Show Transcript
This is the John Hallett podcast with John Hallett. Because the way we’re living, we need to change it. Make it change today. And all learn from failure. Maybe they just wanted it a little bit more than you. That’s probably the fact. And now your host, John Hallett.
Alrighty, everybody. I’ve got the frenchies snoring in the background. It is not Josh waiting to be on standby. He is out on vacation. We actually had some audio trouble on the podcast we did yesterday. So I’m, um, back at it today, trying to carve out a little bit of time to connect with, uh, all of you.
Thanks for, uh, tuning in. You can always support this podcast. Our brand, suckless co. You can get all your supplements, whey protein, whey isolate your creatine. Hey, guys, creatine is creatine. Help us support, uh, my daughter getting through college. This is something I’ve created to try to give her an opportunity to work remotely and to try to build a brand, build a business, and how hard that is.
The american spirit, the american dream, right? Build it, uh, versus looking for somebody else to take care of you. I’m sick of that stuff. I am about headed. I don’t know if it’s because I’m, um, just old Orlando, you know, not even old fifties, not old. Um, it’s the new 20.
Somebody told me that the other day. So, look it. You got to get out there and get after it and speak up. There’s a lot of crap going on. I can’t make sense of it, but I know there’s a lot of things that we just cannot no longer be silent about.
We’ve just got to stand up and say, this crap is wrong. Everything from California telling their, you know, parents that they aren’t going to tell their kids are transitioning in school. This is total crap, guys. This is stuff we, um, need to put a stop to. I cannot believe the parents of California have not stormed a government.
That guy Gavin Newsom, I think, is a total communist. So maybe not a total communist, I don’t know, but what I’ve seen of him, I cannot stand him. Uh, look, guys, today we’re talking about misconceptions on Krav Maga. We had a pretty, um, good conversation, uh, with Josh yesterday, and, you know, his opinion of coming in on, um, the night before.
We had two parents that came in and both kind of said two different things on their, you know, little overview of watching a class of what they felt Krav Maga was about, you know, one dad coming in with a third, ah, degree, um, daughter. I’m not quite positive if she was taekwondo or karate, martial, um, art, looking to do something different, um, saying crap.
My guy was really in close. I’m like, yes, we’re gonna be aggressive. You know, what you saw was you know, a gun threat. There’s not a chance to run there. If we could, we would. We’d love distance. But when we need to go, you need to go. You need those skills.
You know, a lot of people will say, well, I have a gun. Well, what happens when a gun is on your back, you know, going for your draw, right there is gonna be a really bad scenario. We’re always talking about redirecting the line of fire, controlling that weapon. And, hey, remember, guys, it is all about their decision to pull the trigger.
Not the trigger pull. Nobody’s faster than that. It’s their decision to pull the trigger. I will cooperate with somebody if I feel like they just want property. I will cooperate with that every day of the week. But if I feel like. Like, I’m gonna die or somebody else is gonna die in this scenario, then I’m gonna act.
Otherwise, let them go. It’s not worth it. It’s not, you know, worth getting into just a fistfight, let alone getting into something with somebody with a gun. Uh, and that can be a problem with all martial arts, martial, uh, artists especially, I feel, krav maga, that the students are just gonna go, I know the technique, so go.
No. Number one, as we say in our kids class, build a strong mind. You know, outsmart them. Is that the best thing, being an intelligent warrior? You know, my instructor, Todd Fosse, for integrative defense strategy calls it fight IQ. Um, and I’ve been joking with people on, you know, hey, is your fight IQ low?
Do you have a low iq? Let’s, let’s build it up here. Let’s advance here, especially as you advance, uh, from our beginner intermediate stage into a peaceful warrior stage and not get caught up in basic things Krav maga builds. Darren Levine of Krav Maga worldwide once told me, um, at a lunch break in instructor training of how he just felt Krav Maga was just an endless hallway with doorways and new possibilities and new things and things coming up.
And, you know, I was very, very young in Krav Maga at that point, maybe three years, if that. Um, and I had felt my understanding coming into Krav Maga was, you know, I’m going to get this down and dirty thing, and I’m going to be pretty good after, you know, these, you know, one or two instructor trainings that I had signed up for and, whoa, was I wrong?
So, you know, when you come in and check out a martial art, you can be, you know, just so off base on that one. But, you know, everybody, you know, sometimes you don’t like the fit, whatever it may be. It just may seem like, oh, I totally hate it.
You know, I’ve had people come back into our gym after different things have happened to them. You know, law enforcement officer leaving for BJJ and finding himself grappling on the ground and waiting for backup and feeling he was going to get run over because cars weren’t stopping, um, when he was, you know, trying to arrest a guy on the side of the side of the road.
So he had come back and I said, you know, we like to integrate. And the more and more we integrate with any martial art, we don’t care. You know, I see a lot of martial arts get cultish or, you know, religious about what they’re doing. And that’s what drew me into krav maga originally.
It was whatever worked, you know, like Bruce Lee way of no way. That really appealed to me because, you know, I wasn’t completely happy with my taekwondo and Hopkido training that I had started, and, you know, had dabbled in a little bit of judo, mainly, uh, being somebody’s, uh, throwing, uh, what is it?
Ookie. Um, when he, uh, was, uh, up on Nantucket, uh, for the summers, and he didn’t have anybody to train with in judo, so I would pick up little things from him, but mainly got thrown on, throw around a whole lot. So, you know, think of your misconceptions. Think of, you know, what you initially thought of.
I know a lot of. A lot of students can really drive people away because they’re excited. And in their excitement, they make it sound too aggressive. And somebody’s interpretation of you being excited and how good it is, they feel, whoa, this is just way too hard for me. I’m going to get beaten up.
Where I always tell that individual, you know, when you came in, you weren’t sounding that way, and it’s been an evolution to get there. So, you know, the other parent last night, he, like, felt crowd Maga was a lot of ground, you know, and she had witnessed, you know, a block of, you know, three things, maybe that, you know, the kids did a stand up thing, and then we did a ground thing, and, uh, the other one was the gun buff from behind that we, I just referenced.
So, you know, it’s, you know, what is it that you’re looking for from a martial art? You know, Krav Maga can be misunderstood because people come into Krav, uh, Maga, and it’s maybe a little bit too cardio. And there are a lot of Krav Maga programs that go way to cardio, um, and make it kind of a cardio kickboxing class because it’s easier to fill a cardio kickboxing class than a self defense class because so many people deny, they bury their head in the sand, that they’re going to need self defense, um, and they want to be in shape.
So, you know, unfortunately, and I understand where they’re coming from, you got to keep the lights on. Um, but somebody comes into a Krav maga class, and they’re like, whoa, that’s not what I was looking for. Now, I was telling a guy last week, look, we believe in conditioning.
I didn’t see the class that you were in. And, you know, I don’t know. We’re at the end of the month, they might have been reviewing, going through some things a little bit fast, mixing in with, you know, some boot camp fitness. I don’t know what was going on.
Maybe you’re just completely out of shape and there was no fitness, and you felt whatever we did was super hard, you know, and a lot of people come in, they just want to talk. They just want to talk about things, and you gotta drill it, you gotta do it, you gotta put hands on.
And we can’t help everybody there. Their idea of what they want, it’s, uh, really tough. I’ve been talking to my instructors of how tough it is when you get somebody coming in just one time and you’re trying to show them this system that a lot of people think is really simple and, oh, it’s practical, and it is.
And it gets people up to a good high speed, teaches them basic combatives, basic escapes, some basic things on the ground. That’s what most people spend their time on or devote to a martial art. They come in and, you know, whatever happens that they end up spending six months to a year and doesn’t matter what martial art they think, they want to do it, and they find out, oh, it’s actually a lot of work.
And it’s not just talking about it, it’s actually doing it and putting in the reps. So that is, uh, something you guys should be considering there.
So I got stung by a bee last night. I was, uh, harassing the bees. I’ve been trying to get them out of the rig that’s, uh, outside at our gym. And, you know, I knocked on the rig. That’s, ah, where our, you know, pull up station back squat, if you’re not familiar with that type of equipment.
Um, and a bee came out, stung me right in the forearm and I flicked it off and he came back at me and I managed to land a left right combo at him. Um, I was excited for a second. Then I was like, he’s kind of dying, you know, that’s not as impressive as coming out.
I should have tried to harass a couple more bees, but had to get back into my peaceful warrior, uh, class that I was subbing for. Geordi was out of town working, um, and leads me to apex. I believe Josh and I were talking a little bit about apex and, you know, stepping it up into that program.
And that’s where, you know, you’re going to find me more and more is, you know, in the peaceful warrior. But especially in the apex class where I’m really trying to get our, uh, first degrees, those reps of teaching peaceful, uh, warrior. It used to be a place where you could find me, but I’ve got so many people that are as good as me.
Um, you know, when we started that peaceful warrior advanced black belt and they’re not progressing if they’re just continuing, um, teaching beginner intermediate. So I’ve got those guys doing peaceful warrior wherever we can. Um, always tough staffing a gym, but I do teach you some. But the apex program, we just had one of our first degree black belts kind of check it out and came up to me after, he’s like, that was effing awesome.
And I was like, that was, you know, it wasn’t my best class, I guess I would say, um. Um, it was good, um, but you gotta continue to step up your training. And I feel like a lot of people feel like they can just keep going. There’s such an evolution and training with higher level people and talking about higher level things and taking things to a different level, um, that it is part of the path.
And I’ve seen it. I’ve tried to avoid it, you know, not do the business aspect of, you know, join this advanced team, um, or program, um, but you see that in every martial art, they have all sorts of levels of competitor, um, you know, all the way up to those semi pro and pro fighters in different gyms.
And to get into those you know, unless you’re, you know, the pro that they really want in their gym, you know, you’re paying to get up and get that, you know, elite level of training. So you, and I hate that level of elite. I always think I can get better and better, and, you know, it’s not a bad feeling that, hey, I can get a little better, be positive.
But sometimes people get caught up in, you know, their punch. I’ve been on a whole bunch of people on their punch technique. You just gotta take it, um, and slow it down sometimes and really just be, you know, singly focused on maybe just one aspect of, like, putting those first two knuckles on the attacker if you’re working the bag.
I spend a ton of time just focusing everything I have on the first two knuckles, and then where’s my. Wrist, where’s my elbow? And taking that time where a lot of times people like, all right, I’m just punting in. They’re just doing it. They’re going through the motions and they’re good, but they.
Elite standard, you know. No, and, you know, then elite standard is, you know, I don’t even think I’m elite standard. You got people entirely better. You look at somebody like a real good striker, like, you know, old time boss, rutinous, you know, phenomenal striker and that, you know, whoo.
I’m not that world class elite, you know, I think I’m pretty good. Um, you know, above average of, you know, people I see and what I, you know, my instructors tell me, but I always want to get better. And just like in fitness, uh, I feel people go through the motions and they’re not really fully focused on that muscle group or like isolating and just slow on that.
You, you know, bicep curl is a good example. People do the same thing with their hammer fist, with their knee strike, with their round kick. They just kind of do it and not slow it down and feel what they’re doing, um, at a real high level. Ah. And then being able to do that fast and under stress is a whole nother thing.
Cause we’re all degrading. So check out my apex class. You know, you’re in our beginner program. We are taking people into the peaceful warrior program. You know, message me. You guys know how to do it. If you’re a member of Rocky Mountain self defense and fitness, you can hit me up on band or you can go to the members site and my cell phone is on there.
Either one works gladly. To talk about your, um, your progress. Whatever you want. I’m always kind of here for you guys. Let me know. Um, we none of us ever have enough time, but it can be super hard. Unless you bring it to my attention that you want to talk or you’re having a problem with an instructor, you know, whatever it may be feeling.
Um, you know, I had a woman, um, I think I’ve referenced on the podcast before that she felt like she was terrible and she was an a student. Um, you know, of course she was a white belt, but she had. She was an a white belt. She’s kind of the easy student that, uh, everybody wants.
That easy person, really, um, great attitude. You know, picked things up, really paid attention and she felt she sucked and was going to quit.
Somebody didn’t silence their phone. Alright, guys, uh, keeping this one kind of short and don’t have my sidekick Josh here today. So thanks a lot for tuning in again. Check out suck less, our online training portal. Again, is clearsky training. You can support us there, you know, buy t shirts.
The links are on there to the different shops in their suck less co. Has its own suck less performance stuff. Uh, really happy with that new logo created for there, uh, for that, uh, entity. So check it out. It’s really supporting the american dream. Thanks again for tuning in, guys.
If you would like to be in the podcast. Hey, I just referenced how you can get ahold of me. You guys want to talk about your journey? Uh, anything like that, let me know. Glad to have you on the podcast. Uh, Josh will be sad, but that’s all right.
He’ll get over it. So, um, again, thanks for tuning in, guys.
