Back from fall nationals and ready for a spooky episode.

Let's get started.

Welcome to the ATA Nation podcast.

Happy Halloween.

ATA Nation.

ATA Nation.

We're excited to have another awesome athlete of the week with us.

Can you introduce yourself for us?

Sir, yes, sir.

My name is Quentin chapel.

I'm a 4th degree black belt out of Sam's, Alabama, and I train at McCraney Martial Arts.

Ah, okay.

Alabama, yes, sir.

What brought you to martial arts?

Well, I first started playing sports.

I started off with football, and then I started off with baseball.

I got tired of playing those.

I wanted to try something different and I always then I always wanted to do martial arts.

So I told my dad about it and everything like that.

He didn't believe me at one point, so he was like, all right, let's see what he's going to do.

He took me to my first ATA school and what I saw, I absolutely loved it.

So I signed up the next day and did my first class.

I had a blast doing it and I told him I want to keep doing this.

I think this is going to be the one I'm going to stick with.

And it seems like it's, I mean, four, three, black belt.

You seem to have stuck with it for a while.

Yes.

Yes, sir.

I love it.

How, how old were you when you started?

I was 12 years old when I started.

Okay, excellent.

Very good.

And so now 4th degree black belt, I assume you're, you're, you know, teaching some classes, doing some martial arts, more than just competing, but maybe furthering it.

What kind of goals do you have in that area?

So I do want to continue to teach.

I do have a goal.

I do want to own my own school one day.

That is a big goal of mine too.

And I also want to, you know, train guys that also love to do this thing too, and that's willing to do all the things that me and all the other fourth and fifth degree rings, not just them and all the other athletes in the ATA want to do as well.

So that is a goal of mine too.

Well, I'm going to guess, I'm going to guess you're in the 18 to 29 year old division, is that right?

Yes, sir.

Oh, yeah.

Okay, so the 4th and 5th 18 to 29 year old division, that is like the cream of the crop right there.

That is the one.

That is the ring right there.

It is.

So in, in that category, what's your.

What's like your go to event?

I. I think I know, but you, you tell us.

So my Go to event.

I. I love creative Forms.

That is Creative forms.

That is.

That is my.

That's my event right there.

Believe it or not.

I'm a really big combat spar, too.

And don't get me wrong, I love hitting all the events, but those two right there, those are the ones I love the most out of all of them.

That's great.

What.

What got you into, you know, so for most people, like, they get into forms and sparring because, you know, like, you kind of gotta do it, you know, it's kind of part of it.

What got you into the creative form side of things?

Well, what really.

I had a lot of friends that did X Man Creative.

I was one of the ones that only did traditional, and they were the ones that did, you know, all eight events and everything too.

They were the ones that motivated me to do X Men Creative.

I was kind of doubting myself at one point, but I was like, what's the worst that can happen?

I might as well go in there and try it anyway.

First time I did it, I absolutely loved it.

So from there on, I stuck with it.

And I think we've seen you, like, have you been on stage for the Extreme and Creative or done some of the max?

Aren't you one of the guys that are, like, you know, showing it off?

I have not been on the stage for MAX yet.

Hopefully I will get a chance to.

It seems really cool.

But I have been.

I've been around one of their master gatherings.

I have done one of the seminars.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Very cool.

So what.

What.

What kind of things have you achieved in your competition and what kind of things are you aiming for?

What.

What kind of goals you set?

So I am setting.

I did set a goal to, you know, become another world champion, gain another world title this season.

And I've put.

Not just one.

I've set a goal to gain two or more titles this season.

Not just in xma, but also in Traditional, too.

Oh, going for the.

For the traditional.

What, what, what?

An event in the traditional is the combat.

Yes, sir.

Nice.

Very cool.

What.

When you're doing those, you know, kind of double, you know, know, like creative and extreme and then sparring, you know, are a fair amount different.

You know, there's a lot of.

And you usually find people that are.

Are one or the other.

How are you seeing.

Are there any things that you're seeing that are helping you on both sides that are really working, or is it just the.

The work ethic that you're having to build that is helping you Achieve, you know, or work towards those goals on, on both ends.

I believe it's the work ethic when it comes to training these type of things.

I'm making sure I go all in.

I always tell myself before I start my training, go in there, train like how you're going to perform.

You train like how you're going to perform, you're going to have a great outcome.

So that's been the thing that I've really been telling myself the most before I get on the mat or before I walk in the building.

I love that.

All in.

That's an ATA core value right there.

Oh, man.

Yeah, you got to be all in.

I mean, that's the thing, right?

You're in the, the ata, you gotta, you gotta be all in.

Hey, with, you know, you're training yourself, you're teaching other students.

If you're looking at the ATA life skills, what's the life skill?

That maybe you can answer either way.

Either that you like to, to help with as much or teach other people, or the one that maybe you are like, that's the one I needed to work on the most when I started.

One of the ones I really need to work on the most was self esteem.

Believe it or not, when, before I even get on the mat and everything, I, I get, I get nervous sometimes and I get, that's a normal thing.

So it was at one point too, I got nervous and I didn't.

I wanted to kind of back out, but some of my friends kind of talked to me too, and my parents talked to me as well, and they made me feel a lot better.

So after that competition, going through the life skills and hearing about the life skills that I was taught in my Taekwondo class, the one life skill that I needed to learn and practice was self esteem.

If you have good self esteem, you know, you can achieve anything.

I see that.

It's so great to hear that from, you know, our fourth and fifth degrees from athletes that we see at tournaments that have been, you know, highlighted athlete of the week.

Because I think so often our younger students just think that, like, you know, you were always this superstar, you're always confident, you always get out there.

And so great to have them see, like, hey, no, we all struggled with these things as well.

So thank you so much for that.

So what's it mean to you to be an athlete that goes beyond the belt?

Being an athlete that goes beyond the belt, meaning, like I said, learning those life skills and you're not just applying them to, you know, you're not Just learning them just for Taekwondo purposes.

You know, you're learning those outside of the ata, going to school or any event dealing with school, you want to make sure you're showing confidence, stepping out of your comfort zone, you know, to reach those goals.

That's what I believe going beyond the belt means.

Love it.

Well, um, first of all, thank you for your time today.

And second, congratulations on being one of these athletes of the week.

What a.

What a cool thing.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you so much for having me.

I got to say hi to Mr. Chapel out at Pittsburgh.

It was nice to see him out there.

Great young man.

So awesome Athlete of the week.

Hey, something I want you to guys make sure you're aware of.

I know we've mentioned this on the episodes before, but this hu League Classic going on in Little Rock in December.

Now there are two other awesome tournaments going on that weekend, I think, one in St. Louis and one in Tempe, Arizona, I believe.

And at all three of these tournaments, they're going to have these special commemorative coins that are going to be for competitors at these events and for kind of remembering Eternal Grandmaster and the fact that we have had 25 years since his passing.

20 is the 25th anniversary since his passing.

And so if you attend one of these three tournaments around the country, you're going to be able to get one of these cool commemorative coins.

So I'm going to really encourage you to make plans to go and attend one of those.

I just sent my wife some, you know, some info about maybe heading to a Little Rock for us that weekend.

Really neat events going on across the country.

And the Hood Classic, especially getting to go visit ATA headquarters.

I was talking with the licensees and Senior Master Lee the other day on an episode, and we were talking about, you know, ATA headquarters is your home.

This is your place, you know, go visit.

Um, enjoy.

Check it out.

If you've never been to Little Rock, I mean, as an ATA member, like, Little Rock is home, you know, you.

You want to go, go check it out, be there, see headquarters, participate, get to to.

There's a training with the.

A bunch of the Masters, the Grandmasters, I should say.

And they actually also announced the.

The start of some expansion of Masters competition outside of just Worlds and Nationals.

So I think the first, like the trial run is going to be Julie Classic in Little Rock, but they're going to make some tournaments available across the country.

East coast, west coast, middle of the country, that they're going to have some Masters competition at as well.

Masters, you should have got an email about that this week as well.

So really cool things to expand and I don't know if you've watched these masters competitions.

Holy moly.

I was watching a video of senior master Ross Lee, his seventh degree form and man, this thing looked amazing.

It was such a great looking form.

So it made me think, man, I need to, I need to get to work.

My form needs to look better because they're looking sharp.

So hey, that's going to wrap it up for today.

You need to get out there and take some action.

Be a champion.

Beyond the belt.

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