Episode 209 - How the World Sees Martial Artists
In this episode, Jeremy talks about how martial artists look from both outside and inside the martial arts.
How the World Sees Martial Artists - Episode 209
How the World Sees Martial Artists
Let’s face it, there are different opinions about martial artists - both from a non-martial arts perspective and even from other martial artists. Does the world favor martial artists or do they just see us as violent individuals? This episode covers a controversial theme and you will have to listen to find out.
-Show Transcript-You can read the transcript below or you can download it here.
What's happening everyone welcome to episode 209 of whistlekick martial arts radio. My name is Jeremy Lesniak, I'm the founder here at whistlekick and on today's episode we're going to talk about how the world sees us as martial artists. This is actually a listener submission topic and I’ll read their question shortly but I wanted to let you know what you're in store for. If you're new to the show you can check us out at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com you can find all of the products that we make at whistlekick.com that's also a great hub for all the other things that we do like our calendar, our meme site and our brand ambassadors, I mean there's so much going on here and I try not to take up too much time on the podcast letting everybody but all the stuff that we've got going on because well the introduction is a bit really long and I don’t want to do long introductions, I want to get you into the heart of what you're here to listen to the stuff that I'm here to talk about because I like talking about hopefully as much as you like listening to it.So, like I said, we had somebody write in with a suggestion for a topic, I’m going to paraphrase some of what they've written in and I’m not going to read their name because I didn't ask their permission first. So here we go, I have a topic for one of your Thursday shows this question came up in Jesse Enkamp karate nerds Facebook group which I learned about from the whistlekick podcast thanks Loved having Jesse Enkamp on the show what a good guy, what good stuff he's doing for martial arts seriously and the question was would you include martial arts on your resume for a job outside of the martial arts. And he goes on to say that the question you know lead to a lot of kind of controversy, people having some really hard opinions and he mentions that personally he had a college professor who was a Taekwondo practitioner and he said you should never put your hobbies on a resume and his logic was if you're into martial arts, you know what martial arts means but if you, you know, if you're talking to somebody, if somebody looking through your resume is not a martial artist or not going to know what it means and that the average person just thinks martial arts is MMA and people get angry and things like that. So that was their question that they're posing they wrote it in and yeah, I’ve got some thoughts, I’ve got some different thoughts and what they outlined there let's talk about it. Before we talk about how the world sees us, how do we see ourselves? Because I think that might even be more important and I think as martial artists we tend to see ourselves pretty well I think there's a bit more ego than there needs to be on our own personal opinions and I'm not talking about myself specifically or you the listeners specifically or any individual people I just mean overall. When martial artists look at martial artists we tend to have a bit of ego, we associate with each other you know we live in this bubble and that's not bad, that's not wrong but I think we often forget that there are a lot of good people outside of martial arts.Now you've heard me talk on this show before unless you're a new listener you've probably heard me talk on this show before that I feel martial artists are overall better people you know my belief that everyone should do at least 6 months of martial arts training because it leads to such good things and that can be a bit my 03:28 and that's not necessarily fair to people outside of the martial arts. We get tunnel vision, so if we can step outside of that tunnel, if we can look at ourselves honestly 03:38 really good people and actually that's how I think the rest of the world sees us some folks might see us as violent, I’m sure a lot of them see us as weird because let's face it what we do is pretty weird but overall I think people sees us as stable and reliable and being good people having a positive influence on others and the world around them, if that wasn't the case then we wouldn't see so many parents bringing their children into martial arts training. I think that right there says a lot about the way the world sees us. Of course, there are difference between traditional martial arts and mixed martial arts and from talking to my friends that don’t train you know sometimes I’ll hang out with them and we'll watch a UFC match or something. They seem to see mixed martial arts as this kind of subset of overall martial arts. And I guess it can be you know we've kind of beaten that subject back and forth a bit on this show and I don’t want to go into that but I believe as it relates to this question, this topic most people recognize that there is some kind of division between the traditional martial arts non-martial artists think about which are karate taekwondo and kung fu if you ask most people to name martial arts that's what they're going to say. I think they see that in between those three arts and MMA and that’s okay however they draw the line, they recognize that there's a line andI think that when someone say like a Connor McGregor goes on TV and says some things that are kind of nasty maybe you shouldn't say I don’t think that hurts our reputation as a taekwondo practitioner or a karate right/ SO I think we've got some insulation there and now that self says something about us and the way the world sees us I think we as martial artists tend to see more of the individual differences and sometimes we create differences within different arts or different associations. Oh, those WTF taekwondo people, you know they don’t know how to block. Right so, that's not a judgment of their, them as individuals but sometimes that a judgment of the style and sometimes and I'm not even going to name stuff that I’ve heard because I don’t want to frustrate or hurt anyone's feelings but sometimes those judgments move from style generalizations to the individuals practicing those styles. All karate people are blank, Taekwondo people tend to be blank, those kung fu folks tend to be you know something. You’ve probably heard that stuff. Of course, it’s going to vary based on personal experience. If someone looking through a resume that's never trained in martial arts sees that you're a black belt they're going to have one set of ideas in their head. If their kids did martial arts for a few months and they watched some classes they're going to have a different idea. If they trained as a child or as a teenager and then stopped, they have a different idea and then of course if they actively trained they’ll have another idea.Now I would put martial arts experience at a resume, in fact I have especially if you've been training a long time. To say that you've been training for 5 years or 10 years or you have this rank or you've earned national titles or hall of fame inductions that says something to the person reading it, to the person outside of martial arts. And in almost every case the person looking that over is going to think good things. People when they talk about my martial arts training, non-martial artist talk about the fact that I train that I am a martial artist they're generally talking about it for a positive perspective. I would say 95+ percent. People think martial artists are good people and if nothing else to show that you've been dedicated to a pursuit for a number of years as someone who over the years hired dozens of people it says something, it shows consistency it shows dedication and of course those are qualities that any employer is looking for. If you sit down and you seem angry or frustrated in your interview and you have the fact that you're a martial artist on your resume yeah, they are going to see you as angry or frustrated but I would argue that's probably from your engagement at the interview than from the resume. And let's face it, if someone doesn't hire you because you're a martial artist, do you really want to work there? I want to be myself in any role that I’m able to take on whether that’s speaking to you on this podcast whether it's running whistlekick whether it's any of the other jobs that I’ve had over the years I want to be myself. I want to be myself within my martial arts training and outside of my martial arts training and if I don’t have the opportunity to be, if I don’t get to tell people hey I am a martial artist and this is what I do. I don’t want to be around those people, there you have it. What do you think? Do you think differently about this?This is episode 209, you can find the show notes at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com you can leave us a comment there, or you can hit us at social media at whistlekick on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, YouTube yeah those are the big ones right? No myspace I keep joking about that lately cause myspace keeps popping up in the news and it just has me a little bit rattled that it's even still around. If you have a suggestion for one of these Thursday shows by all means let us know jeremy@whistlekick.com that'll come right to me I read every response, sorry I read every email and I will send you a response and then maybe we'll put it on as a Thursday show. That's all for today until next time, train hard smile and have a great day.