Episode 961 - Road Trip Q & A

Join Jeremy, Andrew , and guest Tommy Given as they drive to Free Training Day Mid Atlantic 2024 and answer some questions from listeners.

Road Trip Q & A - Episode 961

SUMMARY

In this episode of Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, Jeremy, Andrew, and guest Tommy Given engage in a lively Q&A session while traveling to Free Training Day Mid-Atlantic 2024. They discuss various topics related to martial arts training, including the importance of training in everyday clothing, the benefits of traditional uniforms, the significance of non-lethal tool use, and the necessity of de-escalation tactics. The conversation also touches on the role of music in training environments, providing insights and personal anecdotes from the hosts.

TAKEAWAYS

• Training in everyday clothing can enhance practical skills.

• Traditional uniforms provide a sense of unity and focus.

• Non-lethal tools are essential for self-defense training.

• De-escalation tactics should be taught from day one.

• Music selection can impact the training atmosphere.

• Comfort and mobility are crucial in training attire.

• Training in street clothes can prepare students for real-life scenarios.

• Uniforms help delineate training from everyday life.

• Understanding the continuum of violence is important for martial artists.

• Engaging with the community through Q&A fosters connection.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction and Context

03:00 Training in Everyday Clothing

06:24 Benefits of Traditional Uniforms

10:00 Importance of Non-Lethal Tool Use

14:14 De-Escalation Tactics in Martial Arts

17:14 Music for Training

20:51 Closing Thoughts and Q&A Invitation

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

Jeremy Lesniak (00:07.678)
What's going on? Everybody welcome back. Thanks for spending some time with us. It's another episode of Whistlekick martial arts radio. My name is Jeremy. I'm joined by Andrew as I often am and in the back seat today, Tommy Given.

we are traveling to free trading day Mid-Atlantic and we're taking another opportunity to record an episode because when you get a bunch of artists together, what are they talking about? Martial arts. If Tommy's in the backseat, it's about 50-50, but there's a lot of martial arts, so we might as well record it and maybe focus it a little bit. On today's episode, we're doing a Q &A. Andrew's gonna pop up some questions for Tommy and I in a moment, but for all of you out there,

If you are new to the show, make sure you check out whistlekick.com and see all the things that we do to connect, educate and entertain you, the traditional martial artists in the world. And if you haven't been to whistlekickmarshallartsradio.com, you're missing out because we do transcripts of every episode. We have links and photos and you can dig through and find episodes that you missed. And as we come up on episode 1000, we get closer every week. Andrew and I are searching.

that to go, wait, did we have that person on? Because sometimes it's hard to remember. If we can't remember, I imagine you.

Jeremy Lesniak (01:35.618)
That's enough for me to chat at you right now as I watch this BMW decide whether or not they want to be part of our trunk and I'm gonna hand it over to Andrew. All right and what that means is if you are only listening you're like why is he looking at a BMW while recording an episode? That's because we're in the car. In the car. In the car driving to free training day mid-atlantic down in Philly area. That was a cool car. That is a new gen Corvette. that's cool.

I don't think I would be that risky with that for a minute. Yeah. So we are going to do a Q &A today. A quah. A quah. And I don't think I want to call it a rapid fire Q &A, which is what we normally call them, because we got Tommy in the car. That's true. And I don't know that Tommy could answer questions. I think we should both be held as a manner of timetable, lest this episode become lengthy.

Okay, can you do that Tommy? I'll do my best. So, this is, I'm gonna ask Jeremy first and then Tommy you can chime in after. Same question? Same question. So, here's the question and this question comes in from Steven Watson. How often do or should you train in everyday clothing slash street wear?

So how often do I frequently, but not for lengthy duration. So, you know, if I'm trying on clothes, can I kick in them? During the day, I'm kicking and punching and maybe doing forms in the kitchen or something, but not for a long period of time. The majority of my training is in a game.

Do I think I should do more training in street clubs? Yes.

Jeremy Lesniak (03:32.94)
only reason we have not implemented street clothes days in my school is because on any given night the majority of my students are in street clothes because they're newer or, you know, without going too deep into it have not progressed in rank and thus do not feel, because they're not required to wear a uniform. So to have street clothes day would really just be about me wearing my street clothes more than it would be anyone else.

I absolutely see the value in doing so. And I think that's all I have to say. I'll pass it to Tommy. So, since we retire, my training clothes are my everyday clothes and street clothes.

Jeremy Lesniak (04:20.289)
Really?

Jeremy Lesniak (04:23.99)
That's where I'm at now. When I was working though as a lineman, I had to make sure I

Jeremy Lesniak (04:33.582)
to be

I'm gonna sweatshirt

Jeremy Lesniak (04:45.582)
I can't be able to, you know, hide the...

that obviously I would change up because I had very heavy boots on and only steel toes.

Jeremy Lesniak (05:01.07)
piggyback on what Jeremy said though, was I do have days where street clothes are mandatory in class. I do it at different times in the year. Fall, being in Vermont, they would have to wear their winter clothes that day, and that could mean rubber boots, and that kind of thing. And we do the whole class on how I'm dressed. I'm imagining winter clothes, street clothes day, is like that scene in A Christmas Story.

where they can't put his arms down. And he falls down and can't get up. Yeah. All right. I dig it. All right. Ready for the next question? Yes. So Tommy, I'm going to start with you. This question comes from Victor and it builds off of the last question. And the question is, what are benefits to continuing to train in traditional uniform?

Jeremy Lesniak (06:24.746)
and then the Kino Key with

Jeremy Lesniak (06:31.886)
Bye!

Jeremy Lesniak (06:37.55)
So it's always loose fitting, clothing, generally with a...

Jeremy Lesniak (06:46.446)
Also, when it comes to forms and weapons training with the traditional uniform on, it's a lot cleaner. And also you can execute a lot better.

modest looking clothing on that can be distracting as well. So that's one of the things there. It's a very baggy clothing on.

I'd say a collider class that can get you hung up, but that's not good as well. I would do a lot of knife fighting in my class as well, so.

snow clothing and they make it real

Jeremy Lesniak (07:27.064)
Jeremy, what about you? What are benefits to continuing to train in traditional uniforms? You know, this is something that I've thought about a bit. People who know their whistle kick trivia know that we've released a couple different iterations of uniforms. It's not something we're actively doing now, something I want to get back into. But it's something I've thought about because if you look at what we wear day to day, our civilian clothes, if you will, have embraced more technical fabrics, right?

jeans that have some stretch to them Andrew I know you love your jeans with stretch to them it is not uncommon for most of what women wear to be stretchy whether that's know leggings or jean, jegging sort of things I hate traffic yeah

Jeremy Lesniak (08:15.951)
So, hold on, privatizing. we have a merge. That's why. and we're in the one that has to merge. All right, let's do that. So,

Jeremy Lesniak (08:30.562)
When I was a kid, and even through my 20s, we would have said, just as Tommy's talking about, it's about mobility. I wasn't putting on pair of Lee jeans and kicking anything above my ankle, maybe waist, as a kid.

But with that reason gone, we're left with a couple things. One, the sort of militaristic tradition of everyone wearing the same sort of thing. So it gives us a common base to work from.

It's called a uniform, right? It is uniform. We're doing, doing roughly the same thing, wearing roughly the same attire. And that can be unifying. And I think that that is often a very positive thing. But I think there's in this era, I think there's something that's even more important. And I don't think most people realize it. It's something that's very important to me personally. And that is it gives me delineation between my training life and my non-training.

Jeremy Lesniak (09:38.072)
When I put on my gear, when I put on my belt, I'm in that mode. And for me, that's really helpful, really important. To the point where I try to have, I'll just be overly simplistic, special clothes for the different roles in

If I'm going to the gym, there are clothes that I wear that I don't usually wear doing other things. When I had the house, I sold my house a few months ago, but prior to that I had working in the yard clothes. And it helped me put myself in the mindset of whatever that task was. And I liked that.

Alright, yeah that's good. dig it. Alright, Jeremy this one's for you first. Do you think it's important for a martial artist to learn less than lethal tool use? 100%. So this is, if you spend any time on social media, which you shouldn't. But we all do. Yeah Steve, we get trolled. We all get trolled.

But inevitably on a large portion of videos about self-defense, you get someone who clearly has little to no experience training making a comment about the uselessness of traditional martial arts because of firearms. Guns are really good. They're really good at only doing one thing. That's killing people. The majority of time you were in a self-defense situation, you do not need to kill the person.

If you think you do, either live in an incredibly violent area, and I'm sorry, or more likely, you have a poor understanding of the reality of violence.

Jeremy Lesniak (11:34.168)
We need an entire continuum of violent options from the annoying non-touch, right? Somebody gets in your face and you get close to them as a, all the way up to and including the ability to take a life. But here's the thing. The inverse to that continuum include

is someone's willingness to perform that action. The more, the closer you get to lethal, the less likely someone is willing to deploy that option. Even if it is warranted. Because we live in a modern, healthy society that values life and not killing people. When I teach self-defense, this is something I talk about. The majority of the tools that I teach in a self-defense context are

not only non-lethal but non-injurious. me, what do you think? So, I agree 100%.

Jeremy Lesniak (12:44.566)
certain concepts that you teach that are very non-lethal but the concept of it in the exercise and in training as well can help you in many other ways especially in the idea of low impact or healing there's a martial art aspect to that but there's also you know healing when it comes to your lungs your liver your kidneys and all that but also having it a really violent job some of my jobs and

The circumstances that I'm in.

was necessarily and actually even with permission where deadly force is authorized you have to be serious about that and I do for example he was just talking about social media a knife video and somebody is always the comment would that work if somebody's really charging you hard or how's it fun to play you know patty cape you know while you're on there and

really that's their comment and so you ignore it, you move on, there's a part of you that just wants to put your address in there and have them show up and come take a class, realize that there is a lot of value in the training of it, in the exercise, you know, in the concept movement of it. Jeremy does a lot of block, grab, push, trap, push, trap.

offer. Those kind of drills help you into the next level but during a safe environment in which you're practicing, essential. It's mandatory in my opinion. All right, so keeping on that same vein, Tommy, how early should or do you develop de-escalation tactics in students? Day one. Just because you have an emotion.

Jeremy Lesniak (14:43.714)
doesn't mean it's a good one and doesn't mean you need to act on it. So when you're trying to de-escalate out of anything, it's always important, especially, you know, lot of my students are in grade school and there's always that one kid that's just a bully or has something where they just seem to draw attention onto themselves by picking on somebody else to de-escalate that. And however it means, too, different ways of whether cracking a joke.

sidestepping it but to ignore it then two people get mad so be able to enter in enter it and de-escalate is a far better decision we're all taught as martial artists right walk a mile to avoid a fight but once in it don't back down an inch there's a lot of ground in between there what about you Jeremy? Lanesplitting trip to me

So we acknowledge it from day one. We don't spend a lot of time talking about it at any one time. When we're talking about self-defense, when we're working self-defense curriculum, it comes up, we talk about it, and I sprinkle it through. I don't spend a lot of time talking about it for two reasons. One, it's boring. My students don't want to spend a lot of time with

So if I spend a bunch of time focused on it, they're gonna tune out. They're not gonna get much anyway. Two, in order to properly deescalate, you have to have the confidence that you could defend yourself with reasonable chance of success. Otherwise, you're not deescalating, you're begging. And if you're begging, that's gonna come through. If you've already been selected as a victim.

you're playing more into the psychology that has made them select you. So we have to be really careful.

Jeremy Lesniak (16:44.974)
Generally what I'm talking to my students about when it's de-escalation is run. Especially if I'm talking to the kids. Your first job is to run. If you fight, you fight only so much as you need to so you can run. And we keep it very simple for them in that way. Because anything beyond that is more nuanced than a typical 6 to 8 year old is going to be able to handle. Yeah, sure. So, is it important? Yes. Do I include it from day one?

Yes. Is it a focus? All right. Thanks for that distinction. That was good. Yeah, that was good. No, this is good. This is fun having the three of us. You guys are great. You're doing a great job. I'm good right now. OK. OK. All right. How about this question comes from Noah Defer. Thank you, Noah. And I know Jeremy's answer. In fact, I think this question may have come up, but I know it hasn't been with Tommy here. So.

Jeremy, what is your go-to music for training?

Jeremy Lesniak (17:54.304)
I don't like stuff with vocals if it's in a class setting. And for the audience, Noah and Craig at their school often have music playing and it's usually pop. And it's quiet and it fills the space and it does a fantastic job with that. But on the instances when I'm responsible for...

other people I will pick and I used to DJ so I've got pretty good at reading a crowd and knowing how music affects a crowd. I try to pick stuff that doesn't have vocals because it fills the space without people

Jeremy Lesniak (18:35.63)
caring. Right? There are very few genres of music you'll be able to choose that everyone will agree on. If it's high energy, I could put on some new country and tick off half the class. If I put on metal or hip hop, you know, the other half of the class might be offended. Right? So it's so that it doesn't leave a lot of options. funk, you know, there's a lot of nonverbal funk jazz.

sort of stuff. Now, if I'm picking music for my own training, depends on what I'm trying to do. If I'm trying to force myself to slow down and really dig into things, it could be any manner of slower, you know, could be pop ballad sort of stuff. Because it's more the beat that I'm looking for than anything else. If it's energy, if I'm tired, if I'm trying to lift myself up, I'm getting myself hyped for competition, it's him.

What about you Tommy? you have a go-to music for training? I don't.

Very...

Jeremy Lesniak (19:42.606)
as far as

What's wrong?

Jeremy Lesniak (20:05.9)
If you really want to get to...

Jeremy Lesniak (20:17.472)
If I'm ever trouble, this thing has some-

Jeremy Lesniak (20:26.297)
different music out there, but in that playlist is a lot of different genres as well. So, nothing you won't find in it is New Country. in that sense.

Jeremy Lesniak (20:43.225)
necessarily

Jeremy Lesniak (20:51.191)
Right now it would be death metal for the car in front of us. That would probably work. Yeah, that car almost made us death metal. More to get happy right now, banana Rambo would probably work pretty good because you can't be mad and listen to banana Rambo. That's fair.

Jeremy Lesniak (21:14.639)
Alright, so those are the questions we had. Those were some good questions. Yeah, they were good. Thanks to Steven Watson, Victor and Noah for those questions. Fantastic. And remember, if you have questions, if you want to throw in a Q &A, it could be something simple like this, something that, you know, fairly innocuous, you're curious, but it could also be something much more substantial. If you're dealing with a problem, and we haven't done one of these for a while, but...

We've done episodes where, semi-anonymously, I'll bring someone on the show or fill right in something lengthy.

Jeremy Lesniak (21:50.797)
In half a mile, keep left to continue on Cross County Parkway. Follow signs for George Washington Bridge, New Rochelle. people know where we are now. They do know where we If you're having the problem, other people are having the problem. Yeah. So just keep that in mind. Don't hold back. And again, if you need to do it quietly, anonymously, we will protect you. to continue on Cross County Parkway. Watch for the drones coming down.

If you want to support the work that we do, remember we've got a great Patreon. P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash whistle kick. You can do as little as five bucks a month. Thank you to all the Patreon contributors on Lacellam shows. not going to put your name out.

Jeremy Lesniak (22:34.777)
Thank you for your time. you for your watching or your listening. We appreciate you all. And until next time, train hard, smile.

Jeremy Lesniak (22:47.565)
Have a