August 8, 2025 • 11 mins
Taleah and Scarlett Walk, distinguished athletes and fraternal twins, are the focal point of this episode, as they share their remarkable experiences within the realm of martial arts and their aspirations in acting. Both second-degree black belts from Elite360 Studios in Trinity, Florida, they recently competed in the World Championships, where they showcased their impressive skills, with Taleah achieving commendable placements in various creative forms. In this discourse, they elucidate how their martial arts training has been instrumental in cultivating their confidence and stage presence, which they now apply to their burgeoning acting careers. As they transition from competitive martial arts to the performing arts, they reveal their commitment to personal growth and the importance of inspiring others through their journeys. The episode encapsulates the essence of perseverance, ambition, and the multifaceted nature of their talents, providing listeners with an insightful glimpse into the lives of these aspiring young performers.
Takeaways:
- The interview featured twins Taleah and Scarlett Walk, both accomplished martial artists from Elite360 Studios in Trinity, Florida, who shared their experiences and achievements in competition.
- Scarlett and Taleah discussed their recent participation in the World Championships, highlighting their impressive performances and the importance of self-confidence in their martial arts journey.
- The twins revealed their future aspirations, indicating a shift in focus from competitive martial arts to pursuing careers in acting and performance, emphasizing personal growth and confidence.
- Both athletes acknowledged the significance of the skills learned through martial arts, such as dedication and resilience, as essential tools in their acting endeavors and overall life pursuits.
- Taleah and Scarlett expressed their enjoyment of extreme forms in martial arts, showcasing their passion and dedication to both martial arts and acting.
- The conversation underscored the importance of community support within the ATA Nation, inspiring young athletes and performers to strive for excellence in their respective fields.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
You heard about this awesomenew thing for legacy students?
Welcome to the Ata Nation podcast.
Instructors, students,parents, family of Ata Nation.
Welcome back to the Ata Nation podcast.
(00:22):
This is episode 162 to theAtnation podcast.
I am your host, Senior MasterZach Hayden, and it is a pleasure
to be back with you again.
We're back in the groove.
World Championships is over.
We're back competing.
I got a tournament I'm goingto this weekend.
Are you heading to atournament this weekend?
Let us know.
Shoot us a message.
We'd love to hear from you.
(00:43):
We are really enjoying hearingfrom these athletes of the week,
but we've got other stuffgoing on too.
I don't want you to miss outon one the Ambassador corner.
Make sure you're checking thisthing out on Instagram.
It's really cool.
Good tips, all kinds of neat things.
Check out the all the new ambassadors.
We had one interviewed last week.
(01:04):
But here after our athleteinterview, I want to go over a really
awesome thing, a reallyawesome benefit you get if you are
an official ATA legacy student.
This is fantastic.
I love it.
Super excited about it.
Make sure you do not miss it.
It's going to be after the interview.
(01:26):
Let's get to that interviewright now.
ATA Nation, we're back withanother great set of athletes of
the week.
Ladies, I assume you guys are related.
Can you introduce yourselvesand tell us where you're from?
(01:47):
My name is Talia Walk.
My name is Scarlet Walk.
And yes, we're related.
We're actually twins.
We don't look like twins.
Yeah, we're fraternal, so wedon't look that much alike.
We're both 13 years old and weare from Elite360 Studios in Trinity,
Florida.
Oh, you guys have a newambassador from your school, right?
(02:10):
Yes, Ms. Constantine.
Yes, yes, I've met Ms. Constantine.
Very cool.
And your guys's school, I wasthinking at the awards gala that
they won an award this year.
I can't remember what that, Ican't remember what it was.
But yeah, we left early, but yeah.
I, I, yeah, it was, it wasSaturday night.
(02:31):
Elite 362.
They did.
I can't remember what it is.
Maybe I'll, we'll look in andsee if we can stick it in some of
the notes another time.
But you guys just came backfrom World Championships.
How did Worlds go for you?
It was a really, really funexperience competing wise.
It was so much fun, likeseeing all my competitors and I got
(02:53):
second place in creative formsand two world titles in creative
form.
I mean, no not creative form.
Creative weapons and extreme forms.
Congratulations.
Really well.
So I'm like, I'm really proudof myself because I performed really
well.
I didn't place in anything,but I qualified.
So hey, I, I think it'simportant for athletes to realize
(03:16):
that, you know, you're notgoing to place every year.
I mean, there are those peoplewho place every year.
I don't, those guys are just crazy.
I talked to a friend of mine,he's been in taekwondo for 30 years.
He got his first title this year.
Like, come on, if you can keepdoing it for 30 years, that's, that's
impressive.
So I forgot to ask, what rankare you ladies?
(03:36):
We're both second degree black belts.
Very cool.
So you're in the second thirddegree division.
And what age group?
11 12, but we're moving up to13, 14 now.
Oh, so the Super Deployment.
You guys compete in the Super20 this year?
No, we did not compete in theSuper 20.
Came home early, got, got doneand had to come back.
Well, you got that, that redshirt and stuff.
(03:56):
So.
Yeah, what you said.
You guys, what's your favorite event?
If you had to pick like, thisis the event that I cannot live without,
what event would that be?
For me it would be Extreme Forms.
That's probably also mine.
Yeah, I love doing flips in myform and showing off.
(04:18):
Very cool.
What about if you had to picka least favorite event, what would
it be?
Actually I haven't competed inthis event for a long time, so for
me it would be sparring.
Because when we started liketaking Creative extreme more seriously,
we were like, okay, beforeWorlds we don't want to get injured.
So we stopped doing sparringfor like a year and now I'm like
(04:41):
coming back to sparring.
It's hard because likeeveryone is like, has been practicing
and we haven't.
So it's hard.
Ah, that's rough.
I would do sparring at localtournaments, not like the big ones
because I don't want to get injured.
But that's also my least favorite.
Yeah.
What about.
You guys do combat or neitherof those?
I do combat, yeah, often, butnot that much.
(05:02):
Yeah, not that much.
It's a little easier to notget injured in that.
What about, I heard you guyssay you were doing some creative
weapons, things like that.
What weapon is your like go to weapon?
For me it would, I do thedouble swords.
So the swords, they sticktogether and they're magnetic so
you take them apart mid form.
Oh, that's super cool.
(05:24):
I do commas, I guess we bothlike our magnetic stuff.
You got the magnetic commas,then that stick together too.
Oh, that's very cool.
Oh, super.
Awesome.
I love that.
What kind of.
So we've just started a new year.
You guys finish off the lastyear really strong.
Looks like you did amazing.
Go into a new division.
(05:44):
What kind of goals do you havefor the new year?
It doesn't even have to betournament goals if you have other
kind of goals, but what kindof goals do you have as you're looking
towards the future?
So we're not really going tobe focusing on competing like for
world titles anymore, for more.
We're both actors, so that'smore of our focus now is like getting
(06:06):
our acting strong because itwas mostly like martial arts is like,
like world champion looks goodon the resume, right?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
That's not too shabby for me.
I just kind of enjoy theperforming part.
I'll probably still go tolocal tournaments and perform there.
Yeah, just for like, you know,showing off.
Oh, I'm an actor.
(06:26):
I'm.
And a martial artist.
Like, I combine them.
It's not, it's not more aboutthe placing, it's more about, like
your performance andinteracting with the audience, getting
them, like to clap and cheerfor you, you know, More of that.
Yeah, that's like totallypractice for, you know, the, your,
your goals.
Sounds like you're working onthat whole acting, that performing
(06:46):
part.
So just getting the reps in ofdoing extreme and creative kind of
things is just more practicedoing performance that way.
So that's.
Yeah, exactly.
What kind of have you guys done?
What kind of acting things areyou guys trying to get into more
like.
Like, for film and like movies.
We're working up to that.
(07:07):
Very cool.
I love it.
That's awesome.
I.
Who was I talking to?
Oh, no, I just saw there was alady that was a.
She was at Leaders for Life inIllinois for years and she went down
to Atlanta to work on being.
She wanted to be a stunt woman.
That was her thing.
She wanted to be a stunt womanand just recently was in.
In something cool and I waslike, wow, that's awesome.
(07:29):
Cool.
Yeah, yeah.
And then we've got, you know,lots of the ATAs got a fair number
of actor people who come out.
Master.
Master Mo is done act.
You know, Hana and her acting,so really cool now I'm gonna be super
excited when you guys go bigand I'm gonna be like, I did that
interview with those guys.
I, I knew that'll be so cool.
(07:52):
Okay, so what's it mean to youguys to be champions?
Beyond the belt for me.
So for me personally, Iapplied a lot of what I learned from
martial arts, like the skillsand the legacy program, to become
a singer and an actor.
So I'm also a singer.
I don't know.
I sang the national anthem inmy district.
(08:13):
That was like, huge for me.
I've never performed in frontof that many people.
It was really exciting for me.
And also, like, just to hangon, just to, like, inspire.
Inspire people, like, to betheir best.
Because, like, people don'treally know what they're capable
of until they really try, you know?
(08:34):
Yes.
Oh, that's great.
And I love that.
Just like, I mean, youperforming in front of, you know,
all these people for thenational anthem.
And that national anthem isnot an easy song to sing.
So that.
That is awesome, you know, andthat's inspiring as well, seeing
you guys, you know, theseathletes of the week come on the
show and they're like, wow, Ican be like those guys.
(08:55):
They're awesome.
What about you, Scarlett?
For me, I just kind of apply,like the life skills that I've learned,
like confidence anddedication, and I apply that into
my acting and perform, like,showing the world, like, this is
who I am.
Because before I was supershy, but now I'm like, not anymore.
That's awesome.
Has a.
Has kind of.
(09:18):
Usually that's my lastquestion, but I'm gonna go with one
more.
I. I'm curious because youguys are working on this acting things.
How have you seen martial artsand what you've done in martial arts
assist you in that kind ofgoal, building that confidence, things
like that.
Has it been a big part of it?
Yes, it helps.
It's helped us a lot withlike, building confidence to perform
(09:39):
because I was like, every timeI would go to compete, I would be
like, okay, I can't mess up myform or I'm going to lose or I'm
like, I'm not going to place.
But I really gained, like,self confidence in myself, like,
building my mindset to sayconfident things.
Like, I'm amazing.
I can do this because Ibelieve in, like, my skills and what
I can really do.
(10:00):
Excellent.
What about you, Scarlett?
Pretty similar for me.
Could you restate the question?
Certainly.
How.
How have you seen martial artsassist or help in your goal to be
an actor?
Building confidence or.
Or whatever way it might have helped.
You performing under pressure,like going out there and performing
(10:22):
live and then like having theconfidence to do it without, like,
any mistakes.
And then if you do make amistake, like fixing it and not like
crumbling under pressure.
Oh, that's a good one.
The.
The pressure.
Because you don't get.
You don't get multiple takeswhen you're doing your form or.
Or whatnot at a tournament.
You know, that's why it'sreally good, because that actually
(10:45):
really helps you prepare for acting.
Because on set, you getmultiple takes, but you're used to
performing under pressure andonly getting one.
That's awesome.
That's very cool.
Well, I am super excited that one.
You guys were the athletes ofthe week.
Congratulations.
It's just neat to see theseother students out there inspiring
all of ata nation.
(11:05):
And I'm really excited to seehow you guys continue to thrive in
not just your training, but inthis goal of being actors.
We look forward to seeing youguys on the.
On the big screen someday.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Have a great one.
You, too.
(11:28):
Forward to seeing those two onthe big screen or the little screen,
whatever.
You heard about this awesomenew thing for legacy students?
Welcome to the Ata Nation podcast.
Instructors, students,parents, family of Ata Nation.
Welcome back to the Ata Nation podcast.
(00:22):
This is episode 162 to theAtnation podcast.
I am your host, Senior MasterZach Hayden, and it is a pleasure
to be back with you again.
We're back in the groove.
World Championships is over.
We're back competing.
I got a tournament I'm goingto this weekend.
Are you heading to atournament this weekend?
Let us know.
Shoot us a message.
We'd love to hear from you.
(00:43):
We are really enjoying hearingfrom these athletes of the week,
but we've got other stuffgoing on too.
I don't want you to miss outon one the Ambassador corner.
Make sure you're checking thisthing out on Instagram.
It's really cool.
Good tips, all kinds of neat things.
Check out the all the new ambassadors.
We had one interviewed last week.
(01:04):
But here after our athleteinterview, I want to go over a really
awesome thing, a reallyawesome benefit you get if you are
an official ATA legacy student.
This is fantastic.
I love it.
Super excited about it.
Make sure you do not miss it.
It's going to be after the interview.
(01:26):
Let's get to that interviewright now.
ATA Nation, we're back withanother great set of athletes of
the week.
Ladies, I assume you guys are related.
Can you introduce yourselvesand tell us where you're from?
(01:47):
My name is Talia Walk.
My name is Scarlet Walk.
And yes, we're related.
We're actually twins.
We don't look like twins.
Yeah, we're fraternal, so wedon't look that much alike.
We're both 13 years old and weare from Elite360 Studios in Trinity,
Florida.
Oh, you guys have a newambassador from your school, right?
(02:10):
Yes, Ms. Constantine.
Yes, yes, I've met Ms. Constantine.
Very cool.
And your guys's school, I wasthinking at the awards gala that
they won an award this year.
I can't remember what that, Ican't remember what it was.
But yeah, we left early, but yeah.
I, I, yeah, it was, it wasSaturday night.
(02:31):
Elite 362.
They did.
I can't remember what it is.
Maybe I'll, we'll look in andsee if we can stick it in some of
the notes another time.
But you guys just came backfrom World Championships.
How did Worlds go for you?
It was a really, really funexperience competing wise.
It was so much fun, likeseeing all my competitors and I got
(02:53):
second place in creative formsand two world titles in creative
form.
I mean, no not creative form.
Creative weapons and extreme forms.
Congratulations.
Really well.
So I'm like, I'm really proudof myself because I performed really
well.
I didn't place in anything,but I qualified.
So hey, I, I think it'simportant for athletes to realize
(03:16):
that, you know, you're notgoing to place every year.
I mean, there are those peoplewho place every year.
I don't, those guys are just crazy.
I talked to a friend of mine,he's been in taekwondo for 30 years.
He got his first title this year.
Like, come on, if you can keepdoing it for 30 years, that's, that's
impressive.
So I forgot to ask, what rankare you ladies?
(03:36):
We're both second degree black belts.
Very cool.
So you're in the second thirddegree division.
And what age group?
11 12, but we're moving up to13, 14 now.
Oh, so the Super Deployment.
You guys compete in the Super20 this year?
No, we did not compete in theSuper 20.
Came home early, got, got doneand had to come back.
Well, you got that, that redshirt and stuff.
(03:56):
So.
Yeah, what you said.
You guys, what's your favorite event?
If you had to pick like, thisis the event that I cannot live without,
what event would that be?
For me it would be Extreme Forms.
That's probably also mine.
Yeah, I love doing flips in myform and showing off.
(04:18):
Very cool.
What about if you had to picka least favorite event, what would
it be?
Actually I haven't competed inthis event for a long time, so for
me it would be sparring.
Because when we started liketaking Creative extreme more seriously,
we were like, okay, beforeWorlds we don't want to get injured.
So we stopped doing sparringfor like a year and now I'm like
(04:41):
coming back to sparring.
It's hard because likeeveryone is like, has been practicing
and we haven't.
So it's hard.
Ah, that's rough.
I would do sparring at localtournaments, not like the big ones
because I don't want to get injured.
But that's also my least favorite.
Yeah.
What about.
You guys do combat or neitherof those?
I do combat, yeah, often, butnot that much.
(05:02):
Yeah, not that much.
It's a little easier to notget injured in that.
What about, I heard you guyssay you were doing some creative
weapons, things like that.
What weapon is your like go to weapon?
For me it would, I do thedouble swords.
So the swords, they sticktogether and they're magnetic so
you take them apart mid form.
Oh, that's super cool.
(05:24):
I do commas, I guess we bothlike our magnetic stuff.
You got the magnetic commas,then that stick together too.
Oh, that's very cool.
Oh, super.
Awesome.
I love that.
What kind of.
So we've just started a new year.
You guys finish off the lastyear really strong.
Looks like you did amazing.
Go into a new division.
(05:44):
What kind of goals do you havefor the new year?
It doesn't even have to betournament goals if you have other
kind of goals, but what kindof goals do you have as you're looking
towards the future?
So we're not really going tobe focusing on competing like for
world titles anymore, for more.
We're both actors, so that'smore of our focus now is like getting
(06:06):
our acting strong because itwas mostly like martial arts is like,
like world champion looks goodon the resume, right?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
That's not too shabby for me.
I just kind of enjoy theperforming part.
I'll probably still go tolocal tournaments and perform there.
Yeah, just for like, you know,showing off.
Oh, I'm an actor.
(06:26):
I'm.
And a martial artist.
Like, I combine them.
It's not, it's not more aboutthe placing, it's more about, like
your performance andinteracting with the audience, getting
them, like to clap and cheerfor you, you know, More of that.
Yeah, that's like totallypractice for, you know, the, your,
your goals.
Sounds like you're working onthat whole acting, that performing
(06:46):
part.
So just getting the reps in ofdoing extreme and creative kind of
things is just more practicedoing performance that way.
So that's.
Yeah, exactly.
What kind of have you guys done?
What kind of acting things areyou guys trying to get into more
like.
Like, for film and like movies.
We're working up to that.
(07:07):
Very cool.
I love it.
That's awesome.
I.
Who was I talking to?
Oh, no, I just saw there was alady that was a.
She was at Leaders for Life inIllinois for years and she went down
to Atlanta to work on being.
She wanted to be a stunt woman.
That was her thing.
She wanted to be a stunt womanand just recently was in.
In something cool and I waslike, wow, that's awesome.
(07:29):
Cool.
Yeah, yeah.
And then we've got, you know,lots of the ATAs got a fair number
of actor people who come out.
Master.
Master Mo is done act.
You know, Hana and her acting,so really cool now I'm gonna be super
excited when you guys go bigand I'm gonna be like, I did that
interview with those guys.
I, I knew that'll be so cool.
(07:52):
Okay, so what's it mean to youguys to be champions?
Beyond the belt for me.
So for me personally, Iapplied a lot of what I learned from
martial arts, like the skillsand the legacy program, to become
a singer and an actor.
So I'm also a singer.
I don't know.
I sang the national anthem inmy district.
(08:13):
That was like, huge for me.
I've never performed in frontof that many people.
It was really exciting for me.
And also, like, just to hangon, just to, like, inspire.
Inspire people, like, to betheir best.
Because, like, people don'treally know what they're capable
of until they really try, you know?
(08:34):
Yes.
Oh, that's great.
And I love that.
Just like, I mean, youperforming in front of, you know,
all these people for thenational anthem.
And that national anthem isnot an easy song to sing.
So that.
That is awesome, you know, andthat's inspiring as well, seeing
you guys, you know, theseathletes of the week come on the
show and they're like, wow, Ican be like those guys.
(08:55):
They're awesome.
What about you, Scarlett?
For me, I just kind of apply,like the life skills that I've learned,
like confidence anddedication, and I apply that into
my acting and perform, like,showing the world, like, this is
who I am.
Because before I was supershy, but now I'm like, not anymore.
That's awesome.
Has a.
Has kind of.
(09:18):
Usually that's my lastquestion, but I'm gonna go with one
more.
I. I'm curious because youguys are working on this acting things.
How have you seen martial artsand what you've done in martial arts
assist you in that kind ofgoal, building that confidence, things
like that.
Has it been a big part of it?
Yes, it helps.
It's helped us a lot withlike, building confidence to perform
(09:39):
because I was like, every timeI would go to compete, I would be
like, okay, I can't mess up myform or I'm going to lose or I'm
like, I'm not going to place.
But I really gained, like,self confidence in myself, like,
building my mindset to sayconfident things.
Like, I'm amazing.
I can do this because Ibelieve in, like, my skills and what
I can really do.
(10:00):
Excellent.
What about you, Scarlett?
Pretty similar for me.
Could you restate the question?
Certainly.
How.
How have you seen martial artsassist or help in your goal to be
an actor?
Building confidence or.
Or whatever way it might have helped.
You performing under pressure,like going out there and performing
(10:22):
live and then like having theconfidence to do it without, like,
any mistakes.
And then if you do make amistake, like fixing it and not like
crumbling under pressure.
Oh, that's a good one.
The.
The pressure.
Because you don't get.
You don't get multiple takeswhen you're doing your form or.
Or whatnot at a tournament.
You know, that's why it'sreally good, because that actually
(10:45):
really helps you prepare for acting.
Because on set, you getmultiple takes, but you're used to
performing under pressure andonly getting one.
That's awesome.
That's very cool.
Well, I am super excited that one.
You guys were the athletes ofthe week.
Congratulations.
It's just neat to see theseother students out there inspiring
all of ata nation.
(11:05):
And I'm really excited to seehow you guys continue to thrive in
not just your training, but inthis goal of being actors.
We look forward to seeing youguys on the.
On the big screen someday.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Have a great one.
You, too.
(11:28):
Forward to seeing those two onthe big screen or the little screen,
whatever.
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