Stop The Twerking And Start Running The Event

A tournament can look polished and still be broken where it counts. We get raw about what we saw and heard around recent national-level events and why “finishing early” and flashy announcements do not equal a healthy sport. For us, the real measure of USA Taekwondo and AAU Taekwondo nationals is whether athletes compete in a safe environment, whether coaches can speak honestly without fear, and whether leaders model the standards they demand from everyone else.

We also get into the stuff that seems small until it is not: leaders moving around during the national anthem, the organization choosing entertainment over professionalism, and the message that sends to young athletes who are watching every detail. Then we hit a nerve: what it means when an Olympic gold medalist is present at the venue and goes unrecognized while the microphone keeps pushing hype, birthdays, and influencer moments. If the highest achievement in the sport is treated like background noise, what are we really building?

On the technical side, we break down competitive integrity problems that coaches and athletes feel immediately, including DaeDo scoring issues, Gen 2 headgear paired with Gen 3 hogus, and reports of gloves and sensors not registering clear head kicks. We also talk about basic tournament safety and accountability, like debris left on the mat after board breaking and how quickly “that’s fine” becomes the culture. If you care about athlete development, fair play, and better event standards in competitive taekwondo, this one is for you. Subscribe, share this with a coach or parent, and leave a review with what you think the sport should demand next.

Transcript

No More Performing For Clout

SPEAKER_01 0:07

This ain't dancing with dancing with the stars. We ain't playing for votes. This ain't America's got telling with the side story notes. This ain't a Saturday morning televangelist scam. Selling fake salvation to with camera jam.

SPEAKER_04 0:23

You ain't Jerry Springer, you ain't Simon Cow. Throwing shade from the side while you're throwing the towel.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Choose your line. Step back. Stop messing around before the weight of reality brings you to the ground.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

Get a flag, get a pose, the fourth of July show.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Like the fuse on the truth, let the whole world know. Because America deserves better than a TikTok trend. Better than a circuit with a standards bend.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

No more working minutes to sliding away today.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

We get every eyes of higher, we don't play that way.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

It's time to raise the bar.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Yeah, blow hard, beware. Yeah, look at the clock. Your day is coming. You can't run from the shot. You want the glory, you gotta put in the work and build the legacy on the digital smart.

SPEAKER_03 1:10

Not performing that, please don't take on the gold. And take one of desserts better than the last being sold.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

No more people wearing self-proclaimed reverence on the map. We're calling out the hustle. Yeah, we're ending all of that.

SPEAKER_03 1:22

Focused on the craft and beat the death, but it's daddy out of your mind.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Yeah, we asked the fire. We don't play that way. Yeah, you're gonna do it. No problem on the crab. That's the nonsense uh better with the deserves better.

SPEAKER_03 1:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Yeah, we deserves better. I'm better because it deserves better, better, better, better.

SPEAKER_04 2:06

Yeah.

Hosts Catch Up After Travel

herb 2:21

This is and I'm TJ, no, no offense intended. Back to Glack, and we're all in block today, and this is the Grand Master of Desaster back from NYC. I forgot how much I love that place, but it was it was good. I got some stuff to say about it, but it was nice to be back, not with those sissies, oh goes. I was in the real New York City where real men tramp and travel. I was all over the village and stuff, and I love my peeps. I forgot how much I love being in New York and the food and the everything after I got to look around and stuff. But uh, I had some customer service nightmares, but we'll get into that later. How are you doing, Mr. TJ, or as I'll call you today, my black smurf?

unknown 3:05

Ninja.

SPEAKER_05 3:05

You love my outfits. You just don't have a sweater either. Is that it?

herb 3:08

I'm still hey, Nico, did I get that? Anything coming in? No hat. All right, I'm still waiting.

SPEAKER_05 3:13

I'm chilling.

herb 3:13

I just finished day 200 of the of the of the hostage crisis. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but I did. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 3:22

I feel like I was at Nationals for 200 days. It was a long, long week. I had I had at least three, two to three people every single day. So I was there since Wednesday all the way through Sunday. My voice is just coming back like normal.

herb 3:32

I thought you were at I I was watching that feed. I thought you were at So You Think You Can Dance TV show. And I thought that was the outtakes. I thought it was like America's Best Talent, only worst talent. That was worse than the Kookie Wan demonstration on America's Best Talent. That's that was some nonsense, my friend. But anyway, I'm glad you went down to represent and uh and whatever that whatever they do down there, whatever non. I think everybody stopped calling it taekwondo by now, so I'm not gonna continue to slam it, but um, you know, anyway, we'll get I got something to say about that too. But Coach Moretta, what do you got? Where you been?

Juan 4:07

I went to uh Charlotte as well. I went there for a couple of days. Just I was there only for the junior and cadet days, and then I got out of there, so I was lucky I didn't have to be there as long as uh Coach TJ. So I was in there for a shorter time, a couple days, and to be honest with you, that was more than enough. That was more than enough to be there. Um, I'm sure we're gonna get into a lot of that, but I was lucky enough to get back to uh back to Miami. I had a great 4th of July, bro. I had about 30 people over. I cooked, of course, the American food, the the hamburgers, but by then I had to cook some Argentinian and chorus and Colombian and Brazilian chorizos. I cooked uh some some Mexican uh meat with we had tacos, we had salasa.

SPEAKER_05 4:54

Like we had an amazing time.

Juan 4:57

It was awesome. It was good. I couldn't, I was so happy because I haven't been home in years.

herb 5:03

No taco, no tacos either. All right, just checking. Yeah, you didn't send me any food. Man, you guys had a lot of fun. You guys had sound like you had a good one.

Juan 5:12

It was good, it was good, it was good, right?

Plane Etiquette And Entitlement

herb 5:14

Well, I was reminded of I was reminded of this generation because I on the way I'll share my one story before we get started because it's I finally, you know, I have this whole nightmare trying to get out to New York, but when we finally get there, everything's good. Drop my daughter off at art school, go around and enjoy the city a minute. Get on the plane, this guy gets on the plane, and he's one of these millennial cats, right? So he decides it's his world, and he's gonna lean on me, sleep on me, and push on me the whole flight. I do my Buddhist best for about as long as I can, and then finally I come back and I sit down, he starts leaning on me again, and I go, I just take my arm, push him. I said, dude, you gotta stay on your side of the thing. Like, I go, listen, you've been pushing me the whole flight. I've been patient with you, but now my patience is at an end. So you're gonna need to stop. What are you gonna do? And I go, Oh, what am I gonna do? Oh, you're that guy. Okay, you know this plane's gonna land, and then I'm gonna get off this plane. And then he rings the stewardess button. This is this cat. I swear to God, Asian cat. Raise the steering. He must be from San Francisco. And he and he and he said, I was sleeping on him and leaning on him. And I'm like, I just look at her, I go, I fly two million miles a year, my hands on the inside of my arm rest. Now, he just needs to stop leaning on me. And I say, Shut up. I said, I'm not even talking, I'll get my headphones on. But of course, as soon as the plane gets off, right, what does he do? He scoots his sissy butt back to the back of the plane because he's afraid I'm gonna be waiting from outside the plane, but I get in my Uber and leave. But welcome to this generation of big talkers and fast walkers. Reminds me of some USA taekwondo people, too. They were the first ones, they were the first ones to leave the building when there was a ruckus, including one Mr. COO, when the U.S. team, I think, which was one of the ones Coach Morano was on, got into a ruckus. That guy couldn't leave the building fast enough to defend his teammates. He wouldn't be the guy I'd want on my back. But anyway, that was my only negative from my beautiful journey. I forgot how much energy and vibrancy there is in the city of New York. The aroma I could do without, the aroma of urine and all that I could have done without. But it was good food, good pizza, good everything, and uh with the exception of my one friend who oh, yeah, by the way. So when I sat there, I went through my photos and videos, of which there were many, of people kicking people in the face and knocking people unconscious. It was the old school taekwondo, not the new school. But all right, let's get on

US Soccer Loss And Reality Check

herb 7:47

with it. I just wanted to invent because I was frustrated and I just got done watching with most of us the U.S. game against uh Belgian, the waffle team. But uh they were school, they were school, they were school. That was karma, my friend. That was karma. That was karma.

Juan 8:06

Maybe it was karma, but you know what's strange just what let's get into what our stuff. But what was strange about that is that wasn't the US team that we had seen in in the first, you know, in the in the qualifying and in the in the first knockout game, like our touches were bad, our passes were bad, our defense was bad, our our our closing out. There's just so many bad things. And I it was for me for such a successful run, it was bad to feel I feel bad like right now, you know.

herb 8:34

But I mean to be uh let's be honest, they weren't getting past Spain, right? Like they weren't they didn't have the quality to get to the end. So whether it ended here or a day later, it was gonna end, it was gonna end, they weren't getting past Spain.

Juan 8:48

And I'll tell you what, you know, Spain hasn't given up a goal in this World Cup. Whoa, that's crazy. And that they got that goal late, and it was it was the one mistake, and it was poof, what a pass, what a run, what a score, man. That was sick in the 90th minute, dude. Uh oh, was it in the 90th? 90th minute, bro.

SPEAKER_05 9:09

So I looked it up earlier. Our our best finish was third place historically at the World Cup, our best finish was a very good thing.

Juan 9:16

That had been like 100,000 years ago. 1930. And I think we made it to 65 or something. We made it to the eighth. We made it to the quarters, I think.

herb 9:26

They were kicking goats filled with water, like the Kazakhstan's and the and the the Afghanistan game where they cut the head off the goat and you you drag it around a field. That's what soccer balls were made out of back then. Of course, the U.S. made the World Cup the third round. We we got a problem in soccer we got to fix. But let's get on to the problems we got here. Let's start it off, gentlemen.

Nationals Hype Versus Real Numbers

Juan 9:48

Let me start venting for just a couple, because I'm sure we're gonna go all around today, TJ, because we were both at in in in Charlotte, and then we had some things going on in in in in Florida here. And I just I gotta start, you know, start off by saying like this this all this propaganda by you know the other organization here in Fort Lauderdale, you know, about the best nationals ever, the most efficient run. I'm like, dude, stop it. Your numbers were low. They're bragging about finishing at 12 o'clock in the afternoon. I'm like, I wouldn't even say that. I wouldn't say that out loud that we were we're out of here at 12:30. That means there's nobody at the tournament. That doesn't mean that you guys are doing well. You know, when you have, I mean, I heard the number of hundreds of people that were on the brackets that weren't even there or didn't weigh in, people getting double buys. You're talking about efficiency and like simple standard things, like you know, having a you know a proper bracket, and you're talking about it's the best ever. Just say we had a good time, we everybody participated, blah, blah, blah. But to make those blanket statements, you know, I'm like, you have you know low numbers. I had so many people come right back and tell me from being at Fort Lauderdale that the energy was horrible. There was nobody in there. Referees were telling me that it's like a ghost town. There was the level had dropped. Even prominent coaches in the United States that went to both, they were telling me it it looked like 20 to 30 percent down. There was a couple good ones, but it was just I just don't understand.

SPEAKER_05 11:26

I know we I know we talked about a little bit too, but like all I see is Joe Mercer's face, Clinton's face, yeah. Alex's face. Like, I don't I don't I don't know when we entered this world where I guess CEOs or directors or whatever, that's their that's what we're showing, and we're standing on a poster going, look at what we've done, look at look at who did that. They need that. They need that.

Juan 11:48

I know it's gotta be for them. It's it's it's weird, no? Listen, I I want to talk about a post that this dude wrote, but like it's interesting because this is how the world turns. All of a sudden, uh a director is taking screenshots of a post that somebody wrote, taking it to the coach and saying, Listen, I'm not gonna help that person anymore because they wrote something like this. This is where we're at. Not even a negative post and like like a like a TJ Rwand post. It was just a mom making some observations, and you gotta take a screenshot, go to the coach, and say, Look what your athlete's doing. This is what this is what they are direct, they're getting themselves to. Like that's crazy.

SPEAKER_05 12:30

Again, you know, and that's how you create the fear of retaliation. That's how you create it. You start just by that, simply inputting the fact that if you say anything bad about us, not even bad.

Juan 12:41

If you say anything that doesn't tell the narrative of us being so successful, then you're a bad person and you're you're you're reading hanging, and you know, listen, give me a little lean on this because look at I posted something the other day, and somebody, you know, got on and I posted something about 4th of July, and I had like 50 likes and 50, like, oh my god, perfect post. And I had one dude that posted something as it was greater to the last thing, and I just said, Listen, I didn't write the post for you. And you know, he's like, Well, you know, you write it in public. I'm like, no, I wrote it for myself, and it's what I believe, and everybody liked it except for you, but whatever. And I know I didn't comment on this person's post right now, but I'm reading, you know, things that their their faith was questioned, their integrity was questioned, their fatherhood, their husband, being a son, friendship was questioned, recorded, screenshot, threatened, you know, blackmail to hurt his reputation, hurt his family. And I'm just sitting there going, like, and then he says, I'm not trying to play the victim. I'm like, well, what are you doing what are you doing? And something struck me when he said blackmailed, I'm sitting, I'm like, no, TJ was blackmailed. TJ was what said this or this. You weren't blackmailed. I specifically told you you need to jump ship. They're not looking out for your best interest, they're using you, this, this, and this, by the virtue of the phone call, by the virtue of the interaction. And I'm like playing this victim mentality, saying that, you know, people he lost friends. I'm like, no, you walked away from friendship. And now, in the last end of your little, I don't know, thing that you write, you talk about your relationship with Clinton. Oh, about how it's like brotherhood after four or five months. I guess that's how long it takes to become brothers nowadays. Like you know everything about everybody and your brothers, your soulmates. I'm like, that's the immaturity that this guy has. That's the immature. And I'm gonna say it because I've said it time and time again, I want to like him. I wanted to support him. But when I read stuff like this, I'm like, are you forgetting that you knew what was going on? You knew it was wrong, and you chose to stay. And now you're resorting to doing things like taking screenshots. Now you're writing these little soliloquies about people, you know, questioning your fatherhood and this and that and your integrity, and and you bring religion into it and prayed on it, and God posted. I'm like, it's just such a full it's it's it's so full of shit. It's embarrassing. You're twisting and turning like you had every choice chance to jump ship and you stay there for ego for money. I don't know. I'm not asking, I'm not acting like I know, but all I know is you stayed there. And then you write things like this. And to me, that's ridiculous because guys like you, TJ, guys like me that got suspended, never once did he try to go to bat for us. He loved you, he wanted me. We supported him, we propped him up, we helped him, you know, have even more of a presence. I'm not taking anything away from what he did, right? He built his his his his his tournament. He he found his niche in Taekwondo. But when everybody left, he just tried to shoot to the top at all costs, and he had to stay. And here we are, and we gotta listen to these things about how great it was, how efficient it was. There was nobody at Wayne's. That's why it was efficient. There was you finish early. That's why it was efficient. Somebody told me the best thing it was about AU is that they finished so early that I think that the officials could go out to eat and have dinner.

SPEAKER_05 16:18

So I had a conversation with someone else, and I said, I've never, as long as I've done time. When I asked my mother, I went back and asked my mother, I said, you know, tournaments used to run long. Yeah, you better watch yourself. Tournaments used to run long and you know, whatever reasons. The only time it was ever an irritation is if it was some kind of technical flaw where we were just sitting around and nothing was going on. But tournaments are tournaments. The fact that we've we've kind of gotten to this world where it's all about, oh, look what time we ended, look what time we ended. The real people are in a rush to get out of there. We want to be there at the end of the day because we're looking for our guys to be successful. And we know sometimes that takes a while. But the fact that they hang their hats on finishing early and all this, like you said, all the propaganda flying around about how great it was and how good it was. And I gotta see posters of their faces saying this is how good and how great it was. It was for everybody else, but look at us. I did this for everybody else, but look at us. We did this the best the best AU nationals ever, ever, ever, ever. And then you go and get people to vouch for you, like Carlos Navarro, someone who's been in the technology a very long time, very long time, and you know, a very successful fighter, has done great things in the sport, but has no idea what the standards are here in this country for competitions and for tournaments, what right or wrong looks like from that sense. And to go on a post and write stuff, I you don't care about the politics and this, you don't even know what you're talking about. Why say that like I don't even know? I don't even know. And it and it's like that when people start using words like politics, I am so far from a politician. If I was a politician, I probably wouldn't be sitting here right now. I probably would be, you know what I mean? I'd probably be somewhere chucking and jiving like the rest of them trying to make a backdoor deal. Hope that if my kid gets close, they'll like shake my hand when they see me in public.

herb 18:05

Yes, Sebasa. Yes, Sebasa. You know, am I running fast enough, Masa? It's been a long time, Massa. Masa, you you just don't say it long enough. You don't say it long enough and loud enough, my friend.

SPEAKER_05 18:17

Yeah, stuff like that. You're not like the rest of them because because I I don't know if it's self-serving on his part. I don't know. You don't even stop. He knows you very well. He knows he he's he's been around me for uh uh a long time. But just to just to go to bat and just say I just say your experience is good. Don't start it off. This isn't a sponsored post. Like, who what who is what are you talking about? Why say was it a sponsored post? Like, I've never seen anybody do that, yeah. Right? No, and then they're right. Let's see what an Olympian thinks about A. They're doing the same thing as uh as USAT.

herb 18:49

I got a copy, I got a copy of um I wonder how many of these guys were were honored at the National. We'll get there. I wonder how many of these, like I this is a gift for some one of Jimmy Kim's students who did me a huge favor twice, and he asked me for a simple thing that I found um that I can share. But yeah, I wonder how many of them were honored there.

Juan 19:14

Look, TJ, the the Carlos Navarro thing, like again, same thing, man. He's always been a gentleman to me. His father and my wife are very good friends because my my my wife was coaching when he won his junior world championship on the junior team. So there's a lot of history with us, you know, going back to 2010 and and and earlier. So you're talking 16, 17 years, whatever needed help. We always do we always did what we can. Carlos is doing a great job right now with his business. He's doing extremely well. I'm so happy. I'm happy that he's out there competing within the United States with his students. But to go and just make that statement totally unnecessarily, and it was 100% political, Carlos. It was 100%. You even cut that and placed it together. And you know, you're trying to talk about the level because they needed the level. Stop it. The level was high. Even if it was, how do you know because you haven't been to the ones in the past recently? So efficient, same thing. You're brand new. So it's just it's so forced, and it's it's a little, it's what I said about you know, Barb Conkl. I'm just sad that these guys are being played like that. They're getting played. You don't get for what? For what? I don't get for what? I'm missing something. Hey, speaking of Colorado and Barb Conkl, bro, this new president who's now not just the the, I'm sorry, the he's the governor and the district chair of Colorado, which is interesting. This guy appointed a red black belt, I guess, as of last year, as the athl the director of athlete development. I'm like, what what are we doing? And fresh off the press, Mr. Clinton is now the chairman of TNT. And what is it? Trampoline and what's the other one? Tratteras? What is it? Trampoline and tumbling.

herb 21:19

Oh, tumbling. Oh yeah, that's right.

Juan 21:22

He's a cherry. He just it he just has another he has another vote. That's what it means.

herb 21:27

You know, not my not my vote. Not my circus, not my monkeys, but I definitely know who the clown is.

Juan 21:36

First of all, he doesn't know anything about taekwondo, sport taekwondo.

herb 21:38

We don't know anything about tumbling either.

Juan 21:40

Why could that stop him? That's my point, young. You don't know that he doesn't know anything about sport taekwondo. TJ, you have more taekwondo on your little finger than both of those people put together. Both of those people, I'll say it. You got upset about that, but that's the truth. Stop it, stop it, stop it. That's the truth. Now I'm adding a both in because now you're gonna go and be a chairperson of. Trampling and tumbling, like what is this?

SPEAKER_05 22:04

Like, that's I don't know how you can. I don't know how we we can outwardly show people that these guys are cheating and manipulating and lying and and locked that in the case. I know, but they don't care. They don't care going and getting other jobs within organizations.

herb 22:20

They don't care that because the a listen that's murder. You guys aren't gonna like it. The AAU as an organization has been and continues to be a clown show across the board for all of its sports. It always has been. The best thing the U.S. Olympic Committee did was to be created to get rid of the corruption of the AAU and its grassroot development of hillbillies that basically profit from the taking care of kids. So basically, you have AAU volleyball, which is huge AAU basketball, and AAU basketball misguides a bunch of these kids and the amount of money it takes to participate, and they don't do proper sport development. So why would it be any different? It's the perfect place for little imitators of the North Korean dictator. It's the perfect place for that guy. That's where he should be. Maybe next he can become chairman of uh of uh of underwater swimming.

Juan 23:15

TJ, to your point, like I it's just this is what's sad about people think do people think we're lying?

herb 23:22

Do do they understand how like how we're being treated like people these days have a 15-second attention span? They can't read books anymore, they don't even read books, they get their news from TikTok, then they got to check to see if it's real, including the US men's team. When they overturned the record, he said, I thought it was a TikTok.

Juan 23:46

I'm gonna I'm gonna make a prediction, TJ, that you're gonna just see keep seeing those numbers decline. They think with them being separated next time it's gonna be better, it's not gonna be better. And I'll tell you why, because people have to take a trip and go home and then decide if they're gonna take another trip at the end of July and do that. People are gonna go to the USAT, it's gonna continue to grow, and maybe you'll be left out. They're gonna keep running into the ground, they're gonna lose more and more people. I mean, I don't even want to we'll talk about some of the other. A who a who that's what the name of it is. Yeah, it's a shame. It's it's it's a shame. But when I saw that poll anyway, sorry, kind of wrapped this little thing part of it. When I saw that personal post of blackmail and this and integrity was questioned, yeah, yeah, yeah. I personally, before this all popped off, I threw a line and said, Hey, would you consider supporting TJ? Would you consider supporting me? Would you consider getting out and saying, you know what, I don't want anything to do with this, I'll run the district and that's it, and just not be part of this administration. And he chose not to. He chose to say, TJ, Juan who was trying to just that's okay. And you know what? We went our way, he went his way, but then and now he's trying to act like he's the victim. You know, these guys are you know walking people out with compliance, showing up but let's move on, let's move on. We'll get to those things, we'll get to those things.

July 4 Standards And The Flag

SPEAKER_05 25:21

So going back to July 4th, I'm gonna go back to July 4th because I I put up that post, I put up that post with you know our our athlete director dancing on stage, and most people thought that's me. Or some people, not most people, most people understand where I come from. Sherman tweaks what's what's going on. But the the take on of being petty and people, and what I realized this weekend is that people don't know, and I said it before, don't know what they don't know. People and I and I start having a date myself. I've been going to national since 1998. I think I might have missed one out of being somewhere else, and that's just for my little bit of time. I know you guys have done it even longer, but to tell me my 20 years 30, and to tell me that my take on what is appropriate or not even acceptable. I just I don't even know what to make of it at this point. You got people like online currently and in the venue complaining about referees and situations and this and this and this, and we're doing things and and I don't I don't even know what we're doing. Like I had to tell someone like if you want to hire entertainment, higher entertainment. You've never seen you go to NBA game, you go to USA wrestling, you don't see the directors out there dancing on stage. Like there used to be a standard, and we have lost that standard, and the people don't understand that that sets a standard for every single kid and every single person in there. And then we go to then we go to our national anthem and we did it every day. I think one day we did it twice. It wasn't on the 4th of July, so it wasn't like some over celebration. And then on the last day we were there, they do the singing of the national anthem. First time on the July 4th, we could barely find a flag. They got two guys holding up the flag. Like that's that's acceptable for July 4th. We couldn't find a flagpole for the United States of America to put our flag up somewhere. We couldn't put it on a banister to raise it above to sing. This one when they held it up, I wasn't there. I wasn't there. Yeah, yeah. One of the days, I don't care what what day it was. We were holding the two people are standing there holding the flag up in the middle of the floor, is is what we're doing. But during the national anthem, why is they brought this lady in on the last day to sing? I'm watching Steve McNally walk across the floor, smiling and moving, doing a national anthem. You got Givens doing this with his finger, like it was a mockery, and people don't even understand like how ridiculous that is and how disrespectful that is. But like you say, they're from England, they don't care about the United States of America, and it shows you find me another CEO walking and laughing and giggling, doing a national anthem, I'll pay you. That is the most disrespectful thing I've ever seen in my entire existence in this.

Juan 27:58

Any national anthem, for any national anthem, whether it's yours or someone else, you sit. If it's ours, you put your hand over your chest. If it's someone else, you just sit and you're you're quietly, you remove your cap.

SPEAKER_05 28:09

I mean, to have them just walking around, especially the figurehead of the organization, that's a little talking to in terms talking during a national anthem, trying to get everyone to sing. Oh, come on, sing along. And I'm yes, yes, what coach, coach, and I'm the problem. This this is it was the most embarrassing thing I've seen in a very it just what are we doing? I'm sorry, I still I I'm not I'm not a politician, but I am an American, and I have been in this sport for a very long time, and I understand what right and what wrong is, and that was absolutely wrong. And this to to do that in front of the entire competition to show them that you don't care. To show them you can't even stand still, you can't even wherever you were walking before, you couldn't stay over there until the anthem was over. You felt the need to walk across the floor, just having a good old time. And then I gotta hear, and then then I gotta hear from people on your staff, your staff saying things like, yo, yeah, he said he didn't care if we had a flag or not. The amount of information I get, the amount of yes, that they couldn't decide if we could if we didn't have a flag. Didn't care. It didn't matter, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. We know it doesn't matter. Yeah, because there's no standards, because they don't understand our culture, because they don't care about our culture, they don't care about anything. And y'all think this is just about tech one. No, this is disrespect on such a bigger level, it's crazy to me. And we're and we're just and we just take it and then and then you guys you guys want to point the finger like I'm crazy.

Professionalism Starts At The Top

Juan 29:39

I wanted to I wanted to like it. I didn't want to, but I was gonna be objective and I was gonna say, you know what, when I was there, when I looked at the floor, it looked professional. They had nice barriers, they had nice signage, it looked like they they thought of like how do we want this to look? I thought it was um it was it was okay. I thought that the red the the way-in and the you know, for the two days I was there, the way in and the flow of the tournament was fine. It wasn't bad, it wasn't great, it was it was normal, it was good. So I didn't have a lot of negative things to say. I mean, I can nitpick on referees, I can I'll nitpick on on the on the system, of course. I'll get to that in a second. But like when I hear things like this, when I see things like that, and I'm like, again, uh I I want to find the good in people, but when I see uh an administrative person up there doing the wobble and going down and doing things, I don't care if it's before or after. You're the you're the you're the face of the organization. You're the professional person in the organization, you're the director of athlete affairs, all eyes are on you. Like, how is that professional? Having fun, do it on your own time, you know, unless you're the mascot. If you if that's what you are, you're the mascot, you're gonna dress up, or you're gonna walk around in the stands. Okay, that's your job. But I'm just like, I'm not quite sure what the job was over there. You know who I didn't see there was your best friend, Grandmaster Perez.

herb 31:18

The the the C O O.

Juan 31:20

Did not see him there. I don't know if you saw him there.

herb 31:22

Maybe, maybe he got bored. Maybe he got bored. Maybe he's got something he's got to learn how to smoke cigars or or ride a bike or something.

Juan 31:29

I thought something about you. I'm like, listen, I don't know, maybe in a family emergency, a prior engagement, but I'm like, you go all over the world. You go to, I'm gonna go to your line of talking. You go to all the grand prix, you're handing out medals, you're going on the little tours, you're going to the restaurants, you're having drinks, but you can't come to the one thing that you financially oversee.

herb 31:53

I don't know because our natural difficulties. He's over. No, no, he's he used him to get to this, what he thinks is the next level, right? Like he doesn't realize he's a cholky boy, he's a bag carrier. So that's always been his demeanor. You know, he smokes cigars, he gets cigar cutters, cigar, he rides a bike, he gets the right gear. He he doesn't do it to a level where it matters, but that's him. So he used USAT to get to a WT position because he's also drunk in his own mind, high on his own supplies, they say, thinking he's going to get a position of leadership that he'll be president one day. Um he hasn't rigged, he hasn't realized that that ain't happening either. So he he used McNally, you know, they're both sycophants, they use each other, they're both symbiotic parasites, they use each other to do what they think they need for each other. McNally thought that guy would give him cover from the membership, and the other guy thought McNally would get him into the WT, and they don't realize that Yang Jinban is the ass clown that's both smarter than both of them, and is using both of them to prop himself up to try to become president of the WT. But um, you know, and Yang Jinban's not Korean enough, he's political enough, but he ain't Korean enough. So you'll see.

Juan 33:13

I just thought that was odd that's but to your point, TJ, going back to that, it's just unprofessional. I just I I can't I can't wrap my arm my mind around it. Just again, you want to do that on your own time, you want to do that at your own house party, you want to do that at your own taekwondo school because you're doing it, but like at the national championships in that position.

SPEAKER_05 33:34

Where would you see that at? Where would you see that at? You don't you don't see it, you don't see it anywhere if you're never. Did you watch soccer?

herb 33:42

Did you watch soccer? You watch any World Cup? All right. Every dignitary in the room and every athlete in the room that's not on the field is in a suit, sans tie or with tie, behaving themselves, acting correct, dress properly. You go to the White House, we talked about this before, put a suit and a tie on. When you go to church, wear what you're supposed to wear. You come to a taekwondo tournament, the people running the tournament, you're not there for entertainment. You're there to run a tournament. Be professional. Parents pay thousands of dollars to have their kids treated properly, and they want to make sure the guys treating them properly are treating them well and are somebody to look up to. What how do you look up to a guy, by the way, the dancing twerking guy? How do you look up to this guy when he's also doing a private ministry using USAT, time, resources, and clothing, and then talking about this and that and and things that are totally inappropriate even for a ministry? Make up your mind. Are you a preacher? So the guy he was the pimp and pinky ring guy, if you don't remember.

SPEAKER_05 34:50

You know what's crazy about that? Who do you say went back with him like a pimp and a pinky ring? Anastasia. Who was that? Anastasia went back with him like a pimp and a pink ring. Let me tell you something.

Mic Time For PR Over Merit

SPEAKER_05 35:00

Move me on to my next point. So we spent the weekend with him on the MC mic. I listened to him sing happy birthday to Ruskell. I listened to sing. When I say sing, I mean the entire song. Happy birthday.

Juan 35:14

Why? Why? Why? No. Why? I have no idea. Is he the national team coach? I don't know. Is he a national? No, the answer is no. Is he is he an uh USAT administration person?

SPEAKER_05 35:27

No.

Juan 35:28

Is he is he a board member?

SPEAKER_05 35:30

No.

Juan 35:31

So he's just some dude that is friends with him. And we're gonna just randomly sing a birthday song. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 35:40

I can't believe that was I can't remember if that was the first song or the second song. Then I listened to a song for one of the actual staff members, which again he sung from beginning to end. No problem. I had to listen to, and again, this is not I had to listen to constant takes on where CJ was signing his work and signing his shoes and everything. And this that's not the issue. I've listened to all these things. They rolled out the red carpet for a YouTuber. There was a YouTuber at our nationals fighting ultras and then fighting receivers. They rolled out the I mean they gave her access, they got cameras, they're walking over.

Juan 36:12

They sent emails to everybody.

SPEAKER_05 36:17

All these things are going on on this microphone.

herb 36:19

You forgot, you forgot who runs the organization. Who runs the organization? Listen, he's a PR guy.

SPEAKER_05 36:26

All these people, yeah, I get it, and that makes sense. Don't get it. I I get the scheme. I understand the what's going on. But all these things are being announced and said, and meanwhile, you have your Olympic gold medalist in the building. Olympic who's you out, Olympic who's Olympic Who? Olympic gold medalist. Anastasia's in the building for multiple for a couple of hours at least, walking around on the floor, invisible sight of the same person with the microphone in his hand. All the people around, from the coaches, Gareth, uh, Steven, uh, who else, all of them that claimed that she was their ultra mega superstar. Did not acknowledge that girl's existence at all. That's crazy. Not even like we're celebrating people's birthdays over the microphone. We are singing and dancing and jiving. We're giving everyone else announcements and credits. And look, I'm here with Johnny B from you know this guy. Look, what we're doing, we're being so nice to the community. You guys let your Olympic gold, your Olympic gold medalist from your regime walk in during the time that you guys were there and you didn't even acknowledge that girl's existence. What are you telling to the children? What are you telling the kids that want to be an Olympic gold medalist? Or just in general, what are you saying to them that you can do something so great? We can pump you up so high and then not even acknowledge you. And and then the question leaves me why? How?

Juan 37:54

Yeah. Stay there. So it's crazy because you have national team athletes that are posterized everywhere. Good. I think we should make little heroes out of everybody. You have a guy that's super popular that has a signature shoe, and he's gonna kind of sign his shoes, gonna have a uh a shoe string tying seminar in the holding area. You're singing to all these people, but you can't recognize in the limited space holding area.

SPEAKER_05 38:27

In the limited space holding area.

Juan 38:29

You can't recognize your Olympic champion. That's what put you guys on the map. That's what kind of get kind of gave you this lifeline. And like you said, TJ, I have to add, uh you took the words out of my mouth because I'm sure we think a lot of this. Why? Why would why couldn't you say, look, I understand not me. They all saw me, they all knew I was there. I mean, they could say something, you know, as a four. Actually, I had one guy, I had I had one guy nicely ask me if I thought having an Olympic alumni association for Taekwondo would be good. And I said yes. I said, yes. I could disagree with things, I could not like things, but I just said absolutely. I said there's only a few of us, and you should acknowledge, you know, those people. But that was it, nothing more, nothing less. But to your point, TJ, she's on the floor, she's walking around with this YouTuber. You all know her. You couldn't take two seconds to say, hey, Olympic champions. If you don't want to make a big deal about it, because whatever, she's not your friend anymore, whatever, because she's a channel. She's not your friend anymore, literally. Literally, not your friend anymore.

SPEAKER_05 39:33

Because you don't like her, because because because she knows where the bodies are buried, because she's been through it with you, because you guys pushed her out, because, because, because, because, because. That's crazy.

Juan 39:42

Because that's embarrassing. Not an acknowledgement. Not no acknowledgement. Disappointing. Because you're right. Because what hell, what else is higher than that? There's nothing higher than an Olympic gold medal. There's nothing.

SPEAKER_05 39:54

And they sure weren't no short on celebrating and telling people how great they were from it. I still remember to this day, in her in her Olympic moment where she won that medal, they had her twirling around on stage talking about, oh, I guess the fish and chips. That was that was you, Grandmaster. I guess the fish and chips training worked after all. That's how petty they made this girl go to in her Olympic moment.

SPEAKER_06 40:15

I know. She didn't come up with that.

SPEAKER_05 40:17

No. And now you but they recorded it and put it on the actual website.

SPEAKER_06 40:21

Yeah.

herb 40:22

And now you're watching her complain about how how bad that I found I found another video of uh no, I did. I can't believe it. Sherman dancing. I had no idea. He's from that long lap lost African tribe of twerkers and burkers. Look at this. Oh my gosh, that's good.

SPEAKER_05 40:48

As an Olympian, as an Olympic medalist.

herb 40:49

No, no, you're not an Olympian, according to them. You don't matter because you're you're a has been. I saw that little post too. I'm laughing because the idiot that wrote the post, and it was about my boyfriend, um, the Taekwondo Fury, a guy who hasn't won anything. And now there's a new girl in in underwear teaching taekwondo and leaning backwards. And whoever the idiot was, probably one of his students, wrote, you know, you're a has been. I go, oh yeah, I'm a has been. Let me, I'm a world champion, Olympic gold medalist, pan Emphas. Hold on a second. You can't be a has been unless you've been. And once you are a bin, that would make Messi a has been, that would make Michael Jordan a has been. That would make any athlete in the world who's ever won anything a has been. Here's the problem. You can call me, you can try to call me a has been, but I'd rather be a has been than a never was. And so I double check the spelling on your name, make sure I I could get your record correct. And surprise, surprise, Google doesn't know who you are. So let's go back to rule number one. Uh if I don't know who you are, you're probably nobody in Taekwondo. If you don't know who I am, you're definitely nobody in Taekwondo. And then rule number three now if Google don't know you, you ain't known, baby. So let me be clear. Taekwondo Fury, ass clown. All the other guys that aren't winning medals, ass clown. As soon as you win one, call me up and I'll apologize and I'll say you won the state championship. Win the state championship. Win win anything. Win something gold, not bronze, not silver. Win something that matters. So when you disrespect the Olympians, especially Olympians who won stuff, like the people on this podcast, you forget your legacy and your history. But why would you remember it? Because you can't remember how to kick, because you're doing this sissy cake pudding, k popping footing thing, and you're you're you're perming your hair. Because last time I checked, I've been to Korea a million times. It's not a single Korean in the on the planet unless she's an Ayama who goes to a salon to perm her hair and color it. Uh, there's not a man in Korea with curly hair unless he's been inbred, like he's been inbred. I'm not done yet. Inbred, like like my favorite movie scene said in in uh true romance when Christopher Watkins has the long talk with Dennis Hoppe before he's gonna kill him and talks about how the Sicilians became Sicilians. So, with all that said, my K-popping friend, match my record, then you get an opinion. Till then, you get my opinion. But I love you.

SPEAKER_05 43:21

I just thought it was I'll just close it out. I thought that was really embarrassing and really disrespectful. Which part of the Olympic not that guy, I'm not talking about him. It's almost just the fact that you had your Olympic gold medals in the building at Nationals with all these people you couldn't even acknowledge her.

herb 43:35

They don't acknowledge anybody. They don't they can't acknowledge him. You gotta understand.

Juan 43:40

You understand already, but like repeat it for the scary, that's their girl. They can't.

herb 43:46

Let me tell you a girl. They can't because they don't matter. Their great, not white hope, their great hope with the colored blonde hair, ain't producing. Okay, no, no, no. No, no, no. Her, her, no, no, no. Yeah, yeah.

Juan 44:02

Yeah. That's this is their girl. They produced her, apparently. She won a gold medal and they got rid of her. So does that mean they're going to do the exact same thing with CJ? You know, he gets something at the Olympics, and all of a sudden, a year later, they're not gonna they're not gonna do it. Like it just like it just said all the way around. She doesn't deserve that, whether you like it or not. No, no, she doesn't deserve it.

herb 44:25

No, no, she doesn't listen. She's let me be clear. Olympians are gods. Let me be clear. Olympians are gods, and they should be gods. Why? Because we went to Mount Olympus, we competed in the highest valley, the highest peak, and we achieved what we achieved just showing up, just showing up as an Olympian, and this is where I'm going to give it up to people. If you go to the Olympics and you show up, you get up, you deserve to be recognized. Now, if you if you don't win a medal, you get in the you get in the pecking order. Let me explain how that one works. There's the gold medalist, there's the silver and the bronze medalist, and then there's the no medalist. And if you allow anyone to put your name down as Olympic contender, slap yourself. Because you're not everybody's an Olympic contender. I got, I got, I got kids that walk in my dojong today, I could call Olympic contenders because they're five years old. So that's nonsense. Win a medal, shut up, respect your Olympians because they did it at the highest level. Do you think that the soccer people in this world disrespect their World Cup players or their Champion League winners? They get in the room, they stand up. They walk through an opposing team's gym, they walk around the badge on the floor. That's that's character and ethics. They show up and they don't act up. So with all that said, don't expect anything from the banger and mash crowd.

SPEAKER_05 45:49

That's their girl, and it's very disrespectful to Olympians. Period. Period. Like it's it just I can't even believe it.

Juan 45:58

Like I actually when you're singing happy birthday to a dude from Michigan that doesn't even have a school.

SPEAKER_05 46:03

I challenge all you coaches to come in with her video. We need to sing happy birthday why an Olympic gold medalist could walk into a room and not be acknowledged by an organization she was a part of, worked out with, trained with, traveled with, gotten uh uh uh competed with they were busy selling shoes. They were busy selling shoes. No, they saw her. No, they were busy selling shoes. They saw her.

herb 46:23

They were selling shoes, they were selling shoes and CJ's new haircut.

SPEAKER_05 46:27

You can't make that one make sense to me. I don't care. You you there's no excuse for that. There's no there's no way around that. She's you can't even say, Oh, she's peak or she's from somewhere they don't like. That's their that's their girl from their room.

Juan 46:39

So TJ, let's go. What'd you what'd you think about? I mean, Young, you know this guy. You know uh Simon Ree, right?

Fast Track Black Belts Meet Sport Reality

herb 46:50

Yes, he's a friend.

Juan 46:53

I I like him too. I mean, there's nothing not to like him.

herb 46:56

I just he's one of the so let me before you start on this other thing, let me just let me give you my five seconds on on um Grandmaster Ree, right? First of all, back in the day, he fought in the tournaments that mattered. Like back when they were fighting, he fought on the West Coast, fought in everything that matters. Back in the day, he created a new thing. Him and his brother created some of the the best martial art movie franchise next to karate kid. They did it by themselves, by the way. And he fought, for real fought, and and and did the thing. When I met him, he was the most humble, nicest, help any one guy you'll ever meet. He was everything that I love about Korea and Koreans. So everything I don't like about certain people that happen to be Korean, this is the antithesis of this guy is there is not a person you'll find that'll say a bad word about him. In this particular situation, he was called to help someone, the particular individual you guys are going to talk about. And um he he's a well-known, well-respected, still to this day, movie and television stunt guy, talented martial artist, helps everybody, anybody deserving of help in whatever. So he um failed her for her black belt test, right? When this whole thing they did, this whole internet thing. He called upon a bunch of his friends to help him with it, and he thought it would be good for martial arts in general. So uh I have a lot of respect for mastery. As far as the rest of it, I'm I'll say nothing else.

Juan 48:36

Yeah, I I can leave it at that too. You know, listen, I I get it in this day and age and stuff like that. I will say this I think that if I compare Taekwondo to judo or wrestling or boxing or jujitsu or fencing or Shotokan or whatever, I guess it's possible for somebody to achieve a black bill. But it 90 days is a little short for me. But I get it. I I get it for the promotion of it and stuff like that. And you know, did she learn the the the the the curriculum? Okay, let's say she did, but let's go on to this that I have less of a issue with that because I I do understand promotion and publicity of the of our art. But when you venture into the sport, now that's my world. That's your world, and that's your world. And when again, you want to just go and compete at a local tournament, you want to just, I want to soil my royal oats and just see what I if I could do something, that's fine. But to get out there and have the you know compete at a state's uh regionals and a national championship, like that's just I just can't see any other discipline where somebody could do that in a matter of four or five months. I don't know exactly how long it was.

herb 49:55

So let me ask you a better question.

Juan 49:57

Yeah, I know.

herb 49:58

Okay, so forget I and not talking about that individual because I don't know her, I haven't met her. I and I heard she's a nice girl, and I and Master Ree has a lot of respect for her. So forget about her, take her out of the equation. Can you imagine you or I or TJ, some guy comes in after three months or four months or five months and has to face one of us in the sport that we did? What would happen? So, what does that tell you?

Juan 50:24

If somebody after three she she she competed in the ultra division, she won and then she competed in the she competed in the regular division, right?

herb 50:33

And the result was the result. But I'm again not talking about her. What does it tell you about anyone? You take a ballet dancer, they come in, they learn some kicks, you put them in the arena. They can survive in today's game. They don't get killed. Could they could that have happened with you or I and my they you you've been around when they brought I went to the national championships in uh the collegiate national championships? I knocked out every opponent that I faced in the national collegiates because they didn't have the ability to stand in front of me. Knocked them out first round, first kick in one case. Now they had this one, and they had they had they they might have been training, some of them were probably blacks, so some of them probably trained in college. So let's say they trained for two or three years before they got to a guy like me. They didn't survive me. I had no obligation to be nice to them, and I wasn't nice to them. I made the referee I got home early.

Juan 51:32

Guess what? I would um the reason I bring it up is because it kind of goes back to what you said, TJ, about you know, Anastasia. We bent over backwards for this person through no benefit of USA Taekwondo. There's no benefit for us. I mean, we weren't like talking about it and building the story and building awareness and getting all of her followers. She's got tons of followers. She's done some amazing things. I heard she ran like seven triathlons and seven days in seven different continents, like something crazy. I'm like, what? That's sick. That what that's what an amazing thing. And she's so personable and stuff like that. But we rolled out the red carpet for her. I guess that's what that's where I was going with this, is it has no no impact on us as a as a sport or a movement. It only helps her and her her world. But then we couldn't do something for you know, do you know what happened to the gold manager?

herb 52:19

Do you know the the last guy? All right, let me go back just one second because I agree with you on that. But the last guy that tried this, I asked Dr. Capner about it. There was some clown that tried this, and he was gonna go to Korea, he was gonna train for a week, and then he was gonna fight the guy from Young'in University, Tay, Tae uh Young Taeho. Or some not your guy, but the other guy. This guy who's a professor now, isn't it? And you know what happened to that guy? And the guy wasn't trying to do it, he decapitated him. He was on the floor unconscious, and baby in about 30 seconds, just because the guy did regular taekwondo. And this was and the other guy that used to try to do this was Roland Osborne. And then there were those two other guys. You don't remember the TV show? Um, two get a guy from Jersey and another guy, and they would go challenge people around the world. They trained with them for a month or a week and then have a fight at the end of it. That TV show is not on anymore. You know why?

Juan 53:14

I have a I have a I have a really good friend, I mean, actually, I had a good friend back in the day, and he was the you know who it is. I'm not gonna say his name because I don't want to, because he was like literally like a point karate legend, legend, legend, legend, legend. And he tried to go to Olympic Taekwondo back in those days and got killed. I like that guy. I know.

herb 53:35

Yeah, so I mean he'll tell you that, but anyway, and he was a good, he was a good, he was a good person, TJ.

Juan 53:41

Yeah, he was great. You think good, bad, different about the YouTuber.

SPEAKER_05 53:46

Oh, you to listen. I I don't know. We're supposed to think it's cool, right? We're supposed to be forward thinking and like oh, this could boost the organization or do something. That was it's silly to me. If you want to fight someone else that don't do taekwondo, you fight someone else.

herb 53:57

But do you know who that the team do you know who the head of team was for the 88 games? The honorary head of team, Juan. Do you remember?

Juan 54:06

Yeah, uh Dr.

herb 54:07

Um No Chuck Norris. You don't remember? Yeah, no, that was 92. Oh, 92 was Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris Chuck Norris or whatever.

Juan 54:18

I'm saying that's different than yeah, but Chuck Norris was Chuck Norris, he's a badass.

herb 54:21

Chuck Marie was a real and but that by the that's a good great comparison. Chuck Norris was an actual fighter, great fighter, and a humble guy and nicest guy, as nice as Simon Ree is. And so that's a different you're right. That's different. That's a that's a bad comparison, but there are a million other people, you know. That's like I'll give you a better one, Steven Segal. Imagine if they had chosen Steven Segal.

SPEAKER_05 54:41

So I understand trying to be creative and do something, whatever, and allowing that to happen, whatever.

herb 54:47

But you don't bring attention, you bring attention to your sport by having a sport to bring attention to. You don't bring attention to your sport by doing theatrics. If you don't have anything to watch, once people get into the room and they go, What's this? I'm I'm good. Yeah, I gotta go get I gotta go watch the the paint in my living room dry because it's more exciting. So you know, but anyway, I just yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 55:13

It didn't, it didn't, it didn't, it didn't rub me the right way simply because I was there the whole week and I saw how many I saw people like uh Zuita by Anasarge be disregarded completely and not even it it's it's mind blowing to me. It it'd be like I said, it'd be one thing if she was not their girl and not in their room, and like we can kind of, you know, everyone can speculate oh they don't like each other, but this is their girl, and all of us, all these coaches, everyone's gotta be asked. I hope everyone's asking the same question.

Juan 55:36

Yeah, I'm piling on, but like there's you know a father that I really, really like, and his child is part of the national team, and that guy was walking around with the VIP pass. He was recognized, he's he's talking to the CEO, he's you know, walking in the middle of the floor. I'm just the the the irony of all this is crazy.

herb 55:55

I should show up and see if they give me a VIP pass. I got a lifetime membership. I paid for mine, baby. I paid, I paid to get in. I'm I'm a I've I I did my time. I've been on the board of directors, executive board, U.S. Olympic Committee Executive Board, their board. I've been on everybody's board. I built I built the things they stand on. If I walk in the room, they better they better recognize, they better get a chair, and I better be sitting at the head table, even though I wouldn't. They better have a table for you. Get in line, homeboy. They better have a table. They better have a table. That's all I'm saying. If I show up, they better have a chair, and it better be f there better be somebody following me, like they do with that Korean woman out here in California. When I go to sit, I shouldn't even look. The chair should be pulled out so I can sit.

Gear Mismatches And Scoring Failures

Juan 56:36

What do you think about like the tournament? Like, as far as like did you know that they were using well, I'm sure you did. They you they were using Gen 2 ho headgear with Gen 3 hogus.

SPEAKER_05 56:45

I feel like this isn't the first time. I don't I don't understand. I don't get that. This c Dado's from uh California, no?

Juan 56:52

From the USA.

SPEAKER_05 56:54

Come on. Why do you think that why do you think that is? Is it like a sizing thing? Is it like a manufacturing thing?

Juan 57:00

Like it can't be. What there's no excuse for that. The company is the company. If you can make the chess cards, you can make the headgears. And I've seen it in other places. So stop. I mean, I heard the dado gloves were not working for either the zero and the one, or both of them, or one of them. But I'm like, they made this big deal about you these kids buying these gloves that are obsolete, they're not going to be used anywhere else in the world, and they're not even working. Yeah, I heard about the ones and twos or something weird like that. I heard coaches telling me that they win three technical protests in one match because the chess cards aren't working. I'm just like, oh gosh.

SPEAKER_05 57:44

They were pretty, they were pretty bad. Like, I don't know what I don't know how we do better unless we stop using this stuff. What are we gonna do?

herb 57:54

Go back, baby.

SPEAKER_05 58:00

Get them to stop twerking and we've talked about how bad the hoguos are, you know.

herb 58:05

I don't even talk about the whole thing.

SPEAKER_05 58:07

They're all like the the system is just it's wonky. You can't tell wonky any won. It is wonky.

herb 58:15

That's the day. He's wonky.

SPEAKER_05 58:16

Wonky. It is, it's just wonky.

herb 58:18

He's been around it too long. He's like, it's wonky. It's wonky. But there are not many dentists here because there aren't many teeth. Yo, I went to a badass Korean restaurant in Charlie. I was surprised that they had a venue like that. I didn't even think they had the internet in based on TJ's quality. I'm going with Chelsea on this one. They have the internet in North Carolina. Had I known they had the internet, I wouldn't have said half the stuff I've been saying about these guys because I don't think they could even hear it. I didn't know they had the internet. I thought they were still using mail mail, not email.

unknown 58:53

Yeah.

herb 58:54

Oh, I gotta we gotta wrap it up in the next 15 or 10 because I gotta take my wife to dinner, unless I want to stay married. So what we what else do we got that we don't want to miss?

SPEAKER_05 59:05

Oh, yeah, coach.

herb 59:06

And I did tip way too much.

SPEAKER_05 59:09

Uh as per per the usual. No, I'm just kidding. Nah, I don't know. Like I said, that the system, whatever. I I'm almost as it was expectedly bad. I don't think it was outrageously that much different than as bad as it has been. It's pretty consistently bad, and it does affect the game. And I'm watching people, I'm watching people lose. My my guys are kicking people, some of my guys, some of my if I watch this imagine kicking people like in the face, like heavy shots at the end, match changing shots, round changing shots, and nothing.

Juan 59:39

You know, I don't know. I TJ, we've gotten so numb to this. I see the same thing. I saw people, you know, you're right, in third round, you know, in a close fight, and you know, headshot, headshot, and not not not a scrape, but I don't I'm talking a roundhouse kick. I'm talking an up out of I'm talking an axe kick, like mushing your face, and no points go up, and you're kind of like one, two, three. That's that's a little tough. I just I think my biggest takeaway though was just like listening for me, observing, listening to what you say, like just thinking about not the field of play, not the level of athletes, not the size of the organization, which is all the things I should be thinking about. Just thinking about people dancing, people singing, people not caring about the national anthem, like all these little things

Safety Lapses And Zero Accountability

Juan 1:00:34

where you know. I I think didn't some didn't you have a situation where you had people about to fight and there was a board breaking in the ring, and there's just woods.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:43

Yeah, there was like eight matches ran in that ring, and there was literal literal wood everywhere, like not even just like a little bit, because I can ignore a little bit, but it why should you ignore what do you we're fighting? I understand, I understand. But I'm saying if there was some I'm not I want people to understand I wasn't complaining about a little bit of wood on the edge of the ring that I could have kicked off myself. Like they had to pull out a full broom and sweep this off from all the way down the middle of the mat. My biggest issue with that, I felt bad for the lady that they walked out to. Everybody in that organization watched her go out there by herself and sweep this thing. I thought it was I don't know. One of the ladies that works with them, I have no idea. I don't know her name. Not to be rude, I just don't know her name. But um the referees that were in that ring have been there all day for eight matches. Nobody saw that, no one cared enough to say anything.

herb 1:01:31

Nah, nobody said like nobody waiting for the dance, they're waiting for the next one.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:38

I can't believe the coaches have to say nothing. I can't believe they're gonna be a chance. I don't know. Yeah, well, you know. I mean, come on. I mean, come it's not even like just about like my guys, like this. It's safety. It's under 21. This was our under-21 team trials. This wasn't even like a little kid's ring. This was on an under-21 team trials match. Eight matches had run in that ring already.

herb 1:01:58

Yeah, we're gonna do it. Tough it out, get on the wood, baby.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:01

Yeah, right. And then I got one of the that did make I had one of those referees trying to, I don't know her name either, trying to mock me. Like, is this sir uh safe for you, sir? No, I'm really being genuine. Like, I'm the problem here. Like, I'm the problem. And I'm like, and I told her, I told her same thing. I was like, You see all this wood still here, right? Yeah, so we're gonna try to fix it. But like almost mocking the fact that I'm concerned with this wood being on the floor. That's wild. No, it's the world we live in. And if you have a reaction, then you're definitely the bad guy. It it's it's it's it's insane. The the the the level of non-accountability we reach is at maximum right now in this organization. And I think people see it, I feel it, and ones that don't understand where I come from about this dancing thing and the national anthem thing, you guys don't care about this sport enough. You you can't think that was okay andor acceptable, and they were trying to rile the morale of the room up.

Juan 1:02:52

Then you but then you got people, then you got people, prominent people, like they're like, Oh, this is one of the best national since COVID. And I'm like, what are we talking about? COVID was like seven, six years ago, man. Six years ago, and I just I mean, get over it. Like, minimum standards, be professional.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:11

Yeah, there's there's there's not there's no standards, and that's that's my issue. There's no standards of anything from how it looks, how it should be. I mean, we have people at the top of the organization, including the CEO, showing everyone that they could walk around and talk and laugh during the national anthem, and then I'm in the holding area and I'm looking at kids sitting on the floor and coaches still kicking and stuff. Then what are you gonna say? I had to tell one group next to me, hey, you should tell your students to stand up for the anthem next time. They're on the floor, they're laying around, they're rolling around playing, and the coach is standing right next to them. It's just but the standards, yeah, it is on him, but the standards being set in front of the in front of this whole organization that we we don't have to respect our flag. This is curated. We're just doing a national anthem just because we're doing a national anthem.

Juan 1:03:52

So you got one group that has to clean up the professionals, we got another one that's trying to be uh propaganda machines and woe is me and how great they are, and taking pictures of themselves, and it's so funny, man. Uh it's an interesting time, guys. Interesting time.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:11

Well, let's hope I just I just as long as we hold the standard. Well, there's not many people that are gonna do it anymore. It's it's absurd. Like I said, I've never been more embarrassed. I was there too long, and I've never been more embarrassed in my life. I think I've hit my next extension of just

Speaking Up Despite Pushback

SPEAKER_05 1:04:24

TJ.

Juan 1:04:24

I heard I heard you make going back and forth with somebody you wrote a post and uh about the dancing, and I heard the uh a board member kind of got into it like why even get into it? But he did, and then going back and forth, I'm like made a cover of something like I haven't been there, it takes time to change things. I'm like, I I believe he's been a board member for at least two terms, maybe three. At least, at least, and I'm just kind of like, How long does it take? Because oh, I know what it was. It actually somebody else said, How come you don't have minutes posted this and that? And he was saying these are good questions. And I'm just kind of like, This is the problem, you're the problem. You yeah, they don't realize it. Like, what you've been there if you were in your first term, I could see you trying to, you're in your second term, but I think it's even longer. You're an active competitor in the ultras and Pumsei, and then you're just trying to make these, you know, very politically correct and nice posts. And I'm just like, uh, I know that's not the form to do things, I get it, but like when he said, Don't come in the chat, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:24

You know, I agree. You enter the you enter the chat immediately giving me, wasn't this in the morning before the tournament started? I wrote that, so you clearly didn't even read my post. That even makes me more pissed off. You hopped in the chat without reading the post. I wrote on there this was in the morning before the tournament started. So, what was the question? Are you illiterate? Like, I don't understand. I don't understand you come in trying to like say, like, make it like, oh, some I see someone trying to boost the employees and you know, give a little like, no, you're missing the point.

Juan 1:05:51

You're missing the point, and you definitely were trying to boost the employees. Stop that. Was he boosting you?

SPEAKER_05 1:05:58

Mr. Board members. I don't get it. I don't get it. It's unfortunate. It's unfortunate that we're here. And it's unfortunate that we have to come away and say these things. People won't say it. We'll say it. I'll say it. I'm going to keep saying. I'm going to keep saying until you know, turn the channel. Don't listen. It makes no difference. Because this is fact. This is real. This is happening in front of our faces. And we're allowing it to happen. And they're disrespecting people that these kids dream about being one day. Olympic gold medalists trying to be at the top of the world, disrespectful to them. What do you think they're going to do to these kids? You think they care about them, you or anyone in this organization?

Juan 1:06:29

You're silly. TJ, I I don't know if I told you this, but I had a conversation with Grandmaster, and I said something. I remember when I first got into the um AAC. I it was 1988. I went there as an alternate. I had no idea what was going on. And they they told me to come and they said it's an athlete thing. You need to come. I I went, paid my own way to California, San Diego. I remember it. By 89, I ended up being beginning on the AC AAC and you know, I had a pretty good run being a vice chair, being a USLC representative, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I remember talking to somebody around 1989 and 90, I can't remember. And I I'm gonna say the names because they don't really do Taekwondo anymore. But they were one was my Olympic teammate who got a bronze medal, uh, Greg Baker from Ohio, and the other one was married to, uh, turned out to marry uh May Payo, uh, Chris Spence. And I remember talking to them about AEC stuff and USAT stuff and how it's important. They were just listening, they're like, why do you even do that? Why, you know, why why why even bother? And I remember I was 19 years old. I'm a kid, and I'm like, this is the problem. It's guys like you, guys that are influential, guys that have that excelled at that world level, at the Olympic level, that you don't you don't speak up, you don't say nothing, you just go away. Now, I think Greg stayed in the sport for a long time, or at least in the martial art business. Chris didn't, he left and lived happily ever after, whatever. But I just remember thinking that like I remember saying, I'll never be that guy. Here I am 40 years later, talking to you two guys, and I feel the same. I'm not gonna stop talking about things until we get it perfect. Why should we? And if everyone, if no one's willing to say or have the tough conversations, they all say that bullshit. I'm willing to have tough conversations, I'm willing to work with you just because we don't agree on things doesn't mean we can't be respectful. No, suckers, you guys have been disrespectful, you guys have uh uh suspended, you guys have blocked, you guys have said on the record. Anybody with Peak, anybody with Juan, anybody with TJ, so and so and so like that's just it's wrong. So for those few comments, I will never I'll never stop. I'll never stop. I'm always gonna be, you know, I don't have to always be an asshole. I don't always have to be the bad guy, but I'm definitely not going to be afraid to speak my mind and to walk around and and and look at people in the face. And when they stick their hand out to shake my hand, I need to shake your hand. Don't don't don't humor me with how's it going? What's going on? Everything good until you change, until you fix it. There's we don't need to we don't need to do that. We don't need to do that. But just know I'll still be here. And I'll be here longer than them.

herb 1:09:23

And have been and will continue to be. Yeah. All right. Well, I think we've I think we've insulted enough people today. We're I want I want to insult

Planning A Community Zoom Call

herb 1:09:34

enough.

Juan 1:09:34

I know I know I I was thinking about something. You guys you guys think it'd be cool to do one of those Zoom calls again? Like just gonna like invite people and then I think we should.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:44

I think um some people want to, you know, a lot of things coming from nationals and talking about nationals. Well let them talk.

herb 1:09:48

They gotta talk, don't come on and talk, don't just spectate, gotta participate.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:54

Yeah, we'll we'll see who we can get through. Yeah, I I think it'll be good because you know, I I you know, people sit here and listen to us and you know talk about this and go back and forth, but these aren't even original ideas, these are things that people think, feel, and see on a regular basis and just don't don't want to question because you know they'll end up being put to the side or he, you know. I just what can we do one?

herb 1:10:13

You want to do one this week? You want to try to throw one together? Yeah, tell me, let's put it on this, put it on the site, give it up, put it up. Just don't make it Wednesday. I'll make it Thursday.

Juan 1:10:22

No, I can't do it Thursday because I have to go to Mexico on Friday morning, so I don't want to be up late. Let's I'll tell you what, let's do it on this Thursday. We'll put this thing out tomorrow. We'll put it up on a Wednesday. Or Wednesday. I'm saying no, but let's just think a Wednesday. Tomorrow we put this out, this one, and we'll start to throw some, you know, put some stuff on the on the on our social media stuff that we're gonna have a Zoom thing. And um, how will we give them the uh we'll send the link out? Okay, I'll get a link. I'll send you a link. Okay. Okay. My my personal link, they can all join us. We'll we'll post the link on on either tomorrow afternoon and and Monday and Wednesday morning.

herb 1:11:00

All right.

Juan 1:11:00

Yeah. And with that, we are out.

herb 1:11:04

Thank you, everyone. All right, good.