Episode 988- Sensei Ryan Sickles
In this episode, Jeremy chats with Sensei Ryan Sickles from NJ about his journey.
Sensei Ryan Sickles - Episode 988
SUMMARY
In this episode of Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, host Jeremy speaks with Sensei Ryan Sickles about his journey in martial arts, starting from his early experiences as a shy child to becoming a dedicated instructor and dojo owner. Sensei Sickles shares insights into the challenges he faced, the importance of community and friendships formed in the dojo, and the influences of his instructors. The conversation explores the transition from fear to passion in martial arts, the commitment required during high school years, and the complexities of teaching diverse age groups. Sensei Sickles reflects on his aspirations and the impact of his mentors on his journey. He also discusses the evolution of his teaching style in martial arts, emphasizing the importance of flexibility and adaptability. He reflects on how cross-training in different martial arts has influenced his approach and the significance of fostering a respectful and community-oriented environment. The discussion also touches on the challenges of ego in traditional martial arts, the necessity of teaching through failure, and the importance of personal growth and exploration in martial arts training.
TAKEAWAYS
Ryan started martial arts at the age of seven to build confidence.
His initial fear of the dojo transformed into a passion for training.
Friendships made in the dojo often last longer than those in outside of it.
Teaching martial arts is a challenging yet rewarding experience.
Ryan's goal of owning a karate school was set at a young age.
He learned to teach through gradual exposure and encouragement from his instructor.
The bond formed through martial arts training is unique and special.
Ryan emphasizes the importance of adapting teaching styles for different age groups.
His instructors played a significant role in shaping his martial arts philosophy.
Ryan's journey reflects the growth from a shy child to a confident instructor.
Teaching styles can evolve through different influences.
Flexibility in teaching can lead to better student engagement.
Cross-training enriches martial arts practice.
Ego can hinder growth in martial arts communities.
Respect and community are essential in martial arts.
Failure is a crucial part of the learning process.
Students should be encouraged to explore different styles.
Personal growth in martial arts requires stepping out of comfort zones.
The journey in martial arts is not linear; enjoy the process.
Awareness of one's actions can shape future character.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction and Setting the Stage
03:06 Ryan's Martial Arts Journey Begins
07:58 The Transition from Fear to Passion
14:00 High School Years and Commitment to Martial Arts
20:02 Taking Over the Dojo: A New Chapter
26:03 Teaching: Challenges and Growth
31:56 Influences and Inspirations in Martial Arts
34:34 The Evolution of Teaching Styles
37:01 Embracing Change in Martial Arts
38:56 The Impact of Cross-Training
41:45 Ego and Tradition in Martial Arts
44:40 Fostering Respect and Community
49:04 Teaching Through Failure
59:41 Final Thoughts on Growth and Exploration
To connect with Sensei Ryan Sickles
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Show Transcript
Jeremy (02:16.533)
What's going on everybody? Welcome. It's another episode of Whistlekick martial arts radio. And on today's show, I'm joined by Sensei Ryan Sickles. Ryan, thanks for being here. Looking forward to our conversation to all of you out there in martial arts radio land. I'm glad you're here. If you happen to be new, make sure you check out whistlekickmarshallartsradio.com for every single episode we've ever done. We're knocking on the doors of episode 1000. It's an exciting milestone for us. And if you like I,
If you resonate with our mission to connect, educate and entertain, to get everybody in the world to train for six months, please check out whistlekick.com for all the things that we're doing from products to apparel to events, to digital services for individuals and schools. Thank you for your support. Those of you who contribute to the Patreon, thank you as well.
And with that said, Ryan, thank you for being here. I'm looking forward to getting to know you. You got a snazzy red gi on. I did not show up in a gi. I'm wearing a cozy green hoodie because it's like 12 degrees here in Vermont right now.
Ryan Sickles (03:19.672)
Whoa, Vermont's extra cold. We were just got, well, first of all, thanks for having me. It should be a good time. yeah, we're in 20 degree weather when a couple last, actually only a couple of days ago. And then we got hit by a little heat wave. It's a balmy 40 degrees right now.
Jeremy (03:24.715)
Of course. Yeah.
Jeremy (03:36.931)
Oh, 40. Where are you? Where are you coming to us from? Okay.
Ryan Sickles (03:40.074)
In Jersey, South Jersey right outside Philadelphia, little area called Glassboro, except we like to call it the town formerly known as Rowan.
Jeremy (03:49.345)
Yeah, yeah, we've done a free training day down that way. Isn't that how you're connected with us? Didn't you get involved in, did you get involved? Yeah, okay.
Ryan Sickles (03:58.158)
Yeah, yeah. One of our, one, so our school we have, we're a network of four schools. And an instructor from one of our sister schools pulled me aside one day, I guess, well, two years ago now, I guess, I said like, hey, put this date to the side. I was like, okay, for what? he was like, I'll give you more details as we get there. We went down for the first time, had a blast.
went down there with a couple people and then one of my students was talking to Miss Jenny and was like, yo, how do you get on wall with the teaching of these things? She was like, I'll send you this out. So we sent her information in, did a workshop and here we are.
Jeremy (04:44.035)
There's nothing like free training day. is the encapsulation of everything that we do and believe as an organization. Glad not only that you got to participate, but that you see it, that you get it. It's hard to express unless you've been. There's something different about it. But I don't want to turn this into a commercial.
Ryan Sickles (04:46.04)
than the last.
Ryan Sickles (05:05.71)
We could!
Jeremy (05:06.947)
Right? We could, we could, maybe we'll come back. Maybe we'll revisit that and clip something out as a commercial in the future. But let's talk about you. Let's talk about your training. Let's get the obvious stuff out of the way. Let's talk about how you got started and why, and let's see where that takes us. So you're class one. How old were you? Where were you? Why were you there?
Ryan Sickles (05:33.454)
I was seven years old, almost like having just turned seven actually. And my first exposure was at, it's called Tiger Scouts, it's like a precursor to Boy Scouts. And my instructor had come to one of our den meetings, I guess they were called. Shows how much I remembered from it. But he showed up, he did like a little
Jeremy (05:49.73)
Yeah.
Ryan Sickles (06:02.958)
class with us and my parents thought it would be good for me because I was an adopted kid.
to a Caucasian family, being Korean myself. So I grew up with a lot of looks, a lot of, know, why does he look different? Well, you know, his parents, all that kind of stuff. So I grew up very shy and withdrawn. And they thought, you know, from that one class, what they saw my instructor that this would be really good for me. So they took me there. It's actually down the street from where our school now is.
But he took me there, went into the school, and I cried my eyes out for probably about 30 minutes. I refused to go onto that floor. I was one frightened child. So I didn't go on the floor that day. And he said, well, bring him back. There was no little kids class at the time either. It was kids and adults mixed together. There was no...
Jeremy (07:06.433)
Mm-hmm.
Ryan Sickles (07:10.486)
little dragons, little toddlers, tigers, whatever you guys call it. But there was no classic that was kids and adults. So I'm this small child looking up and there's these monsters, just the tall, huge people around me, all sweating and yelling. And yeah, I shut down. But it kept bringing me back. Eventually I opened up and I kind of took off from there.
take classes all the time. do my regular classes as I got older. And then at one point there was a point in time I was training pretty much every day the school was open. I was there from open to close, either helping out with classes, doing my classes or training on the side on my own.
And then I kind of took that storybook tale of, you know, kid enters dojo, kid never leaves dojo, kid eventually takes over dojo, kid eventually owns the dojo. You know, that's, that's, you know, kind of the bare bones of my story, but yeah, I kind of took that like fairy tale story.
Jeremy (08:14.977)
Okay. That's kind of cool. I didn't catch the why was was the why, you know, and I don't say this to be stereotypical. Were your were your parents trying to connect you with aspects of Asian culture?
Ryan Sickles (08:32.254)
No, it wasn't really that was more of the, you know, we hear it all the time. I want him to get more confident in himself on him to exactly. Yeah. but then probably about like, I want to say within a year after I started was when like the bug bit me and it was no longer about, he needs this. was, it was, I want to do this. I would, you know, I want to be, I want to be going to class all the time.
Jeremy (08:34.146)
Okay.
Jeremy (08:39.403)
Okay, was the same reasons as everyone else.
Ryan Sickles (09:00.686)
In fact, at one point my instructor, as a homework project, said, write down your goals for the future and bring them into me. And I wrote down, was like, I want to be the same belt as my teacher someday. And that kind of stuck with me the whole time. And then from there I was like, oh, I really like doing this. And I was teaching, I was like, oh, I like teaching. Everything kind of kept building upon itself about what kept me still going and going and going and going.
Jeremy (09:31.885)
So the concern, the fear, if we want to call it that, of your first day, that's not uncommon, right? You teach people, you see that of all ages, they're really concerned. But something has to happen for someone to go from being terrified and not even stepping out on the floor on their first day to remaining and being so invested in martial arts to become an instructor and a school owner.
Ryan Sickles (09:57.923)
Yeah.
Jeremy (09:58.783)
When did that transition occur that you went from fear to full embracing and Why what was it about training that you said? I love this stuff
Ryan Sickles (10:10.062)
I think it was a combination of two things really. One was I had really good instructors who were really good at
kind of separating that image you see of like the hardcore instructor yelling, drilling, blank, bang. And then when working with the kids, being a lot, not so much subdued, but making it fun. It's a big part of it. And then the other part was I had, I found...
Jeremy (10:36.012)
Hmm.
Ryan Sickles (10:44.62)
which I guess was whole reason my parents started me was I found friends. I found friends that were my age. They didn't go to school in a local area or they were from all over different towns, but I found friends that I looked forward to going to karate class. is Remy there today? Is Cody there today? And there were so many. And then when I found friends who were at the dojo and also went to my elementary school, it was like,
the best of both worlds for Because then, you know, had friends who I knew from out of school. I could hang out with them at the dojo. I could talk to them at school about, you going to karate today? And so that kind of like stuck me in there. And I've continued to tell people this. was like, friends you make in the dojo are gonna last way longer than the friends that you make in high school or clubs and things. Because I had friends, you know, growing up in regular school, but...
I still will reach out to friends that I had from the dojo that we haven't seen each other in years. But we'll still get together, we'll talk, we'll catch up. Versus like the friends I had in high school where it's like, yeah, so and so's doing this, cool. I'm gonna go talk to that guy.
Jeremy (12:00.727)
Yeah, yeah, there are people out there. fact, I'm thinking, as you said that I'm thinking of someone specifically, Hughes and Alexander, he was episode one of martial arts radio. We go back 30 years, you we met on the tournament circuit and you know, we work together on things now and there's, there's a certain kind of relationship that comes out of martial arts that is not necessarily the same. And I think it
Ryan Sickles (12:28.418)
Yeah.
Jeremy (12:29.975)
You we often, you've probably made the same joke. We often joke about it.
make your friends punching them in the face or kicking them, right? Like that's a certain kind of friendship that seems to be a little more resonant than, we're friends because we were on the same soccer team or we're friends because we were in the same math class. You know, those are kind of random associations versus a deep passion.
Ryan Sickles (12:39.318)
Yeah.
Ryan Sickles (12:53.206)
Right, right.
Ryan Sickles (13:01.548)
Yeah, there's a special kind of crazy that I tell my students that you're actually going to get a certain kind of crazy where you're going to want to hurt her and you're going to want to beat each other up and push each other and drive each other because it does take a certain, you know, it takes a certain maturity growth, but also respect for one another to be like, okay, I accidentally punched you square in the nose. That really hurts you. And you're not going to hold it against me because you understand, you know, what happened there.
wasn't intentional, wasn't anything harmful. We're just both kind of working here together. And that's a special bond, I think.
Jeremy (13:39.885)
So you alluded to something earlier that, you know, because you look different, people would ask questions. And here you now you're participating in martial arts and not hearing anything that suggests you took a long break. So I'm guessing you entered junior high, high school, still as a martial artist. So now you're giving your peers another reason to look at you differently.
Ryan Sickles (14:07.438)
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
Jeremy (14:08.149)
Right. I mean, that's something that most of us.
Ryan Sickles (14:32.43)
I was like high level in all of my school's bands wanted me to do marching band. was like, well, okay, well, so what's that schedule look like? practice goes from after school to about five days. Nope, can't do it. That's my class. That's my class time.
I was involved in high school stage crews and things like that. we have this play coming up. It's a paid gig. You can get paid for it. was like, when is it? It's like, no, that's during my class. I'm not allowed to get in the way of that. There was a little bit of pride there.
Jeremy (15:01.891)
Did you make that rule or was that something your parents set out for you?
Ryan Sickles (15:06.094)
No, that was me. My parents were very respectful about me being so dedicated and finding kind of like a groove in there. It was kind of like I found what my thing to do was rather than like, where some people, they go and they try all sorts of things to try and figure out what it is that they want to do, what they enjoy. But this was it for me.
Jeremy (15:33.569)
Hmm.
Ryan Sickles (15:34.862)
And I doubt what I would into other things. I've tried other things. I doubt what multiple different styles are, because I've realized that it's not just karate that I love, it's martial arts that I love. I enjoy learning, experimenting, seeing how these things work. What's the idea behind this? Some of the history. I love it all. But yeah, I'm sorry. What was the root of that question?
Jeremy (15:58.435)
I don't, you know, maybe there wasn't even one. For me, the questions always come back to why, you know.
Jeremy (16:10.093)
So here's where I wanna go.
Jeremy (16:15.011)
For a lot of martial artists, those high school years, later teen years are really significant because it either suggests that they're going to remain in their local area, maybe take over a school, continue training in what they started in, or they often go away, they go somewhere else, they get exposed to a variety of other martial arts in college, et cetera. And that...
you know whether it's one or the other does set a tone for their long-term martial arts development and their what i've noticed is their philosophy on training so which one really did you stick around or did you go away
Ryan Sickles (16:55.758)
No, I stuck around. Actually, I've made this comparison a lot. And I'll get to that. But I always say it was a little, I knew what I wanted to do at the age of nine. Around then, and I had no idea what I was really saying, but at nine years old, apparently, said, I want to own my own karate school one day.
At nine years old, that had become my goal. So that was kind of always there driving me to do things. So everything was kind of like with the point of train, train, train. You gotta become good if you wanna be a teacher. You gotta be a good teacher if you wanna have a school. So that was kind of always the motivating thing. So when I went away, I almost actually ended up going away.
When I was looking for schools, I was looking for something physical. I ended up going to our local school rowing for health and physical science. I was thinking like physical therapy, injuries, how to help people with their training get around, certain limitations or if they're back from injury, how to deal with that. That was kind of my mindset there. I was not in a business mindset or anything like that. I would have probably gone that way.
So I ended up staying local and going there. And I was just thinking about pulling in material to get me ready for one day to take that step. And my senior year of college, they have you do an internship. they said, pick a spot, pick somewhere that's going to relate to what you want to do with this field.
And most of the time they go to clinics and hospitals and PT facilities. And I said, well, I don't really want to do that with this degree. I want to use it in martial arts fields. Like, can I approach a school of... They were a little hesitant, but they said, okay, we'll make it work. And then I said, well, I currently teach at a school.
Jeremy (18:59.713)
Hmm.
Ryan Sickles (19:10.798)
Would it be okay if I did my internship there and learned kind of the behind the scenes things of like what goes on behind the behind it with everything? They said they said yes. I was like, okay awesome. So you know I didn't have to search for anywhere I was kind of already where I wanted to be and so I spent the whole year kind of learning the enrollment side of things how
what goes on behind that. And I'm still learning to this day. mean, there's a lot there. I'm sure anybody listening to this probably is aware. Yeah, yeah, yeah, big time. But at the end of it, my instructor was like, so what's your plans after this? I said, well, I'm gonna keep training, I'm gonna do this, and eventually one day I'm gonna open up my own school.
Jeremy (19:43.403)
And it's changing.
Ryan Sickles (19:58.734)
He gave me a look. He was like, mean you're going to school? I was like, well, can't stay here forever, even though I basically already had. He's like, what do you think I've been training you for this entire time? You're going to take over here. was like, what? I'm 24. Scary?
Jeremy (20:15.171)
How did that feel? That's big.
Yeah.
Ryan Sickles (20:20.93)
Very scary, still is, you know, I don't think I've ever really quite got over that because again, I made that goal back when I was like nine years old and then 15 years later here it is falling into my lap. It was like, I'm not ready for that. It's too soon. It's way before the timeline that I had like set up for myself.
Jeremy (20:41.661)
And there's another piece, and I'm curious if you thought about this then, because in order for you to take over the school, that means the instructor has, your instructor has to not be at the school. And I mean,
Ryan Sickles (20:50.894)
has to be. Right, right. it was like, at that point, I'd already been teaching like a lot of classes. was like the guy for the longsues, but it was a different thing to then have like my name on everything else. That was where I was like, that's a huge step. And I was very lucky in fact, because...
Jeremy (20:59.715)
Sure.
Ryan Sickles (21:16.342)
My, I call her my sister. It's the owner of another one of our schools. But we both started when we were seven. We both kind of followed the same path. But she ended up taking over the Swedesboro School at the same time I took over the Pittman School. So we both kind of like jumped into it together. So it was helpful to kind of have somebody there going through the same struggles, learning things, and diving into the whole thing. All right, we're in charge now.
So that was helpful to it, of course. yeah, harking back to something I said a while ago, I constantly make the joke that our instructor got so lucky with the fact that he got not just one instructor to stay local, he got two instructors to stay local and to take over each of his schools. Because now we've both been doing it for almost 10 years and it's like, oh, we get an instructor trained?
Jeremy (22:02.787)
Hmm.
Ryan Sickles (22:14.786)
They go off to college. We get another one trained. They go off to college. It's a revolving door. It's like, wow. Wow, you got so lucky with us. We stayed local and we stayed the entire time.
Jeremy (22:16.419)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy (22:31.363)
Yeah, it is. I don't know if you know, a bunch of the audience knows that I consult with martial arts schools. I work with schools as clients. And in almost every case, the biggest stumbling block, the biggest thing to work on to get them where they want to go is staffing. It is a constant challenge. And for those of you out there who prioritize youth students, this is why. It's always going to be this issue.
because your best people are going to want to go on to things. And maybe that's a reason to bring in more adult students, saying. So, but please continue.
Ryan Sickles (23:07.18)
Yeah. No, I mean, that's really, and, but kind of like what you were saying earlier, like, excuse me, when you get an adult student in, a lot of times their goals are different. When an adult comes in, usually it's something they want to do kind of as a hobby or to keep them in shape. You know, they're not.
looking to kind of die fully into the martial arts all the time and to become like a I hesitate to say to become like a real martial arts because if you're doing it you you are a martial artist but you know that's somebody who's who wants to put their put their free time into teaching classes when they've already got a job during the day and they've got their family to take care of at night and then to spend time giving their time to the dojo that's that's a that's a big ask from adults
Jeremy (23:41.253)
I know what mean though. Yeah.
Ryan Sickles (24:00.622)
So there's a struggle even there of getting an adult to come in and be a staff member. So yeah, get it, staffing's, yeah.
Jeremy (24:11.971)
It's a challenge. It is a challenge for sure. How do you handle that? Do you teach 100 % of your classes?
Ryan Sickles (24:20.782)
Majority, yeah. Especially, so I have student instructors. They get trained and then they go off to college and then our instructor always told us train your replacement. There's always somebody.
waiting to kind of be elevated, kind of learning in the background until they get a little bit older. But at the same time, I'm like, okay, I want you to go take this small group and teach them. I want you to go do this and get more exposure with your parents, the students, so they learn who you are. So it kind of makes the transition when my current instructor leaves off for college, that the next person coming up is like, now this person's stepping up. But the majority of classes, yeah, I teach myself.
And especially the adult class, my adults I always teach. I always struggled when I was a junior instructor, you know when in my teens be like, okay, I'm supposed to teach these adults. I'm some snot nose kid in their eyes and they're supposed to just obey and listen to me. know, so it was hard for me as a kid to teach adults. You know, yeah.
Jeremy (25:30.819)
It's hard to teach period teaching is not is not an easy thing to do. I think I think people who haven't had to do it, they they assume that one day you you're in the front of the room, and you're not afraid. And you know everything that's going on. And spoiler alert, that's never true. If you're doing it right, you're always nervous.
Ryan Sickles (25:46.222)
Yeah, it's just that.
Ryan Sickles (25:51.778)
Yeah.
Ryan Sickles (25:58.592)
Right, right. And then you're constantly worried about, what happens when they ask the one question? I don't know. What happens when you get the ones who use the why, why, why, why, why? What do you do? mean, yeah, teaching is incredibly difficult because it's not just about your knowledge. You have to be able to publicly speak. You have to sell yourself as an instructor.
Jeremy (25:59.267)
Because you want to do a good job, right?
Ryan Sickles (26:25.038)
You have to maintain relationships. It's being in struggle. There's a lot more than just you Whatever I mean everybody's jobs hard, but there's there's a lot more into it than people give you credit for a lot of times
Jeremy (26:38.103)
Yeah, and unless you've been, again, in the front of the room is how I term it, you don't realize. But it...
Ryan Sickles (26:45.006)
You have to teach a three-year-old and a four-year-old differently.
Jeremy (26:48.951)
Yes, and different three-year-olds are different. We start at six at my school, and we've got six-year-olds that can understand technique well enough that we're teaching them forms. And then we have other six-year-olds that struggle so much with their right and left that we can't get them to move in a...
Ryan Sickles (27:10.06)
that they just run into a wall. Literally sometimes.
Jeremy (27:16.023)
You know, with a single technique in sequence, they trip over their own feet and they're in the same class. And that is tough. Talk about having to adapt and individualize the way you present information.
Ryan Sickles (27:19.362)
Yep. Yep.
Ryan Sickles (27:28.396)
Yeah, versus a grade school teacher who they work with one grade pretty much like the entire school year. In a single day as martial arts instructors, you teach a multitude of different ages, skills, sometimes. You gotta constantly flipping the dials as to what mode you're in. And that's a hard lesson to teach your staff and instructors too, be able to like...
You can't talk to this group this way, you can't talk to this group this way. You gotta be able to switch on a dime. You gotta be able to switch fast.
Jeremy (28:02.115)
And there's nothing that teaches you more about martial arts than having to do that. You learn more at the front of the room.
Ryan Sickles (28:07.394)
Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Incredibly.
Jeremy (28:14.051)
So here's a question, because you said by the time you'd gone off to college, you'd been doing a lot of teaching. You knew it was what you wanted to do. Do you love it more or less now?
Ryan Sickles (28:28.738)
Well actually, that's an easy question, that's an easy answer. It's more because when I first started, I hated it.
Jeremy (28:31.0)
Is it?
Jeremy (28:35.127)
okay, that is, I expected you to say more. I did not expect you to say that you had hated it initially. How does someone go from wanting to do this thing while their first taste of it, they hate it. What's going on there? Yeah.
Ryan Sickles (28:47.47)
So, remember how I said I had no plan at nine years old as to how to go about getting to the point of having my own school. I just knew that I wanted to do it.
You know, had all that shine is still there. Like if I was on the floor training, I was loud. I was strong. I would put everything into it. The moment I stepped off the floor at that age though, I became back into like small little bubble, quiet. Don't talk to people. Don't look at people in the eye. And so I was still kind of that going into my teens actually.
My instructor actually tricked me into teaching. He was like, he got me, who was it? It was a Roland Osborne DVD when he was first starting up with the XMA Hyper stuff. And he said, I want you to learn this. I'm too old to do this stuff. So you're gonna learn this and then you're gonna teach.
Jeremy (29:41.592)
Yeah.
Ryan Sickles (29:53.25)
the instructors how to do it. I'm not gonna make you teach a class, you're gonna teach the instructors how to do it. That's how we covered it. So I took the DBD home, I followed it, I learned it, and we have an instructor training group we call CIT, Certified Instructor Training. And he said, okay, you're gonna teach this group. So I'm sitting.
out in the seating area just waiting. I'm like, well, I'm not part of this. I'm not part of CIT. I'm not ready for that. I'm just here to go over with these guys. So I'm sitting there on the sideline, in a chair, just kind of waiting there. he looks at me like, get over there. What? He's like, get out there. I was like, okay. So I was just like, yes, sir. So I do that. And then from there it was, all right, I have...
this group of black belts who I want you to teach this to. And so then I was teaching a little group and then it was like, okay, go over there, teach these people, go teach this little. So he just kind of started like sprinkling me into like little things. And so that's how I I started teaching and then somewhat like it it stopped being scary. And then he threw me another curve. I said, okay, you're gonna take this new kid coming in for the intro lesson.
I was like, absolutely not. I'm not talking to somebody new when they first come in. No, no. I think I was like 15, 14 or 15, yeah. So little bit by little bit, he was kind of like forcing me to expose myself and talk to people, introduce people and began associating with people.
Jeremy (31:18.647)
How old are you at that point?
Ryan Sickles (31:35.372)
So I kind of had like an adaptive personality in the dojo. was like, okay, this person told me, okay, got to talk to him. But the moment I left the dojo, right back into the clamshell. And then, you know, just through bits and bits and bits, eventually just kind of broke through the shell when it became time to take over. But even when he took over, you know, I had the same initial reaction. said, I'm not ready for that. I'm done. It's no way, you know, but it's kind of like, he always kind of do, just.
Jeremy (32:00.483)
Hmm.
Ryan Sickles (32:05.23)
Go, just jump off the cliff, stop looking over the edge, just go and do it. So now, yeah, I have a lot more fun teaching now than I initially did, because at first I was terrified. I had no clue what I was, I felt like I had no clue what I was doing. I was just, I got told a lot of times I sounded like a mini clone of my instructor, because I didn't know what to say. I just copied what he said.
Jeremy (32:32.201)
you're certainly not alone in that. And that's actually a good segue for a question that I'm going to take that as a sign that I'm going to ask this. Sometimes there are times that I ask questions that I'm not quite sure if I should, because I don't know where they're going to take us. There's a little bit of fourth wall breaking here. But I think we need to do this in that you said that you wanted
Ryan Sickles (32:36.012)
Yeah.
Jeremy (33:00.813)
to have a school, but you hated teaching. And so what I'm hearing in there is that you really looked up to your instructor. What was it about him that you wanted to be him?
Ryan Sickles (33:10.958)
Mm.
Ryan Sickles (33:19.128)
Hmm. You know, I've never put a ton of thought into that. I think what probably set the framework though was like I said, like he had me write down that goal and I said, you know, I want it be the same rank as him. So like, I guess that kind of set me on the path. But I guess, I mean, I've had a ton of instructors, all of which I looked up, you know, and he, right, right.
Jeremy (33:43.779)
But he was your first. There was something, and I'm gonna guess it goes back to the very early days. There was something about him that really clicked for you, the way he treated you or something.
Ryan Sickles (33:56.014)
Yeah, yeah, there was something. I don't know if I could ever actually put a finger on it. I mean, you know, there was was something about the charisma that he had or the way he had speaking that just really ingrained ingrained in me. know, there's there's so many memories there.
I want to one day give myself like that. He did a party at his house one day and showed us all he had this beautiful Japanese inspired Botanical Garden in his backyard that we got a tour of and
The people who I trained with, I'll bring up that memory. They go, how do you remember that? was like, I don't know. It's stuck, stays in there. And then we sat out on the front of his yard and he was telling us stories of Okinawa and of our Maserato and of stories of training and things like that. And they go, why do you remember these things? I really couldn't tell you why. But they stuck. was some of them just hearing what he'd done and...
seeing you know just how he might have been because I saw how easily he spoke to people you know could make friends with anybody one of some pieces say he could sell ice to an Eskimo he was so good with people and there was part of it was always like I want to be able to talk to people like that I still don't think I can
So maybe that was part of it, but was also, you he made class fun and it was kind of like every instructor was like, that I had that I looked up to, it like, okay, well, he taught you, so the roots all trace back to that. And I was like, okay, well, that's where I gotta go. And then you find somebody next up the chain, go, okay, well, that's where I wanna go. So I guess I was always looking like, okay, how do I become the next level up of things, trying to get better with it?
Jeremy (35:57.633)
Makes sense. You mentioned you've had a number of great instructors. Where did those other people come in in your journey? How did you meet them?
Ryan Sickles (36:06.766)
Oh man, so I trained karate from seven to 17 before I did anything else. I mean, like I dabbled in things, know, guests, instructors, things like that. But in 17, a high school buddy of mine,
was looking to try to find a capoeira class, which in South Jersey is almost non-existent. North Jersey, there's a lot of it. In South Philly, there's some of it. But in South Jersey, it was really hard to find anywhere, especially the local. So he found a person who is willing to start a satellite group but needed a place. I was like, well, I have a buddy who teaches at a martial arts school.
Jeremy (36:34.691)
Hmm.
Ryan Sickles (37:01.612)
which was me. And we kind of got the ball rolling there, and so I met my second instructor, who I think I could probably credit to...
kind of calming me down as an instructor. Because up to that point, I think I was probably a little high, strong, drill, drill, sorry, rah, rah, rah. And then starting to do the capoeira class and everything, learning that you don't have to be so, lack of term, sergeant-y, like when teaching.
Jeremy (37:44.152)
Mmm.
Ryan Sickles (37:45.986)
you know, can also have its own place. It taught me to be a lot more flexible, easygoing with things. Yeah. Yeah.
Jeremy (37:52.545)
You can play. The verb that capillaries usually use is play.
Ryan Sickles (37:57.838)
Yeah, exactly. And so that kind of like, I think that's where I took my first big jump as a teacher, developing my own style. And then from there, was like, okay, well, he had his own networks. Well, then I started meeting his teachers. And then...
From there was like, okay, I'm gonna go try this style now and meet a new teacher and incorporate that back into things. So it's like every, I've always stayed true to my karate roots, but I pull things from everything that I go to and all the teachers that I meet, like, I really like that. I'm gonna hold onto that. And you know, I've had, old students have said, you know, are you getting soft? like, no, not soft, just different. I've learned things, I've learned.
philosophy is I've learned different ways of looking at things. It doesn't have to be what you remember me being. I think that's a lot.
Jeremy (39:01.079)
You can't have growth without change. You can't be a better instructor without changing as an instructor.
Ryan Sickles (39:06.06)
Yeah, think people sometimes lose sight of that where it's like, okay, it's been like that, it's been like that for all time. Why? What's the harm in trying something new? What's the harm in changing it up? Just because it's, and again, I guess I'm a living proof of it, just because it's new and scary doesn't necessarily mean it's not a good thing.
Jeremy (39:30.851)
What karate style do you come out of?
Ryan Sickles (39:35.022)
Okinawa, Kempo, karate, kobudo.
Jeremy (39:37.987)
Okay, all right. So, yes. So, and I knew it was Okinawa, and you mentioned that earlier. So, people who know, have some knowledge of what sort of material we're talking about here, there is an inherent rigidity with tradition. It is better because it hasn't changed, right? Which...
you know, that sort of concept would never fly in the West. But there's also something to be said for it in that people know what to expect. And when you start changing things, when the walls become a little less defined, less rigid.
that can be really scary for people, especially if they've been training for a while. Now, I imagine that as you went off, as you're doing some capoeira and you're coming back, not only is the way you're teaching changing, but the way you're training personally and the way, maybe the way you're sparring is changing, or maybe the way you apply inflection on your katas or something. Were you aware at that time that this second influence was...
Ryan Sickles (40:41.098)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jeremy (40:56.973)
was making an impact not just on your instruction, but on your personal martial arts style.
Ryan Sickles (41:05.07)
To an extent, yeah. I knew that it was affecting my sparring, especially with something like capoeira, because my footwork got a lot, I don't want to say cleaner, but it changed from what everybody else was doing. The way I moved had gotten different the way.
Jeremy (41:24.035)
the lateral movement suddenly becomes a much easier thing. And those of you out there who don't know what we're talking about, go look up what this Jenga looks like. And I did a couple of years of Kaboera in college and that shift, that linear shift back and forth is so valuable in traditional Japanese, Okinawan, Korean martial arts environments.
Ryan Sickles (41:28.076)
Right. Right.
Ryan Sickles (41:49.934)
know, not stuck going forward and backwards guys. You can move. So like that definitely was a thing. But my instructor even mentioned at one point, it's like, know, like he almost said it like, was like, you know, I think you're spending a little too much time doing that because you're getting away from the way we do things. And so even he was, you know,
Jeremy (41:55.488)
Right.
Ryan Sickles (42:17.39)
hesitant about my style of teaching and changing. But I think your students notice a lot more at times though. like, when you change something up and you make something different, they respond to that, you know, especially if they've been with you for a while and they're to you doing this. Like, well, this is new, this is different, this is fun. And so I think when he saw that, that it was getting a positive response.
that's when you know, okay, maybe it's not such a big deal. I don't mean this in, you know, in offensive way or anything, but I feel like a lot of times the quote unquote older, generally the people who say I'm hardcore old school sometimes can fall into that trap of, you know, if it's new, it's not for me. If it's new, it's going to remove too much of the way I do things.
Jeremy (43:15.287)
Well, you're not going to offend me with that. And I suspect you're not going to offend a lot of the audience. And I'm actually going to respond to be even more bold. Quite often in my observation, when an instructor says, we teach the real deal stuff and not everyone can handle it. What they're actually doing is they're covering up for the fact that they're not good at marketing their business. And it's the story they've told themselves about why they don't have very many students. And a lot.
I don't know if that I will say most, often when an instructor holds to very traditional instruction methods, it's because that's what they were taught and they're not a good enough teacher to know how to be a better teacher than what they were taught to be.
Ryan Sickles (43:59.47)
I've said time and time before the number one thing that I hate in the martial arts world community all that is the ego that's associated with it. Ego trips and everything that I there's a I went to so I guess I forgot about this one at somewhere in my 20s I trained at a Taekwondo school.
or Taekwondo Dojo. It was like, know, my other friends were joined up there and it was close and I was like, I want to do it.
Jeremy (44:39.369)
in addition to trending karate.
Ryan Sickles (44:41.55)
Yeah, which taught me a lot about kicking mechanics, body, so it taught me, it brought us all things to it. Footwork drills and things like that. And so I was there for about two and a half years and I told them going into it, know, I teach at another school, you know, but I also want to do this. Like, and they didn't have a problem with it. But the moment that I took over owning my school,
I wasn't allowed to train there anymore. Because now I wasn't a student from another school. I was now a competing business owner with them.
Jeremy (45:21.089)
And you're gonna steal all their students.
Ryan Sickles (45:23.638)
I was like we have a perfect opportunity here for cross training like I can bring my students you guys and vice versa and they just did not want to hear it they were so adamantly against it and This and I had gotten to It was I guess it's the red belt with the black stripe like pretty much right before black belt test for Taekwondo and I never got to do it because
Jeremy (45:47.693)
Mm-hmm.
Ryan Sickles (45:49.128)
I was a competing, and I was like, are you kidding? The ego associated with that?
Jeremy (45:54.796)
It's, to me, that's not ego. To me, that's That they were not confident enough.
Ryan Sickles (45:58.211)
Yeah.
And they're very successful. I had to, my friend was working there at one point, I had forgotten something here at my school. And I grabbed and I ran it over to them. And I was just trying to be nice, helpful. I hadn't changed out of my uniform yet. So the fact that I showed up to help somebody, but I was in my school's uniform was the biggest offense.
to them. And I was like, okay, I won't even, so I can't even help my friend out here? It was insane to me.
Jeremy (46:40.413)
that attitude seems to be dying. know, this is why, you know, this is why our cardinal rule at an event like free training day is if you are a presenter, the word we use for teacher, you have to train. You don't just get, you don't get to just, you know, run your session and then watch everybody else's. No, you've got to be a student.
Ryan Sickles (46:44.94)
I hope so because I can't.
Ryan Sickles (47:01.89)
No, not that.
Ryan Sickles (47:06.072)
Show up and leave.
Jeremy (47:10.709)
And it means, and what that becomes a filter for is if people don't want to cross train, if they don't want to expose themselves to these other environments, then it says something about who they are as a martial artist and the way they view other martial artists. And it keeps the wrong people out.
Ryan Sickles (47:34.318)
Sorry. It's a, yeah, it was, and even the local karate schools didn't like, I was like, Hey, can we have like a cross training day? you we visit each other or even if we meet up somewhere, like meet up at a park or something, like have like a training sharing day. And I was like, wow, it's some people are just, I was like, really? What's the harm? Even if say like,
Jeremy (47:34.827)
No, it's all good. It's all good.
Ryan Sickles (48:02.594)
your worst fear is I take your student. What's to say you don't take one of mine? There is enough martial arts in the world that we should be able to share with one another. That's why I love free training. This is awesome. This is exactly what, I I hated that I didn't get to go to the Vermont one because I was like, just how much...
Jeremy (48:16.331)
and
Ryan Sickles (48:31.212)
the local one grew from one year to the next. I was like, this is awesome.
Jeremy (48:33.891)
Yeah. Yeah.
People want it, right? People want that environment. you know, it's, to me, it's not just about losing a student. I think the true fear is even deeper than that. It's a fear that they're not a good enough instructor.
Ryan Sickles (48:55.597)
Right.
Jeremy (48:57.015)
Right, somehow in the 70s and 80s, three quarters of martial artists ended up at the school that had the best possible system and their instructor had won, you know, the kumite and they beat Frank Dukes and right, like all these things happen that obviously can't happen for everyone. But without the internet, we didn't know. Right, we couldn't compare notes, but now we have notes to compare.
Ryan Sickles (49:17.699)
Yeah.
Jeremy (49:23.747)
and people are realizing, a second, this stuff that I was taught or who I am as an instructor could be better. And there are two responses to that.
Ryan Sickles (49:31.374)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy (49:36.417)
Wow, great, I can keep learning, which are the people that show up at whistle kick events like yourself, or people who put the blinders on or ostrich head in the sand or whatever metaphor you prefer, because that's a scary proposition for them. And it means they have to do more work and they don't get to remain in the front of the room with their thumbs in their belts and 46 stripes down the belt saying how amazing they are. Like master Ken in a closed environment.
Ryan Sickles (50:01.432)
Like Master Ken.
Jeremy (50:05.18)
That's why they have to keep that environment closed because the moment light exposes truth, the moment other people see what's going on, it can introduce cracks in the wall.
Ryan Sickles (50:17.662)
Yeah, yeah, the old days of being able to show up to another school looking for signs and taking out names. Yeah.
Jeremy (50:28.575)
Yeah, I don't play any of that stuff, right? When people come to our events, when they join Whistlekick Alliance, when they do any of that stuff, we have filters that basically keep people who are jerks out. No, we don't allow jerks in. If you are going to be so fearful.
that it's gonna compromise someone's experience, we don't want you. We don't want you. We're gonna build up the rest, we're gonna lead from the front, and eventually you go, okay, I guess I gotta get in. I gotta get into fit in.
Ryan Sickles (51:03.758)
With martial arts being such a thing that is supposed to foster respect and community, it's so hypocritical to be like, okay, well...
Jeremy (51:09.539)
Mmm.
Ryan Sickles (51:16.3)
I'm not going to respect your style. I'm not going to respect your teachings and things like that. It's because of that ego, because of that fear. It's absolutely, I look at so many times, look at it like, how can you honestly look at yourself in the mirror sometimes and call yourself a martial artist sometimes? I mean, I've been at tournaments where I'm seeing
kids coaches screaming and yelling at their students because they didn't do whatever. And I'm going, you're supposed to be teaching this child what it's like to succeed, to learn how to process things, and here you are screaming and yelling at him because he didn't win for you? You just want to go over and shake them sometimes.
Jeremy (52:09.831)
I saw one once and I'm going to do my best to sanitize the story because this is someone who is involved in a high level national team. And they were coaching someone in a points barring match. And I believe the premise was that this was that the student was someone who was kind of under observation potentially to come onto the team in the next couple of years.
They were good, they were a little young for what the team typically did. They were being scouted and so this person is coaching them.
Ryan Sickles (52:44.312)
They're being spelled.
Jeremy (52:53.025)
And this person lost and they lost terribly. mean, it was, they, did not adjust on the fly. The person they were sparring was very much a one trick pony and they just didn't have an answer for it. Now this is a adolescent early teenager. Mom is standing there and I watched this person.
Ryan Sickles (53:10.115)
Fragile time.
Jeremy (53:16.274)
lay into them.
in such a way that I stopped doing what I was doing because they were the smallest possible degree to me stepping in. Because it was that bad.
And I ended up spending 20 minutes with mom and the kid after talking them back down because that person, that girl wasn't just going to not join that team. We were going to lose her as a martial artist.
Ryan Sickles (53:46.68)
They were gonna come all together. Yeah, all together. It's crushing.
Jeremy (53:52.043)
and I'm...
Ryan Sickles (54:00.014)
Did lose your heart?
Jeremy (54:00.045)
I'm angry now thinking about it. This was probably five years ago.
Ryan Sickles (54:03.534)
Yeah, it sticks with you though. It really does because it goes so violently against what our philosophy is, what we believe. And you want to see the best in people. That you you're just like, okay, you've chosen the same path to walk that, well, not the same, but you know, the similar path that I'm on.
of teaching people, of fostering growth and things like this. And then to see somebody so violently against that pattern is just so jarring. It'll stay with you the entire time. It feels like such a violation.
Jeremy (54:51.467)
And that's a great word for it. It's a great word for it. So what do you do in your environment as an instructor to make sure that not just you, but the others around you don't commit those violations?
Ryan Sickles (55:09.822)
Well, we've always said lead by example. So whenever I have a student who wants to go try something or wants to, know, so that's like, I go try this stuff? Absolutely. You know, if I, if even if I happen to know the person, it's like, I will reach out to them firsthand and tell them, hey, I got a student who wants to come visit you. He's interested in this. He wants to learn this. Like, are you cool with it? Yeah, you know, absolutely.
Like, hey, go learn, try it out. If you want to come back and tell them, awesome, if you find that this is better, so be it. I will let them go, whichever they are. I'm not going to pin them in. But I also, if they're someone who's just staying within the school, I tell them, I'm very honest. It's like, at some point here,
Now, future-wise, at some point during your time with me, you're gonna fall flat on your face, you're gonna fail. And you're gonna hate it. You're gonna hate how it feels, it's gonna suck. And we're gonna talk. I fondly call them gap lessons. Where it's like, okay, you've come this far, succeeded all the time, now I'm gonna show you the gap between where you are and where you think you are. And you're gonna be like,
Jeremy (56:28.387)
Mmm.
Ryan Sickles (56:32.27)
That's all, because I mean the first time, I think my first gap lesson I think was when I was 12 and I got my first school yard fight. And I got my butt whooped so hard. It was embarrassing. It was bad. They were like, oh yeah, where's all that karate stuff, blah, blah, blah. And I mean, was crushed. But my instructor, you know,
did the thing of kind of telling you like, okay, so what did you learn from it? was like, well, I don't think I'm training the right way. And that's kind of what, that I think is what took me from being like on this path to going to triptychs exponentially spiking up, you know, now knowing the difference between just doing it and living it, you know.
Jeremy (57:09.507)
Hmm.
Ryan Sickles (57:28.718)
So and I tell my students all the time like all my failures I tell them every You know every single time that they come up against all my time look I've been there. Yeah, I went through it I Found our blackboard exam, you everybody's blackboard exam is tough And I tell my students all the time look I failed my first exam you failed sensei Yeah Yeah
And it taught me a very important lesson and I'm gonna teach you the same lesson now. It's like you are going to fail, you're gonna mess up, you're gonna have times where it's awful and you're gonna cry. And there's nothing wrong with it. But the old adage is if you fall down 10 times, get up 11. Always get up 11 and rather, it's now, never let it stop you.
And we do a lot of lessons designed to kind of teach a person that they're stronger, stronger, tougher than they think they are. You know, before I let somebody go to their blackbelt exam, we have a sparring test that they do beforehand, which in my opinion is almost harder than some of the exam stuff where it's, you know, whoever shows up for class, and everybody has this, that, you you show up for class, you spar every single person that day.
And I know I'm not the only person who does this, but our variety is though, there is no break. I don't care if you're tired. I don't care if you fall down. I don't care if you throw up. I don't care if you get hit low. The clock's not gonna stop and you're gonna go for a minimum of 15 minutes. And everybody goes, well minutes.
Jeremy (59:17.507)
Hmm.
That's not per person, I assume. That's 15 minutes total.
Ryan Sickles (59:24.29)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. god. I feel the whole day. Yeah. But you know, I go, well, that's not too bad. go, I want you to go to the track and I want you to sprint nonstop around the track for 15 minutes. And I go, yeah.
Jeremy (59:27.683)
Nobody would show up to those classes if it was 15 minutes per person. They I don't want to part 15 minutes.
Jeremy (59:43.917)
Yeah, that is not pleasant. I'm blurry, fix that.
Ryan Sickles (59:47.948)
Yeah. So I tell them like, it's like, yeah, now you're only beginning to understand what happens here.
Jeremy (59:56.173)
Yeah, I think a lot of schools have something like that and I did as well. And my instructors told me it was to help me see that the limits that I had on myself really didn't exist, that there was always a little more.
Ryan Sickles (01:00:00.778)
Yeah.
Ryan Sickles (01:00:11.242)
Exactly. Yeah. You know, kids are, kids are drooling, crying messes by the end. it's their number one fear. They all say it's their number one fear the first time they go through it. But yeah, yeah. I told him, like, if you weren't afraid of it, I'd be a concern. You know, but you, can see the moment that they get done. The moment they get through it, you can see the shift.
Jeremy (01:00:23.531)
Mhm. As it should be. It's supposed to be scary, right?
Ryan Sickles (01:00:40.822)
in their mind, their body, about what they think of themselves. every time we get done, I go through the same talk. You are stronger than you think you are, no matter how tough it is, no matter how awful it feels, you can get through anything so long as you're willing to continue going. So to rope it all back to that, it's important to teach students failure
But it's important to teach them on the opposite side about to get better from it, not just to demean them and lower them and tell them everything they're doing wrong, but to show them, I mean, that's what Sunstate translates to, one who has come before. So to show them, hey, I've been in your situation. I've gone through that same rigor you're going through. You're gonna be okay. You're gonna come out of this stronger.
Jeremy (01:01:41.699)
Absolutely. We're going to start to close up here. I'm going to throw it back to you in a moment for actually before we do that. If you want to reach you website, social media for you or your school, where would people go?
Ryan Sickles (01:01:54.542)
Right now we're actually in middle of kind of rebranding right now. We're updating all our stuff to modernize a little bit, but we're on okkapitman.com both on website and Facebook. We're currently working on our Instagram under the same thing, KKAPitman. We're trying to get it all organized together.
Jeremy (01:02:14.947)
We'll get all those linked up in the show notes and to the audience. Make sure you check out the show notes. Wherever you are, whether you're show notes, YouTube, or maybe you're on Spotify, or maybe you're your podcast player, those aren't the full show notes, because there's stuff we can't put in there. It just doesn't hit that part of the feed. Whistlekickmarshallmarchradio.com. Check out all the stuff that we've got. There's a transcript for this episode. maybe you go, oh, Ryan said this thing, and I remember a couple words. You can go in. can control F.
Ryan Sickles (01:02:30.69)
it.
Jeremy (01:02:45.035)
and you can search through the transcript and you can find it and go, yeah, that was a great quote. Because we break out some quotes, we'll do some clips, but you you've said a lot of awesome stuff in this episode that I think people might want to go back to. And enough. A martial artist rambling is, I mean, that's just kind of either redundant or par for the course, depending on how, how you want to look at it. But it's not rambling if you're saying good stuff and you're saying lots of good stuff, man. I really enjoyed our conversation today and now it's, it's time to close it up.
Ryan Sickles (01:02:56.12)
I like I ramble.
Ryan Sickles (01:03:03.63)
It's gold sometimes.
Jeremy (01:03:15.029)
So how do you want to leave this with the audience? Final words, thoughts? That's what.
Ryan Sickles (01:03:21.578)
man,
Jeremy (01:03:24.001)
I don't believe you. You've been too good the rest of it for you to be bad at this. I'm not buying it.
Ryan Sickles (01:03:29.486)
I guess I always like to say I'm a duck. I look calm and collected on the surface but underneath the water I'm kicking those feet like crazy. Because I speak for a lot of our events and you gotta remember the little clamshell kid that didn't like to speak in front of people is still there actually. It's just he's gotten a lot better. So now he's a duck instead of a clamshell. But I would honestly...
To summarize it all up, it's just, know, the world of martial arts is a lot bigger than just kick, punch, kihon, kumite, whatever your training is. You know, there's so much more in there and everybody always uses the adage of it. You know, it's a, it's a mountain top with many different roads there. Um, but I honestly get lost. you know, don't.
Don't get fixated on it has to be this, has to be that. Experiment, jump around, have fun with it, branch out, experiment here. Don't forget your route, don't forget what you came from. But don't look at everything having to be linear, straight line. Go up, stop for tea somewhere, go off on a side road, keep going, climb a rock here, sit on a ledge.
Go sit, fish by a lake for a little bit, then keep going, know, just meander your way across. And you'll find a lot more and a lot.
A lot that you'll miss otherwise. there's, so many times we look back at our training and go, you know, you ask any instructor, know, if you could go back in time and tell your former self one thing to do, what would it be? And it's always one of two answers. It's either stretch more.
Ryan Sickles (01:05:32.654)
Or it's, you know, I wish I had listened and tried this when I had the chance. Yeah. So. In capoeira there's a song and then that song it says, which essentially means what today you have tomorrow you don't. So.
Apply that to the martial arts, look at it like you can do this now, you can do this now, you know, don't regret what you're doing. Don't regret the opportunities that are given to you or things like that. I mean, I was terrified to do this. This is the first time I've done anything like this. But it's, it's, it's been fun. It's been a blast to talk about this stuff, to, to, you know, speak with like-minded individuals about things like this. Um, yeah. So like, don't.
Jeremy (01:06:15.299)
You've done great.
Ryan Sickles (01:06:28.61)
Don't let fear or what you think you have to do dictate everything that you're going to, because you're going to miss out on a lot. Like opportunities like this.