Episode 1029 - The Martial Arts of Mowing Your Lawn

In this episode, Jeremy and Andrew talk about the martial arts of mowing your lawn. How are they connected? Listen/watch to find out!

The Martial Arts of Mowing Your Lawn - Episode 1029

SUMMARY

In this episode, hosts Jeremy Lesniak and Andrew Adams explore the connections between martial arts and everyday tasks, particularly mowing the lawn. They discuss the discipline required for both activities, the importance of mindfulness and awareness, and how these practices can lead to personal growth and reflection. The conversation emphasizes the value of good hard work and the joy found in completing tasks, drawing parallels between martial arts training and maintaining a well-kept lawn.

TAKEAWAYS

• Mowing the lawn requires discipline and commitment.

• Mindfulness can be achieved through routine tasks.

• Awareness is crucial in both martial arts and lawn care.

• Good hard work is a principle that applies to many areas of life.

• Training in martial arts can enhance everyday experiences.

• The act of mowing can be meditative and reflective.

• Making choices in training mirrors decisions in lawn care.

• Enjoying the process is as important as the outcome.

• Every task can be approached with a martial arts mindset.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction to Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio
05:04 The Discipline of Mowing the Lawn
10:00 The Importance of Awareness in Martial Arts
15:10 Mindfulness and Reflection in Everyday Tasks
19:48 The Connection Between Lawn Care and Martial Arts
24:50 The Value of Good Hard Work
29:53 Conclusion and Call to Action

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Show Transcript

Jeremy Lesniak (00:02.725)

What? Livestream? We're not live streaming. Why does it think... What is happening? Does it... Okay, that's good, because I would have been concerned. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to another episode of Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, hosted by two consummate professionals who always know everything that's going on, and we never make any errors whatsoever. My name's Jeremy.

Andrew Adams (00:08.95)

Mine just says record.

Andrew Adams (00:26.305)

Never.

Jeremy Lesniak (00:28.769)

Co-host here, President Wiselkegg, joined by my good friend, co-host, director of many things that we work on together, Andrew Adams. Thanks for being here, Andrew. Always fun to get together and pretend we know what we do. mean, host the world's number one top ranked traditional martial arts podcast. This will be an authentic episode. That's it. That's what we're doing. It's all about the authenticity.

Andrew Adams (00:42.168)

We know what we're doing.

Andrew Adams (00:52.43)

You

Jeremy Lesniak (00:54.881)

If you're new here, please make sure you head on over to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. Check out everything we've got going there. There are over 1,000 episodes that you can listen to. For the last number of years, we've also had them in video. You can watch them. If you would prefer to read them, there are transcripts of just about every episode. There are a couple old ones that we never ended up doing. But all of the episodes do have full show notes, links, videos, photos, all that good stuff.

to get more out of the episodes and for the Monday episodes, you can follow up with what people are doing and all that. And if you want to support us, check out the partner page. We've got a few partners up there, one of them being Marshallitics, the number one option for school management software, billing, attendance, all that good stuff. Great product, great people. Thank you to them for all their support. Now, if you are new,

You might also consider visiting whistlekick.com for all the things that we do. mentioned Andrew and I work together on other things. Marshall summit, the number one four day awesome 95 % of it is free training, networking and educational event and entertaining event in the martial arts world held in well, this year it's going to be in Keene, New Hampshire. It's been in Keene, New Hampshire last couple of years, uh, all in weekend, all the other stuff that we do go to whistlekick.com.

find all the stuff that we're doing and if you love what we do and if you're here you probably love what we do join the patreon. Patron.com slash whistle kick starts at five bucks you get a whole bunch of stuff coming back at you and to those of you out there who have stepped up and supported we appreciate you. That was a long intro. No it wasn't? Okay okay all right thank you thank you I felt like I was on a roll it's like bam what are the dogs

Andrew Adams (02:37.77)

No, that was good. It a great intro. That was great intro.

Yeah, now, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, going through the things.

Jeremy Lesniak (02:46.904)

One of the dogs just heard me stab and looked at me like, what are you doing over there? Yeah, yeah, I'm dog sitting. Hence, the different background.

Andrew Adams (02:55.032)

which you can only see if you're on YouTube, which make sure to hit that like and subscribe button. It really helps us out.

Jeremy Lesniak (02:57.669)

That's true.

or Spotify, which is actually called Spotify, but I'm going to call it Spotify.

Andrew Adams (03:02.894)

That's right.

Andrew Adams (03:06.958)

because you're Sean Kennedy.

Jeremy Lesniak (03:10.128)

Spock a fock. Break a nut. Spock a fock.

Andrew Adams (03:11.726)

He puts one of your men in the hospital, you put one of his in the morgue.

Jeremy Lesniak (03:19.156)

I like the brogue at the end on that. was nice. Morgue. was a little bit of a trill there.

Andrew Adams (03:21.644)

Yep. mean, here's the reality. Here's the reality. Sean Connery has a cool voice. I don't care. I just don't care. anything he, anything he says is cool. Right? Here's a shopping list. Ready? Glass of milk, cotton of eggs, cheese, Oreo cookies. It's cool.

Jeremy Lesniak (03:29.508)

He does. He does.

Jeremy Lesniak (03:41.136)

Okay, hold on. Who's buying milk by the glass?

Andrew Adams (03:43.982)

Okay, you're right. You're right. He's not buying glass of milk, but glasses of milk.

Jeremy Lesniak (03:47.534)

And you can you imagine like a drive thru milk restaurant where they're like, here's a glass of milk.

Andrew Adams (03:51.566)

I mean, they have drive through everything else. So, you know.

Jeremy Lesniak (03:55.665)

They do. All right. If anybody out there knows of a drive-through milk restaurant, I want to know about it. I'm not going to go because that's weird, but I do want to know if it exists.

Andrew Adams (04:00.974)

Mm-hmm.

Andrew Adams (04:06.026)

You know what else you can drive?

Jeremy Lesniak (04:08.707)

A lawnmower?

Jeremy Lesniak (04:12.356)

Sometimes. Did you?

Andrew Adams (04:13.602)

Sometimes you can not always work you can drive them.

Jeremy Lesniak (04:16.9)

Did you know that when I was very young, one of my first chores was mowing the lawn. I was responsible for the flat portion at my childhood home at about age eight. And when we got a self-propelled mower, I spent a significant amount of time trying to find the right balance so I could stand on it and hold the bar. So I could ride the self-propelled mower because I was light enough, but I couldn't make it work because it would

Andrew Adams (04:25.794)

Mm-hmm.

Andrew Adams (04:43.405)

Interesting.

Jeremy Lesniak (04:45.656)

It would dig in in the back and it would just chew up the grass. couldn't, I couldn't distribute my weight. Like I couldn't surf on it and hold it. It just wasn't now I'm old enough. Now I would know how to retrofit those wheels. I have those skills. I could do that, but I'm also wise enough to know that that is a terrible idea.

Andrew Adams (05:04.664)

Well, and instead you're old enough to realize rather than standing on the mower, you should create a platform that you can stand on while being behind it.

Jeremy Lesniak (05:12.954)

Well, that is also better, yes. And I'm more likely to just go buy a riding mower because of cup holders.

Andrew Adams (05:20.686)

That's true. You're right. Yep.

Jeremy Lesniak (05:23.856)

because it's all about the cup holders. Now today's episode is the martial arts of mowing your lawn. Now what does that mean? We could take some really kind of contrived surface level examples. Well, you're walking and that's exercise and that's good for you. Okay. We could also talk about, I don't know if you're pushing the mower or walking behind it, you could kick while you're doing it. Could also talk about, well, actually I'm going to stop there because

because the other examples I have are not contrived. But as we're recording this, it is May, it's May of 2025. It is a time that people are mowing their lawn. Andrew and I were talking about cutting the grass. I'm looking out over this beautiful lawn here that I'm not gonna show you, just to respect the privacy of the home that I'm in, staying in a friend's house, watching some dogs. And...

They spend a lot of time cutting the grass because it's a big yard. And I think when we spend enough time training, we can see not just the application of what we do in our actions, but we can start to see everything as martial arts.

Andrew Adams (06:42.44)

Mm hmm. Yeah, absolutely. And I think there's a lot of at least for me, as I'll speak for myself, there's a lot of synergy between martial arts and for me mowing the lawn.

Jeremy Lesniak (06:50.585)

Mm.

Jeremy Lesniak (06:54.894)

Yeah. Now, the first the place I'd like to start, it was actually the idea kind of the genesis of this topic is the discipline of it. Let's let's be real. I don't know too many people who say, you know, it is the most beautiful day.

Andrew Adams (07:02.796)

Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (07:16.816)

It's been a long week. I have. 27 social engagements with friend, family and friends, all of these wonderful things that I could go do, and I'm going to choose. To mow the lawn. Because it is the top of my list. It is the thing I most want to do.

Andrew Adams (07:37.549)

Yeah, yeah. There are people who may enjoy mowing the lawn, and I'm one of those people, but if given the choice, you know, go hang out with some friends or go to the beach or go swimming or whatever, or I get to mow the lawn, it's not going to be the lawn. That doesn't mean I hate mowing the lawn. I like mowing my lawn, but you're absolutely right. It's not at the top of my list.

Jeremy Lesniak (08:02.074)

So why do you bother?

Andrew Adams (08:04.162)

because it needs to get done. If it doesn't, then it's not an enjoyable place to hang out. You've been to my house, you've seen my lawn. It's not massively huge, but it's a good size yard and it's nice for entertaining. We've got some picnic tables and other lights out there and it's a nice place to hang out. But if the lawn is not mowed, it no longer becomes a nice place to hang out.

Jeremy Lesniak (08:11.664)

It's a good sized yard.

Jeremy Lesniak (08:31.162)

So I'm actually gonna adjust your language a little bit. You said it needs to get done. It doesn't need to. It's a want, but it's a want because of the benefits on the other side.

Andrew Adams (08:36.056)

Fair. It needs to get done.

Andrew Adams (08:42.962)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If we want to enjoy it as a usable space, it wouldn't be enjoyable if I didn't mow the lawn. So to me, that's why it needs to get done. But I get what you're saying. The, the, words there.

Jeremy Lesniak (08:53.712)

And that's where discipline comes in, right? And I felt it was important to hit that point because a lot of what we do in our training. You could describe it in the same way for a lot of people. Basics those fundamental things that we do are things that there's there's a. Almost a reverse bell curve, right? Bell curve. The middle is at the top. A reverse bell curve where.

early on in your training, everything is new. So people are excited by everything, including the basics. And in for most people in their martial arts journey at some point, and those of you out there, let's admit it, most of you can say this about yourself at some point, maybe you're saying this about yourself now.

We're doing this again. Why are we doing this in? Do we really have to do this again? I already know this, right? And so that's where the inverse comes in. So the enjoyment of the fundamentals goes down. But then most of us reach a point where we recognize, this is actually what it's all about. That the fundamentals are the foundation, the base. And we've used the metaphor, the taller you want to go, the more solid your foundation needs to be.

Andrew Adams (09:47.138)

Yep. Yep.

Andrew Adams (10:00.974)

Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (10:10.882)

So even if it's enjoyment for the same reasons, right? When we start, it's new and we tend to enjoy it because it's new. But as we've been doing it a long time, we enjoy it because we appreciate what it does for us and allows us to do. And I think that that is how I heard you describe mowing your lawn.

Andrew Adams (10:32.524)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would agree. I would agree 100 percent.

Jeremy Lesniak (10:37.198)

discipline. There is discipline in mowing your lawn. There's discipline in a lot of things, but we're talking about cutting the grass right now. How about details? Do you you trim or weed whack or edge or whatever you might call it?

Andrew Adams (10:51.334)

I do not as I'm very thoughtful of what I do. I don't go around my entire outside of my yard. and, and we'd whack, but we've got a couple of stumps in our lawn from old trees. had to get down, cut. We had to cut down and I will trim around those. you know, around the, sometimes I will move our picnic tables.

and then mow underneath it and then put the picnic table back. Sometimes I'll just, if I'm quote unquote getting lazy and I don't feel like, or I don't have someone to help me move the tables, I'll just mow around the picnic tables and then weed whack, come around with the weed whacker afterwards. But I don't do all of the edge all the way around the property because it's, you know, it is a decent size and that part is not as important to me.

Jeremy Lesniak (11:43.874)

It's about in its input versus output, right? It's.

Andrew Adams (11:46.765)

Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (11:49.741)

If you are training forms, you're probably not spending the same amount of time on each one. You're probably more focused on certain aspects of certain forms or certain forms in certain ways because

Andrew Adams (11:58.031)

Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (12:07.226)

the value proposition of the inverse of the out matters. You could go around, you could trim the whole outside edge. And there's a lot of linear feet of edge, because you've got that fence that doubles back and you've got a bunch of stuff there in your backyard. At the end of that time, was that the best use of your time? Was that the most disciplined use of your time versus what you find valuable? Probably not.

Andrew Adams (12:16.856)

Mm-hmm.

Andrew Adams (12:31.778)

Well, and again, you know, I'm talking about using our backyard space as a place to congregate and hang out. So I do weed whack around the fireplace, you know, because that's where we hang out. I don't hang out at the edge of the fence, like right on the edge of our property on the fence. So that part is not as important to me, but the fireplace, we do hang out by there. So I weed whack down there.

Jeremy Lesniak (12:57.808)

You might be watching or listening to this and saying, well, Jeremy, you should be practicing all of those things. You should be, you know, you should be disciplined enough to train all of your forms every time. But OK. So you do all of the things all of the time in every class. No, of course not. You're making decisions whether you are showing up to the class and someone else is making decisions for you as to what's happening in class or you're the instructor. You're deciding what's happening in class.

there is a decision there is a value there towards an end goal, right? Like, you're what I'm hearing you say for your goal, Andrew, you mow the lawn, because it gives you a place to use in the summer socially, in a way that is important to your family.

Andrew Adams (13:51.362)

Yeah, absolutely.

Jeremy Lesniak (13:53.261)

Every martial arts system school instructor makes similar decisions about how to use the environment. You could. Not mow your grass and it could be a huge garden. That would be another way of treating that space. I could teach Taekwondo or karate or there's only things I would really feel confident teaching. I could teach.

Andrew Adams (14:05.678)

Yep. Sure. Absolutely.

Mm-hmm.

Andrew Adams (14:19.022)

You

Jeremy Lesniak (14:23.13)

how to put Legos together all in the same environment. But I make a choice as to what I'm going to teach, not just as a system, as a curriculum, but as individual classes. Horns and gold. There's a desired outcome there.

Andrew Adams (14:42.956)

Yeah. And the space can be utilized in a multi, I'm talking my space, my backyard. I'm talking about socializing with friends, but I can utilize that same space to do a lot of different things. So the process of doing this one, what some would call chore, mowing the lawn, serves me many purposes, know, gives me many, there are many reasons for me to do it.

Right now we're talking about socializing with friends, maybe having a barbecue, but sometimes I'll have people come over or I'll just want to train outside on my own, like do my forums outside. So it is a space that serves multiple purposes.

Jeremy Lesniak (15:26.328)

In the intro, I was kind of throwing out some counter examples. And the one that I got to, said, no, I need to hold this is awareness. Awareness is absolutely critical in our training. Awareness is pretty important when you're mowing the lawn. Now, I don't just mean don't run over your foot, don't run over people, don't run over animals, frogs, snakes, hopefully you're not running them over. Sometimes you do, it's accidental.

But here, here's the one that I'm thinking of. And even if it doesn't happen to you, it's happened to your neighbor. You hear someone hit a rock and it makes that very distinctive sound. And what does everybody do? Right? There's a cringe moment when you, when you hear that, even if the mower keeps going, you're, right. In the same way that you've watched someone take a shot or a fall in training or in competition and you go,

Andrew Adams (16:21.934)

Mmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (16:25.38)

that hurts. Now, in this case, we're talking about it hurts the motor. The motor is probably okay, but there's still a visceral reaction to that sound.

Andrew Adams (16:29.038)

Yeah.

Andrew Adams (16:34.732)

Yeah. Well, and depending on what kind of rocket hit, sometimes that rock will get thrown and you're there's a safety issue. Yeah, for sure.

Jeremy Lesniak (16:40.932)

Yeah, yeah, there's a safety issue.

Yeah, don't don't mow over big rocks. And point them at people. Here's the question when you're driving down the road and someone's mowing the lawn and the discharge shoot is facing into the road, do you move into the other lane if you can?

Andrew Adams (17:00.795)

it has nothing to do with the discharge lane. If I see someone mowing their lawn, I always, yeah, yeah. If, unless I'm already on the other side of the street, you know.

Jeremy Lesniak (17:06.671)

You do it regardless. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, if I can, and actually this just happened yesterday. Yeah, yesterday I drew, I drove from Maine to Vermont and there's somebody who was out cutting the grass and I noticed the discharge shoot, shooting into my side and I was like, moving over. What's the chance they're spitting rocks out? Pretty slim, but it's not zero. I've got the opportunity. Let's be safe. And that's a nap. Go ahead.

Andrew Adams (17:35.33)

Yeah, yeah, I don't even, and I don't even look at where the shoot is. I just see a person mowing their lawn. Yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak (17:41.337)

Yeah, you do it regardless. Yeah, and that's and I'm not going to say that that people who don't train don't do that. I'm sure plenty of people do. But to me, that's a martial arts principle. I'm taking awareness and I am anticipating risk and I am mitigating the risk beforehand. And this is the same way if you talk to someone about self-defense that doesn't train. What's the chance that's going to happen? What's the chance that person on the mower pushing the mower?

Andrew Adams (17:51.118)

Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (18:10.872)

is going to kick a rock out. It's pretty slim. Unless they've newly spread a bunch of rocks, all those rocks are probably already gone, but it's not zero. Doesn't take a lot to mitigate. Let's just deal with it.

Andrew Adams (18:13.004)

Mm-hmm.

Andrew Adams (18:23.03)

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now, can we talk a little bit about the act of being the person behind the mower or sitting on the mower? I don't happen to have a riding lawn mower, so I'm behind pushing it. For me, as I mentioned at the outset of this episode, I actually enjoy mowing my lawn. I do gain pleasure from it, both from the act of when I'm done, I feel like I've accomplished something, but it is...

one of the few times in my life where I can't be distracted by much of anything else. I can't hear my phone ring. I've tried to put, I've even tried to put in like earbuds to listen to music. It's not loud enough to hear over the mower. So it is literally just me and the constant hum of the mower. And it is one of the few times where I really get to think. I don't have any other distractions.

I'm just going this way and I'm turning around and I'm going this way and I'm turning around and I'm going this way. And I don't. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't get that a lot in my life from day to day. My phone is always on me. Even if I'm in the car driving with no one else around, I could turn the radio off and just sit there and think, but the phone could ring and I'm distracted. Right.

Jeremy Lesniak (19:27.832)

It's meditative, is what I'm hearing.

Andrew Adams (19:48.065)

And the reality is I don't often do that. I will have a podcast playing in my car and, know, I'll be doing stuff or I'll be on the phone. So when I'm mowing my lawn, it's just me. And the last school that I trained at, not my current school, but my last school, we, after every class, we would clean the dojo. And I know a lot of schools do this, but, in Japanese it's called Sojido, which translated means mindful cleaning. And the instructor has said like,

When we're cleaning, it is actually not meant to be you're mopping the floor next to the other guy mopping his side and you're hanging out and you're talking. It is meant to be not a hundred percent silent, but this is your chance to reflect and think about what you trained today and use that time for you. Yes, you're cleaning the floor or you're dusting or whatever, but this is your chance to really concentrate on what you learned today.

For me, that's mowing the lawn. That's my time to think about what's going on and not just with training, but in life.

Jeremy Lesniak (20:53.744)

Yeah, yeah, I think I've had a similar experience and even even if I do have headphones in, you know, if I'm listening to music, because I grew up cutting grass for quite a few people in my neighborhood. So it was my first job was was cutting grass and.

Andrew Adams (21:10.19)

It wasn't selling candies at school, hard candy. Okay.

Jeremy Lesniak (21:13.772)

No, this is before that. This was before selling candy. No, I started cutting grass for money at like 12. I was riding my bike places to cut grass. I had one client that was 10 miles away. My mother would drop me off and I'd ride my bike back after. Yeah, it was a hike, but you know, when you're 12, what else are you going to do to make money? And.

Andrew Adams (21:26.222)

Hmm.

Andrew Adams (21:30.829)

Yep. Yep.

Jeremy Lesniak (21:36.547)

If you're listening to music, it's probably music you've heard before. So there's an element where you're a little bit detached from it and your brain starts to wander in the way that you're kind of talking about, you know, and the martial arts correlate that I'm thinking of is slow spine. If you are going appropriately slowly with people that you trust, you can disconnect a little bit and let your body respond. Now, if you're brand new to training, this doesn't happen.

But if you are moving slowly, disconnected, your body is just kind of doing its thing, which is not always what you want, but sometimes that is what you want. You might have a conversation with the person you're talking to, or maybe your mind is wandering. Maybe you want it to, or maybe you don't want it to, but it's happening anyway, right? Like there's something to be said for that instinctive motion, because I'm sure, Andrew, when you get to the end of the...

Mo and Rose or Square?

Andrew Adams (22:38.219)

Yes.

Jeremy Lesniak (22:39.696)

Okay, so when you get to the point where you need to make a turn, you don't stop and look and go, okay, I'm here. I need to go over there. One, because it doesn't take that long to make that decision to you don't even make that decision anymore. You probably have a routine for it. You go and you're not even thinking about it. It's just what what happens in the same way that when someone throws a punch at your face, you respond to it in some way.

Hopefully.

Andrew Adams (23:11.33)

Yeah. for me, I actually, I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to my lawn. I mow the lawn up and down one week, and then the next week I mow it side to side. And then the next week I go diagonal and the next week I go the other diagonal.

And the reason I do that and this is really dumb. I recognize this and I'm a little weird about it. But, if you always mow the lawn in the same direction, my, what I always worry about and I've, I have seen it, but if you're always mowed lawn in one direction, your wheels push the grass down and it doesn't actually cut the grass. And so if you always go the same direction, I don't want those, those, that grass to keep getting longer. So I mow it in a different direction the next time.

and then a different direction the next time. And then I have a nice, nicely manicured lung.

Jeremy Lesniak (24:06.32)

So my preferred way, my favorite way to cut the grass, and this is much more difficult to do on a rider, is I go this way, and let's say that my outer fingers are the wheels, I will come back and make sure that the wheel paths overlap. So there's a little bit. So there is a little bit of a loss of efficiency there, but it does exactly what we talking about. It tends to bring it back up.

Andrew Adams (24:21.559)

Mm-hmm.

Andrew Adams (24:25.816)

Sure.

Andrew Adams (24:30.894)

Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (24:34.48)

And if you're mowing slowly enough, you're good to go.

Andrew Adams (24:37.388)

Yeah, so but that's but you know, that's how I personally do it. I've never had it I've never I

Jeremy Lesniak (24:42.36)

Watch this be the most controversial episode we've ever done. People are going to write in, they're like, this is not how you cut the grass. We're going to get diagrams and everything.

Andrew Adams (24:50.862)

I've never had a riding lawnmower, but I suspect if I did, I suspect a, a basically square or circle. Like I would just do rotations. because you, unless you have a zero turn lawnmower, you know, you're not going to do rows cause it's difficult to do. now it's interesting right now I'm missing out on mowing my lawn because for those that don't know, I've had an ankle surgery. so I,

and my mobility is hindered and so I'm not able to mow my lawn and I kind of miss it. I kind of do.

Jeremy Lesniak (25:29.698)

Yeah. Yeah. And how does that relate to you training and not training and missing your training?

Andrew Adams (25:37.847)

it's absolutely the same. I miss not being able to train. haven't been... Okay, pause. I do train somewhat at home, little things here and there. Certainly training my mind, I'm still thinking about and talking about doing martial arts stuff, but going to the school and working with other students, I don't do it all. And I haven't since the middle of February. And it has been difficult for sure.

Jeremy Lesniak (26:05.123)

Yeah. Yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak (26:09.284)

And a lot of us have experienced that with injury, right? So I think, you know, what I'm thinking of here, and I don't know if there's anything else we so much want to put on the table, but I would be remiss now if I didn't acknowledge that, I suspect, number of our Chinese martial arts friends are saying, well, it's gung fu, it's all gung fu, right? The way that you approach cutting the grass can be the same way that you cooking a meal, hiking a mountain.

Etc. It's all the definition that you know, I'm not a Chinese martial arts practitioner. The definition that I've heard that I like the most is good hard work. Right. And I need the grass is is hard work. But it can be good hard work. don't you. Your choices on the hard work are whether or not to do it. Your choice on the good is is I think the more important part. If you're going to do it.

Andrew Adams (26:48.77)

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Jeremy Lesniak (27:06.574)

do it well, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well. And I think that that is probably the most important part for all of us. And I suspect that everybody out there, if you start to look at martial arts as gung fu as good hard work, you probably have a number of things in your life that you approach in that way. Maybe not all of them. You know, know plenty of people that don't approach their cooking that way. I know people who don't approach cutting the grass or cleaning their home in that way. But everybody I know has something outside of training that they.

that way.

Andrew Adams (27:37.014)

Yeah, yeah, I would agree. Absolutely.

Jeremy Lesniak (27:40.592)

Well, here's to wishing you some some good hard work cutting the lawn or.

making dinner or

Andrew Adams (27:54.094)

cleaning the bathroom.

Jeremy Lesniak (27:55.547)

Cleaning the bathroom. Yeah. OK.

I take pride in that when I do it.

Well, we take pride in the show and hopefully it shows. Hopefully you enjoy your time with us. If you're here, if you've watched or listened this far in, you certainly did. And so here's what we're going to ask of you. Please consider supporting us via Patreon so we can continue growing the show. It's not. Let's let's be real. We've been doing this long enough that if you don't join the Patreon, the show is going to continue. It will still be here. But if you like what we do, if you look back and you say, wow, this show has gotten better.

things have progressed, they continue to find new ways to improve. If you want to support that improvement, that does require resources. And your five bucks a month or more, because there are further tiers, does help us do that. So please consider patreon.com slash whistlekick. you know, Andrew, at some point, you and I need to talk about what the threshold is for taking that next step. Because actually, you know what we have, we have talked, I know where that is. And we are...

doing quick math, we're something on the order of like 15 people contributing $5 a month to making that change. It's not far off. And so when we've done that, what's going to happen? I'm not going tell you specifically, but I will tell you this. If you are in the Patreon, you will receive significantly more value at no additional charge because that's what we do. That's how we roll. We run things here at Listen Okay. Andrew, what else do we need to tell them?

Andrew Adams (29:14.883)

Mm-hmm.

Andrew Adams (29:33.175)

they should join our newsletter. We have a new, a new newsletter.

Jeremy Lesniak (29:35.554)

Hmm, that's right.

Yeah, yeah, and and what are they going to find in there? What is in that new dues letter? The new squared letter?

Andrew Adams (29:45.358)

So they're gonna get an email that's only about this show. It's not all whistle cake. It's just a show. You're gonna find out information That's correct, you're they're gonna get information on every episode that gets dropped they're gonna get access to a free book Which is really cool. And then we're gonna start posting some behind-the-scenes stuff

Jeremy Lesniak (29:53.388)

not just this episode, but Martial Arts Radio.

Andrew Adams (30:09.526)

I created a 15 minute movie remake of the karate kid that's going to be coming out, later in later in june I I promised I promised people that I would put that out there and you're only gonna see it if you're in that newsletter, so Go to whistlekick martial arts radio.com and hit the subscribe tab at the top

Jeremy Lesniak (30:15.632)

Well that's right. It's so fun. It's so fun.

Jeremy Lesniak (30:31.268)

direct links to the episodes, we email you the day it comes out. It's the fastest, easiest way to make sure you don't miss anything that we do. All right. Thank you to Martialytics. Thank you to Katara. Thank you to all of you. Thank you to Andrew. Thank you to the dogs. Thank you to the grass. Thank you to the blue sky. Thank you to everybody who makes this show what it is, everybody on the team and everything. So we appreciate you. And that brings us to the end of another episode, but...

Andrew Adams (30:45.88)

Thank you to the grass.

Jeremy Lesniak (30:58.712)

If you're going to miss us, make sure you go back because there's another thousand plus episodes. In fact, there are so many episodes that even if you have watched or listened to them all, you've probably forgotten some of them so you can do it again. Until next time, train hard.

Andrew Adams (31:14.008)

Smile.