Episode 1003 - The Importance of Competition
In this episode of Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, Andrew and Nick discuss the significance of competition in martial arts and martial art schools.
The Importance of Competition - Episode 1003
SUMMARY
In this episode of Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, Andrew and Nick discuss the significance of competition in martial arts and martial art schools. They reflect on their personal experiences with tournaments, the benefits of sparring against different opponents, and the community aspect that competitions foster. They also introduce the upcoming Whistlekick Showdown, emphasizing the importance of camaraderie and learning in martial arts.
TAKEAWAYS
There are more pros to competition than cons.
Competition helps you learn about yourself as a fighter.
Tournaments foster a sense of community among martial artists.
Facing new opponents can improve your skills significantly.
Competition can teach valuable lessons about humility and growth.
It's important to support and learn from other martial arts schools.
The experience of losing can motivate improvement.
Tournaments are a celebration of martial arts culture.
Building friendships through competition is a key benefit.
The upcoming Whistlekick Showdown aims to bring martial artists together.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
03:36 The Importance of Competition
12:49 Learning from Competitions
21:17 Building Community through Tournaments
28:46 Upcoming Whistlekick Showdown
After listening to the episode, it would be exciting for us to know your thoughts about it. Don’t forget to drop them in the comment section down below!
SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Andrew (01:50.353)
Welcome, you're listening or watching to the next episode of Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio. Unless you're listening out of order, then this might not be next. Maybe you jumped to this one first because you thought the topic was cool. In which case, great. So for you, it is the next one, I guess. So it always counts. Yeah, yeah, I'm going to go with that. I'm joined by my good friend Nick Tabernak. How are you today?
Nick (02:15.572)
I'm wonderful man, Andrew. Thank you so much for having me again.
Andrew (02:21.196)
Always a pleasure to have you on the show for sure. and I'm really excited to get into our topic today because it's one that actually you brought to me, which I'm kind of excited about. But before we get there, I want to make sure to mention to all the people listening or watching, to please support the show by finding out what we do. Even if you just find out what we do, maybe you don't know all the things we do. We don't just have a podcast. Although this podcast is pretty enormous. This episode is coming out.
One thousand and three is this episode, which is pretty insane. We bring you this podcast for free, which is pretty awesome. But we also, Whistlekick as a company does all sorts of other things. We sell books, we sell sparring gear, we sell training programs, we hold events all over the country. So we would love for you to go to Whistlekick.com to find out all of the things that we do.
If you do choose to purchase something, can use the code podcast one five on almost everything to save yourself 15%. But if you're interested in knowing more about this show, you can go to whistlekick martial arts radio.com and you will find show notes for this event, this podcast, as well as every other podcast we've done. And so those podcasts will have maybe other pictures or show notes with other information.
and transcripts of all the episodes as well. But here's the cool new thing that I want to make sure we get out to everybody out there listening or watching. If you go to whistlekickmarshallarchradio.com at the top, you will find a button that says subscribe. Now, obviously, if you're watching this on YouTube, we want you to subscribe there, become a follower, know, click the like button on this episode. As everyone on YouTube says, smash those buttons.
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Andrew (04:48.24)
That's right. I said a free book I'm not gonna tell you what the book is because I want you to go there and find out for yourself It costs nothing this mailing list will not be shared with anyone else It is strictly for martial arts radio. And so I hope you could consider going there and hitting this subscribe Filling out the information there and get your free book and start getting all of updates on all of our
Not all of our episodes but on our episodes that we have coming out. We would love for you to do that lastly Patreon.com forward slash whistle kick to help support the show monetarily believe me this show is not free It costs money for sure and for less than Nick how much does a cup of coffee cost at Starbucks these days?
Nick (05:36.558)
About five bucks, brother.
Andrew (05:38.833)
There you go. So if you'd be willing to buy me a cup of coffee once a month, that would really go a long way to helping this show continue to grow. All right. So Nick, did, we meaning Whistlekick, Jeremy and I did an episode, episode number 555. quite some time ago. And we talked about,
Nick (05:47.138)
Yes, sir.
Nick (06:01.868)
Quite some time back.
Yeah.
Andrew (06:07.054)
the pros and cons of competing, what you can gain from doing tournaments, competition. And this episode is the importance of competition. And we're bringing this one because you listened to episode 555 and you had some thoughts about it and you wanted to kind of add a little bit to the conversation. so, so here we are. So let's go back to episode 555.
Nick (06:22.08)
I did. Yeah.
Andrew (06:33.168)
It was I know it was a while ago that you listened because it took us a while to get this on the books recording Because my ankle surgery if anyone notices watching you'll see I'm kind of laying down a little bit It's because my leg is stretched out in front of me But you know, what were your initial thoughts after listening to that episode?
Nick (06:52.642)
I think you guys really nailed it. think it was just from my own personal experience. There's a lot more pros to it. some of the cons and honestly, it's been a little bit and it's been kind of crazy for me. I can't remember much. you guys talked a lot about the community, which is a really good thing. And I think the, the, any negatives and reality I can't really think of. mean, I, I
you know in my students I'm always a student of martial arts but in my prime underbelly years I was jumping into competitions as much as I possibly could so I mean for me I'm like I don't really I remember thinking when I was listening to it yeah that's a good negative but I can't really figure out a negative personally you know myself I can't really see any of that
Andrew (07:30.788)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew (07:41.024)
Mm. Yeah, I re-
I remember doing the episode, mean I know it was a number of years ago, but it was fairly
Nick (07:50.157)
Yeah.
Andrew (07:54.521)
I'm gonna have to do some research. It was fairly quick in my co-hosting days, so it was one of the early episodes that I remember doing. And so I'm gonna actually look this up because I'm interested to see this. But one of the cons that I remembered talking about was not something that I personally saw and or felt, but I have heard it from others.
Nick (08:05.218)
Right.
Andrew (08:22.5)
And I believe in the episode I even mentioned that I may have heard it from people that just don't like competition. so this was or didn't do well in competition. their rationale for not doing them is that the judging can be biased and that the judging isn't you don't always get a fair shake. So the episode was episode five, five, five.
November from 2020 and it was why everyone should consider tournaments. And I think it was my fourth episode as co-host. is... No, maybe it was my sixth. Yeah, it was quite a while back there.
Nick (08:49.72)
Right.
Nick (09:04.172)
Wow, dude. So you're really stretching back there, man. Wow. Yeah. I did. Yeah. And you do remember that with everything going on with my life right now, some of the stuff, my memory could be spotty, but on that thought, I did remember what you said. And with that, I remember a tournament that I went to and I remember it deterred me for a little while. had, I grew up in a small town.
and it was a very small town about five square miles and there were five dojos and in order to put a tournament together that was pretty simple. Hey we're doing this, okay. The joke was you could yell out the window of the dojo and everybody would hear you because the town was so small but one of the dojos what they would do was they would pack the tournament
Andrew (09:48.954)
Yeah.
Nick (09:58.632)
with so many of their judges that there will you you could be I I was in a dojo at the time Jeff Curry's karate center and I'm not saying the name of the other dojo because they've changed the owners a few times it's been different now but if you walk in and you see you know I'm with Jeff Curry's karate center and then the three judges at the table were all three of the competitive the competing school
And then, just you know, I'm like, I guess I'm getting bronze if there's three of us and it just, it always deterred a little bit. but I could see that and that was more of a, guess you could say it was kind of a political thing more than anything. And, but I find, you know, yeah.
Andrew (10:33.616)
Mm.
Andrew (10:43.278)
Yep, yep, and I think I brought that up.
Nick (10:47.918)
when you stretch outside of your area, that's when the positivity comes to be. But also like the competitiveness ain't that bad, you know, like where you can do that. And one of the things, if you don't mind, if I bring one part up that, uh, particularly I'm going to think about was sparring. I was
Andrew (11:04.944)
Yeah, of course.
Nick (11:11.31)
pretty decent as a know as an under belt and you know the few times I competed as a black belt I got pretty good with sparring in my dojo
And you know, was doing well. said point, know, it was traditional points sparring, you know, points at five, you know, five points win. And I got fairly good at it when I got into the tournaments. However, that's when I noticed there was a problem. And here's the thing I figured out. And when I was pondering on this, I remembered these thoughts.
when you're competing in your dojo, right? It's the same people and I don't know if you've had this, you've had a couple of dojos yourself, Andrew, but you tend to face almost the same people after a long stretch, right? So without consciously being aware of it, you start noticing their little ticks.
Andrew (11:59.973)
Yep. Yep. Yep.
Nick (12:08.994)
And I had a childhood friend of mine, started, him and I started almost the same day in the dojo. And we went up and I mean, he went his way and we still talk every once in a while, but this kid was Ryan. Right. And just to give you an example with that, Ryan was a dude who like he would wait for somebody to bend a little bit over and then he would do this jumping, you know, like a jumping to a two knuckle punch.
You know, get the back of the head, get the point. So all I would do is wait for him to do that. His side would be open, sidekick there. I'd get the two points and find him. I'm like, hey, I'm kind of good with the sidekicks today. I'm doing well. Come to the tournament time when you're facing somebody in another school, you know, and, know, I have my own issues, so my hands tend to jump. And then I'm like, wait a minute. I'm exposing myself unintentionally here.
Andrew (12:40.282)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew (13:02.981)
Hmm
Nick (13:05.742)
And to the day and age where, you know, now everybody has a cell phone, you know, where everything's recorded, you know, back when, you know, even my my last tournament was, I think, 2007, I did it on my own, or 2008, rather, but beside the point, you know, we had somebody my dad would do when I was when I was young, he would have a, you know, a camera that was over the shoulder.
that we all had with the giant VHS. You know, and then do that and you see a few of them, but he filmed that. I'd go back like Tom Brady, go back and look at my plays and see what I did. And I look at it that's one of the big things. It's like you can be good around somebody, but if you if you fought said person 50 times,
Andrew (13:35.239)
yeah, sure sure.
Andrew (13:47.429)
Mm-hmm.
Nick (13:57.014)
You tend to know that person and when you're outside of it and yeah, and when you're outside of it, then you could say, you know, regardless the judging fairness aside for a moment, you can learn from yourself and you can learn about, okay, here's what happens when I get nervous. When I get nervous, my right arm goes up a little bit more. I got to be aware of that. You know, I got to be aware of that. And you learn yourself as a fighter.
Andrew (13:59.801)
Yeah, absolutely.
Andrew (14:19.792)
Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And I think, I think that's a great point in, in one of the like benefits of doing competitions is having other people to test, test yourself, quote unquote, test yourself against in sparring because you're, you're absolutely right. When you are in a dojo and you are always sparring the same people, you get to understand their habits on how they fight.
Nick (14:24.962)
You know, as a fighter, how you do.
Nick (14:34.275)
Yeah.
Nick (14:39.838)
Exactly. Yeah.
Andrew (14:49.738)
and you know what to look for and you can, you know, they're always growing, but you are too, but you can figure out like what you need to do to beat them. And then you come to a tournament and there's new people. helps make you a better fighter because of it. Even if you lose, I think there is stuff to learn there and gain from that for sure. Absolutely.
Nick (14:50.691)
Yeah.
Nick (15:02.253)
Yeah.
Nick (15:14.714)
And it's not only that just with there, but it's in the forms as well. The open hand forms or empty hand, however you call it. And even in the weapons as well, you know, where you see it. And I remember, you know, going to tournaments as a kid. And even when I started my own dojo and I would take, I would take kids along and you'd see somebody, you know, I do very traditional bow forms, you know, and
you know, doing something like that, but then you see someone using a staff and swinging it around their neck up, catching it and doing some fancy stuff, you know? So when you see that, you look at it, they go, Hmm, can I, this is going to sound negative for a second. But if you see something like that and you go, huh, can I do that?
But also you say to yourself, what can I do to do something like that? Or can I improve my own self? Am I doing enough? But it allows you to take notes. It allows you to take notes on others and see other styles as well. Yeah.
Andrew (16:14.576)
Yep.
Andrew (16:23.406)
Yeah. And I think, you know, one of the things that we, I'll be surprised if this didn't come up in episode five, five, five, was that for some people that's a, that's a downside to doing like going to tournaments. You're a school that doesn't do the flashy stuff. as many would call it like the, the non-sport or the sport version, with tricking and gymnastics in your forms and things like that.
Nick (16:41.037)
Yeah.
Nick (16:47.276)
Right. Right.
Andrew (16:50.966)
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. But I think we as an organization, as a martial arts competitions have recognized that those are different from traditional forms, which is why most tournaments, not all, but most tournaments split them apart. You've got sport forms and traditional forms, right?
But if you went way back in the day when you and I were kids going to tournaments and for the record listeners may or may not remember or know this. I've only been like, I'm almost, I'm coming up to 50 years old and I've been to maybe five or six tournaments. Actually, no, went to, there were two in a row. went recently, like maybe eight tournaments my entire career of, and I started training when I was in high school.
Nick (17:43.68)
Nothing wrong with that. Yeah.
Andrew (17:45.615)
So like, don't have a lot of, only, only, there is nothing wrong with that, but I'm only saying that so that people recognize like, I'm not coming from this vast knowledge of going to lots of tournaments. But when I did go as a kid, and in, in my early, you know, 20, in my twenties and thirties, I went to a couple, think, they, they weren't split apart. And so I would be doing my traditional form and
competing against these other martial artists who were doing the spinny, flashy, and as a youngster who was not as educated as I am now, I would say, that's not martial arts. That's not karate. And part of it was they beat me. And I was upset about that. And so I need something to complain about. And I think that's where some people have... And now looking back at it, I recognize,
Nick (18:26.316)
Right. Right.
Andrew (18:42.416)
They did a way better, like their form deserved to win because they were better than I was, right? But I think for a lot of people, they see those two things together and think that's not fair because one is different than the other. And so I think that's where some of the political, you know, not...
Nick (18:51.18)
Right. Yeah.
Andrew (19:06.16)
it being not fair and skewed one way or the other sometimes comes into play where people think that whether it's true or not, they think that that's the case.
Nick (19:16.046)
And the perception is reality. I could see your point with that. That where you look at it, and as the example I use, where you see your competitors have the certain patch on their dough buck, and then you look at the judges and they got the, all three of them have the exact same patch. And you go, oh gosh, no, like now what do I do? But you know, I remember a time when I was a kid and one of the,
Andrew (19:35.93)
Yep. Yep.
Nick (19:44.682)
One of the 10 things that I think is a good lesson for me that I always picked up was I was in the in the city of Taunton, Massachusetts, which is not very far where I live in Fall River. And we're we're in the do we're going all day. And I think I picked up a second place in weapons, I think, you know, last one of the day was the term was the sparring.
and you know we're going against this you know us and you know when i was i was at a dojo giffords academy and giffords academy when we went to tournaments at the time we were very full of ourselves and you know walking in we're like okay like you know we're the
I hate to say like it was like Fonzie walking in it kind of shows my own age. I were cool. You know, we're cool, right? But then we got knocked down a peg. You know, we got knocked down a peg sometimes because I realized I was against this one kid.
Andrew (20:38.448)
Yeah, yeah.
Nick (20:51.31)
And I got my clocked clean, man. Like, it was five zero done. And I'm like, wow, what did I, you know, and it's not like karate kid, you know, getting kicked in the jaw or anything. But then I realized, I'm like, okay, I'm sticking around and I wanted to make sure the person who, or wanted to see the person who beat me get the whole thing.
So if I knew, if I knew if I lost to the person who took the gold, I wouldn't feel so bad. I wouldn't feel as bad. I'd still feel terrible, but, but then I looked at it I realized I am extremely emotional, you know, and it taught me there because one of the things competition can teach, you may not be the best in the room, but you still need to walk away at the end of the day.
Andrew (21:20.11)
You feel better.
Nick (21:42.294)
And you know what a loss can do. You can sit and you could sulk and you could feel terrible. I've done it. You know, I've done it. We all have done it. Or then you can walk away and go, all right, I didn't do as great as I thought I did, but then go back and look and go, and this is going to sound bad for a second, but just, you know, follow me listeners. you can go, you can go back and go, what could I do better?
and not analyze yourself or like, know, when you're laying, laying awake at night going, my God, what did I do? And you look at it you go, you know, it just wasn't my best day. You know, I walked, we walked in, you know, high and mighty working for the Academy of martial arts.
Andrew (22:23.216)
Sure.
Nick (22:29.484)
That doesn't matter where you're from. It's, know, cause when you get into the ring with somebody, it's your own skill. mean, it doesn't matter where it, when it really happens, it's your own skill. How did you do? And the real, the real deal is you, if you play your cards right, you can only get better from there.
Andrew (22:48.568)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. it's interesting, you bring up a good point, which segues into the next part I wanted to talk about. You get beat by someone and then you're like, that person beat me, so I hope they win. And when they do win, you feel happy for them, right? Or you can feel happy for them. And then you go up and you congratulate them and you make a new friend. One of the best reasons, in my opinion, to do
Nick (23:09.07)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew (23:17.328)
tournaments and compete is the community aspect is the meeting of other schools and people and I I It's not the only benefit there were a ton Listen to five five five for a bunch of others, but I think the building the community aspect is huge and and I think that's One of the the best reasons to do that
Nick (23:25.237)
Absolutely.
Nick (23:45.804)
Yeah, I can't agree with you more. I think also competition within outside of tournaments as well. If you if you have competition in other schools, you know, and I'm just going to draw back to when I grew up like very small town, Somerset, Massachusetts, five square miles, five dojos and
Andrew (23:58.576)
Yep. Yep.
Andrew (24:08.111)
Mm-hmm.
Nick (24:11.438)
in the mid 90s and mid 2000s if you didn't play football you know you were on the outside or you know you did football you did music and then there's the karate kids you know you know hanging around here but at least if if you do have some competition like i could do a pretty mean axe kick
Andrew (24:24.026)
Yep. Yep.
Andrew (24:34.96)
Mm-hmm.
Nick (24:35.362)
you know swing ups when down and then you know there are kids in the campbell you know the campbell school who would you know try to make okay you know taper how did you do that you know i'm like okay then we explore the mechanics of it because you know campo traditionally you don't go as high so okay how do you do that and then we start talking and develop a community in the school in the town and helped each other out you know and that's
Andrew (24:44.91)
Yep. Yep.
Andrew (24:51.684)
Yeah.
Andrew (25:00.332)
Exactly, exactly.
Nick (25:01.678)
Yeah, they helped each other out because it became competitive. All right, Tabor can do a good axe kick. I got to work on mine. And then, you know, the other guys would be, you know, I think there was a, um,
Andrew (25:09.498)
Mm-hmm.
Nick (25:14.56)
Ajit can do school a muay thai as well and when they you know okay they're pretty good with boxing okay let me get my let me my swing in a little bit more and then you know it i realize you know one of the things now talking it out it also made me better as a teacher down the road because you know you can also do this where we have students who may do something better than us
Andrew (25:24.398)
Yeah. Yep.
Andrew (25:40.142)
Yep. Yep.
Nick (25:40.43)
down the road and then we could pick up from them because we might not always be great. We might not always be great at everything.
Andrew (25:46.199)
Absolutely. Yep. you know, taking even a step back further, as a school, know, cause you mentioned your town had five square miles. had five martial arts schools having those other schools close by does. And I'm going to, I'm going to slow down to make sure everyone hears this. Another martial arts school in your town is not the enemy. I'm going say one more time. I'm going say it again.
Nick (25:53.645)
Yeah.
Nick (25:59.981)
Yeah.
Nick (26:13.844)
Exactly.
Andrew (26:16.31)
if there is another martial arts school in your town, they do not have to be the enemy. What do you find right next to almost every McDonald's in the world?
Nick (26:17.059)
Go.
Nick (26:30.35)
I don't know what.
Andrew (26:31.651)
A BURGER KING.
Nick (26:34.217)
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Andrew (26:35.408)
Right? Think about it for a second. Listeners, think about it. Every time you see McDonald's, with rare exception, within a mile, there is a Burger King. Right? And do you think they care about that? No. In fact, if you're the only burger place in town, you're only going to attract people who like burgers. But if you've got burgers and some other things, maybe you'll get a few other people. But if you've all of a sudden got five different restaurants in town, people are thinking, oh,
Nick (26:45.472)
Yeah.
Andrew (27:05.06)
That's the area of town I want to go to because there's lots of places to eat. You will actually attract more people by having those other competitions of other schools to go to. competition is not bad. We're not just talking go to a tournament and my student competes against another student. I think we need to consider and I don't, we don't need to a whole lot of time on this, but
Nick (27:27.726)
Right.
Andrew (27:33.177)
I just want the listeners to recognize that there is importance to competition. That includes having another martial arts school in town. That does not have to be a bad thing. Can it be a bad thing? Yes, it could be run by bad people. There are bad people in the world, right? They could do bad things, but just the fact that there is another martial arts school does not automatically make them the enemy. And I wanted to throw that out there.
Nick (27:42.274)
Very true.
Nick (27:52.074)
Unfortunately, yeah. Yeah.
Andrew (28:02.288)
Because we're talking about the importance of competition and some people see that as competition as well.
Nick (28:08.494)
And you're right too. I mean, one of the things that if I can add to that is it's good for when my sensei at the time, one of the things we realized is, we were very, we became very good friends and I am still friendly with one of the owners of a place called USA karate, which is in Somerset, Mass. And one of the things we realized is with competition,
also brings up the strengths of schools. And so for instance, like that, and I had this recently with one student who was under me, you start to see and you start to know that and we could be like, you know, and I had the small town as well that had, you know, the high school and the high school in the town next door that did the football game at Thanksgiving. And you're like, then one of the coaches always said it could be a rival for a day.
Andrew (28:59.984)
yeah.
Nick (29:04.738)
but you still work together with the same goal. And that always hit because you can figure out when you get together to compete, you see the struts. You might have a student and this may be a little bit of the negative side, but you can find somebody who's like, you know what? This may not be the person for me, but down the road, there's this place that might be a better fit for you. What you're looking for. And in reality, how are you going to know when you see this and you go, you know what?
Andrew (29:23.952)
Mm-mm.
Nick (29:34.984)
you may be able to do it. did this with one of the students I have. know, when she just wasn't vibing with me, she just really didn't like who I was. But there's another school that has female instructors who can, I'm on my own, you know, who does here? said, this may be better for you. And they said, okay, because it also like competition brings people together and
We've known this for a while with you and I and whistlekick but When you have more communication, you know and just bouncing off what you said The nearby school doesn't have to be the enemy But it brings everybody together because then we all know each other together. We all survive You know, we all survive, you know, we're competing to get people in the door. Yes That's every business as you said a Burger King and a McDonald's are
Andrew (30:19.972)
Yep. Exactly.
Andrew (30:27.096)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Exactly. Yep.
Nick (30:29.954)
you know, at least we're all together. We know that go, Hey, you know, Larry and Shannon may be better for you. You know, here was let's here's this number, you know, there's this number.
Andrew (30:37.376)
Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Now, you have been thinking a lot about tournaments the last few months. I know this for a fact. Let's talk about why are tournaments so much on your mind right now? What's going on?
Nick (30:46.7)
Yes, I have. Yes, I have. Yes, I have.
Nick (30:59.38)
Okay, so a few months back, I was offered the position as coordinator of tournaments for whistle kick. And we are. Yes, we are. Yes, we are. So when I was in for all these reasons that I've been demonstrating in the conversation and many more, I couldn't resist jumping in.
you know where it was offered and the you know everything was right and um jeremy's asked me is like do you want in on this because it's going to be pretty big i'm like yeah i i didn't even flinch like yes and you know and you're married as well andrew so i went there and i went to my wife and said this is what i'm doing and she said great
Andrew (31:41.284)
Yeah, no, that's great.
Nick (31:51.47)
And I went, you know, like there's a moment I went, uh-oh, and she was really supportive. Thank you. Like, thankfully for my wife being great. I had to get that into to get a husband point, but you know, we have this. So yes, there is the first of, you know, hopefully many, have a competition, March 29th, Concord, New Hampshire.
at Rowlett Middle School in Concord. And it's the first of many, the Whistlekick Showdown. And it's on the site on whistlekick.com to be able to pre-register.
Andrew (32:20.762)
Awesome.
Nick (32:33.222)
and it is available for you. We're under the Twin State Martial Arts Association as well. So the rules are really good. Everything is set up well. This is going to be a beautiful time because it's not only a competition, but it's a celebration of martial arts. And we're pulling people from all over New England to come on in.
Andrew (32:52.708)
Yep. Awesome.
Nick (32:52.908)
You know, we're going to do things a little differently. but what I encourage everyone to do when you're there, don't go home right away. We're going to have a hangout spot later. We're going to, we're going to have food trucks there as well. And even if you don't know anything about whistle kick at all, there's going to be something on the little, on the other divisions as well. So it's a day to remember.
Andrew (32:56.643)
Mmm.
Andrew (33:05.114)
Awesome.
Andrew (33:16.944)
Cool, cool. if you do know Whistlekick at all, you know that when we do something, we put everything we have into doing it and doing it to the absolute best of our ability. And so if you are anywhere within driving distance of Concord, New Hampshire on March 29th, it would behoove you to make plans to go.
Nick (33:28.554)
yeah.
Andrew (33:46.509)
irritated that I'm not going to be able to attend because of my foot surgery. I'm hoping that I can get out of the house by then, but I probably won't be walking and I might not be able to drive, we'll see. But there's going to be a lot going on, I'm sure. And I say I'm sure because I don't know, because I'm not in the tournament division.
I'll get to be surprised just like everybody else is. So that's pretty cool.
Nick (34:19.97)
Yeah. Yeah, man. And it just any time we get together, it's always for any of you who have been involved with Marshall Summit with all the weekends with any of the free training days that whistle kick has come along. You all know for a fact that there is magic in the room when it happens.
You know, there is magic and it's an unforgettable day. Exactly. And if you are there, what you're going to tell everyone who's not there is I wish you were there. And if you're not there, you're going to tell everybody I wish I was there. What side do you want to be on?
Andrew (34:43.28)
and you gotta be there to experience it.
Andrew (34:54.19)
Ha ha ha.
Andrew (34:58.884)
Yep. Yep. Good point. Good point. Excellent. Is there, so this episode will come out early March. So people have time to still register for the event. Is there anything you want to, that you can tease to let people know what's going to make this different besides the cool hangout at the end?
Nick (35:10.52)
Yes, sir.
Nick (35:21.068)
There is the cool hangout. have t-shirts and hoodies available as well. There is a different grand prize for black belts other than a trophy. and we have many, many, many other things. And all I could say audience is just stay tuned. Cause there's gonna be much more come along. Look up on the socials, look on Facebook, look for any events or anything else. We'll be talking to you.
Andrew (35:30.532)
Ooh, okay, that's cool.
Andrew (35:42.0)
All right.
Andrew (35:48.772)
Yep, there is a Facebook page. There is a Facebook page for it. know I've Excellent. Nick, anything else we need to chat about before we say goodbye here about the importance of competition?
Nick (35:51.68)
Yeah, we'll be talking to y'all.
Nick (36:01.71)
I think we've covered it all, Andrew. I really think we have.
Andrew (36:08.14)
Awesome. listeners and viewers, if you have thoughts on any of this, let us know. You can go on our Facebook page, Martial Arts Radio, our Facebook group there to chat about this episode as it comes out. What are your thoughts on competitions? Are you going to the Whistlekick Showdown on March 29th? Let us know. That'd be really fun. Or...
You can also, if you have any thoughts on this, you can email me, andrewatwistlekick.com. I know you can email Nick at nickatwistlekick.com, right? Awesome. You can, don't forget, check out our website, whistlekickmarshallarchradio.com. Go to that subscribe button on the website to get introduced to our mailing list. Again, you might have done this before and be on the whistlekick email list.
Nick (36:43.323)
Nick at WhistleKick.com
Andrew (37:05.028)
But that gives you stuff about everything Whistlekick does, which is great. But this is going to be very specific to martial arts radio. So there's going to be some fun things coming out there. So you're going to want to get involved for sure. then patreon.com slash Whistlekick to help support the show. Tell a friend about this episode. And I think that's it. So until next time, train hard, smile, and have a great day.
Nick (37:32.862)
Smile and have a great day.