Episode 342 - Sensei Amanda Cass
Sensei Amanda Cass is a martial arts practitioner and instructor from Massachusetts.
One thing about martial arts that I always do say to people is, it's something that you can do forever, there something more to learn. It doesn't matter if you've been doing it for five, ten, twenty years, there's always a new avenue you can explore...
Sensei Amanda Cass - Episode 342
It's always great to hear that martial artists start their journey at a young age and stay until they're adults. What's more inspiring is when the whole family is also involved in your journey. Sensei Amanda Cass started training at a tender age of 8 because of her mom wanting to go back to martial arts while her children are also into the martial arts. It's a true family affair but Sensei Amanda Cass has always gravitated to martial arts because of the great community and the people that she serves in the martial arts. Aside from her worthy Instagram stories, there's more to her than meets the eye. Listen to find out more!
Show Notes
On this episode, we mentioned Bill "Superfoot" Wallace and Jackie Chan.You may visit her Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using @kickitlikecass[gallery type="slideshow" size="full" ids="6002,6009,6008,6007,6006,6005,6003"]
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below or download here.Jeremy Lesniak:Hey everyone, thanks for coming by! This is whistlekick martial arts radio episode 342. Today, I joined my sensei Amanda Cass. If you don’t know my voice you might want to head on over to whistlekick.com and see everything that I’ve been putting my heart and soul into over the last few years. My name is Jeremy Lesniak, I'm your host for the show. I'm the founder at whistlekick and I'm a traditional martial artist and I love the martial arts. We got a great newsletter you can check that out, we only drop one, maybe two issues a month just letting you know what's going on behind the scenes as we roll out new products maybe drop some new projects or otherwise just have stuff to tell you about sometimes it’s a discount, sometimes it's a special event. There's all kinds of cool stuff that were doing here and you wanna know about it so find out at whistlekick.com or whistlekickmartialartsradio.com promise not gonna spam you. Let's talk about today's guest. As you might imagine use social media and I follow a lot martial artists on social media and that's how I found today's guest. Today's guest since Amanda Cass has been building quite a following on Instagram. Now there are a lot of people who post things on social media and maybe the bill the following but I don’t want to follow them. I might keep tabs on what they're doing, but they don't speak to the traditional martial arts the way that, I’ll be honest, I think it should be spoken to and today's guest does. So I reached out to her I said hey, let's have you on the show let's talk about your journey and I was lucky enough that she said yes. So here we are, let's listen to my conversation with sensei Amanda Cass.Sensei Cass, welcome to whistlekickmartialartsradio.Amanda Cass:Hey happy to be here Jeremy!Jeremy Lesniak:I'm happy to have you here and I’ll admit I didn't realize you were so close when we set all this up. I should have known by the area code when you committed to guest form. I should've known by the area code but it didn't click.Amanda Cass:Yeah I remember you asking me, oh you're on the east coast, whereabouts? I'm like oh Boston you're not far at all, New England.Jeremy Lesniak:And now making me feel bad, cause I don’t even remember our emails, making me look bad on my own show oh [00:02:48.06]. Well, thank you for doing this as we already mentioned. It's a rainy day here and there have been a few bouts of heavy rain, so audience you might hear the sound of the rain on the metal roof as we get going but hopefully not too bad.Amanda Cass:Got rain down here to so.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah well not as bad as it is down south so...Amanda Cass:That's true. We are lucky.Jeremy Lesniak:We are. But of course we can talk weather all day, we could talk New England we could talk Boston, we could talk about the uniqueness of the Southie accent and how much that I love it and how much it makes me think of watching the departed which now after we are done talking I will probably watch that while I have dinner. What we are actually here to talk about, martial arts.Amanda Cass:Absolutely.Jeremy Lesniak:And we're here to talk about you and your martial arts journeys let's rollback, let's hit reset on the counter, how did you find martial arts?Amanda Cass:Well, I found it at a pretty young age. I started doing martial arts in 1997 when I was eight and the reason I got into it was actually my mom used to do martial arts and she wanted to also get back into it so that is kind of a family endeavor which eventually turned into me doing martial arts, my daughter does martial arts now so pretty much come from a background of martial artists.Jeremy Lesniak:And so what was the reason your mom got into it?Amanda Cass:I'm not a hundred percent sure I know she's into fitness and everything too and it is seems a great outlet and a funner way to work out than just going to the gym you know.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah, and of course because you are so close and I know so many of the folks the train in New England, can I ask where you started or at least what style?Amanda Cass:Shaolin kempo karate. Originally started with East Coast martial arts but were now dynamic martial arts.Jeremy Lesniak:And what has, what's kept you and it? Cause if I'm doing the math you know we're talking 20 years.Amanda Cass:Yeah. I really think that number one I always said to people like just kicking and punching never gets old for me I just always love to do it. But besides that, I think that it is a fun way to work out but it's also not just my fitness regimen it's kinda like you know, one of the things they just keep you saying you know when you're working out and we have a really great community of people that I'm around, so it's not just doing martial arts, it's the people that I'm around and I’ve had people that have helped me throughout my life because I have been in it so long you know.Jeremy Lesniak:One of the things it people often hold up as a an asset to being a martial artist is that community, that family you just mentioned.Amanda Cass:Yeah exactly.Jeremy Lesniak:Any thoughts on what creates that? Because I’ll be honest we've had folks on the show who have not talked about that and I’ve been part of and seen plenty of schools where that doesn’t happen so much that class is over and people just leave and they don't talk to each other very much and I don't have any good explanation as to why one and not the other, maybe you have some thoughts?Amanda Cass:I would have to say it's probably the head instructor that kinda facilitates that sense of community between their students. Because we do have like that close knit group of people. I mean, my sensei has been like you now an aunt or just somebody that I’ve always been able to come to you pretty much my whole life because you know she's known me since I was eight. And then beyond that you know I teach martial arts at her school so I think that sense of community just got built very early on is pretty much a friendship.Jeremy Lesniak:You know you have a female instructor and I don’t want to put a negative connotation in making that statement but unfortunately, statistically that is not the norm.Amanda Cass:That is not the norm you are correct and I mean I feel like growing up, I’ve always been interested in like male-dominated activities like sports anyways like martial arts and I started to get into the stunt community a bit and it is generally a male dominated industry. I'm lucky that I have her, she's a super strong woman so...Jeremy Lesniak:I'm gonna guess, your mother might also be similar?Amanda Cass:Yes she is. My mom she's been doing martial arts just as long as I have now and she had that history and doing it before and wanting to get back into it in the 90s and she was a military woman so, she's very strong woman as well so I'm lucky to have these strong female influences.Jeremy Lesniak:Do you ever find that there is a, I don’t wanna use the word conflict because it has a negative connotation, do you ever find challenge with you being so willing to embrace your participation in what you've called a male dominated space with other women who may be or less comfortable with that.Amanda Cass:I don't think so. I feel like a lot of the women that I have met that are into this are also strong women. I feel like I haven't noticed any issues with it generally I mean especially not at our school.Jeremy Lesniak:[00:08:26.10] what you're talking about really comes from the top, comes from that head instructor and and the culture and as you're talking about the community and that coming from the instructor that makes a lot of sense to me and it would make sense that so much of the rest of the way people conduct themselves and I would expect who is attracted into the school.Amanda Cass:Yeah. I definitely think that whoever is attracted in is, I mean you fit in with this group of people and people are attracted to people with similar ideals and passion and where they want to go in life you know.Jeremy Lesniak:For sure. For sure now what has kept you in martial arts? I mean to 20 years and you know kinda, you hinted at this but it's such a big subject, it’s such a big deal that I don't want to gloss over it. You started as a kid and you started I think we could probably say not so much at your own idea, you knows it is your mother's idea to get you in. But somewhere along the way that changed because you're still going you're clearly an adult, Yep and now you're doing more than you have to because you're a teacher.Amanda Cass:Absolutely. I would say one thing about martial arts that I always do say to people is, it's something you can do forever there's always something more to learn, doesn’t matter if you've been doing it for 5-10-20-30 years, there's always a new avenue you can explore because not only is there one style of martial arts and even if you do do one style, it takes so many years to learn the fundamentals behind that style but there's so many new ways to discover martial arts again whether it's competing in getting the feel for tournaments or doing live shows where people learn fight choreography or film, there's so many ways to be a martial artist and enjoy doing what you do.Jeremy Lesniak:Fully agree.Amanda Cass:One my favorite things about the martial arts is that there are a lot of ways to participate and do things that work for you. It can be competition can be hyper traditional training in a class, it can be tricking, it can be stunt work, it can be more.Jeremy Lesniak:Absolutely.Amanda Cass:You could keep going on and on.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah the list is endless, we can talk all day about the list and that's what's awesome about it you know. Now for you, if you were to order that list, what would your top few things be you mentioned you're starting to get into stunts but what else really resonates for you?Amanda Cass:Well I’ve really, growing up I was really into the demonstration teams. I'd like going out and performing for people that sense of pride or people coming up after you perform something and they really enjoyed it or you inspired them. I'd say that's high on the list which is one of the reasons that I always was interested in stunt work. I mean, I used to not know how to enter that business but I’ve kina started to discover how to. That's big on it, also teaching I’ve been teaching for so long now that I’ve seen kids go from you now five-year-old white belt said to 15-year-olds that are getting ready to go for their black belts and it's interesting to watch all the kids grow up in our school so I really enjoy that as well.Jeremy Lesniak:Nice. I think that gives us a pretty good foundation so we can wander forward, learn more about you. Now, of course the next question on the list, my favorite one, the one that I would ask first if I could is about stories and it's about your stories, your journey to the martial arts. So if I were to ask you to boil everything down to your favorite martial arts story from your time what would that be?Amanda Cass:That's a great question. I feel like I have several but I'm gonna probably go with I got my 4th degree black belt three years ago and the test is today as long, yeah it was super intense. So the second day, we had to wake up at like three in the morning and go to the beach deserve an ideal portion of the test area and once the sun started to come up that is when we got our next rank and I'm not generally like a person that will cry over stuff but this is like one of the first times that I felt like really emotional because it was kind of a culmination because at that time had been studying 18 years and I was like wow, that's more than half my life that have been doing this and dedicating like my time to this. So, I would say that's probably definitely one of my favorite stories because my mom also got her fourth grade that day as well so it was a big day for everybody and I was like holding back tears, I’m like oh this isn’t me like, why am I acting like this but it was it was awesome.Jeremy Lesniak:Nice how much more, I'm speculating here, I'm gonna just ask directly. Does it mean more to you participating with family?Amanda Cass:Oh yeah definitely. My daughter is now, she got her green belt with brown stripe and she's 10. And she is pretty much obsessed with it like she doesn't want to miss class ever. When we are on vacation last month then she had to miss a class she's like, oh I don't really I don't know, I don't want to miss a class, I'm like it's okay to take a break.Jeremy Lesniak:So there's three generations of you in there.Amanda Cass:Yup.Jeremy Lesniak:Do you teach her?Amanda Cass:I do. Yes. Well my teacher teaches her as well I also teach her when I run classes.Jeremy Lesniak:Is that difficult?Amanda Cass:No. Initially when she was little paying attention was super hard for her. But now she's so into it that she just wants to progress and she's like hyper focus when she does it now. It's fun to watch.Jeremy Lesniak:It can be hard in some schools and to be frank I'm speaking from personal experience, participating martial arts with family especially when there is a power difference, a rank difference I guess, just the best way to put it. You know, is there ever a challenge with your mother where you know she's your mother, she's always your brother but you're the same rank.Amanda Cass:Yeah yeah. I know you right, I don't think so. I think that we are both kinda know where we stand and I always say like everybody has their strengths and their weaknesses within their martial arts so that's something I always like pay attention to like if I'm really good at something and somebody's not or if I struggle with something someone else is better at it, you know you kinda swallow your pride and you're like alright I’ll take the help. You know, you don't need to just cause you're the same rank, you don’t need to feel like you should be equivalent in every aspect of what you're doing.Jeremy Lesniak:Now there is a topic that gets some people riled up, the idea of what a certain rank means that when someone reaches whatever. Whatever rank ,whatever belt that there should be certain standards and I think we all agree that there are standards but how those standards are implemented especially when you have dramatically different people training in martial arts.Amanda Cass:Yes. Oh yeah absolutely.Jeremy Lesniak:Now I don't know if you have say over promotion or even any influence in promotion at your school, but is that something that you've thought about? Is that something you have an opinion on?Amanda Cass:I do have a say over promotion in our school. I do help with tests quite frequently depending on, our black belt test don't happen as often as under belt test do but I do help with testing and I think you know with martial arts you can have the phenoms who can kick and punch incredibly and then you're gonna have people who maybe struggle in that department and I think that a big part of it is showing up and making sure you're coming to training and putting your best foot forward in order to progressing go through the ranks in martial arts. You know, I don't, it doesn't help for anybody to be lazy when they try to move up through the ranks or gain skill or knowledge on what they're doing.Jeremy Lesniak:Makes a lot of sense. Now, other the martial arts and it is clear that that is a big chunk of who you are and the hours in your day, what else is going on in your life? What else do you do any other hobbies or...Amanda Cass:Yeah. I'm super into physical fitness as well as martial arts. One of the things that I enjoy doing is, for a little while I was getting into like obstacle training and stuff. I've kinda calmed down with that because the focus is stunts in try to break into that industry so a lot of the stuff I’ve been doing now besides martial arts have recently gotten into parkour which I really enjoyed cause growing up not only did I do martial arts, I did gymnastics as well so I feel like between the martial arts and the gymnastics background, like I’ve find parkour to be really fun. Cause going to the gym and stuff and just lifting weights is great, it’s like you're in a time crunch or you wanna throw your headphones on and kinda zone out but you know what it's like gain more body control or really learn how your body can move, I find that sports that involve total movement of everything at the same time to be a lot of fun.Jeremy Lesniak:Completely agree. I did a few years of parkour and it's amazing how cross training in these different disciplines, weight training, martial arts, parkour, gymnastics, I mean you’re check in my four boxes as well which is a lot of fun.Amanda Cass:Yeah it's awesome I love it.Jeremy Lesniak:At a certain level it's all the same stuff. It's how your body moves.Amanda Cass:Yeah. Exactly isn’t the art of movement.Jeremy Lesniak:Yes yes. Martial artist have a unique toolset when it comes to dealing with challenges. It could be physical challenges, could be nonphysical challenges. Tell us what a difficult time in your life and how you are able to reflect on or use your martial arts to move through it.Amanda Cass:Alright. So I was a young mom, I had my daughter when I was 19. So I would say getting through college and being a young mom was definitely difficult. That was probably one of the hardest things I had to overcome cause I’ve never been a fan of sitting down in a classroom and writing papers you know, I'm such an active person that that's what I enjoy doing a lot more but I saw the value in education and I was like I want to get my degree still, so I managed to work through it and get a bachelor’s degree from Umass, Boston. I would say that what helped me with martial arts, number one, my martial arts family did help me you know, my teacher was there for me all the time. She's like oh I’ll Adriana if you know if you have a class so, that number one that was a big part of getting through you know teamwork makes the dream work. Definitely having patience, martial arts, especially teaching martial arts teaches you a lot of patience. There's nothing like teaching a form to a five-year-old that doesn't you know, the does not teach your patience. So that patience and the determination like the mind over matter aspect of things, whether it's you know, getting through class or if getting to something physical. I feel like the mind over matter aspect that a lot of martial artist have definitely helped me in that time.Jeremy Lesniak:Right on. And if you could go back and talk your 19-year-old self, what advice would you give her?Amanda Cass:I'll probably tell your number one, everything is gonna work out it seems like completely crazy time in your life, but you know everything happens for a reason and you'll slowly start to figure out where your place in the world is. You know.Jeremy Lesniak:I'm sure that if we are to make a list of the people who were really influential on you as a martial artist, I'm guessing there are two that are gonna pop to the list, your head instructor, I guess your mother, and I'm happy for you to talk about those two but I want you to put 3rd name on the list. Who would be number three on the list of individuals who have been most influential?Amanda Cass:Well, I gotta say I think you already interviewed him Bill Superfoot Wallace. I read I'm like oh he knows him its cool. One of the things I love about watching him is like his flexibility is insane and his leg control and he's a lefty which is crazy. I've always been really flexible so I’ve always looked for like you know, stretching videos and ways to improve even more upon my flexibility because sometimes when you're really flexible the average stretches, you're like, I’m just kinda sit in here. You know and I remember coming across one of his videos years ago and it was a stretching video and I was like, wow this guy is, and at the time he is in his 50s and I hope to now keep that level of fitness all the way up through my life so I was definitely inspired by that and the videos helped a lot to like some of the split things that he does are pretty impressive.Jeremy Lesniak:For sure. Yeah undoubtedly. Okay. And now, because I gave you the option you know, tell us a little bit about how your instructor and your mother have guide you, formed you as the martial artist you are today.Amanda Cass:Well I would definitely say my instructor was always like pretty creative growing up so, things didn't really get old or stale I enjoyed, yeah I was like a teenager I was captain of the demo team and she kinda let me head that which I felt a sense of pride being able to run the demo team at a young age. My mom, obviously she signed me up, she's taught me a lot about you know, hard work and dedicating your time to it. I remember growing up in, if I'd be tired someday she's like no, we should still go and I was like alright I’ll go, go to karate.Jeremy Lesniak:Awesome. And now let's flip that question on its head. If you could train with someone you haven't, anywhere in the world and let's say anywhere in time you've found the time machine so you could go back if you want. Who would you want to train with?Amanda Cass:I would have to go with Jackie Chan. That would be amazing. Grown up watching his movies and I was just always super inspired by him and when I was younger, I was like, I would love to fight on film, It'd be so cool but at the time I was like, I don’t have a rocket ship to go to the moon, that's crazy how am I gonna be able to do that. And slowly I started to meet people over the last two years or so and I’m like wait, maybe I can do this. But if I had an option to call him up on the phone, I would certainly be like hey Jackie let's go train.Jeremy Lesniak:So cool. One of my favorites.Amanda Cass:Yeah he's so awesome and his stunt team I watched it’s an old movie and it's about how him and the stunt team work together to create you know action sequences and stuff and I think it’s like called my stunts or something like that and It just goes pretty much through a good majority of his career talking about his stunt team and him and the stunts that he's completed and the sacrifices he's made on his body to get this stuff out on film and it's amazing what his, how his stunt team and him work together. He has got like sound cues so that they know when to swing at him if they're behind him and yeah so awesome. One of one of my faves for certain.Jeremy Lesniak:What your favorite Jackie Chan movie?Amanda Cass:Oh man, I love the rush hour movies. You know, the comedy in it is hysterical. I would definitely say that some, as far as stunts go you know some of his older stuff from Hong Kong and everything is also really good.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah. Last I looked and assuming that you consider rush hour, you know the rush hour films to be martial arts movies they are the top grossing martial arts movies of all time.Amanda Cass:Yeah.Jeremy Lesniak:I'm just kinda laying that out there without a lot of judgment because I'm not sure how I feel about that.Amanda Cass:Oh because of the highest grossing?Jeremy Lesniak:Well they're fun and I enjoy them.Amanda Cass:They are and I feel like people like comedy you now. As far as like stunt go though, like police story you know when he jumped off that I don’t know it’s like 3rd story and then maybe like a mall or something or when he jumped off of physical moving bus into a window like that's the crazy stuff that he's really done but I do enjoy comedy a lot, I love to laugh. SoJeremy Lesniak:He is a funny man and a Singer as well I mean, talk about multi-talented.Amanda Cass:Yeah he's a triple threat there.Jeremy Lesniak:You mentioned earlier that you'd spent some time with demo team so I'm going to guess that you are also competing somewhere along the way.Amanda Cass:Yeah I did compete back in my younger days. I want to say that the most competing I did was maybe around 2005-2006 I did quite a bit of tournaments back then. Our school doesn't force anybody to do a million tournaments and there are some schools out there that are like strictly tournament based and that's great but we don't always make people do that all time, we do make people compete but at the time I kinda got interested in that through a friend who was starting to go to some more tournaments, I did the Quebec open, I did the twin tower classic, the US Open, I did a whole bunch of stuff that year because I just wanted to get that exposure and be put out of my comfort zone.Jeremy Lesniak:I understand that and what did you learn from your time competition?Amanda Cass:It’s a good question. I mean, I think mainly like what I was saying being put out of your comfort zone is always good. It definitely teaches you stuff for the future because the only way to grow is to be you know, put out of your comfort zone I mean I really enjoyed traditional forms and sparring and one thing about sparring that I always find interesting, which whenever I would go up to spar versus forms, forms you know what to expect. You're gonna go in front of the judges, you're gonna go in front of the judges, you're gonna do this thing you've already created but with sparring especially putting you out of your comfort zone, you never know who are you going up against at any tournament you now. And I'm sure I'm small 5 foot 1, so it was always interesting to compete against some tall people for sure.Jeremy Lesniak:Let's talk about the future, something tells me that you're someone who spends a lot of time considering what's gonna go on in the next few years maybe even few decades. You’re a mom and there's something that I know of mom's they tend spend a lot of time thinking about the future.Amanda Cass:Yes I do. I did spend a lot of time thinking about my future, my daughter's future. For me, one of the things I do for work outside of the stunts and the martial arts and stuff is I work with kids of autism, I do in-home therapies which I love and I am thankful to work with some awesome families but for me I know that the future is definitely in building my social media platform as well as my stunt career that's really where I want to take things because like I told you before the stunt thing was it initially started as a dream saying how cool would that be as a kid growing up, pretty much my whole life and now that it's slowly starting to take shape it takes a lot of work you know a lot of networking, meeting people, being friends at the people who are already doin it. One of the things I’ve always said in my life is the only way to do something you really want to do is to find the people already doing it and join that community and luckily enough I’ve been able to slowly start meeting the people doing what I want to do. So I;m hoping that at shapes up into you know, a great career for me because I always have done martial arts my whole life as we talked about you know, over 20 years now and I kind of explained the story to somebody I was like, man it's like I didn't know I wanted to do in my early 20s are my mid 20s initially but it's almost like I always knew, I always knew it would be martial arts, I just didn't know how it would be martial arts so the fact that things are starting to shape up and I can take that Road to do what I love is definitely what I want to be doing.Jeremy Lesniak:Nice. So now if it's going to be stunts, you know, I'm hearing you right right? That's where you're hoping to take it?Amanda Cass:Yes stunts and the whole social media figuring that whole thing out I’ve just got to 10K on Instagram so hope it is still build that up as well.Jeremy Lesniak:If you I'm sure if I asked who would you want to work with movie wise you're gonna say Jackie Chan right? I mean he's gonna be top on the list. Who else is up there for you.Amanda Cass:That's one, 8711 action design is certainly up there too. They're an amazing stunt team and they do a lot of the films now so that would definitely be somewhere hopefully I can, I went out to California last March to do some training and I took some training sessions under different people and I went out to Atlanta but in a couple weeks span to train with some people but I hope definitely next time I get out to California I can go take at least a class at 8711 action. I mean, I know getting in with them is hard but that would be amazing.Jeremy Lesniak:Awesome and for folks that may not know that crew including me, what movies, can you throw out a movie or two people may have seen that they've worked on?Amanda Cass:Let me see, I trying to think of one of the latest things that they had done, that everyone would know. They did John Wick, I think everyone knows.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah, John Wick is one of those movies that keeps popping up and kinda bending the genre because it's so not traditionally a martial arts movie but it's hard to argue that it isn't a martial arts movie.Amanda Cass:Yeah there's so much martial arts, you know happening in it and I know that and I believe even the actors in that movie had to learn quite a bit of martial arts while they were filming.Jeremy Lesniak:Yes yeah I’ve read a number of things saying that Keanu Reeves has put a ton of time in training,Amanda Cass:Yeah I’ve heard that too, I’ve hears he's a really hard worker and he puts his heart and soul into learning choreography and stuff when they are filming.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah and if you're a fan of violent, some would say realistic action scenes, then you would enjoy the John Wick Films.Amanda Cass:Yeah absolutely.Jeremy Lesniak:They're brutal .Amanda Cass:They are, they are pretty awesome choreography in those films. I deftly watch movies a little differently now like, starting to get into the stunt work and stuff like huh. Alright I watch that a little different than I used to.Jeremy Lesniak:Do you ever see stuff on screen and it you say oh there's no way I'm gonna be able to do that, that scares the pants off me.Amanda Cass:Well one thing I have not been able to experience yet is fire stuff and I think that's definitely an area where I’m kinda like hmm. Because I know that when people get lit on fire, they do it in progressions. So they'll start with a finger burn, then arm burn, then half your back but eventually when you are let on fire from what I’ve from people, you can't breathe but you still have to act on your face like you would see in a film someone may be looking scared one on fire screaming you still have to have that action, but you can't breathe while you moving around and doing it so and if you do, you can like injure your lungs. So I definitely say that's, that's something I'm kinda like, that should be interesting when I do that. I'll still do it but it’s definitely one of those things that are like that's gonna take some getting used to.Jeremy Lesniak:There's a lot more that goes into making these actions scenes, these fight scenes that people just, they don't get. We watch it as martial artist, especially and we critique and say oh you know, that doesn't work and this and that's not practical and yada yada and yet people just, they don't know. Right they don’t know.Amanda Cass:No they don’t. And even for me, I didn’t know initially everything that goes into it, you know you have a lot of martial artist that do end up you know, getting into this business because you have the background and it’s a great background have for action fighting once you start to really get into it but you don't realize even just the way the camera is facing you know, that's a huge aspect of how you can fight and you have to take all that into consideration.Jeremy Lesniak:Absolutely. What was the biggest surprise as you start getting into stunts versus what you thought it was going to be?Amanda Cass:Biggest surprise. Definitely, maybe, I mean it is hard work. It is definitely you know most people say you gotta build the friendships in the business to make it in it you know and I would definitely say like the biggest surprises probably how much you have to network. You know, some people who are in the acting field, they’re like oh don’t you just get like an agent and it's like nope you have to put in all the work to meet the right people who are coordinating shows to get into it. So I would definitely say that.Jeremy Lesniak:If you could've been in anyone movie that you could've done stunts in any one movie that you've seen, which one would it be?Amanda Cass:It’s a good question.Jeremy Lesniak:It's my job, I gotta ask good question.Amanda Cass:You do. I feel like I would take the question a little different likeJeremy Lesniak:Go for it, spin it if you need to.Amanda Cass:Yeah I feel like I would spin it and it would be based off of what kind of stunts are in the film, negative but it's rich off of what kinda stunts are in the film. You know, is it fighting or is it wire work cause the two things that I enjoy most are obviously the fighting I honestly don't mind hitting the ground too and I do like wire works so I feel like it would be based off of like maybe what the stunt is versus what movie it would be. Cause you never know what you gonna do, it could be something simple or it could be something very complex.Jeremy Lesniak:What's the most impressive stunt you've done? You know, if like we wind up a highlight reel for you. Which actually think you have, I think you have a stunt reel don’t you?Amanda Cass:I do, it's on my Instagram, I have my stunt reel there. I would say through training and stuff, I'm still like I said just working my way in, getting into it I do have a couple of test fights, on my Instagram that I enjoy. I would say your training though one of the other things that definitely I would say is the wire work.Jeremy Lesniak:Nice, fun stuff and certainly leverages your, works your gymnastics background too.Amanda Cass:Oh yeah definitely. When I was in California I got the opportunity to do some wire work training out there and it definitely utilized my gymnastics background because of the type of wire work that we were doing. We had a couple of pick points on our hips, and we're working some flips in there which is a lot of fun.Jeremy Lesniak:Cool. Now you mentioned Instagram, we've talked about your social media. So folks here listening and they want to find you online, how do they do that?Amanda Cass:Yeah, you guys can find me on, I mainly utilize my Instagram platform. I'm hoping to start some YouTube stuff soon but my Instagram platform name is kickitlikecass which is Cass my last name and that's where they can find me there.Jeremy Lesniak:And of course as always, if somebody's new or maybe just had an aneurysm we will put everything that we've talked about today including those links in the show notes whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. No need to try to scribble something in pan on your arm while you're on the treadmill or crash into a telephone pole.Amanda Cass:Yep that would be safe.Jeremy Lesniak:Awesome this is has been a lot of fun and we ask you for one more thing as I can you send you out the door, what advice would you offer the people listening today?Amanda Cass:Well if you guys are well into your martial arts career, or if you're just starting out, stick with it it's always a lot of fun. I would definitely say you know find a way to keep martial arts new and fresh in your life and that's the way you truly enjoy it throughout your whole life.Jeremy Lesniak:What a fun conversation. You know, I can only imagine being so blessed is to share martial arts with both my mother in my child. So lucky to be able to share the thing that you love so much with the people that you love the most. I want to thank you for coming on the show today Sensei Cass, I do hope that will bump into each other at some point soon. We're not that far away let's make it happen. If you want to head over the show notes you can do so at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com see some photos, some links, other good stuff that we've got going on that add context to this episode as well as all of our other episodes. If you want to follow us on social media, we are @whistlekick and you can email me directly jeremy@whistlekick.com. That's all I’ve got for you today. Until next time. Train hard, smile and have a great day.