We interview David Moore, a Blade Sports competitor with over a BILLION views on Barstool Sports videos from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Moore shares his musical journey, which began at age five and was enriched by the mentorship of established musicians and experiences at a local music hub, La Fonda's. Moore also discusses his engagement with Blade Sports, a non-profit that promotes knives as tools in competition. He is a world-class competitor in Blad Sports competitions.

In the second part of the episode, Moore shares his battle with acromegaly, emphasizing how Blade Sports helped him stay resilient despite his health struggles. "Big Hand Dave" turned blade sports into a family adventure with impressive achievements. The episode concludes with Moore and the host advocating for passion-driven discipline and pursuing one's unique passions as the keys to success.

Social Links for David Moore:

https://www.facebook.com/p/David-Moore-Knives-100063563831889/

https://www.tiktok.com/@davidmoore505?lang=en

https://www.instagram.com/davidmoore505/?hl=en

Bid Hand Dave's Sponsors

https://popsknife.supplies/

Charities David is passionate about:

https://nationalcasagal.org/ - Court Appointed Special Advocate

https://www.facebook.com/acromegaly/ - Support groups on Facebook for acromegaly

https://www.facebook.com/AcromegalySupport/

Mentioned in this episode:

1on1 App Information

https://www.thinkmovethrive.com/1on1-app/

Hey, everybody.

We're talking to David Moore today.

what an amazing guy.

He's a world class blade sports competitor, musician,

and even a city councilman.

He has an incredible story about music and Muscle Shoals, and

he's a great new friend of mine.

You don't want to miss this conversation.

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the last 10%.

I am Dallas Burnett, sitting in my 1905 Koch Brothers

barber chair in Thrive Studios.

But more importantly, we have a fantastic guest today, Mr.

David Moore.

A k a big hand.

Dave, welcome to the show, David.

Hey, thanks.

Glad to be here.

There's certain guests that have reached out to us and we have on

the show others that we've reached out to, to get 'em on the show.

But some of my favorite guests are ones that people just come up

to me and they say, you have got to get this person on your show.

This person has got to be on the last 10%.

And I've had multiple people come up to me, family members come

up to me and they're like, you

have got to get big hand Dave, on your show.

So I have been so excited.

let's jump right in.

You are, you live in a place that some in the music industry

would like actually think of as like the Camelot of music, right?

Where do you live in relation to music.

I live in Musho, Alabama.

not too far from the airport.

I live in Mus, Alabama, born and raised here.

Growing up I had no clue that Muscle Shoals was a music.

mecca.

We listened to music.

I love music.

Mom put me in music lessons, piano lessons when I was five years old.

I, just love music and, the radio stations here were amazing.

I thought everywhere was like that.

we had good music, but what I didn't realize until later on, way later,

is that some of the studios here were playing some of the newly

recorded music at the radio stations.

So we would hear stuff and have heard it for months and love this song.

And we would go visit family out of town or go visit some of mom and

dad's friends, Florida or whatever.

And this song come on, they're like, man, what do you think about this new song?

And I'm like, new song.

What are you talking about?

This thing is old.

we've been hearing that for months, it's pretty cool.

They were releasing studio recordings at the radio station in Muscle Shoals,

so they were recording new songs and seeing how it played on the radio.

They would see how it played on the radio.

A radio station, WLAY would play, a lot of the stuff and the people from the

studios and artists would sit out in their car after They took the tapes there.

Sit out in their car and they would listen to it, play it on the

radio just to see how it sounded.

and I didn't know that till years later.

just how much music and, you can walk down the streets here and see

Marty Raven, lead singer Shenandoah.

You can see, Gary Baker who, has singing a bunch of different bands.

he wrote the song, I Swear.

you just run into all of all kind of people that, they're just people, And,

it, it's really cool cuz you know, you may see Walmart and Publix and, they,

it's just like seeing a brother or seeing a family member, say hey, and just.

Go on about your business.

it, it's a really cool experience growing up in Muscle Shoals.

I, I've got to play music.

some of my music teachers, Andrew Lang who, he's in Los Angeles now,

he was my keyboard teacher, one of my last keyboard teachers, but he was,

one that really got me playing out in bands and really put me out there.

And other than just reading sheep music, he actually played for Brian

McKnight and, he's, he's a great guy.

Talked to him on Instagram and, Facebook every now and then.

But, Andrew Lang's, his name I, Barry Billings, I got to learn guitar from him.

He,

He played and toured with Marie Osmond.

He was in a band called The Shooters, which that was really cool.

And, we actually went to church together.

When you look at Andrew and Barry, because you are, I love your interest

and love of music and you've mentioned playing the keyboard, but you play

multiple instruments , you were being taught at the feet of some real

masters, what was it like, when you look back on that experience of being

trained musically by some really great musicians, Barry and Andrew, what do

you remember about their experience?

Was there anything different about what they, impressed upon you than

say the average music teacher?

I had no clue who they, had played for when I was taking lessons.

they, They were just super encouragers, And I think because they had

played out and they, had played on the big stage, that experience

translated into the lessons.

And, they were able to teach more than just notes and numbers and, they were

able through just talking, they were able to teach gigs and teach, kind of

life experiences through playing out.

And, and there's nothing that sticks out that I remember exactly, but I remember,

Andrew, I was playing keyboard and he was teaching me, keyboard lessons and

we was doing stuff and I learned to play Skid Rows 18 in life, and that's a.

I don't know if anybody ever even remembers that song, but

that, that's a song that kind of sticks out and, one major thing in

playing music is song selection.

and you really gotta know your audience.

And that's one thing.

I guess the biggest thing that they impressed upon me is knowing your audience

and being able to match music up with the audience and, what fits with you.

because at that point in my life, that skid row 18 life, that, that

kind of hair hairband kind of stuff, that was what was going on.

And that was what I was listening to, and Andrew took that and took my passion for

music and what I was listening to, and really built upon my passion of music.

Now what.

If he would've, said, Hey, play this Mozart thing, it, it wouldn't have grown.

he knew what fertilizer to put on my music, to actually

make it grow and to build it.

And that's, that's in with song selection, and that's, what I was interested

in the songs and what I could do.

And, building up into, to stuff that was harder and expanding.

And Barry did the same thing.

So that's that real life experience from a teacher is, you just, you can't buy that,

it's just so much more than just teaching you notes.

I think that a lot of people go into, especially if they have no background

in music and the teachers, they're, they've got a teacher that just is

trained classically or whatever.

Not that's, anything's wrong with that.

It's just that when you get into it, there's so much more.

It's like you were saying, there's so much more than just the notes.

it's the, it's, you are saying the gig experience and understanding your audience

and then really what I love about that is that he knew what you were into.

he pushed you in that direction.

It's almost like if you can cultivate that love and you can cultivate that,

and tap into that passion and drive, you just have a lot more energy to

put into it, which is what it takes to learn and go through all the grind of

learning a musical instrument in the early part, in the early stages, rough.

And so at least you can be rough playing something that you really wanna learn,

and you put that extra effort to it.

And I think it keeps you from getting burnt out.

I think a lot of young musicians, it's like you were saying, if he'd

have pushed you into Mozart or something like that, you would've

done it as long as you had to do it.

And then you would've probably lost interest in burnout

and went somewhere else.

And I think tapping into that, man, that's awesome.

That's really good stuff.

So you've, you had a story you were telling me before

the show about hanging out.

And there was a Mexican restaurant and some of the folks that were

at that Mexican restaurant, Barry, your teacher, was there.

Tell us about the, tell us the name of the restaurant and, this,

just paint the picture of who was there and what was going on there.

The name of the restaurant was La Fonda's and it's no longer there.

It was in Florence.

It's a Mexican restaurant.

It, it was like the music Mecca at that time.

a group played every Saturday night called Iguana Party.

And they had a big, they had a big, a big thing up that said, La Fonda's,

Guana party, don't drink the water.

some kind of, something like that.

it was really cool.

And there's, what we didn't talk about, there's a lot of

music festivals around here.

WC Handy is from Florence, you got Muscle Shoals, then Tuscumbia has the Helen

Keller Fest, so there's some towns here.

So there's a lot of, there's four towns, there's a lot of activity, within those

four towns, it's called the Shoals area.

But, man, we would go listen to music there, and you

never knew who you would see.

And later on, I got to play with them and sit in and they would

play music and then they would have artists that come in to sit in.

And some of them were students of berries and some of 'em were, musicians.

I grew up, that's where I met.

Chris Tompkins, who, he's a great songwriter, wrote before he cheats for

Carrie Underwood and a ton of other songs.

Jason Ibel, Gary Nichols, formerly from the Steel Drivers.

so all of those guys got to get up and play one or two songs,

They're playing these, all these people are playing at this Mexican

restaurant called La fondas.

All these people are playing.

There was a band

That's insane.

And like a core band, was with Barry Billings,

of course.

He toured with, Marie Osmond and wrote songs and done a lot of studio

work and taught, lessons and stuff.

Then Danny KRS was a drummer.

I think he played for, Atlanta Rhythm section.

then you had, joey is a bass player.

And, Mary was the singer, and then you had all these other components

of musicians that just kinda filter in and they would go up and play.

you never knew what she would have, will McFarland, who played with, Bonnie

Ra, he showed up and played up there.

we were, Jason, Isabel, when Jason was still in high school, played there.

Chris Tompkins, he was still in high school.

He played keys with him.

it was just, you never knew who would show up.

You're sitting in on some sessions with these people.

you're playing with the band too.

You're getting in on this as

yeah, just playing, everybody's eating chips and salsa and enchiladas and,

there's a back room and, it eventually got to where, if you was going to sit there,

you had to get there early, you had to be there early and get your food and eat.

And I remember they had a, so many people came to this restaurant, and

just to listen to music, cuz you never knew who was going to be there.

it was just a, it was a great thing.

so many people came, the restaurants started saying, Hey, you gotta, you've at

least gotta order, so much food or you've gotta order, you gotta order something,

Oh, cuz people would just come and just get a, thing of chips and a

tea or something like that and they would just listen to the music.

Oh

Yeah.

but it was always, it was just packed out.

so

That's awesome.

a lot of folks

That's awesome.

A lot of folks.

so you're in Muscle Shoals, the Camelot of music, and then you've got this

La Fonda, which is like this kind of, un unknown to the rest of the world.

Great hub of amazing musicians that are coming through songwriters

and great players music.

and you just start, just diving into that, playing with all these

different bands and, and, so tell us how many different instruments do you

play cuz I, this is impressive that you can play all these instruments.

I try to play everything I pick up.

I, I don't have as much time now to do that, but when I was younger, I had such

a passion about playing that I, from band in high school I played drums and tuba

and bells and xylophone and, I played, my sister played trumpet, so I picked it

up and, started playing it a little bit.

And then my brother played saxophone, so I picked it up.

And then, I had played keyboard for ever, mom put me in lessons when I was five.

I'd played keyboard for a long time and I just played guitar and bass guitar.

And, there was one instrument that I picked up and I struggled and struggled.

It was a hammered dulcimer.

And

that is a different

yes, and I tried and tried to play it.

And, I think that's one of the only instruments I've ever sold.

it was a, I went and, I played it and I set it up and played and hammered

on it, cuz it is like a it's a domer harp accord kind of thing with

hammers, that you play like the drums.

I'm thinking, man, this is the coolest thing.

And, I, and I wasn't gonna let anything beat me.

So on one trip to, the Smokey Mountains, I seen this store up

there and, I guess it was Townsend and, they had hammered Domers.

So I went in there and I'm like, Hey, do y'all give lessons?

And I said, oh yeah.

I said, okay, I'm up here for four days.

Do you have anything available for lessons or whatever?

I wanna learn how to play this.

She said, are you a musician?

I said, yes.

She said, you gotta forget everything you know about music.

you just gotta have a clean slate to do this hammer dulcimer.

And I'm like,

oh, my.

okay, let's look at something else.

So I think I went and bought a Psaltery and in the Bible, David plays

a, there's a Psaltery in the Bible.

And, so I went and got a Psaltery and, come home and I sold the

hammer dulcimer in a yard sale.

Good gracious day.

I think with the list of instruments that you do play, we'll let you off the hook.

not playing the hammer, dalser, cuz that is a different, that's a different

kind of instrument, so That's funny.

that's awesome.

So I wanna jump back to, because there was some formative stuff in your life

and you've, your career, you deep into music and different things like that.

But early on you were your baseball team.

This is just how far back it goes.

Your baseball team had a unique sponsor who was your youth baseball

team and tell us about that team and how that was formative for you.

So my rec team, back then not everybody had a helmet or a bat.

we had four bats, five bats, and we had five helmets and, our

teams were sponsored, so that we could afford the jerseys and,

everything that come along with it.

my, I think it was 12, 13, 14, 15 year old teams was sponsored by FAME recording

studios and, we were the Red Sox.

Now tell everybody who Fame.

recording Studios is just so they know, just cuz there might be some listeners

that are not in the music community.

Don't know who Fame recording

Fame.

Recorded Studios is the original studio in Muscle Shoals that kind of hit big with

Aretha Franklin, eda, James, the founder of fame recording Studios, Rick Hall.

he's the one that had the vision that started everything.

he had the work ethic.

He had the drive that just, catapulted Muscle Shoals, every, everybody

wanted to come to Muscle Shoals and play with these studio players

and play at this recording studio,

Wow.

and.

they sponsored your

they sponsored my baseball team

the studio recording aretha Franklin and Anna Jane, all these people is

sponsoring your youth baseball team.

That's

Percy Sledge Wilson Pickett, Dwayne Allman played there.

he was a studio musician there, gosh, there's, just look it up.

there's so many I'm gonna miss, 90% of them.

But, so they sponsored the baseball team and not only did they sponsor

the baseball team, Rick Hall's son Rodney was one of the coaches.

Oh Wow.

That's

it, it the hard work, the, the dedication and hard work from fame and Gordon

Studios bled over into the baseball field.

I remember, I remember there being a man up in the stadium or up in the

stadium seats, the little bleachers, when you're young, they were huge,

but it was just a, bleachers, little aluminum bleachers there.

I remember a guy there with curled up mustache recording, recording

the, some of these games and stuff.

And, I'm thinking, who is that?

I had no clue that was Rick Hall coming to watch his son, coach a

baseball, coming to watch the team that they sponsored, and now I know

that Rick Hall was a baseball coach.

He coached his son's team.

Oh

he took time out of the busy recording studio to make sure that he put into

family, that he put into the community.

And, he coached his son, so that was important.

It was important, his son, coach a team, and they, the, we were

instilled so much though, or they instilled into us, work hard.

I think we practiced baseball every day after school.

We would go, we would run, we would, and I think we lost one

game in three or four years.

One game.

Good gracious.

So he was, so the son was, legit.

That when and when he was coaching your team, this was not just

like some kind of yeah, let's get together on Thursday afternoons

and hit some balls kind of thing.

this was intense.

if we're gonna do this, we're gonna do this.

yes, this was very intense.

We practiced batting, fielding.

I can't tell you how many times Rodney, hit us fielding drills, we're.

Drilling, double plays, you know where to go, what to do, doing all this

stuff, for rec ball, for recreational baseball, that's great, but the life

lessons that it taught us that I took from, that I didn't even understand,

we were getting life lessons, no clue that we were, being, give that so

When you look back on that and you think about some of the greatest,

type, lessons that you would take away from that, what do you think back on

that and some of the coaching wisdom and insights that was passed on?

hard work, never give up.

And if you're down in runs, you're not out.

I like that.

I like that.

Yeah.

that a lot.

we, I just, on our last show we had, guests, Kyle Bradley, cuz we were

talking about the one-on-ones as.

As an organization, think we thrive.

We provide a coaching system that we implement in different companies.

And one of the things that I'm passionate about is, it's so cool to hear it was

such a meaningful part of your life, and your background, you're growing up is

youth sports coaching and, I've coached many years as a girls soccer coach, I

take my own medicine in that and I, it's cool to hear that your experience was

that both the founder of this, , amazing, one of the most amazing studios in the

country is coaching his son and then his son is passing it down to you.

I know that I got just as much out of coaching as any of the kids,

maybe more than the kids, from just going through the exercise and the

intentionality of coaching, and really the rigor of it and saying,

okay, how do I motivate these kids?

How do I train them?

How can we get better?

How do we improve?

How do I encourage them?

And all these things.

Then I took that back and it was like me and Kyle were talking,

about it on the last episode.

So we're taking that back into the workplace and then, I can take

it, whether it's a music studio or engineering technical services

or whatever the occupation.

There's so much that I pulled out of that experience that I could

take into leading teams at work that I just think is really valuable.

So I'm glad to hear that, the owner of the FAME studios was

our fame recording studios was.

Was passionate about family and community and developing people.

That's a great story.

alright, so we've talked a little bit about your background.

We've talked a little about your music interest and baseball and different

things, but there's a new, there's this new focus that you've had , that it's

made you quite prolific on, social platforms and bars, stool sports and

YouTube and things like that, TikTok even.

so tell us about what in the world, cuz I don't even know, like when

you say that you're a blade sports competitor, what does that even mean?

what is a Blade sports competitor?

So Blade Sports is a nonprofit organization.

They promote knives as tools.

it's competitions that happen all over the United States and, Culminating in a

national competition in April, and then a world competition in the 1st of June.

And it's where you take a knife, you either build it or you can

use a knife from another builder.

And the knives are choppers.

They don't have a point to 'em, they're just flat on the end.

there's certain specifications and all this is on the

website, www.bladesports.org.

All this is on that website.

and you find 'em on Facebook bla Sports International.

but you just take this knife and you take it through extreme paces.

the competition is timed.

And you get points for individual cuts.

So there may be 13 or 14 different cuts in this competition.

Anywhere from a two by four to a two by six, to a two inch free swinging

manila rope, straws, packing tubes, shipping tubes, water bottles.

you name it you, there's nothing standard there.

There's something different, on each course to cut it.

There may be tomatoes, there may be, oranges, tennis balls, golf balls,

rolling tennis balls and golf balls.

so you're really taking this knife and you're putting it through extreme paces.

you're cutting a tennis ball with it.

You're cutting a golf ball, you're cutting an oak dow, you're,

and then you're cutting paper.

So you're basically.

Showing how this knife holds up under a heavy load, how it holds up

under finesse cuts, and, you're just going, so you get points for each

individual cut and then it's timed.

So that's how you determine the winner.

Oh my goodness.

So you have a sponsor right before the show.

You're taking a call from your sponsor, then you're going all

over the country and doing this.

I've seen some of your videos, which are incredible.

I'm blown away.

I, there's no, there's no, way I could cut through some of the stuff that you've cut.

what's been some of the hardest things that they've asked you in

these competitions to, to, to, to cut.

yeah, you mentioned my sponsors.

I have amazing set of sponsors, pops knife supplies.

They sell knife supplies to the whole knife world and community.

there's four owners, and they're all knife makers, dirt loots, Allen

Searles, Joey Berry, and Andy Roy.

And, they're amazing guys at the sponsor.

they allow me to do this.

They allow me to, go and play with knives and talk about, life experiences

and just share, share with people.

Just pour into people they allow me to do that.

So when you go around, you're not only traveling to, to compete.

You're also being able to share your story.

About, about actually about something that you've been, you've struggled

with over the last few years.

Tell everybody, about that, struggle.

I never heard about it until I met you.

so this is, so this is a very unique thing, but tell everybody

about what you've had to struggle with as you've gone through this.

So I've loved knives as growing up and stuff.

And as far as the blade sports, I was at Blade Show in Atlanta and

my daughter saw this competition.

I wasn't involved in it.

And she said, hey dad, you can do this.

So I did that competition and.

Later on, after I got into Blade Sports, I, I started having some joint

issues and, some different things.

Started having high blood pressure.

corporal Tunnel syndrome just had a bunch of different issues starting

and, I learned that I was diagnosed with acromegaly and that is a, that's

where there's a tumor on your pituitary gland that produces too much growth

hormone, which, roundabout way, give me my nickname, big Hand Dave.

because my disease, what they take old pictures and look and try to see

facial changes and stuff throughout the years, and the best they can tell,

my disease started sometime in my late twenties, early thirties, and I

went undiagnosed for about 16 years.

And it had got to the point to where it was really affecting me.

my hands were growing and my feet were growing and I was, had got

wider shoulders and stuff, but I was working out and, never really knew.

I'd asked some doctors and some professionals, and they're like, you're

heavier and you're not gonna stay the same size as high school and, stuff.

And so it was just blowed off and, but anyway, what it was

diagnosed and found that I had that tumor, it was a pretty big blow.

and I, but I was able to kind of transition and, I don't really,

I try not to get discouraged.

I try to transition and push myself, and I use Blade Sports as that focus.

I use Blade Sports as the focus for me working out every day, going to the

gym, even though my joints hurt and even though I hurt and was in pain,

I, I used that focus to do that, to get better and to be in shape for the

knife sports and for my sponsors and to be able to do all this and, it, it

really has been an amazing godsend, that I had something to focus on.

we all have struggles, but, and we see those struggles, but we all don't always

see our blessings, and to be able to be able to try to use that blessing of.

blade Sports and the sponsor and stuff to keep me focused to overcoming acromegaly.

that has been a huge thing in my life.

I've been able to, to be on a, a group, a panel and work for a pharmaceutical

company to, to give them insight.

They were developing medication for acromegaly patients and to give them

insight, on, what it feels like and, what you go through on a daily basis.

In, 2019, I had a surgery that removed the tumor and, my growth hormone

levels, come back down to normal.

Oh, wonderful.

but the symptoms and everything, cause I had 16 years of, damage to joints.

it causes.

Organs to grow, heart to grow.

It causes a lot of different things.

I love how you pointed that out though, because I think that's so encouraging.

You said, okay, I've got this issue.

You don't have the tumor removed and you're just having to deal with this.

But I love how you positioned yourself to deal with it.

If there's nothing you could do on that, there's some things that's

just outta your control, right?

For 16 years, you had no control over that.

So regardless of, you had no, there was no medical diagnosis or anything.

But with all these symptoms, you said, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna pour

myself into something that's I'm really passionate about and focus on.

That's really good.

that builds me up, that encourages me, and that's what I choose to focus on.

And I think that's I think that's so important because there's a lot of

times at work, whether you're leading a team, whether you're leading an

organization, or whether you're just leading yourself well, you've gotta

figure out a way to lead yourself first, before you can, lead others.

And I love how you position that we all go through struggles.

We all go through trials and one of the ways that you were able to essentially,

Make it to the other side, was just really choosing where you put focus on.

And sometimes it's really hard to focus on not to focus on the negative.

Right.

So I love how you said, instead of just trying not to focus on the negative,

it's don't push that red button and everybody looks at the red button.

Push the red button.

It's no, I'm literally gonna put something else in my life that

it absolutely consumes me enough to where I don't have time to get

distracted by this other thing.

I, I think that's really healthy.

I love that it's a very healthy approach to it, so that's really good.

Very good.

Let's talk a little bit about how you got into it, because I love the story.

you were telling me before the shove out how it actually came to be cuz

you told about your daughter kind of seeing this kind of event and she's

Hey Dan, I think you can do this.

And then you were like, okay, I gotta figure out how I'm going to do this.

So, there's, um, A knife show every year called Blade Show.

It's in Atlanta.

It's the largest knife show in the, world.

It's, it's overwhelming how many knives and, told my wife, I wanted to go.

So we went a couple of years without the kids and one year my daughter

went and we went to this, all these knives and everything and

but we always go to the knives.

And my daughter and wife and stuff went and, the last day we always left

a little early and let them go shopping in Atlanta and, so they would have

something to do too, cuz I know they're not near as excited about knives as I am.

I realize that and I appreciate that and I appreciate the fact

that they, want to go with me and be with me while I'm doing this.

And, I'd love to go shopping with them afterwards.

j and it is just a give and take kind of thing, So we were leaving Blade

Show the first year my daughter went

and we had, was about to walking out the door and there was this competition going

on and a lot of people outside cutting stuff and this, that and the other.

and, of course, we'd been two days of nothing but knives all day for two

days . So we're going, getting in the car and we'd actually got into the car

and my daughter said, dad, I really wanted to see that, what they were doing.

And I told my wife, I said, we won't be back here for a year, so

I'll just take up here and we'll watch one or two before we leave.

So my wife stayed in the car.

So me and my daughter went up and I think we watched three, three people compete.

And I'm like, oh, cool.

She turned to me after the first one.

She said, dad, you can do this.

And I'm like, huh, that's pretty cool.

So we left, we went shopping.

But that kind of planted the seed that, had that encouragement, for my daughter

saying, dad, ah, you can do this.

you can beat them.

And I'm like, how cool, So my wheels started turning.

So we got back home and I got online and I looked up the sport and everything

you had to be certified cutter, you had to go through this class.

, it's about a day class in order for safety training and training, how to be a cutter.

And, this was in June.

And I seen where at the end of June or 1st of July, that there was going to

be a class, the very first class after Blade Show was in Waxahachie, Texas.

So first thing I did, I Googled Waxahachie, Texas,

and it is 10 and a half hours.

I'm like, oh my goodness.

So I'm thinking that is a long way.

There's no way that I will ever, convince my wife, I'd probably go by myself,

but, I'd like to take my family with me.

There's no way I'd ever, that, that would just, would not be fun for her.

Then, while I was on Google Maps, I pulled out a little bit and I seen Waco.

I'm like, oh, waco, Texas light bulb went off.

I'm like, she loves Chip and Joanna Gaines.

So immediately, I'm pretty sure wherever at I dropped when I was

doing a run, I said, Hey, baby.

Would you like to go see Chip and Joanna games in the silos in Waco, Texas in July?

And she's what?

Yes.

And, oh, she got excited.

and then I told her, oh, by the way, you'll have to

drive you and the kids there.

I'm gonna be in a knife training.

And she's oh, okay, cool.

here we go.

we packed up the van, like the clampett, heading out to Texas.

And, here we go, out to Texas and do this knife training, and they

go to see the silos and stuff.

So it was a win-win all the way around.

, I think you're just continuing to, cycle through that insight that your

old music school teacher gave him of knowing your audience, right?

So you really played that well because you knew your audience well.

You look at it, you're like, there's no way I'm going with my family in Texas.

Wait a minute, I see Waco on the map.

let's, let's see if we can make this work.

So I love that man.

I love that.

That's so good.

That's such a good story.

And here's the amazing thing for our listeners.

He's been very humble, but you went in your first year

competing after that course.

You actually made it to the world competition in the first year and

ended up placing fifth in the world.

So you're one of the top knife cutters in the world.

And it's an amazing feat.

And then you did that in such a short period of time.

we, I guess we need to give your daughter kudos too, cuz she saw something pretty on

and she has a pretty good eye for talent.

She might need to be a recruiter or something like

that cuz that's pretty amazing.

blade Sports, when I got into Blade Sports, started doing this, my first

competition there at Waxahachie, I placed first in the rookie division.

And, I'm like, man, I was hooked.

It's just caught a fish, I was hooked.

it was fun, it's, a minute of just craziness cutting with a

knife that I drove 10 and a half hours to compete for one minute.

Good

it's, but it was so much fun.

Then that first year I went to competitions and I went to nationals

and, I placed third overall, not just in the rookie division, but third

overall in nationals and was able to go to the, the world competition.

And it had, there where I place fifth and it's just been.

It's been a fun, fun ride with some amazing people.

You've been all over the us.

You've been on, bar stool sports.

You've got some things, some content on there, and also on a reality TV show.

What reality tV show were you on for as a knife cutter?

I've put in to be on forging fire a couple of times and knife or death

and, I got a call from an Australian lady and she's Hey, would you be

interested in being on the reality show?

The Hamish and Andy show and da.

I'm thinking, what?

And, I'm thinking, yeah, that, that would be awesome.

so anyway, they set up the flights and everything and I went with a bunch

of cutters and but it was filmed.

And here I'm thinking I'm going to Australia, I'm thinking,

yes, I will do, whatever to go check out Australia, free trip.

And but it was a filmed as a special type reality show for the Hamish

and Andy show, and it was filmed in Waxahachie, south of Dallas, Texas.

and the name of it was, like Walkabout or a Gap year or something like

that, where they actually toured the, United States finding different

things to do in the United States.

So I didn't get to go to, I didn't get to go to Australian, but I

got to compete against Hamish and, he did the competition.

And so I got to be the heel, which that's the bad guy.

I got to say,

all right.

I'm, not gonna let him win.

I'm going to take him out, on this course.

and it was a fun, fun thing to do.

It was about 13 hours of taping for about a, I don't know, 30, 45 minute show,

Good

it was crazy.

And it was, aired in Australia and, I don't think it was ever

even aired in the United States.

Oh my gosh.

So you've g you've probably got fans in Australia that you

don't, you haven't even met

yeah,

you go,

it was a fun experience.

I did ask 'em to try Vegemite, but they had to eat it all before they come

there, so I didn't get to eat that.

Oh, that's hilarious.

I love that.

That's so funny.

Yeah.

Vegemite sandwich, chuck, guys.

That's good stuff.

so I totally get the nickname because your hands are, I

mean they're just massive.

In my mind I'm thinking this is how you pivoted that condition

to this blade cutting sport.

And now you've taken this condition that, you know was, made it hard on you.

Now you've turned it into something great.

But then we were talking, you're like, actually it's actually

not necessarily that's the case

So the specifications, there's actual specifications for the knife.

the knife can't be any longer than 15 inches long, overall,

maximum of a 10 inch blade.

And, which means most people have a five inch handle.

for me, a five inch handle really just doesn't work.

So my blade is nine to nine and a half inches long with a five and

a half or over, handle, which, so it, it actually gives me a little

bit smaller blade, than the normal.

it makes it harder for you because you have less blade to cut.

and still you're competing as one of the top blade, blade

sports competitors in the world.

That's just incredible.

I love that.

You have a variety of interests, I feel like, and we haven't even

got into, like, you're, you're a city councilman in Marshall

Shoals, so you're in like politics.

You do politics.

you've played with all these great musicians.

You've played about every instrument there is to play.

And now you're a Worldclass blade.

so you've been, I guess what's very interesting and fascinating, I, and I hope

that the listeners are picking this up, is that what you've done, you've been at

a very high level in a variety of areas.

Even going back to youth sports, you were on a team that didn't

lose, for multiple years.

You lost one game and then you go into music and you're playing with elite,

elite musicians and some very talented people, and then you just decide to get

into sports, and you just fit it like a hand in a glove and it's like immediately

you go from nothing to top, top competitor, one of the top in the world.

I guess my question is how would you explain your ability to be

successful in multiple different genres or multiple different areas

that are completely unrelated?

I think it's drive, I think it's, life lessons that I learned from my parents,

from coaches in my life, from teachers.

I think you need to find what you're passionate about, what you want to do.

so what you may not be good at it.

don't find just what you're good at, but find what you're passionate about and

then do what it takes to be good at it.

you've gotta be willing to do.

What the other person isn't.

you've gotta be willing to practice.

as far as baseball every day, after school there, far as music, you've

gotta practice, every day, and not just a set time, I know a lot of, when I

was younger, growing up, and I really didn't enjoy, I enjoyed music, but I

didn't enjoy the practice part of it.

Mom would set a timer for 30 minutes, and, and I would sit there and I

would listen for that timer to beep, But I also realized that in order

to be good at something, to be the best that I can be at something.

I don't need to be listening for that timer.

I need to practice just for me to practice.

And when it when that, for me, when that kind of become a reality, then, I would

sit down and, I would have to set an alarm to tell me to quit, an hour later.

Or, two hours later, I'd have something that I'd plan to do.

So instead of setting a timer, I'd have to set an alarm, to remind

me that, hey, you've actually got something else you need to do.

And, the same thing with Blade Sports.

I get out and practice, I sharpen my knife.

I practice sharpening knives, haunting those skills.

iron sharpens iron.

And, you just keep pressing forward,, that's one thing with the acromegaly,

I've really, really push, cuz there's days that you know, when joints

are hurting and when it's just pain and your hands are drawn up.

there's days that I can't hold a knife, there's days where it just hurts, but just

working through that and it just really gives me a goal, to work through that and

to do, because, my sponsors are amazing, and I want to do good for them and I want

to promote them, because they promote me, I just, it's just that drive, having that

drive, finding the thing that drives you.

And then finding your audience, finding your song, the song that you sing

best, the genre that you sing best.

finding your place.

that's a huge, huge thing, you know?

Man, I hope people were taking notes when you just went on that montage,

because that was fantastic stuff.

That was worth the whole episode right there.

I love the mental picture that you dropped when you said, I, my mom set a timer.

And then at some point it clicked, and then you started playing and said, I

had to set an alarm to, not to tell me that I had to go for this long,

but actually tell me when to quit.

That I feel like is when you've made the mental shift that you're talking about and

you've found what you would call, you find that drive, you find that inspiration.

you've latched onto some idea that you realize that this is what I'm enjoying,

it's what I want to do, and it turns, it, it moves it from something I have

to do to something I love or want to do.

I love that.

So if you're listening to last 10%, you need to be asking yourself a question

right now, and that is what are things in your life that you're actively,

intentionally engaging in, that you would actually have to set an alarm to

stop doing when you get involved in it, because it's just so good that you can't

put it down unless you're reminded.

I think that's fantastic.

when you talk about your story, some of the things that stand out

to me is that you were surrounded early on with inspiring people.

Now you talked about that the head coach of your baseball team being

very inspiring, he was very driven.

He helped the team be very driven and focused and intentional about their time.

and you had good mentors and coaches.

You talked about the incredible musicians that were your teachers early on.

And they were inspiring people as well.

they were teaching you about gigs and not just more, it was

more than just notes on a page.

And you talked about having, intentional practice that you're constantly

refining and honing and that was that setting alarm versus, setting

a timer and you were goal oriented.

You obviously said, Hey, this is what I want to do.

And you set some of these things, especially with the blade

sports, you just put that out.

And then just finding that drive you, you've made so many great

references to being passionate about something and letting that interest

and passion fuel your practice and fuel the discipline of the practice.

So, people talk about discipline and I think with music it's easy to see.

I think it's actually really easy to see with music because it's like we

were going back before, if you have to exercise discipline, it's like

your mom's setting the timer, right?

And so you're only gonna exercise absolute minimum amount.

if I have to exercise self-discipline every single time I pick up the

instrument, then I'm gonna say, okay, mom, 30 minutes, set the timer, let's go.

And I'm gonna force myself to do that.

But it's, but the well of self-discipline that we all have is not deep enough to

accomplish something great like that.

it's, it has to be greater.

It has to be more.

And I think that's when you say you tap into that drive, Yes, you have to

have discipline, but it's a different, it's not exercising it in the same way,

because you were saying I had to have discipline to set an alarm, so I'd stop,

So that's, yes, you still have to have discipline to pick up the instrument.

You still have to have, to get started and stuff.

But letting that run is so much better.

I love that.

And then I love the idea that you said of finding your song.

Whether you coach youth league, or whether you're coaching and leading,

we call them a leader or manager.

A business owner, if you lead a church or a nonprofit, we call you a leader coach,

because we believe at the last 10% think we've thrived that you are responsible.

You are responsible for doing your part to help those that you

serve, those that you coach, those that you lead, find their song.

that's, we talk about it in business.

We'll say things like, you need to get the right people on the bus

and then get 'em in the right seat.

Well, does that mean?

It means helping people find the song, their song, who, where do they

fit in the big picture, in the work.

Where does their work line up with their passions and interests?

And so you have an interest and as a, and a responsibility as a coach in doing that.

So I just feel like this has just been, man, this has been fantastic.

I really appreciate you sharing your story with us today.

I just love it , I'm very thankful that, you've had success getting that, tumor

removed and you're recovering, from that.

And it's, or I should say it's in remission.

you did mention that there was a charity that you would like to talk

a little bit about, so I'd love to give you a chance to talk about, Casa.

actually too, the acromegaly community, if anybody has acromegaly, there's

an awesome community on Facebook, that you can get into that really

will help you navigate through that.

Cuz that is, that's a hard thing to do on your own.

And there's a lot of awesome cheerleaders in that community that, that have

the same issues and, can help cut through the fog, and help you there.

another thing that I'm very passionate about is, the organization

casa, which stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates.

My I have seven grandkids and five of them are adopted and they all come from

foster homes and they all had a court appointed special advocate that's a

volunteer worker that takes their time and goes through training on their

own, from a national organization that has local organizations and that

worker stays and fights with the kid.

DHR workers kind of change in and out, court attorneys and judges and that stuff

kind of changes in and out, but that's the one, one standard will be that worker

through beginning to the end of that case.

Whether they get placed back with their family or, they go.

Into adoption or, whatever happens that worker is there fighting for them, not

only in court, but in school, in life.

And that they know that person's there, they can call, just that person's

there in their corner fighting.

a lot of times it's hard to get in touch with, if that kid had a guardian

ad litem lawyer, it may be hard to get in touch, but that cost worker is

just a phone call away, or, and seeing the kid in it, in its environment.

So that's, that's a huge organization that helps kids that are in some tough times.

So that's, that's something very near and dear to my heart.

That's awesome, and we'll put links to these organizations on

the show notes of this episode.

So if you're interested in the community, that, can help support you, if you have

acromegaly, then we'll put a link to that.

And also the casa will, we'll also put a link to that.

All right, so big hand.

Dave, when is your next competition?

Is there one you've got coming up that you're preparing for?

The next big competition is next weekend.

Oh,

it will be the World competition in Atlanta, Georgia.

that first Saturday in June, and it will be, there'll be 10 cutters present, all

competing for the World Championship.

That's awesome.

That's exciting.

are we ready?

Have you feel like your training's going well?

Where are we at?

Where are we at in the training You feeling

I feel like the training's going well.

Do a lot of research.

I try to pour that passion into training and train smarter and, so a lot of it's

upper body and shoulder type stuff.

So I was able to, check some videos out and I saw a mace workout with

an actual mace, weighted on one end.

You can actually Google that on mace workouts, and it's a huge

workout for your shoulders and.

And stuff.

So started light on that and, at, I'm trying to prepare best I can

with cutting and got the knife sharpened up, ready to go and,

just pushing forward, just ready to

That's awesome.

Is it recorded or is it on tv or where can people

check that out?

If they wanted to tune in and see you compete?

where could people find that

it'll be that first Saturday at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta, Georgia,

and it will be posted, I'm sure there will be a l some live feeds on that.

I'm not sure where to find them.

I'll try to let you know so you Can put it in the notes of the show.

but there will, I will post YouTube feeds and, Instagram feeds and TikTok

stuff, of after the competition of the show, put some music with it or

not, or, whatever, just show the cut.

it's amazing how, blaze Sports and how Barstow sports kind

of picked up on Blade Sports.

When, COVID hit, pretty much all sports stopped and everybody was looking for

sports, just something to do in sports.

And, I had never watched bars still sports before then, but I got a call

one day said, Hey, your video popped up.

You know, so the video from 2019 popped up in 2020 on bars still sports and, it was.

I think, that video has 1.2 billion views now.

Oh my gosh, that's insane.

awesome.

Pick that video up and played it.

yeah, so me and it's actually the video that has 1.2 billion views is

me and, another cutter, big Chris and another cutter from, thailand.

There's Big Hand Dave and Big Chris.

I feel like if you're gonna be a world-class cutter, you

can't come without a nickname.

I mean, shrimpy doesn't work.

If you're a cutter, you need, you gotta have a strong, you

gotta have a strong nickname.

So I think that's awesome.

I cannot believe 1.2 billion views.

That's incredible.

that's rare air.

That's a lot.

That's a lot of views.

congratulations.

listen where you said you're on YouTube, you're on instagram

and, where can people find you?

Cuz we wanna make sure that if they want to check you out

and subscribe, they can find

YouTube, Instagram, TikTok @DavidMoore505.

Okay.

We will put, all these feeds into the show notes as well.

So if you want to connect with big hand, Dave, you can go into the show notes and

find him on all the social platforms.

Support him, check him out, subscribe to his channels,

check out his upcoming battle.

we'll be cheering for you, man.

We'll be rooting for you on, June 1st.

That's exciting, man.

Th thank you for being on the show prior to your competition.

Uh, Okay.

we always ask the guests, we always ask the guests, if there's anybody that

they would like to hear on the last 10%.

So is there, anybody you'd like to hear on the last 10%?

at, I'd like to hear my mom.

Okay.

I

yeah, she's an amazing woman.

She has the same drive as me.

She has started a, nonprofit group called Master Crafters.

And, it's a group of ladies that get together once a week

and they sew for missions.

They sew anything from dresses to t-shirts to blankets, to, they do the, they

do the little gowns for the stillborn babies and donate 'em to the hospital

so they can give them to the parents.

Salvation dolls.

They do dolls to put into the back of, police cars in case there's a kid.

Oh

do a huge ministry through sewing.

But mom has always, mom has always had that drive, and seeing her and, her drive,

has inspired me throughout the years.

And, I would love to, to hear her on this podcast.

To hear her on the show.

All right.

We'll I think that, sometimes I'll have to go and find people or get connections

to, to link up with certain people, but I think that, I think we've got a

good connection to see if we can reach out to your mom to get her on the show.

So that might be, that might work just great.

It sounds like she's an amazing woman.

I have not even when you said that about dresses for stillborn babies and dolls

in the back of police guards, those are just really tough situations.

and she's really, she's finding a need in filling that in an amazing way.

so very thankful for her and her vision to impact people in positive ways.

Good for her.

That's awesome.

Well, David, this has been a pleasure.

This has been the , funnest show.

I love it.

I, it met every expectation.

It's just been great hearing your story and just, and letting you share some real

wisdom with us and listeners, and I just know that everybody's appreciated it.

So thank you again for being on the last 10%.

No problem.