Episode 1053 - Martial Things with Craig Wharem

In this episode join Andrew in whistlekick’s new series called Martial Things. This week he sits down and chats with Craig Wharem with a plan to talk about……. nothing. No plan, just a conversation to see where it takes them.

Martial Things with Craig Wharem - Episode 1053

SUMMARY

In this episode, Andrew Adams and Craig Wharem engage in a lively discussion about their experiences in martial arts, including missed opportunities for training in Japan, the importance of connections within the martial arts community, and upcoming events. They share personal anecdotes, reflect on their journeys, and discuss the significance of teacher training and personal growth in martial arts.

The conversation also touches on unique experiences, such as a memorable encounter with John Cena Sr., and concludes with thoughts on the future of martial arts education and community engagement.

TAKEAWAYS

• Training in Japan requires proper connections and protocols.

• Bringing a uniform while traveling can lead to unique training opportunities.

• Personal growth in martial arts often comes from shared experiences.

• Engaging with other martial artists can happen in unexpected places.

• Teacher training is essential for developing future leaders in martial arts.

• Upcoming events can provide valuable learning experiences for instructors.

• Maintaining connections with notable figures in martial arts can lead to unique opportunities.

• Balancing work and leisure is important for martial artists.

• Sharing experiences can enhance the martial arts community.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction
01:46 Martial Arts Records and Experiences
07:14 Training in Japan: Lessons Learned
09:37 Traveling and Training: Finding Opportunities
16:00 Upcoming Events and Projects
25:21 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

After listening to the episode, it would be exciting for us to know your thoughts about it. Don’t forget to drop them in the comment section down below!

SHOW TRANSCRIPT

Andrew Adams (00:49.122)

Welcome your listening or perhaps watching to the next episode of Whistlekick, martial arts radio. And I'm excited to sit down and chat with good friend, longtime listener and longtime guests of the show, Mr. Craig Wareham.

Craig Wharem (01:04.904)

What's up, Andrews? Good to talk to you.

Andrew Adams (01:07.446)

Yeah, it's great to talk to you too. I'm excited to I'm excited to chat about something. I don't know what that something is yet, but if this is your first episode, welcome. We're excited to have you join us. And I want to let you know that this podcast, whistlekickmarshallarchradio.com, you can go there to find out all the information on all the episodes we've done. can find transcripts and show notes and photos, all sorts of stuff. You can also

Craig Wharem (01:12.764)

Yeah,

Andrew Adams (01:34.702)

Click the subscribe button at the top to subscribe to our exclusive Newsletter and find out about every episode as it's released You also can go to whistlekick.com to find out about all of the things that whistlekick does this podcast is only one of those things so go there to find out about apparel you might want to purchase or books or Maybe you want to sign up for a teacher training certification program

Maybe you want to attend one of the many events that we host throughout the country all of that information You can find at whistlekick.com But let's get into martial things. So this episode is we're just gonna chat that we don't have a plan unless you have a plan Do you have a plan?

Craig Wharem (02:17.284)

Never. I go out of my way to not have plans.

Andrew Adams (02:20.876)

You know, I go out of my way to not have thoughts, because when I think, it usually gets me in trouble.

Craig Wharem (02:27.612)

And that's a martial skill, isn't it? Look at that, we already went full circle.

Andrew Adams (02:30.882)

There we go. We're done, right? mean, so we're... I don't know that that's a good record that we want to have. I mean, there are records in martial arts. You could do your form in your school the slowest. Maybe you could do it the fastest. Maybe you could do it the... Maybe you have a tournament in your school, you do it the best.

Craig Wharem (02:34.286)

Listen, record episode.

Craig Wharem (02:40.212)

That's fair. That's fair.

Craig Wharem (02:56.34)

Yeah.

Craig Wharem (03:00.816)

Yeah, sure. You could do it the best of the best. You never really know. I think my proudest record is I think by my count, this will probably be episode 1000 something or other. And I think, yeah, and I think I've been in 738 other episodes. So that's a pretty good record for me.

Andrew Adams (03:04.878)

True, true.

Andrew Adams (03:17.198)

1,053.

Andrew Adams (03:28.514)

That is a pretty good record. don't know how, I don't know the actual number. We would have to go back and look, but it certainly has been a lot. Do you have any interesting like martial art records or things that you've done that are kind of unique?

Craig Wharem (03:41.828)

No, no, not that I can think of. don't, you know, I never was much of a competitor or anything like that. So that side of things I don't have any records or things like that. Yeah, I don't think so. I just kind of show up and just keep doing stuff.

Andrew Adams (04:01.55)

So I have one. It's an interesting one. It's not a great one. I went and spent three and a half months in Japan. I brought my uniform and belt and didn't train once.

Craig Wharem (04:19.0)

Well, that's, I know the story though. Yeah, that is, yeah, yeah, that's fair. But that, it's a great story. You've done that on an episode, right? That story.

Andrew Adams (04:21.826)

But it's true. It's absolutely true. So that's a record.

Andrew Adams (04:34.038)

Yeah, I talked about that during my interview episode before I was ever a part of Whistlekick or a part of the show. So if you want to hear that story, everybody, have to go listen to episode 472. I think that's my episode. And you'll find out that story. I tried to train.

Craig Wharem (04:49.544)

How do you do that?

Andrew Adams (04:52.022)

I'm a narcissist, so I just remember things about myself.

Craig Wharem (04:54.731)

you

Andrew Adams (04:59.499)

I don't know, I just remember, I'm really good at remembering numbers.

Craig Wharem (05:03.846)

I do, I love that whenever I'm talking to Jeremy and it's like, Hey, do you remember what episode that was? He'll be like, Ask Andrew, he'll know. And almost always if you don't know it.

Andrew Adams (05:10.614)

Yeah, I mean, I don't have all.

Yeah, I don't have all 1000 plus memorized, but some of the bigger ones I will remember.

Craig Wharem (05:21.202)

Yeah. So what was it like going to Japan with a uniform and then not using it? Because like, I feel like a lot of martial artists go overseas. I know a lot of people go to Japan. know, Tashi Maruki has talked in his episodes about going to the Philippines and Indonesia and stuff like that. That's not something I've ever done. like, what was it like going there? Because I'm assuming you went to like some martial arts, you know.

Andrew Adams (05:42.702)

Hmm.

Craig Wharem (05:49.564)

Landscape, you know kind of like areas or something

Andrew Adams (05:53.07)

So I was not over. So first off, it's important to note that I went during a one of my breaks from martial arts. So I had gotten my third degree black belt in Shotokan. And then there was a span of about five or six years where I didn't train at all. And this three and a half months was in that span. So I wasn't actively training. Martial arts was not as big in my life at that point as it is now.

and I brought my uniform just because I was going to be there for three and half months, but the reason I was there had nothing to do with martial arts. It was kind of a pipe dream like, I'm going to Japan. I might as well bring my uniform.

And so I was there for musical endeavors. And on one of my days off and to get the full story, you're going to have to listen to the episode. But on one of my days off, I had one of the translators that worked for us contact a local martial arts school to find out when their classes were. And I tried to show up and go to class and a very funny, interesting story ensued. But I just.

I took it as a sign that I wasn't supposed to train because I wasn't actively training. I probably would not have done a good, like if I had been able to train, the instructor probably would not have thought well of my training. Now in hindsight, I can look back at it and realize that that's the case and realize that I went about training in Japan. Completely the wrong way. you really need to.

have some sort of connection to the school. And it doesn't have to be you yourself has the connection, but contacting someone over there that has connection to that school to help set a day and time for you to go in and, and train. And there's really the right way to do it, or at least the more appropriate way to do it. And I didn't know this at the time, obviously, and went about it completely the wrong way.

Andrew Adams (08:10.638)

And it did not turn out well. I mean, it didn't turn out bad. Like I got beat up and whatever. I just didn't get to actually train. But in hindsight, I think it's probably for the better than I did.

Craig Wharem (08:26.169)

So is it something now if you find your way back to Japan that you would want to take advantage of going down the right avenue following the proper protocol or whatever?

Andrew Adams (08:33.15)

absolutely. and this doing this podcast, think has helped immensely for that because I have met putting an air quotes met so many martial artists, many of whom are in Japan or Okinawa who would be able to facilitate training. And I am now training at a school that has connections to Okinawa. So it would be a lot easier for me to do it now.

And I absolutely want to, it will be a while for a multitude of reasons, cost being probably the major one. But like I'm, I'm still hobbling around on my foot from foot surgery. like I'm not, you know, doing nearly as much active training because of that, but ultimately I would absolutely love to go back and do some training over there for sure.

Craig Wharem (09:27.09)

Yeah, that's cool. The first I've gone to train and do martial arts was to free training day Midwest in Kansas. And Kansas, it's not quite so far as Japan. So, you know, it's a similar experience, but, you know, traveling and training is fun because you get to meet martial artists of different walks of life and stuff. I think it's neat. So anytime you get the chance to do it, you should, I think.

Andrew Adams (09:51.882)

absolutely, absolutely. have, when I was younger, when I was training in my first school, in the Gojiru school, I went to visit my dad who lives in Alaska. And I had him ask around to some of his friends, because this would have been, you know, in the late 80s, you know, the internet was not what it is today. You couldn't just go online and find a martial arts school. So I was in Alaska and I said, you know, hey, is there, you know, I'd be

It'd kind of cool to go to a karate class somewhere and he found a Taekwondo school that let me come in and train for a day. I don't even remember that anybody that was there, but I just remember going to Alaska to see my dad and training. But now that I'm older, I bring my uniform pretty much everywhere because you never know. And I will actively seek out, like if I'm going to be somewhere for an extended period of time, we went to

The Outer Banks in North Carolina last summer. My wife and my daughter and I, and we were gonna be there for a little over, just about a week. And so I brought my uniform and I didn't know what there were for schools in the area. And when I got there, I kind of went around and I looked up the schools around the area and I texted the instructor of one of them, explained who I was and was able to get in.

He's like, yeah, absolutely. Come on down and check out a class and have fun. You're on vacation. Why not? And so that was a great experience. went to and I think I talked about this on my episode too. I went to Scotland for my again, for work reasons, for music related reasons. But I had also just got married a few months earlier. So my wife came and we did our basically did our honeymoon in Scotland. And I was able to take a day drive down into England.

and train with Ian Abernathy for a day at his school. So I always bring my uniform now because, you know, if you have the opportunity to meet other people and see how other schools do things, why not take that advantage, you know, that opportunity?

Craig Wharem (11:59.73)

Yeah, for sure. Well, and you know me, I'm always wearing my uniform. So I agree with you.

Andrew Adams (12:05.006)

For those that don't know, the joke is that Craig rarely wears a martial arts uniform when he's teaching.

Craig Wharem (12:16.294)

Yeah, rarely. And that's for no other reason than it's my own thing. When I was younger, it was always you put on your super suit to teach or to train or whatever, like that uniform builds confidence. And so for me, I've hit a point in training for me where it's a little bit to prove to myself, I don't need that physical super suit anymore to feel that that confidence. And so that's why I choose to do it. But

I think there are often times I will wear my uniform still in my school. They know if I walk in with a uniform and a belt on somebody's probably testing or something like that. I think there are still occasions where you need that sort of thing. But almost always if you see me at an outside event I'm not wearing a uniform. If you do see me wear one it's because one of my instructors asked me to.

Andrew Adams (12:55.256)

Hmm.

Andrew Adams (13:07.886)

Yeah. Now, if you were, let's say away on vacation for a week and you took your, let's say you go to Florida on vacation, would you take your uniform and would you visit a school in the area?

Craig Wharem (13:21.404)

I would definitely, on vacation sometimes I definitely look up schools and see what's in the area. probably, for the same reason as usual, I probably wouldn't bring my uniform. And if I did, I would probably, without the branding call, sorry for the shameless plug, I'd probably wear my whistle kick belt because it's got the white on the other side.

And I'm not uber comfortable with walking in with the formal belts and stuff with the stripes and the things on that. just want to come in and just be right. I don't necessarily want to be, you know, the guy who runs a school or the higher ranking black belt. I just want to show up and train and learn. so if I did, I'd probably wear that belt because it's got the white on the other side. but, for the most part, no, if I show up somewhere, I'm

Andrew Adams (14:09.922)

Yep. Yep.

Craig Wharem (14:14.59)

probably wear, if I'm wearing anything, it's probably gi pants and a hoodie of some sort, martial arts hoodie. I'll just watch and observe if they allow me to, I'll ask or I'll do a lesson if they let me. But oftentimes when I'm on vacation, know, usually we've got so much stuff going on that I just don't have the time in there for it. And I'm fortunate enough that martial arts is my full-time gig. So.

If I go on vacation and I'm training, then it's not necessarily a full vacation either.

Andrew Adams (14:47.662)

Yeah, that, that makes sense. That makes sense. I remember when I went to a bag piping and drumming summer school for a week. I used to do it all the time. I haven't gone in a few years, but I remember, you know, again, drumming was what I did for living. Teaching drumming is what I did for a living. And one of the, the main instructors that was there, we were all, all of the drumming students were sitting in a room and

you know, he went around the room and asked everybody like how often they practiced, you know, just to kind of get an idea. And, he, he basically said every single person in this room, with the exception of him and pointed at me and said, every single one of you should be practicing more. Now what my response, I don't remember what my response was at the time, but it wasn't any more than everybody else. In fact, for some people it was, I was practicing less than they were.

And someone said, how come he gets a pass? Why does he not? You say to all of us, we need to practice more, but I practice more than he does. And you telling him he doesn't need to practice more. And he said, it's because this is drumming is what he does for a living. And sometimes when you get home from quote work, you don't want to then have to work again, you know, do more work. And so I get that, you know, martial arts is your full-time gig and it's not mine. So when I'm on vacation.

you know, for me to train at another school for a day or maybe two days while I'm away, that's still a break from my normal routine, whereas for you would not be. I get that.

Craig Wharem (16:27.956)

I still I still tend to end up having martial arts conversations. Actually, this is a fun story. want to say about four or five months ago, my wife, Charlene and I went to Las Vegas for vacation and whatever. And we booked massages and we were at the spa on the strip at the Flamingo. And, you know, you go in and there's the steam rooms and the hot tubs and the saunas. Basically, you book a massage and then you get like two hours to go in the spa and hang out and relax. So

The massage therapist calls my name, I go in and they start working and we start chatting and it turns out they're a martial artist. And they find out that I run martial arts schools. The entire hour was filled with stories and questions and it was a work massage which was the funniest thing on the planet. And it was fun and I enjoyed every second of it. I don't...

I didn't seek out the conversation. just happened organically, but I love when it does. You know, I think, I think that that's neat.

Andrew Adams (17:28.984)

Well, and I think that's natural. When you meet someone new, what are the two questions that always inevitably come up? It's where do you live and what do you do for work? And even if the other person, maybe your job is working in a power plant.

Craig Wharem (17:44.542)

Thanks.

Andrew Adams (17:51.999)

even if the other person you're talking to has no idea what that's like, they're like, what is that like? I don't know what that's like. What is it like to work in a power plant? And you end up telling stories about what you do. So I guess it's not that surprising.

Craig Wharem (18:06.354)

Yeah, yeah, and it was fun. They had done all sorts of martial arts and things like that and stuff. was a fun conversation. So, yeah, I showed up to relax and then talked about martial arts, which was in a lot of aspects more relaxing, you know, because I got to be the one asking questions, too. It wasn't just answering them, which was nice.

Andrew Adams (18:30.07)

Yeah. So, you know, that's decent travel going to Las Vegas. It's certainly not right. It's certainly not right next door. Any martial arts stuff? Not that you did martial arts, but did you see anything out there that related in any way?

Craig Wharem (18:51.662)

Not this time, but we go out there, you know, somewhat frequently and, you know, there's a Cirque du Soleil show called Ca out there, which is really cool. Very martial arts driven and that's pretty neat to watch. If you're ever in Vegas and you get the chance, I would recommend seeing that show. It's pretty cool. But otherwise, for the most part, no, unless I'm watching like Rush Hour on the plane ride or something, you know, not so much.

Andrew Adams (19:00.59)

Yep.

Andrew Adams (19:18.862)

Or best of the best.

Craig Wharem (19:20.948)

Or best of yeah, they tend not to have that on the jet blue flight, so

Andrew Adams (19:27.574)

Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. What else is going on? What else is going on with you these days? know, martial art wise, like obviously you run a school, so what else can we chat about that's current in your brain right now?

Craig Wharem (19:30.322)

You

Craig Wharem (19:44.424)

Yeah, I mean, it's summertime right now. We did an episode about a month ago on summer camp. So those have wrapped up. You know, I'm pretty excited because I'm coming up to my skill builder day. It's actually funny because I feel like you and I have talked about so many different facets. So it's like we did an episode on running special events with outside instructors. So you can always revert back to that episode, too. But I've got my skill builder day rolling around.

Andrew Adams (20:05.74)

Yeah. Yep.

Craig Wharem (20:13.788)

which is gonna be at the end of August. Actually, by the time this comes out, it will have finished.

Andrew Adams (20:16.556)

Yep.

Yes, so the the skill builder day happened last weekend. If you're listening to this on the day it got released, it was great. It was amazing. Everybody had a great time. I tried to make it, but I couldn't get back from Scotland in time. Yeah, it was lovely.

Craig Wharem (20:24.37)

Yes. And it went awesome.

Craig Wharem (20:37.83)

It was awesome. was the best. So I'm getting that rolling. I'm super excited about the lineup of teachers that I have rolling through. I'm sad that you can't be there, but I'm happy you're going to be in Scotland. And then after that, mean, now at this point, current time, as people are listening, I've got all eyes focused on Marshall Summit and what Mavic is going to be doing there.

Andrew Adams (21:05.346)

Hmm.

Craig Wharem (21:06.612)

because we've got that rolling. Obviously, that'll be our free training day Northeast. And I was thinking about that. So yeah, that's about it right now.

Andrew Adams (21:16.834)

So this episode will come out late August. I think August 28th, think it's released, just date. Anything you can talk about that you can tease about stuff coming up.

Craig Wharem (21:30.866)

boy. Well, okay. So I can tell you that MADEC, Martial Arts Teacher Training Certification, our team that we have, Dennis Campos in it, Abby Hoy, me, Jeremy, Aiden Coakley. We've been working really hard at developing some online content and that should be rolling out pretty soon. And also I can tell you that leveraging the combined experience of

myself over 20 years teaching middle and high schoolers and that sort of, and Abby Hoy, who is an amazing instructor, not just a martial arts instructor, but she's a school teacher. We've leveraged our combined experience teaching to develop a course for middle and high school aged kids so they can work on their leadership skills and become an assistant instructors in dojos and martial arts schools too. We call it Next Generation.

And so that should be rolling out here not too long after this episode. So I would definitely keep an eye out for that because that's really... We've got about six different projects running right now there and that's a pretty special one. I'm really excited about it.

Andrew Adams (22:46.562)

Yeah, so keep your eye out for the next iteration of martial arts teacher training certification. It might be already out by the time this releases, but we're not sure. Just keep an eye out and maybe you'll see it there. Definitely, know that for Summit we're planning on definitely having some certification programs being offered.

that's in the works for sure as well. So keep an eye out for that stuff.

Craig Wharem (23:19.23)

Correct, yeah.

And of course, the other thing that I loved was the off the book session that happened organically in the lobby last year. So at Marshall Summit, you feel free if you see me and your school owner and instructor and you need help with something, you just come find me. And last year, I think we had eight to 12 school owners all working on their curriculum and standardizing, recognizing their curriculum. That's that's pretty fun, too. So there's a lot of cool things coming up.

Andrew Adams (23:28.91)

Mm-hmm.

Craig Wharem (23:51.258)

Especially Tidearound Summit. I'm there all weekend. and and I love to chat and learn about how other people's schools are working and help where I can. So, you know, there's there's a lot of really fun stuff coming up there. Plus, I think, Andrew, I'm submitting my my application, say, to present a free training in Northeast. But I think I'm going to teach a Marshall seminar this year and not just to talk about schools.

Andrew Adams (24:21.546)

Oh, interesting. What's your plan? Do you already have an idea what you're going to teach?

Craig Wharem (24:24.71)

And this will be the first time in a while.

Craig Wharem (24:33.126)

Well, I have to loop in again with Dennis because Dennis and I talked about rehashing. did finishing holds of pro wrestling a couple years ago and that was tons of fun. So I have to loop in with Dennis. I'm pretty sure he wanted to revisit that theme again and do it a little bit different. And if not, then I've got some Kempo fighting techniques that I'm looking to share with some people and I couldn't think of a better place than free training day.

Andrew Adams (25:01.556)

One for those. yeah, sure, sure, sure. For those that may not have been there a few years ago.

Craig Wharem (25:02.061)

One of them is the one that I taught you.

Andrew Adams (25:12.078)

Craig and Dennis, along with a couple of your students. Let's see Noah and Jake, right?

Craig Wharem (25:22.066)

Right.

Andrew Adams (25:22.742)

Yeah, they did a class on finishing holds of professional wrestling, which was amazingly fun. Great time. Both you and Dennis are huge professional wrestling fans. So your love of that definitely came through in that, that class very well attended. was absolutely a blast.

Craig Wharem (25:48.404)

And I think the thing that was fun about it was a Jake and Noah, I'm lucky to have them in my everyday martial arts life, but for that, are, they both trained at pro wrestling schools. And then.

Dennis and I were fortunate enough to have some, you know, joint manipulation experience to know how to put those holds on that actually does the damage that you're seeing on the screen. We were able to actually teach the efficient use of them. And it was just tons of fun. At the end, I think I hit Jake with a chair. Which, which that's a fun story. I was trained in a private lesson how to do that by John Cena, Sr.

Andrew Adams (26:20.162)

You did.

Andrew Adams (26:31.438)

tell that story.

Craig Wharem (26:33.428)

Yeah, so during COVID, we did a virtual training camp for kids because we always at my school had a weekend sleepaway camp. And obviously, once the pandemic rolled around and everything shut down, a sleepaway camp was on the cards. So we did a virtual one where kids could train from home. We had all sorts of stuff, but I needed something to make it special. And I was talking to some some people.

And it just so happened that there was like one degree of separation from me to John Cena Sr. And he lives 20 minutes from me. So I said, it'd be really cool if he would do this. Do you think he would come up and talk to the kids and, and, you know, give some sort of motivational speech or something, you know, something neat? And this, the person talked to him and he said, yeah, absolutely. So he showed up.

And he came to the karate school and he got on the zoom with all the kids and and talked to them for a while, which was awesome. And all the kids loved it. And he brought like John Cena's actual belts that he had on TV and stuff. And then it was me and Jake and a couple of the wrestling nerds in here afterwards. And so once the zoom hung up, we started asking him questions. And he's you know, I think he's in his 70s and he was like picking up Jake and slamming him.

He was, you know, I asked him to hit me with a chair and show me how it worked, because I was really interested, like, because that's, it's an interesting thing, because you're making contact, so how can you guarantee you're not going to hurt somebody? You know, and so, yeah, we spent probably about a half hour, 45 minutes with him after, and he was teaching us all sorts of stuff. And actually, I still have his phone number. We still chat once in a while, which is cool.

Andrew Adams (28:21.026)

That's really cool. That's really cool. Now, does he have a background in wrestling before his son got involved?

Craig Wharem (28:29.667)

So his whole thing was in pro wrestling and I guess it was like a thing that kept his whole family kind of like, because John Cena has three brothers, like Junior has, there's four boys in that family and wrestling was kind of the common thread. Some of them went on to police work and this, that and the other thing, but his dad actually worked at independent wrestling shows locally. So like the, you know, if you go to

You know, one of the high school gymnasiums or the short, the small, the small venues, you could probably see his dad still to this day, doing some stuff, which is pretty cool. and I found out that John Cena seniors, he trained in Kenpo back in the eighties at a Bob Mizzur's health and self-defense, which is where my school came from.

Andrew Adams (29:21.102)

wow.

Craig Wharem (29:21.83)

So I tried really hard to get him to come back to be in my classes, but it didn't work out. So, yeah, but it was pretty cool. So he had it. We had a martial arts connection and you know, he's just a good guy. So we, had a good, a good kind of little friendship going on there for, for a bit. And, know, as with anybody and kind of any sort of spotlight, you don't want to go to that well all the time. So, you know, once in while on his birthday, I'll text him or he'll text me and that sort of thing. But yeah, that's pretty cool.

Andrew Adams (29:51.254)

Yeah, yeah. No, and I get that, you know, as you said, it not going to the well too many times. you know, obviously we here at Whistlekick have connections to lots of martial artists that have been on the show. But we want to recognize that, you know, some of them are famous and probably get asked to do lots of things, lots of different times. say same sort of concept. We try not to try not to use that and utilize that connection too often. I get that.

Craig Wharem (30:16.788)

Yeah, there are people too. They deserve to be liked for more than just what they can do for you. You know, so, so yeah, so for free training day, I got a chat with Dennis. I think he was interested in doing that. if not, I've got some Kempo fighting techniques ready to go that I'm pretty excited to share the past. think. I want to the past three years, I've been pretty much just presenting lectures and things like that. And so it'll be fun to, to, you know, get out there and move a little bit.

Andrew Adams (30:22.338)

Yep. Yep.

Andrew Adams (30:46.274)

Yeah. Nope. That'll be great. Well, we're certainly looking forward to having you there. Hopefully everybody listening and or watching will be able to attend Marshall summit November 6th through the ninth, 2025. we are back at Keene state college again, for Saturday, but all of the stuff going on is all around town. There's lots of different venues, lots of stuff going on. So certainly we hope you can all check it out.

Craig, thanks so much for coming on and chatting with me. This was a lot of fun.

Craig Wharem (31:19.614)

Yeah man, anytime you know that, I have a blast. I look forward to it, so.

Andrew Adams (31:23.916)

I mean, you say anytime just because you want to stay ahead of Victor and Nick for the number of times you've been on the show.

Craig Wharem (31:28.818)

Yeah, Taber's catching up to me. This is not... Listen, my throne is getting a little threatening here. yeah, we need to come up with some more episodes. So if you can think of any episodes you want to hear me talk about, craig at whistlekick.com. And keep me ahead of Victor and Nick.

Andrew Adams (31:44.736)

Yeah, absolutely. And you can always reach me, andrewatwhistlekick.com. As I mentioned at the beginning of the show, whistlekickmarshallarchradio.com for this show, subscribe to our newsletter, whistlekick.com for everything else that whistlekick does. And I didn't mention it at the beginning, but if you could do us a huge favor, it would be to go to YouTube and click the like and subscribe button and the notification button. It really helps.

grow the show and it costs you nothing to do. So please, please do that. Another thing you can do to help the show that costs you nothing is to tell a friend, let somebody else know about this episode or any one of the other over 1000 episodes that we've done. We would really appreciate that. And it really, again, helps the show grow. And if you do have the ability to help the show financially, you can do that at patreon.com slash whistle kick.

and for as little as $5 a month, which is, let's face it, at this point, less than a cup of coffee or less than a beer. So if you were to buy Jeremy and I a beer once a month, it would cost you five bucks, it would really help the show happen. And you would be surprised at how much that $5 would really go. It goes a long way to help us connect, educate, and entertain traditional martial artists of the world.

Craig, did I miss anything?

Craig Wharem (33:15.028)

The only thing is if you go to the YouTube and you check it out, you'll be able to see how handsome Andrew woke up this morning. And that's pretty special too.

Andrew Adams (33:21.358)

That's true. did cleanly shave myself this morning. That's true.

Craig Wharem (33:28.144)

I did not.

Andrew Adams (33:29.748)

No, but I'm hopping on an airplane in a few days and I don't like to be scruffy when I'm, you know, trapped on a plane.

Craig Wharem (33:39.048)

That's fair enough. Yeah, and I really hope I see you all at Marshall Summit. It's tons of fun. I love connecting with everybody. So do your best to make it, please. It's always a blast.

Andrew Adams (33:50.03)

please do. And until next time.

Craig Wharem (33:55.412)

Train hard.

Andrew Adams (33:56.92)

Smile.

Craig Wharem (34:00.038)

and have a great day.