Episode 1103 - Martial Things with Master Hussey
In this episode join Andrew in whistlekick’s Martial Things series. This week he sits down and chats with Master Hussey with a plan to talk about……. nothing. No plan, just a conversation to see where it takes them.
Martial Things with Master Hussey - Episode 1103
SUMMARY
In this episode, Andrew Adams and Master Audrey Hussey discuss various aspects of martial arts, including the importance of rank and titles, the role of instructors, and the impact of martial arts on youth. The conversation also touches on the benefits of martial arts for individuals of all ages and the need for effective teaching methods in martial arts schools. They also discuss a unique type of yoga that Master Hussey is getting involved with.
TAKEAWAYS
Master Hussey emphasizes the importance of empowering youth through martial arts.
Rank and titles in martial arts do not define a person's ability or worth.
Teaching methods in martial arts should be tailored to individual students' needs.
Instructors should not be expected to teach without proper training and support.
Martial arts can be practiced at any age and offers lifelong benefits.
The impact of martial arts extends beyond physical skills to include character development.
Social media plays a crucial role in promoting martial arts schools.
Learning new techniques and styles can enhance a martial artist's skills.
Confidence and self-defense skills are essential for women and youth.
Martial arts education should be integrated into public school systems.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
05:30 Understanding Rank and Titles in Martial Arts
11:23Teaching and Learning in Martial Arts
17:32 The Importance of Teaching Skills in Martial Arts
20:30 Balancing Teaching and Personal Practice
23:28 Exploring New Martial Arts Techniques
27:40 Empowering Students Through Martial Arts
31:34 The Lifelong Benefits of Martial Arts Training
35:30 The Future of Martial Arts in Education
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SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Andrew Adams (06:24.214)
Welcome you're listening or watching to another episode of whistle kick martial arts radio And today i'm joined by master hussy to have a talk about martial things. What are those things? Well master hussy, we'll just have to find out hang on a moment for anybody that's new I want to make sure that you know where to find this podcast I mean, obviously you found this one, but maybe you want to find all of our other ones whistlekick martial arts radio.com You can go there to find all
1100 and two other episodes as of this episode. There are so many to listen to it will take you Weeks and weeks to listen to them all but I'd invite you to do so you can find all of them there You can also find show notes for every episode. You can find photographs You can find contact information for some of our guests all of that stuff You can find there You can also go to whistlekick.com if you want to find out about all of the things that we offer Maybe you want to buy if you want to buy a t-shirt. Maybe you want to attend
One of the events that we host around the country, maybe you want to buy a Burke book, all of that stuff you can find at whistlekick.com. enough blabbering from me. Master Hussie, how are you today?
Audrey Hussey (07:34.361)
Do you want to hear blabbering from me then? Are you sure about that? I'm great. Thank you. I'm really excited to be on this podcast again. I am really happy for you guys. You've been killing it. I see some of your other guests and I'm like, do you want to talk to me?
Andrew Adams (07:36.91)
HAHAHAHA
Andrew Adams (07:56.079)
Well, you know, I'll tell you, I'll tell you in the audience why specifically I reached out to you and said, Hey, I would like you to come back and do an episode of this series, Marshall things. for any new listeners, Marshall things is a concept I came up with, where we sit down with a guest without a specific topic to talk about. there's no specific plan. We're just gonna.
have a conversation and, know, why did I reach out to you? You know, we've been friends on Facebook for a couple of years now. You've attended some of our events and things and you recently more so, and maybe it's the Facebook algorithm showing it to me more, but I've noticed more recently that within the last few months, you've been posting a lot more videos and reels of your thoughts on things and asking what other people think.
And you clearly are thinking about martial arts all the time. And those are the best people to have on for this type of episode because we don't need a topic. We'll just, mean, before we hit record, we were talking quite a bit about rank and, and how it can be pervasive and, know, just anything martial arts is on the table to talk about today.
Audrey Hussey (09:17.387)
Okay, I'm in, I'm in. No, I've had a lot more education on how the algorithms work and as a small school trying to become a bigger school, the whole ad spend thing doesn't seem to work anymore. so Reels videos, and I've always posted like that anyway to me.
Andrew Adams (09:18.008)
And I love that.
Audrey Hussey (09:46.473)
If you want people to see what your school is about and what you are about, you show them. It's not going to be perfect. I don't just show like my little superstars and I have a lot of really, really talented students. And I show what normal kids do in a normal class. What I do, I'm not sugar coating, you know, my skills and talents because, you know, I'm not a kid. I'm not 20 years old. So you're going to see.
the results of what I've worked on for 27 years. And this is where I am and hey, you can do this too. So I think reels and videos are absolutely imperative. And so when you go to a karate school page or whatever, any martial artist page, and they're just showing pictures like, hey, here's me grading. Hey, here's me standing here with another student. Hey, here's me with my certificate. It doesn't really tell you anything about who they are and what they stand for.
Andrew Adams (10:42.446)
Mmm.
Audrey Hussey (10:44.621)
So that's why you're seeing a lot more videos.
Andrew Adams (10:47.456)
That makes a lot of sense. makes a lot of sense. Now we were chatting before we started recording here about rank and belts and titles. you brought up some interesting things in regards to a lot of the martial arts schools that start, you know, don't have to necessarily use titles, but or rank being tied to that. Can you let's chat about that for a little bit.
Audrey Hussey (11:11.801)
Well, I think you would ask me if I wanted to be referred to as Master Hauzy or... And it sounds great. I actually love it because it makes me feel like, I finally got somewhere. But, you know, it doesn't really tell the whole story of who the person is. You know, it's usually just, you you showed up and you showed up for X number of years. You learned X number of things. Reaching, you know, in my system, fourth degree.
just means you learned those forms. But really, the learning just begins. I'm just starting now to see things and put things together while I'm teaching that nobody had told me and that I had never thought of before. But I I think I mentioned, when you look back at the history of martial arts in the United States, most of the schools,
that have been around the longest, those dudes started those schools as first degrees, you know, and, and, you know, nobody said to them, well, you're only a first degree. Nobody, you know, the general public doesn't see the difference between a first degree and a third degree or a master belt. They just say, why does that belt have a red stripe through it? But they don't really think about it. And that's not why they come to your school. The last school I went to, I mentioned, you know, he took over the school at, you know, 18.
Andrew Adams (12:29.742)
Hmm, that's a good point.
Audrey Hussey (12:37.697)
as a first degree with some other older black belts helping. The gentleman who started the federation we were in was first degree Robert Cheezak when he came back from Korea and learned from Hwang Gi, well, one of Hwang Gi's master belts. And they weren't afraid to come here and say, I'm a first degree black belt. Because again, nobody cares. If you say you're a black belt, hardly anybody asks you, well, what?
Andrew Adams (13:03.235)
Yeah.
Audrey Hussey (13:07.543)
Degree.
Andrew Adams (13:08.108)
Yeah, I mean, how many times have I said to someone who's not involved in martial arts and they said, you know, what belt are you? You do martial arts. And I'll say, well, I've got black belts and I've got a black belt in this and that. And they're like, first off, they didn't know you could get black belts in different things. And then I'm like, well, they're like, well, what kind of karate? So while I have a third degree black belt, Shotokan, a secondary, they're like, there's different levels of black belt? They don't know. All they know is black
Audrey Hussey (13:25.259)
Yeah.
Audrey Hussey (13:34.862)
Right. How many can you get? My students ask me all the time, you know, how many degrees of black belt are there? Are they like 35? I don't think anybody lives that long, honestly. And if they do, you should probably, you know, maybe watch them do karate because anybody who claims to be, you know, when you get up to ninth and tenth, it's usually honorary at that point. It's just that you've been doing it for so long. I mean,
Andrew Adams (13:58.413)
Yeah, sure.
Audrey Hussey (14:03.578)
In most systems, it's like I said, how many forms you've learned. Okay, so each level you got to learn three forms, let's say. Well, you know, and there's more years in between them. And you know, you get to an age where you're like, can't do this. I'm, you know, I've been asked if I'll ever reach 10th degree. And I'm like, who's going to grade me? There'll all be long dead by the time I get that old. I'll be like 88 years old. mean,
Andrew Adams (14:19.009)
Yeah.
Audrey Hussey (14:33.269)
And really, does it matter at that point? It's like I told them before, it's time served. Time served.
Andrew Adams (14:41.4)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Audrey Hussey (14:45.145)
My students think it's funny that there are people at 10th degree black belt. I'm like, but you know, they're usually leaders of organizations, you know, they're, they're people who've been doing this for 50, 60 years. And they're not, they're not going through a four hour test on a Saturday morning with a bunch of people. can push up the jumping jacks. They've just learned probably all there is to learn. And then they could move along somewhere else and start over.
Andrew Adams (14:57.858)
Yeah, exactly.
Audrey Hussey (15:14.871)
I had a friend of mine, I think he was a seventh degree when he went over and started a new style and now he's a first or second degree again after 40 years.
Andrew Adams (15:25.676)
Yeah. And I think that, that, that says something about that person too, that they were willing to using air quotes, start over. I say, I put it in air quotes because if you're a six or seven degree black belt in any style, doesn't matter what style it is. You go to a different style. Yes, you might be quote starting over, but you already have so much knowledge under your belt that, you know, you will rank quickly.
Audrey Hussey (15:36.174)
Wait.
Andrew Adams (15:53.698)
But it's not like you're throwing that information away.
Audrey Hussey (15:57.55)
Right. you know, they, in this particular case, they brought him in and immediately, I'm sure, saw the level of experience and skill and, you know, ended up learning some things from that person. And, you know, but it's a humility and respect thing. When you go into a new style, you accept whatever, you know, whatever they tell you, you know, this is what we're comfortable with. When I started Tengsudo,
Andrew Adams (16:10.829)
Mm-hmm.
Audrey Hussey (16:25.835)
I had a first degree in Kempo, Shorinji Kempo. And they let me wear that belt until I graded to the first belt in their system. And then I went back to blue belt and I was fine with that. mean, I didn't have to relearn how to do a sidekick or, you know, or roundhouse or anything. And now that I'm teaching in my own school, I'm pulling things out of that system I started in.
Andrew Adams (16:46.591)
Exactly.
Audrey Hussey (16:56.441)
And I go to other schools all the time. I have a friend who teaches Kenpo and I've gone there and done seminars and stuff just to relearn these Kenpo and Kenpo are very similar. But I have forgotten so much. I'm like, my gosh, I remember this. And now I'll be like, okay, we're gonna do something fun today. We're gonna learn some Kenpo. And my students love that. It makes your school a better place.
Andrew Adams (17:24.238)
Mm.
Audrey Hussey (17:25.761)
I've gone to Shotokan schools and trained there and my gosh, you guys, I'm telling you. I've done jiu-jitsu, I've dabbled in a lot of things and it lets you bring that to what you do. I can say, okay, this is a Shotokan or this is a Japanese chamber and this is a Korean chamber and why. Things I've only, sorry, my Doberman. Get a Doberman.
they said. so having that ability to humble yourself, go back and start something new is so good for your karate, no matter what rank you are. And again, when parents walk into a karate school, they don't run up and look at your certificate and say, what rank, you know, where'd you come from? What's your lineage? You martial arts, we love to do that. What's your lineage?
Andrew Adams (18:24.576)
Yeah, yeah,
Audrey Hussey (18:26.105)
Just shut up. mean, nobody cared. My parents want to know if I can help their kid focus on something for more than a minute and a half. And even that's a struggle sometimes. I think some of the best martial arts teachers I've come across have taught other things, you know, first grade, piano, whatever, homeschool, those people who have taught before.
understand how kids learn are far better teachers than a kid who comes up in the ranks. And they may be great with kids and they know the material, but they don't know how people think and they don't read faces and they don't know what a kid needs in order to be proud or focus or whatever. So Frank, it's important to a degree.
Andrew Adams (19:15.106)
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (19:24.75)
good. That was good. That was good. I saw what you did there. You know, it's interesting that you bring up teaching some of the best instructors or those that have taught other things. And it has come up on the show a handful of times actually in the last few months. And I've said it before, and if you have heard me say this multiple times, because you're listening right now, I apologize. But just because you're a good doer doesn't mean you're a good teacher.
Audrey Hussey (19:28.131)
See you guys.
Andrew Adams (19:53.886)
and some of the best, some of the best.
participants within martial arts, you can be a great kata person, can be a great sport fighter, can be great at figuring out applications and bunkai or all this other stuff and not be able to disseminate that information to someone else. And on the other side, you can be an amazing teacher and not necessarily be a great doer. And there aren't many other hobbies where
Audrey Hussey (20:01.305)
Cough
Audrey Hussey (20:23.833)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Adams (20:28.722)
you get to a certain level in many schools and you're just expected to teach. And martial arts is one of them, not all, but a lot of, mean, I definitely, one of the schools I trained in, it's like when you got your black belt, okay, now you're expected to start helping teach class.
Audrey Hussey (20:45.037)
That's a whole podcast right there. I would love to see that one because that's come up for me many, many times. You know, I homeschooled all my kids and then when I started at the school I was at, the last school I was at, you know, I went through the ranks and I got to apprentice and I said, hey, can we start a homeschool class?
Andrew Adams (20:46.871)
and we've done them, for sure.
Audrey Hussey (21:13.881)
And you know, the owner was like, sure. And I'm like, okay, who's going to teach it? And he's like, you? And I'm like, but I'm only an apprentice. He's like, yeah, but you know, you already have a black belt, number one. Number two, you already teach. And I'm like, truth. So I started the class and I found very quickly and some of my kids were in the class with me. So they actually helped me teach at Green Belt and Red Belt. And I was allowed to.
teach as a green belt when I was doing regular classes because of that experience. Had I been just a nurse or whatever and started karate, I may not have been given that opportunity. But I found that teaching was not difficult for me at all. And I think they used to call me the den mother because the kids just, they felt more at ease with me because
I said, I had a bunch of kids myself, I homeschooled those kids and having the experience in karate already gave me that approach where there is a way for everybody to get this. You, as the instructor, have to come up with that way, not get frustrated, you're not parroting, you're not reciting something you learned, which is a big problem with a lot of these programs when they throw people in at teaching.
And a lot of good schools have instructor programs. But you know, smaller schools, don't, you know, I don't have that luxury to have a whole program. I am fortunate that the instructor that works with me in my school, I was one of the people who trained him in one of the classes that I taught. So I've known this kid since he was eight years old. And I know how he thinks and I know how he's gonna react with the kids.
Andrew Adams (23:12.27)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Audrey Hussey (23:12.685)
And they love him. They love him. And he has his approach and I don't mess with it. I didn't say this is what you have to do. You have to stand here with your hands behind your back and you can't put your hands in and you have to stand three and a half feet away from your student. And you must say it like this and then you must say it like that again. And then you must show it like this because a lot of kids, by the time you get to, you know, say it, show it, say it, they're like they want to kick stuff.
Andrew Adams (23:38.904)
Yeah. Yep. Yep.
Audrey Hussey (23:42.234)
They want to hit stuff. Just let them hit stuff. Clean up later. But there's, there's methods that you have to come up with on your own based on who you're in front of and how they're behaving at the time. You're to have kids who get it and you're going to have kids who, like I said, want to fall on the floor and roll around. Have them kick it on the floor. don't care.
Andrew Adams (23:42.946)
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (24:02.87)
Exactly. Yeah.
Yep. And, so getting to a level and then just being expected to teach and know how to teach is so absurd. And, know, it's one of the reasons why Whistlekick came out with our martial art teacher training certification was for exactly that reason that, you know, it, we're the, the program isn't designed to show you how to teach someone to punch and kick. It's how to show you how to be a teacher and
Audrey Hussey (24:34.574)
Bye.
Andrew Adams (24:34.946)
You know, when you are in the public education system and you are a teacher, you often have to go through continuing education classes on other teaching methods and methodologies and things like that. And, you know, I think the really great schools like yours or others that have have good programs for helping their instructors be good teachers goes a long way because their students can get the most out of those instructors.
Audrey Hussey (25:04.377)
Well, and here's a, you know, fun fact. Not all people join martial arts and want to teach it. And you think if, you know, and I've seen this over and over, I've actually have friends who've left schools at the certain rank because they're expected to teach and they don't want to teach. They don't want to show up for all these other classes. They don't want to work with children. They just want to do karate. Why can't they just find?
Andrew Adams (25:11.68)
Absolutely.
Andrew Adams (25:23.66)
Me too.
Audrey Hussey (25:32.993)
I might throw you over here with this guy to help him work on this form while I'm teaching other people just because you can. And we give back. We always give back. But I'm not going to throw you up in front of the class. Throw you to the wolves.
Andrew Adams (25:44.364)
Yup. Yup.
Andrew Adams (25:48.77)
Yeah, that's very different. That's very different from here's the key to the dojo. Go teach class tonight, you know?
Audrey Hussey (25:55.802)
Right. Like I said, when I was a green belt, the instructor of this specific class that I was taking, was a Saturday class, and I credit this gentleman with teaching me how to teach. He basically said, hey, Hussie, go teach the blue belts. And I'm like, what do I do? And he went, I don't know. And he walked away. I was like, what do you mean? But I did it. I went over there and I'm like, OK, let's do.
Andrew Adams (26:19.318)
Yeah, and that's exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah
Audrey Hussey (26:24.703)
XYZ form. And as we were doing it, I just picked out things that I wanted to, you know, them to focus on. And I'm like, this isn't that hard. This isn't that hard at all. But that's me. If I had stuck with, you know, 25 year old who has, you know, stage fright or severe anxiety, and I put her in front of these kids, she wouldn't have been able to do that. And maybe she doesn't want to.
Andrew Adams (26:36.056)
Hmm. Yeah.
Andrew Adams (26:49.078)
It would have been very different. Yeah.
Audrey Hussey (26:51.767)
And she's paying me to be in the school. She's paying you to be in the school. You're just now you're just using them for free help. But you know, everybody has to everybody has to run things the way they see fit. But you have to be careful not to have a school full of bad instructors.
Andrew Adams (27:00.322)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Andrew Adams (27:18.71)
Yeah,
Audrey Hussey (27:19.331)
that they could martial artists, but they might not be good at relating to people or reaching kids or whatever. And so I think they should have that choice.
Andrew Adams (27:24.13)
Yep. Yep.
Andrew Adams (27:29.548)
Yeah. And, and I, I would agree. I've had, I know of someone, a very good friend of mine who, after they tested for their black belt, they
Basically slowly stopped coming and then stopped coming completely but there was a little gradual and when I asked them about it They said, you know in my re in my real work in outside of the school Like I'm in charge of my business like not she was not in charge of the whole thing but she was HR director and had to be in charge a lot and You know husband had some medical issues going on and she had to be in charge of the household because of that and she's like
when I come to the dojo, I don't wanna be in charge. I'm in charge in every other aspect of my life. And this is the one chance where I get to just come and do something for myself. it's not that I don't wanna teach and give back. She's like, recognize that as being an important part of giving back to martial arts, but I just wanna do this for me and not have to be in charge. And I totally get it. I totally get it.
Audrey Hussey (28:15.618)
I know.
Audrey Hussey (28:40.121)
You can help without having to be an instructor. I mean, and here's a little phenomenon I noticed as I, know, once I opened my school and it was like, you a lot of schools make you teach, they don't pay you. And I'm not even sure that's legal, but they pay you, they don't pay you. And then other schools have paid staff. so, you know,
Andrew Adams (28:43.085)
Yeah, yeah.
Audrey Hussey (29:06.883)
When you're something for free, you can't expect the best quality. But when you're paying for it, you can then say, this is what I expect from you, and this is how you have to perform. The kid who teaches with me, I don't charge him to do class. Like, that's a trade-off. And he helps me, and he helps me. So, you know, I can't pay him. I'm not big enough, but...
Andrew Adams (29:14.476)
Yep, exactly.
Andrew Adams (29:23.086)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, exactly.
Audrey Hussey (29:32.151)
You know, there are things I can do here. You know, have a t-shirt, have a new school t-shirt or his hoodie or, know, I'll sponsor him at a tournament here and there. You know, when we went to Norway, it was immensely expensive and I couldn't pay for that. I couldn't sponsor the whole trip because it was, you know, thousands of dollars. But, you know, I, I, I sponsored his membership on the U S team or, or, you know, something.
Andrew Adams (29:36.769)
Yeah, yeah,
Andrew Adams (29:57.241)
Sure. Yeah, yeah, you do stuff for me. I get it.
Audrey Hussey (30:00.268)
I do, you know, enough that I, you know, my hope is that he finds it worth coming. And when he teaches, I don't get in the way. I'm here, go, floor is yours. Do whatever you think they need. And so that he's been able to put his mark on it. The kids love him. They love him. He's younger, you know, he's 20, 21 years old and they love working with him. It's not that they don't love working with me, I hope, but...
Andrew Adams (30:28.76)
Yeah, it's just different. It's different. Yeah.
Audrey Hussey (30:29.721)
We're different, we're very different. know, and he's, you know, I'm not, I'm not so big on rank as I used to be. Like I said, I, you know, I worried that people wouldn't take me seriously if I wasn't a master belt, blah, blah, blah. And again, I'm just learning three new forms. That's it. mean, I was, go ahead.
Andrew Adams (30:48.544)
Yeah, yeah. Now, speaking of the learning new form, so you posted, I saw a couple days ago, you posted a picture of you holding a sword and the comment was, now we get to learn the fun stuff or the good stuff or whatever. Like, what is it that you're working on now that really excites you?
Audrey Hussey (31:04.055)
getting to it. So after after, you know, I did the the World Games, I came back and I was like, okay, because it was time to re up as a US team member. And, you know, I'll be 60 this year. And I'm like, it was a it was a grueling process. And physically, I was up for it. I'm fine. But the time constraints on that while I'm trying to go to my school were were pretty immense.
So I thought, well, you know, something else will come up. Maybe I'll, you know, I started focusing more on weapons with my students and, I got to refocus something. I need something fun to do. So I saw the sword yoga. It's becoming very popular and I'm like, hey, you know, I've taken sword. I've learned some, not a lot. I think it took about a year of sword, but.
also been doing weapons for years, bow and chucks and whatever, sword, sticks. I'm not an expert in any way, shape or form. I mean, can go to a tournament with a bow or a chucks and do fairly well. But the sword, it's a kung fu sword using some kung fu methods mixed with yoga.
And so I grabbed a friend of mine who's a yogi and I said, hey, you want to do this? And she's like, yeah. So I bought into this system. It's like a year membership and they just teach you yoga flows using the sword. And I'm like, how bad ass is that? You know, how many women would love to be able to, you know, use a weapon?
Andrew Adams (32:45.048)
Wow.
Audrey Hussey (32:53.111)
I mean, obviously I'm not going to go get in a sword fight, especially with my kung fu sword that's like floppy. But it's a lot of fun and it is an incredible workout. you know, I mean, how many, you know, if you stand there for 10 minutes with your arm over your head, you're going to feel it. It helps with mobility.
Andrew Adams (33:07.726)
That's great.
Audrey Hussey (33:19.641)
Like I said, flexibility, strength, you know, all the good things about yoga, but you get to use a sword. So I put that up there. I'm like, hey, I'm doing this if anybody wants to join me. Last week, one of my, do a fitness kickboxing class that is basically lifting and then, you know, pad work, bag work. It's kind of karate for people who don't want to do karate, but they want to get in shape.
Andrew Adams (33:29.528)
That's really cool.
Audrey Hussey (33:46.878)
one of those girls who is also a dancer and I said, hey, you want to mess around with this with me? And she's like, yeah, because nobody says no. So I got to do some with her and then I got to do some with my girlfriend who's a yogi. And it is an amazing thing. So I'm going to focus on this for a while and then I'm going to open it up to anybody who wants to come in and do it with me. FUNZIES. mean, for me, you know,
Andrew Adams (34:10.094)
Yeah, that's a great idea. That's really cool.
Audrey Hussey (34:15.865)
I reached master bell, I'm running my school, my school is doing well. I'm having an impact on these kids' lives, which is what I've set out to do. I wanna empower these kids, not just to be martial artists, but to be decent humans, to be able to function in this ugly world and stand up for themselves and not be...
you know, constantly having to, you know, run home and say, you know, so-and-so was mean to me. I want to give them the tools verbally and physically. But now I want to, you know, I want to help women learn how to defend themselves, learn how to be more vocal, learn how to be more confident. That's why I started the fitness kickboxing class. And so this sword yoga, there's a brand name. I'm not mentioning it because I don't wish to profit off of their name.
Andrew Adams (35:09.388)
No, that's fair. I get it.
Audrey Hussey (35:11.065)
There may be some copyright things too, but it's a genius concept.
Andrew Adams (35:14.378)
Well, here's it is and it's way less messy than goat yoga.
Audrey Hussey (35:21.913)
I've done goat yoga. I had a girlfriend who had like 30 goats and she would open up her barn and my gosh, it was.
Andrew Adams (35:30.914)
I mean, it looks like a lot of fun or puppy yoga or what, you know, swords don't, guys, people listening, swords don't poop.
Audrey Hussey (35:40.73)
They don't poop on you. So I've raised goats and baby goats have very sharp little hooves. So when they step on you, it's like, you know, you use real small ones, they, you know, they don't, they're not potty trained. So yeah, they will pee wherever they are. But I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna keep going with the sword yoga. I've been hitting goals of mine.
Andrew Adams (35:58.989)
Yep, that's funny.
Audrey Hussey (36:08.087)
left and right and I'm really happy about where I am. I don't claim to be a great martial artist. I can function in the martial arts world. I can hold my own. My goal is, kind of like Jeremy is the goodwill ambassador to martial arts, I wanna let people know that you need to get in shape.
Andrew Adams (36:30.84)
Mm-hmm.
Audrey Hussey (36:37.941)
It doesn't matter how you do it, but you need to get stronger as you get older. mean, know, menopause sets in and all of a sudden you're at risk for 15 different things. Menopause sets in and you're at risk for 15 different things. And if you're not strong, you're going to suffer. And it's not a, it's not a fat, skinny thing. It's not a, you know, it's not a, you do a full split? Cause they certainly can't. But you know, if somebody
If somebody attacks me tomorrow and I can't outlast them or I can't fight for 30 seconds, I'm in trouble. I don't want to end up in the hospital because I fell. So that's where I am in my life. It's like a two-tiered thing. But yeah, this focus is just going to be just for funsies.
I'm not gonna start a craze. Somebody already did that and I think it was genius. But around here, and I live in a very small rural area in New England and it's hard to get people to get up and move. And it makes me kind of sad. And anybody can do karate, anybody can do yoga, anybody can walk, anybody can...
Just do something. Get up, sit down, get up, sit down. Get up, down, do something. You know, anyway, punch your pillows. I don't care. Just get up and move.
Andrew Adams (38:10.478)
you
Andrew Adams (38:16.45)
Yeah, you know, I've said this before that.
martial arts will benefit everyone in the world. You Whistlekick, we genuinely believe that if everyone in the world trained martial arts for six months, the world would be a better place, right? We feel like martial arts should be accessible to everyone. karate and some of the martial arts like karate, like taekwondo or tangshudo or other stuff, is an art that you can do at six years old. You can do it 16.
Audrey Hussey (38:30.007)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Adams (38:51.82)
You can do it 60. You can do karate at 106 years old, right? Now, the karate you do at 60 might look different than the karate you did at six, but it's one of the few things you can do throughout your entire life. It doesn't matter how old you are. And honestly, it doesn't matter how in or out of shape you are. You can do martial arts at any stage in your life.
Audrey Hussey (38:56.301)
Yes, you can.
Audrey Hussey (39:09.753)
Mm-hmm.
Audrey Hussey (39:18.317)
I mean, if they can do chair yoga, they can do, and look at all of the special needs martial artists. They're sitting in wheelchairs. There's people out there who have cerebral palsy who are doing it. There's autistic kids doing it. And you know, they're struggling more maybe, but they're still doing it. So there's no excuse.
Andrew Adams (39:40.469)
Exactly.
Audrey Hussey (39:44.266)
And honestly, I'm looking for the day when the public school system finally opens up their eyes, like the ones in Japan or wherever, and start teaching it in grade school. They don't have to fight, but they should be teaching it in grade school. It's a linear thinking method, much like learning math or music or that skills build on top of skills.
Andrew Adams (39:56.591)
Hmm. Hmm. Yep.
Audrey Hussey (40:13.437)
and it creates neural pathways faster than any other sport if you think about it. So you're getting the benefit of a sport, physical activity, and linear thinking skills. There's geometry involved. There's body mechanics. My students...
Andrew Adams (40:33.262)
Mm-hmm.
Audrey Hussey (40:35.061)
learned the muscles that we're working when we're doing things. Well, why are we doing push-ups? Well, what muscles are we working? And they're like, shoulders. And I'm like, then you're probably doing them wrong. So let's refocus what we're doing. And that gives me feedback. you're working your pectoral muscles. Well, what do we use those for? And they're like, punching. And I'm like, yes.
Andrew Adams (40:45.038)
Mm.
Audrey Hussey (40:58.489)
And then like, remember the word pectoral muscles and, know, when we're kicking what, you know, what muscles are we using on a sidekick? Our leg muscles, no, you're using your hip flexors. So they're learning anatomy while we're doing it. And we're building and building, you know, again, neural pathways. And so, you know, in just having a little mat chat on morals and character and honesty and perseverance and self-control, whatever they are learning.
Andrew Adams (41:21.966)
Hmm.
Audrey Hussey (41:28.523)
So I don't, you know, there's no downside, but if they don't start teaching these things, I think in public schools, it's just going to get worse and worse because they don't, the bullying is unbelievable. And it's worse now than ever because of online social media. And if we had a nation of confident six-year-olds who were, you know, situationally aware,
Andrew Adams (41:34.339)
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (41:49.228)
Mm-hmm.
Audrey Hussey (41:57.817)
maybe a lot of this stuff wouldn't be happening.
Andrew Adams (42:00.717)
Yeah, and we did an episode on that exact topic, that exact topic, Booloola, bullying and how bad it's gotten. yeah, again, I'll say it again. The world would be a better place if everyone in the world trained martial arts for six months. It really would be. Audrey, thank you so much for coming. This was a lot of fun. Yeah. my gosh. Yeah, mean, if I don't cut us off now, we will keep going for sure.
Audrey Hussey (42:07.545)
Believe.
Audrey Hussey (42:18.315)
Amen. Amen.
Audrey Hussey (42:23.577)
I can talk for three hours. You can't shut up. I'll come back anytime. I'll, you know, these podcasts and I've done a couple of other ones that were a lot of fun. And maybe there's something in some, you know, some part of what we say that will trip somebody's mind to maybe take that step. Who knows?
Andrew Adams (42:50.392)
Hmm Yeah, yep. Well listeners or viewers because you could be watching us on YouTube right now If you are there, please hit that like and subscribe button hit that that notification bell all of that stuff really helps our algorithm If you want to help the show one of the best ways you can do is to tell a friend tell someone about this episode or maybe another episode go through
our back catalog of 1102 other episodes and find one that maybe resonates with a friend and tell them about it. Help us spread the word of Whistlekick and all that we do to help traditional martial artists in the world. Whistlekickmarshallartsradio.com is where you can go for this podcast and all of our other episodes. You can obviously also find us on Spotify and all your podcast catchers. And then Whistlekick.com is where you can go to find out about
all of the things that we do. I mentioned earlier in the episode, our martial art teacher training certification course. You can find that at wislokate.com, training programs, all of the events that we do throughout the country. We'd love to see you at any or all of them. Please come to all of them. That would be amazing.
Audrey Hussey (43:58.777)
I have to give a shout out for your free training weekends. Those are amazing. I would love to come back this year. I didn't get to do it this past year because of Norway, but yes, I'm in.
Andrew Adams (44:04.354)
Thank you.
Andrew Adams (44:12.302)
You will, you're going to come back this year. We're going to make it happen. We're going to make it happen. So, uh, she's mentioning, she's referencing the one we do in New England, uh, in New England, uh, it happens in November. Uh, we, we no longer call it free training day. We call it Marshall summit because it's four days long. It's no longer one day. It's like four days. Uh, but there's also a free training day down in Philadelphia, free training day Midwest. There's a free training day, uh,
Audrey Hussey (44:28.451)
Thanks.
Andrew Adams (44:41.452)
Midwest out in Kansas, there's free training in mid Atlantic down in Philadelphia and there's another free training day coming further south, but you're just going to have to wait and find out when and where the first time it's being mentioned publicly.
Audrey Hussey (44:57.315)
Wait, wait, wait. I need you to say one million dollars.
Andrew Adams (45:00.75)
million dollars So anyway, Audrey, thank you so much for being here and I can't wait to see you in person soon
Audrey Hussey (45:07.843)
Welcome.
Audrey Hussey (45:12.256)
All right, thank you so much. Take care.