We've got a brand ambassador and an international athlete.

Let's get started.

Welcome to the ATA Nation podcast.

Welcome back to the ATA Nation podcast.

My name is Senior Master Zach Hayden, and I am your ATA Nation.

I am super excited to have with us an ATA brand ambassador, Mr. James Devins III.

How are you today, sir?

I'm doing great, sir.

How are you?

I am awesome.

You just got out of a college class.

What, what.

What year are you in?

I am a senior, sir.

Oh, you're a senior.

Okay.

What do you.

What kind of.

What kind of degree, what kind of things are you working on?

I am an English major with a theater and performance minor.

Oh, very cool.

Interesting.

My brother is a.

He went to school as a professional writing major was what his was.

So now he teaches, not Taekwondo.

He doesn't get to kick kids in school like I do.

Anyways.

You could do both.

You know, you could kick kids and.

And then write and all this cool stuff.

So, hey, I wanted to have you on the show.

We'd like to learn more about these ambassadors.

Can you start?

Let's go all the way back to your origin story.

How did you become a martial artist?

So I started when I was five.

Like most people, I love Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers and all those different things.

And actually, that wasn't the start.

It was really in a grocery store.

My original instructor, Master Lopez, out.

He's actually running a school out in Miami right now.

I started in Palm Harbor, Florida.

So we were in a grocery store.

I was five.

My mom said, hey, you want to break a board with this guy?

And I was like, sure.

And so lo and behold, I go to their school, get my white belt, and I end up training with them for a few years.

And then I end up training with Mr. Torres out in Lutz, Florida for a little bit.

And then I end up winding up in Palm harbor with Victory Martial Arts Palm harbor with Mr. Johnson, Mr. King and the Montmelons out there.

Worked with them for a little bit.

I did that all the way from 5 through.

All the way through middle school.

And then I ended up taking a break.

So I didn't do martial arts in high school.

I ended up doing band, which was an amazing experience.

I was in a world renowned marching organization called the Tarpon Spring Leadership Conservatory for the Arts.

And I did amazing things there.

And then I went to college.

I am in Atlanta now.

I go to Morehouse College.

And my sophomore year, I ended up stumbling upon Karate Atlanta, Sandy Springs, which just happened to be where senior Master Tyquan Lee was at and I met him and I was like, hey, I'm a second degree.

Can I get back into it?

He questioned if I was actually a second degree or not.

I looked up my ATA number, found out that I was second degree.

I trained with him for about want to say, three weeks.

And he was like, hey, got a resume and so offer me a job.

I was working at Papa John's at the time and so it was funny.

I was working for Papa John's and for Master Lee for like I want to say a month or so because he's like, we they give us the hookup for Parasite out so don't make them angry.

And so I was working at both places for a little bit and then I finally got the quit Papa John's and now working at Karate Land is my full time gig and I love it.

Got my third degree.

Have I got my black collar this year.

So everything's amazing.

Brand ambassador, crazy stuff has been going down.

Changed the entire trajectory of my life.

Wow.

Okay.

That is super cool.

Okay, so you martial arts in Florida from 5 through middle school and then.

And then took a break.

You're off for, you know, what's that, four, five, six years or so.

This marching.

So what, what did you play in the band?

I'm a percussionist.

So I did marching bass drum for two years and then marching snare drum for two years and then played marimba and all that different stuff in concert season.

Super cool.

Excellent.

So like the drumline movie.

You're one of you.

That's you in that?

Yes.

Oh man, that's awesome.

Super cool.

Well, I, you.

So I think we need to get some brand ambassadors together and you guys could do like a demo and you can do like the, the song to the demo and then maybe do some demo stuff with it.

Throw some, maybe use songs as your.

Anyways, just an idea, you know, maybe some videos in the future for the social medias.

Drumsticks are commas.

I'm just going to say that out loud.

That is the.

I can neither confirm nor deny if I've already filmed a drumming video for my Instagram that's coming.

Oh, excellent.

I'm excited now.

Not that I'm not always excited, but that's super cool.

And then so you stumbled upon Karate Atlanta when you're.

You're in school there you, you did you think at that time before you stumbled upon them that like martial arts.

I'm kind of done with that.

It was just not a thing.

I, I planned on coming back to it just was kind of a.

In the back of your head maybe?

No, I literally, I just.

I don't know if you're spiritual or anything.

I was, I just listened to God.

God literally was like, hey, go in there.

And I was like, okay.

So I literally saw the ATA logos.

Like, I've done that before.

It was.

I. I again changed the entire trajectory of my life.

Like, I was super into the band thing.

I did core style.

So if anybody knows about drum corps or indoor marching percussion, there's a whole avenue to go do that.

I was actually supposed to go teach drumline at a high school before I even walked in that school.

And I kind of just walked past and I was like, I should go in there because God told me to.

And so I walked in and whole life changed.

Wow, what a cool story.

That is awesome.

And that's just.

Hey guys out there listening.

You know, there's never, never too late.

Step back in your local ATA school.

You know, even one that's like way far away from where you started, you're always welcome back in an ATA school.

Always welcome back.

Okay, so now kind of what's the plan now?

I mean, obviously you're a brand ambassador, you're working at Karate Atlanta, you know, finishing up college.

You know, it's like kind of that second time in life.

Like when you graduate high school, you get the questions all the time, what are you doing now?

Where are you going to school?

And then after college is kind of the same, you know, you get the same gig going on.

So kind of what are you looking at as your plans for the future now?

My future plans, my goal is to eventually I want to be a multi school owner.

So next step for that is to graduate and start running a school for Karate Atlanta.

So hopefully get a manager position at some point shortly after I graduate.

And you just kind of work, learn how to school runs, all those different things and get into that role and then eventually open up my own school and then, you know, become the next multi school owner.

So that's kind of the goal for now.

And then on the side, I still want to write.

That's why I'm getting my, my degree.

So I want to write for children's family, young adult television.

So I'm kind of gonna do that on the side while doing the martial arts thing.

That is awesome.

I love that.

You ever read?

We just, we're reading this book with.

This is totally not ATA related in any ways, but I always like to talk a good book.

You ever read the Wing Feather Series.

I have heard of it.

Oh, you gotta do it.

Yeah.

You gotta read it.

Well, I. I thought of it because it's a book series, but then also they made it into an animated series as well, so it kind of bridges the gap there.

So anyways, we're reading it with my kids.

I really enjoy.

I saw the trailer on Angel.

Yes, yes.

It's pretty fun.

I'm not gonna lie.

I really enjoy it.

I was just talking to licensees yesterday about what books they're reading, and I. I mentioned that I was right now not reading any good business books.

You know what?

That's untrue.

I'm reading Traction, the EOS book.

But I'm reading, you know, basically, like, some fun kids books right now, because that's what I like to read sometimes.

Anyways, okay, so now tell us a little bit about this brand ambassador thing.

How's the gig going?

You've been doing it for about six months or a little less than six months now.

Tell us what's.

What's been fun about being a brand ambassador?

It's been a fun journey, just getting to talk social media and video ideas and fun stuff with the other ambassadors.

The photo shoot was amazing.

That was a really cool experience.

I had only been to Little Rock, so there's been a lot of firsts for all of this.

I went to Little Rock for the first time in the summer for athlete development camp, and I got to see headquarters for the first time.

Kind of just got to walk through for there, but I got to see it in totally different light when we were there for the photo shoot.

So that was a super fun experience.

And then I had never been to Worlds before, so I got to go to Worlds for the first time this summer as well.

So that was a really cool experience.

Getting.

I competed in TOC for the first time, got to meet a bunch of people from around the world, which I never gotten to do before.

So it was really.

It's been a really awesome franchise.

Meeting new people and just being creative and getting to just have fun over the phone with people and even with my students.

Like, I've gotten to film stuff with my students and get them in on it, and it's just been a blast.

Getting to do it with that is super cool.

I. Yeah, I guess there's probably no better way to start meeting more ATA people than.

Than your face being everywhere for ata.

And then, like, every time.

I mean, ATA is already a friendly place.

You walk into a tournament and they're all kind of friends, but you walk into the tournament and everyone knows who you are.

That's.

I guess so now.

Yeah.

Are you.

Are you going to make it out to Fall Nationals?

I sadly am not.

Couldn't make it work with the school schedule.

Yep.

But we already got plans.

I'm going to Little Rock for the HB Classic and Jungsu.

I'm going to spring Nationals for sure.

My school think about taking some teams, so we're going to do some fun stuff coming up.

We Savages couldn't get everything to line up perfectly for Fall Nationals.

Yep.

I understand.

So as a.

Let's talk a little bit about as a competitor, as you training on your own or like as an athlete yourself.

What's the thing in martial arts that really like gets you going right now.

What's been super fun for me has been.

I. I'm just starting to do creative weapons, which I haven't done before.

I've done creative forms.

I got my first title ever and I got my state title and creative forms this past season.

So I've been doing the creative forms thing.

So I'm.

Now I'm getting into creative weapons and then I. I've been trying to get better at combat and sparring.

I'm on the shorter side, so I. I don't do too well, but I have a lot of fun with it.

So I've just been trying to do combat inspiring and creative weapons at the moment.

Very cool.

Do you.

Do you do any training with Mr. Van Eck down there for creative inner stuff?

Yes, sir.

Yeah.

Mr. Van Ek and I go way back.

He was from up in our.

Up in our region back in the day.

So currently Atlanta has had a.

A fair amount of people come from my.

My region and they just keep stealing people, but whatever.

So creative weapons, what weapon are you using?

I'm using Chucks right now, so.

And I do those.

Very cool.

Okay.

I've got some students interested in that one.

That's a.

That's a fun one.

I think it's.

It's one.

For me as an instructor.

It's just a little more challenging for me to design a form with ex.

With double Chuck.

I.

And I don't know why.

It's just.

I'm a Chuck guy.

I like Chucks, but I don't know, there's something about the.

The cleanness of striking with a Jong bong or a sword or something like that that seems a little easier.

Designing wise for me.

Okay.

What about your instruction role?

What are you, you know, focused on?

What are you improving?

What are you learning?

As you continue as you know, a black collar now.

So getting the black collar was a, was a process.

It was super fun.

I got to work with a lot of really awesome people like Senior Master Soul, Senior Master Lee, Aaron Lee, Senior Master Aaron Lee, Senior Master woelfel, my instructor, Mr. Rota.

So I got to work with a lot of different people on that project and getting me to black collar and learning all the forms and I also did all the color boat weapons forms and the black belt weapons forms as well.

My instructor's a little crazy.

He gave me an Excel spreadsheet that was blank and said write out the forms.

So that was fun to do.

So it was, it was really cool.

I think my, my goals now are to, for the next generation, first and foremost to be leaders in society.

So when I send you outside these walls, I only get you for 45, 30 minutes twice a week.

So my goal is for you to be an awesome person when you walk out the door.

So we do a lot with the life skills actually.

We, we have our own definition of leadership at our school.

Influence and action that we kind of drill into the students and try to get them to understand that.

And application is everything.

So seek a sauce implementation.

Gotta get them to, to understand it's like it's not just knowledge.

You can't just take it and be like, it's just a bunch of words.

You gotta go and implement it.

Yes, go implement that.

And then also, you know, bend your knees, do good stances, have high kicks, all those things.

So yeah, definitely want them to be high level competitors, high level athletes, high level martial artists, but first and foremost great leaders in society and then great athletes working hard, putting 110% effort in to be the best athlete and competitor they can be.

Well that's great.

What I think they have a good example in you as someone who is out there leading by example.

That's really important, you know, having a role model to look at.

And that's know one of the reasons you're one of the ambassadors, you know, we've got to look at these people that are out there, you know, walking the walk, not just talking the talk, which is super cool.

I think that, I mean basically goes right into going beyond the belt.

What for you is, does it mean to be a champion that goes beyond the belt?

I think being a champion beyond the belt is what I, what I just said.

It's like once we, once you take that thought off, you know, what, what are you?

Are you just an ATA version of you?

Are you Just a martial artist version of you, and then is there a school version of you and a home version of you?

It's more that through line of, you are trying to be the best person you can be.

We all stumble, make mistakes.

Let's just.

Are you being that best version of yourself through everything?

And I think the ATA sets us up for that in such a great way.

Like, I already know, like, I took that break, and I would not have succeeded and done the things that I got to do in high school without the leadership program.

I learned those life skills, I took them with me into high school, and literally, I. I got to march in the Rose Parade with an honor band right out of high school, right after.

Right, right after Covid happened.

And so I was center snare, which is like the leadership role in the drum line.

And that's.

The Autogram was like 400 members big.

It was a big ban.

And I'm over here having to keep time for everybody.

And I'm having.

And I'm kind of like the figurehead.

I'm like, I'm the guy making the chance.

We're having fun, speaking pep talks, all those different things.

I would not have been able to thrive in that leadership role and do those things with that amount of people if it wasn't for what I learned in the ata, all those different life skills and being pushed into leadership roles, being thrown into the deep end as a middle schooler, which was really cool.

What a great testimony for, you know, just what we do as martial artists.

And now, you know, with this, this change in life trajectory, you get to do that for so many more people, you know, and.

And how cool is that?

What.

So for you personally, right before we wrap up, what are you.

Your training goals, how.

What are you aiming for?

Maybe competition, maybe testing.

What.

What are you aiming for in the next, you know, little while?

I definitely, long term goal, I want to become a master.

I want to reach mastership.

And obviously I said I want to be a schooler, all those different things.

I definitely want to become world champion one day, but I think this season's goals are to get a few more state titles, qualify for TOC again.

I only qualified in creative forms this year, so I want to qualify in a couple of more events, get a few more state titles, maybe cop a District one.

My district's pretty tough, so we'll see how that goes.

But I definitely am training every day to.

I'm striving for creative forms, creative weapons, traditional weapons, and then seeing how far sparring combat takes Me and how I can be on the day, training every day I'm running, going to gym, sparring, people, getting hit.

So more you get hit, the more you learn.

Yeah, that's kind of what we're doing.

Awesome.

That's fantastic.

Well, hey, sir, what an exciting story.

I'm so glad that we were able to connect to hear about your story, your background a little bit.

Thank you for being a great example in the ata, a great brand ambassador where you look forward to just seeing you more and more out there.

Some cool videos on social media and thank you for your time today.

Thank you so much for having me on, sir.

Man, I think it is so cool that Mr. Devin like was out of ATA.

Didn't know he'd ever come back and then just boom, walked into it at ATA school.

And this made me think like, hey, you never know when someone is just searching, you know, they were in ATA and they were searching for, you know, ATA online, you know, listen to their favorite podcasts.

Hey, maybe I'll check out.

So you rating and reviewing the show will help it pop up into people's feeds?

More likely.

And you could be the reason somebody joins back in martial arts and then could change so many lives.

So go out, rate and review.

I have heard, you know, another friend of mine I, I talked to a world championships, had been out of ata, hadn't been in, but the listening to the podcast, watching what was going on on YouTube and listening was one of the things that kept them connected.

So you never know what kind of influence you can have, even just by sharing an episode.

Sharing on social media about ATA really could influence somebody's life and not just come back and be more healthy and more athletic.

But then maybe they become an instructor, maybe they become a school owner, a master and affect thousands of lives.

That's super cool.

How cool.

So also next interview, we get two interviews today.

This is an international athlete of the week.

You probably saw him on social media during the athlete corner or excuse me, the ambassador corner.

But let's get to the interview at a nation.

We're super excited to have another awesome athlete of the week with us and an international athlete.

So can you introduce yourself, please?

Yes, of course.

My name is Mer Lucani.

I'm a first degree black belt from Lima, Peru.

Lima, Peru.

Excellent.

And first, who's your instructor down there in Peru?

Oh, my treasure is Master Mori.

Excellent, very cool.

And how'd you get started in martial arts?

That's a really kind of complicated question because I really started when I was five years Old, but I am not the this athlete that continue through all the years.

I got my passes, my coming in, coming out.

So I don't know how to exactly count the years, but I have been consistent.

After a pandemic, 20, 22, I start and I have never st since then.

Very cool.

Do you remember when, when you, the first time you stepped in when you were like what you say, like five or so.

What was the, did your parents just sign you up?

Were you interested?

Do you know what got you started that first time?

Yeah, as far as I remember.

Oh, I got a older brother, so.

So I was the type of sister that my brother is doing that I want to do that.

I was doing marinara dancing at the time and my brother started doing taekwondo because we're like in the same place.

Stunning.

So I was like, no, I want to do that too.

And I tried and I get into that.

I remember there was this kind of apart from the boxes we punch with wearing a bop, we'd call it like that.

So I love punching that.

So I don't get into it.

That's great.

I love that.

So hey, competition wise, first of all, the Pan Am games were just not that long ago.

Were you able to make it to the Pan Am championships this year?

Yes, it was my second Pan Am as black belt.

And how did it go?

Really well.

I defend a title of the weapons panam champ and I got a new one on creative form.

Very cool.

Okay, so I'm going to come back and ask you about those but first, so what's your, what's your favorite event to compete in at a tournament?

It is weapons like for a long time, but I get in a little bit used to creative, creative weapons.

I kind of love and also loving the part of kind of being DJ sometimes of doing my music.

That's great.

Well, you get to be so creative when you do those kind of things.

So you get to have the music get to decide moves.

What's your, what's your go to weapon?

What's the weapon that you love to compete with?

For a long time since I'm colorblind.

Sandalboard.

Yeah.

What about like creative.

Are you doing Song Jubang as well?

Yes.

At a time?

Yes.

And are you doing one or two?

Two, double two and single in my traditional course, yeah.

Very cool.

Excellent.

Okay, so do you said you, you got a title.

What was the title again at the.

PAMM this year on traditional weapons and creative forms.

Very cool.

Well, and creative forms.

Okay.

Very neat.

Was this your, did you do traditional or excuse me, creative forms, last pan am or was this the first time you did it?

The first time?

Last pan am.

I only qualified on weapons and I have started doing creative last year and I classified so I get into it.

Nice.

Congratulations.

That's awesome.

Very cool.

So if you're gonna look, you know, I like that also kind of.

Kind of see what people's.

Maybe they're not favorite competition is.

What's the.

What's the competition that you're like maybe not my favorite.

Oh, it must be sparring.

I just kind of survive in a sparring.

You just survive.

What about combat sparring?

I prefer combat sparring.

Okay.

Okay.

That's.

You know what, I hear that a lot.

You know people who are.

Who are more on the forms and weapons side of things, like sparring a lot of times is not there.

But combat, they're like.

I'm a little better at that one.

I can't.

I can do a little bit more on that one.

Yeah, I understand.

I totally get it.

What kind of goals do you have for your.

Let's start with competition first.

As you continue in competing, what kind of goals do you have for that in.

Definitely the most important one is getting into world title.

This year I got second so it was like almost there and I am looking for that especially with my son Jon.

Yes.

Okay, very cool.

And you said it's a first degree division, right?

Yes.

What is the age group?

18 29.

Okay, 18 to 29.

First degree division.

Okay.

That's a tough one.

But yeah.

Okay, very cool.

I like it.

That's a great goal.

What about like just your regular martial arts training maybe you know, testing or instruction, whatever.

In your regular martial arts training, what kind of goals do you have there?

Regular martial arts in training?

I will say one of the most is getting my kicks a little bit higher.

It will be on the training part, on the part of instruction.

There have been a couple of months ago that I get to start kind of my training as a chief instructor.

Even though I'm not really a certificate instructor.

But I get into having Master Mori assign me one school so I will be in charge of it.

And it's now like four months now.

We got the national here in Peru and I have some of my kids doing the first competition.

So kind of nervous about that and looking how it's going to be for them.

Oh, that's awesome.

That's fantastic.

That, that is.

That is really cool.

It's so great to.

I mean it's.

Again, I agree it's nerve wracking.

When your students go and do that.

But it is also really fun to see them succeed.

And then you're like, yay, that's so exciting.

So that's super cool.

So what, what is it like, you know, for you to see Ata?

Just, you know, a lot of times we see for us here in the US a lot of us things.

What's it like for you to be an international atm?

I think it's really cool.

I started kind of part of international independence and having friends from Chile, from Brazil also, especially for the language especially.

My first international friends from Ada were from Brazil.

So we were starting talking about like kind of and Spanglish, English, Portuguese kind of combination.

Because I know just a little bit from Portuguese, they know a little bit from Spanish.

And we're like a mix of everything.

Of course, with my friend from Chile it's easier and well, the English for me was kind of also easier too because I started learning English when I was little.

But is that kind of mixing knowing who I'm talking to?

Because also my friends from Chile, they have kind of some phrases that they know in, in Chile that I don't get it from Peru.

So we're like kind of try even changing our Spanish dialects to and made sure we are understanding each other.

It's really cool.

That is so cool.

Well, how awesome.

I, I had some friends, I mean, and we just keep having more people from the US go to the Pan Am Championships and one of these days I'm going to get down there because it seems like such a blast.

Yeah, it's a really cool panel.

It's really competitive too.

But we have a lot of awesome people, awesome masters too, that they are so kind of teaching us, even though we're not the direct students, but like they're really open to any advice or any.

That will be half about everything.

Yeah.

Did you, after the panam Championships is after or before they have the, the congress there with the, the training and stuff, were you, were you participating in that or was that something different?

This year was after the Pan Ams.

I didn't get to go this year, but I have been going since I am a blue belt, so I got some experience on the cowboys too.

Very cool.

Yeah.

Such great training.

Really exciting.

And so you are looking to come up to Phoenix for World Championships again this year?

Yes.

Well, next year.

Yeah, you're right.

Next year.

Next year.

Gotta get that.

Gotta get those red letters right.

Yes.

So as we wrap up, what's it mean to you to be an athlete that goes beyond the belt.

Oh, I think the phrase is so powerful going beyond the belt.

I think I will go back to when I started a little bit of the instruction process.

I was not at boy yet.

Even though I need to be kind of example for little ones.

And there's a phrase an instructor told me that what you represent doesn't get just for the belt you have put on, but what you do with the belt you have.

You can be determined.

You can be maybe a white belt, but you teach example, technique, everything going into the martial arts and out of martial arts.

And that would have even more important, significant that not being a black belt yet or not achieving that goal yet.

So not feeling small because of.

Oh, I'm not.

I know first degree, second degree, third degree.

Oh, my God, they are like much better than me.

No, it's like you put like the.

You put what you need your belt, but you need to do it with actual.

You do.

I love that.

Yeah.

It's not always about what's.

What you're wearing.

It's about, you know, how you are as an example.

That's.

That's awesome.

Hey, speaking of different belts, you got plans to test for a second degree?

When's the.

When's the secondary coming?

I don't know.

Of course, I will love to.

It's like two sides.

I would love to be second degree, but on the other side, I know the second degree, third degree, 18 to 29 is like so hard to.

So like, I want you, but I don't want you.

And at the end, of course, it depends of Master Mori, but is if they ask me, is that feeling, I want you, but at the same time, I don't want to.

I've got.

I've got students who have that same exact feeling.

They're like, ooh, first degrees.

This.

This ring is not.

Not bad.

I. I'll take this.

That second, third degree, 18 to 29 ring is.

Is a little trickier.

Yes.

So.

Well, congratulations on being an athlete of the week and thank you so much for your time.

I love to be able to talk to ATA competitors and athletes from all over the globe.

Maybe we can make sure when you get to Phoenix, if you see me, say hi.

Yes, of course, Marshall.

I would love to.

Awesome.

Thank you so much for your time today.

Thank you.

To invite me.

Oh, man, what a great episode.

Two great interviews.

Awesome athletes.

Very inspiring for ATA nation.

That's going to wrap it up.

We have all kinds of great things coming up for you, but next week is going to be a little shorter.

Episode.

We're going to have our Athlete of the Week feature, but that'll be about it.

You don't want to miss it though, because we will also be in Pittsburgh next week and I hope to get a couple of live in person interviews there that we'll be able to feature on the show soon.

So make sure you're over on all the socials, subscribe, hit the rate and review the follow the whatever the buttons are and share this out with a friend and we will see you in Pittsburgh.

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

Be sure to subscribe and share with your ATA family.