Episode 796 - Kyoshi Eric Menard
Kyoshi Eric Menard is a Martial Arts practitioner, instructor, and founder of Eric Menard’s Complete Martial Arts Academy.
I always thought when I got a black belt that this light will open up and you will have all the answers. But that’s not how it works. You don’t have all the answers and people think that blackbelt’s the end but it’s not. It’s the beginning of your training. Everything you learned is just the basics or the fundamentals, you build on all that…
Kyoshi Eric Menard - Episode 796
Kyoshi Eric Menard wanted to be a lot of things but becoming a martial artist was one of his dreams. Starting at the early age of 7, Kyoshi Menard has always had a passion for training that he still carries today. He teaches at his school, Eric Menard’s Complete Martial Arts Academy in New Hampshire.
In this episode, Kyoshi Eric Menard discusses his journey to martial arts and how he knew that martial arts was his destiny. Listen to learn more!
Show notes
You may check out more about Kyoshi Eric Menard on their website at https://cma-martialarts.com
Like and subscribe on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CompleteMartialArtsAcademy/
or Youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/CMAMartialArtsNashua
Show Transcript
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hey, what's going on everybody? Welcome. This is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, episode 796 with my guest today, Kyoshi Eric Menard. I'm Jeremy Lesniak. I founded whistlekick and I host this show because I love traditional martial arts and I love traditional martial arts people like you. And if you are like me at all, you are aligned in our mission to connect, educate, and entertain the traditional martial artists of the world because you agree with me that people who train become better versions of themselves. And what better way to help the world than to get people to train. If you wanna see all the things that we're doing to get people to train or keep them training, go to whistlekick.com, look at all the products and projects we have going. And one of the things you'll find over there is of course, our store. It's the main way that we pay the bills here. And if you use the code podcast15, it's gonna save you 15% on a new shirt, or a hoodie, or a hat, or some protective gear, or training program, or all kinds of other stuff that we do. So check that out. And if you want to go a little bit further on these episodes, whistlekickmartialartsradio.com is the place to go. We've got 795 other episodes that we've done. You get access to all of them, show notes, transcripts, all kinds of good stuff at that website. Now, if what we do means something to you, if you wanna support us, and I know a lot of you out there are already doing things to support us, and I appreciate you, well, you could buy something. You could leave a review anywhere that seems logical or you could join our Patreon, patreon.com/whistlekick starts at two bucks a month. Now we've got tiers 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100, and at each tier, you get more and more we deliver overwhelming value. If you have a martial arts school, it's deductible because of the stuff that we're giving you back. It is beneficial to your school. If you are not a school owner, well, you're gonna find a tremendous amount of entertainment value in what we are delivering to you, as well as just more thoughtful, intentional content like you get from this show. If you like this show, you will like what we do on Patreon and the folks that join are nodding along right now. I'm sure they know that because they join and they don't stop. So go check that out patreon.com/whistlekick. If you want all the list of things, a list of things that you can do to help us out in our mission to help us grow, whistlekick.com/family. Gotta go type that in where there's no link to it. We put that tiny little hurdle in front of you because. Well, we give you some great stuff on the other side, and we wanna make sure that you mean to go there, that it's not an accident. whistlekick.com/family, if you're part of the family, you're probably already checking out that page. Now, speaking of family, Kyoshi Menard, today's guest is kind of, we're connected, we're connected in so many ways,. Yet this is the longest conversation I've had with him. In fact, I'd only met him once before. We were at a lunch with some others and it went really well. I just really enjoyed talking with him. And I said, you know, we gotta get him on the show. So now he's on the show. We had a wonderful conversation and we're talking about, I guess the word I would sum it up with is destiny. We talk about his destiny from a very early age. I hope you enjoy the episode and I will see you on the other side. How's it going?
Eric Menard:
Good. How you doing?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'm doing well. I'm well. Thanks for doing this. Let's jump in. I know a very small amount of your background, so we can start there. When did you get started?
Eric Menard:
Technically, 1982. I had, that's when I met my instructor, Bobby LaMattina. Prior to that, I was doing some TaeKwonDo as a kid. So this was like seventh grade, seventh, eighth, ninth grade. A friend of mine got into a fight in school and his father got him into martial arts. His grandfather or uncle at the time, I believe was like a lieutenant in the police of Nashua, or a chief of police. I can't remember what he was. But he had knew this guy, his name was Glen. It was Glen's TaeKwonDo. And I had called and I saved my money from my [04:01.3], called him a couple times and just talking to him over the phone, I just fell right into the martial arts. He was so inviting. And we went there and I started training there for like three or four months. And then, when I got out of that, I did some other things and then when I found my instructor, and that's why I've been ever since.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Was it entirely the fight that happened at school that put you on that path? I mean, I would imagine that you are well aware of martial arts before.
Eric Menard:
No, it was both. Cuz my friend got into it and I wanted to do it. When I was a kid, I like, you know, you dream about what you want to do.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure.
Eric Menard:
So like, I had a couple things. One, I wanted to go into the military, buy a jet plane, which didn't happen. Wanted to be like Spider-Man, climb walls, which I do rock climbing so I accomplished that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
There you go.
Eric Menard:
And as a kid I wanted to be like James Bond.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, who didn't?
Eric Menard:
So, all those things, yeah. Some of those things happened, some didn't. So karate was a big part. I always liked it from early on. I didn't, I was a small kid, so I wasn't really big. But I always liked it. I seen it on tv. I never knew I could do it. My parents didn't have the money to pay for it. So I had, at the time, I had paper roots and money for Christmas and relatives, I said, well, this is what I want for Christmas. And everyone pitched in so I had enough money to start. So it wasn't just the fight, it was something that I wanted to do anyways.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure. Now I find that you know, not everyone started at an age that they're really gonna remember I started, I was certainly younger than you. I don't remember much at all. I certainly don't remember my first class. But I'm gonna guess that you do. Most of the guests on the show, if they're old enough, remember their first class. And I'm wondering what that felt like.
Eric Menard:
Well, so it was like seventh grade, eighth grade, so 13 or 14.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Eric Menard:
So I went to, when I did Glen's TaeKwonDo, you come into the school and it was in the basement of, used to the old YMCA in Nashua, like a hundred years ago. So it's down the basement. You walk in and you walk down into the dojo area and the classes, everyone's in the same class, kids to adults. And at that time there wasn't a lot of kids. There was some young kids, but not a lot. And as a white belt, you're in the back, you line up black belts, you go by rank. So white belts at the end. And I was young, so it's two hour class and the first hours conditioning and whatever we did. The last part, sparring or self-defense. And then as a kid, at the time we didn't have a lot of equipment, so you had to fight everybody and you're fighting adults and things like that. And it was tough because I was a kid and there were adults and there wasn't a lot of control.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure.
Eric Menard:
So that was my first class there and it was crazy. And Mr. Glenn was a jolly guy, big guy. He was a retired police officer. He would sit up front, he would smoke his cigarettes and teach class.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's a first. That I have not heard of.
Eric Menard:
Yeah, it was funny. It was, at the time you didn't think about it, but now, you know, years later teaching, going to all these seminars about how to teach a class and how to run your school, you sit back and you look and it's like, okay. He sat there up front in his chair, barking up commands and it was fun. It was an enjoyable time. I mean, it was painful sometimes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure. To the younger folks who might be watching or listening, and you can't wrap your head around this, remember, this was a time when we had smoking sections on airplanes.
Eric Menard:
Yeah, yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Because that's what we thought needed to happen. So, yeah little bit of a different understanding these days.
Eric Menard:
Yeah. So there was no, like, not smoking in the building and stuff like that. Wherever you went. You've seen it as a kid. And, you know, my parents smoked, so it wasn't something that I didn't know of. It's not nothing I did, but, it was something that we lived with, so.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Eric Menard:
It wasn't, oh, well that's weird.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Everybody's parents smoked back then.
Eric Menard:
Yeah. It wasn't weird.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I remember it was weird when I met, you know when I was at a friend's house and their parents didn't smoke.
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Or even one of their parents didn't smoke.
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So, here you are, you're in this, is it fair to say kind of authoritative culture? You know, you described the way he was sitting in the chair barking out commands.
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, sounds kind of old school.
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Did that work for you at that age?
Eric Menard:
Yeah, because again, I wanted to be in the military, so I don't know if that was my thinking at the time, but I enjoyed it. I mean, it was tough, especially when you're a white belt and you're learning your first form. It was really hard. Now I do a form, I can kind of visualize it. But like in TaeKwonDo, you learn the first form, which is basically the first form in most styles. For me, one pinion, it's the same H pattern or I pattern, depending how you look at it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Was this an ATF school?
Eric Menard:
No, it was Glen's TaeKwonDo. It might have been ATF. I don't think he was affiliate. I can't remember.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay. Okay.
Eric Menard:
But I know we did, the one pinion was, I can't remember the Korean name for it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Chung-Gi?
Eric Menard:
Yeah, Chiung-Gi.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Eric Menard:
So, that's what we did and I remember trying to do it and I couldn't wrap my head around it. I kept looking at my feet and watching where I was going, and it just was a really tough time. I couldn't visualize it. And then it clicked somewhere and I was able to kind of visualize some of the moves and not look at my feet and go through the form. Whether I figured that out then, or when I was with my other instructor, I don't know when that happened, but once that happened, it was easier to go through the form and learn it and just visualize. I started visualizing things. I mean, forms were still difficult to visualize. You have to really, I had to really sit down and visualize things. I'm more of a kinesthetic learner. I have to do, I have to see it, but I have to do it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yep.
Eric Menard:
To really grasp it. So, at that time it was, you know, I was young, was new to what we were doing. I had never done anything. I wasn't really that physical. I mean, I went out and played and stuff like that, but I wasn't sports for, I didn't do any sports or anything. So, it was fun with that and it was kind of that authoritarian thing, which was kind of good for me. I liked it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay. And it sounds like you kept going. Now, I know at one point, you know, a little bit of a spoiler alert, you ended up with a different instructor.
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Is that the next point in the timeline that maybe we talk about?
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay. Alright. So what was it that caused that?
Eric Menard:
What was money? I was young. I was pro, like I said, seventh, eighth grade. I had a paper route for awhile and then that's why I made a lot of money. And then, when I was at Glen's it was $150 for three months. So I saved the money I had. Christmas was coming. I got it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's a lot for back then. Hundred $50 for three months?
Eric Menard:
Back in the 80s?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. It was like $50 a month. So it was 150 for three months and I remember that. And then, so it might have been more, cause I went to Tokyo Joe's, at that time it was Fred Villari's. I think we were paying a month was like 25 bucks or 30 bucks a month.
Eric Menard:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So that's what I was more used to when we talk about that timeline.
Eric Menard:
Yeah. And maybe it might have been more or less at Glen's, but it was just a package deal. It was three months special.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yep.
Eric Menard:
And maybe I got it because I mentioned my friend cause he went there. I can't remember how that happened, but, so it was the three months I collected the money. I got it from, you know, my godmother and godfather. They were always helping me out with stuff. So, I had the money paid, I did the three months and then I didn't see any way of getting any more money. So we, I stopped and then I was introduced to my instructor, Mr. LaMattina, and then, he just made it easy to get in there. I was helping out and when I met him, I knew…
Jeremy Lesniak:
How did you meet him?
Eric Menard:
I was introduced to him by a friend of mine. My friend Jim, he was training with him. He was kind of like his first student, but I was the first black belt that he produced from, he came from East Boston, so he had a school in Boston. He was teaching. When he moved up here, it was brand new, so he didn't have anyone.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay. So one thing I want to add on, cause folks who are in the audience right now, this is a figure who is very well known in the New England area. This is someone who's been around for a long time.
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And what you're talking about is the very, very early stages of his instructional career. He's turned out quite a few black belts and quite a few people have gone on to run schools.
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So I think that's important for folks to know. Please continue.
Eric Menard:
Yes. At the time, he was running a school in East Boston and before he came up, so he had, that was where he started. He was already in the Fred Villari system, well known in Boston area and stuff like that. Coming up to New Hampshire was, he was like 22, so it was a new thing for him.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure.
Eric Menard:
Running a school by himself. I'm assuming that was new to him as well. I mean, he had the background and he had the skill to do it. And he was good at talking to people and he was good at especially teaching. I mean, we had, you know, over the years, he trained a lot of people. Some of 'em, like you said, went on to other things. Some opened schools, some didn't. Couple like Mike Pombeiro went off to John Paul Mitchell team.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yep.
Eric Menard:
In California and stuff like that. So, there was a lot of good fighters at the time. We fought a lot and that was a tough thing for me cause I was smaller than everyone. And the kids that, the guys we trained, the kids that we trained with, they were all well.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Neither you nor I have found a way to overcome that as we've aged.
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We're still smaller.
Eric Menard:
Yeah. Yeah. It was just, it was hard because these kids were, and not, some of 'em were bigger than me, but not a lot. But they were, they grew up in a different kind of neighborhoods. They were used to getting in fights a lot. Some of 'em were, we called 'em street fighters. They were. And some of them were, I don’t know. I remember one of my friends, it's Keith Nathan. Tall, lanky.He was quick as a cat. And he was, when he got into it, I was a higher belt, he was like a purple belt or something, but I remember him, he was just so quick and agile. It was like, how do you beat that? How do you defend him so quick? And it was funny cause he was just so quick at everything and it was just a pleasure to work with him and just learn how to deal with something like that. And it's just a totally different experience and stuff. So, that time was good in the beginning and I knew like the first or second day when I met my instructor, Mr. LaMattina, we were talking or something and he said something or something happened and I knew right then this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to teach karate and I would be with him for a long time. I just knew this is what I'm gonna do. So I had to figure out how to gear myself to be able to run a school. So first was training. I trained all the time. I didn't do any other sports except wrestling. So, I didn't have a lot of other activities. And my house, I lived close enough where I could walk down to the school. He was down on, off Main Street where we lived up. In Nashua, where we lived up on Conka Street, which was the North Ends. Per a hundred years ago, all the big houses, the mansions and things like that. So we lived right before that. What they call French Hill, where all the French people lived. So we were right before that. So we were right on the cusp of that. So, that's where everyone knew. Everyone knew that was on the call. Hey, I live in French Hill, so that's the area there. So it was just a 10, 15 minute, 20 minute walk down Main Street to my classes. So, it was easy for me to get there after school and stuff. So I would go after school and train. I would get there early, warmup, train, do my classes, or help teach classes. Even as a white belt, I was, cause he didn't have a lot of instructors. He had this one, a friend. This kid was Lenny, Lenny Leduc. He was a, when I met him, he was a brown belt. But he had studied, in Nashua there was another school called Monkai, the wave of the monkey. This guy Mark West. He was awesome. I everyone was, he almost reminds you of Johnny Cash cause every time you would see him, he was dressed in black. Black hat like Johnny Cash would wear.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yep.
Eric Menard:
Quiet, really quiet. When I first met him, it was, you have to remember back then it was kinda wild. I mean, people, you know, the karate people were everyone thought they were like superman, especially like for me as a kid, I thought my instructor, I put him up on a pedestal. And this guy Mark here, I still see him from time to time and we're good friends, we talk.
But there was all kinds of stories about him and he was in Vietnam and stuff. He was a tunnel rat, and he was really, I'm not sure how true all that stuff was, but it was a kind of a wild time. And so everyone would like, oh, be careful him. He's like, really good. No one would, you wouldn't give him any crap. You wouldn't insult him. You wouldn't, you know, because at the time, like now, like I train with Jesse, I train with Terry, Craig and all these people.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Jesse Dwyer…
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Terry Dow, Craig Wareham, all whom were on the show.
Eric Menard:
Yeah. So I trained, we're in a group, we trained together, but 20, you know, in the 80s, when I trained, trust training wasn't really allowed. I remember one time, me and my friends went to another Fred Villari school. It was in Dairy, I think. Just to do sparring or something cause we wanted to just meet other people. And you know, when our instructor found out about it, he wasn't too happy. So we had a little talk to, but, so at that time, cross-training or talking to other schools wasn't kinda a good thing. But then eventually, so Lenny's teaching, but he also trains with Mark West. And he met my friend, my instructor in you know, he wanted to train with him, so he was helping teach as well. So I remember my first day as a white belt because I had done the TaeKwonDo, so I was a little above a white belt, but not nearly a brown belt. So my first day was sparring with a brown belt and getting kind of beat up a bit. But he became a good friend and stuff. Unfortunately, he passed away several years ago. But the training we did and there was a lot of, some of the people from Mark’s school, couple of 'em trained at our school as well, and they were going back and forth. So I think that's kinda when we started kind of cross-training and doing other things with other schools.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Eric Menard:
Well, especially with them, we would go and spar with them. He had a little gym up on top of Main Street above a pizza place. He had a boxing ring, he had weights and it was kind of cool.
And it wasn't as commercial as Mr. LaMattina’s school at the time or the schools now, but it was good training. It was all about fighting and we went there and just fought and that's all it was.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And did your attitude towards sparring change?
Eric Menard:
Yeah, it did. After a while I had a friend, one of the adults, he was older. He drove taxi. Eventually, he bought the taxi company right across from the karate school and he was a black belt in Korea. He was in the army in Korea and at the time, they got their black belts really quick cause the Koreans were training them. And so he pulled me aside and worked with me for a while on like getting better at my kicks. Like I would go up and down the dojo doing front leg kicks, like sidekicks, round kicks, hook kicks, kind of like the Bill Wallace system. So I was doing that before I even met him. So I had the same kicking style as he does, not as good as he does but…
Jeremy Lesniak:
None of us are as good as he does.
Eric Menard:
Yeah. Even now, when I watch him, when I train with him, when he is around, he's like in his 70s or something, he's like, how does he do that stuff? And it's just crazy. So I would spend hours going up and down the dojo floor and my friend, the guy John, his name was Jonathan, Jonathan Butler, that's what it was. He would help me do those kicks. I would do like sliding kicks. I would do sidekicks down and back like three times and then round kicks, same thing. Then hook kicks and I would combine 'em all together. So I started getting better at that. So when, before that, when I was sparring, I was doing all right, but I was getting bullied cause the kids were bigger and not, not on purpose, they were just walking through me and they didn't really respect what I was doing, you know, they just walked through me. So then I started getting better at kicking. I remember, not so vividly, but I remember sparring and just hitting a couple people with some sidekicks and round kicks and hook kicks. And then it was like, oh, we have to pay attention to him now because now he can hurt us. And I found that so I just kind of worked on that and my sparring got better, not, it got better. And I, you know, I liked sparring, but it's not, it wasn't a big thing cause I did a lot of solo training for myself, like when I was helping him teach. So on Saturday, he would close early and Sunday he'd be close. So I'd have a key, I'd go down, I would stay Saturday after he left till about four or five o'clock and just train by myself, pads, weapons, kicking drills, just on a bag or up and down the dojo. Sunday, since I didn't have a whole lot to do, I would probably get down there around noon and train until like five.
Jeremy Lesniak:
How old are you at this point? You're 16, 17?
Eric Menard:
Probably a little younger than that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Eric Menard:
Probably, 15, 16.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Eric Menard:
So I graduated in ‘84. I was what? 19 I believe. I went into the military like three days after that. So, and I started martial arts in ‘82. I got my black belt in ‘84. So probably like 15, 16, 17.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay. Okay. I know the military piece is significant. We've talked, we've hinted at it a couple times, but before we go there, there's one piece I want to go back to cause I think it's pretty significant. And if folks were not around at this time, you may not realize that it was a big deal. So you talked about Mr. LaMattina being 22 when you met him and opening a school, that was something that very rarely happened. I didn't know anyone who was opening schools at that age back then.We haven't had folks on, I think we might have had one or two others on the show who opened schools really early. Cuz remember, in order to do that you had to start training as a kid. And through the 60s and even into the 70s, training as a kid was uncommon.
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But here, we have someone who you instantly connected with your younger, kind of like a big brother age.
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And I'm gonna guess that there was some significance in there with you seeing a path.
You mentioned that you knew very quickly you wanted to open a school after meeting him.
Eric Menard:
Yeah. He was 22. I was probably, what, maybe I was 17. He's probably like three or four years older than me. So yeah, he was kinda like a big brother. But maybe not that, but a role model at the time.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Not parental age dynamic.
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Which is what we often see with kids training and then their instructors.
Eric Menard:
Yeah. So, some story about that. So yeah, I wanted, once I met 'em, I knew this is my path. I wanted to do this, I wanted to go into the military, I wanted to do this. I just didn't know how I was gonna do it. So I started figuring out, okay, well if I'm gonna teach martial arts, I could get good at what I do. So I trained harder. And I said, well, watching him run the business and you know, he was so versatile. He could do katas, he could fight, that was his thing. And he could do weapons. And like the first, one of the first weapons I seen him use was probably the nunchucks or the bullwhip.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Bulwhip?
Eric Menard:
Yeah, he would play with that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh cool.
Eric Menard:
And, you know, there was no forms or anything at the time. He would just kind of snap that thing around and it was just crazy to watch him. And then, the stuff hhe used to do, it was, some of it you don't wanna talk about. It was just funny. During testing and stuff. It was just, it was funny. For us, it was just a normal day. The way we trained. And like you talked about when I was with Glen, Glen's TaeKwonDo, you talked about the militant stuff and the old-time school. The old-time stuff, that's what it was when I met him, that's how classes were. It was old school. His dojo didn't have any mats, had carpet on a wood or cement floor. I can't remember what, I think it was like a wooden floor cause it was an old building. But yeah, so I kind of geared myself okay, getting better at my martial arts. That's the first thing. Okay, weapons, well if I wanna have a school, maybe I wanna do seminars or teach weapons, so I have to learn weapons. So I started accumulating that. Nunchucks, bo staff, com as a sword I remember. And as time goes along, like you said, he was 22 when he opened his school, I was one of the first ones. Oh, actually I was the first one of his students to open schools. We had a small satellite school in Hudson right before I went into the military. And me and my friend David, the one that got me into TaeKwonDo, that was in TaeKwonDo with me, he had come over to Toques. So I got him over there. And we had both got our black belts at the same time. And he was doing other things. He was going on, he got a job. He a plumber now. Master Plumber, owns his own business. So he didn't, after black belt, he kind of stopped and stuff after I went to the military. But the point was, is so we opened up the school in Hudson and I would go teach it. He would teach it. We he had an office manager, someone of the young ladies that was teaching at the, was working at the school. She was like a green belt or something. And she would do the office stuff part-time and I would teach. It was a small, probably a little bit bigger than the room you were in now.
It was small, had shad sharp copper, and nice thick car thing. It was funny. It's just one room. Tiny, tiny changing room, tiny office. And so I started teaching there before I went into the Army. And then, and we had some good, we had like probably 30, 40 students maybe before I…
Jeremy Lesniak:
How did that feel? Because again, we're following this path of you, you know, finding martial arts young feeling like this is your path.
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And here's really your first opportunity to step out and teach, I mean, not your own space, but not your instructor's space certainly. Was it what you expected or hoped it to be?
Eric Menard:
Yeah. No, it was scary. It was because one, you know, I was basically, I'm kind of a shy person. And the dojo, you, you probably won't believe that if you see me train or interact with people just because it's my comfort zone.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Eric Menard:
But outside, I'm usually, typically in attending who I'm with and the people I'm with. It depends on stuff like that, but typically, I was. So in the dojo, I wasn't too bad. But I remember, and I think I talked about this to someone before I was young, I was 16, 17. I had some adults in class that were older than me.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Eric Menard:
So teaching, being young like that and teaching older people was kind of a challenge too sometimes. I think at first it might have been, but then I got more comfortable with it. Like even, I remember one time in the dojo I was teaching, I was young probably what, 17, 18 teaching and I'm teaching and like I said, the carpet was really thick. It was like a shag carpet. Nice. And it's not typically what you'd have in a dojo. So I'm teaching a, a sidekick, a slide and sidekick, and there's two young ladies in class and a bunch of people. So I do the kick and I slip and I just fall and I slap down and I go wow, look at that. And I do a, like a ground sidekick like we used to do in sparring, used to drop down, kick 'em in the groin and stuff. We used to do that. So I go look at that, and I get up and I said, and I go, that's what you do if you fall. So I kind of just covered up me slipping and it, you know, at that time it was young and you're teaching and it's like, oh, that's kind of funny. And so it was tough I think at some times. But I think I didn't put that in my mind. I just put in my mind I was teaching because I was the expert at the time. A new black belt and stuff like that. So even going into my school now, not so much now, but when I first opened my school in ‘95, I had people that were older than me that I was teaching. And by that time, it wasn't so bad that I was comfortable. But in those early years, yeah, it was different. But I left my abilities kinda stepped forward and I kind of made up for anything, any challenges.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure. All right. So you go, you graduate, you go into the military, you said you're 19.
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Another part of your path that seemed almost inevitable, the way you talked about it earlier. Was martial arts on hold or were you fortunate enough to be somewhere that there were martial arts programs or maybe you were training on your own?
Eric Menard:
I was training on my own mostly. It wasn't, I went into the military for a welder. I was a welder which I wanted to do too. I liked doing things with my hands, like in shop class and school, like the mechanics and woodwork, and I liked doing that stuff. So I went into bootcamp. So there's no martial arts training there except train, you know, doing the stuff you have to do in boot camp. You don't have a lot of time. I do remember some weekends when we didn't have much to do, I would go down in one the empty rooms, some practice. There were a couple people that did it, so I'd work out with them.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Cool.
Eric Menard:
Then we have moved on to the, my schooling, the welding, again, it was not a whole lot of time, but weekends were easier. And the night after you get outta school, it was, you had free time, so you weren't, it wasn't like in basic training, like on the go all the time. So I did meet, I met this young man. He was a little older than me. He was in the military before He was on the Marines. I think he had just, he was on the tail end of Vietnam and stuff. So he was young. And he was probably a little older than me at the time, and he was a black belt. And I forgot what it was. We just met and became friends and we found some places off-base to train. There was this again, another TaeKwonDo school that we trained at, I think. And I remember going training with them and then going to some tournaments with them. So there was training in there. And then my next step, so after schooling, I was assigned to a post. I went to Germany first and there, I trained on my own, but then just going to the gym and working out and seeing people doing stuff and some people were doing martial arts so I became, I introduced myself and we started training. It was fun. A couple guys, there was this one guy that was a kickboxer. And remember if you watched him from like outside, you just watched him when he is moving around, he wasn't really smooth. He was kind of like choppy and stuff. But when you actually get in and fought with him, it was a totally different, different thing. And these guys were big guys. They were in different units. One guy big, they were like three big black guys. They were just huge. They were just really put together good and they had good backgrounds. One guy I believe, I forgot his name, but I think he was from Detroit and he was really skilled and he was more aggressive. His style, I forgot what it was, but his philosophy cause he grew up in Detroit, like in inner city, I believe. It was like, if you came up to him and there was a, you know, and he felt threatened or there was a, you know, there was a problem going on once, if you were talking to him or threatening him once your hands went up here to, he would hit you. That was his philosophy because he had seen it happen many times. And I had some issues too when I went on, but we'll talk about that after.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Eric Menard:
So his philosophy was that. So we trained, they had a boxing ring, so we trained in there and we sparred and stuff. It was fun. And then, there was another guy I met. He was in the barracks behind me. His father was, he did Moo Duk Wan, I believe. His father was the head instructor of his system. So he was a medic. And I met him through these same guys and he did a little class in the barracks upstairs in one of the big empty rooms. So I would go there a couple nights a week and train. It was about six or seven after say all, mainly othersoldiers and stuff, couple females and stuff. So we were doing Moo Duk Wan for a while. And then the funny thing, and I did some more teaching there too as well. I taught a couple classes there.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It sounds like it was rather collaborative.
Eric Menard:
Yeah. Well, that was…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Entirely cross-training.
Eric Menard:
Yeah. So that was collaborative. And then, with him, we did a couple tournaments. We went, I remember and we almost didn't make it. So me, him, and the girl, I think it was his girlfriend at the time, we went to compete in, there was a tournament in Berlin. So he got a vehicle and I got the time off and we got passes to go cause you need passes to go pretty much different places. So we're driving to Berlin and for some reason he takes a wrong turn. We end up at the border at like a checkpoint with the Russians and checks and stuff. So we pull up and hese guys with AK-47s are there and they all look kind of mean. And he gets out of the car and he's talking and goes in and then we have to wait cause the MPs come, they take us and they bring us back to their barracks and we had to stay the night cause they were like mad at us and well, we got lost. We took a wrong turn and they finally let us go and we finally make it to Berlin and stuff and we compete.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You made it in time for the tournament?
Eric Menard:
Yeah. Yeah, we were, I think we're a day, we started a day early, so we had time.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Eric Menard:
And the tournament wasn't until a little later, so we made it and it was fun. We had a little room in like a bed and breakfast type thing and I don't remember what happened at that tournament, but it was a good experience. It was fun to go and just to train and get back into tournaments at the time. Cuz all this time in the military I'd been training a bit, but not as much as I was used to training. You know, I'd go to the gym and stuff cause you know, in Germany there wasn't much to do. Oh, there was a lot to do but, you know, I didn't drink or anything, so it wasn't like going out and climbing. I mean, we'd go out and dance in clubs and stuff. Nothing crazy. But I still focus on my training and try to do as much martial arts as I could and remember everything. So me hooking up with these people training, even though it wasn't the stuff I was doing, katas and stuff, we were fighting and just training and is kind of building some of that camaraderie and it was good. So it was a fun time for that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay. And, you know, if I'm remembering my dates correctly, you were stationed over there for a few years, you know, one contract and then you were out four years?
Eric Menard:
So I was there, ‘82, ‘84. So I was there from like ‘84 to early ‘88.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yep.
Eric Menard:
No, I'm sorry. Cause I went to Germany for, I was like a year and a half to two years. Cause I was in for four years in the military. So then after that, I went to Colorado. But, so I was there for like a year and a half to almost two. And then, during that time as well as training with these other people, I had the opportunity, I don't know how it happened, but I started teaching at like the rec center, like off post to military dependence. And it was a good group. It was a bunch of kids. It was this one kid I remember. He was young. He could do backflips and stuff. It was crazy. So I had this room and I was teaching at like, I think it was a rec center, but again, it was for military dependence. So I was doing that for a little while and I would go there a couple nights a week and teach. I had friends on posts that had cars, they could drive me there or I would take a taxi. So I would do that. And it was a good group. It was like maybe 10, 12 kids. I remember getting 'em ready. There was a karate tournament that we went to and that was good. It was an experience cause we had to get a bus and then, I didn't speak German, so it was hard to communicate to some of the people. There were some people that could, so we made it through, but it was, we almost didn't get there because of the communication gap and things not being, you know, they said they were gonna give us a bus and it didn't happen. It came late and all this stuff. But overall the tournament was fun. The kids, they did good. There was all kinds of cool people that I met. I remember this two sisters, they were, I don't know where they were from, but they had the red, white, and blue uniforms on. Remember the century ones, the thick ones? They do. They were these little Chinese girls. They were so adorable. They had long hair ponytails and they just, their, I remember their stuff was so for young, young kids, like, it was one was probably 10 or 12, and the other one was probably seven or eight. They were really young, but they moved so good that the stuff was almost like flawless. It was just awesome to watch and stuff and just, that's why you do all the training and just seeing that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Eric Menard:
It was just a good, it was a fun day and a fun time.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I wanna move forward a little bit in time because I wanna make sure we get into this, and I suspect that there's a little bit of a story here. You know, you come out of the military, you said you opened your school in ‘95.
Eric Menard:
Yes and no.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Eric Menard:
So this one I had in ‘95, but prior to that, so like I said, I was, so technically I'm Mr. LaMattina’s first black belt.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yep.
Eric Menard:
And then I was the first one to open a school, so I opened that one in Hudson before I went to the military. So then when I came out, I'm doing welding and stuff and still training, but I get laid off. So I'm doing some work for him, this and that. So he did a lot of private lessons. He had two black belts. They were, one worked for digital, which is no longer around. And one was a pilot. And he was a med pilot, I think. So they had some extra cash and they wanted to have a school where they could just go work out. They were black belts, but they weren't teachers. I mean, they could fill in and help me, but they couldn't really run the school.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure.
Eric Menard:
So long story short, they put up the money and I opened a school in Merrimack, New Hampshire. So technically, that was the first Tokyo Joe's. I think at that time, that was right after, there was a big split in the organization of Fred Villari’s. And I remember Mr. LaMattina sitting us down and saying, well, Mr. Villari had a meeting with him and he wanted, Mr. Villari wanted Mr. LaMattina to run the whole East Coast. And he said, no. He said, well, I'm gonna go on my own and da da da da da. So he opened up Tokyo Joe's. So that school Merrimack was the first Tokyo Joe franchise of Tokyo Joe's. So I ran it for these two guys for several years. Must have been, I still can't remember the time date. I think it was like, cause I opened this school and Nashua here at ‘95, so it must have been like ‘92 there. I opened that up. It was for a couple years, cause I remember I promoted several black belts. My cousins got black belts and I had a couple other, I had like four or five other people that got black belts, so I had to been there at least two or three year.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Eric Menard:
To get that many black belts. So yes, coming here was ‘95.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay. The reason I ask that is cause the time gap, I was gonna find surprising cause it seems in your history, no matter what happened, you found a way to teach it. Just, you kept ending up with schools and teaching and, oh, I'll teach over here. And so this idea that it would take you five-ish years to open your school just wasn't clicking so thank you for filling in that gap.
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
What was it like when you opened your own school? Because it sounds like ‘95, that's the first time where it was just you in a, let's call it a commercial or a professional sense.
Eric Menard:
Yeah. It was scary. I remember, so this school was in existence before I bought it. A young lady was running it and she had some black belts helping her, but it wasn't working out. So Mr. LaMattina approached me cause I was in Merrimack at the time. And I wanted to buy that school. And one of the owners was making it really tough for me to buy it. I had sat with my lawyer and she hooked me up with her banker. He was the president of one of the banks in Nashua. And we sat down and went over all the numbers and he was saying, well, for the money, he wants you to pay for his half. It was like 30 grand. He said, it's not a good thing. I probably should have did it because I could have made it work. But I didn't. And I went, so I came down here and I took over the school and at the time it was ready to close, it was only had a handful of students and we were in a small space, like probably 1300, less than 1300 square feet. One square room, tiny office, a tiny waiting room, and just a handful of students. And she was behind in the rent and stuff like that. So I just took it over and I just did what I did and just tried to make things work. And eventually it did. We had like probably 30 students at the time, and it was just me. So, there was no overhead and I didn't take a paycheck for a while. I just lived off what the schoo was meeting. I didn't have any other income other than that. And I still lived at home, so it wasn't, I didn't have a big overhead. I had a truck payment and that's about it. So, from there I just built up the school and worked on, cleaned up the school up and made some changes and just started being more consistent with the training and slowly it grew and grew. And then the people, the owners of the Plaza there, they moved me to another spot cause they had, I think someone wanted my spot or they wanted to expand into my spot. And so then one said, Hey, we're gonna move you up to this spot. We'll pay for everything and you fix up the way you want. And it was a little bit bigger, it was narrow, nice, long and narrow, like 1300 square feet.
And that's where I started.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And if you think back to that time, so I'm doing some math, late 20s? Right, when you're doing this? Close to 30?
Eric Menard:
Yeah. Yeah. Cause I got out the army, it was like 24, 25. Yeah, so late 20s.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay. And you've had plenty of experience teaching, seeing what other schools are doing and everything. What was it about you opening this school that you said, I'm gonna make sure I do this, or I don't do this, what was it in your vision that was really important?
Eric Menard:
Well, I was always strong on the martial end. The business end, not so much. I mean, I could do it and, you know, I wasn't computer savvy or at the time, you know, I was shy about talking to people about signing up and stuff like that. So one of the, before I left the school in Merrimack, one of the owners sat me down. We were talking about things and he goes, you know, at the end of the day, don't worry about like paying the bills. I mean, they need to be paid and stuff. Don't worry about that. Do what you are good at and things will work. And what I was good at was teaching and the martial arts part. So I just kinda adapted that philosophy and things started getting better. I mean, I did my office stuff, I did that stuff, but I focused on teaching and the curriculum and things like that. And that was my strength or my superpower, whatever you wanna call it. And things started to grow. And every time in my career now, when I kinda step back from that philosophy, that's when I, then things start to struggle a little bit. So, I always try to do what I can on the floor and do my best there. And then things have a way of working out. Because for me, like everyone takes time off and vacation, Hey, I need time off and vacation. For me, training is my outlet. Like I have a friend that Sunday, he doesn't do anything. He home with a wife and the dogs and whatever they do, and they hang out and they do things for them. They don't do any training or any business stuff. For me, like Sunday, one Sunday I'm training here. One Sunday I'm training there. That's my release, training. And like, when I train on Fridays, one Friday I'm in Dairy. One Friday I'm with Terry and Jesse and all of those guys. That's my release time. That's my me time. And you know, don't get me wrong, I like taking time off, but sometimes if I get too much time in my hand, then I stop getting antsy and I don't do things. So I have to be more active and moving.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure. When I do the consulting work that I do, the two places that I find the biggest problems are people so focused on the business side of things that they're not investing in the quality of the instruction on the floor. Or the owner, chief instructor, whomever it is I'm working with, has lost their passion.
Eric Menard:
Yeah. If both, if the ownership is not passionate and making sure there is quality instruction happening on the floor, nothing else matters. Yeah, you're right. Because that's where we make our money on the floor. And for me, it's in book. I'm a one man show. When I had someone help me, it was good. But what happens with that sometimes, and this guy was really good. He was with me since he was 11. He was one of my, he was like the highest bell. I had a 5th degree. So he was, you know, how things done. But then everyone has their own little way of doing things. So he might do something teeny bit different than I want, and when he's teaching class, I'm doing something else. So I'm not really watching that. So there's a little challenge there to make sure everyone's on the same page. And that's an important thing, making sure everyone is on the same page or close to it. One of the things that we used to talk about in some of our meetings is like 80%, the 80-20% rule, that's, it's even a business thing. So for us, what that meant is on our lesson plans, say we give you a lesson plan. Okay. You had the 80% of this lesson plan, the other 20% you can add your own flavor into. Just like when I was being taught, I would, Mr. LaMattina would show me how he does it. I learned his flow and his movement. As I start learning it, and then I get better at it,
I add my stuff into it. So same thing with the teaching. When I teach kids or help teach people how to teach, especially my junior leaders trying to teach them how I do things and then as they get better and they get more responsibility, then they can add their own personalities into it and stuff. And I believe that's probably the best way to teach someone how to teach. You gotta start somewhere.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Completely agree.
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Now, given that you've been operating in this school, I mean, we're coming up on 30 years, right?
Eric Menard:
Yes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Five 15.
Eric Menard:
Yes, this year will be 28. I think 28.
Jeremy Lesniak:
What, if we were to have a time machine and you know, I could go back and I could train in your school in ‘95, I, I could train in your school now, would I notice anything different?
Eric Menard:
Probably, I've toned down a teeny bit on how I am with the students. It was a little challenge because I always, I was struggling a little bit where I want the students to be like me.
Jeremy Lesniak:
In what way? What does that mean?
Eric Menard:
I wanted them to train like me and why they didn't.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You wanted them to be as passionate as you were.
Eric Menard:
Yeah. So I had a long talk with like my office manager and some other people, but, so that's a good thing, but they're not me. Like when I trained, I did it all the time. So maybe I trained 200 hours a year or whatever that was. And now, if you have figure it out, the time, the classes now they're training maybe 80 hours a year or a month or however that works out. I can't remember the formula. But so for a while I wanted them to be like me and I struggled with that sometimes. But then after I thought about it and talked to people, I go, well, they're not me. So I have to figure out how to get to them for them. So I think that's a big difference. The way they trained when I started, it wasn't that I was really militant or anything, like you talked about before. I consider myself in the middle. I'm not super strict, but I like to have fun with the kids, especially the kids. I like to have, I like the classes to be enjoyable, not like too strict or too fun because you gotta ride the middle. And that's a hard thing to do sometimes cause you have parents. Well, I want my kid disciplined. Okay, well then when you discipline 'em, oh, that's too much discipline. Okay, well I'm gonna be a little softer. Well, you're too soft in the kids. Well, you gotta make up your mind.
Jeremy Lesniak:
The word coming to mind is structured.
Eric Menard:
Yes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It sounds like your classes are structured without being militant.
Eric Menard:
Yes. So I have to run that middle line point. And that's always a hard thing to do sometimes. So I think what's different now is before I was probably a little more firmer on some of the kids and the classes were different now. They're getting there, I'm getting back to where I want the classes, I want the higher belts. They're pushing 'em, they're doing their stuff. Like last night, we did some team classes and they must have did, I don't know. A hundred sliding sidekicks on the bags, you know, sets of 10 at the end of the class. And they were, you know, they sat out slow, but by the end they were finishing the way it should be a nice clean snap kick, you know, a nice side sliding sidekick when you're fighting. Cause it was a stuff on fighting last night, sparring. So we sort of sparring, we worked on some of the tools. So I think that's what it's gonna, that's what you would see. My passion's still there. But the classes are, they're still hard, but they're not, as you know, I'm probably not as hard on 'em, like yelling and screaming. I'm toned down a bit with that, but we're still getting the training that they need.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Nice. Okay. And I guess one more question. This isn't a question that I often ask, but you've been teaching and training for a long time and you've seen a lot of evolution and because I know some of the elements in your history that we haven't talked about, you know, we don't need to go into them, but I know you've watched a number of transitions occur.
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
When you think about the martial arts world today as you see it, what you're exposed to versus what you started with. You know, I think a lot of people could say, oh, I think we used to do this better. I think we do this better now. Just as I asked you to compare your school now versus your school then. How would you compare and contrast martial arts now to martial arts in 1982?
Eric Menard:
Well, I think, there's probably more camaraderie. Well, it's kind of a two part question, so, outside of the schools, there's more camaraderie. Inside, like, we became friends. We worked so close together. I still have a friend. He has a school in Merrimack. You know, he remembers the first day when he seen me. I was a higher belt than him. He was just coming in. He just remembers him seeing me going down to the floor, doing those sliding psychics I was telling you about. And that's in his mind. Cause every time we talk or we're talking to other people, oh yeah, I met this guy here. You know, when he, when I come to teach his classes, I help him out. He goes, oh yeah, this guy here, this is Kyoshi and I met him. This, you could see him doing these kicks, so, that camaraderie is still there and it's there now. So what's the different part is the interaction between other schools. Back in the 80s, we didn't have that much. I told you the thing we did with Mark West and Monkai, that was few and far between.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Eric Menard:
The only reason…
Jeremy Lesniak:
I remember back then.
Eric Menard:
…is because Mr. LaMattina and Mark West, they knew each other. And they probably hung out and went out. They were older so they just, they knew of each other and they had repetitions. So they kinda like, okay, instead of beating each other up, we're gonna kind of have this kind of friendship.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure.
Eric Menard:
So with that, you had that, but now the interaction of schools and stuff, there's a lot more of that. So that's a big difference there. Cuz you can go to someone's school and not have a problem, you know, you instruct.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's not assumed that you're showing up to steal students.
Eric Menard:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Or cause problems.
Eric Menard:
And the thing I see with Brazilian Jujitsu, it's more, I think it's their custom there cause the way they are, the Brazilians. I remember the first time going down to the Renzo Gracie School in New York, I've never met 'em. My instructors bring me down there. They know 'em and I, yeah, I'd seen 'em on TV and I might have met 'em at a seminar years ago. But I had a book with me he signed. One of his books, I had a bunch of the black belt sign it. It was just, wow. I was like, awesome. But I remember him coming up to me, shaking my hand and saying, I think you used mine, Eric, this is your school. This is your home. You know, relax. We're here. This is your home. This is your, you're welcome here. And back in the 80s, you never got that from karate school?
Jeremy Lesniak:
No.
Eric Menard:
Now I do. I mean, with the people I train with and stuff, like with Jesse and Terry and all those guys, it's like, brother, this is your house. This is, you know, you relax, you do what you need to do, and you know, we're here for you and stuff like that when I go into those places. So that's a big difference there now. You probably don't see that at every school.
Jeremy Lesniak:
No, but it's a lot more common.
Eric Menard:
Yeah. When you have a relationship with some of these guys, like Jesse, I've known for years.
I don't know how we met. I think we met at Henry's Oriental Gateway, I believe. And he would come every once in a while. Tim would have seminars at his school where people would come in, or just him and all these people would come and he would be one of them. So, having these kind of connections, the vonds are just, and like meeting Terry and Craig. I've known Terry for a long time. Craig, I didn't know until I started training up there. And I knew Joe and stuff like that. But just the connection that me and Craig had and just all of us had, like, I'm coming into the group new and it's like, I've been there for years and hey brother, hey, you're welcome.
Let's get together, let's do this, let's do that. And so that's a, I think that's a big difference right there that you're gonna see. You don't see that all the time. Now, it's probably more so, but again, it's gonna be, I don't wanna use the word clicks, but it's gonna be the people you're close to, that's what you're gonna have that to. And then when you start meeting people, if you click and you get comfortable with each other and you have that vibe and you click, then that's gonna be like that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Makes sense.
Eric Menard:
It's like I met, when I meet Peter Friedman, I don't know if you know who Peter Friedman is.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I do.
Eric Menard:
So I met him, where'd I meet him? So I train with Mike and May Williams. Do you know who they are?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Eric Menard:
So I train with them. I've been training with them off and on for a while. I do privates with them, so I go to, Jesse's having one of his black belt tests. So his testing's like five days long. So you do a Friday, a Saturday, and a Sunday, there's always a seminar that everyone has to go to. And he brings up, Rudy Duncan comes up, and then he brings other people up. So one year, Peter was there and I had Mike and May shirt on and I had met Peter once before, or I had seen him, I can't remember if this is the first time I met him. Cuz he did come to a cookout or a dinner with the AMOK stuff with Tom Sotis. So I can't remember what was first, but so I think it was, Jesse's was first, but he seen my shirt. He came over shook by hand and it was like, oh man. It's like we knew each other for a long time.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Eric Menard:
He was just so, and he's another one of those guys like when I ta told you about, Mr. Glenn, when I talked to him on the phone first. It was like, and even I didn't talk to him in person, I heard his voicemail. It was like his voice was so relaxing and Hey, come to my school and I'm gonna teach you. Peter was just like that. It was just, he was so down to earth. You look at him, how good he is and how talented he is and what he's capable of doing. Same thing with like Mr. Sotis. You don't think you can approach these guys unless you know 'em really good. But like Peter was like, Hey, thank you, man. You know, Mike and May? Yeah. Oh, you're my friend now. And it's like, we're connected, you know?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Eric Menard:
And then, so I think that's a big thing right there. You don't see that as much, but now it's starting to be more, and again, like you said, it's not gonna be all the time as we'll be with certain people.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Totally. So what's next for you and for your school? If we get together, you know, five years from now, we record part two, you know, what, what would you be telling me?
Eric Menard:
Well, I wanna improve. I guess it stucks [ with me, so I gotta improve me. My training, I do training, but I need to be more consistent with it. I gotta get on a better schedule. So, me training and then moving the school forward. Not necessarily more students, but I'd like to get a handful more. I'd like to get, you know, 200 students would be good. You know, I'm a little shy of that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's a great number. It's a number very few schools ever achieve.
Eric Menard:
Yeah. But more so, I want to impact the students I have here and impact my community. I haven't done a whole lot outside the community as much. I mean, I do little things compared to some other schools, where it's me, just a one man show. It's tough to do some of those things to spread yourself. I find myself sometimes doing too much and spreading myself too thin. And then it doesn't work. And I don't want to do something halfway. I want, if I'm gonna do something, I wanna make sure it works and it's right.So, moving forward, you know, I wanted to build a school and unpack the people I have here and give them something that they can take with them into the future when they move on. Whether they stay with me or they grow up and get a job, go to college, have a family, I want 'em to instill, I want to instill those morals and vows that I try to do. And I'm not perfect. I mean, we do our best we can like anyone.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure.
Eric Menard:
And then, so that's sort of students. Outside the school, I love to impact the community. Women's self-defense programs, I do stuff like that, but more so just be a positive force in the community. And I've never really stepped out like that, so it's something I have to figure out how to do and where to start and, you know, small things. So I don't do too much. Again, it's just me, so I have to, and I have help from other people, my office management stuff, but more so I'm doing a lot and that kind of stuff would be me and my team helping me out and stuff. But, so that's where I wanna go with that. And then just again, my training and just elevate for my personal fulfillment, just to take my martial arts to another level, not necessarily learn new things. Like when I was a kid and I always thought when I got a black belt, this light would come open up and it would be like, ah, and it would be, you would have all the answers. But that's not how it works. You don't have all the answers. And people think, well, black belts the end, but it's not. It's the beginning of your training. You think anything under your black belt, all the stuff you learn is just the basics, the fundamentals, the core skills or whatever you wanna call 'em, and you build off that. I remember watching a video that really, I really liked, I don't know if it stood a test of time. I watched it I think before, and it wasn't as cool, but The Warrior Within, it was a tribute to Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris was narrating it. Have you ever seen that?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I don't think I have.
Eric Menard:
It's called The Warrior Within. Check it out. I don't know if it stood the test of time, but… So he's interviewing all these karate masters. They're karate masters, but they're all first, second degrees, third degree black belts. So they're not, you know, like in our system, if you get a fifth degree, you can call yourself a master. So they're not, typically, they're not, I don't think I've seen any 10th degree black belts in there, but they're all second and third degree and stuff like that. And they're doing different martial arts. But the thing I got from that, and what resonates with me, and it's important to me, is it's not about your rank. It's not about how much stuff you have, it's about taking what you have and elevating when you get the black belt. So now I get my first degree. Now I'm up here and what I need to do is take all this stuff and elevate it up to where I wanna be. Where I can do my stuff in my mind, a good black belt is be able to do your stuff without really thinking about it. And I look at my stuff and I get so much stuff. So it's hard sometimes, you have to kinda segregate stuff and block it out. Okay, I'm gonna work on this, I'm gonna work on this, I'm gonna work on that. And I look at my stuff. Like I, at fifth degree, I stopped collecting forms. So at fifth degree I just, I'm done in taking forms, I'm gonna just take what I have and practice them. Cause I what, under black belt we had, to get our black belt when I was younger, we needed to do, 11 forms. One to five kata, one to five pinon. And for us called statue of the crane. So it's 11 forms. So over the years I'm teaching that and some of the kids can pick it up, but some can't. So I just cut it down. They got one to five kata. But, so I have those 10 forms. Then all the black belt forms that I have now, so it was seven or eight of them. So what's that like 20 forms right there. That's a lifetime forms.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That’s a lot of forms.
Eric Menard:
That's a lifetime to get good at that stuff and practice it and make it applicable and just make it flow. That's like a lifetime of stuff you can't do. There's so much stuff there. I couldn't practice it every day, and if I did, it would take me all day to do all those forms and put the time in. So at fifth grade, I said, well, I'm just gonna not collect any more forms. I got enough. I don't need any more. I like the ones I have, so let's start with those and then if I want more later. So it's a matter of not collecting so much stuff, but taking what I have. So like when I get the black belt, all the lights didn't come on and it was like, okay. And watching that video just kinda, you know, these guys are second or third degree black belts and they're masters in what they do because they take one thing or they take what they're doing and they master it. They don't, they're not doing 20 different things. Now, that's not to say cross trains, cause I do other different styles, but just like core stuff or just getting good at what you already have, not necessarily learning other stuff. So, I lost my track of what we were talking about.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's okay.
Eric Menard:
That's what I see from my martial arts in the business going forward. And some of the time, the challenges I have or the things that come up with me is, I'm passionate about my students. I just want the best for 'em. So when I see challenges or they're having a hard time or they're not putting their effort in, I take it personal sometimes and I can't because they're not me. They're not, I can't get in that mindset. Well, they're not doing what I did and I can't do that. And it took me a long time to come across that and figure that out. And I'm better for it now because I'm more relaxed with the kids. You know, I'm not hard on 'em, but I'm not easy on 'em, not nervous. Some kids you need to be a little higher on because they need that. But for the most part, I enjoy what I'm doing and I doesn't get any other job. I enjoy, you know, there's always good days and bad days, but the good days outweigh the bad days. And I'd rather have a bad day on the mat is probably better than most bad days anywhere else. So as long as I, you asked me about my training, long as I need to do that. I need to train like you were talking, you know, some people let this slide, they need to do this, but you're right. We make our money is on the floor and our skills need to be able to teach and stuff. So that's where I want my stuff so I can show it to my students so they can see me doing it so they can do it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well said. And it really does take us to the end, and not that you haven't already said plenty of stuff that I think we could fit into this category, but I wanna let you end how you want to end. So, final words to the audience today?
Eric Menard:
Well for me, for the martial arts speaking, if you're in martial arts, just find your passion and train. And do what your body tells you to do. As we get older, there's stuff I don't do that I used to do. When I was younger, I could do a lot of jump spinning, back kicks and stuff like that. I still do some, but not as much. So as we get older, you want to find different ways to train. The ways you train when you're younger are probably not the ways you wanna keep training now. Cause our bodies are different, so we have to think about that. When you are training, you wanna give it all your gut, but you don't wanna empty your gas tank. You wanna probably leave like 20% in there so you can get up the next day, go to work, train more. Cause if you empty your gas tank and then you can't work or train the next day, then that's not a good thing. And that's where the injuries come in. That's how you get hurt. So with that part, with the training, do what you think works for you. Find what works for you. You gotta find those things. You can compare yourself. Oh, this guy does this, this guy does that. Oh, I wanna do that. Well, maybe you can't, maybe you can't. Maybe he's 10 years younger than you that's why he is doing that. Like for me, my flexibility is, I've lost a little bit of flexibility and I gotta start trying to work that back. I don't know if I'll get to where I used to be, but I'm going to try that. So that's for the martial arts part, that's what I would say with that. As for the business part, do what you're strong in. Like I said, we talked about the floor, that's an important part. Doing our training, but how to manage the floor? When I was coming up, we would do seminars and go to different business things. A lot of it was on teaching and training. And most of the martial arts, at least at my time, none of us had college education. Some did, but we learned the hard way. I mean, I remember, like I told you before, I had to figure out how to prep myself for teaching. So it was, the first part was getting training and doing all the my shots, learn the weapons. The second part, my instructor had these manuals he bought from Andrew Wood. This was years ago. They were, I still have 'em and they're probably a little outta date, but they still, they hold true. One was how to make a hundred thousand dollars a year teacher martial arts. It just went from A to Z on how to set up your school advertising and again, you know, yellow pages and stuff. So it's probably a little outta date and there's probably stuff that's a little more updated. But I remember getting all those books and reading them. So that was my college education. Cause I didn't go to college. I not super book-smart, but that's what I did. I read all those. And then other manuals I've picked up over the years, different people I seen like Tom Callos, Dave Covar, those are the people. When I signed me and I go, geez, I wanna be like those guys. They're like teaching teachers. And I wanted to do stuff like that. So I got any book that I could. I remember, there was a company, I don't know if it's still existent, Turtle Press. It was, I think they're from Connecticut or somewhere. I forgot the instructor's name, but he wrote several books. And one of the best books I got, I still have it somewhere, I don't know if it's with me today. It was like the best 20 bucks I spent. It was, I think the title was Teaching the Martial Arts or the Way of the Martial Arts. But it was a book, a manual, just like I talked about with Andrew Wood and stuff. But it was just, it was on teaching. It was how to do lesson plans, attributes of the martial arts, and all these cool things. And it just, that helped me so much. And it was like the best 20 bucks I spent. It helped me figure out how to do lesson plans and things like that. So, that's what I would say, you know, if you're gonna run a school or if you are running it, then you probably only know all that. But search out people that are above you. Like in jujitsu they say we need three people to train with. You need someone that's below you, someone that's with you at your level, and so on above you. So I take that in everything we do, any martial arts, you need that cause that's how you're gonna get better in any business. You're gonna need it. You need people that are equal to your level that are gonna push you. Now, maybe in business people below you so you keep your mind so you're know where you came from. You don't get like, I'm better than anyone else. And then people above you, Hey, I wanna inspire to be like that. I want to, now maybe I can't be like that, but I want to inspire like that. I want to look at his path. He did this and this and this. Well, I can't keep compete with him, but I can follow and learn his ways and maybe take one or two things from him and get better. So that's what I would say about that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Wasn't that a great episode? I hope you enjoyed it. I did. And I got the sense that Kyoshi Eric also enjoyed it. So, hey, at the very least, the two of us did, and we probably did as well. Now, if you wanna go deeper, you wanna see the stuff that we talked about in the episode, go to the show notes, whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. And I wanna thank Kyoshi Menard for coming on the show. Thank you so much, and I know we'll talk again and I'll see you soon. Audience, do you have a martial arts school or do you have the ear of your martial arts instructor? Have you heard them say, man, I wish we just had a few more students. Oh, you know, just a few more dollars at the end of the month would really make a difference for us. We can help you with that. We do it already for a number of our short schools. We can do it for more, including you, and you should reach out. There's a section on our website at whistlekick.com. You go to the school owner section, you go to the consulting page. It's gonna tell you everything you need to know, or you could just reach out to me directly, jeremy@whistlekick.com. The other thing you might consider is hosting me and some of my friends for a seminar. We'll come out to your school no matter where you are. We'll come do it. We'll have a blast. Work on some stuff, have some fun, go to dinner. Sounds like a good time, doesn't it? If you wanna follow us on social media, we are @whistlekick on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, where else? All kinds of places you can think of it. We're probably on there, and that takes us to the end. So until next time. Train hard, smile, and have a great day.