May 30, 2020

EP20 Meet Master Pesina: The Original Johnny Cage

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View the complete transcript of the show HERE.

In this episode, we're speaking with Daniel Pesina, a martial arts master, multimedia choreographer and actor. Master Pesina is perhaps best known for playing the original Johnny Cage and several ninjas in the first two Mortal Kombat games. He has also worked on films such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze, Book of Swords, Press Start, and Mortal Kombat Fates Beginning. In addition to continuing his personal practice, he teaches weekly martial arts classes in Chicago, IL and travels throughout North and South America to teach seminars on martial arts and choreography.

Show Notes:

3:30 At a young age, Master Pesina begged his dad to let him start martial arts.

7:00 What led to him becoming involved in the creation of Mortal Kombat.

13:15 His thoughts on improving fighting films by incorporating more skilled choreography.

16:25 What surprises many people is how approachable he is.

18:25 Weird silly rules that he teaches his students.

20:56 How he uses Plum Dragon Dit Da Jow in his training and instruction.

22:53 The types of common injuries he most often comes across and how to prevent them.

25:18 Master Pesina tells what his ultimate piece of advice is to students.

27:38 The importance of flexibility in training.

28:30 An overview of the simple rules he tells his students.

32:22 Insights from watching the process of forming a professional elite martial arts team in China.

39:13 His thoughts on what it really means to clear your mind and other mindset and breathing techniques.

41:35 The reason why Dit Da Jow is so important when iron palm training.

43:16 What his morning routine consists of: dynamic stretching (which helped him to drop slowly into splits for his Johnny Cage filming), mindfulness, postures and iron palm training with Dit Da Jow.

49:30 Future endeavors include his upcoming book on the making of Mortal Kombat and possibly being part of a new retro fighting game.