The Athletes Podcast
The Athletes Podcast is a leading source of information, inspiration, and education for anyone interested in optimizing physical performance, maintaining good health, and living an active lifestyle. Join David Stark as he interviews some of the world's biggest athletes and fitness professionals, The Athletes Podcast provides practical advice, expert insights, and real-world strategies to help listeners achieve their health and fitness goals.The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire the next generation of athletes!
The Athletes Podcast
Why Every Kid Should Learn How to Defend Themselves - Siddhartha Bhat - Episode #259
Siddhartha Bhat, a 14-time Team Canada Taekwondo national champion, shares his journey from being a troublemaking child to becoming one of Canada's most decorated martial artists. He explores the discipline martial arts instilled in him and why he believes every child should learn some form of self-defense.
• Growing up in Toronto as a child of Indian and Sri Lankan parents shaped Siddhartha's cultural identity
• Siddhartha was placed in Taekwondo at age three because he was "disrespectful" and "obnoxious"—traditional discipline wasn't working
• Why striking martial arts (Taekwondo, Karate) are better-starting points for children than grappling arts
• How martial arts gave Bhatman confidence as a "skinny brown kid in the 90s" who faced bullying
• The unique character development that comes from individual sports versus team sports
• Coming to terms with not achieving his Olympic dreams while finding purpose in coaching
• Why today's generation is intelligent and creative but lacks resilience and toughness
• Siddhartha's Khombatmaf program combines personal training with martial arts for complete development
Follow Siddhartha Bhat on Instagram @kombhatmaf to learn more about his training programs and classes at All-Star Martial Arts in Toronto's Leslieville neighborhood!
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Even right now. Man, this is the good old days. Like I appreciate this conversation and five years down the road I'm gonna be like yo. That podcast talk, that episode that I had with David, that was crazy. Man. That was a great conversation.
Speaker 2:Hey, what's up? Welcome back to the 259th episode of the Athletes Podcast today featuring Batman. You guys heard it here first. Sid is the man I stole his shorts a few months ago. Sid is the man I stole his shorts a few months ago. He is a 14-time Team Canada Taekwondo national champ, someone who I was fortunate enough to chop it up for about 45 minutes while we were in the sauna downtown Vancouver, learned a bit more about his sporting background.
Speaker 2:Figured, hey, we got to get Sid on the show to share more about his upbringing, his background, why he believes Taekwondo, amongst martial arts, should be the sport that young kids participate in. And obviously, here at the Athletes Podcast, where our goal is to educate, entertain and inspire, we're here to bring those individuals on, have them share their stories and allow you as listeners, whether you're 16, 65, or someone who's trying to look or feel their best, whether you're trying to run a marathon, lift, deadlift 500 plus pounds, or just simply feel and be in the best shape of your life, the Athletes Podcast is here to help you do that. Batman here has helped you to do that today. Perfect Sports is also here to help you do that today. If you use the code AP15 at checkout, you get to save 15% thanks to the athletes podcast. You guys see it here. I use a scoop of collagen, two scoops of creatine nowadays because new research shows five grams might not be enough. So we're jacking it up to 10 grams and then you guys know, down below we got our diesel. One to two scoops per day. 27 grams of protein the best in the business. Again, ap 15 to save 15% at checkout. Thank you to Perfect Sports for being an amazing partner over the years. They are supporting us. You're supporting us right now by listening to the show. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you can do me a favor, hit that subscribe button and share it with someone else who you believe will benefit from this episode. It would mean the world to me and allow us to continue doing this incredible work on a weekly basis. Shout out to our producer, ryan Lott, for putting this together. Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 2:259th episode of the Athletes Podcast. Here we go. You're the most decorated racquetball player in US history, world's strongest man, from childhood passion to professional athlete, eight-time Ironman champion. So what was it like making your debut in the NHL? What is your biggest piece of advice for the next generation of athletes, from underdogs to national champions. This is the Athletes Podcast, where high-performance individuals share their triumphs, defeats and life lessons to educate, entertain and inspire the next generation of athletes. Here we go. Okay, no, I was just. Next generation of athletes. Here we go.
Speaker 1:Okay, no, I was just, uh, what I was telling him was cause he asked me initially we had to read, we had to re, uh, reschedule our podcast. And so he asked me. He was like, do you want me to send you some of the questions that I have? And I was like, oh, it'd be kind of interesting to know. But honestly, for me, when I think of a podcast, when I think about these types of things, we're having a conversation. You and me are having a conversation.
Speaker 1:Whatever it is, mike Tyson and Joe Rogan, whatever it may be, they're having conversations right. And so the beauty of a podcast hopefully from the audience listening in is you're taking value from what somebody is telling you, but you're also learning about how different people speak, how different people interact, how you might give me a question that I'm like, oh shit, I got to think about this for a sec. So then you can kind of you kind of learn about how just individual people adapt to different things, and so that's why I love. So I told them don't send me everything, because I want it to be spontaneous, I want to get caught off guard a little bit.
Speaker 1:I want to be like, oh damn, that was a great question, Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's value in being prepared, but also having some level of oh, I wasn't expecting that that is a good question. Let me dive deeper and react and reply instead of formulating a thought prior to the conversation. Exactly, exactly, yeah because sometimes things can get a little scripted these days but you know what isn't scripted batman someone's stealing your shorts for months and not even talking to you. Be like who's this? Guy that shows up at a sauna session and just steals my shorts. What the heck's going on?
Speaker 1:You know, man, it's so crazy man, it's just so funny how the universe works. But uh, yeah, you know what I mean. Like it's, it's funny, cause that that day when I, when I had I brought, I brought the extra shorts and when I met you, I just got, just got a good vibe from you. You know what I mean. I mean, we're all part of the same friend group anyways, so I knew that everybody I was going to meet that day was going to be great.
Speaker 1:But something about you, man, and then just you telling me, like I could just tell, that day I think you were kind of rushed there a little bit and so you forgot some stuff. And then you're like, fuck, I got to go to sport check and I'd be so annoyed to have to go now to SportCheck to buy something that I already have. And so I was like you know what, why not just allow this guy? Lend him my shorts? It's okay, they're clean, it is what it is. He seems like a good dude, why not? Worst case scenario I lose a pair of shorts, it's all good, that's the scenario.
Speaker 1:We build a friendship, and that's exactly what happened here, exactly.
Speaker 2:And they're not lost, they're just on the West Coast.
Speaker 1:That's it. They're waiting for you on the West Coast man.
Speaker 2:Bet, bet, bet, bet. I love it yeah yeah, yeah. No Yo. Welcome to the 258th, 59th man. I should know this every time.
Speaker 1:I'm always doing it. That's amazing, it's crazy man.
Speaker 2:It's crazy.
Speaker 1:We keep just grinding out here and having fun with it too, because the best part is you.
Speaker 2:You bring up, I was russian, I'm always rushing to stuff. Liz was like hey, I got a good group of people that are like-minded individuals. Come down to vancouver, come sauna, chill, hang out, have some cool conversations. My bet I'll see you there. I'll be, you know five minutes late and hooked up with some shorts, and then you end up talking with 14 time team. Can Canada Taekwondo champion?
Speaker 1:you know, no big deal. It was a good time, man. It was a good time.
Speaker 2:But now you're back in Toronto, which is kind of ironic given the fact that you spent three years in Vancouver. You and I kind of switched spots. I spent some years over in Ontario, brock University, st Catharines, with spots. I spent some years over in ontario, brock university, saint catherine's um. Now that you're back in toronto, I, uh, we obviously get you on the podcast now virtually, because it's so much better than in person. But at least this way we get to talk about how cool toronto is right now, heading into summer months. I'll be out there in a month. I'm gonna spend a day there before I go to the pwhl draft in ottawa, tell me what it's like being back in Toronto before we get into your career as an athlete.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, absolutely. I mean, it's great man, it's great to be back home. I say this all the time. I've traveled a lot. Obviously, martial arts has taken me all over the world and I'm very grateful for that. But the beauty of that is, every time I would come back to Toronto I'd just be like man, this is still home. Like I go to Kazakhstan, I'll go to Korea, I go to China, I go to Guatemala, it doesn't matter where I go. When I come back home, I'm like this is home, this is what I love.
Speaker 1:And so when I went to Vancouver, I went there initially during COVID, for a job opportunity, when everything was kind of shut down, the world was all over the place and I fell in love with Vancouver. I didn't think I was going to, but I fell in love with Vancouver, and obviously it's very easy to fall in love with Vancouver. But a part of me was still missing something, was still missing something. And so and that's one of the reasons why I moved back here was just, I, just Toronto's my frequency man, it's who I am, it's what bred me, it's my culture, and so it's nice to be back home, and it's not to say that I don't want to be back on the West Coast.
Speaker 1:I'd like to be back out in the West Coast at some point because, as much as I love the East Coast and Toronto and all that stuff, the winter is still the winter and you try to avoid the winter as much as possible. Especially when you get older, you know the bones can't take the chill as much as it used to. But man, I'm just, I'm blessed to be back home. I got a great group of friends, I got some great family members and, yeah, it's just like I said, it's just nice to be back and, like you said, I'm coming at a good time because the sun is coming out, the snow is gone, the chills are kind of fading away. So it's, it's blessed.
Speaker 2:People who spend time in Toronto know Toronto summers are where it's at. Tell me about your parents, though, because I think it's an interesting place to start, toronto being the most diverse city in the world, you having two different races as far as parents Indian and Sri Lankan.
Speaker 1:I almost had it. I was remembering. It's not good, bro, don't worry. Two different, two different types of brown. My friend, you can say that I can't, yeah, but yeah, so with my parents, I mean growing up for them I'm sure it was a big challenge moving to Canada and obviously, dealing with the stuff that they had to deal with. You know what I mean. Like racism, as much as it's gotten a lot better, it still exists, right, and so back in the day like it was just even that much worse.
Speaker 1:But I just give them kudos because they just kind of put their head down and they worked, man, they worked and they just wanted to give us an opportunity and it was. I was very fortunate. Again, I was very fortunate that, because Toronto is a very diverse place in itself, it was very open to me and my brother and kind of us and growing up and including us as much as inclusion is right because racism still played a factor. But, um, I was fortunate to grow up in toronto because if I, if we did, if we did maybe get brought up in a different city, uh, or a different country, we might have been segregated. I don't feel like we were really segregated we might have even segregated ourselves a little bit.
Speaker 1:But at the end of the day, like I grew up by christy pitts, christy pitts is like very close to koreatown right like so I was around a lot of koreans, and then right up north of us is like little italy, and then there's a span that you know, the salson st claire, and so like we grew up with a lot of people around us, a lot of cultures around us, and so, and that's the thing, that's why why I love Toronto, man, because it just it gives you a nice scope of different ethnicities, different cultures, different ways of life, and when you bring that together now, you create a human being that's now able to touch so many different types of realities and so many different types of cultures.
Speaker 2:Right, Such a good point.
Speaker 1:Thank you, brother. Yeah, so I was very fortunate. They did their job, they grinded and gave us an opportunity, an opportunity, and then, yeah, and then we just took it from there.
Speaker 2:I mean, my brother just kind of took it from there so was it their decision at the age of two or three to put you in taekwondo for the discipline then?
Speaker 1:yeah, absolutely man. So I was uh I say this all the time and I hope I can cuss a little bit on your podcast but I was a piece of shit kid growing up like I. I was a real piece of shit. And when I say that it's like, oh, kids are kids, no, no, no, I was a shit disturber, like there's certain kids, they kind of know what they're doing, you know, and I was one of those kids that I was just really annoying. I was very obnoxious, I was very disobedient and the biggest thing was, yeah, just growing up, I was just, I was very disrespectful kid.
Speaker 1:And that was a big. In our culture I mean, hopefully in everybody's culture, but especially in our culture respect is a huge thing. Right, at the very least with your elders. You've got to respect your elders, and so I was just a very disrespectful kid. So they were like, and I grew up with like, in our culture too, we, we, you know, we use the slipper, we use the belt, we use the hanger, we use whatever you can put your hand on, type shit, right and um, and and the discipline was not really working. So they were like we need to do something. And so fortunately there was a martial arts school close to us and so they took me there.
Speaker 1:And again, I was very fortunate that my master at the time, he, he took me in, because most schools they won't take you until you're about four or five you can comprehend a little bit but he took me in and he disciplined me. I was like I think I was punished every day for like a month, a month and a half, like I was just always in the corner, always like you know, like just in punishment mode, but it straightened me out, you know, and it's um, it's a, it's kind of that old school mentality where nowadays obviously we talk about gentle parenting and we we take different approaches on how kids are, and obviously a lot of kids now nowadays are on a spectrum of something right, where I'm sure I was on a spectrum of something too, we were just not diagnosed right a lot of parents, a lot of parents didn't want, didn't want to know the answer to that question right where now we want to, and so so now we're changing and molding in terms of how we we, how we're raising our kids.
Speaker 1:But I believe that a little bit of that old school mentality is still necessary, bro, a little bit of that stuff is still necessary to fuse into the new school mentality yeah, I didn't necessarily have the slipper, the belt come out on me, but I was.
Speaker 2:You know, I I recognize the value of discipline and being uh, being accountable and responsible for your actions and, like I think martial arts taught, teaches that from a young age. I never was involved specifically, but sport in general, I think, does that. You know, maybe martial arts to a larger degree, but I am so in favor of this. I love what you're saying. I do think that there's a softer generation now that has come up because of this kind of gentle parenting and that's a problem. Frankly, I ultimately think we're creating a generation that is soft.
Speaker 1:We're just soft.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you said it.
Speaker 1:I'll say it because it's funny, and I'll say this because I'm a fighter. I grew up a fighter. Not everybody should be a fighter, that's not the point. But the point is I was just literally discussing this with my boy two days ago. We went and we grabbed some brunch. We're talking, and we were talking about these Gen Z kids and stuff, how they're so intelligent man, they're so creative and they're making money, they're doing stuff online, they're doing these crazy things. But they're soft, bro, they're super soft.
Speaker 1:And if I were to bump into you or just kind of blow on you a little bit, you just you get a little offended or you, you, you get bullied a little bit and you start to get into your feelings and again, it's not knocking any of that stuff, but at some point you got to stand on toes, bro. You got to be tough a little bit. You got to, you got to be like you know what. And this is why I preach that everybody should do martial arts, not because you should be able to beat people up, because you should be able to protect yourself, because as a bully, I'm going to bully you if I know you're weak, but if you're strong, I'm not going to bully you, bro, I'm going to go somewhere. That's weak, right, because as a bully I'm big and because I don't know what to do with that, I'm going to bully other people, but if you're a martial artist, a true martial artist, you're not bullying nobody.
Speaker 1:You understand the concept of getting beat up. You also understand the concept of beating people up, and both those things are not fun. You know what I mean. You do it in an environment or you do it for a particular reason. I'm trying to get to nationals or I'm trying to go to the Olympics. So I'm fighting somebody and beating them because they're in front of me, but I'm not doing it for fun. You know what I'm doing. I'm doing it because there's a process, there's a goal that's happening. So for me, this generation is very soft, and they're soft because they're coddled, because when they say no, when you say no to them, and they get grumpy, you say, oh, you know what, nevermind, it's all good. I had this yesterday with a kid. A kid, I'm not the guy, I'm not the one. You can try that with somebody else. I'm not the dude that you're doing that with, because I'm trying to make you better and if you do that under the real world you're going to get.
Speaker 1:You're going to get chewed up and spit out. It's a lot, it's a lot, it's a lot. I love it. I love it. It's good. I got to wind you up, I got to keep you going what's up?
Speaker 2:What martial arts should they jump into first? Yeah, absolutely Great question.
Speaker 1:So me personally, I'm going to be a little biased here. But if they're kids, you got to put them in something striking. So either Taekwondo is what I specialize in, so either Taekwondo, karate, muay Thai, something striking based. Why I say that is because when you're young, you need to learn about your body, you need to learn your body's growing, you need to understand how to use it. The other thing is when you're doing something striking, basic. So I'll use Taekwondo as the example.
Speaker 1:You start off with learning how to move your body. You start learning how to kick and punch, and you do it on a target, right. So now I'm hitting something that's not moving, that's an object. So I don't have to have a lot of fear based on that. I have to just learn to create the skill and develop. Once I do that, then I got the instructors or my partners hitting me a little bit too, so I can practice blocking. They're not hurting me, they're just they're teaching me, right. So now I block and now, ooh, that kind of hurt a little bit, even though these pads are soft. Ooh, that was. That felt a little bit weird. Ooh, that felt a little bit weird. Okay, now I got to toughen up a little Now. Once we've gotten that, now let's kick that person and let's get kicked as well. Now we learn how to get hit and we learn to knock it, because if somebody goes to hit me and I close my eyes and I just turn like that, david, I'm not really protecting myself, dog.
Speaker 1:So I need to understand to look at something that's scary coming at me and still learn how to defend myself right and then after that, once you've and now you've incorporated how to rotate your body, how to twist and punch, how to twist and kick, how how to twist and kick, how to make proper contact, now we can get into a little bit of grappling and start doing some jujitsu, some judo, because as we get older, if you were to get into a fight, knock on wood, you don't. But if you do, most fights are going to be close combat, right. So, understanding how to grapple and put somebody in a headlock or in an arm bar or something like that, just again to disassociate, at the end of the day, is to disassociate from the situation. It's not to stand over somebody and beat the shit out of them. No, that's not the goal. The goal is I can protect myself, I'm going to protect myself enough to to get away, and then I'm out.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean and so what I would say to start off with again, to round back to it, is do something striking. First, get an understanding of the body and then we can go down onto the ground. Because when we go down onto the ground again, somebody's on top of me. So as a kid sometimes we like the rough house, but really a kid doesn't want another kid on top of them for two, three, four minutes where they can't move or wiggle. It's annoying, it's frustrating, it pisses you off. So you want to learn and develop first. Okay, you know what. I know how to get. I know how to get hit. I know how to hit somebody. Now I know how to get somebody on top of me. Now. I know how to flip somebody off of me. Now I I know that if I'm in a position and they got me in a lock, I might have to wiggle out of it. That might take a few minutes. I have the patience. I've learned to have the patience to get out of that right 100, do you?
Speaker 2:uh? Do you feel like this buzz that's around brazilian jiu-jitsu is overhyped? Because that's all? I hear? Everyone's jumping into bjj? You get it? You hear it like why is that? Why is that the only one that guys bros, jim bros, 2030s, 40s, like, dedicated to? Is it joe rogan? Is that what it is?
Speaker 1:it's because of mma. No, it's because of the ufc. So what it is is if you look at a lot of these guys, if you look at a lot of these like dagestani fighters and all that stuff, they're all wrestlers, right. So jujitsu is the closest thing to wrestling right and um and one of my, one of my really good friends, he's a. He used to wrestle back in the day and um he and he told me he's been telling me this for a long time because he did taekwondo, stuff like that too, and he um great friend of mine and he always kind of praises me on how great I was in Taekwondo. But he's like, bro, if I were to wrestle you, I'd kill you. You know what I mean In Taekwondo, I'll bust you, you'll bust my ass 100%.
Speaker 1:But as soon as I get you to the ground, you're done and he's not wrong. And so in that scenario that's why a lot of these older guys and stuff like that are going into that, because they're watching UFC they're seeing these guys get into headlocks, get um to a certain degree. It's also a little bit easier on the body. Again, it's not great on the joints and stuff like that when someone is locking you up and stuff, but it's easier than continuously kicking or continuously picking your legs up or continuously punching and blocking and all that stuff. So, um, that's the reason why um that's a reason slightly less impact exactly, there's slightly less impact and all that stuff into it.
Speaker 1:So that that's the reason why that people and, like I said, moreover than not, it's UFC, ufc is taking over. And a big grunt of it is the wrestling and jiu-jitsu.
Speaker 2:Speaking of UFC, we can't bring this up without shouting out Mike Malott, jasmine Jazduvidius, for putting up an insane performance north of the border. Montreal, did you watch?
Speaker 1:Did you see the highlights? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did. Yeah, yeah, no, that was crazy what he did last week yeah so jazz is a friend of the show.
Speaker 2:We've been working on getting mike on. At some point when we're back in to you, we might have to make it happen. But man like 15 000 michael goisman, a buddy of mine who's a photographer, uh, combat, deer, combat, combat, fight.
Speaker 1:I'm screwing up their name either.
Speaker 2:Combat, uh, no, deer, combat like they're uh he does the photo video visuals like some insane visual work. Anyway he he's been doing a ton of the shooting for the ufc and uh man he said it was the most electrifying environment he's ever been a part of. I'm so jazzed up about the fact that jazz and mike both got the w? Uh you can't replace you know representing your country, you're familiar with it. 14 time team canada. Can you tell me what that's like, how you become involved 14 straight years like?
Speaker 1:yeah, absolutely so. I was again. So I was, yeah. So, first of all, to talk about what you said, yeah, there's nothing like representing your country, it's just it's different. And the thing is, at one point I was trying to represent india.
Speaker 1:I wanted to just again, just for the fact of again, canada is a first world country we have millions of athletes that want to compete every day, and if I were to step down, somebody could replace me I, I mean, they can't replace me, but they can put them in my, in my position. But countries like India and stuff like that, it's, it's very difficult if it's not cricket or something like that. They're not really on, they're not at the top of the top Right. And so a part of me wanted to, a part of me wanted to kind of give that kind of glory to India, but but unfortunately they don't do dual citizenship and I was definitely never going to give up my Canadian citizenship. That's not happening. So just there's a big sense of pride, for sure, when you represent your country. It's crazy, right. Like you just think about it, like I'm literally I'm representing this whole country, like these guys are supposed to be cheering Hopefully they're cheering for me, but it's a big country that's cheering for you, right? And so it's a level of like, gratitude and a level of accomplishment and a level of honor Right now.
Speaker 1:In terms of what I did, I was very lucky because growing up again, I was put into Taekwondo for discipline and initially, like I told you, I was a terrible kid, so I didn't like it, I didn't enjoy it, it wasn't fun and I want to quit. And then so Taekwondo, the martial art, has like four main components. They got the self-defense component. You got your patterns, like your pomse, your katas, you got your board breaking, um a fundamental component. And then you got the fighting component. So once we started fighting at a very young age, I realized I was good at this, like I. I don't know why, I don't know what, how, but I was good at it. So I started winning at like seven, eight, nine years old. I was knocking kids out at eight years old, nine years old, like, yeah, and so. So I was like, oh, I'm good at this, I like this. And then, obviously again it's a little bit of the ego, right. Like you know, people start to compliment you and wow, this and that. And then you're like, oh shit, like I'm wanted to close up his school. So he took me to his master and his master was like a national and Olympic level coach.
Speaker 1:So then I was put into it and I was just training with national athletes and Olympians and I was like I want to do this, I want to go to nationals. These guys are traveling the world and fighting and I'd love to go to the Olympics That'd be amazing if I could get to the pinnacle of my sport and so I just stuck with it, man, and honestly it was just. It was an easy transition initially, then between 14 to 17, it was a little bit of a challenge getting into that kind of like junior A division and kind of transitioning to the senior role. But once I transitioned and kind of got into a rhythm and a flow and kind of got my name out there, um, it was just kind of.
Speaker 1:After that it was kind of um, I don't want to say a cakewalk, but for nationals like I, just I would step into the ring and like people knew what was going on, like it was just it was my, it was my competition to lose, right, um, and so that was my confidence that comes from winning, and it's like absolutely there's a, there's something to be said once you've done something, once, like you know, winning a Stanley Cup, for instance, with the playoffs going on, or LeBron James, who's won you know X amount of titles you bring.
Speaker 1:that aura, that confidence. Yeah, yeah, no, 100%. Jinx, yell me a soda. I got you, I got you, I'll be back. Actually, you're coming here, right, you're coming.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're stopping for a day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'm always curious because I think, like, individual sports bring out different aspects of individuals than team sports. Some people prefer them, others will never compete in them. Too much pressure all on yourself. Was that ever a consideration for you? I know your parents kind of. Or you decided that you didn't really want to expose yourself to other sports because you wanted to stay prime and proper for this one, right?
Speaker 1:yeah, so, yeah. So that's a great question, man, because I love basketball. Growing up that was that was my thing and um, but I started to. As I got older, I started to realize that I was quite athletic for, like my age, my stature, like, even culture, like being a brown guy, like a lot of brown people are not particularly athletic. At least back in the day, things have changed now.
Speaker 2:Hold on, hold on it's such an interesting topic, though Sean Peary brought that up from my First Million. He's like man.
Speaker 1:I don't know what it is, but we're struggling a bit here the Indian culture and it's like is that diet, Is that like, what is that? What do you think? Yeah, so I think, so I think it's.
Speaker 1:I think it's a focus on on on athleticism. So and and and. Again, I think things have. Things have changed and things have shifted, but back in the day, as if you're talking about Indians, indians are trying to be doctors, they're trying to be lawyers, they're trying to be education, they're trying to use their brain to be successful, and the only way to be successful in a sport was cricket, but outside of that you don't see Indians trying or doing anything.
Speaker 1:So, my, for my thing, when I was growing up, I was like I want to be. I want to be this brown guy that can keep up with the black guys, that can keep up with the white guys, that can keep whatever sport we're talking about Right and uh. So I loved a hundred meters, I loved high jump, I loved all these sports, but I just realized, like I would, I was just excelling the best at Taekwondo and so I should just kind of zone in on that and yeah, and so I would. I would just kind of lock in and, like you said, when you start winning and when it starts to kind of you start to get the ball rolling, you're like you know what, I'm going to continue. And this, this helped me because, again, being a skinny brown kid in the 90s, I was bullied. I didn't I didn't have a lot of confidence. I didn't know where I stood and how I who, what kind of crew I was trying to create or be around, or who. I am Right.
Speaker 1:I mean, and we're doing that anyways, that anyways. As kids, we're trying to figure out who we are. As teenagers, we're trying to figure out who we are. And so, with Taekwondo, anytime I step into the ring, I had this aura, I had this, this thing about me, and even at the competitions you'd have, I'd have parents, coaches, masters coming up to me and being like good luck, or don't beat up my kid too much, or I can't wait to see you in the finals, or like you know what I mean, just stuff like that. Or I can't wait to watch you and stuff. And it's like, damn, like these people really want to. They want to see me, their eye is on me, they're thinking about me and it's like that's crazy.
Speaker 1:So it's like now, how do I use this confidence, how do I use this, this kind of aura that I have? How do I translate this now to the real world? Right, and so I kind of tried to try to use that as like, how do I, how do I carry this, this the sense of self that I have on the mats and when I travel the world? How do I now do that in the real world? And that was a beautiful challenge and that's kind of what I do now with my students is kind of it's not about really the sport and sorry.
Speaker 1:So when you're talking about pressure, I didn't really feel a lot of pressure, uh, in the individual sport. I think it would have been a lot more difficult in a team sport, just because I could be the greatest that I can be, and you see this all the time. But if my team doesn't, if I, if I, if I'm not a great leader and I can't lead my team to success, then then it doesn't matter how great I am, I mean, and if I'm not meant to be a leader, that's OK. Then how do I become the greatest Robin or the greatest you know?
Speaker 2:role players.
Speaker 1:But I never. I never saw myself like that, like just the success that I had at a young age and the aura that I felt that I had and created, and that I felt that quiet confidence. You're talking because I always tried to stay humble too. Man, I didn't, I never tried to blow my horn. I'm always about sportsmanship and all that type of stuff. Like I'll talk shit to you either during or or after. I'm not trying to talk shit to you before, because that's the worst thing in the world to talk shit and then get your ass handed to you exactly. And then get your ass handed to you and then what? What are you saying?
Speaker 2:instead I'll be quiet.
Speaker 1:You can talk all that nonsense and then I'll talk to you while we're fighting and I'll talk to you afterwards and I'll come up to you and remind you hey, remember all that shit you were talking before. Make sure you shut the fuck up until you accomplish what you need to do. Then you can talk all the shit, because I'm I'm about it, bro. I'm about being cocky, I'm about that type of that type of shit. But be humble too. Be respectful. If you lose, lose with dignity. If you win, win with dignity as well, you know. And so I think I think with with individual sports, I think that's very prevalent and I like that because you see, a lot of kids nowadays will throw a fit like, how many kids I've fought and I beat? And they, like, they take their helmet and they smash their helmet, or they show attitude to their coach or they go swear at their parents. I'm like, are you dumb? I'll beat you up again, just for that Don't don't, don't, don't carry yourself like that.
Speaker 1:That's not what it's about Right? How many times I've lost, and it's been painful, losing by one at the last second. You know how many times I want to smash some shit, but I'm like no bro, carry yourself, because people are watching right where in a team sport sometimes you can get away with that shit because there's so many people interacting that you could be a little bit of a piece of shit on the corner over there and not a lot of people are going to see right, and so in that sense I don't like that because it's not. It's not character development, especially for kids.
Speaker 2:That's such an interesting point. I love that. I grew up playing a lot of hockey. I also played golf, basketball, so had a combination of the two and I think I'm really grateful for that. But I think that character development is a key and if you only play team sports, you never have that microscope on you in isolation. There's a lot of benefits that come from that over time, whether it is handling pressure, whether that is character development like well, it's, yeah, that's a really good point. Um, I know your goal eventually or at one point, was to be an olympian. I'm curious around that conversation you obviously close with liz, three time olympian. We talked about it. It's like yeah, you know, I had doug lynch on the podcast a few weeks ago. He played a couple games in the nhl. He, in his words, talked about the fact that I, like, I feel like at some point it sometimes is a failure, but he's founded a company. They just won, uh, an award for being the most environmentally friendly company or having the most environmentally friendly product.
Speaker 1:I think I saw that.
Speaker 2:Zenkai, Zenkai, Philium yeah, that's sick. So it's like, and like, yeah, shout out to Doug and Philium Zenkai Sports for putting that together. But I mean more so on that topic of like, hey, living with sometimes feelings that it is like yeah, how do you, how do you go about way to handle that? I appreciate it man, thank you.
Speaker 1:So I you know what man. It's tough, it's heavy, and so so people always ask me like yo, do you watch the Olympics? And it's like man, even to this day it's hard for me to watch the Olympics, bro, because I just look at it, I watch it and I'm like I should have been there, that should have been me. I see some of these athletes sometimes and I'm like I beat that guy or you know, I stepped with that guy, I did some stuff, but ultimately everybody's got their path and for me I still and I think probably to the day I die a part of me will have a little chip on my shoulder that you know what. It was a little bit of a failure. I didn't get the Olympic rings tattooed on me, and so that kind of hurts a little and it it hurts a little, and it's not to say that it can never happen.
Speaker 2:Who knows, I might be the coach that takes an athlete to the that's what I'm just gonna say combat mafia, be able to bring out someone who ends up being an olympian. That's still the same impact and actually arguably could be greater because we have 10 olympians.
Speaker 1:Right, correct, exactly, and that's what that's what I've, that's what I've come to learn is, when you play the sport or when you do certain things, you're I mean, ultimately you're the brand in, you're the brand In life, you're the brand right and it's all about you. And as I've gotten out of the sport and transitioned into teaching and coaching stuff, it's not about me, it's about the greater good and what I can impact off of it. So for me, it's like the goal of striving and achieving to Olympic status gave me so much that now it's my duty to give back and hopefully pave a way for someone to be better than me and for thousands of people to be better than me, but at least one. And if at least one person could be in my shoes hopefully a brown kid, but at least one person if they could be in my shoes and get to where I got to and then beyond, and, and I had some type of role or factor in that, some type of influence, then I've done my job.
Speaker 1:And I was talking about it in the previous podcast. We were talking about legacy and I don't really I don't think about legacy too much, but if I do think about legacy, I would think about how many people you've influenced, right? That's legacy and so so to me, yeah, it's tough man Like, and I again, it's not to say that I don't watch the Olympics. I do but and I love it, I always will. But it's difficult, especially Taekwondo, to watch Taekwondo at the Olympics. It's very tough for me.
Speaker 1:But it's not to say that I'm a failure, and when I talk, toot my horn just a little bit, bro, but I was probably one of the greatest male fighters to ever step on a mat in this country, you know, and I was top 10 in the world and a lot of, a lot of these countries that I went to. My goal was to if I don't beat you, you're going to earn my, you're going to earn my respect, I'm going to earn your respect and you're going to earn my respect. And I'm pretty, I'm, I could, I could say that I did that.
Speaker 2:Hey, quick break here in the middle of this episode to say thank you to Pioneer Auto Group Aldergrove for hooking us up with our plug-in electric Jeep that we get to drive around in here in the lower mainland. Typically, we're doing our podcasts in this Jeep. Now this one virtual. Obviously we can't do every single one in person, but we're aiming to do so on the Athletes Podcast. Thanks to Pioneer Auto Group Alder Grove for providing us this amazing Jeep. Now you know yeah. You can say it with confidence too.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I think it's. I wanted to bring that up Obviously not the most fun guy thing for me to ask about, but I asked because you do have a good mentality around it and I think it's something that you know young athletes listening you talk about impacting one person. We're on the 259th episode of the show. You know, my goal at the beginning was to do one. We're probably at the couple of hundred thousand, maybe millions of people impacted at this point at one point or another, just from an impression standpoint alone.
Speaker 2:And I think that's where what you're saying it's so important, because maybe you don't make the olympics, maybe you don't make the nhl, the nba, the wnba, the pwhl, but you make an incredible network. Along the way, you learn a ton of valuable skills, you build an incredible body that you can use after your career as an athlete and oh, by the way, all those skills are now applicable afterwards in the workplace. You're going to be an incredible employee or potentially found your own company. There's so many external benefits that come from participating in sport right and pursuing the best possible version of yourself. Ultimately and I think that's what you've kind of seen I'm curious like how did you get involved with that group. How did you connect with liz? Where did that conversation all start? Because I was just thrown in there, like you said last minute. So give me some context here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so Liz knew. So I think. So the thing is, I met Liz a while ago in this. I believe I met her a while ago and it was so. When you're a national athlete, they have this program called Game Plan. I'm not sure if you've heard of Game.
Speaker 1:Plan or not. Yeah, yeah, so it's a great program, and so I believe I was. So you can can, as an athlete either current athlete or retired athlete you can register for different what's it called programs that they have within the game plan organization, right? So they'll have public speaking stuff, workshops, they'll have cooking workshops, and so I remember connecting with Liz I believe it was online initially through one of these workshops it might have been the public speaking workshop or whatnot and it was just.
Speaker 1:Again, it was very nonchalant, right, because there were so many athletes there and we connected and we vibed and we followed each other on Instagram. But then, you know, as you meet people, you know it kind of trickles away and you just kind of you kind of follow them on their stories and see their stuff and unless they have your shorts Unless they have your shorts, exactly In which case you stay locked in. And then I met a friend of ours through an organization called BNI and then again I just got invited into this group chat and they were like, hey, do you want a cold plunge and hot sauna? And I'm like, bro, like this is what athletes do. I love that, and if we're trying to, and it's such a big thing, obviously in Vancouver and I'm sure it's out here and all that stuff now too.
Speaker 1:But the concept of the cold plunge sauna therapy and I was like, yeah, what? I mean, we do this as athletes, but this is nice to kind of like understand that this is great for mental health, for outside of it, for regular people. And so I was like, yeah, why not? Why don't I network some more? Why don't I meet some people? And so I got invited to that, um, to that session, and yeah, the rest is history. Man, I got to reconnect with Liz. It was cool, you, I know you from somewhere. It's like, oh yeah, we did, we did resonate before and connect before. So it was nice and uh, yeah, it'd be nice to see her again. Like she's a great human being and anytime I'm around Olympians, it's always I'm, I'm always again, I'm always in awe, but I'm always honored and I also I always feel like I belong in that, in that realm, in that reality, in that scope of individuals.
Speaker 2:So, um, yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 1:It was nice yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, the uh. Do you use hot cold therapy a ton.
Speaker 1:Have you been to other ship in Toronto yet I haven't been to other ships, so someone told me about other ship I got to go there, I actually had a date. I had a date lined up there but it fell through. But, um, I got it.
Speaker 2:I got to check out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh. But yeah, I got to check out other ship and uh, yeah, I mean, when I was in, when I was an athlete, I was doing a lot of cryotherapy. Actually I wasn't I didn't, I wasn't a big fan of the cold plunge itself, but I did a lot of cryotherapy, uh, and that was really nice, I believe. I believe that really helped a lot for me. But I personally I like the cold plunge like in nature, like going into the water and stuff like that. That's's. That's some people. You go out to the beach or you go to the water, you go to the lake. That's always nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we my buddy Dan and I went up, did Garibaldi up in BC a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1:That was that was cool. That was cool. I believe that. But that's, that's beautiful. You got to do it, man.
Speaker 2:When you're up there. You got to do that, right. Yeah, you got to change it up and you got to be in nature. I was like I'm going up a little little getaway this weekend and it's you need that reset. Um, the value of nature, I think like one of the things I've brought up here time few and far between the value of, like grounding, I got sent some grounding well products to sleep on to use. I don't know. Do you have any fun things Like are you worried about your seed oil consumption?
Speaker 1:Like, what's got you concerned in life right now? I'm always curious yeah, that's interesting, man, because so you talk about that and I haven't. I haven't zoned in on it too much, but I got to start thinking about it. I'm coming to that point now. I'm 35 in July and so, like you, got to start thinking about taking you know, you're, you're, you're superhuman when you're under 30. Right, and you don't, you don't care to.
Speaker 1:I always talk about this. There was this one gentleman I forgot. I forgot who it was, but there's this gentleman when I was in high school, I was 14. And he told me, I remember he was like, like, enjoy what you have right now, take advantage of it, because you'll realize everything is going to dwindle as you get older. And I'm like I remember being like man, shut the hell up. Like I'm never going to stop training, I'm never going to stop looking good, I'm never going to stop being fit. And then when I retired, bro, the amount of eating that I did, the amount of drinking that I did, the amount of like I stopped. I stopped training and I was like, fuck, it's kind of hard to get back into training. Like this is wild.
Speaker 1:And I'm like and I always think back to that gentleman. I don't know who he is, he's just a face to me, but I just remember that conversation because now I do the same thing. Every youth that I see. I'm like yo enjoy this shit, I promise you, I promise. And they're like man. Shut the hell up, bro, but it's full. The universe is just cycles that just continue to repeat. Right and so for me, right now, man, when you talk about grounding nature, like you said and that's why it was so hard for me to leave vancouver, because nature is it's number one there right and it's just so easy to be grounded there.
Speaker 1:But I like to go to, I like to go by the water, I like to go out in nature, just sit in the grass. Another thing that I kind of do I talked about uh is um, so I don't, I don't know if you, obviously you haven't met my cat, but he's a big part of my life and uh, and he keeps me grounded and, like I say this and it can be kind of silly or whatever maybe, but people that have pets or people that know of pets, they understand this. But when you have, when you have a pet man, it's something different because they it's, it's almost like a kid, but the but with the pet they don't necessarily grow up the way a kid does. So I love what I do because I teach kids and they keep you grounded, they keep you understanding that you got to keep staying with life and have vitality in you.
Speaker 1:But with an animal it's different, bro, because they literally just exist to exist.
Speaker 2:They're not they're not.
Speaker 1:their goal is not to work or do this or do not, it's just make the most money.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's none of that. It's eat shit, sleep. That's what they do and in life those are the best things to fucking do Shit and sleep, bro. Like what are we talking about?
Speaker 1:So, so when I look at my cat, sometimes when I have a hard day or when things are tough, or when I have a crazy student or a crazy parent or the date falls through and life is kind of all crazy and mucked up, I just come home to my cat, bro, I kind of just hold him. He starts talking to me, I talk to him and I listen to his purrs and I listen to the vibrations and I'm like, yo, life is not that bad, bro, it could be worse, it could really be worse. You know, I walk by people and they're in wheelchairs, or I walk by a blind person, or I walk by a deaf person, or I see a dog that has three legs and I'm just like, bro, life could be a lot worse. Man, like, you got to be gifted, you got to be, you got to, you got to be grateful. I got to be grateful for what I have, because it could be a lot worse. I got hair on my head, bro. Some people don't. You know what.
Speaker 1:I'm saying Like yeah, right, like it's just, it's so. It's just that kind of like you know, we're fortunate, we're lucky, and so we got to use, we got to understand that you know what. It could be a lot worse, and we're all going through our own pain and not to down, downplay nobody's pain. I'm going through some shit, everybody's going through some shit, but it could be a lot worse, right, yeah, and so. So, man, that's how I kind of stay grounded. But yeah, I got to get into the oils, bro, I got to get into the seed oils, I got to get into ashwagandha and all that type ish. You know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's such a perfect way to put it and, like the perspective piece, I think a the perspective gets lost on them. I'm sure that's what they're saying about us when we were in our 20s or early 20s, whatever, but I think that there's something to be said about being able to wake up every morning and say, hey, I've got like five fingers, five toes, I can move all of my like, wow, great start. And I didn't receive a phone call in the middle of the night that one of my friends or family members died.
Speaker 1:Correct Life is good, I'd like the bare minimum start there.
Speaker 2:I woke up this morning, I have no current health issues and it's like that. Okay, we're winning already. And if you can start your day every day like that wow, the rest is gravy, because then you secure a deal, you land a new client, whatever it is, and it's like oh, that's just the cherry on top, because everything else is so amazing and I'm alive today. So yeah, man batman, this is why we bring you on the podcast, dude.
Speaker 1:We get to have that perspective.
Speaker 2:Um, you know you've got uh, you've got hundreds of kids going through your courses right now. What does the class schedule look like? Where should people be going? Before we hit you with the final question, as you know, as a listener of the show, yeah, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:So right now, um, I'm working at a school called all-star martial arts out in leslieville, um, and so we have classes running right now from four fit from 4 30 to 8 30 in the evenings. Um, we got kids classes, so we got tots classes. Tots classes are anywhere from like four to six years old. We got junior classes from like seven to 11. We got like intermediate classes for like that's based off of belts, belt levels, and then we got an adults, teens and adults class too. Um, I also do private sessions as well, so I'm taking on, I'm onboarding clients as well too. So, as a personal trainer, I train clients if they want to lose weight, if they want to get fit, and kind of my approach to how I train my clients is I do a little half and half, I do a little bit of personal training and I do a little bit of kickboxing. So, like I said before, I think everybody should know how to fight. Everybody should know how to protect themselves. You don't need to fight, but you should know how to.
Speaker 1:You should know how to throw a punch, you should know how to kick, you should know how to keep somebody away from you, because this world is fucked up and you got to know how to take care of yourself. And so I do a little bit of that. A lot of my clients are is at Combat M-A-F-K-O-M-B-H-A-T. Combat stronger, get more fit, like mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally. Uh, I'm, that's what I do, man, cause I'm. I'm looking at it as, um, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a body. Right, it's a body of work. It's not just I'm going to lose some weight for my abs or I'm going to punch somebody, so I know how to punch or kick. No, how do I control my emotions? How do I regulate myself? How do I know that I can hit somebody but not do it Right? How do I know that?
Speaker 2:if I go on a walk with my wife.
Speaker 1:I can protect my wife. How do I know if? I go on a walk with my kid. I can protect my kid. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that control piece and it's uh being just comfortable and that quiet confidence around any situation. Uh, yeah, I said I can't thank you enough for coming on the show. This has been fun. Like I said, we'll do a little training session when I come out there in toronto we'll hit the mats.
Speaker 2:We'll let's do uh, we'll train me to see how I can protect myself and maybe some others and uh no uh, as someone who's listening to show you know, we wrap up every episode by asking our guests their biggest piece of advice for the next generation of athletes. The floor is yours.
Speaker 1:So the biggest piece of advice that I would give is enjoy the process, give yourself time. Sometimes we get into the mold of go go, go that and the mama mentality is the mentality you got to just go, go go. You got to put your head down and work. But I would say that we hear this quote a lot. I wish I knew I was in the good old days, but that's what makes it the good old days. But if we can understand, like even right now, man, this is the good old days. Like I appreciate this conversation and five years down the road I'll be like yo, that podcast talk, that episode that I had with David, that was crazy man, that was a great conversation, right. But me understanding and appreciating even now.
Speaker 1:So, as an athlete, understand that you're going through the process and appreciate that process, the good times and the bad times, cause one day you're going to look back and you're gonna be like, fuck, I wish I was there right now. I wish I was doing that right now, I wish I had just lost nationals, I was going back into the gym and I was doing that right now, because what I'm doing right now is to and that goes, that goes, that kind of aligns with everything right. When you're in grade one or grade two, it's tough. Then you go to grade six, grade seven, and you're like, fuck, grade one was easy, bro, I wish I was in grade one again, that shit was fun. Then you go to high school and you're like yo, grade eight was a joke. Then you go to university and you're like yo, high school, bro, high school. Then you get out of university and you're at work and you're like, fuck, work is. I hate work. Man, I was complaining about university, can party and all that. So it's just so.
Speaker 2:My advice is just appreciate the good old times because you're in the good old times right now. Cheers to the good times right now. Batman, thanks for coming on the podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I appreciate you man, absolutely we'll stay in touch okay 100.
Speaker 2:I gotta say thanks to you folks for tuning in to perfect sports, for providing me with the best supplements on the market. Use the code ap15 at checkout to save 15. And, not last but least, shout out to batman for coming on the show sharing his wisdom and knowledge with you folks as listeners. I can't thank you enough for tuning in. I can't thank our partners enough for being a part of this journey. Again, 259 episodes, that is, bonkers, ladies and gentlemen, but we're gonna see you again next week for another new episode. Thank you again for tuning in. Hope you have a great rest of your day. Bye.
