Did you see who the athlete of the week was?

Let's find out.

ATA Nation, this is Senior Masters at K, and I'm so excited to be back with you.

Instructors, students, masters, parents, every athlete out there in Ata Nation.

Welcome back to the show.

This is episode 140.

140.

Can you believe it?

At the time of this recording, it is the first day of spring.

And I don't know where, how it is there for you, but right now, out my podcast studio window, I can see snow.

Yep, it's snowing.

How exciting.

That's so great.

But that is not going to keep our athletes from working hard and getting ready for the championships.

We got districts, we got some tournaments to wrap up the year.

All this stuff is coming.

Let's get to our athlete of the week.

ATA Nation, we are back with an athlete of the week.

This is Piper Scott.

How are you today, ma'am?

I'm good, sir.

Awesome.

Now, first of all, before we get started, where are you from?

Where you train?

Who's your instructor?

Well, I'm from Wheaton, Illinois.

I go to taekwondo and Darien, Illinois.

My school is Successno martial arts, and my instructors are Chief Master Patty Barnum, Chief Master Kelly Shue, Senior Master Dukes, Mr.

Walters, Mr.

Kenton Shoup, and Ms.

Faithly.

Oh, those are some great instructors.

Master Dukes and I were in SAM Masters Class 1 year.

He's a great guy.

So you were chosen in one of these athletes of the week.

How exciting is that?

I was so excited.

Shout out to the ambassadors, and I was just so happy to be one of the athletes of the week.

Well, I think it is a.

Is a great thing to get to see athletes like you out there on social media, competing in person, just inspiring others is really cool.

When you're competing as one of these athletes, if you had to pick, like, your favorite competition, your favorite thing to do, what would it be?

Probably creative weapons.

Ooh, creative weapons.

What's your.

What's your weapon of choice?

Nunchucks.

Nunchucks.

Okay, very cool.

Do you.

Here's a random question.

Okay, I don't want to stump you or anything, but for your music, do you have a specific song or, like, is yours a remix?

And if it's a remix, is, like, got anything specific in it that, like, you just, like, gets you going?

It's not really a remix, but it's my favorite WWE wrestler song, so it just really pumps me up.

Excellent.

Very cool.

I love that.

So you said Chuck's your favorite thing, and you said extreme or creative?

Creative.

Creative.

Okay.

Very cool.

Do you compete in the extreme version as well?

Yes.

What about the creative version for you is a little more exciting, a little more fun?

I don't know, I just really like the song that I chose and the weapon.

It's so neat to have a song that you get to do your music, do your, your material too.

It kind of just adds that extra energy and excitement to it because we all know if you play the right song, I mean, you just start grooving and having some fun.

So now if you had to pick an event, like, we're all ATA athletes, we love Taekwondo, all the different things, but sometimes we have things that we, we don't gravitate to towards quite as much.

What event would you be like?

Okay, if I had to skip an event, this is the event I'd skip.

Probably sparring or combat.

Okay, very cool.

Interesting.

Very good.

And with your training, do you have any, like, goals that you've set either short term or long term for your martial arts training in your career there?

For sure.

Be a world champ and a eight time world champ.

Awesome.

Do you have any world title letters?

Currently not.

Currently not currently.

So working hard on bringing those letters, huh?

Get some of those red letters.

Yes, sir.

Awesome.

Okay.

I love it.

To me, it's just super exciting to see you guys chosen by these junior brand ambassadors just to highlight other athletes across the country, because, I mean, it's awesome to have these brand ambassadors, but we know there are so many people just like you out there competing, working hard all over ATA nation for you.

What does it mean to be like an athlete that's going beyond the belt?

Like beyond the belt?

Yeah.

It means standing up for others and just encouraging other people to join ata.

I love that.

I think what a neat way to, you know, make sure that we're showing that, you know, the things that we learn in Taekwondo, we want to go and we want to compete and stuff, but encouraging others, helping other people be part of this, you know, I didn't ask you, how did you get started in martial arts?

I can remember when I was five, I was getting bullied.

So I told my parents about it and they thought it'd be best to put me in Taekwondo to build my confidence, courage and self awareness.

And have you found that it's really helped with those things?

Yes.

Awesome.

Well, you know, I know Chief Master Barnum is one of the bully experts out there.

Like she, she knows her stuff when it comes to bully prevention.

So you've got the right instructors over there.

What would you say to other kids that are just maybe interested in martial arts, but they're just not sure yet.

Should they, you know, go for it?

What.

What would you tell a kid who was maybe interest?

Totally go for it.

It's super fun every time.

You'll make a new friend at a new tournament and you just get to learn how to defend yourself.

So just totally do it.

Awesome.

What great advice.

Well, Piper, I gotta say, you got a fantastic name.

My niece's name is Piper as well, so, you know, excellent name.

Um, we really appreciate your time today and we really want to encourage you and thank the brand ambassadors for just bringing your.

Letting people see you and continuing to, you know, thank you for continuing to encourage other students and other martial arts across the country.

Any last words for Ata Nation out there?

No.

Awesome.

Well, Ms.

Piper, I really appreciate your time today.

Thank you so much and keep working hard.

Are you.

Are you going to be out at spring nationals this year?

Yes, sir.

Excellent.

Trying to get some more of those points for that title, right?

For sure.

Well, we look forward to seeing you there and good luck in all of your goals.

Thank you.

Great interview.

So excited for her to be one of the athletes of the week.

Make sure you are tuning in on Instagram, Facebook for those athletes of the week.

The junior brand ambassadors who we're going to have on the show shortly are announcing those every Thursday and they're just coming.

It's great to be highlighting these people all across at a nation.

What amazing athletes and hopefully they're inspiring you to work hard on your athletic skills.

Make sure you're out there competing.

Speaking of, we are, you know, in the tail end of this tournament season.

I know it doesn't feel like that, but we're almost at April.

April is kind of the.

The cram month.

We've got tournaments every weekend.

Make sure you're checking out ata martial arts.com and the event.

But two things that I wanted to mention.

Just some events going on across ATA nation.

Number one is this ATA Max Battle Royale at the spring Nationals in Fort Worth.

This is a.

Here's what it says.

Are you ready to take the next step?

Join the ATMX pro team for an adrenaline fueled event where participants will face off in a series of intense challenges across multiple categories.

Attendees will compete in kicking, weapons, tricking and creative hands showcasing their skills, creativity and endurance.

Sounds pretty cool.

I might have to go and watch.

I am not yet ready to be on the pro team.

But if there is still time to register for that and still time to register and get your Shirt you got to get registered before March 31st to make sure you get your ATA Max Battle Royale shirt.

I thought they were.

And then I wanted to also mention to you a really neat event.

A lot of these trainings that we've had on the weapons, especially the updates for the black belt weapons, have been going on at Worlds and national events, but there are now these regional versions coming, and I heard there might be some regional ATA Max events coming as well.

So the first one of these that I have seen, and I might have missed some, Chief Master Kaminsky and Senior Master Pino are going to be in Brownsburg, Indiana, near, kind of near me.

And they are going to be doing the double Songzhuang training and the Gumdo training.

And so if you are interested in that, I would definitely make sure you head over to atamartialarts.com check out the events and you can spend a whole day training with them on that.

And this does get you the new personal development points that are needed as you move up through the ranks.

So make sure you check that out.

And when it says, how did you hear about this seminar?

Would you register other input?

The podcast at Nation Podcast.

Yeah, yeah, I want to see that come through.

Anyways, lots of events going on, ladies and gentlemen.

Get on Atas website, check it out.

We've got Fort Worth coming.

You know, it'll be here before we know it.

All these awesome tournaments coming up in April, and then we are right on to district championships, world championships, and a new season.

I know it rolls so fast, but make sure, just like our athletes of the week, you get out there and become an athlete beyond the belt.

Yeah, it's snowing out right now.

You believe that?

Oh, wait, you might have stopped.

Might have stopped.

But that's why we're going to Fort Worth, right?

So we can enjoy some of that great warmer weather down south.

Who's going to be there?

You know, let me know on the DMS on Instagram at the ATA Nation podcast.

ATA Nation podcast on Instagram.

You can find us DM us and let us know if you're going to be at Fort Worth.

And if you're at Fort Worth, are you taking any seminars?

You taking any classes?

I would love to hear what you take.

Hey, guys, take care.