Back from Texas and ready for more athletes.

Let's get started.

Sir.

I will live with perseverance in the spirit of Taekwondo, courtesy for fellow students, integrity within myself and to become a black belt leader.

Welcome to the ATA Nation podcast.

Students, instructors, parents, families, masters, grandmasters of Songam Taekwondo.

Welcome Back to the Ata Nation podcast.

This is episode 146 of the podcast.

It is a joy to be back with you today.

We got back from Spring Nationals.

What do you guys think?

It was a great time in spring that my first time to the Dallas Fort Worth area for nationals.

I know it was a little later in the year which was a little discombobulating because like we you're going and like get back and we've got like just a week of not a week, like two, three weeks and then tournaments are over and it's time for districts, it's time for Worlds.

But the events there in Fort Worth were fantastic.

Some really neat things going on.

The licensee reception talked about some of the stuff.

I don't know if you guys saw it on the social media, but the ATA being able to be part of the the Special Olympics for Taekwondo, a dream that eternal Grandmaster had years and years ago, finally came true.

Today not possible.

Tomorrow possible.

We'll have more on that story in the future.

We're going to have.

You can listen back as we talked in a in a previous episode about Special Olympics and the ata.

We'll have that in the future as well.

They did not announce the location for the next Spring Nationals because I don't believe it is in Texas again.

But we'll see so stay tuned for that.

I'm sure ATA will be announcing, but they did announce registration open for World Championships.

You do not want to miss out on World Championships in Phoenix, Arizona.

Amazing time.

The training registration is open.

Competition registration is open.

Don't forget that World Championship is actually two big tournaments.

You've got the Tournament of Champions the end of the season, that is you have to qualify for that if you haven't been part of the understanding the tournament circuit that you have to qualify for.

And then the Super 20 is the new season's kickoff and any person can compete in that.

My wife, the first tournament she ever did was a Super 20 as a white belt.

So you can get out there and compete right away.

Cool things come in.

But let's get into talking about our.

Athlete of the week special guest interview.

Hey, ATA Nation.

We are super excited to have with us another awesome athlete, Mr.

Rylan Gossett.

How are you Today, sir, I am doing quite well.

How are you, sir?

I am wonderful.

It's so nice to talk to another one of these awesome athletes out there.

Before I ask you a couple questions, can you just tell us where, where you train, who your instructor is?

So I train at Cox Martial Arts in Magnolia, Texas, and my instructor is Mr.

Cox, sir.

Oh, great guy.

Excellent.

How's the, how's the weather there in Texas today?

Is it warm, cold?

What's it like?

It's quite cold, but it's pretty sunny out, so.

Oh, yeah, beautiful day.

Nice.

Excellent.

All right, cool, cool.

So what, what rank are you, sir?

I'm a second degree black belt, sir.

Second degree.

Fantastic.

Well, so you are an awesome athlete.

Super inspiring to see you guys out there.

You were chosen by the brand ambassadors to be one of the athletes of the week.

What's your favorite?

Like, if you had to pick an event at a tournament that was like, this is the event that I have to do no matter what, what event would that be?

Probably extreme weapons, sir.

Extreme weapons.

And what's your weapon of choice?

Song nuts.

Oh, Song knots.

Very good.

You like to spin those things, catch them and try to.

Oh, yes, sir.

Spin them, like, hit the ceiling tiles and then come down and try to catch them and.

Nice.

Awesome.

Well, what if.

So I asked one of the other athletes this, and I don't.

You know, we all know we love Taekwondo.

We love all the things in Taekwondo.

We don't like to think of anything as bad necessarily, but if you had to pick one event that you were like, you know what?

I'm not going to do that one this time.

I'm not allowed to do one event.

What event would be the first one that you'd be like, no, I will skip that one.

I would have to say combat sparring, sir.

Really?

Yes, sir.

That is fascinating.

Okay, excellent.

You just don't.

Hitting people with that stick is just not your go to, huh?

No, sir, not necessarily.

Well, that's fascinating.

I love.

I, I think what's neat to hear from athletes is, you know, we do all these different things in martial arts and everybody has something that they gravitate towards and something that, you know is a little harder for them or is a little less enjoyable for them.

But we're all TR.

In all the things and it's okay to have different things that we like and different things that are a little more struggle for us, you know, that's just the way it is.

Competed in any big tournaments recently?

Well, I'm.

We had the Texas Twister but not necessarily any big national type tournaments.

Well, couple of weeks, it'll be down there in.

In Fort Worth, right?

Yes, sir.

Nice, easy trip for you.

All right.

Do you guys drive to that?

Do you.

You guys really close?

I don't know.

Texas is like the size of, you know, half of the country, so I don't know how close you are to Fort Worth.

2 hours, 3 hours, 5 hours, 10 hours.

We're around 2 to 3.

Oh, that's not bad.

Possibly.

Oh, that's not bad.

Depending on traffic.

Yeah, well, traffic, of course, that.

That is always the thing.

Always the thing.

Well, so one of that I love to ask our athletes as we're highlighting them, is what does it mean for you to be an athlete that goes beyond the belt?

For me, it means, like, everything, because I see all these people becoming athlete of the week, and I'm like, I want to be them.

I want to be an athlete beyond the belt.

So it just.

It doesn't mean just on the mat, but also, like you said, athlete off the mat, and it's just so wonderful.

Oh, that's.

That's great.

I am.

You know what I love is getting to see kids like you be highlighted because ATA nation is made up of so many amazing athletes, and it's hard to, you know, get to see all of them.

You know, like, there's just so many out there that it's super cool that the brand ambassadors have been choosing people like you.

And I really want to thank you for being an inspiration to other students.

I forgot to ask, how old are you?

I'm 10 years old, sir.

10 years old.

And.

And so how long have you been doing taekwondo?

How.

What got you into martial arts?

Your parents drag you into a school somewhere?

No, sir, I've always wanted to.

Well, first off, I've been doing taekwondo for four years, and I've always wanted to play a sport, but my parents were really worried about how small I was, that I would get hurt really easily.

So they signed me up for an intro lesson with Mr.

Cox at Cox ATA.

And immediately after that, it clicked.

And I just said, this is what I want to do.

This is what I want to be remembered for.

Oh, I love it.

Do you.

What kind of goals do you have maybe for this year in competition or whatnot, or maybe in the future for your martial arts training?

Well, something big.

I've always wanted to try to be a master, but then again, for this year, I've set the goal to have four world titles in all creative and extreme weapons and open hand Fence, sir.

Oh, that is fantastic.

What great goal setting.

I love that.

Short term, you know, or midterm this year and then long term become a master.

That is amazing.

Well, sir, thank you for being such an inspiration to all of the athletes out there in ATA nation.

Keep working hard and we really appreciate your time.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Another great athlete.

I was excited to meet some athletes in person at Spring Nationals and even got to interview a couple of our upcoming athletes of the week in person, which was a lot of fun.

I think it's going to take me some more editing work, which is kind of a pain because I messed a little bit of it up, but I'm excited.

It's going to be great.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, before we go today, I wanted to let you know about something that is super cool and we will have a future episode about, but I thought you should know right now you have the opportunity to go and participate in school in Whale Pass, Alaska and do this school program where you're going to be doing song on Taekwondo in like elementary, middle school.

You can go up and spend six weeks in Whale Pass, Alaska, doing taekwondo, getting to explore the climate there and the ecology there and learning to do some cool media stuff there as well.

This is all part of some of the work that's being done with tying Songam Taekwondo with education in different ways, the Songhum University, some stuff that's being done in other ways.

Really neat stuff.

We're gonna have some episodes on this in the future, but right now if you're interested, you need to go check out Jesse Dempsey.

Is the, the guy up there, the kid up there kind of talking about this online?

We'll include a link to some of his information and of course you can reach out to senior master Demetrius Hill as well and links in the show notes for finding information about maybe, maybe you, your kid to go and spend six weeks in Whale Pass, Alaska doing taekwondo and all kinds of cool stuff.

I mean, honestly, that just sounds bananas that I could go to school and do that.

That, that, that's going to wrap it up for us today, guys.

We really appreciate time.

Hopefully you had a great time at Spring Nationals.

If you did not head to Spring Nationals, you need to make sure that you are making plans.

Head to World Championships, Phoenix, Arizona.

You don't want to miss it.

Until then, get out there and go beyond the belt.

Thanks for listening to another episode of the ATA Nation podcast.

Be sure to subscribe and share with your ATA family.

Hey guys, man, there's a lot going on I there's I am so busy doing lots of different things and I want to keep I've got guests that I want to get on and talk to here on the podcast.

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