Episode 1104 - Reggie Darden
In this episode Jeremy chats with Reggie Darden, a Kempo practitioner and host of the My Empty Hands Podcast. They discuss cross training, the importance of doing, and the martial arts community.
Reggie Darden - Episode 1104
SUMMARY
In this engaging conversation, Reggie Darden shares his journey into martial arts, discussing his early influences, the impact of iconic figures like Bruce Lee, and his experiences with Kempo training. The discussion also touches on the technical aspects of podcasting and the challenges faced in balancing technology with content creation. In this conversation, Reggie Darden shares his unique journey through martial arts, starting from his childhood fascination with karate to his experiences in the military and his exploration of various martial arts styles, including Capoeira. He discusses the challenges and joys of cross-training in multiple disciplines, the sense of community within martial arts, and his motivation to start a podcast to share stories and insights from the martial arts world. He also discusses the joys of storytelling through podcasting, the impact of martial arts on personal growth, and the importance of community. The conversation also touches on the evolution of Reggie's podcast, 'My Empty Hands,' and the significance of embracing fear to pursue new opportunities.
TAKEAWAYS
Reggie has been interested in martial arts since childhood.
He started formal training in the early 90s.
Influenced by martial arts films, especially The Perfect Weapon.
Bruce Lee's impact on martial arts is undeniable, but he feels he's overrated.
The Perfect Weapon inspired Reggie to pursue Kempo.
Reggie's father had concerns about martial arts being dangerous.
Reggie enjoys the technical side of podcasting.
Reggie watched martial arts classes for nearly a year before training.
Reggie trained intensely once he officially started karate.
He joined the army and sought martial arts training on base.
Capoeira classes offer a unique and energetic experience.
The martial arts community fosters instant connections among practitioners.
Cross-training can blur the lines between different martial arts styles.
Podcasting about martial arts was inspired by other shows.
Reggie enjoys sharing stories from various martial artists.
Inspiration can come from unexpected places.
Embrace fear as a motivator for action.
Life is too short to hesitate on your passions.
Start today instead of waiting for the perfect moment.
Community support is vital in martial arts and beyond.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
02:59 The Impact of Bruce Lee
06:05 The Perfect Weapon and Its Significance
08:52 Kempo and Early Training
10:01 Overcoming Parental Concerns
15:00 The Role of Technology in Podcasting
29:02 The Unofficial Student: A Year of Watching Martial Arts Classes
24:05 The Transition to Official Training: A New Journey Begins
27:10 Military Service and Martial Arts: A Fork in the Road
30:37 Exploring New Martial Arts: The Capoeira Connection
34:07 The Community of Capoeira: Instant Connections
39:25 Cross-Training in Martial Arts: The Blurred Lines
41:40 Starting a Podcast: The Journey Begins
48:46 The Joy of Storytelling
50:00 Impact Over Numbers
55:54 The Evolution of My Empty Hands
57:05 Lightning Round Fun
59:03 Embracing Fear and Taking Action
01:01:03 The Importance of Community in Martial Arts
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Show Transcript
Jeremy Lesniak (07:55.26)
Hey, what's going on everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Whistlekick martial arts radio. And on today's show, I'm joined by Reggie Darden. Reggie, thanks for being here. Looking forward to this. To the audience, thank you for being here. Thank you for spending some time listening or watching this conversation that I'm about to have with Reggie. It's gonna be great. Hasn't even happened yet, but I know it's gonna be great. And that's because we have such a open format here and that allows me to, the wonderful opportunity to talk to wonderful martial artists.
just about martial arts and hearing about them. And if that means something to you, please help us out in any way that seems to make sense. The number one thing that we want you to do, because it helps us maintain our numbers, sign up for our email list. There's a link everywhere you would find this show, sign up for the emails. And in exchange, we're going to give you bonus content that you're not going to find anywhere else. So you can do that. And if you manage to not find it, whistlekickmarshallartsradio.com, there's a place to sign up up in the navigation there.
And with that, Reggie, welcome to Marshall Arts Radio. Thanks for being here.
Reggie Darden (08:59.315)
thank you so much for having me. It's fun to be a guest. I don't usually get to be on this side of it. So this is fun. I'm looking forward to this.
Jeremy Lesniak (09:08.092)
Yeah.
Yeah, I say the same thing whenever I'm a guest on somebody's show. It's kind of weird, right? It's like vacation. You're just like, wait, I don't have to check any levels. I'm just here hanging out.
Reggie Darden (09:22.671)
Oh yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. technical part of it is nobody warns you about all the little technical things that you do when you're the podcast thing. So yeah, it's been a fun experience trying to learn about all of that stuff.
Jeremy Lesniak (09:44.082)
Yeah, yeah. And there's no upper limit to how far you can chase it down. There's an infinite amount of technology. I've got this camera here that theoretically is a 4K camera, but I don't have the gear to run it in 4K and capture everything that I need to. So we just, I think we're at 720, yeah.
Reggie Darden (10:08.675)
Yeah, the podcast gear rat hole is, it's very, very powerful, very, very powerful one. Very akin to purchasing geese if you're into Brazilian jiu jitsu. I've managed to stave off that addiction to support my podcast equipment habits.
Jeremy Lesniak (10:17.138)
You
Jeremy Lesniak (10:23.196)
Yeah
Jeremy Lesniak (10:32.05)
There you go. There you go. Yeah, it's always, you know, it's the sign of a true nerd. Most people would say, oh man, I have this new piece of equipment. I have to completely reconfigure everything and how it's set up. But a nerd like myself, and I suspect like you, says, oh man, I have this new piece of equipment. I have to reconfigure everything. And it's kind of fun.
Reggie Darden (10:57.423)
Yeah, yeah, yeah it is except for when you get those gear get the gear right before you're about to record with someone it's like I haven't figured all this stuff out yet and I've had to reschedule a few a few guests because of some some new gear that I got in the last month or so
Jeremy Lesniak (11:14.479)
and
Jeremy Lesniak (11:18.482)
bummer. Well, I know we're going to end up talking about your podcasting, but I want to talk about your martial arts first, because my gut tells me that the martial arts led to the podcasting, right? You weren't a podcaster first. I'm pretty confident in that. But I think we'll have more context for why and what and how with the podcast if we we go there. So we've established you're you're a podcaster, you're a nerd. Hopefully you don't think I'm.
pooping on you with that because self described as well. Okay. Okay. And you did say there were servers. You said there were servers next to you before we started the show. So
Reggie Darden (11:50.273)
no, I wear it as a badge of honor, pocket protector of honor. yeah, there is a rack of computer servers right about, I don't know, two feet from me. So yeah. yeah, it gets warm in here.
Jeremy Lesniak (12:05.936)
Okay, all right. So that's a nice toasty warm room. Well, let's rewind tape. go back to, know, what's early Reggie's interest in martial arts look like?
Reggie Darden (12:20.323)
Well, just like I'm sure many of the listeners, viewers, I've been pretty much into the arts all my life. I grew up watching Black Belt Theater and Kung Fu Theater, all the Jackie Chan movies and Bruce Lee movies and Shaw Brother movies and all of that. So I always always had an interest in it. I didn't formally start martial arts until until the early 90s.
I guess I was around 14, 14, 15 when I found my first school. But previous to that, friends would train in Taekwondo or whatever kind of martial art of the day. And I would just kind of get whatever little nuggets from them that I could and check out books from the library.
I wish that I could remember the title because there was this one book that I would check out and for all the young whippersnappers out there that are listening. So back in the day they had the books and they had the little card catalogs and there was a little kind of sign out sheet in the front of the book and there was a little card on there and you'd write your name and the date and everything. then on this particular book it was just my name.
on the front and back of the sheet every couple of weeks, would check out the book, bring it back, check it out again. And so it was just my name. Every once in a while, you would see one other name that would be engulfed by my name before and after that. yeah, it was this little book that was just kind of a, I guess, kind of a general martial arts book. And it had like a little section that talked about
Jeremy Lesniak (13:53.276)
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (14:07.09)
You
Reggie Darden (14:16.953)
Kung Fu, a little section talking about karate and just kind of different things, had little diagrams of different poses and stuff. And I remember doing a crane pose and a tiger pose and going into a horse stance and just kind of mimic all those little things. And just would do that and supplement that with my friends' training and leaking me information.
Jeremy Lesniak (14:29.903)
right on.
Reggie Darden (14:42.895)
And then came the glorious day when I saw this little film that no one's ever seen or heard of called The Perfect Weapon starring Jeff Spiekman. And... Oh yeah, go ahead.
Jeremy Lesniak (14:51.698)
I was wondering which one you were gonna, which one it was gonna be. That's, that you, I would have put money down as you were building that sentence that it was going to end with a Bruce Lee movie. Usually that's the buildup people give to some manner of Bruce Lee film. Maybe the Karate Kid. I don't know that anybody's ever finished the sentence for me with the perfect weapon. So what was,
Tell me about that. What was it like watching that for the first time?
Reggie Darden (15:27.087)
Pretty wild. Just kind of going back a little bit though with the kind of Bruce Lee thing. Don't get me wrong. I love Bruce Lee and hopefully the Bruce Lee curse is not real. But I had a conversation with Paul Coffee and as we were recording, everything was fine until I started.
Jeremy Lesniak (15:30.79)
Mm.
Jeremy Lesniak (15:48.422)
Yeah. Great guy.
Reggie Darden (15:54.201)
bringing up Bruce Lee and then we started having all kinds of technical issues and the connection would drop and things like that because I said that I think Bruce Lee is a little bit overrated. Don't get me wrong, his influence on the martial arts is undeniable. There are very few people I think in history that have had a bigger effect on martial arts than Bruce Lee.
Jeremy Lesniak (15:55.922)
You
Jeremy Lesniak (16:01.918)
no!
Jeremy Lesniak (16:06.893)
Jeremy Lesniak (16:10.823)
Well.
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (16:23.408)
Mm-hmm.
Reggie Darden (16:24.259)
But as far as his movies, I mean, I love his movies and I'd watch them all the time, but they didn't really inspire me to train.
Jeremy Lesniak (16:32.53)
Well, we need to go back because otherwise everyone's going to read their own thoughts into what you mean by a little overrated. And I suspect I know what you mean. And it's a little bit more honest and generally accepted than people might think from that sentence. So when you say you think Bruce Lee is a little overrated, what do mean?
Reggie Darden (17:02.009)
Well, I would say there's something that I'm going to kind of... Tom Bleeker, he's a very famous martial artist in the Kempo world. And I guess in general, he's wrote a number of books and such like that. he posted a meme one time about Bruce Lee and it was a picture and it was like, it said something along the lines of...
Most of the things that you credit me for, I never said. And that kind of got me thinking in that when Bruce Lee was coming up and getting famous, he spent a lot of time with Ed Parker and Ed Parker, father of American Kempo. And around that time, a lot of the kind of the things that Bruce Lee was promoting about
Jeremy Lesniak (17:35.728)
Yes, I've seen that one.
Reggie Darden (18:01.207)
having kind of your own system in your own way and these kind of things. A lot of these kind of principles and concepts and things that he was talking about were a lot of the same kind of things that Ed Parker was promoting and not trying to say that he stole or anything like that. There was definitely cross pollination there. But I think a lot of those kind of ideas maybe
sprouted from other people more so than Bruce Lee came up with them himself. Not to say that he didn't come up with things, not to say that he wasn't an amazing martial artist, anything like that. But I think people put a little bit more on to him and what he did, what he said, more so than maybe he actually did.
Jeremy Lesniak (18:56.818)
I think, and I'm glad we're having this chat because this is the first time I've been able to articulate it in this way. I'm curious what you think. Bruce Lee seems to be the only martial artist ever in the history of time where the general population of martial artists defaults to giving him the credit and agreeing with him versus everyone else where it's inherently skeptical.
Reggie Darden (19:25.103)
Exactly, exactly.
Jeremy Lesniak (19:26.94)
Bruce Lee is undeniably the most, here we are five decades after his death, still the most popular martial artist in the world.
You can't deny the impact.
But because he's the only one that people are inherently trusting of and hold up almost in a religious sense, it makes it hard to advance his ideas, which is completely counter to what from the limited amount I've read of his work he wanted. I want you to take this and make it better. But this is what Bruce said and did and wrote. So it's gospel.
And in that way, I absolutely agree there he's overrated because if we're going to apply some discerning standard to people, it should be applied equally.
Reggie Darden (20:29.793)
Exactly, exactly, exactly. So, so yeah, I've loved his movies and everything, but I would say as far as having an impact on making me want to train less, less so when you compare it to, I mean, of course, movies like The Last Dragon and and lot of Jackie Chan movies.
Jeremy Lesniak (20:48.53)
No.
Jeremy Lesniak (20:53.414)
What was your first Jackie Chan? Do you remember? Mine was Rumble in the Bronx.
Reggie Darden (20:56.17)
gosh.
Reggie Darden (21:00.851)
gotcha, gotcha. I guess I would probably say maybe something like Fearless Hyena was probably one of the earlier ones. Young Master was another one of the earlier ones. Yeah, that's a question. I'll have to kind of look back and see which ones did that.
Jeremy Lesniak (21:11.664)
Hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (21:17.627)
Okay.
Jeremy Lesniak (21:29.734)
What's interesting is that most people remember their first Bruce Lee movie and it's generally their favorite Bruce Lee movie.
Reggie Darden (21:36.559)
My moves return of the dragon versus enter the dragon. Yeah. Yeah. And well, that was his movie that I liked more than others just because it had more of those kind of philosophies and things that we were talking about that.
Jeremy Lesniak (21:38.172)
See, see, no hesitation there. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (21:55.452)
So your first Bruce Lee movie is your favorite.
Reggie Darden (21:59.043)
Yeah, yeah, I would say so.
Jeremy Lesniak (21:59.634)
I think we've only had one person who broke this theory. It's been dozens. Okay, so Bruce Lee, Jeff Speakman, and we...
Reggie Darden (22:03.503)
I'm
Jeremy Lesniak (22:15.026)
Can ask how old you were when you watched that? Because I think that's important. Perfect weapon. Ballpark. Yeah.
Reggie Darden (22:18.511)
Oh gosh. Oh, perfect weapon. It had to have had to have been around 1314 somewhere somewhere around there.
Jeremy Lesniak (22:26.198)
Okay, okay. So if you're like most 13, 14 year old boys when you're watching a movie like that, you're probably not sitting very much. You're probably standing. You're probably jumping around. You're probably kicking at least part of the time. Is that you? Do I have that right?
Reggie Darden (22:41.487)
not after, after the first, after the, on the repeat viewings. Yes. Yeah. You have to get up there and do the first viewing and just taking it all in. And me and my best friend at the time where we were just taking this in because the perfect weapon was just, it was, it was so, it was, there was something different about the way that Jeff Speakman moved and his movements and stuff. I mean, in
Jeremy Lesniak (22:47.282)
Okay, okay.
Jeremy Lesniak (23:04.634)
Hmm.
Reggie Darden (23:10.319)
You're watching martial arts movies and you're seeing them do the flying kicks and things like that. And that looks great, but there's, think there's a little bit of a disconnect in that, like I can't really, I can't do that flying kick. I can't do whatever kind of movement, but in the perfect weapon, the movements were much more grounded and much more for the ass kickery versus just kind of the flashy like.
that it felt a little less choreographed. The choreography felt a little bit more real than a lot of the other kind of martial art movies at the time. So when we're seeing this, it's just like, okay, like this is like, can get behind this. This might be something that we can get into. So after seeing that, we pulled out, sorry, young people, we pulled out the yellow pages and looked for a
Jeremy Lesniak (23:42.983)
Hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (23:46.661)
Yeah, I would agree.
Reggie Darden (24:08.323)
Well, my friend was like, like, this is so cool. Like, what, what is that? And I remember seeing in the beginning of the movie, there's, there was a sign, master Lowe's Kempo karate. And I was like, I think that thing is called Kempo. So, so we, we looked, looked for a Kempo school and, and found one and, just got, got right in. Now my friend actually signed up first. I, I was not allowed to, to start training formally. So.
I have no verification of this. I can't prove it, but my father told me that he used to be a bodyguard for Muhammad Ali. And at the time, in 60s, 70s, as martial arts were gaining popularity in America, he said that a lot of the other guys would talk about, well, I'm doing this karate thing and I can punch a guy in the chest and pull his heart out and show it to him before he dies.
Jeremy Lesniak (24:38.45)
Why not?
Reggie Darden (25:08.143)
I can punch a guy in this spot and he'll die in two days and that kind of crazy thing. So he had this idea that karate was all about killing. And so he would never let a young me get involved in that sort of thing. so it took about 14, 15 years of asking him to wear him down to.
Jeremy Lesniak (25:12.814)
Yeah.
Reggie Darden (25:35.129)
where he finally allowed me to start training. Yes, yeah, no, because well, when my friends started, I was there every single day from before they opened till after they closed. I sat there, that was my thing. After I got out of school, I would go run down to the studio and sit there in the parents area and just.
Jeremy Lesniak (25:38.891)
And when you did, did you go to that Kempo school? OK.
Reggie Darden (26:02.359)
Watch every each and every class every single day.
Jeremy Lesniak (26:05.618)
Okay, hold on. So here you are. You're 13, 14. You've asked to do martial arts. You were told no. Your friend's doing martial arts. And your response is to show up anyway and watch all of the classes? How long did that go on for?
Reggie Darden (26:22.416)
yeah, yeah.
I want to say probably at the low end, six months, but it probably could have been closer to a year.
Jeremy Lesniak (26:34.62)
Holy cow. That is... I don't know many people, let alone kids, that would keep showing up like that. That's crazy. And I've got to imagine the instructors...
Reggie Darden (26:47.279)
I love the shag carpet and the smell of the feet. Oh, you knew a karate studio was down the street. Just as soon as you get onto that block and you're like, there's a karate school nearby because I can smell the shag carpet and the feet.
Jeremy Lesniak (26:52.184)
The smell of the feet. There we go. That's going to be a clip from this episode.
Jeremy Lesniak (27:01.458)
I'm
yes. Did the instructor notice that you were hanging out? They must have.
Reggie Darden (27:11.109)
yeah. Yeah. I mean, I got in good with with all all the all the regulars there and and when they would have class outings and things like that, I would I would go with them. mean, I was I was part of the group. I just didn't officially. Yeah, I didn't quote unquote train with with everybody. But my friend, he would he would sneak sneak me information when we weren't at class. He would
Jeremy Lesniak (27:27.024)
You are an unofficial member of the school.
Okay.
Reggie Darden (27:39.383)
teach me a few things and stuff. So yeah, I was just part of the group. Although I didn't officially, I wasn't officially part for, I don't know, guess six months or a year or so.
Jeremy Lesniak (27:49.17)
And ultimately dad relented. What caused that?
Reggie Darden (27:55.191)
I think he just got sick of me asking. I have I have three older brothers and and everybody in my family is all very sports oriented. They all did football and track and basketball and baseball and even bowling. My family, they were like on the verge of like being professional bowlers. They were so good. So but I did not get that gene.
Jeremy Lesniak (27:58.245)
you
Jeremy Lesniak (28:03.516)
Hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (28:19.42)
Wow.
Reggie Darden (28:23.529)
any kind of sports, kind of a spherical object. I could not could not handle that. I was not just not gifted athletically at all. But because I've I've always been a big guy, my father did want me to get involved in football, especially in my kind of junior high high school days. But I
was not about that life because once again, don't have the sports jeans. And then two of my brothers dislocated their shoulders, broke their shoulders. And I'm not about the having broken bones and dislocated things. So I avoided that kind of stuff like the plague. But so since my father couldn't get me into into football, I guess finally when I came along and said, hey, I want to do this karate thing.
Jeremy Lesniak (29:00.711)
Mm.
Reggie Darden (29:21.109)
I guess I kind of figured out, it is something athletic. So I guess I'll just go ahead and do it. And so I was very, very thankful to start the training. yeah, I was just as I was before I signed up. was there every day after school, after work there and would train until we closed.
Jeremy Lesniak (29:42.51)
So I've got to wonder what that was like. The best metaphor I can come up with, if you imagine like a car on a drag race track where they're standing on the brakes and they're spinning the tires, warming them up, and you're doing that for a year and then dad lets off the brakes, it... I mean, do you take off or what happens?
Reggie Darden (30:05.475)
I mean, it's just I couldn't get enough. was just there all the time. Yeah. When before they open, I was I would stand there and I would be waiting at the door for for the teacher to come up and he would unlock the building. Come in and just start working things and work techniques and kicks and all kinds of different things before actual class and before my private lessons and things like that. And then
Jeremy Lesniak (30:10.258)
still there all the time.
Reggie Darden (30:36.611)
Well, the school that I started at, followed, so there's different kind of versions of Kempo and I guess kind of one of the more well-known branches is that of the Tracy Brothers, Alan Jim Tracy, and they really kind of pioneered the idea of
Jeremy Lesniak (30:54.194)
Mm-hmm.
Reggie Darden (31:03.417)
teaching karate in private lessons versus doing group. So we did have group classes, but the primary part of my training was private lessons. it worked out in that my friend became an instructor. And so he was my instructor for most of my training there. So since we were bros and he already knew that I had
Jeremy Lesniak (31:14.61)
How interesting.
Jeremy Lesniak (31:26.91)
cool.
Reggie Darden (31:33.219)
kind of some experience with the stuff they do, he showing me before. In my private lessons, would get a lot of times we'd get one or two self-defense techniques per classes, but if I could handle him, he would give me three or four or five techniques at a time. I was just like a sponge. I would just absorb him and just keep on trucking. And I just always wanted to kind of keep going, keep going, keep going. So yeah.
as much as I could handle, I was given that and yeah, I couldn't get enough.
Jeremy Lesniak (32:10.908)
So what's the next highlight along the timeline?
Reggie Darden (32:16.399)
So I trained there until I left for the army in 96. And while I was in the army, did the army training and that sort of thing. And they have a little kind basic combat training.
Jeremy Lesniak (32:35.044)
I did not expect you to say you were going into the Armed Services based on what you said before about athletics. Talk to me about that. There's a story there.
Reggie Darden (32:38.959)
E.
Reggie Darden (32:43.415)
Yeah. Well, with my older brothers, kind of saw the evolution, or maybe not the evolution, but I was at that fork in the road and I could see with each of my brothers which path I took. My oldest brother, kind of just kind of really kind of did his own thing and just kind of went into the war.
work world and wasn't really wasn't really doing much. And then the next older brother, he did the the community college thing and, you know, it's kind of working, but it wasn't really wasn't really thriving or anything like that. And then the next brother, he he went off to UCLA and. Yeah, he was he was he was struggling there. And so I saw I was like, well, I don't
No, don't want to go in either one of those paths. And even though I swore off the military, both my parents were Navy, Navy people, and I'm not a great swimmer. So I said, I'm not getting on a boat. So if I'm going to do this military thing, then what will keep me off a boat?
Jeremy Lesniak (33:59.738)
You're a child of two Navy parents and they let you join the army?
Reggie Darden (34:07.403)
It wasn't for lack of trying. But yeah, I just couldn't put myself on a boat. I needed to be landlocked. So army it was. So yeah, once I finally made it to my duty station, I wanted to keep, I still had the bug for training.
Jeremy Lesniak (34:09.01)
I'm sure it wasn't. Wow. Okay.
Jeremy Lesniak (34:17.574)
Okay.
Jeremy Lesniak (34:23.282)
Alright, so you go off to the army.
Reggie Darden (34:35.769)
tried to seek out some training options and there was a gentleman that was teaching on the base and he was teaching a combination of taekwondo and hapkido. So I got to do that for a little bit, but I had to, because I was in a unit that was considered a rapid deployment unit, we were always going out to the field. So I was missing a lot of classes and stuff. So I kind of stopped, I was...
paying for classes that I wasn't going to. So I had to stop that and just kind of did my own training. And then they were having trials or whatever, a set up for getting people for the Army boxing team. one of the benefits for that was that if you went to boxing training, you didn't have to do PT.
Jeremy Lesniak (35:06.577)
Hmm.
Reggie Darden (35:33.571)
And I was in a unit where all they do is run and I am a terrible runner. have flat feet. I cannot run for nothing. So anything that'll get me out of PT is the way to go. So I signed up for the boxing training and yeah, I started to do that and enjoyed that. And of course, without fail, my dog decides that she wants to play. here. I can't. Yeah, she grabs her most.
Jeremy Lesniak (35:36.338)
Hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (35:58.128)
That's what that was. I was like, what is that noise? It's a squeaky toy.
Reggie Darden (36:02.799)
Her most loud toy. Sorry about that.
Jeremy Lesniak (36:05.983)
It's okay. It's okay. We've had far worse. We'll have worse in the future. I love dogs. You're good.
Reggie Darden (36:13.263)
Yeah, I tell my wife it wouldn't be a podcast if she didn't chime in. So come come here. Bring it here. So, she she loves she loves her little squeaky snake. So especially when we're recording. So, yeah, I did I did the boxing for for a while and that kind of kept me fed until I got out of the army and.
Jeremy Lesniak (36:28.86)
Yeah.
boxing.
Reggie Darden (36:37.583)
I'm originally from San Diego, California. And when I got out the army, I moved to Texas, Dallas, Fort Worth area. So I wanted to continue my training. Of course, I wanted to go back to my original school, but couldn't do that. So I just kind of did my own thing and kind of, guess, kind of misguided and no disrespect or anything to Taekwondo. But for some reason, I felt like
there was some sort of rivalry between Kempo and Taekwondo because of that movie. And so I didn't want to get involved in a Taekwondo school. And I looked at some different styles and stuff, I just, all the various schools that I went to, I just didn't find what I was looking for. Just didn't find what kind of scratched the itch. And then on my yearly, multi-year rewatching of
Jeremy Lesniak (37:16.124)
Hmm.
Reggie Darden (37:36.793)
various movies of my youth. I was rewatching another very influential movie in my life and that was Only the Strong with Mark Dacascos. And that led me to my next martial arts love and that is of Capoeira. And so I sought out a Capoeira school and started that training.
Jeremy Lesniak (37:48.114)
Yes.
Jeremy Lesniak (37:54.108)
Hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (38:01.595)
Yeah.
You know, when I think back to watching Only in the Strong, was... There isn't even a lot of capoeira in that movie. But I came out of that thinking, man, this is the coolest thing I've ever seen. And there was... I mean, there still isn't a lot of capoeira in the US. But there was very little back then. Was it hard to find a school?
Reggie Darden (38:28.842)
I thought it was going to be, but I lucked out. So I was living in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and looking for a school and I did find one in Dallas. Unfortunately, the timing was bad because I found the school about two weeks before I moved to Reno. And so I don't know, the gods were conspiring against me or something, I'm not really sure.
When I got to Reno, Capoeira was still in my mind. So I thought, well, let me see if maybe I can find something out here. And I lucked out in finding a person that was teaching in Reno. He lived in Tahoe, in the Lake Tahoe area, but he would come up to Reno and he was teaching. I just stumbled onto it and went to a class and just...
watched the first class and I was just all right I'm I'm in love I'm signing up and
Jeremy Lesniak (39:30.706)
There's nothing like a Capoeira class. There's nothing, the energy, that energy for the audience out there, if you've never seen, mean, you can go, you can look at Capoeira. You can see what it is. You can look at the movements. But I've been to a few different Capoeira schools. And it is a martial arts experience unlike anything else.
Reggie Darden (39:34.022)
yeah, for sure.
Jeremy Lesniak (39:55.854)
I've ever seen just there's something about it and it doesn't even have to be when the music's going. There's just a different culture within capoeira that I think when they get it right is just so warm and so inviting. Would you say you'd agree?
Reggie Darden (40:13.891)
for sure. mean, there are different, lots of different groups and different schools and teachers out there and everybody has a different vibe, just the schools and the teachers that I've been exposed to, I mean, it's just an instant connection. And it's very akin to the way it is with veterans in that.
Jeremy Lesniak (40:38.705)
Hmm
Reggie Darden (40:39.511)
I can go somewhere, I can go for a Capoeira event, I can go to a different state, wherever for a Capoeira event. if I, the second that I run into another Capoeirista, when we start talking, we have this instant connection. And it's the same thing anytime I run into another army person, Navy, Marines, or anything like that, we have totally different backgrounds, but.
Jeremy Lesniak (41:01.798)
Yeah, that's interesting.
Reggie Darden (41:07.407)
right away. Oh, well, you served. We we just connect and we can just talk about that. And there's there's always that that welcoming connection. So, yeah, any time I go to an event and it's like I don't need to book a hotel room or anything like, oh, no, you just stay with me. You might have to sleep on the couch or whatever, but that's that's fine. If especially if you train at a at a big capoeira event, you're it doesn't by the time that
The activities are done for the day. You don't care where you sleep in. There have been a number of times I've gone to events and gone to people's houses and just find a corner. And I just plopped right out and I was out because I was so worn out. But yeah, so I got hot and heavy into capoeira and was doing that for years.
Jeremy Lesniak (41:53.478)
Yeah, I believe it.
Reggie Darden (42:06.895)
As I was going through the training, kind of inherited the group that I was part of and that transitioned to me teaching the group and leading the group for a long time. And I did that until I found myself moving back to the Dallas-Fort Worth area and just kind of got into, still continued with Capoeira and
Jeremy Lesniak (42:22.534)
Hurry up.
Reggie Darden (42:36.213)
As kind of the years went on, the call of Kempo got back to me and found a teacher and started getting back into that. And then just things kind of snowballed. now I'm at the point where I'm training five different arts at this point. So we've got American Kempo, Capoeira, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, and Hapkira.
Jeremy Lesniak (42:56.754)
Jeremy Lesniak (43:05.903)
Okay. How many different places do have to go for that?
Reggie Darden (43:06.126)
So I just.
Well, so with actually only actually only two so When I started at this American Kempo place unfortunately the the teacher had to close close his doors a couple of years ago and so we were just training in the in our garages and at the parks and that that sort of thing and
kind of in this transitional period, that's when I stumbled on the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu School and worked out a deal to have my Kempo instructor teach Kempo there. So I get to do the Jiu-Jitsu and the Muay Thai there and the Kempo, and then I have a different teacher for the Ape Kido.
Jeremy Lesniak (43:58.171)
cool.
Reggie Darden (44:10.905)
There's a few couple of schools here that I kind of bounce back and back and forth between. And I have some of my desire to to try and start my own group, start my own school here. And there are things that I've tried and they kind of haven't gone gone quite quite the way that I want to. So it's still something I'd like to do. But, you know, there's with everything else that I do.
It's kind of hard to get full time on that.
Jeremy Lesniak (44:41.778)
I get that. Okay. So five different arts, know, and I understand, I understand the draw. There have been times where I've...
think three was the most I was doing at one time in recent memory, maybe college was four.
Whenever somebody's training multiple things, the lines tend to get blurry.
Jeremy Lesniak (45:11.122)
Talk about that blurriness and where you see it. I would imagine some aspects of it are good and some might be challenging. talk about the blurred line.
Reggie Darden (45:25.135)
Well, I would I would definitely say that cross training in at least the way that I'm doing it is definitely not for everyone. And it is definitely not for beginners because, yeah, the lines get get crossed pretty pretty easy. I would I would say that I've definitely gotten hot water a few times with my train with my training and in my
Jeremy Lesniak (45:38.834)
Mmm
Reggie Darden (45:54.191)
Kempo teacher because I was still trying to, I still had some of my previous Kempo training that was bleeding into my current training. And then starting these other art, getting into these other arts. Yeah, there are some things, the way that we do things in Hop Keto is not the way that we do things in American Kempo. And the way that we do things in Capoeira is definitely not
the way that we do things. I I had a hard time when I started Capoeira because pretty much everything that you learn in Kempo is opposite than you learn in Capoeira. so there was, there was, and I guess I even still kind of struggle with it a little bit. Fortunately, there is kind of some, some different, there's enough differences in
in the arts, especially looking at something like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, that there isn't there isn't bleed over. But I would say one of the strengths of American Khenpo is that even though we have we have our hundred and fifty four techniques and ninety six extensions and things like that and Khenpo people get a lot of a lot of flack for, oh, we're slapping each other. We're doing these prearranged self-defense techniques. And it's like
Yes, from the outside you see it that way, but American Kempo is principles and concepts more than it is self-defense techniques or katas or whatever. so if you use the principles and concepts of American Kempo, they fit really well in other arts. One of the things, the...
manipulating the body, the height, width, depth that we teach in Kempo works very well in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. You've got somebody that's in mount and you're trying to get in a sweep or something like that. You manipulate their skeleton, manipulate their body, you get them off balance and then you can get out of that mount and things like that. so we use that all. When I started doing it,
Reggie Darden (48:21.209)
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu started thinking about it in the mindset of someone that does Kenpo and that helped my Jiu Jitsu immensely. then same thing with Hapkido, getting into these locks and stuff like that. To use those Kenpo principles and concepts, it helps so much more. So yeah, I've been able to kind of separate things enough to where I...
the bleed is much lessened and then I use the things that I learned from the different arts and it helps improve the other arts that I do. I find the cross training really, really helps and helps more than it hurts at this point.
Jeremy Lesniak (48:55.484)
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (49:10.778)
Okay, right on. And somewhere along this path, you decide that you also want to launch a podcast. I think this is where we start to talk about this now because a lot of people have wanted to start a podcast. Some of them have actually done it and almost no one gets beyond episode five. You're well beyond episode five.
What is wrong with you? And I say this as someone who's had something wrong with him for 10 years that made you say, man, I want to start and continue doing a podcast about martial arts.
Reggie Darden (49:53.84)
Yeah, that yeah, there's there's definitely something wrong with us
Jeremy Lesniak (49:55.25)
The audience, some people in the audience might have thought when I started that I was being disrespectful, but no, it is, there's a joke. There's a joke that I make that running a martial arts school is a terrible way to make a lot of money. It's a great way to make a very small amount of money. A martial arts podcast, I really podcasting in general, but a martial arts podcast.
is a wonderful way to lose a little bit of money.
Jeremy Lesniak (50:30.31)
You don't go broke doing it, but it's really hard to make money. And I've been working on that for 10 years. So you're doing it not for money. You're doing it for for something else. And I mean, no offense, but please continue.
Reggie Darden (50:44.739)
No, that's a perfect way to say it. The only thing I would change is it's a way to lose a lot of bit of money if you're someone like me. I have a lot of gear that I really don't need to do this, but that's the nerd part of it that takes over.
Jeremy Lesniak (50:56.263)
It's yes.
Jeremy Lesniak (51:06.384)
Right. It can be a hobby and there's nothing wrong with that. For most of us, martial arts is a hobby. Podcasting is, for a lot of us, a hobby. It's neither of those things to me because I try to make money at everything I do. Not that I'm always successful.
Reggie Darden (51:26.831)
Well, you you take you miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take. So, yeah, I'm right there with you on that. Yeah, no, I've I've always wanted to because because I'm a nerd, have nerdy friends and we do lots of nerdy stuff. And my friends had kind of a movie review, TV review show. And every week they get together and talk about whatever.
Jeremy Lesniak (51:30.642)
That's right. That's right.
Reggie Darden (51:56.025)
kind of show and I would pop in there from time to time. so I always had kind of an interest in doing like a podcast or something, but primarily about like, you know, pop culture and movies and things like that. And it never really kind of materialized, which I didn't really get hard into it until a few years ago. But so I always had that kind of idea in my mind.
but it wasn't until I got to listening to give a shout out to Mr. Brian Doucet in his podcast, the Everyday Martial Artist. I was just listening to every episode of his show and was really enthralled by it. I'm a very patient person, however, not so much when it comes to
Jeremy Lesniak (52:34.031)
Everyday martial artist.
Reggie Darden (52:54.009)
podcast guest. on his show, he says, well, you if you want to recommend people to be on the show and things like that, then, you know, shoot him an email. And I love all of the various guests that he has. And he's talked to many, many, many people that I've grown up watching and people that have been exposed through exposed to through my training. And so I would send him
Jeremy Lesniak (53:11.963)
Yeah.
Reggie Darden (53:22.639)
anybody that I could think of and I can't verify this, but I'm pretty sure I'm in the top three of amount of people I've recommended to him. And he's had a few of my recommendations on the show so far. But I just wanted him to hurry up and get to some of these people that I wanted to hear from.
Jeremy Lesniak (53:33.562)
Okay.
Jeremy Lesniak (53:37.264)
He's had some great guests over the years. Yeah.
That's lot of great guests.
Jeremy Lesniak (53:47.74)
Ha ha ha!
Reggie Darden (53:53.067)
just kind of on a, don't know, I guess it was probably on a Tuesday. I was like, no, maybe I'm going to, maybe I should start my own podcast and which is pretty ludicrous to me because I hate watching myself. I hate hearing myself, but, yeah, yeah. yeah. yeah. So.
Jeremy Lesniak (54:09.99)
but you've gotten so much better at it because of your chef. I can relate. How about I not edit this at all and just trim the ends and hope and not have to listen to my own voice. Publish.
Reggie Darden (54:23.855)
Yeah, no, I was I was pretty pretty kind of terrified about about doing it but I just said you know what I'm gonna try it so went on went on Amazon found found a cheap microphone and shot an email to Mr. DeCette and it's like hey I'm thinking about doing a podcast like got any tips and he said hey like give me a call and I was like what like
Jeremy Lesniak (54:29.06)
rough.
Jeremy Lesniak (54:51.651)
cool. Yeah, Brian's a guy.
Reggie Darden (54:52.747)
I'm going to talk to this show host and he's going to give me tips like what? And yeah, sure enough, he called me up and we talked for, I don't know, guess about a good hour and a half or something. And he gave me gave me some great tips. And once I got my microphone and just went ahead and well, I guess while I was waiting for for the microphone, I went on the old social media and it's like, hey, I'm going to
Jeremy Lesniak (55:07.131)
I believe it.
Reggie Darden (55:22.423)
start a podcast. Anybody want to be on the show? And I was just kind of really blown away by by the response in that I figured, OK, well, maybe I'll talk to some of my friends and stuff and my instructors and maybe they'll they'll be on and maybe I'll get lucky and one one semi well-known person will
will come on and I don't know, maybe that'll turn into something. But when I put out the call right away, first 10, 15 people that messaged me were big name people in the Kempo world. And I was like, wow, this is crazy. so yeah, I just started.
Jeremy Lesniak (56:07.794)
Cool
Reggie Darden (56:17.761)
anybody that would say yes, was like, OK, well, let's do this. And so I've had a mixture of well-known people and not so well-known people and just been enjoying it. I think that we all have stories that are worth sharing. I love hearing the stories. And so I just get out there and do it just because I love it. I I would love to have thousands of listeners.
Jeremy Lesniak (56:36.722)
Me too.
Reggie Darden (56:46.637)
as opposed to the dozens that I have now. But even if no one listens, then I'll still keep doing it just because I enjoy the stories. As long as people say yes, I'll keep doing it and try and keep from siphoning all my money into gear that I don't need. But yeah, I just enjoy it. And I've just been really blessed by
the people that have agreed to be on. think and I've been doing this a little over a year now and I've had two no's so far of everybody that I've asked.
Jeremy Lesniak (57:22.609)
Nice.
Jeremy Lesniak (57:29.426)
Yeah, and that's pretty much what we see too, is most people are willing to come on and talk. Most martial artists like talking about martial arts. And just to respond to the numbers, I think it's the same as teaching, right? There are a of martial arts instructors that they start running a school and they're tying their value to how many people are showing up. And I don't think that that's...
the right way to do it. think it's you're tying to the impact for those people. And you might have dozens of people, but what if you're connecting the right guest with the right audience member at the right time and it changes their life? Because I can't speak for what your emails have been, but you know, I get emails. The thing I am most proud of with this show from over the years is that people from one, two, three.
for
want to say it's four or five different continents have said that they got back into their training after listening or watching the show. That I can't think of anything better. That's awesome.
Reggie Darden (58:45.423)
Yeah, no, I've had had one of those actually very early on. There was somebody that I had on my show that I did have on as a guest. And actually, at this point, they will have been on twice. early on, he he was like, oh, well, I heard I heard that my first guest was a man by the name of Jamie Seabrook. And he's he's
Jeremy Lesniak (58:49.583)
So cool.
Nice.
Reggie Darden (59:14.415)
pretty big time in the Kempo world. And this guy messaged me and he was like, oh, well, I listened to the episode and I just really enjoyed it. And I've been kind of kicking around the idea of getting back into training. was training as a kid and got my junior black belt and all that stuff like that. And I've been kind of dipping my toes into training, but listening to the episode, it got me inspired to go and
really get back into it. And not only did he get back into training, but he also trains now with with Mr. Seabrook. And and he's just like, yeah, I was kind of on the fence, but just some things that I heard in this episode just push me, push me over the edge. And yeah, we're we're we're in constant contact and following each other's successes and stuff like that. And
Jeremy Lesniak (01:00:05.446)
That's awesome.
Reggie Darden (01:00:13.379)
He's gonna be testing, gosh, I'm not sure which degree. I think it's like third or fourth degree black belt coming up in a few months. So yeah, it's been exciting.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:00:26.074)
That's great. I hope you do continue because...
the more of us out here doing this, the better, right? And I've said it quite a few times on the show. If somebody finds a show that they like better than our show, I want them to, and they're only willing to consume one, go watch that show. Because ultimately, I mean, for us, we're not a podcast company, we're a martial arts company. And if it gets you training or keeps you training, then I'm happy. And so that's kind of my plug to everybody else. I hope you will go check out.
Reggie show, which is remind us of the name again.
Reggie Darden (01:01:03.945)
So it's called the My Empty Hands and you can find it on YouTube. I started off as an audio only show, but now I have dipped my toes into the wonderful world of video and I just go big or go home. I just did two live episodes the other day and yeah, it's excited for how things
Jeremy Lesniak (01:01:21.894)
That's right.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:01:25.686)
cool.
Reggie Darden (01:01:33.465)
things are going and yeah, I'm just want to just keep putting things out there and keep keep talking to people. But yeah, my empty hands dot net is the website and then my empty hands podcast is on all the various social media type type things or you can just look for for my name Reggie Darden and yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:01:40.05)
Great. Yeah. Good.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:01:54.738)
Perfect. And we'll get all that stuff linked in the show notes for folks that might be driving or something and aren't gonna write it down. Don't crash. Don't crash on account of Reggie and I. Just come on back. That's right. Right, right. Our concern for your safety is really only as an audience. No, that's not true. That's not true for either of us.
Reggie Darden (01:02:00.045)
Awesome. Yes. Yes. Please. Please don't crash because then you can't listen or watch.
Reggie Darden (01:02:12.887)
Or if you do crash, just make sure that you're okay enough while you're in your hospital bed recouping that you can, you know, subscribe and yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:02:18.38)
Just keep it on loop. Just keep watching them on loop. Push those numbers up. That's right. That's right. I love it. I love it. Yeah. Everybody go check out Red Day Show.
So where do we go? How do we wrap this?
Reggie Darden (01:02:38.425)
Gosh. Well, you know, that's actually one of the things I need to find a catchphrase or something for my show, because I'm never really sure how to end it. But on my show, I do what I call the lightning round, because I haven't thought of a better name for it yet. But I have a
Jeremy Lesniak (01:03:01.266)
Mmm.
Reggie Darden (01:03:05.369)
few questions that I ask people and that's usually how I end it.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:03:08.154)
You know what's funny? You know what's funny? Would you, you can be the first for something. So we have a lightning round that we do after the show officially wraps. And then that is often the bonus material that we will put out for episodes. Would you like to be the first person to do, and I hope I'm honoring you doing a lightning round on your show, not making it sound like I'm stealing your idea.
But if you see it as an honorific, I would love for you to be the first person to do it as part of their episode. Okay, all right. So I'm gonna move the microphone a little bit and I gotta fire this up. All right, so the way we do hours is it's 60 seconds. I've got a whole bunch of questions here and I just pick a random spot and start and I keep my phone off to the side to time it. Does that work for you? Okay.
Reggie Darden (01:03:42.413)
I'm down. Let's do it.
Reggie Darden (01:04:02.735)
out when that works.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:04:08.556)
And here we go, three, two, one. Training with music or in silence?
Reggie Darden (01:04:13.519)
Sometimes either is good. mean, when I train capoeira, obviously that's with music. Doing bag work and stuff like that is fine. then sometimes my Kenpo teacher, he would like to play Journey while we train. So I'm good either way.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:04:32.732)
What's favorite thing to hit?
Reggie Darden (01:04:36.056)
gosh, person in the face. Right, but I try and go southpaw when I can.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:04:40.384)
Left hand or right hand?
Jeremy Lesniak (01:04:47.823)
one technique you couldn't live without.
Reggie Darden (01:04:51.263)
Gosh, I don't know. I guess a good stance is.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:04:59.634)
Okay, strength or speed?
Reggie Darden (01:05:02.903)
Mmm, speed.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:05:04.828)
flexibility or balance.
Reggie Darden (01:05:07.299)
Ooh, I want to say balance, but my balance is terrible, so I will say flexibility.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:05:14.394)
Okay. that, see, the time goes so fast. It goes so fast. And to the audience, yeah, that's one of the things that we do with a lot of the episodes if the guest doesn't have to run. Because there's, mean, you know, Rajit, there's usually, you end the episode and then you chat for sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes an hour. I've had guests that we spent longer after chatting than we did on the actual episode. And that's why we don't stop the recording.
Reggie Darden (01:05:18.327)
You
Reggie Darden (01:05:39.282)
yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:05:42.702)
until they're actually, actually ready to leave. Come on camera focus. There we go. Because sometimes I get guests that say awesome stuff and I'm like we didn't record that. Come on.
Reggie Darden (01:05:53.935)
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I had a guy I've had multiple guests there. There's there's two names that stand out to me but give him a call and it's like OK I'm just just checking in. Just wanted to check in on a couple of details like two minutes. But one person we talked for three hours after that. And then the other one I think was like two and a half two and a half hours.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:06:19.226)
Yeah. wow. And you're sitting there the whole time going, man, I wish I had this recording.
Reggie Darden (01:06:24.457)
Yeah, that's one of the reasons why I have some of the gear that I have because on one of those calls I got done and I was like, my God, I had this thing sitting right here that I should have recorded that and.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:06:38.994)
And you'll probably get to a point, if you follow the path that I did, where you kind of over-correct and you're recording everything. Like I went through a couple of year period where if I had a martial arts friend in the car and we were driving anywhere more than 30 minutes, we'd record.
be like, hey, so you want to record an episode? And they're like, I thought we were going to dinner. It's like, well, yeah, but we can make an episode.
I don't do that as much anymore, yeah, losing good content.
Reggie Darden (01:07:14.703)
Yeah, I have been tempted to carry my little portable mics around with me just in case, you never know.
Jeremy Lesniak (01:07:24.614)
You never know. Well, this has been a lot of fun. And what I'm going to ask you to do as an ending point is it doesn't have to be a catchphrase, but think about what you've talked about today. Think about what you've learned in your time as a martial artist, as a podcaster, as a martial arts podcaster. And think about the things that you think people don't know.
If they were you, they would learn these things, but they're not you, so they don't know those things. You know, what should we highlight coming out of our conversation today for the audience?
Reggie Darden (01:08:03.167)
Well, I would say that one just don't be don't be afraid to do things to get outside of outside of your box. mean, I'm sorry. I'm going to throw my brother under the bus, but he's been talking about doing a podcast and for years, probably at this point, versus I said, OK, I'm going to start a podcast on Tuesday.
And I think I recorded my first episode that Saturday. So you just you just have to get out there and do it. And life's too short to. To not to not do stuff. And there's something that I heard recently from my Jiu Jitsu professor. I don't know if he came up with it or if he if it's just out in the air because I've I've heard it in a few other things recently. But he said.
about turning one day into day one. And I just, I'm so in love with that concept, that idea of especially we're still in the beginning of the year and all these people have these resolutions that I'm sure they've dropped by now. And it's all because, well, I'm gonna start this diet on Monday. I'm gonna start going to the gym on Monday. Like, there's no reason to wait until Monday. Go ahead and.
Go out to the dojo, go out to the studio, wherever. Go today. Go right now. If you're in the middle of doing something, as soon as you get done with doing whatever you're doing, go sign up for something. even if it's not even martial arts, if it's just something that scares you. So I will also go ahead and put out there that my wife is getting her first tattoo on Saturday. And she's just been telling me like,
Oh, I'm scared to do this. it's like, no, that's exactly why you should do it is if it scares you, go ahead and do it. So it either gets rid of that fear or lets you know, hey, maybe this is not the thing for me. But at least I can't go away with having that regret of not doing it. So you want to go train in five different martial arts, go and do it on a start a podcast, go and go and do it and not just sit around and say, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. Just, no, just do it.