Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Time to go around the world with some team spart. Let's get started.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Sir. I will live with perseverance in the spirit of taekwondo, courtesy for fellow students, integrity within myself, and to become a black belt leader.
Welcome to the Ata Nation podcast.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Instructors, students, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, everyone involved in song. I'm Taekwondo. Welcome back to the Ata Nation Podcast. This is episode 117 and I am your host, senior master Zach Hayden. Thrilled to be back with you again for a great episode.
Last week, we talked about why you should go to world championships. In our first part, we're going to do a second part about what world championships really is, what to expect when you go.
[00:00:55] Speaker C: But.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: But I needed to take a quick break from that. And instead, today we are going to bring you two more interviews from international competitors who will be attending world championships and also fighting in the song cup for the international team sparring competition. This is an amazing competition. Great to watch. Five person teams, two ladies, three guys. Super exciting. And we wanted to give you a little preview of some of the international guests coming. So we're going to get to those two interviews today, and then next week we'll go over part two of why world championships. Let's go to the interviews.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Special guest interview.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: ATA Nation. We are super excited to have with us today another international guest, Miss Liliana Orocha. How are you today, ma'am?
[00:01:53] Speaker D: Hello, sir. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here and to talk with you and all the ETA nation group. I'm pretty excited to be here. I'm a tycoon athlete since 2010. Already some years ago.
I teach actually at the school. We rock martial arts and. Sorry, I forgot about the things.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: No, that's okay. Tell me and where is. We rock martial arts.
[00:02:26] Speaker D: We rock martial arts is in Lisbon, in Portugal. We are a small country and we have a lot of schools. We have a lot of students, and we are the spots. The perfect spot for european camp.
[00:02:41] Speaker A: Yes, yes. Did you have a great time at the european camp this year?
[00:02:46] Speaker D: Yes. Was amazing. Was amazing. And we get so inspired by watching to any other rings and see a lot of competitors around the world. Was amazing. Was a great experience.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: What did you think of the Atamax training?
[00:03:03] Speaker D: It was amazing. We had the opportunity to see two great athletes doing some demos, some flying kicks. Was amazing.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Excellent. Now, I wanted to talk to you because you're coming to world championships. Um, if I'm not mistaken, do you have a title already at world championships? Have you competed at worlds before?
[00:03:25] Speaker D: Not yet. It's my first time.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: Excellent. How exciting.
[00:03:30] Speaker D: Yes. I'm really excited.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: So. And this year, you will not just be attending world championships, but you're going to be sparring for Team Portugal in the team sparring competition, right?
[00:03:44] Speaker D: Yes. Right.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Are you doing combat bang mangi as well as traditional sparring?
[00:03:52] Speaker D: Yes, for sure, if I'm going to war.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: And how have you been training for that? How have you been getting ready for it?
[00:04:00] Speaker D: We have training a lot of drill speeds because combat weapons is much more about the speed. And I join all my students in class because we create a great energy. Let's see how can hit the teacher. And so it's very funny.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: Yes. And are you.
Did you guys at the european championships, did they have teams sparring there? Did you spar there?
[00:04:31] Speaker D: Unfortunately, no, because we only had two teams and two teams above 40 years, so I was not able to compete.
[00:04:40] Speaker A: Oh, man. Well, are you looking forward to doing it at world championships? You think Portugal's got a good chance of bringing home some medals?
[00:04:50] Speaker D: Yes, I believe so. This year we're gonna go to worlds with the biggest number of students ever. So this is a proof that we are training even better than the years before, and we have a lot of expectation about this competition.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: Do you have some of your students coming to world championships this year?
[00:05:15] Speaker D: Yes, I'm going to participate with more three students and I'm more nervous about them than about my competition, my own competition.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: Yes, ma'am. And what are you, obviously, you're going to do the team sparring with some other individuals there from Portugal. Um, what are you competing in for yourself?
[00:05:38] Speaker D: I'm doing traditional forms, traditional weapons, sparring as well, and combat weapons.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: Excellent. What's your, what's your weapon of choice about?
[00:05:46] Speaker D: About XMI, about extreme weapons.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: Excellent. What, what is your weapon that you like to compete with?
[00:05:56] Speaker D: Eleven. And shackles.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: Ah, excellent. Very cool. So you, your team, have you guys got to train together or just individually? Right?
[00:06:10] Speaker D: So far we try to do both because when we train individually, you can do a specific train about the things you need to do for better perform or better kicking. But we always try to join all the group that will be on worlds to teach and to train different things because every instructor have a little better specific things that they like to train. I like training weapons. We have a professor that was before a world champion of sparring. So we try to combine all those characteristics to work and to be a better results at worlds.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: Awesome. Do you know. Do you know how many teams Portugal will be having this year? I know a lot of times it still takes some time to figure out how many. But do you have any idea right now?
[00:07:09] Speaker D: I believe we could do two teams, one for adults and another one for teenagers.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: Excellent. I'm super excited to watch that world championships. Did, did. This is your first time?
Did you get to watch any of the team sparring last year when they broadcasted online?
[00:07:31] Speaker D: Yes, and that was amazing. It's another level here in Portugal, we just have three national competitions and european camp. So we see every time the same people, every time the same competitors on the rings and in world. It's a different world. It's really a different world.
We can watch some of the sparring teams and it was amazing. We get so much inspired seeing those videos and those competitions, and that's the biggest reason why we always want to try to do more and to try to compete with them, because it's the best way to learn and it's the best way to improve our best.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: Well, I'm sure you're super excited about coming to world championships. Do you have, uh, something specific that you are looking the most forward to when coming to worlds this year?
[00:08:26] Speaker D: I hope to see all the people that we usually only saw in videos, all the people that we look for, we train for, we try to compare and try to improve our techniques based on. And I hope to see all them on world.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: Oh, that is excellent. Well, ma'am, we are so excited to have you and so many other people coming from overseas, especially from Portugal. I want to thank you for, you know, your commitment to song. I'm Taekwondo, and your time today to do an interview and we look forward to watching you spar at world championships.
[00:09:03] Speaker D: Thank you so much, sir. It will be a great opportunity. We can wait.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: Hey, mister. Nick White. How are you, sir?
[00:09:14] Speaker C: I'm good, sir. How are you?
[00:09:16] Speaker A: I am fantastic. It's great to interview someone from another country in ATA nation. And you are from the great.
You know what I've heard it's referred to as the number one country just north of the United States. That would be Canada, correct?
[00:09:36] Speaker C: Yes, sir.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: Excellent. Well, before we get into our main topic today, can you give us a little background how you got into martial arts and the ATA?
[00:09:45] Speaker C: Yes, sir. So, I'm from Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada.
I started martial arts when I was six years old with my instructor, senior master Halle Fraser.
And she really got me into everything about martial arts. She was the reason that I got passionate about it. She was a former gymnast who went into martial arts and became a world champion in sparring and also was on Team Canada I believe it was for ITF as well. So she is a phenomenal martial artist and got me into it and really sparked my love for specifically sparring as well as all the other fun things about martial arts. Yes, sir.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: Awesome. And so you've been in ever since, I assume you are an instructor, is that correct?
[00:10:32] Speaker C: Yes, sir. I have been assisting and helping out since I was about eight and I'm now a school owner. Actually, two years ago, I took over the school that senior master Fraser owned, so. Yes, sir.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Well, congrats. That's excellent. And how is business these days?
[00:10:49] Speaker C: It's going quite well. We're not a huge school, but we have just around just over 100 people and we're very competitive, I'd say especially in Canada, since there's not a huge amount of schools for us. So we're pretty high level when it comes to competitive. Yes, sir.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: That's excellent. Well, that kind of gets us to what we want to talk about today. You are a member of Team Canada for the five person sparring that's coming to world championships, the song'um cup. Um, how did you get involved in team sparring?
[00:11:19] Speaker C: Um, so basically what happens for Team Canada, at least, is we as school owners, we discuss who is potentially able to go to world championships this year. Uh, and then once we've decided that we'll have kind of team sparring training, we call it tryouts. But since there's not tons of us that can make it to world since a little harder, um, it just comes down to who's able to make it and who's passionate about sparring. And then we get to train a little bit as well.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: So you got chosen, you're going to world championships anyways, and so that you are going to be on that team. How often do you guys get to train? Is it a lot on your own? You get to train with others?
I know for the US we've got some training camps and stuff that people do, but I'd love to hear what it's like for you guys.
[00:12:06] Speaker C: Yes, sir. So a lot of us just kind of intermingle when we come to training. I know I train on a weekly basis for about 2 hours with a bunch of other fifth degrees and higher. We also try and get out to other schools as much as we can to train with the other high ranks and people that could be on Team Canada. When it comes to the official Team Canada training, it usually happens right before worlds. Once we've figured out who's able to go, and that's when we have quite a few hours of extensive training, usually with master Michael Bennett. He is our head coach and a phenomenal spar. So he is usually the one that's running a lot of those excellent.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: And do you guys, you got to travel from far away? Do you have most of the people pretty close together for the team or are some have to travel further?
[00:12:57] Speaker C: For the most part, we're all pretty close to each other. I would say the most someone would have to travel would be like an hour, hour and a half to get to to where we're meeting up to actually do the training. Most of our, the schools in Canada are in BC and they're quite close to each other. Again, about an hour and a half distance at most. There are a few schools over in Alberta, Ontario, but sadly there's not as much competition out there and they're not able to come and train with us very often at least. So it's mainly our main group around in BC.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: And is this your first year on Team Canada or have you been on for multiple years?
[00:13:36] Speaker C: I've been on it quite a few times now. I originally was on Team Canada in 2019 and then I believe 2022 and then last year as well. And then this will be my, I believe, fourth time on Team Canada.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: Cool. So what is it like to come to world championships and represent your country for team sparring? What's that experience?
[00:13:58] Speaker C: First of all, it's a huge honor. I'm always very ecstatic to go out and spar against all the other teams and see the other countries that are, that have made teams. It's also a lot of pressure, obviously, with the sparring and everything there. It's tough because I know last year we were very close to winning one of our matches there and came down to sudden victory. So it's a lot of pressure. But also, no matter what happens, I'm just happy to be on the team.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: And I forgot to ask, what division are you in for the team? Sparring.
[00:14:31] Speaker C: So I'm in the elite team. I am the 18 and above.
[00:14:34] Speaker A: Excellent. And do you know, I know it's still a little bit early before world, so I know countries are still working on forming their teams and whatnot. Do you know what age groups you guys will have represented? Obviously elite, but do you know of any others that will be able to be at worlds this year yet?
[00:14:53] Speaker C: I know for sure we'll have an elite team and I believe we're still planning on. Last year we had the age group above, I'm forgetting the name right now, but age groups just above Elite. We had one last year and we should have another one this year. I'm hoping we can have a varsity team as well. I know I have quite a few students that are planning on going to worlds because they're top ten already, so if we can get enough people to do that, I would be stoked, but we'll just have to see who's able to.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: Oh, that would be great. Yes, for sure. Now, you said you've done this before.
You said you guys were close last year. What's the. You know. I know I watched the song on cup last year. We did some live broadcasting from it and Team USA almost sweeped it. You know, they almost got the whole thing.
What are we looking at? You know, coming into 2024, you guys pushing for another year where you can get up there and maybe kick USA out of all the title spots?
[00:15:52] Speaker C: You know, that's what we're always training for, sir. I know Team USA is phenomenal, so they're always pushing us to try and train harder, of course, as well. But I would say we're. We're hoping to make it as far as we can, but I know there's a lot of other fantastic teams as well. I know Team Brazil did fantastic. They're the ones that beat us last year and they were phenomenal. Team Argentina as well is obviously very impressive. So we'll have to see. Yes, sir.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: Oh, that's great. So you guys are getting geared up to, you know, finish forming those teams and do some training. What's the training like for you guys? What are you focusing on? Combat, sparring, all of it. What kind of training you guys getting done?
[00:16:33] Speaker C: So we try and focus on an equal amount of sparring and combat in our training. Again, master Michael Bennett is the one that kind of lays down everything of what we're doing when we're training together, we'll be going through a lot of drills, different situational sparring matches. So what happens if we're down, what happens if we're up in points?
And then we'll also just be doing a lot of metrics when it comes to how many hits can you do on the bag, how fast can you do your round kicks, anything like that to get some extra training?
[00:17:00] Speaker A: Excellent. Those dynamics of the team and those situations are really important. Do you guys, do you, at your school, do you guys have some teams that compete locally? The three people teams?
[00:17:11] Speaker C: Yes, sir. We have a number of teams. We have a rookie team, we have a junior varsity, we have two varsity, and then we have an elite team as well. Yes, sir.
[00:17:20] Speaker A: So the, you know, the dynamics of these international teams with five people seem so much different. You guys spend a lot of time kind of thinking through who to put in there. Do you guys have.
I know it's tough because you've got people coming from much further. Do you have a bench that you're able to utilize a little bit more?
[00:17:40] Speaker C: So we don't always have a huge number of people to be on the team, so it's kind of tough when it comes to that. But I know a lot of what we talk about in our training is, in general, who do we want to have go up first and who do we want to anchor. So if we can at least have an idea of who we want to in general do that, then we can always switch up on the day of if we need to. We usually have an idea of what that's going to look like ahead of time.
[00:18:02] Speaker A: Very cool. And are you guys. Have you seen an increase in interest in the international teams? I, for one, we know Team USA is pushing. They've got this monster crew of people. I just would love to see the international teams. I know it's so much harder travel wise, but it would be so great to see. See that level of competition continue to go up and up and up and really start to, you know, push Team USA a little bit.
[00:18:32] Speaker C: Yes, sir. I would love that. I know we've definitely seen some more interest in it. Like, as I said, my students have been talking to me about wanting to do a varsity team, so if we can get more people going to worlds from different countries, then we can definitely start having more people for. For different teams there. I would be super happy if we could do that. Yes, sir.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: Speaking of world championships, I assume you've been multiple times before. What's your favorite thing to do at world champions?
[00:18:57] Speaker C: I got two favorite things, for sure. Extreme competition. I'm a huge fan of extreme and creative, so I'm pushing for extreme. For me, personally, extreme weapons, and then I'd also say sparring. I'm a big sparring fan, clearly. And I've been very close a few times getting the world title. I've gotten second twice, so I'm hoping to. To push it and maybe get it this year.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: Excellent. So if you were, you know, to speak to some of our international members of Ata nation, you know, obviously there's finances and figuring all that kind of stuff out, but how would you encourage them with making the decision to come to world championships?
[00:19:39] Speaker C: I would say if you are wanting to be on the team or you're wanting to be a high level competitor in general, try your best to plan to get to worlds as soon as possible. Don't wait until your districts or whatever the equivalent is for your team, for your country. Try to plan it ahead of time. Because even if you don't make it for tournament of champions, even just going for the super 20 is a phenomenal experience if you haven't been being able to compete against people from all over the world is very exciting and also very nerve wracking, which is great for competitors. So I would highly recommend just plan it early, decide you're going to go, don't change your mind and get there as quick as you can. Yes, sir.
[00:20:17] Speaker A: Excellent. Well, I look forward to watching Team Canada compete this year again, and good luck with your training.
Anything else you got for at a nation out there today?
[00:20:30] Speaker C: Thank you so much for having me. I can't wait to represent our country and I will see you all at worlds.
[00:20:36] Speaker A: We look forward to it. Thank you so much for your time today, sir.
[00:20:39] Speaker C: Thank you, sir.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: Listener feedback there is still time to send me why you are excited about world Championships 2024 to be included in next week's episode part two of why world championships. So make sure you tune into that. Make sure you send me that message either dm me or post it over in our private Facebook group. We would love to hear your reasons for loving world championships. I will make sure to include mine, of course. Now, ladies and gentlemen, that's going to wrap it up. We were thrilled to talk to athletes from all over AtA nation. It is such a thrill to see so many people coming to world championships. I cannot wait and I hope you join us. Make sure you head over to atamartial arts.com worlds to check out all the information. Until next time, get out there and take action.
[00:21:37] Speaker B: Thanks for listening to another episode of the ATA Nation Podcast. Be sure to subscribe and share with your ATA family.
[00:21:51] Speaker A: Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know about you, but the song I'm cup I'm super excited about. That's gonna be a lot of fun. I think again this year we're gonna do some live broadcasting. Can't, you know, can't tell you all about it yet, but I think it's going to be good. So make sure you, you tune into that, of course, but you want to be there, actually go to world championships because you will not regret it. It is a blast. It's an amazing thing. Be there. It's awesome. Tell me why you love world championships. Have you been there? Send me that DM or post on our Facebook group. Thanks, guys. We'll talk.
