Hanshi Richard Bernard: Tournament Kata Champion

Hanshi Richard Bernard’s Full Interview, Episode 64 of WhistleKick Martial Arts Radio Podcast
Download Hanshi Richard Bernard’s full interview transcript PDF.

How has your martial arts training helped you in your life?

Part of my past life included that I was a police officer in the town of Bedford, New Hampshire, and I basically was working part-time, but I was putting in so many hours part-time, they asked me if I would like to come on full-time and get the benefits of that. At the time, I was 42 years old, so it meant I’d have to go to the police academy for, at the time it was a 10-week academy.

So 42 years old, everyone else up there is gonna be 20-25, for the most part. They sent up another 42-year old from Bedford, a former Marine, which I have the highest respect for. I asked him. I said, “Are you getting ready for this academy?” He said, “Nah, I went to Parris Island. I’ll be able to deal with it, no problem.” I said, “Yeah, but that was like 20 years ago.”

So he went up, and he washed out the first day.

So now I’m going up to the next academy and it’s in alphabetical order. So last name, Bernard, I’m near the front of the line. We don’t have any uniforms on or anything at this point so they basically said, “Who are you and where are you from?” I said “I’m Richard Bernard from Bedford, New Hampshire.” They said, “Bedford, New Hampshire, what are they recruiting from the senior citizen home out there?” I saw the Lieutenant and the Sergeants. They were taking a pool, on what time that first day I would wash out. They were passing dollars amongst each other. When I saw that, I said, “Okay, that’s just what I need. Throw a little gas on my fire.” So the Lieutenant said, “What do you think about that, Bernard?” I said, “I don’t think you should take that bet, sir.”

So, the Academy proceeded and I was number one ranking, every week. It ended up, I came out of there with a number one ranking.

But the 6th week was my shining time. We’re in class and other departments were sending some regulars there to attend these particular classes. So there are the police chiefs, there were state police, there were fish and game, there were deputy sheriffs, and then this classroom of probably 46 remaining recruits. And the Lieutenant, he was a black belt in Taekwondo and he was kind of encouraging us to continue our physical training after we graduate. Like in his case, he took martial arts.

Then he said, “Does anyone else take martial arts?” No one wants to answer. So he says, “Honor code violation,” meaning if you do not answer truthfully, they will bounce you, and I already saw a couple booted. So three of us put up our hand. The first guy said, “I’m a green belt in Kempo.” He said, “Well alright, keep it up, keep training.” And then another guy, he said, “What are you?” He said “I’m a brown belt in Taekwondo.” So he said, “Oh, okay.” And he looks up and, the lighting is a little bit dim up at the back of the room, so he kinda squints and he said, “Hey, grandpa what are you?” At the time, I said, “I’m a Godan in Karate-do.” He says, “What? Speak English.” I said, “I’m a 5th degree black belt in Japanese Karate.”

At that point, he stopped teaching, he turned, and he bowed to me. Ahh, I get emotional when I talk about this. He apologized for not knowing. He said, “I should have known, I apologize sir.” And from that point out, I cruised through that academy. It was obvious to him who had training and he missed it. He said, “Oh, I should have known!” You know, 42 years old, finishing the first of the pack, what makes this guy tick?

And that was my day in the sun, right there.

They’re looking for the weak links, should there be any, cause they don’t want to put these guys out on the street and endanger themselves as well as their fellow officers and the general public. So by me finishing first every week – I finished first academically. At the end of the Academy I got an award and the town of Bedford gave me an award.

It started out, they did a lot of running and a lot of push-ups. I actually set a record up there for push-ups. And the running… I start at the back of the pack but then they were moving me up to the front with couple of recruits that just got out of the Marines. They’re in phenomenal shape. So, I’m in the front of the pack on the run. So I’d already proven myself and so, they knew that I had what it took to be an officer. So they kind of zeroed in on a few of the others that were questionable yet.

So basically, I had nothing left to prove at that point, I just continued to do what I had been doing, and as I said, I finished first academically. That was my goal when I went in. I just didn’t want to get through the academy. On weekends, when I came home, a lot of the guys maybe partied a little bit. I studied all weekend, all weekend-long. I studied for the test that was gonna be coming on Monday morning. I maintained my number one ranking for all 10 weeks. I’m not sure that was ever done before, up to that point. I just don’t know but… I was on a mission.

Karate has taught me to set your goals, set the bar high, and give it your best shot.

That I did.

– Hanshi Richard Bernard as related in WhistleKick podcast

Do you have any martial arts books you recommend?

I read a book recently. It’s actually written by a Uechi stylist, that’s a competitor. He has a Uechi school, a couple of towns over, his name is Buzz Durkin. He runs the school consistently, 350-400 students. Tuition’s about $225 a month. He’s got the highest retention rate, I think in the world. No one quits his school – no one. So he wrote a book. You can sit down and read it in one sitting, it’s called The Martial Arts School Owner’s Guide to Teaching, Business and Life.

I’ve read it twice so far and I’m gonna read it again. I bought a copy for the seven schools within Shidokan. I bought a copy for each of the owners and I said, there’s something to be learned by reading this simple book this gentleman has. He teaches Uechi Karate, traditional school. There are only 8 kata in the whole system. They don’t do any extra, no upgrade, there’s no black belt clubs or anything like this. There’s just traditional Karate training, as simple as simple can get and no one quits that school. And he got the best retention so… I read it twice, like I said, and in fact I shared it with some of the people on the circuit recently. We were talking about the business piece of martial arts and then I said, “Hey, I just read a book; you gotta get it.” So this last tournament, a couple of them said, “Hey, we read that book and we passed it on to some of our students.” I never read anything more than once, but I’ve been sitting down to start this for the third time.

What do you do to develop relationships with the students, to hold onto them and the next generation, and the next generation. What do you do? You gotta be more than just the training. He relates that in his book, a gold nugget of information. I always knew he had the retention. I just didn’t quite know how he achieved it. And he was very forthcoming in the book, this is how I did it, and great, great information.

– Hanshi Richard Bernard as related in WhistleKick podcast

What are your goals over the next several years?

Yeah. My organization, Shidokan USA [since 1996]. Right now there are seven schools. I’m looking to recruit more schools into that organization. We’ve got a Taekwondo school, we’ve got Shorin-ryu schools, we have Goju schools, so style is almost irrelevant. … Basically, I accredit curriculums, I license schools, I instruct the licensure certification, rank certification, and business development, is basically what Shidokan does.

What I did, I’ve been a member of quite a few organizations over the years when Mr. Martin was on his sabbatical. I had joined a number of different organizations and so when it came to the creation of Shidokan, which I created with my Shorin Ryu instructor from Laconia, New Hampshire. I wrote down okay, I’ve been a member of all these organizations, what are the bad points? What do I not want? Where do we not want to go? And what were the good points? So we kinda listed both of those. The bad points were as long as my leg and the good points were too few. So we developed an organization that invested interest in schools, not so much on the financial end, but if the school’s more successful, the organization becomes more successful.

Some of the organizations that I’m part of were making crazy demands. Let’s say I was a Goju stylist but then I joined a Shorin-ryu organization because I started studying Shorin-ryu as well and it’s my full-time profession. One of their requirements was okay we’re gonna come in and everyone puts on a white belt, starts fresh. You want me to go to a couple of hundred parents and tell them that their children who have been with me, you know, 6, 8, 10 years are no longer a 6th degree junior black belt and they’re gonna go back to white belt? Is that what you’re saying? Yeah, that’s it. I said, “There’s not gonna be a school. We could be a member of your organization but there’s not gonna be a school here shortly.” That just doesn’t make sense. So certain things like that. Demands that were absolutely insane on the business side. And none of these people were making their living doing professional martial arts, as far as in the trenches of the dojo.

So that’s how Shidokan came to be. And right now, we’ve got seven member schools. We’re always looking to recruit new schools.

Basically, if someone doesn’t have a teacher. If they have no future access to rank. If they’re interested in teaching licensure, basically we will license you through The International Organization of all Japan Karate-do Federation. I received an international licensure through them [in 1994], so that opened up the door for me to now be able to issue the same credentials through Shidokan. And for someone else, for whatever reason, if you don’t have a teacher. Now if you had a teacher and say “Well, I didn’t get promoted. So I left,” Shidokan is not interested in you. That’s an invalid reason. I’ve been there myself… No, no. Your teacher is your karate, martial arts dad. You just don’t walk out on your dad. You sit down at the table, hash out your differences, and you need to trust your teacher. Unless they’re giving you some absolutely, concrete reason not to, and those are few and far between from what I’ve seen out there. Yeah, someone whose teacher passed on or their teacher retired or they moved and have no further connection, they’d be a fine candidate for Shidokan.

– Hanshi Richard Bernard as related in WhistleKick podcast