May 30, 2025 • 49 mins
Siddhartha Bhat, a 14-time Team Canada Taekwondo national champion, shares his journey from being a troublemaking child to becoming one of Canada's most decorated martial artists. He explores the discipline martial arts instilled in him and why he believes every child should learn some form of self-defense.
• Growing up in Toronto as a child of Indian and Sri Lankan parents shaped Siddhartha's cultural identity
• Siddhartha was placed in Taekwondo at age three because he was "disrespectful" and "obnoxious"—traditional discipline wasn't working
• Why striking martial arts (Taekwondo, Karate) are better-starting points for children than grappling arts
• How martial arts gave Bhatman confidence as a "skinny brown kid in the 90s" who faced bullying
• The unique character development that comes from individual sports versus team sports
• Coming to terms with not achieving his Olympic dreams while finding purpose in coaching
• Why today's generation is intelligent and creative but lacks resilience and toughness
• Siddhartha's Khombatmaf program combines personal training with martial arts for complete development
Follow Siddhartha Bhat on Instagram @kombhatmaf to learn more about his training programs and classes at All-Star Martial Arts in Toronto's Leslieville neighborhood!
Powered by Perfect Sports Supplements use "AP15" to save 15%!
--
Want to see more of the AP? Subscribe to the AP YouTube channel.
--
Check out Siddhartha's stuff:
Instagram
--
Check out Dave's stuff:
Instagram
Twitter
LinkedIn
--
Try Can-I-Wellness Sleep Product 20% off - AP20 at checkout
--
Get 20% off Caldera Lab Men's Skincare Products
--
Get your Vivobarefoot Shoes 20% off by using the code: ATHLETEPOD20
Check out our Website | Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | Tiktok | Spotify | Apple | Google | Youtube l Save 20% on Perfect Sports Supplements
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Even right now.
Man, this is the good old days.
Like I appreciate thisconversation and five years down
the road I'm gonna be like yo.
That podcast talk, that episodethat I had with David, that was
crazy.
Man.
That was a great conversation.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, what's up?
Welcome back to the 259thepisode of the Athletes Podcast
today featuring Batman.
You guys heard it here first.
Sid is the man I stole hisshorts a few months ago.
Sid is the man I stole hisshorts a few months ago.
He is a 14-time Team CanadaTaekwondo national champ,
someone who I was fortunateenough to chop it up for about
45 minutes while we were in thesauna downtown Vancouver,
(00:34):
learned a bit more about hissporting background.
Figured, hey, we got to get Sidon the show to share more about
his upbringing, his background,why he believes Taekwondo,
amongst martial arts, should bethe sport that young kids
participate in.
And obviously, here at theAthletes Podcast, where our goal
is to educate, entertain andinspire, we're here to bring
(00:54):
those individuals on, have themshare their stories and allow
you as listeners, whether you're16, 65, or someone who's trying
to look or feel their best,whether you're trying to run a
marathon, lift, deadlift 500plus pounds, or just simply feel
and be in the best shape ofyour life, the Athletes Podcast
(01:15):
is here to help you do that.
Batman here has helped you todo that today.
Perfect Sports is also here tohelp you do that today.
If you use the code AP15 atcheckout, you get to save 15%
thanks to the athletes podcast.
You guys see it here.
I use a scoop of collagen, twoscoops of creatine nowadays
because new research shows fivegrams might not be enough.
So we're jacking it up to 10grams and then you guys know,
(01:37):
down below we got our diesel.
One to two scoops per day.
27 grams of protein the best inthe business.
Again, ap 15 to save 15% atcheckout.
Thank you to Perfect Sports forbeing an amazing partner over
the years.
They are supporting us.
You're supporting us right nowby listening to the show.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
If you can do me a favor, hitthat subscribe button and share
(01:58):
it with someone else who youbelieve will benefit from this
episode.
It would mean the world to meand allow us to continue doing
this incredible work on a weeklybasis.
Shout out to our producer, ryanLott, for putting this together
.
Thanks for tuning in.
259th episode of the AthletesPodcast.
Here we go.
You're the most decoratedracquetball player in US history
, world's strongest man, fromchildhood passion to
(02:21):
professional athlete, eight-timeIronman champion.
So what was it like making yourdebut in the NHL?
What is your biggest piece ofadvice for the next generation
of athletes, from underdogs tonational champions.
This is the Athletes Podcast,where high-performance
individuals share their triumphs, defeats and life lessons to
(02:41):
educate, entertain and inspirethe next generation of athletes.
Here we go.
Okay, no, I was just.
Next generation of athletes.
Here we go.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Okay, no, I was just, uh, what I was telling him was
cause he asked me initially wehad to read, we had to re, uh,
reschedule our podcast.
And so he asked me.
He was like, do you want me tosend you some of the questions
that I have?
And I was like, oh, it'd bekind of interesting to know.
But honestly, for me, when Ithink of a podcast, when I think
about these types of things,we're having a conversation.
You and me are having aconversation.
Whatever it is, mike Tyson andJoe Rogan, whatever it may be,
(03:06):
they're having conversationsright.
And so the beauty of a podcasthopefully from the audience
listening in is you're takingvalue from what somebody is
telling you, but you're alsolearning about how different
people speak, how differentpeople interact, how you might
give me a question that I'm like, oh shit, I got to think about
this for a sec.
So then you can kind of youkind of learn about how just
individual people adapt todifferent things, and so that's
(03:28):
why I love.
So I told them don't send meeverything, because I want it to
be spontaneous, I want to getcaught off guard a little bit.
I want to be like, oh damn, thatwas a great question, Right.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, there's value in being prepared, but also
having some level of oh, Iwasn't expecting that that is a
good question.
Let me dive deeper and reactand reply instead of formulating
a thought prior to theconversation.
Exactly, exactly, yeah becausesometimes things can get a
little scripted these days butyou know what isn't scripted
(03:58):
batman someone's stealing yourshorts for months and not even
talking to you.
Be like who's this?
Guy that shows up at a saunasession and just steals my
shorts.
What the heck's going on?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
You know, man, it's so crazy man, it's just so funny
how the universe works.
But uh, yeah, you know what Imean.
Like it's, it's funny, causethat that day when I, when I had
I brought, I brought the extrashorts and when I met you, I
just got, just got a good vibefrom you.
You know what I mean.
I mean, we're all part of thesame friend group anyways, so I
knew that everybody I was goingto meet that day was going to be
great.
But something about you, man,and then just you telling me,
(04:31):
like I could just tell, that dayI think you were kind of rushed
there a little bit and so youforgot some stuff.
And then you're like, fuck, Igot to go to sport check and I'd
be so annoyed to have to go nowto SportCheck to buy something
that I already have.
And so I was like you know what, why not just allow this guy?
Lend him my shorts?
It's okay, they're clean, it iswhat it is.
He seems like a good dude, whynot?
Worst case scenario I lose apair of shorts, it's all good,
(04:54):
that's the scenario.
We build a friendship, andthat's exactly what happened
here, exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
And they're not lost, they're just on the West Coast.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
That's it.
They're waiting for you on theWest Coast man.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Bet, bet, bet, bet.
I love it yeah yeah, yeah.
No Yo.
Welcome to the 258th, 59th man.
I should know this every time.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I'm always doing it.
That's amazing, it's crazy man.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
We keep just grinding out here and having fun with it
too, because the best part isyou.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
You bring up, I was russian, I'm always rushing to
stuff.
Liz was like hey, I got a goodgroup of people that are
like-minded individuals.
Come down to vancouver, comesauna, chill, hang out, have
some cool conversations.
My bet I'll see you there.
I'll be, you know five minuteslate and hooked up with some
shorts, and then you end uptalking with 14 time team.
Can Canada Taekwondo champion?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
you know, no big deal .
It was a good time, man.
It was a good time.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
But now you're back in Toronto, which is kind of
ironic given the fact that youspent three years in Vancouver.
You and I kind of switchedspots.
I spent some years over inOntario, brock University, st
Catharines, with spots.
I spent some years over inontario, brock university, saint
catherine's um.
Now that you're back in toronto, I, uh, we obviously get you on
the podcast now virtually,because it's so much better than
in person.
But at least this way we get totalk about how cool toronto is
(06:16):
right now, heading into summermonths.
I'll be out there in a month.
I'm gonna spend a day therebefore I go to the pwhl draft in
ottawa, tell me what it's likebeing back in Toronto before we
get into your career as anathlete.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah, man, absolutely .
I mean, it's great man, it'sgreat to be back home.
I say this all the time.
I've traveled a lot.
Obviously, martial arts hastaken me all over the world and
I'm very grateful for that.
But the beauty of that is,every time I would come back to
Toronto I'd just be like man,this is still home.
Like I go to Kazakhstan, I'llgo to Korea, I go to China, I go
to Guatemala, it doesn't matterwhere I go.
(06:48):
When I come back home, I'm likethis is home, this is what I
love.
And so when I went to Vancouver,I went there initially during
COVID, for a job opportunity,when everything was kind of shut
down, the world was all overthe place and I fell in love
with Vancouver.
I didn't think I was going to,but I fell in love with
Vancouver, and obviously it'svery easy to fall in love with
Vancouver.
But a part of me was stillmissing something, was still
(07:09):
missing something.
And so and that's one of thereasons why I moved back here
was just, I, just Toronto's myfrequency man, it's who I am,
it's what bred me, it's myculture, and so it's nice to be
back home, and it's not to saythat I don't want to be back on
the West Coast.
I'd like to be back out in theWest Coast at some point because
, as much as I love the EastCoast and Toronto and all that
(07:29):
stuff, the winter is still thewinter and you try to avoid the
winter as much as possible.
Especially when you get older,you know the bones can't take
the chill as much as it used to.
But man, I'm just, I'm blessedto be back home.
I got a great group of friends,I got some great family members
and, yeah, it's just like Isaid, it's just nice to be back
and, like you said, I'm comingat a good time because the sun
is coming out, the snow is gone,the chills are kind of fading
(07:52):
away.
So it's, it's blessed.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
People who spend time in Toronto know Toronto summers
are where it's at.
Tell me about your parents,though, because I think it's an
interesting place to start,toronto being the most diverse
city in the world, you havingtwo different races as far as
parents Indian and Sri Lankan.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
I almost had it.
I was remembering.
It's not good, bro, don't worry.
Two different, two differenttypes of brown.
My friend, you can say that Ican't, yeah, but yeah, so with
my parents, I mean growing upfor them I'm sure it was a big
challenge moving to Canada andobviously, dealing with the
(08:36):
stuff that they had to deal with.
You know what I mean.
Like racism, as much as it'sgotten a lot better, it still
exists, right, and so back inthe day like it was just even
that much worse.
But I just give them kudosbecause they just kind of put
their head down and they worked,man, they worked and they just
wanted to give us an opportunityand it was.
I was very fortunate.
Again, I was very fortunatethat, because Toronto is a very
(08:58):
diverse place in itself, it wasvery open to me and my brother
and kind of us and growing upand including us as much as
inclusion is right becauseracism still played a factor.
But, um, I was fortunate togrow up in toronto because if I,
if we did, if we did maybe getbrought up in a different city,
uh, or a different country, wemight have been segregated.
I don't feel like we werereally segregated we might have
(09:21):
even segregated ourselves alittle bit.
But at the end of the day, likeI grew up by christy pitts,
christy pitts is like very closeto koreatown right like so I
was around a lot of koreans, andthen right up north of us is
like little italy, and thenthere's a span that you know,
the salson st claire, and solike we grew up with a lot of
people around us, a lot ofcultures around us, and so, and
that's the thing, that's why whyI love Toronto, man, because it
(09:42):
just it gives you a nice scopeof different ethnicities,
different cultures, differentways of life, and when you bring
that together now, you create ahuman being that's now able to
touch so many different types ofrealities and so many different
types of cultures.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Right, Such a good point.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Thank you, brother.
Yeah, so I was very fortunate.
They did their job, theygrinded and gave us an
opportunity, an opportunity, andthen, yeah, and then we just
took it from there.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I mean, my brother just kind of took it from there
so was it their decision at theage of two or three to put you
in taekwondo for the disciplinethen?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
yeah, absolutely man.
So I was uh I say this all thetime and I hope I can cuss a
little bit on your podcast but Iwas a piece of shit kid growing
up like I.
I was a real piece of shit.
And when I say that it's like,oh, kids are kids, no, no, no, I
was a shit disturber, likethere's certain kids, they kind
of know what they're doing, youknow, and I was one of those
kids that I was just reallyannoying.
I was very obnoxious, I wasvery disobedient and the biggest
thing was, yeah, just growingup, I was just, I was very
(10:38):
disrespectful kid.
And that was a big.
In our culture I mean,hopefully in everybody's culture
, but especially in our culturerespect is a huge thing.
(10:58):
Right, at the very least withyour elders.
You've got to respect yourelders, and so I was just a very
disrespectful kid.
So they were like, and I grewup with like, in our culture too
, we, we, you know, we use theslipper, we use the belt, we use
the hanger, we use whatever youcan put your hand on, type shit
, right and um, and and thediscipline was not really
working.
So they were like we need to dosomething.
And so fortunately there was amartial arts school close to us
and so they took me there.
(11:19):
And again, I was very fortunatethat my master at the time, he,
he took me in, because mostschools they won't take you
until you're about four or fiveyou can comprehend a little bit
but he took me in and hedisciplined me.
I was like I think I waspunished every day for like a
month, a month and a half, likeI was just always in the corner,
always like you know, like justin punishment mode, but it
(11:41):
straightened me out, you know,and it's um, it's a, it's kind
of that old school mentalitywhere nowadays obviously we talk
about gentle parenting and wewe take different approaches on
how kids are, and obviously alot of kids now nowadays are on
a spectrum of something right,where I'm sure I was on a
spectrum of something too, wewere just not diagnosed right a
lot of parents, a lot of parentsdidn't want, didn't want to
know the answer to that questionright where now we want to, and
(12:04):
so so now we're changing andmolding in terms of how we we,
how we're raising our kids.
But I believe that a little bitof that old school mentality is
still necessary, bro, a littlebit of that stuff is still
necessary to fuse into the newschool mentality yeah, I didn't
necessarily have the slipper,the belt come out on me, but I
was.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
You know, I I recognize the value of
discipline and being uh, beingaccountable and responsible for
your actions and, like I thinkmartial arts taught, teaches
that from a young age.
I never was involvedspecifically, but sport in
general, I think, does that.
You know, maybe martial arts toa larger degree, but I am so in
(12:42):
favor of this.
I love what you're saying.
I do think that there's asofter generation now that has
come up because of this kind ofgentle parenting and that's a
problem.
Frankly, I ultimately thinkwe're creating a generation that
is soft.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
We're just soft.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, you said it.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I'll say it because it's funny, and I'll say this
because I'm a fighter.
I grew up a fighter.
Not everybody should be afighter, that's not the point.
But the point is I was justliterally discussing this with
my boy two days ago.
We went and we grabbed somebrunch.
We're talking, and we weretalking about these Gen Z kids
and stuff, how they're sointelligent man, they're so
creative and they're makingmoney, they're doing stuff
(13:26):
online, they're doing thesecrazy things.
But they're soft, bro, they'resuper soft.
And if I were to bump into youor just kind of blow on you a
little bit, you just you get alittle offended or you, you, you
get bullied a little bit andyou start to get into your
feelings and again, it's notknocking any of that stuff, but
at some point you got to standon toes, bro.
You got to be tough a littlebit.
You got to, you got to be likeyou know what.
And this is why I preach thateverybody should do martial arts
(13:46):
, not because you should be ableto beat people up, because you
should be able to protectyourself, because as a bully,
I'm going to bully you if I knowyou're weak, but if you're
strong, I'm not going to bullyyou, bro, I'm going to go
somewhere.
That's weak, right, because asa bully I'm big and because I
don't know what to do with that,I'm going to bully other people
, but if you're a martial artist, a true martial artist, you're
not bullying nobody.
(14:07):
You understand the concept ofgetting beat up.
You also understand the conceptof beating people up, and both
those things are not fun.
You know what I mean.
You do it in an environment oryou do it for a particular
reason.
I'm trying to get to nationalsor I'm trying to go to the
Olympics.
So I'm fighting somebody andbeating them because they're in
front of me, but I'm not doingit for fun.
You know what I'm doing.
I'm doing it because there's aprocess, there's a goal that's
happening.
So for me, this generation isvery soft, and they're soft
(14:33):
because they're coddled, becausewhen they say no, when you say
no to them, and they get grumpy,you say, oh, you know what,
nevermind, it's all good.
I had this yesterday with a kid.
A kid, I'm not the guy, I'm notthe one.
You can try that with somebodyelse.
I'm not the dude that you'redoing that with, because I'm
trying to make you better and ifyou do that under the real
world you're going to get.
(14:53):
You're going to get chewed upand spit out.
It's a lot, it's a lot, it's alot.
I love it.
I love it.
It's good.
I got to wind you up, I got tokeep you going what's up?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
What martial arts should they jump into first?
Yeah, absolutely Great question.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
So me personally, I'm going to be a little biased
here.
But if they're kids, you got toput them in something striking.
So either Taekwondo is what Ispecialize in, so either
Taekwondo, karate, muay Thai,something striking based.
Why I say that is because whenyou're young, you need to learn
about your body, you need tolearn your body's growing, you
need to understand how to use it.
The other thing is when you'redoing something striking, basic.
(15:24):
So I'll use Taekwondo as theexample.
You start off with learning howto move your body.
You start learning how to kickand punch, and you do it on a
target, right.
So now I'm hitting somethingthat's not moving, that's an
object.
So I don't have to have a lotof fear based on that.
I have to just learn to createthe skill and develop.
Once I do that, then I got theinstructors or my partners
(15:46):
hitting me a little bit too, soI can practice blocking.
They're not hurting me, they'rejust they're teaching me, right
.
So now I block and now, ooh,that kind of hurt a little bit,
even though these pads are soft.
Ooh, that was.
That felt a little bit weird.
Ooh, that felt a little bitweird.
Okay, now I got to toughen up alittle Now.
Once we've gotten that, nowlet's kick that person and let's
get kicked as well.
Now we learn how to get hit andwe learn to knock it, because
if somebody goes to hit me and Iclose my eyes and I just turn
(16:08):
like that, david, I'm not reallyprotecting myself, dog.
So I need to understand to lookat something that's scary coming
at me and still learn how todefend myself right and then
after that, once you've and nowyou've incorporated how to
rotate your body, how to twistand punch, how to twist and kick
, how how to twist and kick, howto make proper contact, now we
can get into a little bit ofgrappling and start doing some
jujitsu, some judo, because aswe get older, if you were to get
(16:30):
into a fight, knock on wood,you don't.
But if you do, most fights aregoing to be close combat, right.
So, understanding how tograpple and put somebody in a
headlock or in an arm bar orsomething like that, just again
to disassociate, at the end ofthe day, is to disassociate from
the situation.
It's not to stand over somebodyand beat the shit out of them.
No, that's not the goal.
The goal is I can protectmyself, I'm going to protect
(16:51):
myself enough to to get away,and then I'm out.
You know what I mean and so whatI would say to start off with
again, to round back to it, isdo something striking.
First, get an understanding ofthe body and then we can go down
onto the ground.
Because when we go down ontothe ground again, somebody's on
top of me.
So as a kid sometimes we likethe rough house, but really a
kid doesn't want another kid ontop of them for two, three, four
(17:12):
minutes where they can't moveor wiggle.
It's annoying, it's frustrating, it pisses you off.
So you want to learn anddevelop first.
Okay, you know what.
I know how to get.
I know how to get hit.
I know how to hit somebody.
Now I know how to get somebodyon top of me.
Now.
I know how to flip somebody offof me.
Now I I know that if I'm in aposition and they got me in a
lock, I might have to wiggle outof it.
That might take a few minutes.
I have the patience.
I've learned to have thepatience to get out of that
(17:35):
right 100, do you?
Speaker 2 (17:37):
uh?
Do you feel like this buzzthat's around brazilian
jiu-jitsu is overhyped?
Because that's all?
I hear?
Everyone's jumping into bjj?
You get it?
You hear it like why is that?
Why is that the only one thatguys bros, jim bros, 2030s, 40s,
like, dedicated to?
Is it joe rogan?
Is that what it is?
Speaker 1 (17:56):
it's because of mma.
No, it's because of the ufc.
So what it is is if you look ata lot of these guys, if you
look at a lot of these likedagestani fighters and all that
stuff, they're all wrestlers,right.
So jujitsu is the closest thingto wrestling right and um and
one of my, one of my really goodfriends, he's a.
He used to wrestle back in theday and um he and he told me
he's been telling me this for along time because he did
(18:16):
taekwondo, stuff like that too,and he um great friend of mine
and he always kind of praises meon how great I was in Taekwondo
.
But he's like, bro, if I wereto wrestle you, I'd kill you.
You know what I mean InTaekwondo, I'll bust you, you'll
bust my ass 100%.
But as soon as I get you to theground, you're done and he's not
wrong.
And so in that scenario that'swhy a lot of these older guys
and stuff like that are goinginto that, because they're
watching UFC they're seeingthese guys get into headlocks,
(18:38):
get um to a certain degree.
It's also a little bit easieron the body.
Again, it's not great on thejoints and stuff like that when
someone is locking you up andstuff, but it's easier than
continuously kicking orcontinuously picking your legs
up or continuously punching andblocking and all that stuff.
(18:59):
So, um, that's the reason whyum that's a reason slightly less
impact exactly, there'sslightly less impact and all
that stuff into it.
So that that's the reason whythat people and, like I said,
moreover than not, it's UFC, ufcis taking over.
And a big grunt of it is thewrestling and jiu-jitsu.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Speaking of UFC, we can't bring this up without
shouting out Mike Malott,jasmine Jazduvidius, for putting
up an insane performance northof the border.
Montreal, did you watch?
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Did you see the highlights?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did.
Yeah, yeah, no, that was crazywhat he did last week yeah so
jazz is a friend of the show.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
We've been working on getting mike on.
At some point when we're backin to you, we might have to make
it happen.
But man like 15 000 michaelgoisman, a buddy of mine who's a
photographer, uh, combat, deer,combat, combat, fight.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
I'm screwing up their name either.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Combat, uh, no, deer, combat like they're uh he does
the photo video visuals likesome insane visual work.
Anyway he he's been doing a tonof the shooting for the ufc and
uh man he said it was the mostelectrifying environment he's
ever been a part of.
I'm so jazzed up about the factthat jazz and mike both got the
(20:12):
w?
Uh you can't replace you knowrepresenting your country,
you're familiar with it.
14 time team canada.
Can you tell me what that'slike, how you become involved 14
straight years like?
Speaker 1 (20:27):
yeah, absolutely so.
I was again.
So I was, yeah.
So, first of all, to talk aboutwhat you said, yeah, there's
nothing like representing yourcountry, it's just it's
different.
And the thing is, at one pointI was trying to represent india.
I wanted to just again, just forthe fact of again, canada is a
first world country we havemillions of athletes that want
to compete every day, and if Iwere to step down, somebody
(20:47):
could replace me I, I mean, theycan't replace me, but they can
put them in my, in my position.
But countries like India andstuff like that, it's, it's very
difficult if it's not cricketor something like that.
They're not really on, they'renot at the top of the top Right.
And so a part of me wanted to,a part of me wanted to kind of
give that kind of glory to India, but but unfortunately they
(21:08):
don't do dual citizenship and Iwas definitely never going to
give up my Canadian citizenship.
That's not happening.
So just there's a big sense ofpride, for sure, when you
represent your country.
It's crazy, right.
Like you just think about it,like I'm literally I'm
representing this whole country,like these guys are supposed to
be cheering Hopefully they'recheering for me, but it's a big
country that's cheering for you,right?
And so it's a level of like,gratitude and a level of
(21:31):
accomplishment and a level ofhonor Right now.
In terms of what I did, I wasvery lucky because growing up
again, I was put into Taekwondofor discipline and initially,
like I told you, I was aterrible kid, so I didn't like
it, I didn't enjoy it, it wasn'tfun and I want to quit.
And then so Taekwondo, themartial art, has like four main
components.
They got the self-defensecomponent.
(21:51):
You got your patterns, likeyour pomse, your katas, you got
your board breaking, um afundamental component.
And then you got the fightingcomponent.
So once we started fighting ata very young age, I realized I
was good at this, like I.
I don't know why, I don't knowwhat, how, but I was good at it.
So I started winning at likeseven, eight, nine years old.
I was knocking kids out ateight years old, nine years old,
(22:12):
like, yeah, and so.
So I was like, oh, I'm good atthis, I like this.
And then, obviously again it'sa little bit of the ego, right.
Like you know, people start tocompliment you and wow, this and
that.
And then you're like, oh shit,like I'm wanted to close up his
school.
So he took me to his master andhis master was like a national
(22:34):
and Olympic level coach.
So then I was put into it and Iwas just training with national
athletes and Olympians and I waslike I want to do this, I want
to go to nationals.
These guys are traveling theworld and fighting and I'd love
to go to the Olympics That'd beamazing if I could get to the
pinnacle of my sport and so Ijust stuck with it, man, and
honestly it was just.
It was an easy transitioninitially, then between 14 to 17
(23:00):
, it was a little bit of achallenge getting into that kind
of like junior A division andkind of transitioning to the
senior role.
But once I transitioned andkind of got into a rhythm and a
flow and kind of got my name outthere, um, it was just kind of.
After that it was kind of um, Idon't want to say a cakewalk,
but for nationals like I, just Iwould step into the ring and
like people knew what was goingon, like it was just it was my,
it was my competition to lose,right, um, and so that was my
(23:23):
confidence that comes fromwinning, and it's like
absolutely there's a, there'ssomething to be said once you've
done something, once, like youknow, winning a Stanley Cup, for
instance, with the playoffsgoing on, or LeBron James, who's
won you know X amount of titlesyou bring.
that aura, that confidence.
Yeah, yeah, no, 100%.
Jinx, yell me a soda.
(23:44):
I got you, I got you, I'll beback.
Actually, you're coming here,right, you're coming.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're stopping for a day.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, I'm always curious becauseI think, like, individual sports
bring out different aspects ofindividuals than team sports.
Some people prefer them, otherswill never compete in them.
Too much pressure all onyourself.
Was that ever a considerationfor you?
I know your parents kind of.
Or you decided that you didn'treally want to expose yourself
to other sports because youwanted to stay prime and proper
(24:15):
for this one, right?
Speaker 1 (24:16):
yeah, so, yeah.
So that's a great question, man, because I love basketball.
Growing up that was that was mything and um, but I started to.
As I got older, I started torealize that I was quite
athletic for, like my age, mystature, like, even culture,
like being a brown guy, like alot of brown people are not
particularly athletic.
At least back in the day,things have changed now.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Hold on, hold on it's such an interesting topic,
though Sean Peary brought thatup from my First Million.
He's like man.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
I don't know what it is, but we're struggling a bit
here the Indian culture and it'slike is that diet, Is that like
, what is that?
What do you think?
Yeah, so I think, so I thinkit's.
I think it's a focus on on onathleticism.
So and and and.
Again, I think things have.
Things have changed and thingshave shifted, but back in the
day, as if you're talking aboutIndians, indians are trying to
be doctors, they're trying to belawyers, they're trying to be
(25:05):
education, they're trying to usetheir brain to be successful,
and the only way to besuccessful in a sport was
cricket, but outside of that youdon't see Indians trying or
doing anything.
So, my, for my thing, when I wasgrowing up, I was like I want
to be.
I want to be this brown guythat can keep up with the black
guys, that can keep up with thewhite guys, that can keep
whatever sport we're talkingabout Right and uh.
(25:26):
So I loved a hundred meters, Iloved high jump, I loved all
these sports, but I justrealized, like I would, I was
just excelling the best atTaekwondo and so I should just
kind of zone in on that and yeah, and so I would.
I would just kind of lock inand, like you said, when you
start winning and when it startsto kind of you start to get the
(25:49):
ball rolling, you're like youknow what, I'm going to continue
.
And this, this helped mebecause, again, being a skinny
brown kid in the 90s, I wasbullied.
I didn't I didn't have a lot ofconfidence.
I didn't know where I stood andhow I who, what kind of crew I
was trying to create or bearound, or who.
I am Right.
I mean, and we're doing thatanyways, that anyways.
(26:09):
As kids, we're trying to figureout who we are.
As teenagers, we're trying tofigure out who we are.
And so, with Taekwondo, anytimeI step into the ring, I had
this aura, I had this, thisthing about me, and even at the
competitions you'd have, I'dhave parents, coaches, masters
coming up to me and being likegood luck, or don't beat up my
kid too much, or I can't wait tosee you in the finals, or like
you know what I mean, just stufflike that.
Or I can't wait to watch youand stuff.
And it's like, damn, like thesepeople really want to.
(26:30):
They want to see me, their eyeis on me, they're thinking about
me and it's like that's crazy.
So it's like now, how do I usethis confidence, how do I use
this, this kind of aura that Ihave?
How do I translate this now tothe real world?
Right, and so I kind of triedto try to use that as like, how
do I, how do I carry this, thisthe sense of self that I have on
(26:51):
the mats and when I travel theworld?
How do I now do that in thereal world?
And that was a beautifulchallenge and that's kind of
what I do now with my studentsis kind of it's not about really
the sport and sorry.
So when you're talking aboutpressure, I didn't really feel a
lot of pressure, uh, in theindividual sport.
I think it would have been alot more difficult in a team
sport, just because I could bethe greatest that I can be, and
(27:11):
you see this all the time.
But if my team doesn't, if I,if I, if I'm not a great leader
and I can't lead my team tosuccess, then then it doesn't
matter how great I am, I mean,and if I'm not meant to be a
leader, that's OK.
Then how do I become thegreatest Robin or the greatest
you know?
Speaker 2 (27:29):
role players.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
But I never.
I never saw myself like that,like just the success that I had
at a young age and the aurathat I felt that I had and
created, and that I felt thatquiet confidence.
You're talking because I alwaystried to stay humble too.
Man, I didn't, I never tried toblow my horn.
I'm always about sportsmanshipand all that type of stuff.
Like I'll talk shit to youeither during or or after.
I'm not trying to talk shit toyou before, because that's the
(27:51):
worst thing in the world to talkshit and then get your ass
handed to you exactly.
And then get your ass handed toyou and then what?
What are you saying?
Speaker 2 (27:57):
instead I'll be quiet .
Speaker 1 (27:58):
You can talk all that nonsense and then I'll talk to
you while we're fighting andI'll talk to you afterwards and
I'll come up to you and remindyou hey, remember all that shit
you were talking before.
Make sure you shut the fuck upuntil you accomplish what you
need to do.
Then you can talk all the shit,because I'm I'm about it, bro.
I'm about being cocky, I'mabout that type of that type of
shit.
But be humble too.
Be respectful.
If you lose, lose with dignity.
(28:18):
If you win, win with dignity aswell, you know.
And so I think I think withwith individual sports, I think
that's very prevalent and I likethat because you see, a lot of
kids nowadays will throw a fitlike, how many kids I've fought
and I beat?
And they, like, they take theirhelmet and they smash their
helmet, or they show attitude totheir coach or they go swear at
their parents.
I'm like, are you dumb?
I'll beat you up again, justfor that Don't don't, don't,
(28:41):
don't carry yourself like that.
That's not what it's about Right?
How many times I've lost, andit's been painful, losing by one
at the last second.
You know how many times I wantto smash some shit, but I'm like
no bro, carry yourself, becausepeople are watching right where
in a team sport sometimes youcan get away with that shit
because there's so many peopleinteracting that you could be a
little bit of a piece of shit onthe corner over there and not a
lot of people are going to seeright, and so in that sense I
(29:04):
don't like that because it's not.
It's not character development,especially for kids.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
That's such an interesting point.
I love that.
I grew up playing a lot ofhockey.
I also played golf, basketball,so had a combination of the two
and I think I'm really gratefulfor that.
But I think that characterdevelopment is a key and if you
only play team sports, you neverhave that microscope on you in
isolation.
There's a lot of benefits thatcome from that over time,
(29:32):
whether it is handling pressure,whether that is character
development like well, it's,yeah, that's a really good point
.
Um, I know your goal eventuallyor at one point, was to be an
olympian.
I'm curious around thatconversation you obviously close
with liz, three time olympian.
We talked about it.
It's like yeah, you know, I haddoug lynch on the podcast a few
(29:54):
weeks ago.
He played a couple games in thenhl.
He, in his words, talked aboutthe fact that I, like, I feel
like at some point it sometimesis a failure, but he's founded a
company.
They just won, uh, an award forbeing the most environmentally
friendly company or having themost environmentally friendly
product.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
I think I saw that.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Zenkai, Zenkai, Philium yeah, that's sick.
So it's like, and like, yeah,shout out to Doug and Philium
Zenkai Sports for putting thattogether.
But I mean more so on thattopic of like, hey, living with
sometimes feelings that it islike yeah, how do you, how do
you go about way to handle that?
(30:36):
I appreciate it man, thank you.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
So I you know what man.
It's tough, it's heavy, and soso people always ask me like yo,
do you watch the Olympics?
And it's like man, even to thisday it's hard for me to watch
the Olympics, bro, because Ijust look at it, I watch it and
I'm like I should have beenthere, that should have been me.
I see some of these athletessometimes and I'm like I beat
that guy or you know, I steppedwith that guy, I did some stuff,
(31:01):
but ultimately everybody's gottheir path and for me I still
and I think probably to the dayI die a part of me will have a
little chip on my shoulder thatyou know what.
It was a little bit of afailure.
I didn't get the Olympic ringstattooed on me, and so that kind
of hurts a little and it ithurts a little, and it's not to
say that it can never happen.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Who knows, I might be the coach that takes an athlete
to the that's what I'm justgonna say combat mafia, be able
to bring out someone who ends upbeing an olympian.
That's still the same impactand actually arguably could be
greater because we have 10olympians.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Right, correct, exactly, and that's what that's
what I've, that's what I've cometo learn is, when you play the
sport or when you do certainthings, you're I mean,
ultimately you're the brand in,you're the brand In life, you're
the brand right and it's allabout you.
And as I've gotten out of thesport and transitioned into
teaching and coaching stuff,it's not about me, it's about
the greater good and what I canimpact off of it.
So for me, it's like the goalof striving and achieving to
(31:53):
Olympic status gave me so muchthat now it's my duty to give
back and hopefully pave a wayfor someone to be better than me
and for thousands of people tobe better than me, but at least
one.
And if at least one personcould be in my shoes hopefully a
brown kid, but at least oneperson if they could be in my
shoes and get to where I got toand then beyond, and, and I had
(32:14):
some type of role or factor inthat, some type of influence,
then I've done my job.
And I was talking about it inthe previous podcast.
We were talking about legacyand I don't really I don't think
about legacy too much, but if Ido think about legacy, I would
think about how many peopleyou've influenced, right?
That's legacy and so so to me,yeah, it's tough man Like, and I
(32:34):
again, it's not to say that Idon't watch the Olympics.
I do but and I love it, Ialways will.
But it's difficult, especiallyTaekwondo, to watch Taekwondo at
the Olympics.
It's very tough for me.
But it's not to say that I'm afailure, and when I talk, toot
my horn just a little bit, bro,but I was probably one of the
greatest male fighters to everstep on a mat in this country,
you know, and I was top 10 inthe world and a lot of, a lot of
(33:08):
these countries that I went to.
My goal was to if I don't beatyou, you're going to earn my,
you're going to earn my respect,I'm going to earn your respect
and you're going to earn myrespect.
And I'm pretty, I'm, I could, Icould say that I did that.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Hey, quick break here in the middle of this episode
to say thank you to Pioneer AutoGroup Aldergrove for hooking us
up with our plug-in electricJeep that we get to drive around
in here in the lower mainland.
Typically, we're doing ourpodcasts in this Jeep.
Now this one virtual.
Obviously we can't do everysingle one in person, but we're
aiming to do so on the AthletesPodcast.
Thanks to Pioneer Auto GroupAlder Grove for providing us
this amazing Jeep.
(33:47):
Now you know yeah.
You can say it with confidencetoo.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
And.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
I think it's.
I wanted to bring that upObviously not the most fun guy
thing for me to ask about, but Iasked because you do have a
good mentality around it and Ithink it's something that you
know young athletes listeningyou talk about impacting one
person.
We're on the 259th episode ofthe show.
You know, my goal at thebeginning was to do one.
(34:14):
We're probably at the couple ofhundred thousand, maybe
millions of people impacted atthis point at one point or
another, just from an impressionstandpoint alone.
And I think that's where whatyou're saying it's so important,
because maybe you don't makethe olympics, maybe you don't
make the nhl, the nba, the wnba,the pwhl, but you make an
(34:36):
incredible network.
Along the way, you learn a tonof valuable skills, you build an
incredible body that you canuse after your career as an
athlete and oh, by the way, allthose skills are now applicable
afterwards in the workplace.
You're going to be anincredible employee or
potentially found your owncompany.
There's so many externalbenefits that come from
(35:00):
participating in sport right andpursuing the best possible
version of yourself.
Ultimately and I think that'swhat you've kind of seen I'm
curious like how did you getinvolved with that group.
How did you connect with liz?
Where did that conversation allstart?
Because I was just thrown inthere, like you said last minute
.
So give me some context here.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah, yeah, so Liz knew.
So I think.
So the thing is, I met Liz awhile ago in this.
I believe I met her a while agoand it was so.
When you're a national athlete,they have this program called
Game Plan.
I'm not sure if you've heard ofGame.
Plan or not.
Yeah, yeah, so it's a greatprogram, and so I believe I was.
(35:38):
So you can can, as an athleteeither current athlete or
retired athlete you can registerfor different what's it called
programs that they have withinthe game plan organization,
right?
So they'll have public speakingstuff, workshops, they'll have
cooking workshops, and so Iremember connecting with Liz I
believe it was online initiallythrough one of these workshops
(35:59):
it might have been the publicspeaking workshop or whatnot and
it was just.
Again, it was very nonchalant,right, because there were so
many athletes there and weconnected and we vibed and we
followed each other on Instagram.
But then, you know, as you meetpeople, you know it kind of
trickles away and you just kindof you kind of follow them on
their stories and see theirstuff and unless they have your
(36:20):
shorts Unless they have yourshorts, exactly In which case
you stay locked in.
And then I met a friend of oursthrough an organization called
BNI and then again I just gotinvited into this group chat and
they were like, hey, do youwant a cold plunge and hot sauna
(36:41):
?
And I'm like, bro, like this iswhat athletes do.
I love that, and if we'retrying to, and it's such a big
thing, obviously in Vancouverand I'm sure it's out here and
all that stuff now too.
But the concept of the coldplunge sauna therapy and I was
like, yeah, what?
I mean, we do this as athletes,but this is nice to kind of
like understand that this isgreat for mental health, for
(37:01):
outside of it, for regularpeople.
And so I was like, yeah, whynot?
Why don't I network some more?
Why don't I meet some people?
And so I got invited to that,um, to that session, and yeah,
the rest is history.
Man, I got to reconnect withLiz.
It was cool, you, I know youfrom somewhere.
It's like, oh yeah, we did, wedid resonate before and connect
(37:21):
before.
So it was nice and uh, yeah,it'd be nice to see her again.
Like she's a great human beingand anytime I'm around Olympians
, it's always I'm, I'm alwaysagain, I'm always in awe, but
I'm always honored and I also Ialways feel like I belong in
that, in that realm, in thatreality, in that scope of
individuals.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
So, um, yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
It was nice yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Yeah, yeah, the uh.
Do you use hot cold therapy aton.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
Have you been to other ship in Toronto yet I
haven't been to other ships, sosomeone told me about other ship
I got to go there, I actuallyhad a date.
I had a date lined up there butit fell through.
But, um, I got it.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
I got to check out.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Yeah, uh.
But yeah, I got to check outother ship and uh, yeah, I mean,
when I was in, when I was anathlete, I was doing a lot of
cryotherapy.
Actually I wasn't I didn't, Iwasn't a big fan of the cold
plunge itself, but I did a lotof cryotherapy, uh, and that was
really nice, I believe.
I believe that really helped alot for me.
But I personally I like thecold plunge like in nature, like
(38:17):
going into the water and stufflike that.
That's's.
That's some people.
You go out to the beach or yougo to the water, you go to the
lake.
That's always nice.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Yeah, we my buddy Dan and I went up, did Garibaldi up
in BC a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
That was that was cool.
That was cool.
I believe that.
But that's, that's beautiful.
You got to do it, man.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
When you're up there.
You got to do that, right.
Yeah, you got to change it upand you got to be in nature.
I was like I'm going up alittle little getaway this
weekend and it's you need thatreset.
Um, the value of nature, Ithink like one of the things
I've brought up here time fewand far between the value of,
like grounding, I got sent somegrounding well products to sleep
on to use.
I don't know.
Do you have any fun things Likeare you worried about your seed
oil consumption?
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Like, what's got you concerned in life right now?
I'm always curious yeah, that'sinteresting, man, because so
you talk about that and Ihaven't.
I haven't zoned in on it toomuch, but I got to start
thinking about it.
I'm coming to that point now.
I'm 35 in July and so, like you, got to start thinking about
taking you know, you're, you're,you're superhuman when you're
under 30.
Right, and you don't, you don'tcare to.
(39:24):
I always talk about this.
There was this one gentleman Iforgot.
I forgot who it was, butthere's this gentleman when I
was in high school, I was 14.
And he told me, I remember hewas like, like, enjoy what you
have right now, take advantageof it, because you'll realize
everything is going to dwindleas you get older.
And I'm like I remember beinglike man, shut the hell up.
Like I'm never going to stoptraining, I'm never going to
(39:45):
stop looking good, I'm nevergoing to stop being fit.
And then when I retired, bro,the amount of eating that I did,
the amount of drinking that Idid, the amount of like I
stopped.
I stopped training and I waslike, fuck, it's kind of hard to
get back into training.
Like this is wild.
And I'm like and I always thinkback to that gentleman.
I don't know who he is, he'sjust a face to me, but I just
remember that conversationbecause now I do the same thing.
Every youth that I see.
(40:06):
I'm like yo enjoy this shit, Ipromise you, I promise.
And they're like man.
Shut the hell up, bro, but it'sfull.
The universe is just cyclesthat just continue to repeat.
Right and so for me, right now,man, when you talk about
grounding nature, like you saidand that's why it was so hard
for me to leave vancouver,because nature is it's number
one there right and it's just soeasy to be grounded there.
(40:28):
But I like to go to, I like togo by the water, I like to go
out in nature, just sit in thegrass.
Another thing that I kind of doI talked about uh is um, so I
don't, I don't know if you,obviously you haven't met my cat
, but he's a big part of my lifeand uh, and he keeps me
grounded and, like I say thisand it can be kind of silly or
(40:49):
whatever maybe, but people thathave pets or people that know of
pets, they understand this.
But when you have, when youhave a pet man, it's something
different because they it's,it's almost like a kid, but the
but with the pet they don'tnecessarily grow up the way a
kid does.
So I love what I do because Iteach kids and they keep you
grounded, they keep youunderstanding that you got to
(41:12):
keep staying with life and havevitality in you.
But with an animal it'sdifferent, bro, because they
literally just exist to exist.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
They're not they're not.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
their goal is not to work or do this or do not, it's
just make the most money.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
It's none of that.
It's eat shit, sleep.
That's what they do and in lifethose are the best things to
fucking do Shit and sleep, bro.
Like what are we talking about?
(41:43):
So, so when I look at my cat,sometimes when I have a hard day
or when things are tough, orwhen I have a crazy student or a
crazy parent or the date fallsthrough and life is kind of all
crazy and mucked up, I just comehome to my cat, bro, I kind of
just hold him.
He starts talking to me, I talkto him and I listen to his
purrs and I listen to thevibrations and I'm like, yo,
life is not that bad, bro, itcould be worse, it could really
be worse.
You know, I walk by people andthey're in wheelchairs, or I
walk by a blind person, or Iwalk by a deaf person, or I see
(42:06):
a dog that has three legs andI'm just like, bro, life could
be a lot worse.
Man, like, you got to be gifted, you got to be, you got to, you
got to be grateful.
I got to be grateful for what Ihave, because it could be a lot
worse.
I got hair on my head, bro.
Some people don't.
You know what.
I'm saying Like yeah, right,like it's just, it's so.
It's just that kind of like youknow, we're fortunate, we're
(42:27):
lucky, and so we got to use, wegot to understand that you know
what.
It could be a lot worse, andwe're all going through our own
pain and not to down, downplaynobody's pain.
I'm going through some shit,everybody's going through some
shit, but it could be a lotworse, right, yeah, and so.
So, man, that's how I kind ofstay grounded.
But yeah, I got to get into theoils, bro, I got to get into
the seed oils, I got to get intoashwagandha and all that type
ish.
You know.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
Yeah, that's such a perfect way to put it and, like
the perspective piece, I think athe perspective gets lost on
them.
I'm sure that's what they'resaying about us when we were in
our 20s or early 20s, whatever,but I think that there's
something to be said about beingable to wake up every morning
(43:08):
and say, hey, I've got like fivefingers, five toes, I can move
all of my like, wow, great start.
And I didn't receive a phonecall in the middle of the night
that one of my friends or familymembers died.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Correct Life is good, I'd like the bare minimum start
there.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
I woke up this morning, I have no current
health issues and it's like that.
Okay, we're winning already.
And if you can start your dayevery day like that wow, the
rest is gravy, because then yousecure a deal, you land a new
client, whatever it is, and it'slike oh, that's just the cherry
on top, because everything elseis so amazing and I'm alive
today.
(43:46):
So yeah, man batman, this iswhy we bring you on the podcast,
dude.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
We get to have that perspective.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Um, you know you've got uh, you've got hundreds of
kids going through your coursesright now.
What does the class schedulelook like?
Where should people be going?
Before we hit you with thefinal question, as you know, as
a listener of the show, yeah, Iappreciate that.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
So right now, um, I'm working at a school called
all-star martial arts out inleslieville, um, and so we have
classes running right now fromfour fit from 4 30 to 8 30 in
the evenings.
Um, we got kids classes, so wegot tots classes.
Tots classes are anywhere fromlike four to six years old.
We got junior classes from likeseven to 11.
(44:28):
We got like intermediateclasses for like that's based
off of belts, belt levels, andthen we got an adults, teens and
adults class too.
Um, I also do private sessionsas well, so I'm taking on, I'm
onboarding clients as well too.
So, as a personal trainer, Itrain clients if they want to
lose weight, if they want to getfit, and kind of my approach to
how I train my clients is I doa little half and half, I do a
(44:48):
little bit of personal trainingand I do a little bit of
kickboxing.
So, like I said before, I thinkeverybody should know how to
fight.
Everybody should know how toprotect themselves.
You don't need to fight, butyou should know how to.
You should know how to throw apunch, you should know how to
kick, you should know how tokeep somebody away from you,
because this world is fucked upand you got to know how to take
care of yourself.
And so I do a little bit ofthat.
(45:35):
A lot of my clients are is atCombat M-A-F-K-O-M-B-H-A-T.
Combat stronger, get more fit,like mentally, physically,
spiritually, emotionally.
Uh, I'm, that's what I do, man,cause I'm.
I'm looking at it as, um, it'sa, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's
a body.
Right, it's a body of work.
It's not just I'm going to losesome weight for my abs or I'm
(45:55):
going to punch somebody, so Iknow how to punch or kick.
No, how do I control myemotions?
How do I regulate myself?
How do I know that I can hitsomebody but not do it Right?
How do I know that?
Speaker 2 (46:07):
if I go on a walk with my wife.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
I can protect my wife .
How do I know if?
I go on a walk with my kid.
I can protect my kid.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
Yeah, yeah, that control piece and it's uh being
just comfortable and that quietconfidence around any situation.
Uh, yeah, I said I can't thankyou enough for coming on the
show.
This has been fun.
Like I said, we'll do a littletraining session when I come out
there in toronto we'll hit themats.
We'll let's do uh, we'll trainme to see how I can protect
myself and maybe some others anduh no uh, as someone who's
listening to show you know, wewrap up every episode by asking
(46:42):
our guests their biggest pieceof advice for the next
generation of athletes.
The floor is yours.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
So the biggest piece of advice that I would give is
enjoy the process, give yourselftime.
Sometimes we get into the moldof go go, go that and the mama
mentality is the mentality yougot to just go, go go.
You got to put your head downand work.
But I would say that we hearthis quote a lot.
(47:09):
I wish I knew I was in the goodold days, but that's what makes
it the good old days.
But if we can understand, likeeven right now, man, this is the
good old days.
Like I appreciate thisconversation and five years down
the road I'll be like yo, thatpodcast talk, that episode that
I had with David, that was crazyman, that was a great
conversation, right.
But me understanding andappreciating even now.
(47:31):
So, as an athlete, understandthat you're going through the
process and appreciate thatprocess, the good times and the
bad times, cause one day you'regoing to look back and you're
gonna be like, fuck, I wish Iwas there right now.
I wish I was doing that rightnow, I wish I had just lost
nationals, I was going back intothe gym and I was doing that
right now, because what I'mdoing right now is to and that
goes, that goes, that kind ofaligns with everything right.
When you're in grade one orgrade two, it's tough.
(47:53):
Then you go to grade six, gradeseven, and you're like, fuck,
grade one was easy, bro, I wishI was in grade one again, that
shit was fun.
Then you go to high school andyou're like yo, grade eight was
a joke.
Then you go to university andyou're like yo, high school, bro
, high school.
Then you get out of universityand you're at work and you're
like, fuck, work is.
I hate work.
Man, I was complaining aboutuniversity, can party and all
(48:21):
that.
So it's just so.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
My advice is just appreciate the good old times
because you're in the good oldtimes right now.
Cheers to the good times rightnow.
Batman, thanks for coming onthe podcast.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
Yeah, I appreciate you man, absolutely we'll stay
in touch okay 100.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
I gotta say thanks to you folks for tuning in to
perfect sports, for providing mewith the best supplements on
the market.
Use the code ap15 at checkoutto save 15.
And, not last but least, shoutout to batman for coming on the
show sharing his wisdom andknowledge with you folks as
listeners.
I can't thank you enough fortuning in.
I can't thank our partnersenough for being a part of this
journey.
(48:50):
Again, 259 episodes, that is,bonkers, ladies and gentlemen,
but we're gonna see you againnext week for another new
episode.
Thank you again for tuning in.
Hope you have a great rest ofyour day.
Bye.
Even right now.
Man, this is the good old days.
Like I appreciate thisconversation and five years down
the road I'm gonna be like yo.
That podcast talk, that episodethat I had with David, that was
crazy.
Man.
That was a great conversation.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, what's up?
Welcome back to the 259thepisode of the Athletes Podcast
today featuring Batman.
You guys heard it here first.
Sid is the man I stole hisshorts a few months ago.
Sid is the man I stole hisshorts a few months ago.
He is a 14-time Team CanadaTaekwondo national champ,
someone who I was fortunateenough to chop it up for about
45 minutes while we were in thesauna downtown Vancouver,
(00:34):
learned a bit more about hissporting background.
Figured, hey, we got to get Sidon the show to share more about
his upbringing, his background,why he believes Taekwondo,
amongst martial arts, should bethe sport that young kids
participate in.
And obviously, here at theAthletes Podcast, where our goal
is to educate, entertain andinspire, we're here to bring
(00:54):
those individuals on, have themshare their stories and allow
you as listeners, whether you're16, 65, or someone who's trying
to look or feel their best,whether you're trying to run a
marathon, lift, deadlift 500plus pounds, or just simply feel
and be in the best shape ofyour life, the Athletes Podcast
(01:15):
is here to help you do that.
Batman here has helped you todo that today.
Perfect Sports is also here tohelp you do that today.
If you use the code AP15 atcheckout, you get to save 15%
thanks to the athletes podcast.
You guys see it here.
I use a scoop of collagen, twoscoops of creatine nowadays
because new research shows fivegrams might not be enough.
So we're jacking it up to 10grams and then you guys know,
(01:37):
down below we got our diesel.
One to two scoops per day.
27 grams of protein the best inthe business.
Again, ap 15 to save 15% atcheckout.
Thank you to Perfect Sports forbeing an amazing partner over
the years.
They are supporting us.
You're supporting us right nowby listening to the show.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
If you can do me a favor, hitthat subscribe button and share
(01:58):
it with someone else who youbelieve will benefit from this
episode.
It would mean the world to meand allow us to continue doing
this incredible work on a weeklybasis.
Shout out to our producer, ryanLott, for putting this together
.
Thanks for tuning in.
259th episode of the AthletesPodcast.
Here we go.
You're the most decoratedracquetball player in US history
, world's strongest man, fromchildhood passion to
(02:21):
professional athlete, eight-timeIronman champion.
So what was it like making yourdebut in the NHL?
What is your biggest piece ofadvice for the next generation
of athletes, from underdogs tonational champions.
This is the Athletes Podcast,where high-performance
individuals share their triumphs, defeats and life lessons to
(02:41):
educate, entertain and inspirethe next generation of athletes.
Here we go.
Okay, no, I was just.
Next generation of athletes.
Here we go.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Okay, no, I was just, uh, what I was telling him was
cause he asked me initially wehad to read, we had to re, uh,
reschedule our podcast.
And so he asked me.
He was like, do you want me tosend you some of the questions
that I have?
And I was like, oh, it'd bekind of interesting to know.
But honestly, for me, when Ithink of a podcast, when I think
about these types of things,we're having a conversation.
You and me are having aconversation.
Whatever it is, mike Tyson andJoe Rogan, whatever it may be,
(03:06):
they're having conversationsright.
And so the beauty of a podcasthopefully from the audience
listening in is you're takingvalue from what somebody is
telling you, but you're alsolearning about how different
people speak, how differentpeople interact, how you might
give me a question that I'm like, oh shit, I got to think about
this for a sec.
So then you can kind of youkind of learn about how just
individual people adapt todifferent things, and so that's
(03:28):
why I love.
So I told them don't send meeverything, because I want it to
be spontaneous, I want to getcaught off guard a little bit.
I want to be like, oh damn, thatwas a great question, Right.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, there's value in being prepared, but also
having some level of oh, Iwasn't expecting that that is a
good question.
Let me dive deeper and reactand reply instead of formulating
a thought prior to theconversation.
Exactly, exactly, yeah becausesometimes things can get a
little scripted these days butyou know what isn't scripted
(03:58):
batman someone's stealing yourshorts for months and not even
talking to you.
Be like who's this?
Guy that shows up at a saunasession and just steals my
shorts.
What the heck's going on?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
You know, man, it's so crazy man, it's just so funny
how the universe works.
But uh, yeah, you know what Imean.
Like it's, it's funny, causethat that day when I, when I had
I brought, I brought the extrashorts and when I met you, I
just got, just got a good vibefrom you.
You know what I mean.
I mean, we're all part of thesame friend group anyways, so I
knew that everybody I was goingto meet that day was going to be
great.
But something about you, man,and then just you telling me,
(04:31):
like I could just tell, that dayI think you were kind of rushed
there a little bit and so youforgot some stuff.
And then you're like, fuck, Igot to go to sport check and I'd
be so annoyed to have to go nowto SportCheck to buy something
that I already have.
And so I was like you know what, why not just allow this guy?
Lend him my shorts?
It's okay, they're clean, it iswhat it is.
He seems like a good dude, whynot?
Worst case scenario I lose apair of shorts, it's all good,
(04:54):
that's the scenario.
We build a friendship, andthat's exactly what happened
here, exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
And they're not lost, they're just on the West Coast.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
That's it.
They're waiting for you on theWest Coast man.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Bet, bet, bet, bet.
I love it yeah yeah, yeah.
No Yo.
Welcome to the 258th, 59th man.
I should know this every time.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I'm always doing it.
That's amazing, it's crazy man.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
We keep just grinding out here and having fun with it
too, because the best part isyou.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
You bring up, I was russian, I'm always rushing to
stuff.
Liz was like hey, I got a goodgroup of people that are
like-minded individuals.
Come down to vancouver, comesauna, chill, hang out, have
some cool conversations.
My bet I'll see you there.
I'll be, you know five minuteslate and hooked up with some
shorts, and then you end uptalking with 14 time team.
Can Canada Taekwondo champion?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
you know, no big deal .
It was a good time, man.
It was a good time.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
But now you're back in Toronto, which is kind of
ironic given the fact that youspent three years in Vancouver.
You and I kind of switchedspots.
I spent some years over inOntario, brock University, st
Catharines, with spots.
I spent some years over inontario, brock university, saint
catherine's um.
Now that you're back in toronto, I, uh, we obviously get you on
the podcast now virtually,because it's so much better than
in person.
But at least this way we get totalk about how cool toronto is
(06:16):
right now, heading into summermonths.
I'll be out there in a month.
I'm gonna spend a day therebefore I go to the pwhl draft in
ottawa, tell me what it's likebeing back in Toronto before we
get into your career as anathlete.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah, man, absolutely .
I mean, it's great man, it'sgreat to be back home.
I say this all the time.
I've traveled a lot.
Obviously, martial arts hastaken me all over the world and
I'm very grateful for that.
But the beauty of that is,every time I would come back to
Toronto I'd just be like man,this is still home.
Like I go to Kazakhstan, I'llgo to Korea, I go to China, I go
to Guatemala, it doesn't matterwhere I go.
(06:48):
When I come back home, I'm likethis is home, this is what I
love.
And so when I went to Vancouver,I went there initially during
COVID, for a job opportunity,when everything was kind of shut
down, the world was all overthe place and I fell in love
with Vancouver.
I didn't think I was going to,but I fell in love with
Vancouver, and obviously it'svery easy to fall in love with
Vancouver.
But a part of me was stillmissing something, was still
(07:09):
missing something.
And so and that's one of thereasons why I moved back here
was just, I, just Toronto's myfrequency man, it's who I am,
it's what bred me, it's myculture, and so it's nice to be
back home, and it's not to saythat I don't want to be back on
the West Coast.
I'd like to be back out in theWest Coast at some point because
, as much as I love the EastCoast and Toronto and all that
(07:29):
stuff, the winter is still thewinter and you try to avoid the
winter as much as possible.
Especially when you get older,you know the bones can't take
the chill as much as it used to.
But man, I'm just, I'm blessedto be back home.
I got a great group of friends,I got some great family members
and, yeah, it's just like Isaid, it's just nice to be back
and, like you said, I'm comingat a good time because the sun
is coming out, the snow is gone,the chills are kind of fading
(07:52):
away.
So it's, it's blessed.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
People who spend time in Toronto know Toronto summers
are where it's at.
Tell me about your parents,though, because I think it's an
interesting place to start,toronto being the most diverse
city in the world, you havingtwo different races as far as
parents Indian and Sri Lankan.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
I almost had it.
I was remembering.
It's not good, bro, don't worry.
Two different, two differenttypes of brown.
My friend, you can say that Ican't, yeah, but yeah, so with
my parents, I mean growing upfor them I'm sure it was a big
challenge moving to Canada andobviously, dealing with the
(08:36):
stuff that they had to deal with.
You know what I mean.
Like racism, as much as it'sgotten a lot better, it still
exists, right, and so back inthe day like it was just even
that much worse.
But I just give them kudosbecause they just kind of put
their head down and they worked,man, they worked and they just
wanted to give us an opportunityand it was.
I was very fortunate.
Again, I was very fortunatethat, because Toronto is a very
(08:58):
diverse place in itself, it wasvery open to me and my brother
and kind of us and growing upand including us as much as
inclusion is right becauseracism still played a factor.
But, um, I was fortunate togrow up in toronto because if I,
if we did, if we did maybe getbrought up in a different city,
uh, or a different country, wemight have been segregated.
I don't feel like we werereally segregated we might have
(09:21):
even segregated ourselves alittle bit.
But at the end of the day, likeI grew up by christy pitts,
christy pitts is like very closeto koreatown right like so I
was around a lot of koreans, andthen right up north of us is
like little italy, and thenthere's a span that you know,
the salson st claire, and solike we grew up with a lot of
people around us, a lot ofcultures around us, and so, and
that's the thing, that's why whyI love Toronto, man, because it
(09:42):
just it gives you a nice scopeof different ethnicities,
different cultures, differentways of life, and when you bring
that together now, you create ahuman being that's now able to
touch so many different types ofrealities and so many different
types of cultures.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Right, Such a good point.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Thank you, brother.
Yeah, so I was very fortunate.
They did their job, theygrinded and gave us an
opportunity, an opportunity, andthen, yeah, and then we just
took it from there.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I mean, my brother just kind of took it from there
so was it their decision at theage of two or three to put you
in taekwondo for the disciplinethen?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
yeah, absolutely man.
So I was uh I say this all thetime and I hope I can cuss a
little bit on your podcast but Iwas a piece of shit kid growing
up like I.
I was a real piece of shit.
And when I say that it's like,oh, kids are kids, no, no, no, I
was a shit disturber, likethere's certain kids, they kind
of know what they're doing, youknow, and I was one of those
kids that I was just reallyannoying.
I was very obnoxious, I wasvery disobedient and the biggest
thing was, yeah, just growingup, I was just, I was very
(10:38):
disrespectful kid.
And that was a big.
In our culture I mean,hopefully in everybody's culture
, but especially in our culturerespect is a huge thing.
(10:58):
Right, at the very least withyour elders.
You've got to respect yourelders, and so I was just a very
disrespectful kid.
So they were like, and I grewup with like, in our culture too
, we, we, you know, we use theslipper, we use the belt, we use
the hanger, we use whatever youcan put your hand on, type shit
, right and um, and and thediscipline was not really
working.
So they were like we need to dosomething.
And so fortunately there was amartial arts school close to us
and so they took me there.
(11:19):
And again, I was very fortunatethat my master at the time, he,
he took me in, because mostschools they won't take you
until you're about four or fiveyou can comprehend a little bit
but he took me in and hedisciplined me.
I was like I think I waspunished every day for like a
month, a month and a half, likeI was just always in the corner,
always like you know, like justin punishment mode, but it
(11:41):
straightened me out, you know,and it's um, it's a, it's kind
of that old school mentalitywhere nowadays obviously we talk
about gentle parenting and wewe take different approaches on
how kids are, and obviously alot of kids now nowadays are on
a spectrum of something right,where I'm sure I was on a
spectrum of something too, wewere just not diagnosed right a
lot of parents, a lot of parentsdidn't want, didn't want to
know the answer to that questionright where now we want to, and
(12:04):
so so now we're changing andmolding in terms of how we we,
how we're raising our kids.
But I believe that a little bitof that old school mentality is
still necessary, bro, a littlebit of that stuff is still
necessary to fuse into the newschool mentality yeah, I didn't
necessarily have the slipper,the belt come out on me, but I
was.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
You know, I I recognize the value of
discipline and being uh, beingaccountable and responsible for
your actions and, like I thinkmartial arts taught, teaches
that from a young age.
I never was involvedspecifically, but sport in
general, I think, does that.
You know, maybe martial arts toa larger degree, but I am so in
(12:42):
favor of this.
I love what you're saying.
I do think that there's asofter generation now that has
come up because of this kind ofgentle parenting and that's a
problem.
Frankly, I ultimately thinkwe're creating a generation that
is soft.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
We're just soft.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, you said it.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I'll say it because it's funny, and I'll say this
because I'm a fighter.
I grew up a fighter.
Not everybody should be afighter, that's not the point.
But the point is I was justliterally discussing this with
my boy two days ago.
We went and we grabbed somebrunch.
We're talking, and we weretalking about these Gen Z kids
and stuff, how they're sointelligent man, they're so
creative and they're makingmoney, they're doing stuff
(13:26):
online, they're doing thesecrazy things.
But they're soft, bro, they'resuper soft.
And if I were to bump into youor just kind of blow on you a
little bit, you just you get alittle offended or you, you, you
get bullied a little bit andyou start to get into your
feelings and again, it's notknocking any of that stuff, but
at some point you got to standon toes, bro.
You got to be tough a littlebit.
You got to, you got to be likeyou know what.
And this is why I preach thateverybody should do martial arts
(13:46):
, not because you should be ableto beat people up, because you
should be able to protectyourself, because as a bully,
I'm going to bully you if I knowyou're weak, but if you're
strong, I'm not going to bullyyou, bro, I'm going to go
somewhere.
That's weak, right, because asa bully I'm big and because I
don't know what to do with that,I'm going to bully other people
, but if you're a martial artist, a true martial artist, you're
not bullying nobody.
(14:07):
You understand the concept ofgetting beat up.
You also understand the conceptof beating people up, and both
those things are not fun.
You know what I mean.
You do it in an environment oryou do it for a particular
reason.
I'm trying to get to nationalsor I'm trying to go to the
Olympics.
So I'm fighting somebody andbeating them because they're in
front of me, but I'm not doingit for fun.
You know what I'm doing.
I'm doing it because there's aprocess, there's a goal that's
happening.
So for me, this generation isvery soft, and they're soft
(14:33):
because they're coddled, becausewhen they say no, when you say
no to them, and they get grumpy,you say, oh, you know what,
nevermind, it's all good.
I had this yesterday with a kid.
A kid, I'm not the guy, I'm notthe one.
You can try that with somebodyelse.
I'm not the dude that you'redoing that with, because I'm
trying to make you better and ifyou do that under the real
world you're going to get.
(14:53):
You're going to get chewed upand spit out.
It's a lot, it's a lot, it's alot.
I love it.
I love it.
It's good.
I got to wind you up, I got tokeep you going what's up?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
What martial arts should they jump into first?
Yeah, absolutely Great question.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
So me personally, I'm going to be a little biased
here.
But if they're kids, you got toput them in something striking.
So either Taekwondo is what Ispecialize in, so either
Taekwondo, karate, muay Thai,something striking based.
Why I say that is because whenyou're young, you need to learn
about your body, you need tolearn your body's growing, you
need to understand how to use it.
The other thing is when you'redoing something striking, basic.
(15:24):
So I'll use Taekwondo as theexample.
You start off with learning howto move your body.
You start learning how to kickand punch, and you do it on a
target, right.
So now I'm hitting somethingthat's not moving, that's an
object.
So I don't have to have a lotof fear based on that.
I have to just learn to createthe skill and develop.
Once I do that, then I got theinstructors or my partners
(15:46):
hitting me a little bit too, soI can practice blocking.
They're not hurting me, they'rejust they're teaching me, right
.
So now I block and now, ooh,that kind of hurt a little bit,
even though these pads are soft.
Ooh, that was.
That felt a little bit weird.
Ooh, that felt a little bitweird.
Okay, now I got to toughen up alittle Now.
Once we've gotten that, nowlet's kick that person and let's
get kicked as well.
Now we learn how to get hit andwe learn to knock it, because
if somebody goes to hit me and Iclose my eyes and I just turn
(16:08):
like that, david, I'm not reallyprotecting myself, dog.
So I need to understand to lookat something that's scary coming
at me and still learn how todefend myself right and then
after that, once you've and nowyou've incorporated how to
rotate your body, how to twistand punch, how to twist and kick
, how how to twist and kick, howto make proper contact, now we
can get into a little bit ofgrappling and start doing some
jujitsu, some judo, because aswe get older, if you were to get
(16:30):
into a fight, knock on wood,you don't.
But if you do, most fights aregoing to be close combat, right.
So, understanding how tograpple and put somebody in a
headlock or in an arm bar orsomething like that, just again
to disassociate, at the end ofthe day, is to disassociate from
the situation.
It's not to stand over somebodyand beat the shit out of them.
No, that's not the goal.
The goal is I can protectmyself, I'm going to protect
(16:51):
myself enough to to get away,and then I'm out.
You know what I mean and so whatI would say to start off with
again, to round back to it, isdo something striking.
First, get an understanding ofthe body and then we can go down
onto the ground.
Because when we go down ontothe ground again, somebody's on
top of me.
So as a kid sometimes we likethe rough house, but really a
kid doesn't want another kid ontop of them for two, three, four
(17:12):
minutes where they can't moveor wiggle.
It's annoying, it's frustrating, it pisses you off.
So you want to learn anddevelop first.
Okay, you know what.
I know how to get.
I know how to get hit.
I know how to hit somebody.
Now I know how to get somebodyon top of me.
Now.
I know how to flip somebody offof me.
Now I I know that if I'm in aposition and they got me in a
lock, I might have to wiggle outof it.
That might take a few minutes.
I have the patience.
I've learned to have thepatience to get out of that
(17:35):
right 100, do you?
Speaker 2 (17:37):
uh?
Do you feel like this buzzthat's around brazilian
jiu-jitsu is overhyped?
Because that's all?
I hear?
Everyone's jumping into bjj?
You get it?
You hear it like why is that?
Why is that the only one thatguys bros, jim bros, 2030s, 40s,
like, dedicated to?
Is it joe rogan?
Is that what it is?
Speaker 1 (17:56):
it's because of mma.
No, it's because of the ufc.
So what it is is if you look ata lot of these guys, if you
look at a lot of these likedagestani fighters and all that
stuff, they're all wrestlers,right.
So jujitsu is the closest thingto wrestling right and um and
one of my, one of my really goodfriends, he's a.
He used to wrestle back in theday and um he and he told me
he's been telling me this for along time because he did
(18:16):
taekwondo, stuff like that too,and he um great friend of mine
and he always kind of praises meon how great I was in Taekwondo
.
But he's like, bro, if I wereto wrestle you, I'd kill you.
You know what I mean InTaekwondo, I'll bust you, you'll
bust my ass 100%.
But as soon as I get you to theground, you're done and he's not
wrong.
And so in that scenario that'swhy a lot of these older guys
and stuff like that are goinginto that, because they're
watching UFC they're seeingthese guys get into headlocks,
(18:38):
get um to a certain degree.
It's also a little bit easieron the body.
Again, it's not great on thejoints and stuff like that when
someone is locking you up andstuff, but it's easier than
continuously kicking orcontinuously picking your legs
up or continuously punching andblocking and all that stuff.
(18:59):
So, um, that's the reason whyum that's a reason slightly less
impact exactly, there'sslightly less impact and all
that stuff into it.
So that that's the reason whythat people and, like I said,
moreover than not, it's UFC, ufcis taking over.
And a big grunt of it is thewrestling and jiu-jitsu.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Speaking of UFC, we can't bring this up without
shouting out Mike Malott,jasmine Jazduvidius, for putting
up an insane performance northof the border.
Montreal, did you watch?
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Did you see the highlights?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did.
Yeah, yeah, no, that was crazywhat he did last week yeah so
jazz is a friend of the show.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
We've been working on getting mike on.
At some point when we're backin to you, we might have to make
it happen.
But man like 15 000 michaelgoisman, a buddy of mine who's a
photographer, uh, combat, deer,combat, combat, fight.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
I'm screwing up their name either.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Combat, uh, no, deer, combat like they're uh he does
the photo video visuals likesome insane visual work.
Anyway he he's been doing a tonof the shooting for the ufc and
uh man he said it was the mostelectrifying environment he's
ever been a part of.
I'm so jazzed up about the factthat jazz and mike both got the
(20:12):
w?
Uh you can't replace you knowrepresenting your country,
you're familiar with it.
14 time team canada.
Can you tell me what that'slike, how you become involved 14
straight years like?
Speaker 1 (20:27):
yeah, absolutely so.
I was again.
So I was, yeah.
So, first of all, to talk aboutwhat you said, yeah, there's
nothing like representing yourcountry, it's just it's
different.
And the thing is, at one pointI was trying to represent india.
I wanted to just again, just forthe fact of again, canada is a
first world country we havemillions of athletes that want
to compete every day, and if Iwere to step down, somebody
(20:47):
could replace me I, I mean, theycan't replace me, but they can
put them in my, in my position.
But countries like India andstuff like that, it's, it's very
difficult if it's not cricketor something like that.
They're not really on, they'renot at the top of the top Right.
And so a part of me wanted to,a part of me wanted to kind of
give that kind of glory to India, but but unfortunately they
(21:08):
don't do dual citizenship and Iwas definitely never going to
give up my Canadian citizenship.
That's not happening.
So just there's a big sense ofpride, for sure, when you
represent your country.
It's crazy, right.
Like you just think about it,like I'm literally I'm
representing this whole country,like these guys are supposed to
be cheering Hopefully they'recheering for me, but it's a big
country that's cheering for you,right?
And so it's a level of like,gratitude and a level of
(21:31):
accomplishment and a level ofhonor Right now.
In terms of what I did, I wasvery lucky because growing up
again, I was put into Taekwondofor discipline and initially,
like I told you, I was aterrible kid, so I didn't like
it, I didn't enjoy it, it wasn'tfun and I want to quit.
And then so Taekwondo, themartial art, has like four main
components.
They got the self-defensecomponent.
(21:51):
You got your patterns, likeyour pomse, your katas, you got
your board breaking, um afundamental component.
And then you got the fightingcomponent.
So once we started fighting ata very young age, I realized I
was good at this, like I.
I don't know why, I don't knowwhat, how, but I was good at it.
So I started winning at likeseven, eight, nine years old.
I was knocking kids out ateight years old, nine years old,
(22:12):
like, yeah, and so.
So I was like, oh, I'm good atthis, I like this.
And then, obviously again it'sa little bit of the ego, right.
Like you know, people start tocompliment you and wow, this and
that.
And then you're like, oh shit,like I'm wanted to close up his
school.
So he took me to his master andhis master was like a national
(22:34):
and Olympic level coach.
So then I was put into it and Iwas just training with national
athletes and Olympians and I waslike I want to do this, I want
to go to nationals.
These guys are traveling theworld and fighting and I'd love
to go to the Olympics That'd beamazing if I could get to the
pinnacle of my sport and so Ijust stuck with it, man, and
honestly it was just.
It was an easy transitioninitially, then between 14 to 17
(23:00):
, it was a little bit of achallenge getting into that kind
of like junior A division andkind of transitioning to the
senior role.
But once I transitioned andkind of got into a rhythm and a
flow and kind of got my name outthere, um, it was just kind of.
After that it was kind of um, Idon't want to say a cakewalk,
but for nationals like I, just Iwould step into the ring and
like people knew what was goingon, like it was just it was my,
it was my competition to lose,right, um, and so that was my
(23:23):
confidence that comes fromwinning, and it's like
absolutely there's a, there'ssomething to be said once you've
done something, once, like youknow, winning a Stanley Cup, for
instance, with the playoffsgoing on, or LeBron James, who's
won you know X amount of titlesyou bring.
that aura, that confidence.
Yeah, yeah, no, 100%.
Jinx, yell me a soda.
(23:44):
I got you, I got you, I'll beback.
Actually, you're coming here,right, you're coming.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're stopping for a day.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, I'm always curious becauseI think, like, individual sports
bring out different aspects ofindividuals than team sports.
Some people prefer them, otherswill never compete in them.
Too much pressure all onyourself.
Was that ever a considerationfor you?
I know your parents kind of.
Or you decided that you didn'treally want to expose yourself
to other sports because youwanted to stay prime and proper
(24:15):
for this one, right?
Speaker 1 (24:16):
yeah, so, yeah.
So that's a great question, man, because I love basketball.
Growing up that was that was mything and um, but I started to.
As I got older, I started torealize that I was quite
athletic for, like my age, mystature, like, even culture,
like being a brown guy, like alot of brown people are not
particularly athletic.
At least back in the day,things have changed now.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Hold on, hold on it's such an interesting topic,
though Sean Peary brought thatup from my First Million.
He's like man.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
I don't know what it is, but we're struggling a bit
here the Indian culture and it'slike is that diet, Is that like
, what is that?
What do you think?
Yeah, so I think, so I thinkit's.
I think it's a focus on on onathleticism.
So and and and.
Again, I think things have.
Things have changed and thingshave shifted, but back in the
day, as if you're talking aboutIndians, indians are trying to
be doctors, they're trying to belawyers, they're trying to be
(25:05):
education, they're trying to usetheir brain to be successful,
and the only way to besuccessful in a sport was
cricket, but outside of that youdon't see Indians trying or
doing anything.
So, my, for my thing, when I wasgrowing up, I was like I want
to be.
I want to be this brown guythat can keep up with the black
guys, that can keep up with thewhite guys, that can keep
whatever sport we're talkingabout Right and uh.
(25:26):
So I loved a hundred meters, Iloved high jump, I loved all
these sports, but I justrealized, like I would, I was
just excelling the best atTaekwondo and so I should just
kind of zone in on that and yeah, and so I would.
I would just kind of lock inand, like you said, when you
start winning and when it startsto kind of you start to get the
(25:49):
ball rolling, you're like youknow what, I'm going to continue
.
And this, this helped mebecause, again, being a skinny
brown kid in the 90s, I wasbullied.
I didn't I didn't have a lot ofconfidence.
I didn't know where I stood andhow I who, what kind of crew I
was trying to create or bearound, or who.
I am Right.
I mean, and we're doing thatanyways, that anyways.
(26:09):
As kids, we're trying to figureout who we are.
As teenagers, we're trying tofigure out who we are.
And so, with Taekwondo, anytimeI step into the ring, I had
this aura, I had this, thisthing about me, and even at the
competitions you'd have, I'dhave parents, coaches, masters
coming up to me and being likegood luck, or don't beat up my
kid too much, or I can't wait tosee you in the finals, or like
you know what I mean, just stufflike that.
Or I can't wait to watch youand stuff.
And it's like, damn, like thesepeople really want to.
(26:30):
They want to see me, their eyeis on me, they're thinking about
me and it's like that's crazy.
So it's like now, how do I usethis confidence, how do I use
this, this kind of aura that Ihave?
How do I translate this now tothe real world?
Right, and so I kind of triedto try to use that as like, how
do I, how do I carry this, thisthe sense of self that I have on
(26:51):
the mats and when I travel theworld?
How do I now do that in thereal world?
And that was a beautifulchallenge and that's kind of
what I do now with my studentsis kind of it's not about really
the sport and sorry.
So when you're talking aboutpressure, I didn't really feel a
lot of pressure, uh, in theindividual sport.
I think it would have been alot more difficult in a team
sport, just because I could bethe greatest that I can be, and
(27:11):
you see this all the time.
But if my team doesn't, if I,if I, if I'm not a great leader
and I can't lead my team tosuccess, then then it doesn't
matter how great I am, I mean,and if I'm not meant to be a
leader, that's OK.
Then how do I become thegreatest Robin or the greatest
you know?
Speaker 2 (27:29):
role players.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
But I never.
I never saw myself like that,like just the success that I had
at a young age and the aurathat I felt that I had and
created, and that I felt thatquiet confidence.
You're talking because I alwaystried to stay humble too.
Man, I didn't, I never tried toblow my horn.
I'm always about sportsmanshipand all that type of stuff.
Like I'll talk shit to youeither during or or after.
I'm not trying to talk shit toyou before, because that's the
(27:51):
worst thing in the world to talkshit and then get your ass
handed to you exactly.
And then get your ass handed toyou and then what?
What are you saying?
Speaker 2 (27:57):
instead I'll be quiet .
Speaker 1 (27:58):
You can talk all that nonsense and then I'll talk to
you while we're fighting andI'll talk to you afterwards and
I'll come up to you and remindyou hey, remember all that shit
you were talking before.
Make sure you shut the fuck upuntil you accomplish what you
need to do.
Then you can talk all the shit,because I'm I'm about it, bro.
I'm about being cocky, I'mabout that type of that type of
shit.
But be humble too.
Be respectful.
If you lose, lose with dignity.
(28:18):
If you win, win with dignity aswell, you know.
And so I think I think withwith individual sports, I think
that's very prevalent and I likethat because you see, a lot of
kids nowadays will throw a fitlike, how many kids I've fought
and I beat?
And they, like, they take theirhelmet and they smash their
helmet, or they show attitude totheir coach or they go swear at
their parents.
I'm like, are you dumb?
I'll beat you up again, justfor that Don't don't, don't,
(28:41):
don't carry yourself like that.
That's not what it's about Right?
How many times I've lost, andit's been painful, losing by one
at the last second.
You know how many times I wantto smash some shit, but I'm like
no bro, carry yourself, becausepeople are watching right where
in a team sport sometimes youcan get away with that shit
because there's so many peopleinteracting that you could be a
little bit of a piece of shit onthe corner over there and not a
lot of people are going to seeright, and so in that sense I
(29:04):
don't like that because it's not.
It's not character development,especially for kids.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
That's such an interesting point.
I love that.
I grew up playing a lot ofhockey.
I also played golf, basketball,so had a combination of the two
and I think I'm really gratefulfor that.
But I think that characterdevelopment is a key and if you
only play team sports, you neverhave that microscope on you in
isolation.
There's a lot of benefits thatcome from that over time,
(29:32):
whether it is handling pressure,whether that is character
development like well, it's,yeah, that's a really good point
.
Um, I know your goal eventuallyor at one point, was to be an
olympian.
I'm curious around thatconversation you obviously close
with liz, three time olympian.
We talked about it.
It's like yeah, you know, I haddoug lynch on the podcast a few
(29:54):
weeks ago.
He played a couple games in thenhl.
He, in his words, talked aboutthe fact that I, like, I feel
like at some point it sometimesis a failure, but he's founded a
company.
They just won, uh, an award forbeing the most environmentally
friendly company or having themost environmentally friendly
product.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
I think I saw that.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Zenkai, Zenkai, Philium yeah, that's sick.
So it's like, and like, yeah,shout out to Doug and Philium
Zenkai Sports for putting thattogether.
But I mean more so on thattopic of like, hey, living with
sometimes feelings that it islike yeah, how do you, how do
you go about way to handle that?
(30:36):
I appreciate it man, thank you.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
So I you know what man.
It's tough, it's heavy, and soso people always ask me like yo,
do you watch the Olympics?
And it's like man, even to thisday it's hard for me to watch
the Olympics, bro, because Ijust look at it, I watch it and
I'm like I should have beenthere, that should have been me.
I see some of these athletessometimes and I'm like I beat
that guy or you know, I steppedwith that guy, I did some stuff,
(31:01):
but ultimately everybody's gottheir path and for me I still
and I think probably to the dayI die a part of me will have a
little chip on my shoulder thatyou know what.
It was a little bit of afailure.
I didn't get the Olympic ringstattooed on me, and so that kind
of hurts a little and it ithurts a little, and it's not to
say that it can never happen.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Who knows, I might be the coach that takes an athlete
to the that's what I'm justgonna say combat mafia, be able
to bring out someone who ends upbeing an olympian.
That's still the same impactand actually arguably could be
greater because we have 10olympians.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Right, correct, exactly, and that's what that's
what I've, that's what I've cometo learn is, when you play the
sport or when you do certainthings, you're I mean,
ultimately you're the brand in,you're the brand In life, you're
the brand right and it's allabout you.
And as I've gotten out of thesport and transitioned into
teaching and coaching stuff,it's not about me, it's about
the greater good and what I canimpact off of it.
So for me, it's like the goalof striving and achieving to
(31:53):
Olympic status gave me so muchthat now it's my duty to give
back and hopefully pave a wayfor someone to be better than me
and for thousands of people tobe better than me, but at least
one.
And if at least one personcould be in my shoes hopefully a
brown kid, but at least oneperson if they could be in my
shoes and get to where I got toand then beyond, and, and I had
(32:14):
some type of role or factor inthat, some type of influence,
then I've done my job.
And I was talking about it inthe previous podcast.
We were talking about legacyand I don't really I don't think
about legacy too much, but if Ido think about legacy, I would
think about how many peopleyou've influenced, right?
That's legacy and so so to me,yeah, it's tough man Like, and I
(32:34):
again, it's not to say that Idon't watch the Olympics.
I do but and I love it, Ialways will.
But it's difficult, especiallyTaekwondo, to watch Taekwondo at
the Olympics.
It's very tough for me.
But it's not to say that I'm afailure, and when I talk, toot
my horn just a little bit, bro,but I was probably one of the
greatest male fighters to everstep on a mat in this country,
you know, and I was top 10 inthe world and a lot of, a lot of
(33:08):
these countries that I went to.
My goal was to if I don't beatyou, you're going to earn my,
you're going to earn my respect,I'm going to earn your respect
and you're going to earn myrespect.
And I'm pretty, I'm, I could, Icould say that I did that.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Hey, quick break here in the middle of this episode
to say thank you to Pioneer AutoGroup Aldergrove for hooking us
up with our plug-in electricJeep that we get to drive around
in here in the lower mainland.
Typically, we're doing ourpodcasts in this Jeep.
Now this one virtual.
Obviously we can't do everysingle one in person, but we're
aiming to do so on the AthletesPodcast.
Thanks to Pioneer Auto GroupAlder Grove for providing us
this amazing Jeep.
(33:47):
Now you know yeah.
You can say it with confidencetoo.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
And.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
I think it's.
I wanted to bring that upObviously not the most fun guy
thing for me to ask about, but Iasked because you do have a
good mentality around it and Ithink it's something that you
know young athletes listeningyou talk about impacting one
person.
We're on the 259th episode ofthe show.
You know, my goal at thebeginning was to do one.
(34:14):
We're probably at the couple ofhundred thousand, maybe
millions of people impacted atthis point at one point or
another, just from an impressionstandpoint alone.
And I think that's where whatyou're saying it's so important,
because maybe you don't makethe olympics, maybe you don't
make the nhl, the nba, the wnba,the pwhl, but you make an
(34:36):
incredible network.
Along the way, you learn a tonof valuable skills, you build an
incredible body that you canuse after your career as an
athlete and oh, by the way, allthose skills are now applicable
afterwards in the workplace.
You're going to be anincredible employee or
potentially found your owncompany.
There's so many externalbenefits that come from
(35:00):
participating in sport right andpursuing the best possible
version of yourself.
Ultimately and I think that'swhat you've kind of seen I'm
curious like how did you getinvolved with that group.
How did you connect with liz?
Where did that conversation allstart?
Because I was just thrown inthere, like you said last minute
.
So give me some context here.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah, yeah, so Liz knew.
So I think.
So the thing is, I met Liz awhile ago in this.
I believe I met her a while agoand it was so.
When you're a national athlete,they have this program called
Game Plan.
I'm not sure if you've heard ofGame.
Plan or not.
Yeah, yeah, so it's a greatprogram, and so I believe I was.
(35:38):
So you can can, as an athleteeither current athlete or
retired athlete you can registerfor different what's it called
programs that they have withinthe game plan organization,
right?
So they'll have public speakingstuff, workshops, they'll have
cooking workshops, and so Iremember connecting with Liz I
believe it was online initiallythrough one of these workshops
(35:59):
it might have been the publicspeaking workshop or whatnot and
it was just.
Again, it was very nonchalant,right, because there were so
many athletes there and weconnected and we vibed and we
followed each other on Instagram.
But then, you know, as you meetpeople, you know it kind of
trickles away and you just kindof you kind of follow them on
their stories and see theirstuff and unless they have your
(36:20):
shorts Unless they have yourshorts, exactly In which case
you stay locked in.
And then I met a friend of oursthrough an organization called
BNI and then again I just gotinvited into this group chat and
they were like, hey, do youwant a cold plunge and hot sauna
(36:41):
?
And I'm like, bro, like this iswhat athletes do.
I love that, and if we'retrying to, and it's such a big
thing, obviously in Vancouverand I'm sure it's out here and
all that stuff now too.
But the concept of the coldplunge sauna therapy and I was
like, yeah, what?
I mean, we do this as athletes,but this is nice to kind of
like understand that this isgreat for mental health, for
(37:01):
outside of it, for regularpeople.
And so I was like, yeah, whynot?
Why don't I network some more?
Why don't I meet some people?
And so I got invited to that,um, to that session, and yeah,
the rest is history.
Man, I got to reconnect withLiz.
It was cool, you, I know youfrom somewhere.
It's like, oh yeah, we did, wedid resonate before and connect
(37:21):
before.
So it was nice and uh, yeah,it'd be nice to see her again.
Like she's a great human beingand anytime I'm around Olympians
, it's always I'm, I'm alwaysagain, I'm always in awe, but
I'm always honored and I also Ialways feel like I belong in
that, in that realm, in thatreality, in that scope of
individuals.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
So, um, yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
It was nice yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Yeah, yeah, the uh.
Do you use hot cold therapy aton.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
Have you been to other ship in Toronto yet I
haven't been to other ships, sosomeone told me about other ship
I got to go there, I actuallyhad a date.
I had a date lined up there butit fell through.
But, um, I got it.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
I got to check out.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Yeah, uh.
But yeah, I got to check outother ship and uh, yeah, I mean,
when I was in, when I was anathlete, I was doing a lot of
cryotherapy.
Actually I wasn't I didn't, Iwasn't a big fan of the cold
plunge itself, but I did a lotof cryotherapy, uh, and that was
really nice, I believe.
I believe that really helped alot for me.
But I personally I like thecold plunge like in nature, like
(38:17):
going into the water and stufflike that.
That's's.
That's some people.
You go out to the beach or yougo to the water, you go to the
lake.
That's always nice.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Yeah, we my buddy Dan and I went up, did Garibaldi up
in BC a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
That was that was cool.
That was cool.
I believe that.
But that's, that's beautiful.
You got to do it, man.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
When you're up there.
You got to do that, right.
Yeah, you got to change it upand you got to be in nature.
I was like I'm going up alittle little getaway this
weekend and it's you need thatreset.
Um, the value of nature, Ithink like one of the things
I've brought up here time fewand far between the value of,
like grounding, I got sent somegrounding well products to sleep
on to use.
I don't know.
Do you have any fun things Likeare you worried about your seed
oil consumption?
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Like, what's got you concerned in life right now?
I'm always curious yeah, that'sinteresting, man, because so
you talk about that and Ihaven't.
I haven't zoned in on it toomuch, but I got to start
thinking about it.
I'm coming to that point now.
I'm 35 in July and so, like you, got to start thinking about
taking you know, you're, you're,you're superhuman when you're
under 30.
Right, and you don't, you don'tcare to.
(39:24):
I always talk about this.
There was this one gentleman Iforgot.
I forgot who it was, butthere's this gentleman when I
was in high school, I was 14.
And he told me, I remember hewas like, like, enjoy what you
have right now, take advantageof it, because you'll realize
everything is going to dwindleas you get older.
And I'm like I remember beinglike man, shut the hell up.
Like I'm never going to stoptraining, I'm never going to
(39:45):
stop looking good, I'm nevergoing to stop being fit.
And then when I retired, bro,the amount of eating that I did,
the amount of drinking that Idid, the amount of like I
stopped.
I stopped training and I waslike, fuck, it's kind of hard to
get back into training.
Like this is wild.
And I'm like and I always thinkback to that gentleman.
I don't know who he is, he'sjust a face to me, but I just
remember that conversationbecause now I do the same thing.
Every youth that I see.
(40:06):
I'm like yo enjoy this shit, Ipromise you, I promise.
And they're like man.
Shut the hell up, bro, but it'sfull.
The universe is just cyclesthat just continue to repeat.
Right and so for me, right now,man, when you talk about
grounding nature, like you saidand that's why it was so hard
for me to leave vancouver,because nature is it's number
one there right and it's just soeasy to be grounded there.
(40:28):
But I like to go to, I like togo by the water, I like to go
out in nature, just sit in thegrass.
Another thing that I kind of doI talked about uh is um, so I
don't, I don't know if you,obviously you haven't met my cat
, but he's a big part of my lifeand uh, and he keeps me
grounded and, like I say thisand it can be kind of silly or
(40:49):
whatever maybe, but people thathave pets or people that know of
pets, they understand this.
But when you have, when youhave a pet man, it's something
different because they it's,it's almost like a kid, but the
but with the pet they don'tnecessarily grow up the way a
kid does.
So I love what I do because Iteach kids and they keep you
grounded, they keep youunderstanding that you got to
(41:12):
keep staying with life and havevitality in you.
But with an animal it'sdifferent, bro, because they
literally just exist to exist.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
They're not they're not.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
their goal is not to work or do this or do not, it's
just make the most money.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
It's none of that.
It's eat shit, sleep.
That's what they do and in lifethose are the best things to
fucking do Shit and sleep, bro.
Like what are we talking about?
(41:43):
So, so when I look at my cat,sometimes when I have a hard day
or when things are tough, orwhen I have a crazy student or a
crazy parent or the date fallsthrough and life is kind of all
crazy and mucked up, I just comehome to my cat, bro, I kind of
just hold him.
He starts talking to me, I talkto him and I listen to his
purrs and I listen to thevibrations and I'm like, yo,
life is not that bad, bro, itcould be worse, it could really
be worse.
You know, I walk by people andthey're in wheelchairs, or I
walk by a blind person, or Iwalk by a deaf person, or I see
(42:06):
a dog that has three legs andI'm just like, bro, life could
be a lot worse.
Man, like, you got to be gifted, you got to be, you got to, you
got to be grateful.
I got to be grateful for what Ihave, because it could be a lot
worse.
I got hair on my head, bro.
Some people don't.
You know what.
I'm saying Like yeah, right,like it's just, it's so.
It's just that kind of like youknow, we're fortunate, we're
(42:27):
lucky, and so we got to use, wegot to understand that you know
what.
It could be a lot worse, andwe're all going through our own
pain and not to down, downplaynobody's pain.
I'm going through some shit,everybody's going through some
shit, but it could be a lotworse, right, yeah, and so.
So, man, that's how I kind ofstay grounded.
But yeah, I got to get into theoils, bro, I got to get into
the seed oils, I got to get intoashwagandha and all that type
ish.
You know.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
Yeah, that's such a perfect way to put it and, like
the perspective piece, I think athe perspective gets lost on
them.
I'm sure that's what they'resaying about us when we were in
our 20s or early 20s, whatever,but I think that there's
something to be said about beingable to wake up every morning
(43:08):
and say, hey, I've got like fivefingers, five toes, I can move
all of my like, wow, great start.
And I didn't receive a phonecall in the middle of the night
that one of my friends or familymembers died.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Correct Life is good, I'd like the bare minimum start
there.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
I woke up this morning, I have no current
health issues and it's like that.
Okay, we're winning already.
And if you can start your dayevery day like that wow, the
rest is gravy, because then yousecure a deal, you land a new
client, whatever it is, and it'slike oh, that's just the cherry
on top, because everything elseis so amazing and I'm alive
today.
(43:46):
So yeah, man batman, this iswhy we bring you on the podcast,
dude.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
We get to have that perspective.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Um, you know you've got uh, you've got hundreds of
kids going through your coursesright now.
What does the class schedulelook like?
Where should people be going?
Before we hit you with thefinal question, as you know, as
a listener of the show, yeah, Iappreciate that.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
So right now, um, I'm working at a school called
all-star martial arts out inleslieville, um, and so we have
classes running right now fromfour fit from 4 30 to 8 30 in
the evenings.
Um, we got kids classes, so wegot tots classes.
Tots classes are anywhere fromlike four to six years old.
We got junior classes from likeseven to 11.
(44:28):
We got like intermediateclasses for like that's based
off of belts, belt levels, andthen we got an adults, teens and
adults class too.
Um, I also do private sessionsas well, so I'm taking on, I'm
onboarding clients as well too.
So, as a personal trainer, Itrain clients if they want to
lose weight, if they want to getfit, and kind of my approach to
how I train my clients is I doa little half and half, I do a
(44:48):
little bit of personal trainingand I do a little bit of
kickboxing.
So, like I said before, I thinkeverybody should know how to
fight.
Everybody should know how toprotect themselves.
You don't need to fight, butyou should know how to.
You should know how to throw apunch, you should know how to
kick, you should know how tokeep somebody away from you,
because this world is fucked upand you got to know how to take
care of yourself.
And so I do a little bit ofthat.
(45:35):
A lot of my clients are is atCombat M-A-F-K-O-M-B-H-A-T.
Combat stronger, get more fit,like mentally, physically,
spiritually, emotionally.
Uh, I'm, that's what I do, man,cause I'm.
I'm looking at it as, um, it'sa, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's
a body.
Right, it's a body of work.
It's not just I'm going to losesome weight for my abs or I'm
(45:55):
going to punch somebody, so Iknow how to punch or kick.
No, how do I control myemotions?
How do I regulate myself?
How do I know that I can hitsomebody but not do it Right?
How do I know that?
Speaker 2 (46:07):
if I go on a walk with my wife.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
I can protect my wife .
How do I know if?
I go on a walk with my kid.
I can protect my kid.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
Yeah, yeah, that control piece and it's uh being
just comfortable and that quietconfidence around any situation.
Uh, yeah, I said I can't thankyou enough for coming on the
show.
This has been fun.
Like I said, we'll do a littletraining session when I come out
there in toronto we'll hit themats.
We'll let's do uh, we'll trainme to see how I can protect
myself and maybe some others anduh no uh, as someone who's
listening to show you know, wewrap up every episode by asking
(46:42):
our guests their biggest pieceof advice for the next
generation of athletes.
The floor is yours.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
So the biggest piece of advice that I would give is
enjoy the process, give yourselftime.
Sometimes we get into the moldof go go, go that and the mama
mentality is the mentality yougot to just go, go go.
You got to put your head downand work.
But I would say that we hearthis quote a lot.
(47:09):
I wish I knew I was in the goodold days, but that's what makes
it the good old days.
But if we can understand, likeeven right now, man, this is the
good old days.
Like I appreciate thisconversation and five years down
the road I'll be like yo, thatpodcast talk, that episode that
I had with David, that was crazyman, that was a great
conversation, right.
But me understanding andappreciating even now.
(47:31):
So, as an athlete, understandthat you're going through the
process and appreciate thatprocess, the good times and the
bad times, cause one day you'regoing to look back and you're
gonna be like, fuck, I wish Iwas there right now.
I wish I was doing that rightnow, I wish I had just lost
nationals, I was going back intothe gym and I was doing that
right now, because what I'mdoing right now is to and that
goes, that goes, that kind ofaligns with everything right.
When you're in grade one orgrade two, it's tough.
(47:53):
Then you go to grade six, gradeseven, and you're like, fuck,
grade one was easy, bro, I wishI was in grade one again, that
shit was fun.
Then you go to high school andyou're like yo, grade eight was
a joke.
Then you go to university andyou're like yo, high school, bro
, high school.
Then you get out of universityand you're at work and you're
like, fuck, work is.
I hate work.
Man, I was complaining aboutuniversity, can party and all
(48:21):
that.
So it's just so.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
My advice is just appreciate the good old times
because you're in the good oldtimes right now.
Cheers to the good times rightnow.
Batman, thanks for coming onthe podcast.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
Yeah, I appreciate you man, absolutely we'll stay
in touch okay 100.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
I gotta say thanks to you folks for tuning in to
perfect sports, for providing mewith the best supplements on
the market.
Use the code ap15 at checkoutto save 15.
And, not last but least, shoutout to batman for coming on the
show sharing his wisdom andknowledge with you folks as
listeners.
I can't thank you enough fortuning in.
I can't thank our partnersenough for being a part of this
journey.
(48:50):
Again, 259 episodes, that is,bonkers, ladies and gentlemen,
but we're gonna see you againnext week for another new
episode.
Thank you again for tuning in.
Hope you have a great rest ofyour day.
Bye.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
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.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.