But there's some Williams brothers in Fresno woo who are combining sibling rivalry with sibling pride in the martial art of Kendo.
Its literal translation is "the way of the sword" but for a trio of Fresno brothers Kendo has become a way of life ever since their mother brought them to a local dojo a decade ago.
"My first day there it was really nerve wracking because I've always been the shy type," 2nd degree Kendo black belt Dorian Williams said.
"After that I got really serious about it and we just started practicing," 2nd degree Kendo black belt Julian Williams said.
The youngest Williams brother is perhaps the most talented. 18-year-old Bullard High School senior Damian is a U.S.A. Kendo Junior National Champion.
"I was 17 and it was the hardest tournament of my life. But I came out and won, and the first thing I did was call my mom to tell her I won," Damian said.
Eldest brother Dorian shares a birthday with Damian and is exactly six years older, looking to parlay his Kendo skill set into a law enforcement career.
"A lot of us that do Kendo, we like that physical contact. We're not scared of it, we're not going to run away from it If I get hurt I get hurt. But I'm going to have to learn how to fight through that," Damian said.
And at 20 years old middle brother Julian has seen a big change in his own personality since he first started practicing Kendo.
"I like to see myself as more of a calm person. I can observe an environment and kind of take it as it goes. There's a lot of short-tempered people out there," Julian said.
There's also a lot of Williams family conquests like at a tournament in Palo Alto in October where all three brothers competed in the same age bracket.
"We didn't struggle too much. We kept getting two points, two points, two points. And we just met each other - me and Damian met each other in the finals and we saw Dorian going up in the brackets." Julian said.
"Dorian won his side of the bracket, and I ended up having to fight him. I beat him, and then it ended up me first place, Dorian second place and Julian third place. Then after that we weren't done," Damian said.
Immediately after the individual tournament they competed in a three-man team competition. One guess as to what happened there.
"I didn't know that we already had it won. I thought it was tied. So I was like 'oh I've got to win this.' and then Damian goes and burst my bubble saying oh we already won. You just can't give up a point," Dorian said.
"It was pretty awesome," Damian said.
Because for the Williams brothers sibling pride will always trump sibling rivalry.
