April 18, 2025 • 14 mins
This podcast episode prominently features the journey of a young martial artist, Tyler Tu, who embodies the principles of perseverance and dedication. Tyler, a first-degree black belt, shares insights into his training experiences and aspirations within the ATA community. He expresses a profound enthusiasm for sparring, highlighting this aspect of martial arts as his preferred discipline. Throughout our conversation, Tyler articulates his ambition to win a world championship, demonstrating his commitment to excellence and his desire to inspire others. As we delve into his story, we invite listeners to appreciate the values that extend beyond mere athletic achievements, emphasizing the importance of encouraging one's peers in the pursuit of martial arts mastery.
Takeaways:
- In this episode, we explore the journey of a young martial artist, Tyler Tu, who has shown remarkable dedication to his training.
- The podcast emphasizes the importance of perseverance and integrity in martial arts, principles that guide athletes like Tyler in their pursuits.
- Listeners are informed about various upcoming ATA events, including regional training camps and national competitions, vital for personal development.
- We discuss the impact of youth ambassadors in highlighting the achievements of young athletes across the ATA community, fostering a sense of inspiration.
- Tyler shares his personal experiences and aspirations in martial arts, including his goal to win a world championship, illustrating the competitive spirit.
- The episode culminates in a call to the audience to engage with the ATA community, encouraging them to share and promote martial arts beyond mere physical skills.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
His mom was an athlete of theweek and now it's his turn.
Let's get started.
Sir.
I will live with perseverancein the spirit of Taekwondo, courtesy
for fellow students, integritywithin myself, and to become a black
belt leader.
Welcome to the ATA Nation podcast.
(00:24):
Instructors, students,parents, family members, masters,
senior masters, chief masters,grandmasters of Ata Nation.
Welcome back to the Ata Nation podcast.
This is episode 145.
Have you heard all 145 episodes?
Have you?
I'd love to know.
Recently.
Okay, side note, recently Iwas cleaning off some things, getting
(00:47):
rid of some things on mycomputer, and I found the original
podcast.
I started AtNation podcastback in.
What was it like 2017, 20,2016 maybe?
We had some episodes back then.
(01:07):
It didn't go very long.
It went for a little while, alittle project I'd done, but I really
enjoy.
I've kind of become known asthis podcast guy and I love listening
podcasts.
Don't get me wrong, I'm notlike obsessed with producing podcasts.
Like the heck behind it, thethings, behind all the things.
(01:28):
What I really love is talkingto people about martial arts.
I love to get information fromthem, hear what they're doing, get
ideas.
It's really, you know, just alot of fun for me.
We're, we're running, we'rehelping with business through the
business beyond beyond the Matpodcast that is specifically just
(01:49):
for ATA licensees.
And it's been so much funbecause it's really, I just get to
learn from the best.
I just get to interview thesebest people in the industry and it's
fantastic that way.
I mean, other people canlisten too, because that way, you
know, the licensees get tolearn great stuff, but I get to learn
and I get to get, see allthese great ATM martial artists,
(02:10):
like our athletes of the weekthat we've been profiling recently.
Now we're going to dosomething a little bit different
today and we're going to gowith some upcoming events.
Here's what's going on in ATA Nation.
So before we, we get to ourathlete of the week this week, I
wanted to mention a coupletraining opportunities that we really
(02:33):
haven't talked about recently.
We've been spending a lot oftime talking about Spring Nationals.
Worlds is coming up, ofcourse, and you want to check that
out.
I don't think the schedule'sup yet for that though, so I think
you're safe.
But the ATA max training isgoing on the road.
They have regional trainings.
By the time you hear thisepisode, the first one will be done.
(02:55):
It was in Darien, Illinois,April 13, but it's coming to Ventura,
California, May 24.
So that might be something youwant to check out.
If you haven't been able to goto, like the MAX seminars or Worlds
of Nationals or go to the MAXgathering, this might be a great
way for you to attend.
Also, you will do not want tomiss the Athlete Development Camp
(03:17):
in Little Rock in June.
That registration is is justfilling up.
Huge lots going on in there,so make sure you check that out.
Lots of ATA MAX trainingscoming in September as well.
Looks like Oregon, Florida andCalifornia, so don't miss checking
those out then as well.
(03:40):
There are some camps coming up and.
You can always check these out.
If you go toatamartialarts.com and you head over
to the event section on thetabs at the top, you've got all the
tournaments, but don't forgetto go all the way to the right and
check out camps and seminars.
So we've got the ATA Europeancamp in Lisbon, Portugal, which is
not going this year, but man,it's on my bucket list.
(04:01):
We're doing that.
Region 112 has their camp in May.
Region 119C has their camp in May.
You want to check those out then.
Region 107 has their camp in August.
Region 119 has their camp inAugust as well.
(04:22):
102A or west has their camp in September.
109 has their camp inSeptember as well.
And then 118 and 102B havetheir camps in October.
Now, I mention these becauseyou might be a higher rank and you're
(04:45):
going to need personaldevelopment points as you go to continue
to train and go for higher andhigher ranks.
Those personal developmentpoints you can achieve at some of
these regional camps.
So I would definitely look atattending those regional camps to
make sure that you arelearning, you know, all the things
going on, staying up to datewith your curriculum, up to date
(05:07):
with your teaching skills, allthose kinds of things.
Grandmaster MK is reallyexcited that these camps have come
back.
It's been a big push of his.
It builds that cohesion andcommunity between our regions, our
areas, things like that.
So you want to go and checkthose out.
Don't miss out.
I know our regional camp is alot of fun and just a great bonding
(05:29):
experience.
Then December, Camp Jong Suagain in Little Rock, Arkansas.
I think there's some otherstuff maybe going on in Little Rock
that week, but I'm not.
I don't know.
You didn't Hear anything from me?
We'll see.
So, ladies and gentlemen, thatis going to be our upcoming events.
Let's get to our special guests.
Special guest interview.
(05:58):
ATA nation.
We have with us an awesome ATA.
Athlete, Mr.
Tyler Tu.
How are you today, sir?
I'm great.
Senior master Hayden.
Awesome.
Thanks for being here with us today.
I want to ask you a couplequestions, but first, where do you
train?
Who's your instructor?
I train in San Diego,California at world class martial
arts and my instructor ischief master Church and senior master
(06:23):
Church.
Very nice.
Excellent.
And what degree black belt are you?
I'm a first degree black belt.
Going up to second degree soon.
Very soon.
Oh, excellent.
And what got you started inmartial arts?
My parents enrolled me when Iwas a 6 years old just to see because
(06:44):
I didn't do any sports yet tosee how I'd like it and then kind
of just went from there.
Kind of going from there.
How old are you now?
I'm 12.
Excellent.
Okay, so you've been in itlike half your life.
That's pretty good.
I like it.
So you're one of theseathletes that the junior brand ambassadors
have been choosing tohighlight across ATA nation, which
(07:04):
has been really neat when itcomes to competing.
Being a martial arts athlete,what aspect of your martial arts
training or competition.
Is the aspect that like, you like?
Oh, if I could spend all thetime doing this thing, extreme creative
combat, you know, what wouldit be?
Forms?
I think it'd be sparring.
(07:25):
I love sparring.
I know I'm not on the tallerside, but it's really fun.
Excellent.
I love to hear that.
It's been great.
We've done quite a fewinterviews with the athletes so far
and everybody's got somethingdifferent than they like.
Some of them it's the creative extreme.
Some of them is a forms.
So you are a sparring guy.
I love that.
(07:45):
Traditional sparring.
Combat sparring.
Do you have a favorite betweenthe two?
My studio doesn't reallypractice combat sparring, but so
I like traditional sparring better.
But combat spring is alsoreally fun.
You like to kick people in thehead, right?
Yes, sir.
Yeah, legs don't get that high.
(08:05):
Well, you know, you're 12,maybe you are.
Are you your family on theshorter side, are you going to get
to.
Be taller or you stuck thesize you are?
I don't know, Stuck on theshorter side.
I understand.
Hey, there's some awesomeathletes out there on the shorter
side, you know, have you everMaster Havaducci sparring, Master
(08:27):
Haynes, you know, big heightdifference but there's some pretty
awesome athletes doing somegreat things.
So what now, if you had topick, like, in your training?
We love martial arts.
We love all the differentthings of martial arts.
But if there was an event atlike a tournament that you were like,
I.
If I have to skip one, I'llskip this one.
(08:48):
What would that be?
I'm gonna say they're combatmine because I don't really practice
it that much.
Creative forms, because I'mvery new to it.
Are you new to it this year?
So.
Excellent.
Very neat.
Okay, that makes sense.
You know, getting new to it.
Have you done, like, weapons?
(09:13):
Very cool.
Awesome.
Very good.
Oh, good deal.
I love that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
If you, if you.
What weapon are you?
That's the.
If you had to pick a weapon.
What'S the weapon you'd go forfor traditional forms?
I do Chucks, sir.
Nice.
Love it.
One of my favorites.
I, I started with the Chuck'sfirst degree.
(09:33):
Really loved it.
Got into the top four for that.
So good deal.
What kind of goals do you havein your martial arts training?
Maybe short term, maybe long term.
What are you looking at tryingto achieve?
I'm gonna say, like kind ofshort term, kind of long term.
I want to win the worldchampionship, sir.
Nice.
What event?
Any event, specific event, allthe events.
(09:56):
I like it.
That is a great goal.
Good.
You gotta set.
I got second place in forms in weapons.
Oh, man.
Second.
Oh, one point for both events.
Oh, one point.
And what did you learn from that?
Like how.
How did you move on from that?
That's a tough one.
(10:17):
Well, I just told myself Igotta keep going.
I can do this next year.
I mean, I was stuck on it fora bit, but, you know, you just gotta
get out from that phase.
Yeah, it is.
It's tough to get by that.
You know, you get.
I tell my students, you get alittle bit of time to commiserate,
to feel bad because, you know,you worked so hard.
(10:39):
You should get a little bit of.
Time to, you know, be like.
But then you got to pickyourself back up and get back to
training and try again for thenext year.
Now I've got a question for you.
As one of these youth athletes.
What does it mean to you to.
Be an athlete that goes beyondthe belt?
For me to be an athlete thatgoes beyond the belt, I think it
(11:00):
means like inspiring others towork as hard as me to, to train more,
to like all that stuff.
Yes, I love that idea ofinspiring others.
What a great, what a great thing.
We love to see you guys, theseathletes all across 18 nation being
highlighted, getting to show off.
(11:22):
We love to see you guys competing.
Do you got any tournamentscoming up that you're going to be
heading to?
I know you guys had a class.
C just recently at your school.
Were you last weekend?
Yeah.
Will you be out at Fort Worth?
I don't think so.
Not this time.
No problem.
Hey, I haven't.
The tournament I'm going towould be spring nationals because
(11:43):
there's one in Conroe, but I'mgoing to be out of town.
Gotcha.
Off to nationals.
Get some of those big pointsat nationals.
So you're ready for worldchampionships, huh?
Mm.
I love it, Sir.
Awesome.
Well, Mr.
Tu, I really appreciate yourtime today.
You are an inspiration.
Keep competing out there, keepworking hard, keep showing off those
(12:06):
skills and inspiring other ATAmartial arts athletes.
We really appreciate it.
Thank you.
And before I go, I'd like tothank you so much for this amazing
opportunity.
Well, thank you.
You know, it's the youthambassadors that have been doing
such a great job ofhighlighting you guys, and we're
excited to be able to partnerwith them and show all of ATA nation
(12:27):
about some of these awesome athletes.
Thank you.
Man.
These athletes, they're great.
You know what I love aboutthem is not that it's just these
athletes, but it's all of youout there in ATA Nation.
We can all do this.
We're just highlighting someof the athletes across ATA Nation,
(12:48):
but there are thousands of you.
Speaking of thousands of you,you know what I would love for you
to do?
Do me a huge favor.
Click the subscribe button onyour favorite podcast player and
on YouTube, we would love tomake sure that we are sharing this
information with all of ATA Nation.
We want to just continue togrow ATA nation.
(13:09):
So share it with a friend,Share it with a fellow training partner.
Share it on the Internet soother people can just check out these
awesome athletes and the coolthings that are going in at nation
all over.
Make sure that they get to seethat martial arts is way more than
kicks and punches.
(13:29):
Okay?
We are building championsbeyond the belt.
So get out there, share it.
We'll see you next time on theATA nation podcast.
Get out and go beyond the belt.
Thanks for listening toanother episode of the ATA nation
(13:52):
podcast.
Be sure to subscribe and sharewith your ATA family.
Watched on YouTube, you wouldhave saw what I was drinking right
then.
That's going to be the secretpart today.
His mom was an athlete of theweek and now it's his turn.
Let's get started.
Sir.
I will live with perseverancein the spirit of Taekwondo, courtesy
for fellow students, integritywithin myself, and to become a black
belt leader.
Welcome to the ATA Nation podcast.
(00:24):
Instructors, students,parents, family members, masters,
senior masters, chief masters,grandmasters of Ata Nation.
Welcome back to the Ata Nation podcast.
This is episode 145.
Have you heard all 145 episodes?
Have you?
I'd love to know.
Recently.
Okay, side note, recently Iwas cleaning off some things, getting
(00:47):
rid of some things on mycomputer, and I found the original
podcast.
I started AtNation podcastback in.
What was it like 2017, 20,2016 maybe?
We had some episodes back then.
(01:07):
It didn't go very long.
It went for a little while, alittle project I'd done, but I really
enjoy.
I've kind of become known asthis podcast guy and I love listening
podcasts.
Don't get me wrong, I'm notlike obsessed with producing podcasts.
Like the heck behind it, thethings, behind all the things.
(01:28):
What I really love is talkingto people about martial arts.
I love to get information fromthem, hear what they're doing, get
ideas.
It's really, you know, just alot of fun for me.
We're, we're running, we'rehelping with business through the
business beyond beyond the Matpodcast that is specifically just
(01:49):
for ATA licensees.
And it's been so much funbecause it's really, I just get to
learn from the best.
I just get to interview thesebest people in the industry and it's
fantastic that way.
I mean, other people canlisten too, because that way, you
know, the licensees get tolearn great stuff, but I get to learn
and I get to get, see allthese great ATM martial artists,
(02:10):
like our athletes of the weekthat we've been profiling recently.
Now we're going to dosomething a little bit different
today and we're going to gowith some upcoming events.
Here's what's going on in ATA Nation.
So before we, we get to ourathlete of the week this week, I
wanted to mention a coupletraining opportunities that we really
(02:33):
haven't talked about recently.
We've been spending a lot oftime talking about Spring Nationals.
Worlds is coming up, ofcourse, and you want to check that
out.
I don't think the schedule'sup yet for that though, so I think
you're safe.
But the ATA max training isgoing on the road.
They have regional trainings.
By the time you hear thisepisode, the first one will be done.
(02:55):
It was in Darien, Illinois,April 13, but it's coming to Ventura,
California, May 24.
So that might be something youwant to check out.
If you haven't been able to goto, like the MAX seminars or Worlds
of Nationals or go to the MAXgathering, this might be a great
way for you to attend.
Also, you will do not want tomiss the Athlete Development Camp
(03:17):
in Little Rock in June.
That registration is is justfilling up.
Huge lots going on in there,so make sure you check that out.
Lots of ATA MAX trainingscoming in September as well.
Looks like Oregon, Florida andCalifornia, so don't miss checking
those out then as well.
(03:40):
There are some camps coming up and.
You can always check these out.
If you go toatamartialarts.com and you head over
to the event section on thetabs at the top, you've got all the
tournaments, but don't forgetto go all the way to the right and
check out camps and seminars.
So we've got the ATA Europeancamp in Lisbon, Portugal, which is
not going this year, but man,it's on my bucket list.
(04:01):
We're doing that.
Region 112 has their camp in May.
Region 119C has their camp in May.
You want to check those out then.
Region 107 has their camp in August.
Region 119 has their camp inAugust as well.
(04:22):
102A or west has their camp in September.
109 has their camp inSeptember as well.
And then 118 and 102B havetheir camps in October.
Now, I mention these becauseyou might be a higher rank and you're
(04:45):
going to need personaldevelopment points as you go to continue
to train and go for higher andhigher ranks.
Those personal developmentpoints you can achieve at some of
these regional camps.
So I would definitely look atattending those regional camps to
make sure that you arelearning, you know, all the things
going on, staying up to datewith your curriculum, up to date
(05:07):
with your teaching skills, allthose kinds of things.
Grandmaster MK is reallyexcited that these camps have come
back.
It's been a big push of his.
It builds that cohesion andcommunity between our regions, our
areas, things like that.
So you want to go and checkthose out.
Don't miss out.
I know our regional camp is alot of fun and just a great bonding
(05:29):
experience.
Then December, Camp Jong Suagain in Little Rock, Arkansas.
I think there's some otherstuff maybe going on in Little Rock
that week, but I'm not.
I don't know.
You didn't Hear anything from me?
We'll see.
So, ladies and gentlemen, thatis going to be our upcoming events.
Let's get to our special guests.
Special guest interview.
(05:58):
ATA nation.
We have with us an awesome ATA.
Athlete, Mr.
Tyler Tu.
How are you today, sir?
I'm great.
Senior master Hayden.
Awesome.
Thanks for being here with us today.
I want to ask you a couplequestions, but first, where do you
train?
Who's your instructor?
I train in San Diego,California at world class martial
arts and my instructor ischief master Church and senior master
(06:23):
Church.
Very nice.
Excellent.
And what degree black belt are you?
I'm a first degree black belt.
Going up to second degree soon.
Very soon.
Oh, excellent.
And what got you started inmartial arts?
My parents enrolled me when Iwas a 6 years old just to see because
(06:44):
I didn't do any sports yet tosee how I'd like it and then kind
of just went from there.
Kind of going from there.
How old are you now?
I'm 12.
Excellent.
Okay, so you've been in itlike half your life.
That's pretty good.
I like it.
So you're one of theseathletes that the junior brand ambassadors
have been choosing tohighlight across ATA nation, which
(07:04):
has been really neat when itcomes to competing.
Being a martial arts athlete,what aspect of your martial arts
training or competition.
Is the aspect that like, you like?
Oh, if I could spend all thetime doing this thing, extreme creative
combat, you know, what wouldit be?
Forms?
I think it'd be sparring.
(07:25):
I love sparring.
I know I'm not on the tallerside, but it's really fun.
Excellent.
I love to hear that.
It's been great.
We've done quite a fewinterviews with the athletes so far
and everybody's got somethingdifferent than they like.
Some of them it's the creative extreme.
Some of them is a forms.
So you are a sparring guy.
I love that.
(07:45):
Traditional sparring.
Combat sparring.
Do you have a favorite betweenthe two?
My studio doesn't reallypractice combat sparring, but so
I like traditional sparring better.
But combat spring is alsoreally fun.
You like to kick people in thehead, right?
Yes, sir.
Yeah, legs don't get that high.
(08:05):
Well, you know, you're 12,maybe you are.
Are you your family on theshorter side, are you going to get
to.
Be taller or you stuck thesize you are?
I don't know, Stuck on theshorter side.
I understand.
Hey, there's some awesomeathletes out there on the shorter
side, you know, have you everMaster Havaducci sparring, Master
(08:27):
Haynes, you know, big heightdifference but there's some pretty
awesome athletes doing somegreat things.
So what now, if you had topick, like, in your training?
We love martial arts.
We love all the differentthings of martial arts.
But if there was an event atlike a tournament that you were like,
I.
If I have to skip one, I'llskip this one.
(08:48):
What would that be?
I'm gonna say they're combatmine because I don't really practice
it that much.
Creative forms, because I'mvery new to it.
Are you new to it this year?
So.
Excellent.
Very neat.
Okay, that makes sense.
You know, getting new to it.
Have you done, like, weapons?
(09:13):
Very cool.
Awesome.
Very good.
Oh, good deal.
I love that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
If you, if you.
What weapon are you?
That's the.
If you had to pick a weapon.
What'S the weapon you'd go forfor traditional forms?
I do Chucks, sir.
Nice.
Love it.
One of my favorites.
I, I started with the Chuck'sfirst degree.
(09:33):
Really loved it.
Got into the top four for that.
So good deal.
What kind of goals do you havein your martial arts training?
Maybe short term, maybe long term.
What are you looking at tryingto achieve?
I'm gonna say, like kind ofshort term, kind of long term.
I want to win the worldchampionship, sir.
Nice.
What event?
Any event, specific event, allthe events.
(09:56):
I like it.
That is a great goal.
Good.
You gotta set.
I got second place in forms in weapons.
Oh, man.
Second.
Oh, one point for both events.
Oh, one point.
And what did you learn from that?
Like how.
How did you move on from that?
That's a tough one.
(10:17):
Well, I just told myself Igotta keep going.
I can do this next year.
I mean, I was stuck on it fora bit, but, you know, you just gotta
get out from that phase.
Yeah, it is.
It's tough to get by that.
You know, you get.
I tell my students, you get alittle bit of time to commiserate,
to feel bad because, you know,you worked so hard.
(10:39):
You should get a little bit of.
Time to, you know, be like.
But then you got to pickyourself back up and get back to
training and try again for thenext year.
Now I've got a question for you.
As one of these youth athletes.
What does it mean to you to.
Be an athlete that goes beyondthe belt?
For me to be an athlete thatgoes beyond the belt, I think it
(11:00):
means like inspiring others towork as hard as me to, to train more,
to like all that stuff.
Yes, I love that idea ofinspiring others.
What a great, what a great thing.
We love to see you guys, theseathletes all across 18 nation being
highlighted, getting to show off.
(11:22):
We love to see you guys competing.
Do you got any tournamentscoming up that you're going to be
heading to?
I know you guys had a class.
C just recently at your school.
Were you last weekend?
Yeah.
Will you be out at Fort Worth?
I don't think so.
Not this time.
No problem.
Hey, I haven't.
The tournament I'm going towould be spring nationals because
(11:43):
there's one in Conroe, but I'mgoing to be out of town.
Gotcha.
Off to nationals.
Get some of those big pointsat nationals.
So you're ready for worldchampionships, huh?
Mm.
I love it, Sir.
Awesome.
Well, Mr.
Tu, I really appreciate yourtime today.
You are an inspiration.
Keep competing out there, keepworking hard, keep showing off those
(12:06):
skills and inspiring other ATAmartial arts athletes.
We really appreciate it.
Thank you.
And before I go, I'd like tothank you so much for this amazing
opportunity.
Well, thank you.
You know, it's the youthambassadors that have been doing
such a great job ofhighlighting you guys, and we're
excited to be able to partnerwith them and show all of ATA nation
(12:27):
about some of these awesome athletes.
Thank you.
Man.
These athletes, they're great.
You know what I love aboutthem is not that it's just these
athletes, but it's all of youout there in ATA Nation.
We can all do this.
We're just highlighting someof the athletes across ATA Nation,
(12:48):
but there are thousands of you.
Speaking of thousands of you,you know what I would love for you
to do?
Do me a huge favor.
Click the subscribe button onyour favorite podcast player and
on YouTube, we would love tomake sure that we are sharing this
information with all of ATA Nation.
We want to just continue togrow ATA nation.
(13:09):
So share it with a friend,Share it with a fellow training partner.
Share it on the Internet soother people can just check out these
awesome athletes and the coolthings that are going in at nation
all over.
Make sure that they get to seethat martial arts is way more than
kicks and punches.
(13:29):
Okay?
We are building championsbeyond the belt.
So get out there, share it.
We'll see you next time on theATA nation podcast.
Get out and go beyond the belt.
Thanks for listening toanother episode of the ATA nation
(13:52):
podcast.
Be sure to subscribe and sharewith your ATA family.
Watched on YouTube, you wouldhave saw what I was drinking right
then.
That's going to be the secretpart today.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.