In the beginning, there was nothing.

And then Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked nothing in the face and told it to get a job.

Let's get started.

Welcome to the Ata Nation podcast.

Ata Nation.

Welcome back to another episode of the Ata Nation podcast.

This is episode 190.

We are thrilled to be back with you today.

As you have heard since, you know, I mean, it's world famous, the amazing, the just incredible Chuck Norris has passed away.

This has been met with, of course, much sadness, but also much joy in remembering this awesome person.

And before we go to a great clip that ATA has about Chuck Norris and his relationship with the ATA and especially Eternal Grandmaster, you can see a letter from Chuck Norris to ATA at the museum in Little Rock at ATA headquarters.

Make sure you go check that out sometime.

You don't want to miss it.

But I want to play that clip here in a minute.

But before that, we are going to enjoy a couple of Chuck Norris jokes.

Because I am absolutely certain that Chuck Norris would appreciate us celebrating his life through some of his amazing jokes.

Did you know that time waits for no man unless that man is Chuck Norris?

Did you know if you spell Chuck Norris in Scrabble, you win forever?

Did you know the flu gets a Chuck Norris shot every year?

I heard that Chuck Norris has actually been dead for 20 years and death just got the courage to tell him.

You've probably heard a bunch of these already.

If, if you haven't, you need to go read some awesome Chuck Norris jokes.

An amazing martial artist.

A amazing example of what it means to go beyond the belt.

I was watching some of my martial arts friends who had met Chuck Norris throughout the years comment about him as the they heard the news about his passing and every single one of them said what amazing person he was, how personable, how kind he was.

That is beyond the belt.

That's what we want as martial arts.

I of course saw people talking about how amazing he was as a martial artist, but more I saw talk about his character and I think that should tell us something.

Let's go to that clip real quick from Chuck Norris himself.

It's hard for me to believe that I've achieved the things I've achieved from a young non athletic boy who began in the martial arts 45 years ago.

But more important to me than all the accomplishments I've achieved as a competitor and as an instructor is the friendships that I have garnered over the 45 years in the martial arts.

This is more special to me than anything I could have ever achieved in the competitive and the teaching career.

And a lot of my very, very close friends who have passed on.

Ed Parker, Thomas La Puppet, Louis Delgado, and Grandmaster Lee, who created the American Taekwondo association, who happened to also be my first instructor when I arrived in Korea.

I miss them immensely.

How cool that eternal grandmaster was an instructor of Chuck Norris's.

I know a lot of people out there probably didn't even know that.

So neat.

What an amazing martial artist.

If you, you know, if you're.

A lot of kids these days don't know anything about Chuck Norris except for his jokes, you know, introduce him to one of his movies, you know, find episodes of Walker Texas Ranger.

That's.

I think I probably spent the most time watching Chuck Norris on that show Walker Texas Ranger, which is just a lot of fun.

That's gonna take care of that part of our show today.

Let's get in to our interview with our athlete of the week, ATA Nation.

We are thrilled to have another athlete of the week with us today.

Can you introduce yourself for us, please?

Hi, my name is Ryan Hopp and I made third view black belt.

And where are you training out of?

I am training at Mentor ETA in Ohio.

Ah, excellent.

Very cool.

Okay, so before we talk about, you know, some of your competition stuff, let's.

How did you get started in martial arts?

So I got started.

My neighbors actually did it for a while and I moved in the neighborhood and just kind of needed some friends.

So I just started when I was about three and a half or four years old.

Cool.

Did they invite you or did your parents take you right there?

See that they'd done was a little bit of both.

Like I kind of like saw them trying out some stuff and then I.

My parents decided to sign me up.

Very cool.

Seems like it's gone pretty well since then.

Mm.

Did you mention what rank are you?

A third degree black belt.

Third degree.

That's what I thought.

Okay, very cool.

And so I assume you, you're out there doing some competition.

What, what's your go to event to compete in?

Definitely sparring or team sparring.

Okay, sparring and team sparring.

What do you like about the team sparring?

I like about team sparring that I'm with my friends, I get to train with them and then we get to just test all of our skills together and just all combine and be one big team.

Yeah, I, I think team is such a neat thing because as one of the great advantages of martial arts is the individual aspect of it, but it is nice to be like part of a team as well.

So it's super cool.

Yes, sir.

How do you like combat versus regular?

You're a traditional sparring person?

I am definitely more of a traditional sparring person.

Combat is.

I'm a big fan of combat, but I'm not as coordinated with a stick in my hand that I am with my feet, so.

I understand.

Totally understand.

Okay, so if you had to pick an event that they were like, hey, no, you got to skip this event.

You'd be like, okay, I can skip this one.

What would it be?

I don't do much of creative and extreme, so probably.

Definitely one of those.

Okay.

Have you.

Have you done any creative extreme, or is that one you just like?

We'll maybe see about that.

Another?

Yeah, that's just kind of one that I've just kind of pushed aside because I'd rather just focus on the traditional.

The traditional stuff.

Cool.

Do you do a traditional weapon?

Yes, I do long range.

Okay.

Very cool.

You know what?

It seems like the last, I don't know, four years or so long range has come.

Come back with a vengeance, and I love it.

It's so cool to see.

Yeah, I agree.

I've been doing it since 2020.

One is when I started actually training it, and then two is when I started competing with it.

So I started competing with it, like the season that, like the.

Right.

The season right before it got super popular.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You see a lot more of it now.

It's great.

Except if you are one of the people walking through the rings by the springs, it's not great.

For those guys, everybody else, it's a.

It's a great weapon.

So what.

What kind of goals do you have for maybe for this season of competition or future competition?

I just want to get better as myself, as, like, an overall athlete.

Like, I've always been super sparring focused, but I've definitely tried to open up my horizon to forms and weapons.

Like, weapons.

I've just been trying to get on top 10.

Just trying to place all those tournaments and just focusing a little bit more on that than just, like, 100% sparring.

Cool.

A little diversification, Trying some new things.

Awesome.

And what about just like, as a martial artist looking to the future, what kind of goals do you have for just your.

Yourself in your training?

I want to keep, like, just teaching martial arts and just helping kids because I've always been able to help, like, teach kids and go to tournaments and see them compete.

But now, especially this tournament season, seeing them do well at tournaments really just means something to me, and it's just really awesome.

To see that I'm helping these kids to do good and, like, reach their

full potential, it's so neat.

I mean, it's one thing to do it yourself, and then to help somebody else do it is such a special thing.

So I love that.

Now we'd like to talk about all the different life skills we have in.

In Songam Taekwondo.

What?

You know, you've been doing this for a while.

What was one of the life skills that you, like, might have struggled with early on and have seen a big growth in yourself as you've, you know, got higher rank, done this longer?

I feel like, for me, that's kind of more of, like, the discipline, just because I've always been the kind of person where, like, I'm just kind of like.

I like to do a bunch of different things and, like, have like, a bunch of different things going on.

But doing martial arts has definitely helped me and taught me to, like, pick, like, a couple main things, to just focus on that and get better and to just work as hard as I can to reach those, and then I can, like, broaden my horizon and keep training towards other things as well.

Got it.

Focus in a little bit.

Have that discipline to stick with one thing for longer.

Okay, excellent.

Now, what's it mean to you to be an athlete that goes beyond the belt?

For me to be an athlete beyond the belt, it's not just being on the mat and competing for yourself, but it's about representing your school and about showing, like, the younger generations and the younger kids that with dedication and hard work, that you can achieve anything.

Like, for me, I've always been the shortest and, like, the smallest, and I was younger when I won my first world championship, so that was just something that, like, you, I like to show people that it's, like, it's not about just kind of, like, how young you are, how old you are, how big you are.

It's about how you train and that you're training, like, the right way.

I love that.

Yeah, very cool.

Well, congratulations on being chosen as athlete of the Week, and thank you so much for just being a great example for other athletes out there and keep training hard.

Okay, thank you.

Another great athlete.

It's amazing to see all the.

The talent we have in ATN Nation and how they're going beyond the belt.

I'm really thankful for our brand ambassadors who keep highlighting these individuals.

Make sure you're subscribed on YouTube to watch the shorts, see the videos, all those kind of things.

We are slowly but surely increasing that follower count.

And we would love to get ATA a silver play button.

So get out there and subscribe now, guys.

Ladies, gentlemen, don't forget Spring Nationals is around the corner.

Get signed up for your trainings.

There are so many amazing trainings.

The empower seminar.

There is the blades to the max.

There's the combat.

Like, what are the swords?

Oh, what?

What?

I don't remember the name of it, but it's one of the foam swords.

You get to do some.

Some sparring and stuff with that.

There's so many neat events you need to get signed up.

This Friday, I think is the end of regular pricing and then it goes to late pricing.

So get registered right away.

Pittsburgh is going to be a blast.

I saw a video Senior Master Shank showing off some of the places there in Pittsburgh.

My family's super excited about it.

We will be there.

Don't miss it.

Get signed up.

Register now.

Don't be late or any later than we already are.

That's going to wrap it up for our episode of the AT Nation podcast today.

I got some guests coming up.

We've got some awesome things.

Great times.

We're heading into the end of the tournament season and then the start of all the, the postseason, the district championships, world championships, getting all that going and then kicking off for a new year.

We just keep on going.

Get out there and train.

Beyond the Belt ATA Nation podcast, be sure to subscribe and share with your ATA family.