When Your Sport Excludes Its Champions: A Candid Taekwondo Discussion

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Welcome back to the Warehouse 15 and after after
much consternation, delay andtime, we finally have our next
guest who couldn't figure outhow to work.

Speaker 4 (00:34):
The first Asian in the world that couldn't figure
out technology Unbelievable.
I think he's got a Commodore 64.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, he'll have aCommodore 64.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
We wanted to bring some diversity to the program,
so we have decided to include anAsian.
We're not sure what flavorAsian he is, but I think are you
Korean.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yes, sir, we all same same, same, same, Same same.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
That's pretty good sir.
We'll be doing Korean today.
I've been working on my nativelanguage.
But welcome to the Warehouse 15.
And as always, grandmaster,disaster here, and as we said
before, you have to raise yourright hand the right hand, the
other right hand, all right.
And you have to repeat thefollowing words I promise not to

(01:24):
get offended.
Right hand, all right.
And you have to repeat thefollowing words I promise not to
get offended, but if I amoffended I will.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Willing to accept the apology of sorry.
Not sorry, I will sue, allright stand in line stand in
line.
Hey, that's the way the worldis right.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
I understand there's a former olympic coach that
would love to do that too, butwe'll talk about him later.
How are you doing today, sir?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Hey doing great.
It's great to be here with youguys.
I felt a little bit, you know,underwhelmed with all you
Olympian medals.
Oh, nice, Nice.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
You know, I got a gold medalist, I got a silver
medalist.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
I got a bronze medalist.
Nice, I got the Canadian Coachof the Year and one of the
greatest coaches and mayor offreaking Westside USA.
I had to bring my belt.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
I like your belt.
How do I compete with?

Speaker 4 (02:15):
you guys, man, hey, pull out the swag chain.
Pull out the swag chain.
Oh happy I gave that away.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
I had to bring the belt, so now I feel a little bit
more comfortable with you guys.
Well, we're honored to have youon here.
That puts you one rung above TJon the list.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Cause the belt is gold.
So put that on your back andyour back screen.
For the next one.
I got it.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
We're going to have to put it up.
Well welcome.
I'll let a coach Moreno do thebona fides on you, mr Moreno
Coach.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
Coach Lee.
Everyone knows he's been a verysuccessful guy, but thank you
for coming on the podcast.
You're our second guest.
Obviously, we had Mr JohnWilson on last week and we
wanted to have you, so we'resuper to have you.
As you guys know, coach Lee isone of my best friends.
We've known each other for along time.
We've been through the good,the bad and the ugly and I give
him a lot of credit for myexpansion of peak performance.

(03:14):
He actually came up with theoriginal idea.
A lot of people don't know thatEvery time I talk in private,
bring a podcast.
I always give you a lot ofcredit.
So thanks for coming on.
Before we kind of pass around,we always do a quick little
shout out.
I got my shout out.
I got two shout outs, one justbecause I think it's a great
thing.
I want to shout out to AlexColbert in Michigan.
He's having a statechampionships today I'm sorry

(03:36):
Saturday and he's got 700 people.
This guy's been his father's agrandmaster, he's kind of grown
up in martial arts and man, he'sgot a 700 person event in
Michigan.
I saw shout out to Alex Gormerdoing big things and I told you
last time I missed I got my swagfrom.

(03:58):
Oh, can you see it From Top?

Speaker 3 (04:00):
TKD.
Oh nice.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
I got my Top TKD shoes.
What?

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Those look nice.
Those look nice.

Speaker 4 (04:07):
Look, I got two pairs , because I am a man that's
confident in myself.
I even got the bow.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
Oh nice.

Speaker 4 (04:17):
What do I got to do?

Speaker 1 (04:18):
to get a pair of Taekwondo shoes.
You told me you know a guy.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
Can I get a pair Top TKD?
Can I get a pair?
I wear Ta you Top TKD.
Hey, where's the?

Speaker 1 (04:25):
company.
Can I get a pair?
I would take one of those shoestoo.
Listen, listen, hey man.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
Top TKD representing.
They hooked me up, so thank youto you guys.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
I'm going to wear them Size 10 and a half 10 and a
half If they want them on thefoot gold medalist like 10 and a
half, Just saying.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Let me bring my belt back out now.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Those are almost as nice as my White Castle shoes
that Anthony Graff gave me.
So Anthony Graff gave me a nicepair of White Castle.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
No no Top.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
White Castle Top, tkd from California.
No, seriously, I bought someshoes.
I wanted to try them out and Ihad a little problem with my
sizing and they just hooked meup right away.
Thanks to you guys, I knowthey're growing their business,
so hopefully we can get you guyssome shoes as well.
Master Jennings, I will takecare of you.
Namaste, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
I wear check on those shoes, coach Lee.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
I don't got a shout out, but I'd like to welcome,
welcome, welcome, welcome.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Flow flow.
Try to get a welcome.
You cut me off my shout outWelcome to the podcast.
I'm super excited for you to behere.
You know, like he's got a coachI don't said his little piece
of it, but I know you've beenaround me since I can't even
remember when it always been aninfluential part of like keeping
me motivated and keeping me,you know, in the direction I
needed to go for the olympicgames and to qualify, and you
know they're with me.

(05:46):
So I always appreciate you.
You know that.
So I'm super excited to haveyou here so we could talk a
little bit.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
But why, why, why did he never help me?
What, what?
How can we help you two guyswho never helped me?
And then now I've been demotedlike he's the best friend?

Speaker 2 (05:59):
of you, sir what about me?
You're like, like I said, thegrandmaster of the masters.
So, you're like our mentor andsenior and role model.
We looked up to you.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
I had the good fortune to watch all of you
compete and do amazing thingsand just be so happy for your
continued success.
And Coach Moreno does alwaystalk about you and all the
things that you've done for himand with him and all the great
things that you guys continue todo, and so I think we're
fortunate.
One of the beauties of oursport that we've been given is

(06:33):
that we get to meet people thatare of like mind, like bodies,
and like to do things the sameway.
So people that come on thispodcast are people that have
done it the way we think itshould be done, and so I'm
really glad to have you.
I know there's a lot you wantto say, despite the birdcage hat
on on in honor of Gene Hackmanthat Mr Moreno is wearing.

Speaker 4 (07:00):
So may Gene Hackman oh, hey man, oh hey, oh hey.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
No, no, no, It's's not hating, I'm not judging, I'm
just saying a little bird cage.
But well, you know, if you getthat reference, you're, you're
old enough.
All right, let's get started.
What do we got today, gentlemen?

Speaker 4 (07:14):
no, I think we honestly, I think we're gonna
keep it a little bit open.
I mean, let's get, let's talk alittle bit about you first,
coach, and then, uh, actuallytoday I would like to talk about
the Grand Prix Challenge that'sgoing to be coming up in North
Carolina, just because it's alittle bit of a hot topic.
Actually, my phone has beenbuzzing all morning since I
posted something in a chat, sowe'll get to that.
But, coach, tell us what'sgoing on with you.
I know you have obviously a bigprogram going on in Minnesota.

(07:35):
You have athletes that youcoach both in Haiti and in
Gambia.
What are you guys doing?
What's good?

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Right now we're just preparing for Mexico.
Here in the beginning of Aprilwe have the Junior Pan Ams and
the U-22s, and also got a coupleof students going there just to
compete in the Open.
But after that, at the end ofApril, we'll just be going to
Ethiopia for the AfricanPresident's Cup.

(08:03):
Oh then, that's.
That's about it until the JuneGrand Prix Challenge.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
First time in Ethiopia.
What was that First time inEthiopia?
Yes, oh cool.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
Let me ask you something, coach Lee.
You've been to two OlympicGames.
Now you coach Haiti the firsttime and you coach Gambia, your
own personal athlete.
You coach your daughter at one,then you coached your personal
athlete from someone that youkind of brought in from.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
I just want everybody to know where Gambia is.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
I was like what the heck?

Speaker 3 (08:37):
Just so we can know where Gambia is situated.
It is between Senegal andGuinea.

Speaker 4 (08:44):
Thank you for the the geography lesson there.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
Yes, and that would be in west africa.
Some of my favorite food comesfrom west africa.
I have not been to gambia,though.
All right, I'll stop the share.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
I apologize, but they're going to ethiopia, not
gambia, anyway but uh how was,how was that experience for you?
They were two different.
You had a covid olympics andthen you had the Paris.
Olympics.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
I mean again, it's always an honor to be there.
It was an amazing experience,like always.
We always have a good time,because it helps when all my
friends are there.
You guys are there so to helpme, guide me, and if I need to
have any questions or help, youguys are always there for me.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
But just in case you didn't know where ethiopia was,
what the heck is going on.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
That's ethiopia, all right, I feel like I'm, I feel
like I'm in school now you gotta, we gotta teach, we gotta teach
too.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
I guess let's go, but uh again, it's uh.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
You guys have been there and you guys have uh led
the way and really helped guideme to reach that level.
But the experience is alwaysamazing.
I'm very grateful foreverything.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Nice nice.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
What do you think about right now?
With like Tickwanda in the PanAm region?
You went to US Open and CanadaWent to US.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
Open went to Canada.
Prior to that we went to.
We were in Serbia for trainingcamp to prepare for that.
But it's a tough thing I thinkfor us, I think we're
essentially a huge disadvantagefor the Pan Am regions because
of the size of it, how much wehave to travel, how far we have

(10:24):
to travel, the expense of it,and I mean I could be wrong, but
I think our numbers are,especially in Canada and the US,
have dropped dramaticallybecause of a lot of reasons, but
for the points and things likethat, it just doesn't help us
one bit when, again, we'vealways talked about it where the

(10:47):
Europeans got such a hugeadvantage over us.
And, yeah, I think it's aproblem that I think needs to be
fixed.

Speaker 4 (10:55):
What do you think?
Because it's interesting, thePatu has a lot of G1 tournaments
so we can get the points now,but because we're so big, we're
not getting the quality, likeyou saw, and I points now, but
because we're so big, we're notgetting the quality, like you
saw and I know you were going tospain for a camp doing a year
uh, serbia for camps.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
Like what did you see at those camps?
Uh, just the, the numbers Imean they have.
So if you guys are I'm sure youguys are seeing on social media
the camps that they're hostingare just massive because the
sport is growing so fast outthere and again, you know, in
our, in our region, southAmerica, they just we don't have
the funding as well to traveland do these things.
So I think it's just a hugeproblem in my opinion.

Speaker 4 (11:38):
Well, we have a business component to it too as
well, because, if you thinkabout it, most camps here,
generally speaking, are businessorientated and you don't have a
lot of funding, so you got topay for everything, whereas if
you go to Europe, you know theygive these stadiums and
locations where these people canjust a housing.
You know where people couldstay if they need to.
So you know the cost for aperson might be I'm just using a

(12:01):
number you know 500 bucks.
You to to to pay for the eventand stay and eat, versus us it's
, you know, 500 bucks to get ona plane, you know.
And then the entry fee andhotels and blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
I mean look at us, for for canada, just for we're
just under canada it cost mewhat?
800 bucks just to fly there,yeah, for a two, two and a half
hour flight.
I mean, in can't, in europe youcan, you can fly to another
country for 75 bucks, yeah, andthen I've done that.

(12:33):
You know travel hack all thetime you always compliment me on
that.
You know we'll fly to onecountry for dirt cheap and we'll
get another ticket there forand yeah.
So, yeah, I think it's.
It's a issue that needs to bediscussed and hopefully they can
come up with a better solution.

Speaker 4 (12:49):
But you know who knows in our sport so let's talk
about the uh um, let's talk alittle bit about the pen, uh,
the uh grand prix challenge.
You want to kind of explainthat a little bit tj yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
So, um, the challenges.
I mean, I know most of peopleare watching, though, but the
grand prix challenge started asa outside of 70 tournaments, so
you had to be 70 or higher toeven qualify for the competition
, which I thought was cool.
It kind of offered you that mixof like a young guy getting
into the grand prix system andsee what they can do.
I think it was more for, likethe, the bigger countries that
can produce more people thekorean country, china's all

(13:24):
those guys that can produceathletes a little bit faster
countries that can produce morepeople the Korean country, china
, there's all those guys thatcan produce athletes a little
bit faster than we can produceathletes.
But anyways, and now we have itcoming to North Carolina, here
in Charlotte, and it's beenchanged from outside of 70 to
open to everybody.
Basically, which, right there inthat beginning, I don't like,
because I mean, I don't like itsimply because then we fast
forward to them capping it at 50.
So we're going to cap thecompetition at 50 and then

(13:46):
they're going to allow four tofive, four or five max per
division, per person in eachdivision, and I'm not quite sure
what that means, but I'm surewe'll get into that a little bit
, but I was super excited aboutthis event.
I got my guys all around.
I'm like, yeah, I'm going toget my young guns in there,
they're going to get it shot.
Hopefully we get some bigmatches, some good exchanges.

(14:06):
Then the rest of the rules comeout, where it's capped at 50.
Now these countries are comingup with selection procedures and
how they're going to get in andwho they're going to send, and
all this stuff.
I think within that has becomea lot of flawed systems.
I guess, coach, you can start,can I?

Speaker 2 (14:20):
ask you a question.
Yes, sir, is it?
Can I ask you a question?
Yes, sir, so how are theydetermining, or how is it going
to be transparent on like, whoare the first 50 registered, or
how does that?

Speaker 1 (14:34):
So my issue is so my thing is I know WT said it to be
as first come, first serve, andI was talking a little bit
earlier like technically in mybrain.
I know it's not the rightanswer, probably not the right
answer because, who knows, butthen it would be a whole bunch
of other stuff, but then itshould be almost first come,
first serve every single place,because that's what it's
supposed to be.
And now each country has madetheir selections on how they're
going to put people into thisprocess of first come, first

(14:57):
serve.
And I don't know, I think it'sjust gotten super jumbled up.
But there is no way to know.
We just have to hope that youknow they got our email first or
they got the.
You know the email first andthey opened it first and they
accepted it first and all thatgood stuff.

Speaker 4 (15:09):
So who knows, you know I'm writing right now
because, uh, you know the thecoaching um chair for wt.
His name is uh coach robert.
He's from uh ireland, super,super nice guy, and he just got
some information for the wt andand what I'm writing right now,
imagine that USA, brazil, canada, mexico, serbia, turkey, spain,

(15:29):
france, egypt, they all applywith five.
So you're telling me, korea,iran, china, russia, uzbekistan,
ukraine, all those countriesare just going to be oh sorry,
you're too late.
First come, first serve basis.
That's where we're at like howdo we?

Speaker 1 (15:44):
know, I mean, I think differences you know, yeah, I
think it's the biggest part.
I forget who said, I think ummaster park said it actually,
like the whole, these are extra20 points out there, right, yeah
, like these are extra 20 points.
So I didn't, I wasn't evenlooking at it from that
standpoint for my guys.
I was looking at it from, likeyou know, getting to these big
events, you know, take a shot atit.
But for it to be an extra 20points, capping it at 50, it

(16:06):
being open invitation and firstcome, first serve, it just gets
a little strange, because nowthose points become important
for a lot of people, you know.
So it's going to be interesting, I guess yeah, it's going to be
.

Speaker 4 (16:16):
I listen, I think it's going to be controversial.
I, I listen, I don't think thewt, you know, kind of figured,
you know, thought about this,unfortunately.
But, um, this is a big problem.
If you're the host country,like the united states, are you
preparing for 50 people or 500people?
You know, I mean, it's it's abig problem.
And I don't think they saw this.
But when they said it's openbecause it's going to qualify

(16:36):
you for the next grand prix,that's where the problem was,
you know, or, or they shouldhave said it's open, it could
any ranking, but the country hasto pick two people.
You know what I'm saying?
Every country gets two, and ifevery country in the world sent
it, well, that's what you got.
Or if only 20 countries, it'scrazy.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, I think it's just that fact that it gets you
into the Grand Prix.
That's the thing Gets you intothe Grand Prix.
So who and what country andanywhere in the world does not
want to be there?
You know what I mean?
This is the first one of thesethings we've gotten over here in
this side of the world.
And who does not want to bethere?
Of course, yeah, as anyorganization, they want to send
a guy there, they want to sendtwo guys there, we want to send
four guys there, because theextra shot at those important
events for next year and like Idon't know, I think, like you

(17:20):
said, it got a little jumbled up, a little twisted up.

Speaker 4 (17:23):
Well, I mean it's funny because I had a meeting
with my Olympic contact inBrazil and I was explaining this
new two-year cycle.
I said you have to give us alittle bit of a break because
this is brand new.
I mean, we've had a couplecycles at four years, four years
, four years.
So we knew how to plan, we knewhow the points went down, but
now this uh with I'm justlooking makes one round, makes a

(17:47):
good point on this wt chat.
Um, now, with this two-yearcycle and this, you know,
qualifying and not qualified,and resetting of the points,
this is difficult.
This, this thing with only fivepeople just came out last week.
I'll give all the organizations, usa included, like a little
bit of a break, because nowpeople had to put criteria Like

(18:09):
what five are we going to choose?
And USA came up with our, youknow, a process.
We actually came up with a verydifferent process in Brazil,
but now everyone's, you know,maybe some countries they can do
whatever they want.
No, you, you, you.
But in most democraticcountries there has to be some
kind of criteria, some kind ofprotocol, and I think this is a

(18:32):
big problem.
It's a big unforeseen problemby us and it's the fault of the
WT and under the greatleadership of go ahead,
grandmaster, I have a lead foryou, Grandmaster.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
Don't tell me you've just started.
Don't tell me you're just outof you.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
Don't tell me you're just out of you.

Speaker 4 (18:48):
You go on man.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
Soon to be departed.
I hope the clown show hey whathappened to your shoulder.
My shoulder.
I was attacked by ninjas fromboth Kukiwon, usa and the
Kukiwan.
They sent out their best andbrightest and, luckily for me, I

(19:11):
actually still do realtaekwondo, so I didn't injure my
shoulder in the altercation.
I injured my shoulder fromclapping myself on the back for
hitting people and showing themwhat real taekwondo still look
like.
Um, so it's uh, it's time youknow, don't tell me.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Don't tell me, sir, you're still doing like one
steps you know, I don't, I'venever.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
I I learned one steps in three steps.
I don't do that.
I we were just talking about itbut I'm talking about.
I'm not talking about when youknow, taekwondo first came here
and it came from karate and theywere doing one step and three.

Speaker 4 (19:46):
Stop copying the show to come I'm talking about on
saturday, and we got some onesteps.

Speaker 3 (19:51):
Y'all need to slow your roll you better do that one
step where they do it in theclub to the music and they're
doing you know, I'm not going tomention the name.

Speaker 4 (20:04):
We have a really good friend that's supposedly a
hopkido master and he grabs me,like this, and then he says no,
no, not like this, like this youcan't grab me like that.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
You gotta grab me over here use your right arm on
your left arm.

Speaker 4 (20:17):
Yeah, not that way he's pretty badass when he gets
his.
You know his hand where heneeds it to be, but before that,
I don't.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
I don't want to out the Koreans, but let's be clear.
Taekwondo came from karate,Hapkido is akido just with an H,
and judo is judo just with a Y,so let's call them as we see
them and kumdo.
I have no idea what that is,but it sounds kind of.

Speaker 4 (20:41):
So basically, what you're saying is.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
I think we we're gonna have to get one of those
diamond books.
Then I'm gonna get one.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
Wear that with my belt the beauty of taekwondo is
that it was, it is, continues tobe, despite the olympic efforts
to make it something else.
It's still considered just tobe the most dynamic kicking
sport in the history of mankind.
All you have to do is go backand watch some tapes of people
actually doing it at a highlevel the greats of the world,
including some of the people onthis Zoom call.

(21:11):
So I will still wait for theday for it to circle back when
we're done with the footfall.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
I don't think you're coming back.

Speaker 4 (21:20):
No, I ain't coming back.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
I think it's circling a little bit.
I think it's moreling a littlebit.
I think it's more back, moreaction.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
The game's changed a little yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
I don't know what that was.
I think it's going back Alittle bit, even starting with
just the Koreans, all theirlower waist.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
I don't get that I thought you were Chinese.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
They told me you were Chinese.
I had no idea.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
I don't get that I thought you were Chinese.

Speaker 3 (21:46):
They told me you were Chinese Whoa, whoa, whoa.
I had no idea, First of all hesaid they're all the same same.

Speaker 1 (21:51):
At the beginning.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
Don't forget, he said they're all the same same, you
the same same too.
Let's be clear.

Speaker 3 (21:58):
Kim Chi came from China, china came from China.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
Just so you know, I'm telling you History.
Geography by Professor Perez.
Everything's from China.
First of all, I want to saythis is a very diverse group.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
It has some Chinese in me, though.
When I took my little DNA test,it was like 0.06%.
I'm Chinese too.

Speaker 4 (22:24):
When I was a little kid, my, uh, my.
They used to ask my brother ifI was adopted, because they
thought I was chinese, because Ialways have these like little
beady eyes, like okay, hey, no,is that why?

Speaker 2 (22:34):
that's why I'm on the show today.
I was like, hey, listen, no.
But anyways, going back to thestory, hey, tell me, tell me.

Speaker 4 (22:46):
People used to say that I was racist, that I didn't
like korean, that I didn't wantany koreans.
I'm like, my best friend isfreaking korean, look at this
guy the best korean accent I'veever heard.
Oh yeah, he's the best.

Speaker 2 (22:56):
Oh yes, oh boy, oh boy, hold on is kimchi, chinese,
with Hold on a second.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
It's a traditional fermented dish and it's a staple
in Korean cuisine not Chineseor Japanese and it's recognized
as an intangible culturalheritage.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
Oh, professor, jerez is wrong.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
So Korean cuisine, kimchi.
But let's be clear, the Chinesehave a version and the chinese
have a version and the japanesehave a version, so you know.
But this is uh.
Oh, this is from the koreanwebsite.
Oh, I see, that's why it saysthat.
All right, I got it.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
I stand correct since we're on the subject of kimchi,
korean language yeah, I thinkuh coach jennings, they were for
something on uh mr lew Lewis'swebsite about the official
language.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
Were they totally off topic, or was I lost there a
little bit?

Speaker 1 (23:52):
No, they were all up.
You gotta look at who postedwhat?

Speaker 3 (23:56):
What's the official language?
What are we talking about?

Speaker 1 (23:58):
They said that Spanish wasn't good enough.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
So they made English I'm just kidding, but English
the official language for WT,which to me made total sense
because they're just trying tostandardize it for everyone.
Yeah, and the people that arecommenting were I think they
were, they were, but, like again, you got to look at who was.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah, you got to look at who was posting and who was
saying what.
Like they were like far off inthe left field somewhere they're
.
They're playing a whole nothergame they were talking about.
You know, taekwondo started inKorea.
How funny is that?
That it's, and it's like whatare you talking about?
Like we're using.
Korean language inside ofDojang.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah, it was.
One guy took a test in koreanand he was like the authority on
you know korean language in 12states or something, I don't
know.
But like it was, it was it kindof got way off topic, though,
but then one one, I think oneperson, said it should be the
official language should bechinese.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
Oh yeah, I'm not sure .
I'm not sure is yeah, it wasthe um.
What was what count?
Is that the hall of fame, checkwindow hall of fame, or
something like that, mr Robbins?

Speaker 3 (25:07):
It was the one fat dong.
That was the guy that made thatcomment and he wanted it to be
official.

Speaker 4 (25:14):
It was Mr Robbins, Mr Gerald Robbins.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
He said it should be Chinese.
He was saying that Chinese isthe most spoken in the world I
don't think he really meant it.
I think it should be Esperanto.
Esperanto, let's go with thefuture.
That's funny.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
And then he questioned my upbringing and my
tact on how to deliverinformation.
So that was interesting.
It's just goofy.
It was like we were talking onelanguage and they were talking
one language.
We were talking Taekwondo andthey were talking something else
.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
It was crazy.

Speaker 4 (25:44):
Good stuff.
What do you think about the?
Have you have you seen?
Uh, you probably have seen it,I don't know if you've seen it.
Have you made that charactertalk about it or not?
Talk about it?
Uh, coach lee, but the the listfor the?
Uh, the grand prix from theunited states whenever, whenever
that gets.
Uh, yeah, I saw some of it.
I saw some of it.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
You kind of feel bad for some of the athletes because
of the again for the proceduresthat they had to come up with.
And yeah, I mean it puts Ithink it puts them in a tough
spot and unfortunately some ofthe top athletes can't compete
there, which a few, a few, a fewyeah, not me, not too many, but
still you still have some ofyour top players that can't go

(26:26):
and compete.
That's, that's kind of a shameand yeah, I don't I'm just
looking at who does it exclude.
Who does it?
That's Sophia O'Gara.
Yeah, she's awesome.

Speaker 4 (26:39):
What they did, they had a criteria for like national
team I don't remember anational team and then above and
below, and then we're Olympicranking and then USA ranking and
it looks like they only pickedfour.
So I'm reading you know, is itfour or five?
So if there's five, why didthey pick five?
49?
I think there's.
I think it's going to be end upgetting four.
So one girl, for example, inthe United States she's, she's

(27:00):
actually a talented athlete andshe lost at team trials this
year, but she had went to adivision because the USA Tech
went over and was looking attheir Olympic weight categories
which is not a bad idea, insteadof her fighting her natural
weight, her abandoned weight,and so anyway, long story short,
she kind of got excluded fromthis list.

(27:20):
Are we talking about 67?
No, I'm talking about 49.
Sophia.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
Sophia, yeah, 67 too.
Maybe she didn't apply, but I'msurprised when I see Chloe Chua
on there in 62 or 67.

Speaker 4 (27:36):
That is weird, her brother is.
I didn't see Montana either,montana Miller, that's true too
Like.
I said I don't see Montanaeither, Montana Miller.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
That's true too.
I didn't see her.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
So, like I said, I don't know if they applied or
not, but it's kind of, you know,it's sad that these guys who
are committed been around.
They're great athletes and theyjust can't be there.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
And I didn't see it the first time too, but someone
told me on the selectionsomewhere they set it to all
points collected through March10th, right, so it allows the
Dutch Open points to go intothat selection process.
My question is how many otherAmericans were at the Dutch Open
other than like the academyathletes?
Did we have a big showing there?

Speaker 2 (28:15):
I think Donica was there.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
Donica, yeah, yeah, okay there, um, but my point is
we set it to that date.
Why?
Because they were going to thedutch open and they wanted the
points included in the selectionfor them well, good point.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
I'm just asking, that's just.
What do you think I mean?
What do you think I mean?

Speaker 1 (28:31):
I mean why I think, and again, don't again I'm gonna
double check, but I'm prettysure it's in march 10th and it's
just like again why we'remaking rules and selection
procedures and doing things thatbenefit them, like I'm not.
I'm gonna say not that manyother us athletes went to the
dutch open, no, I'm gonna saythat I didn't look at the
overall, but I'm gonna say Ithink there's like why you know

(28:52):
the reason why.
I mean of course, the reasonwhy, but that just doesn't make
it right.
Like why, like, why that date,why that day, you gotta, you
gotta do better than that, whyhalfway through a month, you
know what I mean?
I mean like it's all for that'san issue, but anyway, sorry,
but yeah, I did see the listthere's a lot of issues yeah,
there's a few people missing onthe list.
That's unfortunate, but butthere's also a few people on the

(29:12):
list.

Speaker 4 (29:13):
That that like really surprised me.
Like there was a, a gentlemanthat, um, actually he's from
northern california, he's a goodlittle fighter, but well, he's
a good fighter but he fought 58at the team trials.
He lost his first match and nowhe's into the 68.
I know he normally weighs the63 kilos but like you, but you
fought 58 and you didn't make it.
And now they you're up in the68, like I.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
I don't know where his points were.
That's a good question.
I think it's 63, though healways fights 63, so I know I
know that's kind of like a thing.
Yeah, that's a possibility too.
I think so, but like.

Speaker 4 (29:45):
I don't like the chance.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah, I like him, I like him a lot, but um, I I
wouldn't say like even going offthe ranking right now didn't
make much sense.
You know what I mean.
I'm gonna say, if we were evergonna use our internal ranking
system, maybe that would havebeen more important than this
other thing.
When you just include the USOpen and the US Open and the
team trials or the nationals orfigure something out, I don't

(30:07):
know.
But as far as using a ranking,I'm going to say it didn't make
much sense.

Speaker 4 (30:12):
I'm not going to divulge our system, but we
didn't.
We, we used the Olympic ranking, but it was.
It was further down.
It was further down, and evenour national team was further
down, because, I mean, it sohappens, our national team is
what we wanted to be this time.
But again we have some peoplethat you know because they've

(30:35):
been fighting already, opens andstuff like that.
All of a sudden they're rankedpretty high.
I mean, they're ranked 10 inthe world.
They're really not number 10 inthe world, they're just 10 in
the world, because people arejust starting.
You know, so, Just so we canmake it clear no.

Speaker 3 (30:52):
Based on the kicking motions and incorporating
elements of Akito.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
Just keep it in real life.
Can you play the pronunciationfor me, sir Can?

Speaker 2 (31:00):
I hear the pronunciation.
Can we get a picture of StevenSeagal Akito Akito pronunciation
from you, sir.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
Can I hear?

Speaker 4 (31:08):
the pronunciation can we get?

Speaker 3 (31:10):
a picture of uh steven seagal that's very, uh
very anglicized gentle

Speaker 2 (31:17):
gentle, hey one thing to say, but from from the last
episode, you, you guys.
That was great with Mr Lewis.
I don't know who cut him off,but someone asked the questions
because you got to bring himback on.

Speaker 3 (31:29):
You got to bring him back on, because I want to hear
about the three gold mines.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
He's like someone said, hey, tell us about the
three gold mines.
I was like I don't know whostopped it.
I was like, dang, I want toforget this karate stuff.

Speaker 4 (31:46):
Let's talk about gold mines here, man yeah, because I
asked him, because I want toknow, I mean, I know, I want to
know, but I want to know likewas it like millions of dollars
or was it because homeboysitting around?

Speaker 2 (31:59):
and up in the mouth.
Now retire, I'm sure you didokay and that's what I want to
learn Like.
Okay, next time we all go toColorado, we'll meet up, we'll
get our bucket, we'll go to theriver Grandma's friends You're
going to be.
We'll put the rocks in thebucket, you go, carry it up to

(32:24):
the I don't know that little.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
And we can take the money that we make and we can
fund the team.

Speaker 3 (32:29):
Here he is Fund a team.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
See, that's what I like about you.
You still think about theathletes.
We go get all these gold rocksand we go fund a team right
afterwards.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
Hey, I'm down, that's living right.
What else are you going to do?
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Have fun, exactly have fun.
Travel, be with your boys, winsome medals.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
I win some medals, win a lot of medals.

Speaker 4 (32:49):
You guys are fake man .
You know it.
We already talked about this.
You know what you're going todo if you got a billion dollars.
You know what you're going todo.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
I'm building a tech window compound.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
I'd make a podcast studio for you guys.

Speaker 4 (33:07):
We could just build a little fortress Airplane Get
off, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
Other airplane Okay.
I would buy all of his ticketsso we could be on that plane,
okay.

Speaker 4 (33:25):
There we go.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
I don't know if Grandmaster Perez knows what
you're talking about.

Speaker 4 (33:29):
He knows He'd get on a plane too.
Slap a few people.

Speaker 3 (33:32):
You had all the money in the world.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
You wouldn't get on a plane and just slap a few
people.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
I am on a slap fester .
I'm sorry, but before we go anyfurther on that, I want to
replay a great fight.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
Is that that?

Speaker 3 (33:45):
pro TKD.
This is the pro TKD.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
Coach Lee fought in there.
This is who it is, you shouldhave watched that match today.

Speaker 3 (33:52):
Oh yeah, you should have watched it.
Is that Michael Tang?
Are you fighting Michael Tang?

Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, that I am, that I am.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
Gosh Good times.
And this Good times, this wasin later years, much later.
I had no idea.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Oh, mike, did you see that you did a kickboxing match
too?
Right, I did some.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
MMA and I did some jiu-jitsu tournaments and
actually I did an MMA match withCoach Marino.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (34:22):
In Iowa Not against me, but we were on the same time
.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
That's cool.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
But didn't you?

Speaker 2 (34:29):
hurt yourself.
I tore my ACL.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
I thought you did yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
Yeah, I remember that .
Yeah, where was it?
Small town Iowa?
Yeah man, it was awesome, itwas cool, but how old were you?
Was that 37?

Speaker 1 (34:47):
Yeah, so if I'm going to do it, I got to do it right
now.
Huh Damn.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
You're thinking about going MMA or boxing.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
I like boxing, though , I really do.
I like boxing.
You're too slow, you're tooslow, crazy.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
How about that cuban guy rebellious?
Don't even, don't even, don'teven who?

Speaker 1 (35:12):
oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah dude he's had what?

Speaker 2 (35:14):
four matches total and nobody 20 seconds.
Yeah, he's a big boy, thoughwhat do you think?
But four, what is it?
Four matches total under 20seconds.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
I'm going to say any of those guys had a chance to
stand up and deal with his sizeand his strength, or had some
real background to them, or isit just you know?

Speaker 4 (35:34):
building them.
But the problem is you can'ttake them to the ground.
You get like a couple secondson the ground.
You got to stand up, so he'salways going to be back in it.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
Right, always going to be back in it, but the power
he must have.
Pretty crazy.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
It's fun to watch.
Well, I'm looking at yourrecord in the MMA and you won
Nate Kleinsfeld.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
That was the second one.
That was my second one.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
That was a good one.
That was a spin hook kick intothe punch right.
Yeah, how come I?

Speaker 4 (36:06):
I tell people all the time he comes out he does a
spin, hook kick and hits the guyin the top of the head.
The guy falls over there and heruns four steps One, two, three
and the guy's like, and he goes.
It looked like a missilerunning here and he just punched
and the guy was out.
Spin, hook, kick, right done.
I'm like damn.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
That was good.
I'm waiting for you.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
Coach Kenning.

Speaker 4 (36:30):
I got to find a fight .

Speaker 1 (36:31):
Somebody find me a fight, I'll fight somebody.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
I wish I could find some of Grandmaster Perez's.
Not like sport fighting, butsome of the fights he had in the
streets they were.
I got one in my brain I'msurprised.
I'm surprised you're out.
That's all I'm going to say.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
All I'm going to say is the good news is my record in
non arenas is better than myrecord in arenas, so I I can
suffice it to say that most ofmy unfortunate encounters
resulted in my right hand umleaving somebody unconscious and
and kicking too thunder andlightning.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
I don't know I, I like I liked using taekwondo man
.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
I use like back hook kicks and axe kicks and I was
ridiculous at that I and I um, Idon't, I don't condone violence
, but I understand it and CoachMoreno and I have been in.
We've been in our share offracases in various countries
and, unfortunately, because theywould look at guys like us and

(37:40):
underestimate the capacity fordisaster, um damage, and so we
would have to help themunderstand through um visual
learning and tactile interplaywith the mistakes of their ways,
including um one unfortunate umincident in korea, where we we

(38:03):
spent some time in the Huskow.

Speaker 4 (38:08):
I got a little funny moment of that one.
I'm not going to talk about thedetails because I don't think
we should.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
I don't mind talking about it.

Speaker 4 (38:16):
No, no, no.
But there's a funny part rightIn the middle of this fracas,
there's hundreds of people,Everyone says thousands, but
when you got a hundred peoplearoundacas, there's I mean,
hundreds of people.
Like everyone says thousands,but when you got a hundred
people around you, it's crazy.
So anyway, after all this stuffbreaks down.
These guys are grabbing him andwe're trying to pull people
away and he yells to me what,what?

(38:36):
My pants, my shorts, my shorts?
And I'm like, if you know,Master Perez, he doesn't wear
underwear, and they were pullinghim.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
So his pants were coming down Free Willie.

Speaker 3 (38:48):
I remember that in.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
China.
We were in China together.
I remember that.

Speaker 4 (38:52):
He's like I'm underneath all these people
trying to hold up his pants, sohis Willie don't come out.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
I don't know if I'd want to share that story.

Speaker 4 (39:02):
Oh no, it's funny.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
It was funny everyone , I don't know I don't know if
I'd want to share that story itwas it had denigrated into the
individual involved in thefracas.

Speaker 3 (39:11):
Who started the whole thing was a uh, college student
who didn't like the fact thatwe were downtown and they were.
We were told not to go downtown.
We went downtown anyway, and sothis guy came across and
started a thing, and then he,unfortunately, was on the worst
end of it.
We gave him an opportunity notto participate, but he chose the

(39:32):
latter and ended up on thefloor, at which point, when it
turned into a mass melee inMyeongdong and everybody in the
world, they decided it would betime to disrobe me.
So they took off my shirt andit was summer, and that left
only my shorts, of which we hadvery colorful shorts that we had
got sponsored by Puma of allplaces, and I was like boys.

(39:56):
If they pull off my shirts, itwill not be a pretty thing.
It will not be.
Anyway, I digress, but anyway wesurvived, but uh, anyway we
survived, we had um, we survived, we uh, we got out alive and uh
although there were many thattried for us not to survive that
, but um, we, uh.

(40:16):
We learned a lot about culturalexchange on that day, for lack
of a better word, but um, thatwas not going to put another map
up.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
Are you ever?
I, I think, uh, I should Ishould.
Yeah, you know, you know he'slooking, don't give me any ideas
, these are the shorts I had on.

Speaker 3 (40:40):
Well, they were nice.
I should find a picture theywere.
They were quite, they werequite colorful, but uh, I will.
Uh, all I can say is it was we.
Uh, we have had many.
We had had many good intermoments as team members, team
bonding experiences, and thatwas one.
And for those of you that maynot know what willie is, here he

(41:02):
is, oh, oh.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
God, that was a great movie.

Speaker 3 (41:06):
That is an old picture of Coach Moreno.
Come on, Coach Jennings TJ,Come on.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
Coach Jennings.

Speaker 3 (41:12):
What.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
I do.

Speaker 4 (41:14):
That's a great movie.
Hey, that was a great movie.
Y'all hate.
No free Willie.
There's no way.
Y'all hate no free Willie Total.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
Change of subject Free Willie Total changes.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
It just came up to me .
For whatever reason I saw,coach Cheney, y'all are haters,
hey, so going back to I thinkyou guys talked about this a
couple of shows ago aboutgetting singled out for being
friends with certain peoples andcertain groups, correct?
Yes, did this not happen to youjust recently at the U S open

(41:45):
as a coach?

Speaker 1 (41:50):
When?
Um, we'll be talking about some.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
I believe a parent was.
You're supposed to coach anathlete.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
Oh yeah, I had a parent and I don't, I mean I'm
not going to go into these.
I had a parent that was, youknow, reached out to me, not a
parent.
One of my friend's parentsreached out to me and asked me
to do them a favor and coachthem at this event.
And I was like, okay, cool, noproblems, no worries.
And you know, I kind of made it.
I talked to my guys, made sureit wasn't interfering with my
personal athletes, all good, Iget there.

(42:17):
And the parent my friendreached out to me and told me
his parent wanted to talk to me.
And they came to me and wespoke and it was basically like
um, you know, sir, I just I feelreally, you know, not good
about having this conversation.
I just, you know, but I have totell you like I just don't feel
, um, I'm worried that if youcoach my daughter, that it's not
going to be good.
Like she just made the nationalteam and I didn't know all this

(42:38):
stuff that was, you know, goingon between usat and you and all
this stuff.
So I said let me stop you.
And I asked, I was like, soyou're, you're worried at june?
We're talking about a junior,by the way, we're not talking
about senior, not someone like,we're talking about a junior,
you're.
I was like, so you're worriedabout if I coach your daughter,
you know something bad willhappen from usat.
She's like, yes, I just don'twant her, you know.
All this stuff, blah, blah,blah.

(42:58):
And it was just very, it was alittle disheartening and very
unfortunate for me because,simple matter of fact, you take,
I did it as a favor and and nowthese kids they're worried
about at the junior level, thatlike, if you associate with me
or if I'm in your chair with you, that they're going to do
something or feel some type ofway for you or not give you some
further opportunity, that iscrazy talk and it's crazy at its

(43:20):
best.
And I'm not even talking aboutmy personal guys and I know, you
know, it's just such a.
We can complain about at thehighest levels, on top of the
national team and the GrandPrixs and all this stuff that
everyone deems to be the onlyimportant stuff going on.
But at the junior level, peoplefear and feel that if I'm
involved or they're around me,that something.

(43:41):
Hey, there we go, they'rearound me.
Or they're around me, that'ssomething.
Hey, there we go.
They're around me.
They're around me that the USATis going to do something to
affect them, to stop them or notlike them, or whatever the case
may be, that's unfortunate, butgo ahead.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
Sorry, no, that's.
I think I mean a couple ofcoaches talked about it too,
where I don't know if it wasjust me, but seeing other
coaches having usat staff coachbecause they think they're gonna
benefit.
You saw some, saw some like wehad.
Uh, some coaches here have someof the staff members coach

(44:21):
their people or their, theirkids, and thinking I don't know,
in my opinion, what's thepurpose of that, thinking
they're going to get benefitsfrom it and they're going to
help first of all.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
First of all, we got our national team members being
coached by coaches from othercountries, where our national
coaches are there like so, sothere's no room, like there's
can't be any rules to this shitno more.
Like there has the rules havebeen out the window.
We don't have no respect fornobody.
Like we had our national,freshly new national team
members being coached by otherpeople from other countries and
and the head coaches are there.
Like I don't understand that.
Like I know I know we talkedabout it, but like take

(44:53):
advantage of having yournational team there.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
You didn't even take advantage of having the
experience of having one of yourguys there I like I agree and
think about just in california,how many great coaches they
could pick right To help them ifthey needed to help.
I mean, so you got Velas, yougot sleeves, you got the Smith
brothers, but to pick in, in myopinion, an incompetent coach

(45:17):
because you're on a staff, thatto me, that to me is comical a
little bit.

Speaker 4 (45:23):
Well, I mean, listen, I listen, I'm gonna jump in.
You know, first and foremost, Ithink, um, like what you said,
you know, tj about, they'rethinking about that on the
junior level and and and they're, they're already concerned.
You know that if you'reassociated with some people,
you're gonna you're to have theopportunities.
That in itself is real.
Even if it's not real, that'swhat this mom or dad felt like

(45:53):
they had to say to you.
So that's real.
Somebody else could be like no,well, that's not really the
case.
That's what they feel, andthat's not the first person or
first group to feel that way orsay that.
So it's amazing.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
That's all because of my post on Facebook where I
literally just said yeah, I said.
I said this is what happened tome, this is what happened to me,
this is what was said to me.
This is how I feel.
This is it.
I don't think I said anythingrude, disrespectful.
I just I just called the truth.
I called the truth about, about, uh, what's it?
A Sherman yelling at parents inthe stands and telling them to
sit down?
Instead of reprimanding thecoach as cursing at a kid, I

(46:22):
told him what was said to me bythe ceo.
That's all.
I wrote so because I saidsomething that happened to me
personally.
I didn't say, I didn't even goas far as say they're terrible
people or they don't deservetheir jobs or fire them right
away.
I didn't say any of that.
I just said what happened to meand that made them
uncomfortable.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
I think that usat is going to do something against
them at the junior level well, Ithink didn't usat post
something about that too, like,uh, I forgot what the words do.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
Let's let's, let's, log off and do our fighting, uh,
where it counts in the ringlike that in the ring like no,
no, I don't know who wrote that.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
I think they posted something like if you are a
detriment to the team which isvery vague.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
Oh, that whole coaching selection stuff.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
Oh yeah, we talked about that, that coaching
selection stuff.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
Yeah, it's talked about that.
That coaching selection stuff.
Yeah, it's like where they'rebasically, like you know the
they were trying to single out.
Uh, I'm gonna be honest withyou, like tops coaches and
people that worked with a you atone point, that's somehow a
detriment to the program andlike what bothers me about that.
I've been able to coach andinteract with athletes that are
currently on a national teamthrough the tops program.
So if I'm I'm a detriment, Idon't know who's a benefit.

(47:25):
I've been helping the kids at adifferent level and now they're
on your national team.
I coached some of them at theteam trials and now they're your
national team members.
So all these little littlespikes in words are crazy.
A detriment.

Speaker 4 (47:38):
I got a quick little nugget for you.
So if you think about thisGrand Prix challenge from the
United States, you have MichaelRodriguez in 68, michael
Rodriguez in 80, naomi in heavy,female heavy.
Adriana Akubik in 67,.

(47:59):
You have Maya Mata, you haveIsaiah Youngata.
You have Isaiah Young, you haveNoah Sheinfeld, caitlin Cox am
I missing any more?
You're talking from the topstuff.
Former Topps alums are in theGrand Prix Challenge.
How is that a detriment?

(48:20):
They're good enough to move upthat ladder and get there, and
they weren't funding them andthey weren't funding them and
they weren't funding them.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
Aau was funding them.
Top program was funding them togo get Olympic ranking points
and experience to be on yournational team.

Speaker 4 (48:32):
Where's that?
That's a you know talk.
I mean, I'm going to get backto what you're saying, coach Lee
, but you know even the Topsprogram, listen, it was.
It only was developed, it onlywas born out of trying to give
people some resources.
That's it.
It wasn't to make a team, itwasn't to you know put, coach.
It was for these athletes to goget olympic points.

(48:52):
And look what these kids did.
They climbed the ladder.
Some of them are still there,some have moved on to the
academy.
Some of them made the nationalteam.
That's what it was for.
How is that a detriment?
How how is that au organization, whoa?
Is that olympus?

Speaker 3 (49:08):
yes, sir, yes sir 20 bucks on ebay baby 20 bucks yeah
, that blocks a little bad.

Speaker 4 (49:14):
You got my black ball test, um, but no, I just, you
know, being serious, you know,just it's, it's funny, the
detriment.
We're kind of going all aroundwith this.
But, you know, getting back toeven the tournament, just
thinking that these poor kids orthese poor parents or these
coaches, and like you said,coach, you got some coach.
Poor coach says you know what,if I let coach x sit in my kid's

(49:35):
chair, it's gonna make they'regonna be in good favor of me.
They're, they're not gonna do abetter job than you.
You train them every single day.
It's an important tournamentand if you wanted to give them
the national team experience,like we said last time, coach
Jennings, bring the cadet team,bring the junior team, bring the
senior team and say we aregoing to coach you, we are going
to give you this experience sothat you can be better.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
I know this scenario here.

Speaker 3 (50:04):
One second.
We need an educational momentbecause we've been referring to
it.
Oh, man.
You better quit, let's hold on.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
Exquisite online dating in the USA.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
So going back to that .
So this is the scenario.
Check this out.
So say I bring my studentsthere, it is, I coach my own, I
coach my students, hack isallowed, I coach.
What's that?
What are you doing?

Speaker 3 (50:35):
one step sparring man .

Speaker 1 (50:36):
That was one step sparring counterattack, but only
one counterattack is allowedlook, one, only one, the next
time you see what we deal with.
This is every week.
I watch it, but I watch it.

Speaker 4 (50:48):
This is our ADD guy.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
You got to stay focused.
He's your test man.
He's got to keep flowing.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
So, shane, I bring my guys there, I coach my guys,
but for my kids I have one ofthose USACT staff members coach.
I mean, that's the type ofstuff that's happening, right
yeah, which is kind of crazy,because you're thinking I would
have that guy coach all myathletes, correct?

Speaker 4 (51:18):
Yeah, it's just weird man.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
All this stuff is just crazy from day one.

Speaker 3 (51:22):
So fear of exposure to and I'm not talking about the
kind of exposure you'rethinking about, tj Fear of
exposure to others is a lack ofself-confidence.
So when you doubt yourself andyou doubt your programs, you're
unwilling to bring in peoplethat may be able to help your
program.
So you have to, and I used torun into this, this.

(51:46):
So over the years I had tothink about it a little bit.
I would go around the countryand I would do seminars after
the olympics.
And you know who I did seminarsfor?
Mostly karate schools, mostlykarate schools.
And the reason was becauseevery taekwondo instructor in
the country, um, was afraid tobring anyone else and it, every
taekwondo instructor in thecountry, was afraid to bring
anyone else that did taekwondobecause it undermines them, they

(52:08):
thought.
Then, when I started doingtaekwondo seminars and camps
with Coach Moreno and others,then we opened that door and
even then I can count the numberof people that brought me in
that were taekwondo people.
And the ethnicity as ethnicityquestion, which was fascinating
to me and um, however, when yougo to korea, the premier jujitsu

(52:35):
teacher is white.
They don't fear knowledge, they.
They their best, some of theirbest jujitsu people, the guy who
brought jujitsu to Korea was aJewish guy from Boston, along
with Steve Kaepner, right?
So you got to think about thatfor a minute.
In the States, here in thisorganization that we call USA

(52:59):
Taekwondo, they can't put a manon the Olympic podium.
They are afraid of the bestcoaches in the country.
What does that tell you?
What does it tell you that when, behind closed doors, it's been
said to me don't associate withthis person.
I can't tell you why, but theylack, and if you knew why, you'd
know why we've excluded them.

(53:19):
This is the kind of whispercampaign that goes on by the
clown show from great britain,and the guy I was looking up,
the middle finger guy, can'tremember his name, I think it
gareth brown or something andthis is what happens, right?

Speaker 1 (53:35):
so when you fear your own bona fides or your success
matrix, that's when you excludewe just pretend like that didn't
happen, like that man didn'tjust stick his middle finger up
and put it on social media Ijust looked up there the leader
of our athletes and he'ssupposed to be the guy that's.
You know, like, how do weexclude it?

Speaker 3 (53:51):
pretend like that was a joke I looked, I looked up
there, I looked up their socialmedia post and there's their
thing and it says there's socialsocial media, whatever, uh
protocol, and it's like oh, ifyou say something not nice,
we'll take it down.
So what happened to garethbrown?
I called jay warwick on thisand I called mcnally and I'm

(54:13):
like so let me get this right.
Your national team coach canput up his middle finger in an
international event and put iton facebook, and you guys do
nothing I think they might havereposted it, they might put it
on their and you guys do nothing.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
I think they might have reposted it.

Speaker 4 (54:25):
They might have put it on their own personal page,
who knows?
But you know what?
Again, listen, we know there'sa double standard because, again
, god forbid, you did it, coachJennings, god forbid you did it,
coach Lee, god forbid I did it.
I mean, it would be we'd begone, we'd be gone, but certain
other people can do it.
And let's give it a benefit ofthe doubt.
We talked a couple episodes agoabout a situation at nationals

(54:46):
that that happened like norepercussions.
Matter of fact, that sameperson is traveling with the
national team on invite did, mydid all the athletes on the
national team get invites to goalong or be a part.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
Do you do?
Do you know that?
Did they get invited to go todutch open and belgium open?

Speaker 4 (55:02):
oh, I highly doubt it sure not, I'm sure not so going
on again.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
I mean it makes no sense.
So everyone's not.
How are we getting personaladvice to someone, to a kid,
that's not even on the usnational team?
He's not even on the nationalteam, so so how do we get these
invites?
Let me know, how does this work?
How do you get the?
How do you get to go and trainthere and be a part and show up
and do whatever?
Just write it down somewhere,so everybody knows that's what I
want.
I don't care what you want todo?
Just write it down and show thepeople how it works.

Speaker 4 (55:29):
I mean, we listen, we know they select people that
they think have potential andthen those people get
preferential.
I'm just saying those peopleget preferential treatment over
national team members.
The national team member atleast, for better or worse,
whatever you think about them,they proved it on the day and

(55:50):
won the team trials.
They're the team member.
But yet these other people,just because they've, I'm going
to say, drank the damn Kool-Aidand said I'll go out there, and
now, now they get, they gettravel, they get coaching, they
get whatever it is, they get, Idon't.
I don't really know, but toyour point, tj, why not these
other people?
That should be first in line,that should be first and
foremost.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
Well, I think that's part of the problem here.
Right, but going on a doublestandard, I want to ask a
grandmaster Perez, because,again, if we, if any of us,
would have done some of thisstuff, we would be crucified, is
it?
This is kind of back in the day, I believe I coach marino
talked about this or told meabout this, when a board member,
I believe a board membercontacted coach marino yeah, to

(56:37):
not associate with me, right, Idon't know, I don't know.
Is that, is that?
I mean, what is that?
A board member?

Speaker 3 (56:45):
yeah, the board members should be censured,
right like, but the problem isthat they don't.
You know, the organization as awhole has become um, I don't
even want to use skittish.
It's become insular,exclusionary and protective of
its uh perceived importance andas such, it feels that it can,

(57:15):
at its own distraction,discretion, exclude people or
inherently exclude people orhave people.
We had a coach that wascoaching when I was on the board
.
He was coaching other athletesfrom other countries.
While he was coaching ourathletes, I didn't call anybody

(57:37):
and say anything.
I filed a complaint against him.
I filed a complaint and had himremoved.
So we was.
We had a hearing, he wasremoved.
I did the right channels If youfeel somebody's doing something
wrong as an organization.

Speaker 4 (57:52):
Okay, I got some.
That's the way you do it.
We lost you.
That's funny.
Okay, fun Can.
I hear you, we can hear you,You're good.
So actually it's funny.
I didn't realize that.
So again, national team coachgetting paid, getting paid
coaching other athletes to makeit to the Olympic Games of

(58:15):
people in our own division.
How is that okay?

Speaker 3 (58:18):
And again, it's not okay.
But, somebody's got to in thesituation that we had.
I filed a complaint against thecoach, had the coach removed
and suspended, and that's theproper way to do it.
But, more importantly, thequestion becomes at that point I
believe the CEO was Parthenswhy didn't Parthens handle it?

(58:41):
Why did he make me handle it?
He should have handled it.
He's an employee of theorganization.
Employees have rules and theyalso have rights.
They have prescriptions, andone of them is when you're
coaching the national team,that's your job, that's what you
do and you don't do otherthings.
What I've seen on the websitenow, which I found even more

(59:01):
fascinating, is are theseseminars that are being coached
by athletes?
An athlete who did seminarswhen I was on the U S team.
I never had anything.
They didn't put mine up there.
There's a reason you don't putmine up there If I'm not
participating in the profit,meaning the organization.

Speaker 1 (59:19):
Well, they're doing it together.

Speaker 3 (59:21):
So if they're doing it together, that's unfortunate
as well, because you'reexcluding other athletes from
money and you're promotingcertain athletes over others or
certain coaches over others.
Now you run a national coachingprogram, which we did, and we
made a ton of organizationalmoney.
We made a ridiculous amount ofmoney for the organization and

(59:42):
we made money for us, the peoplethat built the program.
But we didn't exclude peoplefrom teaching in it.
One of my instructors wasSherman Sherman Spinks or
Sherman Nelson or whatever hecalls himself these days.
We offered it to anyone thatwanted to be involved in the
program, and Coach Moreno wasinvolved in it, jimmy Kim was
involved in it.

(01:00:02):
Anybody that wanted to teachcould teach.
They had to get, they had tolearn the method, they had to do
.
We didn't exclude people and infact we opened our arms to
everyone.
You want to be part of the USAcoaching program?
You want to be part of the CIDP, the AIDP and the referee
program Big, and we had LeonPreston, we on Preston.

(01:00:25):
We had Holloway, we had CoachMoreno, we had Lopez, we had the
Poos, we had Nelson, we hadJimmy Kim.
We had guys, by the way, whoyou don't even know.
Uh, hold on a second, my phonekeeps hijacking me.
Who's the korean kid out of?
Uh, the middle?
What's up more?

(01:00:45):
What's up more.
We had people you never heardof that we taught to run the
program.
We that.
We said come, we will help you,we will educate you, we will
help you.
We didn't exclude people.
We had the best and thebrightest, but we had those that
wanted to be the best and thebrightest.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
But didn't they like going back?
Just so I'm not mucking in thewater here, didn't they?
Did you say?

Speaker 3 (01:01:05):
not a mucky in the water.

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
No, mucking, mucking, mucking.
I was like that's some sort ofracial slur.
I don't even know what thatwould mean.
Anyways, like what I was aboutto say.
So you got at one point evendidn't they go to the coach Lee,
didn't they go to the extremeof when you set and help other
countries, wasn't that a thing?
Oh well, he coached for thiscountry and it was at some

(01:01:29):
random tournament at Open, whereyou were doing someone a favor.
You know, you set for someonein one match or something.
It was a bad thing.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
Now you found.
They called me a trainer Let meget that straight.
Yes, there we go they called mea trainer.
It was you bring.
I mean, it was Adams.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:45):
Jesus.
So I wasn't part of the staffand Adams' train is actually.
You know, we kind of adoptedhim.
He's like one of our studentshere Needed a coach and went out
to the Korea WorldChampionships and his first
match was against USA.
Then Adams beats him Great kid,by the way, From the US.

(01:02:09):
Adams beats him Now, it's justan uproar Meanwhile.

Speaker 4 (01:02:14):
They do that all the time, all the time.
It's my double standard.
I'm going to go back to thecoaching thing because, again,
if you're getting paid to dosomething, like you know, for a
national team and you're goingto love this one, herb, because
it was Mr Warwick you know therewas a situation where two
American athletes were going tofight and TJ was coaching both

(01:02:38):
of them and he had to make adecision and so Paige McPherson
was the one he wasn't going tocoach.
So go ask the national teamcoach and he's like if I can't
coach her the whole time, I'mnot coaching her at all.
I'm like number one, you getpaid to do this, nobody else
getting paid.
You're getting paid and this isyour number one ranked athlete
in the country.
Like you can't.

(01:02:59):
And it wasn't like she wasfighting somebody else and you
were.
It was American against America, like you couldn't sit in there
.
And when I told him, mr Work, Iwas like I think that's wrong.
He's like I don't see that way.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
One and I'm like what do you see it as?
What do you see it as?

Speaker 4 (01:03:17):
I mean, what do?
What do you see it as?
You're literally turning yourback on an American athlete.
You're getting paid for it,you're best American athlete at
the moment and you're justsaying, no, I won't do it.
I just understand the rationale.

Speaker 1 (01:03:30):
Let's not pretend that.
For reverse, they're coachingagainst Paige at US Opens with
Cheyenne.
They were pushing Cheyenne totake the spot within the US.
She's the one she's gettingfunny and going places as well
to take the spot.
And that's just what was goingon.
If you guys don't believe me,tell me I'm wrong.
Someone tell me I'm wrong.
Anyone write on this post andtell me that I'm wrong.

(01:03:50):
That was going on with our owncountry.
They were sitting therecoaching that girl against Paige
, page against page, in our atour own us open.
And then it's oh well, theydon't want to train with us,
cool, but you're doing the exactthing.
You couldn't even sit in theirchair for one match my question
a double standard.

Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
If, if any of us, if I would have reached out to
anyone to the board this or that, I would have been, they did,
they were to your to your, your,your post, you know, a couple
weeks ago.

Speaker 4 (01:04:20):
I know we're building , but it's the same thing.
They didn't want you to be in atraining because you know me
and I might tell somebody elsewho happens to be my like.
Connect the dots like we're.
Meanwhile, hundreds of teamstraining the same facility at
once, but they're're excludingyou.

Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
To my boss though.
Like think about that to myboss.
So I'm getting this from abovetelling my boss.
That's the reason why becauseI'm going to go back and report
to you Like, are you guys stupid?
Like that is the dumbest thingI've ever heard in my entire
life, and I was just, and I wasjust.
They just pretended like thatwas normal.
They pretended like that wassome normal thing, and that's
what they're afraid of.
Either I'm the nastiest coach inthe world and I can just look
at someone and be like, hey,coach, this is the answer.

(01:05:01):
Or they are just, or I just.

Speaker 4 (01:05:03):
I know you said it last time but how stupid and how
petty I just did again.
Double standards all the wayaround.
And, coach Lee, I'm going tobring you up Cause I'm not.
All I'm going to say is, forexample, whatever they think,
whatever they like or don't like, your daughter fights for
another country.
You coached for that othercountry and at every turn they

(01:05:24):
try to get you disqualified.
You have a passport, you havecitizenship, you have a gaul,
you have all the things that theWT requires, and you got their
legal staff showing up to theOlympic qualifier to mess with
your daughter's brain, to try toget Spending all money,
spending USA team members money.
For no particular reason.

(01:05:44):
Meanwhile, it happens allacross the world.
You got Russians fightingdifferent places, you got
Iranians fighting differentplaces.
You got a great Britain peoplefighting for Moldova.
I mean, it's listen, whetheryou think it's, it's an all
sports.
You, you did things by the book.
You have a passport, you have acitizenship.
That country gave it to you.
This country allows dualcitizenship.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

(01:06:05):
You're there, but they activelygo out to hurt someone like you
, not because of you, butbecause of what you got on your
damn chest right there, becausewho you associate with and who
you associate with, it's theyjust.
It's the double standard.

Speaker 3 (01:06:19):
Meanwhile, a form, I got that one too this is what a
chest protector should look like.
That's what that's what?

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
how do you charge that up?
Where's the core?
Where's the core?
But the like.
I said all the things that thedouble standard is just.
It's just crazy and from theget go we knew we had to stop.

Speaker 1 (01:06:47):
It has.
But, then, but then otherathletes come back to the.
Us and leave.
I know, but they do it whenthey, they do it when it
benefits them.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
Sure, so this check, so this is another thing against
us.
So this is another thingagainst us.
So even a staff member I don'tknow if you guys remember this
posted something about.
Didn't say my name, butbasically it was me threatening
them At an AAU, threatening themand this and that Posted it.

(01:07:13):
Yeah, posted it and shout outto Doug Baker who was there and
called that person out for again.
They're just trying to.

Speaker 4 (01:07:24):
It's just always something like slander this, but
again, it was a, it was aconversation it was, we were
joking around.
Wait, wait, let me let me sayit's a conversation, let's say
let's say it got heated, let'ssay it got debatable.
That's all it was.
There was nothing more, nothingless.
But yet they can go on socialmedia and it's a big deal, and
now you're supposed to be introuble Again.
We got a guy doing this.
We got a guy doing this guydoing this, no problem.

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
God forbid you have a conversation.
If Doug Baker wasn't there,it'd still be on there the next
day.
Deleted Delete.
But that's the stuff that'sgoing on.
I mean, the problem is, we allknow it's just been going on too
long Too long.
We have so many great coaches,we got so many great athletes
and the numbers are dwindlingbecause of this and it's crazy.

(01:08:10):
Where you should be, I look atjust like running a business.
You should appreciate peoplelike us, who are brain, who are
still passionate, who love whatwe're doing.
We're bringing.
We have athletes, we'rebringing them, we're making you
money.
But to try to push this awaymakes me no, makes no sense to
me.

Speaker 4 (01:08:30):
That's like, even though, even though we're not,
we're not welcome, let's behonest, they're not.
When I say welcome, they can'tstop because you can get a
membership.
But we're not not welcome,they're not happy to see us, and
yet we still do.
Why?
Because we love Taekwondo.
Why Because we want to give ourkids an opportunity.
So, despite all this crazinessthat we've talked about over the
last three or four podcasts.
We're still here, we're stillgiving, we're still providing,

(01:08:54):
we're still mentoring.
I mean, if we truly just wecould just pack our bag up and
that's it, we quit.
But we don't.
Despite all this resistance,we're still there.
That's what I'm most proud of.
I've always said and I think,grandma's president, I told you,
we talked about this a longtime ago People are going to
come and go and I know peopleare going to come and go, and
the specific people that arerunning this organization,

(01:09:16):
they're not going to be hereforever.
I will.
I'm from this country.
I've been in this organizationsince the early 80s, the early
80s.
I'm not going nowhere.
This is what I do.
This is what's in my blood.
This is what I do.
I do take one note.

Speaker 2 (01:09:32):
Hey, grandmaster Perez, the US 18 Nationals are
in Cali, you going?

Speaker 4 (01:09:37):
Nope.

Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
I will buy your spectator ticket.

Speaker 3 (01:09:44):
Where are they?

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
I think they will take them out.

Speaker 3 (01:09:46):
Where are they?

Speaker 4 (01:09:48):
I think they're in Fremont, California.

Speaker 3 (01:09:51):
Nobody goes to Fremont.

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
I think you should go to Fremont.
I think you should go, let's go.

Speaker 2 (01:09:58):
I'll go with you.
I'll buy you dinner.
Let's go.
I'll go with you, I'll buy youdinner?

Speaker 3 (01:10:02):
I'll buy you dinner, as long as we can get some
Chinese kimchi.

Speaker 4 (01:10:09):
Coach, you're going to go.
You're going to go.
Yeah, I'm going to go watch.
Okay, I'm going to watch,you're going to watch.
Let's go in some kind of ninjaguard and just sit there like
this.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
Please don't do that.

Speaker 3 (01:10:23):
I don't have to pay for admission because I have a
lifetime membership, apparently.

Speaker 4 (01:10:30):
There you go.
You got to pay.

Speaker 3 (01:10:32):
You got to pay.

Speaker 1 (01:10:35):
Is that lifetime membership supposed to include
spectator fees for stuff?

Speaker 3 (01:10:39):
Did I miss that line?
I'm about to ask for a refund.

Speaker 1 (01:10:42):
Lifetime mission I got a lifetime membership.
I'm going to send you guys.
Y'all are getting a refundrequest from me.

Speaker 3 (01:10:51):
I think they may have rescinded it, but I don't know.
I got to tell you.

Speaker 2 (01:10:56):
Let's do a show in California then.

Speaker 4 (01:11:00):
I will gladly do a show in California then I will
gladly do a show in CaliforniaTJ, you can do it just with
earphones on, you can have yourcamera and you can be talking.
I can't imagine.

Speaker 1 (01:11:09):
Don't really kick me out, TJ card.

Speaker 4 (01:11:11):
that, there you go.

Speaker 3 (01:11:16):
This is Moreno Perez and the Dream Team.
This is back in the day.
I don't know who this guy is,but this is moreno and perez,
and you still have that jacket,sir.

Speaker 1 (01:11:27):
You still have your jacket I have all those jackets.

Speaker 3 (01:11:30):
I keep those jackets.
They're, they're really good sowhy?

Speaker 2 (01:11:33):
why you gotta bring that up?
Because I just kind of I alwaysjust gotta go back here, just
in case.

Speaker 3 (01:11:40):
Just in case, this is a lifetime.
This is an actual depiction ofme when I was are you sitting on
a toilet paper?
What is that sitting now, thatis in my, that is my shaving
cream and that is tape.
Why?

Speaker 2 (01:11:52):
you got a blue belt, yeah why, you got a purple belt.

Speaker 3 (01:11:55):
I I actually complained about that.
I was like, why do I have apurple belt?

Speaker 1 (01:11:58):
but what are those shoes?
What are you wearing?
Combat boots, Dude.

Speaker 3 (01:12:04):
I was no, no, no, no.
Go back.
Don't be jelly now.
Don't be jelly.

Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
And then here's some beautiful saffron rice from my
cookbook.
Which I sent only to my friends.

Speaker 3 (01:12:15):
And then this is TJ lounging in his spa somewhere.
Relax, dang, dang, you're theone that said it.
I didn't say it.
I don't judge who said it.

Speaker 2 (01:12:26):
Come on, coach Jennings, come on Fire back,
fire back.

Speaker 1 (01:12:31):
It's the Puerto Rican in him.
I'll just stay back and justmind my business.
You're Puerto Rican.

Speaker 2 (01:12:35):
You didn't know I was Puerto Rican.
I, you're Puerto Rican.
I thought you were Mexican.
Oh, he's not worthy of that.
I know he's from New York.
Man, everyone, puerto Rican orDominican, there, right.

Speaker 3 (01:12:45):
Well, it used to be.
Now I think it's changed again.
But I've got to, now thatyou've said that I've got to
figure out what the differenceis between Puerto Ricans and
Mexicans.

Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
You're all Mexicans, oh, oh, hold on, just like we
all Chinese.
We're all.

Speaker 3 (01:13:07):
Mexicans, oh my God.

Speaker 2 (01:13:09):
I don't know.
I told you I had 206% Chinese.
You might get a call from that.

Speaker 3 (01:13:13):
What is the difference between?
Who knows?
Can Puerto Ricans and Mexicansunderstand each other?
That's the first thing thatcomes up.
That's it.
Are Puerto Ricans darker thanMexicans?
Hold on, what are you lookingat?
I'm just looking at.
Are you Hispanic?
If you're from Puerto Rico?

(01:13:34):
Yeah, google, of course DrGoogle knows everything it says
here.
Oh, that's funny.
Yeah, no, yeah, google, ofcourse Google knows everything.

Speaker 4 (01:13:38):
Do you remember Puerto Rico it?

Speaker 3 (01:13:40):
says here oh, that's funny hey, google don't know.
Coach Lee Puerto Ricans andMexicans.

Speaker 1 (01:13:46):
Puerto Ricans are smarter, do you?

Speaker 2 (01:13:49):
remember when Puerto Rico could fight our Nationals.
That's what you gotta do do youremember?

Speaker 1 (01:13:53):
when Puerto Rico could fight the team trials and
Nationals.
Here they can't anymore.
I don't know.
I was about to ask you.
They did.
It used to listen.
Christian Melendez used toalways come over and fight 54-58
.

Speaker 2 (01:14:02):
They always could, I think.

Speaker 3 (01:14:04):
They can still fight in the US system.
Yeah, oh, you can.

Speaker 1 (01:14:08):
Yeah, apparently I'm going to find out.
I'm going to start sending myguys to both.

Speaker 4 (01:14:14):
Why not Shoot?

Speaker 1 (01:14:14):
I don't know no, you can't.

Speaker 4 (01:14:16):
No, not both, you can't go there.

Speaker 1 (01:14:17):
I'm saying like no, no, no, I know which is kind of,
but but back then you didn'thave gals, though there was no
like gal thing.
You think that matters now?

Speaker 4 (01:14:26):
that's a good question, good question hey you
could have both.

Speaker 2 (01:14:30):
Mr don lewis will find out real quick because
they're both.

Speaker 4 (01:14:34):
Yeah, because you're a citizen, we did not use you
did not use mr lewis's fullestcapacities?
He's really uh I had a couplerequests.
You were trying to requestpeople.
That was people asked me.
They're like a couple.
People said, yeah, you got tohave him back.

Speaker 3 (01:14:48):
I said we're gonna have him as a reoccurring guest.

Speaker 4 (01:14:51):
He was great and he's obviously full of information.
I like what tj said.
Maybe we get a subject and hejust literally can break it down
and we can ask some questions,because I know we're all around
and we're pretty free flowing.

Speaker 2 (01:15:03):
Quit talking about karate.
I said talk about the gold,that's it.
I don't even care about theother stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:15:11):
And then he was dealing with Nico's dad, cutting
him off every two seconds withpictures and different things
distracting him.

Speaker 4 (01:15:17):
He didn't know what to do with you he was all in his
way and stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:15:21):
He was trying to spit knowledge and stuff.
You know what I mean.
I think it would be interestingto listen to him.

Speaker 3 (01:15:32):
I think his dissection of the financial
state of USAT and why it came tobe and what the numbers mean.
But I think his numbers, whichI'm surprised USAT is afraid of,
they really do have to do aforensic on the numbers of
what's going on in the sport Ina country with 330 million
people.
When you have diminishingnumbers in membership, it's

(01:16:01):
demonstrative either ofexclusionary policies or of a
downgrading of the opportunitiesbeing met.
So starbucks opens the storenationwide, worldwide.
One a day, minimum, one a day.
There's a new starbuckssomewhere.
Can you say the same withtaekwondo?
No, you can't right.
So I mean there's somethinggoing on here, um, that can't be
explained by wooden swords,that I'm a black belt within and
or or miami hats, or you knowmy opinion doesn't matter.

(01:16:23):
So you know we've got to.
We've got to get to the bottomof it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:28):
Oh no this is what we got to do.
You gotta, you gotta, get mrdon lewis.
He's got to be the new doge.
Oh, oh, shoot, we call itdouble D oh my gosh he could be
the new Elon oh my.
I'm trying to be polite, coachJenny's getting all mad at me

(01:16:53):
like, hey, settle down man.
Hey, I like your shirt.
Tj yeah, let me see it.
Just defended him.

Speaker 1 (01:16:59):
Hey, I like your shirt TJ my opinion offended.

Speaker 2 (01:17:00):
Yeah, let me see it, my opinion just offended him.

Speaker 4 (01:17:04):
Did you hear what I keep doing?
Self-defense.

Speaker 1 (01:17:08):
That's good One of my clients had this shirt, I had
to go get one.
I'm like that just fits thetopic.

Speaker 3 (01:17:13):
Yeah, we got it.
Well, I think we've takenenough of people's time today,
but we'll have you back on,despite what Moreno says about
you.
And then am I seeing, are you aseventh on?
Is that what I'm seeing backthere?

Speaker 2 (01:17:24):
Come on, I got an eighth on from Grandma Speck.

Speaker 3 (01:17:29):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (01:17:30):
And then what I can't be like you going to Korea
trying to get wearing that shinygarb.

Speaker 3 (01:17:35):
Dude, I don't know how they figure.
I don't know how they.
You know, we have a good friendof ours who took the test.
I don't want to mention hisname until it's official because
I don't want anybody tointerfere with the results.
But we will soon have anotherninth Don, a good friend of ours
, and we'll celebrate it onceit's done.
But you never know themechanics and the wheels that
pull those wheels.
I don't want to yes, sir.
I was pretty quiet about my testtill it was done and then, when

(01:17:59):
they put my results out, Iactually took a picture of it.
I want to make sure theycouldn't change it.
Like I'm reading the email,it's like, oh, you know, we test
a lot of people and we did avery thorough review and I'm
waiting to see.
Oh, I failed, I failed.
And they're likecongratulations.
I'm like what?
So I was like like, click, letme take a picture of it.

(01:18:19):
But, um, I'm honored to uh havebeen able to do that journey
and I worked on my to the nthdegree to make sure it was
correct.
And now, uh, the finger goeshere now, when it used to go
here like, oh boy here we go.

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
I can tell you where the finger definitely put it on
the screen.

Speaker 4 (01:18:41):
Man, that's a that's a problem with sorry, that's a
problem with our art thatthey're gonna.
It used to be like this, butnow it's like shut up man.

Speaker 3 (01:18:51):
It was either right or wrong.
It all came from karate whoinvented walking stance shut up.
First of all, walking stance isthe dumbest thing that I've
ever seen.

Speaker 4 (01:19:01):
Am I wrong?

Speaker 2 (01:19:02):
Come on man.

Speaker 3 (01:19:04):
Don't get everyone started now.
No, no, pumse is what athletesdo when they're injured.
I mean, let me just be clear.

Speaker 4 (01:19:11):
No, I have respect.

Speaker 3 (01:19:13):
I have respect for all these guys.

Speaker 4 (01:19:16):
You can rip.

Speaker 1 (01:19:18):
I remember when, like I, competed in what's choreo
and you had to take all the wayback up.
You know you're supposed to beone and you try to get really
high on the second one.
I remember the years after,like no, you have to kick at
your head level for theunflexible people in.
But now it's back yeah but,we're kind of, that's crazy you
know they hurt my arm.

Speaker 3 (01:19:36):
I was trying to do court old school like like this
and they don't know these people, they just make it up and they
change it so they can havereferee seminars.
I'm sure if it's traditionalhere's the, here's the paradigm
If it's traditional and correctand it came from a cave wall
with two fat Koreans 50,000years ago, then it's traditional

(01:19:57):
and correct.
You can't change it.
You can change the kickingtechnique for sparring, because
you know it is what it is.
But if this was the right wayand you're pushing the boulder
up the hill and it's correctback then, then that doesn't
change.
This doesn't change Maybe theboulder changed.

Speaker 2 (01:20:13):
There's not a better way to do it.

Speaker 4 (01:20:14):
First of all, why is pushing a boulder a?

Speaker 2 (01:20:17):
martial art motion.
First of all, from a Korean, Iwould use a wheelbarrow, a
motion like this.
This motion would be in thepoomsae.

Speaker 3 (01:20:28):
I don't want to offend anybody, or I do my
Korean accent.

Speaker 2 (01:20:32):
You probably don't want to do that.

Speaker 3 (01:20:33):
No, I'm not going to do it.
I have enough people hating onme.

Speaker 2 (01:20:38):
We're already going to get calls.

Speaker 1 (01:20:44):
They're going to call iPad.
I don't want to get I.
I have enough people hating onthat.

Speaker 3 (01:20:46):
We're already going to get calls.
You know they're going to callipad.
They don't know your name, it'sipad, so they're going to call
my email.
Sorry, not sorry, but my emailaddress is tj jennings, you know
.
But uh, we, you guys missed thebeginning of the show where we
had to help Master Lee,grandmaster Lee, figure out how
to use Google, and we made avery special email address for
him, which I won't repeat on.

(01:21:07):
It's a reference from the moviePlatoon but, you'll know what
it is.

Speaker 2 (01:21:12):
And if you would have heard the words from these guys
, you'd be canceled for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:21:18):
Nothing but mad, love and respect.

Speaker 2 (01:21:21):
So many curse words coming my way, blah, blah, blah
blah.

Speaker 1 (01:21:27):
It was a close call.
I'm glad you made it.
I'm super glad you actually gotit.
It was close, it got late, myphone started dying, the sun
started going down, but I'm gladyou figured out how to access
your email.
I'm actually glad that youcould find how to access your
email.

Speaker 3 (01:21:39):
I'm actually glad that you could find how to use
an email on that flip.
I was so happy you still madeflip okay hey, you started out
like this.

Speaker 2 (01:21:47):
Now you're gonna end it like this.
Now I'm gonna get off the show.
I'm gonna be a little bitpissed you'll have to come back.

Speaker 1 (01:21:52):
You'll have to come.

Speaker 2 (01:21:53):
I'm gonna text you guys for sure, but it was, it
was awesome.
You guys, thanks for having meit's an honor to be with you
guys.
Uh, so amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:22:02):
Uh, taekwondo people athletes, my mentors well, I
would talk, I would talk youguys have helped me in so many
different ways.
I would talk to you more, butI've been told not to speak to
you from, uh, some members ofthe usat.

Speaker 2 (01:22:14):
But email me, no, I just but.

Speaker 3 (01:22:19):
You guys are awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:22:21):
And I hope this show continues and grows and hope to
be back in June.

Speaker 3 (01:22:28):
There's no end of July, well, best wishes to your
athletes from all the variouscountries and the places in the
States that you teach and yourwonderful program out there,
which I've never been invited tofor a seminar or not.

Speaker 2 (01:22:42):
Oh, this guy.

Speaker 3 (01:22:43):
Different story.
But you know, I Minnesota, Ihave been to, I've been to the
twin cities.
Is it me?
Yes, and I love that, and myson is on his college.
Do you guys have a universityout there?

Speaker 2 (01:22:56):
No, we're the only state that we don't have any
type of education like that here.

Speaker 3 (01:23:00):
You're kidding.
There's got to be something.
You're like one of the smartestguys.

Speaker 2 (01:23:05):
You're going to ask me if we have a university here.
I heard you had a pretty goodone.
I heard you had a pretty goodone.
Where do you live?
We're on the soccer tour, notthe luge tour.
Very good college soccerprograms.

Speaker 4 (01:23:19):
My daughter is working on that as well.
His daughter is a high-levelsoccer player.
Oh is she yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:23:26):
Where is she at?
Well, she's still in highschool.
She's only a sophomore, but inthe next two months she can.
This is the year.
Yeah, in two months she canstart talking at colleges.

Speaker 3 (01:23:44):
But yeah, we've been through all this feel I listened
to some of a lot of it's a lotof garbage, I know that, but
yeah, it is what it is.
You guys listen, it's the uhhardest things in the world to
get recruited for basketball,football and soccer um but some
of the window yeah, because yougot to kiss the ring and then
kiss something else and you canget recruited.

Speaker 1 (01:24:01):
Pigeon signals and all that stuff.
All right, we better stopbefore we get in more trouble.

Speaker 3 (01:24:06):
We are the Warehouse 15.
Thank you everybody, Dude.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Crime Junkie

24/7 News: The Latest

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}When Your Sport Excludes Its Champions: A Candid Taekwondo Discussion

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Crime Junkie

24/7 News: The Latest

Stuff You Should Know

All Episodes

When Your Sport Excludes Its Champions: A Candid Taekwondo Discussion

Crime Junkie