Episode 1039 - Martial Things with “Uncle” Tommy
In this episode join Andrew in whistlekick’s new series called Martial Things. This week he sits down and chats with “Uncle” Tommy with a plan to talk about……. nothing. No plan, just a conversation to see where it takes them.
Martial Things with “Uncle” Tommy - Episode 1039
SUMMARY
In this episode of Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, Tommy Given shares his unique approach to martial arts, emphasizing community engagement through free classes. He discusses the importance of de-escalation techniques, the role of humor in conflict resolution, and personal experiences with injury and recovery.
The conversation highlights how martial arts can positively impact youth and the community, while also addressing the challenges and rewards of teaching martial arts without financial barriers.
They also discuss the importance of adaptability in both music and martial arts. They share personal experiences of overcoming challenges, the significance of teaching techniques that encourage flexibility, and the value of community engagement in martial arts. The discussion emphasizes continuous learning and the art of martial arts as a means of personal growth and connection with others.
TAKEAWAYS
Free martial arts classes can significantly impact local youth and families.
De-escalation techniques are crucial for avoiding physical confrontations.
Humor can be an effective tool in diffusing tense situations.
Teaching martial arts for free can challenge perceptions of value and quality.
Engaging with local businesses can help sustain community programs.
Martial arts training should adapt to the needs of students and circumstances.
The journey of recovery from injury can be both physical and emotional.
Adaptation is crucial in both music and martial arts.
Continuous learning is essential for instructors and students alike.
Martial arts training can be a lifelong journey.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
02:21 Tommy's Unique Approach to Free Martial Arts Classes
10:23 Building Community Support and Overcoming Skepticism
17:47 The Importance of De-escalation and Soft Skills in Martial Arts
24:31 Personal Healing and Resilience in Martial Arts Training
33:48 Teaching Techniques: Adapting Martial Arts Instruction
38:28 The Art of Martial Arts: Philosophy and Practice
41:25 Training and Community: The Importance of Continuous Learning
After listening to the episode, it would be exciting for us to know your thoughts about it. Don’t forget to drop them in the comment section down below!
SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Andrew Adams (01:01.902)
Welcome your listening and or watching to the next episode of whistle kick martial arts radio and today I'm joined by Tommy Given affectionately known as Uncle Tommy by many people. Tommy, how are you doing today?
Tommy Given (01:15.77)
I'm doing well, thanks. How are you?
Andrew Adams (01:17.866)
I am great. I'm excited to sit down and chat about nothing, which you, if you're a new listener, you might be wondering, how are they going to chat about nothing? Well, hang on. You'll find out in just a moment. If it is your first episode, first off, welcome. We are super happy to have you here with us. We here at Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio do a lot of things. This podcast is one of them. what Whistlekick does, all kinds of other things. And if you go to whistlekick.com, you will find out.
all of the things that we do. Maybe you want to find out information on our events that we run around the country. Maybe you want to get, maybe you want to purchase something like a t-shirt or a hat or something. Maybe you want to buy a book. Tommy's got a whistle kick shirt on right now. Maybe you want to buy a book. Maybe you want to purchase a training program to get faster. Maybe you're interested in joining Whistlekick Alliance, which is our exclusive school owner program.
Tommy Given (02:10.719)
you
Andrew Adams (02:12.406)
All of that information can be found at whistlekick.com. If you go to whistlekickmarshallartsradio.com, you will find information on this show. You can join our newsletters. There is a subscribe button at the top. So you'll get notified when every episode comes out. You also at that website, you'll find transcripts and extra photos and all sorts of other things about all of the guests that we have. And if you would like to help support the show, you know, our goal here is to connect, educate and entertain.
Tommy Given (02:27.917)
you
Andrew Adams (02:40.772)
Traditional martial artists of the world if you'd like to help us achieve that you can do that by helping support us financially through patreon patr eon.com forward slash whistle kick and For as little as five dollars a month. That's that's less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks these days For five dollars a month. You really truly do make a difference and help make this show happen So we would certainly appreciate anything you can do over there. And even if you can't
Tommy Given (02:54.462)
Okay.
Andrew Adams (03:09.466)
contribute financially Maybe you will share this episode with a friend tell somebody about it Help us spread the word and help us to educate entertain And connect all of the martial artists traditional martial artists that we can But here we are you and I tommy the goal is to have no goal. This episode is a martial things Should we call it martial things with uncle tommy? Yeah, so there we go martial uncle tommy we're
Tommy Given (03:34.533)
Sure, right now. There we go.
Andrew Adams (03:38.67)
here to just hang out and chat martial arts. So Tommy, what's going on in your world these days, martial art wise? What's up?
Tommy Given (03:45.903)
Well, martial art wise, kind of a lot. It's that time of year. I've been judging and refereeing a lot of the local tournaments and that kind of thing and some not so local. That always keeps me busy and scheduled to do a lot of seminars coming up. Actually, I got one with our friend Abby at Elements coming up in a couple of weeks.
with Cipu Steve, he's gonna be joining us there. I'll be at Aaron Hoops up at Dragon Mountain soon. I'm working on a schedule with Craig to do the Karate International down there in Exeter, New Hampshire. Just all over, I have one scheduled in Boston. I'm supposed to meet up with Mark again, Mark Warner over there in Ipswich. I have a few invites and then in upstate New York, I, you know.
different schools too. yeah, I'm, I'm fairly busy plus my own school that I'm running and then my daily workout. So it's fun.
Andrew Adams (04:48.314)
Now, your school is interesting in that it is one of the few schools that I know that it is 100 % free for students to come and train with you. You hold the class weekly, as I understand it, on Wednesday nights, but you don't charge anything. And it's not like you couldn't. So you and I haven't talked a lot about that, but I'm curious what made you decide to
Offer a martial art class for free.
Tommy Given (05:19.179)
Right, well, it was a gradual thing. I don't want to say I woke up one morning and voila. But, you know, living on my history, I suffered with juvenile diabetes since a very young age. And my family always said that martial arts has kept me alive. And then I also was involved in a lot of other things where martial arts helped me out a lot. I high-detail security.
worked for Wells Fargo and Pinkerton and, you know, Wackenhut, Burns International, just name a few. And then when I became a lineman, an electrical lineman, I was still teaching on the side, but for other people at other schools and they would bring me in or I would do a weekly class there. And then when I retired, I started out first with just law enforcement and military vets. And I lived next to
Norwich Academy, which is the second oldest military Academy in the country. It's the next town over. So I was doing, I was doing a class there already and they were paying me, I don't know, whatever it was, not a lot. And I'm like, you know what, let's, let's offer a free one for law enforcement and military. So I, I asked around the local businesses and that kind of thing.
Next, know, the space donated as long as I didn't charge, they wouldn't charge me. Then I went around to the local businesses and they said, listen, you do this, we'll pay your insurance. So, which was the biggest nut in having a school, because we do spar, we do break-in, we do actual self-defense, it's all realistic. So, and it's...
combination of Kung Fu and other styles, so there's contact involved. And they were just all for it. And so after about three months, my little town, like a lot of Northern New England towns, was devastated with the opioid crisis. And I'm going back almost 15 years ago now. And there's just nothing for kids to do around here, especially in the winter.
Tommy Given (07:46.738)
There's the ski resorts that's not for everyone nor is it affordable for everyone I don't even know what a lift ticket costs these days So I said let's open it up to the community and they all joined on board And I do it was my way to give back to I love giving back. It's the way I am. I volunteer for other stuff You know outside of martial arts as well, and it it just seemed like a natural fit So I advertise just in a
Andrew Adams (07:52.058)
Mm.
Tommy Given (08:15.466)
on Facebook and then the little, you know, front porch forum kind of thing. And been going ever since. it's, there's a lot of students. So it's pretty good. I have an all ages class at five where the youngest one is four and the oldest one is 84. I have a traditional weapons class where we do see a in Arnis and Eskrimah and other, you know, Kalai. And then I do a Kung Fu self-defense.
advanced class after that, but it's all free. then on the side, at local campground, I do a women's self-defense, a single mothers kind of thing. And it's an overall self-defense. It's not strictly martial arts. It's awareness, kind like what Jason Brick does, you know, in that whole awareness part of things. And then I also teach in three of the local public schools.
Andrew Adams (09:14.5)
Yep. So, mean, and when you think about it, when you run a martial arts school, you've, I would say you probably have your two biggest expenses are likely location, whether it's rent or you mortgage, if you own your own building, which I know is rare, but some people do it. But you know, your location is probably your biggest expense. And then your secondary expense would be your insurance and you you're able to offer these free classes because your space is
donated for free and you mentioned you have local businesses donating enough money to cover your insurance.
Tommy Given (09:53.747)
Right, it's not just businesses too. There's a church involved that got on board with it. The building that we're in now is actually the, we take over the basement of this church and converted over to my school. It's not a religious class, don't get me wrong. It's completely secular in that sense, but it is a good family environment. So they just, they welcomed it they look at it as kind of an outreach the same way that I do.
Just security, not preaching anything, just here we are. And it's nice too, because there's a shower facility there. So we'll bring in homeless people and let them take a shower, give them something to eat. Just being neighborly, I guess, for lack of better term. And put my skills out there, yeah.
Andrew Adams (10:25.476)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Adams (10:42.21)
Yeah, yeah. And that makes sense. And, and, know, you are doing something for the community because you're giving a place for these kids to go if they don't have anything to do, right? You're, keeping them occupied. You're, working with them and then teaching these other, you know, women's self-defense classes and things like that. So it makes it, it's nice to see that a community, has gotten involved. Now I have to imagine that didn't just, you weren't sitting on your couch one day and all of a sudden.
businesses called you, I mean, you had to go out and be involved with your community first, right?
Tommy Given (11:16.86)
Well, I did solicit a lot. I'm fairly well known. I I live in a town of, you know, 3,500 people, so we've met. So, but the biggest part was in the beginning is like, there were two schools of thought, two camps. One was, he can't be that good if he's teaching for free. And then the ones who knew me were like, dude, with your credentials.
Andrew Adams (11:24.922)
Sure.
Andrew Adams (11:40.75)
Mmm.
Tommy Given (11:46.204)
Why would you teach for free? And it took, that bridge was the hardest part to show people like, you you can be good at something and still volunteer your time. You know, kind of like Habitat for Humanity. You those laborers, those carpenters, those electricians, those plumbers are the tops of their trade, but they volunteer their time to get back. And I did a lot of the Habitat for Humanity when I was...
Andrew Adams (12:12.282)
Yeah.
Tommy Given (12:16.193)
know, electrical alignment. So we would go into a place and that probably that's where the birth of it came if I'm being totally honest.
Andrew Adams (12:26.628)
Yeah, I dig it. you know, getting out in the community and getting that community support is huge. And how long have you been doing that now?
Tommy Given (12:39.855)
I think our 10th year anniversary is coming up soon.
Andrew Adams (12:44.228)
Wow, 10 years.
Tommy Given (12:44.763)
Yeah, yeah, 10 years in the look at where we are now as Green Mountain Martial Arts Club. Yeah.
Andrew Adams (12:50.522)
Yep. Now we are recording this in July, which in New England tends to be a little hotter. We typically during the summer, a lot of schools will have a drop in students. Is that something that you manage? And how do you manage that in your school? Do you have a lot of that?
Tommy Given (13:05.287)
I probably have less than most schools because it is a a lot of my lot of the people that come in are not ones to go on vacations or Sport camps and that kind of thing some do obviously There are some but I also gained because a lot of my older students
even from when I used to be a paid teacher. If they're on college, now they're home. So they come in and they hang out. I get a lot of those. The Military Academy, they come in during the summer because they're looking for things to do. Not all of them go back home and they're just on campus because that's a secular school as well. They have a big nursing program and other things. And then it kind of rotates. And then I teach at the summer camps.
Andrew Adams (13:42.765)
Mmm.
Tommy Given (14:04.633)
So they bring me in. One of the people that brings me in is a former student of mine. So she's like, listen, this guy, all these kids out here in field, it'll be a blast. And they're like, well, he's just going to give them orders. no, he'll be out there with them. So we did our mudsliding last week when it was raining. We just set up the hill, did mudsliding. But you had to come up and do a kung fu move about the person already waiting.
Andrew Adams (14:26.67)
You
Tommy Given (14:34.385)
So they go down the mud, they have to get up and they do like a one or two steps firing kind of thing or defend yourself and then they rotate. So I had like, know, 18 kids up there rotating, doing this mud slide, getting up and going at it. So yeah. And of course I joined the line. yeah, yeah. But when I got up, they just kind of run. So, but it was, was fun. It was fun.
Andrew Adams (14:51.248)
my gosh, I love it.
yeah, yeah, naturally.
Andrew Adams (15:01.336)
Sounds like a lot of definitely very unique, you know, not not many not many people I know of are teaching classes in the mud
Tommy Given (15:09.125)
Well, what happens if you're in a scenario though? I mean, the world doesn't stop for no one. So if it's raining out and an idiot thing happens, you know, you know.
Andrew Adams (15:20.632)
Yeah, mean, absolutely. mean, I think it was, was chatting with, Tashi Mark about, know, that exact sort of thing, like training in different environments because you never know.
Tommy Given (15:33.988)
Yeah. Have you ever hung out with Mark for a day?
Andrew Adams (15:38.082)
I mean only at events only at events.
Tommy Given (15:38.47)
Toshi. Toshi is that kind of guy where you're walking in a parking lot and all of a sudden, like, okay, we're behind this car. What are you going to do? I mean, he lives that. is, he, if we're, if you're hiking in the woods, it's, you know, he brings his comber out and just kind of goes with it. And whatever you're wearing, if you're in street clothes, he'll just say, listen, let's, let's try something. And, know, he, he, he lives that. He truly, so he's a unique guy too. Yeah.
Andrew Adams (15:47.545)
Mmm.
Andrew Adams (16:05.614)
That's very true.
Unique is a great word to describe him. Although, you know, a lot of people might say the same of you, Tommy.
Tommy Given (16:15.363)
Well, the slattering. So, I know, I look at myself, I'm probably more eclectic than unique. You know, I have, well, I don't know, so you tell me. Like.
Andrew Adams (16:18.042)
You
Andrew Adams (16:28.562)
I mean, unique is, I mean, eclectic is lots of different things, right? Unique is, you know, unique, not one of a kind, but very rare, you know? You're unique, yeah.
Tommy Given (16:34.221)
Right, right.
Tommy Given (16:40.078)
yeah, that works. Yeah, so my love for hound dogs is kind of unique.
Andrew Adams (16:49.21)
That's true. You do have a big love of hound dogs
Tommy Given (16:52.485)
He's staring at you right now.
Andrew Adams (16:54.734)
Do they join you in class?
Tommy Given (16:57.081)
Yes.
Andrew Adams (16:59.29)
Okay.
Tommy Given (16:59.686)
Sam used to, the one that passed. Sam did all the time. Cooper does, but Cooper has the, he has a typical hound dog, the attention span of nothing. So, but he loves to play, he'll hang out, you know, he'll definitely, especially when I'm teaching outside. So yeah, they come in, and in the winter if it's like storming out, but class didn't cancel or whatever, he's with me. know, thunderstorms, I take him with me if there's like a threat of thunderstorms.
Andrew Adams (17:16.676)
Yep. Yep.
Tommy Given (17:29.753)
because he's a dog, he doesn't like them. So I take them. But and the kids love them and they do love them too. yeah, yeah. So but being a hound dog, he has an odor. what's a... So yeah.
Andrew Adams (17:38.414)
Well, of course. Of course they do.
Andrew Adams (17:45.496)
Okay, now how do you defend against that then?
Tommy Given (17:48.909)
you walk away or you just embrace the suck as some people say because you know he's a hound dog so they had that oily you know it's not bad I'm exaggerating now yeah but sometimes if no one's met them and they go to give them a hug you can see their face like you know yeah that's that's the hound dog so
Andrew Adams (18:00.617)
of course, of course.
Andrew Adams (18:10.894)
But, know, I jokingly said, how do you defend against that? And you gave a perfectly appropriate answer, which was you walk away. know, one of the best ways to not get into a fight is to, or one of the best ways to not get beaten a fight is to not get into a fight.
Tommy Given (18:20.056)
Thank
Tommy Given (18:26.383)
Yeah, not being it, right. Yeah. It wasn't, walk a mile to avoid a fight, but once you're in it, don't back down an inch. Is that, I think I've heard that said. Avoid it, you're not being there, Yeah. Well, it's like the end of the dragon, Bruce Lee sending the guy out on the Island or in that little boat. Yeah. You're fighting all by yourself. So.
Andrew Adams (18:37.09)
Yeah, yeah, but if you can avoid the fight altogether, you're definitely not going to lose.
Andrew Adams (18:47.556)
yeah yeah yeah, sure.
Andrew Adams (18:51.418)
Yeah, I mean, there's there's a lot of wisdom in that. And I you know, and I know we've talked about it before on this on the show, Jeremy and I have, know, if you if you have the opportunity, if you want to learn self-defense and you've got one guy over here that has never that's never been in a fight ever in his life.
and then you've got another guy over here who's been in, you know, a gazillion street fights, where would you go?
Tommy Given (19:25.294)
for pizza at that point in time. mean, you have to kind of come together. The guy who is obviously skilled and been there and should be aware enough to realize, okay, this is not, it's not gonna go well for him. mean, save a little, yeah.
Andrew Adams (19:40.53)
Yeah, like why is it but but no my point is if I want to learn from somebody I've got this guy over here I could learn from that he's been in five Thousand street fights and then you've got this guy over here who's never been in a fight in his life because he's avoided them always he has learned how to Not get into a fight
Tommy Given (20:01.132)
All I see you saying, yeah, that's wisdom there, right?
Andrew Adams (20:04.09)
Yeah, like, you know, if this guy over here has learned has had the opportunity or potentially could have been in fights and was able to extricate himself verbally or whatever, like that's the guy I want to train with. Like, why is this guy over here? Why has he been in 500 or 5,000 fights or whatever? Like, is he just a jerk? Like, I don't want to learn from that guy. He's going to teach me how to get into fights.
Tommy Given (20:15.906)
Right.
Tommy Given (20:19.931)
Yeah.
Tommy Given (20:26.459)
That's.
Right, right. He could be a bully, narcissistic bully, or jerk like you said, or nosy ass skills for whatever, know, exploiting. Yeah. Yeah, I agree with you there, 100%.
Andrew Adams (20:44.036)
You know, those soft skills, as people often call them, right? The being able to avoid, you know, those things are probably the hardest things to learn.
Tommy Given (20:50.147)
Yeah.
Tommy Given (20:59.33)
I would agree.
Andrew Adams (21:00.474)
You know, like I could teach anybody to punch and kick and you know, how to, you know, do this take down or whatever, blah, blah, blah. But being able to learn those soft skills of how to check your ego and walk away and, you know, extricate yourself or, you know, verbally deescalate the situation. People call those the soft skills, but those are harder to learn.
Tommy Given (21:25.633)
The heart and it's true confidence at that point too. Good, cause you know you're going to hear it. Yeah, so like I said, especially like my time, you know, chances that we've met so.
Andrew Adams (21:37.764)
That's fair. Yeah. Yeah.
Tommy Given (21:39.267)
But you're right though. that other point too, and that is, what is that quote? A peaceful warrior is somebody who's capable of great violence but chooses not to. So, versus harmless or a bully, right? Those are the other two extremes. So yeah, that's good stuff.
Andrew Adams (21:54.522)
Yep. Yep.
Andrew Adams (22:02.564)
Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew Adams (22:08.267)
Do you have some of those verbal de-escalation tricks or things like phrases that you use that you teach your students that you can
Tommy Given (22:19.107)
Oh, I do. And well, it's kind of my personality as well, because I can be a smart mouth. So, um, and fairly quick, you know, witted. So, but it depends on the situation. I mean, I remember, you know, like one de-escalation said, listen, like when I was doing security, look, I don't want to fight and you don't want a broken arm. That gets them thinking it up when they realize, okay, wait a minute. Now, could that escalate that? It can be a little tagging. But.
There was, it was kind of like my job to put that in check a little bit. And then I would say, listen, you know what? We don't have to do this. And then, you know, I would, I would many times, um, start bringing up, listen, I'm diabetic. I can only go for a diet coke. You want to go for a soda. then that will deescalate a lot too. Another one is, just because you have an emotion, doesn't mean it's a good one. And it doesn't mean you need to act on it. So what, where do you want to go from here?
Andrew Adams (22:52.666)
Yeah, yeah,
Andrew Adams (23:14.02)
Sure, sure.
Tommy Given (23:17.576)
If it's a heated argument, you know, at that point, I tell a lot of them, sit down and write a note and then give it to them. And they're like, why? Because you can't read and speak at the same time. And so it just seems like, I'm sorry, or I don't want to go there. Just a little thing, or even write it on your phone and show it to them. Just there it is. then I also try to find comedy in
Andrew Adams (23:25.594)
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (23:35.055)
Yeah, yeah,
Tommy Given (23:47.402)
in it as well. You know, and I don't know, I can't come up with one off the top of my head at the second, but something to turn that hard situation into something funny. You know, hey, listen, I really don't want to be at the 6 o'clock news tonight, do you? And that, yeah, it works, right? So, you know, the only time I really like where I have to put my temper and check at that point, then I walk away. just simply.
Andrew Adams (23:57.314)
Yeah, yeah.
Andrew Adams (24:03.064)
Yeah, I get that.
Tommy Given (24:15.809)
Or back away. I should say I don't turn my back necessarily and walk away But you know I back away and say listen, this is not this ain't good You know
Andrew Adams (24:19.513)
Yeah, yeah,
Andrew Adams (24:26.19)
Yeah, yeah. I think, you know, it's difficult for some people to put their ego aside, right? Because it's not a, there's no, nobody wins in a street, nobody wins in a fight, right? In a real fight. Nobody wins, right? You might walk away, but that doesn't mean you won, right? The one that I have, and I've used this, I've actually, this is something that has worked for me.
Tommy Given (24:39.306)
Never. Right.
Tommy Given (24:52.747)
Okay.
Andrew Adams (24:54.842)
Often these types of things will happen in a drinking establishment, a bar, a pub or whatever. when someone else, you know, like I was looking, was, this is the scenario that I was in. was watching the door cause I was waiting for somebody to come in. That was with a couple of people and we're waiting for a third person to come in. And this guy and his girl happened to be kind of in line of sight. So.
It looked, I kept looking at the door, but to this guy who had clearly had a couple of drinks, I'm looking at his girl and I keep looking at her and he eventually, I didn't even, I mean, I saw that he was there, but like I wasn't looking at the two of them. I was looking at the door and he finally, he like slams his beer down and it's like, hey man, what are you looking at? And I could have obviously just said, I'm not looking at you. I'm looking at the door, but
Tommy Given (25:41.464)
Right.
Andrew Adams (25:54.626)
I could be lying, right? He doesn't know. He's obviously had a few beers. So I said, I'm so sorry. Is your name Josh? And he's like, what? No. And I was like, I'm, really sorry. You look just like my friend, Josh, from high school, who I haven't seen in like 25 years. I am so sorry. I swear. I thought you were Josh. you know, Hey, let me buy you a beer, you know, whatever. But I, in this case, I didn't have to buy him a beer, but, like
Tommy Given (25:57.459)
Right.
Tommy Given (26:01.751)
Yeah.
Tommy Given (26:18.304)
you
Andrew Adams (26:23.8)
just something to like make them realize it's not what i thought it was
Tommy Given (26:28.308)
So we actually do a class on that a couple of times a year and we bring like Sifu Steve Watson in there because he has a very jolly personality and and it will are you know or there's a lot of people that can do it but we go over those same scenarios and and I remember one somebody saying they did that only the girl he's like you know are you melody and then
kind of brushed it off. And I remember one time this guy was like, you know, what are you looking at? I was like, that shirt, man, where'd you get that shirt? It literally diffuses, you know, that, that scenario, you know, or like, you know, what's wrong with you? My mom died, you know, it's the anniversary of it. And you just kind of deescalate, even though that's a sad one, it, it, takes the emotion that charged, you know, out of it. I even seen a video, there's a guy on YouTube that, that he calls it,
Andrew Adams (26:59.49)
Yeah, exactly.
Tommy Given (27:22.473)
think he calls it BS BBJ or something, but how to talk your way, how to deescalate or verbal jujitsu. That's what he calls it. Yeah. And do you know Jim Berger or Jeff Berger? Okay. Yeah. He does a lot of those too. And being in Boston, he's mastered that skill. So, and for him, it's just bring up the Red Sox or Patriots and you can pretty much, know.
Andrew Adams (27:31.962)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Andrew Adams (27:38.33)
Not personally.
Andrew Adams (27:52.181)
Ha ha!
Tommy Given (27:53.227)
Or the Bruins and deescalate anything so. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool.
Andrew Adams (27:55.992)
Yeah, yeah, that's true. That's true.
Andrew Adams (28:02.436)
So what else? What else is going on? What else can we chat about?
Tommy Given (28:08.532)
I don't, well, they're, let's see the, well, how are you doing? Like, I mean, so surgery, post surgery now and,
Andrew Adams (28:19.374)
I'm good, good, I just...
Yep, yep. it's been my surgery was in February. It's now July. And it's you know, I had two surgeries. One was on the ankle, so on the side of the foot. And that is healing and doing really well. I also had a surgery on the bottom of my foot, on the ball of my foot. And that's causing me way more difficulty right now in terms of healing and and, you know, getting back to normal.
Tommy Given (28:50.958)
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (28:51.738)
Uh, you know, my my foot is still numb. Uh, it's still difficult to I I can't walk 100 I kind of still hobble. I don't need a cane anymore, which is nice. Um, I think uh
Tommy Given (29:05.791)
It's in your base foot or your high hat foot?
Andrew Adams (29:08.57)
It's my bass drum foot. So for those that don't know, I, uh, I'm a drummer and I play in a, uh, in a rock band. just got back yesterday from a in Pennsylvania and it's my right foot and I'm right-handed. So it's my bass drum foot. Uh, and having to work through that has been difficult. Um, but I, I also, haven't been to class. I haven't been able to really train with my instructor. I'm still doing stuff on my own at home.
But for the most part, you know, I haven't been doing a ton. And so my plan is on Thursday to go to class for the first time. So I'm really excited about that.
Tommy Given (29:43.633)
Do you find that emotionally the healing part is as much mental?
as it is physical for you right now or you pass that part where you realize that you are injured and it's going to take time.
Andrew Adams (29:57.816)
Yeah, I think I'm past it mentally. I think it's important to if you are, and I know I've talked about this in past episodes, but if you are going to go through a surgery, make sure you go in with a clear understanding of what your recovery will be like. For me, I did not expect the recovery to be what it was. Now it makes sense that it is what it is.
But I didn't think of it because I had never had surgery before like this. know, when I, before the surgery, he said that my surgeon said that I'd have to be non-weight bearing for six weeks. So the surgery was in February, mid February. So I'm like, okay, six weeks. So by the end of March, I'll be able to, you know, put weight on it and start walking again. And he's like, yes. Well, that's only partially true. Yes, I could put weight on it and I could.
start walking, but I mean, I should be putting walking in air quotes because I wasn't walking. I'm still not truly walking. It's July and my surgery was in February. so I didn't have a clear understanding really of what my recovery would be like. but, but I, mentally now I'm past that it is what it is. I just have to keep going and you know, move past it and keep doing the best I can.
Tommy Given (31:23.678)
Yeah, anytime I've had a serious injury, I mean, I'm a knucklehead, so I'll just pop out of bed and then realize, you idiot, you can't do that. So now I'm crawling down the hallway or back into bed to repicture myself. Oh man, or you hit your hand kind of thing. For a while, I had hand surgeries, I had three of them.
Andrew Adams (31:52.92)
Wow, you have three hands.
Tommy Given (31:54.577)
Well, not two in one hand and one in the other, but that's good. But for the longest time, I could not grip my electrical pliers right. So a lineman that can't carry his pliers, that was, you know, that was tough, you know, mentally. I mean, I got around it, you you start using your left hand more or whatever, for that, just to grab it and go, that took a while.
Andrew Adams (32:12.772)
Sure, sure.
Andrew Adams (32:18.906)
And that's a martial trait in and of itself, right? Just keep going. You have to find a way to make it work.
Tommy Given (32:21.819)
Yeah, it is.
Right, right. So, you know, and I did all kinds of things. I put gauze in between it. I used my left hand a lot more. I'm fairly ambidextrous, so wasn't that tough. My left hand is not as strong as my right hand. So if I had to really twist on something, so then I, you know, I was able to put a bar in the plier and kind of use that as a crank. You know, just figuring stuff out to make it work. Just like in martial arts, you know, when...
Andrew Adams (32:46.617)
Mmm.
Tommy Given (32:52.381)
I don't know how many times, you probably have through this, you go to class and the students that you thought were going to show up didn't and the ones that did show up you haven't seen in three or four months. That curriculum that you had in your mind that day was not going to work. You have to be on the fly and go with it. And that will usually end up the funnest class because you're totally just going off the seat of your pants.
Andrew Adams (33:04.282)
Mm.
Andrew Adams (33:08.783)
Yep. Yep.
Tommy Given (33:19.631)
and go with it. So, or I'll ask them what they want to do and those become fun. You know, so that's always a good thing too. Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (33:31.322)
You know, yeah, you find a way to alter it, you make it work. And I had to do the same thing with drumming because, you know, my right foot is the foot that's hurt. And a month and a half, like I just barely been able to like start walking. I got asked to audition for this rock band. And, know, I was upfront and honest with them and said, Hey, like, I would love to do this. It sounds like a lot of fun, but
I just barely had surgery on my foot like six, seven weeks ago. Like I don't even know if I could play drum set. And so, you know, after a couple of weeks of going back and forth and talking on the phone with them, you know, I said, all right, I'm going to give this a try. But what I did, and I'm really smart and drummers in the audience will know exactly what I'm talking about, but I'll try to describe it as best I can. So when you play, if you're right handed, your right foot is on the bass drum.
Well, I started out, I went down to my drum set and I tried and my right foot said, absolutely not. What the heck are you trying to do? I'm not ready to do this yet. So I switched everything on my drum kit to the opposite side so that I was pretending to be a left-handed player. And I put my left foot on the bass drum and
When you play drum set, have to use both feet anyway. So it's not super uncommon to do, but it's not done a lot. And I started playing lefty and I was like, you know what? This isn't too bad. I could do this, but it got to be a pain to switch my drum set back and forth because
Uncle Tommy (02:15.387)
I'm going to tell you how to do the Phil Collins thing.
Andrew Adams (02:18.061)
So, so I was like, this is a pain. So I actually went and I bought a double bass drum pedal, which exists. you put it on your bass drum. This is for the audience. I know, you know what I'm talking about, Tommy, but you put on your bass drum and you've got two pedals, one for your right and one for your left. And both of them connect to a beater that hits your bass drum. So now I could leave my drum set set up for right-handed, but I could use my left foot.
to play the bass drum. So I had to adapt. found a way to adapt to make it work. And then after a while, my right foot got comfortable enough to be able to play. And so it's not as big an issue now. My right foot is still not what it was before the surgery, but I can play my bass drum with it, which is good.
Uncle Tommy (02:48.519)
There are
Uncle Tommy (03:10.048)
So that totally un-Marshall Arts related for a second though. I did watch the clips of you guys and dude, I'm a fan now. When you're up in this area, I already talked to Aaron. We're going to go to that festival. We're going to if we can drag like Corey and other people from Vermont over there. Yeah, it'd be good. Yeah, it is. Right.
Andrew Adams (03:16.557)
Andrew Adams (03:25.097)
Awesome. Thanks.
Andrew Adams (03:30.177)
Yeah. But you know, but, that's, that's the marginal concept is you find a way to make it work. You know, and you know, sometimes in class you will, and I'm sure you've had this before you're teaching a technique, and you know, you're doing whatever. And the student will say, well, what if they do this? And it's like, well, okay, well, I'll do something different. I'll adapt. mean, and I have often used that as a teaching tool, like, okay.
Let's figure it out together. If this is a technique that I want to do, but the person we're doing the technique on does this other thing, what could we do? Right. But it's all about that figuring it out.
Uncle Tommy (04:12.904)
So I do a different approach than that. It's the same concept though. I never tell my students, hit me in the face or take your right hand and hit me in the chest. I say, hit me and they have whatever choice they want. And then whatever comes, I show them that technique. And then that's the technique that we work on. So if I wanna do over something, for example, if I wanna do, you know, circle blocks,
Andrew Adams (04:33.325)
Mmm.
Uncle Tommy (04:40.551)
however they are, whether full or semi or outward or inward, however that is, I can show them how that works. And left, right, right, left, whatever combo they want. If you keep it on the inside, a lot of people like Kenpo Five Star, that kind of thing. If you keep it in the inside, which is a lot of Kung Fu, it doesn't matter what they throw at you.
And I never tell them to hold it out there either. yeah, I mean, you follow it back home or you do whatever it is. Because if you hold it out there, and that's the one thing on videos that sometimes I kind of crack up, but I understand they're doing a technique and they're demonstrating it. And a reverse punch, you want to hold it on that person because that's where it hurts. There's a lot more power in that sticky punch concept, but that's not everybody who's going to go up there and do that.
Andrew Adams (05:10.75)
sure, sure.
Uncle Tommy (05:36.941)
And most people who know how to throw a sticky punch are not ones you're going to get in a fight with. Cause that goes back to what we said earlier. They're, they're, that's somebody who's trained. They're like, you know, I don't want to fight, you know, and you don't either. it's pretty, it's pretty good, but I never, I don't, I don't do that. I think you've probably seen me do that in class too, where just, just throw something and we'll, and we'll go from there. Cause that's usually when they throw something, that's the thing they kind of want to defend from too.
Andrew Adams (05:48.822)
Yeah
Andrew Adams (06:00.661)
Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew Adams (06:07.211)
Yep, yep, that makes sense.
Uncle Tommy (06:07.813)
Because subconsciously, it's right on you know, or it's that right-hand haymaker thing, which is like, okay, you'll never sew that again. But, yes. Yeah.
Andrew Adams (06:17.931)
Well, and that's why people often say, let's face it, Tommy, how often are you going to get attacked by another martial artist out on the street? You're not. You're not. We typically, we're training to not get into fights, right?
Uncle Tommy (06:29.998)
Probably never. Yeah. Right.
Uncle Tommy (06:36.758)
Right. Yeah. And the guy who wants to challenge me, I'm not hard to find, come to the school and watch for a little bit. And if you still want to challenge afterward, then you're on your own because I'm not going to meet you out there. You know, it's it's so, you know, it's it happens. You know, I've actually gotten students that way.
Andrew Adams (06:46.733)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (06:55.385)
interesting. I love it.
Uncle Tommy (06:56.246)
Yeah, you know, with the whole keyboard warrior thing or, and I tend not to want to go down that troll alley. But once in a while, it's like, are you, are are you sincere? Are you really curious on what I would do or not do? Here, this is where I'm at. I'm not hard to find. It's not going to cost you anything but gas to get here. I'll even feed you when you get here if you want, if you're hungry. And, and they, they, they realize that it's an art. It's truly an art. It's not.
It's not about throwing stones at somebody. Although we do hit each other with sticks.
Andrew Adams (07:29.057)
Yeah. Well, has been a lot of fun. Uncle Tommy, as many call you. I appreciate you being here.
Uncle Tommy (07:38.754)
This was fun.
Andrew Adams (07:40.737)
So for the people listening or watching, again, check out Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio to find out show notes on this episode and all of the over 1,000 other episodes that we have. Whistlekick.com is where you can go to find out about everything else that we do, whether it's purchasing books or training programs or apparel or finding out about Whistlekick Alliance. Maybe you want to come to a martial art teacher training certification.
We're running or maybe you want to come to one of the events that we host throughout the the us tommy. can see yeah tommy. can see you want to say something
Uncle Tommy (08:12.737)
I say something on that? Yeah. Yeah, so on the MADC training, the martial art training thing, anybody, whether you've been teaching for decades or you just started within the last year, I encourage you to take that class. When I first took the class, it was a good friend of ours, Jenny Nether asked me,
Yo, come take this class with me. want to sit with you through it. I'm like, you know what, let's do this. I knew the teachers that are giving it and I was so impressed and I learned so much. And I've been at that point teaching for decades and it was so good. I went and took it again and to do it twice, cause there was that much information. I realized the first time I was just too busy taking notes or trying to absorb it. then like, know what, the second time I just
did the exercises, I just did the course. And I'm scheduled to do MADC too when that becomes available. And I didn't want you to forget about free training day Northeast and in Pennsylvania. Go ahead, I'm sorry. I got excited though. Yeah.
Andrew Adams (09:22.923)
Yeah, no, no, no I appreciate that you you you've given us some nice testimonials testimonials. We certainly appreciate that. So martial art teacher training and certification You go online and you can find out about it All of the events that we host martial summit here in new england free training day mid atlantic is still coming up in september All that stuff you can find at whistlekick.com
Uncle Tommy (09:28.822)
Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew Adams (09:50.009)
And yeah, look Tommy's holding up. He's got a postcard right there. Third annual Marshall summit. So, we'd love to see you there. We'd appreciate you coming and checking it out. and if you want to help support the show, you can leave a review on Apple podcast or give us five stars if you'd like, if you think it's worth five stars on, Spotify or any other platform that you can, you can support us financially through Patreon, P A T R E O N, dot com for slash whistle cake.
Or just tell a friend share this episode with something some of you think might have a good time. We would certainly preach
Uncle Tommy (10:23.605)
The picture thing is a good thing. You get lot of tidbits that you don't get without it. I'm in the medium range. There's like three things that you could pick. I'm in the medium one. And you get like first dibs on a lot of these episodes and stuff like that. And again, I'm not trying to pitch them up because Andrew's a friend of mine, but if you're into martial arts and you're looking for a family, that's you want to go. That's where you want to go. Yeah.
Andrew Adams (10:39.873)
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (10:49.921)
Look no further. until next time, train hard, smile, and have a great day.