The salient point of this podcast episode is the announcement of significant developments regarding the ATA's Team Sync and Demo competitions, highlighting their expansion and increasing accessibility for participants. We engage in an insightful dialogue with Senior Master Turner, who shares the exciting news of the 20th anniversary of the Demo Team competition and details the introduction of new divisions aimed at fostering inclusivity among competitors of varying ages and skill levels. Throughout the episode, we discuss the logistics of upcoming tournaments, emphasizing the importance of regional events that allow for broader participation. The conversation further delves into the strategies employed to enhance the competitive landscape, ensuring that athletes are well-prepared and motivated. We conclude with encouragement for listeners to embrace these opportunities and strive for excellence within their martial arts journey.

Takeaways:

• This podcast episode highlights the significant expansion of the Team Sync and Demo events, marking a transformative phase in the ATA tournament structure.
• Listeners are informed about the introduction of multiple age divisions for the Team Sync events, enhancing accessibility for competitors of various skill levels.
• The episode discusses the importance of regional tournaments in fostering competitive growth and participation within the ATA community.
• Senior Master Turner shares insights on the challenges and strategies involved in organizing large-scale martial arts events, emphasizing logistics and community engagement.
• The 20th anniversary of the Demo Team competition is celebrated, showcasing its evolution and impact on martial arts performance and community spirit.
• Listeners are encouraged to register for upcoming events and to actively participate in tournaments to promote personal growth and skill development.

Sa.

Foreign.

Nation podcast.

Ata Nation.

Welcome back.

This is episode number 202 of the At Nation podcast.

And after last week, I decided I'm just going to take over the YouTube and Facebook feed again.

So if you guys don't see me testing for a new rank for 10 years or so, it's probably because I've hacked the the Facebook feed too many times and they denied my application.

So we'll see.

Hopefully it goes well.

If you are tuning in live on Facebook or YouTube, let us know in the comments where you are tuning in from.

We have with us a special guest today who is going to announce some top secret, all new exclusive news right here on the ATA Nation podcast.

So let's see anybody's tuning in.

Oh, I see some people tuning in right now.

Make sure you are letting us know where you're tuning in from on YouTube or Facebook.

We especially love if you're tuning in on YouTube and you hit that subscribe button.

We don't want to miss out on that.

All right, and let us know.

Have you registered for district championships?

If you.

If you haven't, you have 29 minutes.

29 Minutes to register for districts.

If you haven't registered yet, do it now.

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Texas tuning in.

Thank you, Texas.

Oh, guys, we are international today.

Canada is with us, British Columbia.

Thank you, sir.

Nice to see you.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I think we're gonna get to our special guest.

I am super excited.

I didn't even ask him beforehand what the special announcements are.

I wanted to be surprised just like you guys.

So let's get to our special guest.

Lady.

Matt Senior Master Turner.

How's it going, sir?

It's going phenomenal, sir.

How are you?

I am fantastic.

I was super excited that you reached out and were like, hey, I got some super secret, awesome announcements.

Go.

Can I do it on the show?

And I was like, of course you can.

I love to have a, you know, news break right here.

But before we get to that news, you guys just finished up a couple of weeks ago, the Max gathering.

And what.

What number was this?

Okay.

And you were in Texas this time?

We did, yeah.

We changed it up.

We this year we're out in Texas.

They said everything was bigger in Texas, so we had to go find out.

And how did it go?

It went great.

I mean, special.

Thank you, of course, to.

To master Havaducci and Mrs.

Soon to be hopefully Master Aveduchi.

They were a phenomenal host out there.

We had a great time.

We also implemented and showed some showcase of a new program we've kind of been hinting at, which is our atm max action special guest, Mr. Worry Brattle is out there.

I know a lot of people saw the clips of the, the short clip we made thanks to Mr. Jefferson Lewis.

So it was great time.

I think everyone did a great job and I think moving it around also creates a little bit more excitement because it makes a little bit more accessible to some people.

So we're already in the, in the lab right now cooking up what we have in store for next year.

So I can't give any details on that today, but.

Oh man, I can't give that one.

I got some breaking news today, but I can't give give too much breaking news.

You'll have to come back and tell us in the future.

Yeah, but I like the idea of moving that around, you know, getting to some other places.

I know it's you got to find a good location and then you guys usually go out and do something at a gymnastics facility or something.

So you got to kind of, you know, I'm sure look at places that have access to that as well.

Yeah, logistics always.

We look at a, make sure there's hotels, make sure the airport that's convenient for people to fly into, gymnastics gym or something that's close, that we have a great relationship that we're able to rent out for a couple hours.

So there's a lot that goes into it.

It's way above my pay grade for all the work that end up putting in, but it's, it's a labor of love.

Excellent.

Well, you know, this AJ Max thing continues to grow.

Spring Nationals.

I was unable to be there for the, the show part with all the teams and stuff, but I saw some video afterwards I really enjoyed and I believe they're from Texas.

The two ladies in the maybe, maybe a little higher age division.

Arizona.

Arizona.

Yes.

Yes, they were from Arizona.

Tricks.

Yes, they were fantastic.

I love that.

So teams, all that kind of stuff.

What kind of maybe announcements you got going for us today?

So first and foremost, I need to say thank you to everybody who's been participating this year.

This new year, of course we implemented having a couple more regional level tournaments which was a huge bonus for us.

You know, I don't know if people know this or not, but Team Sync or really Team Demo.

This is the 20th anniversary of Team Demo competition.

I was very fortunate to be a part of that.

And actually Master Mo and their team is the one who actually won it 20 years ago at World.

So this world would be the 20th anniversary of DEMO Team competition, which is crazy to think about.

It's been around longer than Combat Sparring.

That is crazy.

People think Combat Sparring has been here since the dawn of time and it's like no new guys.

This is not.

Yes.

So this is the 20th year anniversary.

So.

And again, it's had a slowly build for many years.

I've been very fortunate to have been a part of so many of these Demo Team events and things from the get go to now be a little bit more at the helm of it.

And of course working alongside of Senior Master Swazi, Chief Master Swaz, of course.

And now the tournament department, we've been very fortunate to now really kind of pump a little bit more fuel to that fire and get it to continuously grow, of course, adding in Team Sync and then we've split it where we had the Team Sync and Team Weapons of forms and Weapons.

That's been, I guess that the second year now.

This has been two years going in, so we've seen a lot of growth with that.

So I mean, we're really moving fast with it.

And now to get it into the regional tournaments, you know, we just select a couple of regional tournaments this year to kind of see how it is and it went well.

And again, you alluded to it at national we had over 22 teams.

I mean, it was massive.

It was massive.

I remember sitting with Chief Master Stevens many times because how long is it going to take?

I said be done like 30 minutes, ma'.

Am.

This one took almost two hours.

Which tournament department?

I don't know if they loved or hate it, but I loved it.

Yeah.

Well, you know, I said after Spring Nationals, when you got more competitors in on one day than we do at Worlds, we can smash Worlds.

You know, competition down to that day.

We got more time for team stuff.

Yes.

So, and I think some of the announcements we're going to make today is only going to drive more competitors to the event because of now not only going to be some accessibility.

Okay.

But also maybe some divisions.

Oh, okay.

I'm excited about this.

You know what?

20 Years.

I can't believe it's been 20 years because, I mean, I remember a billion years ago when like there was a.

The World Demo Team and then there were even before that.

I think there was like, you could go and do a competition to be like the world demo people.

I don't know, tryouts kind of thing.

Yeah, yeah, all of that.

But I love this, you know, as the Internet, as people see on YouTube, you know you got America's Got Talent, you see more of these group demo things, these team sync things and we have in the ATA just a wealth of talent, Just so much talent.

You know, half the time I used to watch the America's Got Talent like, you know how he's like, oh, this is amazing.

I've never seen, I'm like, I saw that last weekend at a tournament and what are you talking about?

Exactly like that.

And then, you know, it was just at Worlds and then at Nationals and it did have like, you know, people had trouble getting to it.

So I love the addition of regional tournaments and stuff.

Now some divisions making it like, hey, I don't want to compete against those crazy people because they're like this high.

Just that entry level, you know, I think the barrier of entry for people to come into it just seems more feasible now and I love that.

So tell us, what do we got?

So let's get to it.

So, so again, you know, this has been been a lot of behind the scenes working.

I, I'm very fortunate to be a member of the tournament council.

So I, I've been on there like hitting the pavement with them and, and I have to say that the tournament department and tournament council has been great supporters of this and you know, this is not possible without them.

So a huge thank you to of course Chief Ash Stevens and the allowing this to grow.

So a lot of things we wanted to do is take, take some inspiration from team sparring.

Right.

We've seen how team sparring has grown again.

I was fortunate to be on the very first Team USA back when it was a five man team and we've seen the evolution that team sparring has gone through.

I've been a part of a lot of things now I think about it.

You've been around the block a little bit.

I've done, I've done some stuff in this career but we've seen the evolution from a five man team to.

It used to, you know, just be the first.

If you won your match, you got one point for your team and then it became the cumulative scoring.

So we've seen that.

So we wanted to take that same growth path that they've had and implement the same concept now with our, with our Team Sync and Team Demo events.

We'll have a demo team or team sync event in over 12 different tournaments.

Nice.

That's a.

So that seems like massive a growth from.

What was it last year?

Like 5?

So last year we had four regional players, plus the ATA Max gathering acting as the fifth regional tournament.

Okay.

So we're going to be upgrading it to five, technically.

Well, let me.

Let me just give the whole.

Yeah.

So throughout the entirety of the season, some tournaments will host as a demo team and sync competition, and then some select tournaments will be only a sync tournament because we understand that it is still a new division.

We don't want to have it and offer it everywhere because not every place is servicing that.

So because this is the first year we implement it, the team IDs, we got to see the data, understanding where the teams are pulling from.

So sitting with Mrs. Master Mo, who is the analytics genius, she helped me pull all the analytics from based on which region has the most creative extreme competitors, what states and things like that.

So we were able to make decisions based on the data to where we wanted to put these events.

We also know that implementing this year was the first time we created where you can pull a demo team from your state, not from a individual licensee, but from the state.

We saw growth with that.

So that was amazing.

You know, Team Texas obviously right now is the first one.

Team Canada came out there and they did the same concept which they're, you know, great success already with just those two teams per se.

So we want to be able to keep that going.

So some of the tournaments will host as a team sync only event because we understand with sync, the growth path is so much faster because again, getting eight to 20 people together for a demo team is a little bit more challenging.

Even though you only need four, it's pretty tough to go out there with four to compete against a team of 20 to 30 kids.

It's challenging where Team Sync, you can just pull somebody no matter where they're at in the country.

It could be you and one other or two other people can be a member of two or three members and they can come together for that team.

So some tournaments again will act as a sync only event, where others will act as a sync and demo event.

So regional tournaments, and I'm not going to give the entirety of the list, a lot more will be getting sent out from, from headquarters, going out to everybody.

I just.

We wanted to do this to break the news so we can start planning ahead.

So yes, the very first tournamen, I know many people already saw it, but we'll be senior Master Grayson, he's already hosting.

He already came out and kind of gave the teaser.

I said hey, you put this teaser out and let them get the excited amount.

And then audio bomb with Seamaster Hayden to give all the details.

Yeah.

So his event will be acting as a sync in demo event and that will be on August 1st.

And then following that up in September, master candidate or master nominee Barros in Florida at her class A will be a sync only eventually at the Sun Coast.

And then October Cena master Madriga out in South Carolina, he'll have a sync only event.

And then of course we still have our fall nationals which will be sync and demo.

Then October it's you said we're going international.

Well, we should take team Team Sink and team dominant international.

We'll head into Canada, baby.

That's right.

The A team so out October will be out there and you'll be able to do a sync and demo event out there for the, you know, the northern west coast side of, of the country as well.

And then in November there will be another tournament that we're going to host.

I'm not going to say where, where it's going to be at, but Atlantic City Showdown in New Jersey, this incredible guy I know hosted.

That'll also act as a sync and demo event.

And then just to round off for the, for the 26th calendar year, the HUL Classic which will also act as a sync event.

Excellent.

So that's again, I don't want to go through the entire list.

Yes.

In terms of that in Phoenix we'll be in San Diego.

Indiana, we're going to be in Missouri, so Wisconsin, so we're all over the place for this year.

So we made sure to try to keep it as accessible as possible in different parts of the location.

Almost like each region and not every region but close to each region has a sync and demo event.

And then within a drive probably a sync event as well.

So we try to plan it out as methodical as possible.

Of course, thinking of where the nationals are this year between Dallas Fort Worth and Pittsburgh.

So we try to keep it as fair as possible.

We're never going to please everybody, obviously if there's not one within close driving distance, I apologize.

But we also based off of the participation that we've already seen from these past couple of years, so using that data to make the decisions so if.

You want one near you, get a team together or a sync or a demo and go to one and participate.

That way that data comes in and they start going, hey, there's more people here.

We need to move one there, have that.

And just remind us real quick, at these events they're getting points for first, second, third, just like top 10 or new state champion, that kind of thing to then compete at World Championships, right?

Correct.

Yeah.

So this year is actually the first year we actually legitimately have a top 10.

And I mean that we've had it in the years past with all been, you know, three or four teams.

This year there's teams that place that are not eligible to compete for the world title because they didn't have enough points.

And the points, the regional level tournaments are all based on a 531 system.

So no different again we took the same concept from team sparring.

So it doesn't matter if it's an A or a B class tournament, the points are exactly the same.

Now when it comes to your title contention, no different than a regular because a regular individual competitor, even though technically you'll have over like 14 events as a sync team that you can compete in, it'll only be your five region, your best five plus your two nationals.

Okay.

So even though you can obviously go to multiple tournaments, we're keeping that same structure because we have more tournaments to pull from.

Then you will get your best of the, of of the five plus your national level or your.

Yeah, your two national events.

So it's, it's encouraging you to get out there and compete.

You have to get out there.

You have to compete.

Yes.

Arizona obviously will have at the AZ Kickoff.

Sina Suavey is never one to not post.

I mean who would self promote like that?

That's great.

That's.

That's crazy.

I don't understand man, who would do such a thing.

But okay, you know, we also with this is that this is something that where when we looked at also is hopefully myself or chief Master Skiles.

Maybe even as, you know, as, as kind of like the, the spearheads of this.

But also if we're not able to make it, we have people that are in these regions that we can trust and make sure that these tournaments are ran and they're you know, following the guidelines and the rules officially.

So of course, you know, as much as I would love to be at every single tournament, I don't think my staff and, or my wife would Enjoy me in a plane every single week.

That's kind of what I've been doing the last five, six weeks of this.

This last two months I've been on a plane and on Thursday, Chief National Skiles and I head off to Peru to go teach.

I saw that.

Yes, it's exciting.

So again, no matter where these tournaments are at, whether we will be there or there will be an opportunity for somebody else to be there to kind of be the figurehead and to make sure that things are running according status quo.

And we'll make sure people sign up for the training at World Championships to learn a little bit more about being a great judge for these kind of events, which I'm pretty sure I just signed up for last week.

So.

Yes.

Yeah.

So that's an exciting one.

Of course, this year at Worlds, one of our day seminars you could participate in is going to be the how to judge not only Creative Extreme individual events, but also adding in the next caveat is how to judge teams and get Team Demo.

Because we are seeing the expansion of this, we're going to be meeting it.

Typically we've been able to pull just a handful of judges of course that are the higher ranks, but as we continue to expand and get it out going out there, we want to make sure people are educated on how to judge these events as well.

Because Demo Team and Team Sync are not necessarily a creative and extreme consider, you know, event.

You can go out there and do a creative form that's a little bit more traditionally based.

Obviously you cannot do a traditional form per se, but you can pull the inspiration where it can be more of that side of it.

Right.

We've seen competitors already doing that.

Obviously in the Demo team event you can mix in things like the board breaking and the fight scene.

So there's a lot of other things you can add to it.

So our world event, our world's training will be how to judge Creative Extreme not only from the individual side of competition, but also how to judge the teams to get team Demo events accordingly.

So we can continue to see this growth.

So again, we'll have multiple tournaments this year.

We'll have the sync events plus, or, sorry, the sync and demo events plus the sync events in over 12 tournaments, plus the nationals, plus the ATM max gathering.

So lots of events to compete in.

I believe it's, I mean, just right.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.

Yeah, like 14 different events to compete in.

So there's a ton of events to compete in this year.

Yeah.

That's fantastic.

I mean, it shows the growth.

I'll suggest that like, even if you're not looking to be a judge for Team Sync or Team Demo, if you take that seminar, learning what the judges are looking for is going to help you set up a team to be successful as well.

You know, it's kind of like, hey, if you know what they're looking for, how they're judging, you can do a better job of, of, you know, setting up your team.

So.

Absolutely.

Yes.

So, so that's super exciting.

One of the other big things, of course that we're going to be talking about is the, is the Team Sync divisions.

Okay.

So here it is.

This.

And again, there will be a detailed description of everything coming out soon.

So yeah, we're just teasing it here.

We're just letting people know.

That'll be an official announcement.

Yes.

All the rules, exactly how it goes, will come out to you.

So we, we're not going to give you all the details, but.

Correct.

So again, pulling the inspiration not only from team sparring, but really kind of like using the, the international team sparring brackets and the way their age groups are.

We kind of took that theme.

So we'll have a rookies division which will be 12 and under.

Okay.

We'll have a varsity division that will be 17 and under.

We'll have an elite division which will be 39 and under.

And then we're going to have a legends division, thanks to team geriatrics out there pushing it, which will be our 40 and up.

Okay.

Now very similar.

Correct.

Now very similar to team sparring.

Obviously we know that we.

You can intermix and kind of move through the brackets if you want to, you know, move to the different divisions based on your ages.

So this works the same here.

Now.

So Again, anybody who's 12 and under, both members must be 12 and under competing in that bracket.

They must be in doing that individual competition in that age bracket to qualify to do that as a team bracket.

Now let's say that you are 11 and your teammate is 17.

Then the 11 year old will move up.

Both members would compete in the older age division and compete to the 17 and under division, which means they move to the varsity.

Same thing.

If you have a 14 year old and a 22 year old, the 14 year old will move up to compete into the elite division which will be 39 and under.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

Now the only place that, that the moving up, you always move up to the oldest competitors age bracket doesn't work is in the legends, which is 40 and up.

So at 40 and up, both competitors must be 40 enough to compete in the legends division.

If you are 40, you know, say you're 43 and you want to go with a 12 year old, then you would actually move down and you one moves up, one moves down, then you compete in the elite division.

Okay.

So typically we did math behind this as well.

It's like you took the two, you took the competitors, you divided and it all works out the same.

So again, age group wise, you can move all the way up to 39 and under and then 40 and up, you can move up and then if you are mixing from a 40 and up versus anybody else from 39 and under, then you move to the elite category.

So again will be a full list of descriptions on exactly how it breaks down and that is going to be for our sync form and sync weapon.

Now the only other thing that is a little bit different is that I can be on my sync form team.

Maybe it's me and another 7 year old, maybe I'm a 12 and an 11 year old and we are on a sync form form in the rookies division.

But when it comes to sync weapon, maybe I team up with somebody who's 22 and I can be in a different bracket for my weapons division.

So you are able to be in different divisions if you have a different partners and but again, it's based on both partners to be able to compete.

Gotcha.

Okay, so that if I'm not, let's say my team member is, if I have one person I'm a team member with with forms and one I'm with with weapons, those could be in different categories based on what our age combination is and all that.

Exactly.

Yes.

Yeah.

So yeah, you're not bound to be in of course with the same competitor.

You can, you can, you can choose a different team.

They're two completely separate events.

So you might be in a rookie team for forms, but you might be in an elite team for weapons based on your, your competitor and once you know different, anything else, once you place in that division, you are stuck to that division.

You can't then you know, jump and choose different divisions.

That makes sense.

You're, you're just like team sparring.

You're kind of boom, this is my team.

This, I'm locked in this.

Okay.

Correct.

Oh man, this is cool.

I'm excited to see like, I think this is going to grow the event so much more than two because you're going to have, I mean, I don't think currently there are a lot of people who are over 40 and grabbing a 12 year old to be with, you know, maybe a, maybe a parent and a kid, that might be a neat division.

But I think you're, you're probably going to have more people like, okay, we're 40 and up.

I don't have to compete with that 20 year old anymore.

I got a much better chance of going, oh man, there's some cool things.

I'm excited to see this.

Yeah.

And you know, it's super cool because right now we actually have a three way tie in forms.

For a first place, you have Mr.

Walls and Mr. Pies, who are two.

They would be, you know, 29 and under.

39 Under division.

Perfectly.

Then you have Team Aku, which was typically, I think it's like a 12 and a 14 year old.

Right.

So they're also in a mixed age bracket.

But then you have Mr. Rivera and Ms. Holly Reeves who are much different in gap.

So you see it right now, now again, as can two 9 year olds compete?

Absolutely.

I'm a firm believer they can go against it, but, and you see that they can kind of mix and choose where it goes at, but by creating the divisions that allow for them to compete that way.

And again, you could take a Mr. Rivera and a Ms. Reeves and they can, they can hang.

So they create the opportunity, you can create that.

And from a judging perspective that we take that in consideration, like, hey, there is, there is some, this is a level of difficulty that a. I'm not saying that Mr. Rivera is going down, but maybe Ms. Rivera's or Ms. Reeves is moving up and showcasing that she is able to still hang with these, you know, higher ranked older competitors.

So it creates that challenge.

We didn't want to take that away.

I love that dynamic about the Team Sync events.

We didn't want to take that away.

So we're allowing you to still kind of pick and choose your teammate based on your, your ability and create the best competition, bar none.

Oh yeah, no, I think that's a huge improvement.

I mean you just think right now if I were a group of, you know, if I have a group of students at my school who are like interested in doing this, but they're like 211 year olds.

You know, they're, they're going to look at the national, you know, go to world of nationals and watch the competition, be like, oh man, we're, we're going to be in trouble with these, you know, where, where now they could be in a division where they're like, okay, this is a little more on my level now with the regional events, you, you're able to participate.

I just, I love the ability to have more people come into the training, come into it, and they might not.

I, I have just always thought when, when it's these high levels, you know, just like with Team usa when it start, like, you're like, okay, that seems really cool, but I'm just gonna get murdered in there.

And I not my ability to want to go and do it is less.

When we are able to have more people join, they start maybe at a lower level, but they continue to progress.

They, they continue to train, they continue to get better, then they make it to those world levels, all those kind of things like.

But when the barrier of entry is a little bit lower, a little less scary, we get those people to come in and then they, they achieve those big things.

I think it just is better for everybody that way.

So this is, I think, I think separating this especially, we saw it regionally, we saw some of the younger students because it was more accessible and obviously not everybody traveled as much.

And so, hey, this is in my region.

So, you know, they, and many parents and many instructors told me, said, hey, I had a team that want to do it, but they just couldn't go against, you know, the XYZ in the world, which, which is fair because this is the only event in the entire ATA that you could literally be a first degree, you know, 10 year old going against a fifth degree or even a master.

This is the only vet in the entire ATA that offers that wide range of scale, not just from adult, but you could be a child going against a master, which I love because, hey, some of these, some of these upcoming athletes, they're incredible.

Oh, they are incredible.

So to create that, we still have that, but at the same time we also created an entry barrier where it allows them to, hey, if I'm 212 year olds, I can just go against it, you know, go against other kids that are more maybe in my, in my skill bracket.

And then it brings them in earlier when they get the training and then are able to make it up to those high levels and do some of that amazing stuff because they see, you know, they believe in themselves.

They see some, some short, small wins and then early success.

Yeah, they have that early success already and they get comfortable in it.

Right?

So that's why no different than we see a lot of our, the people that are, that are red black belts or black, you know, red, black recommended men and that are competing up and they can already be on team sparring.

The same thing happens for our Team Sync and Team Demo events.

Right.

So as long as you are competing in a black belt division and you will be a first degree by the end of the tournament season then you are eligible to be on a sync and or a demo team.

Awesome.

Man, this is some great stuff.

This event is just going to continue to grow or these two events are going to continue to grow.

I can see how the tournament department is a little like yeah, we don't have more time in these events.

But so that is, that is one of the things where with these events again when we based on who was the host we also looked at again whether we can get there or we have somebody who can run it because this is something we actually want to take off the pressure of the RTTLs to try to find a way to fit into it because it's so sporadic and some of these might be on a Friday prior to the event, you know, the individual competition.

Some of them might be at the end of the day on Saturday.

Some of them might even be on a Sunday because it, it even though it is in our tournament, it also kind of will, will take on its own little identity because of the way that the brackets are mixed.

It's impossible really to say hey at you know, 17 and under than to compete at this time because somebody who might be competing up might be doing the individual competition that might be in team sparring and they might be judging.

So, so it will run outside of its of the normal tournament structure possibly on a Friday, end of end of tournament Saturday or on Sunday based on the host.

And we've of course been communicating with the host to make sure that they are prepared to be able to offer it the best event.

Registration will still this year again we'll be putting on another team ID so if you would like to register for the team, you'll have to fill out a new team ID again for the upcoming tournament season that's not ready yet but that will be getting sent out so everyone can do that.

And registration will not be through easy sign up.

Each host will have a separate sign up link to sign up for these separate events because again they kind of live outside of the normal tournament confines.

Makes sense.

Yeah.

Especially as it's growing and, and you know, developing the processes and everything.

So that is awesome.

Oh man, I'm super excited about this.

I didn't get to hit one of the tournaments this year that had this event, but I will Be sure to to see one of the regional tournaments.

Maybe I'll get to judge one.

That'd be fun.

Well, I mean, you're in Indiana.

There will be one in Indiana.

Excellent.

Good, good, good.

I almost made it.

Wisconsin, Missouri.

You know, they're out there.

Canada, New Jersey, Arizona.

New Jersey.

There is a lot.

There's one in New Jersey.

Yeah.

Yeah.

November 20th and 21st.

That's all the details I know about.

I don't know much about that one.

Very good.

We had a question about watching this from the beginning.

Yes.

It'll be on YouTube.

You can check out the YouTube replay.

The 18 Nation podcast is available on all your favorite podcast feeds.

Make sure you hit that subscribe button.

Lots of great things going on.

People are tagging people.

You should come to Canada, sir.

What?

Aren't you.

We are coming to Canada.

You're going to be in Canada.

I think he's talking about you personally.

Oh, hey, that'd be fun.

I haven't been to Canada for a while.

I need to update my passport.

Okay.

Hey, Master Turner.

Anything else real quick before we go?

Or is that all?

I mean, you dropped a lot of.

Of announcements there so.

That's a lot.

That's a lot.

Yeah.

So just.

I'll do a quick recap for everyone.

So again, Demo Team and Team Sync will be hosted in multiple cities and regional tournaments or regional level events.

Between five different regional tournaments plus the ATMX gathering for our Sync and Demo Sync forms will technically be in over 12 different tournaments.

Some events will be running as a sync only event.

Some will be Demo Team and Sync events.

Along with that we'll have the different age brackets.

Rookies 12 and under, varsity 17 and under, elite 39 and under 40 plus is our legends teams are able to mix groups but then typically you compete up to the older level competitor.

Unless you're 40 plus.

Everybody has to be 40 plus to be in that division.

Five best tournaments plus your two nationals are the way we will get your points to see who's eligible to compete for the world title.

It's the 20th anniversary of DEMO Team to Team Sync.

This year at Worlds we have the biggest event we'll ever have.

So if you're able to be there, come by.

Check it out.

World of course, the ATM Max team.

I saw the C Master Swazi with our ATM Max pros will be doing how to judge individual team singing Creative which will help Individual creative and Extreme which will of course help going into the TLC competition.

Plus how to now judge these.

These demo and team SYNC events to make sure everyone is super knowledgeable.

Because if you can judge a punch in Sangam one, you can judge creative and extreme, you can judge demo team.

It's just martial arts at the edits or it's just that.

So we'll be there during the seminars giving you live demonstrations from some of the athletes and taking into consideration what did you see, what did you see.

So that way we can really give you a hands on experience of what we look at when we judge these events on the highest level.

Love it.

Fantastic.

Thank you so much sir for your time and thanks for all the hard work you're doing growing the MAX program, the team, the sync.

It's awesome.

Thank you so much.

No, it's my pleasure.

Again, it's not possible without me.

I have a great team that I work together with.

Of course.

Thank you again to the tournament council for, for seeing the vision and allowing us to grow.

I know we right now we have our heads with districts and then of course going in the world.

So to be able to drop this little nugget right now, make sure everyone's getting registered.

So don't spend the extra money.

You.

You.

If you didn't register, I think you just missed it.

Sorry.

Yep, you just missed it.

Three minutes late.

So you'll have to wait for the late and pay extra money.

So yeah.

Awesome.

Thank you sir.

We appreciate your time.

My pleasure, guys.

Thank you everybody.

Hey ladies and gentlemen, that was huge.

What awesome information we are.

We still have.

We still have our athlete of the week.

So in just a second we're going to tune into our athlete of the week.

We've got a couple of questions that came up here and I'll just hit.

This information is going to be sent out to all the licensees to people as everything is finalized and put in a document to make sure it's got all the rules and everything.

So senior master Turner wanted to jump on, make sure everybody heard about the changes, the things coming up.

But the official like details will be coming out.

They've got to make sure everything gets ironed down and then you'll be able to see all the tournaments that are going to have these different events.

So now, ladies and gentlemen, every week we are blessed to be able to feature an athlete of the week.

And this week we have a returning athlete.

Let's check it out.

I think this might be a first, but we have a repeat athlete of the week.

We just decided it means he must be super cool.

Hey sir.

Introduce yourself again to at nation.

Hey ATA nation.

My name is Rylan Gossett.

I'm a second degree black belt, I live in Magnolia, Texas and I have seven world titles.

Magnolia, Texas.

Who's your instructor?

I forgot.

Mr. Cox, sir.

I knew that.

Mr. Cox.

Almost Master Cox, right?

Yes, sir, Master Kid.

Yeah.

Coming up.

What do you think?

Like, is that going to be an easy transition for you to start calling him Master Cox?

No, sir, I've called him Mr. Cox for a very long time.

So it's going to be a very hard transition.

Yes, I totally agree.

I had a student last world championships, get his mastership and I am still messing it up every time.

I'm like, Mr. Smith Mastersmith.

Yeah, that's what I meant.

It's rough.

Hey, how's this season gone for you?

It is going wonderful.

I have a lot of great competitors and it.

It's just been amazing.

What?

So you said second degree, right?

Second, third year division.

What age group?

11 And 12, sir.

11 And 12.

Okay, what events are you planning on competing in at?

Districts.

For districts, I have to do all eight.

Everything?

Yes, sir.

Nice.

Okay, which ones are like, you know, you're like, these are the ones I'm coming home with those blue letters on my back for.

Yes, sir.

So I'm really confident about extreme weapons, extreme forms, and really all the xma.

I gotta be honest, all the XMA I'm really excited about.

Excellent.

Remind me what your weapon for extreme and creative is.

Yes, sir.

So for creative weapons I do just single sword, but for extreme weapons I do double sword.

Nice, Nice.

Gotta keep it unique.

Yes.

Yeah.

You know, I'm not seeing a lot of ext or double sword these days.

Yes, sir.

It's out there a little bit, but it's.

I've got a.

There's a girl near us.

I was judging this last week.

She does the double bow, but I don't know if I have anyone in our region that's doing the double sword.

It's a good one.

Do you have the, the magnetic one that sticks together?

No, sir.

We tried to find them.

They.

They've like vanished.

Yes, yes.

Whoever.

Somebody went out there and just like stole everyone out there.

Yeah, if I had one, I'd put it on ebay for some like $5,000 or something.

Worth it.

Very much.

Okay, so now what about, what about world championships?

What are.

I mean, obviously you got districts, so you might qualify for some other stuff, but what are you qualified right now for in worlds?

So for right now I am qualified for.

For going off the top of my head here.

Traditional Forms.

Nice.

Creative open hand, Creative weapons, Extreme open hand and Extreme weapons.

Okay, very good.

Five events so far, but hoping to win districts and get a wild card for the last three.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Okay, so what's, you know, we just wrapped the end of the regular season.

We're going into postseason with districts and world championships, obviously, the toc.

What's your training looking like these days?

What are you.

What are your focusing on?

How are you preparing for these events?

So, okay, so I have.

For traditional, we have these.

We have this, like, little stretchy thing on our wall.

Yep.

You put your leg through a hole and you, like, pull a rope and it lifts your leg up.

Yeah, they.

Those were torture devices back in the middle ages.

Yes, sir.

Now we use it as training tools, which makes it even cooler.

Yes.

So a lot of stretching, a lot of resistant bands, weight to build height and balance on the kick.

So of course, balance boards.

And for creative and extreme, just repping out the combos.

My instructor taught me a drill that's slow, traditional, and then full speed, which really works on the technique, and then adds in the speed later because that's what really matters in creative and Extreme.

Very good, Very good.

Okay, now for your creative extreme.

Are you the form that you've been doing or the forms you've been doing?

Are they stuff you're.

You're not changing anything.

It's exactly the way it's going to be.

Are you the kind of person who likes to tweak it a little bit every time you do it, or are there some things that you're.

You might be tweaking just for kind of postseason?

So I like to tweak just like itty bitty things to make it look a bit more pizzazz full.

That's my word.

But we're gonna make it a word.

I like it.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

I am actually coming up with a new form right now that we're hoping to get by districts, but if not by worlds.

Okay.

It's gonna do everything.

So you're gonna.

You're.

You're.

And.

And is that the one you're going to compete with?

With toc?

Yes, sir.

So you're bringing a whole new game.

Yes, sir.

Oh, okay.

Have you done that?

Is that something you've done in the past or is this the first time you've done it?

First time I've done it.

Okay.

So we've.

We kind of got a base form from our instructor, and we built on that ever since.

This is the first time ever for the five Years I've been training that we are completely, like, redoing the form.

Redoing it.

Ready?

You're going to unveil it at the toc.

Maybe districts, but TOC for sure.

And then people are just going to drop dead.

They're just gonna be like, I'm hoping so.

I'm.

I'm planning on it.

I'm planning on it.

Maybe.

Maybe I'll get to judge that ring.

That'd be fun.

Yeah.

Who knows?

It happens maybe sometimes.

You know, I did get to judge, like, the 60 and up.

Extreme and creative last year.

It was pretty good, actually.

You know, it was somebody down there in Texas that I got to judge.

Oh, they were from.

I think they were from Grandmasters of Stairs school.

What was their name?

It was.

Okay.

So do you know?

She.

She just did Team AT is the mom of.

My goodness.

I'm gonna be in trouble.

It's.

It's the mom of.

Man, I don't remember.

I'm gonna be in trouble.

I'm gonna have to cut this from the show because people are all gonna be like, look, he doesn't know anybody's name.

Here's the truth, guys.

And I'm not gonna cut this from the show.

I am horrible at names.

I am really bad at names.

And.

And I don't like.

You probably are really good at, like, you can name drop anybody in the competition circuit, and you're just like this person.

This person.

You do that.

Oh, sir, that is very much false.

I am just as terrible as names as you are.

Okay, good.

Well, we'll.

We'll keep that between ourselves and nobody else will know, and it'll just be, yes, us and all the listeners or watchers.

Viewers on YouTube, which are you subscribed to the YouTube channel?

Yes, sir.

Okay, Good job.

You get all your friends to subscribe.

Yes, sir, I will.

You are.

That's.

That's.

That's how you be a world champion.

Sure.

This year we're.

We're.

I'm going to talk to headquarters, and you're gonna get added points for every time you get someone to subscribe to the YouTube channel.

Yeah, I don't think I have that kind of poll.

I don't think that's gonna work.

Okay, so you're gearing up for the new.

Or.

Not that.

The new season, but the postseason.

Are you speaking of the new season?

Are you going up in age group or you're in the same group for another year?

No, sir, but a lot of.

A lot of my friends are moving out and A lot of more friends are moving in, so I'm kind of staying where I am, and everybody's kind of going around me or adjusting around me.

Okay.

Okay.

It's always, you know, it's unstressing.

You got one year that is like your first year in it.

So you're like, ah.

And then the next year, half the people leave and you're stuck.

And it.

So good.

Okay.

What about.

Are you.

How long have you been a second degree?

I want to say one year, sir.

Okay, so you're.

You got time.

A secondary.

This is.

You're.

You're.

You're doing that form for a while?

Yes, sir.

How do you like that form?

I think it's really cool.

I think it's.

It's got a lot of advanced movements, and when you really.

When you really think of the practicality of them, it's like, just blows my mind.

What part of it is your, like, your favorite part of it?

And then what part is the part that you're like, this part I don't like every time I do it.

Okay.

So my favorite part is I'm gonna say the three strikes.

You come down.

Yes.

I love that part.

Get.

Because you could just like, stick it up there.

And my least favorite part, this is a toughie, but it's the make or break line.

The jump360intercrest reverse side, side kick.

Yeah.

I don't know why that line just gives me trouble.

It's a tough one.

You know, we.

It's.

It's hard to land on that line each time.

So you don't start kind of going at an angle getting those, you know, the number two sidekick is just a pain to get that knee in the right place and everything.

I gotcha.

That's a challenging line, but I'm with you with the bam, bam, bam, boom, sidekick.

The front kick, side kick.

That's a sharp section.

I love that part.

Okay.

Okay.

So we, we know, obviously we're.

We're shooting some goals to be some red letters, some blue letters.

What, like, what's the one that you're like.

This is the one.

I really, really want.

Got to do traditional forms because my instructors tell me, like, traditional forms is the hardest to win because everybody, like, knows that form.

Unless you have someone that's a lower rank and they haven't been taught the form yet, they still seen the form a lot.

While creative and extreme.

On the other hand, they've never seen it.

You can just play off a move and also it's a lot harder, which Makes me want to win it even more.

And I've never won a world champ in that title, so.

Cool.

Yeah, that's a great goal.

I love, I mean, traditional forms.

I'm a forms guy.

I love a good traditional form.

Excited.

Try that.

Good luck with that.

I love it.

Yeah, you're probably not spending too much time thinking about the new season because we got to get through this season, but what are you, like, if you, you know, maybe cast, you know, into your crystal ball, looking at the new season?

Anything you're going to change for the new season?

Anything that you want to do different than new season?

No, sir, not really.

I think the only new thing is that I'm on a team demo now and we're going to be competing for the entire season.

So have you guys competed?

You've competed already, right?

Yes, sir.

We competed at national, sir.

Okay, how did it go?

We got.

We did really well.

We got first flight, so.

Nice.

Good, good, good.

You said Team Demo or Team Sync?

Team Demo, sir.

Very good.

And you're going to compete all season next year?

Yes, sir.

Nice.

What's your.

What's your team's name?

Team Lone Star, sir.

Lone Star.

I knew it.

Good.

Oh, that's exciting.

I'm really excited about seeing the growth of the team demo and Team Sync.

You look in Team Sync.

One day.

Well, and, and make time.

I mean, you got all the events already you gotta do.

Yes.

Just, you know, you got to work on stamina.

Then when you're doing like 12 events.

Yes, sir.

Cool.

Good.

Oh, man, I'm excited.

We'll check up with you at World Championships, see how everything went.

Make sure if you.

You'll see me at Worlds, I'll be there all week.

Just find me and be like, hey, hey.

I want to know how things go.

So, hey, what.

What advice would you give somebody out there who might be looking for a world title, but they are not ready yet?

Like, they're just.

It's not been their year, you know, maybe they moved into a new division or a new form or it's just, you know, they got into a division that's just been mean this year in how hard it is.

What advice would you give a student who might be struggling in that area?

So the best I can say is rings do get tough.

It happens.

The best you can do is keep training in those.

Those kids or adults that beat you every single time.

1.

Just don't stop to just train harder and let that motivate you.

I love it.

So you got to think the Reason I'm doing this is so I can be this person.

Like that's your goal.

You got to set that goal super hard.

Have you you had rings like that in the past?

Yes, sir, I have that currently.

So currently in what event?

What's the.

Actually it's really spread around.

I have really good people in traditional and super duper.

Mega awesome.

Good people in creative and extreme.

Very good.

Awesome.

Well, congratulations on being a repeat athlete of the week.

You are an exclusive club.

I don't know if.

I mean, I've interviewed a lot of people over second time, but I don't know.

I.

This is the first time I've interviewed an athlete of the week.

I think a second time I could double check.

I could be wrong, but I don't think anybody passes.

I think Chief Master Skiles has the record for the number of times on the podcast.

But you keep trying and maybe you'll beat him.

Yes, sir.

Awesome.

Well, congratulations, sir.

Good luck at districts and World Championships and thank you for your time.

Well, thank you, sir.

Thank you for having me.

Man, what an episode.

Lots of awesome news.

Super, super cool things going on all across ATA nation.

We've got districts coming up.

If you missed the registration, I really.

I'm sorry, guys.

I'm really sorry that I. I've heard there's going to be a late registration coming.

So maybe if you missed your registration, make sure you don't miss the late registration.

We want you there.

You have to do it online.

You cannot register for for district championships on site.

Not possible.

Impossible.

I've had to turn people away.

It's unfun, so make sure you get registered.

World Championships.

We had Chief Master sky on last week talking about all the seminars at Worlds.

Make sure you are registering for that early bird.

Prices are over, so you got regular pricing going on now.

But get that done right away.

Licensees, we'll see you tomorrow.

For business beyond the mat, we're talking all about moving our tigers to the Mac program.

How to do it successfully.

So tune into that and then until next time, ladies and gentlemen, get out there and go beyond the Belt ATA Nation podcast.

Be sure to subscribe and share with your ATA family.