Episode 783 - Martial Arts Word Association 3
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 3 - Episode 783
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 Pint Glass to Fishing Pole. 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:
What's happening, everybody? Welcome. This is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, and today we have our third? Right, Andrew? Third installment? Third?
Andrew Adams:
You're behind my camera.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Of martial arts word association. If you miss the first two, this is where Andrew gives me seemingly unrelated words and I have to relate them back to martial arts. Why are we doing a third one of these? Because they're a heck of a lot of fun. We have a really good time with this. Stick around. Enjoy. If you're new to what we do, go to whistlekick.com. See all the projects, products, service, books, free stuff that we've got going on for you the traditional martial artist. Our goal here at whistlekick is to connect, educate, and entertain the traditional martial artist of the world no matter what you train, where, when, how, or why you do so. In fact, we believe sincerely that there is more that we have in common than separates us and we are committed to supporting that notion. And we have a very lofty gold. Everyone in the world train for six months. Never happen. We'll never get to a hundred percent which means we get to keep going as long as we want. If you wanna go deeper on this show, go to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com, see all the things over there. Sign up for the newsletter. Maybe tip us a few bucks or just look at all the episodes we've ever done cause they're all there. Photos, videos, links, show notes, transcripts. You can copy those transcripts and paste them into your iPad or kindle. And then you can read the episodes if you prefer to do that, right? We put so much into all these to give you the option of experiencing our content in whatever way makes you happy.
Andrew Adams:
And with nearly 800 episodes cause we're coming up on it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, we're coming up on it.
Andrew Adams:
There guarantee you're gonna find an episode or two that you like.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And if you don't, you're not trying hard enough.
Andrew Adams:
If you don't, we'll give your money back.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Double your money back.
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
If you wanna support us in our mission to connect, educate, and entertain if you value the content and the other things that we do, there are a lot of things you can do, but here are three. You could grab one of our books on Amazon. We have books that are collections based on episodes as well as other things like the Martial Artist Handbook that I wrote. You could tell friends about what we do. Grab this episode or another episode. Find an episode. Send it to somebody in your school, someone that you trained with 20 years ago. I don't care who it is, help us grow because as we grow, it means we're getting new and different guests from all over the world trained in different things. In fact, Andrew, I had a thought earlier today as I was recording with someone from a country that I don't believe we've ever had a guest from. We should get a map somehow and figure out what countries we haven't had guests from.
Andrew Adams:
Oh, that's great.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And work on that. That would be a lot of fun, right? And of course, you can support us via Patreon, patreon.com/whistlekick. You can go as little as two bucks a month. You can go up to a hundred dollars a month, and we deliver overwhelming value at each stage. So if you haven't checked it out, please check it out because it's the easiest way you can support us and throw a few bucks our way. I'm ready.
Andrew Adams:
All right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But you've got a twist for us today, right?
Andrew Adams:
I do rather...
Jeremy Lesniak:
Maybe it's a twist for me more so than anything else.
Andrew Adams:
This is only a twist if you're watching on YouTube. If you're not watching on YouTube, if you're just listening, that's great. Thank you for listening. We really appreciate it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But most of our audience continues to listen exclusively. Totally fine.
Andrew Adams:
Which is totally fine but if you want in on this little secret we're gonna do, you'll have to stop your podcast player. Go to YouTube and start watching on YouTube. I have in my hand right now a yellow post-it note.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Post-it note.
Andrew Adams:
You can see it if you're on YouTube watching.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I see it.
Andrew Adams:
On the other side of this post-it note are the nine words that I have for you to try and relate to martial arts. So, if I just turn this around like this, oh, can you give me...
Jeremy Lesniak:
Ah, I close my eyes.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, you might see it, but I thought it might be fun to give you the people watching a preview of the words I'm gonna ask Jeremy to relate to martial arts. So, Jeremy, I'm gonna ask you to close your eyes and if you're watching on YouTube or turn around whatever and keep 'em closed.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Eyes are closed.
Andrew Adams:
I'm gonna turn the post-it note around and you can see these words right here, and then a second list over here are the words that I'm gonna try and have Jeremy relate to martial arts. Okay. You can open your eyes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Eyes are open.
Andrew Adams:
Okay, so, at home, the audience knows the first word I'm gonna give you which is pint glass.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Pint glass.
Andrew Adams:
Pint glass.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Alright. The greatest cliche in self-defense is the bar fight. It's the situation we talk about so often because it is often unexpected. It is often, you know, a very quick escalation and it doesn't have to be dependent on anything you've actually done. Two people on the other side of the bar could get into a scuffle and it could mean that you are now dragged into something especially if those people have friends. Things could go flying including pint glasses. Now we've all seen movies, TV shows where people will break bottles and they hopefully, you know, they don't break the handle cause guess what? That can still happen. It's not a guaranteed weapon. In fact, most of those bottles on movies and TV shows are special glass that breaks away. It's not real, they're not real bottles. But a pint glass could be a weapon too. I wouldn't hold it by the side, I would hold it by the base. And I would go at somebody's face with it. That strong edge? Pint glasses are rugged.
Andrew Adams:
Pint glasses are very, very rough, like rugged. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And I could use that as a weapon. I could throw it. I could do all sorts of things with it. But here's what I think is even more valuable if I think about self-defense. Cause remember we've talked ad nauseum. We will continue to talk ad nauseum to some of you that self-defense does not start when violence occurs. It starts long before that. What's the number one way to stop any bar fight? Can I buy you a beer?
Andrew Adams:
Oh yeah, sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Can I buy you a drink? You know what, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I stepped on your foot. I'm sorry I flirted with your wife, girlfriend. I didn't know you were together. I'm sorry about this, that or the other, can I buy you a drink? That's gonna solve 80 plus percent of your problems. I'm making that statistic up because I think I'm underselling it. I've had enough interactions with people who were upset with me and a little bit of compassion, a little bit of empathy, a little bit of responsibility, coupled with some generosity goes a tremendously long way. Can I buy you a drink? What are you drinking? Hey bartender, can you get this person another, whatever?
Andrew Adams:
Can you fill up their pint glass?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Andrew Adams:
Diapers.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Useful for all-day training or really long testings. No. I've never worn an adult diaper, but I have thought, as I've heard of others who drive long distances to get to seminars and things, I wonder if that's how they do that? I've heard that some, you know, long haul truckers wear diapers. But what is a diaper? A diaper isn't really designed for, hey, I don't wanna use the bathroom. Diapers are for accidents. Therefore, literally, CYA. Covering your butt. And there are a lot of things that we do in martial arts that are covering our butt, figuratively. We wear sparring gear often. We restrict contact. If I spar with, Andrew, you and I sparred a week and a half ago.
Andrew Adams:
I spared last night.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We’re either of us going full speed, full power?
Andrew Adams:
Nope.
Jeremy Lesniak:
No. Why?
Andrew Adams:
I don't wanna hurt you.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right. Because we're gonna get hurt if we do that. And there again, we're trying to protect ourselves. We're trying to learn as much as we can while not getting hurt. And so, while a diaper is for, you know, accidental discharge of things, sometimes we miss pulling our punch. Sometimes we target the wrong area. Sometimes we misgauge distance, somebody steps in, they move to the side, whatever it is, and we make contact, and safety gear really is the equivalent there.
Andrew Adams:
Okay. Roof racks on your car.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's a good one. This is probably the most difficult one you've given me yet. What's the purpose of a roof rack? It's to carry stuff. Hey, I'm driving. I need to bring more stuff than I can fit in the car. The car is the easily accessed stuff. It's the stuff that, you know, any of us at any given time, I have a bunch of stuff in our car and stuff that we feel really strongly about, you know. We need it for safety, we need it for whatever it is, but a roof rack allows us to carry other things that are either large and cumbersome. Skis, snowboards, or they allow us to carry additional stuff. Now, when I think about martial arts stuff, I think about information. I think about knowledge. And you and I over the last couple years have spent a bunch of time talking about note-taking. Having a notebook.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Writing things down. If you've been trading more than a few years, you do not have every bit of knowledge you've ever been gifted with or discovered in your brain. I have forgotten significant amounts of stuff that I wish I had written down because I could go back to and go, oh yeah, what about that? What about this? I could review it and I could have access to it much in the way that if I reached up to whatever's on the roof rack, maybe it's not as convenient as having it in the car, but I still have access to it. I can still pull it down and use it and then put it back up. Or if it's something that I've decided is more important, I can take something out of the car and put it back up and swap positions.
Andrew Adams:
Love it. Volleyball.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I assume the physical ball?
Andrew Adams:
The ball itself, not the game.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Ok. Where I really wanna go, I'm trying to remember, trying to think if I've ever trained with anyone named Wilson. And I don't think that I have cause that would've been fun.
Andrew Adams:
But we've had a Wilson on this show. Brendan Wilson, I believe was on, we had a...
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yes, yes. I've got a book of his. He sent a book. It's on the shelf. Man, you're pushing me. And I love it. I hope the audience enjoys seeing me squirm.
Andrew Adams:
I've gotten better at finding words that are not as easy.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You absolutely have. Volleyball. All right. The way of volleyball is used. The game of volleyball is really kind of weird. If you watch volleyball, whether it's indoor or outdoor, whether you know, beach or indoor volleyball, the thing I'm always thinking when I watch that game as someone who played a small amount of volleyball in gym class in high school, and that is it. That's the entire experience I have with volleyball. I'm constantly thinking there's no way they're going to get to that ball. And somehow, most of the time they get to that ball. It blows my mind. Well, how do they do that? They're in a good position, they're ready to move, and they are studying the person who's about to hit the ball to see what they're going to do. Because there are only so many angles they have and they can predict what, they're probably not gonna hit it right to them. They're gonna hit it to what seems to be the most difficult position that they have available to them. Much in the way that most of us spar. Once you get beyond, you know, the first couple years, you're probably not kicking at people's guards anymore. You're trying to kick or punch where their hands are not. You're trying to make it more difficult for them so you can, you know, hit, score or whatever the methodology is. And if you watch really good fighters, whether we're talking MMA, or point, or boxing, I am continuously surprised at their ability to defend some of these incredibly complex, fast, seemingly out-of-nowhere techniques.
Andrew Adams:
Paint.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I was feeling good about volleyball. Paint. Woo. Okay. Paint. Paint covers imperfections, right? If we had beautiful hardwood on our walls, we probably wouldn't paint it unless we bought a house in the seventies, and then for some reason, we would paint it, it would probably be green and not like an attractive green.
Andrew Adams:
Or wallpaper.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Or we put up wallpaper on it which is even worse. But paint hides imperfection that's why it was really invented. It was to make nice, colorful, relatively easy-to-change things out of space that maybe wasn't. This is not permitted in every school, but that's kind of what our uniforms are. Our gi, dobok, whatever you want to call it. If I feel like wearing a certain color at a certain school when I go teach I'll do that. Sometimes it's white because that's all they wear and I wanna fit in. Sometimes it's red because all they wear is white and I don't wanna fit in. Depends on what I've been tasked with when I teach. Sometimes I need to fit in to get their buy-in. Sometimes I need to be so completely out of depth for them that they're open. It doesn't seem like more of the same. Different uniforms, different colors make me feel differently. There are a pair of pants in there. Right there. That's where all my gi's are. And I call them gi's cause I'm primarily a karateka. There are a pair of pants in there that I first started wearing in competition when I was 15. I'm 43 now. They were several years old when I got them. They're still my favorite pants when I put those pants on. Actually, let me put it this way, I have never lost an open competition while wearing those pants. So you better believe that's my super suit. That's my paint, right? It covers the imperfections that I know I have. If I put those on, it's on.
Andrew Adams:
Okay. Next word, nails not fingernails. Carpentry nails.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Like this one.
Andrew Adams:
Sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
This is a finished nail, tap nail, really. Nails hold things together, generally wood, usually nail other suits, substances together. We could think of them as connecting to separate pieces and there are times in our training where we're trying to connect concepts. This is actually the hardest one. They keep getting harder. You're the worst. If I'm teaching or learning, and there's a concept that [00:16:00] is rooted in, let's say, stances. You know, we're working stances, we're going up and down the foreign stances. , understanding weight, balance, and everything. And then we start working punches, punches, punches, you know, understanding the certain punch back fist, whatever. And now I wanna put the two together, kind of have to nail the two together, don't I? You know, we think of those two things as going together, but they don't have to. And the only reason that we don't think of them as separate is because we so rarely train them separately. I don't know too many people that teach punches while people are just standing there in any old position. I don't know too many people who teach stance work without adding tech kicks and punches to it. Well, if I have, you know, the header on a window, you know, the space above it, those pieces, those boards are nailed together. That header could, you know, I could take it down and I could work on it down here. If the window doesn't sit completely flush or you know, it's unlevel or something. I could take those boards down and remove the nails and have a better understanding of that wood in its place and know why, where it fits, and maybe what the problem was. You know, why was it installed this way? Nails connect things and sometimes we have bent nails and we've gotta pull 'em out to have a better understanding of what the materials are underneath.
Andrew Adams:
Laundry detergent.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Wash your damn uniforms.
Andrew Adams:
Spotlight.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Whether we like being in the spotlight or not, there are lessons being there. Most of us remember the first time we were asked to stand in front of a class and demonstrate something, to lead the warmup, to teach a group to compete, whatever it was. Most of us remember the stress of being in front of a large group or any group and having the spotlight literal or figurative on us. Regardless of how many times you've been there and done that, it teaches us something. It might teach us that we are not as good as we thought we were because under a little bit of pressure we cave. We're not as good as we would've been otherwise. It may teach us that we actually thrive under pressure and maybe we need to find a way to apply a little bit more pressure to ourselves when we're not in the spotlight. Or maybe it simply teaches us that it's nice to be recognized because it's rare that people are put in the spotlight when they have little opportunity to succeed. I don't know too many instructors who would grab a student and say, can you lead warmups on their, I don't know, second day?
Andrew Adams:
Fair. Okay. Portable heater.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I've trained in some really cold spaces. Unheated, thin floor, no insulation, roof side floor and you get there 30 minutes ahead and you turn on the heaters and you wear shoes for the first 10 minutes, 15 minutes, then you're down to socks, and maybe after 30 minutes, you're down to bare feet. And I'm thankful that portable heaters exist because otherwise I probably would've ended up with frostbite during my competition career.
Andrew Adams:
Okay. Last word that I have, fishing pole.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Thank you for ending on an easy one. Teach a man to fish, he eats for a day. Wait, no. Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. There it is. Teach a man to fish, he eats forever. There are a lot of instructors, new instructors, who just want people to do it. Just do this, do what I'm doing, mimic what I'm doing, and they don't spend time helping them understand. Because they don't recognize that understanding is a longer process. I can get just about anybody to do just about any form. Gimme an hour. I'll teach just about anybody, just about any form that I know.
Andrew Adams:
Sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
They might not do it great, but I can get them to remember it and yes, I mean that. Like in an hour, I can get anybody to remember a form. But it doesn't mean they get it. Just cause you can do something doesn't mean you understand it. And I think understanding matters far more because that person's eventually gonna forget that form unless they keep doing it. But when I teach it to them, if I give them the lessons, if I help them understand why some of these things are together, over time, because I'm teaching them the form first. I'm teaching them why and how later. Cause they have to have a framework. You can't understand a thing until you can do the thing.
Andrew Adams:
Not well anyway.
Jeremy Lesniak:
The understanding will remain. There are elements of forms that I learned, I don't remember the form anymore. There are physical, contortion is not the right word, but it's the best one I've got, you know, positions, physical positions that I learned to put my body into from certain forms. I don't remember the forms, but I can put myself in those positions. There are lessons learned about balance and timing and movement that exists still within me from certain instructors. I don't remember the class. I don't remember what we were working on, but I remember going, oh, okay. Now I get it. The fishing pole is the understanding. If I just fish for you, yeah, I'll get you some fish. I'd rather you figure it out for yourself with some help so you can understand it better.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah. That give a man a fish, eats for a day. Teach him to fish, he eats for the rest of his life is good. The other one I really like is build a man a fire, he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, he's warm the rest of his life.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's not where I expected that to go. Oh, that's so funny. That's so morbid. But it's hysterical. I love it.
Andrew Adams:
Okay.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Thanks for bringing in the PG13 dad jokes.
Andrew Adams:
That's right. So, that's my list. I scratched 'em off as we went.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That was a lot of fun. So I wanna know and maybe you, they should talk to you, but I wanna know what people think of what we're doing with this. Because again, I'm not aware of anybody else doing content like this.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And that's why we keep doing it cause it's fun for both of us.
Andrew Adams:
It is.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And it's different. And we're trying to be different.
Andrew Adams:
And send me your words. Your word could be on this list and if it does, I'll even credit you, I'll say this word comes from whomever.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Perfect, andrew@whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. And while they're fun at the same time, I hope in this kind of quick hit format, people are taking some things from it, you know. Is this the most articulate I have been? No. No. And that's part of the appeal, right? It's kind of raw. There were some long pauses in there while I had to think, but it keeps me on my toes and it makes me better. There's a martial arts element to the way that we're doing this. Constantly challenging to get better. How do we do different? How do we do better? How do we improve? Right? You had to think about those words. And you weren't necessarily trying to stump me, but you were trying to challenge me.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah. They were things that I was like, oh, maybe that's a word. And then if I could come up with very quickly how it relates, it didn't go on the list.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Fun times. Thank you.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, you're welcome.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Anything you wanna add before we fade?
Andrew Adams:
No. No, that's good.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Audience, thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. Make sure you're subscribing in all the places. YouTube, turn on the notifications. We're on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, you name it. Should be everywhere, everywhere you can find podcasts. If you've managed to find a spot that our podcast is not, please let me know, jeremy@whistlekick.com. If you subscribe, please subscribe in multiple places. Leave reviews. Help us out in that way. And if you wanna bring me, or me and Andrew, or me, Andrew, and everyone I can find, or a seminar to your school or your area, let's talk about it. We're constantly working on that stuff. I love teaching. If you can't tell, I really do love sharing things that I love to teach with people whether it's new or not. And if your school is not quite where you want it to be, if you would like to have more students, more revenue, more profit, better culture, whatever it is, we offer consulting. I lead the consulting team as I do with most of the teams that we have, and you can talk to me again, jeremy@whistlekick.com. I have a 100% success rate with not only paying for myself but making improvements and the average length of payback as I survey the schools is under two months. So I guess I'm kind of good at what I do. What else? I got my list. I think we did all the things.
Andrew Adams:
I think so.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Until next time. Train hard, smile, and have a great day.