This podcast episode is dedicated to providing vital information regarding the upcoming Fall Nationals, emphasizing the necessity for early registration before the deadline of August 9th. Chief Master Skiles joins us to discuss the significance of this event, which will take place in Pittsburgh, marking it as the last scheduled occasion in that location. We delve into the array of seminars designed to enhance both training and competition experiences for participants. Furthermore, we highlight the inspiring efforts of Team Fearless, a unique demo team dedicated to inclusivity within martial arts. Their journey serves as a testament to the transformative power of perseverance and community in overcoming challenges.

Takeaways:

• The importance of early registration for Fall Nationals cannot be overstated, as the deadline is August 9th.
• Chief Master Skiles provided extensive insights into the upcoming Fall Nationals and its significance for ATA members.
• Team Fearless exemplifies inclusivity in martial arts, showcasing the talents of special abilities competitors.
• The podcast emphasizes the value of life skills training integrated into martial arts instruction for student development.
• Attendees at Nationals can expect a variety of seminars designed to enhance both competitive and teaching skills.
• The growth of special abilities programs within ATA highlights the organization's commitment to inclusivity and empowerment.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• ATA
• Chief Master Sky House
• Fearless
• Chief Master Skiles
• Songam Taekwondo
• Senior Master Isaacs
• Master Hoffman
• Grandmaster Caruso
• Senior Master Aaron Lee
• Grandmaster Ramundi
• Senior Master Pino
• Michael Raffle

We have an action packed episode for you today.

Chief Master Sky House and team Fearless.

Let's get started.

Welcome to the ata nation podcast.

Instructors, students, parents, masters of Songam Taekwondo.

Welcome Back to the 88 Nation podcast.

Episode 280 and 12.

212.

And this episode is chocked full of amazing information.

We've got Chief Master Skiles talking all about Fall Nationals.

I know we just got done with Worlds and we're ready to talk about Fall Nationals, but he wanted to make sure you have the information before the early bird deadline ends.

And that is August 9th.

So we want to make sure that we do not miss the opportunity to get the training early bird registration taken care of before August 9th.

Amazing things taking place in.

Where are we?

Pittsburgh, actually.

Last scheduled time in Pittsburgh, so you don't want to miss it.

Make sure you check it out.

Let's go right to that before we have an amazing inspiring athlete of the week, ATA Nation.

We have back with us our most repeat guest, Chief Master Skiles.

How are you, sir?

Good.

What is that?

The.

What they call that.

What was that skit on Saturday Night Live?

The, the, the.

The.

The Five Time Jacket Club or something like that or whatever.

I saw you got a cool purple jacket, so maybe I need to have, I need to have my own at.

That purple jacket was sweet, right?

Yeah, they were good.

I mean I, I would probably look at maybe getting that patch put on maybe a different way, but you know.

Okay, so pretty sweet.

That was a, that was a discussion that happened and that was the brainchild of Senior Master Isaacs.

And he just said, you know what, sir, I'm just going to go for it.

I'm just going to do this.

He just did it and, and he did it.

And they were delivered that night.

Like, it was like I pulled that jacket out of the bag.

I saw, I saw people rushing around putting them talking patch on.

And I did think Master Hoffman might really like them too because they had the, like the hall of fame.

Made me think Hoffman, you know, boom.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The Hoff.

Yeah, that was pretty cool.

Yeah, it was, it was funny.

I was, it was interesting though because I was walking around and I had a few people go, hey, sir, that's pretty.

Like, what is.

What does HOF stand for?

I'm like, if you don't know, if you don't know, it's going to be tough.

But hey, whatever.

No, it was pretty cool.

It was, it was a neat thing.

Well, we're back from Worlds.

Worlds was an awesome event.

Another huge success.

Lots of competitors, lots of training.

I'm sure you've gotten the surveys back and everybody was pleased and excited about all the things, right?

Yeah.

The surveys back for the training seminars was overwhelmingly.

Well, you know, one of the things that people did mention the most, I did recognize it.

I was rolling the dice on it to see if it would work.

We've already adjusted it for the fall national schedule was it didn't have any built in breaks in between the seminars.

Even a 10, 15 minute break just to walk from one to the other.

They weren't built in there.

Do apologize for that.

But we were trying to get so many activities in, you know, you don't know if it's going to work until you try.

Won't happen again.

We'll always have those breaks in there.

So we have those breaks built into the fall national schedule.

There's a 15 minute window in there.

And the nice thing about that is everything's in that one building.

So you're either going up or down or staying so.

Or walking down a hallway.

So the transition shouldn't be long.

And hey, you know what?

Told Dilly Dally.

Yeah.

No, keep.

Put a protein bar in your bag.

Eat while you walk.

Take your conversations.

Run, man.

Come on.

You're running, right?

We need to bring that back.

Yep.

How to do it?

I know my legacy points.

August 9th.

Is anything going on August 9th?

I was thinking.

Yeah.

Oh, you saw that on my board.

Like August 9th, August 9th.

That's the deadline for our discounted online pricing ends.

So if you want to get the best price for training, you want to get registered by August 9th.

I'm pointing.

Got to remember, it's mirror imaging.

Right.

August 9th for tournament competition.

I'll give a little props to tournaments there.

Their deadline for their best pricing option is September 2nd.

So you get a little bit longer time there with tournaments.

So there's two different dates.

So training discounted pricing deadline is August 9th and then September 2nd is for the tournament discounted online pricing.

So best pricing available.

9Th for training 2nd of August or 2nd for September for tournaments.

I'm going to talk to my staff tomorrow at our staff meeting because I want to get good pricing for getting them into some seminars.

And I'm pretty sure I probably used my event credit registrations already.

Yeah.

And for the.

And for the er, credits for those licensees out there.

Remember that new policy that went into effect?

It started last year.

I was pretty lenient.

I've been given a little bit of grace here and There this year as well for some people that new licensees are still learning the policy and stuff.

But those ER credits, if you want to use them without being charged, you gotta, you gotta register by the reg, by the regular deadline, not the August.

9Th, but whatever the next one is.

Right.

The regular deadline is when you move into late registration, then you're going to have to pay.

Right.

And that we do that because, you know, if I've got to make any adjustments to rooms and things like that, I need to know far enough in advance.

We also have some of our presenters, they do printouts, things like that.

So if we're using, if we get people that are registering last minute, it could throw things off.

So from a planning standpoint, and I think our licensees also can appreciate when they host seminars, when they have a testing.

Yes.

That they like people to register by the reg, by their deadline so they can plan accordingly.

So it's the same thing here, just on a much grander scale.

Yes, sir.

With that as well, if a licensee is unsure if they've got credits, who do we reach out to for that?

What's the email?

Trainingtaonline.com okay, that's what I thought.

But with that being said, there should be an email going out today to let everybody know, thank you for coming to Worlds or if you didn't come to Worlds, this is how many ER credits you have left over or you don't have any left.

Here's the deadline, August 9th, to get your best price to attend those amazing seminars we have to offer.

So we've been, the last year or so, we've been really proactive with giving those updates at the beginning of the year.

As you know, hey, New Year, here's the number of credits you have and then after each event, giving those updates.

So good, good, good.

Well, I won't send you an email then.

I'll wait for that email.

Make sure.

I'm pretty sure I don't have any left because we used them, but I'll check and then get my people registered before August 9th.

So, yes, get them in.

One of the things that you guys do at the training department, I think we've talked about this on the show before, is a way that you kind of repeat seminars so that people have the opportunity.

You might see it at Worlds and be like, oh man, I wanted to take that, but I couldn't get to World Championships this year or I want to do this seminar instead.

Or I had master's training and so I couldn't do the thing or whatnot.

So some of the things we'll go over today are, took place at Worlds because that's kind of the start of some of these things starting over and some of them won't.

So you've got a couple of categories now that we have this.

We're for those of those people who are old school and it's not even old school, it's like mid school.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Where there we've got business, we've got training and then we've got like physical training and then we've got instruction.

So what do you want to start with?

With talking about offerings at all nationals.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I mean, so people can understand that pattern you were referencing too.

I try to, we try to offer the same, if not a similar seminar, three national events in a row because we know not everybody goes to all of them or both of or like you mentioned, hey, there was so much on the schedule.

There was only four time slots throughout the day I could attend something, but there were six seminars I really wanted to attend.

So we'd like to offer it in a repeating fashion so that you go to the next event it's offered again.

Oh, now I can get it.

Right.

So nine times out of ten if you see a seminar on a schedule that it's going to be repeated at the next one or, and, or two national events.

So you have that flexibility in the schedule.

And that's another thing that comes back on the surveys.

Like did you have enough, did you, were you able to attend all the seminars you wanted?

No.

Why?

Well, there were eight seminars I wanted, but there's only four time slots throughout the day.

Well, you know, we'll make the math work at another event.

So that's why we do it that way because we know not everybody.

And you know, in Phoenix we had some people that their flights were delayed, they missed.

So travel, travel challenges come up, people get sick last minute.

So you know, we want to be able to offer it that.

So if you didn't know that was kind of the formula, know it moving forward that hey, hey, I know I couldn't do it at Worlds, but chances are they'll be offering it again at fall and or spring.

Okay, let's talk about the business kind of themed or business focused seminars.

So back again, great reviews was chief master Tina Newberry.

Her Leaders for Life playbook on the turning parents into Powerful Partners teaching, you know, using life skills and things like that within your program was very well received and got a lot of high comments on the survey.

I heard a lot of good things about that one.

Yeah, I didn't get to go.

It was one of those ones that was like, I want to hit this one later.

Yes.

So it's, it's backed by popular demand, so to speak.

I'm also Chief Master Langren Lee's.

The Lee's at Martial Arts Playbook, the retirement blueprint, you know, building value and transitioning with purpose.

So this makes sure people understand that this isn't for like, hey, you know, retirement is in my plan for the next two years, five years.

Right.

This is also something that's a good seminar for somebody like yourself who still.

Still young in age, but wants to know how to start to put the elements in place, put that foundation in place of what I'm going to be doing for the future.

Right.

So you're at the white belt, green belt level of school ownership.

What are you going to do when it's time to get up into the high rank of ownership level, so to speak?

What's my exit strategy going to be?

What are those types of blocks you want to put in place?

We had her on business beyond the map for the licensees.

Just kind of previewing it.

Really great information.

And like you said, not just for like, hey, I want to retire in the next two years.

Really, if you want to do it right, you got to take that early.

So you're setting those pieces up in place now.

So.

Yeah, I would highly recommend that seminar.

Yeah, you know, it's.

It's not the smartest idea to start your 401k when you're 55.

Yes, sir.

Right.

You know, that kind of thing.

And there are a lot of schools that's.

That's kind of the setup.

Yeah.

Right.

The.

Our marketing firm that we do have a relationship with here in Little Rock, Vines and Brookshire, they're doing beyond the boost of fueling your marketing engine.

And then we also have chief Master Bass with his Gale Force club playbook at Worlds.

He separated the seminar into opening a club and running a club.

Here he's going to do a little bit of a condensed and speed run through both.

So it's going to be one seminar on opening and running a successful club kind of combined into one seminar just because again, time slot wise, availability throughout the day, and he felt he could, he could do that and still do an effective seminar.

And I love that.

I'll tell you people out there, you know, if you are thinking about martial arts as a career or just as a fun hobby, this idea of a club is Fantastic.

You know, I think jumping on that.

And so go to that seminar.

Learn from Chief Master Bass.

He's got such a great playbook on how to do that.

Definitely, you know, talk to your instructor and be like, hey, I might be interested in this.

Let.

Could I go to this seminar?

That would be awesome.

Yeah.

And I know some.

I know some attendees.

That was.

That was how they got into that.

They were interested in going and they spoke to their instructor.

I said, sure, go.

Right.

If nothing else, they come back, he's got great information that can help that particular licensee as well.

They can work together, collaborate, great things happen.

And then there we are.

We are looking at adding a couple other seminars.

So look for that information to be coming out soon.

A couple other playbook business seminars as well.

So we'll be adding those to the schedule.

So once again, we're going to have more seminars offered, and you're physically going to be able to attend.

But again, with our model, you should see them again at Spring Nationals and for Spring Nationals.

Exactly.

Yep.

Physical focus seminars, as usual.

We always have our incredible weapons training team.

I believe the weapons we're doing this time are single bon monkey, double bonbongi, double song jabong, and ji Pongi.

Right.

So Master Chief Master Kaminsky works with the team.

He kind of has a pattern of rotation of what seminar, which weapons we haven't done at the spring and fall Nationals.

We just kind of rotate those around, of course, worlds.

You know, you get the whole, you know, the.

The weapon bag of.

Of.

Of weapons to choose from at that point.

Chief Master Kaminsky, Senior Master Isaacs.

Yeah.

Oh, good.

Let me ask you a question real quick on the weapon side of things.

And I think we probably have some licensees, some high ranks thinking about this.

So back in the day, we had this idea that we had to certify in a weapon and then you could, you know, all this stuff.

As the organization has grown, there's just more people who know the stuff.

So you're able to teach your own people the material.

These seminars at world championships are mostly set up for knowing the weapon before you go correct.

It's.

It makes for a better seminar experience if you walk in there having a general knowledge of the form.

Right.

All the forms are out there online for you, for the students to go and study and review and all that kind of thing.

So our team really likes to focus in on the refinement and the details, not just from a performance standpoint, but also when you're, you know, because, you know, Those details, you should be able to be a better judge when you're judging these weapons as well.

Okay, so it would be, let's say I have a, you know, I have a student.

Let's use this as a real example.

I am not a pro at the, let's say the Sam Dan bong.

Not my weapon.

I'm teaching still a weapon I'm afraid of.

Yes, I learned it once and then midterm with it, messed it up and did not continue to make it a thing.

So if I have a student, one of my fourth degrees, that I'm like, hey, he's interested in doing it, maybe he and I get together, go through the videos, get a base knowledge of it so we're at least not completely clueless on it, and then he could go and be able to do a pretty decent job at the seminar.

Is that kind of what we're thinking as we move forward?

For me is like a high rank instructor getting my people, you know, a lot of our schools, we're not doing every weapon in the curriculum because there's just a thousand weapons.

So is that kind of if I wanted somebody to learn something new, kind of a good basis for learning it?

Or if somebody's listening and they're like, hey, I'm a third degree, I'd love to learn the long range.

We don't do long range that much at my school.

How, how should I do this?

Use the online curriculum, go that way, talk to their instructor, do a little beforehand work to then go and take the seminar.

Yeah, that's, that's kind of the best approach at this point.

Master Chief Master Kaminsky has been chewing on my ear for a few years and the rest of the team about, you know, maybe we host a protech camp, you know, where we, we do extended and introductions to the weapons.

If you don't know it and you are fresh, those, those, those kind of responses also come back on our surveys.

Some people like, hey, when can we do an all day seminar?

You know, from the, you know, all, you know, an all day on, on a particular weapon.

The moment I do that, then people are going to go, well, I couldn't attend the other three seminars that I wanted.

Right.

So that it's a, here's where I'm at.

Right.

I like this.

I mean, and they do offer, I think we can reach out to Chief Master Kaminsky and they'll come do a seminar in your region.

Absolutely.

One of those weapons as well.

So I just wanted to make sure, you know, I know there's People thinking like, hey, I want to learn a weapon.

It's not, you know, you're encouraged to know the weapon before you go.

So just giving some tips on how they can be ready for that, I think was kind of my question there.

So.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Use.

Use the resources that are available.

Have a.

Have a good general base knowledge of it, and then go in there and allow the team to really refine your skills.

Because we have the top, you know, instructors in all those weapons.

They're all world champions in their own right with that particular weapon at some point.

And that's.

That's really the way it should be.

Right.

So register for the weapon seminar on or before August 9th.

August 9th.

And then they.

They spend some time working on it and be ready for it.

Okay, perfect.

Yeah.

Come prepared, right?

I mean, I would.

I.

Regardless of what I. I mean, I'm gonna.

If I'm gonna go, you know, do a.

A business seminar of some kind, and it's by a particular presenter, I'm gonna go out and find out about that presenter, maybe read a book that they've done or something like that.

I mean, I don't want to go into that thing cold.

Right.

So same thought process there, Chief Master Kaminsky, Senior Master Isaacs doing their respective sparring and combat seminars.

Master Isaacs is called controlling the ring.

So winning strategy.

So it's controlling the ring strategy about positioning judges, where the judges stand, that kind of stuff.

Body angles, that kind of thing.

And then Master Kaminsky's.

His is combat iq.

So again, a strategy, timing and awareness type of ring strategy, type of a format, as opposed to just learning different strikes and things like that.

Let's you guys all know how to strike.

Let's work about.

Let's.

Let's talk about footwork and movement and ring strategy when you're in there fight, especially when you're going for those.

Those top ranks.

Yes, sir.

Master Kaminsky.

Master Krista Kaminsky.

You know, she's phenomenal with this.

You know what I missed because of my flight?

I'm excited that it's going to.

It's going to be there.

Again, whether it's balance, whether it's flexibility or mobility, this one's all about speed, agility, and explosiveness.

So, you know, again, another seminar that gets great reviews.

She gets a lot of great feedback, specifically about her.

About her seminars, and they're always greatly attended.

So you want to get in there for that.

Mentioned Chief Master Bass earlier.

From the business standpoint, what a lot of people don't realize he's an incredible technician.

He's a great fighter as well.

And so he's going to be leading the song on forms.

Good to great seminar.

He's got some philosophies on how to present yourself better, how fixing small things can impact bigger things in your form.

So he's going to be leading that form.

He's been a great addition to my instructional team from a, from a standpoint of teaching forms and things like that.

We, we taught together back at Camp Jongsu and he's just an incredible instructor.

Great, great way he analyzes and thinks about how to present your forms and present your forms.

So it's going to be, it's going to be great.

And I want to take that one just to have a new instructor.

I mean, because I've taken classes from most of the, you know, tournaments or the, the staff at headquarters, the things like, and I haven't ever had a class with him and I, man, that might be fun just to go and it's always great to learn from a new instructor.

Yeah, I mean at Camp Jones, it was the first time that him and I have taught together.

We've attended many things together.

You know, we're, we're similar in rank, all that kind of stuff.

So as far as timeline goes, so we've attended many things together.

But teaching with him for the first time at Kim Jong Su, it really was an eye opening for me.

I'm like, oh yeah.

This not only, I mean I've watched them perform, I've competed against them, but man, he really knows how to break things down, to explain things.

And the fact that him and I fed off each other real well and we're on the same page on pretty much everything, I feel very confident that everybody's gonna have a great experience with him and learn a lot.

Cool.

Excellent.

That's a good one.

Now we got two seminars, one brand new we're introducing for the first time and that is Senior Master Aaron Lee is going to be teaching kickboxing fundamentals, so combinations, practical application, that kind of stuff.

You're going to want to bring some, you're going to want to bring some, some boxing gloves, some mutai shin guards and, and be ready to, to hit some things, some partner drills, those type of things.

You know, you're not getting in there and mixing it up on a high impact level.

But he's going to be really be teaching you some, some fundamentals and some practical application.

You're striking and things like that.

So I follow Senior Master Lee on Instagram and you, you know, this guy knows his stuff.

I mean, yes, I watch him do his pad work all the time online.

And I'm like, yep, that's the guy to learn from if we're gonna have a seminar on kickboxing stuff.

You know, he was in Thailand not that long ago doing some training.

I'm like, yeah, so I saw that on the schedule and I was like, that's the man for the job.

When we were.

So you mentioned the Thailand thing.

So you mentioned he's a hate cheap master.

Is there any way I can get some.

I can get some palm trees brought in.

We're going to be doing some shit.

I'm just kidding.

He didn't ask her that question.

But, hey, there's going to be a new waiver signed.

Bringing in palm trees.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

So I'm excited for that.

You know, he's been assisting the last couple national events.

He assisted Chief Master Kaminsky with some combat.

He assisted Master Isaacs in the sparring seminar.

So this is going to be his first lead seminar at Fall Nationals.

I'm excited for him to have this opportunity, and I really encourage people to go and learn from.

He's a great instructor, great martial artist, and it's going to be a fun seminar.

Yeah, that looks great.

Really.

It's something kind of really new, you know, for.

For our training environment and whatnot.

And like I said, if you follow him on Instagram, you know, this is the guy to learn from.

It's going to be A good yes, 100%.

And another guy that we have always on the schedule in Pittsburgh for sure.

And he's always got something to jab you with, stun you with, whatever.

Of course, we got Grandmaster Caruso, he's doing his edged weapon defense seminar.

So you're going to want to bring some forearm guards.

Okay.

If you've ever taken an edged weapon seminar with Grandmaster Crusoe, you're going to want some forearm guards.

And a training knife would be great.

We'll have some there for you as well.

But a training knife, some forearm guards, going to be a grade seminar.

You know, Grandmaster Crusoe's always got a great new way to stun you, to inflict some damage to some limbs as well as, you know, he's all.

If you've taken an edge weapon seminar from him in the past, I'll guarantee you he's going to introduce some new drills and some new techniques.

He's always.

His creative mind is always going, coming up with new ways of teaching and doing these type of things.

So it's going to be a great seminar.

Yeah.

I'm sure someone out there listening is still feeling the obsessive opposite.

Oh, man, that thing is mean.

Well, you know, you're, you're well versed in all of the Grandmaster Crusoe attacks.

Yeah.

You know what, A lot of people, a lot of people have felt that stun.

Right.

And seminars he's called people up and demonstrated on, but at that point, he's perfected the move.

Right.

My, my job was to take all the non perfect strikes here while he's learning and perfecting it all.

Yeah.

Right.

So every once in a while when I, when I'm doing this move to.

Little Rock is because he had to get away.

To get away.

I'd walk in and you know those, those crash test dummy stickers, Like I'd be putting those on my head.

Yeah.

No, Grandma's Crusoe is great.

Yeah.

You cannot miss the great edge weapons from Grandmaster Crusoe.

I'm sure that will be highly attended.

Always, always.

Instructional focus seminars.

Senior Master Burn, Senior Master Ireland are going to be working on your legacy training specifically, you know, teaching life skills in song on Taekwondo.

So we've done, we've done a seminar in the past, the Legacy Pro curriculum, right.

Where we're teaching you the scripts that you can have.

We have that material online, but they're going to take it now.

That's kind of 101 of life skills in your class right now.

They're taking it and going, okay, now while you're teaching a form, while you're teaching a kick, a block, a strike, this is how you weave life skills into that part of your teaching to take you to the next level.

Right.

We, we always have to be improving and taking our instructional skills to the next level.

So being able to read the scripts is great.

We want all of our legacy members to be able to do that, to teach that lesson of life skills.

But now how do we weave that into.

While you're just teaching a front stance, a punch, a sparring drill, a board breaking drill, whatever.

Right?

So that's where we're taking the life skills training to the next level is in this particular seminar.

Cool.

That's.

I mean, and that just the, the power of teaching at that level for your school is huge.

I mean, it's just going to make such a big difference on the floor retention, you know, all those things.

So I highly, highly suggest those.

Yeah.

I mean, the value that it creates when you, when, when, when somebody walks into your school for the first time.

And they're hearing your instructors laying in, layering in life skills and everything that they do.

That's just that, that the value that's created in your program, it goes far beyond.

I mean, how many, how many parents walk in and say, I'm here to get my, my child signed up because I want them to be a great puncher and kicker.

Very seldom does it happen, right?

It's yeah, so.

And then we also have our ATA MAX team, Senior Master Turner, Senior Master Suozzi and his great Max team.

The competition judging seminar.

How to, what to look for, how to compare, how to judge both individual creative and extreme events, as well as the team Sync and Team Demo divisions,.

Which I missed that one at Worlds as well because of my flight and I was really looking forward to that one.

So I'm excited that this is repeating also.

Yeah, so they've done a variation of this in the past and it was very well received.

People were leaving that seminar.

Their comments were.

I just feel so much more confident.

I know what to look for.

I know how to kind of how to judge down the line.

This one I'm looking for first next.

Right.

And that kind of thing.

Now, since we're expanding and if people aren't aware of this yet, since we're expanding the team demo and team sync competitions out to the regional tournaments.

Right?

And if you want to know the list of those tournaments where we're offering those currently, you can find that, that whole list on our Facebook page.

I'll tell you the dates, locations, and what specifically, what specific events are being offered.

We're not offering all three and all regional events.

Some are doing demos and syncs, some are just syncs.

So we're expanding it out this year.

It's a larger expansion than it was last year.

Next year, hopefully it's expanded even further with that.

If you're interested in that.

There's a past episode.

We talked with Senior Master Turner about the age divisions, the, the breakups, how it is.

You're going to need a team id, all of that kind of stuff.

So make sure you go back.

It should.

I'm pretty sure there's a live version on Facebook, but you can always find it on the ATAs YouTube channel in the At Nation podcast section because we did do a live on that, I believe, with Senior Master Turner going through all of that.

So make sure.

I don't want you to show up to one of those events and be like, hey, we practice the team and we don't have a team, team ID or all the things that you need.

So go through, check that out.

Get training at your school for that Team Sync, Team Demo, those kind of things.

It's.

It's gonna be huge.

Yeah, it's, it's, it is fat.

We had the.

This was the first year all three of those divisions had 10 teams represented in the finals.

In years past, it was three here, four there, that kind of thing.

This year we had four rings for the TOC for all three of those divisions.

And like you mentioned, team IDs are required.

So if you're, if you're familiar with the, with the team sparring and team combat format, with the team IDs, it's the same thing.

We also, A lot of people don't realize this is.

You can wear team uniforms for SYNC and Demo as well.

So there's another opportunity to have a team uniform represented out there for your particular school as well.

For.

For at Nation out there.

I have just recently been talking to Senior Master Turner and my goal.

All right, At Nation, you gotta.

You gotta be on this for me so you.

We can get your support.

My goal is just like we do the live stream for the Songam cup at World Championships.

I want to do a live stream just like that for the Team Sync, Team Demo World Champions.

Let's go be amazing.

Absolutely, Absolutely.

We're working on that.

But we got to get you guys out there at A Nation.

Tell us you want it, click that subscribe button on YouTube and then we can get that done.

I think that's a phenomenal idea.

So those are kind of our, our more instructional, developmental, you know, type focused seminars.

And then we have two additional seminars.

This is more for the average member, the competitor outside of this, these types of training seminars.

So these are separate.

They have their own registrations that are separate from kind of the fall conference seminar series.

This is my.

Let's say I've got even a color belt, a younger black belt.

They're not on my instruction team.

They're not my.

They are coming to Nationals to compete, but they're like, oh, can I do something else?

And these are some of those events that would be perfect for those guys.

Absolutely, 100%.

And we've been doing these for.

At spring, Spring and Fall Nationals for years now.

So we have one as an ATA max.

At Spring Nationals, they did blades to the max.

So it was commas and swords.

This one is BO staff to the max.

So if you're a BO staff lover or you're interested in improving Your BO staff.

The BO Staff to the max is the seminar.

And we know you.

If you.

If you don't know this already, one of the top Bo staff competitors, world champions in there is Mr. Michael Raffle.

And he is on the staff to.

And ready to just take you guys to the next level with your BO staff.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

And those ceilings are plenty high in that convention center.

So we're just going to be.

People are going to be throwing those up and spinning like 30 times before they can catch that thing.

Yes, 100%.

And then coming back from Spring Nationals again, Chief Master, or excuse me, Grandmaster Ramundi.

Grandmaster Ramundi and Senior Master Pino are going to be doing the Clash of Blades.

That's the combat gumdo where the seminar includes your registration includes a foam sword.

So we do recommend you bring all of your gear.

We do recommend you bring some forearm guards.

Right.

I know WMA is just.

They're selling.

They're selling some new.

Some new forearm guards.

So.

Yes, so they do recommend that.

And it is, you know, that that seminar was the.

My thought process behind that seminar was kind of a couple reasons, but mainly it was because, you know, we on our gumdo program, our gumdo curriculum, it's really just kind of form focused training.

Right.

There are some drills and some activities in the Colorbelt curriculum, but we really wanted.

The staff really wanted to introduce more interactive drills in a safe way, which is why we're encouraging and including the foam sword.

So that when you go back to your school as a licensee like yourself, you can go, hey, this is another seminar I can offer.

So it's a, you know, you can revenue generator, but also for your students to be able to do more with that sword than just swinging it and cutting it in the air while learning a form.

Right.

We all, we all know how much people love to hit each other with a short foam stick.

It's twice as fun when you got one that's twice as long.

Yeah.

And you know, it's always nice sometimes doing the sparring kinds of things just gives you a little better appreciation for the practical application when you're doing the form.

When you're doing those kind of things, you're able to kind of see how this might fit together a little bit more.

And yeah, it's just fun to hit people 100%.

I agree.

So that is.

I mean, that's outside of.

Outside of, you know, Wednesday we kick off the day with.

With master's training.

Right.

So all of our Masters at Large Fall Nationals is The time where we come together, Grandmaster MK and the other senior instructors might be talking about kind of the new goal for the year and introduce some things, but we always just get together and just train hard for a couple hours.

And then Spring Nationals is the training where we as current masters can go in and train with a class of potential new masters coming in.

So that's kind of our reunion time.

Right.

We get in there and train with them and kind of lift them up and support them.

And then of course, the other master's training at World is strictly just for those inductees.

That's the culmination of all of their year long training.

They're still fasting that day, so they come off their fast.

That's a, that's kind of, that's their last bonding experience as classes to have there.

So that's, that's, that's the three main master trainings that we have throughout the year.

Yes, sir.

This is the, this is the one.

You know, like people haven't all gotten their invitations to do the master training yet or whatever.

This is, this is the, like, hey, there's no pressure on training for a new title or whatever right now.

This is kind of us getting together, doing our training, make sure we're improving ourselves, you know, taking action that way.

Fall, or excuse me, Spring comes and that's the like, okay, these guys are training.

We got to help these guys get to where they need to.

So this is a great one to sign up for.

If you are a master out there, you want to come in and join that fun.

So yes.

So you can find that RSVP online, get registered for that and we'll see you Wednesday for that as well.

I don't know if you mentioned what day we need to register by to get the discount.

Was that something you mentioned?

August.

August 9th.

August 9th is the day we want you to get Save the Money registered for.

I mean, I'm sure you guys will take the, the higher price, but it's just nice to have everybody get their stuff early.

Well, never refuse anybody paying a little bit more for their training than they had the opportunity to.

Yeah, but they get a discounted price.

Is the time to sign up for that.

So.

Okay.

Awesome.

Sir.

Looks like Fall Nationals is going to be another amazing event.

This is right now.

If we look at the schedule, the last scheduled one for Pittsburgh, I don't have any knowledge that anybody else doesn't have.

So that's Pittsburgh.

This might be it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I think.

I'd be happy to Keep going back there.

But right now, I looked at the thing.

I don't think there's any other.

Next time.

Correct.

Lewis is spring.

We're gonna have Dallas as spring nationals.

Fort Worth is spring, and then fall.

Is going to be St. Louis, and then 28 has, I believe, Fort Worth.

You're good.

Because I'm trying to look at it.

I think it's got Fort Worth or Dallas as spring, but where's.

There's nothing yet listed for fall Nationals in 28, I believe is what the.

The schedule says.

Which.

Yeah, I'm not sure what.

I'm not sure what airport code TBD is.

Yeah, yeah, that's.

I don't know.

I get lost in that one.

But, you know, shout out to headquarters, having dates and locations up to 28, you know, world's 28 is amazing.

I mean, usually, you know, we.

A year ago, it was like, okay, worlds is over.

Can you tell us the date for the next one?

I got it on my calendar for two years now.

It's amazing.

So you can even.

Classic.

Exactly.

I mean, amazing, Fantastic.

So, okay.

Hey, Chief.

Master Skiles, it's always a pleasure to have you on the show.

Thank you for all that you do.

And if people have questions, as always, headquarters is there to help you out.

Make sure you, you know, need any help with registering.

If you can't figure out, talk to your instructor first.

Always go to your instructor first.

They can usually answer the questions, but if not, you know, headquarters is there to help you out.

Thank you, sir.

When?

August 9th.

August 9th.

Thanks Ata Nation.

Thanks.

We'll see you in Pittsburgh, if not sooner.

Find out all the information.

If you need anything, trainingtonline.com shoot me an email myself.

The staff here, we'll be happy to help you out.

Look forward to seeing you.

Thanks, Eric.

It's always great to talk to you, Master Skyles.

And let me give you a little behind the scenes.

After we were done with the interview, I was asking him when he's up to try to test for ninth degree.

Because I was thinking it was pretty soon.

And he said, well, I thought it might be.

I don't.

Later that day, the same day we record the interview, he gets his letter inviting him to train to test a ninth degree.

And I'm not saying that it's because of the interview here on the AT Nation podcast, but I mean, it was the same day, same thing.

I Just saying, that's why you want to be a guest on the AT Nation podcast.

Who knows what good things could happen to you?

Now we have our athlete of the week this week, and this week it is a team.

I am so excited about this one really inspiring story.

You need to listen to these Athletes of the week and maybe talk to some friends, see if there might be a team ready to compete with these guys at maybe, maybe a great local tournament.

Let's get to it.

It's always great to talk to Chief Master Skiles.

And let me give you a little behind the scenes.

After we were done with the interview, I was asking him when he's up to try to test for ninth degree, because I was thinking it was pretty soon.

And he said, well, I thought it might be.

I don't.

Later that day, the same day we record the interview, he gets his letter inviting him to train to test a ninth degree.

And I'm not saying that it's because of the interview here on the Atnation podcast, but I mean, it was the same day, same thing.

I just saying that's why you want to be a guest on the AT Nation podcast.

Who knows what good things could happen to you.

Now we have our athlete of the week this week and this week it is a team.

I am so excited about this one really inspiring story.

You need to listen to these athletes of the week and maybe talk to some friends, see if there might be a team ready to compete with these guys at maybe, maybe a great local tournament.

Let's get to it.

It's always great to talk to Jupiter Master Skiles.

And let me give you a little behind the scenes.

After we were done with the interview, I was asking him when he's up to try to test for ninth degree, because I was thinking it was pretty soon.

And he said, well, I thought it might be.

I don't.

Later that day, the same day we record the interview, he gets his letter inviting him to train to test a ninth degree.

And I'm not saying that it's because of the interview here, the AT Nation podcast, but I mean, it was the same day, same thing.

I, I just saying that's why you want to be a guest on the AT Nation podcast.

Who knows what good things could happen to you.

Now we have our athlete of the week this week and this week it is a team.

I am so excited about this one really inspiring story.

You need to listen to these Athletes of the week and maybe talk to some friends, see if there might be a team ready to compete with These guys at maybe, maybe a great local tournament.

Let's get to it.

ATA Nation.

I am super excited.

This is a first ever.

The athlete of the week this week was not one athlete.

It wasn't two athletes.

It's a whole team of athletes.

We have Team Fearless with us.

This is the first for an athlete of the week.

So would you guys first start with some introductions?

I'll go first.

I am Jess Platter, 53, black belt here in Tucson, Arizona.

I am the director of the demo team.

So I'm the one that puts together practices and teaches the kids of choreography and with.

He is part of my team as well as a very awesome parent who is with me all the time doing his secretary job.

Make sure we stay focused and stay driven.

So go ahead, introduce yourself.

My name's Amaya Cook.

My name is, My name is Jackie Morales.

My name is Aaron Cruz.

And my name is Matthew Cruz.

Excellent.

And this isn't the whole team.

There's other team members, but it's, it's really hard to schedule an interview with like how many people are total on your team?

I believe we have somewhere around 15 active members currently.

Yeah, I, I don't think I could do a video interview with 15 people.

That would be very challenging.

So we, we're thrilled to have you guys could.

Let's go with Ms. Lathero.

Could you tell us a little bit about what this team is and then we'll get to kind of how you guys started.

Sure.

So this team is comprised of members all over Arizona.

So I'm down in Tucson and I make the drive with my team up to Tempe in Phoenix area to train with students coming from all over the greater area.

And basically what we're trying to do is show that no matter what your abilities are, no matter if you have limitations, whether you mental, physical, whatever it is, that we want to make it inclusive and that you get to shine doing what you love to do the most.

So we like to challenge each other, like to support each other and really just have fun and compete.

That's awesome.

Ms. Cruz, could you tell us just a little bit about maybe how this got started or how you guys got involved?

So we got involved because my older son is a special abilities competitor and we were able to, I guess many years ago there was a special abilities demo team in the early 90s and Chief Master Languor League was able to bring this back.

And we are the first demo team in the nation that is that special abilities demo team where our team is some of Our Special Abilities competitors here in Arizona and some of their typical counterparts.

That's great.

Yeah.

I remember back in the 90s, watching.

Back then, we had the World Demo Team.

It was kind of the thing they performed at World Championships, things like that.

And there was always part of that was the Special Abilities members of the World Demo Team, which was really cool.

So you guys are kind of reviving that idea.

And not only are you in like, ata, but in.

In Arizona, you.

The ATA has been able to be part of the Special Olympics.

Is that right, Ms. Lathero?

Yes, that's.

That is correct.

So basically, how has August in the beginning is.

My student, Mr. Morales, really wants to do combat and sparring at the Special Olympics level, but there was no Special Abilities teams for anything.

And we didn't even have Special Olympics in Arizona.

So it was actually at Camp Jiangsu.

Back at the very first year we had it.

I sat down with Chief Mastermind and she said, you know, I really need some help with this.

And I said, well, put me in, coach.

I'm ready to go.

Whatever you need, I got it.

And she's like, I want you to demo Team because I have a little bit of experience with creating a stream.

It's like, yes, ma', am.

I'll get it going.

And so we started the Demo Team and we worked really hard to create a team, make something out of basically nothing.

And from there we've been performing and we got Special Olympics started now, and we just been taking off, and we're really just welcoming to anybody who wants to come try it out.

Oh, that's so cool.

I mean, I was just talking to some athletes of the week that are coming up in a couple of weeks, and it's a.

It's a. I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but it's a set of sisters.

And I was telling them, hey, you know, some Team Sync, you can start doing this.

You know, there's this.

This idea of demo teams across the country is.

Is kind of new.

I mean, there's some old.

You know, we've been doing kind of demo teams with this competition, and it is a little new.

You guys are like really trailblazers.

Then have.

Have you guys.

Has Team Fearless competed?

Where have you competed?

Ms. Cruz, can you give us a little info on competitions?

So we did our one, like a demo competition type thing last year at Worlds just to kind of put our name out there and show everybody what was going on.

And then this year has been an exposition year, so we've done different events Here in Arizona, putting our name out there and things like that.

Yes.

Are you looking, Are you guys Miss Lathero, are you guys looking to inspire other teams around the country so you've got some more competition?

I mean, that's our goal.

I mean, we don't want to be the only team to show up and compete like we are ready to compete.

We would love to have demo teams first specialties around the nation to come out to Spring Nationals, Fall Nationals, especially here in Worlds, because that's our backyard.

But we want to compete.

We've been working really hard.

So if we have to show up and show out first, that's great.

But we're really hoping that it'll inspire other teams around the country and the world.

I know that in Chile they're trying to create a special abilities demo team, possibly.

So I've already heard going on.

So we're very excited.

Oh, then I mean, you get Team Fearless to all get over there to the Pan Am Championships to compete.

That's quite a challenge.

What about.

So you guys are doing as part of Special Olympics?

Has Special Olympics in the, in the past had anything like a demo team competition?

Not that I'm aware of.

I know that they have done, you know, they do forward breaking, they do forms, they have weapons, but they haven't done any contact yet.

So we're still trying to figure out about the contact aspect.

As far as I know, nothing for demo.

So it's also pretty new for these wall.

Well, it's always great to have, you know, ata people leading the way, you know, showing what's possible.

You know, we always say today not possible, tomorrow possible, which is amazing.

Any of our, our athletes or, you know, team members want to mention something that they really enjoy about being part of the demo team?

Making new friends.

Yes.

I love that.

I mean, that's what martial arts is all about, making new friends.

Mr. Cruz is like, nope, not me.

Hey, I get it, man.

Hey, that's just be like, I'm just here for the pretty face.

That's all.

I'm here.

I love it.

Good deal.

Hey, well, I need somebody and it can be a coach, it can be a parent, it can be an athlete.

What's it mean to you guys to have a team fearless out there going beyond the belt?

To me, it means watching my son achieve the most impossible dream he's had.

Seeing him out there overcoming a lot of fears.

Basically, yeah.

I Love that.

I mean and there are so many people out there who are, you know, they might be doing other events, all these kind of things and they're too afraid.

You know a typical person who is too afraid to go out and do a demo team thing and you guys are out there just like watch us, we're, we're ready, we're going, we're doing it.

That is so inspiring.

I really hope you know, the ATA nation sees you guys, sees what's able possible that go out and start more of these teams so you guys have people to compete against.

Show them how awesome you are and you guys can take the gold from them.

And then for me it's just inspiring.

The, this is kind of what he is about.

You know, we, we're not going to, you know, eternal Grandmaster, you know who started the, the special abilities in ata.

Everybody gets to compete, everybody gets to do the things, it doesn't matter.

And that is awesome.

So Team Fearless, congratulations on being the very first team that is the athlete of the week and probably the largest athlete of the week interview I have ever done.

Thank you sir.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

We appreciate it.

Well, congratulations and I look forward to seeing you guys at a team event soon competing.

I, you know, at Nation if you're out there, mention you know to people that you know that you want to see Team Sync and team demo live broadcast because I master, Senior Master Turner and I have been doing a little back and forth and just like the song I'm cup is live broadcast.

I think we should be able to watch you guys from Worlds or Nationals live online as well.

So you know, if you guys hint to people out there, maybe Senior Master Turner, I'll get our, our, our, our dream come true.

That'd be awesome.

That would be awesome, sir.

Awesome.

Well, thank you guys so much.

Thank you for inspiring at nation and being some awesome athletes.

Thank you sir.

Okay, so if you're inspired by that and you know a team that's going to want to work together to get special abilities team going, I heard from team Fearless that they're going to be competing at the kick you tournament down in Arizona with Senior master Sulzi.

So go.

They want competition.

They don't want to just go in there and be by themselves.

Might be the time for you guys to get your team going and compete down there and then they're looking to be at spring nationals as well for competition.

How inspiring.

How cool.

He nation is full of such amazing people.

I absolutely love it.

Thank you for being part of ATA Nation.

Make sure you get out there and and go beyond the belt this week.

ATA Nation podcast.

Be sure to subscribe and share with your ATA family.