Episode 703 - Rapid Fire Q&A #14

In this episode, Jeremy and co-host Andrew Adams take on another iteration of the Rapid Fire Question and Answers.

Rapid Fire Q&A #14 - Episode 703

Jeremy and co-host Andrew Adams tackle a series of questions from you, the listeners, and some guests in the form of a Rapid Fire Q&A. Here are the questions they tried to answer:

• For a stand-up style striking art, what flooring do you prefer?

• If you could only use combinations from one traditional form, which form would you choose?

• Listen to the episode for more!

After listening to the questions and answers, it would be exciting for us to know your thoughts about it. Don’t forget to drop them in the comment section below!

Show Transcript

You can read the transcript below.

Jeremy Lesniak:

What's going on everybody? We look like a goof. Okay, we'll fix the bug. 

Andrew Adams:

How does that change?

Jeremy Lesniak:

Welcome to another episode of whistlekick Martial Arts Radio. This is Q&A Episode number 14. We're doing it live on Facebook, on YouTube, on Twitter. And if you're watching live, you are a special person. If you're watching later you are a slightly less but still very special person. Of course it is available in video and audio. It's all over the place. Thank you for joining us, Andrew. How are you?

Andrew Adams:

I'm great. Great. Yeah, I'm doing great.

Jeremy Lesniak:

I like your new shirt.

Andrew Adams:

I love my new shirt. Got it at whistlekick.com

Jeremy Lesniak:

All the best stuff is at whistlekick.com. I feel like if we don't stop that line right now, we're about to go off and do a ridiculous commercial. Not the one that only the two of us would find fun. The people watching… 

Andrew Adams:

I think Dennis would find it fun. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Dennis finds everything. Yeah, Dennis is a fun guy. We've had a lot of fun. Listeners. You know the show? We've got a good group. You're all pretty awesome. 

Andrew Adams:

I might go so far as to say Dennis is a mushroom. He's a fun guy. I was tired in the other direction. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

When people say like, someone said it was a mushroom. Keep them in the dark. And oh, no, no. Like, he's a fun guy. He is a funny guy. We're gonna see him tomorrow. Yeah. Well, if you are new to these q&a episodes, they are as they sound q&a. We have some questions. I don't know what they are. Andrew does. 

Andrew Adams:

I do.

Jeremy Lesniak:

And if you want to send Andrew a question for next time, or 15 Andrew at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com, where you can find them on social media, like however you just don't send it for me because I don't want to know. Yeah, because that's the whole point is that I am on some bubble, which is a new word I'm using now. 

Andrew Adams:

#Unstoppable 

Jeremy Lesniak:

#Unstoppable  It's fun to try saying. And you are reading questions. I mean, the whole point of this is not to stop me. Which is why I say that it is funny, because not that. But yeah, we had a good time. We talked about some other stuff, too. We mix it up a little bit. But yeah, here we are. We're doing it. 

Andrew Adams:

Yeah. And we've got two people watching live. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah, two people. 

Andrew Adams:

I don't know who they are.

Jeremy Lesniak:

But that's better than like the early days of the show when negative people watched. 

Andrew Adams:

Maybe even listen to each other.

Jeremy Lesniak:

So the early reviews that we've received, we're like, what is happening with this? I've gotten a lot better. Here we are. This is going to be on the other side of the 700 word, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So if you're watching this later, you know, not live. You. We've had more than 700. Actually, we 're all out. But we've recorded far more than 700 episodes now. I've gotten better. 

Andrew Adams:

I mean, yeah, I would agree. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I'm kind of okay, doing this thing. I've gotten better.

Andrew Adams:

You haven't done nearly as many as you. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

But you also came in with way more than I did. You had much more competence and more experience in front of people. That sort of thing. Like you're, the delta for you is smaller, but you're right there.

Andrew Adams:

The more you do something, the better you get at it. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Holy cow. It's like we should tell martial artists that if they train more, they'll get better. I have words that I've been telling all my drum students. My four word mantra for the year, which is drum daily, gets better. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

DDGB. 

Andrew Adams:

Sure. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

It's almost no, no, that's not DNA. DNA is ACHD. 

Andrew Adams:

Okay, don't worry it’ll get better. Yeah, we do something better. You gotta stay true. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

That's true. Flat out. Should we start off? 

Andrew Adams:

Yeah, I have a question. I have a question. Here.

Jeremy Lesniak:

I have answers. Let's see if they match up. 

Andrew Adams:

Ah, all right. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Purple. 

Andrew Adams:

That is not the answer. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

You sure? 

Andrew Adams:

Yes, that does not work. Well. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Light purple. 

Andrew Adams:

Okay. I'm gonna ask the question and then I'll give that answer. So this question comes from Chris record. And his question is for a stand up style striking art. What flooring do you prefer? 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Purple, light herbal, purple. It's a reference to [00:04:45-00:04:47]. Colors, that category was colors that ended purple. And what do you know, I think it was like no McDonald as Tom Selleck, Lake herbal. Actually, that might be to Keanu Reeves.

Andrew Adams:

Anyway, first striking art, what kind of flooring? Do you prefer hardwood? 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I really like hardwood because it's what I grew up with now. Now I am torn on this subject. 

Andrew Adams:

Your timing. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. So for those of you who are new, I get five. I am torn between the traditional elements of training that I really like. And the realistic application of my training, I am probably never going to be in a situation where I'm implementing my skills while barefoot on a hardwood floor. That is, of all the combinations of what's on my feet. And where I am. That's probably the least likely now I'm barefoot and much more than the average person. But I'm still probably never getting into scrap. If I'm barefoot. So, that's why I like mixing it up. And the way I mix it up is I train around my house wearing shoes, like all throw kicks, wearing whatever. Like yesterday, I was wearing some mildly heavy boots. They're like, oh, what am I kicking you like with this? Okay, that's fine. No, I can still do this. I think that training dynamically in varied environments is important. Yeah, I think if you've never trained in shoes, you should train and choose. 

I think if you've never trained barefoot, you should train barefoot. There are a lot of benefits to training barefoot, that, but Jeremy, it hurts my feet, my knees because your feet are weak, there are muscles and your feet are probably atrophied. I'm probably going to write a book on this at some point because it needs to be discussed. But most people have weak, atrophied feet. And it's why we have joint issues. That's a whole other separate discussion. What is the most likely? Here's a question, what do you think would be the most likely circumstance for me as a barefoot person to get into some kind of puzzle? Where would I be? What would we do under my feet? 

Andrew Adams:

If you were barefoot? I would say probably at home. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I'm thinking about sand. I'm thinking about the beach. Somebody's had a bit too much to drink. Okay, fair. And, you know, something happens like that.

Andrew Adams:

I just walk around barefoot all the time at home.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah, I used to, but there's nobody else here. So ah, right. And so I think considering it in that way, is great. Now if we're looking at this purely from the development of proprioception, body awareness, conditioning of the feet, etc. I think barefoot on a hardwood floor is wonderful. If you're trained to it, if you've trained up to it, something a little more abrasive, concrete, rough concrete, asphalt. Asphalt on a really hot day. I have had asphalt sewer to the bottom of my feet. I didn't know about it until later. Because calluses. Yep. I think that's the answer. 

Andrew Adams:

Yeah. That's a good answer. I mean, I would agree. It's nice. It's nice to have mats. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

It can be but unsettles your balance. 

Andrew Adams:

Yeah, absolutely. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

You have less stability on mats than you do on a hard surface, when my suspicion is that is why.

Andrew Adams:

Old school training was done on hardware.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Now, I don't know how traditional that is. That is what I was taught is traditional. If you're learning how to balance and you're on something that's even mildly squishy, it's making it more challenging. And for those of you who might be questioning what Andrew is doing, like he's responding to comments and prepping the next question and things like he's, yeah, I'm not ignoring you. And like, Oh, I'm struggling with all right. 

Andrew Adams:

I mean, Craig says he's barefoot 90% of the time. Craig and Dennis are both watching. So Dennis, you just joined. I did call you a mushroom. You're gonna have to listen back to find out why I called you a mushroom. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

He's gonna assume it was my answer. 

Andrew Adams:

No, you know, he's a rock, but that's okay. Good. So that's mean, that's a good answer. You know, Chris's question was also specifically about striking arts. Right? Yeah. And you know, it's nice. When I go to the dojo, we pull off the mats, and we train on the maps, but we sometimes throw and do takedowns. And can you do that thing on hardwood? Yes. Should you do that stuff on hardwood? Yeah, eventually, I think you should get better. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. Cuz if you're used to it, like anything else, if you only trade it in this one circumstance, or this one set of conditions. Yeah. And those are not the exclusive conditions under which that might apply. Then you are doing yourself a disservice. Yeah. But it makes sense. Hardwood,

Andrew Adams:

Something hard underneath you. Yeah. Gives you a strong solid base to push off from both shows. Yeah, yeah. For us I've ever said folks on the show. You know, it gives us a strong solid base though to be able to continue to do our show. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Oh, patreon.com/whistlekick. Okay, we have six tiers. The lowest tiers two bucks, two bucks, you get to know what's going on behind the scenes of the show, like who's coming up with his guest. We announced like, sometimes if you ever watch the first cup, and I say we have a big guest coming, I'm interviewing them today or tomorrow. And you say, Man, Jeremy, I would love to know who these people are. They'll cost you $2 a month. That's it. Now, if you want bonus content, I recorded an audio episode yesterday. It was a little bit of a hybrid between something going on in my life the way I see the world and martial arts. You listen to it instead of fair. Yeah, okay. Yeah. That's an audio episode that's never going to hit anywhere else. I listened to it, because I'm a Patreon subscriber. Even though you're an employee, you still contribute to Patreon. I do, because… 

Andrew Adams:

I've said it many times before. But for those that haven't heard it, I want to continue to support the things that I love and the things that I think bring value to me. And this show, even though I'm now sitting here, as a co-host of the show, it still brings value to me, brings value to me too. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

So, I don't get paid. This is my value. Like if that's that's how I'm paid. Yep, at this point. Maybe someday I will get paid $10. We will throw you some bonus videos. Like there's a coming up. It'll be still. Right about this time that this airs, we recorded an episode that's only getting released as audio except for on Patreon. That's true. That was a good interview. It was a really good interview. And I felt like the video side of it added something. Yeah, it wasn't dramatically different. But I think if you like watching, which honestly, like even though we have the YouTube stuff, most people still listen. 

But I thought it was a good way to do it. And of course, you know, at 25 we throw you books and programs, books and programs and drafts of those things as we release new ones, and 50 and 100. You're getting in on some other stuff going on there. But you get access to the school under specimen, which Craig just mentioned, the amount of value from the extra episodes, and especially the instructor mastermind are absolutely worth it. Yep. If you're a school owner, I would challenge you to find me anything that provides a better value, a better ROI return on investment than that mastermind shares. 

Andrew Adams:

Yep, I agree. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

We could probably charge a lot more for it, but we're not going to. I don't want to. 

Andrew Adams:

All right, ready for question number two. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Number two. All right. That was not those were not great punches over. Okay, hold on. Number two. Okay. Now it's subconscious. 

Andrew Adams:

Alright, so this question comes from [00:12:54-00:12:56]. Hey, I don't know specifically which one posed this question, but we'll just say it was done collectively. If you could only use combinations from one traditional form for self defense against a variety of grabs and attacks with little to no modification. Which form would you choose? That's a tough question. Good job guys. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Can you see me doing them? 

Andrew Adams:

For those that are just listening you're missing out on Jeremy miming forms while sitting down in a chair. But those of you watching, I hope you're enjoying it. 

Andrew Adams:

Alright, so you know, it's funny, I played with this the other day and I showed you some of it in Nina and then you know you did and that might be my answer. I'm also thinking about [00:14:00-14:05] and there's some good stuff in there. That I think is pretty applicable.

Andrew Adams:

Again, I can make more moves. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Now, I know if I was Matt Brown, I would say hanshi because that's his theory. I've heard Matt say this and he's right, that there was so much in the air but the key here is also known as no [00:14:32-00:14:34]. And I can never remember the taekwondo name. There's one that's almost identical and I kept forgetting. Somebody may chime in on it for me. I learned some taekwondo for him so quickly, but I forget the names like they can do the Foreman's camera. But is that modification piece that's throwing me like which one as I know has the most applicability. And, you know, it might. I could still see the hunch and just to be different though. I'm gonna give my opinion on it. 

Andrew Adams:

Okay. Mark Warner asked only in Japanese forms but no in any form that you know. I don't know any Chinese words I learned like I learned a Wushu form once, two years ago. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Not well enough that I retained it. 

Andrew Adams:

Yeah, for me, my answer would be nice and fancy as well. And it probably stems more from I have trained that one with Sensei, Ian Abernathy. Yeah, actually, the whole Kata, like the whole thing from close out. Yeah. And it's so useful. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

The rotational stuff there, I think is really where the value comes in, you get a lot of that, that 90 and even 180 degree rotation that all you have to do is stick out an orb. And now it's a throw, it's across the back of the neck. It's across the front. There's just right, like, there's just so much in there that I think is really valuable. And yeah, this is one of those questions where if you know different things that I know, you have different answers, and you know exactly what I know, you probably very well could have a different answer. 

Andrew Adams:

Absolutely. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

And this is where, you know, so my original instructors spent a very long time putting together a form that in its most basic format, is directly applicable, like the Bunkai is baked in. Oh, yeah. And it's so cool. That's really cool. And so I would pick that one if that was really it, but if they made it over the last 20 years, I'm not going to call it the traditional way everyone's going to find. 

Andrew Adams:

Yeah, that's fair. That's awesome. That's great. You know, other people are chiming in. You know, Mark said that those are good answers. That's good. He also agrees with Craig on the mastermind. One of the you know, Patreon is a great way to support us, and we love that over our Patreon supporters are great, but who thumbs up, probably the the one of the number one ways you can also support us, which costs nothing, little bit of time, some costs, nothing would be delivered, leave us a review, right? It really helps our numbers on what other people see. And all the search algorithms and all that stuff. It really, really, really helps.

Jeremy Lesniak:

There's so much that this stuff applies to and, you know, if anybody really wanted to sit down and nerd out, we're not going to do this on the show. But for those of you who don't know my consulting work, search engine optimization is one of the things that I do for clients. And the number one thing that I advise most of you here, here's a great bit of free advice. And maybe in exchange for this free advice, you will leave a review. The number one thing that you can do as a business. Any business to increase your search rank right now is to get people to leave Google reviews, specifically Google reviews, there is nothing that is easier, there are plenty of things you can do. But everything else being roughly equal, there was a dramatic impact from even a single review. And I have clients who were like, you have four new reviews this month. Look at the numbers next month, you had zero new reviews, look at the numbers, right, like we can see it so clearly. 

So three places we ask for reviews, Google, just go to google.com and search for whistle kick. Don't put whistle kick in the search bar because it's probably going to bring in a whistle kick.com It doesn't help anybody. If you want to buy some, go to google.com like you've got a real Google screen and you're like a whistlekick and still not held tight. But okay. And it'll come up on the right and you can leave a review. And hopefully it'll be a nice review. But anybody can leave a review. Yep. Apple podcasts are a biggie for us. And then also Facebook, those are the three big ones. And if you leave reviews on one of those, we check them and we randomly select someone from each of the most recent reviews, each category to get a gift certificate, not just a coupon but a gift certificate

Andrew Adams:

As you're pulling it off, let you know that so I've got on my iPad, I'm running the chat. Yeah, right here. And then I've got the sound turned off right, obviously muted so that it's not picking it up. And so the automatically generated closed captioning comes out. Oh, and all of our talk of my Fan Shi. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Oh, how was it? 

Andrew Adams:

That was really fun.

Jeremy Lesniak:

So any unintended expletives

Andrew Adams:

I didn't notice closely enough to see but it was just interesting.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Nice, Fan Shi, nice, Fan Shi.

Andrew Adams:

Oh, it's running a little back.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah, I want to see it. Okay, got it. That's kind of cool. All right. So, we didn't have as many reviews this past month, as we typically do. If you have not left a review on all three platforms, please do. The one other place that helps us that you can't leave a review, you can leave a rating and Spotify. And we'd definitely benefited from Spotify opening up ratings, you have to listen to at least 30 seconds of an episode before you can leave a rating. So this comes in from Colin JKD. New listener just started listening but can already tell that Jeremy has great hosts and has engaged in unique guests excited for more. Thank you, Colin, I'm assuming your name is Colin, given your handle, email Jeremy@whistlekick.com. I'll send you that code. And there are people from last month that didn't reach out. You should reach out, although that episode just got released last week. Yeah, no. But officially, if you're listening to this in a few weeks, and you're like, oh, yeah, Jeremy, read my name. Let me let me let me think. Yeah, let me pick you. Please. Let me give you free stuff. Let me give you free stuff. 

Andrew Adams:

All right. So ready for your next question. I'm ready. And just as another reminder, you guys can send in questions to me at a time. And I'll put them on my phone, and I'll read them here like you put them on your phone. Yep. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

That might have been confusing for the people watching. 

Andrew Adams:

Yeah, it's true. I'm glad we're at this point in our friendship. Yeah, that's fair. And if you ever want to come on and ask your question live like we can, we can do that. We have that ability now, which is you don't have to come to Vermont and drive by road. No, no, please don't. Not today. Through the beauty of the interwebs we can connect you. Alright, so another second question from Chris. Okay. And his question is, what household objects are targeted most with your current focus on your hook punch? Hmm. For those who don't know, Jeremy has been working on his hook punch. I have been working on my hook punch. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

So a little bit of background, at my super foot testing in Atlantic City. If there was anything that I did not do, the thing that I did, most poorly, the thing that I did worst, was definitely my lunch. My understanding of a hook punch coming out of traditional martial arts is a bit different than what Wallace asks for in a boxing context. And I've been spending a lot of time working on it. So most of my time with the hook punches was not so much on household objects. Other than the exception of plants, it's only been recently. So you can see over there, I got a stand up bag that gets some time with my punches. 

There's a heavy bag at the gym that I go to. I've been working that early on this doorframe right here, which people can't see which nobody can see. But you can imagine what a door frame looks like. It received a lot of slow technique, because it allowed me to really dial in, where I was standing relative to striking and keeping things. You know, I like thinking about the angles, the physics of what I'm doing. That's really important to me early on. I was, you know, there was some shoulder discomfort from throwing hope punches on like, clearly something's off here. And that's really been helpful. But as I've gotten better, you know, Dennis is watching and he's hopefully okay with this whole punch. I'm sitting so isn't quite right. But as I've gotten better my plans and did there's a big avocado tree right there. There are a number of hanging plants. And I use those as targets because I can get close to them and watch them move. Yeah, and how they move is interesting. And it teaches me a little bit about where the power is going. Interesting. 

So, I wouldn't think that that's good. I believe wholeheartedly that all of the things in your house have value in you attacking them. So for example most of us probably have pictures or magnets or whatever on our fridge. Yep, pick one out and kick it cold. Can you kick accurately? It's probably harder. Oh, I'm off a little bit good because you're not warmed up. That is good information now. Yeah, nice. Yeah, I like that. I know. I've used your friends as well, the house my house to do stuff I like to close cabinet doors with my feet. 

Andrew Adams:

Yes. Which is a fun one as well. I'm not necessarily working on the hook punch right now. So I'm gonna have a direct answer. But I like the idea of plants. It's also something you can hit and not really damage it. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

And you know, and especially if you're working on distance, if your accuracy at distance is not great. Plants are pretty forgiving, forgiving. Yeah, you know, spider plants, like, you know, you can just pop the thing like you will just be back. 

Andrew Adams:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I love that. It's a good answer. Let's talk about family. We're all family. We want you to be part of our family as well, you listeners. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

All right. So here's the deal. So most of you know this, this is a reminder, for those of you who don't know this. There is a long list, we'll consider it an annoyingly long list of all the things that you could do to help us out. Some of which you derive value in return, others, maybe less so. And I was struggling with how to incorporate all of those into the intro and outro of our podcast. And I did some different things over the years, if you've been listening for a while, you know that, you know, some things would get more attention for periods of time that I would shift others. There were rotations. Sometimes I would just completely forget about a newsletter for a while and then start mentioning it again. And then one day  I think I wrote to you if we did, did it. And we talked about your kitchen, we came up with the name in your kitchen. Yep. And I said, Alright, whistlekick.com/sell something. And it's a page that is not going to be linked. Because we're going to give them extra stuff, we're going to ask them to clear that hurdle of having to type it in. 

And if they do that, we're gonna give them you know, like silly pictures of us and behind the scenes. Right now there's a discount on a specific new product, and other stuff like that. And if we do that, cool. We need a name for it, though. Can we need a name for it? And we tossed around a lot of ideas. And the initial one that I came up with was no go for good reasons. And we settled on family. Yeah, because this organization kind of runs internally like a family and externally like a family. You know, if you've been to a free training day, there's definitely a family vibe there. If you have noticed, a good number of the people who come on the show, end up getting involved, they become part of what we do as we say they fall in the gravity as they fall in orbit. And that's because the mission here is pretty big. So we figure if you are on board, if you like what we do, you probably will find the value in checking out whistlekick.com/family. Once a week, as we update at least once a week, I put the date and the time that I changed at the top. Andrew sends me pictures once in a while like to put pictures up. Sometimes martial arts, sometimes not. And the way I would use this if I was not the one making it is I would put something on my calendar or just say like Thursdays I'm going to check it you know, and just go okay, it wasn't picked up calm. So, finally I will probably bookmark it. 

Andrew Adams:

Yep. And then put some fun things that you've posted like we posted a while ago. And if you didn't see it, sorry you missed out but a picture of you as a Halloween costume dressed up as a Ninja Turtle. Raphael. That wasn't me, that was a temporary trade. But then, right next to it was a picture of me dressed up as rough as a referral. I don't know if I was gonna say I'm sorry to say, but I was not a kid. I was an adult. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

It's a title that you should apologize for. 

Andrew Adams:

But we both dressed as a referral. And so side by side comparison of can do the better. Raphael better? Yeah. I gotta get you some more, some more

Jeremy Lesniak:

But so definitely check it out. Like, look at the date and time. Have you been there since that date and time, take a quick scan, most of it doesn't change. Most of what we're putting up there that you're going to find fun is pictures. If you're going to buy something, unless you have a gift certificate or a specific discount code that I've shared with you. You should check that page first. Yeah, because here's the deal. We figure if you're going to clear that hurdle, you're probably our biggest fans, best customers, part of our family, etc. And so we're gonna reward you. We're gonna give back the most to you. 

Andrew Adams:

All right. Are you ready for your final question? 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. 

Andrew Adams:

All right. We get here we go. Yeah, so before I read the question, I'm gonna read a quote. Okay. The quote is, if you break down the term martial arts, you'll see that the noun at the core of the phrase is actually an art. It's not about learning to fight. It's about worrying to be better through the expression of action. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I said that. 

Andrew Adams:

The quote is from you. Right when the question now comes from Gabe. Okay, Gabe, see you. And we did an episode recently on traditional martial artists and we have, it kind of relates to that episode. Based on your definition of a martial artist, being someone still considered a martial artist, if sorry, based on your definition of a martial artist, is someone still considered a martial artist? If bettering themselves is not a reason for participating in the martial art? 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yes. Just because it's not a goal doesn't mean that it's not happening. Okay, I may go out to eat with, you know, we will say we go to lunch. The purpose of me going to lunch with you is not sustenance. It is not to survive. Okay, I'm going to lunch with you. Because I enjoy the time. And it's an excuse for us to spend time together. Gotcha. Okay. If I train, I'm probably training for a handful of reasons. Most of us have multiple reasons. Our why right, we talk about the why often, why it comes up on first cover comes up on this show comes up in the books that I write and why is important. Everybody has a handful of wisdom. And the whys can inform how you train, he can alter the results that you have coming out of it. But if you show up to train, and you are invested in that training, let's say exclusively for self defense, okay? Like that's often when there's pushback on this other stuff, it's usually from that direction. So let's make that assumption that someone says my interest in training, traditional martial arts is exclusively for self defense. Whether or not their training is, the best choice for that is irrelevant. Okay, let's pretend you live roughly where I live, where you don't have very many options, and you end up at a traditional martial arts school. 

Okay. As I train to better myself, from a self defense standpoint, I'm getting stronger, faster, more flexible. I am making my body better. Okay. I'm learning things that sharpen my mind. I'm spending time around other people, I'm probably engaged in some partner work, I have to be considerate of those other people, I have to learn how to exist with them in a semi combative tone, because otherwise, they're not gonna want to train with me. If I'm going to get any results out of it, I have to show up frequently. I have to be dedicated. And I cannot imagine that someone is investing that time developing and developing the physical, physical aspects, gaining the knowledge, and they are not also having a positive impact on the other, less tangible elements of their personality. They may not realize it. But I would venture that, you know, we did an episode recently on MMA, traditional martial arts can MMA, the traditional candidate espouses traditional virtues. And we were quite upfront that in many cases, that is going to happen because simply by applying yourself to a pursuit, you build skill sets, and habits, and information, and other things. 

Personal development does not necessarily mean that I'm setting out to be a better person, no small child wakes up at age four and says no, I'm going to go to school and become a better person. But I would say, maybe not today. But when we were kids, The majority of people graduating from high school across a broad range of measures would be termed to have grown as people versus their younger selves. 

Andrew Adams:

Yeah, that's fair. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

There's a maturity that sets in. If you are nervous when you start doing the thing and you become less nervous you've developed if you are angry, as a defense mechanism, and you become less angry. You have grown as a person. 

Andrew Adams:

Yeah, that makes sense. I think you answered it within the first minute and a half. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I probably did. 

Andrew Adams:

That was good. It felt just like a second. No, no, and that's good. There's nothing wrong with that. That was good. Yeah, I think you don't have to have that as a goal, it could still be an outcome. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

I think it's an inevitable income outcome. It is all but inevitable that when you train at something or work at something, that you are going to get better at yourself. You talk to anybody who trains anything. They often will say over time, they learned about themselves. They probably did not set out learning to sail or drive a race car, or lift weights for hiking. You know, if you listen to accounts of people who hiked the Appalachian Trail, they learnt a lot about themselves. So yeah, yeah. For some of them, that's why they do it. Not all of them. So just like a challenge. 

Andrew Adams:

Cool. I think you did it. Good. You did a good bunch. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

The issue I had for those of you that are interested is I was struggling keeping my forearm flat, like the idea of coming through. I was coming. Elbow was underneath. So it was more like a an uppercut home kind of hybrid fabric. Yeah. Right. And it's hard to do it sitting. Because, you know, I shouldn't be I shouldn't be doing it over here. 

Andrew Adams:

You could do a Patreon video for people.

Jeremy Lesniak:

I could. I don't know if I just could. Here's how I'm less terrible at throwing. You can be less terrible if you are like me. 

Andrew Adams:

Awesome. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

What else do we have? 

Andrew Adams:

That's it. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Let's open it up real quick. Anybody in the chat? If you've got a quick question, we can do that. Otherwise, we're gonna wind down so you have 60 seconds. 

Andrew Adams:

Yeah, nobody's written anything for a while. Okay. They're probably just hanging out and listening or watching while they do other things, which is okay, because you know, it is midday on a Tuesday. 

Andrew Adams:

That is true.

Jeremy Lesniak:

All right. Well, I want to thank everybody for watching and listening. We really do appreciate all of you. These shows are fun. I have a really good time doing them and knowing that there are people watching live is kind of cool. If you enjoy this experience, please consider joining us for the first cup. We do the first cup every weekday. 6:30am US Eastern time. We run it on Facebook, we run it on YouTube, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we run it on Twitter, Tuesday and Thursday. We run it on Twitch, we got our first Twitch subscriber today. 

Andrew Adams:

Nice. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

We have one, yey! We've only aired like dozens of episodes. Hey, you gotta start somewhere. We talked about whistlekick.com/family. I won't mention that again. Yeah, we've got books on Amazon. We've got the Patreon. We've got social media at whistlekick, we've got a newsletter, you can sign up for it at whistlekick.com or whistlekickradio.com Don't forget the transcripts. Like we transcribe these episodes if you're and I think the best use of the way I use them, I think the way you use them. What did that person say? What we talked about? Wasn't that we talked about that with the show? Yeah, and there's a search box. whistelkickmartialartsradio.com and it'll tell you. Oh, yeah, we talked about this person in this episode. This episode. Well, what did they say? 

Andrew Adams:

Ctrl F? Fine. Yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Right on. Awesome. We're ready?

Andrew Adams:

I think so. 

Jeremy Lesniak and Andrew Adams:

Okay, until next time, train hard, smile, and have a great day.