Episode 970- Sensei Andy Morris
In today's episode Jeremy chats with Sensei Andy Morris from New York, about his martial journey.Sensei Andy Morris - Episode 970
SUMMARY
In this conversation, Sensei Andy Morris discusses the evolution of martial arts training, focusing on his personal journey in karate since he began training at 18. He explores the changes in training environments, the impact of technology on martial arts, and the importance of balancing life responsibilities with martial arts practice. Sensei Morris shares insights on the community aspect of training and the perseverance required to continue in the martial arts journey. He discusses his experiences with promotions, teaching, and the evolution of his training, highlighting pivotal moments that shaped his understanding of karate and its broader context. The conversation reflects on the growth and development within martial arts, the importance of mentorship, and the value of cross-training and community engagement. He emphasizes the importance of building connections, mastering fundamentals, and the continuous pursuit of knowledge. He reflects on his experiences in Okinawan karate, the evolution of his practice, and the significance of health and wellness in sustaining a lifelong commitment to martial arts. Sensei Morris encourages practitioners to remain passionate and persistent in their training, highlighting that the journey of learning never truly ends.
TAKEAWAYS
• Karate has evolved significantly since the early 1980s.
• The internet has changed access to martial arts information.
• Community and relationships formed in martial arts are lasting.
• Perseverance is key to staying in martial arts long-term.
• Life responsibilities can impact martial arts training schedules.
• Training environments have changed over the decades.
• Self-defense and fitness are common motivations for starting martial arts.
• The culture of Okinawa plays a significant role in karate training.
• Martial arts training is a lifelong journey that evolves with the individual.
• Education is crucial for career advancement in martial arts.
• Training can be adapted even when away from the dojo.
• Promotions in martial arts can be challenging but require perseverance.
• Teaching is a natural progression for advanced students.
• Finding a stable training environment is essential for growth.
• Involvement in organizations like AAU can broaden martial arts exposure.
• Pivotal training moments can redefine one's understanding of karate.
• Growth in martial arts often comes from uncomfortable experiences.
• Community and camaraderie are vital in martial arts training.
• Continuous evolution in training is necessary for mastery.
• The ethos of martial arts extends beyond the dojo.
• Fundamentals are essential for advanced martial arts practice.
• Continuous learning is crucial for evolving as a martial artist.
• Training every day is key to mastery and understanding.
• Engagement with the community enriches the martial arts experience.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction and Background
09:57 The Evolution of Martial Arts Training
19:58 Personal Journey in Martial Arts
29:51 Training Environment and Community
39:44 Balancing Life and Martial Arts
34:39 Training Challenges and Strategies
36:36 Navigating Promotions and Expectations
40:43 Career Launch and Teaching Beginnings
44:59 Finding a Home for Karate
48:28 Involvement with AAU Karate
51:34 Pivotal Moments in Karate Training
56:11 The Unsettling Nature of Growth
01:01:45 Building Community in Karate
01:09:59 Building Connections Through Karate
01:12:24 The Importance of Fundamentals in Martial Arts
01:17:57 Evolving Through Continuous Learning
01:25:42 The Lifelong Journey of a Martial Artist
01:31:34 Passion and Persistence in Martial Arts
Show Notes
To connect with Sensei Morris: andrewdmorris63@gmail.com
This episode is sponsored by Kataaro. Please check out their site at Kataaro Custom Martial Arts Products - Kataaro. And use the code WK10 to save 10% off your first order. And be sure to ask them about a wholesale account for school owners!
✅Subscribe to whistlekick Martial Arts Radio on the following platforms:
🎧Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3mVnZmf
🎧Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3yHVdHQ
🎧Google: https://bit.ly/3kLSpo8
✅You can find whistlekick on all social media platforms using the handle @whistlekick or visit our website at https://www.whistlekick.com or https://www.whistlekickmartialartsradio.com
Show Transcript
Jeremy (08:02.18)
What's happening everyone? Welcome back. It's another episode of Whistlekick martial arts radio. And today I'm joined by Andy Morris. Andy, welcome to the show. Thanks for being here. And to all of you out there, here we are. We're creeping up on episode 1000. We've been doing this for just about 10 years. Why? Because we are here to connect, educate and entertain the traditional martial artists of the world.
And if you want to see all the ways that we're doing that at Whistlekick, it's whistlekick.com for the events, the products, the services that we provide. But if you want more on this show, every episode we've ever done, transcripts, show notes, links, photos, all that good stuff, whistlekickmarshallartsradio.com. And a special shout out today's episode sponsored by Kotaro, K-A-T-A-A-R-O.com. If you're new to Kotaro, you should definitely check them out. Use the code WK10 to save yourself 10 % on
great belt. They do free rank stripes for life. I think they're the only ones that do that. It's kind of an awesome program. They do other really cool stuff. I've got a hoody in my closet that I love. It's really cozy. My belt, my Kataro belt rides around in a Kataro belt bag. So make sure you check them out. They are part of the reason that we get to keep doing the show and they've actually got something for you, Andy. So Andrew's going to connect you with them.
I don't even know exactly what it is. It's not the same every time is my understanding, but they like what we do. So they treat our guests well, which is nice. But thanks. Thanks for being here. Let's, let's, let's see where this takes us. I appreciate you being on the show. Yeah. You're here. You know, we were talking a little bit before you met Andrew at a training event and Andrew told me he's like this, you know, we got to have this guy on the show. really liked him.
Andy Morris (09:41.452)
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Jeremy.
Jeremy (09:57.58)
And I trust Andrew, you know, he's got a pretty good sense of who's going to make a great guess. not to set the bar too high for you or anything, but I'm glad you're here.
Andy Morris (10:08.798)
It's pleasure to be here. Thanks for the invitation. And it was wonderful to run into Andrew at Dave Aaron's summer camp that we did in Rhode Island this past summer. And I'm happy to be here.
Jeremy (10:16.705)
Yeah, Dave's been on the show as well.
Jeremy (10:23.812)
Cool. So of course there is, this is a martial arts podcast and we talk about training and of course how training impacts life and we thread all over the place. But maybe we should get an understanding, least a little bit of you and your training and I'll let you answer that however you want. can give us some chronological stuff or some why stuff, but how about this as a question? What is your relationship to martial arts training? There we go.
Andy Morris (10:54.35)
Sure. I'm 61 years old now. And I started training as a young adult. I walked into dojo when I was 18 years old. And as my life has evolved, my karate training has evolved as well. Karate has changed from 1981, 1982 period. I started in May.
1982 and it's changed a lot in terms of both how dojos operate, what dojos focus on. It's changed in terms of the amount of information that's available. When you think about 1982, if you wanted to train in karate, want to train in judo, aikido,
You would usually look in a phone book. were those things back then. Or maybe you knew somebody that trained. But today, we just have a plethora of information. The internet makes so much available. I think that that's a dual-edged sword. There's a lot of information that's available. How do you tease out the good information from the not so good information?
And then even in print media, there really weren't too many books in that era about karate, Judo, Aikido. There were some, but not all that much. Most of the information that we gleaned really came from two sources. One, where we had Japanese instructors in karate.
that had come to America and started to teach here. And I think that started probably in 60s, 70s, and then kind of made its way from larger cities to other areas. But also, and I think this is pivotal, certainly in my training and experience, US servicemen and women who
Andy Morris (13:18.914)
had had the experiences serving our nation and had served tours of duty, sometimes many tours of duty on Okinawa, trained and lived in the culture of Okinawa and brought that training back to America. And I think for many of us,
As we've run across those individuals, that's become a really pivotal turning point in our martial art development on a long-term basis. They had experiences as young people, middle-aged people, training with Okinawan masters who had trained literally from the time that they were teens all the way until
the time that they pass away in the 80s, 90s in terms of age and did so in a very, very robust manner. And how do you do that? Your karate changes and evolves as you go through life, but also it's how you train, how you take care of yourself.
Jeremy (14:37.304)
Hopefully.
Andy Morris (14:47.715)
Who you train with. What are those practices that we do each and every day as we train that ensure that one, we're healthy. It's really important to be healthy if you're going to train for a really long time. And the culture of Okinawa within which karate operates supports that in many ways.
And I think when you see that and you see individuals, be they Okinawan masters or their senior students, many of whom are now Americans who are seniors themselves, at high levels, that's inspirational. And I think for many of us that cross paths with them and certainly myself, that was...
pivotal to my continued development to somebody who's 61 years old, still trains every day, all the body parts still work, mind is still clear. And that's what I do. But also it's inspirational in terms of I can do that for the balance of my life and do it in a very robust manner. That is what Krate has meant to me. My life
has also progressed over those years. You know, I went from an 18 year old freshmen in college to, somebody who, moves away, goes to graduate school, starts a career, starts a dojo in that career. can talk a little bit about that. moves back to the Albany area, teaches at his original dojo for a period of time.
Jeremy (16:40.429)
Hmm.
Andy Morris (16:43.726)
and keeps training.
You get married, you have children, your career hopefully continues to grow and expand. Mine certainly has during those years. And how do you balance life responsibilities, family responsibilities, career responsibilities, and your karate responsibilities? And how do you achieve that balance over time? Because that balance has different demands on you.
at different points in time. If you have children, and if your children are your priority, which I would submit, you shouldn't really have a higher priority than your children and your spouse.
Andy Morris (17:35.082)
that's going to have demands of time as your family grows. Kids need involved parents. They need supportive parents. Your career at different points in time, if it continues to grow, has different levels of responsibility. And so does your karate. As you become a senior instructor, you're expected to be able to have a level of competence in what you do.
to be able to teach others and to continue to evolve yourself. So there's this constant like modulation of life, karate, career, and you have to be able to make adjustments as life goes on because you go through peaks and valleys I think of each of those things in terms of time demands on you.
and you need to continue to evolve or you won't be a happy person. It's pretty simple. You could beat yourself up about your family life. You could beat yourself up about your career. could beat yourself up about your craft day. It's like, okay, how do you balance all of those things in a right framework to keep evolving, realizing that as time goes by, like I've been training, I'm in my 43rd year of training. Many aspects of that life have
Jeremy (18:37.23)
Yeah, I'm with you.
Andy Morris (19:00.142)
modulate over time. I'm retired now. I have more time. Rewind that to 15, 20 years ago. You know, I was training whenever I could, I would squeeze the training in. But for the last decade as the kids moved on to the college and careers and moved, and you know, I could set aside very large blocks of time to train.
And, know, that's what I do. And, so you have to be able to accept that. I think that helps. You know, how do you accept where your phase of life is, still continue to progress, but realize you have to be able to balance those things. Or you're probably going to be a pretty unhappy person or, and, or, you're going to be rather unsuccessful in different aspects of life too. so I think, you know, it's a, it's a mature approach that you have to take.
Jeremy (19:51.608)
Hmm.
Andy Morris (19:58.302)
And you have to look at life as a long game and hopefully it is. And where do you want to be at different points in your life in order to be quote successful and to have the achievement that you want to achieve. So for me, you know, I started training in 1982.
Jeremy (20:02.798)
Yep.
Jeremy (20:21.356)
Yeah, I want to talk about that early stage you mentioned. mean, because you even knew you didn't just mention the year and your age. You mentioned the month, which tells me that's a really pivotal event. And it makes sense. You've been training for four decades. You're in your fifth decade of training. Of course, that's a pivotal moment. But can you take us back to that time? 18 year old Andy and not just the logistics of the when and the where, but the why.
Andy Morris (20:25.411)
Right.
Andy Morris (20:30.67)
Absolutely.
Jeremy (20:49.314)
that was something you even started to do because, you know, I started training in the early eighties, a little bit after you, but you've got a couple of years on me.
I don't have quite the same relationship with that time period, nor do I have the same memory. But I do know martial arts wasn't super common in the early 80s. It was kind of, it was about to go through probably its second growth phase. So talk to us about why.
Andy Morris (21:20.12)
Sure. I finished high school in 1981 in New York state, know, compulsory phys ed where, you're, you're doing your phys ed requirements every day. was always very sports oriented. And I was like, okay, no, I finished high school. There's no more structure around that. So what am going to do for like, you know, going forward, join the gym?
Nollis equipment was a big deal in those days. I joined Nollis Gym, did that. It kind of got bored of that after a while, but still fulfilled my year contract. And there was a karate school two miles from my house. And I literally just like drove down the main road and there it was. I think there was a judo school, close or operated in a
in a shared building, literally next to a middle school I went to, a cemetery, in fact. You didn't see too much judo around. It was just a little bit. So I literally drove down the road, didn't know anybody that was doing karate.
Jeremy (22:35.732)
Then what? Why? What were you? Were you a fan of of kung fu movies? You know, where was this idea planted?
Andy Morris (22:44.203)
Yeah. You know, I think you start to see things in some of the earlier movies. know, have Kung Fu movies, you Billy Jack movies. You you start to see this. But I'm also a smaller adult. I probably would be an average sized person in Japan or Okinawa. I'm like a middle sized frame body at this point in my life on a shorter
Frame some five foot three So there's a physical fitness component, but there's also a self-defense component So that though I think those are the two things thinking back on it like drove me to go in and say, you know This could make sense. Let's see what it's about and You know walked in to two-story walk up and a brick building just between a suburb where I lived and Albany and went upstairs and
talked to the assistant instructor at the time. So I like to take a couple classes. I think it was like two free classes to start. The interesting thing is when you went into a dojo in that era to watch classes, unlike today, very few adolescents. There were no children.
I remember like two teenagers, I remember their names because there weren't many, a small handful of women and mostly men up until the age, everybody was between like 18 and say 35 and maybe a couple of parents that were maybe in their 40s, virtually all men.
But the interesting thing is when I walked in, there were people I knew. I didn't know that they took karate, but you know, it's a relatively small community in Albany, New York. And, you know, immediately I knew a few people that had started three months before me. I knew people that started maybe a year before me, all from high school. And, yeah, I took my two free classes. said, this could, this could be interesting. And, signed up for like three months.
Andy Morris (25:09.678)
And it was like three months or a year. kind of Spartan in those, those days, you know, brick building, there's no air conditioning in the dojo. It's flat, flat roof top two rooms. think we had a men's room, women's room, universal weight machine on one side and, intro classes there. And then, the larger side was the dojo and, in the summer.
Maybe the windows got open. Maybe they didn't. And it was called Albany Sado Krate at the time as part of the Adirondack branch of the World Sado Krate Organization. And the head of the organization was Tadashi Nakamura, Shihan at the time, and out of New York City, who was one of the top, the top.
Jeremy (26:00.964)
Mm-hmm.
Andy Morris (26:07.114)
instructor of Kai Kishinkai and Masayama up until 1976 when he left Saito Karate and created his own organization. So, you know, the branch and the dojo was in that lineage and, you know, was Spartan training and, you know, mostly guys.
Jeremy (26:30.692)
It was rugged training. I-I-
Andy Morris (26:33.294)
You know, as a smaller adult on the younger side of the age group, you had to learn quick.
Jeremy (26:47.072)
I remember, you know, there are some bits that are similar. You know, I grew up in Maine, small town.
windows in the 12 years I trained in that space. think we had two or three summers that those windows opened. It was a, an old high school gym. And one of my instructors came out of Kyoko Shin lineage. So those summer classes, I mean, I remember it was, it was rough. would leave in a puddle. It was, it was, it was such standard practice that.
Andy Morris (27:10.487)
Really?
Jeremy (27:24.868)
I didn't come from a family that swimming was a big deal, but we would keep a couple towels and a bathing suit in the car and after class most summer nights, go in the bathroom, change and jump in the lake on the way home because there was no way my mother was gonna let me stand in the shower long enough to cool off.
Andy Morris (27:46.586)
No, I mean, I, you know, should bring that up. remember times where, you know, it was a lot of, master of motion. would call it. Lots of basic punches, lots of basic kicks, lots of stances. you would do kata, without really understanding, what you were doing. a lot of physical conditioning, sit ups.
duck walks, pushups and the like and kumite. And in the summer, it was pretty common that you'd look into the dojo and it's foggy in the dojo. The heat's literally coming off of people. Great way to cut weight because your gi pants would be tied tight before class and then you go to change and they literally just slide right off your body.
We were young, so...
Jeremy (28:45.208)
Did you guys? Did you practice break falls because you needed them slipping on the hardwood in other people's sweat?
Andy Morris (28:53.006)
Yeah, you you learn everything you need to do to, yeah, you'd have that, you know, it is an interesting training experience. It definitely taught you perseverance if you were gonna stay. And, you know, we saw a lot of growth in the dojo in that era.
But it was, you know, it was solid physical training. know, I mentioned a minute ago, like, if you stayed, and I have, you my instructor was Bill Reed Sensei, who I was with for many years, early years of my training. And his instructor at the time when they were part of Sado Krate was Frank Rosetti.
who headed up the Adirondack branch, sunset. you know, promotionals, like we're a big deal. they're dressed in suits, three-piece suits sometimes. We'd all walk in and, know, there's just either sitting behind a table or coming around testing you during our promotionals. you know, I won't forget first promotional, we had a big group.
probably like 30 people in the first promotion, it would have been September of 82, because they were kind of on a calendar quarter. And I'll never forget, Rosetti Sensei looks at all of us, and there's like 30 people there, and he looks down to Rob, and he's always a man of few words, and he said, I just want let all of you know that you'll be lucky.
if one of you makes it to showdown. So, you know, I'm sitting here, I look to my left, look to my right, so it was definitely gonna be me. But I was wrong. I did, and then one of the other people I trained with, he was out for a little while for some reason, I think he must've missed a promotional, but he made it in the group, I think, after me, or two after me.
Andy Morris (31:17.518)
You know, so it was just a Spartan way of training. but that's what we did. That's what we knew. There wasn't much information out there and the branch, and, and the dojo that I was part of and, and our, our, our assistant instructor, Russ Jaram, says I has, had a school in Clifton Park, New York. It's still there. And, there was a lot of growth.
in the area in in Sado Krata. You know, you would have literally a growth of two hundreds and hundreds of people training here. Definitely dominated the area, I think, in terms of number of students training. So that coupled with it's pretty insular. You you really didn't go to like open tournaments or open events or share information people outside the system. So, you know, you're not seeing
Jeremy (32:11.406)
Hmm.
Andy Morris (32:15.566)
what others may be doing. And at the same time, you know, if you're going to practice karate in the area, this is where you're going to go. So I, you know, made a good number of friends there. I'm still friends with many of them all these years later. And so, you know, that's how it started. And I had gotten all the way to advanced brown belt.
And that was at the time that I was graduating from college. So went to college locally. And I got a graduate fellowship to go to graduate school in Washington, DC, which I took. I was going to study public administration there. So was going for a master of public administration, top four program in the country. And I got a fellowship to go. So I'm going. But I'm also Brown, advanced Brown belt in Brown Q.
Jeremy (32:58.2)
What were you studying?
Jeremy (33:10.563)
Yeah.
Andy Morris (33:14.878)
and in my Krata training.
Jeremy (33:17.07)
Was that a dilemma for you? Had you considered not taking it? No.
Andy Morris (33:20.032)
No, no, it was not a dilemma at all. You know, I'm a firm believer and I've always been a firm believer that education is important to your career. And, you know, if you get a fellowship at a prestigious school and what you want to study that will affect the rest of your life, you go.
So I was going, and I did. So it's like, okay, how do you now continue to train, develop your karate, and also, you know, you're 400 miles away. So how are gonna navigate this?
Andy Morris (34:10.542)
Our training, you know, I went through earlier with the fundamentals or your mastery motion. You you could do hundreds and thousands of basics. You can go over your material. You could do your self-defense. You could do your Yaku-suka kumites. And you could do that whether you're in the dojo or whether you're 400 miles away, which you can't really...
simulate is the Kumite that we went through. But in order to develop during those years before I moved away, I work with my instructor a lot in terms of, how do I craft my abilities to do Kumite? We used to do a lot of heavy bag work in those days. There'd be off days of karate.
You know, I would be there, I would do like 15 three minute rounds on the bag with kicks and punches. I'm training like a boxer would. So when I went away, yeah, absolutely. So, know, so.
Jeremy (35:16.484)
Yeah. But that was, that was fairly common coming, coming out of that lineage. Right. For those of you out there who've heard of the hundred man kumite, that's a, that's a Kyokushin thing.
Andy Morris (35:28.936)
yeah, so, you know, I go away. The interval, it's not like you're going away for two years all the time. You know, you're going away for four semesters. You're home on Christmas, home on the summer, sometimes on break. So, you know, keeping myself in good physical condition. You know, when I come back, you step into the dojo and you work.
I would say more on Kumite because that's the thing that you need to work on more.
I think the challenge was, okay, how do I sink back in with the group of people I was training with? Because they're back at the dojo training and I'm 400 miles away. When I came back after my first year, the impression I had leaving was, you know, keep training hard and, you know, probably that June, there's going to be a showdown promotional. You would be eligible for that.
I came back, my name wasn't on the list to go to the promotional. and I understand it. I was.
Jeremy (36:46.916)
How did that feel though? Did that hurt?
Andy Morris (36:51.778)
Well, I think it could have, because I came in like I didn't miss a beat. The feedback I got from my instructor was, the group that's going is a pretty good sized group. Just keep training. Your skills are there that you should be with that group, but you aren't with the group.
just keep training and we'll make sure that, you know, it happens in the future. And I'm like, well, okay. You know, they come back, they have their black belts now. I have a brown cue, but you know, life goes on. So you just keep on training. Head down, just keep at it. You you trust the process, you trust the system. Go back to school. And you know, my instructor,
gave me a call that fall and said, you made arrangements for you to go down to New York City to test with Shenock Worm. And what had happened is the previous promotions for maybe the last year were done in the Albany area because the groups were getting bigger. But before that,
People used to go down to New York City and Shin Nakamura would test them in the city. So for me, it's like, wow, I'm gonna get to go to the city like the guys used to and go down to Shins Dojo for my promotional. So that fall, I was pretty fortunate, things work out well. One of my good training partners who was in the group before me,
Jeremy (38:27.171)
Mmm.
Andy Morris (38:45.816)
Doesn't he through, I think it was the army, he was in the army reserves. He gets stationed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. So he's like a half hour away from me. So every weekend we would get together and train. So he basically, you know, we train on the weekend. He's getting ready for my promotional. A couple of weeks before my promotional, that was December 7th, 1986.
my instructor, Bill Reed and my training partner and me, we, we leave Albany at 3 30 AM. we arrive in the city cause it's 7 AM promotional starts myself and Nancy Lanou from Chicago. she came in, I was tested for showdown. She was tested for need on, probably, 30 or so of,
Gennoch Moore's students show up. And there you go. So for me, you those are all, you you look back on it's everything, you know, fell into place. I, you know, a great promotional, hard, physically hard, as you may well imagine. Come back, fly back to DC, and I finish up my semester and then, you know, kind of back at it. That spring.
Spring of 87, kind of a pivotal period. My instructor broke away from Sado Crote, as did his instructor, Frank Rosetti. it's interesting, were the Adirondack branch. They had the biggest schools in the area. At the time...
let's see, Fifth Don and Fourth Don respectively, and they both left Shenokah Moore's organization. And then they both created separate standalone organizations for themselves. My default is I stay with my instructor, which I did. But I didn't come back to Albany because I got a presidential management fellowship.
Andy Morris (41:10.478)
and join the US Department of the Treasury. So, you know, that's a two-year commitment. I joined US Treasury, a phenomenal opportunity for me. There are only 200, in that period, 200 selected every year from the nation's graduate schools. So I joined US Treasury. I'm gonna show it on now.
Jeremy (41:14.425)
Wow.
Andy Morris (41:38.55)
and but a different organization. But you know, the the Krate as I knew it, you know, didn't change all that much. And you go forward so that so you know, there's my career launch. And there's my you know, black belt learning launch as a showdown. And that was an interesting period of time for me. So training hard.
I got the career going, started to get a yearning to teach. I had already, you know, teaching as an assistant instructor back in Albany, which was an expectation of all of us. You know, as we moved up in rank. And I think it was probably the spring of 1989. I started teaching karate with the Arlington County Recreation Department.
I think a kids class and adult class. And before I knew it, I had 70 students in my classes. And I think that created some challenges for me, but also for Arlington County. The challenge for me was, you know, it's growing. But the flip side of that was the county had to organize space for us.
Jeremy (43:05.901)
Hmm.
Andy Morris (43:06.156)
for a group that's kind like, are going to put you? So we were just bounced all over Arlington County. I mean, we weren't like, I think one of my last places was in a gymnasium that worked out pretty well. But sometimes we were like jammed into like small like art rooms and not enough space. And I'm getting there early on cleaning because cleaning people hadn't come through and it's growing a lot. And
So I think after about a year, year and a half of that, I found my own commercial space in Arlington and rented that for a period of time in a great corridor of Arlington. If you've been there, it's right near the Boston Metro stop. You would never recognize it, Jeremy. In that period of time, it was a bunch of low rise buildings and a couple of two story buildings, Arlington County.
seized all the property through eminent domain and turned it over to developers into this, and now you go there and it's like, you know, it's all developed. There's hotels, there's business complexes everywhere. It's like, okay, now what are we gonna do? Because the building that I just rented is now, you know, going through eminent domain.
So I a shared space arrangement, which actually worked out great. There was a local Taekwondo instructor, Mo Shiki, and I said, well, it worked. Out with Mo, shared space arrangement. So I would be there a couple nights a week. He was there because he rented the space. So I subbed off to him. And I think there are a couple other instructors and they're teaching different martial arts down in the Clarendon section of Arlington, right across from the subway. So, you know, people could take the subway there.
Jeremy (44:59.3)
I've always wanted to be part of something like that. That's just, and you gotta, you gotta get the right people. But how, how was that as an experience? Was it positive? Were people cross-training?
Andy Morris (45:01.772)
Yeah, yeah, good, you know, do.
Andy Morris (45:09.068)
Yeah, it was great. No, it wasn't much cross training. know, was, you know, some people were doing Taekwondo. Mo had a printing business on one side of Wilson Boulevard and on Clarendon Boulevard. The buildings went all the way through. So he had a dojo on the one side on Clarendon Boulevard and had a pass through where I think he had his printing business on the other side.
I think we were the only ones that were there the nights we were there. And conversely is Tae Kwon Do School was there a couple other days of the week. So, you know, it worked out really well. And, and then, you know, we were there for a period of time. And then my wife and I had got married. We were both in the earlier phases of our careers and the cost of living in the Washington DC area is very high.
Jeremy (46:05.44)
I can only imagine. Yeah.
Andy Morris (46:05.666)
It was high then and it's through the roof now. And I roots in the Albany area and we made a decision to look to see if we get positions in Albany. And we did. So I joined the state tax department. My wife joined the near state division of the budget. And that's how our Albany based careers were launched.
And that was in March of 92. It was hard to leave my dojo. It was hard to leave my students. But, you know, the seniors in the dojo, they stepped up and they kept training and they had each other. And eventually, you know, they worked themselves up to be sandans in that system. And...
Jeremy (47:00.184)
How long did you have that program?
Andy Morris (47:02.774)
About three years, three, maybe three and a half years. So they were at the point where there were enough of them that could train together. And then my in-laws lived in Arlington. So I'm going back and forth for holidays. And then they're coming up here to train, staying with us. And then, so that's 92.
Jeremy (47:04.622)
Okay.
Jeremy (47:16.548)
You can still guide them.
Andy Morris (47:29.986)
That kind of gets me through that first phase of training from... So now I come back to Albany, back training and teaching at the dojo that I had started with all those years earlier. But I'm 10 years older than I was in those days. because I was going back and forth, a lot of the...
A lot of people I trained with, they knew me and I knew them. A lot of the younger people didn't, they would hear about him, about me, they'd hear about my wife Phyllis who would also train with me. But I'd usually come back for black belt events, special training. I would say a little bit of a new entity for the students that were there. But that transition was easy because I had a place to train, I had a place to...
teach.
Andy Morris (48:33.62)
Then probably around 94, the dojo started to become involved with the AAU Krata program.
and that's important because it kind of opens up this lens of karate. So in the earlier phases, quite insular, know, the exposure to outside martial arts.
Jeremy (49:04.964)
which is common for that 80s era of martial arts.
Andy Morris (49:08.714)
Absolutely. the internet that we see today, while it was principally developed for universities and researchers and the government, even until I would say the latter part of the 90s wasn't a widespread use. But what the AU provided to us and Paul Fracchia-Shion, a very senior Shi-Tou-Rou
practitioner in the US and still is, he headed up the AAU in this area, in the Adirondack region. So we started to go to tournaments, started to have cross training and some other systems. know, Shantefrakia would, I would say, teach it, make available to us a kata that if we're gonna compete with.
would be more readily accepted in AAU circles. And Shion John Druin, who was a senior practitioner in both Shorin Rue Shorin Khan and Shido Khan, he came and he was from at the time Auburn, New York. He came in and started teaching Kobudo. It was the first time we'd seen Okinawan Kobudo, Sai Aku Bo.
And he came and taught us. That's our curriculum is starting to grow. And, you know, through, you know, tournament setting, some of us started to compete nationally, referee nationally, coach nationally. And then it's like, wow, you know, there's a lot of really solid karate, both Japanese systems and Okinawan systems in America. And, and
You know, when you see it among those that are, you know, a little bit younger than you or in your age group or senior to you and the referees are senior practitioners in the U S of many of the systems. it opens up your eyes. And, that was interesting, but also, and for me, this was a really.
Jeremy (51:24.419)
Hmm.
Andy Morris (51:34.093)
pivotal moment and I look back on it and key to my development. My former organization and and Shanafrakia co-sponsored a summer train or summer. It was fall. It was like September of 95 up in Lake George, New York. Beautiful setting, you know, it's in the Adirondack Mountains. Yeah.
Jeremy (52:01.87)
Beautiful spot.
Andy Morris (52:04.118)
Camp Chingachuk is right on the beach. It's a YMCA camp still in existence and You know we we hear on a Saturday afternoon of a three-day training There's gonna be this senior practitioner of Shorin-ru Shobayashi-ru Bill Hayes is gonna come in and do a seminar. Let go This is this is great so
you know, exposure to other people is always a good thing. And, and I looked back on it and, you know, we'd go into a beautiful large building and, you know, four or five years removed from being a major in the U S Marine Corps is Bill Hay Sensei and, introduces himself and says to us, I know I'm a long time student of
Ezo Shimabukuro, Okinawa Shōryū Shobayashi-ryū teacher. And my mind starts to race. And I'm thinking back, and I'm like, wow, I've heard that name before. I've read it. And 1987, Patrick McCarthy Sensei releases a book, a classic of Okinawan karate. And in there is a picture of Shimabukuro Sensei.
It talks a little bit about him. In 93, Silvan Sensei, who's passed away, writes a book about Okinawan styles and masters. And there's a picture of Iezhoshimabukuro, page and a half devoted to him.
Jeremy (53:51.864)
We just released an episode. I don't know if you caught that. We just released an episode about him. Great. But please, please. And also just want to acknowledge that Patrick McCarthy's also been on the show. Great, great man. But please continue.
Andy Morris (53:57.014)
I did.
Andy Morris (54:04.204)
Yeah, you're tying it all together. So, you know, so here we are, fall of 96 and, and Bill Hay sensei is standing there and talking to us just briefly about his background. I'm like, wow, you know, he's trained with Geizo Shimabukuro. Not only is he trained with him, but his training goes back to the seventies, sixties.
Jeremy (54:07.704)
right.
Andy Morris (54:33.804)
60s, 70s, 80s into the early 90s as a senior student of Ezo Shimabukuro during his extended tours, three tours on Okinawa, a couple in Japan where he'd fly down and live with O-Sensei when he's going back and forth. And we're there and he starts to go through the meaning of motion.
We spent many years doing master of motion. You're going to step forward, you're going to punch, here's where your punch is. And then you're watching, see Sensei starts to talk about movement, angulation, timing.
Andy Morris (55:24.494)
Where do you strike on the human body?
Tute, Toide, joint locks, attacking reactions, Kona vision, Kona power, starts to lay this all out for us. And then he demonstrates it. And at the time I was a Yandan, was a 4'3 black belt.
And it caused me to really question, what do you really know? You know, by then I'd been training for 13 years. We'd spent a lot of time mastering the motion.
Andy Morris (56:11.06)
Meaning of the motion.
Jeremy (56:13.816)
Was that unsettling? Because I've been through that. I've talked to others who have been through that, just there was something in your face that suggests.
Andy Morris (56:22.926)
unsettling in terms of what's missing. Here I see a very senior practitioner of Okinawa karate.
Andy Morris (56:40.994)
being able to demonstrate at levels I hadn't seen before. Krate.
Yes, a punch is a punch and a kick is a kick. A block is quote a block, even though they're not, they're strikes. You're able to see it and see it demonstrated in a way that it's like, how do you get there? Are we big fish in small ponds?
How big is the lake? How big is the ocean? How much more is there to learn if you're going to make it a lifetime endeavor? And how big is that gap that you need to close? And those are all my words.
from my perspective, it caused me to step back and say, that's a level I haven't seen before.
Andy Morris (57:50.454)
What do have to do to get to that point?
Andy Morris (57:57.952)
And I think that that was the reaction of many people that saw what was done.
Jeremy (58:06.222)
powerful.
Andy Morris (58:08.664)
But
It's uncomfortable, right? If you're going to grow in life, sometimes things are going to be uncomfortable. And you have to realize that and say, okay, you know, where do you go from there? So kept training. I'm a big researcher. Patrick McCarthy Sensei releases the Bubishi.
much deeper look at the linkages between karate, Okinawa karate, Chinese martial arts. Heise Sensei releases, he's covered in Fighting Arts International in Britain, Terry O'Neill published that for many, years. Sensei has two lengthy articles in there about his training on Okinawa with O Sensei.
Onante comes out, John Sells Sensei puts out huge book and that's in I think 95 Secrets of Karate Documents, extensive documentation about Okinawan styles, lineage charts Shobayashi Shorinobu is in there, Heise Sensei's name is in there as well as senior practitioners along with some other
first generation, some, not all, students of Osante.
Andy Morris (59:48.558)
then Heisensei releases, you My Journey with the Grandmaster, which recounts part of his personal experiences studying with Osensei. That comes out in 97. 97 and 98, Heisensei comes back to the capital region, comes back to the dojo, they train with, does a couple more sessions with us.
At the time he was living, he had retired from the Marines as a major living in Stafford, Virginia. And I mentioned earlier, my in-laws live in Arlington. So they're 40 minutes away from Stafford, Virginia. And Hey Sensei, I think some of us are starting to find where he's at in terms of his seminars.
Where is he teaching? Where is he training groups of people? And one of the things he mentioned to us was that every August, sometimes it's September, usually in August, is Little Okinawa where his friend Doug Perry, Sensei, put on a three day, four day training in Flat Rock, North Carolina.
And he said, he's like, well, I'll be there and but there'll be other other people there to be a great experience for people to come. So I think it was probably, you know, 97, 98. I'm like, I think I'm going to go. Great place for me to learn more weapons. Sean John Drewan had taught us a bunch of kata.
Out of the lineage or close lineage of that We learned some of the shorin shorin calm material. He'd also done shiro come so I'm like I think I'm gonna go So I fly down, you know, out of a Japanese system. It's unknown at little Okinawa Okinawan practitioners I get all the material I send it down show up to registration and
Andy Morris (01:02:13.902)
Here's this gentleman who I had seen before, a referee at a national tournament that I competed at in Greenville, North Carolina. I was in the same group as his son, Jason Sensei, all these years before. And I go there, I sign up and who is it? But it's Hay Sensei's good friend, Doug Perry Sensei, who headed up North.
Jeremy (01:02:39.584)
That's a name that I knew prior to our conversation. I don't know where from, but.
Andy Morris (01:02:45.496)
Well, he's a gem. Perry Sensei at the time had headed up North American, Shoru Shoran Khan, organized Little Okinawa, produced phenomenal students, young students, middle-aged students, older students. I don't know how he worked his magic, but I go back now.
And I watched, he used call them the Rugrats, everybody gets a nickname, you know, the Rugrats. He had teen students that I still look at how...
they were when they trained. It's amazing. He's that good of an instructor. So I show up, there's Doug Perry, you know, he's from North Carolina, and he puts his arm around me, Andy, pleasure to meet you. If there's anything here at this camp that you want to learn, it's here, just ask for it. And if you have any problems, any place, just come and see me. I was like, wow. I just met, he taught me, he treated me just like, you know, one of his own students.
there is a friend to this day. So you go to Little Okinawa and what was it? Because I think 2017, 2018 was the last year that Sensei had it. You would go there, you would go to any of the instructor, you know, the schedule that the instructors had.
but it's who's there. So you'd have Bill Hay Sensei. Shobayashi Shonoru.
Andy Morris (01:04:33.17)
Doug Perry, Shouru Shouran Khan, close friends. Jim Logue, senior practitioner of Sayo Oyata Sensei, good friends. He's there.
Okinawa and Kempo, Larry Isaac, Vic Coffin are there. All good friends. Wei Chiru, John Curia-sensei. Good friends.
And it was like that for years. Gojiru, Kimo-Wall Sensei. You go to Gojiru with Kimo-Wall Sensei. They were all good friends, all served our nation, all senior practitioners in America, but also very senior within their systems on Okinawa, and a sharing of information. You go to any of the sessions that they had.
and all the information is there for you. You had questions? You ask. During class, outside of class, grab them on the side.
And then had informal classes. So a number of us would go there and we would be, we would pester Heise Sensei to teach us more. So he was already on the schedule. We would pester him and then we would find, he would find a place for us to train. It might be a basketball court. It might, might be the amphitheater at Little Okinawa. It might be Little Grass Knoll and Sensei's going over material with us.
Andy Morris (01:06:16.172)
So you would go to Little Okinawa, special moment Saturday night, they would have a big demonstration. Sometimes it would be the senior practitioners, but sometimes it would be their students would come out and, you know, for two hours, you'd just see phenomenal karate. The most down to earth people, friendly, respectful of each other and each other's systems.
and they all knew each other back to the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s. But it's a sharing and it's a community. And I think that's a great lesson. you know, I think we made great bonds when we did that. So for me, you you show up at Little Okinawa and you're welcomed.
learn anything there, you could ask all kinds of questions. So in one respect, it was unsettling back in 95 to see karate done at that level, but the flip side of that is...
Andy Morris (01:07:33.152)
It provides so much more of an opportunity to go and learn and develop and evolve within your choice of system. So, you know, when I went there, do kabuto today. No, I don't. You know, within Shobayashi-Ru.
Jeremy (01:07:51.15)
What's your favorite weapon? Do you have a favorite?
Jeremy (01:07:56.27)
No, okay. You're the first person that's answered that way.
Andy Morris (01:08:02.702)
We train in bo and sai, short weapon and long weapon. From Perry Sensei, learned Kama, Eku, Tekko. They all have a place. Some are shorter, some are longer. I enjoy Kubuto because it provides a great balance to empty hand. You're also working both hands together, which Miyotode, know, we...
We train both hands should be doing things. And Kovuda requires us to have both hands doing things at the same time, much like our karate should. So I enjoy all of them. I still do eku, kama, and tako. They learned at Little Okinawa to this day. always have, always will, along with my bow and sai and shobayashi-ru.
So I think, you know, by going there and the other thing was I also, the first time there and at other events ran across Shobayashi practitioners while training with Heise Sensei. And, you know, we get together twice formally every year, but we also go to his other trainings that he has around the country and we all get together. It's like, you know.
brotherhood, sisterhood, where we all learn together. We're all colleagues in learning. And I think that's important to recognize that regardless of the grades that we've achieved, we continue to evolve in our training and our students of the art. So that's an important point, I think.
And through Okinawan Krata and those organizations I mentioned, I have friends in other countries, have friends across America. And, you know, earlier we talked a little bit about how I ran into Andrew Adams down in Rhode Island at Dave Aaron's Dojo where I was part of the instructors there this past summer in August.
Andy Morris (01:10:26.166)
And David and myself, we go back to Little Okinawa. We were pretty young men in those days. And I think we've all evolved and developed. I'm proud to call him a friend. I'm also proud to see what he's done with his karate and with his school within it and his approach to how he conducts himself.
which is important as senior practitioners as well. What is that ethos? How do we interact with each other, both in the dojo, but also outside the dojo? And what's our role in the larger community? So I would say that that's probably, that middle phase of my development was really broadening out.
who I interacted with, starting to develop where I want to go. There's also tension though. think part of that tension is you hit on earlier, what was that discomfort in the fall of 1995? You're a fort down in karate, but for the first time you really sit there and you're like, wow, how much is there to learn?
Jeremy (01:11:53.636)
and
Andy Morris (01:11:54.038)
you know, what's that level of discomfort? And I would say that part of that is defining where you want your art to go and where are you spending your time? So for me, I was kept up with my material within the system that I was part of. I continued to get promoted. Eventually, you know, passed my grade to go down, Fifth Street Black Belt in 2001.
But my karate from 1995 until 2001, looking back on it, was changing a lot. Changing in terms of looking at application. What are we actually doing? What's the meaning of the motions? Sure.
Jeremy (01:12:33.902)
Hmm.
Jeremy (01:12:44.11)
But here's a question, because I'm also, we're watching time. I'm sure we could go another two hours. Unfortunately, logistically, I don't have, right? So what I'm looking at is another 15, 20 minutes, but I want to make sure, because we've got this arc of story here, and I want to make sure that we sort of complete the arc. But there's something you've come back to a couple times that I want to, I have my own views on it, but I want to get yours. You're talking about
Andy Morris (01:12:52.647)
yeah. Sure.
Jeremy (01:13:14.5)
I mean to oversimplify it, you're talking about quality and dedication to basics, foundation, fundamentals, whatever you want to call, know, if we use Japanese terms, kihon.
You're talking about this more applicable material or advanced material, however you want to look at it.
Some folks out there who were not raised in this way, because I was raised in a very similar way, could look at that and they might be looking at this transition as...
Jeremy (01:13:55.99)
abrupt or unfortunate.
And my question, as I've set this question up now is, would your ability to have explored this more advanced material been as productive or efficient without your historical attention to these basic movements?
Andy Morris (01:14:24.302)
Sure, and I'll be brief. You have to have fundamentals, no matter where you are. When we look at our karate, we look at like a Venn diagram. So you have striking piece, we call it teme te.
Jeremy (01:14:40.27)
You're only the second person to bring up Venn diagrams on the show. I'm the other one. Please continue. I'm so excited.
Andy Morris (01:14:43.726)
All right, all right. So you got like three pieces, right? Atame to Domei, striking things, for lack of a better term. You have Kyusho, where you hit though, makes a big difference.
Tute, joint locks. And I think most of us, as we start and learn, we're kind of in that striking phase. I'm trying to master those motions, kicking, blocking, punching. But then there's these other phases that make an enormous difference. So we look at karate as life protection art. It's not a sport, not gonna go to a tournament, do it, can't, rules, all those other things.
you look at it from a life protection or perspective, important to develop those things. foundational abilities, yes, you have to have the ability to do those. How long does that take? It depends on the individual.
would I eventually be where I now without having done that? I think there are fundamentals that certainly...
necessary. know, you can't do karate no matter what the system is if you just like can't punch a target. And it just doesn't work. You can't, you don't know there's any high, middle. You can't do some fundamental blocks. We teach them in the advanced levels, they're all strikes. You can't do those things. I think the biggest difference is the appreciation of where you are.
Andy Morris (01:16:35.264)
I have a deep appreciation for where I am now based on having those fundamentals and knowing another side of another art. I learned initially a Japanese based system.
and then move to an Okinawan based system. They're different. Okinawa is part of Japan, you know, I won't go into the history, that'll take us a long time. Yes, it's a prefecture of Japan. Okinawan karate is different than Japanese karate. I appreciate where I am. I appreciate the depth of what it is.
Andy Morris (01:17:19.212)
And that's what I strive to do. And, you know, the early years building a foundation, I would say is important to my own development. Glad to have had it.
Glad to also moved on from that into something that I can train at a hopefully progressively high level as I age too. I'm 61 as I said earlier. I have every plan of training until I'm done.
And I believe I can continue to grow and develop across that period. And that's important. It's important to have that belief to do it. And I also have seen with my own eyes, those seniors that I mentioned earlier, Lil Okinawa and Heise Sensei, they're standard bearers. They'd seen their instructors do that and they've lived it.
And we get to watch them do that. We get to be on the floor with them as they've done that and continue to do that. And they're a generation ahead of us. And we can do that too. So it's a confident, I think it's a confidence booster. I can continue to do that. There's nothing that should be able to stop me as long as I also focus on health and wellness as part of my training. And that's one of the things we emphasize in Shabbat Shalom.
Yes, there's makiwara training, atefa training, hojondo.
Andy Morris (01:19:04.846)
kata, application, all focused on life protection art. But I can't do those things and continue to train if I'm not a healthy individual. If I don't watch what I eat, watch my stress of life, watch what I drink, don't smoke, you know, all those things to be a healthy person. If you do those things, then you can continue to progress in your arts.
Jeremy (01:19:22.596)
Mm-hmm.
Andy Morris (01:19:31.606)
And people should be able to watch you progress in your arts, and you should be able to go on the floor, and you should be able to demonstrate things to people. sometimes you look at people that get to be senior rank in certain systems, and they may stand in the back, they may count a lot, they may move people's hands around a little bit, but they're not actively engaged in their training and their art anymore.
And I would submit that they've done themselves a disservice by that because we all have a responsibility as seniors to pass on our art and also pursue that art into our senior advanced ages to live up to our rank.
Jeremy (01:20:25.092)
Well said.
Well said.
Andy Morris (01:20:28.6)
So if we have time, I go to the next phase.
Jeremy (01:20:32.8)
Yeah, yeah, well, let's.
I'm almost offending myself, but I have to say it this way. Know that I don't mean any offense. Let's talk about this next phase in like a eight minute span. Let's condense. Thank you for your understanding.
Andy Morris (01:20:52.536)
Got it. Sure, well condensed. I totally understand. So, you know, for me then, that third phase was really devoting myself to understanding Shobayashi Shonryu and training with Heise Sensei, other first generation students of Shimabukuro Sensei, and the seniors within Shobayashi-ryu.
to continue to evolve in our life protection art and that's what we train in. And it's important to recognize what that is. So, you know, we have seniors from all over the U.S., some of which have, you know, commercial dojos, some of which don't. So, it's a group that pursue the art
as we've learned it from our instructor, as he learned it from his instructor, and we continue to pursue really advanced principles of Okinawan karate. And most of us have devoted decades of study to the art to try to really round out what we do. And people ask, geez, you to these seminars, do you still learn things? I would say a couple of things.
One, absolutely, because you have to be open to learning. You have to really watch intently and ask questions. And there's information that I still go back to read of early newsletters that Heise Sensei published. The material that's covered means different things to me now.
than it did then. Because I'm not the same person now than I was.
Jeremy (01:22:55.908)
Can you say that again? Because that's just such an important concept for people. Just spend a moment there,
Andy Morris (01:23:00.782)
Sure.
Andy Morris (01:23:04.15)
I can look at the same material that I read in the past that meant something to me then. But because I've evolved in terms of my understanding and abilities, then when I read it today, means something different to me. And sometimes, because this is also an expectation, I pick up the phone and I call Sensei.
since I get this question about something that was covered in a newsletter back in 1997. Can we go over that again?
And you know what Sensei does? He goes over it with me again. Or, you know, we go to seminars and we sit down and we go over the notes and it's like, okay, can we touch on this? Like, this is what I'm thinking. And that's what we do. And that's how we continue to grow. And that's, you know, him being the leader of our association. But it's also us continuing, even though we're trained.
seemingly a quote long time to ask those questions that need to be asked that have meaning for us in our karate and how we continue to evolve and documenting it as well. I I have binders of information that I go through on cotton material and I learn a lot by doing that. you know, some of that's introspection, you know.
What really is that?
Andy Morris (01:24:43.662)
So that's like, you know, that last phase is continuing to unfold. It's, you know, how do I continue to grow and evolve as a karate guy, as a student of karate? Even after, you know, I'm in my 43rd year of training, I still consider myself a student of karate. There's still a lot left to learn. And I accept the fact that I'll never...
learn it all. My only question is how many lifetimes does it take to learn it all? I'll learn as much as I can, as much as I can comprehend, as much as I can do and perform at levels and continue to do that. So yeah, it truly is a journey. And I look back on each of the phases.
And I'm not a nostalgic person at all. I rarely look back. So when we're scheduling this interview, I'm like, wow, I think I've got to look back at some these earlier phases and what did that mean, how to get to where I am. But it's really just being a student, being persistent.
having a passion for what you do and sticking with it. And people are like, you train every day? I'm like, yep, I train every day. And an interesting thing in my work life, as I moved up the organization, I got exposed to more and more people. They would like to know, what makes you tick? What do you do that's unique? And sometimes people would...
like training karate. And they said, well, you know, how much do you train? I'm like, I train every day. And they're like, really? Like you train every day? I'm like, yeah, every day before I come to work. You know, that's how I would always get it in because my day was kind of endless. I'm like, well, you know, how long have you been training? And I tell them, and it was probably longer than many of them were alive.
Andy Morris (01:27:06.262)
and they would just sit there and shake their heads. Like, aren't you tired of it? I'm like, nope. There's so much left to learn.
Jeremy (01:27:14.978)
The further you go, the more there is. It's, it's, it is, it's for people who like to complete things and check boxes, right? It's, it's frustrating because it doesn't end.
Andy Morris (01:27:16.959)
Absolutely.
Andy Morris (01:27:27.939)
You know, and I'm a box checker. I'm a planner. And this is that one aspect, you know, it's one of the one aspect of my life that is, you know, what do I have to study more deeply to continue to grow and evolve as I want to grow and evolve? There's a, I have in my dojo, have a scroll brush by Tetsuhiro Kama.
Jeremy (01:27:32.743)
Yep, same.
Andy Morris (01:27:56.568)
who Tantan PhD overseas Okinawa Kratomyslm and it's Kudo Muzhen. It translates to, there's no limit to the study of the way.
And there really isn't.
Jeremy (01:28:19.744)
If people want to get a hold of you, maybe we've got some folks who are nearby or they're going to travel nearby, know, website, email, social, anything like that you can share.
Andy Morris (01:28:29.964)
Yeah, I'm on Facebook. Andy Morris, you just load me up. There's a picture of me. There's a picture of me, Hay Sensei, Mart Knock Sensei, Tony D'Angelo Sensei, Tom Revelle Sensei. I'm in Chicago from about five years ago. So I'm there. I think Andrew has my info. It's also andrewdmorris63 at gmail.com. People drop me a note. I'm in the Albany area.
and I'm not too hard to find.
Jeremy (01:29:03.396)
Okay, this has been a ton of fun. you know, for me, I'm not sure how much the audience likes this part of it, but for me, one of my favorite things now that we've done so many of these episodes is watching how they connect, right? To me, it's not just an episode. I'm talking with a person, but hearing how you connect with all of these other people, mentioning, you know,
McCarthy's book and these other folks that I've met or interviewed or heard of is just really fun because it it in my own Trivial selfish way kind of puts me in the middle of all of these things in the martial arts world over the last However many years and that's fun, right? Make me feel like I'm part of something even if I wasn't there. It's like, I know those two people. Okay, cool so that so that's a good time and
for me and I think for a lot of the audience, that's part of why it's so important that we do transcripts on every episode because you can go and you can search and you can dig in and go, okay, who mentioned this person or who mentioned this thing? And it becomes a lot of first person source material. have no doubt that many years from now, people will look back on what we have done and use it as reference, which is fun to know that we're doing that.
but I wanna thank you for being here. I'm gonna ask you to close us up in a moment, but before I do, just a reminder to the audience, right? Whistlekickmarshwarzradio.com, whistlekick.com, all the things that we do, and please go check out Kataro, K-A-T-A-A-R-O.com. They're generous enough to sponsor this episode. And if you're new, you can use the code WK10. If you're not new, if they're not gonna let you use the code, I still want you to let them know. Put in the notes in your order. Love that you're supporting Whistlekick, something like that.
Remind them that what they're doing matters, but Andy I'll ask you to close. How do you want to leave this for the audience today?
Andy Morris (01:31:04.152)
Well, Jeremy, thank yourself, Andrew, for having me on. I think how I would leave it is for each of your viewers, trying for them to think about where do they want their karate or their other martial art that they may practice to go. Have a passion for what you do and be persistent. And I think if you're persistent, you're passionate,
You will have the success and achievement that you put the effort into and show the passion for what you do. And it's a journey. And you should be able to practice your chosen art really for your whole lifetime if you do it wisely. Take care of yourself, good health, be well. And I think that's it.