Episode 710 - Master Matthew Eyler
Master Matthew Eyler is a Martial Arts practitioner and instructor at Trinity Martial Arts in New York.
I always tell people that the great thing about Martial Arts is it’s the most individualized team sport. It’s a personal journey in a way that I didn’t have to worry about keeping up with everybody or letting down my team, it’s all about me. But, it’s a team in the sense that we’ve got a support sytem of instructors and classmates who encourage each other and train together…
Master Matthew Eyler - Episode 710
Teaching Martial Arts requires dedication and passion but owning and running a school is different altogether. Master Matthew Eyler, upon getting the blessing of his own instructor, started Trinity Martial Arts in New York in the middle of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Besides Master Eyler’s school, what keeps him busy is running the How to Teach Anything Podcast, a show for different instructors and coaches about providing instruction to all types of students.
In this episode, Master Matthew Eyler talks about his school and how art, sport, and self-defense can be blended into a beautiful experience in the traditional Martial Arts. Listen to learn more!
Show Notes
Check out Master Matthew Eyler’s school at Trinity Martial Arts and listen to his podcast at HowToTeachAnythingPodcast.com
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below.
Jeremy Lesniak:
What's going on everybody? Welcome. This is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio episode 710 with my guest today, Mr. Matthew Eyler. I am Jeremy Lesniak, I'm your host here for the show. I founded whistlekick because I love traditional martial arts. And that's why we do all the things that we're doing, go to whistlekick.com, check out everything we're doing. We are constantly updating, iteratively improving. It is kind of our mindset here with everything that we do, how do we get 1% better every time we do something. That means if you're not checking out all the things that we do, you're probably missing out on some of those improvements, featuring products and projects you could incorporate into your life and training speaking products. If you find something in our store whistlekick.com that you like, use the code PODCAST15, that's gonna save you 15% and it helps us on the back end know that our efforts are working. If you want to go deeper on this or any other episode of the show, go to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com You'll see new episodes of the show twice a week. The entire purpose behind everything we do is to connect, educate and entertain traditional martial artists worldwide. If you want to help guarantee future episodes of the show, you can do a whole bunch of things like make a purchase, maybe share an episode with a friend or support our Patreon, patreon.com/whistlekick to place where we post exclusive content like bonus episodes, updates on who's coming up on the show, things like that. And you can get access for as little as $2 a month. Check it out.
And if you want the whole list the entirety of the ways that you can help us and support our mission. Go to whistlekick.com/family. I had a great chat with Matthew Eyler today. Very similar backgrounds not so much in what we trained but why we trained and how we trained. And that led to some really good conversations. We talked about everything from starting schools to growing schools to so much more. So hang out. Check it out. Enjoy. And I'll see you in the outro.
Matthew Eyler:
Hello, how are you?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'm well. How are you?
Matthew Eyler:
Good. So nice to meet you. How are you doing, sir?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'm doing wonderful and yourself?
Matthew Eyler:
I'm okay, I'm hanging in there. It's a Tuesday, doing okay.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Tuesday is a good day for you.
Matthew Eyler:
It's a great day. Tuesday is a great day. You bet when you give everyone it's Friday, but no, we're good.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I understand you've got some good stuff in your background like, thanks. Yeah. Is that your school?
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah, it's our school in the background. Yeah, that's our training.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Decorated. Yeah, it looks like schools don't decorate most schools with, you know, a flag or two or…
Matthew Eyler:
I'm married. So that helps.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So you didn't decorate, your other half decorated?
Matthew Eyler:
Well, I don't know if she's gonna hear this. So yes, yeah. No, no, my wife's got a good touch. Yeah, definitely.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, the colors are good. It looks good on the eyes. Well, thanks for doing this.
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah, no problem looking forward to it's gonna be a good conversation.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, so this is where we get a choice. We can either dive right in, or we can spend a few minutes talking and I can kind of prepare you. I'm either on your comfort level. Either one's fine. I'm gonna charge. I like to charge forward. I think it comes out a little bit better.
Matthew Eyler:
Just go for it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Cool. Well, I'm going to ask you a question. This will all be, you know, behind the scenes stuff. How do you pronounce your last name?
Matthew Eyler:
So, get the right Eyler.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's what I would have guessed.
Matthew Eyler:
I've gotten lots of different ones though.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's Eyler. Okay, I would have guessed well, I'm proud of myself. I'm getting better with names that are tough. And as someone with a name that, you know, frequently has been mispronounced. You know, it doesn't bother me. But I know that for some people it does. Right.
Matthew Eyler:
It's funny because, you know, being in martial arts, I've been called out like people just… Yes, sir. Yeah, whatever. I tell my students all the time, isn't it? He's like, you know who I'm talking about? Yes, sir. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, definitely.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, we're here to talk about martial arts. So I'm going to start a little differently than the normal because I'm loving the space behind you. How new is that school?
Matthew Eyler:
So, it's an interesting story. We opened up in September of 2020. Yeah. We're like why? Why would you do that?
Jeremy Lesniak:
That is a question that I wasn't going to ask quite that bluntly. But yeah, that's the heart of the question.
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah. So my instructor had a school for about 15 years. He's in his 70s. Great, great guys named David Darley. wonderful gentleman, but being in his 70s and during COVID. He ended up closing up shop for a variety of reasons. He was done with that. And I was one of his head floor instructors. So I said to him, ``Hey, could you open up my own school, but I have your blessing?” He said. “Absolutely”. So we opened up in fall of 2020. We're in New York. So right around things were slipping over your car. You were in the Hudson Valley about two hours north and Cooke City. So things still weren't great as far as restrictions go, but they were loose enough that we could open up a school. And so we opened up in September of 2020. And about 75% of his students came with me. So this is a newer school and a newer space, but a lot of my students I've known for the past 10 years or more are awesome. Yeah. So I always tell people like we're a new school, but not really. It's kind of a continuation.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's like a grand remodel in all the ways. Yeah.
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah. Next generation. So, it's going strong. Yeah, definitely.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Were you at all apprehensive because there was so at that point in September, there was still so much unknown and, and the future, you know, for, I don't know, if you know, I'm in Vermont, I'm about three, maybe three and a half hours from you? How much the audience will know, I know, because, you know, our States border each other. New York was kind of tight on a lot of things, and there was a lot unknown. How confident were you going?
Matthew Eyler:
You know, even till recently, things were fairly tight. Like, we just made masks fully optional. At the end of February, you know, granted, a lot of people weren't necessarily following those rules. But you know, that's technically what the mandate was for the state. I'm very much a type of person, if I start thinking about it, I will ruminate on it and obsess over it. And so I kind of blocked myself off from that. I was very, very fortunate that when we opened up the school, I had the student base, you know, so many, so many instructors have a hard time making that jump to full time because you you have to build up your base to a certain point, and then, you know, lose that, that security that job security. So I was a public school teacher for about 10 years before we opened up the school. So I had a nice unionized job with benefits and steady pay raises each year. But I didn't always know that I wanted to open up a studio. So when this opportunity came, I said, Alright, let's do it.
My wife is super, super supportive. And things were really weird for even the first year, you know, we weren't doing, we weren't sparring, we weren't doing our traditional risk, grab self defense, that type of thing. There were a lot of forms and practice in the air. And it was really hard, but I think I'm a pretty creative instructor. And so we made it work. And we just kept holding out hope that it wasn't gonna be like this forever. And finally, finally, it wasn't. And I'll tell you it ended up being obviously COVID was was horrible for so many reasons. You know, I don't have to say that. But for me, personally, it ended up working out very, very well, because I don't think I would have gotten this opportunity otherwise. And when restrictions did start finally, lifting everyone was like chomping at the bit. So our school actually actually didn't just survive and thrive once the restriction started opening up. Yeah. And so we started off when we opened up the school with about, like, 70 students, and now we have somewhere around like, 175 Yeah. So it's, it's a great, it's a great story. You know, we're really, really proud of what we've done here.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, because that growth was so significant. I'm sure there are school owners. smacking their head, Jeremy asked why do you do that? So yeah, that's a great question. How are you growing that fast? That substantially?
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah. So I always when people ask me because my instructor was a great guy. And, you know, he even struggled to grow that fast. And I always say, it's twofold. You know, as far as what's going on inside the studio, I was a school teacher for about 10 years. My background, I have my master's in education. So you know, as far as what happens inside the school, we are really focused on high quality instruction. I don't claim to be the best martial artist in the world by any means, but people who can kick higher and spar better. But I do think I'm a great instructor in my background and education. I say that very humbly, like not in a bragging way. But like, we really, really pride ourselves on the instruction that we offer here. And I'm always looking for new techniques and new ways to work with students and, and that type of thing. And I've trained up a really strong leadership team. Below me we have a group of about five to ten teenagers and young adults who assist with me, they go through training with me individually to become better instructors and that type of thing.
So just really focusing on high quality and kind of I think followed suit. I mean, most of our students that we got for a long time are through referrals. You know, I go there all we really love, so on and so forth. And you can't buy that, you know, you can't pay for that. So that was really good. And then as far as outside of the studio, we just really dived into SEO, and Google and that type of thing. If you're, if you're a studio owner, who is struggling with getting new students, I know there's a large chunk of people out there who are very old school and still, you know, print up flyers and go put them on cars at the mall. And, you know, and that that was great for a time, but I really encourage everyone to dive into Google drive into social media. Because if you can learn how to harness that tool, it's so helpful. So yeah, nowadays, most of our students, they're either referrals, there's no one who goes here, or it's just a Google or social media search. And those have been our two avenues. It's been great.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Nice, word of mouth. Obviously, no matter where you are, it doesn't matter what you do. If somebody else is going to vouch for you, it's the best thing in the world. And then the easiest thing you may not know some of the listeners know, I do some consulting for some martial arts schools. And the thing that I keep coming back to here, this one's free, everybody, the thing that we keep coming back to that has the best return on investment is Google reviews. Claim your Google Business Listing, you have to figure out how to get how reviews work, it'll take you minutes, get everyone in your school to leave a review. And I watch it because I manage a lot of websites and I see one or two reviews in a month. And we can see the impact on the search terms we track. And then they don't get any for a while to track down again. But the ones that have constant reviews, they just scream upwards.
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah, and there's so many great resources out there. Nowadays, if you just do a YouTube search to improve my SEO, like there's so many simple steps, you don't have to be a mastermind. My wife who does a lot of the work behind the scenes for me. So she's not a computer mastermind either. But you know, if you could just do those few basic steps like you said, claiming your Google business. And then we've also had a really great response from social media, local community groups, kind of combining that word of mouth and your internet presence together if you can get plugged into those areas. It's so helpful. And then once you get people in the door, you know, they're gonna see that quality product you're offering. It's awesome.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You've mentioned your wife a few times, so I gotta ask if she trained.
Matthew Eyler:
So she did for a while. It's been my thing. I've been training since I was about 10 years old. But she is a champ. We started dating when I was in high school. And when we were both in high school, she followed me around to all the tournaments. And she knows that we do a lot of Korean terminology at our school. And so she knows just as much of the Korean as our black belt students, and she trained for a short time, but we have three kids who we homeschool. And you know that and running the business and she's she doesn't she's a million other things. Yeah, no, absolutely. I always tell people people think like, oh, man, Master Eyler, you know, you're you're you you run this school, you're that and I'm like, no, listen, I said, If anything happens to Mrs. Eyler. I was like, we're screwed. You know, we're in trouble.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I just show up and teach. She takes care of making sure there's a place for us to teach.
Matthew Eyler:
I was like, the lights won't even be on for a week if she disappears. Yeah, so she's great. So she, she she wants to get back into training. But right now we have we have our three kids that we homeschool. And my youngest is. He's three. And then my two daughters are seven and eight. And just it's a busy time. Yeah, but it's definitely a family affair. All my kids train. It's great.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's great. That's great. So you said, you started at 10?
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah, so I was about 10 years old. My dad growing up was in the military. And so every three years we got re-stationed. So, I was actually born in Germany. We lived in Hawaii, DC, all different places. And when he finally got on the service, when I was around 10 years old, we moved back to New York because that's where he was from. And when I was at that age, you know, right before middle school, I was just having a really hard time adjusting. You know, I was an oddball kid who didn't have social graces, you know, had trouble focusing and was just a little quirky, like so many of us are. And so my parents were really looking for activities to enroll us and to try and help us to make friends or maybe my siblings. And my sister tried martial arts first, and I was like, That's dumb. I'm never doing it. I've seen the Karate Kid. That's lame. Like, we're, I'm not doing that. And they said you have to use it. We don't care what you do. You have to take a class. You have to try it out. Just once. And I did and I loved it. The first star wars was that first class first?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Many 10 year olds fall in love with something.
Matthew Eyler:
No, No.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Instructor…
Matthew Eyler:
I started at a different school. I started different schools, in the same kind of area. And yeah, like I said, I fell in love with it right away. I always tell people, the great thing about martial arts is I always say it's the most individualized team sport, you know, where it's a personal journey. So like, I didn't have to worry about keeping up with everybody, or I'm letting down my team. It was all about me. But it was a team in the sense that we had the support system of instructors and fellow classmates who encouraged each other and trained together and, you know, sweated on the floor together. And it's just you know, that camaraderie. So I started around age 10. Eventually, something's, you know, down the line, there were some changes, and I was in between schools. And I would go to tournaments, just go to as many tournaments as I can. I don't recommend doing this. But I won't even ask permission, I would just show up and ask to compete and sign up that day, and they let me compete.
And so I went to a tournament, and this is where I met. Master David Barley, who was my instructor. And he was amazing, and was very welcoming. His students kept me and congratulated me on winning. And we talked about great camaraderie. And like I said, I was in between schools at this point. So I was like, alright, you know, and so I continued with him, I reached out to him. And that was when I had been training for about 11 years at that point, that was 2011. He will close school in 2020. I was one of his instructors for about 10 years. And now we have our own studio here. So yeah, it'll be 22 years this fall, I've been training.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, you know, the experience you had being between schools, without a school without a master, without an instructor, or however you want to term it, it's a common experience. And one of the things that I've learned over the years is that even if somebody has been training for a long time, I would assume that they would be very comfortable seeking out a new school and reaching out. But that's not always the case, we have a lot of people who, you know, the right to me, you know, I trained for 10 years. And they dip their toe back in by listening to this show. And kind of immersing themselves in feeling like they're around with, you know, in this case, two other martial artists talking about martial arts. And sometimes it'll give them confidence. Can you talk about what it was like going from, Hey, I've gotten into a couple of these students, and I liked these people, they seem like good people to take that leap. And talking to the instructor and having that conversation, that to people who, even if they've had it before, can seem so intimidating.
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah. I mean, you know, martial arts is one of the key concepts we teach, like humility. And so I would encourage anyone to just approach from a position of humility. So I went to this gentleman, Master Barley. And I said to him, ``Listen, I'm not really doing much. I love martial arts, I want to train”. Yeah, I've seen your students. I said, I don't care. I will go back to how I was. I tested for my third one at the time, but, the organization that I had been with before, it was kind of flaky. And I was like, listen, I don't care. I said, I'll go back to wipe out, you know, I don't care. You know, I do want to read? Was that genuine? Yeah, no, I was like, I don't care. I was like, I just need to train. Because my thought process was that I don't know if I knew it at the time. But my thought process now was, if I go and I approach this humbly, and say, Listen, I will learn how you do things differently, I will learn, absorb as much as I can, and put myself in this, this lower position, they will eventually see, you know, what I can bring to the table, you know, but if I come in boisterous and like, oh, you know, I know how to do this, and I'm a third degree black belt, then they're not going to give me the time of day.
And so if someone is in between schools, I want to get back into it. Chances are, in my opinion, if you're looking to get back into it, you probably know, you probably are dedicated, you know, because you're not just letting this slide off your back. You're saying I want to get back into it. And so you're probably pretty dedicated. So if you go in from that position of being humble and saying, you know, I just want to learn, because that's the point of martial arts is just to learn and grow and self improve. If I go in from this position of, hey, I want to learn then eventually, people will respect that and you will, you know, be the I don't want to say elevate because that sounds so cocky, but like, you'll you'll get your place back. You know, where you should be. Exactly, exactly. And that's exactly what happened to me. You know, if I went to the school and I went to the school. And so like I said, I was technically a third down at the time. But you know, it was different. It was a Tang Soo Do School, which is what I always trained in. So, you know, the foundation was there, but every school does things differently.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And so he was the same?
Matthew Eyler:
Similar, but you know, there's differences here and there, you know, there was even worse, I'd rather they be completely different. Yeah, you know, and like I said, I just was like, I want to absorb as much as possible, because I'm very much a person who's like, there's not one right way to do things. I want to learn three, four or five different ways to do things. And then I can pick and choose and share. So he would help me partner up with his red belt students to go over his lower belt material. And, you know, forms that I knew, but maybe he did differently. And it didn't matter. I remember, he had me one time with like, a 12 year old red belt. I just graduated college. I was like, 21 at the time, he's with a 10 year old red belt showing me and these kids teaching me and I'm just like, “Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir”. Like this 12 year old red belt, and the kids looking at me, like, okay, like, you know, like, having this with this adult man like, Yes, sir. And listening to him. But that's that's the position. I approached it from him saying, you know, what, I'm going to come in, I'm going to learn.
And like I said, eventually, I was made one of his four instructors, he recognized that I was able to get caught up and learn, I think it made me even better than where I was in the first part, because now, not only did I know, his curriculum, but I had kind of this background of other things I could bring to the table, different viewpoints. And so ended up being a great experience. But the other thing I would say, too, for people that are looking for, to dive back in, is just like the instructors are going to be feeling you out and seeing where you are, you know, you also have to fill out the instructors. I'll tell you the reason I went to a Master Barley school was not because he was really kind to me, it's because when I went to this tournament, his students were super humble, and super welcoming. And that's the thing that made me say, like, okay, where's this coming from? There's a common denominator here.
Yeah, exactly, was this instructor. And because there were lots of other Tang Soo Do schools in the area that I could have gone to, but it just, you know, for one reason or another, I wasn't a fan. And then I found this instructor and I knew him from his students. And that's where I sought it out. So yeah, I would just really encourage anyone, if you're thinking of getting back into it, like, take that leap, you know, introduce yourself to people and come from a very humble position. And like you said, you'll get back to where you're, you're needed. And even if that takes, like a really long time, you're gonna learn a lot on the way. And really, that's, that's the reason you should be doing it in the first place. So yeah, it ended up being a really great experience for me. But you're right, it can be really difficult for a lot of other people.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You said something as you started telling that story. And I think it draws an interesting line, and I'm trying to please people on one side or the other. You said, I want to train. The other reason that I hear people going and looking around at other schools is I want to continue my rank, I want to get my next belt. Right. And the irony is, if your motivation is training, the other things will follow. As your motivation is rank, you're not necessarily going to learn. Yeah, and I think that, that I've had people come to me, you know, friends, people, I don't really know, the school shut down. And the first thing you know, what's important, you the first thing they mentioned is, you know, I was I was about to test for my this or, you know, you know, I've got enough time into BIA that it's like, okay, so what what, what is that mean? Right, and not everybody approaches rank in a negative way, right, like, like that. That's a whole other bucket that I don't think we need to go into, but I think when the focus is on training, what I like to call a white belt mentality walking in, he talked about his humility, everything else seems to fall into place.
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah, and I mean, rank is great in terms of goal setting, right? Like I'm a strong believer in goal setting, you should always have something you're reaching for. And if that goal is fourth on Fifth that whatever, you know, that's a great goal. And I would encourage you to pursue that. But like you said, you know that that comes with training. We I always think about it like this, you know, when you are in college for example, you know, your your goal with college is to graduate and get a job right Your goal college is to graduate and get a job. But you're not just going through college, you know, so that at the end of the day, you can get that diploma and it says, okay, yeah, you can go get a job, right, the goal of hopefully the goal of college and I know it's not like it's for everyone, hopefully, the goal is to go to your classes and learn and gain skills and maybe an internship and gain all these skills so that when you go to get a job, you can show how equipped you are.
Jeremy Lesniak:
There are cheaper ways to get a piece of paper that says the same sort of thing than investing for eight years. And it was $1,000.
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah, but that's how some people look at it. Some people like I have, I have friends who and there's absolutely nothing wrong with this, they wanted to go to, you know, the Ivy League, Cornell, Harvard, right, because that's gonna get me the best job. And those are great schools. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But I do a lot of mentoring for my teenage students. And I always tell them, like, you know, go go to where you think you're going to get the best education, right, go to where you're going to have the most opportunities to learn. And those might be one in the same the place you have the best opportunity to learn might be Harvard. But the learning needs to come first, because that's going to equip you. It's the same thing with martial arts, right?
Don't go to the place where they'll let me test for my next rank in six months, you know, don't go to the place where they're on the national championship sparring team. No, those things are great. Absolutely. And those might be the best places for you to learn, but not necessarily. And when you orient your mind to say, I want to learn, I want to grow, I want to improve my skills. Those other things, whether it's a new rank, or becoming a championship fighter, or, you know, mastering another style, whatever, whatever, whatever your goal is, those things will come through your learning. And I think along the way, you'll become much better equipped for that final goal, because you took those steps in the meantime.
So yeah, it's it's, it's super important. I heard it said like, one of my instructors who I work with now, he uses this term called Video Game mentality, where people have this idea of, okay, I beat level one, let's go to level two, I beat level two, let's go to level three. Right? And really what it should be is, okay, I beat level one, let me go back and see if I can do it faster. Or if I can do it better, or if I can do it without losing a life, or whatever it is. And that's how it is with martial arts. I think a lot of times, I want to get the first out, I want to get a second, I want to get the third one. No, let's go back and perfect. Your first form your second form, let's throw it, let's work on getting that wrist escape or working with the bow. Yeah, and that's gonna make you the better martial artist in the long run.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right? When you were talking about college, there was a thought that came to mind. And I think it relates pretty well to martial arts, when we're talking about when someone goes to a an Ivy League school, you know, there are all these different don't call them studies is reporting that goes on suggesting that it's not so much the level of education that ultimately is the benefit, it's the network, it's the people you're around. You still, in order to take advantage of that wherever you go, you have to be around people that are good for you. Yep, maybe like minded people are there for the same reasons I could go to. But let's pretend I'm a teen. And I get into Harvard, and I go to Harvard, and I'm a jerk.
None of those people are going to help me later in life. If I'm wasting that money. I could throw that, you know, what, 300-400 grand over those four years at just about anything else and come out better? But what if there's a school where I'm not really a jerk, I just, you know, I look at things differently. And I go somewhere else that has a different vibe, and they fit in better and maybe on paper, it's not as good of an education, but I come out with a better understanding of myself when people I was around a better network. And to me, this is why we have different styles of martial arts taught in different ways by different people.
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah, because all the time like, I'm not the best, I might not be the best school for you. You know, I can humbly admit that. You know, there are differences. I believe in myself. I think we're a great martial arts school. But um, yeah, I've had people that come to me, and oh, this is what I'm looking for. And it's been few and far between, but I have had conversations where like, you know, I don't think we're the best, we're the best fit for you and that's okay. And fortunately I know enough people in the community that I can often recommend people someplace else they're happy with and I'm more than happy to do that for my fellow martial artists who like if I know they really excel at one thing you know, you'd be better fit over there go for it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Because which is more important that they train? Yeah, indefinitely because they found a fit for a train for or a couple months with you. And then they say, You know what martial arts isn't for me and they go off and they lose all the potential benefits.
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah, you don't want anyone to have a bad experience, because that will just ruin it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Nobody wins in that. Yeah, exactly.
Matthew Eyler:
You know, I tell my wife all the time, we had this conversation, where I want to create lifelong martial artists, right? I don't want this to be in the majority of our students, our kids under the age of 15, I don't want this to be another after school activity. For some people, that is what it is, and that's okay. But the goal was to make it something bigger than that. And so I want to be able to equip my students to do that the best they can. And so if I'm not the best person to equip you, for whatever reason, you know, maybe you're looking for a different style of martial arts, maybe you're looking for someone who is, I don't know, maybe has a more relaxed style or more discipline style or whatever. That's okay. Yeah, that's totally okay. I'd rather you go somewhere else and have a good experience, be able to see the joys of martial arts, then stick with me, you pay me for a couple months, you know, I get a couple $100 in my pocket, and then you're left unhappy. And there's this negative vibe between us. Like you said, that doesn't help anyone.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. All right. Let's go back to competition. You talked about competition competitions in a way that schools differentiate from each other. But you didn't talk so much about why you got into competition, I got the sense that it was part of how you kept yourself going after the party in your first school. But I'm gonna guess you started before that happened.
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah. So a competent position has always been a really important part of martial arts for me. You know, I don't claim to be competing at the national level or anything like that, but a good tournament, where you're able to go and see other people and challenge yourself against them. That's super, super important. You know, good competition is supposed to elevate everyone, you know, if you're going to a competition, and you're just beating everybody, and not learning anything, that's not a good competition. And if you're going to a tournament, and you're just going, oh, man, I lost, this is awful. And you're not learning anything. That's not good competition, either. Good competition is supposed to elevate everyone. And so for me, going to competitions, you know, it was all about absorbing as much as I could. So I would go and I would, I would watch the people who did the weird weapons, you know, or go to traditional tournaments and go to Open tournaments and just see what was out there. Even though I'm much more of a traditional martial artist, open competitions aren't really my thing. But that doesn't mean I don't love to go and learn and watch and see the crazy breaks and, you know, the MMA and all that stuff. And it's fun, it's fun.
So, competition was a way for me to keep learning, especially during a time when I didn't really have a formal instructor. You know, it was a way for me to network and see what was out there and challenge myself. Because when I saw something, I would go and I would study it, and I would learn and I would watch it and then try to get better at it. And that was really important to me. And I made some really great connections through competition. And you know, it's interesting that you focused on that. I don't know if I mentioned this today. The name of our martial arts school is Trinity martial arts. That's the name of our school to get on the path. Yeah. And so the reason we chose Trinity right at Trinity has three things that go together. And so right on my front door right over there, we have three words: we have sport, art, and self defense. And so sport, that competition aspect is one thing that we do very heavily in our school. We actually just went to a tournament this past weekend. We got another one coming up in a few weeks. It's really, really important because it elevates you in the colony.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I saw some I know some people who were there. Awesome videos. Great stuff happened.
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah, great stuff. No, we read it. We read about a traditional tour man in Connecticut. And so anyway, like I said, sport, right is one of those three things in the Trinity. And then there's also arch, right art is the beautiful movements and the breathing and the clean kicks and techniques and the forms of that type of thing. And then the third thing is self defense, you know, self defense, being obvious, you know, protecting ourselves wrist locks, throws, different techniques, that type of thing. And so when we were coming up with a name for the school, I said to my wife, I said, these are the three things I want us to focus on: sport, art and self defense. Because there are some schools that specialize in just going to tournaments. And they miss out on this really rich history and beauty with the forms and there's some people who just focus on self defense, right?
And say, I don't want to do anything that's not 100% No, an accurate move. And they miss out on all this, this breathing and philosophy that comes with it. So I said, I really wanted to focus on these three things, sport, art and self defense. And so going back to your original questions, tournaments were in competition, that sport aspect of it, were the way that I was able to go and better myself. And it helped with my other two areas of art and self defense. You know, because I was able to see people doing their forms, I was able to watch people doing their techniques and talk about practical applications. And I think when you have those three things together, that's what makes a really well rounded and great martial artist. So yeah, I think competition is a great venue for a lot of people to do that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Nice. I liked the way that you described Trinity. Because I think a lot of times when people present the aspects of their martial arts school, they present them as three very distinct pieces. And you didn't use this word, but I'm going to use this word, it sounds like the lines are blurry. Yeah, definitely shouldn't be blurry. If your self defense doesn't help you in competition or your art. Maybe it's not the right thing to be doing at least some of it right. Like, there should be blurry lines, you should be able to take things that you learned from competition and bring them back to your traditional training and vice versa. So I absolutely just wanted to underscore that. I think that was an important point.
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah, I always tell people, right, a trinity, you know, it is not three things. A trinity is three things that together make a whole, you know, so I always use the example with my students of a comic book person. So Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, they're sometimes considered the trinity of DC. Because together these three superheroes create this, this really strong story. They're great individually. But when they come together, and you have this crossover, it's like, oh, man, this is amazing. And so when it comes to sport, or in self defense, it's exactly what you were talking about, you know, if you have this beautiful understanding of the movements and the breathing and the stances, right, that's going to help elevate your competition. And if you go to competitions, and you're sparring and learning and fighting different people, that's going to help you grow in your self defense. And yeah, I think blurry is a great way of putting it because when those three things come together, it creates a whole martial artist, right, that three separate pillars. It's one building held up by these three things. Yeah, so that's, that's really, that's something that I found to be key in the, in the best martial artists I've met. They, what was what's the saying, you know, jack of all trades, master of none. I think that's absolutely true. You know, people say, Oh, I really want to specialize in just one thing. And that's fine. But don't block yourself off from the other things that are out there. Because they really, they really help you become more well rounded and grow into a better practitioner.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And I think this is where, you know, this is a constant theme on not just this show, but other things that we do. What's your reason? What's your reasoning? Why do you want to do that? Well, I want to train in this and that, you know, like, a lot of times now it's, you know, because of the influence of MMA, I want to train with Muay Thai and BJJ and maybe boxing. Okay, why? Well, because it's really good in the UFC. Are you looking to compete in high level MMA? Okay. What's important to you, and as you have that conversation, you find that maybe there are things about training, even multiple arts that are going to be distracting for them, because they have a hard time remembering things, and they feel that they need to drill techniques, or it takes them longer to learn concepts.
Well, maybe you should pick one thing and start with that. And maybe that one thing isn't any of those things. Maybe it's a curriculum that's a little more broad with things right. Maybe it's a karate or a tuxedo school. And there's nothing wrong with that. But if you don't ask the question, if you don't know why, I think it becomes really hard to know how to move forward because where are you going?
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah, and you know, I would encourage if you're a school owner to make that one of the questions on your intake form, you know, when you're gathering a student's name and address like, that's one of the questions you should be asking. You know, even for what your younger kids like we have preschool aged students who you know, why not to become an MMA fighter you know, they need to be socialized because they are feral children. Yeah, and that's okay. That's good for me to know as the instructor and then I have adults too, you know, they calm and I'm just looking for some physical activity, and that's fine too. But when you know why, as an instructor, you can better be an instructor for students because you know what they're looking for, and you can highlight those areas that you know that they will thrive in. And if you're a student, and you're looking for that, why, you know, that will help you with your goal, like we go back to saying, if your goal is rank, and you know, I want to increase my stamina and my flexibility, then as you work on your stamina and flexibility, the rank will come. But it starts with that: why?
Jeremy Lesniak:
For sure. Yeah, definitely. You talked about your leadership program, which is something that a lot of schools don't have. More schools are moving towards their understanding that a formal kind of parallel education on the road to becoming a teacher is really valuable. Because to my mind, martial arts is the only thing where we assume because you can do you can teach. Oh, yeah, I've been doing martial arts for 47 years, and I'm at this rank. And I've seen some of the most competent, high ranked martial artists. Absolutely. Flounder, teaching fundamentals. In fact, I would go so far as to say that there is no correlation whatsoever. Because of what I've seen, I've seen some of the best be the absolute worst at teaching. Yeah. Is this something that you came to on your own, something that was suggested to you? Where did this come from?
Matthew Eyler:
Yes, so you know, you're 100%, right. Like, I've met some really amazing, amazing martial arts picking one person right now are Yeah, just like I am. Or like, amazing martial artist who just, you know, you put them in front of a group of students, and they just have this block of how do I explain this? I can do it. And I've actually, I've actually, like, straight out of people's mouths heard people say, well just do it like this. And that's not enough, you know?
Jeremy Lesniak:
So especially when they're facing sideways, and the whole class ever watches the whole class turns 90 degrees. Yeah. And they're trying to mimic, and they're looking at each other. And like, I like, and it's just like, well, yeah, because you've been doing it for 30 years.
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah. And it's funny, because like I said, I've seen some martial artists who just have this block. And then I've also met some martial artists who have been training, you know, like, they're not even a black belt that may have been training three, four years, and they just have this gift for, like, sharing their knowledge. And, you know, like I said, apart from our school is predominantly people under the age of 15, we have about a two to one ratio, we do have a lot of adults too, but it's mostly a ratio than most that's actually yeah, we do have a lot of adults. But um, it's the vast majority of our program is is is younger, and I have been very, very blessed where teaching was something that always came pretty naturally to me, like I was, I was in kindergarten, and they would say, oh, what do you want to be when you grow up, I want to be a teacher. And, you know, at the first school that I was training, I was a rebel and I loved assisting with classes. And I loved helping out and I love being able to share what I knew, even if what I knew wasn't very much at the time. So, I loved that I really thrived at that. And then as I got older, and became the head floor instructor or one of the head instructors at this last school that I trained at, I realized that what I knew was not natural, you know, for a lot of other people. And again, I'm saying this very humbly, I'm not saying like the most amazing teacher, but like, it came more naturally to me than it does to other people.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's okay to know that you're good at something. I see the line that you're kind of tiptoeing on, but yeah, you know, if you have a degree in education, and you spent time teaching in public school, yeah, yeah. Okay, so you can handle a martial arts class. I mean, that might as well be full contact out there these days.
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah, right. So, I noticed that it didn't come as natural to other people. And so when we first opened up our school, I picked some of my best students. I said, oh, come help teach class. And because our school was exploding at the seams, and I needed help, because I was a one man show. And I said, okay, come help teach class. And I remember the first couple weeks, I had some, some of my best students helping out with class, I was ready to like, pull my eyes out. I was like, oh my gosh, I was like, you know, Johnny's in the back doing cartwheels when he's supposed to be doing line drills. What are you doing? Oh, we're doing basic form number one step out low block, okay, let's go to the next move. I'm like, no, don't go to the next move. They look horrible, like teach them and so I realized, like, they don't know what they're doing. And so what I ended up doing was creating this leadership program where I took some of my students that I thought had a knack for martial arts and a knack for teaching. And I started really mentoring them with that.
And we would sit down, I would treat them to lunch and we sit down, we talk about what I call glows and grows, right? We'd say like, okay, glows, these are the things that I saw you guys doing really awesome, you guys, were really, really friendly with the students, you know, I saw you guys, you were really making that line drill really, really fun and being positive, all Ah, all right, here's your your gross, these are the things we need to work on. And so framing it that way, and saying like, you these are the things you guys are good at, these things need to work out. And I'm going to help equip you to do that, because I've been thrown into classes where I'm like, oh, here, go teach this. That's not a good thing to do. Your instructors and your leadership have to be equipped to teach. And so through this process of creating this leadership team that we've developed, we now have a group of students who they're not, they're not all a team, so I wouldn't leave them alone. But like, I can step off the floor for a minute and have full confidence that they're going to be doing a good job. And that's actually one of the things that when students come to our school to visit for the first time that they really applaud the parents really recognize is, well, you know, you've got me this, this master instructor teaching, and that's great that you're on the floor all the time.
But you have I have young ladies teaching, I have teenage guys teaching, I have students teaching who you wouldn't look at and go, oh, wow, they're amazing. Like I'm, we're a collection of odd balls here, you know, but we've equipped everybody to be the best that they can be. And people recognize that. And what's great about it is a lot of students come in and their parents, you know, want them to have confidence. That's one of the reasons they sign up for martial arts, they want them to have competence. And when they see, you know, Johnny, who's 13 years old, leading a warmup, you know, with a bunch of seven to nine year old white belts, that takes confidence. That takes confidence. And they go, wow, okay, I want my kid to be like that. And from a very young age, we have leadership. I don't want to say a goal, but we make it an option, where you know, if that's something you want to do, one day, I'll tell students you come help come help out, even if it's just holding flat pads, you know, holding pads, and I'll put what I'm the senior structures with you and, and start teaching you how to teach how to share how to learn how to grow. And that's how we create these role models.
You know, because it doesn't matter how good you are at martial arts, if you can disseminate your knowledge to other people, and do it in a way that is fun, kind and engaging, because that's the other thing too. I've met some really talented teachers, great martial artists, but their vibe, like they don't pass the vibe check, you know, like that. That's a whole another skill. Yeah, so that's a really well rounded program. And people asked me to like, what, what program do you use for leadership? We don't really use any program. But that's because I have my background in education. I kind of know what works and what doesn't work. If you're a person who says, Yeah, this is an area I could really grow in. There's some really great programs out there that will help you create this structure and this mentorship. For leaders in your school. Like I said, I'm fortunate enough that we're pretty good without it. But I would definitely encourage people, like there's tons of great resources out there, don't be a person who doesn't think you're capable of learning, absolutely seek those out.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You hit on something, and I just want to go back and make sure everybody heard it. You know, there are a variety of different educational models. And I'm sure as someone who is trained in education and implemented education, you know this far better than I do. But everyone I've become acquainted with, at some point in the learning process, you are teaching, you are turning it back around, you're showing your competency in that way. Because I think we all probably remember the first time we taught and feel like a deer in the headlights frozen in place trying to convey how do I teach a punch? Right. It's a whole separate skill set. And so what I'm hearing from you is that that's something that that's, that is important. And I would imagine that the folks who are investing their time in these programs are coming out, not just with the benefit of learning how to teach but their martial arts as practitioners is far and away better than it would be otherwise.
Matthew Eyler:
I mean, definitely like, if, you know, there's that saying that those who can't do teach, you know, you've ever heard that like, but that it's totally like, Baloney, you know, like those who teach can do better. Because if you can explain something, you know, maybe not even physically because I have students who just have physical limitations, you know, where they're not going to have that vertical sidekick. But if you can explain the steps of chambering your foot extending your leg pivoting, you're on your toes. You know if you can explain that, that's a level of mastery that is very hard to achieve. And so some of them, I just actually had two of my senior leadership, two young ladies, they just tested for third degree black belt. And they were in a group of students. And all the students did a great job, they all received their third one. But these two students who are continuously teaching, they just look, they just looked unbelievable. You could tell. Yeah, yeah. And, and, and I was talking to one of the visiting masters who was proctoring, our exam. And they were saying, Well, yeah, that makes sense. You're having them teach? Because they're the best. I was like, yes.
And no, like, yeah, I initially chose them, because they've got a lot of natural talent. But they're the best because they teach. You know, and I'm not saying you have to, like, you know, jump into every single preschool level class and you know, run your own studio, though. But like, you should, you should have a good enough knowledge of your lungs, your kados, your forms too, to be able to explain them to a person if someone asks you a question, to be able to give them a reasonable answer. And there have been times where I'm teaching where I'm challenged, and a kid asks me a question, or maybe a kid has a disability or something, stopping him from doing something the right way. And I'm forced to go okay, hold on. Give me a second, let me think about how I want to explain this to you. Because this is something I've never encountered, or you're posing a question to me that I never really thought of. And those moments can be really uncomfortable at first, right?
Like, no one wants to be put on the spot. But at the end of the day, like, once you're challenged once, now you have a new tool in your toolbox, right? If someone challenges you, and says like, oh, I can't do it this way, how do I do it, teach me and you go, I don't know, give me a second. Once you do that, you're gonna be better equipped to handle situations, the future, you're gonna have a better understanding of what it is that you do, and that's going to increase your personal training. So yeah, I would definitely recommend helping out assisting you know, in some way if you can, and actually, that's one of the things that in our school. So a tuxedo fourth fourth degree is considered traditionally master saponin. Right is not the master, its master instructor. And that's what the title means, you know, so that's part of it, of getting to that level of, I want to be a fourth down, I want to be a master instructing is part of that journey?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Absolutely. Yeah, it's clear that you're passionate about teaching in a variety of ways. And, you know, we're recording this in video, we're probably going to release an audio, we may release the video, you know, talking about that later. But if folks had the opportunity to see the video, they would see that you had you came to play with a microphone a little bit more, a little bit better than what, what most people show up to the show with shirts, Not to disparage them, but it's because you have a reason for that. You want to talk about that?
Matthew Eyler:
So, one of the things that I've noticed in teaching, you know, so let me backup a little bit, I went to college for education. You know, I spent spent three, four years in learning teaching techniques in my student teaching, you know, taught 10 years in public school system. And, and learned a lot. But the things that I learned most about teaching did not come from my college classes, they did not come from the public school system, either. Even a lot of them. It came from my experience with martial arts and meeting students of all different ages and varieties and that type of thing. And one of the things that I realized was, hey, you know, what, I, I've learned so much as a teacher of martial arts, I bet that I can learn something about teaching from other non traditional teachers. Right? So we started the how to teach anything podcast, it's a newer podcast, we've we've, we're building it up. And what we basically do is we interview non-traditional teachers.
So we've we've had everything from yoga instructors, to animal animal trainers, to special consultants, you know, just anyone that that teaches, in any way, shape, or form. Now, it doesn't matter what it is you teach or who it is you work with anyone who disseminates knowledge in any way, we talk to them about what their best practices are. And so through the how to teach anything, podcast, we've had some really great interviews with different people. And I really encourage my friends because I have a lot of friends who are in public education. I encourage them to listen to it. Because a lot of times people think well, you know, like, reading writing, math, you know, those those are the I know how to teach those. But you can learn so much from other people. In all walks of life, it sounds cheesy, but it's 100%.
Yeah, that's like, you can learn something from Joe Schmo down the street if you're just willing to listen, and learn. And so the goal of this show is to define those best practices in all walks of instruction, coaches, instructors, mentors, anyone who teaches we interview them. And then we kind of compile some best practices that can be used in traditional classrooms, because a lot of our listeners are teachers, or in non-traditional avenues, such as dance instructors, or martial arts instructors. And it really creates these better teachers.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, where can people find that? That sounds like a show that a lot of people are gonna want to check out?
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah, so we have a website, how to teach anything. podcast.com you can find all our episodes there. But we're also available on Google podcasts, Apple, podcasts, Spotify, all your usual kind of pet podcast areas, we put the episodes on YouTube as well, at how to teach anything about podcasts, you can do a quick search and you'll find us.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Awesome. Is it? No, is this your project?
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah, this is my project. It's kind of the little pet project that I had simply because I wanted to become a better teacher, you know, and I enjoy talking about teaching, you know, martial arts is 100% my passion. I love it. I've been doing it for 22 years. But it's definitely the avenue that I get to do something else I love and that's instructing, and that's teaching and being a role model and a mentor to so many students. So, yeah, this is my little, passion project. And we've had some really great interviews and some good stuff up there.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's great. That's great. It wouldn't surprise me if we have some folks listening who are going to check that out. Maybe even some folks who become future guests. Feel free.
Matthew Eyler:
Definitely. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So what else? What else? How about this? How can people find you?
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah, absolutely. So our website is trinitymartialartsny.com. We serve the Hudson Valley area of New York, we're in Dutchess County, about two hours north of New York City. We have a great martial arts program, great school, we're very involved in the community in that type of thing. You can definitely check us out on Facebook and Instagram, at training martial arts and why obviously, I know, you know, people who are listening, you know, are in the area. But I would definitely encourage you to check us out, we post some really great resources if you're looking to get a feel for traditional Korean Tang Soo Do. We have a YouTube channel with a lot of our forms on there. And we're always adding new curricula. As we try to broaden that in our understanding and create that resource. And we just have a lot of fun. We have a demonstration team where we were always posting cool stuff up there. So, if you're a martial artist, and you're just looking to follow some good martial arts content, feel free to check us out. Give us a follow. And we'd love to connect. Definitely. Nice.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Nice. And I don't know if you can see it on your screen. You have this really cool lens flare going on. It's like a mirror. Can you see that? I love it over your right shoulder that we have.
Matthew Eyler:
We have. I don't know if you can see we have these big windows. Oh, yeah. Cool. Oh, do as the sun light. Yeah, no, it's great. As the sun comes through and changes position we get there. We get different lights in here. Like a show.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So yeah. Well, yeah. We've covered some great stuff today. And we really appreciate you coming on. Thanks for Yeah. So let's fade out now. What are what? What words do you want to leave the audience with?
Matthew Eyler:
Yeah, I would just say, after we talked about today, you know, find your why, like we discussed a lot of people think martial arts is very one sided, right? They watch something like Cobra Kai, or they watch something like MMA, and they think like, well, I could never do that. Right. And there's a good chance you probably can't see, you know, not every person who does martial arts is going to be an MMA fighter. But that's the point. You know, that's the point is there are so many other sides to martial arts. And so if you're someone who's looking to dive into martial arts, or get back into martial arts, you know, think about what it is that you want to learn that you want to get better at, and find a school that works for you. And then I would also say to the people that have been doing martial arts for 20/30/40 years, you know, don't forget to find your reason as well. You know, I've been doing martial arts.
It'll be 22 years this fall, which I know for some people that's still a baby, you know, and I'm constantly still trying to find new things that I want to learn. Like I said, I predominately do tongue pseudo but I've dabbled in other styles and other systems, gone to seminars, just trying to increase my learning. And so if you're a martial artist who has been doing martial arts for a couple of decades now, and you've kind of lost that, that why and you're just kind of going through the motions or maybe you have your own studio but you're not really training yourself, I'd really, really encourage you to pick an aspect of martial arts that you want to get better at, you know, preferably something maybe that you don't know already, and find an avenue to pursue it, whether it's training on your own, or branching out and finding a new instructor, attending seminars, even just following stuff on YouTube.
You know, we live in a great age where so many resources are available to people. And I would really encourage people to see the different aspects of martial arts and find one that works for them, and then just train the hell out of it, you know, become really, really good at it, master it, you know, and, and enjoy it, you know, enjoy it, because there's so many different things out there that people can enjoy about martial arts, I would hate for them to I love I love the fact that like Cobra Kai is so popular, like because I've gotten so many students who come to my school and like, I want to do martial arts because I watched Cobra Kai. And that's great. But there's so much more to it than just that. So, I don't want people to forget that
Jeremy Lesniak:
Great conversation had a great conversation. Matthew, I really appreciate having met you. I hope we get to connect soon. There were a lot of fun listeners. Would you think to dig this one? I bet you did. Head on over to our Facebook group whistlekick Martial Arts YouTube, behind the scenes, maybe leave a comment telling people what you thought about this episode. I love those conversations. I love hearing how the conversations we have and the experiences of the guests relate to what you've been through. So tell me, did you relate to this episode? I want to know why you can also visit whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. Check out the show notes, the links to things we talked about today, photos of the guests so you can get to know them a little bit better. All that good stuff is there.
And remember, if you're down to support us in all of our work, you've got a number of options. You might consider buying one of our books on Amazon telling others about the show or supporting us at patreon.com/whistlekick. If you want to bring me to your school, have a seminar. We can do that. Just reach out. We'll make it happen. Remember the code PODCAST15 to save 15% in the store, like maybe a trading program or something like that. And if you have guest suggestions or topic suggestions I want to hear from Jeremy@whistlekick.com. Our social media is @whistlekick. There we go to close another episode. Until next time, train hard, smile and have a great day.