May 2, 2025 • 20 mins
This podcast episode features a compelling dialogue that underscores the achievements and aspirations of international martial artists, specifically highlighting their journey in the realm of Taekwondo. Our first guest, Livia Ferreira from Brazil, articulates her dedication to the sport, emphasizing her objectives of becoming a world champion and a prominent brand ambassador for the ATA in her country. We delve into the significance of martial arts in fostering connections among individuals, as Livia shares her experiences from tournaments, where camaraderie transcends borders. Furthermore, we engage with Mr. Bardwell, the chief instructor at Mango Martial Arts in Ireland, who recounts his family's transition into the martial arts community and the establishment of their school. Together, these narratives illuminate the global impact of martial arts and the profound personal development it cultivates in practitioners.
Takeaways:
- This episode features an engaging interview with international martial arts athletes from Brazil and Ireland.
- The discussion emphasizes the importance of perseverance in martial arts training and personal development.
- We explore the role of martial arts in fostering global friendships and cultural exchanges among practitioners.
- The guests share their aspirations, including becoming world champions and brand ambassadors for the ATA.
- The episode highlights upcoming events in the ATA community, including championships and athlete development camps.
- Listeners are encouraged to participate actively in the ATA community and support fellow martial artists.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Going overseas twice today.
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):
Welcome back, Ata Nation.
This is episode 147 of the AtaNation podcast.
It is a pleasure to be backwith you today.
We have two great guests on today.
I decided, I did one of theseinterviews at spring nationals and
I decided, like, how greatwould it be to have an international
(00:45):
athlete of the week as well asan international ATA school owner.
So we've got them both todayon episode 147 of the At Nation podcast.
Make sure you hit thesubscribe button.
Over to YouTube.
Hit the subscribe button onthe ATA's YouTube page.
Go to your podcast player, hitthe subscribe button.
We want all of ATA Nation tohear what we've got going on and
(01:09):
wait till the end.
I'll tell you something super awesome.
Let's get to our special guests.
Special guest interview.
ATA Nation.
We have another awesomeathlete from across the globe in
(01:30):
ATA Nation.
Ma'am, can you introduceyourself and tell us where you're
from?
Yeah, Atanation.
I'm Liba Fejeda from Braziland I train at ATA plant system in
Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Fantastic.
And what rank are you, ma'am?
I am a first degree black belt.
First degree black belt.
Congratulations.
And how did you get started inmartial arts?
(01:52):
So my mom is a black bellefrom Hapkido and I usually see her
as an example for me.
So when I was nine years old,she introduced me to taekwondo.
So.
(02:13):
And it was like first love my.
I love it.
So I started to practice sinceI was 9 years old.
That's fantastic.
I love that.
And you got introduced tomartial arts from your mom.
That's super cool.
What is your.
What's your favorite part oftraining in martial arts?
(02:35):
Martial arts connect people.
So when you train a martialarts, you can talk to other people.
Your skills, your life, youcan teach them new kicks, punch.
(02:55):
So you can talk to each other.
What do you train in your typeof martial art?
I love that.
That's great.
Yeah.
So you guys down in Brazil aregonna have the Pan Am championships
this year.
What do you.
When you go to tournaments andwhen you do tournaments, what's your
favorite thing to do at a tournament?
(03:16):
I have lots of friends aroundthe world and for me this is really
cool because in panamchampionships we chat to each other
and I can speak in otherlanguages, so.
And I.
And we can chat to each Otherand teach to other people new skills
(03:41):
that we can improve in ourtraditional forms.
Sparring.
So for me, this type of thing,internees are very important.
I love that.
It's all about, you know,getting to hang out with friends,
train with each other, do allthat fun stuff together.
Are you.
When you compete is likesparring your favorite thing to do
(04:04):
is it forms.
Weapons.
Extreme creative.
What's your favorite thing todo when you're in the ring?
My favorite event istraditional forms.
Nice.
And traditional weapons.
Very cool.
What's your weapon of choice?
Single Chuck.
Single song.
(04:24):
Good choice.
I love that one.
That was my.
That was my weapon of choiceas a.
As a first degree as well.
I like that one.
What's your event at a.
At a tournament that you'relike, not.
Not your favorite?
That's a hard question.
I love all but good answer.
(04:44):
I think the extreme form.
Because here in Brazil theextreme form is not a common thing
because we don't havegymnastics at school.
So for us it's very hard topractice new tricks.
So yeah, that makes sense.
(05:05):
You know, you don't haveaccess to quite as much of that gymnastics
training and whatnot.
I understand that.
I understand.
I love, you know, getting todo those different events.
Single songs.
Wrong.
Like I said, I love.
I love that one.
What kind of goals do you havefor martial arts?
Are you aiming to be, youknow, a master?
(05:26):
Do you want to teach?
You want to be a worldchampion Pan Am champ?
What kind of goals do you have?
So as Taekwondo at lead, weall have goals, right?
So for me, I have lots of goals.
My first goal is to become aworld champion and I'm keeping hard
and pushing hard to achievethis goal.
(05:48):
Other goal that I have is toevery country, every country have
its brand ambassador.
So my goal is to become abrand ambassador here in Brazil.
Oh, I love that.
That's a great goal.
Yeah, that's super cool.
Be A.T.A.
ambassador for A.T.A.
in.
In Brazil.
That's.
That's super cool.
(06:09):
Well, hopefully you could beable to share this video when it
goes live and everybody willsee how cool you are.
What does it.
So what does it mean to you tobe an athlete that goes beyond the
belt?
So going beyond the belttaught me to be more confident, to
enhance self awareness,fitness and ability to focus.
(06:29):
Also going beyond the belt isfor you to the skills that you've
learned on the mat.
You're going to bring them onyour real life.
That's great.
I love to hear every differentathlete that we've highlighted get
(06:51):
to Hear what they think of asgoing beyond the belt and how cool
it is to have kids all overthe world learning martial arts and
being able to share the factthat what they're doing on the mat
is not the only thing, thatthey're taking that information,
that lifestyle and living itout in the world.
(07:11):
And I think that's super cool.
So I want to thank you forbeing one, an inspiration to all
these other athletes out there.
They can see you, see whatyou're doing and be able to, you
know, set some goals likeyou've done.
And congratulations on beingchosen and one of the athletes a
week by the junior brandambassadors here in the US that's
(07:33):
awesome.
Thank you.
Well, congratulations.
And do you have any, do youhave any tournaments coming up that
you're going to be competing in?
Yeah, I have a tourney this month.
It's going to be the Brazilian Championship.
Excellent.
Well, good luck at that.
And then you said your, yourgoal is to be a world champ someday.
(07:55):
Are you coming to Worlds?
This.
Yeah, I, I, yeah, I was, I amclassified to the TOC from the Brazilian
Championship, so I'm competingit right now and try to go to the
Worlds.
That would be awesome.
(08:15):
Well, if you, if you head out,if you're able to go to Arizona this
year, make sure if you see me,you stop me and say hi, because I'd
love to meet you in person.
So that would be awesome.
Okay, I would do that.
Excellent.
Well, good luck at theBrazilian Championships.
Do your best, do your awesomeskills that we know you have.
(08:36):
Post on social media and leteverybody know how you did.
And congratulations again.
Thank you.
18 Nation.
We have with us aninternational guest, one of our favorite
overseas listeners.
Can you introduce yourself for18 nation?
Sir, yes, sir.
My name is Mr.
Bob Tom Bardwell and I'm thechief instructor at Mango Martial
(08:59):
Arts in, in Ireland.
Ireland.
As you might, might have toldfrom his accent.
So we're here at SpringNationals in Fort Worth.
Absolutely.
You guys actually have aconnection to Texas.
Can you give us the history ofhow kind of you started, you guys
started the ATA and then howyou got to Ireland doing martial
arts there?
(09:19):
Yeah, so we came over to,we've done quite a lot of traveling
and my wife's work took usover to, to Dallas.
Okay.
And then my son got into soccer.
He's always been in, intosoccer and various places.
You call it soccer?
Yeah, well, I, I saw a littlehesitation in the way you were saying
it.
No, your audience.
(09:40):
Yeah, absolutely.
So, yeah, and I was like,what's Keon gonna do?
Keon's my middle son, and wereally wanted to make sure that he
had something to do.
And I remembered that when Iwas younger, I did some jiu jitsu.
Okay.
So, yeah, when I was six, Istarted doing jiu jitsu, and I was
like.
And he was six as well.
And I thought, I'm gonna findsome martial arts.
And the ATA school was thefirst one I saw.
(10:02):
I went there, he did a class,and he loved it.
And you could see he wasabsolutely zoned in.
He was ready to go.
And, yeah, it's been.
And so how much longer tillyou started in and your wife as well?
Yeah.
So he started in December.
We went home, then we cameback, and we were started by March,
(10:23):
I think.
So, yeah.
Everyone else was on.
There was a small period wherethe older son, Owen, he started training
as well.
And then we were, like,sitting on the side watching, and
they said, well, why don't youcome on, try.
See.
See what it's like to actuallydo the moves as all good taekwondo.
(10:44):
Stricter should ask the parents.
Get on the floor.
Absolute.
So who.
What school was that?
Who was the instructor there?
So that's Ata Colleyville.
Okay.
So that was Mr.
Sifra.
He was doing that school atthat time, and then he went back
to Florida.
And now it's Mrs.
Mugi, who was a brown belt atthe time.
(11:06):
And, yeah, so we with her andthen under her.
And so now you guys are backin Ireland.
Obviously not right nowbecause we're in Texas, but yes,
sir, you get back to Ireland,you guys right away be like, hey,
we're gonna do this ATA thing.
Or was it a.
A process to think through?
Well, we were.
We were very lucky.
So we did.
(11:26):
We did Covid in Dallas, and Ithink that was probably a good place
to do Covid in.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think we're probably saferin Texas or a little freer in Texas.
Yes, everything's bigger in Texas.
I think that's true.
Uh, so, yes, then there was anopportunity to come back with work.
(11:48):
But also I met Chief MasterSchreiber, and he was opening a school
in the uk So I was like, okay,this could work.
Well, we were looking at maybegoing back to the UK or Ireland,
and then we swung it to.
To the UK to.
To try things there and gothrough the whole opening of school
(12:08):
process.
Yeah.
And learning from one of the best.
Yeah.
Oh, you can't go wrong.
Okay, so a question.
So when I talk to someinternational licensees, every country
is a Little bit different intheir perspective of martial arts.
Like we're very blessed in theUnited States where like everybody
knows martial arts is anotheractivity that you do and you can
(12:30):
have a martial arts school andyou can have a full time business
martial arts school.
You know Master Tangier fromPortugal, Portugal know was like
the first guy in this countryto open up professional martial arts
school.
What's the, what's it like in Ireland?
Is there, are there lots ofcompetition, is it normal thing?
(12:51):
So I have in, in our localtown where we are, there is actually
another full time professional school.
I don't know that it's theironly thing but it is a dedicated
space.
That has maxim or whatever.
Yeah.
So they do karate andkickboxing and things like that.
But yeah, when we told sort offamily that we were going to come
(13:12):
over and open a, they were alittle bit surprised.
They were like can you do that really?
Is that a thing?
And I mean to be fair, when wewent over we didn't know it was necessarily
going to be a thing.
We thought we're going to givethis a really good try and we'll
do an after school program andsee what happens.
We did the after school program.
We did a free taster sessionand we had 200 people turn up.
(13:38):
We did various schools butyeah, right, brilliant.
Okay, someone's interested in this.
We'll do a seven week program.
And then we did our seven weekprogram and I think it was 120 people
signed up.
So we were like, okay, thisseems good.
(13:59):
Yeah, this is, we, this has potential.
Yes, yes.
After three or four weekspeople were still turning up, which
is, which is a bonus.
And yeah.
So we said, oh well let's,let's take the plunge and see if
we can get this whole thingsorted out before the end of the
eight week cycle.
(14:19):
So we found a place, theymanaged to do it up in time and we
went into our full timelocation space and how long has it
been now?
So we actually opened on StPatrick's Day last year and yeah,
we've now been open for justover a year.
And business is good.
Things are going on.
Yeah, the business is very good.
We're delighted.
(14:40):
We have about 150 students.
Fantastic.
So yeah, so wow.
It's great.
That is, that is amazing.
I so random question.
What is with mango?
Yeah, that name with.
So we before we were in Dallaswe were actually, we were in Ireland
but then before that we werein Singapore.
(15:01):
Okay.
And I like to think thatlife's a journey and we take different
things from different chapters.
But when we were in Singapore,I was always taken by.
There was a tradition wherepeople gifted fruit to other people.
Okay.
And so they do it with mandarins.
And then there was anothertradition, I suppose that was different
(15:24):
fruits resemble differentthings or have different meanings
of different things.
So mango I looked up wasprosperity and knowledge.
And I thought, okay, so thiscould work.
So we're trying to give thegift of knowledge and prosperity
to other people.
I love it.
Students or instructors or whatever.
(15:45):
Yeah, it's such a unique name.
But with it being unique likethat, it's very memorable.
Yeah.
Like everybody is like, ah,mango flowers.
I got those.
Yes.
Yeah, that's super cool.
You guys have like a, like amango character that you like, do
some.
Stuff with some ideas.
Am I allowed to have that one?
I'll let you have that one for free.
(16:06):
Let you have that one for free.
You can have your own beltambassador campaign with the mango
guy doing that way you have tocome up with a fun name for it.
I'll leave that up to you.
Well, what are your guys's,you know, your international licensees?
I personally would love to seemore schools in the uk, Ireland,
those kind of places, becauseI'm key.
(16:28):
Every time I see Chief MasterSchreiber, I'm like, hey, I want
the European Championships tobe in the uk.
And he's like, well, right nowwe don't have enough schools.
I'm like, well, what.
So you guys keep going.
What, what kind of, what areyou guys looking at for the future?
I mean, for your personaltraining for your school?
(16:48):
Yeah, so I'm a second degreeblack belt, so I'm obviously hoping
to keep going along on that journey.
I'm competing Western atspring nationals.
So, yeah.
Trying to represent for, forEurope, I guess.
Yes.
So yeah.
But school wise, I will haveto see how it goes.
Really.
Just keep working.
I would never have guessed ayear ago that we'd have been where
(17:11):
we were.
We kind of did the, did themath and thought about, oh, is this
going to work with studentnumbers and how many people do we
need to break even and thatkind of thing.
And then I was like, okay,well this is, this could work.
And it seems to have worked so far.
Now we're actually, I thinkthis is like a exclusive.
I haven't told any of mystudents this.
(17:33):
I don't know when we're going live.
No, it'll be on the down low.
But we're actually going toopen a second floor.
Excellent.
So we've got One bay of thissort of big kind of warehouse place
and we're going to have acompletely separate one just next
to it.
So that's our current kind ofgrowth plan.
(17:53):
Some of our lessons are a bitbig, so we just want to make sure
that we give everyone the bestexperience that we can.
That's fantastic, sir.
Well, best of luck.
It was great meeting you herein the, in the States.
Maybe I'll get to meet youover there at your school someday.
Thank you so much for yourtime and we really appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
Thanks, sir.
Thank you, sir.
(18:14):
Back to training.
Here's what's going on in ATA Nation.
Want to say thank you to bothof our awesome international guests
and of course, Keenan, Athleteof the week.
How amazing is that?
Congrats.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, acouple of things.
Make sure you're checking out,staying up to date, close eyes on
(18:36):
the fact that we have districtchampionships coming up this weekend.
If you listen to this, when itdrops, you might be heading to one
of the very last tournamentsof the the very last tournaments
of the season.
So make sure you're enjoying that.
But district championshipscoming up, make sure you pay attention
to the time slot available tocorrect points and be ready to register
(18:57):
for districts.
Then we got the TOC and theSuper 20 tournament coming up in
July, Athlete Development Campcoming up in June, and I don't have
the date set yet, but the ATANation podcast is going to be taking
over and doing a couple oflive shows on YouTube and Facebook
(19:17):
or all of ATA Nation on theATAs social media pages.
So stay tuned for that.
And if you have somebodyspecific you'd love to hear from
on that, make sure you send usa message.
Facebook, Instagram, whereveryou find us.
Until next time at A Nation,get out there and go beyond the bells.
(19:38):
Thanks for listening toanother episode of the ATA Nation
podcast.
Be sure to subscribe and sharewith your ATA family.
Secret part.
There was something else I wasgoing to tell you guys.
Oh, guys, did you see on theATA's Facebook page where Spring
(20:02):
Nationals is next year?
Did you guys see it?
Did you see it?
I'm so excited.
It's going to be awesome.
Okay, take care.
Going overseas twice today.
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):
Welcome back, Ata Nation.
This is episode 147 of the AtaNation podcast.
It is a pleasure to be backwith you today.
We have two great guests on today.
I decided, I did one of theseinterviews at spring nationals and
I decided, like, how greatwould it be to have an international
(00:45):
athlete of the week as well asan international ATA school owner.
So we've got them both todayon episode 147 of the At Nation podcast.
Make sure you hit thesubscribe button.
Over to YouTube.
Hit the subscribe button onthe ATA's YouTube page.
Go to your podcast player, hitthe subscribe button.
We want all of ATA Nation tohear what we've got going on and
(01:09):
wait till the end.
I'll tell you something super awesome.
Let's get to our special guests.
Special guest interview.
ATA Nation.
We have another awesomeathlete from across the globe in
(01:30):
ATA Nation.
Ma'am, can you introduceyourself and tell us where you're
from?
Yeah, Atanation.
I'm Liba Fejeda from Braziland I train at ATA plant system in
Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Fantastic.
And what rank are you, ma'am?
I am a first degree black belt.
First degree black belt.
Congratulations.
And how did you get started inmartial arts?
(01:52):
So my mom is a black bellefrom Hapkido and I usually see her
as an example for me.
So when I was nine years old,she introduced me to taekwondo.
So.
(02:13):
And it was like first love my.
I love it.
So I started to practice sinceI was 9 years old.
That's fantastic.
I love that.
And you got introduced tomartial arts from your mom.
That's super cool.
What is your.
What's your favorite part oftraining in martial arts?
(02:35):
Martial arts connect people.
So when you train a martialarts, you can talk to other people.
Your skills, your life, youcan teach them new kicks, punch.
(02:55):
So you can talk to each other.
What do you train in your typeof martial art?
I love that.
That's great.
Yeah.
So you guys down in Brazil aregonna have the Pan Am championships
this year.
What do you.
When you go to tournaments andwhen you do tournaments, what's your
favorite thing to do at a tournament?
(03:16):
I have lots of friends aroundthe world and for me this is really
cool because in panamchampionships we chat to each other
and I can speak in otherlanguages, so.
And I.
And we can chat to each Otherand teach to other people new skills
(03:41):
that we can improve in ourtraditional forms.
Sparring.
So for me, this type of thing,internees are very important.
I love that.
It's all about, you know,getting to hang out with friends,
train with each other, do allthat fun stuff together.
Are you.
When you compete is likesparring your favorite thing to do
(04:04):
is it forms.
Weapons.
Extreme creative.
What's your favorite thing todo when you're in the ring?
My favorite event istraditional forms.
Nice.
And traditional weapons.
Very cool.
What's your weapon of choice?
Single Chuck.
Single song.
(04:24):
Good choice.
I love that one.
That was my.
That was my weapon of choiceas a.
As a first degree as well.
I like that one.
What's your event at a.
At a tournament that you'relike, not.
Not your favorite?
That's a hard question.
I love all but good answer.
(04:44):
I think the extreme form.
Because here in Brazil theextreme form is not a common thing
because we don't havegymnastics at school.
So for us it's very hard topractice new tricks.
So yeah, that makes sense.
(05:05):
You know, you don't haveaccess to quite as much of that gymnastics
training and whatnot.
I understand that.
I understand.
I love, you know, getting todo those different events.
Single songs.
Wrong.
Like I said, I love.
I love that one.
What kind of goals do you havefor martial arts?
Are you aiming to be, youknow, a master?
(05:26):
Do you want to teach?
You want to be a worldchampion Pan Am champ?
What kind of goals do you have?
So as Taekwondo at lead, weall have goals, right?
So for me, I have lots of goals.
My first goal is to become aworld champion and I'm keeping hard
and pushing hard to achievethis goal.
(05:48):
Other goal that I have is toevery country, every country have
its brand ambassador.
So my goal is to become abrand ambassador here in Brazil.
Oh, I love that.
That's a great goal.
Yeah, that's super cool.
Be A.T.A.
ambassador for A.T.A.
in.
In Brazil.
That's.
That's super cool.
(06:09):
Well, hopefully you could beable to share this video when it
goes live and everybody willsee how cool you are.
What does it.
So what does it mean to you tobe an athlete that goes beyond the
belt?
So going beyond the belttaught me to be more confident, to
enhance self awareness,fitness and ability to focus.
(06:29):
Also going beyond the belt isfor you to the skills that you've
learned on the mat.
You're going to bring them onyour real life.
That's great.
I love to hear every differentathlete that we've highlighted get
(06:51):
to Hear what they think of asgoing beyond the belt and how cool
it is to have kids all overthe world learning martial arts and
being able to share the factthat what they're doing on the mat
is not the only thing, thatthey're taking that information,
that lifestyle and living itout in the world.
(07:11):
And I think that's super cool.
So I want to thank you forbeing one, an inspiration to all
these other athletes out there.
They can see you, see whatyou're doing and be able to, you
know, set some goals likeyou've done.
And congratulations on beingchosen and one of the athletes a
week by the junior brandambassadors here in the US that's
(07:33):
awesome.
Thank you.
Well, congratulations.
And do you have any, do youhave any tournaments coming up that
you're going to be competing in?
Yeah, I have a tourney this month.
It's going to be the Brazilian Championship.
Excellent.
Well, good luck at that.
And then you said your, yourgoal is to be a world champ someday.
(07:55):
Are you coming to Worlds?
This.
Yeah, I, I, yeah, I was, I amclassified to the TOC from the Brazilian
Championship, so I'm competingit right now and try to go to the
Worlds.
That would be awesome.
(08:15):
Well, if you, if you head out,if you're able to go to Arizona this
year, make sure if you see me,you stop me and say hi, because I'd
love to meet you in person.
So that would be awesome.
Okay, I would do that.
Excellent.
Well, good luck at theBrazilian Championships.
Do your best, do your awesomeskills that we know you have.
(08:36):
Post on social media and leteverybody know how you did.
And congratulations again.
Thank you.
18 Nation.
We have with us aninternational guest, one of our favorite
overseas listeners.
Can you introduce yourself for18 nation?
Sir, yes, sir.
My name is Mr.
Bob Tom Bardwell and I'm thechief instructor at Mango Martial
(08:59):
Arts in, in Ireland.
Ireland.
As you might, might have toldfrom his accent.
So we're here at SpringNationals in Fort Worth.
Absolutely.
You guys actually have aconnection to Texas.
Can you give us the history ofhow kind of you started, you guys
started the ATA and then howyou got to Ireland doing martial
arts there?
(09:19):
Yeah, so we came over to,we've done quite a lot of traveling
and my wife's work took usover to, to Dallas.
Okay.
And then my son got into soccer.
He's always been in, intosoccer and various places.
You call it soccer?
Yeah, well, I, I saw a littlehesitation in the way you were saying
it.
No, your audience.
(09:40):
Yeah, absolutely.
So, yeah, and I was like,what's Keon gonna do?
Keon's my middle son, and wereally wanted to make sure that he
had something to do.
And I remembered that when Iwas younger, I did some jiu jitsu.
Okay.
So, yeah, when I was six, Istarted doing jiu jitsu, and I was
like.
And he was six as well.
And I thought, I'm gonna findsome martial arts.
And the ATA school was thefirst one I saw.
(10:02):
I went there, he did a class,and he loved it.
And you could see he wasabsolutely zoned in.
He was ready to go.
And, yeah, it's been.
And so how much longer tillyou started in and your wife as well?
Yeah.
So he started in December.
We went home, then we cameback, and we were started by March,
(10:23):
I think.
So, yeah.
Everyone else was on.
There was a small period wherethe older son, Owen, he started training
as well.
And then we were, like,sitting on the side watching, and
they said, well, why don't youcome on, try.
See.
See what it's like to actuallydo the moves as all good taekwondo.
(10:44):
Stricter should ask the parents.
Get on the floor.
Absolute.
So who.
What school was that?
Who was the instructor there?
So that's Ata Colleyville.
Okay.
So that was Mr.
Sifra.
He was doing that school atthat time, and then he went back
to Florida.
And now it's Mrs.
Mugi, who was a brown belt atthe time.
(11:06):
And, yeah, so we with her andthen under her.
And so now you guys are backin Ireland.
Obviously not right nowbecause we're in Texas, but yes,
sir, you get back to Ireland,you guys right away be like, hey,
we're gonna do this ATA thing.
Or was it a.
A process to think through?
Well, we were.
We were very lucky.
So we did.
(11:26):
We did Covid in Dallas, and Ithink that was probably a good place
to do Covid in.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think we're probably saferin Texas or a little freer in Texas.
Yes, everything's bigger in Texas.
I think that's true.
Uh, so, yes, then there was anopportunity to come back with work.
(11:48):
But also I met Chief MasterSchreiber, and he was opening a school
in the uk So I was like, okay,this could work.
Well, we were looking at maybegoing back to the UK or Ireland,
and then we swung it to.
To the UK to.
To try things there and gothrough the whole opening of school
(12:08):
process.
Yeah.
And learning from one of the best.
Yeah.
Oh, you can't go wrong.
Okay, so a question.
So when I talk to someinternational licensees, every country
is a Little bit different intheir perspective of martial arts.
Like we're very blessed in theUnited States where like everybody
knows martial arts is anotheractivity that you do and you can
(12:30):
have a martial arts school andyou can have a full time business
martial arts school.
You know Master Tangier fromPortugal, Portugal know was like
the first guy in this countryto open up professional martial arts
school.
What's the, what's it like in Ireland?
Is there, are there lots ofcompetition, is it normal thing?
(12:51):
So I have in, in our localtown where we are, there is actually
another full time professional school.
I don't know that it's theironly thing but it is a dedicated
space.
That has maxim or whatever.
Yeah.
So they do karate andkickboxing and things like that.
But yeah, when we told sort offamily that we were going to come
(13:12):
over and open a, they were alittle bit surprised.
They were like can you do that really?
Is that a thing?
And I mean to be fair, when wewent over we didn't know it was necessarily
going to be a thing.
We thought we're going to givethis a really good try and we'll
do an after school program andsee what happens.
We did the after school program.
We did a free taster sessionand we had 200 people turn up.
(13:38):
We did various schools butyeah, right, brilliant.
Okay, someone's interested in this.
We'll do a seven week program.
And then we did our seven weekprogram and I think it was 120 people
signed up.
So we were like, okay, thisseems good.
(13:59):
Yeah, this is, we, this has potential.
Yes, yes.
After three or four weekspeople were still turning up, which
is, which is a bonus.
And yeah.
So we said, oh well let's,let's take the plunge and see if
we can get this whole thingsorted out before the end of the
eight week cycle.
(14:19):
So we found a place, theymanaged to do it up in time and we
went into our full timelocation space and how long has it
been now?
So we actually opened on StPatrick's Day last year and yeah,
we've now been open for justover a year.
And business is good.
Things are going on.
Yeah, the business is very good.
We're delighted.
(14:40):
We have about 150 students.
Fantastic.
So yeah, so wow.
It's great.
That is, that is amazing.
I so random question.
What is with mango?
Yeah, that name with.
So we before we were in Dallaswe were actually, we were in Ireland
but then before that we werein Singapore.
(15:01):
Okay.
And I like to think thatlife's a journey and we take different
things from different chapters.
But when we were in Singapore,I was always taken by.
There was a tradition wherepeople gifted fruit to other people.
Okay.
And so they do it with mandarins.
And then there was anothertradition, I suppose that was different
(15:24):
fruits resemble differentthings or have different meanings
of different things.
So mango I looked up wasprosperity and knowledge.
And I thought, okay, so thiscould work.
So we're trying to give thegift of knowledge and prosperity
to other people.
I love it.
Students or instructors or whatever.
(15:45):
Yeah, it's such a unique name.
But with it being unique likethat, it's very memorable.
Yeah.
Like everybody is like, ah,mango flowers.
I got those.
Yes.
Yeah, that's super cool.
You guys have like a, like amango character that you like, do
some.
Stuff with some ideas.
Am I allowed to have that one?
I'll let you have that one for free.
(16:06):
Let you have that one for free.
You can have your own beltambassador campaign with the mango
guy doing that way you have tocome up with a fun name for it.
I'll leave that up to you.
Well, what are your guys's,you know, your international licensees?
I personally would love to seemore schools in the uk, Ireland,
those kind of places, becauseI'm key.
(16:28):
Every time I see Chief MasterSchreiber, I'm like, hey, I want
the European Championships tobe in the uk.
And he's like, well, right nowwe don't have enough schools.
I'm like, well, what.
So you guys keep going.
What, what kind of, what areyou guys looking at for the future?
I mean, for your personaltraining for your school?
(16:48):
Yeah, so I'm a second degreeblack belt, so I'm obviously hoping
to keep going along on that journey.
I'm competing Western atspring nationals.
So, yeah.
Trying to represent for, forEurope, I guess.
Yes.
So yeah.
But school wise, I will haveto see how it goes.
Really.
Just keep working.
I would never have guessed ayear ago that we'd have been where
(17:11):
we were.
We kind of did the, did themath and thought about, oh, is this
going to work with studentnumbers and how many people do we
need to break even and thatkind of thing.
And then I was like, okay,well this is, this could work.
And it seems to have worked so far.
Now we're actually, I thinkthis is like a exclusive.
I haven't told any of mystudents this.
(17:33):
I don't know when we're going live.
No, it'll be on the down low.
But we're actually going toopen a second floor.
Excellent.
So we've got One bay of thissort of big kind of warehouse place
and we're going to have acompletely separate one just next
to it.
So that's our current kind ofgrowth plan.
(17:53):
Some of our lessons are a bitbig, so we just want to make sure
that we give everyone the bestexperience that we can.
That's fantastic, sir.
Well, best of luck.
It was great meeting you herein the, in the States.
Maybe I'll get to meet youover there at your school someday.
Thank you so much for yourtime and we really appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
Thanks, sir.
Thank you, sir.
(18:14):
Back to training.
Here's what's going on in ATA Nation.
Want to say thank you to bothof our awesome international guests
and of course, Keenan, Athleteof the week.
How amazing is that?
Congrats.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, acouple of things.
Make sure you're checking out,staying up to date, close eyes on
(18:36):
the fact that we have districtchampionships coming up this weekend.
If you listen to this, when itdrops, you might be heading to one
of the very last tournamentsof the the very last tournaments
of the season.
So make sure you're enjoying that.
But district championshipscoming up, make sure you pay attention
to the time slot available tocorrect points and be ready to register
(18:57):
for districts.
Then we got the TOC and theSuper 20 tournament coming up in
July, Athlete Development Campcoming up in June, and I don't have
the date set yet, but the ATANation podcast is going to be taking
over and doing a couple oflive shows on YouTube and Facebook
(19:17):
or all of ATA Nation on theATAs social media pages.
So stay tuned for that.
And if you have somebodyspecific you'd love to hear from
on that, make sure you send usa message.
Facebook, Instagram, whereveryou find us.
Until next time at A Nation,get out there and go beyond the bells.
(19:38):
Thanks for listening toanother episode of the ATA Nation
podcast.
Be sure to subscribe and sharewith your ATA family.
Secret part.
There was something else I wasgoing to tell you guys.
Oh, guys, did you see on theATA's Facebook page where Spring
(20:02):
Nationals is next year?
Did you guys see it?
Did you see it?
I'm so excited.
It's going to be awesome.
Okay, take care.
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