Episode 1111 - Martial Arts Word Association: Road Trip Edition

0:00Hey, what's going on everybody? Welcome back. It's another episode. It's okay, martial art to radio your favorite martial arts podcast Chairman Lesniak joined by Andrew Adams and on today's episode it's a word association. I haven't done one of these for a while Andrew says it's a theme. I don't know what the theme is Andrew. It is so the theme is road trip not roadhouse not roadhouse road trip road trip road trip the action or road trip the movie the action okay okay good although I have seen the movie road trip more times than I should and I've seen the movie roadhouse I've seen the movie roadhouse it's okay was that the one we did with Craig? We did that one with Craig?

1:03For the audience we did a series of how to fight episodes and we would take a movie and pick like kind of the main combative character and three of us we would bring on a guest and we would watch it and then we would talk about how we would fight that person and so this one the roadhouse one was how to fight Dalton. Yep and I don't remember who we did it with. I don't either. I just remember hair lots of hair jokes. Yep. All right so this is going to be fun. This is going to be fun. So my wife and I my wife and I are planning a vacation this summer and we're trying to figure out whether we are going to fly or whether we're going to drive and so that made me think of this road trip. I think it depends on where you're going. Yeah yeah yeah well yes yes and no. You're not driving England. Well that's fair. That's fair. You're right. You could but it takes a very long time and you've got to go the wrong way. Yeah and everywhere's walking distance if you have the time. That's very true.

2:06And money. Yeah. All right so road trip edition word association. Your first word is GPS GPS global positioning system. All right I was actually just thinking about GPS's last night was watching the forest go. And you know they're calling in the helicopters. You're muted. I can't hear you. I'm not muted. I can't hear you. I don't know. I don't know. Let's tell you. Oh now I can hear you. That's weird. You're watching what you're watching for scum. I was watching for his gun and just you know they're calling in helicopters to come gather up the wounded. But I don't think they had GPS back then so I was just kind of thinking through that. Fascinating to me. The idea that we can so quickly pinpoint where we are using a.

3:13I mean face it you can you can get a cheap phone for you know 30 bucks 20 bucks. And know exactly where you are in the world is amazing. That's pretty cool even when Wi-Fi and cell signals don't work GPS works because it's satellite based. Now how does that relate to martial arts because that's what we do here on it. You know where you are. You know exactly where you are. You may not know where you're going. You may not know where where you've been and where you are relate to where you're going. That's something that I don't know my headphones are being annoying. That's something that tends to happen as an instructor. Usually requires having been there to be able to look at someone's situation say I see where you are and where you're going. But where are you in your martial arts where you are supposed to be because everyone's journey is different.

4:15We've talked about this as the path is the same but where you put your feet can be dramatically different. And more you're trying to find I am here and I'm supposed to be there the more frustrated you're going to be. Martial arts is not. He's strictly academic program. There's no. Oh, I've got to graduate in four years. I've got to take these classes. We all show up so dramatically different and martial arts helps us get. Get on a path moving forward. But there's no end point. And there's no. You know, we generally have rank. But I was just talking about this. Guesting on somebody else's podcast earlier today. Even within the same school. Different people do the same things different ways. There's no. Oh, you know, you know, you know this form and you do it fast.

5:16And you know this form and you do it with power. And you're both awesome, but you know, you've got too much power. So stop doing power and you gotta speed. No, it's. It's such an individualized journey. There is no absolute. Like GPS. All right. Yield sign. In case you're unsure, that's the triangular sign. Okay. Okay. Small detour. Not a detour sign. Yield sign. Small. You're going to yield to my detour. Okay. My tangent. I recently spent a week in a rubah. A rubah does not have traffic lights. I did see one. It wasn't turned on. You know what? A rubah has. My guess is you're going to say yield signs. A lot of them. You know why?

6:16Why? Because there's only one place on earth that has more of an affinity for roundabouts than Montpelier where I am and keen where Andrew is. And it's a rubah. Interesting. Do you know what the directions were every time I went anywhere? In 400 meters. Some take the something exit off the roundabout. And it was like every four to 800 meters. That's funny. It was constant. All right. So how? So how do yield signs in my recent history? Yeah. Okay. Everything has to take its place in line. I've known a lot of martial arts. I've been one of them. I want to learn that new form. I want to learn that new form. I want to learn that new thing. I want to learn that new thing. You haven't refined the 75 other things that you've got. Those have to get better. They have to occupy the right place in your timeline.

7:18You can learn this thing, but the more new things you've got, the harder it becomes to go back. Because you're juggling advanced skills without having refined the skills. Because generally, as you improve a form, you're improving certain skills. The refinement of those skills comes with the refinement of the form. And that is, in most martial arts curriculums, how they are placed. So you've got to yield to your ambitions. So you can build your foundation. We've talked about it as building the widest base of the pyramid you can. Because that's how you build the tallest building. Okay. So sticking with the sign theme, what about speed limit signs? Speed limit signs. Theoretically, speed limit signs exist because people who know things say that for the safety of yourself and others given the road conditions.

8:25That's how that's the fastest you should drive. Let's assume that is true. Because otherwise it becomes very difficult to answer this. A good instructor will manage a student's expectations. Expectations, especially early on, tend to revolve around rank, maybe competition, and they tend to be connected with time. I have students that come to me. You think I'll have this rank by this date? It's possible, maybe. It's a question of how often you come to class, how hard you work, how much you're doing at home. We'll see. Not telling them no, not telling them yes. If somebody came to me and said, will I have a black belt from you in a year?

9:28Probably not. Is it possible with our curriculum? Yeah, but you're probably not working a job. You're probably training 60 hours a week and coming to every class you can. I don't see too many people doing that. The speed limit is the thing that so many of us push back on. Most people I know, I drive the speed limit. I drive 5 miles an hour above the speed limit. I drive 10. It's a boundary and we define ourselves when we're driving a car in large part with the speed limit. If the speed limit, we pass a sign, speed limit is higher, we drive faster. If I'm in a 45 and I'm driving 50, if I hit a 55, I'm driving 60. Pretty common for people.

10:29I think that speed limit within our training, you've got people who are always going to, they're going to show up to class. That's the extent that they're training. You have people who they'll do a little bit at home once in a while. But they're consistent with it. Then you've got other people who train a little bit every day or a lot every day. Or once a week they do an hour or two. That's kind of their speed limit. I'm going to do the minimum. I'm going to do this much above the minimum. I'm going to do this much about the minimum. Okay, gas station. You got to recharge. You got to refuel. This is some of the language we've started talking about as we've found more and more of what people value about Marshall Summit and a lot of the whistle kick events.

11:30They feel recharged. They feel reconnected and inspired by their training. So I'm going to make the shameless plug here that it's the gas station. Is the event. It's the thing you do outside of your typical training that allows you to rest. Take a break. Turn off the car. Maybe get a snack. Clean the windows. Kick the tires. Always check your tires when you get the gas station. Make sure you have air. And set yourself up for the next part of the journey. Because that's really what a gas station is. Gas station is not for where you've been. It's for where you're going. You could pull into the gas station without any gas. You could running on fumes. And if that's your destination, you're done. But you're probably going somewhere else.

12:31Where do you want to go? All right, speaking of tires, how about spare tire? Your spare tire is for when things don't go to plan. Nobody drives over anything in the road expecting that the tires going to blow or leak. Like that's never part of the plan. We never say, okay, I'm going to turn left here. And then my right front tire is going to lose air. I turn left. And then I get ready to turn right and go, oh, they're. Oh, and now the tire pressure systems kicked on. And oh, okay, so this tire is flat. I pull over and I put the spare tire. We don't generally have a lot of things in our training that don't go to plan

13:32unless we're trying to set these really big complicated plans. And that's usually mitigated by a good instructor, right? We talked about that with the speed limit and the expectations. So I think. I think the next best. Relation between martial arts and a spare tire. Would be safety equipment. We're trying to get back to gear. Mouthguard. That sort of thing. Because if we're sparring and there's some contact, we're not trying to hurt people. Let's stuff happens. By the way, we have great foam sparring gear. If you haven't checked it out, you should check out this thing. Sparring gear. For what it is for the kind that we make, it is the best of the world. And nothing touches it. Because of global economic conditions,

14:32relative to other things out there. All right, use the podcast 15. Next word, fast food. I just spent three hours training my body and mind. And now I'm going to go have a greasy bag of fries. But when you're on a road trip, lots of people do it. But you're on a road trip. And plenty of people do after training. Right. Like I know I know plenty of people. I used to in my Taekwondo days, quite often I would drive by McDonald's on the way home. And I think out of like the 70 years, I think I stopped the ones. But there are lots of people that do we won't mention in the name because we don't want to embarrass Bill Wallace. And I want to be clear. I'm not knocking McDonald's. There's actually a longer thing we could get into here.

15:33But the end conclusion, it's not the meat. It's the bread that is the problem. But. Why do why do we eat fast food? For most of us, it's for two reasons. It's convenient. And it tastes good. I don't know really any other reason. It's not really cheap anymore. We could do it cheap, but it's not really cheap anymore. It's about it's it's it's the taste and it's the convenience. And. What do you know what the fast food. Of martial arts is. It's that sparring combo. That you get people with. That they know you're going to get them with. And they hate you for it.

16:34But they're kind of jealous of it. And. You know that you should spend time practicing other things. But you don't because this works so well. Now maybe all of you don't have that. But I bet quite a few of you do. I don't know. No, I do. It's this. It's this. It's this and this. It's the way I do this. For me, it's this weird. Low. Low. Neem movement round kick that I just kind of drop down right on people's next. I just show. And they're like, I didn't even see that coming. I was like, yeah, that's. All right. Luggage. To gear bag. That's how you transport the stuff that you're going to need on your road trip. Your gear bag is that you transport the stuff you're going to need for your training. Okay. Now, also often in luggage, you will find travel sized toiletries.

17:34This is very specific. Okay. Well, because it's not toiletries, these are travel sized. Right. Oh, man. It's trying. I'm trying to think of what's in my gear bag. The travel sized toiletries. Equivalent in my luggage. Okay. My gear bag. It's. Best I got is the change that's fallen out of my clothes. When it's in there, I don't. Wow. I think this will be martial arts word association. I think it's 18. So it's taking 18 to stump you on travel sized. Yeah. That's why I'm not letting this go because I know you haven't stumped me. And it's pissing me off.

18:34Okay. Hold on. You might have to trim some of the time that I spend thinking here. I'm not trimming any of it. Here's going to make the audience suffer through my, my mumbling and breathing. Fantastic. All right. Complaints can be sent to Andrew. It was okay. Okay. Toiletries. Toiletries of people that involves shampoo and conditioner. I know for us. It doesn't. It does not. Although I wash my beard. That's fair. I actually brought. Beer shampoo. It's also like toothpaste and body wash and all that. Travel sized toiletries are the things that you need while traveling to give you a minimum comfort so that you can enjoy or at least not feel deficient during your travel.

19:37Because travel is not always vacation. So if you go on a business trip, maybe, you know, if it's a two day thing, maybe you don't need a razor. But if you're gone two weeks, you're probably going to want a razor. And you do that so you don't feel gross and lame. And so you can go to your business meetings or if it's vacation, you know, maybe you're not cutting your hair, but maybe you're bringing deodorant because spending your vacation time with smelly armpits wouldn't feel good. So it's about comfort and setting yourself up for success. Now, I think for some people, it could be a direct analog. What they keep in their gear bag. I know plenty of people keep deodorant. I keep, I do. For some people, it is a change of clothes for before or after class, right? Like, oh, I got sweaty. I'm going to change my undergarments.

20:39Okay. Moving on. Next word. Hotel. Is that good enough? You're going to have to. We're moving on. Hotel. What's that? Hotel. You're on a long road trip. Maybe haven't gotten your final destination yet. You're going to break it up into multiple days and you need to stop at a hotel. It's the parking lot. It's the parking lot of where you train or the parking spot. For two reasons. One, you have to get there first, right? You can't go train without parking. It doesn't work. Two, people who've been training a long time will start to think about their training in the car as they park. They're thinking about it more and they're kind of getting into training mode. If you're on a multi-day road trip and you stop at a hotel,

21:40it's not the final destination, but it's still exciting. You're still in vacation mode, even if, you know, most of what you're doing is getting a few hours of sleep in a meal. It's setting you up for that. It could also be the other answer for this that I've got could be kind of stretching and warming up on your own in the corner. A lot of us that have been training a long time do that. It's not the same, my stretching that I do, it's not the same as training. It's not class, but it is individualized and helps me benefit from class training more. It's like training light hotel is like vacation or whatever light. All right. That was the last word that I had for word association. I am unstoppable road trip edition. You went in a different direction with toiletries than I would have.

22:40I'll tell you where I would have gone. Yeah, where would you have gone? And I think perhaps because you had done luggage with gear bag or you were trying too much to pigeonhole the travel size toiletries into your gear bag. But to me, travel size toiletries are like one step sparring. Like it's just a little, you're just going to do a little bit. Like you're just learning this one step and then you're doing, you know, little, but it's not really sparring. It's just, it's little bite size travel parts parts. That's why I would have gone. I see it. But it's not word association for me. So it's where it's right for you. That's right. And to any of you out there, if you want to help Andrew on one of these in the future, by all means, you should reach out to him. Yeah. And I like the theme ones. We've done pet edition. We've done winter. We've done summer. Like I like the theme. So if you can give me a list of nine or ten words that fit a theme. Yes. Send them along.

23:40Andrew at whistlekick.com. Yeah. Thanks for spending some time with us. We appreciate you the, as much as we have, we ask you for things. We ask you to subscribe and share and join the email list. It's the big thing that we ask you for. It is only because we want to continue to grow and reach more martial artists. So because so many of you tell us that you find benefit from this show, we want to get every martial artist to see this show. So right now, if you are subscribed and you get the emails, which are the two big things that we want you to do, then I would ask you, think of one martial artist you know and ask them, do you check out this show? Just one. Yep. If everybody did that, we would double. That'd be awesome. And if you're on YouTube, you could see what I'm holding in my hands right now and the cool thing that I'm doing now. But you wouldn't know. But you wouldn't know if you're not watching. And look.

24:40Other direction. Wow. That's super cool. Left hand. Andrew is. Oh. Andrew is multi-talented. That is. There you go. You got to go to YouTube and check it out. All right, everybody. Thank you so much. Until next time, Andrew, you start us off. Train hard. Smile. And have a great day. Have a great day. And have a great day.