It's almost Christmas.

Let's talk about the gift of martial arts.

Let's get started.

Welcome to the Ata Nation podcast.

Instructors, students, parents, family members of Ata Nation, welcome back to the AtNation podcast.

This is episode 181 and I'm your host, Senior master Zach Hayden.

I am thrilled to be back, as I always say.

Let's get right to a couple of things we've got for you today.

Number one, we've got.

We want to talk about a little bit about the gift of martial arts.

And I've got an assignment for you today.

I've got an assignment, something I need you to do.

It's not for the podcast, it's not for us.

It's for, you know, maybe somebody else will mention it.

Then we also want our.

We've got our athlete of the week and we're also going to talk about the gift of martial arts a little bit.

But hey, I got this Spotify run or wrapped thing as a creator on Spotify and we Spotify is just one of the places that our podcast goes out.

So all of the stats aren't there on Spotify.

It's just one place.

But I thought it was interesting to go through these and I wanted to mention to it and thank you as a viewer, a watcher, a listener, our audience, new audience, 563% growth or 563% new audience in 2025.

I think that's mainly because of the Spotify audience.

15% new followers or up 15%.

I think it says our top episode on Spotify was episode 134, which is join the competition as it was the tryouts for team Mexico and team Philippines, which was interesting.

Again, this is from Spotify, not across the board.

Top countries that listen to the ATN Nation podcast on Spotify.

Number one, the United States.

I think that's pretty understandable.

Number two, I, Ireland.

Thank you, Ireland.

Number three, Canada.

Our neighbors to the north.

Thanks so much, Canada.

Number four, Chile.

Guys, you guys are awesome.

Way to go, South America.

And number five, the United Kingdom.

So thank you to all of our international listeners.

I love that on Spotify our Show is number one to 23 fans.

That means it's like the top show they listen to.

I. I'll take that.

I mean, that's pretty awesome.

Again, Spotify stats not across all of our platforms.

If you don't want to miss any episodes in 2026, make sure you hit that subscribe button.

You can do it on Spotify, you can do it on whatever podcast player you have, you can do it most I would love on YouTube even if you listen to it on, you know, Spotify or whatnot, go hit the subscribe Button on the ATAs YouTube page.

You know, I'm on a mission there, so do do that.

Let's transfer now to our athlete of the week.

At Nation, Another awesome athlete.

Introduce yourself, sir.

I'm Jake Dominguez.

I train Integrity Country Walk in Miami, Florida.

In Miami, Florida.

Excellent.

So who's your, who's your instructor there?

Masterminaco.

Excellent.

Very cool.

And what's the temperature there right now?

Oh, it's kind of hot.

Oh man, it's freezing here.

I, I'm a little jealous, but you don't get snow for Christmas and I do sometimes, so.

So.

Hey, sir, what rank are you?

First degree black bosser.

Excellent.

What got you started in martial arts?

How'd you get started?

I started like when I was like four around there and my parents just wanted me to gain like confidence and like self esteem and to like start doing stuff around the house helping.

Has it worked?

Are you, are you doing some stuff around the house now?

That's good.

Awesome.

And the confidence has come too.

Yeah.

Excellent.

Okay.

You know, one of the things that we talk to our athletes about is, you know, tournament competition.

It's kind of a thing that a lot of people will enjoy.

Enjoy doing.

What's your favorite thing to do at a tournament?

XMA forms.

Okay, excellent.

Like meeting my friends, having fun, like competing.

Very cool.

Have you, have you always been an XMA forums guy or is that something you started later on?

I started later on like last year.

Cool.

And in XMA forms, are you open hand, not weapons, right?

I do both, but.

You do both?

Yeah, but I mostly like more open end.

Gotcha.

Okay, cool.

What is it about the XMA forms that is like, hey, this is the event that I really enjoy doing.

I just like the hype and the confidence you need to bring to it.

Yeah, I, I, I, you know, it's just got that, such, that energy to it.

So let's say, you know, you're at a tournament and there's, they're like, hey, you can only do, you know, you can't do all the events.

What events are you like.

Okay, I'll, I'll skip that event.

What's your maybe not favorite combat weapons?

Really?

Okay, very cool.

Interesting.

What?

How do you do any team sparring?

Any sparring stuff that is something that you do or you know, you stick to the forms kind of things.

I do team sparring With Senior Master Isaacs and I did this individual sparring too.

Very cool.

Cool.

So you're part of the team, what is it?

Project Alpha, Right.

This year?

Yeah.

Very cool.

Okay, so what kind of goals have you kind of set for yourself now?

This could be competition wise.

It could be just your regular training, other kind of goals.

What kind of goals are you looking at?

Especially now that we're, you know, we're going into 20, 26, those kind of things.

Definitely becoming a second degree world champ and like getting like a collar maybe.

Very cool.

What second degree are you?

Do you have your testing planned out or do you know when that's going to be?

I believe it's going to be June.

Okay, very cool.

And then probably start the new season in the second third degree division.

Yes, sir.

Very cool.

Okay, so how in the past have you achieved, have you, have you gone for any titles in the past?

Yes, sir, I've gone to Pan Am's, districts, State.

You got any of those fancy letters on the back of your uniform?

Yeah, I got district and state.

Oh, you got the Pan Am.

Yeah.

Nice.

Fancy.

Okay, so it looks like you got all the colors except red.

You want those red letters now, right?

I totally understand.

That's very cool.

And then you said maybe looking for a collar.

Are you in the legacy program?

Are you working for, you know, trying your instructor training more?

Yeah, I am in legacy and hopefully I don't know the age yet, but hopefully it's like 14, 13 there around.

Yeah, I think it's, I think it's 13.

I have to look.

I think so.

So you're, you're right there.

Very cool.

Awesome.

What?

What?

At the school, when you're training, you know, not thinking tournament wise or whatever, but at the school maybe whether it's your own training or helping other people when you're instructing things, kind of.

What's the thing that really gets you excited about when you're at the school?

Definitely like helping out the other students, getting them into better form or shape and like having fun with them because it's always fun to help teaching and like doing activities with the other kids.

I agree.

It's so much fun to, you know, I mean, not only do you get to help them learn some great martial arts, you get to help them learn to be better people, but you get to kick them sometimes too.

Awesome.

Awesome.

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

Going beyond the belt means to the.

For me means like going beyond what you Expect what you can do, like competing if you're like scared or nervous to compete about, like for my parents, I knew, like when they put me in it, they wanted me to just start competing.

But it wasn't always about competing.

It was more about like self confidence, self esteem.

I love that.

I like the idea, you know, going beyond what you can expect of yourself or whatever.

Well, that's a great, a great thought.

Well, hey, sir, I really appreciate your time this morning and congratulations on being chosen as one of these athletes of the week.

How cool.

And happy holidays and a happy new year.

Thank you, sir.

Foreign interviewing these athletes, such talent all over ATA nation, across the globe, all different ages.

It's so cool.

We've got more coming up.

And if you are interested in being an athlete of the week, make sure you reach out to one of the ATA brand ambassadors.

Now, before we go, I want to talk real quick about the gift of martial arts.

The gift that just came keeps on giving.

You know, sometimes it's good for us to reflect.

Sometimes we just, we show up to class, we go home, we show up to class, we do our things, we are on our, you know, track for our goals.

And we don't always think about those gifts that we're getting from martial arts.

So this time of year, I want you to think about the gifts that you're given through your martial arts training and the gift that you can pass on to others by involving them in your martial arts training, inviting someone to come and train with you in martial arts, or becoming an instructor one day.

All right, so we want to be checking these out.

So number the three top gifts that I want to kind of mention today to remind you that you are getting from martial arts.

Number one, discipline.

Showing up when it's cold, when you're busy, when you're uncomfortable.

The ability to show discipline is a gift that is going to serve you throughout your life and something we should just be thankful for.

Our instructors for instilling us the ATM for providing for us.

Number two, definitely confidence.

I just think it back on myself.

Like the last couple weeks I have been teaching some gym classes at some local schools with, with middle schoolers.

And I was thinking about like, I made these middle schoolers do a partner drill right away.

And then I apologized because I was like, guys, if I were a middle school kid and somebody, some random guy came in and made us do a partner drill, I would have hated him because in middle school I wouldn't have been comfortable doing a partner drill.

You know, my gym class, which who knows what you felt about gym?

I didn't love it.

That confidence, though, that I gained from martial arts, where now, no problem, I can go do a, you know, a partner drill with somebody or that I can go to a school and teach this to other people is huge.

And that confidence isn't just handed to you.

It's earned through your hard work, through your effort, through showing up at tournaments, by getting in front of classes, by doing your testings.

These things are things that you've earned by the process that you've gone through in martial arts.

And then the third gift, that is, you know, one what we don't think about as much, but the family that we earn, that we gain through 80 martial arts, the you at a nation that I can go to any tournament in basically any tournament in the world and know that this is my family.

These are people that I, you know, have a.

A deep connection with through martial arts.

Okay, you've got that in your school.

If you haven't ventured outside of your school, you're really missing out on the extended family that you have.

We talked about the HUL Classic a couple episodes ago.

You know, that family and the teammates, the instructors, the community that supports your growth.

And these are huge.

Okay?

Oh, this.

This great.

This great little quote here.

Belts, fades.

Excuse me?

Belts fade, Trophies collect dust.

But discipline, confidence and character, those last forever.

I mean, think about that.

What a great gift that we're given through martial arts.

Now, I want to encourage you this holiday season to express the gratitude to those who have helped you with this.

Now, this is not a requirement.

You know, one thing I would love for you to do is go to your instructor, your school that you train at, go to their social media pages, go to their Google profile and leave them a review.

This is a gift that you can give your local school that is so beneficial.

You can go to.

Here.

Here's an idea.

Maybe you've gone to your local schools, go to an instructor that you know, that you might have trained with at a.

At a, At a seminar that you've gone to at a scene, at a tournament.

They've been a judge for you, whatever, and go to their school's Facebook page or Instagram or, you know, Google, you know, business profile, and go and leave a review and say, hey, this.

The instructor here is such a great instructor.

This can be a huge gift to the people who have done this for you in your life.

You know, I want to encourage you to do that this week, as, you know, we wrap up the year, just express some of the gratitude for those who have helped you get this far and those licensees, those school owners, those instructors.

No, I think that's going to wrap it up for us this week.

I appreciate it.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas holiday and we'll see you in the next episode.

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

Be sure to subscribe and share with your ATA family.