Episode 629 - Rapid Fire Q&A #6
In this episode, Jeremy and co-host Andrew Adams take on another iteration of the Rapid Fire Question and Answers.
Rapid Fire Q&A #6 - Episode 629
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 are some things that we as traditional martial artists can learn from Mixed Martial Arts?
If you could invent a Martial Arts based on your favorite animal, how would it look like?
Are there too many martial arts in the Olympics?
If you could train with anyone in the world, alive or not, who would it be?
Will Martial Arts styles still exist in fifteen years?
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hey, what's up everybody! Welcome, this is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio and today, Andrew and I are doing another rapid-fire Q&A episode. Is it number five?
Andrew Adams:
Oh, gosh... I can't keep track...
Jeremy Lesniak:
I think it's number 5, rapid fire Q&A number five. He's gonna try to get me going on such a rant or stomp me so much that I can't-
Andrew Adams:
[00:00:27.00]
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, we've got time constraints on each of these questions. If you're new to this this'll be fun. If you're listening, know that there is a video episode of this episode, you can check it out on YouTube. You can find it at whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, we embed it in the show notes and if you wanna [00:00:47.02] all the things we've got going on at whistlekick, go to whistlekick.com, you can buy something in the store. To help us out. Hopefully, it's something that you'll like, not just helping us out. Use code podcast15, get your 15% off. By the time this comes out, there's a very slim chance there'll be more [00:01:03.05].
Andrew Adams:
Nice.
Jeremy Lesniak:
In the store. So, fingers crossed. It's coming. I put it in order.
Andrew Adams:
[00:01:09.07]
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's been a long time. Otherwise, you can help us out, buy a book. Buy a program at whistlekickprograms.com and support our Patreon, patreon.com/whistlekick. [00:01:23.07] 2$ a month and we got free stuff. When you are willing to give us money, we're gonna give you so much stuff back. We're gonna give you exclusive content you won't get anywhere else. We're also gonna give you physical stuff. Stickers and shirts and whatever and all that information is over there, so go check it out. Patreon.com/whistlekick. Andrew.
Andrew Adams:
Yes?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Rapid fire time. I like these.
Andrew Adams:
These are fun.
Jeremy Lesniak:
These are really fun. The first time we've done it in person-
Andrew Adams:
I know, I know.
Jeremy Lesniak:
The dynamic may be different.
Andrew Adams:
Okay, so we've got five questions today.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Andrew Adams:
And at the maximum I'm giving you is five minutes on each question.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Andrew Adams:
That's it. Now, I have a stopwatch. Right here.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Next time, we might need to trim that- should we start marching the time down and marching the questions up?
Andrew Adams:
I don't know- we could do that-
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure, we have 7 seconds to answer these questions.
Andrew Adams:
But that'll become for more like, just a trivia.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It does. That's true.
Andrew Adams:
So, we'll see, but for right now, we're gonna say five and if you can get it under five, that's awesome. Alright. So, some of these questions are from me, some are from our listeners. So, question number one. This is from me. We are a traditional martial arts podcast.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yup.
Andrew Adams:
However, we can't ignore the fact that mixed martial arts exist.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Andrew Adams:
What are some things that mixed martial artists-- or rather, what are some things that, we, as traditional martial artists can learn from mixed martial arts?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I think the number one thing, and this is where people bring up Bruce Lee as the original mixed martial artist, is this concept of "throw away what doesn't work, keep what does and constantly look around at, you know, what are the options and experiment". I make one small change to that concept and that is "just because something doesn't work for you, doesn't mean you should throw it out because it may work for someone else". Or may work in some specific scenario that you hadn't considered. And so, training things. We talk about training as a traditional martial artist. Everything we do is not directly applicable to combat, and that is something people forget. That there are movements that increase flexibility or balance or accuracy or... right? Just because I'm not gonna step in a ring or an octagon or the or the street and deploy this technique, does not mean it doesn't have value and if you look at any other athletic pursuit and i think it's fair to say that a sport like football, basketball, or baseball is probably a little more advanced than MMA just because of time, there are cliche drills that occur in football like the high knees. Right? Most of us has seen an [04:06.07] participated in a high knee ladder in the context of football or soccer. It builds formation, it builds flexibility, it builds [04:16.20] but you're not gonna get out of the soccer field [04:21.24] it doesn't work that way, but it is something we can cross train into to make ourselves better. So, to sum it up, we should look to MMA as an example of where cross training is very successful but not hold that up as the yard stick by which we define traditional martial arts because the goals are different.
Andrew Adams:
Alright, good that was quick. I would say team music.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Team music would be cool. You know the thing that we're working on we talked about [04:59.09]
Andrew Adams:
No.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Did I not mention that?
Andrew Adams:
No.
Jeremy Lesniak:
There's a thing that we're working on, that's on the list.
Andrew Adams:
Interesting. Alright
Jeremy Lesniak:
It would happen.
Andrew Adams:
Okay, I'm just going to walk around it, I think I'm just going to walk with the music just playing all the time
Jeremy Lesniak:
Like that episode of [05:14.03]
Andrew Adams:
Alright question number two, this question is from Lessy. [05:27.10] First one's easy, what's your favorite animal? All the animals in the world. What's your favorite animal?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Dogs?
Andrew Adams:
Okay if you could invent a martial arts style based on that animal, what would it be like? What would that fighting style be like? And why?
Jeremy Lesniak:
So, the sarcastic, playful person of me just wants to say is peeing on people. [05:57.13] and you would pee on them.
Andrew Adams:
They would run away.
Jeremy Lesniak:
They hopefully run away but I think there's more serious- honestly, this is one of the things that I found fascinating about Kung Fu and animal style Kung Fu which I've not trained but the idea that you look at an animal as inspiration and how can you apply what that creature does in a way that we could mimic it [06:21.10] What do dogs do? You can watch dogs play, like a play fight. There's a lot of running around and there's periodic engagement dethatched, very much like [06:35.08] and we could take some of that. Dogs will go for the throat, it's a vulnerable spot. How often when we talk about martial arts in the context of self-defense do, we train people to strike the throat?
Andrew Adams:
We talk about it, but we don't ever practice it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It really doesn't happen that often and I think the reason in most schools is because it is hard to practice that safely. If we're practicing self-defense stuff and I miss and punch you in the head, probably gonna hurt my hands as much as it hurts your head but anyone who raised a small child has been kicked or punched in the throat by a toddler and [07:22.20] It happened, I had kids... friend's kids punch and kick me in the throat and it's like "Am I dying?" From this really small... so I think that's an aspect of it I think there's something to be said for dogs tend to bite at legs because if you can take out a leg-even take out one leg. If a dog can do enough damage to one of the legs, the other dog isn't gonna fight very well. You're a [07:54.16] you can hobble around and with time dogs can even learn how to work with that but when we talk about self-defense, we don't usually talk about destroying the leg. In the context of MMA, we think about leg kicks, [08:12.14] does a lot of leg kicks. I think leg kicks are really valuable but what if about we both wear flip flops, what if I had a sneaker on and I just [08:20.08] in front of your shin.
Andrew Adams:
That hurts as heck, that's awful. It's so painful.
Jeremy Lesniak:
How do we go for a leg in a way that is quick and even as a distraction? So, i think those are the main things that I think about. It's that engaging back out, attack the throat, attack the legs, and if that [08:46.00].
Andrew Adams:
Alright and what would it be called?
Jeremy Lesniak:
The obvious [08:52.09] things like dog fu, or K9FU, bark fu, bark ru. So, in Japanese if you don't know Ru would be school. So, school of bark.
Andrew Adams:
School of bark, I love it. That's good, alright! Next question, this is from another listener of this show, Shawn Franco, you've given us a bunch.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And by the way if you're watching or listening to this. If you want to submit questions for the next one, Andrew at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com.
Andrew Adams:
I posted in the FB groups sometimes that I'm looking for them and people sometimes would post the question there then Jeremy could see it. I don't want him to see it. I want it to be a surprise.
Jeremy Lesniak:
[09:38.14] you write them down then delete them quickly.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, okay so this is very timely because the Olympics is coming up very soon, well maybe. [09:51.17] but in the Olympics we got wrestling, we have Taekwondo, we've got Judo, Karate, all of these different combat sports and they are all doing similar things. Is it too many? Are there too many similar things?
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's a great question because on the one hand, you have people who participate in those individual pursuits or sports and they want to do their thing, their way. If you all would follow the [10:29.10] that was agreeing on the rule set for karate going into the Olympics, it was [10:37.10] and it came down to martial arts politics and a lot of in fighting and so we're there. If I am a Taekwondo player and you're a karate person, and we look at our competitive combative rule sets. We see they are dramatically different, if I am not a martial artist and I watch those two people doing the things that they're doing- they look very similar to me. Why is there that thing and that thing? They look like almost the same thing. They're punching and kicking and there's boxing! They are punching.
Andrew Adams:
Judo and wrestling.
Jeremy Lesniak:
They're both wrestling with each other! I don't get it. So, on the other hand. One hand is people wanting to see their sport or hobby pursuit represented in the Olympics. On the other hand, you've got attention. Where's the attention for this? I think ultimately this is why we're going to see MMA enter the Olympics and these other things pull out because if there is one combat sport and I'm not saying I want this but if there's one combat sport that the average person with no martial arts background can engage in and enjoy, it's MMA. Because it is very clear who is winning. "Hey, that person is getting punched in the face a lot more than that person getting punched in the face. They're losing!" versus Taekwondo, Karate, Judo, boxing, wrestling, and fencing. Where all of them are scored in some way on point and while if it is lopsided, you can see who's winning but at that level it is rarely lopsided, and you end up with people who they're pretty close with one another, so you don't see that obvious [12:58.13] and so what happens from that? People tune out. Why do people watch the Olympics? Because they want to cheer their country on, they wanna see some cool stuff and they want to understand it. There's a reason boxing has faded, boxing used to be the most, one of it if not the most, popular spectator sport in this country. Why has baseball faded? Why has football starting to fade? Rules. As rules has come in, it became more difficult to understand and your casual spectator has a hard time engaging with it and until we recognize that as martial artists and create rule sets where people can more easily understand what is going on. We would not see outside spectators, we would not see outside money, and it won't happen. It won't grow. So, it should be a wakeup call to all to all of our individual pursuits and the governing bodies for them to recognize it that MMA is knocking on the door, and they will kick everything out.
Andrew Adams:
It's not going away.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's not going away. Until the only thing that will dethrone MMA, in what it is are rules. Such dramatic rules that it becomes harder to understand and less enjoyable to watch likely because of concussions.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, that makes sense. The only thing that I would add is I think that as much as I do would consider fencing martial arts, I used to teach fencing. I do see it different enough from the other stuff because they're using an implement. I think fencing would stick around.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Fencing would stick around, wrestling or Judo would stick around, boxing would probably stick around, we would probably lose Taekwondo, and Karate to MMA.
Andrew Adams:
Interesting. Alright so. Question number 4, this came from a good friend, Abby, she's listening to the show. She just tested for her 3rd degree. After recording this she passed, sprung on her last minute like she showed up at class and [15:23.04] "You're testing today" "What?".
Jeremy Lesniak:
[15:27:08] To find a way to celebrate listener's achievements. I don't know how we'd do that. We talked about we're trying to get back on whistle kick live and we weren't getting enough people. So, here's what I want you to do. If you have an achievement, if you or someone in your school, something worth celebrating, let's started getting those emailed in and we'll figure out what to do from there.
Andrew Adams:
And the lucky few might get mentioned on the podcast like Abby, congrats!
Jeremy Lesniak:
I don't see why they can't sprinkle those in the show.
Andrew Adams:
So, you can tell she's a listener of the show because her question was "You have interviewed hundreds of people and you've likely worked with tons but if you could train with anyone in the world, alive or not, that you have or haven't trained with, who would it be?"
Jeremy Lesniak:
[16:24.06] First off, I don't know what I said on episode 100. That would've been funny. There's a very good chance it's not the same.
Andrew Adams:
And it's okay because people change [16:38.28].
Jeremy Lesniak:
That was two years in, it's been four years since I recorded that. Shout out to my friend Daniel Harps who interviewed me for that. If I could train with anybody, my current attitude towards training is that the things that I know the least are the places that I wanna train. So, that opens a lot of couple possibilities. That's either Chinese style, or something more fluid, or it's [17:10.26] Judo. I've done a little bit of judo, I've done some Brazilian jiujitsu, I've done a little more stand up Japanese Jiujitsu. [17:30.03] So, I think I'm gonna say something on in the Chinese martial arts space. If I thought about training with someone at out of that, whether it's Wushu or Kung Fu. Alive or dead, the obvious answer here is Bruce Lee and that's what everyone thinks I'm gonna say. It’s not... I Think I’m gonna say Jet Li because Jet li was a legitimate high level Wushu practitioner, did very well competitively and has whole bunch of movies and so I think I could learn a few things from him. One, wushu Chinese martial arts. Wushu is derived from Kung Fu so I would learn that from him. Two, he was a phenomenal competitor and if you watch him on screen, his ability to present his material, his technique in a solid way. I think [18:45.01] something on the competitive side from him and then three, there are very few people i could think of who do, in my opinion better job on screen with choreography and presentation. So, to me this is a tossup between Jet Li and Jackie Chan.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, I could see that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
The Jackie Chan for me is, I wanna learn some stunt work and I wanna learn on screen choreography. Jet li, they are more boxes to check. So, I think that's why we're going there and it's a long list. There are so many people, I honestly like truly at least half of the people we have on the show are like [19:31.12] there are things that the guests say that I just wanna hang out with them and train for a few hours and you know if you're a [19:42:11] fan like I wanna absorb martial arts, I wanna absorb everything that they have and just assimilate their martial skills. I really do.
Andrew Adams:
That's a great answer. That's good. Alright, you're ready for the last one?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Last one, I'm guessing this is from you.
Andrew Adams:
This one is from me; will martial arts style still exist in 15 years? Why or why not? Jeremy Lesniak:
one five years?
Andrew Adams:
One five. Why or why not?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yes, because whenever we have a new style come up, people don't leave it at this is a hybrid of these two things. It always ends up with its own name. IT always ends up [20:28:10] even if loosely and we instinctively like to name things. We name our cars, and I just don't mean the model of cars, but we often would name our cars [2043:07] is Susan or whatever or Henry. We name things. Our love for naming things go so far, there are things we name that I won't discuss on this show. You all know what I'm talking about. So, the idea that we in 15 years would be so far removed from our need to name things doesn't work for me, I don't buy it. If you're going to refer to something, it's always easiest to name it. Our forms have names, our techniques have names. Now, could we reach a point where things become so [21:22:26] that we reach a time where we don't refer the names. It becomes martial arts or karate or whatever, yes but I think that would cycle out because there was a time...if we think about. In concept we don't seem to argue with this. If we look at Kung Fu films, you go learn Kung Fu from that person. If that person's Kung Fu... It's not a bunch of style, it's kind of the same... the previous episode we recorded today; you know the idea of using Ryu for school. It's Jeremy Ryu school of martial arts, Andrew Ryu. We could be teaching the same material, but it is gonna come through a different way, we have different teaching styles and I think that's okay. So, we may cycle out of it for a short time, I don't think it's in 15 years. I think it's longer than that, but I think we would very quickly go back to it. Cause it's a distinguishing [22:21:12]
Andrew Adams:
Interesting. It's a life cycle.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Not what you expected me to say?
Andrew Adams:
I didn't have an expectation of what you would say. I do think that it will... it could very easily happen, and style would become less... I don't wanna say important, but they would be less of a distinction because as people continue to do more cross trading... like for example, I studied Gojo Ryu, I studied Shonekan, I studied Shōrin-ryū, If I don't own my own school but if I did what am I gonna teach? It's probably gonna be a little bit evolved then so what do I call it? I'm probably just gonna call it karate and so I think inevitably that very easily could happen, is it going to happen? I don't know.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I think it will happen for some; I think it already is happening for some.
Andrew Adams:
But I don't think that they will ever go away completely. I think there would always be people that will stick to what they teach. They're studying Shōrin-ryū right now and they're gonna teach Shon Ryu and that's all there ever gonna do and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. I do... I could see a time where it starts to become less relevant and less important but less of a distinguishing feature. That's all.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sounds good.
Andrew Adams:
Cool. Those are the five questions that I had today.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Alright. And again, if you have questions that you wanna ask for the next one of these, Andrew at whistlekick Martial Arts radio.com. If you have anything else email me Jeremy at whistlekick.com. Our social media is at whistlekick, everywhere you could think of and if you wanna support what we do. The shows, the content, the social media, the blogs, the newsletters, of all the content that we put out means something to you. There are number of ways you can help out patreon.com/whistlekick. , whistlekickprograms.com, buy a book on amazon, leave a donation at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com buy something at whistlekick.com with the code 'PODCAST15', or you could also make guest or topics suggestions you could tell people on the show. Honestly, the way we continue to grow is somebody watching or a guest on the show mentions it to somebody else and we continue to grow. Slow but steady but we're growing. Thanks for being part of it. Anything to add?
Andrew Adams:
No, that's great.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Alright. Until next time, train hard, smile, and have a great day!