Episode 1087 - Creative Martial Arts Holiday Creation
WARNING: This episode is funny, silly and spontaneous! In this episode Jeremy, Andrew and friend of the show Jason Brick sit down with the idea to create a holiday for martial artists.
Creative Martial Arts Holiday Creation - Episode 1087
SUMMARY
In this episode, the hosts engage in a light-hearted discussion about creating a unique holiday for the martial arts community. They explore various themes such as the significance of horse stance, the importance of community celebration, and the fun challenges that could be included in the holiday festivities. The conversation also delves into the role of a mascot, Garyll the Horse, and how it can enhance the holiday experience.
Overall, the episode is a creative and humorous take on bringing the martial arts community together through a shared celebration. In this episode, the speakers brainstorm and develop the concept of 'Ambitioning Day,' a martial arts-themed event aimed at fostering community, motivation, and reflection among practitioners. They discuss the importance of planning, naming the event, incorporating fun activities, and establishing traditions that encourage participation and social interaction. The conversation highlights the significance of creating a welcoming atmosphere for both new and returning students, culminating in a unique celebration that emphasizes training and camaraderie.
TAKEAWAYS
The martial arts community deserves its own holiday.
Horse stance is a key element of the proposed holiday.
Celebration can foster community among martial arts practitioners.
The holiday can be a social event rather than a training session.
Traditions can be flexible and vary by school.
Fun challenges can engage participants and create memorable experiences.
The mascot, Garyll the Horse, adds a whimsical touch to the holiday.
Activities should be enjoyable and accessible to all ages.
The holiday can be celebrated at different times by different schools.
Creativity and humor are essential in developing the holiday's lore. The event is designed to re-energize New Year's resolutions.
Reflection on training can be a powerful component of the event.
Creating a fun atmosphere is essential for engagement.
Traditions can enhance the experience and foster community.
Food plays a significant role in social gatherings.
Activities should cater to all skill levels and encourage participation.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Inventing a Martial Arts Holiday
03:04 The Significance of Horse Stance
06:03 Celebration and Community in Martial Arts
08:53 Traditions and Themes for the Holiday
12:06 Fun Challenges and Activities
14:54 The Role of the Mascot: Geralt the Horse
29:58 Finalizing the Holiday Details
32:00 Planning the Ambitioning Day
34:54 Naming the Event
38:57 Reflecting on Training
43:01 Creating a Fun Atmosphere
48:00 Traditions and Activities
55:58 Finalizing the Ambitioning Day Concept
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SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Jeremy Lesniak (00:05.73)
Hey, what's going on everybody? Welcome back. We're welcome, maybe for the first time, who you're inferred to see if this is your first experience. Whistlekick martial arts radio. I'm Jeremy Lesniak joined by my off co-host, Andrew Adams and good friend, Jason Brick. Welcome gentlemen, thanks for being here. And on today's episode, we are going to on the fly with no prior preparation, invent a martial arts holiday. We're dropping this episode Christmas of 2025 and we think and even if you don't think we think it's going to be fun to do this and if you stick around you will probably laugh maybe with us maybe at us we won't know either way and that's fine but the martial arts world deserves a holiday and so that's what we're gonna do right now.
Gentlemen.
I don't know if we need more in our intro. I think that's an adequate intro.
Andrew Adams (01:09.922)
Yes. No, think that's good. think everybody listening will know that of the holidays that we're speaking of that we all know about. Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, I'm sure there are lots of others out there as well that we are not aware of, right? Lots of...
Jason Brick (01:14.216)
Sounds good.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:34.838)
Well, there are people from some more, I will call them natural inspired faiths that look at the solstice as a significant time, New years, even secularly.
Andrew Adams (01:43.788)
Yep.
Jason Brick (01:43.826)
Yeah. Christmas, Christmas and Hunt, know, Christmas is also a hijacked solstice festival anyway. You know, we're all celebrating the solstice. So.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:51.554)
We're not going there, but yes. We're not going there. We're not going there on this episode, but yes. We might need to keep Jason Reign in on this episode. That might be the wild card here. But I'll be honest. There aren't too many people that if I sat down and said, okay, I'm going to invent a holiday with someone. There aren't too many people in the first crop of people that I would want to do this with other than.
other than you, Jason. And of course, Andrew, because we always come up with fun stuff together.
Andrew Adams (02:26.894)
So and then we all know or a lot of us may know that Seinfeld created Festivus Right that they created this this holiday and I was mentioning earlier that a comedy podcast I listened to created their own holiday called candle nights And they you know, they created a lore and there's Terry the gift-giving dragon and they have this whole like theme around candle nights and so
Jason Brick (02:33.287)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Adams (02:55.03)
I think it would be fun for us to do a holiday-themed martial arts, a martial arts-themed holiday that we can all celebrate at this time of year.
Jeremy Lesniak (03:06.562)
The only thing that I feel strongly about initially is that it needs to involve horse stance.
Andrew Adams (03:13.279)
I think the first thing though is we need a name. What are we calling our holiday?
Jeremy Lesniak (03:15.522)
See, that's not where my brain goes first. My brain says it needs to involve horse stance. And then, because that's important, I could, okay, I don't know where the horse stance is. I don't know who's doing horse stance. I don't know if it's in celebration. I don't know if it's punishment. I don't know if it's in exchange, but it needs to be there. And that's all I have to start
Andrew Adams (03:21.777)
Hahaha!
Andrew Adams (03:39.502)
Okay, we can do horse dance. Jason, horse dance?
Jason Brick (03:42.929)
Horse dance, absolutely.
Andrew Adams (03:44.993)
May okay. Hang on. If we're doing horse dance, maybe our most holidays have a mascot of some sort, right? Even if it's, for those who do Christmas, you've got Rudolph or you've got Santa Claus or you've got like the snowman or whatever. Maybe it's a horse.
Jeremy Lesniak (03:46.86)
you
Jason Brick (03:47.047)
Okay.
Jason Brick (04:10.619)
Hmm.
Andrew Adams (04:10.734)
Maybe our holiday mascot is a horse.
Jeremy Lesniak (04:21.394)
Without other criteria, that's as good as any. I think all of this is in pencil at this point. And I think that that's okay.
Jason Brick (04:27.963)
Yeah. Yeah. For those who are only listening to this, the look on Jeremy's face there, which was definitely a, hate that, but I can't think of anything better. So I suppose we're going to go with it. What's the expression going over his face?
Jeremy Lesniak (04:37.73)
I don't hate, just, I'm not, I don't see the dots connected yet and that's okay, right? Like honestly, this is how Andrew and I developed just about everything together is we throw stuff against the wall and eventually, you know, it's a Rorschach of, you know, a bird.
Jason Brick (04:56.881)
So maybe use a look at a mascot, so talking about who's gonna be primarily celebrating this holiday, because you got the martial arts students, we got martial arts school owners, we've got martial arts fans who've never set foot on the deck. These all have very different relationships with this spirit of the holiday as it were. And so maybe you need to drill down on that a bit.
Jeremy Lesniak (05:15.478)
What if it was a holiday, what if it was a holiday that schools could celebrate as an excuse to come together like after training? You know, in the same way that, you know, I don't know too many people that dress up in red and green uniforms and train. There's martial arts schools that do anything related to Christmas. tends to be a social engagement. What if this holiday was an opportunity for martial arts schools to...
Andrew Adams (05:26.211)
Mmm.
Andrew Adams (05:37.741)
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (05:44.298)
get together socially and not train and have fun.
Jason Brick (05:49.468)
Now are we gonna address the fact that for many, many, many school owners all over the country, probably the world, but I don't have experience outside of it, that two weeks you close the school at Christmas time is the only vacation you get? So the last thing in the world you want is to open the school for another day?
Jeremy Lesniak (06:06.07)
Well, nothing says this holiday has to occur at that time. In fact, I was thinking.
Jason Brick (06:09.243)
Hmm. Yeah, maybe, maybe do a January 1st kind of thing. you know, hungover horse stance kind of vibe, or you get it back together, knock the rust off and get back into training. Start the year strong. Is that the vibe we're going for?
Andrew Adams (06:10.178)
During those two weeks, yeah.
Andrew Adams (06:19.97)
Well, I mean...
Andrew Adams (06:24.59)
I mean, who's to say that whatever holiday we're coming up with has to be celebrated on this particular day? could be, you know what, Jeremy, I liked your idea of a get together social thing. It makes the name I was going to suggest not so useful because I was thinking of like, Fistmas, Merry Fistmas.
Jason Brick (06:47.847)
Okay.
Jeremy Lesniak (06:49.0)
I wholeheartedly veto that name. That, yeah, yeah.
Jason Brick (06:50.151)
Nobody Google that.
Andrew Adams (06:53.687)
I didn't. Okay.
Jason Brick (06:54.631)
Nobody giggle or Google fistmas.
Jeremy Lesniak (06:58.368)
The age rating on this episode just went through the roof. I'm so sorry, everyone.
Andrew Adams (06:58.542)
Okay, how about... Kixmas! Kixmas Day!
Jason Brick (07:03.175)
Kixmas! Kixmas! There it is, Kixmas Day. And doesn't have to fall on a single day. We could go on the first day of Kixmas, my true love gave to me a black eye.
Andrew Adams (07:06.754)
Kixmas Day!
Jeremy Lesniak (07:08.042)
This episode needs a disclaimer now.
Andrew Adams (07:11.586)
But we're girlers, we're girlers. I'm trying to get us, yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (07:18.316)
But that feels awfully, no, that feels, I think that's still, I don't want it to piggyback on Christmas. I want it to be able to stand on its own.
Andrew Adams (07:30.2)
Okay. But the point I was making though is that it doesn't have to be January 1st. It could be, we are celebrating whatever holiday we're calling it. We are dojo celebrating it on this day and this school is celebrating another. It can be, you can celebrate it whenever you want to. It doesn't have to be a certain day.
Jeremy Lesniak (07:50.358)
I think that depends on how serious we want this to be. Like if we actually wanted this to take root, I think it would have to be on maybe not the same numeral day, but the same relative day. You know, like the third Saturday of the month of May or whatever, right? Like, cause I don't know any other holiday that people celebrate other than birthdays or anniversaries, right? Like individualized, those are different, but they're still the same.
Jason Brick (08:08.603)
Guys
Jeremy Lesniak (08:18.72)
It's still every year on this date.
Jason Brick (08:21.521)
I just realized the UK beat is to it. They have Boxing Day.
Jeremy Lesniak (08:28.588)
Canada has, okay, you do.
Andrew Adams (08:31.126)
Yes, Canada has boxing days well.
Jason Brick (08:33.222)
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (08:34.198)
throw things at my camera.
Okay, and see, and to the audience, this is why Jason needed to be here.
Okay. If it's going to stand on its own, I think the date could be arbitrary. We could find that at the end.
Unless there is some seasonality to it, pardon my yawning, unless we think about it as like, you know, there are outdoor things versus indoor things, right? If there are outdoor things, we might not want to throw it in, you know, February 1st, because for a large portion of the world, that's very cold.
Andrew Adams (09:17.069)
Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Brick (09:21.191)
So maybe talking about the spirit of the holidays, where to start. For example, I kind of mentioned earlier, if it's that we're getting back into training after taking a few days off for the holidays, because a lot of people do fall off the wagon during the holidays with their training. And so it's a, hey, let's all get together on this day and get to work. Dave McNeil of Goju Shori had a thing for on the first weekend of the month of the year, each year.
Jeremy Lesniak (09:34.53)
Mmm.
Andrew Adams (09:40.919)
in the horse dance.
Jason Brick (09:49.148)
You did a number of pushups, sit-ups and squats equal to the current year over the course of a day or two. And that was just kind of his organization's way of knocking the rust off from the holidays and getting back to it. So that might be one appropriate theme, but maybe there's other and better.
Jeremy Lesniak (10:07.058)
There's something interesting about the idea of doing it like the last Saturday of January Because you get a lot of people that start anything the beginning of the month It pulls them through to the end of the month. There's a social component there, right? Like hey, you know, we're all gonna train really hard this month and then we're get together and we're gonna have you know, pie or whatever and
Andrew Adams (10:19.373)
Jason Brick (10:37.063)
So if we're gonna do that, should be on March 14th.
if we're gonna have pie.
Jeremy Lesniak (10:44.717)
okay. I thought you were going Ides. I was like, I don't see what Caesar has to do with this. Okay.
Granted, it's the day before the Aids.
Jeremy Lesniak (10:56.754)
do, pie is good.
But pie is also messy.
Andrew Adams (11:02.646)
Yeah.
Jason Brick (11:03.505)
like martial arts training, good but messy.
Andrew Adams (11:06.189)
But I think we're getting, I mean, the whole, thought anyway, the whole point of this was to put it around the holiday season. And so I think March pushes it out. I like the idea of late January. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Brick (11:18.929)
No, I was just going for a math pun. I'm not attached to to Martian anyway. I like your idea though, Jeremy, about a holiday that picks up right as everybody's about to quit their New Year's resolution.
Because know, get all those people who signed up in early January because of how New Year's works for a lot of minds, but realize that this means time and effort and commitment more than they may be imagining. So you suddenly don't see them by Valentine's Day.
Jeremy Lesniak (11:49.492)
Yeah, if the traditions that we wedge into this are fun enough that it pulls people through, I think for a lot of people, if they start training in early January, it's going to be their first social time with people outside, you know, outside of beginning and end of class. And so then if some of the traditions that are worked into this
build bonds, people are that much less likely to quit. So I'm imagining.
Jeremy Lesniak (12:29.152)
You know, like at family reunions.
put aside some of the more toxic components that can happen at family reunions. But there will often be silly games. know, like if it's a big family, like a three-legged race, that's not serious training or exercise, but it's some movement. It's fun, but it's still the primary component is still everybody's getting together to, in theory, enjoy everyone's company.
Andrew Adams (12:43.726)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (13:01.396)
And so I think that's a pretty good model, but maybe there are a handful of.
Jeremy Lesniak (13:10.882)
traditional physical challenges that are silly like limbo limbo is a physical challenge but it's very silly and very few people get upset when they knock the stick over they're just like this right like that's sort of a thing but if it can come
Andrew Adams (13:22.222)
Mm.
Yep, or wheelbarrow races.
Jason Brick (13:31.601)
We have a wheelbarrow.
Andrew Adams (13:33.9)
No, we're building races.
Jason Brick (13:34.651)
Why didn't you list that among our assets in the first place?
Andrew Adams (13:37.708)
No, no.
Jeremy Lesniak (13:40.054)
That one did not land. That was a good effort.
Jason Brick (13:41.639)
It will with anybody I care about.
Jason Brick (13:48.399)
If you don't know the Princess Bride, I don't wanna know you. Pinata seems on point for a martial arts school.
Jeremy Lesniak (13:58.86)
pinata could be interesting.
Andrew Adams (13:59.99)
Yeah, that's a great idea. But you can't use a stick. have to use nunchaku.
Jason Brick (14:05.039)
Ooh, katana.
Jeremy Lesniak (14:05.58)
Well, not every school does that. Not every school is gonna use. I think if this is going to be a Whistlekick sponsored event, it needs to be as style agnostic as possible.
Jason Brick (14:13.831)
Mmm.
Andrew Adams (14:17.517)
Okay, so weapon of your choice doesn't have to be a stick. Could be what it could be.
Jason Brick (14:22.299)
Or can kind of do it with a reverse limbo style where the piñata starts low and you have to break it with a kick and the piñata gets higher and higher with each round.
Jeremy Lesniak (14:35.296)
Have you ever tried to kick a piñata? It's really, really hard. It's really difficult. And I don't know that we want to set schools up to have to break the tradition because they're going to be there for an hour as small children kick a piñata unsuccessfully.
Jason Brick (14:37.691)
Yeah, there was this whole thing. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Brick (14:48.582)
Fair enough.
Andrew Adams (14:51.883)
Yeah. Yeah. I think just use whatever weapon your school would like to use.
Jason Brick (14:52.497)
Fair enough.
Jeremy Lesniak (14:56.992)
what anything from a broom to a sword to nunchaku to tonfa to whatever, right? And I think that could be a fun way that schools could kind of individualize on some tradition. We always use this old rusty pair of sigh to open the pinion.
Jeremy Lesniak (15:20.97)
And if they don't have a pinata, it could be a paper bag, right? It could be. There are a lot of ways you could substitute for pinata, but I'm thinking the pinata should not just be default to candy. Because let's face it, martial arts schools tend to pitch health, exercise, fitness, and just loading up a bunch of corn syrup in solid form doesn't seem consistent with that.
Andrew Adams (15:50.263)
filled with mouth guards.
Jeremy Lesniak (15:50.56)
So.
Jeremy Lesniak (15:57.033)
What if it's half?
food and have something else. What if there are things that are, what if there are certain expect, what if there's a thing in there that is, that is, is not, there's, can put whatever they want in, but there has to be one thing. And that's the thing that everybody's trying to find.
Andrew Adams (16:19.94)
like the baby in the king cake.
Jeremy Lesniak (16:22.274)
I have no idea what that is, but sure.
Jason Brick (16:28.337)
So what I'm envisioning there, I like the idea, but in principle, so we got people with weapons and the pinata breaks, and then every child in a 10-foot radius charges into the pile of candy trying to be the first one to grab hold of the thing.
Jeremy Lesniak (16:42.526)
I understand. this, yeah, so this is where using bladed weapons or pokey weapons might not be the best thing. But that's why we're not stipulating what can be done with it. And let's face it, if you used like a paper bag, you can punch that open. If it's packed tightly enough, that'll punch open.
Jason Brick (17:06.873)
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak (17:11.874)
And it's also a heck of a lot cheaper and easier to find.
Andrew Adams (17:14.487)
Yeah, that's true.
Jason Brick (17:14.661)
Also true. And then it could be individual where there's not just one person breaking the piñata. Each participant could do it.
Jeremy Lesniak (17:16.503)
So what-
Jeremy Lesniak (17:22.986)
there could be, everybody could have their own pinata. But what's that one thing that has to be in there?
Andrew Adams (17:31.115)
Mouthguard.
Jeremy Lesniak (17:35.276)
I don't like that idea. What am I missing?
Andrew Adams (17:36.64)
It's useful.
Jeremy Lesniak (17:41.194)
I've never been excited about getting a mouth.
Jeremy Lesniak (17:46.71)
I think it should be something that people are excited to have. Putting a mouth guard in it feels like the same as putting toothpaste in someone's stocking, which by the way, if you put toothpaste in someone's stocking, you're a sociopath.
Jason Brick (17:47.143)
and
Andrew Adams (17:59.82)
Note to self, take toothpaste out of my wife's stocking for Christmas.
Jeremy Lesniak (18:04.288)
That's That's it. Those are groceries.
Jason Brick (18:07.943)
Those are the same people who put the little box of raisins in your Halloween candy basket.
Jeremy Lesniak (18:12.756)
At least that's food. At least you're like, okay, raisins. Some people like raisins. I just, have this issue of giving people things that they need as gifts. It bothers me. Toothpaste, toothbrushes.
Jason Brick (18:25.307)
yeah. I mean, all I heard there was we're trying to figure out what to put in there, and Jeremy's like, wawawawaw
Andrew Adams (18:34.945)
You
Andrew Adams (18:40.247)
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (18:42.435)
we could, we could.
Andrew Adams (18:43.533)
I'm trying to come up with something that would be small enough to go in a pinata that would be useful for everyone in every school.
Jeremy Lesniak (18:54.156)
What if it's a handwritten note?
and then it's folded up.
Andrew Adams (18:59.351)
folded in like, folded like in a football.
Jeremy Lesniak (19:02.05)
could be folded in fancy, could just be folded, could be crumpled into a ball.
Andrew Adams (19:08.877)
And what's the handwritten note say? You win?
Jeremy Lesniak (19:08.95)
But it's.
Jeremy Lesniak (19:15.18)
No, I don't know what it says yet. We might need to put a pin in that and come back.
But if it's something, if it's a handwritten note, it could be something that if a school is doing one for everyone.
That would scale. That would work. Maybe should we talk about what some of the if we're going to call them challenges, what the challenges are?
Andrew Adams (19:31.906)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Adams (19:42.743)
Well, we already talked about Wheelbarrow Race and Limbo.
Jeremy Lesniak (19:48.818)
I was offering limbo as an example of this sort of challenge. was not at that time at least proposing limbo as one of them.
Andrew Adams (19:53.02)
Okay, okay.
Jason Brick (19:57.64)
Now we're gonna wanna keep these tightly focused on martial arts and martial arts related or more just fitness and general related or fun in general.
Jeremy Lesniak (20:09.147)
I think enjoyable to do and observe is the most important part.
Jeremy Lesniak (20:21.066)
I think some of them can involve directly applicable martial arts skill, but I don't think all of them should. Okay.
Andrew Adams (20:21.626)
I got.
Andrew Adams (20:27.639)
I got one.
Andrew Adams (20:31.725)
Maybe your school uses bow or, maybe you call them staff, whatever it's that, or maybe just stick or whatever, but you have it on the ground and you have to use one foot only to roll it and scoop that same foot underneath it and lift it up.
Jason Brick (20:49.639)
So that actually approaches a question I had. one of the issues with physical activities that are fun to do and fun to watch, anytime we think of one, it immediately becomes part of the warmup in the kids' class if we're doing our job right. So do we want these activities to be things that the student body will recognize from class, or should they be completely unique and new to them except for this special holiday?
Jeremy Lesniak (21:18.466)
I think.
Andrew Adams (21:18.541)
Good.
Jason Brick (21:19.685)
Like the thing you described Andrew is fun, but it's if you're learning a bowstaff, you've already done it enough times to cuss about how mad your toe hurts.
Andrew Adams (21:28.077)
Yeah, I don't, but I don't teach staff staff forms.
Jason Brick (21:31.129)
Okay.
Jeremy Lesniak (21:33.59)
And it also, my only issue with that is that you can't substitute a broom for that one.
Andrew Adams (21:40.843)
That's true. Well, you can substitute a broom handle.
Jeremy Lesniak (21:44.566)
But most people have brooms that don't disconnect from their handles.
Andrew Adams (21:48.155)
I'm not familiar with those, okay.
Jason Brick (21:50.631)
That's fair.
Jeremy Lesniak (21:53.022)
Most cheap brooms, the handle isn't separate.
Jeremy Lesniak (21:59.542)
But to answer your question, Jason, I think.
I think they should be special. I think they should be things that are not typically done outside of this event.
Jason Brick (22:13.627)
So one thought that we could do, and this would also allow in each individual school to paint it their own way, there's a lot of drills that we're used to in class. You know, I'm thinking about the kids class, because most of us, the majority of the students are kids. But they become hilarious when you watch a parent try to do the same thing, or the partner drill is now between a child and a parent, instead of two people of the same size and the same level of skill.
And then also that kind of incorporates the family aspect that should be an important part of every holiday.
Jason Brick (22:48.475)
Like the piggyback run, you get your partner on your back, run across the deck. All of a sudden you got a nine-year-old doing that with their mom.
Jeremy Lesniak (22:48.726)
What if...
Jeremy Lesniak (22:59.7)
I think at least some of these, if not all, could be done in a format where it's the last person doing the thing. So like if it's horse stance, everybody getting a horse stance, the last person to stand up wins.
Andrew Adams (23:16.845)
Okay.
Jason Brick (23:20.743)
See how he snuck horse stance back in there. That was good. That was a good callback. Good job. Yeah. True.
Andrew Adams (23:22.954)
I I did notice that.
Jeremy Lesniak (23:24.191)
Yeah, well, because everybody can do horse dance for a second.
Jason Brick (23:31.847)
And we can incorporate it with Andrew's thing. you know that you do the real deep horse stance where you can lay a staff across the thighs without it rolling off. And then when it falls off, you're out, but you're required to then do the little flip or you can reset by successfully doing the flip and then you get a second go.
Andrew Adams (23:31.949)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (23:51.49)
Okay, so we're in the same ballpark on that. What else could we do for some of these? And I don't know that we need to come up with what they all should be. I think if we come up with two or three examples, schools will say, I like that, I don't like these other two, but we've got these other five. I think they need to be things that are...
Andrew Adams (23:52.171)
Yeah, that was gonna say that would be fun. That could go.
Jeremy Lesniak (24:19.756)
things that can be cheered on when I think that are challenging, but people will feel good about doing them, right? Like if you're one of the last, you four people in horse stance and you got a couple dozen people around you cheering you on and your legs are shaking, like that's kind of a fun experience. Type two fun, anyway.
Jason Brick (24:40.453)
We could, you know, we can, people are gonna default to some form of calisthenic on that. Pull-ups, push-ups, monkey squats, whatever. Some people will wanna do that and that can always be fun.
Jeremy Lesniak (24:50.38)
Hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (24:55.574)
I think some variation of push-ups, because most schools do push-ups. I think, again, it could be like a last person, you know, if somebody's counting.
Jeremy Lesniak (25:12.032)
That could work.
Andrew Adams (25:25.569)
What's the horse's name? Our mascot, our horse mascot, needs a name. I'm all about names.
Jeremy Lesniak (25:31.073)
Okay.
Jason Brick (25:33.254)
Your road in on.
Andrew Adams (25:35.478)
No.
Jason Brick (25:36.561)
No, the horse you rode in on. No.
Andrew Adams (25:38.335)
No, I don't like that name. I got it. I got it. I'm trying to look at this more. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (25:40.479)
I knew where you were going. It's clever. It is clever.
Jason Brick (25:45.512)
But it's a little vulgar for kids class. Although sometimes it's fun to have something like that. You change the spelling and then when the kid's like 17, they go, wait a minute. That's fun Christmas tradition.
Jeremy Lesniak (25:59.586)
Andrew Adams (26:04.193)
Garell. Garell. We'll name the horse Garell.
Jeremy Lesniak (26:05.772)
Huh?
Jeremy Lesniak (26:10.011)
GERREL?
Andrew Adams (26:10.966)
Yeah, well, I don't know.
Jeremy Lesniak (26:13.9)
But why?
Andrew Adams (26:16.513)
Why is Rudolph named Rudolph? We don't know. It's just a name.
Jeremy Lesniak (26:21.142)
but it's at least an actual name.
Jeremy Lesniak (26:26.112)
I'm pretty sure the name Rudolph predates Rudolph.
Jason Brick (26:26.317)
actually named after the Danish Saint Rudolf, but that's beside the point. No, not even a little bit.
Jeremy Lesniak (26:31.434)
Is that true? Okay.
Jeremy Lesniak (26:38.955)
Andrew Adams (26:44.769)
I mean, every name is a name, it just hasn't been used yet.
Jeremy Lesniak (26:49.302)
But I think, you know, when you think of like the...
Jason Brick (26:50.375)
See that attitude is how you get people named Jason to spell like G-Y-I-Z-Y-N like kids are doing these days.
Andrew Adams (26:58.875)
Nice to meet you, Jason.
Jeremy Lesniak (27:01.791)
Jackson.
You gotta say it with feedback.
Jeremy Lesniak (27:10.358)
What is the purpose of the mascot? What is its role? Is it going to be arbitrary story?
Jeremy Lesniak (27:21.768)
Or is it involved? Like, does somebody
Andrew Adams (27:23.661)
He is the bringer of the pinata.
Jeremy Lesniak (27:32.576)
So my only issue with that is that that suggests someone has to walk around as the horse on all fours.
Andrew Adams (27:40.829)
No, doesn't that? don't think so. No, could you choose to do that? Absolutely. But you don't have to just like schools that choose to have a Christmas holiday class, whatever someone can dress up a Santa Claus, but you don't have to. If you want to dress up as a horse and run around your school, you can do that, but you don't have to. But Geralt, the pinata bringing horse could just be a picture on the wall.
Jason Brick (28:13.753)
And Andrew sold me. Geralt, the pinata bringing horses. Very funny to me. I'm in.
Jeremy Lesniak (28:18.412)
All right, I'm outvoted then. Okay. So we've got the mascot. It has a purpose. It has a name.
Jason Brick (28:30.535)
Now would he wear his black belt just above the first set of hips or the second set of hips?
Andrew Adams (28:38.603)
right around the belly.
Jason Brick (28:40.583)
Okay, can I get in between on the belly? Okay.
Andrew Adams (28:42.381)
Yeah.
Jason Brick (28:49.585)
Jeremy's looking at us like he's so disappointed in the both of us right now.
Jeremy Lesniak (28:52.714)
No, I'm contemplating whether the horse should have a, whether it's a tie.
And is that is tying a belt differently. So small deviation, Andrew, we might have to tackle this another time. If we reached a point in society where let's say other species, aliens, essentially came to Earth and became part of what we did, and they wanted to train in martial arts, but their anatomy was sufficiently different.
that uniforms and the tying of the belt required change. Would that be okay? So imagining a horse shaped alien.
the belt around the waist, it's gonna move a good amount.
would having that horse wear a tie on their neck be a more appropriate choice. Now that I've explained, we're gonna have to for right now, but that was what I was thinking about when you thought I was disappointed.
Andrew Adams (29:54.519)
Mmm.
Jason Brick (29:55.868)
think we can slide past that question because if their anatomy
If their anatomy is so different that that's a question, then their anatomy is going to be too different for Kung Fu or Capoeira or Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to work. Okay.
Jeremy Lesniak (30:11.895)
that may not be true. See, I'm telling you, there's another episode here.
Andrew Adams (30:16.438)
Okay. Okay. I think since we're on the, the Geralt, the pinata bringing horse, I guess we should determine, it an, an animorph like a, standing on two legs, like a Ninja turtle, or is it still just looking like a horse on four legs? Cause that makes a difference. Okay. So if it's a normal horse, it doesn't get a, it doesn't get a black belt. Cause that would be, would look too silly even for me.
Jeremy Lesniak (30:35.242)
I think it's a normal horse.
Andrew Adams (30:44.96)
But a tie? I could see a tie on a horse.
Jason Brick (30:48.241)
Now, Devil's advocate there, anthropomorphic, standing like a human horse, slides by Jeremy's issue about somebody having to wander around on all fours all evening.
Andrew Adams (31:00.202)
That's true. It does make it easier if someone chose to dress as Geralt.
Andrew Adams (31:12.704)
I mean, it could be either. School could choose to make it on two legs or four legs.
Jeremy Lesniak (31:21.762)
We, you know, one of the things that we found, Andrew, at all the events that we've ever hosted is that some of the best stuff occurs as organic advancement from the attendees. Us laying out parameters on some of these things, but not finishing all of the thoughts to massive detail might be in our best interest. There's a horse, the horse is involved. The horse brings pinatas.
Andrew Adams (31:32.3)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Adams (31:41.11)
Sure. Yep. Yep.
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (31:50.122)
and people could decide what they do from there.
Andrew Adams (31:53.76)
Yeah, okay, I dig it. I dig it.
Jason Brick (31:55.505)
Yeah, I'm down.
Jeremy Lesniak (31:56.62)
So we've got to win. We've got parts of the what.
Andrew Adams (32:02.644)
Now what did we determine was the when the last Saturday of January? Okay.
Jeremy Lesniak (32:05.9)
the last Saturday of January.
Andrew Adams (32:10.57)
Okay, so if you're listening to this as it comes out, you've got a month. Last weekend, okay, sure, sure. That could be Friday night.
Jeremy Lesniak (32:12.192)
or we could call it the last weekend of January.
Jason Brick (32:14.95)
Mmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (32:16.929)
Right? Because that gives you the opportunity, depending on how days fall, you could pick a Saturday or Sunday. Different schools have different cultures around when they would do these sorts of things. I don't think we need to pigeonhole it to Saturday.
Andrew Adams (32:24.938)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So if you're listening to this the weekend, the day it comes out, you've got a month to plan. Get going on your we need a name.
The Hollyfist Festival.
Jeremy Lesniak (32:43.852)
See, Holly still becomes derivative of Christmas.
Andrew Adams (32:47.532)
See, to me, Holly and Mistletoe and all that stuff is just holiday. don't see it as... It's like, Frosty isn't Christmas. Frosty is holiday.
Jason Brick (32:58.023)
Yeah, although Mistletoe, Holly, Frosty, they're definitely expired by the end of January.
Andrew Adams (33:06.86)
True, you're right.
Andrew Adams (33:11.19)
Frozen Fist Festival.
Andrew Adams (33:17.106)
No, because not all schools will be cold in January. That doesn't work.
Jeremy Lesniak (33:26.252)
What if it's something around the word train, training? What if it's...
Jeremy Lesniak (33:35.06)
even though the heart of the event is not.
The holiday is not just about training. Training is the thing that everyone has in common.
Because if we're grapplers, we might not spend a lot of time with a closed fist.
Andrew Adams (33:51.212)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Jason Brick (33:56.264)
So I'm trying to think of something because, yeah, the kind of underlying purpose is to re-energize the New Year's resolution crowd. But resolution is a really clumsy word for throwing into a holiday name. Maybe something about momentum?
Andrew Adams (34:21.996)
Holiday, Harmony, Training, Holly, hmm.
Andrew Adams (34:32.254)
A lot of mine are revolving around frozen or snowflakes, but that's because I live in New England and it's really cold right now.
Jeremy Lesniak (34:39.658)
I'm thinking of something, so I'm essentially trying to work out a little bit from martial arts day to something that's a little, has a little more spirit to it.
Jeremy Lesniak (34:56.662)
But I think having, you know, there are a whole bunch of, at least in the US, we have all of these such and such day, you know, national matchbook day or whatever, right? Like, and they're all so super specific that nobody celebrates them. Nobody gets excited about national jello mold day.
Andrew Adams (35:16.33)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Brick (35:25.265)
I suspect they do in Minnesota. There's some ants in Minnesota who definitely get excited about national jello mold.
Jeremy Lesniak (35:29.388)
They might, they might. But you see what, you see my point? Like it's too narrow, right? So I'm concerned if we make the name of the holiday too narrow, it doesn't help us.
Jason Brick (35:33.521)
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (35:35.948)
Hmm.
Andrew Adams (35:48.756)
Are we okay using the word winter?
Jason Brick (35:55.111)
Point of order. I don't know in Australia Do they refer to January as winter only it's warm or do they refer to it as summer?
Andrew Adams (36:03.648)
That's a good question.
Jason Brick (36:08.082)
feel like that's something one of us should know.
Jeremy Lesniak (00:04.827)
When is it winter in Australia? June through August. So that answer is in my mind. yeah.
Andrew Adams (00:11.848)
All right, the word winter is out.
Jason Brick (00:15.067)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Adams (00:18.254)
So we are stuck looking at nomenclature around the new year.
Jeremy Lesniak (00:27.037)
What if it's something that kind of commemorates the month? It commemorates the month of training.
Jeremy Lesniak (00:36.134)
second month.
Jeremy Lesniak (00:40.211)
or first month-aversary or, right? You see where I'm.
Jason Brick (00:44.269)
about? Okay, this is probably done, but what about re-resolution day?
Jeremy Lesniak (00:51.343)
It is dumb, but I like where you're going.
Andrew Adams (00:53.346)
Yeah, I do too.
Jason Brick (00:55.809)
with a follow-up to my autobiography.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:11.603)
Recommit day, recommit day, recommittal day, re... See, all of that sounds... I think that could be part of it.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:24.743)
But all of that sounds very formal and I don't think is the spirit that any of us would want in this. Yeah.
Andrew Adams (01:27.288)
Yeah.
Jason Brick (01:27.462)
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (01:30.924)
Yeah, we want it to be more fun.
as only standing in horse stance can be.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:40.573)
You know, we could push for sponsorships right out of the gate and call it Toyotathon.
Jason Brick (01:47.345)
You
Andrew Adams (01:51.544)
Funny, no.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:51.601)
I got both of you to laugh on that. That's good. That's a good one.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:59.302)
I like the idea of some manner of reflection, even if it's not a large component of the day, reflecting on your training, because that would apply equally to people who are brand new and people who have been training for a while. Andrew, to the audience, if you've not attended All-in Weekend, we have, there's a component in our programming at that event.
Jason Brick (02:07.878)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Adams (02:13.229)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (02:26.771)
that involves some reflection. It's not always the same reflection, but we found that to be a very powerful thing that for a large portion of the attendees ends up being quite significant and for usually one or two more significant for them than any of the physical stuff we do. So I think working that in would be really cool.
Andrew Adams (02:51.15)
I mean, we were talking about commitment, but what about just reflection?
Jeremy Lesniak (02:59.261)
But I don't, yes, is that the core component of what they're doing?
Andrew Adams (03:05.517)
I don't know.
Jeremy Lesniak (03:07.035)
If we go back to what we were saying towards the top, we were talking about this being primarily an opportunity to get together and socialize and smile and have fun.
Andrew Adams (03:14.894)
Hmm.
Jason Brick (03:16.347)
Although that often lands very well where for the most part you're here to have fun but you take a few minutes kind of near the end of it and get serious for a little bit and then do one more fun thing before the break. You you look at all the really good keynote speeches and whatnot, that's typically what they do. So it can be both.
Jeremy Lesniak (03:28.177)
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (03:40.007)
What if it's more short reunion day?
Jason Brick (03:45.233)
And that could
Jeremy Lesniak (03:46.491)
becomes an opportunity to invite people who used to train to come back in a non-training context, like to rebuild some bonds.
Andrew Adams (03:50.606)
Yeah.
Jason Brick (03:55.633)
And if you're a martial artist for a long time, that's what the big recurring conventions and training camps feel like. It always feels like a family reunion.
Jeremy Lesniak (04:04.808)
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (04:07.726)
Okay, playing devil's advocate now, does it make more sense to not be the end of January and be the beginning of January when people who are off at school come home and are home for the holidays?
Jason Brick (04:22.545)
Mmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (04:24.957)
There is never gonna be a perfect day.
Andrew Adams (04:27.415)
You're right, but that's why I was playing Devil's advocate that does it.
Jason Brick (04:29.925)
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (04:30.003)
And I like where you're going. My question, the first place my question goes is, who is the more important demographic to serve? The college students who are home on break or the people who started training and this becomes the end of their first month.
Andrew Adams (04:39.022)
Mmm.
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Adams (04:50.616)
But it's not much of a reunion for them then, is it?
Jeremy Lesniak (04:54.267)
Well, I'm not saying I like the word reunion, but that's the closest that I came up with.
Andrew Adams (04:56.462)
Okay, Okay, all right.
Jeremy Lesniak (05:01.812)
I'm looking for some manner of synonym, and I'm going to do that right now on my phone while we're talking.
Andrew Adams (05:10.216)
it's also, there's nothing that says that we have to figure all of this out today, right now. People listening or watching could have ideas that would be great. And we won't know until this episode comes out and they comment in our Facebook group, or, they comment on YouTube and tell us their thoughts, which you should definitely do.
Jason Brick (05:33.386)
Leave your suggestions in the comments and be sure to like and subscribe.
Andrew Adams (05:37.442)
Absolutely
Jeremy Lesniak (05:38.931)
I'm getting the word rally
Andrew Adams (05:42.084)
rally.
Jason Brick (05:45.233)
There's some connotations to rally.
Jeremy Lesniak (05:47.921)
There can be.
Jeremy Lesniak (05:52.531)
You know some people could see that
Jeremy Lesniak (06:13.616)
assembly.
Jeremy Lesniak (06:26.577)
Rebound.
Jason Brick (06:29.425)
Definitely not rebound. Maybe we go with Andrew's idea and leave it to the listeners, see what they have to suggest.
Jeremy Lesniak (06:29.533)
The rebound is interesting.
Jeremy Lesniak (06:39.973)
I think we need a name. I think of all the things that we hand them, I think the name is the most important.
Jason Brick (06:44.143)
Hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (06:48.337)
I think it's the last piece we don't have.
Jason Brick (06:49.499)
Fair enough.
Jason Brick (06:54.257)
Hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (06:55.517)
Keep talking, I'm.
Jason Brick (06:58.865)
So we're thinking, so the spirit of the holiday is to...
inject additional motivation and momentum into new students who are reaching the last month of their training to bring in a few old students who, you know, life got in the way and they stopped training for a while and they need that excuse to get back on the mat, that amnesty day where they can come in and not feel guilty for not having been to class for a while.
That kind of vibe, that's what we're looking at.
Jeremy Lesniak (07:34.843)
Yeah, United Martial Arts Day, Martial Arts Assembly Day.
Jason Brick (07:37.359)
Okay.
Andrew Adams (07:41.422)
Evergreen. Could we put the word evergreen in there?
It's fairly, I don't know, it's fairly not specific. it's not, evergreen is not a Christmas word. Evergreen is not a Hanukkah word. It is a type of tree.
Jeremy Lesniak (07:50.375)
explain.
Jason Brick (08:04.389)
It's a marketing buzzword. know, like United Cry at martial arts today is good, has the same issues where it's good, but it feels like something developed by a committee. And I realized that because there were three of us, we are a committee. it lacks punch. It feels like something on a corporate mission statement, you know?
Jeremy Lesniak (08:07.26)
It is.
Andrew Adams (08:16.133)
Ha ha ha ha!
Jason Brick (08:26.533)
and corporate mission statements very rarely make excellent holidays.
Jeremy Lesniak (08:32.199)
doesn't need to be a made up word.
Andrew Adams (08:32.364)
Marshall.
Jason Brick (08:36.121)
All words made up.
Jeremy Lesniak (08:38.035)
Does it need to be a newly made up word?
Andrew Adams (08:40.665)
No.
Jason Brick (08:43.099)
But it could be.
Andrew Adams (08:43.106)
holiday reunion martial art reunion day
Jason Brick (08:54.811)
Something about horsing around.
Jason Brick (09:05.809)
Something
Maybe a made-up word that feels like reunion, rejuvenation, recommitment, re-energizing, but we make up the word or there's a perfect word.
Jeremy Lesniak (09:27.034)
Ambitioning Day.
Jason Brick (09:29.048)
Ambitioning.
Jeremy Lesniak (09:30.514)
Yes.
Andrew Adams (09:31.559)
Ambitioning day. All right. OK, I don't hate it.
Jeremy Lesniak (09:36.549)
I hate it so much less than I thought I was going to when I was reading it. I thought I was making a joke and then I heard my own voice.
Because what is ambition, right? You're looking forward. You're setting goals. You're excited.
Jason Brick (09:45.147)
third volume of my autobiography.
Andrew Adams (09:51.085)
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (09:59.929)
Geralt the Pinata Bringing Horse for Ambitioning Day.
Jason Brick (10:05.221)
That may be the best sentence in the English language I've heard all year.
Jeremy Lesniak (10:09.287)
You know what's great though? We know that's the first time that sentence has ever been said.
Jason Brick (10:14.039)
One hopes. One really hopes.
Jeremy Lesniak (10:19.635)
Okay, so we've got a when, we've got the roots of a what. There should be a tradition that is also playful in there. So like the cliche, the tradition at weddings when people stuff cake in each other's face, right? When the bride and groom stuff, right? Like that's funny.
Andrew Adams (10:43.436)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (10:46.055)
Now, not everybody does it, but that's the sort of thing I'm looking for, that it's not serious. We should have at least one of those kind of threaded in there.
It's the one day of the year that
Jason Brick (11:04.144)
So the low hanging fruit there is something like the Gatorade on the coach where the sensei, something funny and mildly humiliating happens to the sensei.
Andrew Adams (11:17.262)
See, I was looking out. Yeah, I was looking at it.
Jeremy Lesniak (11:17.629)
Funny? Humiliating? No.
Jason Brick (11:17.649)
Where's the one day of the year? Yeah, not fall on humiliating, but you know what I'm going for.
Jeremy Lesniak (11:24.017)
Because I think if it's gentle, playful, and fun, yes. I do like the idea of low ranks being able to do something to higher ranks because it's the one time that the tables get turned. So if you're the lowest rank, you have the most opportunity.
Andrew Adams (11:24.055)
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (11:44.206)
See, I was thinking of something going the other way.
Jason Brick (11:47.217)
I mean, something about the white belts gets to distribute push-up penalties to upper belts.
Jeremy Lesniak (11:55.464)
I don't see that one playing out well. Andrew, what were you saying?
Andrew Adams (11:58.319)
I was thinking something more along the lines of the tradition is I was thinking the instructor, but maybe it could be the lowest ranked student has a special bell and three times throughout the event, they can ring the bell whenever they want to. And everybody has to do something like what I don't know what that thing is, but they have control.
Jeremy Lesniak (12:22.023)
What if it's a kazoo?
Andrew Adams (12:25.568)
Sure, could be a kazoo. The lowest ranked student gets a kazoo.
Jeremy Lesniak (12:28.059)
So lowest rank or.
Jason Brick (12:30.956)
gets worse by giving a kid a kazoo. I'm right there with you.
Jeremy Lesniak (12:34.737)
Lois rank student or students, right? So that's probably that first crop, right? So that if for anybody who started in January, that's going to be that group of students. So that's giving them some opportunity.
Jason Brick (12:39.79)
L
Jeremy Lesniak (12:49.501)
but there can only be one.
Jason Brick (12:49.551)
Or maybe do it where the newest student gets the kazoo and they get to do the thing once. And then their job is to find the next newest student and give them the kazoo. I'm going to need some hand sanitizer. But, and then the tradition is that it works its way up the ranks throughout the day. there's nothing that could go wrong with this in the post COVID era.
Andrew Adams (13:02.646)
and some mouth sanitizer.
Andrew Adams (13:13.272)
That's why I thinking Bell, but okay.
Jason Brick (13:15.343)
Yeah, yeah, that's the point.
Jeremy Lesniak (13:15.547)
Yeah, I
I like Belle for sanitary reasons more than I like Kazoo, although I think Kazoo's are much funnier choice.
Andrew Adams (13:29.166)
Like, know, every time the, okay, here we go. The thing that the, whatever somebody has to do can be school specific in our school. Uh, when the bell is rung, uh, every one of a certain rank and higher has to do a, uh, a jump and kick or has to, maybe I'm a, maybe I'm a BJJ school and they have to do a sprawl immediately. The bell rings, boom, they got a sprawl.
Jeremy Lesniak (13:54.888)
What about this? What if it's a fun, what if it's a charitable thing and there are baskets or cups or whatever with the names of the upper tier of instructors?
Jeremy Lesniak (14:12.915)
and
Jeremy Lesniak (14:24.337)
cup or basket that gets the most money, we'll say money, put in it. That person has to do a something.
Jason Brick (14:38.843)
Now is this an addition to or a kind of pivot from the Belkazoo idea?
Jeremy Lesniak (14:46.097)
I think it's a bit of a pivot because what I'm struggling with is knowing the tremendous breadth of cultures at martial arts schools. I'm not coming up with anything that would work in even most schools.
Jason Brick (14:48.702)
I mean, it's a cool ancillary event, you know.
Andrew Adams (14:48.706)
Okay.
Jason Brick (15:08.753)
I think Andrew's idea of leaving the specific task open would play in most martial arts schools.
Jeremy Lesniak (15:08.935)
You know, it.
Jeremy Lesniak (15:18.936)
I think for this one, they're going to need an example.
Andrew Adams (15:22.73)
An example could be everyone from a certain belt rank and higher have to do five jumping jacks. Like I could be in the middle of talking like I'm at this in ambitioning day and I'm talking to you, Jeremy, we're hanging out. like, we're eating our food. The bell rings. shoot. One. We're in the middle of our conversation, but I now have to do five jumping jacks or exactly.
Jeremy Lesniak (15:43.771)
Hmm. Or it could be a burpee or.
Jason Brick (15:47.75)
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (15:47.798)
Or could be a jumping spinning kick, which means I have to put my food down and get to a safe environment to do whatever.
Jason Brick (15:52.187)
You know, probably a squat jump. Probably a squat jump is the, that way, cause if everybody jumps in the middle of a milling social situation, everybody sprawls into a push-up, someone's going to get kicked in the shins. But like a squat jump has the lowest horizontal footprint. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (16:04.477)
Sure.
Andrew Adams (16:10.286)
But again, we allow the school to do what they want to.
Jeremy Lesniak (16:12.859)
Yeah, I think. OK, so. So so this. The schools can still leave it up to them, is it the the youngest low rank all of the lowest ranks? Is it a you know, one of them is drawn from a hat, you know, becomes a position of honor?
Jason Brick (16:15.653)
Yeah, and we give that as the example.
Andrew Adams (16:36.658)
I actually liked Jason's idea of you're the newest student age has nothing to do with it. Newest student. get to ring the bell once and then you give it to them. You have to find who the next person is. I like that because it allows it, it encourages talking and interacting with other students. I like
Jason Brick (16:58.833)
and then it also continues through the night.
Andrew Adams (17:01.208)
correct. And you can only do it once before you hand it on.
Andrew Adams (17:12.792)
Jeremy's thinking, I can see the gears turning.
Jeremy Lesniak (17:17.171)
I've got there are things I'm thinking. I think they're getting too complicated. I like the idea, but something tells me it's like 90 % there. Like I'm trying to find that last 10%.
But I think it's good enough that we move. So does this feel like a complete holiday? There should be a traditional food. Every holiday worth having has traditional food.
Andrew Adams (17:35.501)
I mean...
I think that is going to be incredibly difficult.
Jason Brick (17:41.425)
Now, where do we want to go with that?
Jeremy Lesniak (17:44.571)
So I think the answer is nachos.
Jason Brick (17:49.457)
The answer is always not just. It's like 90 % of questions. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (17:51.547)
And that's why I said that.
Andrew Adams (17:54.572)
I had nachos for lunch today. They were very good.
Jeremy Lesniak (17:56.445)
How were they?
Jeremy Lesniak (18:00.827)
Now, the reason I think nachos work is because nachos are actually more of a construct than a literal result. And here's the proof. Have you ever had nachos with tater tots? If you haven't, it's amazing.
Andrew Adams (18:19.66)
Yeah, they're called tachos.
Jeremy Lesniak (18:21.821)
They're called a number of things. But the point being, they don't stop being nachos because you didn't use corn chips.
Jason Brick (18:27.791)
Is poutine technically nachos?
Jeremy Lesniak (18:32.177)
That sounds like it is a hot dog a sandwich.
Andrew Adams (18:34.903)
It is not.
Jeremy Lesniak (18:36.943)
It is. It satisfies all the conditions of a sandwich.
Jason Brick (18:37.414)
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (18:37.806)
It is not.
Jason Brick (18:40.112)
It is.
Jason Brick (18:43.643)
Guys, I may have to go. My Canadian wife heard me say that about Putin, and I might be in trouble.
Jeremy Lesniak (18:48.755)
That's fabulous. Okay. The traditional food on on ambitioning day is nachos. But nachos could be any number of things.
Andrew Adams (18:52.962)
Yeah, I'm okay with nachos.
Jason Brick (18:55.661)
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (19:01.314)
Whatever you... Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Brick (19:05.07)
And if a school got ambitious, they could even have a deviant nacho contest. Who can push the envelope as far as possible without breaking the envelope on what is a nacho?
Jeremy Lesniak (19:14.707)
You know, the notion of nachos does make some really fun things. You could have nacho like contests, right? Who makes the best nachos or the most creative nachos? Hot sauce and then hot sauce challenges around there. What's that?
Jason Brick (19:30.321)
Like our beanie-weenies nachos?
our beanie weenies nachos, it's protein and sauce on a carbohydrate.
Andrew Adams (19:41.582)
I don't know what those are.
Jason Brick (19:43.377)
Is that how it is? It's when you cut hot dogs up into baked beans and you're cooking it and give it to kids.
Andrew Adams (19:47.566)
no, it's not nachos.
Jeremy Lesniak (19:50.375)
No, there's no cheese there. There's no, we're.
Jason Brick (19:50.651)
You sure? How about Chili Mac?
Andrew Adams (19:52.667)
Mm. That's just chilly.
Jeremy Lesniak (19:55.782)
No, I think in order for it to be nachos, the entirety of the thing has to be cooked at once and it has to become a solid entity. I think the moment liquid is involved, it's no longer nachos.
Jason Brick (19:57.201)
with mac and cheese as good cheese.
Jason Brick (20:06.225)
Okay
Jason Brick (20:11.562)
Then we well then what about queso like queso sauce that's the liquid
Jeremy Lesniak (20:15.837)
Queso is separate. Queso is something you might dip nachos into. Queso is not nachos.
Jason Brick (20:19.441)
he's not an intro girl part of the notches. Okay. Fair enough.
Andrew Adams (20:26.294)
Yeah, I think we're good. I think we're good on this.
Jeremy Lesniak (20:28.827)
Okay. So let's, so let's recap. We have, we have ambitioning day. It is the last weekend of January. It is meant to be a light training activity, high social gathering, martial arts themed event. The mascot is, is what again, Andrew?
Jason Brick (20:29.371)
We got a horse eating nachos is what we're saying.
Andrew Adams (20:37.196)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Brick (20:38.405)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Adams (20:54.902)
GAROL THE PINATA BRINGING HORSE
Jeremy Lesniak (20:57.296)
Garell the pinata bringing horse. One of the highlights of Ambitioning Day is the breaking open of the pinata or pinatas, depending on how it is.
Jason Brick (21:08.689)
Can you hear me?
Andrew Adams (21:13.144)
Pinyanas.
Jeremy Lesniak (21:13.659)
I think it breaks Latin declension. I don't think we know the rules, especially since it's Spanish word.
Jason Brick (21:26.257)
which has nothing to do with Latin, of course.
Jeremy Lesniak (21:26.771)
I'm pretty sure it's pinatas.
Jason Brick (21:31.461)
quite certain too, I just wanted to see the look on your face.
Jeremy Lesniak (21:33.797)
Okay.
this episode is brought to you by Chaos.
within each, the pinatas are nice things that have been written by people to people. So that could be fun, even if it's just one pinata, you you could write a couple of nice things about a few people in class and put them in, people get nice things said about them.
Right.
You've got the bell or the kazoo or the whatever notion where things kind of move up the rank line. I still think there's something more that could be done there. And maybe this is a place where the audience gets involved and contributes their ideas. honestly, would.
Jason Brick (22:28.997)
Maybe something about, if it's over at say four o'clock in the afternoon, right? Something special for the last person to be holding the bell, the person holding the bell who hasn't rung it when the time goes.
Andrew Adams (22:42.83)
No, that doesn't work because then the person who gets it just will never ring it
Jeremy Lesniak (22:47.027)
I do think there's something about a thing occurring time-wise and a who's holding the bell, like a musical chair sort of deal. I do think there's something interesting there. And it's kind of neat that you brought that up, Jason, because that's where my brain was going. I was trying to find that. What else did we say? So the challenges. So we talked about last horse stancing. And or some limbo or some other things.
Jason Brick (22:48.209)
But the lo- Unless you make it unpleasant.
Andrew Adams (23:07.352)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Adams (23:11.819)
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Andrew Adams (23:18.626)
The food is nachos.
Jeremy Lesniak (23:20.039)
The food is nachos.
Andrew Adams (23:22.23)
Yeah, I think that's pretty good. At least first start. Yeah. Ambitioning day.
Jeremy Lesniak (23:24.473)
I want to celebrate this. This sounds great.
Jason Brick (23:26.225)
I would celebrate it.
Jeremy Lesniak (23:29.139)
So we're going to drop this episode Christmas of 2025. I really want people to respond on this one so we can take and try to incorporate ideas and flesh this out. And I will absolutely put together a blog at whistlekick.com on this. there are, there's the official recommendation of what Ambitioning Day is and the reflection and the reflection, the reflection part I think is important.
Andrew Adams (23:49.856)
and use the hashtag AmbitioningDay.
Yeah. Yeah. And use, the hashtag ambitioning day.
Jeremy Lesniak (23:59.322)
Ambitioning day. I'm gonna do a Google search to see if anybody has come up with any has anybody done this ambitioning day.
Andrew Adams (24:13.228)
be so sad if they have.
Jeremy Lesniak (24:24.347)
Okay, there is ambition day. I'm not finding anything with ambitioning. All right, I'm gonna do one more check. Should have done this before.
Andrew Adams (24:26.913)
Okay, we're good. We're good.
Jason Brick (24:27.291)
Not the same thing.
Jeremy Lesniak (24:43.909)
It is an actual word.
Andrew Adams (24:46.016)
Ambitioning is a word. love it. Perfect.
Jeremy Lesniak (24:47.697)
Yeah, it is.
Jason Brick (24:49.051)
glad that's new on me.
Andrew Adams (24:51.384)
So we're good.
Jeremy Lesniak (24:54.06)
Jeremy Lesniak (25:03.783)
Yeah, don't, it is a song by someone as well. So we do not condone the song necessarily. Okay, well, great. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. Jason, 30 seconds. What do you do and where do people find you doing it?
Jason Brick (25:19.27)
Dessert.
Jason Brick (25:23.631)
I'm Jason Brick. I write stuff. I go on podcasts. I have a podcast, Safest Family on the Block, where I talk to families about how to keep their kids safe on everything from crime prevention to fire response to emergency preps to nutrition and mental health. Find me at brickhomanjason.com, safestfamilyontheblock.org, or track me down on Facebook.
Jeremy Lesniak (25:43.482)
Andrew, same question.
Andrew Adams (25:45.652)
everybody knows how to find me, andrewatwizzlekick.com.
Jeremy Lesniak (25:50.247)
What do you do?
Andrew Adams (25:52.079)
I do all kinds of things if you're listening to this podcast you likely know the things I do you know, obviously I produced this podcast I Drum all over New England and you can email me at Andrew at whistle takes calm
Jeremy Lesniak (26:09.757)
And I'm Jeremy at whistlekick.com and most of my time is spent helping martial arts schools grow. So whether it's Whistlekick Alliance or the consulting work or any of the other things that we do, if you have a martial arts school and you say, I would like to have a larger or more financially successful or less stressful martial arts school, I think you should talk to me, Jeremy at whistlekick.com.
Thank you all of you out there. Thank you, Jason. Thank you, Andrew. This was a lot of fun and probably the most fun we've had on the show with a topic that we generated seven seconds before we started recording it. And that's saying a lot. I look forward to seeing all of your ambitioning day photos.