like, I saw you on TV. And I was like, oh no, you saw me on TV. Because my first thought was it brought me way too much attention.
Jeremy (25:28.645)
Yeah.
Desmond Diaz (25:34.542)
And in South Florida at that time, people saw you, you know, getting a leg up. They're going to come and challenge you. So, you know, that Monday on the weekend, there was a lot of people at the Dojo going, Hey, I saw you on TV. I want to fight you. I was like, okay, let's, let's do it. And maybe for some time, you know.
Jeremy (25:52.669)
Gear up.
Jeremy (25:58.592)
and
Jeremy (26:01.909)
You have, in the limited time that we've had together, you've struck me as someone who is humble, but is aware of themselves. Right, so I suspect that what you're prefacing there is, I wasn't gonna go looking for these challenges, but if they're gonna come find me, I'm gonna handle it.
Desmond Diaz (26:07.202)
Yes.
Desmond Diaz (26:12.312)
Yes.
Desmond Diaz (26:25.038)
Absolutely. I would like to believe that my dojo was in the last era of those like dojo challenges where you go to other schools and you spar. Because my sensei would bring me around, sometimes just me, sometimes me and his son. We'd go to these other dojos. We'd train, fight, whatever, to everybody. Have a good time. Keep it going. It was a lot of fun for me. I got to learn a lot fast. But yeah, I was very much a person
I won't start anything, but I'll finish everything. And so it was very interesting to have those situations come because that was my immediate reaction when I saw myself. It wasn't like, hey, cool. It was, oh, no, this is going to draw more attention than I was expecting. And it did.
Jeremy (26:56.827)
Mm.
Jeremy (27:17.603)
Okay. So what next? What happened after that?
Desmond Diaz (27:20.018)
Um, so, you know, I had my second day in tests and my third day in consecutively for our organization. Typically we go to Georgia where our grand master is and we have like a camp and then on, you know, they test you during the camp and on the last day you fight in a tournament, all of that rolls into how, uh, you're, you're graded. Uh, so that was my second, third and fourth day and over the
six or seven, eight years over this period of time. It was just a lot of teaching seminars. I would go and do demos for my sensei school. In between there, I went back to college for computer programming, found that wasn't exactly my cup of tea. I can do it. I just, it was just so boring. And then I went.
Jeremy (28:08.701)
Mm hmm. Also what my degree is in.
Desmond Diaz (28:12.198)
Right. And you know, after like a couple semesters of making bank programs, I was like, I'm good. I don't like numbers that much. And then I ended up going to school for massage. And my first thought with massage was, well, if I beat people up and break things, I probably should know how to fix it. And
Jeremy (28:34.665)
is very much the Chinese philosophy to this. Yeah.
Desmond Diaz (28:37.326)
Yeah. And then, like, in my mind, I started to picture what I'd be doing. I would be helping martial artists because they're the most stubborn, the most likely to avoid care. But, like, these are the people that I could leverage my knowledge with the most. And they're also the toughest people to get on the table. So a lot of times I'm like, all right, I will fight you. Then you can get on the table.
Jeremy (28:57.369)
Mmm.
Jeremy (29:05.469)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Desmond Diaz (29:07.35)
You know, there's many people in Orlando that will tell you that very thing, that like, I have the table and you go, ah, I'm like, all right, well, I'm gonna put my gloves on for a few minutes and then we'll see if you wanna get on this table. And then they're like, okay, we'll get on this table.
Jeremy (29:22.205)
It's the weirdest surprise. I'm just envisioning this TV show where it's like, I'm going to fight you, and then I'm going to massage you. I've always appreciated the juxtaposition. We've had a lot of people on the show who, they generally start in some kind of martial art, and then they have a similar light bulb to you in saying, oh.
Desmond Diaz (29:33.16)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy (29:48.937)
Maybe I should understand a bit of how to help people. And honestly, I think a lot of us pick up that stuff just from our own injuries. We end up learning a lot of that because if you're constantly getting banged up, you got to figure out how to heal at least for next class, right?
Desmond Diaz (29:57.435)
Absolutely.
Desmond Diaz (30:01.324)
Yeah.
Desmond Diaz (30:06.902)
Oh, for sure. You know, one of the things that I got to pick up, like I am on the US martial arts team, and when we traveled to different areas as a team, I would notice we had no one to support us for the sports medicine side. You know, recently we have like a sports nurse and PTA and people who are very capable now, but that was my first thought initially. And I was like...
Jeremy (30:31.379)
Mm.
Desmond Diaz (30:33.15)
I would love to help, but also I have to compete. So in the times that I wasn't competing, I have to now try to help these people.
And I was like, we need something like this regularly. Every professional team has somebody that's there for their sports medicine side to take care of those athletes. If we want to be considered professional to that next level, we need people taking care of us. We need to have those things in place. And that's something I wanted to push for more often. So I figured, let me go to dojos on fight night.
and put a table in the back, or a fighting seminars, maybe let me convince the parents, and then I'll convince the athletes and vice versa. So that started to make it a little bit more popularized.
Jeremy (31:12.539)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy (31:21.126)
Yeah, I think for so many people, even still, even here in 2023, cresting 2024, the term massage instantly makes them think relaxation, luxury, indulgent. And it can be, but it doesn't have to be.
Desmond Diaz (31:34.004)
Yeah.
Desmond Diaz (31:37.566)
Yeah. One of my favorite people to pick his brain on is Ross Levine, who is the current middleweight champion for karate combat, who is a physical therapist. And he understands the importance of maintaining the body for performance and for recovery. So he knows exactly what how I view things and
And we'll talk from time to time about that stuff, because I would love for him to come and rehab my Achilles or something. It'd be great. Just like I can help him with any musculoskeletal issue he has. And I think there'll be bigger crossover the more that it becomes more integrated. Having that sports medicine aspect or looking for performance.
you know, progress through work like this, so that way we can continue to live our lives as martial artists for as long as possible.
Jeremy (32:36.281)
Yeah, you know, I, I've always seen the value in taking care of the body, right? I mean, whether that's how I was raised by my mother or in the martial arts school or both, or just people around me. And you look at pro athletes and I had always assumed that pro athletes were investing tremendously in their body and they don't, some of them do.
Desmond Diaz (32:59.134)
No. Yes.
Jeremy (33:00.889)
You know, but, and when I realized how big of a deal this was, it was how big of a deal everybody made about LeBron James and what he does. And I went, don't you all do that? Because I just did the math on everything. And most of the time, like even the second tier players in the NBA can afford this. And they're not investing. And it just makes me think. If my body is my paycheck, why would I not invest in it?
Desmond Diaz (33:18.326)
Yes.
Desmond Diaz (33:29.67)
And I think it's like a cultural thing where if you've come from money, you might understand it differently versus not coming from money. When you haven't come from money and now you have it, you're not sure what to spend it on yet. If you have somebody to help you, you'll learn. Like somebody like LeBron, like Kobe, Russell Wilson spend millions of dollars on taking care of their body so that they can perform.
Martial artists typically are not balling out of control. So they don't think about it. My boxing coach, James Taylor, technique boxing, phenomenal athlete, pro boxer. Even for him, it took him a little bit for me to convince him to get some treatments. And then he started getting them when he was preparing for his fights and saw a difference.
Jeremy (34:12.197)
Hmm.
Desmond Diaz (34:17.174)
And now, like, I work with his gym to take care of some of those athletes. And those are the guys that we, and I joke with like some of the, uh, up and coming national ranked, uh, fighters. When they come to see me, I'll work on them. And then I say, get up, see how you feel. You say, feel good. Okay. We'll put the gloves on. Let's go in the garage and let's see how you really feel. Or I'll come to the gym and say, let's get in the, in the box and the ring.
Jeremy (34:38.423)
Yeah.
Desmond Diaz (34:42.61)
and see how we do and see how you feel. And that's how you know, because I'm gonna give you that real time feedback right now. And there's very few people like me who can just turn around and go do that.
Jeremy (34:53.617)
Yeah, it's you know the there's a place for the attitude that a lot of us have been instilled with around powering through suck it up. Try grid it out. But there's also a point where applying that 24 seven just doesn't work. And if the goal is results or if the goal is to remain healthy, if an
Desmond Diaz (35:06.923)
Yes.
Desmond Diaz (35:13.852)
Absolutely.
Jeremy (35:20.993)
I would put a bunch of money down that we're on the same page on this, but we might have some folks out there who aren't going to agree with me. I'm going to say this point blank. If the way you train leaves you injured, you are less able to protect yourself and your whole attitude about let's go hard, self-defense is actually counterproductive.
Desmond Diaz (35:40.018)
Absolutely. I mean, you're not going to tell them, wait, hold on, let me stretch out first before we have this altercation. So you always have to be ready. Like that saying of if you're always ready, you never have to get ready. So destroying yourself on an ongoing basis is not going to help you be ready.
Jeremy (35:55.005)
Mm-hmm.
Desmond Diaz (35:56.158)
Um, even I, I listened to a lot of like MMA videos where people are just going like a hundred percent and they're sparring and I'm, I'm like, no, you're going to have to go and fight for money soon. Do not destroy yourself before you get there and you have to be more practical. Like that's why I'm a huge fan of somebody like Demetrius Johnson, Mighty Mouse, who is very smart about how he trains, how he prepares and how he takes care of himself and the results speak for themselves for him.
Jeremy (36:07.345)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy (36:23.169)
There's a martial art where you were expected to go 100% all the time and compete frequently. And it's called Muay Thai. And if the numbers in my head are still accurate, two-year career, the average career of a professional Muay Thai fighter in Thailand is two years. Now, if you want to go 100% to the wall, and that's your glory, fine. But I'd like my body to serve me till I'm 100. Like I want to be 100 in trade.
Desmond Diaz (36:35.927)
Yeah.
Desmond Diaz (36:46.2)
Yeah.
Desmond Diaz (36:50.358)
Yeah.
Jeremy (36:52.241)
That's my goal. So I gotta approach it differently.
Desmond Diaz (36:53.995)
Absolutely. Yes, I speak with my instructor every day pretty much. And we talk about that, you know, if he's saying, oh, you know, my back's off, I'm a little stiff today. And I'm like, here, try these mobility exercises.
call me later, tell me how you did, then do this. And then, you know, and so I want him to be around and I want myself to be around. So we work and we push each other at this stage so that we can stay healthy and active and not have, I've already had two injuries that were karate related and I've never been injured in my life. And they're both weren't things that I caused.
Jeremy (37:10.071)
Yeah.
Jeremy (37:17.766)
Hmm.
Desmond Diaz (37:30.262)
Well, you know, I tore my ACL 10 years ago and I tore my Achilles last year. And, you know, those are things that I now stay on top of. Like, try to stay on top of everything now.
Jeremy (37:42.369)
Yeah, it's too much dynamic movement, too much dynamic force. No, not, but it's probably from that. But, you know, I would imagine that you've learned so much about your body, coupled with your understanding of the body that you're more resilient now, probably even the non injured sides are even better.
Desmond Diaz (37:48.346)
Oh, they're bouncing.
Desmond Diaz (37:59.146)
Yes.
Desmond Diaz (38:03.182)
Absolutely. And it's always fun because no one ever suspects that my knowledge of the anatomy I would use like inspiring. But if I'm having a day where I wanna have fun, I'm going to start poking things. And I tell this story often, I have one of the black belts in my sensei school. He's very fast, but he's little.
cocky. He'll know what I'm talking about, but like I'll like jab him or stick him in the peck a few times and that doesn't hurt per se. But if you get repeated exposure, this is also the same muscle you need to throw your punches. So now your punches get slower or sloppier.
Jeremy (38:41.638)
Mm-hmm.
Desmond Diaz (38:44.694)
He's not even sure what's going on at that point. And I'm like, oh man, what happened? Why, you used to be, are you tired? Now I get to mess with them and bring them down to a little bit slower than I can beat them up properly.
Jeremy (38:57.425)
So yeah, understanding the body, just to all of you out there, understanding the body isn't just for pressure points. Understanding the body has tremendous value.
Desmond Diaz (39:04.341)
Uh-huh.
Absolutely. And you know, I wish that my whole clientele was just martial artists, because those are the easiest people for me to understand. I know, no matter the discipline, I know what you're going through at whichever stage that you're hurt, and when, what caused it, and how to prevent it. And those are people I would love to help. They're also, you know, the most stubborn.
Jeremy (39:15.805)
Mmm.
Jeremy (39:31.117)
I love, maybe love is the wrong word, I appreciate having body work done. And I've got a collection that I've put together here in Vermont of wonderful people that are good at various things. You know, this person's a wonderful, wonderful diagnostics and this person's good for this and that. And yes, they've come to appreciate me because I have an understanding of my body and we'll be, so how did that happen? And I'm there and I'm doing kata or I'm doing something or, you know, I was doing this kick and.
Desmond Diaz (39:56.746)
Yeah.
Jeremy (39:59.641)
You know, sometimes it gets, you know, for both of us, we get kind of nerdy with it. And I dig it, you know, and it's not only am I getting worked on, but I'm learning at the same time. And I just think that's the best.
Desmond Diaz (40:04.098)
I don't know.
Desmond Diaz (40:11.538)
Absolutely. And I've come to appreciate that like physical therapists and stuff in general are not familiar with the art or the sport of martial arts. So the requirements athletically they're not familiar with. So I had a great time with my physical therapist when I was explaining to him, yes I need this to be strong but these are the movements I'm going to be doing. So I need you to help me make sure that these movements are going to make sure that nothing falls apart.
Jeremy (40:31.313)
Mm-hmm.
Desmond Diaz (40:37.902)
and you know I would go and I perform katas or I do techniques to turns and twist dances and things that they go okay now they can understand it a little bit better so hopefully now when they get another martial artist in there they go okay I remember this should be a little bit easier.
Jeremy (40:46.852)
Yeah.
Jeremy (40:52.241)
Mm-hmm. I wonder if there's, because I'm going to guess I'm preempting something you've already thought of. There's got to be like a certificate program or something, because a way of teaching PTs, OTs, LMTs, how to work with martial artists.
Desmond Diaz (41:14.223)
That would be wonderful. I would love to, yeah, absolutely. That would be a great thing if I could teach that. And even have somebody like Ross or whoever, because they like to see the fancy credentials of PT and all that stuff. So, you know.
Jeremy (41:16.289)
And you could do it. You could be the guy.
Jeremy (41:31.269)
They all, all those industries need CEUs, right?
Desmond Diaz (41:34.802)
Absolutely, and I think that would be wonderful just because it's so different from any other sport. You know, it has everything and nothing to do with it at the same time.
Jeremy (41:46.621)
are. All right, so what are the things you said? Here you are. You've been training awhile. You you've accomplished some things. You have some skill. I can vouch for that.
Desmond Diaz (41:58.541)
Yes.
Jeremy (42:03.289)
But if I heard you correctly, you don't have your own school. And that's a bit unconventional.
Desmond Diaz (42:10.782)
Yes. So it's been offered many times over my career. I think because of the nature of what I do for massage that makes it really difficult for me to have a school because I was working at a time with many professional sports teams. There was quite a lot of travel and that means I wouldn't.
Jeremy (42:12.049)
Talk to me about that.
Desmond Diaz (42:35.226)
have any I wouldn't be able to teach because I'd be gone and I think the investment of a school was very daunting to me. And I've taught at schools and I do private lessons and I still do private lessons.
Jeremy (42:37.597)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy (42:45.873)
Yeah, can be.
Desmond Diaz (42:55.126)
I, in some spaces, I like the private lessons because to have that intimate one-to-one, you know, some people have issues when they're performing in groups. So they like to just have the one-on-one instruction. There are some people that I teach that I feel like would benefit from the group.
And I'm not going to lie, being in like Florida now makes it easier for me to just say, go see my instructor who has a place and go see him. Because I think I'm pretty good at what I do and how I break things down. But he has a component that I do not in the sense that his heart is so accessible. He's such a loving environment and that's different from the one on one.
Jeremy (43:19.837)
Hmm.
Desmond Diaz (43:39.006)
you know, and I feel like it's more beneficial to for me to send people to him or if they prefer the 101, I'll train them all the way through and eventually bring them there. But I haven't really settled as to where is my home completely and whenever I find that I probably will open school.
Jeremy (44:00.273)
Do you think, have you thought about how you might know where your home is?
Desmond Diaz (44:06.326)
Um, I would have no desire to leave it. No. Yeah.
Jeremy (44:10.965)
is a feeling rather than articulable. No, we're not talking checkboxes. We're talking about gut.
Desmond Diaz (44:17.882)
Yeah, and I think over the years I've watched the market for martial arts schools kind of a little volatile depending on where you are, you know, where it comes to ebbs and flows and you get people who are distracted by other sports and what you're trying to teach, how the public receives it and whatnot. It was much easier for me from a financial standpoint to focus on massage and
Jeremy (44:27.846)
can be.
Jeremy (44:44.893)
Mm-hmm, makes sense.
Desmond Diaz (44:46.798)
and build that career to be like ultra successful. Because one of the things I think is a challenge for me is that if that's my sole job, then like that's all my money is in there and I have a hard time with that. Because when bad times are bad, they're bad. And I like having the ability to be successful at Massage and me teach from a point of love. Like just because I want to.
Jeremy (45:14.013)
Forget that.
Desmond Diaz (45:16.366)
And so that's kind of where I'm at now. Where if I can get enough, and I'm doing pretty well with the massage stuff. So I can get to a point where now I don't have to jack up prices for training and all that other stuff that some people do because they want the money or because it's expensive where they are. I wanna keep it reasonable for people to train. To just let them have the love of it, just like I did. Yeah.
Jeremy (45:43.53)
sense.
Jeremy (45:46.973)
So if we put massage aside, we put, you know, who knows where you're gonna settle aside, who knows about opening a school aside. We talk about you as a martial artist, not a martial arts instructor, but you in your own training, which I know is important to you. In a way that I will acknowledge, I think it is more important to you than most. That's just what I've experienced in our conversations.
Desmond Diaz (45:56.151)
Yeah.
Desmond Diaz (45:59.298)
Yes.
Desmond Diaz (46:10.967)
Yes.
Jeremy (46:15.377)
What are you doing to make sure you are developing? In the way you want to develop.
Because it's got to be more than I go to class. That doesn't sound like your approach.
Desmond Diaz (46:23.198)
Um, yes. Oh, no. What I enjoy most about my instructors, he comes and presents situations to me to challenge my way of thinking or to challenge my approaches because every, I don't even know how many years but let's say there's a cycle where my instructor says okay my focus wants to be
we need to get these guys self-defense ready. Or we have a bunch of people that want to compete and they do this right here. And every cycle he presents me these interesting situations and asks if I want to be a part of it, what my feedback is. And I give him that and we have a little back and forth about it. And that's also a part of like why I go to other schools. I want to see how people are doing things. And if there's something to learn like...
A bunch of years ago, I happened to be in California working with the women's national team, took a break for a couple days and went dojo hopping. Two dojos told me no to come in and train, which is the first time I've ever been told no. And I was like, you know, okay, I can't do anything about that. On my GPS, I saw Machida logo.
And I was like, what are the odds that he would even be there? He's a popular guy. But I asked him if it was OK if I could come by. And he said, yeah, absolutely. I asked him if it was OK to train. His brother, Shinzo, was there. He said, come on in and let me train with them for a week. And I was very impressed by how they were organized and structured and how they did their classes, the Shotokan style, how he adapted it for all combatives.
and different levels and I learned a lot in that space just, you know, in all of how they did it, trying, you know, I put the fandom aside because, you know, the dad was there too and...
Desmond Diaz (48:14.298)
I just, you know, I loved every second of being like a student again and not like, yeah, I have that sixth Dan and that's great, but I like being the student and it's so much fun to interact in those spaces. So I try to look at disciplines that I've always wanted to, you know, pay a visit to and observe or learn from, or, you know, I try to build connections with people so that I go, hey, can we train together? Because I love different perspectives.
this karate is better than this art or that art or whatever. To me, you have to make it work on the individual level. So it doesn't matter how good the art, well, how good people view the art. It's always the individual. So if I see somebody that's like a kickboxing champ, I'm gonna wanna test myself against that kickboxing champ because I wanna see what makes them unique and can I overcome it or can I adapt something from it?
And so I do that quite often, whether it's with kata or weapons or, uh, fighting point fighting kickboxing, whatever, it doesn't matter the style. I'm always open for that perspective to, to learn.
Jeremy (49:27.097)
If people wanna get in touch with you, I mean, Florida's a big state, where are you?
Desmond Diaz (49:35.078)
Currently, I'm bouncing between South Florida and Orlando. And that's because my mom lives in South Florida and so does my instructor. And I have many massage clients in Orlando.
Jeremy (49:47.045)
Okay, so if folks are in the Orlando or South Florida area and they wanna go touch with you and they're like, I've been suffering with X, Y, Z and none of the folks around me can put me back together again, how do they get ahold of you? So you might be able to play.
Desmond Diaz (49:59.318)
Yeah.
Desmond Diaz (50:05.122)
Um, so they can visit my website, which is www.massagepromed.com. Um, I'm also on social media and Instagram and, uh, TikTok under Massage Pro Med and, um, I have my work number on there, which is 3525772252. They can use any of those methods to book a session with me. I'm pretty mobile as it stands. So I come to people's homes and fix them up.
and only some people will I fight if it's at a dojo.
Jeremy (50:41.377)
You have to find a way to invent a new term instead of dojo storm like massage storm. There's got to be something in there you can work with. That'd be fun. Right on. This has been great, man. You know, the type of conversation I'd expected. I know you've got so many more stories. We didn't even really get into the stories. So we're going to have to have you back for a part two where we're just, you know, we treat you through some of those. But
Desmond Diaz (50:45.786)
Yes.
Desmond Diaz (51:01.45)
Yeah.
Desmond Diaz (51:07.171)
Oh, yes, like this. Yeah.
Jeremy (51:09.185)
Yeah, let's let me throw it to you. Close us up. I'll chat just briefly after what do you want to lead the audience with today? What do you want them to take away from our conversation?
Desmond Diaz (51:17.506)
All right.
Desmond Diaz (51:24.342)
Um, you know, beginnings can occur from anything. You know, if you, when you're young and you're watching these action movies, cartoons and things, don't think that you can't do it. And you can definitely start even from there. Just that inspiration can be the single spark that flames a whole new way of approaching life. Um,
Never be afraid to challenge yourself and to try new things and just seek out improvement in your daily life, in your work life, in your home life, because at the end of the day, martial arts is designed to help you be a better person. And that's what you want to cultivate. So push yourself every day, even if it's just 1%. And I think you'll get to your goals faster than you think.
Jeremy (52:19.325)
Couldn't have said it better myself. 1% compounded over a year is actually a lot of progress. So to the audience out there, please go follow Des. Check out what he's doing. If you're in his area and you're not taking him up on massage, you're missing out. I will tell you that for sure. Yeah, he's going to find you. He's going to massage storm you, whatever that means at this point. We don't know yet, but he'll come up with something.
Desmond Diaz (52:25.799)
Absolutely.
Desmond Diaz (52:37.255)
I'll find you.
Jeremy (52:46.297)
If you want the full show notes, whistlekickmoresportsradio.com. And don't forget whistlekick.com for all the things that we do. Thank you for tuning in. And we'll bring you another episode soon. Thanks for being here, Des.
Desmond Diaz (52:58.742)
Thank you.