Episode 277 - Crud Martial Artists Hear - Part 2
On this episode, Jeremy is joined by Mr. Scott Bolon and Sensei Jaredd Wilson of Martial Thoughts and they talk about the crud martial artists hear.
Crud Martial Artists Hear - Part 2 - Episode 277
The episode today is not the usual that you hear every Thursday. This is the second part of a two-series episode that features Mr. Scott Bolon and Sensei Jaredd Wilson. The first part could be found at Sensei Wilson's Podcast, Martial Thoughts. Jeremy, Mr. Bolon, and Sensei Wilson talked about the crud things that are usually heard by martial artists. These are the things that usually annoy and bother martial artists but usually are shrugged off. Let's join Jeremy, Mr. Bolon, and Sensei Wilson as they talk about these things and their personal experiences when they hear crud. Listen to find out more!
Show Notes
You can find Part 1 here.Sensei Jaredd Wilson's Martial ThoughtSensei Wilson's Episode - Episode 76Mr. Scott Bolon's Episode - Episode 220
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below or download here:Scott Bolon:Hey there, listeners. You may notice that I sound a bit different than your normal host. Well that's because my name is Scott Bolon. I had the pleasure of appearing here on whistlekick Martial Arts Radio back on episode 220. Well, I must have done something right because I'm back. Specifically, I'm back here alongside our normal host, Jeremy Lesniak, as well as Jaredd Wilson of Martial Thoughts podcast for part 2 of this round table discussion episode titled The Crud Martial Artists Hear and How to Deal With It. You heard me correctly, this is the second half of a two-part episode I have had the honor to work on with Jeremy and Jaredd. Don't worry though if you haven't already listened to part one, I know just where to point you to. The first part appears on Martial Thoughts podcast. You can find that podcast in various places but the easiest place to find is www.martialartspodcasts.com. There are no dashes or underscores there to make it complicated for you. Once you're there, scroll down and you will find the link to the Martial Thoughts Podcast right there. During the process of brainstorming and creating these episodes, Jaredd Wilson and I started talking about the effect martial arts movies has had on the public perception of martial artists. Jaredd and I decided we wanted to go a little deeper into that though process. So we have published two articles on Martial Journal that explore the martial arts movies that represent martial artists in both positive and negative lights. I think you'll enjoy them and I look forward to hearing from you about your thoughts on what we came up with. To find these articles, all you have to do is type in www.martialjournal.com and you'll be able to read both of them. There will also be links provided on the show notes for you. These articles are in addition to all of the other great content on Martial Journal by the wonderful contributors we have there. Well I don't want to delay this any longer, we will pick back up here with the second half of this episode and dive into more of the comments and questions, martial artists hear from non-martial artists. I hope you enjoy.Isn't that like some of the biggest parts of self-defense in general?Jaredd Wilson:Yeah.Jeremy Lesniak:The only way you wanna fight is to not have one.Scott Bolon:Yeah. What's the line from Mr. Miyagi? Best block: not be there.Jeremy Lesniak:YeahScott Bolon:You know, that's the best block. That's the best self-defense, is just don't be there.Jeremy Lesniak:Right. And I think it's, you know a lot of times... I have plenty of friends who don't train so when we look at a circumstance, you know, let's go here, let's go down this street, let's do this stupid thing that we shouldn't be doing, they're operating from a perspective of it is unlikely for something to happen. I'm operating from the perspective of I'm gonna make sure nothing's going to happen. I'm going to be safe. It doesn't mean I'm gonna hold myself up in a panic room but it means if I have an alternative that gets me to my goal of, you know, getting to x place in the city or finding a bar to go to on a Friday night that will be fun to hang out at. You know, there are options and I'm willing to be conservative. One of my mantras: you can be over-prepared or under-prepared, you will never be perfectly prepared. And I will always err on the side of over preparations. And-Scott Bolon:I feel like this one, you know, this one it kinda seems to me like if I'm imagining where this particular comment or question comes from, it's you know, kind of like oh my gosh, your martial arts knowledge must be so amazing type of thing. Like a little bit of a mysticism or an awe place where I think this one comes from in. And I wonder if, and we've kind of alluded to it but, pop culture - pop culture of martial arts. And when was the last time we had a really good martial arts movie that didn't involve extraordinary amounts of gore, blood, violence, you know. And not that I don't like that cause I love to watch those but, if I'm putting on my responsible guy, you know my responsible martial artist 05:10 here, yeah that doesn’t'... I don't know that that makes us look great.JareddYeah, it's the Steven Seagal going into the sea bar, he goes look for somebody.Scott Bolon:That’s exactly what I was thinking about, by the way.Jaredd Wilson:That’s awesome.Scott Bolon:It's all those Steven Seagal 05:28 movies and it gave me all... everything I need to know about martial arts and then I started. And then it wasn't the same thing.Jaredd Wilson:You know, as a kind of an... the awareness part that we're talking about, there was actually an instance where at that time it was just my wife and I, we didn’t have our kid yet, we walked into a popular seafood restaurant chain and it didn’t feel right. Something was off about it and I said, we're not staying here and I took her and we left. And by the time we got home, somebody was shot in the restaurant. And that's, I can't explain it.Scott Bolon:Oh wow.Jaredd Wilson:Yeah. There was that, it was a weird vibe in the restaurant so we left.Scott Bolon:Wow. That’s a -Jaredd Wilson:That's the Spidey sense.Scott Bolon:Yeah, that’s the Spidey sense right there.Jaredd Wilson:I don’t know how to explain it but it happened so...Jeremy Lesniak:And it does happen. I think it happens more often than people want to admit, you know. We've worked so hard in society that downplay. I think, the number 1 element of self-defense is, as we've talked about, awareness and I think being open to that, whether you wanna call it sixth sense or whatever, I think is crucial.Scott Bolon:When I teach my students, I, of course we do Kenpo techniques and we talk about why we do it this way or what's good about this technique, what's bad about this technique, and what could you do from here and I ask questions and I encourage them to free-think outside of the technique, you know. But the biggest thing to talk about is trust your instincts. And this is what we're all saying in our own versions of it, is... I don't know if we've been trained to do this by society or if it's just something that's the statistical... the low statistical probability of you actually having real violence in your life, I mean, it's not like, you know, we're all out hunting and gathering anymore and literally life and death. It's not the Walking Dead which is actually, you know... it's interesting how they present it cause it's not really about the zombies if you watch the show. It's about who's left over and what they're willing to do to survive. We don't live like that. And I feel like telling, trying to refocus someone on their instincts. Trust your instincts. If it feels wrong, it is wrong. Just listen to it. And that's hard. It can be very hard.Jaredd Wilson:You know, one way you can phrase it is, we've had millions and millions of years of learning social clues. Most of them are unconscious so we've also had a couple hundred years of pretending that we're all society and nice and that's trying to override those millions of years of social clues.Scott Bolon:Yeah. Absolutely. Alright .Well, let's see. Now we have... It's kind of a two-question. The way it was presented to me was the one followed exactly past the other, have you actually been in a fight? Well then, how do you know it works? Assuming you said no, by the way.Jeremy Lesniak:I answer no because the only scraps I got into were in elementary school. I'm really proud of the fact that I've been able to defuse stuff. And you know, I'll answer honestly, I have no idea how I'd do in a fight. I'm okay that.Jaredd Wilson:I don’t know. Aikido has taught me to run away with skill.Jeremy Lesniak:But that's kinda the same thing, isn't it?Jaredd Wilson:Yeah.Jeremy Lesniak:You know, if I don't do martial arts, I don't know how I'm gonna do in a fight.Jaredd Wilson:TrueJeremy Lesniak:Unless I get into a fight. I mean, this is, to me, that has very little to do with... People are under these delusions that martial arts are about fighting, right? And that’s where those questions come from.Scott Bolon:Absolutely.Jeremy Lesniak:But I think that the majority of people that don't train know at least a little that martial arts is about, at least, more than fighting. So again, we have the people that ask these questions. They're trying to poke the bear. They're trying to evoke a response that I'm just not willing to engage on.Scott Bolon:Yeah, I can’t... That was really good, by the way. That was really good stuff. Yeah, I mean, it's just you know... It's kind of a conundrum, it's now I train with the intent to never be in a fight and I hope I'm never in a fight. My sincerest hope is that I never have to use it. Which doesn't make sense cause we think of value, money for you know, received services and you know, you're training to fight. You know, you're training how to handle yourself in a fight and then your whole goal is to never be in, to never use the thing you payed x-number of dollars for. Well I think it's, you know, I think there's just like that doesn't jive. I mean you know, if you spend a bunch of money on TV, you want the best TV you can get. You spend a bunch of money on couches, you want the best one you can get. But when it comes to this, it's like we spend a bunch of money to hopefully never, ever, ever, ever use the product, quote unquote product, that we are paying for. So I wonder if it's kind of that kind of thing.Jaredd Wilson:See, I come back and talk about most of the benefits of martial arts are the side benefits. The non-combative ones, if you will. A lot of people come into martial arts because they like they'll verbalize that they want self-defense. But that's not really the reason that they're there. Whether it's you know, the social group aspect, whether it's a confidence aspect, it's easy to say I wanna learn how to defend myself. But really, what you want is all these other things that martial arts gives you - like Spidey sense.Scott Bolon:Yes. I absolutely want Spidey sense. If you find it, if you can bottle it up and you can sell it, you will be quite rich, indeed.Jeremy Lesniak:I’m not sharing it.Scott Bolon:C'mon, man.Jeremy Lesniak:Keep it all to myself.Scott Bolon:That's, that is not cool.Jeremy Lesniak:No, it's not but you know what, I live out in the woods. I need it to keep me safe from the bears.Scott Bolon:Actually, you do and don't forget Sasquatch.Jeremy Lesniak:No. Sasquatch and I are cool.Scott Bolon:Alright, cool. You're not teasing him with Jack Link's, are you?Jeremy Lesniak:No, no. There is no... No, it's a...Scott Bolon:He gets angry.Jeremy Lesniak:He does, he does. I like Sasquatch 12:52Jaredd Wilson:Beat him with sneakers.Jeremy Lesniak:They'll turn into 12:56 or something.Scott Bolon:Oh, gosh.Jeremy Lesniak:There's somebody shorter than all three of us.Scott Bolon:Hey, hey. All of this tells us that marketing works, guys. Alright, so... This one, I think it hashes up some territory we've already got into a little bit but are you any good? We've kind of delved into that one just... I don't know. I'm okay, I guess. I don't know.Jeremy Lesniak:I don’t do it to be good. I do it to have fun.Jaredd Wilson:My answer is probably not.Scott Bolon:Well, are you any good against resisting an opponent or...Jaredd Wilson:No, I do Aikido. We don't do that.Scott Bolon:I've listened to the few of yours with the Aikido based guests and so I love the jokes, by the way. The Aikido jokes. Yeah, I feel like this one's obvious. You just... there's no, in any affirmative, is a bad answer. It just invites, you know, invites potential problem or whatever. And just defusing and walking away or go yeah, no I'm not that good.Jaredd Wilson:No. Kind of a continuous of some of these we've been talking about. Have you guys ever where it escaped in your workplace that you're a martial artist and then that person goes and goes, hey don't mess with him he's a badass who does martial arts. And you know, you're like, oh crap.Scott Bolon:That's the head-slapping one. That's one 14:41 face-palm.Jeremy Lesniak:I haven't worked for anybody full-time. It's 2002.Jaredd Wilson:I say, you cheat.Jeremy Lesniak:So, yeah.Scott Bolon:Yeah, you totally cheat.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah, I'm not a good one to ask this question.Scott Bolon:I've worked at my company for almost 5 years now and they recently brought that, you know, there have been some incidents with some of clinicians doing home health so we go into houses a lot of times. Quite often, by ourselves, very rarely or two of us together at the same time unless it's a pre-planned thing. And you know, there were a couple, you know, somewhat tense, incidences and so it got everybody, you know, some of the higher up people in the office thinking about well, maybe we need to start bring in self-defense and whatever. You know, maybe we need to have some extra classes on Saturdays or Thursday nights or whatever to teach self-defense and I'm kinda sitting in the back while this meeting is going, while they're talking about this. And I'm sitting in the back and my first thought is, okay do I tell them what I do or not?Jaredd Wilson:Yeah.Scott Bolon:And I mulled it over for a little while. I did not burst up and you know, like the kid who knows the answer all the time in class or anything like that, no. I thought about it for a little while. You know, I rolled it around. I'd like to say I probably don't remember much of the next 30 minutes of that meeting but I was too busy thinking about whether I wanted to say anything about it but I did. I did approach my boss and I, you know, told him what I did, and said I'd be willing to, you know, it's for my co-workers. And you know, I don't want anybody to get hurt. I like to teach, I do physical therapy. Basically, I'm a teacher but I, I mean you know, I can’t do the squats for him, you know. I just show them how to do it and I show them what to do and then we progress and things like that. Not much different than teaching what I, you know, what I teach my students in martial arts. It's start them out at the basics and progress and progress and progress. So I finally did but it was not... It was really one of those moments where I was kind of surprised at how hesitant I was to speak up about what I do. I said I've been there 5 years, almost, and very few people know that I do martial arts. I don't really talk about it a lot unless I'm in those circles. Maybe that's left over from middle school and high school and, you know, couple other jobs that I've had that were you know, very macho kind of setting. So maybe that survival instinct is still kicking around in there somewhere.Jeremy Lesniak:Maybe. Yeah, I'm just kinda staying out of this one cause I just, I don't know, I don't feel like I have a lot to contribute on it.Scott Bolon:Jeremy, just get a job, okay?Jeremy Lesniak:I have a job! It's just, you know, it happens to involve me where I'm 17:59 is all.Jaredd Wilson:No, what you don't realize is this is his job.Scott Bolon:No, I know it's his job. I just want him to be at a real job like the rest of us that has to, he has to show up and you know, listen to other people, tell them what to do and all that stuff.Jeremy Lesniak:That's literally what I do all day. I just don't do most of it.Scott Bolon:Oh gosh, alright. Like you said, you get to pick which 12 hours you work, right?Jeremy Lesniak:Exactly.Jaredd Wilson:You know, to take that to an extreme level, I'm in the middle of the Should We Arm Teachers argument. To take that into an even extremer level than what you're talking about.Jeremy Lesniak:Can we please not... I need a space where we're not talking about this issue.Scott Bolon:Sure, no problem.Jeremy Lesniak:Thank you. I mean if you guys wanna talk about it, I'll just go make some tea and come back.Scott Bolon:No, no, no.Jeremy Lesniak:My brain hurts on it.Scott Bolon:I think that's a conversation for a different podcast. Alright-y so, I got another one. This one was funny to me. I just can't see anything other than comedy in this one but, so can you break this? Of course "this" being maybe your dining room table or you know, a significantly large chunk of concrete or you know, whatever. Cause you know, the theme is just that all we do is break extraordinary surfaces constantly.Jeremy Lesniak:See now, this one I will answer - yes, if it's not mine. If it's not my dining table, I will absolutely break it.Jaredd Wilson:Sure, got a sledge hammer?Jeremy Lesniak:It's exactly what I'll do, say yes. Oh really? Will you show me? Sure. And then I just start walking out to the garage, what are you doing? I'm gonna find an ax or something.Scott Bolon:Where's your tool shed?Jeremy Lesniak:But no, I wanted you to break it with your hand. Why would I break it with my hand when I have a sledgehammer? Martial arts isn't about being dumb.Scott Bolon:Hey, don't say lumber jacks go on out into the woods and chop it down with their hand, do you?Jeremy Lesniak:Wait. Lumber jacks use chainsaws now. They use the tool that is most efficient.Scott Bolon:Yeah. I just, this is one of those ones that I'm, I just think is funny because I just know that this person has watched a lot of movies, you know. You can always whip out the Bruce Lee line, boards don't hit back. Tables don't hit back, you know. That table didn't do anything to me. I ain't got no problem with that table.Jeremy Lesniak:Unless you break your 20:35 on it.Scott Bolon:Yeah, yeah. Jaredd, what about you? You just whip the Katana out and start hacking away?Jaredd Wilson:Yes cause I use swords. I cheat.Scott Bolon:That's not cheating. That's more efficient.Jaredd Wilson:There you go.Scott Bolon:That's exactly what Jeremy is talking about.Jeremy Lesniak:Is it cheating or is it 20:50Jaredd Wilson:You know, when you were talking about this, this weird image popped in my head of like three Karate people being attacked by Groot and they're just going, yes it finally works!Jeremy Lesniak:Have you not seen that far-side comic?Jaredd Wilson:No.Jeremy Lesniak:Scott?Scott Bolon:No. What are you talking about?Jeremy Lesniak:Okay, so this is like my favorite one and it's from, I mean it's gotta be from the 80's.Scott Bolon:I love 21:16Jeremy Lesniak:And so it's, for anybody that hasn't seen, I'm sure there's some of you out there nodding and chuckling cause you’ve seen it too. And it's a martial arts school, and there's you know, half a dozen people and they're doing some kind of partner block-punch drill and there's a window. And the window is a good chunk of the frame. And outside of the window, this alien ship has landed. And the caption says, finally. Because out the ramp of this spaceship are these aliens with a torso made of brick and the legs and arms made of boards.Scott Bolon:That is awesome.Jeremy Lesniak:And they're just wondering, and they're looking out the window and it just... it's perfect.Scott Bolon:That is awesome.Jeremy Lesniak:We should find it and add it in the show notes.Scott Bolon:That has to go in the show notes.Jaredd Wilson:Hell, I'm gonna make a poster of that.Scott Bolon:Cause that might be my, that could go on my profile picture for a little while. Alright. So, this one is definitely, with all of its derogatory nature, I wrote down the word derogatory, but you look like a, insert whatever derogatory word that you want to, doing that.Jaredd Wilson:Oh yeah. I remember that one.Scott Bolon:Yeah, yeah. You and me talked about that one.Jaredd Wilson:Yeah.Scott Bolon:22:53Jaredd Wilson:Yeah, that one... A listener actually wrote to me about that. They direct messaged me and then I spread it to Scott to put it in here. And it was a sexual orientation derogatory line. And that, honestly, I have never encountered that. So that one floored me. I don't know what to say on that one at all.Jeremy Lesniak:I've become so desensitized to comments like that. You don't have the last name Lesniak and not move past that really quickly. They got really creative in school to the point where I thought it was funny. But years ago, I accidentally stumbled on what I still believe to be the best response to someone who makes a comment like that. And it takes a great deal of self-confidence. But this work really well. I ended up out at a bar with a couple of friends and you know... You know, admittedly, I just bought this new winter jacket and I liked it and I was wearing it. It wasn't cold by Vermont standards, I'm sure to you guys, you know, you probably would have been long johns and you know, three or four hats. But you know, up here it was a little bit more mild. It was winter but it was probably like 38. And so I'm wearing this winter coat and around here you don't generally wear a heavy winter coat when it's nearly 40 degrees. But I was wearing, you know, I hadn't really thought ahead, I hadn't looked at the weather and I'm wearing this coat and I'm sitting there and this very large man comes over. Someone I don't know, I never met him, and it was clear from his demeanor that he was looking to assert himself and he had picked the smallest guy in a group of three people and he looks me, says don't you think it's a little warm for that coat? You know, and he's looking for some kind of response. And I got so angry that I couldn't speak. And I'm just staring at him. Now obviously, as an aside listeners, you've probably picked up that there's some anger issues, I've done a lot of work on those - you know, this goes back well over 10 years. And I just stared at him because I couldn't say anything, there were things I wanted to say and for years later, I thought of things that I wanted to say but what I found in the point I'm at now and the reason this is relevant is not saying anything was the only thing he hadn't expected. He was ready for a fight, he was ready for me to defend myself with words, he was ready for me to make some kind of verbal attack back. What he wasn't ready for was me to make eye contact and just stare at him. Admittedly, probably a little bit of a crazy way. And I have used that since. When there's nothing else to do, when there's nothing else to say, you don't have to take action.Scott Bolon:Yeah... wow. While listening to you say that, it took me back to more than a few times when I've had that exact same kind of you're just so mad you can't even talk. You're, I mean, like as you're saying, I remember that. You know, I could feel like the heat coming to my face. But I don't want to say paralyzed but I'm just stuck in that spot of I'm mad that they said whatever was I said. And you know, late on, like you said, you always go oh gosh I should've said this, I should've said this, I should've said this, I could've said that. But when you think about it, yeah. No, there was anything, literally there's almost nothing you could've said that wouldn't have elevated it.Jeremy Lesniak:Right.Scott Bolon:Into a real, you know, a potentially physical encounter at that point now that hits home. That hits home. Jaredd?Jaredd Wilson:I don't know. I don't know if I got anything for that one. I usually resort to humor. A friend of mine, Mariano, who's actually been on the show, he was wearing a...Scott Bolon:Plug.Jaredd Wilson:Yeah. 27:52 the episode. We'll put in the show notes.Scott Bolon:Yeah.Jaredd Wilson:He was wearing a Samurai shirt but it had the Japanese World War 2 battle flag in the shirt. And this old gentleman, who I'm assuming was a veteran of World Ward 2, came up to him in the middle of the mall and said, son that flag offends me. So Mariano looks at him and goes, why what do you have against Turkey? Completely playing off that he knew exactly what it was.Scott Bolon:That's... I don't know. How did that end?Jaredd Wilson:The guy doesn't... Yeah, he kinda stared in disbelief and didn't quite know what to do. So that gave Mariano the chance to escape.Scott Bolon:That was slick. I have to give credit there.Jaredd Wilson:Yeah, it was pretty good.Scott Bolon:Cause he's trying to figure out whether he's that stupid or...Jeremy Lesniak:You know what else works really well? I did an episode on this... You know what just works really to get out of situations like that? Start picking your nose. Nobody wants to talk to someone who's just gonna pick their nose in front of other people. It is one of the most disarming things you can do and if they don't leave, just act like you're gonna wipe it on them. It's over.Jaredd Wilson:You know my instructor does that in a seminar on purpose to show you how people run away from that.Jeremy Lesniak:Right.Jaredd Wilson:Yep. He'll sit there in the middle of a seminar, pretend like he's picking his nose and as he's about to do a technique, go like he's gonna wipe it on someone. And the guy stops. He's like, see what just happened there?Scott Bolon:Yeah, I gotta say that worked on me. That worked on me real good. I'd be like, alright you know, this conversation... I think we're good. Then we're good, I'm gonna go over here now. Good luck finding the gold.Jeremy Lesniak:So I never blow my nose. I always need ammunition.Scott Bolon:That was classified as too much information.Jeremy Lesniak:It was also a complete lie.Scott Bolon:That's good to know. Alright. So let's see, we got a couple more here. Are your hands registered lethal weapons? The Barney Fife question as I 30:12 I don't know, like I feel like depending on, you know, if they're are obviously joking I can joke and say, oh I'm still waiting for that certificate to come in the mail. You know, that way, when everybody's in the joke that's okay but I don't know that I would get a serious version of that. That question sounds like a joke and about in and of itself.Jeremy Lesniak:I let people know that that's not a real thing because some people think that that is genuinely a thing. That at blackbelt level you have to file some kind of license with the state.Scott Bolon:Yeah, just like you conceal a weapons permit, you gotta go through the background checks and... No.Jaredd Wilson:You know, as martial artists we can't even agree what a blackbelt means let alone what the skill level should be.Scott Bolon:Let's not even get into age. That’s a rabbit hole, right there.Jaredd Wilson:Yeah.Jeremy Lesniak:Yes it is.Scott Bolon:Alright, last one. So this is under the premise, I think this one was one that was given to me. I don't know that you gave me this one, Jaredd. But under the premise that someone's watching you do a kata or watching someone do a kata or a form or Poomsae that won’t work in a fight.Jeremy Lesniak:It's not designed to.Jaredd Wilson:Yeah, that's good. That's not what its purpose it.Scott Bolon:Yeah, exactly.Jeremy Lesniak:Running through tires doesn't score touchdowns!Scott Bolon:But the latter does, doesn't it? The latter drill? 31:47 touchdowns?Jeremy Lesniak:Absolutely. Of course, why not?Scott Bolon:Yeah. I mean, you know... I just feel like it's like one of those things, you know... And that's when you know you're... Like that kind of statement is very indicative of someone who... okay, yeah, they really don't understand even the basic concepts of martial arts. A kata is not... I mean when I perform a kata I tend to try to feel like I'm in a fight. Because it helps me to project more and be more aggressive and be more, you know, have more presence and things like that. But I know it's not a fight. No one's gonna ever attack, there's not gonna be enough people to attack me in that particular order, in that particular way unless it's in a movie which that's different.Jaredd Wilson:No. You remember my friend Mariano with the quick humor lines?Scott Bolon:I cannot forget him.Jaredd Wilson:We, for our blackbelt first sword, we had to design our own kata. So as a joke, he got up there and goes, I call this one 22 Ninjas in a Bike and just stab straight 22 times.Jeremy Lesniak:I love that. That's awesome. That's fantastic.Scott Bolon:That was great. I always think that's funny, the creating a kata thing cause I think sometimes you can get into that feeling of, oh that's not that hard to create a kata, and then you try to create one and you're like wow this is... mine's terrible.Jaredd Wilson:And it has to make sense, geez.Scott Bolon:I look terrible doing this.Jaredd Wilson:And I designed it.Scott Bolon:Yeah. But yeah, I feel like this is... this one's just one of those ones you know you're dealing with someone who you're not gonna have an intelligent conversation with them about martial arts. They already are... I mean immediately by the nature, the comment, they're dismissive of it. Yeah, again. This is one of those ones that's easy to say where I don't really think that there's a good reply other than you know. It's not meant to, simple.Jaredd Wilson:I tend to answer things like that with other questions like I'll ask them and say, well have push-ups ever made a better soldier a better killer? And the answer is usually well, no. So why do we have people do push-ups?Scott Bolon:Yeah, you challenge them with logic.Jaredd Wilson:Ha-ha! Take that.Scott Bolon:Oh, that's terrible. You can just see the wind go out of their sails when they have. And when you turn a question back on them.Jaredd Wilson:Yeah. That's the idea in me.Scott Bolon:Yeah. As long as they're not resisting, man. That's all that matters.Jeremy Lesniak:I feel like there's a light bulb joke in there, somewhere.Scott Bolon:Light bulb?Jeremy Lesniak:You know, how many Aikido guys does it take to screw in a light bulb and something about you know...Scott Bolon:How much resistance is there?Jeremy Lesniak:You know, the lamp would only work afterwards if somebody you know, was pushing it on them. It's not fully fleshed out but I think you get where I'm going.Scott Bolon:There's -Jaredd Wilson:Jeremy, the answer is five. One to do it and four to tell him that wouldn't work.Jeremy Lesniak:That's every martial arts.Scott Bolon:Yes. That is every martial arts. That's not... Aikido doesn't get to own that one entirely. Alright, so we went through all this, we answered all these generously.Jaredd Wilson:Hopefully we got some ways to kind of combat the bad questions.Scott Bolon:Well big picture, Jaredd, what do you... you know, this is... We had fun with some of these, some of these were you know, took us down a bit of a , you know, maybe a bad memory lane and things like that but as martial artists, I don't know how many times you've said it Jaredd. Jeremy, I know you've said it a lot, we've all talked about it a lot. We're in an extremely small percentage of the population and so by and large, most of the people we talked to are non-martial artist. And you know, we're likely gonna, you know you're gonna hear some of these things from time to time and some of them may be threatening or kind of just... you just realize I'm talking to a toolbox right now. But you know, what you think when you get some of these questions, when you can maybe seek sense out of that opening, have a real conversation and maybe you open up the martial arts to them.Jaredd Wilson:Right, that's always the question is - what if they're actually asking about when they're asking. Are they asking to be a butt or are they asking to honestly ask a question?Scott Bolon:And if they are, let's say they are?Jaredd Wilson:Well, then you plant seeds. Unfortunately, and this is kind of weird coming from, you know, a podcast with two martial arts podcasters but talking about martial arts doesn't really do anything. You have to go on the mat and do it.Jeremy Lesniak:Right.Scott Bolon:You mean you can't get a blackbelt through a podcast?Jaredd Wilson:If you wanna send me 1995 while giving it.Jeremy Lesniak:I'll do it for 1895Scott Bolon:Will you guarantee it in 12 months?Jeremy Lesniak:I'll guarantee it in 12 minutes!Jaredd Wilson:I would print your certificate for you.Jeremy Lesniak:You don't want to do that. That won’t even profit. I'll send you a PDF.Scott Bolon:34:47 myself even better.Jeremy Lesniak:You can print it on a post-it, put it in your wallet.Scott Bolon:But I feel like, you know...Jaredd Wilson:I'll include the frame.Jeremy Lesniak:Oh, that's a better deal.Scott Bolon:That, is that, how much extra? Is there an extra fee for that frame, now?Jaredd Wilson:Well you know, you come with the neat on over that one so...Scott Bolon:Oh, okay. But I feel like, you know, my job, if I'm gonna call it a job, my responsibility, I'll call it that, when I do sense that opening, I always want to see, you know, to borrow the term, how deep the rabbit-hole goes. How interested really are they in the martial arts? And if they are, maybe I, whether it's next the next day, the next week, the next month, next decade. Maybe I was a little part of them finding their way to the thing they were curious about however long ago they talked to me.Jaredd Wilson:You know, the other part of that is, if these are people that are probably never gonna take martial arts by themselves, even just kind of creating a better, educate the society about what it is that we actually, has a benefit.Scott Bolon:But we are all ambassadors, aren't we?Jaredd Wilson:Essentially.Scott Bolon:And I, as we're talking about this, that's where I'm going with this and I'm realizing that I don't know that that is ever been put in any of the classes I've ever been in or whatever. I don't know if I ever had that put to me in such a distinct way. You know, it's always, hey you know, be good outside this dojo, It reflects on us. But not so much as you are ambassador of martial arts or this particular style or this particular dojo. It's like looking at it from the other direction and you know, I kinda feel like that's a responsibility - to be a good representative. We have enough bad examples out there, you can go find him on Google. It's not hard. Heck, when I started doing the positivity post on martial journal, plug. Anyway, it took a while to adjust my google feed to give me that stuff - to give me good stuff. It was hard in the beginning and I had to kinda tweak the feeds here and there from time to time but now, I get plenty. And you know, I've rather read about that. I don't wanna read about that one bad apple that's you know, creating a bad name for martial arts in general and/or his particular style studio system. It's enough of that.Jaredd Wilson:You know what I always find interesting about those, in the news articles, you know, why they label them as martial artists, you know. If someone was a crocheter, they wouldn't listen to him as, you know, a part-time crocheter, you know who does these things.Jeremy Lesniak:Because for all of the criticisms and the sarcasm, people still believe that martial artists are a better breed of person. And so to that contrast of a martial arts school owner sexually abusing one of their students, hits harder even to non-martial artists.Jaredd Wilson:Yeah. We're all Mr. Miyagi.Jeremy Lesniak:I want to be.Scott Bolon:Get the car wax out and they would stain for the fence and the paint for the house. It'll be good to go. Alright, Jared, do you have any closing thoughts?Jaredd Wilson:No I think we've kind of covered it. Every kind of response we could think of, the emotional part on ours as well as the other person asking the question. So I think we've covered a lot with these.Scott Bolon:Jeremy, what about you?Jeremy Lesniak:This has been interesting and you know, I think anybody that's listened can tell that maybe this popped up some stuff for me that I hadn't expected. And I like that because I always encourage listeners to our show to think of other things that you know, we talked about and this has brought up some stuff that I need to go back and think about. Because even though the memories are there and even though you know, there's a lot of sarcasm and joking around these general things that we're talking about, I think I might have a little more work to do.Scott Bolon:Yeah, I'd have to second that. I was kind of you know, you and I have discussed, I've messaged you privately about you know, some things that you and I have shared similar experiences in our past and yeah, I was also, likewise. You know, I'm writing these down so I have a, you know, here in front of me, you know, I'm like okay I'm writing them -down and not thinking about it. Then we start talking about it and it's interesting how certain things can trigger something that you had almost forgotten about or you hadn't seen or heard from so to speak, in so many years that you forgot, kind of forgot it was there. And sometimes couple of things you said really took me back to places and yeah. Sorry, I just... Yeah, I can’t say much more than what you just said right there. It's caused me to step back and think about where I'm at an you know, some of the old, what is the line from that Rocky used in Rocky Balboa, you know, the Stuff In The Basement.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah.Scott Bolon:Big sucker for that movie, Rocky Balboa. It's got the best line ever about you know, it's not about how hard you can hit but you know, how hard you can get hit and keep getting up. That line gives me tingles every time I hear it. So, alright. Well, gentlemen, I have had a fantastic time.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah, this has been fun. Thanks for doing this.Scott Bolon:Absolutely. I hope all the listeners enjoyed this. I hope they have a good time with it. I hope that even if it stirs up a few things, causes you to think like it's done for us, you know. That's all positive. So, we don't have anything else to say. I guess we can sign off.