Episode 37: November 26th, 2015
November 26th, 2015 - Episode 37
Sparring Gear Helmet
This episode has nothing to do with Thanksgiving.
We'll be interviewing the founder of the Kids Kicking Cancer organization mentioned on episode 35.
If you haven't checked out Episode 36 with Mr. John Graden, you should. Some of his points have a few people riled up which is creating great discussion.
Into the Badlands is out, and it's pretty good!
Today's featured product is the whistlekick Sparring Helmet. It's a more comfortable, longer-lasting take on the sparring helmets many of you are wearing.
“You may train for a long time, but if you merely move your hands and feet and jump up and down like a puppet, learning Karate is not very different from learning a dance. You will never have reached the heart of the matter; you will have failed to grasp the quintessence of Karate.” – Gichin Funakoshi
tai-chi-master
Movie of the week - Tai Chi Master starring Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li, available for streaming on Netflix.
News
Russian Martial Arts School Teaches How to Use the Selfie Stick as a Weapon
Wushu Hoping to be Olympic Sport
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below or download here.Jeremy Lesniak:Hello everyone and thanks for tuning in it is episode 37 of whistlekick martial arts radio, the only traditional martial arts podcast now served up twice a week. I'm your host Jeremy Lesniak and I'm also whistlekick's founder and here at whistlekick we make the world's best sparring gear and some great apparel and accessories for traditional martial artists. I'd like to welcome our new listeners and thank all of you returning fans. Don't forget you can find all of our past podcast episodes show notes for this one and a lot more at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com and while you're on our website go ahead and set up for newsletter. We offer exclusive content to subscribers and it's the only place to find out about upcoming guest on the show. Wanna let everybody know I'm still getting over a cold and it's that same cold that I had last week I'm feeling a lot better but I'm still really congested. I' gonna do my best to keep the sniffles out of the microphone but if you hear some mildly abrupt jumps in my tone or my volume or something that's what it is I'm pausing microphone so I don't sound disgusting into your ears because that's not friendly and we try to be friendly here at whistlekick.So last week I talked about the organization, kids kicking cancer that was episode 35 and just want to let everybody know that I did reach out to the founder of the organization and heard back from his assistant and actually I'm going to be interviewing him on Monday. I'm not sure when that episode is gonna come out but, really, I'm really looking forward to it I think it's a great organization and I'm looking forward to learning more and of course as I learn more you learn more and were actually scheduled out with podcast for the rest of the year so I'm probably going to end up bumping somebody back or what not, we'll have to see I don't know. It's actually been a lot of fun doing the interviews lately because a lot of people have been approaching the show for interviews whereas before it was me reaching out to past guest saying who do you know? And were getting a lot of referrals now and have some exciting celebrities that have approached us and I don’t want to jinx anything in share it. But no, it's not Chuck Norris, believe me when Chuck Norris is even mildly on the list I will let all of you know because I will need your warm thoughts, prayers, good intentions, and all of that. So yeah. But moving on and enough about dreaming about interviewing Chuck Norris, I feel like there's a joke in there that I'm missing but anyway. So, if you haven't checked out the up so they came up Monday with Mr. John Graden, I really encourage you to go check that out we've had a lot of feedback in fact more feedback on that episode than just about any other and honestly that's what I expected. Mr. Graden offered some really strong opinions and if you listen you know exactly what I'm talking about, he has no problem speaking his mind and I really appreciated that not just as the host but as someone who listened to the episode I’ve actually spent more time listening to that episode than just about any other maybe all of the others. So, that gives you an idea of how much is in that one. So, like I said, go back listen to it let me know what you thought, leave some feedback either on social media tag us or head on over to the website, comment on that show page whatever you do, let us know what you thought.So, over the last few months actually I personally have been really excited about the new AMC show into the Badlands. Just the way it looked, everything seemed on the up and up for this to be the first, at least in recent time, great martial arts television show and I’ve seen the first episode. I was a few days late on it came out. Sunday actually the second episode came out this past Sunday but I checked out the first episode couple days ago, it's great. I really, really like it and I’ll be watching the second episode soon and I think I’ve got my new favorite show. So we'll see, I don't want to jump in and commit to anything that strong that soon but if you've watched other MC shows Breaking Bad the walking dead you kinda know their style with strong character development and a good balance of action and drama and into the Badlands kind of follows that formula but of course there's a lot of martial arts stuff going on, a lot of swords and killing and all the things you would expect in a great kung Fu flick but 44 minutes per week, that the length, the time of the show with commercials typically. Anyway, check it out, tell me what you think hopefully you like it if you don't it's not my fault because I didn’t make it. But something that we do make, hey there's a segue for you that I didn't plan, something that we do make at whistlekick of course it’s out sparring gear and specifically our sparring helmets and those are one of our products that I was surprised how much people like them, not that there's anything wrong with them but I figured that our gloves and our boots because those are the things that we put the most research and development into would be the big sellers and they are but just to give you a couple high points on the helmet, we use our same really good foam which makes them more comfortable and more durable or longer-lasting probably a better word. They've got lots of ventilation so they're really comfortable to wear from that perspective. There's a hole in the top back area if you have ponytail, of course I don't have a ponytail and if you've met me you know I barely have any hair so that's not a feature for me but for those of you out there with longer hair that's a great thing that not all helmets do and those are available over at our website whistlekick.com and we've actually made a change were now offering free domestic shipping on all of our products indefinitely so check that out and hopefully that saves you a couple dollars and we'd love to have your business.But moving on so one of the things that we got some good feedback on is the quotes and then like the story that I read last week but here's another good one from Gichin Funakoshi that name will mean a lot to quite a few of you and here it is "you may train for a long time but if you merely move your hands and feet and jump up and down like a puppet, learning karate is not very different from learning to dance. You will never have reached the heart of the matter. You have failed you will have failed to grasp the quintessence of karate" and of course you can substitute taekwondo or kung Fu or whatever it is for the word karate for you can use the word martial arts in there but I think there's something really poignant in there. And it's true and I think it's the difference between those of us to train in martial arts and those that see us training in the martial arts. People that watch what we’re doing see it as a sport and activity and of course we know it's a lot more than that so, my encouragement to all of you is to remember the difference, to remember that the heart that you're putting into your training and that that makes a difference.So, movies. This week's movie is tai chi master and this was one that I kinda stumbled on. I didn't know that in fact I don't know that I prior to recently, had never watched it. And this movie goes back to 1993 and stars gently and Michelle Yeo. And Michelle Yeo is best known for her role in crouching Tiger hidden Dragon, of course and it's actually a pretty good movie. It's available for streaming on Netflix of course like all the suggestions that were gonna make and imdb's description says; two friends, ex Shaolin monks part ways as they brush with an ongoing rebellion against the government. The ambitious one rises up to be a powerful military commander, while his betrayed friend resorts to learn the calm ways of tai chi.Onto news, it's actually a really light Newsweek in the martial arts world which I don't know if that's good or bad since most of the new stories that I end up crawling through are related to martial arts instructors abusing students or something ridiculous like that but I got two stories for you today. The first one life you’re driving you may want to stop drinking coffee, if you drinking any kind of warm beverage wherever you are, stop doing it right now. Here's the headline Russian martial arts school teaches how to use the selfie stick is a weapon, yeah. Selfie stick is a weapon. There's a news article I’ll post the link you know everything you need to know now. Yes, feel free to judge away, yes everything that I can see related to this, I’ve actually read several stories citing more or less the same information it is that ridiculous. I don't know what else to say but on a more positive note, a better example of a good martial arts news story, Wu Shu though recently shelved from inclusion in the 2020 Olympic Games, is still on track for 2024 so if any of you out there are Chinese martial arts practitioners if Wu Shu is your passion here's your chance you've got a little over eight years to practice and maybe you can be in the inaugural Wushu games in the Olympics. How great would that be. Personally, I would love to see the Olympics feature a lot more martial arts, I'm sure all the wood to and haven't heard anything on the inclusion of karate in 2020 in Tokyo but we'll see what happens, I'm watching that one pretty closely. So that's it for today.Head on over to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com for the shows the links to all the things that I talked about, sign up for the newsletter remember this is episode 37, if you're looking for the specific page and please if you haven't already, leave us review on iTunes or wherever you're getting the show and don't forget we got this free apps on Google play and the iTunes App Store to search for whistlekick those are gonna come right up. We've had a lot of great feedback on those apps. I'm so glad that we put out the resources to make those happen. Anything that we can do to help you folks connect with us in the show were happy to do it. So, if there's something that were missing something that you want us to do someplace that you're not seeing the podcast that you'd like to, go ahead let us know info@whistlekick.com we'll make sure we get it out there. So, until next time. Train hard, smile and have a great day.