Episode 1024 - Cory Anderson
In this episode, Andrew chats with Cory Anderson, head instructor at Central Vermont Martial Arts, about her journey in Boxing, Tae Kwon Do and Karate.
Cory Anderson - Episode 1024
SUMMARY
In this conversation, Cory Anderson shares her journey through various martial arts, including her early experiences with Boxing, Tae Kwon Do and Karate. She discusses the challenges she faced, the connections she made, and her current role in opening a new karate school. The conversation highlights the importance of community, the influence of different martial arts styles, and the unique experiences of women in martial arts.
She shares insights on the similarities between Boxing, Tae Kwon Do and Karate, the challenges of competing in boxing, and the importance of cross-training. Cory also reflects on her experiences teaching martial arts to children, emphasizing the need for flexibility and understanding in communication. She expresses her aspirations for the future, including expanding her martial arts knowledge and improving her teaching skills.
TAKEAWAYS
Cory's martial arts journey began with a desire to emulate movie heroes.
Boxing provided a new avenue for Cory, allowing her to train one-on-one.
Cory's transition to Taekwondo introduced her to a more artistic side of martial arts.
Coincidences played a significant role in Cory's martial arts journey.
Cory's experience in Boxing influenced her approach to Taekwondo and Karate.
She emphasizes the importance of community in martial arts training.
Cory's current role involves teaching kids and developing a new karate school.
The school aims to create an inclusive environment for all students.
Cory's journey reflects the evolving nature of martial arts and personal growth.
She finds the artistic side of Tae Kwon Do and Karate more fulfilling than Boxing.
Cory values the eclectic variety of martial arts training opportunities.
Teaching martial arts requires understanding children's communication styles.
Flexibility in teaching methods is essential for engaging kids in martial arts.
Cory believes martial arts should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their background.
She aims to create a fun and serious environment in her classes.
She acknowledges the importance of open-minded instructors in her martial arts journey.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
02:00 Cory's Martial Arts Journey Begins
03:15 Early Experiences in Martial Arts
06:20 Transitioning to Boxing
09:01 Coincidences and Connections in Martial Arts
12:24 Opening a New Karate School
16:09 Influence of Different Martial Arts Styles
23:04 Transitioning Between Martial Arts Styles
24:43 The Impact of Boxing on Martial Arts
27:08 Exploring New Martial Arts Techniques
32:08 Learning from Diverse Instructors
35:02 Teaching Martial Arts and Working with Kids
39:22 Future Aspirations in Martial Arts
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Show Transcript
Andrew Adams (04:37.366)
Welcome you're watching or listening to the next episode of whistlekick martial arts radio and today we're joined by Cory Anderson. Cory, how are you today?
Cory Marie Anderson (04:47.773)
Doing pretty well, thanks for asking. How are you?
Andrew Adams (04:50.062)
I'm doing great. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to get into our chat, but before we get there, I want to make sure if we have any first time listeners, I want to make sure that you know about some of the stuff that we do here at Whistlekick. Obviously you're listening to this podcast, so you're already halfway in the door already. So you might as well go to whistlekick.com to check out all of the other things that we do, whether it's training programs that you can purchase, whether it's hitting some of our events throughout the country, whether it's purchasing a
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That's a mouthful. But right now we're here to chat with you, Corey. You said you're already having a great day. I'm excited to sit and talk to you because although we know each other professionally and personally a little bit, I'm excited to get to know you better and hear about your Marshall journey.
Cory Marie Anderson (06:15.795)
Well, thanks for having me. Martial arts has been an interest of mine for a really long time, but I haven't always had the chance to study and participate. As a kid, like, teenage mutant ninja turtles were awesome. And yeah, it's like TVs and movies that always looked really cool and I wanted to do it. So tried a couple classes, didn't really work out.
and got into boxing instead after college.
Andrew Adams (06:50.626)
Hmm. Interesting. so talk about that initial, like when you started, you said you tried a few classes. How old were you? What, what, what, you know, where were you in your journey at that point?
Cory Marie Anderson (07:04.763)
I think my first class would have been about 10 years old. I tried one of those like three, three month introductory classes at like, it might've been like a wide karate program. And it was just too many kids, too much going on. And I wasn't ready to be in that sort of organized environment. I could do team sports, but to have that many people following directions and doing the same thing.
I just wasn't ready. I also tried Akito in, I believe it was eighth grade. And the school I went to just wasn't geared towards, I felt it wasn't geared towards teaching kids. It was, we're gonna show you and you're gonna do it. And there wasn't any more explanation or demonstration and I needed so much more. So took a break, did
team sports all through high school and took a break from that in college. And then after college, I got into boxing and that one-on-one training was a really nice introduction into a fighting sport.
Andrew Adams (08:19.274)
And what was it when you were eight that made you say, I want to try this out? Like what made you sign up for that three month course?
Cory Marie Anderson (08:30.011)
I wanted to be able to do the stuff that they did in movies. I wanted to be able to kick and punch and jump and it just looked really awesome and really fun. And I loved the physicality of it. And I didn't realize how much mental strength it took to really participate in it at that time.
Andrew Adams (08:51.598)
And so you fast forward eighth grade, you do some Aikido and then you discovered boxing of all things. How did that come about? Because, you know, many people, I'm not one, but many people wouldn't necessarily consider boxing a martial art, but it's very certainly very different from most of the martial arts that we think of. So how did you find yourself there?
Cory Marie Anderson (09:15.827)
In college there was a boxing club and I thought that would be a great way to get into, for lack of a better phrase, getting hit in the face. In martial arts you see a lot of people getting punched, kicked, kneed elbows and I thought, it's just hands. But I really liked watching the fights and seeing how athletic
the fighters were, but also how smart you had to be to put all of these pieces together to go after your opponent, but also protect yourself. And the boxing club was not at all willing to have a woman join, which I was really disappointed in. But when I got out of college, at my job, I was working the night cleaner. We got to talking and he's a boxing coach.
And he's like, if you want a box. And I was like, I want to try it. Like, I definitely want to try it. And he was like, all right, we'll come on down. He's like, I haven't trained women before, but if you want to try it, like show up and we'll do it. So I went and I picked up techniques really fast. started getting in shape and just had an absolute blast training with him and even had a couple of fights and I am not a great fighter.
But I loved the training, I loved the sparring, I loved the working out. Yeah, it was awesome.
Andrew Adams (10:50.91)
And how long did you do that? Cause I'm getting the sense that it wasn't a three month program. So talk a little bit about what that was like doing that training at that time.
Cory Marie Anderson (11:02.803)
I trained about, I think it two days a week and then I trained on my own because I could do all the road work and the jump rope and the shadow boxing on my own time. And then I'd go to the gym and hit mitts, spar, use the bags. And I did that.
eight years. About six years in my trainer died. So I took a small break and then tried to get back into it with another trainer. And that gym just had too much family drama going on. And I ended up hurting my shoulder. I don't know if it was an overuse or what, but I took a break. And that was really good for me mentally. And then I started thinking
know, martial arts, there's a couple schools around where I live. And I've heard about them. I have personally trouble starting things. So for me, going to a school and checking it out is very hard. But one of the schools actually came to the gym that I was working at and offered free classes for a month. And they did it at the gym. And I was like, I'm already here. I want to try this out.
And that was Master Sisley. So he came in to the gym, offered classes. I went every single time, absolutely loved it. I was like, this is like a fighting sport, but there's an artistic side to it, which is that whole like martial arts. There's a fitness aspect to it. It's challenging me mentally, physically. And so I joined his school.
and ended up doing that for, I think it was 10 years up until the pandemic. And then everything shut down.
Andrew Adams (13:01.464)
So it sounds like in what I'm hearing in your journey so far is a lot of amazing coincidences that happened just for you, right? You were in college and they wouldn't let women join the boxing club. And you just happened to be working at a place that the security guards say, I teach boxing. I'll teach you. Like if you hadn't been there, if you didn't work there, that wouldn't have come about. And then you...
you know, your, your, you know, boxing coach passes away, which is unfortunate, but you're working at this gym where all of a sudden this martial art instructor comes in that is at your, your club. I'm curious. These things don't often happen. Sing like one, it just happened once. It's now happened twice. I'm curious if there have been other instances of things that have just worked out.
in your martial journey here.
Cory Marie Anderson (13:59.896)
yeah.
Cory Marie Anderson (14:04.899)
yeah, cause I started with master Sicily who was absolutely great. And then when the pandemic happened, it was kind of a break, but I had already been introduced to Jeremy and a couple other schools in this area. you know, master Pettengall up in Milton. And so I already had this small network and I'm not super outgoing. So having even this, these small connections has been great.
because when things started opening up and I already knew Jeremy, I was going to Marshall Summit or what was then called Free Training Day. So I was making all these new connections and these new friends. And then I met you and you started doing these Saturday trainings down in Key, New Hampshire. So even though I wasn't in a martial arts school, I could still get this bonus training class with whoever was teaching down in Key.
and it exposed me to all these other parts of martial arts because I was doing taekwondo which was great but there's limitations at our school. We weren't doing weapons, we weren't doing a lot of joint locks and throws and those are things that I'm interested in but finding a school that does that or does everything is impossible. Like you just don't do that. You only have so many instructors, they only have so many
skills and interests and it's not going to work for everybody. So being able to go there was really great because now I'm meeting new people who also are open-minded about training in a different style and trying a different technique. And if something works, why wouldn't we use it even if it's from a different discipline? So that was really great. And then Jeremy got in touch with me about opening up a school and helping out and that's...
kind of like another.
Cory Marie Anderson (16:08.243)
happy coincidence. And yeah, we've been working really hard to get our school going now.
Andrew Adams (16:15.008)
Mm-hmm. So talk about that happy coincidence there with Jeremy and opening the school that you are now a part of.
Cory Marie Anderson (16:24.787)
Well, he and I met at Master Sisley's and he had taught a couple of classes there. as, you know, guest instructor coming in and showing what he does and helping out our school. And yeah, he gave me a phone call and was like, hey, I have this idea. I want to open a karate school. Not necessarily a whistle kick karate school, but a karate school that he goes, I have so many ideas.
And I've done so much research and anybody that knows Jeremy knows that he's got 12,000 things going on in his head and he's going to research and research and put all these pieces together. And he's like, I want it to be a karate school and I want you to help out, especially with the kids classes, because I'm pretty good with kids. And he was like, no, no, I want you to help out with the kids classes. It's going to be great. I was like, all right. But I also want to take class because I want to still train.
so we started chatting and he started talking about all these ideas of how people learn and how different people learn and how to combine things and what kind of techniques are going to be useful and applicable in class and outside of class and what are we going to focus on and how to tie everything together. And it took us.
I want to say over a year before we even found a place to have class. And then once we found a spot, it was this is what we want to teach. This is how we want to teach. And I started out just assisting with classes. And he would teach. And then I started slowly taking over the kids class. And then he would teach. So we have a kids, family and adult class.
And it's not based on rank. So anyone can go to any of the classes with it. Kids should be in the kids class. If they're ready for the higher expectations of an adult class, they're welcome there, but it is a higher expectation. And if you're an adult going to the kids class, we're going to ask you to help out. Because it's going to be more geared, definitely geared to their learning styles and their patients and their, I'm going call it their fun level.
Cory Marie Anderson (18:54.379)
and yeah, I just gradually started doing more and more. we opened up a second location for a second day of training, which has been awesome. And both locations, we have these great communities of students and they're separate and different, but they're great. And every now and then we have students that trickle back and forth and it's always this.
happy like, my gosh, you're coming here today. And everyone just sort of fits in together. Like we so far haven't had anybody that comes into our school. And we go, they're here today? We haven't had that.
And I'm always surprised because regardless of what you do as a group, there's sometimes people that don't necessarily fit in with what you're trying to do. But you want to welcome them and you want them to be there. But everyone's just been great. We also have a very high number of women in our classes, which is spectacular. And it just changes the energy. Yeah.
Andrew Adams (20:12.876)
Yeah. And you know, Jeremy and I have noticed that schools that have a female helping run the school, whether it's run the school in general or teaching, or maybe is the main instructor, those schools do tend to have a higher percentage of women taking class. And so I guess it's not that surprising in your case that you're doing this. So your journey, you started out
you know, as a kid, know, three months, and then you found boxing and then you found taekwondo and now you're doing karate, right? There is a common thread in there in that, in that they are all fighting arts, right? But they're still vastly different. I'm interested to know how your boxing influenced your taekwondo and
Knowing you the way I know, I have to imagine that your taekwondo would have influenced your boxing to some degree as well. And now you're doing karate. So I would love to dive in a little bit into these different, for you, these different arts and how they affected you in different ways.
Cory Marie Anderson (21:22.459)
Yeah, so boxing for me was very physical and made me almost be hyper aware of people's hands and what's going on in close proximity. It also made me very comfortable fighting close to people. Which, as you know, in taekwondo and karate is not
always a great idea. And at the start of Taekwondo, I got kicked in the head a lot because I wasn't used to paying attention to the feet. I was watching hands and I was standing close enough that I could get kicked even if I couldn't get punched because majority of the time legs are longer than arms. I'm sure there's somebody out there that has arms that are longer than their legs, but I haven't met them yet. And...
in taekwondo for me.
I think I looked at it more as it was fighting, but I think I got in more to the artistic side and I got into the forms and that was really.
almost like a meditation part for me because I could just really sink into the form and just flow through it and that was really great for calming everything about me. And then the boxing, like I was already used to fighting so I was allowed to spar right off the bat and there were some students that were not expecting me as a white belt to be able to make contact.
Cory Marie Anderson (23:10.065)
and to be as fast, but I already had seven, eight years of experience fighting, just not with my feet.
So I already had some technique. I already had some of that, but changing it into martial arts from a boxing perspective, some of it carries over like where you punch, how you punch. But then there's more nuance, I feel like in the martial arts to your punches and your techniques, because you turn your hands just a little bit, you know, there's a straight punch. You turn it vertical and it's something totally different. You change your target.
and it's a different technique entirely. And that was really neat. I also have looked at it as a progression of I went from just hands to hands to feet, and then to karate, which has hands, feet, elbows, and knees. So I kind of progressed in difficulty level as well. At least that's how it comes out in my brain.
And then karate, yeah, that's just...
Taekwondo has a lot of, well at least ITF Taekwondo has a lot of fluidity in its movement, the up-down movement. The movements tend to be almost musical, like there's a beat to them. And Karate likes to mix it up a little bit more. It's not quite set to in metronome, at least in their katas. There's more timing, I feel. And then...
Cory Marie Anderson (24:50.823)
they don't have this up-down movement and that's been really hard for me to switch and I swear you can see the smoke coming out of my ears sometimes when I'm doing a kata and I'm going it's not taekwondo it's not taekwondo yeah keep my head level and yeah
Andrew Adams (25:02.734)
you
Andrew Adams (25:12.718)
We've definitely had discussions on the show with with other guests or I've talked about it on other podcasts that I've been on that, you know, changing styles like that takes definitely can take a slightly different mindset of, going from one to the other. How does that work for you? You know, how, how, how do you or what do you do to help with that transition? Because, you know, yes, okay, this isn't Taekwondo, this isn't Taekwondo. Are there other
things that you have done or do that help with that transition.
Cory Marie Anderson (25:49.075)
For me, I've had to slow my body down. A lot of my muscle memory is from taekwondo. So if I just do my basics across the floor and I'm completely zoned out thinking about something else, they're gonna look like I'm doing taekwondo. So it's forcing me to focus on what I'm doing and slowing down as well to make sure that I'm doing it.
and I'm getting a lot better. It's not as hard, but there are definitely times when I'm doing a kata and I'm like, I got it. And I just completely relax and I get into it. And then my movements start to change and all of a sudden my kata switches to a taekwondo kata. It completely changes. It's like, yep, okay, I need to focus more.
Andrew Adams (26:47.202)
Now, do you mean to say that you start doing a karate form and in the middle of it, you change to doing a different form or are you talking about you're doing the karate form, but it doesn't look like your karate form?
Cory Marie Anderson (27:06.119)
I've done both. have, so when I'm starting a new kata and I'm just learning it, I will go through it and I will be super, super focused on the technique and the stances. And as soon as I relax and think, yep, I've got a karate kata, I start to do the movements a little bit more Taekwondo. I've got a little bit of the sine wave going on.
Andrew Adams (27:07.92)
interesting.
Andrew Adams (27:34.328)
Thank
Cory Marie Anderson (27:35.099)
I might be chambering my blocks differently, because in some of them the hand comes from the inside, but in taekwondo they always come from the inside. So karate, if it comes from the outside, I might have them switched. And if I am completely relaxed and maybe thinking about something not karate, if there is a sequence of moves that matches up to a taekwondo form, I might switch forms. And I've done that.
Definitely with the first kata, the others are a little bit different in our school. But it's, I start doing it and all of a sudden I'm doing Dan Gunn. I'm like, ah, all right.
Andrew Adams (28:16.93)
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (28:21.324)
I think if you were to pull martial artists that have gone from one style to a somewhat similar style, there are lot of similarities between ITF Taekwondo and a lot of styles of karate, especially when you look at the forms, there's a lot of crossover. I'd be willing to bet a large number of them would have that same sort of, I know I have absolutely done that. I didn't go from.
Taekwondo to karate, but different styles of karate. So that's, that's understandable. I get that. Um, so we talked, you talked quite a bit about how the boxing helped you with your Taekwondo and how the Taekwondo is helping you with your boxing, uh, how Taekwondo is helping you with your karate. Are you still boxing at all now? And how does what you're doing now help with that?
boxing stuff.
Cory Marie Anderson (29:14.029)
I have not gone back to boxing. I, I needed a break mentally just from the drama that was going on at the last club or the last school. and I think I was ready to do something more with it. boxing as an amateur, there's like, you can work out and you can train with somebody to become
a better fighter and you can do amateur fights. There are fights in most states. There's the competitions you might have heard of in the Golden Gloves. But for women fighters, there's not a lot of fighters. And I know there's more now. It's been 20 years. So there's a lot more, which is fantastic. But I was fighting if I chose to fight. There's three girls in my weight division.
So we kept fighting each other. If you change your weight division, there might be two or three girls in each weight division across four or five states. And now there's so many more, which is fantastic. There are also mostly younger kids, which is great. They're coming up through elementary schools and high schools, college fighters. I am now in the age where I'm in the senior bracket.
And there are even less fighters. So you might go to a fight and there might not be anybody there. I think I've even gone to Golden Gloves in Vermont and not had an opponent.
And it's kind of disappointing to do all that work and not have anybody to fight if that's what you're looking for.
Andrew Adams (31:05.485)
Mm-hmm.
Cory Marie Anderson (31:08.883)
And I think I would go back to boxing for a workout, but I don't think I'm gonna compete as a boxer. It's just not where I'm at right now. I think I like the martial arts. like it's, I'm not going to say it's a more whole body experience, but I like using my feet and my knees and I really like the artistic side of it.
and being able to connect that to the movements. So it's not just fighting. I can also work on another aspect of it. And I feel like there's less of that in boxing for me. And I know some professional fighters would disagree. They would say, no, it's very artistic. It's, and I think for them it is, absolutely. They've got to a point, like you see the professional fighters and you're like, wow, the way they move and they slip the punches and you don't even know how they got there.
You don't know how that punch missed them or how they got that punch in. And I don't feel like that's a place that I can get to. But it's amazing to watch for other people.
Andrew Adams (32:24.718)
So we've, you know, that artistic side you, you're finding now, um, with the taekwondo you had for a while, and then the karate, you then, mentioned earlier that you started coming down for these once a month classes down in Keene, where you were learning anything. You know, talk a little bit about what that's like for you coming in and learning something completely vastly different.
from what you're used to doing.
Cory Marie Anderson (32:58.043)
It's really nerve wracking for me. There is a lot of anxiety. There's a lot of excitement. I know one day we had somebody teaching, I think it was judo throws. And I was like, that's so cool. I physically should not be thrown though. That's not a good idea for me. But I wanna watch this. I wanna see how it's done. And you know, we...
did some basics like how to fall. And I was like, yeah, I didn't learn that before. You're right, we should learn how to fall. That's really important in martial arts. And there are a lot of schools that do the throws and the takedowns. And that's so cool to learn it because there is a process of starting that, you know, the smallest level of this is how you go down. This is what your hands are doing. And then you stack up.
until you're standing and you fall. And just watching the way that other people move and can move is really just, it's very interesting because bodies can only move in so many different ways. But there are ways that I just hadn't thought of. well, if you just do this with your shoulder, then it's going to give you the rotation to throw somebody that way.
I was like, that's really interesting. And then you've got somebody that's going to come in with knives and teach us some basic knife defense and strikes. And that's not something that you see every day. So just having that eclectic variety, I find really interesting. I get hyper-focused on little things. I have a million different art projects going around the house.
Andrew Adams (34:54.83)
.
Cory Marie Anderson (34:56.199)
but to also be able to have these little bits of hyper-focus for one, you know, one weekend day and go, ooh, we're gonna do this. Awesome, I'll try it. It's one day. And then next month it's gonna be.
you know, traditional karate katas. Awesome. Let's try that. And a traditional ITF Taekwondo class. Awesome. Let's see how that's different or weapons or whatever anybody wants to teach that someone else is passionate about. And that's the big thing with those Saturday classes. Everyone that taught was so passionate and so interested in sharing that
Andrew Adams (35:36.332)
you
Cory Marie Anderson (35:43.331)
It made it fun, even though it could be difficult. It was so fun to learn and see their excitement and for them to share it.
Andrew Adams (35:56.946)
you also get out. mean, obviously you have the classes you're doing in Vermont with your school, but I know that you mentioned going to Marshall summit slash free training day. and I know you, you know, have gone to other weekend events, and worked with lots of other people. What benefit do you grab from that? w you know, coming to the classes you're learning from one person.
for that class and then you go to the next one, you're learning from one person. But you know, some of these weekends events that you go to, you end up working with lots of other people, not necessarily there's one person teaching, but you are interacting and working with a lot of other people. How's that? How does that go for you?
Cory Marie Anderson (36:48.039)
For me, I try to always have an open mind with it. And there are things that I'm definitely interested in learning more about. This last Marshall Summit, there was somebody that was talking about childhood development and teaching martial arts. And I was like, awesome, I wanna go. That connects directly to what I'm doing. My day job is at an elementary school. I'm a one-on-one. And I know teaching martial arts
is different than school, but there's a huge overlap in the way that children learn and participate, whether it's at school or martial arts. And I was like, awesome, she's going to have something that I haven't thought of before, or she's going to make a connection. Also, I'm teaching the kids class. Yeah, this is going to help me become a better teacher. This is going to help me become a better martial artist. And so I'm going go to that class.
There's also going to be classes that I have no idea what they're about. There's going to be a Tai Chi movement meditation thing and I have never done that and you know what I'm going to try it because I've never done it and this person is going to be passionate about what they do and this is going to be the best place for me to try it with no pressure, no strings attached and with a
group of people that might know it, might have no clue like me, but we're all there to learn and explore it together. So for me, these Marshall Summits and these training sessions, it's a way to explore things without too much pressure. There's gonna be a little bit, because I don't wanna mess up, but I'm there to learn and they're there to help us learn. So it's...
I put pressure on myself and the anxieties there because there's all these new people and it's this new thing. But it's also a super safe welcoming environment. And that's why I go.
Andrew Adams (39:03.27)
I want to steer in a slightly different direction now, because you mentioned you, work in an elementary school and yes, teaching martial arts is not the same as teaching math, for example, but children are children and there are absolutely going to be correlations between the two teaching styles, right? How has your mark? Okay.
Let me ask this question. Which did you start doing first? Doing martial arts or working in an elementary school?
Cory Marie Anderson (39:42.605)
I started martial arts first and then started working at the elementary school, but I have been working with kids, I'm gonna say almost my whole life. I started babysitting and being a mother's helper when I was 10 years old. And I have siblings that are all the way to 10 years younger than me. So I have always been around kids.
and worked with kids and helped take care and teach kids.
Andrew Adams (40:16.728)
So how has one helped the other and then the other helped the one?
Cory Marie Anderson (40:24.423)
So with teaching, I think, and working as a one-on-one, it helped me realize the different forms of communication that kids use, which is, it's everything. It's their behavior, it's their facial expressions, it's them ignoring you. Like that's all communication. If they throw a fit, they're telling you something that's going on. If they sit down and ignore you, same thing.
they're communicating something to you. So knowing that and going into martial arts class where the structure is, I'm going to say more rigid than a classroom for the most part, knowing that they're communicating and it might not be the way that I prefer that they communicate.
I can be a little bit more flexible and go, okay. I'm talking, giving directions and this kid's gonna flop on the floor. Well, I know developmentally that that's appropriate for a five or six year old. Totally. So I need to know my lesson plan really well so that when I know that I'm gonna give directions and I'm gonna have three kids who can't stand still and listen because
they're not ready to develop mentally, I need to give them something to do while they're listening to directions. And I need to keep it simple and I need to be direct. And I might give them three things I've got to do, but I'm going to ask them after everything, what am I going to what are you going to do? That way they're repeating it. So they're not just doing their listening, they're responding, they're participating in these directions and that's going to help them.
follow the directions. And we can do that at school, we can do that at martial arts. And with martial arts, I'm learning that kids need to move more, which we all know, they need to move more at school. So the kid that's wiggling in the seat, you know, the one that's chatting up a storm, they need more to do. And that's perfectly fine.
Cory Marie Anderson (42:43.613)
You need to stand while you do this? Awesome. You need to lie on the floor? Let's do it. You need to have a conversation about cats while we're doing math, because your brain is going so fast, or it needs to do two things at once? Let's do it. I'm willing to be flexible on that part. Yeah.
Andrew Adams (43:07.53)
And where do you go from here? You're training, you have your school that you're helping run, you're teaching the kids classes. What's next for you? What's on the horizon?
Cory Marie Anderson (43:23.731)
For me, I want to be better at teaching the kids. We have this environment going where it's fun and serious and a little bit goofy because I can't always pay attention either. We'll be teaching class and it's like kids going, oh my gosh, there's a cat outside. There's a cat outside. Awesome.
That's not karate though. And I want to become a better teacher, but I also want to spend more time training. And I think that with Jeremy being around and teaching more, because he's had some stuff that he's had to deal with, I've taken over more teaching. So having him back is going to allow me to train more.
Also, when I'm in class training, I'm also learning how to be a better teacher by watching him teach, which is awesome. And I'm not sure what's going to happen after that. We'd love to have more days to teach, but location-wise, it's not working. We might need another location.
But just exploring more martial arts and more styles, like I'd love to do weapons of some sort. I love the nanjuku. That's just been, I don't know, a fascination of mine since childhood. Watching Bruce Lee with the nanjuku, like that's so cool. I took one class ages ago, probably 10 years ago, and I was like, this is really fun.
But even a bow staff or swords or sides, like just learning how to move my body with that. I think that would be really interesting and fun.
Andrew Adams (45:28.814)
All right. Well, you'll have to keep an eye out for stuff like that in the area. Maybe you'll find some. you know, the, the common thread through all of this that, that I've noticed, in listening to your story is you clearly had instructors that were open-minded, right? We've all had instructors, suspect anyway, we've all had instructors that were against cross-training it. And it sounds like you were
Cory Marie Anderson (45:33.405)
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (45:56.686)
Always had people that were open. You mentioned master Sicily having Jeremy come in to teach some classes You know, you had a boxing coach that was You didn't you never said open-minded about cross training but the fact that he was willing to teach a woman when the other boxing coaches in the area wouldn't be clearly open-minded and I I think that It would be hard to say that that did not affect your training
in a positive way.
Cory Marie Anderson (46:28.997)
it definitely did. I also think if I had trained with someone that was more closed minded, I don't think I would have stayed. I don't think that I would have felt.
I don't want to say comfortable, I wouldn't have felt like the right place. Annoying myself and I try to be open-minded and think about other things and try different things. If someone who is teaching me isn't willing to listen about the different martial arts and see that maybe this style isn't for them personally.
But there could be aspects that are gonna work great for me. Like all of our bodies are different. They can all do different things. And if there was one martial art that worked for everybody, there would be one martial art. But they don't work for everybody. So you have to try them and see which one's gonna work best for you. And maybe it won't work best for you this year, but maybe next year, that one will work for you. Or at least part of it will.
See, for me to have a teacher that's willing to at least acknowledge that this is what they love and this is what they wanna teach, that's fantastic and they're willing to share it. But if their student is saying, I also like this, but I wanna try this to say, absolutely not, that's ridiculous. I can see how they might think it will interfere with what they're doing, but.
If someone is passionate about something else, let them try it. We've had students come and go, I love karate, but I also want to try MMA. Awesome. Go try it. Karate will always be here. You can train karate when you're a kid, an adult. If you're 90 years old, you can train martial arts. If you want to try playing the piano, go for it. You want to play baseball because it's baseball season? Try it.
Cory Marie Anderson (48:44.263)
But to get upset that they want to do something else that just, that wouldn't have gelled with who I am and what I do. And I don't think I would have lasted there.
Andrew Adams (48:56.854)
All right, and then one of the last things I want to ask you about is It's now right now as of recording this 2025 I say that because maybe someone is listening to this episode next year and it's 2026 but 2025 in 2035 10 years from now, we're gonna get together and have another interview. What do you hope you would be telling me? In that interview that you've done in this next in these
at that point in those last 10 years.
Cory Marie Anderson (49:29.649)
Ooh, in 10 years. Hopefully in 10 years I will have gotten more comfortable seeking out the things that I'm interested in. So I mentioned I'm interested in weapons.
But pulling the trigger on finding somebody and actually going there and doing it is incredibly hard. So hopefully by then I will have worked on that and been able to do that or find someone that can help push me in that direction. I think our karate school is going to expand by then and hopefully.
we can have some sort of summer program. I think that would be amazing. There's a lot of kids, there's a lot of options, and I think everyone should try martial arts. And the summertime is a great time to get them involved, get them outside, get them experimenting with their body and how it moves and how it works and having fun. So 10 years, yeah, a can happen.
Andrew Adams (50:46.134)
Yeah, well, we shall certainly see I'm gonna throw it to you to end us up here in just a minute But I want to make sure to let all of the audience know that Whistlekick martial arts radio is where you can go to find information on this episode or any of the episodes We've done you can click our subscribe button there to get to our newsletter And I failed to mention at the beginning if you want to help make this show happen You can do that by going to patreon.com slash whistle kick and help support this show
stealing from, another podcast I listened to. Don't don't do it. Do do do it. Go to patreon.com slash whistle kick and help support the show so that we can continue to bring, amazing interviews and, topic shows twice a week. We do episodes twice a week. So plenty of stuff to listen to. but you know, Corey, I want to thank you for being here.
How do you want to close out things today? What do you want our audience to take away from our chat today?
Cory Marie Anderson (51:48.919)
I want people to know that when they have kids in their class, we still need to let them be kids. I know that it's martial arts and we have our traditions and our standards. And I think we can keep those and let the kids have fun and be goofy and weird. And it doesn't matter if there's a kid that wants to be quiet in the corner or
there's a kid that just can't stop moving or even a kid that's going to be stimming in the middle of class like we can have them all class.
because martial arts can be for everybody.