Episode 591 - Rapid Fire Q&A #2
In this episode, Jeremy and co-host Andrew Adams take on a Rapid Fire Question and Answers.
Rapid Fire Q&A #2 - Episode 591
Jeremy and co-host Andrew Adams tackle a series of questions from you, the listeners, in the form of a Rapid Fire Q&A. Here are the questions they tried to answer:
What should the focus be on 3-7-year-old classes
How do you think competitions will be after the COVID-19 Pandemic
Why do shows that have good martial arts not survive
Thoughts on requiring senior students to help teach even during their class time
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hey there! How's it going? This is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio episode 591. Today, Andrew and I are doing a rapid-fire Q&A. This is a second one we've ever done. You guys seemed to like the first one so we're doing it again. If you're new to the sound of my voice or maybe this show, let me welcome you. I'm Jeremy Lesniak joined by my co-host Andrew Adams here on Martial Arts Radio. And what do we do? We do things for traditional martial arts. Why do we do it? Because we love traditional martial arts and if you're watching or listening, there's a good chance you are also a traditional martial artist. If you wanna see all the things that we got going on here at whistlekick 'cause yeah, it's a lot more than this show, go to whistlekick.com. You're gonna find the store over there. You can find a ton of cool stuff and if you find something in the store that floats your boat, there are not boats but maybe something floats yours, use the code podcast15. That will save you 15% off and helps us cover our expenses.
Now, if you want to check out this show in more depth, go deeper transcripts, photos, links, videos, social media for the guests, all that kind of good stuff, go to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. We keep those websites simple and straightforward and it'll help you connect to more. Why? Because we want to connect you, we want to educate you, we want to entertain you as a traditional martial artist.
We figured, you know, if we give you good stuff, you're gonna stick around and train more. If you train more, the world becomes a better place then maybe in the process, you'll buy something that we make. It's a pretty simple business model. Other ways you can help us out if what we do means something to you, sharing episodes, leaving reviews, buying books on Amazon. You know, there are lots of ways you can support us. So, if you find something that resonates maybe you'll do that or even our Patreon - patreon.com/whistlekick. Exclusive stuff, I just did a new video yesterday for certain tiers so go check it out. Go do it.
Andrew Adams:
Do it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Alright. Let's get started before I get too silly. Andrew and I, we were bat around. What are we gonna talk around in this episode and he's ready to go with the rapid-fire Q&A and he asked me, you asked me, "Do you want to know the questions ahead of time?" And then, I said "No."
Andrew Adams:
So, these are gonna be coming in cold. You have no clue.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I have no idea. This could be a disaster. Let's see how this goes.
Andrew Adams:
Okay, here's the deal for rapid fire. I'm only gonna give you 5 minutes, that's it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Andrew Adams:
So, I'm getting a pencil.
Jeremy Lesniak:
For most people, that's not rapid but given my proclivity to speak for long periods of time, that's rather rapid to me.
Andrew Adams:
Oh, that's very rapid for you. Okay, so the first question. This came in from Matt. The question is, what should the focus be on a 3- to 7-year-old class? All games, just martial arts, or more?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, it's definitely not just martial arts and can games be martial arts? Sure. But when someone lists that out as an option, I'm assuming they're meaning basics up and down the floor or forms or what we might consider some of the more traditional aspects of training. And why is it even a question? Because if you're gonna teach a 3, 4, 6-year-old, you've gotta make it fun. It's important to make martial arts fun no matter who you're teaching and what you're teaching. But adults have more tolerance for things that they see are not fun because there "why" is different.
Little kids don't do anything that's not fun unless they have to. Those are the only two options when you're a [00:03:35:16] child. Why do that? Because it was fun or because I did not have a choice. The older you get, the more you're willing to explore things with, let's say, deferred gratification. You know, we start training and we get the ability to progress and we get better over time. We recognize that okay, if I do this thing, maybe it's not really fun but it will further me towards my goals. We get that. Little kids don't get that. So, I tend to lead with fun and games. When in doubt, make it fun.
Now, here's the thing that I think is important to mention. You can make anything fun for little kids. If you are excited to teaching basics, they're gonna be excited. If you've ever watch me teach a group of young kids, I'm exhausted at the end and you should be. Because they need that energy. If you lead with that energy, you're like "Alright, everybody get into left front stance!" Now, like [[00:04:32:25]. Okay now we're gonna punch and every time you punch, I want you to imagine that the person you're punching is exploding because you're hitting so hard. The monster that you're punching or whatever, right. And they'll do it.
As long as you're willing to engage on that level, they will do it. And so, when this question comes up, inevitably, it is...and I might make some people upset here...it is because they're not able to maintain that energy level. When people say, okay now we're gonna play a game, it's because they're fried. And you know what, I get fried too. I'm not saying you shouldn't or you can't but a game is, in most cases, it's a [00:05:16:22] right. We're bailing on traditional training because maintaining traditional training in a fun way for small children requires a lot of time and energy and it's exhausting. If you're fried, there's nothing wrong with saying, okay we're gonna play depending on the style, the title might be "Sensei says" , [00:05:36:23] says, right. There are a lot of ways you can incorporate martial arts in the game and games in the martial arts. I think no matter what age group you're teaching, there should be a mix. But the younger you get, the more on the surface you, you may make things a game. The more engaged the students are going to be and the more they are going to learn.[5:58]
Andrew Adams:
Awesome! Is that it?
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's it.
Andrew Adams:
Okay, we're gonna have to shorten your time. That was only 3 minutes. Wow!
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'm being [00:06:04:16].
Andrew Adams:
Not gonna [00:06:05:25] at the park. Awesome! That was good.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. I have always thought that even just kids a lot of times just understanding how their body moves. Even doing silly things like weird jumping jacks like you know, it helps them later on.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, that's good.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Because what's the goal? What is the goal of teaching those kids? You're not trying to teach them how to go out of a 4 on 1 gang fight.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You're trying to help them...as far as I'm concerned, when I teach kids my sole goal is, they have a good time such that when they're old enough to make their own choices, they want to come to or remain in martial arts.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, absolutely. Alright, so here we go. Ready for next question?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yup.
Andrew Adams:
Okay so, I looked and looked and looked to find out where this question come from and I'm not sure but I suspect many people would've asked this. So, here's the question. How do you think people competitions will go after COVID? Will they be better because of practicing more or will they be worse because of not having in person classes?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay, so we're speaking of the quality of the competition.
Andrew Adams:
Quality, we could be talking size. You could take it any way you want.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I think we're gonna see a lot of chaos early on. I think we're gonna see some people competing in person strictly because they haven't been able to. We're gonna see people who have been training a lot. We're gonna see people who haven't been training a lot. So, I think there's gonna be far more in the extreme side. We're gonna see some in person competitions that are going to flop miserably because they existed solely to exist in [00:07:44:20] space on a circuit and they didn't create any identity. And those may go away permanently or may take a few years to come back. I think online competitions are here to stay but in a reduced form.
We see people who...what is online competition conducive to forms? That's about it okay and I do see some competitions that are doing what they’re calling sparing which I have a hard time calling it sparing when it's one person. You can call it combative. You can it demonstration. You can call it fight strategy, sparing strategy. You can call it a lot of things and you know; it's really just a name is a name. I don't want to get bogged down on that but anybody who's been training solo for sparing for a year is not probably gonna be where they were. Your timing is going to be off. Your ability to react to other people is probably going to be off. Is it possible that some of the other aspects of your fight game have improved? Yeah. So I think we're gonna see that there's...in some cases we will see a more level playing field. In other cases, depending on the individual participants, we will see more stratification.
My hope is that some of the things that have been learned both as competitors and promoters, some of the good things, some of the bad things, will lead to improvements. For example, from what I have seen, there is more of an understanding among online competition promoters that they have to do something to differentiate because there are 1, 2, more online competitions available on every weekend right now. There's so many of them going on because there have always been tournaments going on. But now that they are available online, the [00:09:40:16] the entry is much lower they cost last year. You have to spend lower logistically and you can film and throw out your best form. But if you're trying to attract people from a wider area, you've gotta do something different. I see, there's some rumblings around price money coming back. There's a tournament in, I believe it's based in the UK, that is claiming something like $10,000, 10,000 pounds in price money.
Andrew Adams:
Wow.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Interesting. I think we're gonna see more and more of I don't want to say that specifically but that attempt at differentiation. If anybody's read the book on how not to throw martial arts competition that I wrote, you will see a big chunk of that is you have to find a way to differentiate. You have to position what you do differently. You know, there's...
Andrew Adams:
Nice, nice. I have not read your book on how not to throw martial arts competition.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's on Amazon. I can send you a copy.
Andrew Adams:
Although, I also have no plans to throw a competition so...
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's about event marketing. I could easily change the title and change 5% of the language. I could be about hosting an obstacle course race.
Andrew Adams:
I do have a friend though who was at that tournament though. My friend...
Jeremy Lesniak:
You have few friends [00:11:05:12]
Andrew Adams:
My friend, Angelo, was at that tournament. One thing that I would add about these competitions...I think that sparing will be a lot less controlled when people first go back to fighting in person because they haven't had to deal with the timing, distance, and balance that they had to doing solo stuff.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I think that is likely.
Andrew Adams:
So that's a concern. That was good. Alright, next question. This is actually a question that I wrote down.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Andrew Adams:
And so, here we go. Why do shows that have good martial arts, like Cinemax/HBO's Warrior and [00:11:49:21] not survive?
Jeremy Lesniak:
You can go back into before into the [12:01:02] and you can listen to an episode that I recorded pre-emptively angry at the martial arts community for not supporting the show before it was even out. Because people who are going to something like Warrior are going to fall into one of two camps - people who care about the martial arts and people who don't. People who don't care about the martial arts, you're not a martial artist...they might appreciate, "Hey that was a cool fight scene." But what means more to them? Story. The story has to be compelling. It's what carries it through. It's, you know, if you look at your typical sitcom or drama, there's no martial arts there so why do people watch them? Because it's a good story. Because they feel engaged, they're entertained in some way.
The least martial artists we often will prioritize the martial arts in something that has martial arts because it's something that we're passionate about.
Now, when you look at something like Warrior, the martial arts in it is exceptional. It is very good. It is some of the best that has ever aired on television in anymore. It is top notch but you still get people who will trash it, who will hate it because that is still something that we do as a community. We still look ways to poke holes at other people's martial arts because to a certain degree, it's culture. But to another degree, there are many of us who cannot handle the fact that someone else is famous because of their martial arts skill and they are not. There's a lot of jealousy and envy in the martial arts community. At some point...how will I know that whistlekick and this show have reached really high standing? When I start to see comments coming in from people who..."I kicked Jeremy's butt sparing when we were teenagers." There are a lot of people who'll be able to say that. You know, I'm fully expecting that.
You know that someone will say that in order for me to host this show and to do what I do at whistlekick, I will have to have been some untouchable martial artist and you know, we still argue over Bruce Lee 50 years after his passing so I don't expect that we're ever gonna get past that entirely. But we need to support it. If we want to better in martial arts, we have to make it a point to support the martial arts that are out there. If we want...let's say, you're someone who watches Warrior and I want better, you have to support it. You can't just say "no". This is what we saw with Badlands is I have no insight as to what the promotional structure was for this early on but I know that for season 2, AMC reached out. We recorded an episode with the two stars. They were cording the martial arts community. If you look at the arc of the show, in the early days I felt like the quality of the martial arts was the highest. The fight scenes were the best and when they found, oh we're not gonna get the love from the martial artists, we need to diversify who we are appealing to even more. I felt the quality of the martial arts going down. It was still very good but I didn't feel like it had that same vibe and it went off the air.
So, how do we fix it? We need more options. You know, when I looked at the numbers on this show versus the number of people participating in traditional martial arts, it is such a tiny drop in the bucket. We could grow a hundredfold and still not be close to reaching the majority of martial artists in this country and globally. It's just staggering because we end up in our camps and it is my hope as we move forward and some of the very rigid structure that was put in place by current overseers of systems and so folks start to pass away and retire, we will see less rigid structure, more cross training, more acknowledgment, and more elevation of lifting up martial arts for the martial arts community. So...
Andrew Adams:
Excellent. Awesome. Yeah, I agree. We have to support that stuff for sure. Alright, last question. This is actually another one from Matt Nather and his question is, what are thoughts on requiring senior students to help teach even when during their own class times?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'm not generally a big fan of requiring very many things. But I feel strongly that, as a martial artist, you should be teaching. I don't think there is any training that educates you more than teaching. You know, Andrew, you're a teacher of multiple things and I know you understand that. I have watched people who hate teaching progress and progress and progress and they hit a wall. And then I've watched them finally, reluctantly start teaching because usually their instructor says, "You know don't have a choice and you're doing this." I watched them get better and better and better. Some of them even start to love teaching.
The ability to convey information, such a valuable skill and that's all teaching is. Now, when we think about it happening in class time, that can be a little difficult especially if money is involved. If I'm attending a class and I'm paying money to be there and at least on the surface it appears that I'm spending a large portion of my class time benefiting the school and other students less of it myself, a.k.a. I'm teaching, I may feel resentful. Now, 20 years later you may start to look at that differently but, in that moment, it's incredibly relevant. This is where I see a lot of martial arts schools the moment someone hits Black belt or whatever the teaching standard is, they're no longer charged. They are expected to show up and help. The idea is that it will balance out more or less. One of the schools that I've attended for years, I made a deal with the instructor. If I'm going to be able to make it to class, I will make it to the kids class and I will help you and I will stick around for the adult class and I won't pay you.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, that would be awesome.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, super pumped when that happens. It doesn't happen very often especially now. But I also recognize the value of teaching and I recognize that as a teacher, if I embrace the authority that I have, I can teach whatever I want. If there's something I want to work through, if I want to train with a bunch of other people, I can dictate what we're doing and totally fun. If anybody follows what I do personally in martial arts, it's a lot of exploration like that. I need other bodies to advance my own progress. I don't really want to pay for that opportunity but I don't also feel the need to get paid for it. So, the answer in a very long-winded but I'll wrap it up here. The key here like with everything else is communication. If the owner of the school , the expectation is hey, I'm fostering the development of this martial artis by requiring them to teach but a student is feeling like they're simply benefiting the economics of the school, it there is that disconnect, it will lead to tension...then it's not a good thing. There needs to be something clearly expressed. There needs to be communication and it should be on a case-to-case basis because everyone has a different "why". Some people want to go on and run a school, they need more teaching practice and the way that you would oversee them doing that might change for someone who you know, they don't really want to teach but I know if I have them teach. they will progress and become better on their own.
Andrew Adams:
Yup.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Anything to add?
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, a few things. I would say that you mentioned that communication that's absolutely key. I've been at schools where there was extra number of hours required of teaching before you could test for your next rank and I'm only okay with that if I'm that student. If I'm getting feedback on how my teaching is going.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, I agree.
Andrew Adams:
Because I'm involved in a band, a pipe band that teaches a lot of drummers and I have one of the younger drummers who’s advanced teaching some of the really young drummers. But after his...and I come around and I check on him and see how he's doing but I always make it a point to let him know that what you're doing is good but I teach it this way and here's why. Even though he's the one teaching the lesson, I'm teaching him on how to be a teacher. I think the worst thing that can happen is expect someone to teach and not give them any sort of direction because that's a recipe for disaster.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I agree.
Andrew Adams:
And then you mentioned the money thing. That absolutely can become something resentful. If your student is not getting any personal instruction when he's going here, she's going to their classes...they're gonna be resentful that they're paying for that. Yup, so...
Jeremy Lesniak:
That is a significant reason. I can't say percentagewise how much but that is a significant reason of why first-degree Black belts drop. That they are then seen as a teaching resource. The instructor or the school is trying to provide the best quality instruction they can which means more individualized attention. Hey here's this Black belt, they are clearly competent. I have faith in them. Can you go teach that group over there? And 6 months later, they're feeling like they've learned nothing new. They've not progressed. They don't realize the value that they have accumulated because there hasn't been communication and especially in cases when it's a child. The parent seems to understand it even less and I've heard parents say, we stopped going because all he/she ever had, my son/daughter do was teach.
Andrew Adams:
Now, having said all this I do think it's important for students of an advanced rank to teach. I wholeheartedly agree that sentiment you brought up because it makes you a better martial artist even if you don't like teaching. That means you have the most to gain from wanting to have to teach. So, I just need you need open, clear communication. There it is again.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Our favorite phrase.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, that's right. So those are the four questions I had today. I would say you're getting better and better being concise.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Not something I'm generally known for.
Andrew Adams:
Which you know what that means...
Jeremy Lesniak:
You're gonna have more questions.
Andrew Adams:
We're gonna have to have more questions. So, here's the callout for people listening to shoot us some questions. Let us know which you want to hear from.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, they should...if we're gonna do this format where I don't see them ahead of time, let's have them email you.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, email straight to me. You can email me at andrew@whistlekickmartialartsradio.com.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Nice and easy. And I'm jeremy@whistlekick.com and our social media's @whistlekick. The website is whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. The website for everything we do is whistlekick.com because names should be easy to remember and understand, right. If you want to support us through the Patreon, there's the store. You can buy stuff; you can review stuff. You can share stuff. You can write an email and say, "Hey, love what you guys do." Any of it is value. You know, there's ...we all have our good and our bad days right and there are days in the business like individually where you're like, is this working? Do people love what we're doing? And I know that you guys do. If you're watching, if you're listening, you enjoy what we're doing and I appreciate that. But it doesn't mean it's a bad thing for us to hear it once in a while so just keep that in mind. Alright, Andrew, 3-2-1...until next time...
Jeremy Lesniak and Andrew Adams:
...train hard, smile, and have a great day!