In this discussion, we delve into the upcoming Spring Nationals and the array of training seminars available, with a particular focus on the innovative "Clash of Blades" seminar led by Chief Master Skiles. This episode highlights the significance of early registration for these events, emphasizing the unique opportunities they present for instructors and students alike. We explore the detailed training offerings, which include advanced techniques in sparring and weaponry, as well as the inclusion of specialized sessions aimed at enhancing teaching methodologies and incorporating life skills into martial arts training. Additionally, we discuss the importance of fostering a supportive community within the ATA, encouraging participants to uplift one another as they embark on their martial arts journeys. Ultimately, this episode serves to inform and inspire our audience to actively engage in the myriad of enriching experiences that Spring Nationals has to offer.

Takeaways:

1. This episode features Chief Master Skiles discussing the highlights of the upcoming Spring Nationals.
2. The importance of early registration for Spring Nationals is emphasized to avoid price increases.
3. Attendees will benefit from diverse training sessions, including Mastership training and various weapon training.
4. The podcast encourages instructors to utilize the resources provided to enhance their teaching methods effectively.
5. New seminars at Spring Nationals focus on enhancing life skills through martial arts instruction and dynamic training techniques.
6. The event will promote community and support for both students and instructors participating in various activities.

Let's talk clash of Blades with Chief Master Skiles.

Let's get started.

Welcome to the Ata Nation podcast.

Instructors, students, masters, parents of Ata Nation, welcome back to the Ata Nation podcast.

This is episode 186, and we are thrilled to be back with you.

And this episode is coming out on a Friday.

We've got this episode coming back to special Friday because we want to let you know about some exciting things at Spring Nationals before the price goes up.

So you want to check this out.

We've got Chief Master Skiles talking with us about some of the highlights of the events at Spring Nationals.

Great, amazing training events.

We mentioned them last week, but I told you we needed some detail about some of these, and he brought them.

I'm excited about these and I'm talking, talking.

You know, right after this, I'm gonna go talk to my staff about which ones they're gonna take so we can get them training as well.

Then after that, we're gonna have our athlete of the week.

Let's get right to it.

ATA Nation, we are thrilled to have back with us.

I think probably our most popular guest been here more than anybody else from the training department.

Chief Master Skiles, how's it going today, sir?

I'm doing great, sir.

It's.

We're ready for snow apocalypse here in.

In Arkansas.

The wintry mix and snow supposed to be coming in later today and tomorrow, so we're all bundled up, ready for the cold weather.

I was going to say flannel is not something I see often in.

In our.

No, no, no, no.

But, you know, it's.

There's.

There are days in which it's appropriate.

And these come today and tomorrow, this weekend are.

Are some of those appropriate days.

And so you've gone to the store, you've gotten your milk and your bread.

It's all out now.

Probably because Arkansas freaks out about any snow.

Not you.

You're a pro from Pittsburgh.

I mean, you've got.

I'm from Pittsburgh.

Yeah.

This is no big deal.

I'm ready.

I got some new tires on my truck, so I'm ready to hit the.

You'll be the only one out.

Okay.

Hey, we've got.

Today actually is the last day for the early registration for training as Spring Nationals.

And last week's episode, we went kind of through an overview of it, but there were some new things on there, some things that I was like, I need to reach out to Chief Master Skiles and see what these are.

And so we wanted to have you on, give us kind of A rundown what's going on spring and like, what people should be signing up for.

Sure.

Well, you know, some of the sops for Spring Nationals are things like, of course, the Mastership training, right.

Everybody that's in that class of potential new Masters, senior Masters, Chief Masters, Grandmasters train Wednesday and Thursday.

This is also the opportunity.

So masters like ourselves, internally, we refer to them as the Masters at large, right, can join in on that training if they want to.

And we kind of use that as kind of a, you know, kind of like a family reunion, class reunion type of thing.

We want to show support for that next up and coming generation of Masters and be there and participate in the training with them.

So you can, you can RSVP for that if you want to jump in and if you just want to do Wednesday and not Thursday because of all the other business and training seminars would offer, that's also too.

So any, any of the support that we can offer that new group coming through or the, the group is transitioning to another level of leadership with their next title.

We just like to be there and support them.

Right?

So that's, those are the Esso.

That's one of those things.

Our traditional gumdo program that Chief Master Ramundi runs, they have a testing Wednesday night as usual at the national events for their rank progressions.

So that's, that's everything is pretty much on Wednesday right now.

We do have on Thursday the training sessions that are pretty common.

You know, Fall Nationals was, was, was a, was a little bit different.

We didn't do any weapons training at Fall Nationals.

I know some people freaked out.

They were the response, like, yeah, it was, it was, it was, it was somewhat comical.

But we do have some weapons training.

So I think we got about four weapons on the schedule there.

There'll be double sessions, right?

There's a morning session and an afternoon session.

They're both the same curriculum being taught.

So you can choose, you know, two different weapons.

Something else that's, that's a repeat from Fall Nationals because, you know, I like to try to offer most of training sessions at a couple national events in a row because if you didn't go to Pittsburgh, you can go to St. Louis.

If you didn't hit St. Louis, maybe you hit it at Worlds.

So I like to try to do it multiple times to give people that freedom.

Or if you did do both spring and you're, and you went to fall, you can just pick something different.

Yes, sir.

I really wish I would have had time to do it at fall.

I Can do it again at spring.

So that's why that theme that I try to been using for the last couple of years, and it seems to work well.

We've got the sparring, the beginners, the champions, and the combat beginners and champions.

And that's bringing back and really reintroducing people to the sparring and combat curriculum planners that we have online.

So Master Isaacs, Master Kaminsky, do a great job of reintroducing that, reinforcing that.

And they always have new ideas and concepts that he can sprinkle and say, hey, look, it says this on the planner, but here's another variation of that same particular type of drill, that kind of thing.

And what's great is both of those curriculums have video support for everything that's on three years worth of planners that are online available to instructors after Fall Nationals.

Both of them told me they were like, I was surprised how many people didn't know that curriculum existed.

We're really good at launching stuff.

We want to get better at going back and making sure that we remind people that this stuff is here.

Because in our minds, we sometimes forget we do have new generations of licensees all the times coming up, if they weren't exposed to it where they were training, they need to be exposed to it again.

Yes, sir.

And then I got Grandmaster Crusoe teaching his PPC to combatives again.

Can't go wrong with that.

Yeah.

So that's.

That's another one of the.

The repeats from.

From Fall Nationals.

A couple new things that we got going on.

Of course, the ata, the ata MAX team always has something a little bit different.

So they're doing the Dynamic Hands seminar.

So this is to teach coaches, instructors as well as competitors, clean hand combinations, those types of things that's going to be beneficial to building those strong, creative and extreme forms.

So they've got.

They've got two sessions on that.

And I'm going to say real quick that I went to.

At Fall Nationals, I went to the team training for like Demo Team, SYNC Team with those guys.

And I really, really appreciated the way they break things down.

You know, I've watched, I've.

I've gone through the class planners online, the AT MAX program and whatnot.

But there's just something about doing it in person that something clicked a little bit better in the way they do it and the way they set it up that I would highly suggest that Hand one, if you are an instructor that, like, I don't know that much about extreme, you know, or I'm not.

They do a great job of breaking it down.

And you go, oh, I can see how to, to implement this into my school.

Really good stuff.

I, I agree with you.

And, and I think that what makes it easy for people to, what in person, like you said, understand it is they're using song technique terminology.

Right.

When you creative and extreme sometimes is a little bit misunderstood.

But when, when the, when Master Turner, Master Suazi, break it down and go, listen, a chopper, a knife and strike has to have the same fundamentals as a traditional technique.

Your stances have to be traditional front stances and middle stances.

And, you know, and when.

And when they tie it in, we're like, hey, this really isn't that different.

I think that's some of the click that most people get.

Yeah, it's really not as different as I thought it was.

And the, the Lego, the way they break things down into different LEGO pieces that you can build from just helps, you know, for some of us who are not as creative or whatnot, just really good stuff.

So I appreciate that when I, I'm going to suggest that for people.

For sure, sure.

Now, some other trainings that we have that are.

There's just like one.

There's one session of them.

So I've got two legacy enhancement seminars that we're doing.

We're going to do the class Planning for Success, which I did in Fall Nationals.

And this is bringing back the concept of select your objective, determine your teaching approach, selecting your methods, and then, and then monitoring, adjusting.

Right.

So basically what we're really trying to encourage licensees, facilitators and instructors to do is teach your instructors how to teach what you're asking them to teach.

So when you provide them the, the syllabus or the, the outline of this is the curriculum we're going to be covering for the cycle.

What we, we want to really start to develop in our instructor is like, okay, this is.

I'm giving you what to teach now, and I want to teach you the formula of how to break down and create your class, your actual class planner.

When I teach this material today, this is how I'm going to teach it.

So they need to, they need to select.

Is this an individual drill?

Am I going to use any equipment when I do this?

How am I going to start it here and then level up the drill to my final expectation?

Right, yeah, that's the, that's the part that I really think we need to get back to instilling in our younger instructors is how to come to class with a Okay.

A senior master.

And you've told me I need to teach this drill today, by the way.

This is how I'm going to teach it.

I'm going to start teaching it this way, and then by the end of the segment, it's going to look like this.

And that's really what that plant that is all about, is identifying those things, picking your attribute, picking your life skill, and how you're going to tie all that stuff together.

I'm having flashbacks.

I remember when I certified, I had to turn in like eight weeks of class planners written out with this, you know, so it's getting back to that because we've gotten so much, you know, so many resources that give us class planners, give us these things that we've kind of got a little away from.

I gotta, gotta have some creativity.

I have to figure out the best way to be performing this and showing this and helping people learn that.

Oh, absolutely.

Because if we're teaching, you and I are teaching in the same school, and you teach the class planner on Monday night, and I teach it on Wednesday night.

We have to teach the same material.

But what makes it unique is you're going to teach it one way and I'm going to teach it a little bit different way.

We're accomplishing the same goal, but our teaching methods might be different, and that allows your personality to shine.

My personality to shine.

So we're not, we're not.

We're not creating robots in the sense of you have to teach this way again, we may say the same things, but we're going to say them a little, slightly.

Little bit different.

Right.

Our.

Our methods might be a little bit different, but our, Our outcome is the same.

So that's, that's where I really want to get back to really reinforcing that.

But I want to be able to start to develop those creative juices in those instructors they need.

We need to start developing.

Being some independent thinkers.

Yes, Right.

And I want them to be able to express their.

Themselves in their own dynamic teaching way or start to develop their own teaching method.

One of the biggest compliments I get from people is like, it's kind of a role reversal at this point.

You know, Grandmaster Caruso doesn't teach as often as they used to when he got.

When he does, they go, hey, you know, you, you teach a lot like Master Skiles teaches, you know, and he takes.

He and I used to get that when I started teaching because it was a role reversal.

And for both of us now, it is a compliment.

Right.

So I'VE I've, I've, I've adopted his teaching style on certain things and, but I also have my own way of doing things, so it's kind of unique, it's kind of cool.

It's, it's a, it's a very surreal thing how the, how the, the tables have turned on that.

I don't, When I've been in classes with the Grandmaster Caruso, I don't feel that his sarcasm is quite as heavy as yours, but maybe.

There you go.

See there.

So, so mainly with him and I, it's like, it's our mannerisms and how we use our hands and that kind of stuff, right?

But yes, I have, I have a slightly more snarky, sarcastic way of teaching.

But like, I tell people, if I'm not picking on you and I'm not having fun with you, probably means I don't like you, right?

So I'm gonna, I'm gonna pick on you and have some fun, right?

Yes, sir.

The, the second one I'm doing is a new one I'm introducing, and this is Teaching Life Skills in Songam Taekwondo.

So, you know, we have our Legacy Pro curriculum where we're teaching the three applications of the life skill during a particular class.

But this is going into now, when I'm teaching a drill, when I'm teaching a technique or an activity in my class, how am I able to utilize the life skill while I'm teaching?

So this one actually is kind of the ultimate thing for Grandmaster mk.

Grandmaster MK is so big, as you know, on teaching life skills and when I put these things together.

So again, we're going to be providing examples, many little scripts, if you will, on how to apply the life skill of discipline when you're teaching the attribute of base, how to teach discipline when you're teaching the attribute of speed, and give you these quick little blurbs and phrases that you can do.

It's a great launching off point, just like the Legacy Pro scripts are.

Just like our planners that we offer, these are launching off points for instructors to start at.

And then as you grow as an instructor, you can develop your own planners.

You can, you can develop your own verbiages, you can develop your own life skill lessons, but we want to provide licensed instructors with somewhere to launch off from if you don't know what to say.

Here are things you can say that make sense.

They're applicable, they work, they, they, they deliver the message that you want.

Then you can start to, to develop your own repertoire down the line.

And that's going to just, I mean, level up your classes, you know, retention.

Parents are just going to be, you know, loving that.

So great seminar for your instructors to be taken, I'm sure.

And then the last one is just the continuation of our song on form series.

We're doing one on the, on the fifth degree form.

So worlds.

I did first and second.

Fall I did third and fourth.

Fifth degree is a bigger, you know, it's a, it's a big form.

A lot of fifth degrees.

And I've also recognized when trying to do two forms, I'm almost kind of like speed dating through the form.

Yeah.

So getting down to just this one particular form.

So fifth degree is the one we're doing there at spring.

That's awesome.

I saw there's some brand new special training things that looked pretty fancy on schedule.

What are, what are those?

Yeah, so do, do you want to hit those or do you want to hit some?

I know we haven't talked about the business ones yet.

What do you want to do first?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Let's do the business ones real quick first.

Yes, sir.

So one of the things that we did at fall nationals is we brought a handful of business seminars into the schedule.

Into the, into the schedule along with the training ones.

Typically in the past they've been kind of maybe like.

And last spring Nationals we, The only business seminars we did were offered on like Wednesday afternoon in kind of a mini thrive world.

It's all day thrive by itself.

But at fall we kind of offering them at the same time and kind of blending them.

So we're doing the same thing here.

We've got four seminars that we're offering throughout the day and you know, the training seminars, because we need to spend a little bit more time on the topics, you know, we're, we're more in that three hour range.

The business topics.

Three hours on one particular topic.

I don't know.

So they're, they're, their time schedule is slightly different.

They're two hour blocks.

So I do apologize for some of that confliction.

But what we also have found is people that want to do the business, they kind of stay in the business track the whole day.

People that want to do the physical, they kind of stay in the physical tracks all day.

There is some crossover, but it's not as big.

So we'll see how it goes.

Everything's an experiment, right?

Yes, sir.

Monitor and adjust.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

So we got the class C tournaments.

So Chief Master Stevens and her team is going to talk about, you know, how in School Class C's can help develop students confidence and community.

That culture.

Right.

We started with culture at Worlds, the seminar they did there.

They did one in fall.

So it's all about building that tournament culture within your school.

And it can start with those classy tournaments.

We've got one that we just added this week, which was the ABCs of leasing your business location.

We've got Master Chris Brabazon from the cruddy Atlanta conglomerate.

He's been negotiating leases for years.

So if you're looking at renegotiating a lease or maybe starting a new school and you want to get in there and you want to know the lingo and you want to know what to ask for, what your negotiation should be, you want to get in there and be in that seminar.

That one's huge.

I will say I did a thrive with him years ago and man, I learned so much.

So if there's an instructor out there looking to be a licensee, a licensee looking to move, I mean, you could save thousands of dollars if you go to that seminar.

That's a great.

Yeah, I mean, the lease just.

Leases come up all the time, right?

Three year lease, five huge.

So it's always time to renegotiate.

So I don't want to think that this is like, well, I'm not opening up a new school.

Why do I need to go?

No, no, no, no.

If you need to renegotiate, you got one that's coming up and you need to renegotiate some things if you're going to start fresh.

This would be a great seminar for you to be at.

Really good one.

Yeah, we have the AI seminar.

We offered one.

Chris Rodriguez offered one at Fall Nationals right now.

I know she's on the schedule to do it again, but she did say, well, as you know, Master Skiles AI is constantly rapidly changing.

So I don't want people to think that, well, I did it at Fall Nationals.

This is just going to be a rinse and repeat.

There's new stuff out there.

Yeah, can't rinse and repeat AI these days.

Same topic, but there's some new things going on there.

Okay.

And then I also have one that I'm getting ready to put on the website, which is a seminar.

It's a.

It's a How to recruit more students for your martial arts school.

This is being presented by senior Master Cabrera.

Now he presented at Camp Jongsu this year and we got rave reviews about his presentation.

So some things that are on there that I can tell you are indoor activities, turn classes and events into referrals, outdoor activities.

So community outreach and partnerships, database activation and digital marketing.

So those are just some of the bullet points that'll be listed on there for that particular seminar.

So those are the four seminar business seminars that we have coming to you at Spring National.

So licensees and.

Or your staff members, I highly recommend if you, you can use some of the other staff members to go absorb all the physical training of the seminars.

The other seminars we have.

And you yourself, because you should be working on your business, not always in your business.

Yes, sir.

Right.

If you want to work on your business or you have some staff members that will help you work on your business, not just in your business, then these seminars are the ones you want to attend.

Definitely.

Yeah.

Those are awesome.

Good, good lineup of events of business seminars there.

I like those.

Okay, now the, the ones that have been causing the buzz online.

Yeah, so.

So a couple that are, are either repeats or variations of repeating.

We have obviously the ATA MAX team loves to work and inspire our younger generation of martial artists.

So their topic this time is the blades to the max, which is a specific focus on swords and commas or the songnaz.

So we've got, that's a, that's a two hour seminar Thursday evening that they're going to be offering.

We've done in the past, we've done kicks to the max, trips, tricks to the max.

We did one on all weapons before a couple years ago.

The last couple have been the battle Royale.

So developing that competitive side of that type of thing.

But this one is blazed to the max.

It's swords and commas specifically.

And that's, that is a seminar that is open to more people than some of the other ones, correct?

Yeah.

So these, these are outside of the Spring Nationals group of seminars.

So they have separate registrations.

They have separate registration fees.

These are seminars where.

I know one of the questions that I get from our licensees is, hey, sir, I have these event registration credits that I can use as my licensee.

These are outside of that.

The spring conference schedule, if you want to call it, is the ones we just got finished talking about.

These are separate.

These are things that are outside of that.

And typically all of these seminars include something like a T shirt or a water bottle, you know, those types of things.

So there's a separate registration for those.

For this particular one.

Gotcha.

The second one is one that debuted at Worlds, wasn't offered at fall, which is the, which is the Ladies Empower her seminar led by the goat herself, Grandmaster Tammy Harvey Stauber.

Her team of instructors.

I know Master Giles is in there, Master Blanks.

And then she winked at me when she gave me this information.

She said, we got some other special, special guest instructors going to be making some appearance there.

Obviously it's going to be some of the.

Some of those.

Those.

Those lady leaders in our organization will be coming in and help participate in providing that training.

So again, now the really cool thing and the special thing about that is proceeds to that event always go to help support the Hu Lee Memorial foundation for our scholarships.

So as you know, Grandmaster Tammy is the lead on that organization.

And so this event not just helps bring the community of our ladies of our organization together in that.

In that focused, you know, type of event, but the proceeds go to help a wonderful organization like scholarship foundation.

That one was huge.

I bet you guys have the biggest room reserved for that because they fill it up for sure.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

And the last and not least one which has caused the most notifications on my phone and the most conversation is the ATA Clash of Blades Gumdo Combat.

Now I got to give it to Senior Master Pino.

The video that was used to promote that was all shot and edited by Senior Master Pino.

He's a pro.

He is great.

And when he.

When he turned it in, I kind of looked at Chaska, you know, our marketing director.

I was like, hey, in a pinch, we ever need someone to edit some video.

I got, I got.

Right.

So anyways, let me be.

Let.

Let me tell you what's going to go on in the seminar and then I can.

I'll back into why.

Right.

So that seminar is going to include one of the traditional gumdo program that we offer one of their padded swords.

Right.

Which is a reason for a fee.

Okay.

Everybody's going to get one.

Okay.

And it's going to be a.

If you're going to get it, if we're going to give you a padded sword, you best believe you're going to get a chance to hit somebody with it.

Okay.

We all know people like to hit with a short stick.

We're going to.

Let's have.

Give them an opportunity to hit him with.

With a bigger one.

Okay.

So that, that's.

And so it's going to be drills, partner drills, activities where you're actually going to be hitting sticks as well as each other with that.

With the combat gumdo mentality.

Right.

Why are we doing this one?

It's fun, right?

That's all I need, really.

Right.

I just.

I Get to hit somebody with a long stick.

Right.

One, it's fun.

But two, what I want.

Most people understand and realize that our current gumdo curriculum really only consists of a color belt form and a black belt form.

Now on the color belt curriculum, we do have some drills and activities where you can do some partner stuff together.

But there's always a safety issue if you, if you're not using a foam sword.

So what we went to the team of Gumdale and Shredders said, hey, if we, if we provide this in a seminar format, can you guys provide them some drills and activities?

So if they want to go back and take everything that you're going to cover here, could they replicate that in their school if they use the same thing?

Absolutely.

I said, because I really want to give licensees and instructors more things that they can do when teaching.

When, if you select gumdo as your weapon of the cycle.

Well, up to now, unless you're in this program or you have some other training, you don't have a package of drills that you can do other than just swinging the sword in the air, teaching them segments or movements out of a form.

It's a little like when we were talking about class planners and things like that.

There's no full understanding.

You're just following a script rather than really understanding the weapon and what it's used for.

How's your.

And so this is helping give you some more background, some more information so you actually understand the use of the weapon rather than just I'm following the moves of this form and that's it.

Correct?

Absolutely, 100%.

And that was the, that was the, the catalyst to why we even created the color belt curriculum.

Like the curriculum was our first goal.

The forms that we created was kind of secondary if you know the class planners.

Right.

The form is one segment, one small segment of the class planner at the very bottom and there's four segments above it.

Because what we wanted to do is we wanted to have supply curriculum to give students a foundation and fundamentals so that by the time they make black belt, their black belt forms are enhanced.

Right.

Where else do we see that song on Taekwondo?

Right.

The form was kind of an add on thing to where it's like.

But then, then it was also, we want to create some consistency in our tournaments.

Yes, sir.

Right.

You know, because what we were seeing, and you can attest to this, every 10, 9, 10 year old camo and green belt that did single song jabong, it was, it was 50 triangle strikes, 10v strikes, a forward Roll, a jump, front kick, and a stab.

I mean, that was pretty much their form.

Right.

And that just gets.

So we wanted to create, you know, a standard there.

Yeah, so.

So that.

That's.

That's the reason for this seminar.

Now, of course, the questions have been coming as like, are we going to be able to compete with this, Master Scott?

Is this going to become a thing?

Like, well, hold on.

Never say never, but we got to start somewhere.

And potentially down the road, I'm not going to say no, I'm not going to say never, and I'm not going to say tomorrow.

But potentially down the road in a couple years, maybe it turns into something, but we don't know until we start to implement and start somewhere.

This is where we're starting, right?

Of course, when I sat down with Master Stevens at her tournament over the weekend in Memphis, and she's like, hey, it's always fun when she really wants to have a serious conversation.

She puts her hand on me.

She goes, hey, Scott, can I talk to you for a second?

And I go, oh, that's kind of like.

That's kind of like when your parents use your first, middle, and last name.

That's her version of that.

And I get, yes, ma'.

Am.

Explain to me that.

Yes, man.

Da, da, da.

Like, okay, all right.

Yes, I'm going to.

As I.

And I already knew I had this schedule where I was like, I'm going to have a podcast.

I'm going to talk about it.

We'll calm people down a little bit.

We're not adding more things to tournaments right now.

I'm not trying to burst anybody's bubble.

I'm just trying to contain it right now.

Yes.

Let's start somewhere, ladies and gentlemen.

Well, and we shouldn't compete with something that we don't fully understand the weapon anyways.

I mean, that this is setting the groundwork that if maybe someday we fully understand the weapon and we are competent with it and we're not just swinging it like crazy.

I mean, you look at what Combat Bong Monkey looked like when we started in competition versus what it is now, like it's its own athletic sport.

You know, I mean, we have created an event, and you can't just give people sticks and be like, hey, go hit each other at a. I mean, we did that at a protech camp when the bong monging first came out, but sure.

But this, you know, if we want to do this right, if we want to do gumdo, right, you got to learn the weapon.

You got to learn Got to do.

Understand it.

Yes.

And if you've taken a seminar or grant with cheap Master Randy, he lets you know when you're not swinging that sword.

I don't know anything about the gumdo.

So, yeah, I'm, I'm just excited for it.

It's like, hey, this is great.

And, and when you did the.

I did the traditional gumdo program for a little bit.

I'm, I'm in the videos with, with, with g. Master Amundi.

I've watched their testings, I've watched their training, and it looks like fun.

Watch the promo video again, Master Pino, whoever those students were doing that, like, it looks fun and it's gonna be.

The only piece of extra equipment that they recommend you bring is a forearm guard.

Okay.

Because there's a lot of strikes to the forearm.

I can tell you that There is padding on here.

It's not the same as a, as a combat bomb.

Right.

And when, when Master Ramundi was here and he, we were filming, I was like, I said, good sir, just let me.

And it wham.

I was like, okay, maybe, maybe one or two or more of those.

But yeah, I could see why a forearm guard would, would be, would be useful here.

Yeah.

So.

But it's going to be fun.

They're going to have a great time with.

It's going to be action.

It's going to be flying.

I'm excited for it.

And I, I, I'm excited for everybody that's going to sign up for it to go through it, because they're.

It's going to be a great event.

Yeah, it sounds awesome.

I mean, and again, it's a fun time to learn something that you haven't done before, you know, experience it.

And if somebody wants to get into, you know, sparring with the combat bung monkey or, excuse me, a combat gumdo.

Faster.

Go join the, the gumdo program.

You know, you could do that too.

They're going to work on that there.

If you, you know, you're, like, dead set on, on doing it.

So, yeah, I'm really excited for the participants to take this stuff and go back to their school with it and like, hey, on a Saturday, just offer the same seminar that they take in spring nationals.

A licensee could go back and duplicate that in their school.

And it's a revenue generator.

It's more curriculum, it's excitement into their school and, you know, more curriculum that they can cover.

And it just changes the dynamic of this particular weapon from just swinging in the air to now really, really Having some fun with it.

I'm all about that.

I don't want to say doing the form isn't fun.

More fun in a different way.

Different way.

Well, we know there are forms people and there are sparring people and the sparring people want the hit the people with the sticks, so.

Well, Spring Nationals.

I'm super excited.

St. Louis, first of all, nice and close so I can drive again.

And a full lineup of awesome events.

People need to register today to get their early bird.

If you're watching this Friday the 23rd, get your early bird.

If you check it out late, you can still register.

Get the regular pricing, but don't wait.

Get registered right away.

Anything else?

We want to make sure at A nation knows about this.

Specifically the licensees.

You know, I referenced those event registration credits.

Just a reminder that to utilize those.

They're not rollover points, so minutes.

So use them at the national events.

They're good for you.

You can pass them off to a staff member, but you can use them at Spring Worlds and fall.

I know you have a limited supply of them, but utilize them.

If you can't go, but somebody else is.

Take advantage of those things.

And also remember that in order to use them they have to be signed.

The person has to be registered during that regular registration deadline.

After that, everybody moves into that on site fee.

So if you're going to use them, use them by the red.

By the regular registration deadline.

I can't stress that enough.

So yeah, don't use them.

Don't wait.

You know you're going to St. Louis, just, just sign up.

Come on.

And I went back in December.

I went to St. Louis for the site visit.

The facility is great.

The hotels are very convenient.

Literally right across the street from it are a couple of our hotels.

I'm excited for it.

I know the baseball team's in town, so if you want to catch a baseball game, the area where the baseball team, where the stadium is, is a great town.

The city was, is very, you know, very proactive with making sure that people feel safe.

And there's a lot of, you know, it's good, it's nice to walk around and there's a lot of restaurants and activities and stuff in the area of the downtown.

So really looking forward, really looking forward to it.

Did you, did you go up in the arch?

I did not.

Wasn't there enough time.

But of course I went and had some barbecue.

Well, priorities, priorities.

Right?

Yeah.

I could, I could see this later.

I could.

There's a picture of it somewhere.

It'll be there for a long time.

We're good.

Taste a picture.

Sounds good.

Well, hey, sir, we really appreciate your time today.

Can't wait for Spring Nationals.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, ATA Nation.

I look forward to seeing you, if not in St. Louis, look forward to seeing you at worlds or the next national or regional event.

Everybody stay safe.

I know winter's coming for a lot of people across the country this weekend, so everybody stay safe out there and we'll see you soon.

Okay, ATA Nation, what seminars are you going to take?

What are you excited about?

Let me know, Shoot us a message on the Instagram or comment on one of our posts and let us know what event at Spring Nationals you are excited to take.

Is it Blades to the Max?

Is it Clash of the Blades or Clash of the.

Oh no, did I get the name wrong?

Clash of the Blades.

That's right.

Blades of the Max.

Clash of the Blades.

So many blades.

Maybe we should watch the blade movie.

That was a bad joke.

Okay, guys, let's go to our athlete of the week, ATA Nation.

We have another awesome athlete of the week with us today.

Can you introduce yourself, sir?

Hi, ATA Nation.

I am Jaden Eichmeier, third degree black belt from Roswell, Georgia.

Roswell, Georgia.

Okay.

Third degree black belt.

What?

Who's your instructor down there?

My instructor is Master Brian Poole.

He's a six degree black belt.

Very cool.

Awesome.

Yeah, yeah.

So question for you.

What got you started in martial arts?

Mainly my family actually.

So my older cousins, uncles, all that were all in the military and when I was younger they would like teach me stuff and show me stuff and my mom was kind of not for it.

She didn't want me to hurt anyone at school, things like that.

And she was big on the self control aspect, so she wanted me to find a spot where I could learn those things in a healthy environment, but also learn that hey, this can hurt someone and you need to be able to control those things.

So it was a lot of the mom side.

Makes sense.

Did you go right into an ATA school or were you in a different martial arts style?

First I went right into an ATA school.

So I've been with Master Pool through almost 11 years.

I've done other trainings and other martial arts off and on, but ATA has been my home.

Very cool.

Excellent.

Well, so you kind of got started kind of self defense was more the original thing that, that you were doing.

Now obviously you're doing some competition and stuff.

What's your favorite event to do in competition?

Favorites?

I am an extremes guy.

I love extreme forms, extreme weapons, and challenging myself in that aspect.

Second would probably be the sparring.

Do you go for it?

Oh, second would be sparring.

Excellent.

Do you go for the extreme over the creative just because you get to do the.

The releases and the tricks and all that cool stuff?

Yes, the two main reasons.

First, I love the tumbling.

I love the high level kicks, but also the endurance aspect.

I want to be able to put my best effort into my best event not having to do all four extreme creative events with traditional.

So I want to be able to put my best foot forward.

So I just do the extreme most of the time.

Gotcha.

What, what weapon do you do for your extreme?

So this season I actually changed it.

I'm usually a commas guy, so I love playing messing with the song knots and training with them.

But this season I switched to the trisectional staff and I'm having a lot of fun training with that one.

Yes.

Yeah.

Going with something a little outside the box for extreme.

Yes.

I made the smart decision of debuting that form at nationals, which went 50, 50.

My corner judges didn't love some of it, but I pulled out an 8 from the center judge.

So I was like, you know what, Nationals first time, I'll take it.

So it worked out.

And then.

So you'll see me if you come into the Memphis tournament, I'll be pulling it out, man.

I gotta.

I. I was thinking about coming.

I had my calendar ended up getting double booked.

So I won't be there, but I'm gonna have to.

Maybe you'll be at spring nationals, right?

Yes, sir.

See, I might have to go check it out.

I don't get to see many trisectional extreme forms.

I'm pretty excited about that.

That's pretty cool.

It is definitely a tough one.

Pick an event that was like, no.

Yeah.

I mean even just like thinking through like releases and stuff, like, goodness.

It's so much harder to release.

Yes.

Your hand is.

If your hand is just off by that much, the thing will just go flying across the room and you're just standing there.

I grab it.

That's what makes it fun to check it out.

If you're thinking about events that maybe not your top event, what would you, what would you put in that category?

I mean, it honestly goes season to season.

Kind of just what I've been focusing more on.

But my typical, like if I have to pick an event that I'm like right now would probably be wep.

Traditional weapons forms.

Oddly enough, I compete with the commas and just sometimes it just, it doesn't feel right.

It's like that was not my best form, I could have done.

So I'd be.

Gotcha.

Very cool.

What, what would you say?

You know, we're at the beginning of the new year, we've got the rest of this season, we've got the whole calendar year.

If you're looking at goals that you, you're, you're setting for your future, maybe short term, maybe long term, what are you looking at in your martial arts training?

Maybe tournaments all around.

So overall I would say two.

The first one, I am in my final semester of the Lee University that AT has been sponsoring and I am loving that training with Chief Senior Master Kendrava and all those fellow students.

And I'm so my goal there is to finish my last quarter, I guess you could say would be at Worlds we do an internship.

So please come by our table, chat with us and learn more about it.

But it has been a fun four years or four trials and then my second one would definitely be in training just trying to be a little bit more consistent not just in going hard but also in recovery.

So like when tournaments coming up, I have the habit of just pushing, going, going, going.

And then tournament day comes and I'm like sore and fatigued and I can't do my best sometimes.

So maybe just slowing down and getting ready.

Especially New Year's new goals.

Everyone like has the holiday food.

I know I enjoyed my fair share of holiday meals but so just getting back into a habit of consistently slowing down day of stretching and prioritizing the right things would be my two main goals this coming year.

I love that you gotta follow Mrs.

Master Kaminsky and making yes all of her nutritional things.

You know, making sure you're.

Yeah.

And you're tapering your training and all.

That kind of stuff.

Now the, the Lee College.

So you've been doing the song I'm university.

If somebody was like interested, they're like, should I do this?

Should I not do this?

What would you tell somebody who was just thinking about maybe I should try this Lee College thing?

Honestly, I would say reach out to.

Because all of the, the one thing I like is all of the instructors are very open to talking.

I know how sometimes you get professors, whether it is a college class or high school class, they're very strict.

You got to talk to your fellow students, don't come to me and just very negative environment.

Whereas here they're very open to asking questions.

Like for me, I started it in my senior year of high school.

So I was double work.

But it was very manageable just because of how open the SANGAM instructors were.

And I was able to ask questions or fill in here or if I needed just a little bit of leeway or a little bit of coaching, hey, how can I fit this or this in along with this?

They were just so open to answering all my questions and I was able to balance out.

And I've been making, I don't want to brag or anything, but relatively consistent high grades, a higher gpa.

Even though I started out high school and college classes and then I'm dual enrolling, I'm doing Songem University and my regular college.

I'm just now starting a freshman.

That's awesome.

What a great opportunity.

I'm very jealous of, you know, you guys out there now who could go and do, you know, start college with Songam University in high school and.

And like I would have jumped on that opportunity.

I loved martial arts.

I was like, man, I can do this for college.

Why not?

Man, I wish I had done that.

So if you're interested in somebody out there interested in Song University, make sure you check it out online.

Reach out to Chief Master Canriva or Grandmaster.

No, he's.

Yeah, Grandmaster nominee.

I think he's got grandma Grandmaster nomination.

I don't know the titles now.

Yeah, yeah, awesome.

So, hey, sir, as we wrap up, what does it mean to you to be an athlete that goes beyond the belt?

Going beyond the belt for me is not just tournament day, being locked into my competition, but also walking around, whether it's the tournament, whether it's your local school encouraging your fellow students.

Like I've seen a lot of tournaments right now you get that first tournament competitor sticker.

My goal is not just be the best competitor that day, but also find the people with those sticker and say, encourage them, give them a high five, make sure they were noticed to make that first experience a great one.

And then same thing at your local school, those new white belts.

You might be a young legacy student or you're just starting out yourself.

Encourage the tournaments because that's really where you get into the ATA family.

Like my tournament ring.

We consider ourselves like a brotherhood almost because we'll be competing.

But before and after, you're going to judge, you're going to hang out, go get food, whatever it is.

It is a family environment and the only way to really achieve that is everyone encouraging each other.

I love that.

I think encouraging.

What a great message for people, especially at tournaments.

Sometimes tournaments can be one of those things where you get some so focused on yourself that you don't do as good a job, especially as a competitor, making sure we encourage others.

So I love that.

Sir, thanks so much for your time today and congratulations on being an awesome Athlete of the Week.

Thank you sir.

Have a good one.

See you everybody.

Another awesome athlete.

We love it.

Excited to see all of these athletes that we've been meeting at Spring Nationals.

Make sure you get online today and register for one of the training events or multiple training events at ATA Spring Nationals.

Go to the atamarcialarts.com website and check that out.

Let us know which ones you are excited about.

Thanks for tuning in and enjoying this extra awesome episode.

Until next week, get out there and go beyond the Belt ATA Nation podcast.

Be sure to subscribe and share with your ATA family.