Episode 987 - Martial Arts Inspirations from Pop Culture

In this episode, Andrew and Victor get together to discuss pop culture, and how we can use it for inspiration and to help out students on their journey.

Martial Arts Inspirations from Pop Culture - Episode 987

SUMMARY

In this episode, Andrew and Victor explore the inspirations that martial arts draw from pop culture across different generations. They discuss how shows like Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles influenced their childhoods and how current trends in media affect today's youth. The conversation emphasizes the importance of understanding these influences to engage students effectively in martial arts training.

TAKEAWAYS

  • Martial arts inspirations come from various pop culture sources.

  • Different generations have different influences in martial arts.

  • Pop culture shapes the interests of today's youth.

  • Understanding student interests is crucial for instructors.

  • Cobra Kai has reignited interest in martial arts for many.

  • YouTube can be a valuable resource for understanding trends.

  • Instructors should adapt to the interests of their students.

  • Pop culture can be leveraged to enhance martial arts engagement.

  • The use of AI can be utilized to help understand current pop culture.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Curriculum Differences for Different Age Groups
5:55 Practical Applications of Teaching Methods
14:23 Defensive Techniques and Curriculum Limitations
21:57 Gamification in Learning
31:19 Incentives and Rewards in Training
40:05 Safety and Individualization in Instruction
48:22 Finding Balance in Teaching Styles

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

SHOW TRANSCRIPT

Andrew (00:00.502)

Welcome everyone you're listening or watching to another episode of whistlekick martial arts radio and today victor and I are going to discuss martial arts inspirations from pop culture Hmm, and I wonder where that might go. We shall find out but before we get there I want to make sure to remind everybody about all of the things that whistlekick does not just this podcast because this podcast is one only one

part of the many things that we do here at Whistlekick. You can go to whistlekick.com to find out all of the projects that we're involved in, whether those projects are live events like the multitude of the free training days that we host throughout the country or our event like all in weekend, a weekend seminar that you can attend in Vermont, or maybe you want to purchase something like, I mean, unfortunately right now these dragon hoodies are out of stock.

matching dragon hoodie brothers here.

Vic (02:50.751)

I own two hoodies and one of them is this one.

Andrew (02:54.958)

But maybe you want to purchase a t-shirt maybe you want to get a hat maybe you want to buy some books with our book division is growing Weekly with new books being offered Maybe you want to purchase a training program One of our training programs is absolutely free. That's right F R E E free I'm not gonna tell you which one because I want you to go to whistlekick.com and find out which one it is and

purchase an air quotes for yourself because it costs nothing. And we also what else? What else can I say? Last thing, patreon.com slash whistle kick. If you want to help support the show, here's what I want you to think about. This episode is going to be episode 987. So you listening or watching.

have had 986 other episodes that you've gotten absolutely free. You've paid nothing for it. But I can guarantee you that this does not, this episode is not free to produce. So if you have taken some value from what you've gotten from us, we're going to ask, please consider going to patreon.com slash whistle kick and throw in a couple bucks at us. We're talking $5. Buy us a cup of coffee once a month, send us $5, please.

We appreciate it. But as I mentioned, I'm here with Victor. Victor, how are you doing today? What's going on with you in your neck of the woods?

Vic (04:27.621)

I'm doing great. It's the end of the year. So my wife and I, like most martial arts school owners, know, our attendance has been a little sparse, but that is generally par for the course. We closed for Christmas, obviously. But the nice thing, the difference this year, sparsity versus last year's sparsity is that even though their attendance is down,

we've been working with Marshalllytics who is one of our partners here at Whistlekick and we use their software and we can see that even though attendance is down for the holidays, our student numbers are exactly the same. Our revenue is exactly the same. The school is flourishing and functioning and on an upturn. And it's just one of those as a business owner, it's one of those things at the end of the year that's comforting and encouraging. And I'm very grateful.

for the ease in which all that information is right there when I open my computer and can see it. Marshallitics has been great with our school and just helping me and Karen focus on other things. And they, like I said, are a partner with Whistlekick. And if you go to whistlekickmarshallartsradio.com slash partners, you can learn more about them. Anybody who clicks on the link there.

And signs up for a free trial instead of 30 days you can get 60 days and they really help you out with how their system works and how it can best serve you as a school owner versus You know having to do everything on spreadsheets like I was doing this time last year

Andrew (06:07.211)

Yeah, that's awesome. Great to have them on board and I'm glad to hear that things are going so well for you. So we are here to talk about martial arts from pop culture that have influenced things and you and I are from slightly different generations. I grew up in the 80s, you grew up a little bit after in the 90s, and so you know we've got a couple of decades there. We just released an episode last week about Billy Jack.

Vic (06:26.239)

You

Andrew (06:35.949)

And so, you know that would have been from the 70s and I know that that was influential and gave a lot of inspiration for people But we're here to talk about stuff a little bit after that the the next couple generations after that

Vic (06:36.767)

Mm-hmm.

Vic (06:51.528)

And it's super interesting too, because on paper it doesn't seem like that big of a difference. fun fact about me that not many people know because I don't talk about it too much was like I took a class. it was titled Youth Culture in College. But youth culture is.

what generates and pushes pop culture forward. And even now with my kids, when I'm seeing the things that they're into, I'm watching them and asking them, not just because I'm trying to be like a parent who's interested in their lives, but I'm trying to see what trends and things are pushing them towards inspiration versus the things that pushed me. And between the 70s, 80s and 90s,

I would say that pop culture inspirations, partially, were vastly different. There are almost huge head turns, and then today there's even more head turns than there were when I was growing up in the 90s.

Andrew (07:57.526)

Yeah, so for the 80s, which we did a full episode on martial arts pop culture, specifically from the 80s, and you can go back and check out that episode, which I'm looking up right now was episode 927. But, you know, one of the largest influences and inspirations then were the Ninja Turtles, right? They were huge in the 80s. And so for my generation,

there would have been a lot of influence and inspiration from that. But that's vastly different from when I was in the 90s. I was in high school and college and very different. So what were your experiences like when you were in the 90s?

Vic (08:30.175)

Mm-hmm.

Vic (08:43.296)

So it's interesting because I had two older sisters, three and six years, almost older than me. And so I got a lot of runoff. I do have the Ninja Turtles, but I was watching the syndicated reruns of it that played like at 7.30 in the morning on Saturday morning, I would get up. But that's the interesting thing about pop culture is if something is...

is successful enough, they'll reboot it and revamp it. There was another version of the Ninja Turtles cartoon that came around years later, not in the 90s, but in the 2000s, and I was like an older teenager then, but it's Ninja Turtles. I'm still gonna watch it. But the things that really influenced me, interestingly enough, in the 90s were Power Rangers.

Which now is very interesting because Power Rangers is seen as like a baby show. I have a 10 year old son who'd never dream to watch Power Rangers. But when I was watching Power Rangers, or when I was 10, that was like the height of my Power Ranger watching because now I was.

Andrew (09:38.861)

Hmm.

Vic (10:00.347)

still young enough to enjoy the silliness of the stories, but old enough to understand some of the martial arts moves that they were doing and go in my backyard and really try to mimic what I was seeing. Another interesting thing for me, just that had to do, think, more circumstantially is I distinctly can remember my uncle and my dad.

talking about when they were kids, they would get up early on Saturdays to watch Kung Fu theater. And so, whereas a lot of people probably in the 90s were being influenced by things like Chuck Norris, Walker, Texas Ranger, I watched it, but I wanted to be Jackie Chan. I wanted to be Sam Oh-Hung because of my dad and uncle. Those, and they, neither one of them ever trained, but their

Andrew (10:30.689)

Mm-hmm.

Vic (10:54.576)

fascination as for Kung Fu was kind of passed down to me as son and nephew. And so those were really the things that I grew up watching and being inspired by, you could say.

Andrew (11:11.569)

Mm-hmm. Yeah. you know, it's interesting because when I was, when I got to the 90s, when Power Rangers were a big thing, it was because I was in high school, late high school, and then going into college, to me, it felt like a baby show. It wasn't, it was for, you know, middle school kids, really, at that time. But I'm in college, so middle school is babies, right?

So it was, quote, beneath me to have watched that show. If my friends knew that I was watching Power Rangers, that would have been weird. Whereas in the 80s when I was watching Ninja Turtles, everybody was watching Ninja Turtles in my generation, right? So it is definitely very different. And it's interesting that they have transitioned and continued to make those shows. I actually didn't realize that they rebooted the Ninja Turtles.

and did another cartoon in the 2000s. Like, I had no idea.

Vic (12:15.837)

Yeah, and it very much, I don't know if you're familiar with Batman the animated series or there was a show on Disney Channel called Gargoyles, but Batman and Gargoyles really like said, hey, we can make children's cartoons that are kind of darker and have more serious tones. The Ninja Turtles cartoon in the 90s was very much that way, which is interesting.

Andrew (12:33.101)

Mm-hmm.

Vic (12:45.844)

But again, all of the fight scenes, you know, we're like, ooh, I can swing a stick. Ooh, I want swords. I want to be a Ninja Turtle. And even so, like you talk about hiding, you know, I'm in college. I'd never watched Power Rangers. I watched Power Rangers for longer than I would have been willing to admit to any of my friends. Because as I got older, I came to realize something was Power Rangers was really my generation's Kung Fu theater.

Andrew (13:04.001)

Hahaha!

Vic (13:14.463)

Just coming from Japan in in the sense that those of you who watch Power Rangers I might nerd out for a second here Know that the reason they produced the show because it used to in the 90s be not every week It used to be every day there was a new episode and the reason they were able to do that like the first season 60 something episodes is because they bought all of This footage from a show called Super Sentai

from Japan. And so the only thing they had to film were all the American things and then dub the English actors voices over all the fight scenes. But one of the things that you know about countries

like the best shows that come out of Japan, out of China, is that if they're going to have a fight scene, it's going to be very choreographed, very reminiscent of their culture and upholding that whole Kung Fu theater sats, Sevens, Namorai, you know, all of those old movies because it may be a show for little kids, but they take those fight scene stunts and choreography very seriously. And so even though I got a lot older, I...

Andrew (14:11.829)

shit.

Vic (14:27.293)

I'd have it on and I'd be like half paying attention to the story. Cause I don't care. I'm just waiting for the action scene to start so that I can sit down and I can stop what I'm doing and I can watch the choreography because I'm very visual learner and there would still be times where I'd be like, I could do that. Maybe. Yeah, I could probably do that. And then as I started training when I was 12, now all of a sudden I had names.

Andrew (14:40.513)

Yeah.

Vic (14:57.176)

and foundational techniques to build some of these more advanced choreography things off of, which is interesting and cool. And it also kind of has a side effect. As I entered into my teenage years, into my college years, I hardly ever watched any action movies that didn't come out of Asia. I just...

I think I've said that before on this. It's just because my standard was, well, it's not Kung Fu theater and even American wire work versus the stuff coming out of like Chinese theater companies, their wire work stuff night and day. It's like watching American soccer versus European football. Like not saying, not saying American athletes are not talented. It's just a different sport.

Andrew (15:40.513)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, sure, sure.

Andrew (15:47.725)

You

Andrew (15:54.51)

Sure. It's different when you grow up in that culture, for sure. No, and that makes sense. And makes sense. And so now you have young kids at home now getting into TV shows and do they train themselves?

Vic (16:04.499)

Yes.

Yeah.

Vic (16:11.647)

So, so my son will train because he wants to be the best and and he would probably be upset because I wrote this on one of his Christmas car or one of his Christmas presents this past year. He very much visions himself as the main character of the show but he now he

his friends watch a lot of anime which when I was his age and if you watch if you watch anime you would have gotten picked on right

Andrew (16:43.477)

Yeah, and in my day, it didn't really exist. mean, all right, it existed, but it wasn't widely available like it is today.

Vic (16:54.688)

Right. So, so when they train and it's funny, like when I watch them spar each other, especially when we're doing things like slow sparring and stuff like that, my wife and I just roll our eyes because we're like, that is, you know, that's this character's pose that he gets into right before he fights or, my gosh, he's trying to unlock this special ability. Like we can see the, because they're watching these characters trying to emulate that.

And it's cool because in essence it is the same thing. Now my daughter, and this is one of the things that actually gave me this original thought of like what influences in pop culture are there now. So my daughter is a little bit less. She's like, she is karate adjacent. I'll call her. She'll take class occasionally. She's not as naturally gifted as

Andrew (17:48.983)

Hmm?

Vic (17:53.864)

my son, but I'm not as naturally gifted as he is. But she can do things. She can hit hard for a 12-year-old girl, as a dad, that encourages me. But she normally is like, girls don't really do karate, even though mom is right there. So we don't force it. We want her to come to it when she wants to come to it. I went downstairs to work out the other day.

I've got, you know, just to run through some things. My online class was canceled because my instructor was sick. So I was doing it and she was like, do you have a punching bag downstairs? Like, yeah, I have a punching bag. Can I use it? Like you want to put boxing gloves on and come and punch my punching bag while I'm running through my kung fu forms. Yeah, sure. And so she comes down and I'm watching her move and it is how, you know, she's bouncing on her feet.

someone with no boxing training would translate what they have seen and I'm trying to figure out. I'm trying to figure out where this is coming from, right? Well recently, especially over our holiday break, we've had a lot of time. Her and I have been staying up and rewatching for me, watching for her, this animated series. It's more of an adult animated series on Netflix.

Andrew (18:57.826)

Mm.

Vic (19:11.567)

based off of League of Legends, which is a video game and one of the main characters is a female who wears giant power gauntlets that look awful lot like boxing gloves and she and You can tell me I want the fights in it are beautiful the animators clearly studied boxing movements and some other kind of dirty boxing Movements when they animated the fight scenes and so I'm watching her emulate this character that she obviously is like

Andrew (19:22.541)

Vic (19:40.926)

here's a woman I would love to be like. And so it was cool to see my daughter pulling inspiration for martial art from a non-martial arts source that then gave me the opportunity to be like, well, my first.

Andrew (19:43.318)

Yep. Yep.

Vic (20:00.159)

The first fighting thing I ever did was boxing. I was like, here, I was like, it's good to bounce, but when you hit, you want your feet solid like this. And I showed her and then she did it. And I was like, let me put on pads. Why don't I give you something that moves a little bit to hit? And we worked around working one, two, three combinations in the basement, 45 minutes, whatever. And then she's like, can I just go back? I want to work this one combination. And that was the cool thing. It wasn't.

Andrew (20:07.979)

Yep, yep.

Vic (20:28.381)

All right, I'm done. Let's stop. It's like, all right, I want to stop. want to keep working the one two combination on the bag by myself. Like, sure. So I went back to my bag. She goes back to her bag. And we were training in the same room. And it was just very cool for me because I don't want, you know, I don't want any of my students to be like me or to be like Karen. I want to give them what we have and for them to be.

Andrew (20:36.834)

Yeah.

Andrew (20:56.417)

Yeah, they're out.

Vic (20:57.5)

their own marching orders. That can go doubly for my children. I don't want my children to fight like me. I want them to find the ways that they think I want to move like this. Cool. Here's the best way I can help you find your own way and then to train it. And obviously it was something that she got excited for because I've never had her ask me. I've always offered. I've always offered.

Andrew (21:05.453)

Sure, sure.

Andrew (21:20.653)

That's really cool.

Vic (21:23.677)

to say, hey, you know, when we're home, I can show you guys anything. But then she saw something that was something that she liked, something that she wanted to be like. And it inspired her to, even if I didn't show her anything, she still wanted to go down and punch the punching bag.

Andrew (21:40.492)

Yeah. Yeah. And that's great because that's something that we as instructors, I mean, you happen to be living in the house with this particular, I'm going to call them student, even though they're your child, right? But, you know, we, that's a luxury that most of us don't have with our students, that most of our students don't live with us. So we don't get that, but we should be on the lookout for those types of things for, you know, for the

Vic (21:53.095)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Vic (22:06.047)

Thanks.

Andrew (22:08.631)

pop culture, martial arts stuff that's current today, I think we would be better instructors if we could have an understand, at least a brief understanding of what it is, because we're going to get students that are into that. You know?

Vic (22:24.799)

No, for sure. And I think it's important to not look at the obvious ones. Like we can talk about Cobra Kai. We can talk about the UFC, but really like percentage wise, like I have two kids who they're teenagers and they both absolutely did not admit this to me, but I, after they've been in our school for a while, like I know that they wanted to do martial arts because they watched Cobra Kai.

Like, they would never admit it to us, but those are their reasons, right? Teenagers, right? But, Bukobor Kai is, I love the show. The show is not made for kids or teenagers. The show is made for me and you, people who watch The Karate Kid growing up.

Andrew (22:59.138)

Yeah. Now how old are they? Yeah. Yeah.

Andrew (23:13.229)

No.

Andrew (23:17.741)

Yeah, yeah. But I would say that teenagers, if they watch it, if for whatever reason they're drawn in and watch it, teenagers will still enjoy it. And I could see it being inspiration for them to train, but I don't see 10 year olds getting into it. And it being inspiration for 10 year olds. But 14, 15, 16 year olds, yes.

Vic (23:44.968)

And then you have things like, I run a traditional martial arts, more traditional martial arts school. Yeah, I might have a student who's watched the UFC, but someone who is into UFC is not gonna walk through my doors. Even though I do things and I offer programs that would be more one-on-one, geared towards, I'll give you some tools that you can use.

Andrew (24:13.069)

Yeah, well, and I would also say that the UFC is not something that typically kids are going to be interested in, right? So maybe teenagers, but it's going to be later teenagers. I don't see 13 year olds getting excited about the UFC, right? But 18 year olds, maybe even 16, 17, like I could see them being like, oh yeah, I'm going to watch UFC. But it's, you're right. It's, UFC is not for kids.

but it could be an influence in younger adults.

Vic (24:45.792)

Yeah, and to your point, like I think as instructors, it's super important for us to be open to what is popular in culture today that we are not. I I have spent my entire adult life liking things or being interested in things that I have no interest in. So when I took that class called Youth Culture, it was for the purpose of running

Nonprofit programs for teenagers outside of you know churches and parachurch organizations and stuff like that And so what? One of the things was is like like you can't expect kids to like the things that you like or to relate to the things that you like I thought I thought by referencing john cena instead of chuck norris to my students like I had hit gold well now i'm at the point where they're like john cena, he doesn't fight and like he's not a wrestler anymore like

Andrew (25:39.244)

Ha

Vic (25:45.66)

If I even have a kid that watches wrestling, right? And so one of the things that I learned from my youth culture teacher was he said every six months, you as a responsible person who works with people who are younger than you as an educator, need to, whether you like it or not, find something that they, that in youth culture or pop culture is what we're talking about today and do a deep dive into it.

I have watched Andrew so many things. I have watched entire seasons of shows that are just, ugh, the worst. But then I found myself in conversations or hearing conversations that my kids are having or that one of our students are having, I know that thing, right? And my wife doesn't have this because she doesn't have time and when she's home relaxing, she wants to enjoy the things that she enjoys, can't fault her for this.

Andrew (26:34.881)

Mm.

Vic (26:43.616)

Because like I said, a lot of the things that I have watched are garbage in my mind because they're not made for me. But what it helps me do is it helps me as an educator draw connections to relate what I'm asking this kid to do, martial arts speaking. You know that thing that you were watching in that non martial arts thing? You know that it connects, right?

Andrew (26:48.553)

Yeah, sure. Yep, exactly.

Andrew (26:57.294)

Yeah, it helps you relate.

Andrew (27:11.381)

Yep.

Vic (27:11.967)

And as a person who kind of has a more traditional approach to martial arts, I don't really see it as fighting. I see martial arts as all of life. And that practice for me helps me not accidentally fall into the pitfall of, kids these days, dot, dot, dot, fill in blank, and just try to find the people where they're at, and then try to find the inspiration of the things.

Andrew (27:32.887)

Yep.

Vic (27:41.213)

your students are already being inspired by something.

Andrew (27:44.396)

Yeah, exactly. And I think it's important to note that it's not hard to figure out what those things are, right? And it can be super easy. Kids are lined up or you're class, however, kids are coming in. Hey, little Timmy, how are you today? Hey, what's your favorite show? What are you watching these days? Just ask them. People like to talk about the things that they like and the things that they're into.

Vic (27:51.538)

No.

Vic (28:10.835)

Mm-hmm.

Andrew (28:12.223)

It's not generally hard to get people to talk about something that they're excited about. so find out from your students, what are they into? I don't, mean, I would differ. would push back on one thing you said, Victor, was, you know, take a deep dive. I don't think you necessarily have to deep dive, but at least get an understanding of, mean, like if someone, for example, says they're into Dragon Ball Z.

Vic (28:17.119)

Mm-hmm.

Vic (28:38.953)

Mm-hmm.

Andrew (28:39.662)

And there are definitely, you can make a lot of connections from there. I'm not saying you have to go in and watch every single Dragon Ball Z episode ever made, right? That's a deep dive. Get an understanding of what it's about. Or The Last Airbender, another really good, like, where there are a lot of similarities from martial arts and philosophy, right? And I'm not saying you have to go watch every animated episode of...

Vic (28:56.873)

Yeah.

Andrew (29:07.789)

The last airbender but understand what it is, right? I think that's important. What's that?

Vic (29:09.599)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, YouTube is your friend. I said YouTube is your friend. Like at the time that I was in college, the culture of YouTube commentators commenting on things wasn't so much a thing that it is now. That's the deep dive remark that my professor gave me. But like now you can like type in insert, like insert show that

Andrew (29:27.309)

Mm-hmm.

Vic (29:41.349)

analysis and I guarantee you can find a YouTuber who has done a reaction video to it or summarized the entire series of it.

Andrew (29:46.519)

Yep, yep.

Andrew (29:51.209)

Or go to ChatGPT and ask.

Vic (29:54.141)

Yeah, that's another good one.

Andrew (29:55.948)

Right, you know, but but I I do think it's important to have an understanding to be able to connect to your students.

Vic (30:02.207)

Well, here's an interesting one speaking of chat GPT because I was doing this for got two students who were a boy who are Boy Scouts and was talking to their parents about Maybe doing something for for their troops, right? Because they're connected to other Boy Scout groups and stuff like that and their parents are dead leaders and things like that I've never been a Boy Scout. I was too busy doing martial arts, right? Never interested me because I wanted to do martial arts and so I'm thinking like

man, what do I do? Like, like, like, like what would I, cause Girl Scouts, easy. My daughter's in it. had a little bit more context for it. And like young 12 year old girls, I'm just going to teach them self-defense. Like I'm going to teach them the same things, the awareness stuff that I teach women self-defense stuff. That's fine. Boy Scouts like, whoa, whoa, whoa. It's like, I'll ask the robots. Andrew, the robots are very detailed. The robots gave me like,

Andrew (30:56.621)

You

Vic (31:00.158)

Here's a generic thing, but hey, if you wanted to run a seminar that would help them work towards a merit badge, here are some merit badges that would apply to martial arts training. And here's how you can apply them. And here's what they would have left to do in order to earn that. It gave me a whole seminar broken down minute by minute how I would do it. And I was like, man.

Andrew (31:24.917)

Yeah, pretty amazing.

Vic (31:28.575)

To use it as a research tool would be great. So I bet like if you would say, go to the robots and ask them, hey, I'm a traditional martial artist. What pop culture movies are this age demographic into right now or TV shows that have martial arts themes? It might give you some cheesy examples, but that's where your brain has to kind of override the robot's brain.

Andrew (31:55.246)

Sure, sure, you've got to filter through that, but then you can ask it for a summary. Like, give me a brief understanding of what is that show or what is that movie, you know?

Vic (31:58.164)

But it's a better place to start than Google. Yeah.

Vic (32:05.735)

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Andrew (32:07.893)

Yeah, absolutely. yeah, this was good. I do want to recognize that for a lot of people, Cobra Kai now is big. They're just there in, as we're recording this, because we don't know when people will listen, you know, they're in the final season between the first half of season six and the last half. So, you know, it's been on TV now for, you know, a number of years or I say TV.

Vic (32:18.493)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Vic (32:23.666)

Mm-hmm.

Andrew (32:35.586)

Now it's started on YouTube, now it's on Netflix. But I do think that that, for a lot of people, is a pop culture. I know people that used to train when they were younger and now they're adults and they watched Cobra Kai and have gotten back into it. So I think it's important to understand what that is, whether you were into The Karate Kid as an instructor or not. I think it's important to understand what the show is. The show is...

Vic (32:59.52)

Mm-hmm.

Andrew (33:02.123)

geared a little bit towards the younger audience with the main characters kids who are supposed to be in their late teens. And so a lot of teens are watching the show because of that. And so, you know, having an understanding, think that's important.

Vic (33:11.187)

Mm-hmm.

Vic (33:18.591)

Yeah, I would absolutely agree with you. Like as instructors and people who just want to pass on what they know, it's so important to understand that the things that inspire you don't inspire your students. If someone comes to, there's that old saying is that when the student is ready, the master will appear. And I kind of do agree with that because the student's looking, but that means the student is already looking, meaning something in them.

Andrew (33:48.023)

peaked their interest. Yeah.

Vic (33:49.072)

Yes. And you gotta, if you really want to keep someone excited about what you do as a martial artist or about what they're doing, you gotta make it not about you. It has to be like about their interest. And so I'm looking ahead, yet Cobra Kai is great. I love it. But it's ending. Karen and I are already talking about, this new Karate Kid movie is coming out next year. How are we going to use and leverage that?

How are we gonna, you know, there are gonna be people interested in, you know, martial arts as a result of this movie. And if you would, you can ignore that and those students are gonna, they're gonna go somewhere else, right? So it's always important to look beyond yourself and see what other people are interested in in pop culture.

Andrew (34:29.611)

No, no.

Andrew (34:33.685)

Exactly. Yep, yep, absolutely.

Vic (34:45.35)

is a wave and a lot of people get swept up in it. I would have never guessed that my kids would be into some of the shows and things that they're into. And I'm like, cool, I'm not really into it, but I'll sit down and listen to it with you because it's something that you're interested in.

Andrew (34:56.257)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Andrew (35:01.409)

Yeah.

Andrew (35:05.249)

Yep. Having an understanding can do nothing but help. certainly can't hurt to just have an understanding. So that's great. What are we missing? Anything we're missing? Anything you want to close out on Vic, Victor?

Vic (35:17.107)

No, I don't think so.

Andrew (35:19.661)

All right, well, if you the audience listening or watching have stuff that you would like to contribute, feel free to email me, andrew at whistlekick.com. Let me know. did we forget? I would encourage you to join our Facebook page, martial arts radio. You can also make a comment there. You know, can be a lot of back and forth on those discussions on each episode. So we'd love to have you there. Again, a reminder whistlekick.com is where you can go to find out all the stuff we do.

If you're interested more about the show which whistle kick martial arts radio.com is where you will get Info on all of the episodes that we've released. Like I said, this is episode 800. 987 we're coming up on a thousand episodes Insane we've been doing this for nearly 10 years So whistle click martial arts radio comm for this show whistle kick

Vic (36:02.089)

Thank you.

Andrew (36:15.607)

forward whistlekick.com for such partners you can find out more about martially tics and the two-month free trial that they're willing to give And lastly don't forget check out our patreon patreon.com slash whistle kick Buy us a cup of coffee once a month. That's all Five bucks give give us five bucks. It would really help make this show happen And you will get the satisfaction of knowing that you are helping to

bring this show to the masses by helping support us. We really, really appreciate that. So let's go back and forth, Victor. Until next time, train hard and have a great day.

Vic (36:56.403)

Smile.

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Episode 988- Sensei Ryan Sickles

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Episode 986- Mr. Alex Reyes