Jose (00:09):
Mr. Pomberino. Thank you for coming. Thank you for having me. Thank you for being here.
Mike (00:14):
Yeah, yeah. I would just say thank you for having me. I appreciate it. It's been a long while.
Jose (00:18):
Yeah, it has. Um, I think I started, I was 16, 17. And you were one of the first instructors that I've had at
power one.
Mike (00:29):
Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna say it must've been Ooh, 2000, 2005, somewhere between those years. Cause
that's when I was teaching at power one.
Jose (00:37):
Yeah, it wasn't. I mean that didn't know who you were at the time. So for me it was just the instructor and, you know, learning the basics from you. However, down the line I was learning, I was finding out who you are and I was like, Oh man, this is Mr. Palmero. This is awesome. And yeah, it was, it was awesome. It was awesome. So, um, how long had you been doing martial arts?
Mike (01:02):
I started when I was six I'm 46 going to be 47. So it's been about 40 years. So it's been a good amount of time of my life. I would say probably the last, maybe 70 years. I've been a little bit less competitive and as active as I once was, but I mean, I'm still, you know, very in the sport and still doing stuff, but I'd like to be a little bit more active is what I'm trying to say. And as active as I was in my first 30, some odd years.
Jose (01:31):
Oh, okay. Yeah. And, uh, what got you into martial arts?
Mike (01:34):
Well, um, you know, it's, it's funny, you see how things are now today with the way people treat each other for race or, you know, things that they don't understand. I'm very light skinned. So a lot of people thought I was white. I'm Portuguese. Uh, both my parents were both born in Portugal, moved here, had me, I first spoke Portuguese. The town I grew up in was predominantly white. There was some Puerto Rican's, uh, as well as Dominican's for Hispanics. I didn't really get along with the whites because they thought I was weird cause I didn't speak English. Um, and uh, you know, I found that I made a lot more friends with Hispanics because the language is very.