Episode 792 - Master Candidate Stephen Brayton
Master Candidate Stephen Brayton is a Martial Arts practitioner, instructor and author of fiction novels.
Every testing I get nervous. Every martial artists who does testing and competitions, if they’re not nervous, they don’t care. Nervousness shows that you care. It’s the ability of taking that nervousness to be the energy that you need to perform to satisfaction…
Master Candidate Stephen Brayton - Episode 792
Master Candidate Stephen Brayton is a Sixth Degree Black Belt in the American Taekwondo Association. When he’s not writing stories, he’s writing blogs and social media posts as a Marketing Associate for Mapcon Technologies in Johnston, Iowa.
In this episode, Master Candidate Stephen Brayton talks about his journey to the martial arts and how he added martial arts into his fiction writing novels. Listen to learn more!
Show notes
You may check out more about Master Candidate Stephen Brayton on Facebook or visit his websites:
www.braytonsbookbuzz.wordpress.com
www.stephenbrayton.wordpress.com
Follow him on Twitter: @SLBrayton
Show Transcript
Jeremy Lesniak:
What's going on everybody? Welcome. This is whistlekick Martial Arts on Radio episode 792 with my guest today, Master Candidate Stephen Brayton. I am Jeremy Lesniak, I'm your host for the show. I founded whistlekick because I love training, I love traditional martial arts, and I wanted to bring some good stuff to the traditional martial arts community. And well, here we are about a decade in and I have gotten the opportunity to meet some amazing people and a lot of it is through this show. So thank you to everyone. And if you wanna see all the things that we're working on, the stuff that keeps me up at night sometimes, you can go to whistlekick.com, see all of the projects, the products, the great things that we're putting out for all of you, including the stuff in our store. Yeah, you can pick stuff up, you can grab a shirt or a hoodie or some sweatpants, training stuff, casual stuff, protective equipment, events. There's a lot of great stuff over there and if you're not checking it out periodically, you're probably missing out because it's more than the store. Rhyme unintended. There's a lot of good stuff at whistlekick.com and if you use the code podcast15, you can save 15% on just about anything over there. That is our belief, our best discount that we offer. So if you're a podcast listener, we're hooking you up. whistlekickmartialartsradio.com is where we put all the stuff for the show cuz there's so much. Here we are, we're almost at 800 episodes. It's kind of crazy. And if you want to go deeper, you want the transcripts, you wanna look at the photos or the videos, you want the links, the websites, and the social media, it's the easiest place to grab all that stuff. You can start with your podcast app if that's how you listen. I know that's how most of you listen, but there's more at the website. Now, why do we do it? Well, we do it to connect, educate, and entertain. It's our three-part mission here at whistlekick. We are looking to bring you great stuff that checks as many of those boxes as possible and I think our best stuff really does check all three. And it's along the path of getting to a very lofty goal, we wanna get everybody in the world to train for six months because I think it'll make the world a better place. I know it'll make the world a better place, and I suspect you also are on board for that mission. Now, if you are, you can help us out. You can buy stuff, you can tell people about what we're doing. You can grab one of our books on Amazon. You can leave a review pretty much anywhere you could imagine, but you could also join our Patreon. It's one of the big things that we ask of you. If you love what we do, we bring you our best stuff for free. We continue to bring you our best stuff for free. But if you wanna help us out, you wanna throw a little money back our way, patreon.com/whistlekick. 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Alright, so my guest today, another Steve, if you listened last week, we had a Steve last week too. I don't know what's going on. Andrew putting Steve's back-to-back. Here's a fun thing, I'm recording this kind of late at night, so I'm a little bit silly right now. I had this idea as I recorded with Stephen Brayton today. Should we do a book just of the Steves, the martial arts Steves? I know. It's completely silly, but here's a little you know, that's just, if you know me, you know, I like to be silly sometimes, and there we are. But to be serious for a moment, I had a great conversation with Steve. We had a wonderful time talking. We talked about everything from our shared joint pain to our love of training at a really similarly shared philosophy on focusing on the things that we can control and showing up and being persistent and giving of ourselves back to our local school and our broader martial arts community because it makes everyone better. And I had a great conversation about that. I think you're gonna love this one. I hope you do anyway. And here we are with my conversation today with Steve. Steve, thanks for being here. I appreciate your time. What's going on with you? How are you?
Stephen Brayton:
I'm doing great. I went to the doctor this morning to take care of an arthritic knee that's been bothering me for several years now.
So hopefully…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Martial artist with a knee thing?
Stephen Brayton:
Oh!
Jeremy Lesniak:
You must be the first one.
Stephen Brayton:
Who would've bet? No, I have a midterm testing coming up in about three weeks.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Stephen Brayton:
And I am concerned about my knee and how it will affect my balance.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure.
Stephen Brayton:
And I've already let the judging panel know that I have an issue. But I wanted to get something taken care of and so hopefully, the cortisone shot will help with the pain and I can perform better and not have to look wobbly and make my excuse that my knee hurts.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. How does that impact you? Let's talk about that knee thing because you know, we're gonna talk about a lot of things, but you put it on the table. Let's talk about it. Cause I'm sure we've got people out there in the audience saying you know, I've got a knee thing. I'm not quite sure what it is though. Maybe they'll learn something.
Stephen Brayton:
Sure. I didn't know what it was. And you know, athletes have issues with joints and muscles over time. And the more you use them and the older you get, the older they get, they tend to break down a little bit. It's a natural process. And it all has to do with you know, the amount of exercise, diet, the genes, you know. I'm not I'm not singling out myself or anybody else saying, well, you're just a rotten person because you have problems. We all go through this at one time or another.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We do.
Stephen Brayton:
It's just a natural process of life. So, few years ago, I started getting some pain in my right knee and it really didn't affect too much. And about a year or two ago, it got bad enough that it was affecting martial arts workouts. And so I went to the doctor, he took an x-ray of both knees and said, yeah, you've got a little bit of problems in the left knee, but really the right one where it should be smooth was like the craters of the moon.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Stephen Brayton:
So what's really interesting though is I can do a lot of other exercises. Running, I can do running. Depending on the day my knee will let me do it or it will say no, you're done after a hundred yards. I can do indoor workouts, some cardio resistance tube workouts, and those are fine. I go to do martial arts, I go to up to my instructors, and as soon as I enter the studio, the knee goes, oh, you're here. You're about to do Taekwondo, aren't you? Let me start hurting.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Stephen Brayton:
And really, because there's different movements in say, either running or even some cardio stuff than you do in martial arts. There's different movements, there's different stances. I have a certain stance that I get into that I have to switch and reverse it. And that twisting motion, I have to I have to pivot a lot. Which pivoting doesn't necessarily hurt because it's normal and usual, you know, that's what you're supposed to do. But it is the twisting motion that…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. It’s that this, you know, the knee's really good at flexing. It's not so great at twisting.
Stephen Brayton:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And we, martial artists, we make a career outta tha twisting.
Stephen Brayton:
Yeah. The one-legged stance are the, I shouldn't, I guess you say the worst.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Stephen Brayton:
Because it puts all that pressure right on that knee and I know some of it is physical. Some of it's psychological to where it has hurt. Now the mind says it's going to hurt.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Stephen Brayton:
So I don't wanna say cheat, but I baby it and try to make adjustments.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You accommodate.
Stephen Brayton:
Accommodate, yes. So I'm trying to accommodate and get and persuade my body to do the moves and do the stances correctly for a better performance.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I had some knee stuff at 22. I couldn't walk downstairs and it's, you know, it's all martial arts related. And without going too deep, you know, the, the doctor said double knee replacement. And I did the math. I was like, I don't want four of those in my lifetime, so let's not do that. But what it ultimately came down to that helped was strengthening and I changed the kind of shoes I wore and I've actually, and I'll share it with you and I'll share it with the audience under the premise. I'm not a doctor, don't ever listen to anything I say that's even remotely in the physical or medical space. But I'll stand on one knee and, you know, I often use the couch or the wall to balance and kind of come down in about half a squat and hold it there for a few seconds. And I've built up to 30 seconds on each knee. And the knee issues, as long as I remain doing that, they stay at bay.
Stephen Brayton:
I have, years ago, it used to be a mindset or an idea that, oh, don't do lunges, don't do squats. Those are really bad for your knees. Several years ago, I met a gentleman who said, no, that is the best things for your knees because it builds up what he called, like that cage of protection or a cage of muscle around that around that joint.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Stephen Brayton:
And so, and really for me, lunges, I have no problems with, except for an ankle that I twisted long time ago that just, it doesn't hurt. It just says I'm not going any farther with this lunch.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Stephen Brayton:
So I accommodate and it doesn't hurt. The squats, I have no problem squatting. Walking downstairs is a little bit of an issue sometimes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, exactly.
Stephen Brayton:
It's that direct impact sometimes it really gets me.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. What it came down to for me, and this is part of why I changed the kind of shoes I wear,
if we walk barefoot and when we're training, most of us are barefoot. And when we step, we land midfoot, you know, so that arch, an arch is really strong and it takes all the force. But when we put on shoes, we hit with our heel and all that force cascades up to our knee.
Stephen Brayton:
Yes. Yes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's been a big thing for me. And I think because I went through that, you're going through that, I mean, we're all, I don't know a martial artist who's been training, you know, 10 plus years that doesn't have something?
Stephen Brayton:
Sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, maybe if they started training when they were five.
Stephen Brayton:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Maybe. But most of us as adults growing up in martial arts, yeah, we've got some stuff and it's, I think there are a lot of lessons in there. Forces us to understand our body and work with what we've got.
Stephen Brayton:
Well, I like it that, I'm on a judging panel a lot for testings, and we get the sheets that shows health notifications. So this person has a problem inside the head where the balance is off.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure.
Stephen Brayton:
So if we stumble, you can't count against that or there's issues where, you know, we have issues kicking high and that's fine too. So I'm not, I'm glad that that's available and I'm glad martial arts is still there to keep one exercising and keep the body improving because without it, what will those injuries be then? Some of those injuries would come on naturally, but without exercise, they're only exacerbated.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. The two things, and a lot of people don't realize this, the things that keep joints healthy, it's pressure in its movement and our stances are great for the pressure and our kicks are great for the movement in a way that most people don't get that. You know, a lot of people struggle to sit down.
Stephen Brayton:
Sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, that depth is difficult for them to have any kind of stability and they crash into their chair, where most martial artists, we do okay.
Stephen Brayton:
I first noticed the issue when I was still instructing in my club that I could jump and dance around no problem. Okay, Johnny, let's get you in that front stance. Lemme show you how that's done. Stick that right leg forward. Instant pain. What's going on here that I can't do this? Or it hurts when I do do this.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. Yeah. The biomechanics of what we do, some of it kind of pushes the limits on what is sensible.
Stephen Brayton:
Sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
For the body. Now you said ran a club and I believe in my notes here, you've done that. You've had a couple stints of teaching, but I do want to go back. Before you can teach, you have to be a student. So let's rewind the tape. The way we often start this show, but we didn't cuz we took this fun detour to kick off. But how'd you get started in this time?
Stephen Brayton:
Well, I moved to a small town in South Central Iowa, Oskaloosa. And I was really into community theater. They had a nice community theater program going on. So, and I had always liked acting in plays in college and high school. So I joined that. And one Saturday I'm walking down the sidewalk on the town square and I see a little doorway in a little niche and a little sign that shows a Taekwondo club. And the sign read two weeks free classes. And I said, well, I kind of always been really kind of interested in martial arts. Let's check it out. I've always wanted to do some type of physical fitness regimen. I tried running for a couple of years that didn't quite work out because you really shouldn't start January 1st in Iowa or Illinois when it's two degrees and snowing and you wake up at seven o'clock going, let's go run. That's not the best way to start.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I live in Vermont. I get it.
Stephen Brayton:
There you go. So I said, well, we'll try these two weeks free classes. Can't hurt and I'm not losing anything. And it was a small little club, just a couple of rooms. We had some water issues on the floor. You know, you'd get cockroaches every now and then, but it was a nice club and I really enjoyed the instructor. And after two weeks, I had to make a decision about 6 months after that of whether I wanted to stay with martial arts or community theater. And I had, because they were conflicting. The practice times for both were conflicting. Actually, during the last couple of weeks before production, before they opened the show, we were required to be there. Well, that left my martial arts training out the door.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Stephen Brayton:
So I had to give up community theater, which is fine. And I had a nice time doing it, but I've really enjoyed the martial arts and it just progressed from there.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Alright. I gotta poke at that for a second because this, I feel like you're glossing over something that's really substantial. Just give us a few minutes of up to that point your experience with community theater. I think we need some context for what you gave up.
Stephen Brayton:
I was never the lead in a show. I was always a secondary character or part of the extras, part of the crowd. There was one time in college, I did get the lead. I was generally surprised that I did. And we showed up to our first practice and for some reason there have been other circumstances going on, nice pun, behind the scenes that the director came out and said, I'm sorry, the show is canceled. We're not doing this. And I never did find out a legitimate answer to it. And the next time, the next show that came around, I should have had the lead in my opinion. I ended up getting a bit part where I was on stage for a maximum of two minutes, and I did it because I enjoyed the acting. When I moved to Oskaloosa, we did, what do we do? Annie, I think I was a bit player in that. I did get a nice role in another play that I really enjoyed. It was a challenge because I had to enter the living room from above.
Jeremy Lesniak:
What?
Stephen Brayton:
And upper body strength was not that good that I couldn't hold onto a rope and climb down from the platform that they had mounted above the stage. So slid down it, and then it was, it was an interesting role cause I had to immediately strip down to running shorts and change into sweats for some reason. I don't remember the name of the play or the plot, but it ended up being, I was a burglar that ended up being included in the rest of the plot and being stuck in this house. So, but I did, I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the actors and the people that I, who I worked with. It was fun when we did Annie, of course, there was a bunch of kids and we're sitting around in the green room putting our makeup, changing into costumes and the radio's playing some 70s Eagle Song. And the kids are like, wow! This is really cool music. Did you know this? Did you know this group? And the rest of us looking at these little kids going, we grew up with this. Shut up. But yeah, it was a hard decision to do because I did enjoy it. However, I felt I was, I had more promise in martial arts.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And the part that I kind of wanna underscore there, and you're not using this word, but I'm hearing it in what you're talking about. And I've had enough friends who worked in the theater and often I had a lot of friends, the nerdy tech crew, and they would talk about it this way, is the community. You know, this, all these people coming together to produce this single final product. And even if you didn't have a large role on stage, I suspect that you had other things that you were doing. You were all collaborating on this. And it was likely that community that you were drawn to. Am I being accurate there?
Stephen Brayton:
Yes. Yes. Like I said, I enjoyed the people who I worked with. Made some good friends through through that. And yes, we did other things. We helped build the set. We weren't professionals, it was just the community theater, that's what it was. So, the community, people who were in the play, everybody helped. Even the kids, you know, helped sweep or clean or move stuff. We helped build the sets.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Stephen Brayton:
And we struck the sets and we cleaned and we we helped each other with lines. Tthe interesting thing was, and it was just a natural thing, was everybody was in the same green room. The kids had their own spaces, but for the most part, adults were in the same green room, changing clothes and nobody cared. So nobody was embarrassed because this is our job, this is what we do.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
So yes, I really did like that. I found, I'm not gonna say an even better community, but I found it another just as enjoyable community with martial arts.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. So you, six months, you know, you're talking about the, sounds like the period of time just before you go into that final rehearsal stage where it's every night and it's fairly intense, you know, a couple weeks or a month before curtain and you hadn't been training very long at that point. So I suspect, and this is a very long way to get to this question I'm asking you right now, what was it that you found so quickly in martial arts that it took hold of you in such a way that you would let go of something you had been doing enjoyably for such a long time?
Stephen Brayton:
Part of it was the fitness that I've been looking for. Part of it was the challenge of wanting to be better. I was not in sports in school, not in college fefinitely. In high school, I went out for track which was fine, but I couldn't run very fast. I went out for basketball for three days until my legs hurt for three days afterward and I said I can't do this. This is not for me. So I think it was the physical fitness, the workouts, the learning new skills and the self-defense. That's always a big part of it. But it was that physicality that I could get into without having to rely on a teammate. And I think that's one of the greatest things about martial arts is that it's a singular sport. You don't rely, if you can't kick or punch, okay, you work on it, but you're not affecting anybody else to where a team loses or has poorer results. If you can't catch, you can't run, you can't tackle, you can't shoot, you can't hit the ball, you're put on the bench. Here in martial arts, it's a singular one person job or goal. You are improving yourself. You are battling and challenging yourself. The competitor is yourself. So if I can't kick, if I can only kick this high today, that's great. Now the goal is to kick this high tomorrow. And to just keep that improving a little bit higher. So that's what I really enjoyed about it and the fun! It was fun. It wasn't, I didn't have to work at it really. I mean, yes, I practiced, gosh, I remember as a white belt. Our white belt form was a straight line up and back, up and back. And I had a small apartment, small efficiency apartment with a hallway between the living room and the bedroom. And that's where I practiced. I just went evenings I would do just up and down that hallway, just working on the moves in that hallway. And of course when new forms were introduced, they had more patterns and more movements and the shapes were different. So I couldn't do it that way, but that's what I remember that eagerness, that enthusiasm right at the beginning that just grabbed hold of me. And I loved the instructors and the people and you know, in time, we managed to get to some local outings and some camps there in town, and we then, of course, tournaments and testings.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. It, it's no secret that so many of us who find martial arts and remain in martial arts, it's those of us who maybe didn't succeed in a traditional “team environment” as you were talking about. We, you know, maybe we weren't, the past were, at the very least, we were self-conscious about our skill versus others. And yet martial arts, as I didn't describe it this way, but I've always liked the description. It's an individual sport done in a team setting.
Stephen Brayton:
Yes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, I can go shoot hoops, I can go play tennis against the wall. I can do a lot of these sport type things solo and improve my skills, but it loses something. And yet martial arts, I can do these things solo, but I'm doing them solo with everybody else and it doesn't lose anything. In fact, it gains from that knowing that we're all working towards the same goals, just we're at different places on the path can be really motivating and inspiring. And it builds that community that, you know, you found as an alternative, but yet, you know, more challenge and more physicality and more opportunity it sounds like.
Stephen Brayton:
Yes, it is. It is that I like how you put that individual sport within a team because it is. And I hope I didn't disparage that by saying it's an individual sport.
Jeremy Lesniak:
No, no, not at all.
Stephen Brayton:
Because I'm in with a group of people. I'm in with, we're having fun kicking blocking pads and sparring and breaking boards learning the self-defense and saying, you know, hey, try it this way or do a little bit this way. And so in the sense that I'm not affecting another team member is not to say that I'm not. I am because of my attitude, how I practice the example I said. I'm not affecting a team member in the fact that when we go to a tournament, my performance doesn't affect anybody else's. Because if I go out there and I miss a basket, okay, the team loses. If I go to a tournament and I don't, and I get second place, that's great. My classmate got first place and that's great too.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Stephen Brayton:
So, and, and we learn from that. So it is a team effort in that rather than just, you know, competition.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. So at that kind of six-month mark, you've, you know, kind of you're all in.
Stephen Brayton:
Yes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
With your Taekwondo training and, you know, spoiler alert, you're talking to us now so this is something you've done for a while, but talk to us about some of the milestones along that path.
Stephen Brayton:
We had a, now I know every style and system is a little bit different and so I'm part of the American Taekwondo Association. We're based out of Little Rock. Our founder, Haeng Ung Lee died back in 2000 and I was, I am honored to have met him several times and talk with him several times. I am currently very good friends with the current president of the organization. It is, I'll tell you one of the milestones and that I've seen throughout the years, and then I'll go back and talk about some others.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Please.
Stephen Brayton:
What's interesting is that, and I told MK Lee this, Grandmaster MK Lee this here at the last camp. I said when I was coming up through the ranks and we would go to camps or tournaments, I was always in awe of the upper ranks. It was like, hey, Mary, guess who's here today? It's, you know, it's Master Jagger, it's Master Hoover, you know. That's cool! We get to go see them and maybe work out with them and get some advice from them. And every tournament, every time we went someplace, it was always that, it was always that awe of, wow, that you know, we get to be there. They didn't know who I was. But in time they did because of my repetitiveness, the working up through the ranks, getting involved, being part of tournaments, being part of testings so we got to be friends. I told MK, I says, you know what, I still have that awe after 30 something years, I still come to camp going, oh man! Is Master Jack gonna be here? Is Master Hoover gonna be here? That's great. And it is the fact now that we are more friends, there is still the respect. Whenever I meet that high rank, I still do the bow, I still do the traditional handshake. Then, now, with with Grandmaster MK, I can do that and then we hug. Then we can share a hug and that's great. That is one of the great, if you wanna call it milestone, that is one of the great things to have to experience in martial arts is that remaining awestruck by the fact that I get to be with this guy, I get to be with this woman instructor, and yet…
Jeremy Lesniak:
And say more. Say why that is so significant. I think there's something worth bringing out there.
Stephen Brayton:
They've earned it. They have earned that respect because of the examples they have set. And I have seen that. When I start out, when I started and went to these camps, who's this? Oh, he is Master Jagger. Okay. I don't know him. Who is he? What does he have to tell me?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Stephen Brayton:
Well, he's the big guy here. He's the high rank in this region. Okay. It wasn’t a so what type of thing, but it was okay, that's fine, but I don't know him. After being with him, and working out with him, and listening to his ideas, and experiencing one of his punches, I didn't see it. I didn't, I'm standing two feet in front of him. I didn't see it coming. He punched so fast. That respect grows and now I see the value that those people have given the rest of us and the people who are just ahead of me or coming up behind me. I see, I try to instill that in them. And that's what I wanted. I wanted more classes to be taught with that type of respect and honor into the lower rank students, to give those students saying, hey, here is Master Jagger. This is who he is. Now we're gonna learn from him. And then in time these students will say oh, wow. He was valued in that. So that's what I got outta it and I really like that. Tournaments were great. I've enjoyed tournaments. I was a big competitor. I think I started our second belt is orange belt and I went to my first tournament as an orange belt. Lincoln, Nebraska.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And this is a point where I think it's relevant to say. Your organization, the ATA, very quietly, at least outside of the ATA, has absolutely massive tournaments.
Stephen Brayton:
Oh, yes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You guys have huge tournaments. So these tournaments you're talking about how many competitors might be there?
Stephen Brayton:
When I started probably a hundred if that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And now?
Stephen Brayton:
We were a little small back then for tournament attendance because there weren't too many high ranks.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure.
Stephen Brayton:
And the organization really was still growing. It had been around since ‘69, but it was still actively growing. So we were doing men and women together sometimes in some of the high ranks because there just weren't the numbers. Now, Sioux Falls will have 700.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Stephen Brayton:
It is the huge tournament. In our world championship, World Expo now held in Phoenix, you'll get throughout the course of the week about 20,000.
Jeremy Lesniak:
The week, right? The week.
Stephen Brayton:
The week, yes. There's business classes and exercises and workouts, testings, top 10 tournaments, the tournament, and all kinds of great stuff, master ceremony. And throughout that week, from about Tuesday through Sunday, you'll get 20,000 people from all over the world. 26 countries and it's just a, it's an experience that I've been to many, many times and it's still, it's still great. I can't describe it. It's just awesome to see that many people all there testing is amazing. The way they set up a testing, the black belt testing is they have pods of about, for each rank. And in those pods, each of those pods will have 40 to 50 testers. So you're looking at 400, 500 something testers with support people. So there are thousands of people in that auditorium all for one purpose. And it's just, it's just amazing. It is just, it is.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It is my favorite thing about the ATA is that you all better than any organization I'm aware of, put it all out there.
Stephen Brayton:
Oh!
Jeremy Lesniak:
You guys, you show up. I mean, that's the best phrase I can use. You all show up and I think that that's really cool.
Stephen Brayton:
It is one of the things that we constantly stress. At nearly every tournament that I attend, somebody at some point says, think about what this would be if you weren't here. And I know he is talking about individuals, but he's also talking about the group. If 20 of us don't show up, we're in trouble you know. We've got some problems, not problems, but we've got some issues that we, that, you know, delays. We gotta, we have to find people to judge. And so, because of that, I think we have really improved since I started in judging, in attendance, in competitorship and it's just great. And that's what I got into. I was a big competitor, few firsts, mostly second and thirds, but I'm happy with that. And then about the time I was going to test for a sixth degree, I decided I'd had enough competition as a fifth degree and that's fine. I'm getting older. I don't feel that drive anymore.Now, the interesting thing though is as soon as I made that decision, MK said, oh yes, we want to encourage six degrees and up to compete somehow and somewhere. Great, thanks.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, kind of going back to one of the things you were talking about with the respectful greeting followed by the hug, right? When we can build relationships with higher ranks and we can have access to those higher ranks, and we can see them not only instruct or coach but train and compete, it's so motivating. It's so inspiring. Years ago, some, I'm in Vermont. We've got some folks who attended. We've done one tournament as whistlekick and hopefully we'll do more in the future, but we did one back in 2016. And one of the first things I did other than get, you know, my key people in place was I went to as many 10th dans as I could and said, I will comp you. Just please come and compete, show them. And I think we had six out of just shy of 200 competitors, I think six of them were 10th degree black belts competing in multiple divisions and it was awesome. And it was one of the things that people came up to me and told me they loved about the event was that there were so many high ranks out on the floor. Because it gives all the rest of us something to shoot for. Say, well, clearly competition isn't for the just the kids or just the orange belts or just the people competing for their first time. It's for all of us and here's the proof.
Stephen Brayton:
Yes. Yes, I really enjoyed one of my best Taekwondo friends that I just, he's so wonderful. His Chief Master Dan Jorgenson. He's out of Kansas area. He used to be in our region and he moved around from place to place and now he operates out of school in Kansas. I was used to, I remember him as a 3rd degree long time ago and watching him compete and being with him and having him come down and be at our testings. And I think that is, that's, like you said, that's one of the great things to do is bring high ranks to your little club or your little school and say, hey, I've got a guest judge today who might help us out, you know, who's gonna help us out today and he might perform or something. He might show his form. And that's invaluable. It was, at least to me, I don't know how the students felt. I hope they appreciated it, but that helped build the relationships too. And the last two times, Mr. Jorgenson, I really have to stop doing this, the last two times we've met, we've sat and talked for about four or five hours, and it's one o'clock in the morning. We have to go.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Stephen Brayton:
So we sit there and talk for another 20 minutes and then we say goodbye.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. Well, yeah. That's how martial artists say goodbye. You start saying goodbye on the far side of the dojang or the gymnasium or whatever it is, and you say goodbye to everyone as you go. And then inevitably you'll have to say goodbye to somebody else again. And you know, I've had, you know, I've had two hour goodbyes.
Stephen Brayton:
Oh, we sat out in front of a restaurant, stood out in front of the restaurant and watched the restaurant close and watched the workers go home.
Jeremy Lesniak:
After you had dinner with all these folks for hours and we're with them the whole day, right?
Stephen Brayton:
Yeah. And then we're standing there outside at the car. We're 20 feet from the car, let's get in and go home. No, let's sit here and talk for four hours. That's great!
Jeremy Lesniak:
I've done it so many times. Yes.
Stephen Brayton:
I love it. It's just, and neither of us minds, neither of us is upset with the other because we're friends. It is great. I remember one tournament where I think I was one of the high ranks and Master Jorgenson was our guest high rank, our guest for that day. Somebody had come up to me and said, hey, um, Danny's coming in. You wanna do the clap and get everybody's attention to everybody outta the high rank? I went, okay, sure. So I sat there just, I've known the guy for years, but for some reason I still get, I'm still nervous. I'm still, oh my gosh, you know, he's coming in the door, you know, I hope he, you know, I hope he's happy, hope he's in a good mood and everything like that, and I hope I don't mess up. So we did, and we all bow to him and he immediately pointed to me, and came over shook hands and hugged. It was just, I can't, it's just an indescribable feeling that you get with that. It's so wonderful to have that type of relationship.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. I completely agree. So, as time has gone on, as you've gone from instructor who, master who, okay, great to some of these people being such great friends that you'll spend all day talking with, you know, as you migrate from the gym to the restaurant, to the parking lot, what has changed in you? How have you, I'm gonna make an assumption, but I'm quite confident in it grown as a person through your time and your association, your training in these other people?
Stephen Brayton:
They have instilled a sense of better self-confidence than I think I ever would've had without it. Every testing I get nervous. And I think every martial artist who does competition and testing, rank advancement testing, if they're not nervous, then they don't care. Nervousness shows that you care, and it's the ability to take that nervousness and turning into the energy that you need to perform to satisfaction. I think without martial arts, I don't know where I would be today in the terms of confidence and success in other ventures because it gets you in front of people. You are standing there, oh my gosh, yeah. I'm one of four competitors or five competitors out there at a testing down in Little Rock or Phoenix and I'm looking at a panel of 15 judges. Some of them I may know, but they're all giving me that stern look with their arms crossed, like, you better impress me or, you know, I don't care. And I'm looking at these people going, oh my gosh, how do I do this? And then I've learned to just look above their heads and ignore them and do what I needs to be done. But it's that confidence that I've learned throughout the years that I can perform. I never, and I'm not bragging, at least I hope, I don't sound like I'm bragging, I never failed a test, rank investment test until a midterm about seven years ago. Every test I passed.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And for context, cause different organizations handled this differently, do you have a statistic, you know, roughly how often would someone pass versus fail?
Stephen Brayton:
Most everybody passed.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Stephen Brayton:
In the colored belt ranks because we were of the notion that we didn't want you to fail, and if you weren't ready to test, then we wouldn't let you test. We’d suggest, hey, let's wait another couple months. Let's go another cycle and do it and wait. We could really improve that technique, really improve whatever element that needed to be improved. And that's fine. And I felt satisfied, I don't wanna say proud of myself, but I was satisfied that I could do that. I could come up to every testing and say, I'm ready. I'm nervous, but I'm ready. And I could, part of our testing is that you are allowed three tries, three attempts on your form, and they count the best one. So if you, if you mess up, that's fine. It's the, you know, it's testing, everybody's nervous and you're gonna stumble or you're gonna make a wrong move or turn the wrong way, that's fine. Ask to do it again. And if you do it great the next time, that's what they're gonna count. Up until about the fourth rank, I asked every time that I finished if I could do it again. Until one time he said, just stop asking, you're fine.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Cause you felt you could always do a little better?
Stephen Brayton:
I always felt I could do just a little bit better and I always wanted to do just a little bit better. But one of the great things about those relationships in Taekwondo is everybody comes at it, at a technique or a form or a move or a self-defense technique just a little bit differently than somebody else. And so my instructor can sit, stand there and say, do it this way, do it this way, do it this way. Try it this way, try it this way, try it this way. And I'm not getting it. I just don't get it. I don't understand. I'm trying to do what he says, but it just doesn't register. And I'm not comprehending it and it's not working. Whatever I'm doing is not working. Then I go to workout and I said, hey Master Jagger, can I show you something? I want you to judge this. So I do it and I said, I'm having problems with this particular area. He says, do it this way, and suddenly the light goes on. Oh, he said it in a little bit different way, probably said the same thing as my instructor, but he said it in a little bit different way that it finally registers and it finally gets me, and I go, now I can correct it. And so I think that relationship is great too because we are all students and we are all instructors. I can be a student. I'm always a student. I'm always learning. I'm also instructor to others. I can even be an instructor to a high rank. Oh my gosh, yes!
Jeremy Lesniak:
Blast for me. Blast for me, Steve.
Stephen Brayton:
It was fascinating because one of our high ranks Grandmaster nominee Hoover, he was testing for his 9th degree and we watched him test. We watched, not watched, well, I watched him test too, but I watched him practice. And after his performance, I thought, well, do I say anything? I mean, oh, for heaven's sake, he's an 8th degree and I'm the lowly, 6th degree. You know, that's how I felt. It wasn't an inferior complex, but I'm going, I can't comment on his form. That's wrong. Well, we got to stand around talking and I said, can I ask you something? Can I tell you something? And I'm just humbling myself, you know so much. And I said, can I tell you one little thing on your form? And he says, yeah. So I told him what it was. He says, yeah, I knew that. I've been working on that for years. He didn't mind it, it wasn't you know, shut up, you have no business talking to me like this. And it was how I approached it, I think too. And it was that relationship and because we've been friends for decades and it's that type of relationship. If I were a newly 1st degree going a Master Hoover, I think you did this wrong.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, exactly.
Stephen Brayton:
I would've been shot down and you know.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But at the same time, as you said, always a student. The best martial artist in my experience and I've had the opportunity to talk to quite a few on this show, the best martial artists really don't care where their instruction is coming from. If it's valid instruction, it could be someone from within your school, within your style organization or someone out. It could be you know, who I learned the most from? First day white belts cause they teach you a lot about, hey, I didn't know you could move your body that way and I didn't know that these words could lead you to moving like that.
Stephen Brayton:
Sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I learned a ton from them. And so as long as the motivation is right, if the culture in the school is, in my opinion correct, yeah. I think there's nothing wrong with, you know, hey, here's what I observed, and if you do it the right way, you might even learn something because maybe you thought, I've had this happen. Hey, so I saw you did this thing and I thought, you know, we always did this thing. Wait, you're doing it that way? Oh, shoot. I'm wrong? Okay. So now I just learn. Awesome.
Stephen Brayton:
Sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Because if I hadn't brought it up now, neither of us benefits.
Stephen Brayton:
Sure, you bet. And that has been a constant comments. Show me how you did that again.
Oh, so it's not this way? Well, this is how I was taught. Okay. Well, does it work? Sure. Well, lemme give it a shot and see if it works. So we're always learning. I learned last week at a workout that I was doing some jump kicks incorrectly. I was telegraphing the move. Probably cause I was tired, but we've been working out for a long time before we sparred, but still I learned and, you know, and now that's gonna be in my mind the next time around from now on to not do what I was doing.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right. Yeah. I'm thinking about where we should go next. We've been all over the place and I love it. It's one of my favorite things about what we do and in kind of our format. So let's, we've talked about, you know, history and we've talked a a bit more about present, let's talk future. Past, present, future. Where are you headed? It doesn't sound like this journey is going to end anytime soon? And I think we've got a pretty good understanding of why it won't end so clearly passionate about what you do.
Stephen Brayton:
I never thought I would be where I was when I started. Whenever I'd go to, coming up through the colored belt ranks, whenever I'd go to tournaments or testing, somebody'd always stand up and go, who wants to be a black belt? And everybody'd go, yay! My mindset was, yes, but I'm gonna put that black belt rank achievement way out there because what I want now is whatever comes next. So if I'm a white belt, my next rank is orange belt. That's what I want. If I'm a purple belt, my next rank is a blue belt. That's what I want. I don't want black belt. I want what comes next, and I'm gonna work hard for what comes next and get that. Because if I look toward black belt and go, I wanna be a black belt, I'm not focusing on what needs to be done to get there. I'm not focusing on the steps, the minutia, the time requirements, the practice, the workouts, the camaraderie, the tournaments, the testings to get there. When I got up to the recommended black belt, now I could say, now I wanna be black belt. Because now I look back over the last few years and saying, okay, I'm ready for this. And so when I got 1st degree, what's the next rank? That's what I want. So now that I, my goal as a 5th degree longer than the time required but I wasn't ready, I hadn't gotten in the midterms and everything like that and that was fine. But when I was ready, I have to share this, so.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Please.
Stephen Brayton:
One of the things that ATA has established is that after a testing, there's been a physical fitness test. They didn't just want people working out and coming down and doing a testing and then walking away. They wanted to see that you had been physically working out, that you were strong enough and endurance, you know, had that endurance. So they've had a series of these physical fitness tests. Some, and each time they change, I think they've improved on what their goal is and what what they do. So in 2019, when I tested for 6th degree, I was a little anxious about this physical fitness test. Mainly because there were certain exercises in there that my upper body strength is not the best and I couldn't do. I could do everything else, but there were just these certain exercises. Pushups, forget it. My shoulders do not like pushups. My body does not like pushups, and I have an issue with my right arm also, that it's not strong enough to do pushups. A lot to do a lot of them. I still can't, I'm not weak. I'm not chickening out or anything.
Like, I'm not copping out on this. I'll do 'em if told to. So there were certain exercises in this physical fitness test. I was, when I got to the, to our, my, I mentioned the pod that had our competitor, our testers in there. I looked up on the judging panel and I knew about half a dozen people and I thought, oh goodness, it's okay. It's one thing to do it in front of high ranks I've never seen before or I don't know. It's another thing to do it in front of friends and people I've been around for a long, long time. So the testing part was fine. I don't even remember doing the form part. The form part of the testing. I just don't. If you asked me for details, I zoned out on that. I just, I got through it because I knew I could do it. I was prepared for that. Sparring, no problem. Board breaks, no problem. I was asked, why did you do three hand techniques and one foot technique? My answer was, because that's what my instructor and I agreed on. I didn't realize that traditionally I was supposed to do one hand, one hand, one foot, one foot.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh.
Stephen Brayton:
Break with each hand in each foot.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Stephen Brayton:
I now know better and that's fine. In three weeks I'll I'll do better. Okay. Got up to that physical fitness test and my mindset was I will do what needs to be done. I don't care what happens, I will do what needs to be done. And my adrenaline is spiking. My nerves are just revving. My muscles are tense. I'm trying to relax and we get up there and the grandmaster at the time stood up and went, everybody listen up cause we're all ready to do this. And he said, no physical fitness test and everybody's looking at each like what? For some reason, it was canceled for that year. And I don't know why and I am not happy that it was in the sense that I wanted to do that so that I could do it and earn it. They made arrangements. Basically, they gave everybody an extra point on their judging, on their testing results. And that's fine and I'm happy with that. I'm not saying, gee, I'm glad I didn't have to do that you know. In the sense that I didn't want chicken out. I didn't wanna cop out. I wanted to do it because that was part of the testing and I was gonna do it. So I hope that comes across in the…
Jeremy Lesniak:
It does, it does. I can see the, I think the best word is almost like you're remembering some disappointment on that day.
Stephen Brayton:
Yes, a little bit. When I got, so as I said, I was nervous for testing. I always am. This is one of the biggest ones. This was the biggest one to date because I had waited so long. I had done a midterm the previous year at Worlds and with a different physical fitness test. And it was exhausting. It was tiring. It was emotionally draining.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Stephen Brayton:
This was no different. And when testing ended, we all bowed out, then it was then that it hit me. I thought, it's 11 o'clock in the morning. I can go home. I can go home. I hadn't planned on staying the entire tournament week. My goal was to test, learn a new pro weapon and then test, and then go home. And I was so revved up, like I said, the adrenaline was so high and I was so ready for this. And then when we bowed out, reality hit me. Set in. That it's over. I went over to the staging area and just dropped to my knees and cried. I was just so emotionally drained that I couldn't take it. I had tears. And so in that sense, you're talking about milestones and growth throughout the 30 years, 30 plus years. I think if somebody can reach that stage of involvement, of commitment, of being so deep in it that it just kicks you emotionally, I think that's one of the best experience you get outta any activity you do in life. I mean, it took a couple minutes, you know, for me to get myself together and get everything together. And then wonder, well, did I pass? You know, had to wait about a month after that to figure out if I passed.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh! That’s so long.
Stephen Brayton:
So, yeah. So, I'm sorry, what was the question?
Jeremy Lesniak:
The heart of the question was the future.
Stephen Brayton:
The future. Okay.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You gave us some stuff on that and I think, you know, you go again, the part or the thing that you said that I really liked was this notion of, yes, I acknowledge there are longer term goals, but I'm not really going to get there if I don't focus on the next step. If you're trying to climb a set of stairs and your eyes are on the top step, you're probably going to trip when you're going up, or even more so if you're walking down the stairs. But if you're focused step by step, you know, it can feel slower, but you stumble less and it ends up being a faster path.
Stephen Brayton:
Well, and you know, the familiar phrase, it's always about the journey, not the destination. You're supposed to have fun along the way, right? If I reached black belt but didn't have any fun, what was the point? It would've been, oh, yeah, I'm here. I made it. And I've seen so many people do that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And then they're gone.
Stephen Brayton:
The goal is black belt. Great. I'm there. Yeah. No, my goal was to go on, my goal was to become an instructor. My goal was to maybe open a club or school. My goal was to get the next degree. So now in ATA, when you earn your 6th degree, you automatically become Master Candidate.
I didn't know that. I had gone to a tournament just about two weeks after I learned that I had passed, and I talked to the tournament host and I said I'll do whatever you want, sir. But I, you know, I showed him my belt. I did earn this, I did increase in rank, you know, do I get to sit at the front table or do you want me in line like everybody else? I didn't care. I didn't care. And he says, oh, no, we'll get you a chair. No problem. So they introduced me as Master Candidate Stephen Brayton and I thought, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Just 6th degree, no master, nothing. I didn't know that that was an automatic designation was Master Candidate. So, the traditional way of doing it was that next year you would enter the master's program and you would become master nominee. And there were certain requirements. I've got them in an email of some of the requirements to go through that whole process. And I think it is a wonderful program and I'm so looking forward to getting into it. Because of some circumstances, I was not able to do that. And then this stupid little thing called COVID came around and ruined everybody's plans. So, I've had to wait longer and that's fine because I wasn't ready. In my mind, I wasn't ready. So that next thing is to get that Master's title. And I've talked to a lot of people about this, that I want to be ready for that. Just like I was ready to test for whatever next rank came along. For the longest time, about three years now, I didn't feel like I was ready to have that master's title. I wanted to earn it. I didn't wanna just go, yeah, okay, we'll do it and we'll get the title and then I can be called Master somebody. That wasn't what I wanted. I didn't feel that was for me. I wanted to know that when I entered that program and I went through the requirements and I went through the workouts, that I was there. I was once again, heavily, deeply involved because I deserve to be there and I was ready for it. So that's the goal right now is to enter that program next year.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Cool. Okay. I love the attitude. You know, generally, when I pose questions like this to guests, you know, sometimes I'll structure it a little bit differently. You know, if we get back together in 5 years and chat again 10 years, what would you want to tell me? And they're usually talking about some really big things or they're saying, I just want to keep going. What I really like about what you're saying is it reflects a lot of things I've been thinking about in my own, my personal life, my professional life, this idea of, you know, what's this next step? What's this next tangible, you know, mini goal or milestone or whatever you want to call it, so I can maintain that forward progress? And that's, you know, I think that's one of the best lessons that martial arts provides that we can bring back into the rest of our lives is you keep showing up, you keep working hard, you keep iterating on what you do and developing new skills and eventually you get somewhere that you never thought you would get. You end up with things you never thought were possible and that's pretty cool.
Stephen Brayton:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's kinda a nice way to look at the world.
Stephen Brayton:
Oh, yeah. And I look at, I take inspiration from obviously the instructors and students, but individuals. We have a gentleman who is, I'm gonna get his age wrong cause he's probably older than what I'm gonna say he's 79, maybe 80, and he just received his master title last year. And
I admire this guy, not just because he's 80 and so doing this, but just because of the type of person he is. His character, his personality, his willingness to help out wherever needed and just because he's a cool guy and, and a great friend. But I look at him and I see, you know, like I said, he's got some health issues and some movement issues, but he's still out there doing it. He got his inspiration from one of my friends who had MS. And his, was maybe 10 years I think, what they're about 8 years difference in their ages. He got his information inspiration from her saying, well, if she's out there doing this, I surely can do it you know. I love reading about, there was an ATA student, and I don't know his name, but he had managed to get his 5th degree at 95 or 96, and everybody was laughing because it was great because he was looking forward to going for his mastership at 101. It's like, oh my gosh. And so five to 10 years down the road, unless there is a complete disaster and a complete breakdown of my body, I'm still gonna be out there doing it. That's my goal. I don't care if I'm hobbling out there to do my form or if I'm, you know, we can got special ability rings and I've seen people in wheelchairs do it. I've seen people with artificial limbs do it. I've seen blind individuals do martial arts. I've seen autistic and down syndrome. One of my best students I've taught for years, and I just talked with his dad last night about restarting some classes cause he's wanted to get back into them. The guy's 30 something and he was born down syndrome and it's amazing what these ability people can do. And I hate to call him special abilities because it's a, I think it's almost a politically correct term. Because they are debilitated in one fashion or another. But that does not stop them from doing this. And I am amazed by Matthew's memorization, the way he can do stuff, the way he puts his mind to it, his effort, his commitment. I am usually called to judge the special abilities ring at tournaments. Cause I've done it so long, I've taught students with that. And one of the things that I learned long ago when I was watching, judging, when I was a competitor, I saw this one gentleman Master Whitehead. He was hyped up on caffeine or something that his energy level was so high, and he was bouncing around and joking and talking and laughing at movements and head movements and body movements and just flitting around just, and doing this and doing this and the way he would, his style of judging, I looked at him and said, that's who I wanna be. That's the type of people, person I wanna be when I judge. And because he made it be fun. And if the, I don't care if you lose, win, if you're not having fun out there, then what's the point of being there? And if I can do that and I don't wanna be bragging, but I've had so many parents come up to me afterwards and say, hey man, thanks a lot. The kid didn't win. But hey, thanks a lot for making this so fun cause you get the parents involved too.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Stephen Brayton:
You joke with the parents. I'm constantly with, if I'm doing the tiny tigers, if I'm doing the kids, I'm constantly joking with the parents too. Because you get them involved too. It's not just the student in front of you. And these special ability people are just, wow. I have learned so much. I have matured so much more being around Matthew for the last 20 something years than I would have without knowing him.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's beautiful. There are two check boxes I think that we should look to hit every, you know, as much as possible. And I also have received similar comments from folks when I'm in a chair at a competition. Did you have fun and did you learn something? And they are intentionally in that order. Because if you're not having fun, it's really hard to learn. And you know, you've competed enough that you've probably had the unfortunate circumstance that I and most people have had at some point of all right, these referees did not make it fun.
Stephen Brayton:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I hope, you know, yeah, maybe they're high rank, maybe they're very skilled, maybe they're incredibly competent and they know exactly what they're looking for and they're doing that correctly. But man, were they boring and I don't wanna be in their ring next time. I wanna be with that, that guy or that woman over there cause they're having fun.
Stephen Brayton:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
As you said just a few minutes ago, if it's not fun, what's the point?
Stephen Brayton:
Yeah. Even the corner judges can make it fun. Yeah. They're sitting there and the center judge has control. He's the one who's doing the talking. But the corner judges, they've gotta pay attention. They've gotta make it fun. They've gotta be animated too, you know. We've had so many classes and I think it's not a bad thing to have a reminder every now and then to say, you know, when you're flipping that flag, don't just do this. Don't just flip it up there. Put your whole body into it and make that grand movement, that huge movement overact type of movement so that everybody can see. So the parents get the, so you're drawing attention. You just flip that flag up. Well, nobody cares. You know, it's sort of like, yeah, whatever. I'm here and yeah, I saw this point, but, you know.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Versus boom!
Stephen Brayton:
Yeah. But if you get that and you stretch out the body, you're pointing right at that person and the flag's up right there and you're pointing there and you got that serious face on, now people notice.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And you have more fun too.
Stephen Brayton:
Oh yes, yes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You can make it fun.
Stephen Brayton:
I'm constantly wanting to center. I almost just jump in there go, please, lemme center.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Because you can help everybody have a better experience.
Stephen Brayton:
Yes, yes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
How do people get ahold of you? I suspect there are quite a few people nodding along going, yeah, I like this guy.
Stephen Brayton:
Well, this is a good time to bring up the fact that I'm also a published author, so…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, yeah, we gotta talk about that.
Stephen Brayton:
So that's the best way to get ahold of me is to contact information through that. So, real quick here, I started writing as a child. I've been an avid reader for decades and thought, well, I can write this stuff and I wanna write this stuff. And so I dabbled in a little bit. The writing bug hit me in ‘95, 4 years after I started martial arts. And I'm going, what can I do with this? And I thought, well, let's take an old private detective that I had created and make him a martial artist. And then I thought, no, no, no, I can't do that. I have gone to too many tournaments, too many classes, too many camps, and seen these wonderful, talented, beautiful women do this sport and admiring every one of them and not wanting to meet one single woman in tournament because I would get my butt kicked. So I said, no, this character, this main character, she has to be a woman. And so I have used my experience and put some of my techniques and life skills, the things I've learned and experienced through martial arts into the character. And so she is a private investigator martial artist in Des Moines. Currently, she is a 4th degree. I'm writing the story where she becomes a 5th degree. And so, I've had a series of books. I've had five books in the series published. Due to circumstances, they are off the market at the moment.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Stephen Brayton:
And that's fine because it gave me a chance to go back through and rework them and make them better. Do a lot of heavy, deep editing and rewrite a couple of scenes that, a cop told me, no, that's never gonna happen. So, I said, okay, we'll change it. That's fine. I can tweak it a little bit. So, I'm in the process of submitting and getting them back out into the market. And then I've had a couple of other books. So people can reach me through my Facebook page. I don't have that URL handy at the moment, but it's…
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's okay. We'll get it in the show notes.
Stephen Brayton:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Make sure we have that. I don't know if we had that. I know we've got a website listed on your guest form.
Stephen Brayton:
Yes, stephenbrayton.wordpress.com is my blog where I talk about writing craft tools and how they relate to my stories. Because there are gobs of blogs out there talking about the different crafts of writing and the different elements of the craft of writing, and nobody wants to, I'm not, there's nothing new the sun there. So I relate them to personal experiences and how they relate to the books. SLB0@outlook.com is my email. And I don't know how you not get in my junk file, but go for it. I always scan the junk file anyway just to make sure there's nothing important in there. So, those are the best ways to get ahold of me. Keep looking at me for, at different tournaments and black belt camps like I said, I got, I have one I'm attending here in about three weeks in Northwest Iowa. Yay! Fun. We always roll the dice on weather. For about three years, I traveled through blizzard conditions, getting there and being stranded there.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I get it.
Stephen Brayton:
One time, I asked Chief Master Hoover, I said, why do we do this in February in Northwest Iowa? He says because it costs less. We be paying paying double or triple the amount of the registration fees if we weren't here.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Stephen Brayton:
But I'll tell you what. I think being at a camp in Okoboji, Northwest Iowa, third week of February, you roll the dice on whether it's gonna be 30 degrees or zero degrees with ice and snow, I have said for a long time when I've gone to tournaments up in Northwest Iowa in January where there's 10 feet of snow on the ground, winds blowing 50 miles an hour and I look at, we're walking into the gym going, you know, we're crazy, right? We're wearing this uniform, Taekwondo uniform and we can't wear a coat because it's too bulky. We are crazy to be doing this. And he looks at me and goes, yeah, we are, but we love it. And that what's, I think that whole experience, no matter if we're stranded in a motel with, you know, half a dozen other Taekwondo buddies, or we're, you know, trying to get to the next tournament site, or we're shivering in our beds in a lodge that doesn't have, you know, adequate heating. That's all part of the experience and you can't beat it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
No.
Stephen Brayton:
I think if we were down in, you know, Puerto Vallarta doing the same thing, we wouldn't have as much fun really.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I think you're right. I think you're right that there's something to be said for the discomfort, you know. Remember, we make our best friends by kicking 'em in the head. It's not normal.
Stephen Brayton:
It's the challenge. It's the challenge to overcome it. I mean, if we had it easy, then it wouldn't be fun.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's right. I hope when those books get, make it back on the market, you'll let us know. We can update the show notes and let folks know.
Stephen Brayton:
Oh, sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That those are out there again. It sounds like an interesting storyline, one that I and others would like to check out. But we're at the end here today, so I'm hoping you might give the folks in the audience some final thoughts. How do you want to end today?
Stephen Brayton:
I remember a show I went to where a lot of different cultures were being presented. A lot of it was the native American Indian culture. They had a couple of bird trainers out there and I was invited because I was in martial arts and it was a different culture per se. And so I got out there in this hot day in my uniform and I'm sweating like crazy. I'm doing three forms, trying to explain the ATA organization and where it came from. And I think at the end I said, you know, I'm wearing this uniform, but it's not a costume. It's who I am. It's what I am. And I always try to remember that. We're not perfect, we're human. We fail, we fall down, we stumble, and sometimes we don't represent the martial arts the way we should. And that's okay because we are human. But then, we pick ourselves up and we remember those life skills that we learned in class. And martial arts is not, I think so many people, oh no, I can't do that. Oh, I can't kick and I can't punch, oh, I'm too old for this. Oh, no, my body isn't the right way and all I wanna do is point to Master Peterson and go 80 years old over here. Come on. Okay. I wanna point to Matthew going down syndrome guy. He's a 3rd degree. What do you think? Can you do that? I think so many people think of martial arts as kicking and punching only, and they don't see the behind the scenes, the classroom stuff that goes on, the classroom planning that goes through. And it is so much more than just kicking and punching in what stance you're in and can you win a first degree or a first place trophy at a tournament? Is the life skills that are taught in class. It is the life skills of everything that we teach in class. Respect, courtesy, determination, discipline, perseverance, honor, self-control, all those things that we say in our oaths. All those things we say in our class, in our classes, and we stress a tournament, it is not stress enough, I don't think. And it has to be stressed and then exhibited outside of class. Because if you, it is just like any other thing and I'm gonna, and I'm not putting down any religion, but if you go to church and then you don't look like a church person outside of church, then what's the point? You know, people are gonna look at you and go, well, your church is kinda, man, they're not teaching anything. Same holds true for martial arts. If you are not exhibiting those qualities outside of the classroom, outside of that tournament, then people are gonna look at you and go, well, you're not a very good person and maybe your organization is not as quality as it could be.
So I think that's something for everybody to remember whether they wanna consider, whether they consider martial arts is you look at that organization, whatever organization it is, and I'm not putting any of them down. ATA is the best, okay. I'll say that. But you look at what they're teaching and then you look at the students involved and you look at the instructors involved and you look at those high ranks involved and see what they're doing in and out of class. And then you visit them and talk with them and it's difficult to get that 30-plus year impression and friendship and relationship and mindset and their personality and their character through one or two meetings. You can't do that. You have to be involved. But consider that when you look at martial arts and I think that everyone, and I mean everyone and especially females should have a little bit of martial arts or self-defense training. It is just so important in today's world to be a little bit more prepared than somebody who's not.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Listeners or viewers, people of the audience. Thanks for sticking around. Thanks for checking out this episode. Steve, thanks for coming on. Had a blast with you. I hope to get to talk to you again. When you've got those books out ready to go, I wanna know, I wanna be one of the first in line to read the new one and read the old ones too. It sounds like a lot of fun. Audience, I hope you'll check out whistlekickmartialartsradio.com, or at least your show notes for this episode 792. Go deeper on all the good stuff that Steve's doing and all the things that we talked about today. And you know, if you want to help us out, well, don't forget, we offer consulting services to martial arts schools. We are batting a thousand, if you're a baseball fan at getting martial arts schools moving in the right direction and frankly paying for ourselves with the work that we do. It's a win-win situation and I love that kind of a business model. If you're not a school owner or maybe you're working with another consulting firm and they're doing a great job for you, that's awesome, but maybe you'd consider having me or some of the other whistlekick kind of core team members show up and teach for you. We love doing seminars. In fact, we have this dream of getting a bus, of a tour bus, so maybe one day we'll have that tour bus, but until we do, we could fly in or drive. Just let me know. If it's something that's interesting to you, let's talk about it. Let's see if we can make it happen. jeremy@whistlekick.com. Now, the company's email all over the place, I'm sorry, the company's social media all over the place, everywhere you can think of is @whistlekick and that takes us through to the end of another episode. I will see you soon, but until then, train hard, smile, and have a great day.