Episode 659 - Bucket of Crabs
In this episode, listen in as Jeremy and Andrew ponder on the Bucket of Crabs analogy in Martial Arts.
Bucket of Crabs - Episode 659
Have you ever seen one of those buckets of crabs in a seafood market? You may notice that the sellers don’t need to put a lid on. Why? Because almost no crab ever gets out. How does this analogy apply to Martial Arts and its practitioners? In this episode, Jeremy and Andrew talk about the Bucket of Crabs analogy in Martial Arts and why martial artists almost always hold someone back so they can’t go past them.
Listen to this episode and join the conversation!
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below.
Jeremy Lesniak:
What's going on everybody? Welcome. This is whistlekick martial arts radio. Today, Andrew and I are talking about the martial arts industry. And one of my favorite analogies, the bucket of crabs. If you're listening, rather than watching this episode, you didn't just see the wonderful humorous element we threw in there. If you want to watch, check it out on YouTube, of course. If you're new to the show, man, this is a weird one for you to come in on. But welcome. We do a bunch of stuff for martial arts and for martial artists. And if you want to see all the things that we do go to whistlekick.com, you're gonna find a lot of stuff over there, for example, we've got a blog, you're gonna sign up for the newsletter, you can get links to everything that we do, because we do a lot of things, it is kind of a crazy list. And we also have a store. In the store, what are you gonna find? Sparring gear, sweatshirts, and hats and all kinds of cool stuff. And if you use the code, PODCAST15 it gets you 15% off helps us connect the dots that this show leads to some sales, which, you know, it's business, if you run a business, you understand. We got to do these sorts of things to connect the dots and know what's happening. Now, if you want to go deeper on the show, if you want to check out other episodes, things like that whistlekic martialartsradio.com, that's where you're going for that. You can also sign up for the newsletter over there, there's transcripts like tons of stuff. Now, if you really love what we do, Patreon. patreon.com/whistlekick, we give exclusive content stuff you're not gonna find anywhere else. So if you say, hey, you know, I really like what you guys do. And once in a while I can find $2 in my pocket, you could sponsor us at $2 a month. And for $2 a month, we're going to give you behind the scenes who's coming up on the show, as well as a bunch of other updates. And the more you are willing to throw our way, the more we are going to throw your way. Yeah. All right. Bucket of crabs.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, I would like to preface. You said for a new guest, listener, sorry, this might be a weird episode to come in on, I would challenge that statement. I think this would be a great first episode, because it's going to give a good ethos on what our philosophy is, on what we're about to talk about, which I think is an important topic.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You are right. I rescind that comment. And I think maybe more importantly, I think it gives them an idea that we are not always serious.
Andrew Adams:
That is true.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Which is important. We can be silly.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah. I often tell people growing old, mandatory, growing up optional.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I think we both exemplify that. Yeah. And I'm good with it's probably why we're friends. Okay. The bucket of crabs analogy. And I assumed everyone knew this analogy. Everyone does not know this analogy. So let me share the analogy, a bucket of crabs. If you've worked in a restaurant that sells crabs, you know that within reason, you don't have to put a top on the bucket.
Andrew Adams:
Why is that Jeremy?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Because the moment one of them gets the arm over the edge, and is about to get out, the rest of them will pull back in, because they're all trying to climb out as well. And, you know, if these were people, and they have problem solving skills, they would say, Okay, you get up there, and then we're gonna make a human chain, you could figure this out, right? Like there would be a way. But the crabs almost never get out of the bucket. It's not a perfect analogy, but it works within the context of martial arts. And today, we're going to talk about that because I think until we are willing to change this broadly in our industry. We are held back. So let me throw some information out there. There are roughly 250 million people who train martial arts in the world.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
When I really dug into these numbers in the early days of whistle kick, as we were trying to gain funding, these numbers were important. So they're stuck in my head. It was roughly 5% of the world population at that time. In the United States, our martial arts participation at that time best estimate showed half that number, somewhere between two and 3%. Why? I believe it's because within the United States, we are even more bucket of crabby than in other places in the world. If you're not connecting the dots on what I mean by extending this analogy to the martial arts, think of things like the joke. How many martial artists does it take to change a light bulb? Now I'm going to guess many of you, probably even most of you, have you heard that joke. And if you haven't, you probably have a guess. Andrew, the answer is?
Andrew Adams:
I actually have not heard that you really.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You've not heard this?
Andrew Adams:
I've really not heard the joke. How many martial arts does it take to screw in a lightbulb? I would guess some sort of funny joke about X number to do it and X number of to critique how they're doing it. That's my guess,
Jeremy Lesniak:
One, a hundred. 1 to do it, 99 to say, that's not how my instructor would do it. You know, some variation of that. And the fact that you hadn't heard the joke, and we didn't set that up ahead of time. But the fact that you knew, that's where the joke would go is a perfect indication of our culture. And the fact that we can't get out of our own way, and until we get out of our own way, the things that we all want, which is broader involvement in the martial arts, more money coming into the industry, so we could have actual competitive martial arts where people make real money. Yeah, okay. It's not going to change. So how do we change it? I want to talk about how we change it. I want to talk about more of where it comes from. And I want to talk about how some of you out there, honestly, probably most of you are contributing to it.
Andrew Adams:
Perhaps realizing it or not, yes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Whether or not you realize it, absolutely. Okay. The bucket of it, of crabs analogy can be best boiled off in language to holding someone back. So they don't go beyond you. Now, literally, I've known martial arts instructors who do this. More broadly. We tend to look at other martial artists with a critique mind first. And there's a healthy element in there. How do we get better at what we do? We critique ourselves, we critique each other. If you're an instructor, criticism is a important part of what you do. If you're an instructor, you stand at the front of the room, and you watch everyone do things, and you just say, Great, which I've been in those classes. They're terrible, and so are the students and you don't get much out of it. And you get nothing out of it. Because my goal is to always get a little bit better when I train. Some of us are so hell bent on finding that criticism that we will apply it where it doesn't need to be applied. Movies, TV? Well, you know, I really didn't Darwin, like that thing. Technique. What? It's, it's a movie. Yeah, it's TV.
Andrew Adams:
It's not meant to be real.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Can't just watch and enjoy it. Now, that doesn't mean that when I watch a fight scene in a movie, that I'm not picking it apart, but I can still enjoy it. I can watch it for the entertainment value, and I can watch it for the technical value.
Andrew Adams:
Okay. You're not watching it as a how to
Jeremy Lesniak:
No. When I watch John Wick? That's not training.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, absolutely.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'm not watching those movies, the way pro athlete might watch game 8:14.
Andrew Adams:
Yep, sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's not the same thing. So, if we take the next step with that, okay, so we watch, we critique we observe. Where's the positive? Where's the hey, you know what? You did really well with that. What happens if the people around you, all of your engagements with them are critical? They're negative? What tends to happen over time?
Andrew Adams:
Well, I mean, you start to get a bad feeling for yourself on everything you do.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And how did they respond?
Andrew Adams:
The person you critique you mean? Oh, it never goes well, like they, they get defensive immediately. Like, that's the first thing.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And if people around you are used to being critiqued by you in an unhealthy way,
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, they just stopped doing that stuff around you.
Jeremy Lesniak:
They go away. I believe, through my observation, that the general tone, this critical tone, is not some well kept secret. People outside the martial arts know that we pick on each other a lot. We've talked about people not wanting to pick the wrong school, so they'll pick no school. We've talked about that on multiple episodes. But how about that group of people over there does a thing that I really like but I don't want to be part of their negative attitude on life? Because if you observe a group of martial artists, being martial artists talking about martial arts, and your observation is that the majority of what they're doing Talking about in a mixed group of martial artists, which is, you know, the public face of all of us collectively. It's mixed. And it's negative. I'm going to go over here and do yoga, archery, lifting, make sauerkraut, I don't know, literally any anything else, because I don't want to step into a group of people who treat what I perceive to be the most accomplished best, etc. with hate. It's not healthy. And that attitude has now extended because social media has extended this into literally everything.
Andrew Adams:
And it makes it so much easier now. So much easier to do.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I see people who use their rank title as part of their social media name. In complete 11:06, about martial arts and non martial arts. Do I want to go train with that person? Does anybody? If you're a parent, do you want to put your child in in that school with someone who can't seem to help but complain and argue with everyone on social media?
Andrew Adams:
If you don't know any better? Sure. But if you know any better, no, of course not.
Jeremy Lesniak:
If you're aware of those things happen, you are unlikely to do that. So this attitude leads to fewer people participating in martial arts. Fewer people participating in martial arts means the size of the martial arts economy is smaller. It also means that people outside of it are less likely to contribute financial resources into it. What is, maybe not every economist rule of growing an economy but mind too our stop the outflow of money, gain the inflow of money. Okay. Number two, in this context, let's get, I don't know, here's a bad example for health, but Coca Cola to sponsor some big tournament, you know, you go to Battle of Atlanta based in Atlanta, you know, and this year, we've got $10,000 grand championship financial awards, courtesy of Coca Cola plunking down, I don't know, 5 million or something, whatever, right? Sweet. Now, more people will come and they'll participate. And there'll be better competition. And we know from context that more better competition brings everybody up...
Andrew Adams:
Right, rising tide raises all ships.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Exactly. And we know that if I as a high level competitor could make 10k a month or more competing, maybe that can become my job, and we can become that much better. This is where people point to things like MMA, they'll point to the Reebok sponsorship of the UFC. And there are some examples there. But, if you're thinking that that is a counterpoint, you don't fully understand that Reebok sponsorship deal. I know the numbers. They're not off the top of my head, but I've looked into them. And it's something like 20 to 30k for the average fighter. And they're picking up a few of those fights a year. That doesn't add up, and keeping you put together and you really don't have time for a full time job like they're scraping. Everybody's not making Connor money. Yeah. Okay.
I keep coming back in my mind to these examples that I'm not going to share because they're really personal, of people stepping on each other. And I've been a victim of this. Even since whistle kick came out, show me an example of where I was trying to step on anybody's toes. It doesn't exist, everything that we have done. And everything I individually have done, has been in an effort to grow and support the martial arts community. And yeah, hopefully make a few bucks in the process. Everybody wins. I try to find that everybody wins business model. So let me turn it over to you. Because I've been I've been talking, you know. Let's, let's hear some stuff from you so maybe I can respond.
Andrew Adams:
So, I have a couple thoughts. You know, one of the things you mentioned early on was that we here in the United States tend to have a little bit more of that attitude of, you know, talking down to people and or, you know, it's just a little more prevalent here. And I think it all stems from How did our country get founded? Right. Our country was founded by saying We don't like what you're doing, we're gonna go do our own thing. And we think that our own thing is going to be better. And that's our culture. I mean, that's, I mean, granted, that happened in, you know, the 1770s, you know, you know, a couple 100 years ago...
Jeremy Lesniak:
But those roots still...
Andrew Adams:
This is how our country got founded, and so we are used to that sort of thing. And that carries over into so many aspects of our culture, you know. Most listeners know, I'm involved in bagpipe bands, and here in the United States, often, group A within an organization within a band gets upset, and they leave, and they form their own brand new band, and try and make their own thing happen. And in fact, I know one area in the United States where that happened. And so some people left and formed the new band. Those same people got upset at the new band, and went off and formed another band. And so within a very small geographic area, now there's three bands that all have problems with each other. Whereas in, I won't say all other parts of the world, but we're speaking with some friends from Canada. And they're like, you know, what, Canada, that doesn't happen. If Joe Schmo is in this organization and doesn't like it, they go just join this other organization that already exists, rather than trying to form their own thing thinking that their things gonna be better. That's our culture.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, it is. And that's a good point. And we see that same thing happen in martial arts all the time. You know.
Andrew Adams:
It doesn't make it right. But that's what happens...
Jeremy Lesniak:
You didn't promote me fast enough, you didn't this, that you did this, or that I'm going to go start my own school, and they pull some of the students and now both schools go under, because there isn't enough money and everybody's unhappy
Andrew Adams:
Exactly where I was going with.. Yep, it happens all the time.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Because peoplewould rather be right, than be happy. Right?
Andrew Adams:
In quotes for those not watching.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. Would you rather be right? Or would you rather be happy? Would you rather have students and train and teach and people around you? Or would you rather not deal with anybody else's stuff? And be alone? With no students? I think if we look hard enough, even at our own instructors, we can find something wrong, we can find a place where they failed us. We could probably find, I don't think I have one for you, but if I look at the people in my life, I could probably find something that every one of them has done that hurt me.
Andrew Adams:
I mean, not me, because I'm perfect.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You are perfect. But do I look for that? Do I hone in on that? I try not to and there are times where it's really tempting, especially when you feel really hurt from something and you're vulnerable. I've had a rough year, there are a bunch of people that didn't show up. Yep. Do I cut them out of my life? Or do I try to rebuild?
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, well, I think everyone who's watching or listening, likely trains in martial arts. And if you have studied any length of time, with any number of instructors, this may not pertain to slightly newer practitioners or someone who's only had one instructor for their career. But, I've had three major schools and instructors that I have trained with, and not one of them was perfect and I don't mean as a person. I mean, like, there were things about the first school that they did that I didn't like, and there are things about the second school that were better, but they didn't do this other thing. It's like, I stuck with it, because I enjoyed what I was doing, and it was fine. And same thing with the school I'm at now there were things that would be nice if we did differently, but that's okay. That's just the way it is.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You can look for reasons to be happy, or you can look for reasons to be unhappy. And my thought is if you have the opportunity to train, and you are learning, and you are around other people who are of like mind. That's what matters. If you focus, your energy, your attention, your time, on things that are not good. That cannot be fixed, shut up and train.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, there was a great post I've seen recently on Facebook. And I'm going to paraphrase because I'm not going to remember it exactly. Essentially if your martial art espouses to be one of making yourself a better person. And then you spend your time pulling other people down. There's kind of an issue there. Right? I don't remember the exact words.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Is that the one that I said? If you espouse the virtues of the character building virtues, qualities of martial arts, and then spend time tearing other people down. You clearly missed the point or something like that? Yeah, it's weird when quotes for me show up on social media, because I'll jot them down and I send them to the team. And you know, it could be weeks or months or honestly, even years later that they get used. And I'm like, whoa, that's a really good quote.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah. But that one is very valid to this argument that we're talking about right now. Like if your martial art, if you espouse that it's supposed to be character building and helps you be a better person, and then you spend your time talking bad about other people. You definitely did miss the point,
Jeremy Lesniak:
I came up in an era where part of earning a black belt meant you were in a 20:37. And the sad part is a lot of the people who were giving out or who were responsible for overseeing rank progression back then, the very people who were not my instructors personally, but of the contemporaries of my instructors, are now the people being dillholes today, like in the loudest way. You forgot your lesson? Shut up and train. Shut up and teach just. And if you're not willing to do those two things, just shut up. Because you're holding the rest of us back. Yeah, I am, and I've said it before, I will say it again, I will not stop saying I am hell bent on helping the martial arts move forward in every way that you can interpret that statement, economically, numbers, pop culture, reputation, reputation, all of it. And I'm going to do everything I can to do that. And so one of the things that has to happen is those of you who are willing to get in the way have to move. And the more resources we get behind us, the more likely we are to spend resources to help you move along. Right now it's asking right now it's you know what, I want you to recognize that this thing you claim to love martial arts. You're not helping it in doing what you're doing. Worry about your own house, you worry about your own students, you worry about your own training, and other people will fall in line, set the example. Don't sit in the bucket and say, you don't deserve to get out. You don't deserve to be free. You don't deserve to do it that way. Your rank is wrong. Lineage, blah blah. Because Who died and made you boss? Nobody. Get out of the way. Let the rest of us move forward.
Andrew Adams:
I agree. I think that's good.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Now, you got something you want to add? Let's do it. A couple places you can do that, one. Our Facebook group whistlekick Martial Arts Radio behind the scenes. In fact, that's the best place. If this episode has come out, which if you're watching or listening to it, it's out. Because I don't think we get hacked where our content, at least not yet. That's the best place. So go find it over there. You can leave a comment there. Those discussions don't get closed. We have people adding to them periodically all the time. Two, you can leave a comment over on the website whistlekickmartialartsradio.com While you're there, check out transcripts, photos, videos, links, sign up for the newsletter and consider supporting us on Patreon Patreon.com/whistlekick. We do the things that we do for the martial arts industry. They cost money, your assistance in offsetting those costs is helpful. We are not yet a profitable business. We will get there someday, someday. And that's why we do all the different things we do because, you know, they slowly move up and you know, that transitional point is in sight. It's over there. It's not here. It's over there. If you want to follow us on social media, we're @whistlekick. Remember we've got training programs at whistlekickprograms.com including the free FLEX program. If you want to email us Andrew@whistlekickmartialartsradio.com Jeremy@whistlekick.com We're, good. So until next time, train hard, smile, and have a great day.