Eddie Andujar: Episode 8

On today’s show we have Eddie Andujar, a karate practitioner from Massachusetts. I’ve gotten to know Mr. Andujar a bit from the martial arts events I visit through whistlekick, and really liked his story. Honestly, it’s not always a happy one, even compared to some of our past guests. But it’s a good story and there’s a lot to take away from it. The martial arts has played a tremendous role in Eddie’s life, and I think you’ll agree that he’s taken a lot from it.

I hope you enjoy it.

Show Notes

Movies: Ong-bak, Ong-bak 2, Ong-bak 3

Show Transcript

You can read the transcript below or download here.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 8 of whistlekick martial arts radio. My name is Jeremy Lesniak, your host and the president over here at whistlekick. If you’re new to the show, I’d like to ask you to check out what we do at whistlekick.com and you can learn more about this show at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. On today’s show, we have Eddie Andujar, a karate practitioner from Massachusetts. I’ve gotten to know Mr. Andujar bit from the martial arts events I visit through whistlekick and really liked his story. Honestly, it’s not always a happy one even compared to some of our past guests but it’s a good story and there’s a lot to take away from it. The martial arts has played a tremendous role in Eddie’s life and I think you will agree that he has taken a lot from it himself. From it himself. Lesniak, your host and the president over here at whistlekick. If you’re new to the show, I’d like to ask you to check out what we do at whistlekick.com and you can learn more about this show at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. On today’s show, we have Eddie Andujar, a karate practitioner from Massachusetts. I’ve gotten to know Mr. Andujar bit from the martial arts events I visit through whistlekick and really liked his story. Honestly, it’s not always a happy one even compared to some of our past guests but it’s a good story and there’s a lot to take away from it. The martial arts has played a tremendous role in Eddie’s life and I think you will agree that he has taken a lot from it himself. From it himself. Jeremy Lesniak, your host and the president over here at whistlekick. If you’re new to the show, I’d like to ask you to check out what we do at whistlekick.com and you can learn more about this show at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. On today’s show, we have Eddie Andujar, a karate practitioner from Massachusetts. I’ve gotten to know Mr. Andujar bit from the martial arts events I visit through whistlekick and really liked his story. Honestly, it’s not always a happy one even compared to some of our past guests but it’s a good story and there’s a lot to take away from it. The martial arts has played a tremendous role in Eddie’s life and I think you will agree that he has taken a lot from it himself. From it himself.

Eddie Andujar, welcome to whistlekick martial arts radio.

Eddie Andujar:

Alright. Thanks for having me Jeremy. It’s an honor. it’s an honor.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Absolutely. It’s an honor to have you. So, let’s jump into this, man. Tell us a little bit about your history with the martial arts, how did you get started and why did you get started and all that.

Eddie Andujar:

I started out young. My father he got me into boxing, that was his thing, did that some 6 to 11 years old. The boys club, a long time. Then I switched over to tkd, that was my first martial arts school that I went to. I started when we move over to a new neighborhood and that was in the neighborhood so my parents got me into that and they got involved with that for about two years and things are going tough for my family so they can’t really afford it. So, that left my options limited so I had to stop doing it for a while. Yeah, and after tkd I got involved in 01:56 when I was 25, I took a long break in between. I started going to the 02:01 they have the classes available there free as long as you were a member of the ymca so I got involved with that for about two years and got my nephew involved and all that and then my nephew got hit by a drunk driver in his bike so it was hard for me to go back to that school. You I know I just can’t bring him back, bad memories and good memories. It was still hard for me to train after that for a while. After the whole 02:30 I took a break for a little while and met a woman, got married settled down, she had a kid her own so. Her youngest have taken Shotokan karate mass martial arts academy 02:46 bring them to classes help them to get to know the people over there. There were really great people, you know. They grew on me, we started doing stuff together other than karate like rock climbing, stuff like that. It just made me want to do it again you know after loss of my nephew.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. After taking that time off sure. So, you’ve got a couple of periods in here where you went into martial arts and you stepped away and you went back in and you stepped away. You know and I’m really curious about that first one when you were doing tkd as a teenager and then you said you were out of the martial arts until your mid-twenties. Did I get that one, right? So, one of the things that’s often an issue for parents or instructors in the martial arts is that a teenage child wants to step away. They want to go do other sports, they want to go to something. The reasons aren’t always the same but there was something about it that even though you stepped away for a while, you came back. You were happy to come back, can you tell us a little bit about that? Because I think there’s something good in there.

Eddie Andujar:

Well coming back, you know I needed that security. I mean every child needs a security, stability you know. Stability is the biggest thing that I didn’t have when I was growing up. So, to have like that camaraderie and friends that you meet is something that everybody needs you know. And being the fighter that’s not having stability that was one of the key things with me coming back.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah, one of the pieces of advice because vie often had parents come to me and say you know, vie been fortunate that most of the schools vie been in, vie not been the instructor so there are certain issues that parents are often more comfortable bringing to me and one of them is about the teenager that wants to kind of go do their own thing so, it’s interesting to hear that you know, you are kind of validating what I often tell people which is hey, if they want to go do something else for a while, let them because if you force them to stay into martial arts they’re not going to leave with this positive memory. They may less likely to come back when they’re ready like you were able to. So, you’ve bounced around, you’ve been into some different schools you got any good stories you could share?

Eddie Andujar:

The biggest thing about going through all those different schools, you know personally for me, is the people that vie met through going to those schools makes a big impact in my life like, you call these people friends and then all of a sudden, they become your family like my karate family. You know and I’m sure other people can relate to that like their tkd family or their kung fu family. More of the biggest things for me are the connections that you make through all these people. They’re so friendly and they generally care about you, you can tell.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s something that is something is not uncommon in fact they’d say it’s the rule that you know there maybe some exceptions but for the most part, people that train develop that, yeah, it’s like a family. For sure. Being that you started with martial arts so young, being that it’s threaded in and out of your life I’m sure it’s had an impact on you on who you are, on who Eddie is as a person. Can you tell us a little bit about that? How you think your life has benefited form that time in the martial arts.

Eddie Andujar:

I was really short tempered when I was younger. I was always getting into fights in school and that had a big thing to do with my stability in my 06:24 so you know, martial arts, that really helped me with my confidence and given me an outlet for my anger, training and being able to 06:33 burn that energy off that I was just using destructively. You know, it helps me a lot mentally

Jeremy Lesniak:

Do you find you have the same benefits from it now training as an adult?

Eddie Andujar:

I do. Even more so. Because you know pressure get on you the only way to burn those out is for me is through martial arts like you are going to the dojo like after a stressful day and whether it be like stretching or training at home or whatever the case may be, I try to keep the level ahead now that I’m older.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Think about a low point in your life and how you’re martial arts experience helped you through that.

Eddie Andujar:

About a year ago I was still in this Shotokan school, I was going to separation and ended up to a divorce so that was hard for me and martial arts help me get through that, gave me something to focus on training, getting back into and fully dedicated myself to it because before it was just going because my son was going and that whole routine changed once I got divorced and it gave me an outlet to distract me from that, took me away from all that. Low point that I was going through in my life.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Sure, did you find that you had support from your martial arts family?

Eddie Andujar:

I did. We were all close and we all knew each other, they would always check on me so see how I’m doing and I mean, I’m seeing them 2-3 times a week and then just making sure I’m ok if I needed anything, that means a lot you know because, especially when I don’t have that many people to look out for me.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah, I can only imagine how hard a time that was for you and how much harder it would have been without that support.

Eddie Andujar:

Right, right. I don’t know what I would have done. Honestly.

Jeremy Lesniak:

There are a lot of people that don’t go through that experience very well because they don’t have support. Because they’re not talking to somebody or you know, they’re bottling it all up and so here you’ve developed some tools to express yourself physically so you’re not bottling it up but then you’ve also got people that you can talk to, that you’re comfortable with. There’s something to be said for sweating for sort of suffering with people week after week.

Eddie Andujar:

Right. And my sensei could see that too. He would push me a little bit harder than like if he is seeing days in off a little bit, he would push me harder so that way you know, I wouldn’t be distracted in class or he would notice if I was not there.

Jeremy Lesniak:

So, I’d like you to name somebody other than your instructors and I guess we’d have to count each of them, that has been a significant impact on your martial arts training.

Eddie Andujar:

My biggest impact is my nephew. Being able to overcome his death and to go back to training is a really big deal for me and I feel like he’s right here beside me, you know pushing me and I feel like almost I’m doing this mostly for him. So, I’ll finish what he started when he can’t.

Jeremy Lesniak:

That’s pretty heavy. Yeah, I don’t want to go off so over that, you know I want to make sure I’m honoring that answer. That’s a big deal. I’m assuming that the name and the date on your arm.

Eddie Andujar:

It is. Ugh no. Well, I have him up there too, I got him on the other side yeah. So yeah, I’m most reminded by him, I have a necklace engraved with name I’m always at his burial site, I’m always at his grave, I got his name tattooed on me, I mean I think about him a lot and specially when I’m training. I always think about him, even before like a tournament, I would just think about him or 10:59 so he motivates me.

Jeremy Lesniak:

If you could train with any martial artist, living or dead, who would that be and why?

Eddie Andujar:

If I could train, my pick would definitely got to be Chuck Norris. You know, he’s just, how old is he now? 70 something years old, almost 80 years old and

Jeremy Lesniak:

I think he just turned 75

Eddie Andujar:

75 years old and look at the guy. He’s still in amazing shape, he looks like, he doesn’t look li a day over fifty. You don’t get tougher than that either I mean you see it all out there and nobody is tougher that chuck Norris. He’s trained with the best, I’m sure he is a plethora of knowledge 11:43 martial arts that I’m sure I can learn from.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yes. I’m sure at 75 he could still take out both of us at the same time. You know it’s a story I wouldn’t even mind telling people. I got beat up by a 75-year-old man, “oh yeah?” yeah, it’s chuck Norris “oh okay I understand now.”

Eddie Andujar:

Yeah it would definitely be chuck Norris. He’s a in everything, movie actor, martial artist and there’s so many out there, that was a tough question for me, there’s so many out there that I love to train with. Tony Jaa, Bruce Lee, Donnie Yen, so many of them 12:36 there’s so many martial artists that, karate martial artist on top of that too. Big thing for me.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah, absolutely. Is chuck Norris your favorite martial arts actor?

Eddie Andujar:

He is but he is not right now. Ever since Tony Jaa came into the scene I just started following him, his style and all the different martial arts that he brings together, just kind of like Bruce lee did. It goes on mind to see him through his works, he’s an artist sure.

Jeremy Lesniak:

He is pretty incredible absolutely. Any movies that comes to mind?

Eddie Andujar:

The whole Ong Bak trilogy, I had to finish the last episode, the last one and he’s a, I don’t know if you’ve seen it but when he’s doing the training and the tempo and his mind right, he’s like battling his demons and that’s like a big thing for me. Like that’s one of the biggest things for me in a movie that I appreciate and just his fighting along it’s like he’s fighting as a b13:43 himself you know 13:49. What do they call Muay baran I think it is, when he’s doing the Tibetan foot stop, I can’t explain it I’ll try looking it up.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Well you know, people are just going to have to watch the movie if they haven’t seen them.

Eddie Andujar:

Exactly. If you haven’t heard of Tony Jaa in Ong Bak then you haven’t lived yet.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Well of course in the show notes I’ll have links to the Ong Bak movies for people to check out.

Eddie Andujar:

That awesome.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Do you have any martial arts related goals for the future?

Eddie Andujar:

I do, I do. I’ve been doing a lot of tournaments lately and vie been looking to, maybe do a little bit of full contacts. You know, vie always want to travel and you know, if travelling was free I’d be gone already. I would love to travel and train with different people with different countries, you know go live out in china for three months go train out in china, japan I mean that’s a dream that I would love to come true but in reality, I’m probably just going to stay here and get my black belt and keep doing the 15:05 see how far that takes me.

Jeremy Lesniak:

I don’t think you need to throw the word “just” in there I think. I’m going to leave that in, I want people to hear that but I think that there’s a modesty there that you’re throwing on to it and anybody that has trained long and hard enough to earn their back belts to make martial arts a lifelong pursuit. We all know as black belts, it’s not something that you just kind of gloss over or something that deserves the word “just”

Eddie Andujar:

Right, I understand.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Don’t be a little 15:41 at all its a huge goal and I think it’s an important one.

Eddie Andujar:

Right. I got a feeling that I would be with these guys for a long time so, it’s not the rest of my life you know. I got to do it on my own now and I don’t have to worry about my parents not being to afford it anymore or I don’t have any excuses

Jeremy Lesniak:

Just opportunities.

Eddie Andujar:

Right exactly.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Do you have any parting advice for the martial artists listening to this show?

Eddie Andujar:

I would say, just keep that fire going, keep that passion going you know. Everybody’s got that spirit and I see that. Some people have more than others and some people have it later or some people have it sooner that others and that just, I don’t know when the tough gets going, the going gets tough stick it through in

Jeremy Lesniak:

Ok great, that went really well. I want to thank you for being on the show Eddie, appreciate your time.

Eddie Andujar:

Thank you very much for having me, I appreciate it. It’s a great opportunity and I look forward to be on your show again when I’m a black belt.

Jeremy Lesniak:

I love that that’s a perfect ending. I dig it.

Thank you for listening to this episode of whistlekick martial arts radio. A big thank you for Eddie Andujar for coming on and telling us his story. Please be sure to subscribe on the show so you never miss one of our weekly episodes. If you do like the show, we’d really appreciate a five-star review on iTunes, Stitcher or where ever you get your podcasts. You can check out the show notes at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com and while you’re over there, if you want to be a guest on the show, or you know someone that would be a great addition, please help us and fill out the guest form. And of course, if you’d like to learn more about the stuff at whistlekick, please check us out on the web at whistlekick.com or we’re all over social media, with the handle @whistlekick thanks a lot! Train hard, smile and have a great day!