Episode 761 - Martial Arts Word Association
In this episode, Jeremy and Andrew use a word association game to see if Jeremy can relate random words to martial arts!
Martial Arts Word Association - Episode 761
Here at whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, we like to mix things up once in a while. We’re going to do “Martial Arts Word Association” where Andrew gives Jeremy a random word that he could connect to martial arts. In this episode, Jeremy and Andrew discuss randomly generated topics from Iced Tea to dogs. Find out how they relate it to martial arts!
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
You can read the transcript below.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hey what's happening everybody, welcome. This is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio. Today, Andrew and I are going to do something different. He is going to randomly give me words. And I'm just going to have to relate them to martial arts and carry on a coherent monologue about martial arts that haven't made sense. Well, there's the word coherence. And that's a great word to understand. It's already going off the rails of excitement. This is something that we are trying, we have not done this, it could be a disaster. But regardless, you get to be part of it. So welcome, and thank you. If you're new to the show. Welcome. You've picked a truly strange episode.
Andrew Adams:
Likely to be what's likely to be a fun episode.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It should be fun. If you're new to the show, go to whistle kick martial arts radio.com Check out all the episodes we've done, check out why we do what we do go to whistlekick.com use the code, PODCAST15 to buy something. Check out all the things that we do like the never settle awards martial journal, all in weekend free training day. What else do we do?
We do a bunch of stuff, check out all the stuff, be part of the stuff, be part of our family, we are here to connect, educate and entertain. And the connection is kind of the first part with we don't connect with you we can neither educate nor entertain you. And we would love to do both.
Sometimes simultaneously as if we could have a lofty goal for this episode. That would be this. Can I find a way to educate you as well as entertain you? In the words of the great one, edutainment might be the contraction that we could use. Andrew? Is this a good idea? Is this good?
Andrew Adams:
We will find out. Let's face it, if bad, no one will hear it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Depends on if we get hard up for content at some point.
Andrew Adams:
No, don't tell him that. Because then if it is bad, and we do release it, they'll be like, Oh, they're really hard on for content.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We might be thinking that already. Could be.
Andrew Adams:
I have a list like, you know, people listening won't see. But I've got a list on my phone of topics of ideas of things to talk about. And my list right now is like nine or 10. Topics are long, we're always looking for more topics. If you have an idea that you've of a show you'd like us to be sure of, certainly reach out and let us know we'd love to hear from you. But we were just talking about Let's have fun today. Let's have fun with this one. And we came up with this word association.
So I'm going to throw a word out at you. And your goal is to talk about it in a way that makes sense for martial arts. And at some point, I'm just going to give you a new word and we'll see how it goes. The words are completely random. I don't know what they are. He has no idea. I will give the audience a peek behind the curtain. I've written for myself five words down my first five starter words. And anything after that I'm just gonna randomly be throwing stuff out.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Winging it.
Andrew Adams:
Yep. So are you ready for your first word? Also, a lot of these words, I just looked around my room and it's like, okay, what do I what would be fun to talk about? So here's your first word. Okay. Iced Tea.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Iced Tea, iced tea. Wow. Iced Tea. How am I supposed to get that to martial arts? Okay, well, I could talk about hydration, we could talk about the damages of sweet tea and sugar, and how martial arts can help the body become a little bit more insulin resistant over time. But I think I'm going to come at it from a completely different direction. When I was in high school, Snapple was fairly new to the scene.
Andrew, you probably remember this too. And there is always a hierarchy of drinks. Especially among schoolchildren, and Snapple was one of the top drinks and other drinks we could purchase at school. It was the top drink. People liked it because it was glass, people liked it because it was new because it had sugary flavors. Shout out to the strawberry kiwi. That was the one back in the day. But for me, it was the facts, the random facts under the cap. Do they still do that? It was the knowledge they were throwing at you.
Andrew Adams:
Did you know real fact number two to nine the Caspian Sea is actually a link?
Jeremy Lesniak:
There you go. Now, at any given time, you don't need to know that the Caspian Sea is actually a lake and you're probably not going to learn that and in turn fertilize it the first time that you hear that fact. But if you are a frequent drinker of Snapple, if you are someone who consumes Snapple on a regular basis, you are likely to bump into that fact, a few more times. And eventually one of those times you're gonna go, You know what? I knew that. And then you'll be watching Jeopardy or out at trivia, or just trying to impress someone and you'll say, you know, the Caspian Sea?
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, I've heard of it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, here it is on a map, did you know it's actually a lake. And just like with martial arts, it is that frequent or at least semi frequent. In the context of martial arts, we call an iterative process of building that education around, it could be a very specific thing that eventually leads to a breakthrough. You don't know what you don't know, obviously, like, I knew that. And that happens with our forms. It happens with concepts in our sparring, it happens with our techniques, it happens all over the place. Because it is actually the way that we learn that frequent exposure ultimately will lead to some internalization at some point of varying degrees. And so we just keep on doing that. And I like the imagery of the cap. Because we would take those bottles, as I'm sure you do. Do you open the cap and look at the fact before you drink it? I used to.
Andrew Adams:
Absolutely.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. So you're looking at that cap? And you're like, Okay, what did I just learn today? We're maybe more appropriate language, what knowledge was I just exposed to what information was just put in my face? And you read it now? Like, okay, all right, new word, cool. Tape measure. Tape measure, you really are just like whatever's around, aren't you? Yeah, I'm waiting for shoes, socks, and who knows where we're going to get with this. Tape measure is about as easy as you get measuring progress.
As martial artists, we often think that what we do is so entirely subjective, that it can be difficult to measure. And yet, there are so many things that we can objectively measure, or at least create our own subjective measurement such that because it is our own, it can become objective. What if you were to create an assessment, a self assessment of all the things that you theoretically know all of your forms? Let's even just limit it to forms. And once a month, I'm going to score myself. How well do I know this form? How well do I do this? Maybe five is amazing. And one is, it sucks.
And I go through and, and I give myself a score. And then I compare it to last month or last quarter, and I say, you know, these numbers haven't changed. My forums have not gotten better. I could, because I'm the judge here. I get to remove that element of subjectivity, because it is completely subjective. So in doing so, it becomes irrelevant. relationally objective? And I can do that for absolutely everything. What about my punches? My kicks, my blocks? What about scoring? How many punches can I do on the bag with good form in X amount of time? Or how many head level roundhouse kicks can I do in extra X amount of time? Back when I had my martial arts school, I did bring a little bit of this in, I would have the kids kicking. I think it was a shield. 60 seconds, how many kicks could they do in 60 seconds, and we kept it on a sheet. And they loved it because it helped them see progress.
And we all know that one of the most difficult elements, running a martial art school, or even just being a martial artist ourselves is remaining motivated keeping some progress going. Because the deeper you get, the longer you've been training, the bigger the gaps in between those milestones. The very fact that we use, you know, belts and stripes, when we're new as martial artists, is the very reason it becomes really hard to do that, when we get further on. And it's part of why there's some temptation to maybe escalate that stripe of progress amongst some in our community. But it is what it is there.
And I think all martial artists and all martial arts schools would be better off if they looked for ways to measure things, whether that be objective or subjective. Whether they're scoring, it doesn't have to be competition. It doesn't have to be tested. It doesn't have to be ranked? What if, hey, you know what, next Friday we're doing our side route and hook kick evaluations. You know what if there's a clipboard? What if you're actually evaluating someone on some scale and you say, Here you go, your roundhouse kicks off for your sidekicks a for your hook kicks a two. And at the level you're at, you're a brown belt, you know, we want to see that, that hook kicks, gotta come up.
Now, you know, okay, I just have to hold steady with my roundhouse kick in my sidekick, I've got to put a bunch more time into my hook kick, it kinda stinks compared to these others, so why not? Put in some time and I think we're afraid to score things in that way. Because of this, it can be uncomfortable to tell someone, hey, this is good. This is good. This kind of sucks. It's a little bit easier to say, well, you know, you could get better at this. But when they look at a number on a page, which, you know, interestingly enough, is how a lot of jobs do evaluations. It's how academics does evaluations, it's numbers on a page, there's a score there. There's a reason that it exists, so pervasively.
There's no reason we can't keep doing it. All right, next word, dogs. I love dogs. Dogs are the best. And growing up, my instructors had their house two buildings down. So it was their house, there was a large retirement home. Not quite retirement home, it was assisted living, there we go, that's the word I was looking for. And then the community center was the next building, the dog would wander down and into the gym. We use this old Community Center gym, and sometimes there would be 4050 people in there, and the dog, Cara would wander in, and she would wander through the lines. And we would always get the instruction not to kick the dog. And it was, it was a really fun moment, because it kind of broke inevitably, it was in the middle of basics.
You know, just often basics, often summer, the dog wasn't wandering down in the winter, the doors would be open in the summer, because it was a hot building, and we couldn't open the windows. And so the dog would wander in. And it was a fun break. We were still going, we were still working. But that's a very slight shift, making for a completely different experience. And if you smiled at all, because you've had something similar, or you could have imagined something similar, I would like to encourage you to consider that even facing a different direction while training, even mixing up the lines.
Even changing the way the lighting in the room can lead to something very similar, we get so used to our environment that the environment no longer provides stimulus, it actually becomes like an energy sink. And that's, I think, why a lot of people enjoy going and training elsewhere, because it's just a little bit different even doing the same thing. Okay, we're gonna go have class. Outside, it's the same stuff, why is outside that big of a deal, it shouldn't be. Because it's just because it's just different. And if outside is that big of a deal, you're probably in need of shaking it up inside.
Andrew Adams:
So I know this is supposed to be a word association for you. But I have a fun dog story.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's why we always listen to fun dog stories.
Andrew Adams:
So some of the listeners may know maybe friends of mine on Facebook, I started a 100 day content challenge group. And everybody in the group is recording themselves performing a Kata or form or poomsae, whatever you call it, and they're recording one every day and uploading it to this private Facebook group doesn't have to be the same form every day could be different. And people are doing them in different places in their house or outside or wherever, if people from all different styles, but there's one woman who often does it in her home or in your garage. And her dog is often running or running around.
And recently, she was doing a form.
But there's a point in the form where you're facing forward and one leg comes up and steps down in front and then the other leg steps up and steps down the hill and the dog was in the way so she just stepped over the dock and just kept doing it. But you had to have enough wherewithal to be like “Okay, can I be able to do this” and you know sometimes she'll have to modify the form because of the dog because as you said you can't kick the dog. Dogs are great obstacles. It's been fun to watch. And there's someone else in the group who has a small child running around sometimes well, she's doing her forms as well. So, anyway, right, all right, next word, toys. Just toys in general.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Toys, martial arts, weapons or toys. Because martial arts are fun. And if you don't have fun training, you should probably change your training. Now, that doesn't mean fun has to be playtime, fun, it doesn't play. I think the way most of us in the West think of play, we use that word in a dismissive way. Because for most of us, play is seen as not having consequence or value. And yet, we know I mean, if you ask anyone, what is the first way that children start to understand the world through play, they make games out of everything. When you are entertained, right, connected, educated, entertained, when you are entertained, you are in a better space to learn.
There is a reason that children's television programs are entertaining, while also trying to throw information at them in such a way that parents look at and go, okay, yeah, I'll let you watch that. The kid doesn't watch it because they're learning. Maybe that becomes a secondary consequence. And they find value in that, but they watch it because it's fun, because it's of entertainment to them. martial arts weapons become instruments of play, if you approach your trading in this way. Now, I've seen people actually under I think I've seen you with a balisong butterfly knife, flipping it around, you're playing with the knife, right? I could pick up tonfa or psi, or a stick, or a sword and play with it. Now I could do a form with it. When I could also play with it, I could play by form.
With it, I can imagine that I'm fighting dragons or monsters or zombies, and bring an element of realism into my mind. That makes it much more enjoyable. We've talked about the word play as a verb for martial arts, expression or participation over the years. And it is the one that even though it hits my ear wrong, it is still the word that I like best. I could do martial arts, I could practice martial arts. But the word that I think encompasses the most things is play. I play martial arts. And I understand that that word sounds really weird. To those of us that have English as our language from which we use martial arts. We describe martial arts. But shouldn't it be playful? Shouldn't it be fun? Shouldn't those weapons that I pick up be toys in the expression in the play type of martial arts? I think so.
I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Awesome. Next word, rubber band. Rubber bands hold things together. And instructors job is to hold a school together. Whether a school owner or a senior student, there's, we all have this job of varying degrees and honestly varying success in holding the culture of a martial arts school together. And if the culture is appropriate for the people that are participating, it facilitates play. Now, we know that there are some people who are more of a rubber band than others, I tend to use the word glue. But rubber bands work just as well. There are people anybody who has ever taught a class knows there are certain students that you know, if they are there, everyone else is better behaved. Things just got better. They contribute energy to the room.
And we sometimes it's with kids, sometimes it's with adults, things flow better they are rubber bands in and of their own right. The sense that they bring the energy they bring the what's the word I'm struggling for the word, the dynamic is probably the best word that they contribute simply from existing in that room for that period of time is something that is palpable. And not everyone recognizes if you're not in an instructor role, but the moment you've been an instructor consistently for probably three to six months, you start to hone in on these people and you start to say, Oh, I hope so and so's here tonight.
Or you see, somebody walks in and you're okay, they're here. I kinda hope either this other person doesn't show up. Or if they do that these other two people do. Yeah, because you start to feel how they balance out and a rubber band, rubber band doesn't just sit there rubber bands stretches, it moves by design, it's in the entire utility of a rubber band is because it is flexible. And the people that are rubber bands have to remain flexible.
Andrew Adams:
All right. Last word, I think we're wrapping up here. Okay. Here's the first one that's not on my list. Canned air.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Anything can be a weapon. I could bludgeon someone with a can of compressed air. I could put the straw in their nose or their ear or their mouth and spray it. It would be bad for them. I could throw it there are a variety of ways that we could use a can of compressed air as a martial arts tool. But I think there's a better way for me to talk about a can of compressed air in this context.
Andrew Adams:
Good because I was gonna chastise you for using the cop out answer because you could say everything. rubberband is a weapon. I could use it to shoot in someone's eyeball. You know, I could hit somebody with a toy or a tape measure. I could see somebody with it. So the weapon answer is I'm gonna want more than that. Go ahead, go.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Why do we use cans of compressed air to clean to remove well to clean things, but specifically, why were they invented, canceled compressed air were invented to clean, static sensitive equipment things for which you would not just generally take a rag and wipe it. I know this because of my time in it and fixing computers. You don't just take a dust mop. And like cleaning out the inside of a computer. The standards for how you clean the inside of a computer became compromised as computers became less expensive. But when you go back to the days, a computer was $1,000 for a basic home unit, you have to be really particular in how you clean it. By the way, never use a vacuum on anything electronic.
A can of compressed air when you spray it in the setting for which it was designed removes dust. It removes that layer of schmutz that exists from use. If it was a car, it would be similar to being polished. And it's something that we as martial artists can and should probably do without even realizing it to go off and do something on your own and to come back to your instructor and have them evaluate what you're doing and say, oh, okay, you're getting it. But why don't you try doing this little thing. You're making these small adjustments.
You don't polish a car, we're the paint has completely fallen apart, it's chipped at scratch, someone dragged keys down the side, you're not going to polish that car. But when the paint is in really good shape, then you polish you're using that can of air to expose the shiny. Underneath the functional components, you're not going to use a can of compressed air on a broken computer. So just as you would do that, you can bring the best little bits that are hiding under the surface to light in your martial arts skill.
Andrew Adams:
Nice now that awesome. I've done my friend. Well done.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Thanks. That was different. Yeah. Hey, listeners and or viewers. Was that entertainment? Did you perhaps learn something? Do you want us to do this again, before we go on, we're not living with this. But before Andrew and I started this, we mentioned this could be something where we could get all of you involved if we keep doing it, you know if we do these live, or you could just simply send words to him, and he could pick them and I can just riff. We're using this as a bit to warm up today. Before we recorded a few other episodes and it got me going like I dug this. For me. This is fun.
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So, not that I've officially promised any kind of response time ever for anything. But our Patreon contributors are taking care of I think that's the best way I could say it. Of course, there are plenty of free ways. You can help us out with reviews and posts and following and sharing and things of that nature. If you want the whole list, go to the family page whistlekick.com/family If you have topic or guest suggestions, you can email me Jeremy@whistlekick.com and unless it is for the q&a episodes, then you got to go to Andrew direct Andrew@whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. Andrew, is that it? Do we have anything else to say? No, that's great, man. All right. That closes up another episode of martial arts radio. Until next time, train hard, smile, have a great day.