EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH BRITTANY TATUM

Interview by Tony Perez

Brittany Tatum is the eldest daughter of influential Martial Arts parents Larry and Jill Tatum. Although she became aware of her parent’s impact on the Martial Arts world at a young age, it wasn’t until much later that she came to fully appreciate her own true destiny. Today she is the manager of the Larry Tatum Kenpo Karate Association (LTKKA) Headquarters in Pasadena, California.

In this exclusive interview with Kenpo Karate Australasia’s Tony Perez, Brittany shares her memories of growing up surrounded by Kenpo, the life lessons learned along the way and her hopes and dreams for the future.

TP: Brittany, it’s a pleasure to have this opportunity to chat with you. I know a lot of people will be interested in your perspective of Kenpo as a female practitioner and as the daughter of one of the most prominent Kenpo instructors of our time. Can I begin by asking, what are your earliest recollections of Kenpo?   

BT: Wow, thank you Tony. My mom and dad had such a great time on their first visit to Australia in 2007and I’m so glad we’ve made contact.  

My earliest memories of Kenpo are the mats and bare feet...my father's rickety, old heater in his office turned up as high as it could go in the winter and the studio sweltering in the summer. There was always dust and sweat in the air. This was back when studios actually had private rooms, complete with shoji screen doors, where I took my naps as a child; the sounds of men and women grinding their feet into the mats and gutteral kiai’s lulling me to sleep.  

I remember my father's giant office desk, cluttered with Chinese nick nacks. When I was bored and he was teaching, I used to pick my way through this one enormous middle drawer where there was more than enough "treasure" for a 5 year old to play with....erasers, old paperclips, etc.  

My earliest sparring recollection was around the same time, and I was paired with a boy who had enormous Giraffe legs. Every time I went to attack I got the wind knocked out of me with one of those giant legs. I remember the pain and the lesson of developing one's Ki. I was a yellow belt, this was 27 years ago!  

TP: Was Kenpo something you were naturally drawn too or was it a case of "if you can't beat them, join them?"  

BT: I know that Kenpo is in my blood, when you look at pictures of me and my father when I was a baby I was always mimicking his hands, fists, etc. From an early age I think I just wanted to be like my dad - it only took me 30 years to fully realize that!  

TP: What challenges were there growing up being part of such an influential Martial Arts family?   

BT: The challenges were that my father was hardly ever home when I was awake during the week. He would work from 7am to 10pm every night. This went on for nearly 12 years. It was hard not being able to spend time with him. He sacrificed a lot when I was younger to make sure my mother and I were well taken care of.  

TP: How did that environment affect your relationships with school friends?

BT: In terms of school challenges, I was an outcast. Everyone I went to school with came from wealthy single income families. The mother was a homemaker and the dad was a doctor or lawyer. It was pretty funny that my parents were neither, yet here I was in private schools, our family certainly rocked their idea of the world! I laugh about it today, but when I was younger, I remember feeling often that I was on the outside of my friend's social circle, I was made fun of, looked at funny, taunted by the boys, prank calls, you name it. The school mother’s were also nasty to me AND my mom at school meetings, Girl Scout gatherings, etc. We did everything to try to fit in.  

TP: I assume that managing the LTKKA Headquarters has given you a greater appreciation of what your dad went through?

Now that I manage our school, I get to experience a small dose of the pressure and stress a Karate studio can put on you. Sometimes between teaching Yoga and Kenpo I work 12-14 hour days. When I forget to pack lunch, I'm stuck! I have horrible feet and am exhausted by 9:30pm...it takes a lot of energy to teach and move all day long. I don't know how my father has done it for so many years!

Looking back, I am glad that we didn't. I would rather be who I am than someone's idea of who I should be, and I am proud of my parents and who they are as well.  Besides, my parents were in better shape than most of their peers anyway.    

TP: Did you ever feel the pressure to follow in your father's footsteps?  

BT: Oddly, only when I decided to follow in my father's footsteps did I start feeling the pressure! Dad never pressured me, nor did mom. In fact, I worked in Marketing and Graphics Design for well known corporations where I had to wear skirt-suits and heels everyday! I did that for a decade before I answered my true calling, which is to teach both Kenpo Karate and Yoga. By teaching, I feel that I am completing my own destiny, which is to live a life of service, helping people reach their potential, helping them find inner peace as well as confidence through self defence and meditative movement.  
 
TP: What's the biggest life lesson you've learned from studying Kenpo?  

BT: There really is a dark and light side of the force! Peace on earth comes from peace in one's self. A Kenpoist driven by anger, jealousy, competition, etc. will always be slow and lumbering as they are bogged down and mired in negative emotion. If you want to experience the flow of life and Kenpo within you, you've got to learn to let go of the ego and while accepting the shadows of life, attempt to emerge into the light.  

When I was younger I had a big chip on my shoulder, I thought that I was pretty bad! My Kenpo sucked! As I have gotten older I have dropped that attitude. Learning how to surrender that negative train of thought is what has kept me alive, as well as allowed me to see the beauty of the Art untainted.   
 

TP: What’s the most important element to being a successful instructor?

BT: Teach with a happy heart and you will have happy students!

TP: Do you think Martial Arts training is a necessity or a luxury for women?  

BT: Women already know how to defend themselves, just like men. We are all built with a certain set of instincts and survival mechanisms to help us out of life-threatening situations....the difference for women however, is that we have a different set of triggers for what we consider "life-threatening."  

Men have a broader scope of what they consider dangerous or scary to them. I feel that unless a woman's child, family or pet is threatened, she won't care for herself or watch out for her own well being as much as a man would.  

For myself, I know that Martial Arts training has brought my sense of "life-threatening" situations to a higher, broader level. In that regard, I feel that it is a necessity for women like me to have that training. To be trained to care about myself as much as I would my loved ones, and to not allow my environment to be a place of potential danger.

TP: That’s such a good point. Apathy, that belief that “it won’t happen to me” or as we say in Australia, “she’ll be right, mate” has gotten many people into difficult situations. Combine that with a willingness to believe in the Good Samaritan – that someone will come to our aid, and potentially you have quite a dangerous mindset. In today’s society people just don’t want to get involved because of their own fears. Generally when people speak of environment they singularly think of what surrounds them, rather than additionally what is “in them” and “on them.”

BT: That’s right Tony, and women tend to think that they can handle anything, change anything, take the negative and turn it positive. That mindset has put many women like me in situations that are dangerous because generally we try to nurture everything around us.  

In other words, women take more crap than most men! Martial Arts training reminds us to remember to protect ourselves and teaches us that it is important to defend ourselves right away, not after we've been pushed into a corner.  

TP: Getting a good education, eating healthy, exercising good judgement etc. are all elements of sound self defence, but all too often we predispose ourselves to respond in a physically aggressive way. Over 2000 years of civilization and yet we still don’t get it that if you fight fire with fire you’ll only get a bigger fire.

BT: I believe that to be true. There has to be a balance. If you are trigger happy and paranoid you subconsciously will put yourself in conflict situations because that is what you will attract. The key is to be aware, not paranoid; trained and ready, but not aggressive.   

To answer your questions more directly, because of the society we live in today, I feel that it is a necessity for women to train in martial arts in order to be aware of how the world really is, and how to protect yourself in the world today. It is a luxury that we have so much opportunity to get the training we need...so ladies, go get the training so you can be beautiful, confident and well protected!  

TP: What advice would you give to ladies, mum's who have never done any Martial Arts training but have expressed and an interest in getting into Kenpo?  

BT: Check out a group class then get on the mats!!! Try it with a friend, start a Ladies Kenpo club, make it fun! The cardio is amazing for weight loss; mention that to women and they hit the mats and start sweating. I seldom get a woman that wants to learn martial arts because she's interested in the art. Most of my "first timer" women are ladies that want to lose weight, be stronger emotionally or just need an activity to get them out of the house!  

TP: I know that you have some broader interests outside Kenpo that are at the same time aligned with Kenpo. Could you tell us a little more about those interests?

 
Well, as you know, I am also a Yogini, which is a female Yoga teacher/practitioner. I am also a musician and singer. I am taking guitar lessons with my fiancé and teaching myself "blues guitar" strumming.  

I hope to be able to express myself fluently through the guitar someday. Right now I am just a self-taught novice that's never practiced much, so I am taking my interest in playing the guitar more seriously.  

TP: What’s your favourite music?

BT: We play a ton of Beatles music, Credence Clearwater Revival, Eagles, etc. I'm a huge fan of classic 60s and 70s rock!

TP: Have you recorded any of your own material?

BT: Yes, I have recorded a CD of meditational, yoga music that isn't your typical "flute-in-the-wind" material, which I hope will go a long way in helping people to relax, be inspired and fall in love with feeling good! You can check out my music at www.myspace.com/thetigerlilygirl

As well I’ve just launched the Women of Martial Arts Nation – W.O.M.A.N. website. http://womenofmartialartsnation.ning.com

TP: That’s a great concept. Could you tell us a little more about that?

BT: This is the place for the awesome ladies of all Martial Arts styles to share, compare, encourage and start our own events!
 
I hope that this is inspiring to the ladies that I already know! Some of your students have become members.
 
My hope is to make this something of our own, where we can share the battle stories, the bruises and the heartbreaking challenges that as women we have to face, overcome and learn from every day, AND be a martial artist!
 
TP: What are the future hopes, dreams and plans of Brittany Ann Tatum?

BT: I am scheduled to shoot a series of beginner DVDs for my business Be Alive Yoga this year as well as shoot a Women's Self-Defence DVD series with my father.

 
Mostly though, I just want to be successful in my businesses so that I can reach out to more people who need inspiration, healing and self-defence training. The more successful you are, the more people you can help, which is my ultimate goal and dream. One day I will write a book about my journey. That is a far-off goal of mine, but something I hope to accomplish.
Finally, my dream everyday is to be surrounded by those that I love and to see them all healthy and blissful, in body and mind.
 
TP: You seem to fit that Kenpo paradigm of the Scholar and the Warrior pretty well?

BT: Well.......I know that I am a little extreme - I'm a dreamer and must sound like a giant granola hippy...I'm not, I'm as much warrior as I am healer. I'm also quite female. I wear lipstick on the mats and makeup every day. I guess you could say that I am the best of my mother and father, and by realizing that, I am the best of myself as well! And yes, I am a natural red-head.

TP: Your mother and father will be our guests in Australia again in September, 2011. Do you have any plans to join them?

BT: I am hoping that my fiancé (one of our 4thDan Black Belts) and I will accompany mom and dad to Australia on that next trip. We would love to meet you and see your beautiful country.

TP: Brittany, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to me with such openness and honesty. I’m a firm believer that if you speak from the heart eventually you will find those that will listen. We all look forward to seeing “Downunder” soon.  

BT: I’m grateful to you for allowing me the opportunity to express my thoughts! It is indeed a different life for a daughter who has Martial Artists for parents - but it is a blessed life as well!  

I resented Kenpo for a LONG time due to the drama the politics put my family through and the time it robbed me of my father. It took me till I was in my 30s to make peace with the idea that it wasn't Kenpo's fault that people have the tendency to take beautiful things and make them part of their own individual ego’s and that dad worked so hard because he loved us so much...it was the only way!  

I wish you all light and peace.