Upon meeting this fine young man, one would immediately observe a well-mannered, well-spoken individual with a dedication and spirit that unfortunately is lacking in many aspects of modern society. His background and upbringing has obviously molded him into a no-nonsense straightforward type of man. No excuses; what you see is what you get – in other words, no pretense, just truth.

Having observed Vince Cecere teaching, what one word could I use to best describe his method? REALITY. Many people enter the martial arts for many reasons. If you are interested in learning about combat fighting in the real world you have come to the right place.

* Tashi Vince Cecere, (“Tashi” means polished teacher) is the founder and Chief Instructor of Atemi-Ryu – Combat Ju-Jitsu in Los Angeles. 3rd Degree Black Belt under Grandmaster Dr.Philip Chenique, MS.D.

* He is the founder of an organization named “Warriors for Peace” Founder “Warriors for Peace”. A worldwide community of martial artists coming together for the training and security of airline industry personnel.

* Tashi Cecere received the International Black Belt Hall of Fame Humanitarian of the Year 2002, for his work with the Airline Industry.

* Vince is the Head Representative, Sanuces Ryu Combat Ju-Jitsu of So. California, Third Degree Black Belt under Grandmaster Dr. Moses Powell, “The Living Legend” and Student of Supreme Grandmaster Florenso Visitacion “Master Vee”

Creator and Founder of Vee Jitsu Ju-Jitsu Systems.

Tashi has instructed:

* U. S. Air Force, Inter-American Air Force Academy at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, TX.

* U.S. Naval War College, Newport, RI

* Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Glynco, GA

* U. S. Army Special Forces, John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, NC.

* 82nd Airborne, Advanced Non-Commissioned Officers Academy at Fort Bragg, NC.

* Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept.

* LAPD Arrest and Control Unit.

* FBI advanced arrest and control tactics.

* Girl Scouts of America anti-abduction seminars.

* Rape Prevention to women of all ages.

* Security Agencies, Executive Bodyguards, Private Investigators, Celebrities, Bouncers, etc.

* Tashi is a Close Quarter Combat Specialist, and an Accupressure/Nerve Striking Specialist

* Creator of Vinny's Empowerment Training Camps.

* Featured instructor in Young Masters VII combat video series, Fayetteville, NC.

* Recognized and endorsed by Congressman Henry A. Waxman, Los Angeles, CA.

* Endorsed by Federal Aviation Administration Safety Instructors.

* Sensei has dedicated himself to martial arts knowledge for over 13 years.

If Vince looks familiar, it's because you've probably seen him on the ABC Evening News as their expert combat consultant, in a story on training flight crews with his organization Warriors for Peace, and in such movies as Analyze This, Serving Sara, Logan's War, and In the Shadows.

Tashi has been on national TV on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and in connection with his involvement with his organization Warriors for Peace. He has starred in the TV show Worst Case Scenario in How to Survive a Bar Attack with Tashi Vince Cecere, and will be a guest star instructor on Blind Date. He is also a fight co-coordinator and stuntman.

He will soon be in a movie called Flyboys where he co-stars with Tom Sizemore and Stephen Baldwin. It is a gangster film set in Las Vegas with thrills and suspense guaranteed. 

Tashi is also a regular at the world famous Comedy Store on Sunset Blvd. in LA. Call for show times. (323) 650-6268

It is not often that a one finds excellence in today's world, however you will certainly find it in Tashi Vince Cecere. Tashi Cecere has invented the “Atemi-stick” which will hopefully soon change the face of Law enforcement especially in the area of arrest and control. Tashi is currently working toward the training of 70 Federal Agencies in the use of his “Atemi-stick.”

You can visit Tashi Cecere's web site at: http://www.vinnysfightclub.com/

Many thanks and continued success,

Shihan Anthony Katsoulas

The following interview of Tashi Cecere was conducted by Shihan Anthony Katsoulas (AK) and Jeremy Silman (JS) on July 29, 2003.

AK: You've always had a hands-on approach to martial arts. Aside from Sonny Chiba, what other people or actors inspired you?

TASHI CECERE: Actors? Marlon Brando is on top of the field for me.

AK: You have a background in comedy – you do standup comedy.

TASHI CECERE: Yes, the comedy store in LA.

AK: How did that come about?

TASHI CECERE: I've been on stage my whole life – since the 3^rd grade.

AK: A lot of people don't know that you've actually been in several films as an adult. For example, ANALYZE THIS.

TASHI CECERE: Robert DeNiro, Billy Crystal, and Harold Ramis. It was a great experience.

AK: What was it like to spend time with DeNiro?

TASHI CECERE: The very first day of filming happened to be my birthday, and my trailer turned out to be right next to DeNiro's, so I spent my birthday with him. It was wonderful.

They gave me the role because I was a lunatic, not because of my acting skills. They called me in for a very small single-line part, but I noticed a large group of actors and asked Harold Ramis what they were going to read for. He told me it was for the much larger role of a hit man, and I said, “They're all very scary looking. Why don't we be fair about this? Put us all in one room together and whoever walks out gets the job!”

Harold got tickled at the idea and asked me to read for it. I also think he appreciated that I was just being myself – none of the usual star-struck garbage. So I asked him if he wanted me to be a real New Yorker or what Hollywood thinks a New Yorker is. He said, “What do you mean by that?” So I showed him by going over to the table, poking my finger into his chest and, in my best thick Bronx accent, did my mafia routine. He actually backed off and said, “Hey, this kid has the heat!”

AK: You grew up in NY, didn't you?

TASHI CECERE: Yeah, I was born in the Bronx (Arthur Avenue and 187^th St.). Went to school at P.S.76. After 8^th grade I was asked to leave…no, no, it was the second week of 10^th. My dad was asked to leave at 8^th; I made it two more years than he did.

AK: When did you first enter the marital arts?

TASHI CECERE: I was a body builder and was competing in Mr. Florida back in 1989. I was in my late 20s and I owned a first-class, guys-in-tuxedos, twelve piece orchestra, 10,000 square foot Latin nightclub. I had a bunch of gorillas working for me and, one day, two men came in from Brooklyn and got into a fight with some Spanish dudes and someone got stabbed. This was the first time in my life where my bouncers proved to be useless – they were huge, yet the minute they saw a blade they either ran or froze. They just didn't know what to do. I suddenly realized that if one of my family members or myself had been attacked that day, I didn't have the skills to do anything about it. As a result, the very next day I went out looking for a dojo. This was in Hollywood, Florida, and the only combat school I could find was Jujitsu.

JS: A lot of people wouldn't have been familiar with martial arts and would have looked for boxing lessons. Did that cross your mind?

TASHI CECERE: I could already box, and I had been a dancer for nine years. However, boxing limits you to two tools: either knock the guy out or leave him alone. That's all you have. You don't have any options. You don't have the option of disarming him, taking him down, tying him up, or anything else simply because you don't have the knowledge.

JS: When you were younger, did you ever watch Bruce Lee films? It seems that this was the way American audiences became aware of martial arts as something that deserved serious study.

TASHI CECERE: Absolutely. The truth of the matter is, I had never heard of JuJitsu when I got into it. I didn't know anything about styles. I had never been in a dojo before. I had been in a lot of boxing gyms – John Glenn's gym, Times Square gym, etc. A lot of champions trained there, but never actually a martial arts dojo – more hardcore iron pumping and boxing. My bartender was the one that found this school. He told me that I should look into Ninjitsu, but there wasn't a Ninjitsu school around and the closest thing to that was Jujitsu. So I found a little dojo in Hollywood, Florida, stepped into it, and met Professor Leo for the first time. He was a 5^th Dan Shihan then, I told him what happened, and he invited me to sit down and watch as two students came in with tantos – a tanto is a

practice knife – and he had both try and assault him at the same time. I watched him disarm both of them and take them out as if they weren't even there. He went right through them…took them down, disarmed them, had them both tied up and helpless.

I thought it was bullshit, that it was a setup of some sort, that there was no way anyone could do that to two armed attackers. So I tried it. I took a tanto and told him to do it to me. I was about 252 at the time, and I don't remember what technique he used, because all I can remember is the pain. I was on my back, I was disarmed, and when somebody puts their hands on you like that, in a combative way, and really takes you out without any effort, you realize there's a lot of skill there…a lot of knowledge. You have to realize that I had never had anything like that done to me.

I was always the guy knocking other people down. So it was like entering a whole different world. You seriously get into martial arts you have to put your ego on the shelf and take your ass kicking every day for the next twelve years.

JS: What exactly is Ju-jitsu?

TASHI CECERE: Ju-jitsu is a pliable way of fighting. They call it the old man's art because it doesn't require size or strength. Its application is based on the central nervous system using pressure points, using joint locks and manipulation, and atemi – the character atemi means a vital strike to an opening. So our system is called “Atemi-Ryu Jujitsu,” the striking way of pliable combat.

JS: How does that compare to something like Aikido?

TASHI CECERE: Aikido comes from Ju-jitsu. I'm a Japanese derivation Ju-jitsuist. There are 725 forms of Jujitsu in Japan alone. Then you have Brazil and many half-breed styles from all over the world. So there are many forms of Jujitsu hybrids.

AK: In many ways all forms of martial arts have been bastardized to fit an individual's own style or your own environment. A lot of people would come to my dojo in Australia and ask, “Sensei, how long will it take me to break a brick?” And I'd answer, “When was the last time you were attacked by a brick?”

The fact is if you give any martial artist two techniques and those techniques are mastered, there's nobody that's going to beat you. You don't have to know thirty-six katas or forty movements. Instead, you just need two techniques that you excel at so well that you can disarm anybody. Everything else is a balance. But a lot of people just take little pieces that work for their environment and needs. There's no reason to learn to strike at a distance if you are fighting in an elevator.

TASHI CECERE: You figure that Japanese Jujitsu, in its system, has Kenpo hand-strikes, Judo throws, and Aikido – the spirit blending and the harmonious way. That is the Aki-Jitsu, Aikido aspects of Jujitsu. But Jujitsu is the mother art. It encompasses all these things. Now if you come West to America and you say, “I just want to do the hand strikes and kicks”, you will call it Kenpo, and if other guys say, “I don't want to do any of that killer stuff. I just want the throws,” that's judo. So when you put it all together and learn the whole system, all of those aspects, including weapons, that encompasses the mother art of Jujitsu. But it's a long road, not a short road…it's not a quick fix, it's not about getting your black belt in a year. It's more like spending your first nine years on the mat before you see any kind of real rank. We stay very traditional, very true to who we are. Our home dojo is much more traditional than I am. I just believe I'm in the 21^st Century, and though we have to respect and learn all the things from the past, we also have to advance new kinds of combat – you have to realize that there are new kinds of weapons that people carry about that nobody had fifty years ago.

JS: How about the average guy – someone who doesn't really know anything, who isn't in peak physical condition. How long would it take such a person to feel he could defend himself?

TASHI CECERE: First of all, age has nothing to do with this – it's for young and old. That's why they call it the “old man's art.” Supreme Grandmaster Florenso Visitacion (Master Vee), Moses Powell's teacher, my teacher, the teacher of all teachers, was eighty-six years old, 115 lbs, 5' 1” and he kicked the shit out of Professor Leo and myself. We did a multiple assault on Master Vee and he took us both out. We realized that he was so old and frail looking that you would break him in half if you got your hands on him. “Get your hands on him,” that's the first trick. It's like trying to grab an eel, trying to grab a humming bird in flight. He's just too fast. And when you're doing martial arts for seventy years, every move you make is efficient, every strike emphatic. And that's the reason I hit the mat.

So clearly, age doesn't matter. Yes, you won't start doing ukemi at the age of fifty; (ukemi is a break fall – learning how to fall. You would have a good shot at being injured if you tried to learn that at fifty or sixty.). But we have people at fifty or sixty starting out, learning how to roll out, to maneuver, get their energy and vitality back. You see some people in the forties and up that seem truly old. Yet others of the same age or even older have the vitality of someone far, far younger. Jujitsu can help you recapture that energy.

TASHI CECERE: I was never a traditionalist. There are guys that want you to fold your gi in just the right way. I'm not that kind of guy. I just like to go in and teach the combat aspect and the efficiency of fighting.

Our uniform is very simple: you step in it, there's one drawstring and a top. That's it. As far as the uniform I wore when I came up, which was a traditional hakama bottom and a gi top, I'm not an aikidoist, and generally aikido is the one in which you wear the black hakama and white top. Us, we always wear a gi with a hakama. The hakama is the flowing skirt that is common for jujitsu. It's also a training tool that teaches you to walk properly since you can't overstep because it will trip you.

So, at the end of the day am I taking away from tradition? I don't know cause there are a million guys here that have schools who know how to fold things really nicely. And if you want to master the art of folding you can go take a class there. If you want a little medal, you can find a school where a guy will teach you to fight and give you a trophy of some sort, or perhaps give a thirteen-year-old student a black belt that will make his parents proud. But you won't find any of this in my school.

For me as a warrior, I try to think of things in the context of today's world. But we don't take away from the past either. We make our bottoms and our gi is a logical extension of our art, and all the grandmasters love them.

AK: You have a background in bodybuilding. Obviously, to look at you anyone would know you've been to the gym. Do you think that being physically strong has helped you in martial arts?

TASHI CECERE: Yes and no. “Yes” because if you're physically fit you can take a lot of punishment when you have a thick coat of muscle on you. “No” because, as anyone who works with pressure points knows, the less adipose tissue you have close to your skin, the more pain you feel. So while I'm staying shredded I also took more impact from hits as I came up in the art. Finally, most martial artists are not big guys like us. They are usually smaller and fitter people – clearly the lack of huge muscles doesn't prevent them from acquiring an enormous level of skill.

AK: A long time ago I heard you say on television that if an old person can pick up a pot of coffee, he can learn the simple hand techniques that will allow him to disable most attackers.

TASHI CECERE: Yes, no doubt about it.

JS: You obviously mastered your art pretty quickly. So if an average guy decided to devote himself to Jujitsu and become as good as possible as quickly as possible, what kind of timeframe are we looking at?

TASHI CECERE: People always want to know when they are going to become proficient – they are obsessed with how long the process will take them. Here's a story that puts things in perspective: A student came to the master and said, “I want to be really good. How long will it take me to get a black belt if I come to the dojo twice a week?” And the master said, “It will take you three years.” This upset the student, who felt that this was far too long. So he asked, “What if I come four times a week?” The master said, “It will take six years.” The student said, “Six years? What if I come six times a week?” The master said, “Nine years.” Now the student was really upset and said, “I don't understand! You're telling me that the more I do the longer it will take me?” The master said, “Yes, because you're trying too hard, and you are chasing the wrong thing. You're trying to get accreditation to see how proficient you can be. The martial arts are about an internal process that helps you come into contact with the warrior inside of you.”

How long that takes is an individual thing. And sometimes you don't unlock that key for a long, long time. Other times you step right on it and bang – you just know that this is where you belong. So the amount of time necessary to master the martial arts is a personal thing. You can take a guy who is really physically fit but it doesn't mean he's going to be great in jujitsu. In fact, he might turn out to be terrible.

That's why we say to choose a form, work with it, sit and think about it, and try and get in touch with it. See if it works well with your body and temperament.

AK: Most black belts can't fight their way out of a paper bag – the only use for their black belt is to hold their pants up. An average Western martial artist goes to a dojo once or twice a week – twice if he's dedicated – but he does nothing at home. He comes to the dojo, sees the sensei, goes through the workouts, listens to the teachings and thinks he'll be a better man for it. Then, six years later, he gets a black belt. The problem with that is, he has no experience in life. He thinks he's a fighter, but he really knows nothing; six years is nothing more than a beginning. Oyama looked at 3^rd Dans as beginners. They thought they knew everything, but in reality they knew nothing at all.

Ultimately it doesn't matter if you're the best fighter in the world or the best teacher. What matters is a feeling of respect, and instilling a warrior spirit that, sadly, is lacking in most schools.

You were inducted into the black belt hall of fame for humanitarian of the year. What was that for?

TASHI CECERE: That was for doing work with the airlines and bringing awareness to the people of the need for martial arts in the workplace. Martial arts is about life, and it's for everybody – everyone can benefit from it. We don't say, “That's a female and we won't teach her because she can't do the things that some of my males students can do. The same can be said for an older student, or a student with a disability. Martial arts training is for everyone.

Any martial art is viable. Perhaps one is better than another in combat, but all are viable to the individual. All will make you more self-confident. All will make you think more highly of yourself and will make you see life in a very different way. Suddenly they aren't walking around in fear because you don't have the tools to stop anyone and everyone from kicking your ass. Instead, with training, you become more self-assured and calm. What it's really about is empowering people. And everyone can be improved and empowered through martial arts. You can be six or sixty, you can be sick, you can be blind – martial arts will still improve your life.

AK: Devotees of the martial arts – FBI agents, serious martial artists, special forces – all felt enormous frustration about 9/11. They all felt that if they or someone like them had been on those jets that whole disastrous event would never have occurred. Were you teaching people at the airlines so that something like that would never happen again?

TASHI CECERE: That's true; that was one of the things I did.

AK: The hijackers were “armed” with box-cutters. There is no doubt in my mind that any one of Cecere's senior students would have easily rendered all of them harmless if they had been there. But defending yourself against people like that isn't a matter of getting a belt at a school. You can do well if you just learn a few simple techniques.

JS: What's a good age to start learning martial arts, and what was the youngest student you've had?

TASHI CECERE: My youngest student was six. I think seven or eight is a good age.

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EPILOGUE BY JEREMY SILMAN

After the interview was concluded, I waited a few days and then made a point of visiting Tashi Cecere's dojo. It turned out to be quite an education! I was awed by the incredibly hard work all his students went through and the effort they put out as they strived to learn the techniques he was offering. Most impressive – aside from the enormous respect his students and senior instructors held for Tashi Cecere – was the respect they gave each other. Tashi Cecere and his school have made an indelible impression on me, and if you are lucky enough to be able to call this gentleman “teacher” then you can consider yourself blessed.

I owe a debt of gratitude to my dear friend Shihan Anthony Katsoulas for making this interview possible and for directly taking part in it. And, of course, I would like to thank Tashi Cecere for granting me the time to make this interview a reality.