Episode 613 - Rapid Fire Q&A #4
In this episode, Jeremy and co-host Andrew Adams take on another iteration of the Rapid Fire Question and Answers.
Rapid Fire Q&A #4 - Episode 613
Jeremy and co-host Andrew Adams tackle a series of questions from you, the listeners, in the form of a Rapid Fire Q&A. Here are the questions they tried to answer:
Is it true that you don’t choose your Martial Arts, it chooses you?
How important is it to learn traditional weapons?
Should Martial Arts Icons be viewed critically than non-icons?
How would you work with a student that just doesn’t get it?
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below.
Jeremy Lesniak:
What's going on everybody? Welcome! This is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio and today, Andrew and I are digging into another rapid-fire Q&A session. If you wanna watch this episode and all of our crazy antics go to YouTube, check out our whistlekick YouTube channel over there. We got some other stuff over there as well but of course you could always listen to it. Check it out at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. We put it everywhere we could possibly think of. We spam the internet with this show.
Why? Because we are trying to reach out as many traditional martial artists as we can. That is our goal, that’s what we do. We serve traditional martial artists as a traditional martial arts company here at whistlekick and if you wanna see all the things going on behind the scenes, all the projects, products, services and things that we do as an organization, go to whistlekick.com. One of things you'd find is our store and we got stuff and you could buy it at 15% off with the code podcast15. Saves you 15%, helps us connect the dots on the back end. This show is a marketing effort…does lead to some sales.
Now, if you wanna go deep on the show, the show gets its own website, whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. Two episodes each and every week with the goal of connecting, educating, and entertaining you, the traditional martial artists, out there somewhere. We've been downloaded in like every country, I mean it. Every country. I haven't checked those numbers in a while but at some point, we were downloaded, as of a year age, in every country and I think it's pretty darn cool.
If you wanna support us, if what we do means something to you, you've got a lot of ways you could help us out. Buy a book, leave a review, tell people about what's going on, follow us on social media and maybe share a post or Patreon - patreon.com/whistlekick. We bring you exclusive content. You throw a couple bucks our way, we throw you exclusive content whether that's behind the scenes, audio, video, book drafts, training program drafts - all kinds of good stuff there. You want to throw us a few bucks just one time, there's a tip drawer at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com.
Now, I did mention training programs. That’s something that we've been putting a lot of time into in expanding and the one that I've been talking about most recently is the speed development program. It's something that I wanted for myself, so I did a ton of research and dug in and applied all of that research to martial arts because no one else had done this before, at least in any way that I could find. So, if you wanna get faster go to whistlekickprograms.com, find the speed development program. It is less expensive than you think it should be and you could read more about it and when you get it, you should do it and then you'll get faster and then you'll be a better martial artist and then you'll send me an email and say, “Jeremy, I feel like I should give you more money because of how much faster I got with that training program”, and I'll say…
Andrew Adams:
And we're okay with that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
…and that is totally fine and if you feel that way I'll say, "You know what, that's cool. Just go buy another program. Get the strength development program, get the fight edition program, get one of the programs that we're working on that isn't out yet because at some point, it will be in the future, and they will be out. Alright, I’m ready. Andrew, can you tell I'm in a good mood?
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, this is good!
Jeremy Lesniak:
I’m smiling. I am feeling feisty. You've got some questions for me?
Andrew Adams:
I do. I've got four questions today that I'm just gonna throw at you. No knowledge ahead of time, you have no idea what I'm gonna ask.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Audience, now you don't know this as the audience but when we say "I don't know what these are" it's true, I don't. It's not a lie. We don't practice, “Okay so we need to talk about this topic... I'm gonna say about this.” Yeah, we don't do that and in fact if you know anything about me, you know that I don't prepare anything anymore. I'm good enough off the cuff that I don't like preparing. It feels silly. When we do…here's a bit of behind the scenes. Not everyone knows this especially if you're new, I don't prepare for interviews. I do not. I don’t research. I don't look people up. I don't read their books. I don't do any of those things. Why? Andrew, do you know why?
Andrew Adams:
My guess is that you want it to be fresh. You wanna learn stuff about them at the same time the audience does. That's my guess.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's exactly about the audience because this isn't about me. It's about the guest or the subject and it's about the audience.
Andrew Adams:
I suspect the only time that's different is if it's a guest that you already know.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yes, that is correct.
Andrew Adamss:
You didn't do research per se, but you just know who they are.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, if a friend of mine comes on or something, yeah, I know who they are, but I do my best to put myself in the place of the audience. Because what is my role? It’s to serve. My role is to serve the audience and facilitate the guest telling their story. There's a tidbit that we didn't even plan on. That's just for you. Enjoy that. Alright, [00:04:52:22]…
Andrew Adams:
I like you not knowing them ahead of time because that way, I can ask fun questions like last month which was “How would you fight a zombie?”.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, that's good. It’s my letter opener. It's a knife. It’s much larger than it needs to be a knife for opening letters.
Andrew Adams:
Alright, so here we go. First question, so you got five minutes, that's it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Alright.
Andrew Adamss:
Which doesn't seem like rapid fire but if anybody knows Jeremy, five minutes is a very short amount of time for him to talk.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It really is.
Andrew Adams:
Alright so, the first question was sent in by -- again like last month, I'm gonna apologize if I mispronounce his name but Gian Franco Meresu. I believe that’s right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Mereso?
Andrew Adamss:
Could be. It’s a “U”. Meresu.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Andrew Adamss:
Anyway, he gave me a lot of really good ones so I’m spacing them out. So, here's the question. There's a quote that you may have heard before that “You don't choose your martial art, the martial art chooses you”. Is this fortune cookie or is it deep wisdom? What are your thoughts on that?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I think we could look at that on different ways. We could think of it on terms of you know faith or destiny. When I started training, I started training in the martial art that was nearby because I didn't know options. Not that I even had options but when I knew what they were, I had them available, I still would have ended up in that school. I’m thinking about how most of us end up in the martial arts school - someone somewhere tells us about it. So how we start training and where we start training, the style that the instructor tends to be a factor of other life choices that we make with our friends or family etc. So, if you take a step back, if that's how it really happens, are we really choosing where we train? Or is it choosing us.
If I start training in a particular style of Karate in 3 years in and find that this really isn't the school for me, and I go train at a Taekwondo school on the other side of town. Was it only because I started in Karate? That style Karate that I became interested enough in martial arts to remain but understand enough what martial arts was to determine that this wasn't the best fit for me. Would I have ever ended up with that Taekwondo school first? Probably not because that's what destiny led me to. I think the other way you could look at this is a little bit more kind of fluffy. If we think about it, does your martial art choose you? You and I, Andrew, could train at the same school, same system, same instructor, same classes, and come away with very different understandings of that style and implement movements in very different ways. So, in that sense, the martial art is kind of choosing us in how its gonna express through our body, our decisions, our movement.
Andrew Adams:
And how we intake it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, done.
Andrew Adams:
Alright that was quick. This might be a really quick episode today, Jeremy, I don't know, I might have to come up on the fly with some others.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Or maybe one of them will just take me thirty minutes.
Andrew Adams:
It might be actually. Number 3 perhaps, but we're gonna move to number 2 first because 2 comes before 3 if we’re counting up.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Usually…
Andrew Adams:
This is a question from me. How important is it to learn traditional weapons? Notice that I said traditional. I know your stance on being able to fight with this pencil and with the stuff around you but I’m talking traditional weapons of your style so for me it would be Okinawan kobudo or whatever.
Jeremy Lesniak:
How important is it? I think it is incredibly useful. I think how important it is depends on your why’s for training and I know there are people out there who think this is a cop out because I think it's very true why we train matters. If I'm training because it is fun and I don't think weapons are fun, I don't think it's important. If I’m training because I’m trying to develop another understanding of myself as a martial artist and you know I want to become a better person and I hate training weapons, I definitely should be training weapons because when we tackle the things that we suck at the most and find the most frustration with, that's where the most personal growth lies. If I’m looking to train because of applicability in a self-defense situation, 100% I should be training with traditional weapons because "Jeremy you're never gonna have a [09:52.17] in the street." No, but understanding different ranges of combat and how to implement different improvised weapons, matters a heck of a lot. How you react to someone when you have a six-foot staff versus what’s the wooden brass knuckles? [00:10:15:03]?
Andrew Adamss:
[00:10:15:28].
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay…dramatically different. I’ve gotta be in close with [10:21.17]. I’ve gotta be far out with a bow. I don't want you within 3 feet of me if I got a bow. I'm gonna lose. You're just gonna grab it and punch me in the face, right? So, understanding range and movement in all the diversity of ways that different weapons contribute to, I think has a lot of applicability. Most people who have listened to the show for a while know my stance that diversity of training does have some benefits even if you're gonna primarily focus on one thing being at least confident in a whole bunch of different things is beneficial.
Andrew Adams:
Good. Nice, yeah. I would agree. I think it varies from person to person on what you wanna get out of it. Alright number 3, also sent in by Gian Franco Meresu and the question is "Should martial arts icons be viewed more critically?"
Jeremy Lesniak:
More critically than they are? More critically than non-icons?
Andrew Adams:
Than non-icons. He didn't specify that. I just…
Jeremy Lesniak:
I suspect that's the direction it would go.
Andrew Adamss:
Yup.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I think they already are. I think the point in which they become icons is because there is a collective knowledge and validation. Let's take a non-martial arts example because I think it would be a little bit easier. Let's take Tom Cruise as an actor. You may not like Tom Cruise as a person, what you've read about him. I’m assuming very few people listening on this show have met him. You may not like his movies but there is some collective validation because he stars in a movie, it tends to do well. Well, some of that is selection bias. He chooses movies and he's been around awhile so he gets opportunities and not everyone does but a significant portion, maybe not majority but a significant portion, of the movie-going population has determined that he is a good enough actor that they will part with their money to watch his films. That validation is pretty clear and easy to understand there.
Now let's take a look at how it applies to martial arts. There are people out there and I'm gonna intentionally avoid names, there are people out there who have enough attention from enough martial artists that what they say is paid attention to. It is heard, it is received and through that process, there is critique. Now while there are plenty of martial arts trolls out there who spend time on YouTube looking around at anybody posting content so they could hate on it. It's usually the people who rise to the point of some knowledge, some collective validation, they receive the most criticism and if they have elevated beyond the point where that criticism could be overcome, they would fall back down. There is an inherent check and balance in that system. You could say the same thing about training. How much time do I have?
Andrew Adamss:
You have three minutes left.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh wow.
Andrew Adamss:
Sorry, two minutes left.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay, thank you. Here's a place where a lot of people see this, the transition point between the kids and adult class. You get a kid let's say whose around 10-11 years old is to intermediate advanced rank, maybe hit a growth spurt and when it comes to freeform movements, sparring etc. absolutely dominates the other kids in the class and they are crushing it. There's some collective validation there and all the other kids in class would get the other person and say "wow! that person is really good" then they move to the adult class, they’re in a whole different ocean now and the collective validation isn't there because their skills in this new environment get tested and they’re not in - you know at 12 years old person probably going to be the best person in this broader adult class where people have been training longer or are older, have better control in bodies etc.
So, as we move up…let's imagine everybody goes through this process. I don't care if you're first a White belt or not. Everybody is somewhere along this continuum. You just may not realize it or want it. As this show grows and more people pay attention to what we say, there is a constant push kind off up and down on this spectrum for myself, Andrew, for you, for the show collectively, and it finds it stasis. The longer somethings happening the more it finds its stasis. You know the pressure of water or geological forces, they are slow but they're constant. They're continually moving. You could say the same thing about what's going on in…I feel like I should've stopped talking a minute ago. So, let me wrap it up a little better. Should they be viewed more critically? Yes, the more notoriety someone has, the more criticism we have to apply. Otherwise, we risk elevating someone beyond their competence and ability to appropriately have influence over others.
Andrew Adams:
Nice. Alright good. I knew that was gonna take the full amount. Last question and this is from me and it's a topic I've been discussing with another friend the other day. How would you work with a student that just doesn't get it? You're teaching them in class, and they just are not getting what you're trying to teach, and you take that however you want.
Jeremy Lesniak:
There are only two circumstances where the student doesn't get it, they don't want to or the instructor's not conveying the information in a way they could understand it. Those are the only possibilities. Yeah, well Jeremy, they… No. you give me any example, it's one of those two things. You can't teach someone who doesn't wanna be there, it's not gonna work. So that's one obvious category. The other category is assuming the person wants to be there, if they wanna be there, if they want to get it. As instructors our job is to find ways to get through them... If I’m teaching you a particular kick and I am demonstrating it at a super-fast head level and the person I am working with can't kick above the knee and thus their ability to internalize, understand, process, and repeat that kick doesn't makes sense because I’m showing it up here and they need to kick lower, that's on me. Well, you don't get it, you're not kicking high enough. Their body isn't physically there yet so let me demonstrate the kick. Let me show you how to kick at your level like how does that kick look at the knee? I can do anything kick at the knee. I can show you jump spinning crescent that comes out of the knee if it needs to.
A lot of times when I see instructors say, "they're just not getting it", what they are actually saying is "I don't have any other ways of conveying this information, I’m feeling frustrated, and my ego is not sufficient that I can accept that. I'm going to blame them." And that's a really disappointing place to be because I've seen that happen. Now, that doesn't mean that an instructor does not have the right to get frustrated when you've exhausted your tool kit in trying to convey information. We all learn differently. I've had examples where I've stepped into other classes and taught people and I've had the instructors say, "I've been trying to get that kid to kick like that for five years and you come in ten minutes." Well, I taught it differently. I used different language. I used different skills and whatever it is but that doesn't mean that I’m better. It means the way I'm conveying the information, the way that person receives the information is more in sync and this is why it's important as an instructor for us to train with other instructors so we could build out our tool kit of how we convey this information. The more resources we have…if you only have one way to teach a thing and that way doesn't work, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna belittle that student? Hopefully, you're gonna go back to the drawing board, you're gonna contact some of your martial arts friends and say, "I got this kid, I'm not reaching them." It's an active process. When you convey information, you only have control over your part of it. If they're not hearing, if they are not understanding, if they are not doing, you can't change that. You can only change what you do, so change what you do. Yelling at students, disciplining them for not understanding, these are things that do not work so don't do them.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, I would agree. One of the first episodes we ever recorded together, do you remember what it was?
Jeremy Lesniak:
No.
Andrew Adams:
It was episode 483 and it was on becoming a better martial arts teacher and one of the things that I've discussed was one of the best things I've ever learned as an instructor was how to teach the same thing multiple ways. I think that's what, in my opinion, many instructors don't figure out early on is that not everyone learns the same way. So, if you have a student that is not picking up with your, again assuming that they want to be there, if they're not getting what you're trying to teach you have to find a different way to teach it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
The number one thing missing from most martial arts schools is a chalk board or a white board.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
For that reason. Because it gives you another way to present information. I bet you've done this. If you have… you do hands?
Andrew Adams:
I have. Yeah, Shotokan.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay so if you're teaching forms to people and they don’t remember the pattern, they don't remember where they go on the floor. What does everyone do?
Andrew Adams:
Draws an [21:51.18].
Jeremy Lesniak:
They draw the diagram.
Andrew Adams:
Yup.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's nice to have that diagram, something that you could actually put off instead of - okay imagine an eye. If I draw it on the air and the person goes, “huh?”
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right. If you own your own space, you’ve got 35 bucks burning a hole on your pocket, get a whiteboard and put it on the wall. Very valuable. I see number of instructors use it- not often but they use it infrequently and you see… Oh, now I get it.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, because some people need the visual. Excellent! So those were our four questions we had for today. Those were good.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Those were good stuff. What if people have questions or topics they want us to tackle in the next one?
Andrew Adams:
They should send… In the past, we’ve said they said we should post on Facebook, but I don’t think they should do that because I don’t want you to see them.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I might see them
Andrew Adamss:
So instead, if you have a rapid-fire question, if you wanna stump Jeremy on something…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Stump me, I dare you.
Andrew Adams:
Absolutely.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You can’t do it. People can't stump me.
Andrew Adams:
Or if you have something…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Un-stumpable.
Andrew Adams:
Oh my gosh, that's a challenge right there
Jeremy Lesniak:
It is, I'm throwing down. I'm feeling feisty.
Andrew Adams:
You all can contact me - Andrew at whistlekickmartialsartsradio.com and send your questions or maybe you have a topic idea not for rapid fire Q&A just you have a topic you want us to discuss.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Or a guest suggestion.
Andrew Adams:
Always open for that stuff.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah absolutely. Good stuff. Now, if you like what we're doing here, if you like this episode go check out whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. Check out all the episodes. Don't forget we’ve got transcripts, photos, videos, links, all kinds of stuff over there to help you get more out of the episode. If you ever listen to a subject, episode, or a guest episode, and say, “This one really spoke to me”, those are the ones you should be really checking out because you're going to get more context.
Checking out the guest social media or watching the video that we referenced. When we talk about the video or something, we really try to make sure it gets embedded in the show notes page at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. Now if you want the rest of the stuff we do, best place to start is at whistlekick.com. The store code is podcast 15 and all the other stuff we've got working on the projects, products, services, all those things.
Don’t forget whistlekickprograms.com and the training protocols that we have over there. Speed development program being one I’ve been talking about the most but if you wanna support us in another way, if you love the content- Patreon, patreon.com/whistlekick. You throw a few bucks on our way, we're gonna give you exclusive content you will not find ever. Anywhere else. So, that's what we’ve got today. I wanna thank everybody for tuning in, listening, watching, or whatever it was. So, until next time…
Jeremy Lesniak and Andrew Adams:
…train hard, smile and have a great day!