Episode 411 - Q&A #8
On today's episode, Jeremy answers all your questions for the eighth edition of whistlekick Martial Arts Radio's Question and Answer.
Q&A #8 - Episode 411
The questions for today are:
Any thoughts on how to better introduce the spirit
Any thoughts on the void or Tao
How to start weapons training
What do I eat before and after training
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below or download here.
Hey what's going on everybody! Welcome this is whistlekick martial arts radio episode 411 and today were doing a live Q&A on Facebook. This is a video episode but of course because Facebook is weird, unless they've changed something you have to do video vertically so doing this video vertically. So if you are watching it later on on YouTube or something, you're gonna see it vertically and that might bother you but tough. If you are listening to it in the audio only feed well, maybe you want to check it out on YouTube. We're going to have it live on Facebook but were actually not leave it up there. So, what's the goal today? The goal is to answer some of your questions about anything you know, kind of that Reddit style AMA, ask me anything. I'm sitting outside on my porch, they are deciding to grade the road, I live on a dirt road so you might hear some noise there. But let's get into it, ask me some questions. Those of you that are starting to pop on, feel free asked me a question, asked me anything at all we'll answer it here. I'm gonna do my best to keep the conversation going and if we end up with too many questions all save some of them for the next time you do a live Q&A. So, things that I can let you know about that I left out of the first part of the intro don't forget you can check out all of our episodes at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com you can find everything we do whistlekick.com and if use the code podcast15 you can save 15% on anything we've got going on over there. We are constantly working on new projects in fact, there are at least two new things that we have in production right now. Who knows when they'll be ready to go, I don't know. Maybe they will never even see the light of day, there are plenty of things that we test out and they don't work so we don't bring them live to you.I've been doing a lot of Q&A a lot of live stuff with 1st cup, if you're not checking out first cup, we do that every weekday 6:30 AM Eastern on YouTube and so I'm really enjoying doing that question-and-answer style, I think it's really easy for me to prep for there's not much I have to do and so that's why we're kinda going to this. What honestly happen, I had a Q&A plan for a few weeks from now but hello John, for those of you jumping in now, go had asked me questions let's get some conversation going, let's turn this into some fun. Last night had an episode scheduled that was going to be a Thursday episode with a guest and unfortunately Comcast decided yesterday to just not work at my house and so we are rescheduling hopefully for next week. But that means that I need to get a Thursday episode going and so what made the most sense to rearrange some things and let's get some live stuff going on. So those of you joining me on Facebook now, please please asked me some questions. Let's get some stuff going here, I'm gonna try not to be too distracted by what's going on around me but no promises because I love where I live. Summer here in Vermont is utterly amazing.Last time we tried doing one of these on Facebook people were asking questions and they were showing up in the chat but I couldn't see them at the time. So hopefully were not having that happening now. It looks like that got five of you watching please those of you watching ask me some questions we had to do something this. Otherwise I'm gonna have to find another way to fill this Thursday so that's coming up. I gotta get this done today. I'm gonna give you guys about another 60 seconds and then I'm gonna have to move on to try to make episode 411something else or maybe I’ll answer my own questions. I've done that before. I have questions. I can ask myself questions.Oh here we go we got a question thanks John. Many times we talk about the integration of the mind body and spirit. It turns out to be mostly mind-body. Any thoughts on how to better introduce the spirit? Yeah the tough thing about incorporating spirit, spiritual practices in martial arts is that for a lot of people anything spiritual means religion. And of course, to most people who understand, martial arts is not religion but the last thing that instructors want is to scare people away by incorporating things that might make them think religion is a core tenet of martial arts. I've even heard some martial arts instructors talk about how people have come to class and been unwilling to bow because they see that is a religious action. Spirituality can mean a lot of different things to a lot of people and I think the best way to incorporate spirituality and martial arts in the class setting is to give people the space to let it be whatever it means for them. The easiest way to do that is meditation. If you sit and you meditate before class, after class, maybe even sections of class, maybe even an entire class once in a while. You give people the opportunity to think about, to work through whatever that is important to them. If you have someone who is a devout Christian they can use that time to pray, if you have someone who is a complete atheist they can work through some of the things from the day and let go of stuff. I love meditation before training I think it's utterly wonderful, wonderful way to start class to give people the space the time to let go of everything that happened before class and to be present to focus on their training. And of course you can do the same thing at the end of class to kind of come back at your training and give some space for the rest the world again. That's my best recommendation on incorporating spirituality into martial arts training. So what else you guys got for me, ask me another question. You may have noticed when I put the camera that the grass is a bit long and that's because it's been really wet and the landscaper has been able to get here. He's been really busy and admittedly I'm kind of far down the list because I’ve I told him as long as he gets cut once in a while, that's all I really care about. Right now I'm looking at what most people call weeds.Another good question John any thoughts on the void or Tao? Admittedly not something I'm terribly experienced with. I've read the Tao of pooh and the day of piglet but it's been a while. I was a philosophy major in college and one of the things it was tough about that was just the general academic practice of reading read memorize, write, regurgitate on to a test and I don't do a lot of reading now. I'm doing better than I used to and I spend more time reading in audio form than, I spend more time you know, consuming audiobooks I do reading paper books. But I'm slowly getting better because I do enjoy reading, I enjoy learning, so I'm gonna freely admit I can't speak intelligently to the concepts of Tao.What are some questions that I’ve had lately? Because I get a lot of people asked me questions in email. Lately have been trying to direct them to agree to come on the show so we can talk about those questions in more of a discussion form. Because I assume if some people have a question, more people have that question they just haven't asked yet. So what are some of the questions I’ve had lately? Some the questions I’ve had lately have been around weapons and weapons training and what was that question? How to start weapons training. I think the easiest way to start weapons training as I shared with this person was to pick up a stick. A single stick not a bow, not a full-length staff but you know, maybe a 16 to 20 inch stick maybe something more of the Filipino martial arts tradition and the advantage there's only have to worry about one hand. And there's some great video after that you can use to start, certainly not going to become an expert but one of the nice things about training was something like a stick, is that there are only so many ways you can hold onto a stick. I can hold a stick like this or I can hold a stick like this. That's really the only two ways I noticed that I can hold a stick. I can hold the stick like this but that would be dumb threading through my fingers. So you don't have to worry so much about grip, if you can hold on to the stick and it doesn’t fall you're probably holding it right. And then there are only so many ways I can swing it. I can swing it in front of me in various angles and I can poke and I can post. So that that's my suggestion. If you're new to weapons, start with a stick, hit a tree that will teach you a lot. Good place to start.So John's following up on his Tao comment. Tao might be a good idea for a podcast or a section of a podcast, thanks for all you and your team do. I agree you know now that you're bringing it up, it's something that I am aware of as being a gap. So maybe what we can do I'm suspecting Lessie's gonna listen to this at some point. Lessie of course helps out with sourcing guests and everything so Lessie, maybe you can find somebody who is an author on the subject of Tao that we can get on the show, we can talk about it. That would be fantastic let's do that. I would love to get one more question in here. Hey Brian you're watching. Brian, asked me a question that I can answer about martial arts. I wonder if you guys can hear the birds but you know, there's something absolutely wonderful about this time of day, what is it now, it's 10 AM. It's still, it's not quite quite hot yet it's about 70 degrees, the sun is shining, barely a cloud in the sky, birds are chirping. I've really hard time leaving my home in the summer because it's just such a wonderful place to be. You know and there a lot of other wonderful places but you know, early this month, earlier in June when I flew down to Florida to Tampa to be with Superfoot Joe Lewis group it was 95 degrees down there, as much as I love all those guys and girls, I love those people, to leave my home at one of the most beautiful times a year to travel to some place that is so hot you have to stay inside all the time. That's tough I have a hard time with that.Final question for today will be food. I talk a lot about food, I write a lot about food. What do I eat before and after training? So before I train whether it's weight lifting or running or CrossFit or martial arts, I don't eat much, in fact I try not to have eaten for three hours. It takes about three hours to get the food to kind of pass through my stomach and I find I have worked for far more energy. If you don't know digestion takes a tremendous amount of energy from the body and I prefer to save that energy for my training. Now when I am done with training, I try to make sure I get some water, some electrolytes. I try not to eat for 30 to 60 minutes that's what seems to do best for my body. I do make sure I get some food some protein, a little bit of carbohydrate. Most martial arts training is in the evening so, I don't eat too much before I go to bed. If I have a longer training, where it's permitted to drink water or something during, I stay simple water, a little bit of electrolytes, maybe some amino acids and just keep it simple. I spend a lot of time testing, I’ll test new products, new amounts, new ratios, new combinations, to see what works for me. It's about experimentation. I think that’s the point of training. You know, martial arts training or any kind of training. Figuring out what works best for you. There we go we'll call that good.Episode 411, coming to a close. Go over to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com, check out everything we've got going. Whistlekick.com for all of our products, podcast15 gets you 15% off. Remember this is a video episode so if you want to watch me I'm wearing a whistlekick hat and an unrelated martial arts shirt, unrelated non-martial arts shirt. You can head on over to YouTube so I'm gonna go finish this up and those of you to ask questions and watched, thanks. We might start doing more of these so stay tuned, take care.