On today’s episode Sifu Dan Anderson shares the delicate balance between philosophy martial arts and its practice. Join us as we discuss how to cultivate your inner warrior and how that training and knowledge can prepare you to fulfill your lifelong purpose.
Sifu Dan Anderson is the founder and head instructor of Anderson’s Martial Arts Academy, New York City’s oldest training center for all areas of Martial Sport and Combat through the true lineage of Bruce lee’s Jeet Kune Do (JKD) concepts, Filipino Kali, Muay Thai, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. In his two plus decades as an instructor, Sifu Anderson has created a true community of martial development and education. Over the years, he has had the privilege to teach thousands of students – helping them find their path, and gain lifelong knowledge and ability in the arts.
You can learn more about Sifu Anderson here: https://www.andersonsmartialarts.com/dan-anderson/
Episode Transcript:
00:45
Acta Non Verba is a Latin phrase that means actions and not words. If you want to know what somebody truly believes, don’t listen to their words instead, observe their actions. I’m Marcus Aurelius Anderson and my guest today truly embodies this phrase. Sifu Dan Anderson is the founder and head instructor of Anderson’s martial arts academy, New York city’s oldest training center for all areas of martial arts and combat through the true lineage of Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do concepts, Filipino Kali Muay Thai.
01:13
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Sifu Anderson is a certified Senior Associate Instructor under the legendary Guru Dan Inosanto in the arts of Junfeng Gongfu, Jikundo Concepts, and Filipino Martial Arts. And for those of you that are listening who don’t know, Guru Dan Inosanto is Bruce Lee’s protege who has chosen to carry the legacy and is truly an amazing man on so many different levels. We could just talk about him the entire time, Sifu, and have a great conversation, obviously. But with over 20 years of experience in the realms of martial art instruction alone,
01:43
Sifu Anderson has worked with members of several elite military units, choreographed many movies, developed mixed martial art fitness programs for gyms, and self-defense programs for institutes like West Point, NYU, Bloomberg, and Coffman Studios. His expertise has been sought out by personnel from the upper echelons of law enforcement, including members of the FBI, DEA, Secret Service, and the CIA. Sifu Anderson was voted as NY1’s New Yorker of the Week for his Women’s Self-Defense Program.
02:10
He has appeared as an expert in martial arts on Good Morning America, the History Channel, CNBC Business, CBS, NBC, and Bruce Lee Liv’s documentary, as well as a large variety of productions, movies, books, and media. Wow, that is a tremendous intro. If you wanna learn more about Sifu Anderson, go to ande to learn about his work, hiring him to speak, to consult, for whatever you’d like to learn from him. Ande is the place to go. Sifu, thank you so much for letting me put a long string on that kite. Your expertise needs to be talked about.
02:40
And thank you so much for your time today. Marks, thank you so much for having me. It’s an honor to be here. It’s an honor to be your guest. It’s an honor to have you and to have learned from you. There’s so much that you do on Instagram. You show this camaraderie in your school and you show the similarity and you show this, that common thread in all these martial arts, which I think Guterre and Asanto is really kind of instilled. Could you tell people a little bit of what your philosophy is, not only in martial arts or as a warrior, but sort of as a living, breathing entity?
03:09
and what that looks like for you, how they all kind of overlap. Okay, that’s a hard one. I’m just jumping right in. So, you know, I know it’s like a really weird kind of like parody, but I really am like a fan of the Karate Kid movie. So I’m very much like a Miyagi-Do Karate in philosophy, but I’m very much like Cobra- Cobra-
03:38
when it comes to like real world fighting. So it’s like, I think there has to be that synergy between like the hard and the soft way of thinking. So most times we’re very like calm, very relaxed, very chill, mellow. And then when we’re on the mat, it can get pretty intense and competitive and crazy. But I kind of find it to be the best mix in my opinion. Everyone has a different philosophy, a different way to do things. And…
04:07
But that’s just our way. Our way is very much about you’re your first responder. You’re taking care of your family, have values, have character, have loyalty, honor. But when we’re on the mat, we’re trying very hard to compete and be extremely productive in that hour. Only think about yourself laser focused and really just try to drive and grind the entire hour out. Then afterwards, everyone is happy and they give jujitsu hugs or Muay Thai salutations or something, you know.
04:36
I love that. And I love that you talked about sort of that dichotomy, that blend, because we’ve met people that are, they sound really nice and then you slap hands and bump and then they come at you when you’re rolling and you’re like, well, where’s the nice person here? He’s trying to bully me or the person that seems very humble. And then when you actually start sparring, they try to click up on you. And again, that comes from a place of maybe not understanding why they’re doing it or what the intention is. So having that idea of cultivating that warrior spirit, putting your ego on the side.
05:05
and then letting it all lay out on the mat. And then when you’re done, now you come back to this, we’re all on the same team, we’re all trying to do the same thing. Cause we all are part of that same family very much in that mentality. And that’s where it allows us to make a difference, not only in that moment, but to all the people that are in your dojo, all the things that they’re learning and all the things that they’re passing on to other people through their acts, their words, their deeds, and their intentions. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, like when people come into the dojo, I tell them all the time, martial arts is,
05:34
probably the only thing that is equality at the highest level. We don’t care about anything. We don’t care about your political beliefs, your religious beliefs. I don’t care what you, anything. All I care about is your hard work, your dedication, your loyalty. These values, these character values are what mostly almost all of our lesson plans are geared towards. Sure, we’re teaching technique, but it’s kind of how we’re holding everyone accountable on the mat.
06:01
So sometimes I group people into baskets, right? So the first basket would be like the hobbyist. He comes in, maybe he’s out of shape, maybe he’s fat, he’s got a beard, belly, something. It’s gonna be really hard for this guy for a while. And I understand that. It takes a lot of training and it takes a lot of nurturing. And you can see that person start to find themselves and find that spirit because we’re pushing them, we’re nurturing, we’re supporting them. And then…
06:28
know, six months down the road, that guy’s transformed from the hobbyist into kind of like an athlete. And you see, you start to get a shape and start to look better, start to do things. And that’s when I started getting a little more Cobra Kai-ish, you know, then I’m like, all right, look, I want to push you, you’re going to put getting a push, you’re going to have to do this, you’re going to do that. So then we’re really pushing the tempo with the athlete a lot more. And then we’re trying to take that athlete into the realm of fighter. I found it.
06:55
When fighters come into the gym, usually they’re kind of selfish. They don’t have sometimes maybe that belief system that honor the Bushido code. When I’m taking that person from an athlete to a fighter, I’m pushing that code. And I’m pushing that mentality a lot. Like, look, stay a little bit of a team. We’re one team. Everyone has to support each other, you know, no weak chain in the link. No link is broken right here. We have to stay strong. It usually makes the best fighters. And I’ve been pretty successful with.
07:25
homegrown fighters versus guys walking in the gym that are fighters. And then I’m like, how am I going to wrangle this guy into the team dynamic? It goes back to kind of what we both are like saying about character qualities and how these character qualities shine through at every level or every phase of the process of a martial artist from beginner to intermediate to advanced
07:53
hobbyist, to athlete, to fighter. The character thing is a big thing in my mind. Because if you’re not loyal, you’re not dedicated, you don’t have this work ethic instilled, you’re gonna do well, but you won’t succeed in the whole aspect of life or the whole aspect of like what we’re trying to get across. And we’ve had to let go of some really incredibly talented people in my gym because of this.
08:19
because of their work ethic, maybe because they thought they were too cocky or too arrogant for their own good, or the worst is what I hate, that they take it out on someone that is not skillful. So like they beat up on a beginner, you’re just blackballed forever. It’s a bad thing in the academy. But it goes back to what we’re both kind of saying. It absolutely does. And I love that you talk about this, the synergy between practicality and philosophy.
08:46
You and I have been in martial arts long enough to see where some schools sort of really stay in just one of those arenas where you have maybe a, like I love traditional schools again with these characteristics, the honor, the respect, the humility, but all that stuff doesn’t mean anything if you’re not able to actually defend yourself for somebody else in a fight. I mean, it’s called martial, more warlike for a reason. So if nothing else, you should be able to defend yourself for somebody else if they’re not able to defend themselves. And then there’s other people that live on the other side where it’s very much about.
09:12
get all the philosophy bullshit out of here. I don’t have time for that. I want to just figure out how to kill this guy and show me the blade and give me all these ideas. And again, they don’t understand that. And again, military law enforcement, sometimes that’s what the mentality is because they have to have that. They don’t have a lot of time for their cleat hours or whatever it is. But having said that, if you’re wanting to cultivate a warrior that has a lifelong commitment to this and to have a long-term sort of ideal, you have to see where these come together. And sometimes one is more important. Like you said, when you’re on the mat and you’re trying to defend yourself,
09:42
philosophy doesn’t really help you. There’s no, you don’t have the luxury of being philosophical when you’re about to put me in a triangle and I’m trying to figure out how to get out of it. At the same time, I don’t have the luxury of just saying the technique is everything when you’re happy to apply that empathy towards somebody who’s having a hard time in class or again, they’re not focusing and you can tell that there’s more going on, especially as a CFO at your level because you can feel all that. When you look at people like Josh Waitzkin, when you look at people like Emily Kwok.
10:09
I’m not in that class at all, but people that are coaching these people that are very high performers, that’s what you’re going to see is exactly what you’re talking about as an instructor. You can see when that person’s holding back. Sure. You can see when that person’s afraid, you can see what that person doesn’t want to be pushed, which is when we need to be leaning into them the most. Like you said, once they get to a certain technical prowess. And I believe that that’s what allows them to really bring out the best in these people that they coach. And I believe that’s what’s made your Academy what it is. I mean, you’re the Mecca on the East coast and you’re truly.
10:38
creating huge waves, a tsunami of positivity with what you’re working towards. And I think that that’s what’s so important is, again, you had that idea, the Gicondeau idea of absorbing what is useful, discarding what is useless, and adding what is specifically your own. Can you tell us the biggest misconception that you see with people when it comes to martial arts, because there are quite a few of them, and when somebody walks in, they may have this preconceived notion when they come in. What does that look like most commonly, and then how do you sort of unpack that to help them really truly understand what you’re doing?
11:09
It’s different for everybody, right? I actually think, you know, sometimes when people come into our short schools, they’re very intimidated. I think, you know, when you walk in and you’re seeing all these guys kicking and punching, throwing elbows and knees, and you know, people getting thrown and choked, you’re kind of like, what the hell is going on? I see it too. I can see when the person says like, what is going on in this place? And I kind of lean towards the Gracie way when it comes to students. I truly believe that
11:37
there’s not a bad student, there’s only a bad teacher. So I normally just walk right over and I try to make that person feel comfortable or someone will have somebody make that connection right away and be like, look, what you’re seeing is this. Because you don’t know why somebody walked in the gym. Everyone has their reason, right? Maybe someone got bullied, maybe someone’s watching all the crazy news and they’re like, I don’t feel safe anymore. Or someone could be just thinking like,
12:07
I just want something to do, or I just want to be a part of a team. So everyone’s interest is different when they walk in the door. For my job, what I do is I basically go in there and I try to quickly assess what they want. And I just ask a couple of basic questions. I ever done martial arts before? Oh yeah, you have great. Then I already know that they know what’s going on with martial arts to some degree. I got, yeah, as a karate black belt. And then I did I keto then I box a little bit.
12:35
So I already know that I don’t have to explain too much to this person or the next guy be like, I’ve never done a single thing like this before. This is the first time I’ve ever walked in martial arts gym. So I know there’s a lot more nurturing going on with this guy and I know there’s a lot more explanation. You know, I’m gonna have to catch him up on a lot of things. Again, we group these people into baskets right away, right? So I’m like, all right, this guy’s martial arts.
12:59
So I’m just going to let him go into class and try to figure it out. And we’ll see if he sinks or swims. Not saying it like that direct, but you know, we’re going to see what he does, right? If can he adapt things? Can we teach him? Is he cultural? Is he multiple? And then the other guy, I’ll pair him up with a senior person right away. I bet this guy is brand new. He doesn’t know anything. Can you show him the ropes? So we really have that nice system when you come in to like try to quickly figure out what you are and put you accordingly into the group dynamic.
13:28
The long-term philosophy takes a while. It really does. You’re course correcting the person all along the way. It’s a lot of work. Every class you’re coming in. Yeah. It’s a lot of work. Every class you’re saying, so mostly I open the class with some words of wisdom. Middle part. I try to explain how it’s can fit into your everyday life and the everyday thinking, and then usually I try to wrap it up with something extremely positive.
13:56
at the end and I believe in kind of like that positive reinforcement where you’re saying someone’s name like Marcus you did incredible. Hey guys, this is Marcus’s first class day. He did an incredible job. Please introduce yourself to Marcus at the end of class. He’s a brand new, he’s a new member of our family. Welcome him in our family. Please help him out when you get a chance. If he looks like he’s confused or lost, please just try to share whatever words of wisdom you can with him to try to get him back on track. So people instantly go and say hi to that person.
14:25
It makes it feel very much like a home type of vibe, like an institution or like, you know, you’re walking in somewhere and it serves this very clinical approach, you know, it is very homely vibe. We always make a joke like it’s like cheers, like everyone knows your name, you know, it’s like, Except for seafood, you just have to know seafood, unless you’ve been there for a few years, it may be a minute. It’s incredible because I know everything about the person.
14:54
except for their names. Okay. And it’s just like, it’s horrible. Like, you know, I wish I was like, Guru Dan and Osana. One day I was sitting there, and I come down and he’s eating breakfast in the lobby and I sit down and it’s just him and I and he’s like, flicking his phone and he’s just saying the person’s name like Josh, Emily, Joe, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he’s like, you know, that is and it’s like me. It’s like that’s Dasha. And then like, I like that. And I go, what are you doing?
15:24
there’s no way I see them all the time. I just have to say their names or I’m going to forget. And then I felt like instantly for not knowing some guy’s name in my class. It’s so important. And I love also we’re talking about Guro there. I don’t know if people even understand this. After Bruce Lee passed, there was this huge weight put on him. He was a young man when that happened too, expecting him to
15:53
take this and go a direction, there’s no path ahead of you. And he was so smart. He was so wise understanding that building and cultivating instructors like you was what was going to create the longevity and the legacy of Jeet Kune Do and those concepts. As opposed to just again, Oh, I’m going to pour all my time into this one person or in this one fighter. And then now all of a sudden something happens to them or, or life changes. As we know now, all of a sudden there’s really, this is sort of, it’s hit an endpoint and there’s no way for us to.
16:21
continue to learn about this and have that continue to proliferate throughout the rest of the universe. So it takes a lot of guts to follow that philosophy truly and understand how to cultivate that warrior from all these different arenas, as opposed to just saying this person’s really good at swinging a blade or this person’s got a great takedown. It’s like, well, that’s fine. What else you got? What other parts are in that person? It’s so funny you said that because early in my career, I had one fighter like, and he was the star.
16:51
and I put all my eggs into the basket with him. And of course he did get to the UFC later on down the road, but Gurnasano pulled me aside and he goes, it’s like really early, it’s like maybe like, I’m only have the school for like four years or something. And he goes, you know, to have this one fighter is incredible. You know, you’ve done a lot of work, you’re putting all your time, your attention is one guy. And he goes, but you really should be thinking about everyone.
17:21
and every person that walks in this door. And he goes, you know what’s hard? To make 20 fighters. You know what’s hard? To make 50 instructors. You know what’s hard? To make the average everyday person into an instructor or into a fighter. And he goes, that’s hard. And then from that minute, all of my thinking changed. Guru is very much like everything to me. Like he can say one thing and it can change.
17:50
you know, my entire course, just like that. I can 360 around. And from that minute on, I started to do everything. And when I mean everything, we have 16 instructors or 17 instructors in the Inosano organization. They’re all very high caliber guys. We’ve had, you know, 50, 60 different champions, New York state champions, international champions, world champions.
18:14
We fought on every big show that you can possibly think of, Glory, Lion Fight, you know, obviously UFC. We’ve done all these things because the idea of what you were just bringing up that Guru hit right away with me, do everything, try to build this strong martial art community that has all these branches. You’re branching to the fighters, you’re branching to the military, you’re branching to like, you know, the community. That’s why, you know, we started a women’s self-defense program early on.
18:45
just for women in inner city, younger women that are like, don’t have the ability to go to like martial art class. All this was because of Guru and how he thinks about making martial arts more than some guy fighting in the ring, right? Or my arts better than your art, let’s fight each other in the ring. It’s so limited, right? But when you think of the big picture, he saw that you could do this for like the movies, law enforcement, military.
19:15
civilians, you know, people that want to compete. You know, Guru does ballet, you know that? Yeah, for his flexibility, yeah. It is ballet, yeah, he’s like does like pirouette and then he was telling me he’s like it’s so good for flexibility. He’s just seeing everything and connecting everything. And then think about the history aspect. Nobody teaches a history like this. Oh my god, it’s so beautiful.
19:39
And his history connects every race, every religion, all walks of people together through martial arts. It’s incredible. It’s profound. When you, when you hear him say it, you’re just kind of like, yeah, we’re all one. We’re all connected together. I think he’s just a very, very unique and special person, like one guru for the entire planet. I agree. He’s, he’s a treasure. And, and like you said, when I was younger, when I first started, he would talk about history and I was like, okay.
20:08
You know, can we get back to the let’s move, you know, let’s, let’s hit some stuff, let’s swing some, some blades. He made a comment. I know you’ve heard this where he’s like, the body that you have when you’re 35 is not going to be the body that you have when you’re 45. So the technique that you use when you’re 35 may be different than when you’re 45. And so those of you that are thinking that you’re going to be throwing headkicks in the ice and snow when you’re 70, that may not be practical, but maybe, maybe actually using this C lot sweep would be maybe understanding the blade.
20:35
and what it could do for you if you needed to force multiply to defend yourself or someone else. And that made a lot of sense because I was getting a little bit older and it was like, taking me longer to recover, taking me longer to stretch. You know, I’m sore when I normally wouldn’t be sore. Again, he’s been through all these evolutions, especially into his 80s now. And then again, that idea of the philosophy, the thing that separates a warrior from a thug is the philosophy by which they swing that weapon. Why are they fighting? Where are the ethos behind that? What is the intention?
21:02
And then I love that idea where he’s like, if I teach you a punch, you learn one punch. But if I teach you a concept, I teach you thousands of punches. Again, you can go to an entire five, 10 hour seminar and you get that one nugget. And then that just plays over and over on the plane or on the drive back. And then you wake up in the morning, you’re like, it just blows your mind and it opens up and it makes everything else you look at sort of antiquated. And you’re like, I can’t believe I was, I was looking this small at this. And he really opens it up. And again, that’s from just years of reflection, teaching and
21:32
self-honesty. I mean yeah, Gerv can say something like you said and you can just change everything and you’re just like holy moly. How did that skip my mind? How come I didn’t realize that thought or something or you just kind of feel like a little kid again. You feel like a little kid again. It’s there’s a lot of like nostalgia the way he says things too you know you’re just kind of like wow this is amazing like history in the making when you sometimes you’re standing there it’s
22:02
And he’s a treasure man. He’s a treasure. He’s a, he’s a real gem. I feel so incredibly lucky to have him in that circle. And, you know, when we get, when we get a text message from Gertan, it’s the most incredible feeling. It’s like, Gertan just texts me. Oh my God. You know, like, I wouldn’t care if anyone texts me, but when Gertan texts me, you’re like, Oh my God. You’re showing the whole school. Hey guys, look.
22:30
No, it’s one of those moments where you just feel incredibly lucky to be in the man’s thoughts. And for him to share any knowledge or any information with you is just, I’m so grateful. I feel incredibly grateful when I’m around him. I feel very blessed and lucky to have him in my life. Like he just took his second vaccination shot. And, you know, when he took the first one, then I’m like, you know, we’re communicating. And it’s like, he’s going to take the second one. He’s a little nervous. And then…
23:00
He’s like the mentor, but he’s also like the grandfather that you want to take care of. Absolutely. But he doesn’t need anyone to take care of him. That’s it. He’s taking care of you. You just don’t realize it, which is so funny. It’s an incredible thing to have him around still and doing things. He looks really good right now. He looks incredibly good. He’s lost a lot of weight. Looks really, really sharp. Daniel’s telling me he’s teaching like crazy stuff in the parking lot.
23:28
I almost just flew to LA just to like be with them in a parking lot because it’s been a year now since I’ve seen him. I’m having with Chris Gurung, what’s going on? You know, so for those of you that don’t know Gurung Nassanto travels a tremendous amount because he’s teaching, cause he has instructors all over the world. He’ll be in Rome, he’ll be in Australia, he’ll be in New York, he’ll be in Tulsa, he’ll be in LA. And then even when he’s not doing that, he may be doing a Blinto Walk seminar that weekend, you know, learning.
23:56
That’s what I love about him. He truly has zero ego and he wants to learn from anybody, no matter how old or how young or what the art is, if it’s an art that can actually help him, he would love to learn it and he likes to see the similarities and the commonalities and how this is similar, this is different. How does this make this better? How could I add this to something I already know and now make it more effective and more powerful? So again, you know, traveling to a seminar or having him come out or going to a, even like an instructor seminar.
24:24
That’s where you can really learn and to have good over there watching you and coming by and put the blade here. Or if you turn the arm here, you’re going to get caught. But if you can take this now, all of a sudden it’s like, Oh, and that one touch is enough to really help you work the next six months you work on that. So now the next time you see them, because we all make mistakes, but so many of us don’t adapt to change the mistake, right? You know, everybody’s like, Oh, I either win or I learn. It’s like, well, that’s fine. But Bruce Lee says, knowing is not enough. I must apply. Willing is not enough. You must do.
24:54
And guru is always about the evolution and adapting and flowing as opposed to trying to muscle your way through. And again, that, that comes with experience that comes with knowledge that there is another way. If you’re willing to open your mind and then be present within that moment, which in the arts, sometimes people don’t have that because once the adrenaline dumps, once there’s fear or once there’s a weapon introduced, it changes things. Speaking of that, can you kind of tell us the importance of weapon training? Because right now there’s again, the sort of
25:21
If you watch Cobra Kai, it’s like, we’re going to go outside and everybody’s going to go around the parking lot and they’re going to create this circle. And there’s not going to be anything else, but in so many fights, weapons are involved, multiple opponents are involved. The ambush component is involved being cut off guard, situational awareness. Can you discuss some of what that is and why that’s so important to, because if we don’t have that mentality as we train, we will be woefully behind once it actually happens. And when it happens, it’s so fast. It happens so quickly. Of course, of course. So I mean, at the Academy, how I usually do it is.
25:51
We’re really heavily influenced in the boxing and the Muay Thai. Um, and that’s, that’s our core striking fundamental and we’re really dialed in with the striking. I mean, it’s kind of what we’re known for. The jujitsu program is very much like no gi and gi. We have a great jujitsu program. Our weapons program in my mind is.
26:15
is extremely dialed into. I agree. If you haven’t seen some of his material, seen his clips on Instagram or even like his little three minute snippet on his website, he truly knows of witchy speaking people. So I second that. I don’t want anyone to interpret this the wrong way. There are weapons that are like, it’s great to be able to wield it. Like I’m just gonna pick something out there and I’m probably gonna email or something. Well, let’s just say like a whip. A whip is a perfect example. I mean, like where’s the timing place are you gonna use this whip?
26:44
I’m very good with the whip too, by the way. So I- You did the bottle challenge with it, yeah? I did. It was amazing. That was epic. Well, thank you. And it’s an exotic weapon if you think about it, right? So should you learn how to wield it? Yes. Should you learn how to wield the whip first? Not unless I’m gonna be Indiana Jones in the next movie or something, right? So we always take our weapons approach from like the most practical weapon.
27:13
possible first. So we heavily into single stick and we’re heavily into single knife. Like single stick single knife is taught every day at the academy no matter what. We do double stick but not as much as like single knife or single stick. It produces a different caliber thinking with the weapon student. The weapon student is just they can look at something and be right away. This is going to be highly practical. This is
27:42
We just joke and call it fantasy mouse. You know, like this fake mouse running around your house that you’re hearing noises, and you’re like, where’s it by at? Sometimes fantasy mouse is very much in the Filipino martial arts, right? So it just is. It’s like the whip, for example, like, if there’s three guys on the street, I’m not gonna pull out this bullwhip and whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. It’s just not gonna happen. You have to be really incredibly good with the basic tools. Single knife, single stick.
28:12
Could you use double knife? You could use double knife. Could you use double stick? Yes. Does it make it harder? I think yes. Right? It’s like, why don’t we see military using two AR-15s? Like, why are they going like this with their guns? I have a lot of friends that are like in all spectrums of military. And they’re like, I go, can you shoot two guns at the same time? Because Dan, why the hell would you want to do that? Exactly. I go, well, you know, tabway’s used to do this.
28:41
You know, they look at me like I’m crazy. I think about that when we’re doing something like double knife. I’m very proficient with double knife. I teach double knife. We teach the curriculum. We follow the curriculum. We do deviate though from the curriculum to things that I feel like are highly practical stuff. And then we do go into like things that are like building a specific skill. To me, weapons training is the tip of the spear. It’s…
29:11
the best of the best, it makes everything equal. You could be stronger than me, you can be faster than me, you can be flexible, you can be younger than me, you can have another friend. If I have a stick or a knife in my hand, you’re not gonna be able to win, right? So I think giving people also, you know, going back to like seeing the student and seeing what they’re gonna fit into, if I get a guy and he comes in and he’s, you know.
29:38
When I’m saying these things, I’m not saying them to be insensitive. Maybe he’s frail. He’s a really weaker looking guy. And I know that he can’t. He’s not going to do very well in the Muay Thai class for a while. He’s going to have to really train. Right. And then I look at the I don’t know if he should be doing Jiu Jitsu class. Right away, I walk up to him and go, you know what? You should think about weapons training. Nice. And I should weapons training right away. You know, this woman joined our academy. She was very overweight. And she looked at me and she goes, look, I can’t do martial arts. I just can’t.
30:07
It’s hard on my body, my knees are hurting. I’m going to bed, my back is aching, everything. And she goes, but I need something to just be able to sleep at night. What do you think I should do? I go, you know what you should do? You should go learn how to shoot a handgun. So you should go learn how to shoot a handgun. You should go to range, get an instructor, a real instructor, go through the process, do all the stuff correctly and shoot once a week and learn to be extremely proficient with the handgun. And don’t take it out of your house, just leave it in your house. So you know.
30:36
you’re worried about home invasion. And then, you know, have someone, have a professional come over there, show you how to clear your house and show you, you know, the weak points of the house and, you know, your exit strategy and everything. And she was like, really? And I’m like, yeah, if you’re not gonna train here, you’re gonna train martial arts, this is what you should do. You know, I get the email. Sometimes when you get email, it’s very rewarding, right? And it’s like, I started training, I’m like so into it, I love it so much. I go, shoot, my…
31:05
I got one of my friends in it. And so weapons training to me is. Tip of the spear tip of the spear. I agree. And especially, like you said, for a person who’s more frail or even a person who lacks confidence, male, female, irrespective of that, like you said, it only takes that one touch. You just touch where that artery is and that stops everything that changes everything, or like you said, when you’re, you’re caught with that, the hand or the wrist now, everything changes. And so you’re cultivating the warrior within that person that they didn’t even know existed.
31:34
And that’s what empowers them. Now they walk differently. Now they’re no longer afraid to, they don’t walk like a, like prey or a victim, which protects them from these predators that are looking for the easiest target, so to speak. And that’s so rewarding because now they have self-confidence. They embolden themselves, that emboldens others. And again, preparation is what builds confidence. If I don’t know what to do, like you said, during a home invasion, most people know where to go if there’s a fire or what to do if there’s a flat tire.
32:03
But if you don’t know what’s going on with the home invasion and all of a sudden it’s happening, it’s too late. You don’t want to fall on the water to realize, oh, I need to learn how to swim. It’s like, ah, you should have worked on that beforehand. So that’s a great way to cultivate that warrior mentality. And then that translates into everything else that they do, whether they see weakness in their own business or a weakness in other areas that they could add that warrior mentality to get stronger and more resilient. We compound that by teaching this ethics with the weapon.
32:32
Because I tell everyone, I’m like, listen, if you can’t run and flee a situation and you really think that your family or your life is in danger, your mindset changes right away. Then you can be unethical, right? You can do anything it takes to win. And gory, gruesome, whatever. But I hate when I see the knife thing, you know, Instagram or something, the guy glorifies killing something with the knife. I just, I don’t like it at all. Because I think that there’s also an ethics behind.
33:01
the time and place to use a knife, right? The time and place to take it to a level of life and death. Look, a fight is a fight. We could make all these arguments that the fight could go to death. We can make that argument, right? But usually a fight doesn’t go to death. But now if a guy pulls out a knife, yeah, the fight can go to death very easily. So the gear goes all the way to the very top and it’s like, this is it. This is why you train.
33:31
This is why you train. If you’re not ready and you’re not prepared, there’s no amount of just imaginary making skill up on the fly just to do it. That was part one of my interview with Sifu Dan Anderson, founder and head instructor of Anderson’s Martial Arts Academy in New York City. You can hear part two of the interview on the next episode of Acta Non Verba, where Sifu Anderson shares how the adversity that he went through at a young age has truly shaped the man.
