Nunn Better Podcast EP.3- Johnny & Taj Hossain "From Shy Kid to Black Belt"

Taj Hossein joins us to talk about his journey from a smaller, insecure kid who fell in love with martial arts… to a 17-year-old full-time karate instructor and competitive fighter balancing school, teaching, and training.

We get into what it’s really like behind the scenes at a long-running dojo, how martial arts builds confidence in kids (and adults), and the sacrifices that come with chasing big goals early. Taj also breaks down the black belt “candidate” program, the infamous Power Weekend, and the mindset shift he made after a tough loss—because in amateur fighting, confidence and heart can matter more than talent.

Plus: Taj shares how he’s using AI tools to structure his training camp and weight cut, and what he wants the next 5–10 years of his career to look like.

Follow / Learn More:

• Instagram: TajHossein07
• Website: bushidoacademy.com

Sponsors: Integrity Meter Solutions, Meterlink Solutions, Seating Installation Group

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello everyone, Johnny Nunn here from the None Better Podcast. And today we're re-releasing an episode we did a little while back, and his name is Tom Ashwin, he's from the Bashido Karate Academy in Panelis Park, and he's a sense day there that he's only 18 years old, training to be the fighter. So tune in. It's gonna be a great episode. Welcome back, everybody. Taj, good to see you here this morning, sir. How are you today?

SPEAKER_00 1:04

I'm doing awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

All right, great, great. So uh you uh I met you through Pasciuto Karate Academy. My daughter is uh your uh student. Yeah, she started about two months ago. She's got her uh recently got her orange belt.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

I saw today, I actually asked on an email yesterday that our orange belt testing coming in later June.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

So I mean yellow belt, I mean we like to prepare a few months. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

She's still got a couple stripes she's got to get, but she's uh working on it, she's loving it. She's having a great time. She's doing awesome. She speaks highly of you, she really likes you, so everybody, but specifically you, because you've probably dealt with the most. So uh let's just dig right in. So you've been um let's just talk a little about the origins of where you kind of started your journey and where you were happy.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Yeah, so I mean, um I've lived here all my life. Um I kind of yeah, Florida born. Love it. Um I started karate when I was probably uh I think I was 11 years old, going on 12. Um, and it was kind of just something growing up, just watching TV shows and um obviously watching karate kid and anime and stuff like that and seeing martial arts and other stuff. Just wanted to learn also being kind of a smaller, um, insecure kid, not having a lot of confidence and just wanting something to kind of boost me up a little bit and make me feel a little bit better. And so I found this place actually. Um, my uncle, um I couldn't give you an exact date. It was it was a it was a while ago when he was um a younger kid. He actually got his black belt at the same school because we've been around for 45 years, so we've been in the area for a long time. Um and my uncle actually got his black belt there too, so that kind of also was like a another draw to this school.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Um it's kind of how I got in here. So I started just like your daughter as a student in the school.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

So basically, you watched a lot of martial arts growing up, kind of got you intrigued, and then you got into it, and then you kind of fell in love with it when you got there.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

All right, all right. Exactly. So let me ask you this. So you're a 17-year-old high school student. Yeah. You're teaching full-time, teaching. You're training full-time to be a fighter. Uh tell us about how how you navigate all that. That's a lot of for a 17-year-old first of all, it's it's it's a lot for anybody.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

It's it's a lot. I'm still I'm still adjusting to it. Um, it definitely has its ups and downs of um, you know, stress levels, I could say. Um, but yeah, I mean, I'm I'm working and what's a typical week for you, like from Monday through Friday.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

I mean, obviously you teach on Saturdays too, yes?

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Yeah. So um I usually have off Fridays and Saturdays. It depends on the Saturday. Most Saturdays I end up coming in anyway for whether it's testing or some special event. And I also just like being there at the dojo. I love it. Um, but I'm usually there Mondays through Thursdays. Like you see me, I'm usually teaching from um I usually get in around 2 30 clean and I'm teaching all the way up until nine o'clock. Yeah. So I'll I'll teach for that long. And then I also like for training wise, I like to get a morning session in um just to kind of get my day going. Um it's usually a little lighter, whether it's like a a run or some pads of a coach or something like that. And then after I'm done um teaching in the evenings, I'll I'll head out to um the other gym and I'll I'll get some work in there until pretty late in the night.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

So where's the the gym you train at? Uh where's that at?

SPEAKER_00 3:50

I'm training at um MJM. It's on US 19 um off of Omerton. Um it's a newer gym, but it's definitely more fighter-oriented. Not that our school doesn't have some some tough guys in it, but uh they do, I see them. Uh yeah, some there's a lot more coaches available to um work with me at all times.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Okay, okay, okay. So let me ask you this. Um What are some of the biggest sacrifices you think you've had to make as a young athlete, first of all, to get where you're at? First of all, you just got your how long did you get your black belt? How long have you had that?

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Um it's coming up on two or three years now. Okay, okay. Yeah, so I I'm actually getting ready to go up for my second degree um later this year. Okay. Because I'm gonna be 18, so I'll be able to get up for that.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Um but so you can't get your upper degrees until you're gonna go.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Yeah, so as you go up in the degrees, there is like a zombie'cause because they don't want to be we don't want to be handing out, you know, well, I'm sure it's not an easy thing to get anyway. Yeah, it's not easy anyway, but some kids do. We'll get we'll get them as young as they can at, you know, 12, 13, and they'll end up, you know, you do have to wait a little bit as you get a little older because you don't want to hurt hand out just certain ranks, you know, they kind of lose their value if you just hand it them out.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Now that should be something that definitely aren't exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Um sacrifices that's a lot, man. Um especially as a teenager, you know, whether that's I don't I don't I don't have much of a a social life um with you know friends or a friend group outside of you know like a school group or something like that. Sure. Um so that's definitely one big thing about a sacrifice. Um all the training and stuff, I'm not I'm not home too too much. You know, I'm hoping every day. Um yeah, I'm either sleeping or eating um or going home just like I did before this to get a quick shower before I go and do something else. So definitely family time too. It it does suck sometimes, but I do still manage to get get in as much as I can.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Do you have any brothers or sisters or siblings?

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Yeah, I got I got two siblings. I got a younger sister and an older sister. Um any of them involved in martial arts? No, I've been trying to get my younger sister. Just watching you. I've been trying to get my younger sister into it, but she doesn't want to she doesn't want me teaching her. I got you. Um I think it would be too. You're really great with kids in there.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

I watch how you work with you. You're really good with them. So I appreciate that. Uh appreciate the fact that you are. My daughter loves it. But what I'll be honest, I'll tell you a true story. So when we first got there, we trained with uh uh Colin. Yeah, get to our white belt. When she went in and did that whole session, she got so intimidated she didn't want to come back. Oh I told her, listen, you owe it to yourself to at least go to a class with the kids.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

That's that's the hardest part.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

And I told her Colin probably wasn't one of good wouldn't be her normal instructor because I knew it was going to be you. I said, So you owe it to yourself to go meet your instructor, absence, whatever. And once she got in there with you, changed her mind. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

I have to tell that to adult students who sometimes come in that the hardest part about starting any sort of martial arts is literally just getting on the mat. Once you're on the mat, you're fine. It's it's literally just getting the confidence to step out there on the mat. Because it can be intimidating sometimes, especially seeing you know, some um larger dudes with belts on and um maybe some kids who are bigger than you, and you know, there's an age gap in the um the kids in in the classes, of course, but it it can be intimidating, especially as you know, a young girl just stepping out there on the mat.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Well, Scarlett's kind of shy by nature anyway.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

She's not real out there.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

I mean she's gonna be able to get it.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Most men most kids who started the dojo are very shy because you know their parents want them to, you know, get that.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

But I've seen her like the last two weeks where she's you belting the student creed loudly and she's getting more confident. I love that. I love that. And I love seeing her grow, so I'm really excited about that.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

That's my favorite thing to hear is um, you know, parents starting their kids, their kid walking in, hi, and then you know, three months later they're walking in super confident.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

And how often do you run into where I don't feel like training today, but I'm gonna train anyway.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Me personally, I I definitely have those days I'd be lying if I didn't say I think everybody does. Everybody has them. Um but to me, those are days where I personally just have to push it a little bit harder than that. Exactly. So um it's it's obviously something I'm not perfect. Um I'm still I I definitely have my down days and my up days, um, whether it's you know soreness or even sometimes overtraining and having sickness. Um, but you know, pushing through it is definitely where that that discipline, like you just said, happens. For sure, for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

All right, so let's move on a little bit. Um give me some uh well, obviously your first-degree black belt was your biggest achievement, I'm assuming. I mean obviously you had to go to the body.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

That was an awesome achievement. That was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

What did that achievement mean to you?

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Um I mean, I I don't know if you if you're too familiar with if you've heard um of the test you have to do to get your your black belt. Well, give us a little description of what that is, because I really don't know. It's pretty extreme. So I bet you you get into it, you get you you're called a candidate, kind of like a boot camp um training. It's a four month-long program, and you're there every Saturday at 6 45 a.m. Um with you know either 11-year-old to 11 years old. Like up the past one we just had last week, and we had some people, um, I think it was a group of about 15 kids and a few adults go up for their black belt. They they were doing the test, but you're going through that whole four months, and at the end of the four months, there's a there's a whole week and it's called power weekend. It's three days. It's Friday, Saturday, Sunday. That Friday night, um, it's an hour. You're literally just standing still. That's the whole hour. It's quiet. You just stand still. Every now and then they'll come and kick you in the legs, and it it's it's a lot harder than you think, especially me as like a very anti always moving around guy. I mean, you see me at my job, it's it's it's I'm very I'm a very movie guy, but standing there still, it's it's hard for an hour. Um and then the second day that you're there in the morning, um uh you got a mile and a half run, you get all your material, all your basics, and obviously a lot a lot of calisthenics and stuff mixed into that. The final day, Sunday, that's definitely the hardest day for everybody. Um it wasn't the hardest day for me personally, just because I kind of like the the grittier side of it, but um it's usually three and a push-ups. They made me do 500. And then it's um two and a half hours of sparring. Or correct me, maybe I think it's an hour and a half to two hours. I don't I don't really remember. Um, but it's it's a long time and and you're non-stop going. And then after that, it's a very rewarding feeling knowing you got through that. It's one of the hardest things. I think you'd ask anybody who goes through it, they'll tell you it's like the hardest thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

As soon as you said 500 push-ups out of the biggest.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Exactly. Anything else they do in life, it it doesn't even compare.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

I bet. Yeah, they think to be in the any kind of martial arts, but you you know, it's it's if you're really into it, it's it's hard work. Yeah. It's for yourself to I have a friend of mine who's uh he's I I know he's in jujitsu and he's some other, he's got a black belt on a couple of those, but he's been training for 30 years to get where he's at. And because of course in jujitsu, they don't pass out black belts or easily at all. Jutsu gotta be in the black.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

Much much longer ranking.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Yeah, so he's to get a black belt in jujitsu, he's been there a long time. He's an instructor. That's a lot of dedication. He's an instructor, I wasn't. He's moved to Costa Rica since then, but uh a good friend of mine. But uh, I would ask you this who's been your instructors or who's worked with you over the kind of the years that you've been building?

SPEAKER_00 10:16

I I've had so many people. Um is Mr. Brewer as he part of your instructor? Yeah, yeah, mr um Mr. Brewer, obviously my boss, but he's also um a big role model in my life. He definitely helps me with my especially my karate training and making sure uh the the scene on the mat, my instructing is good. Um he's a very good instructor. If um Scarla ever gets a chance to get taught by him, which she will, he usually teaches a little bit higher up in the ranks. Media labels. Um yeah, but his instructing is very well, and then he's he's also very um just his mindset on martial arts is also very good, especially in karate. Um, but I I actually started with another instructor, um Sentei Lai. You may have seen him once or twice, he's a very tall gentleman. He comes in in the evenings and teaches. I see a lot of people come in and out. Unfortunately, I don't know who there's a lot of people. Um he's he's got this mustache, but I started with him when I first started. Um and he's kind of been my main instructor. I would stay with him after classes because the teen classes are the last classes of the night. Um, we'd clean the dojo, we'd get some extra training together, and I I still work out with him a few times a week. So he's definitely been um probably the biggest um you know role model and support system I've had in the dojo.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Uh he's that's uh I guess I've I've seen a bunch of guys coming in there, got all over all the different meetings. There's quite a few guys. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Uh so but just watching everybody come in is pretty exciting. I've said I've never been involved in karate, I've always watched the karate kid.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

There's so much, there's so much more that goes into the dojo behind the scenes, so many extra people who are helping us out all the time. Um people who are even volunteers, just black belt who just love the stuff.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

So when I see like some of the uh the kids that come in there from uh either advanced or media class helping you, is that like even some of the is that part of their training or is that something they volunteer to do?

SPEAKER_00 11:48

So there's a there's a separate program they can do, but it also comes with extra classes. So once a month we'll do a meeting with them where they we get to teach them kind of how to become an instructor. And it's kind of how I started in that program, just learning how to teach, because not everybody can teach. Teaching's not for everybody. Some people can't do it, but if you learning how to do it and getting better at it, like you know, you can't just tell a kid they suck and get better. Yeah, they're not gonna get better. Yeah, you have to know how to properly.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

No, sure. You're talking, especially kids. I mean, yeah. Some kids are very sensitive as well. Very sensitive. And some are, you know, some are great, but some are just super sensitive, and you kind of have to navigate through all those personalities, especially in a class where you're going from what's your class from six or seven to what?

SPEAKER_00 12:23

So we have um four through six year olds in one class, and then seven and eight-year-olds through eleven year olds in one class, and then twelve and up as well.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

So seven-year-old and eleven-year-old, there's areas of different mentality. There's a lot, there's a lot different. So you have to navigate through those.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

I can I have to talk to a seven-year-old different than I do for 14-year-olds. It's yeah, every every kid level you have to talk to a lot different.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

I understood. So I got a question for you. So I think you mentioned you've had some injuries and things to do as to what kind of injuries have you sustained in this.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

I've never had any super serious injuries, but it's been a lot of minor things. I didn't break it. I thought I did. I got kicked right in the nose. I took a front kick straight to the nose. And I I went to the hospital because I thought I thought I had to break it. It was swelling up, I was bleeding a ton. It was horrible. But things like that, like right now, if I get hit in the nose, it's uh my eyes are gonna water up. Sure, sure, sure. I'm gonna I'm gonna look a little silly. But um things like you know, just rolling your ankle and you keep rolling it, or you know, just stiffness in your body. I have a lot of shoulder problems, especially just from you know, punching so much. I I it's kind of sad to say, but at a young age I have a lot of shoulder problems. But it's very common in the martial arts as like you progress to kind of just build up these injuries, especially guys as they get older, like hips will go out, shoulders will go out just from training.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

What kind of um um obviously you probably do some sort of workout training. Do you do a lot of flexibility training at all?

SPEAKER_00 13:36

I I I I do. Um I put it off a lot when I was um I don't want to say young, I'm still young, but obviously when I was like, you know, 12, 13, I didn't really care about flexibility. No, no kidding. As I've gone up and I've my body's matured more and I've I've grown a lot more and I've put on a little more muscle. I've definitely definitely been focusing on flexibility. I make sure I stretch morning and night. As a former athlete, I can tell you flexibility is key for injury. Uh especially in martial arts. You know, I need to be able to get my leg up and pop somebody in the head if I need to. Sure. Um and also, you know, teaching. I don't want to be super stiff all day. Um, because trust me, after that whole day of teaching and training, my body is done. It's tighten up. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

It's ready to relax, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Um you have a tournament coming up.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

I do. And when is that? Is it in June or July? It's um June 18th through the 22nd.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

June 18th, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

So it's coming up pretty soon. It's it's pretty soon. I'm about four or five weeks out now.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

So and what uh so you're going to this well, how big is this tournament? Like what what is it? Is it under 18 tournament?

SPEAKER_00 14:34

So it there's it's all ages. Okay. Over fifty, there's um under eighteen, there's over eighteen. There's there's all ages in this tournament. And it's probably, excuse me, the um largest combat sports tournament in America. It's it's it's funny you said Iowa.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

I wouldn't think Iowa would be the place for that.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

My mom said that too. She was like, why Iowa? Iowa, like I see Florida. I really think it's because every state has different rules. Sure. And I think um they're able to get around some of those rules in Iowa, because Florida rules are a lot different. And then um, you know, Iowa we have to do. I don't think in Florida you could you could you'd be able to do what they do where you fight, fight, fight, fight every day. Yeah, yeah. I think it's I think I don't don't quote me on it. I know the rules and sanctioning and stuff are a little bit different from state to state.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

So I was probably like, we have no way we're coming here, so come on.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Yeah. Nothing going on there.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

What uh do have you ever been to a tournament before? Have you competed before?

SPEAKER_00 15:21

I've I've competed in um jujitsu tournaments. I've had a um a kickboxing match and I've had a youth MMA match. I've kinda got a I've kind of gotten screwed over in my past two matches. Um the first match I ever had was a youth MMA match, and it was I was preparing for a kickboxing match, because I have I do I do train in jujitsu as well, um, but I haven't had enough to where I'm like confident in there to wrestle and stuff like that. But I was preparing for a kickboxing match and last minute um it got changed over to a youth MMA match. So I don't know if you're familiar with that what that means. No, I'm not. Um it's MMA, but you can't strike to the head. Okay. So I was like, what is this? This is ridiculous. What am I doing here? Um I lost that one by decision. Um I wasn't upset with it because, you know, I was like, whatever, that was fun. Um I was I was probably about two years ago now. And then about a year ago, I had a kickboxing match. Um didn't go my way. I got finished in the second round. And I'll be honest, it was it was a mental thing. And that's kind of where I I took my next step in training, and I I kind of upped it a lot. And I've been focusing a lot more on, you know, the mental side lately.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

You said mental thing. I would think to do what you do, you have to have a lot of mental toughness.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

A lot of mental toughness. And like I just didn't do anything to help with uh your mental capacity, like to really get uh I mean I I think what it really was is this the first time I did it, I I wasn't confident in myself. I knew watching that fight back, I watch it back all the time. I was the better fighter that day. I was more skilled, I had the better technique, I was smarter than that guy, but in the end, he he was just he was more confident in himself, and that's all it is. When you when you get especially amateur fighting, um I I've been told it by so many coaches, they all say it's not about you know who's who's better or who's faster, it's literally about who has more heart in there, who wants it more. I agree. And part of that mental toughness has kind of just been um making sure I'm doing everything I need to. You know, the confidence is made in the training. You know, so if I'm making sure there's a saying, you know, no stone unturned. So in this fight camp, I am making sure like there's nothing I'm not doing. I'm doing all the running I need to, I'm doing all the lifting I need to, I'm doing all the training I need to, you know, I'm making sure I'm I'm leaving you know nothing behind this time. Because I mean I'm 17 and I like to have an under 18 title and then next year go for you know an 18 and up title and fight some adults. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Well, I I'm I'm I'm excited to see where you go with this. I'm glad to watch how your career uh I'm excited as well. What did um so you let's let's fast forward 10 years from now. Where do you see yourself? I even thought that far ahead?

SPEAKER_00 17:44

I I I do think about it sometimes. 10 years from now, I I'd love um, you know, to be or even five years from now. Five years from now. Yeah, I'd love to be at a much higher level, of course. Um, but I've also I I like to have a couple um, you know, I'd like to I'd probably still like to be amateur by then because I'll still be very young. Yep. A lot of people don't go pro until you know their later 20s. People like to stay amateur and just get their record up a ton. But I'd love to um, you know, hopefully have a couple titles under my belt. Um definitely rack up the record a lot, whether that's wins or not, you have big ambitions. I have a lot of big ambitions that's good.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

I I'll tell you something I learned a long time ago. Um, if you're gonna go, go big. Exactly. Dream big at least. Yeah. Because what happens? You get a big, big, big, big dream, right? Yeah. Maybe you don't get the top, but you if you set your bar low, then you're gonna set your bar really high. And if you don't hit it, that's awesome because you're still gonna hit way over what you may have thought.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

Yeah, I've been told by so many people, you know, what whatever you want to do, you better go do it if you really want to do it.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

So it won't it won't happen by itself.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Exactly. You can't, it's not just gonna happen. For sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Let's switch a little bit on your thing. You mentioned you liked AI. So give me some information about what AI you've been doing with. What have you been doing with AI, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

It's funny. I've actually been using it to structure my training camp. I've been I've been having it help me. So I have a weight cut coming up for this, of course, and I've been helping it with, you know, um, you know, give me a calendar for where I need to be in my weights to kind of keep me in track. Um even things at the dojo, I've been I've been using it to kind of automate certain things that I need to do. AI. Exactly. I I kind of recognize it's a format. Yeah, you know it. Um but yeah, literally things like that. Um curriculums. I, you know, I'm putting in what I want and it's giving me it just like that. I love that. How it can just create documents like that. So fast or calendars, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

So fast on what uh give you prom odd is. I'm sure it probably gives you a whole strategy, like from A to Z to what you want to do. And of course you just kind of cater to yourself that.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Yeah, and then even like um on the mental side, this sounds kind of this sounds kind of funny. It's kind of embarrassing to say this. If I have an off day, I'm like, motivate me. And if you're motivating me, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

My guy next door here, he works for me as another company, and he talks to like when he's having a down day, he'll talk to Ayan, and I hope it'll boost him up. It'll lift him up. The voice that's kind of creepy. It's a little scary. It is, but uh it's funny that it will, you know, be it'll motivate you. It'll it'll talk to you like that.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

I'll be like, hey, I don't want to run. It's like you gotta run, you're gonna lose. Get your shoes on. Get your shoes on and go. All right, that's what I need. You know, because I don't you don't always have that that coaching your ear um at all times. Sometimes it's just me in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

It's getting in the car and go and you in your head. Exactly. I play basketball, girl. I played a lot of sports, baseball and basketball and sports growing up. So I understand the uh and I played at a high level. I played through high school, I played a little bit after high school. I played until I was about 30 actually, but and then I coached baseball with my son for 10 years. So I understand about discipline and sports, the the like it doesn't happen unless you do it. It's necessary to be the best to who you are. You have you literally have to work day and night. Exactly. Talent can only take you so far. Yeah, you talent's great, but the work ethic is where it comes in.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

If you don't work hard at it or you just kind of lack the data, it'll show in what you do.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

100%.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

So uh I try to put my best foot forward on everything that I do. Yeah, and not everything sticks, that's how it works, but you always try your hardest, uh, put that best, you know, leave it out on the on the on the mat, if we call it or on the on the on the exact one.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

I'm leaving I'm leaving.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

We walk off there, you have no regrets, like I gave you my best, and whatever happens, you're still gonna be okay with the outcome because you know you did your best.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

100%.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

So that's that that's cool to hear that. Um we're getting toward the end here, so I want to ask a couple more things. Um, what makes Boshido Economy special? Like what draw drew you to Bushido? Was there anything particular? Was it the Dojo Master or the Sensei?

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Um the first thing was uh I said at the beginning, my my uncle was a black belt when he was a kid there. Um so I was kind of thinking, it was it was a family thing also. But um also I got there, and this is what I always try to give every student um that comes in the same experience that I got when I started, you know, the welcoming experience, the wanting to come to class every day, um, the energetic classes, the confidence boost, the you know, feeling you're getting better every class. Um that's definitely something that that pulled me in there, and that's also the same thing I'm trying to pull them in with um as well. It's the same thing I got pulled in with.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

I get you. I guess I'm pretty excited about like I said, I never been involved in a karate before, so being there with Scarlett. And I love I actually look forward to coming to this probably more than she does because I come up watching and I'm going home, like I'm trying to learn the moves and all this stuff. I know the crazy. What's this whole thing? What's it's I call it a cadence, but it's probably got a proper name to the whole um when they're learning that beginning uh that's called the um the tewaza.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

So it's just 27 motions. It's not it's not an actual form, I think, but it's literally just uh teach them the basic motions.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

So um what is it called again?

SPEAKER_00 22:11

The the tewaza.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Tewaza.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

Okay. Yeah, she's called 27 hand motion.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

But uh, I kind of like a cadence because they're doing this whole little thing. Yeah, that's what I call it because I didn't know what it was called in the beginning. But she's uh come home and she's working on thing every day. That's all she got it. So she's uh I said when she tests or orange buttons, uh, I think I'm gonna get it. Said, nah, you've been working too hard. I know you're gonna do this.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Yeah. Um yeah, so we with the basic class we do teach them, you know, like you're saying, uh, the Tewaza and all the motion. We're just trying to get them, you know, basic punches, basic kicks. But as she goes up in the immediate class and advanced class, she gets to start putting on gloves and actually sparring with people because you know, we don't want to just throw them out there immediately and start sparring. We want to let them build their confidence.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

Maybe, maybe. Hopefully not.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

For sure, for sure. Well, Thai, thank you for watching us again today. I want to thank our sponsors, which is integrity meter solutions, meter link solutions, and seating insulation group. Taj, you want to plug in your info for social media stuff you have for us and uh Boshido product?

SPEAKER_00 23:03

Uh definitely follow me on Instagram, Tosh Hossein07, um, or um look up our Boshido website, Boshidoacademy.com. Um, our phone number and our email and stuff are on there, all the inf information. Um, whether they're interested in um lessons for their child or yourself, um, you can find it there and give us a call.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

And we'll make sure we'll plug it all in the on the show if I look for the link for that. So glad you came because we had a great conversation. Maybe we can have you on again after the show, after your fight. That'd be awesome. Let us know what's what happened and with the belt a while on your mouth. Let us know how things went. But guys, we appreciate it. Uh, if you listen to the song today, it's going to be actually it's the student creed of the of the dojo that we kind of made a song format for him. So uh we'll give him that and for the kids to learn and have fun with that or whatever you want. But uh we appreciate you joining us today and uh look forward to come back and until then think about it.