Episode 34 - Mr. Richard Osborn, Jr.
Mr. Richard Osborn, Jr. - Episode 34
Richard Osborn
I'm still growing as a martial artist, I'm still trying to build. And I'm still trying to bring people along with me...
Today we're joined by Mr. Richard Osborn, a taekwondo practitioner, school owner, competitor and event promoter from Missouri. Mr. Osborn speaks warmly about his time as a competitor, often waking up early to travel hundreds of miles to attend an event. We've had some guests that have had strong ties to the competitive world, but perhaps none has been more influenced by their time in competition than Mr. Osborn.
You can also catch Mr. Osborn on Episode 164 as we discuss Martial Arts Competition with another past guest, Master Huzon Alexander.
Show Notes
Movies: The Perfect Weapon (unavailable for streaming), Lone Wolf McQuade (unavailable for streaming), New Gladiators (Elvis Karate Film, unavailable for streaming)Actor: Jeff Speakman, Chuck NorrisBook: Elvis and MeBob YarnallMr. Osborn's martial arts school website & on FacebookOzark Mountain Nationals tournament websiteBelow, the final fight scene (the kitchen scene) from Steven Seagal's Above the Law referenced in the episode.
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below or download here.
Hey there everyone, it's episode 34 of whistlekickMartialArtsRadio, the only place to hear the best stories from the best martial artists, like today's guest Mr. Richard Osborne. I'm your host Jeremy Lesniak and I'm also whistlekick's founder, and here at whistlekick we make the world's best sparring gear and some great apparel and accessories for traditional martial artists. I'd like to welcome our new listeners and thank all of you returning fans. If you're not familiar with our products you should check out what we offer like our extra padded but still comfortable shin guards. You can find more information about those and the rest of our stuff at whistlekick.com and all of our past podcast episodes show notes for this one and a lot more are at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com and while you're on our website why don't you sign up for our newsletter, we offer exclusive content to subscribers and it's the only place to find out about upcoming guests on the podcast. And now for today's episode, on episode 34 we're joined by Mr. Richard Osborne. A Taekwondo practitioner and school owner with a strong tie to the competitive side of martial arts. As a competitor and tournament promoter Mr. Osborne speaks warmly about his time spent in competition. It's clear from our conversation that Mr. Osborne's love of martial arts has threaded its way into his entire life and he wouldn't have it any other way and so Mr. Osborne welcome to whistlekickMartialArtsRadio.
Richard Osborne:
Thank you thank you for having me.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh, it’s a pleasure to have you I'm glad we can make this happen. You're coming out of part of the country that I don't really know and of course our last episode was with Mr. Cory Rose who introduced us so looking forward to get to know you a little bit
.Richard Osborne:
You as well sir you as well.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Excellent well this show is a lot more about you than is me I mean like some bits about me in here but you're the one in the hot seat.
Richard Osborne:
Yes sir.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And being that that's where we are with you in the hot seat why don't you tell me tell the people listening a little bit about how you got started in the martial arts.
Richard Osborne:
Well you know I come from a family of martial artists, my father back in the mid 80s again you know you kinda have to disclose your age sometimes about 85 86 I believe is the last part of 85 I started at the tender age of 7 years old you know at that time in the mid 80s after the karate kid come out you know more and more children started doing martial arts and that movement going towards kids started happening more and more at that time my father swore up and down that he would not have a children's class and me and about 6 others were actually first children's class that he started teaching and so you know as having a father that was a full contact fighter and tournament fighter and big in the martial arts you know it’s only natural for me to start classes you know at that time you're small you think it’s cool you know you're kicking you're punching so it was an easy transition for me to do to walk in to that and to be able to start doing that. I also have a young brother that is also participating he's about 7 years younger than me and so this is kinda like what we do you know as far as the Midwest coast you know our family has a reputation dating back from the early 80s of being in the martial arts you know certain families have legacies or they have what they're known for and in my family is known for martial arts so you know our scope doesn't probably go outside of our region very much but you know from the Kansas 03:53 , Missouri Oklahoma if you're in those 4 states and you've been around martial arts in the last 30 years you definitely heard my father's name and I’ve been trying to branch out and distinguish myself also as a martial artist in this region. You know I got my black belt in late 80s at that time I was one of the youngest black belts in the region you know my father is a big believer on not promoting a based off age if you're ready he promotes you and even though I was very young and I'm sure a lot of people at that time you know I know feelings have changed over the years but you know at that point in time he felt like it was an opportunity for me to be a black belt and I started actually was in tournament competition way before then you know I started tournament and competition probably within the first 3 months of me starting I had my first tournament so you know and that was another progression another thing that we do as far as the sports side of things goes but I got my black belt at an early age and I’ve been going ever since. Started teaching at early 90s and I'm either 04:57 my father or I have my own school since the early 90s.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Wow so it's easier for me to do the math on this stuff because our age is right in line maybe give or take a year or so and our martial arts careers started just about the same time so you know we're twins in that sense so yeah that must have been certainly I know in our region that would have been very uncommon for someone of your age to have earned the black belt buy that time. Did you feel any I guess pressure or did you feel uncomfortable with that or were you too young to even realize it?
Richard Osborne:
Well you know I tell you what you don't get the perception at that point in time, you're still young you're going to tournaments you know and you know the biggest probably the biggest impact for me you know with social media now and stuff the way things are now if someone achieves rank or if a child does something a parent or somebody like that can post it all over the internet you know for me as walking you know to school or doing stuff like that you know I didn't broadcast out that I was a 9 year old black belt you know I didn't that wasn't a projection of me out to everybody else in the public so me walking around and just being a normal kid it really didn't have an effect. The effect that I'd seen and I'd seen more of it now than go and reflect back on those years was the tournament side of things. My father was a very successful tournament fighter and full contact fighter you know when I started first coming up you know I was not very talented in the sports side of thing you know I didn't hit my maturity as a better competitor probably until my early teens, by 12, 13 so at that point in time I always got somebody's best and what I mean by that even at an early age you know that's oh that's and people in the mid-west referred me as little Richie that's kinda how my dad's Richard Osborne Sr I'm Richard Osborne Jr but people even at 37 years old I still get the label of little Richie so you know that's kind of the label that stuck with me even through the years but a lot of the guys that still do that are masters in other systems and stuff like that so I don't ever go and say hey look you know I'm Richard now, I'm Richard Osborne Jr I don't ever yeah I'm little Richie yup 37 47 57 doesn't matter I’ll always be little Richie and that's how we'd do it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's right.
Richard Osborne:
But you know at that point in time you know that's where I probably felt it the most because I wasn't very talented but being my father's success if they had a senior student that was you know and at that point in time back in the early in late 80s you know the divisions were broke down so you were fighting just about anybody. You could be a yellow belt fighting a junior black I mean the divisions weren't broke up like they are now so if there was a fighter and usually I think there was the age groups were even like within 3 or 4 years now is you got every 2 years on age group so what I felt was the impact of my father being successful is that I got everybody's best or if somebody had a good fighter they made sure that that was the first you know I could travel to 08:07 Kansas and my first fight would be the top guy in that region and so you know that's probably but as a, it's not a negative thing it was more of a positive aspect because I always got everybody's best and it wasn't my choice it was just because of the lineage that I come from. Everybody knew my father was a good athlete he was a good father so naturally everybody thought I was too I said like hey well you know we're you know we can't beat senior today we're gonna beat up on junior you know so we got a I got a lot of those transactions before as tournaments go 08:38 you know one time at a tournament we were running I think we drove 4 hours to south east Missouri and we're running 4 hours on a high way I think we woke up at 3 or 4 o'clock that morning and we walk in and we're late and you know we brought a big crew that day but as soon as we walk in the door we asked the tournament promoter hey you know we're running late 08:57 people can we got just a couple of minutes to warm up no you guys can't you guys are late your division started, Richie you're first in your division you're the first one that had 27 kids in my forms division that day and as soon as I get out of the car I put my uniform on I had to go right in. Now luckily I wound up in the top 3 but those were kinda some things is beating young black belt and beating somebody that has some recognitions some name you know those were kind of the impact I felt you know as a kid you know walking around as a black belt I don't know it was just in my demeanor at that time but the humble spirit actually kind of even at a young age I never walked around and go hey you wanna see a kick you wanna see a punch you wanna see this or see that you know I reflected back in my school with my elementary teachers and junior high and stuff like that you know that humblism showed at an early age so a lot of people on the street and everybody knew unless they knew my father knew where heritage he come from, they didn't know I was a black belt and most people today when I walk around now don't know that I'm in martial arts unless we have a conversation about it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Wow it's interesting and I can kind of put myself into that scenario and that one that you mentioned specifically about getting to the tournament running a few minutes late I think we've all done that and of course back then back in the late 80s if you're going to a tournament that you'd never been to before you know you're pulling out a map.
Richard Osborne:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I mean there's no GPS so you know you 10:27 or you guess wrong yeah, you're gonna show up a little late but yeah, I can completely see that pressure that expectation that people had of you living up to the legacy of your father and then having to jump right in there and not being given any, them erring so far on the side of not giving you special treatment to give you less than adequate treatment even.
Richard Osborne:
Right right and it but that builds you know and I have never looked at that kind of things as a negative I mean I’ve got those all of these issues or anything that I went through in my earlier stages all helped mold and build you know and that's why I'm a big proponent of sport martial arts I mean I have I carry that flag with me about as hard as anyone I won't say I'm the one that holds it the most I'm just saying you know I feel like I can compete with anybody when it comes to carrying that banner for sport martial arts. I mean that is something that built me it was not just the martial arts it's what we did you know as like you said you know I as a young man you know I had to travel 4, 5, 6, 7 hours on the road you know leaving early from school making sure my school work was done and traveling and going competing all weekend, driving back you know and have the responsibility I had to keep up my own uniform you know make sure you know there was just so many elements of the sports side of it when I was so young you know and we go to national tournaments for 4 days and my father would be like look here's 25 bucks, it's Thursday night you gotta make this thing last until Sunday you know and that's I mean it was just there's so many different elements or part of the sports side of things is that, that's kind of what we or what I strive for today is why I'm so big into the sports side of martial arts is kind of those early developments I had as a younger black belt or a younger student you know traveling around the Midwest you know and building those kind of characteristics that carried over into my adult life.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah and I think we've got a pretty good picture of who you are at a top level you know kind of a bird's eye view but here at martial arts radio we're all about stories and we wanna learn about you through your stories so I'd like you to take a second and then tell us your best martial arts story.
Richard Osborne:
Best martial arts story wow there's a bunch of them I would say you know I'd probably I would have to go to the present you know I really have to kinda reflect on what my and I'm still not done I'm still working and still trying to do things in the martial arts you know you're a white belt you know that saying you're a white belt that never quit, that's what a black belt is, it's a white belt that just kept going and that's how I feel like that's where I'm at right now. When I look at my martial arts career now as 36 you know I'm just now building something for myself so you know the biggest story I have is kind of the reflection of and again this is not more of a story it's just kinda where I'm at right now with martial arts you know I feel like you know I finally started to learn now and so you know to give you stories my most of my stories is gonna come from the sports side of things you know probably the funniest story I’ve got is a 13:50 a little bit of humor in your life and this is also a humbling thing is that my first nationals tournaments, that blue grass nationals in the early 90s about 92, 93 at that point in time I think blue grass probably had 2000+ competitors you know you had people everywhere from all over the United States coming up here and here I get my first chance to fight on stage. This was one of the first times they'd let the junior black belts fight up on stage and I didn’t win my division so this is really stories 14:20 division fight up on stage so I had 20, 30 kids on stage fighting and my very very first fight I get a young man I don’t know what age he was and we were probably 13, 14 years old at that time and this kid had a bit every bit of 6'2", 6'3" and my dad told me is watch his legs, watch his legs and sure enough in the first 30 seconds of the match I took a spin heel kick to the face and then 14:52 I'd say there was probably 2000 competitors probably another 3 or 4 thousand spectators I got myself knocked out right up on stage so here was my first chance to go from you know national tournaments and be able to go okay you know here I am this kid from the mid-west nobody knows who I am I’m make a name for myself today and I sure did make a name for myself as dropping like a sack of potatoes so that was probably one of the most humbling things I had done because I thought I'd you know here I'd been winning all these tournaments in the mid-west I'm gonna go out here to this big national tournament I'm gonna show everybody what I got and boy did I show I showed everybody how fast I could fall, that's how that's what I got to show. You know I’ve got too meet a lot of people over the years you know so my stories are more about who I’ve got too meet. There's a lot of legends in the mid-west so if people aren't familiar with the mid-west you know there's a lot of history around here you know we’ve got a lot of and I'm gonna name drop some other names but these are some of the people I’ve got too meet over the years that I'm just awe struck you know one of the ones we got Mr. 15:55 for those of you that are sport people you know if you relate to Mr. A lot of people are gonna 16:02 but the gateway classic back in the 60s and 70s I think even going back to the 50s was one of the big tournaments at St Louis you know and going up with him and being able to see him in the environment of doing that you know he's right here in St. Louis Missouri you know he's one of the founding fathers of sport martial arts and he had Chuck and Joe and those guys all came through St. Louis to do that so we've got a lot of legends in here. One of the other ones we've got here and again I know I'm kinda getting away from myself here but these are the kind of people that we have got to surround myself with, we've got the gentleman that trained with Elvis back in the 70s or late 60s and 70s, we've got Wayne Carman which is down here in Branson, Missouri and he wrote a book Elvis and me got to talk about the different things and the Elvis is working on before he died you know he was working on a film that most I don't know if most people know but there was a film that he was trying to produce called the modern gladiators I believe is what the name or the title was you know and Bill Wallace is in that if you go on YouTube and look up some of that production you know Elvis was trying to say hey look, we're gonna build this tournament up, we're gonna put these Karate fighters together and we're gonna show the world of karate you know we're gonna show them what the new age gladiators are so you know a lot of my encounters a lot of my stories is just the people I get to meet you know martial arts to me in the sport side of things has introduced me to so many different you know individuals you know sports side or just the martial arts and part of the movie scene so you know, it's just been a heck of a ride for me and so you know most of my stories aren't gonna be about wins and losses in the ring but you know that my main stories and the things that I’ve got are the people I’ve had to meet or got to meet you know over the last 30 years of me doing martial arts.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay, so obviously the martial arts has been with you through your entire life you know I can't really ask you one of the questions that we like to ask on this show is how has the martial arts changed you but I'm gonna guess that if I ask you that question, you're not really gonna have a great answer because there isn't a whole lot of you that didn't involve the martial arts so let's try going at this a different way imagine a parallel universe where you never entered the martial arts and imagine where you might be now what you might be doing and tell us a little bit about that where do you think you would be?
Richard Osborne:
I you know I don't know if I would have the goals that I have now or achieved what I have now if it wasn't for martial arts you know I still think as a person you're still you know the people or you’re as a person you know I don't think martial arts made me a good person or a bad person you know I think I will still have the element of doing the right thing and having a high moral standards you know I don't know if I would be striving for what I do now. In my professional career right now I'm in to marketing and sales and doing things like that you know I don't know if I wasn't doing martial arts, if I would do something that was more dealing with people, you know I was much more reserved when I was kid until martial arts opened me up so I think I would be doing something that wouldn't be I think more career wise I think I would be probably something a little bit more subdued I mean I'd be more of aggressive you know my family grew up as and most families did back in the early ages you got a job when you were younger and you stay at that job for 30 years, 40 years, 50 years you retire you worked at a factory or you worked at a plant and you know that's how my father was, that's how my grandfather was you went somewhere you worked and you know I think I would be, I think it would be more on the professional side of things you know I am a professional martial artist but I don't do it as a commercial school, I don't do it to make money so I think my professional career when I did as a profession would have been different I think I'd probably be working somewhere with a job that wasn't requiring me to go out and meet people and to socializing and do that kind of career you know again I'm in marketing and sales now so you know I think professionally I would be in a different realm you know I still think when I met my wife I still believe those things are destined, you're gonna meet the person you're gonna fall in love with you’re gonna marry that person I still think I think that's all pre-ordained and you're gonna do those things so I don't think that would have change I just think professionally the martial arts opened me up so I think I would have different direction as far as what I wanted to do as far as the day time job and how I perceive things you know I don't think my sports career would have been as good as it was you know I played football and earned the scholarship played football when I was younger you know I think I think I would have been maybe I would have done something different you know maybe I wouldn't have been involved with sports you know I think there is a lot of different avenues that I probably wouldn't has been aggressive with if it wasn't for martial arts so I probably would have been pictured as more of a subdued just you know normal 9-5 guy taking care of the family and doing that, not that I don't that now but you know there's a lot more that's to me a more I don't wanna say the word complicated cause my wife is gonna use that word she definitely thinks I'm complicated so you know I think there's more element to me than there would have been if I not had the martial arts, if that makes any sense, if that...
Jeremy Lesniak:
It does
Richard Osborne:
If that rumbling does any justice at all to where I was trying to go with.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well to be fair you know I’ve just thrown you into a hypothetical situation
Richard Osborne:
Sure
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know when I said parallel universe and that's complicated to start with so, no worries, no worries at all there. But let's bring you back to reality for a second, and I'd like you to think about a challenging time in your life and how your experience and your training in the martial arts helped you through that.
Richard Osborne:
Well you know I would say probably my middle probably teenage years through high school you know that is probably one of the toughest times you know that I think it's cause sometimes go through there's a lot of things going on with kids you know about the teenage years they start to grow up and personalities and hormones and you got a lot of stuff going on you know. When I was growing up my family wasn't financially blessed we didn't have a whole lot of money at that time and you know my mom and dad did the best they could to try and provide for us financially and you know some of the things that martial arts build on me was to go out and 22:49 out of the way you know I started working at a young age you know making money and working with my father with some of the place where he worked where you know I was able to pick up some extra cash stuff like that so you know those kind of characteristics kinda helped me through those times because my mother and father are working from sun up to sun down and sometimes 2 or 3 jobs and I was doing martial arts and trying to play football and basketball and at the same time I had to try and find work and I don't think you know martial arts teaches a lot of drive it teaches commitment it teaches work ethic. There's a lot of things that the elements go into it you know and as a young man and I want things and I wanna be able to go and buy this and I wanna be able to do that but at the same time I wanna play football I wanna play basketball I wanna go to tournaments, you know those elements you know I you had to go out and work for it and you it took a hard work you know you can get up at 6 o'clock in the morning you go to school all day you go to football practice then you go to a job and then you work and then you get back up and you do it again and you get that 7 days a week you know I'm not saying that martial arts is the only way to build work ethic cause some people are 24:01 work ethic they just 24:02 families and used to work hard you know but I think through that I think that helped build me so you know I would say and I'm not saying just 1 year I'm saying those were you know junior high to high school you know we've burned the candle I mean we were and my father would probably I don't know at one point in time I think you're getting 40 to 50 tournaments in 1 year I mean there was weekends sometimes we get a tournament on Saturday in Arkansas and then we would drive back home and go to sleep wake back up and we would head to tournament in St Louis we would go from one end of the region to the other end of the region in one weekend and there was multiple weekend when we did things like that and if I didn't have the drive, the determination and the work ethic there's no way I you know of course I had to keep up on school work you know I didn’t have I wasn't a honor student by any means you know I carry a 3 I think a 3 or 4 GPA I think 3.4 or 3.5, I think that's what my GPA was at that time so I had a decent grade point average you know but you know there was a lot going on at that point in time and then at the same time I had to try and pick up work and work and to be able to buy the things that I wanted so you know I think that period of time it helped me get through that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So what was it about competition cause I mean that's certainly we're seeing that as a theme through our conversation here that competition that the sports side of martial arts is very important to you and clearly it was back then I don't think I’ve known anybody else that's competed to 40 to 50 events in a year I mean for this year we'll we will have been at I think close to 25 and that's included some multiple weekends so I can certainly empathize with the challenges there but you must have really loved competition? Well to make to cut our such a large chunk of your life for it.
Richard Osborne:
Well you know again this is going back to you know I can't take all the credit for the things that I do you know my father was the driving force for that kind of stuff you know. He was the one who wanted to go you know back in most and people that 26:17 we're gonna be able to relate you know back in the 80s in early 90s and we didn’t have social media you know we didn't have things you know you wouldn't hear a rumor about a tournament or you would hear a rumor or maybe somebody would speak a tournament about this, tournament over in Kansas or Oklahoma, Arkansas and you had to wait a year to go to that tournament and so what he would do is he would just build up a list of like okay we heard this group of fighters are really good down in Arkansas we missed our tournament this year we're gonna put it on the calendar. The thing was is that you can't 26:49 the calendar and then we would run you know and I think it's going to all 40 or 50 of the tournaments that he ran that year you know cause financially sometimes it wasn't in the cards for us to be able to do that and he had to go out there and explore those tournaments and sometimes he would go out to tournaments and go you know what that's not a good one we're probably not gonna go back to that one. You know and so but I really didn't appreciate the tournaments you know I as a kid I'm be honest and this is straight coming from you know honestly as a kid you know sometimes I didn't want to get in that car I didn't wanna drive you know I knew it was chasing me at 10 11 years old I'm like 27:26 gotta drive down to somewhere in Arkansas that you know the highway's gonna be windy and probably would get Nauseated and be sick, I’m gonna get in there, fight the best kid you know I probably rather be home watching cartoons you know and doing that kind of stuff and then I would get to the tournament and then I would get second, third, maybe first place and then you know of course demeanor changes when you win or if you win a grand champ do some like that your demeanor changes. But you know it was hard for me to get up for tournaments. When I was young you know we didn’t have the game systems and we did a lot of stuff you know. We want to watch cartoons, want to go play outside, [00:28:04.32] the kid but my father pushed, he said hey look we're gonna get up and do this and it paid off for me and I and now that passion that I didn't know I had been developed into a passion and now I, you know of course it's almost impossible now with family structures and the way things are it's hard. You hit 25 tournaments in a year and the years that over that's amazing to me. You know, right now I hit maybe a dozen and my head, I thought my head spinning you know when hit 12 and this you know the one thing is, our tournament [00:28:39.57] bonded here and we don't, the travel we have to travel a lot. I've put maybe a little over 4000 miles on my car this year on travelling and you know the nearest tournament, our tournaments were within 100 miles and other tournaments over three hundred miles so you know that while traveling involved and it was tough and specially really tough back then the highway systems back there, back then are still nowhere near what they are now so it was hard travel, eating fast food, getting up early in the morning, it was tough at first and but I tell you what it develop me now to where my passion is, I mean I actually just I love the sport side of things and that's I didn't know it then but now developed into what it is now that's why the love sport martial arts kind of just flows through me now that is because of what we did back then.[00:29:28.42]
Jeremy Lesniak:
So, one of the subjects that comes up in conversation between me and others is kind of around that piece that you mentioned you know your adolescent years there where I also want to say you were forced but that's kind of the impression that I'm getting hearing you talk about it. You are strongly encouraged to go to these events even if you didn't want to is that is that a fair thing to say?
Richard Osborne:
That is actually fair I mean okay you know it and like I said you know just being a kid, I was just a normal kid I wasn't anything I would not call myself a spectacular kid by any means as far as you know, I was just a normal kid like you said, it's kinda one of those things were dad's going, you’re going.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure so, one of the things that comes up when I talked to parents of adolescent children who have been training for a while you know 6-7 years sometimes more and the kid is starting to feel that pressure that they've you know most of us felt in junior high and high school for wanting to go do a more conventional sport. Soccer or something like that. And they're seeking advice for you know do they force their kid to continue because they see the benefits that martial arts have had for their children and ultimately for their family or do they let the kid step away and hope that they leave with a good enough impression of martial arts that they come back later on? Now you've kind of got it interesting perspective here, I'm hoping, because your if you were experiencing the same sort of things that all kids were around I should say most kids do around martial arts specifically around competition but here now, competition is a part of it that you love the most what changed in there and do you think your father was making the right decision in strong-arming you into doing these?
Richard Osborne:
You know that is almost an individual question for individual kids. If you okay so if you step back and you look at the overall picture I would say yes, I would encourage parents. Too many times now that I so okay go ahead
Jeremy Lesniak:
Let’s talk about you, lets hone this on you if you know if this all happened again, you know, knowing what you know now.
Richard Osborne:
Right. I wouldn't have change a thing. I would have absolutely would not change a thing. What he laid the foundation for me. Again, your parents lay the foundation it's up to you as an individual to build on from there and so his foundation that he said for me and what he did for me back then absolutely I wouldn't change anything. The negatives the positives I’ll keep it all the same.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So now let's take a step back from it and now what kind of advice might you offer if someone came to you with the same kind of dilemma about their child?
Richard Osborne:
Well and that's, like I said it is almost individualized for each child but the thing to me especially with kids on-site and every time I more of the sport aspect like a kid of the child want to go into soccer or baseball or want to go pursue another sport and then leave more force completely is that kind of world around were kinda dealing with?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, I think that's how it tends to happen that's what I generally observed.
Richard Osborne:
I to me I would find the best way to keep that child in martial arts and here's why say that, even if it's on a limited basis even if it's if it's going to class once a week once a year the week you know that most the time when they get to that point typically there at a black belt level but they're still learning to me [00:33:24.54]. But I would find a way for that child to be able to still do the sport that they want to go and venture out to but still have a piece of the martial arts and lest they move away and that's by no school that's a different story. But if you're still [00:33:39.46] your neck of woods and your school still running you're still operating I would find a way even if it's on the teaching basis you know, that is the one thing I see a lot of now that maybe did happen then is that our instructors are getting younger. I see more developments with instructors you know under the age of 18, there’s a lot of instructors in schools when you talk about a staff of people you have your over 18 instructors and you have your under 18 instructors. You know and so there's different avenues are different ways to pursue and sometimes kids get the burnout factor specially if they're tournament junkie. You got a kid that's been competing since six years old, they been traveling from coast-to-coast, they've going all the national tournaments they can, they’ve won every title that can what else they have the prove? Well how much teaching have you done in class? We’ll have only taught anybody, what you develop the students no I haven't done that yet. Well there is an avenue it's trying to find an avenue for that child or, you know, I hate this calling a child cause they get to17 years old they don’t wanna be called child and they wanna be called all that. When as I develop, you gotta try and find what is good be the hot button to keep them involved. Because here's what happens with sports and I’m not saying that every kid gonna be able to go. Some kids are really going get scholarships and are going to be able to go and play football and get four years paid for and then if they’re thinking about professional career and we all know is just purely statistics, that ratio diminishes a lot. If you got somebody that gets maybe a four-year scholarship to play college ball the possibilities of playing professional ball is this is slim, it's very slim. So, they graduate they got a degree and they did martial arts for most of their life and then they come, they have something to come back to, you know? I still would want them to be active and like I said it could be just going down to once a week and one hour of training or one hour of teaching for me but I still want them to be involved with it but I would do it to a level that they won't notice it taking away from their other sport. You know keeping the Mat, keeping involved because martial arts is a lifelong thing you know who knows as we get a kid that leaves our sport or leaves martial arts and they go play football for four years and they don't make it pro and then they get a business degree and they come back to it and they go you know Mr. Osborn I wanna open up my own school now. You know here you got a kid or somebody that now can expand not only himself and going to business to start more schools and do that but you know if you are part of a business strategy to where you are trying to build a business or your building it, here you've got a trained professional that's part of your system that now can help you grow. And so, I mean it's almost individualized for each person but I would strongly encouraged to try and find an avenue or something to keep them involved and then keep them going with the school and not have them get away from it completely. Definitely reduced what they were before definitely go down maybe not training 5-6 days a week then I hit every tournament every once a while or every turn every weekend, but still maintaining some act level activity with it. Because you know the thing is what if you're a diehard martial artist the thing is with it most, I don't what the ratio would be because I don't know how we judge that we get the statistic but a lot of people come back to it. They leave it for a while a lot of people come back to it but some don’t. But I mean there's a bunch that they come right back to it or they’re kids are to come back to it or their kids to come back to it so you know to me I would try and find a way for that child to stay with it on some level just to keep active.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It sounds like your talk about compromise and I agree. One of the things that I’ve observed is that when a child gets to have at least some say you know, whether it's to leave martial arts completely or to reduce their martial arts commitment so they can feel like they’re exploring other things and making that choice for themselves they are much more likely to come back later life that be that in 13 years of their 20s or even beyond. So, I think it's good advice and I hope people out there are taking that to heart because I think you would agree with me sir that the more people in martial arts, the better the world is.
Richard Osborne:
I totally agree and again going back to the sport side of things you know that's one of the things that were trying to develop now. And I’m just started it from a regional level I’m by no means I do it on a national level. I'm just trying to do it here is that we lose, well were losing our kings I will call the kings of martial arts. Our legends are getting aging over or losing them you know we you talked about Joe Lewis earlier and he's passed away and we've got bill Wallace. You know are legends of martial arts are our once we looked up to when we were growing up you know a lot of them are aging and the superstars we have now move on to other things and we don't keep them and that's one of the things you know, I'm always look around you know. I'm way past my prime as far as competition level goes and high-level competition but you know were not, you know other than a few names now we don't have the names like we have before and so you know I think is as a whole like you said were trying to keep those or try develop the new legends, we want the new names, we want to be able to keep them. You know, 20 years from now who is going to be the kids that I’m still teaching, who are they gonna look up to? Or who are they going to be? You know and so I think it's a constant struggle with everybody and I think the sports side is more than anything because again people like [00:39:18.53] sport I’m like yeah but it if you go to a seminar in the last 30 years, where do those seminars come from? It comes usually typically, it comes from somebody that was in the arena. It was chuck, it was is bill Wallace, it was you know. And then you got your fighters from the [00:39:33.52] you got nasty Anderson and price and plowed it you know and now you got Raymond Daniels you know, who’s probably Raymond and now with we got the gentleman that just took into the ufc, sage northcutt sage. So now we now are starting to some of sports guys are going and stepping up to the full contact arena. So, minutes helping all but man that is a that is it I don’t wanna call an epidemic but it's one thing that we struggle with right now is because like you said what else is there for me I’ve won every national tournament, I can't make a career or living off martial arts on the sport side of things, you know other than you open up a new school or start seminars you know there's not much for an athlete to be able to make money or earn so we lose them. We lose him something else and then we don't get him back when we could have maybe try to find a way to hey you know, were to play football for four years that's great but you know everyone once in a while, get you to a tournament, get you fighting you know as long as it don’t get you hurt. You know I want that more where kids are staying and were keeping him because, man after 18 boy it is a in it maybe just me, maybe it’s just in my region the impact of it but I don't know if that's coast-to-coast but feels like we lose him after that 1819-year-old demographic we just can't lose a male and female.
Jeremy Lesniak:
[00:40:52.56] it does become hard and a lot of it has to do with money you know when people, you know my competitive career ended because as you said, I didn't see any other the big challenges for me to tackle and it happened when I was 17 and so of course you wander off and you do other things, but without going on the tangent to the one piece that I leave out there more for listeners send than for our own discussion is that, if there's one thing that we want to change your at whistlekick its its getting more people in the martial arts if there's two, it’s getting some money in the martial arts so that we don't lose those people so that individuals that have incredible talents can spend their days, their career can be developing themselves into best martial artist possible because that's what we, what I personally believe is could help us advance martial arts as a sport and as a discipline more than anything else.
Richard Osborne:
Oh, I agree hundred percent, agree hundred percent.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So, you mentioned some pretty cool names there, you know people that you know we had bill Wallace on the show, we've had some other pretty great people on the show that I’m sure if we compared names you would know most of them and probably have trained or met the majority of them but other than your original instructor, your father, who would you say has been the most influential person in your martial arts career?
Richard Osborne:
Well I that is actually probably one of the easiest thing as for martial arts career, if there was one gentlemen that made an impact and I’ve seen this gentleman may be at best, I’ve seen this gentleman twice a year but I spent my early years up until his passing I believe he passed away in 05-06 was Mr. Ken Eubanks with the bluegrass nationals. And again, this is somebody that I only talk to once or twice a year but the impact that he made on me was unbelievable and I only realize that now as an adult and I didn't see it as a kid no but every year we would you gear up to go to his tournament. And here's why say the impact he made on me, if there was ever a humble martial artists or a humble person in martial arts, it was him through the sport side of things, he was able take this little tournament in Kentucky going into this massive tournament and the reason why he did that was because of who he was. It wasn't because of bluegrass gave way thousands of dollars It was because the bluegrass was, not that Louisville isn’t a cool town, it’s a great town I’m not saying that isn't, but just saying here it is in the middle of Kentucky, in the middle of the America, heartland of America and this gentleman was a be able to get the best of the best athletes to come in and the reason why he did that was because of who he was as an individual as a martial artist. For those you that don’t know who Ken Eubanks was I believe his practicing style was goju, he was a strong term competitor very strong, his son was a very good tournament competitor but he was far one of the most humble man that you've ever seen. He judged at everybody's tournament he went to other people's tournaments and he knew who martial artists were, you know I, again, I’ll tell a story my highest placing again this is a going back to sport but this is the kind of impact that's had on my life, my highest placing a bluegrass was fourth-place and I was a kid from sprinkle, Missouri going to Louisville in front of thousands of people doing a tournament and my highest ranking ever was fourth-place at bluegrass. But Ken out of all those people Ken knew who his competitors were and he watched those kids grow up and he kept track of those kids. I mean, Ken knew who I was Ken could even recite before he passed away the last time t [00:44:56.07] was that of Branson Missouri he was actually at was Mr. Carmen, bill Wallace, ken eubanks and there was a couple other legends there at the same time. We’re sitting in this little B gym and south, southwest Missouri and people really didn't realize what was around this at that time, I mean they really just didn't get grasp the scope of who was around us, but he will remember the uniform I wore back in 88. He remember the stars & stripes so again my interactions with him is very limited and it was very, very few and far between but the impact he had on me was a reflection of what I do now you know he made sure that his sport or the people around him are going to grow and he watched to make sure that those people are developing and if you were developing he made sure to keep track and tabs on you because he wanted you to build a showcase that in his event again. Of course, his event grew to this huge term in the united states but when you come back down to it, he knew who the eighth-place person was, the seventh place, he knew, he knew were he kept track. Like I said I was not a superstar by any means but he knew who I was, he knew my name, he knew where I came from I mean even you know he always made sure to make a gesture or something even if he was with a thousand people around him if he'd see me he would make a gesture towards me just a wave or something like that and he would do that with everybody wasn't just me, wasn’t because I was special of what I’m saying is he did that to thousands of people in that humble-ism and that show of respect to everybody wasn't it doesn't matter if you're a martial artist has got hundred and 50 students or if you're a martial artist has got two students, the same respect was shown for each instructor and each student no matter what your came from no matter what your talent level was, the respect the humble-ism that he showed was for every single person and so you know when I look at an impactful person martial arts, other than my father, again my father could be number one because he's what got me through it but I would say Mr. Eubanks is probably that's probably the person looking on the outside and that was the one that got the biggest impact me without him, he probably never knew it and before his passing he would never know and I never got to express my gratitude for what he did for me but you know that that he made a deep impact on me for sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And I think a lot of us have somebody like that in our past you know, I won’t go into it but I was lucky enough that person, that version of that person was actually one of the guests on the show here. I'll let listeners guess as to who that might have been, probably get to get some emails now. So, let's open up a little bit so, from the person that did have an impact to the person that you would've wanted to have had an impact. If you could train with anybody alive or dead, for any reason who would that be?
Richard Osborne:
You know this one's gonna sound generic or off-the-wall people while they maybe chuckle a little bit. But I tell you what somebody that I thought that would be an awesome person to train with and again this is kinda, I know this kinda blow people's minds a little bit but from watching the videos, from hearing stories and these all stories that are collected from other people that talk about it,
Jeremy Lesniak:
Loving the set up by the way, you're really good at this dramatic reveal thing keep going
Richard Osborne:
I just want to make sure that people understand that I know from the outside in, but if you I study a lot with him and I listened to stories but it would have been Elvis. Elvis, even at an earlier time in the 60s and late 60s, early 70s before his death, he had a passion for karate like probably nobody else. I mean his movement reflected it, his wardrobe stuff like that but here was a guy that was a big-time performer and his goal was to take karate and put it to the mainstream. I mean to make a movie he was making a movie about karate fighters you know, there was a story I think what Mr. Carmen talks about the story you know, bill wallace's first knee surgery was paid for by Elvis. You know and so you know he had such a love for karate and sport karate, it would have been great to be around him at that time because he was trying to make sport karate big not that wasn't big, I think they are fighting on abc back in the 60s so it’s not like it wasn't on the mainstream that he had a level that he wanted to take it to like nobody else and I think if he was still alive today I think you'd still see him in tournaments today. I mean, that's what kind, love he had for the sport and for the martial arts as you know and I know he trained Mr. Parker and I think [00:49:38.05] in memphis. So, he had that kind of love for all martial artist, it didn’t matter who you were, he just kinda that passion you see it with him when he when you see those small tidbits of video of him talking or the stories that people talk about that trained him I think that would've been really, really cool to be around those and Elvis was a good martial artist himself but the people he surround him with was like he grabbed whoever was the best at that time he made sure they are around him. So, the training aspect would've been phenomenal because every time he was around he had four or five different types of martial artist that were the best of their field around him at that time. So, the training would've been besides the coolness of hanging out Elvis, I mean the training would've been phenomenal because you had the best of the best around him at all times and he always gathered around him and that's what surround himself with was the best and so the training would be phenomenal so I know that's kind of an oddball people like Elvis, I think would you want to train with Elvis. But at that you know at that point in time the things he was trying to do and develop, I don’t know people dug into his career and what he did but I mean it would've been, that would been a place to be if you are a martial artist, you love the sport that would've been the guy to gotta be with you know. And so, I know it but there's probably a list of you know, for my sport side of things is a list of about 50 guys I would love to train with to show me how to fight better but you know that list is pretty long but just from the aspect of being a history and where I could have been at that point time, I think that would been a great point time for me.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure, yeah and you know I’ll admit when you first mentioned his name was I was set back a little bit thinking this is this is kind of an interesting answer… let's see where he's going to go with this but as you explained it I found myself nodding along absolutely. I don't think anyone can argue your logic, we were lucky enough during the episode with bill Wallace to hear a little bit about his time with Elvis and of course you know Elvis was so forward into the limelight that he couldn't do anything literally anything without people talking about it. So, we got a lot of documentation about who he trained with and what his experiences were and you're right he was a force of nature, he pulled in the best of the best and so to train with him meant that you were an end of training with everybody at that time. So, you tell it so much like you cheated the answer but put in a brilliant way so I gotta give it to you. You know it's the equivalent of you getting three wishes and asking for three more wishes on your third wish. Good on you for that one.
Richard Osborne:
Thank you.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You're welcome. So, as a martial artist as someone who enjoys the competition and the showmanship I’m guessing you're also a big fan of martial arts movies?
Richard Osborne:
I am. We started course the karate kid was probably one of my first one that I got to say but yeah, I’m a big martial arts movie guy. You know I don't, but there's so many now I can't keep up with all of them.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It’s out of control and I absolutely love it. It's you know were seeing this resurgence of martial arts in popular culture and I couldn't be happier about it. One of the most beloved characters on the walking dead which I believe is the number one show on tv carries a katana and off zombies heads off with it. I mean it's weird and great time to be martial arts film and television fans but if you had to pick a favorite martial arts movie, who would that be?
Richard Osborne:
Oh man that is put me on the spot.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Absolutely, that's what we do here. Pin you down make you answer hard questions like what your favorite martial arts flick.
Richard Osborne:
Okay this is this is again this is probably going be an off ball because there is a mixture of action plus martial arts but I got to go back to chuck probably the most greatest scene there is the first scene of Lone Wolf mcquade's when he first taking out everybody with machine guns and spin around kick, spin roundhouse. I mean takes down a whole Mexican cartel with machine guns and spin kicks. He knocks some guys teeth out that movie right there was, I can watch that movie if it's on then my day is done if that. Whatever I was doing at that time is canceled. So, I but there's also another one too that rivals that too and I always get the names mixed up but I thought it was a of those above the low with Steven Seagal. The final fight scene he fights a gentleman in the kitchen and it's got to be one of the worst beatings I’ve ever seen. I think he hits him with a frying pan and iron and I think he finishes them off with a bottle opener in the eye. And so, it is one of the most gruesome martial arts fight scenes. But you know aikido and for what he was doing is not that we didn't know that system was out there, but really got to showcase what that was because the attacker just kept running at them with just brute force he just kept Flipping, even moving around and that movie, that whole movie was nothing but Steven Seagal just, I think he hit a guy with a pool ball at one point time in the teeth. I mean it just so those two movies are about so, those two movies are about, if those movies are on and it’s on my tv, you know my four kids they need be fed no, I’m just teasing and I still feed the kids but you know those two will get my attention most the time. You know of course karate kid and rocky and all those will get my attention too but those two movies I don’t know, they hold a special place in my heart.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. Yeah, above the laws actually movie that's been coming up over the last few interviews as not only a good martial arts film but also the way that most of us wanna remember Steven Seagal.
Richard Osborne:
Right exactly we wanna remember that aspect of it right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right. Little less so the Steven Seagal of today yes of course. But you know well, just to remind people that are listening if you're special if you're new to the show, we have links to all of this stuff over at the show notes whistlekickmartialartsradio.com and I’m definitely gonna look to see if anyone's broken out that fight scene, that kitchen fight scene on YouTube and will embed that in the show notes, we do that when we can, it’s kind of fun. So how about actors? I mean, you mentioned some of the actors that liked in those movies but if you just got to pick a favorite actor too who would that be?
Richard Osborne:
As far as a martial arts side goes? You know I tell you what, it probably be now the Perfect Weapon was a great movie with oh darn it Mr. Speakman, I can't believe I even hesitated on the name but if you were too take an actor, now his movies he made three or four movies and THEY WERE are all decent. The perfect weapon was probably the one that got the most acclaim. But if you took an actor, he took a martial artist turned into an actor and are still an active martial artist, you know that's too me, and Chuck can be and Norse can be in the same thing. Mr. Norse can in the same kind of boat, but he really as stay true to his martial arts roots his 5.0 Speakman schools are all across states, he still doing seminars, he still training you know, he's still doing the same thing so you know I appreciated him going as being an actor and once acting career he didn't leave his martial arts and Norse didn’t either and I know there's some other once to they didn't but he really stayed true to the martial arts and he still you know and most people that are younger now probably not gonna watch that movie or not know who he is but you know he at that point time in the early 90s that movie was pretty good and pretty big at that time and he stay with the martial arts and so and he stays humble and he still travels to all of his schools and even though he was a movie star one time he still is active with the schools and is still developing a system you know from Mr. Parker's system. And so, it's, he's probably one of the ones I look up too more than anyone just because of what his activity is now beyond the limelight.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah that's a great answer and then we certainly mentioned him on the show before but more in passing and then honestly, I forgot about perfect weapon, so thank you yeah. Yeah that that movie did have an impact on me when it came out.
Richard Osborne:
It did and the title scene is best I mean, that song at the very beginning and he just worked in the the kali sticks I mean that's just, I mean if that doesn't get you jacked up, you wanna get jacked up before and event or you’re gonna do something, you just gotta watch opening title scene when he's like working the kali sticks and it is getting [00:58:27.50]with that is like an early 90s techno song at that time and it was ah, oh 'I got the power' that's what it was the song was "I got the power" that will get you all pumped up for sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I remember that was the song that everyone did their musical forms too in competition for about eight years after that movie and that song came out. How about books? There any martial arts related books that you might recommend too people?
Richard Osborne:
Now, here's what my honesty is going to kick in, you probably like I cannot believe you don't read as much but as far as I do not, I am more of a movie and this is the one thing that I probably you know wish I’ve done more is read more books. But you know I have not dove in the any of the martial arts books like I probably should have. You know my level of training and what I’ve done over the years has been through experience and you know you watch movies on tv and you do that kinda stuff but training and going too tournament and stuff like that and so not until my later years in life and by look at even trying too research and read and do stuff like that. My reading comes from the internet, studying on my system you know, my system of taekwondo come from you know, I do not even know the history was up until probably the last couple years and I know it's sad to say but that's where we were with my system and how we did things. We went too tournaments, we fought, we trained in the dojo, we fought at the dojo, but the history side of things and the other things that come with the knowledge of being a martial arts escaped me. I didn't do those things, I didn't do the research, I didn’t know where my forms systems come from, I didn't know what the meaning of my system was and I know people are gonna be like my gosh you're 37 years old, you've been a martial artist in the mid-80s and you'd never knew were your form, I didn't know what are forms meant I just know we did it when we went out there doing the tournaments and we had to do a [01:00:21.26], we do it you know and so those but that's things that I admit now. You know, that's why I’m like you know, I’m still learning at 37 years old, I’ve been in the martial arts in the mid 80s, I’m learning. I'm learning every day.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know and that's beautiful I mean you should be learning every day and that's one of my goals and I was at an event with whistlekick this past weekend and one of the things I like to ask they children as they come up and talk to me for various reasons is what did you learned today was the sting that he came away from today learning and most of them have to think about it. So, good. Good that you know you're in your mid-30s and you're not oh well you know I know what I need to do and no, you're out there your trying to better yourself, you're trying to better yourself as a martial artist in the martial arts but you're not alone. You're not the only person who, first off, doesn't read a lot of martial arts books are or even any books, we've had several guests on the show and in fact, some of the guests that they've asked too not be asked that question. So, people that have listened to a bunch of episodes, Mr. Osborne is certainly not the first one but if you do get the hankering for reading some martial arts books to a great places got quite a list built up of wreck of the day, that would be our site. The one that, you know. I'm get a guess, I always imagine that there's an audience out there yelling or talking to me, talking to you. There's this figurative group of people that hold me accountable and sometimes prompts me too ask questions and maybe I'd be a little nervous too ask but what I’m hearing from that audience out there right now is that as a taekwondo practitioner, if there's one book you read it would be A Killing Art which is this kind of very intricate story about all the backdoor dealings with taekwondo in Korea and it's probably, if it's not the most recommended book we had on the show, it's second too like book of five rings or something it's in the top few so that might be one that if you get, you get inspired too check out. But I don't read a lot of books either I tend to listen to podcasts a lot as you might imagine it is a good format for me so I’m in a good place here doing that. So how about your goals? Are there any martial arts related goals that you've got that are keeping you going, keeping you pumped up?
Richard Osborne:
Well I don't know if the enthusiasm of sport martial arts and martial arts in general has anyway came through my voice and in my talking, is in dealings with you today but my passion for martial arts is probably at an all-time high right now. You know the things that I am trying to do it again, I still like the Wikipedia site too fight, I still like to do those things but I know what my spot or my responsibility is too again we went back too talking about building up legends, building up the sports side, as far as me and let me say too the teaching aspect first, you know I teach too build, build people. I mean that is probably one of the things when I’ve talked about martial arts, character building or character improvement, building better citizens always save citizens but trying to build better people you know, not every kid I’ve got is gonna want too a tournament, or not gonna fight, but if I take a kid that had Asperger’s or adhd or maybe I take a child that they didn't have self-esteem and they branch out they do things and we improve or have an impact as a student, those are the things that keep me going. I have got kids all the time, sometimes my kids don't make it too greenbelt but the impact I have from white too green was enough for their parents too come too me years later and go Mr. Osborne you did an excellent job with my kid. You know, he's here she is a part of the student government they've got, we never thought that it would have a girlfriend or boyfriend, they’ve got a girlfriend or boyfriend. You know it's stuff like that keeps me motivated my impact with kids and my kids as different levels, each kid is going to have a different level of way I impact them and I hope that they get something out of what I’m trying to teach them in the school as far as the sport side of things is, I’ve I became a promoter in martial arts I have an event here in the Midwest it's a growing event my deal is too try and grow my sport, I want more players. I want more people involved like you're talking about you want more people too martial arts, I want more people in the martial arts also and I want them more the sport side of things. You know, we are one of the sports are like the x games back 20-30 years ago. You know, it's a sport that hundreds of thousands of people do the people don't pay attention too. I mean and we got a couple spots on espn ever once while at u.s. Open but you know people don’t realize that there's a tournament every weekend in the united states, January through December there's a tournament is a karate tournament somewhere in united states. You know, may not be a big tournament maybe a small tournament, maybe a midsize tournament, but there's a martial arts tournament going on somewhere every weekend there's hundreds of thousand people do it, there's millions that do it across the world now. It's a global sport and I want to leave my sport and I may not make it nationally too where I can make an impact nationally, I’m just looking at my four states and I call my four states, I am not here by myself there's lots of people too do the same thing I do in my four-state region but my personal goal is to make sure that you know as an aging demographic as a martial artist my kids and the kids that are coming behind me have something to go to when they get older. So, I want to leave something behind, I wanna make sure the sports better than the way I left it and the people before me left the sport better than when they left. You know, we got more divisions, we’ve got more things, we got more avenues for kids. So, my goal and my passion is too make sure that I take care of the ones that are next in line. You know I want they next kids to be showcased. I want the next Raymond Daniels too be you know, I hope he comes from Missouri or Arkansas, Oklahoma or Kansas. You know I want those kids too have the limelight, I want them to be able to be shown across the United States going look we've got talent and martial arts as a talent like football, basketball, whatever the sport is These are talented athletes too and here are their names and here's what they can do with social media and streaming and YouTube and Facebook. You know, there's a, our generation I think it's in its and I’m saying people that our age me and you, it's our job I feel like it's my job to use the resources we got now that the people that are our veterans that we look up to are with I'm not saying all of them, but some more are you know with the social technology and it's up to us to make sure that you know, the social aspect gets out there for the kids. So, you don't try to shorten this up as best I can, I can probably go on for another hour. But there are two sides to me, there's they teaching side and there's a sport side and both of this building. I need to build something to make it better than the way I found it. Not what I found was bad, not that what I found was negative, but I need to make it better than the way I found it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And I think that's a great way to be and it's a very admirable quality. And I applaud it. I mean certainly you know as an entrepreneur as the founder here at whistlekick, I’ve got that same attitude but you're right we could probably spend a whole hour on that who knows, maybe we'll have you back on the show with a whole different set of questions and we can dig into that.
Richard Osborne:
Sounds good.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But you did mention that you have a tournament so now's your chance too kinda promote yourself and what you've got going on. So, won't you tell us about that?
Richard Osborne:
Well I host the Ozark Mountain nationals. You know that the naming of a tournament, when you say nationals we draw from about seven states. This will be my sixth year in 2016 of hosting the tournament. It started back in 2010, we have one of the fastest growing open martial arts tournaments probably I don’t know if it's in the united states, but I would say definitely within six state region of me, we're one of the fastest growing. My first tournament I had by myself I did some tournament with my family and I started out on my own too do some stuff. My first tournament I had was in a small gymnasium in Ozark, Missouri had 50 competitors and this past year I have 321 competitors and in about 6 too 700 spectators, we little over a thousand people in our convention center and so we have grown a small 50-person tournament too hundreds of people competing drawing from different states, drawing from different organizations, getting people out that are not. You know, the thing up with my tournament that I probably separates is that you will meet somebody new. The people in the flyover states which are my states of Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, we have some great talent. Sometimes that talent is able, you know go out and make a name for themselves. We have a lot to tell they sometimes aren’t able to travel and so what I’ve done is try to build a national looking tournament, what I mean by that, nice convention center we have a multimillion-dollar convention center. We do, we’re getting ready to do this year we've added nighttime final showcase a lot of the adults over the years from national tournaments, is they don't like the nighttime finals from what I’m gathering and I don't want to stay that night but the parents and the kids love it. So, this year in my region, I'm hold the first time ever we're gonna stream in online, we're gonna do an all junior nighttime showcase. So, the kids that won in the day, they’re gonna come back and get up on stage, we’re gonna have sparring and fighting and we're gonna make something special, we're gonna stream it across united states and maybe even internationally, whoever picks up the stream and were gonna showcase the kids over and we're gonna make sure the juniors, were still gonna have a lot of adults. So, you know the tournament that I’m trying to build is just the diversity, you know, I want a diverse group I want people to come to my tournament and meet somebody new. I want them too maybe meet a school that we got one school that that comes my term and they only do one tournament a year. But they go too my tournament and that is the only opportunity that these other martial arts get too meet this group and this group is extremely talented but they only, they're not a sport, they just want to go one. So that's what I’m trying to build as I am trying to build something here that resembles a u.s. Open or a diamond nationals but you know it's on a smaller scale is not too that size yet but we bring in people that not everybody gets too see. You get too compete against people that you normally don't get too compete against, so it just gives a little bit different flavor, gives new faces and were trying to grow this thing into something big toward the Midwest. It’s got a big national tournament again.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And I think that's great now let's go back for a quick second you said streaming. So, I’m gonna implore you when you have the information with how people can watch that please, I’m hoping you and I are going to lose touch moving forward but you were both busy, regardless of how much we speak going forward, please get me that information so we can share that with everyone because that's something that I completely agree, should be happening, let's get more martial arts competition out there for people to watch even if it's on the internet to heck with tv.
Richard Osborne:
Yes, I most definitely will do that. We would definitely want to showcase. We want to show the rest of the world and the nation how talented these martial artists are and will definitely do that for sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Fantastic well this brings us to the end but do you have any parting advice? Any words of wisdom too leave everyone with?
Richard Osborne:
Well but in wear anybody out with my long answers. I mean that is the one thing that martial artist most instructors or are gifted with this is the gift of gab. I hope nobody fell asleep during this interview. I really tried to make sure I sometimes I don't want to cut myself off and sometimes I don't I just kinda keep rambling. So, I hope people have the passion like I do in martial arts in it and they see where coming from you know sometimes honesty is a big key with me you know there's limitations in my martial arts career, and there are some things I do well, some things that I don't do well and I hope that was portrayed today is that I recognize those things as I’m trying to improve on those and try to get better martial artist. I have not hit a peak or pinnacle or anything like that I'm still growing as a martial arts and still try to build and I’m still trying to bring people along with me too build on that aspect. So, you know, I love martial arts hopefully that translates with us talking.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It definitely did and I don't think anybody fell asleep listening too you talk. You had time and energy in your words so no worries there. Mr. Osborne, I really appreciate you coming on being here on the show.
Richard Osborne:
You bet. Thank you so much I really appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Thanks for listening too episode 34 of whistlekick martial arts radio and thank you too Mr. Osborne. Head on over too whistlekick martial arts radio.com for the show notes including links too Mr. Osborne's event, the Ozark nationals. We also have a video clip of the kitchen fight scene from above the law that we discussed. While you're there, if you want to be a guest on the show or you know someone that would be a great interview please fill out the guest form and don't forget to subscribe to our exclusive newsletter. If you want to follow us on social media we’re on Facebook twitter Pinterest and Instagram all with the username whistlekick. If you like the show, please subscribe too never miss out in the future and if we could trouble you too help us out briefly, please leave us a five-star review where have you downloaded this podcast. If we read a review on the air, just contact us and we'll get you a free pack of whistlekick stuff and don't forget to spread the word about our show too anyone that you think might like it. Remember the great stuff too make it whistlekick? Sparring gear, shirts, pants, and more all made for martial artists by martial artists. So, until next time, train hard, smile and have a great day.