It's freezing here.

But let's talk Spring Nationals.

Let's get started.

Welcome to the ATA Nation Podcast.

Students, instructors, parents, masters, grandmasters of Songam Taekwondo, welcome Back to the Ata Nation podcast.

This is episode 185.

I am your host, Senior Master Zach Hayden, and I'm thrilled to be back with you today.

Even though it's like four degrees outside where I am, it's nine degrees.

I lied, guys.

I'm so sorry I lied, but it feels negative 11.

Negative 11.

Okay, but today I want to talk a little bit about Spring Nationals because if you're not making your plans now, you might miss out on this amazing event.

And I am super excited to be going to St. Louis, Missouri.

Guys, if you haven't been to St. Louis, I've been there before.

I got to go in an eighth grade class because we read Tom Sawyer and Huck Ben and we went and saw some things and we went to the Arch.

You got to go check out the Arch.

My brother tells me every, like, all the time if I mention St. Louis, that you got to go to this really cool kids museum there.

I've forgotten the name of it.

Don't tell my brother.

But it's going to be a great time there in St. Louis.

So I wanted to go over kind of the schedule real quick with you guys because this has been posted online.

I know January is.

We're in the middle of January coming to an end.

Tournaments are starting to kick back up and we're all going to be getting busy.

I'm busy already, man.

I've been doing so many things.

But as we get busy, we might forget to book that hotel to register for the tournament to get our seminars.

So I wanted to hit those a little bit for you before we got to our athlete of the week.

This is in April.

It's not the weekend of Easter this time.

It's going to start on Wednesday, April 8, with some Mastership training.

This is for the new Master's candidates, Master nominees, and of course, current Masters can always attend.

Okay.

But this is the one that the new people who are getting ready to train for Mastership need to go to for their titles.

So make sure if you're in that list, you book.

Okay.

And then they had the traditional gumdo testing.

Now, we hinted at this last week, some new stuff coming with the gumdo.

Pretty cool.

So on Thursday, then we kick off the day with a bunch of great training.

If you've not taken the opportunity to do some training at one of the national or world events, you need to do this.

Okay, this is on Thursday, so you can really still make a quick trip of it.

You know, go Thursday or go Wednesday.

Be there Thursday, Friday, Saturday, come home, you're set.

Especially for a lot of us in the middle of the country, we can drive to St. Louis and so it might take even a little less time.

So on Thursday though, it's going to start with a classy tournament.

So a seminar from the tournament staff about how to run a good class C tournament.

How to do this.

I don't know if your school is having class C tournaments, but mine is.

We love them.

They're so much fun.

A great way to introduce yourself and your students to competition and you want to take advantage of that.

So that's a good one.

Legacy Program Enhancements.

I'm going to get Chief Master Skiles to talk about a couple of these these on a future episode.

But this one is called Class Planning for Success.

We'll ask him about that one by anything from the training department talking about legacy enhancements.

I'm really excited about this.

Has got some neat things in it, I'm sure.

PPCT Competitives.

PBCT Pressure Point Control Tactics.

This is again the, the amazing Grandmaster Caruso teaching this.

You can't go wrong with that.

Great self defense training.

You're going to want to check that out now.

ATA Max Train Rep Win.

This is a series one dynamic hand.

So really working those hands.

Okay.

This is going to have 10 dynamic hand combinations, three basic, three intermediate, three advanced and one pro.

I like.

I went to an ATMX training at fall nationals and I loved it.

This is one I might, you might see me in this one just to bring more stuff back for my students.

Then we've got the ATA sparring from beginner to champion and the ATA Combat sparring from beginning to champion.

Excuse me.

Those are.

Most of these are for ages 13 and up and open to licensees legacy members and some of them open to any ATA member.

So make sure you check those out.

ATA Black Belt Weapons Training.

Now this is competition rank required for each weapon to participate.

So they're going to have a series of the instructors there.

There's like somebody from the protect staff for each of those main weapons and they're going to be working on the.

The forms training clarifications in four different ATA weapons.

So you want to.

Want to check that out.

We'll see if we can get a little more info for you on that one as well.

There's a day two of mastership training.

This looks like uh, It's a, you know, the second day of that big old training.

For those going for mastership this year, another seminar, it's a little bit.

It's hidden.

It says new member seminar to be announced.

So we'll get more information on this one.

I'll let you know about it.

I'm always interested in hearing some great things from there.

Legacy program enhancements, teaching life skills in Songam Taekwondo.

The training staff is amazing, so I'm sure this one will be awesome.

A business seminar that day as well.

That's to be announced and I can't wait to hear about that.

Then we've got Songam forms.

Detailed review of Chunghae, the fifth degree black belt form.

That's a great one.

If you are obviously a fifth degree or higher, you're going to want to check that out.

Make sure you get those cleaned up.

Important technique clarifications.

Right from the source of headquarters, a returning favorite, the empower seminar.

A women's only training experience.

This is going to be that Thursday three to five.

Okay, three to five.

Put it on your calendar, ladies.

I think this one was like gigantic last time, so you are not going to want to miss that.

They're going to have some great training staff there.

Awesome thing.

Another new member seminar, probably the same one repeated.

We'll let you know more about that.

Let's see, that's going to.

That looks like it's about all of the events.

Oh, wait, no.

The future of martial arts schools.

Harnessing AI to grow and scale.

And I've been digging into AI some cool stuff.

We've been talking about that on our licensee only podcast where we do live every other Tuesday for our ATA licensees.

Business beyond the mat.

And you're not going to want to miss that from Chris Rodriguez.

Great stuff there.

And then they're doing a coaches certification.

So if you need to add some more team coaches for your teams, you're going to want to make sure you sign up for that.

You know what I feel like that's going to get.

There's going to be a lot of guy coaches in there because the ladies are all going to be at the empower her seminar.

Judges certification, Chevron going on then.

Here we go, guys.

Ooh, some amazing things.

We've got blades to the max.

This is an ATA Max seminar.

It's going to be sword and comma, working on those blades, new learning new combos, flashy tricks and battle ready performance skills.

So blades to the max and then the ATA clash of blades gumdo combat.

All right.

Gumdo combat.

This is going to be open to all ATM members ages 8 years and older.

This is an introduction.

Let's see what it says.

Experience gumdo like never before with this debut combat style seminar featuring padded swords with partner drills.

Learn how to safely introduce dynamic high energy combat training that boosts excitement, control and confidence in your students.

Bring your sparring gear, your padded sword.

Your padded sword is provided and prepare for controlled chaos.

That's pretty good.

That sounds pretty awesome.

And then of course we have our licensee reception that evening on Thursday.

Then guys competition starts Friday with testing and regular competition stuff and then Saturday.

So um, I just wanted to give that to you early, make sure that you are going and checking those things out.

If you have specific seminars you have some questions on, let me know.

Reach out to us on social media, on Instagram specifically.

Be great and we will talk to the training department.

Have somebody come on from that specific seminar and talk a little bit about what they are providing, what they're showing, what they're doing there.

So you know exactly what kind of event you are signing up for when you go and train.

But I'm going to tell you, if you go to spring nationals or any of the nationals or world events and you don't sign up for one of these amazing seminar training things, you're missing out.

I mean you're missing out a big part of going to one of these national events, going in training with some of the top instructors in the world.

You don't want to miss it.

So make sure you get signed up for that.

Okay, let's get to are athlete of the week ATA Nation.

We have another awesome athlete of the week with us.

Can you introduce yourself for sir, My.

Name is Logan Hocktail.

I'm a second degree black belt from New Bern, North Carolina under Master John Cook.

Excellent.

Okay, so before we get to all the fun stuff, how's your holiday season been?

It's been pretty good.

New Year's went pretty swell.

We didn't do much, but I spent time with a lot of family.

It was pretty nice.

Excellent.

Got anything good?

Do you have any Christmas presents you got this year?

Any cool stuff?

I got a lot of Christmas presents.

I got a lot of Legos that I built.

What's your, what's the best LEGO kit you got this year?

Probably the biggest one I got was probably the Harry Potter castle.

Oh, nice.

I like it.

Very cool.

Okay.

So sir, how did you get started in martial arts?

What?

You said.

How old were you again?

11.

11.

How did you get Started martial arts.

How old were you?

So I was about 7,6ish years old.

And I actually started because one of my friends did taekwondo and it was a bring your friend to class and I he brang me to and that's how I started.

I love that at nation.

See this right here, we got an athlete of the week who came in from a buddy day.

So make sure you are inviting your friends to Taekwondo with you because you could change somebody's life like this.

Now here's a question.

Is the friend who brought you to Taekwondo still in Taekwondo?

No, I don't see, isn't that crazy?

He brought you.

You're now like an amazing black belt, right?

What, what rank did you say were?

Second degree.

I'm really bad at remembering.

This is awful.

I'm so sorry.

Second degree black belt.

You started because a friend brought you guys.

Invite your friends to martial arts.

Okay, so second degree black belt started from a buddy day.

What?

Like if we're looking at competition, I see you have a few medals behind you.

One or two.

So it looks like you're, you're a competitor.

What's your favorite event at a tournament.

To compete in Extreme forms.

Extreme forms.

Okay, very cool.

Have you always done extreme forms or did you start that a little later when you were black belt or what made you think of, hey, extreme forms.

I want to do this.

So I started competing in XMA and creative and extreme around when I got my first degree because it was fun thing to do.

I saw a lot of people doing it and I really liked it.

What's your favorite thing about doing an extreme or creative competition?

Probably doing the flips and cheering other people on when they're doing their forms.

And it's fun making up your own form.

Yeah, that's pretty awesome.

Do you do extreme weapons as well or creative weapons?

I do extreme weapons, Extreme forms, creative weapons and creative forms.

Okay.

What weapon are you using then?

For my extreme weapon, I use the commas and for my creative weapon, I use the nunchucks.

Oh, different.

And each one.

What made you do choose to do something different with each of them?

So I change it a lot because I like messing around with new weapons.

I just started doing the commas.

Okay.

Okay.

I love that, you know, get it, keep it fresh, try something new, see what feels good.

Okay.

If you had to pick an event at a time that was like maybe not your favorite event, what would that be?

Probably sparring.

Yeah.

Not your, not your favorite.

What about combat sparring?

How.

What do you feel about combat spring.

I really like combat sparring, but I don't like sparring.

No, not your favorite.

Okay, no problem.

We understand that.

That's okay.

Okay, so what kind of, what kind of goals do you have for your.

Maybe let's go with composition first.

What kind of competition goals do you.

Do you have?

As we're looking at 20, 26, what are you aiming to try to achieve this year?

I want to get a district title on combat sparring.

Excellent.

Good.

Have you, have you achieved in the past, have you got a district or state title or world title before?

I have two district titles.

I have one in Creative forms and one in weapons.

Okay.

Okay.

Very cool.

And this will be.

So this will be your first time if you get the title in combat, it'll be your first combat title.

Very cool.

I love that.

Expanding your goals a little bit.

Very cool.

What about for your.

Maybe if we're not looking at a tournament, but just your, your personal training, do you have any goals for your, your own training as a second degree?

I want to make third degree probably next year, most likely, and I'm gonna have to wait a long time to be a fourth degree, but I want to keep training.

And during that period of time, what kind of.

Do you have any long term goals for your martial arts training?

Like, you know, own a school, be a master, anything like that?

I want to become a master and own a school.

Excellent.

I love to hear that.

Fantastic.

Are you in the legacy program yet?

Yes, sir.

Good deal.

Fantastic.

Okay, so what about your, you know, you're thinking about being, you know, this athlete.

What have you gained from your martial arts training that you've been able to use outside of the school?

I've gained a lot of respect and discipline and perseverance.

I love that.

What.

Maybe if you're looking at the life skills, what's the, the life skill that you were like?

Oh, that's the one I probably needed to work on the most.

Discipline.

Hey, I hear you, man.

I just had a Reese's Pieces cup and.

Or a Reese's cup and I probably shouldn't have, but I did need more discipline.

Okay.

Hey, Logan, what does it mean to you to be an athlete that goes beyond the belt?

To me, beyond the belt means that Taekwondo isn't about the color around your waist.

It's.

It's about how I use what I've learned in Taekwondo outside of the dojong.

100%.

That's fantastic.

What a great example.

I really appreciate your time today and also congratulations so much on being one of the athletes of the week.

Good luck for an awesome 2026.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen.

I am going to encourage you to get out there, set your goals, and that way you are training like a champion beyond the belt, making sure that you are hitting tournaments, working hard in training, diving into that legacy curriculum so that you can model what we have here with our athletes of the week that we're showing each week and really make a difference, really inspire the next generation, make a difference in your community.

I want you to take action this week, all right?

We talked about the events of Spring Nationals.

We had our awesome athlete of the week on.

Um, but it's really important that we take action on the things that are going to help us become better people.

We want you to step up and take action.

Go beyond the belt.

When you're at a tournament, when you're in your Taekwondo school, when you're walking around your community, what can you do to show that black belt attitude to.

To show what Sangom is really about?

I'm going to challenge you this week.

If you haven't set your goals for the new year, make sure you go back to that episode.

We talked about goal setting a couple of weeks ago.

Sit down, write those goals out.

That's the challenge.

A lot of us don't, you know, we think about it.

We think, okay, these are my goals, but do you write them out?

And that's how we're going to take action, move forward and, you know, just change the world through Songam Taekwondo the way Eternal Grandmaster wanted us to.

That's going to wrap it up for our episode this week.

I'm excited.

I've got some great things coming.

Podcast has had some.

You know, we've.

We haven't had quite as many of our guests that are athletes of the week recently.

And I'm going to get on that.

I just.

To be 100% honest with you guys, we've got some really neat things that we're working on for the licensees with the licensee podcast.

And so I've been putting some extra time over there.

I want to make sure that we're showing you guys the same kind of love as well.

Let me know who you might want to hear from, who you might want to talk to.

I know know I owe the awesome people from Alaska a great episode with those who are there for the Songam Academic program.

And I just saw a thing come out about the 2006.

2006, 2026 Songam Academic Program in Whale Pass, Alaska.

And we're gonna have some parents on talking about that because it's an opportunity that I think you totally might want to take advantage of.

So we're got more coming.

Hit that subscribe button, get your friends to follow, let us know who you want to hear on the show and we will see you next week.

Get out there and go beyond the Belt ATA Asian podcast.

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