Masters Alliance
9th Dan BlackBelt and Olympic Gold Medalist Herb Perez visit with the best and brightest to bring clarity to the future of Martial arts.
Masters Alliance
From Homemade Tortillas to Sports Leadership
Ever tried making homemade tortillas from scratch? We kick things off with some hilarious tales of our culinary exploits, from the bustling magic of Disneyland to the vibrant streets of Mexico. Sharing our holiday adventures, we paint a picture of Xochimilco's traditional boats and street food, all while reflecting on the world's diverse cultures. Join us as we recount our personal journeys, mixing in humorous anecdotes and travel experiences, all set against the backdrop of new beginnings and the spirit of the New Year.
Resolutions aren't just for January; they can spark meaningful change any time of the year. As we look to grow our podcast and engage more with our listeners, we discuss personal goals, like fostering tolerance and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. We tackle the dynamics of leadership and accountability in sports, questioning the status quo and exploring how feedback—whether praised or critiqued—drives us to remain open and adaptive. From USA Taekwondo's internal challenges to the excitement of team trials and Olympic weight division debates, we dive into the intricate world of sports.
Wrapping up, we shift our focus to themes of resilience and achievement. The recent California wildfires serve as a stark reminder of the importance of community support and awareness. Reflecting on the significance of medals and personal achievements, we share stories filled with surprise and secrecy. Whether it's the symbolic power of a gold medal or the cherished memories attached to them, these moments underline our journey of aspiration and excellence.
We're not here to do anything else other than share our thoughts about how the world works but, more importantly, how we think the world works. That's just the way it's going to be.
Speaker 2:And that's what's important the way we think it works.
Speaker 3:In my world. In my world. How's everybody today? I'm good, think it works.
Speaker 1:This was important In my world. In my world. How's everybody today? I'm good, I'm good. Happy New Year, happy New Year, merry Christmas, all that good stuff. I'm good, though how about you guys?
Speaker 3:Can't complain. Can't complain, mr Moreno. What's up?
Speaker 2:Man, I'm good, Like you said. Happy New Year, Happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa, feliz año nuevo. Everything is good. You guys' vacations were good. Families are good.
Speaker 3:It was good. I went to Disneyland, which is the happiest and fattest place in the world. I had never seen more obesity. I just sat. I was curious. They said America is the most obese nation in the world and there is no doubt that America is the fattest nation in the world. And there is no doubt that America is the fattest nation in the world. I saw more people. I saw a slice of America that most people don't see.
Speaker 1:Well, depending Did you eat one of the?
Speaker 2:big turkey legs.
Speaker 3:I did that for Thanksgiving a few years back and I'm good with that. I go with the corn they got the corn and the turkey legs and I take a corn and I walk away, so I have a nice corn. But and I take a corn and I walk away, so I have a nice corn. But it's a great. We had a lot of fun. The kids always love it. They dig going and you know we don't do a lot of stuff, so when we go they really, really enjoy it. How about you guys?
Speaker 1:What did you guys do? Just lay low. I went and visited my family for Christmas, hung out there for a few days and came back and actually went to the beach for new year's. We were down there for a couple days, just woke up, walked around the beach, enjoy some of this time.
Speaker 3:So very low-key bringing in a new year's nothing crazy, nothing exciting and then I heard the wonderful uh country soon to be called, uh, uh, new america, mexico, had a visit from coach moreno. So, uh, how was that? How did you enjoy your last visit to the homeland before it becomes something?
Speaker 2:else. Listen. First of all, the Gulf of America is a beautiful sounding name. Now, listen, I go to Mexico usually once a year. I try to go more with my family. I wish I could go more with time permitting and stuff, but this year we went right after Christmas.
Speaker 2:We spent a new year there and, man, I have a great time, of course, with my family, but just the food man. I eat so much good food. My family cooks extremely well, of course, eating on the street and doing all that stuff, and I have a family that they enjoy cooking. They enjoy drinking Well, not my mother and father-in-law, but some of the relatives. I had a lot of interesting drinks, a lot of tequila, of course, an extraordinary amount of beer. I've only been home for about a week and I think I'm getting back to a normal toxic level, but it was fun. I absolutely loved it and had a great time.
Speaker 2:If anyone ever gets a chance and you're in the Mexico city area, you have to go to Xochimilco. Xochimilco is this area where these boats go through all the rivers that used to be, you know, be all part of Mexico city and you know, they, they, they push you around. There's so many other, these little raft boats, whatever they are. They bring food up to you, they bring music up to you, they sell things to you. You got to buy it and stuff, but it's just, it's really a cool, cool environment. So yeah, so it's beautiful.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean it's. I love Mexico. Every time I go for the I go. It's amazing food there and just amazing. I mean, at any of those parties, were there any rooms with baby oil? Just curious, but parties, were there any rooms?
Speaker 2:with uh baby oil, just curious, but I couldn't. I'm sorry, couldn't help myself, but uh no no, I, I waxed it.
Speaker 3:No, okay, good, but uh, I as, as you know, I told you this when we were talking I, uh, I tried my tortilla experiment. I bought this really high-end blue masa flour from this company and they gave me a recipe and I realize now that I cannot make tortillas. I can do a lot of things, but I'm going to keep trying, because I tried to make homemade mozzarella. You know I love to cook and I do all this kind of stuff and I kind of gave up on that because it's really a lot more difficult. But I don't understand how people can just knock those out one by one. Because I tried. I bought a press, I did it. I'm going to try again because I don't like to give up on stuff. But when I get my tortilla thing down, I will invite you both over for tortillas.
Speaker 2:I'm going to tell you something real fast about tortillas. That better be some good tortillas.
Speaker 1:That's a long trip for me to California for a tortilla.
Speaker 3:It better be like if I make it, it's good. I mean, I got the press over there and now I just gotta figure out how to make it work no, I was gonna tell you something, check this out.
Speaker 2:My daughter went to the store with my, with somebody, and she's like papa, papa, papa, guess how much the tortillas cost? I'm like I don't know. She's like two pounds of tortillas were like two dollars or I think it was one dollar, it was it was 20 pesos, it was $1. It was 20 pesos, it was $1. And I was like what? No, you must have did the calculation wrong.
Speaker 3:And I asked my wife and she's like, yeah, I'm like unbelievable man, things are so expensive in this country, but anyway, it would be cheaper for me to fly to Mexico and buy tortillas than it was for me to try to make these tortillas. By the time I bought the flour, the time and the frustration, because I don't like to give up. I made a biryani once, which is an Indian rice, and the first time I made it it turned into soup, and so I decided to start all over from scratch, which took another three hours, and now I have my biryani recipe down, which I think is a lot harder than making a tortilla, but apparently not. But anyway, enough of that.
Speaker 2:TJ Uber Eats brother, uber Eats Dude, make it easy.
Speaker 3:I'm telling you now I have never in my entire life done an Uber Eats Never, Never Kids around this world. Never, not once, not once, no I get in a car. I get in a car and I go to a car. I get in a car and I go, and that's I go to. I go to perez eats. I get, I go, I go out and get my own thing and I tip myself.
Speaker 1:So I'm good. Actually, I'll tell you what it's speaking of. That that's probably one of my new year's resolutions. To be honest with you, I think I I think I'm in that generation that uber eats too much like. I like the convenience of just getting it to the house, especially like a friday night, saturday night, you know, nobody wants to cook. It's super fast and quick. If I got one, that's it. I'm not going to use Uber Eats this year.
Speaker 2:Two things I want to talk about resolutions. Young, one day I have to invite you to Mexico and be with my family because I know you love cooking and you'd appreciate it a lot more. I appreciate eating it, but my wife is an amazing cook. Tj could tell you she's a really good cook, but she's the worst cook in her family. They all cook crazy. No, I didn't believe that they laughed at me when I said oh no, my wife cooks great. They were like you would appreciate the way that they cook, the way they prepare. It's pretty unbelievable.
Speaker 3:I know she's not home right now, because if she were home right now, there'd be a shoe flying at your head.
Speaker 2:No we joke about it. For me, she's an amazing cook. Tj, you can attest to that too.
Speaker 3:Let's go there. I'm a much better cook than my wife.
Speaker 2:What's your resolution? Coach, coach TJ. What's your resolution?
Speaker 1:I'll just say, other than the Uber Eats thing, I just get back to consistently working out After being retired. I got a couple of pudgy things going on here.
Speaker 3:I got to keep that nicegy things going on here he's already calling people in America fat. He's already calling people in America fat.
Speaker 1:TJ, I can hear me. I don't know what happened.
Speaker 3:I think when I opened these things up, something weird happened.
Speaker 2:Let me check. Can you guys still hear me yeah?
Speaker 3:Oh, you can hear me.
Speaker 2:Okay, hold on a second, let me get back to hearing you.
Speaker 3:Oh, there you are. Can you hear me now?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:All right, good. So I don't do resolutions, and the reason I don't do resolutions is every January I do goals, and so I had a couple of things I wanted to do last year that I accomplished this year. I have a learning program that I'm trying to launch since last year and I'm going to launch that this year. But I do have one particular goal relative to what we all do, and that is this year.
Speaker 3:It is my goal to wake up America. I'm going to wake America, I like it. Wake up America. I'm going to wake America, I like it. And I'm going to wake up Taekwondo practitioners in this country to a sad fact and if I can't then I'll be okay, cause that means that the Disneyland that I walked around, it's truly America, even in Taekwondo. But I'm going to believe that the 4% of our country that we all know that practice martial arts and the 1% that do Taekwondo and become black belts, are ready to wake up. They're ready to get woke, and I don't mean woke in the traditional sense of whatever else is saying it, but woke in the sense of the sense I'm saying it. So that's my goal. What about you, coach? I like it.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. Honestly, I'm like you. I don't really believe in New Year's resolutions. I'm not a big gift giver on birthdays and holidays, because I think that you just do it whenever you want to and when you should do it, and to me it means more like that, spontaneously versus I have to do it because it's Valentine's Day.
Speaker 2:But nevertheless, this year actually, I said something to myself. I said I want to be a little bit more tolerant and a little bit more forgiving and because, as we get older listen, I'm stuck in a lot of my beliefs and a lot of things that I live on as pillars in my life but I understand that some people don't, and I don't need to change how I am but maybe a little bit more tolerant and maybe a little bit more forgiving and I use that word little because I mean a little, no, but it's true Just to be a little bit nicer and be a little bit more. I think I'm a happy dude, I think I'm a nice dude, but I know I could be more. So, yeah, I think that's it.
Speaker 3:What about you, TJ.
Speaker 1:I said mine. I said I'm just trying to stay out here and not be fat like you call it. All the rest of the Americans at the beginning of this podcast, so just get back to a normal workout schedule. But he, I'm on the same boat. I never I don't think I've ever had a new year's resolution that I started like, okay, I followed it through. You know, life changes, things go. You know, go different ways, but I think overall this year, other than you know, just, uh, working through the things that I normally work through, just focus on just getting back to complete health. How about a group?
Speaker 2:resolution Like we said, let's grow this podcast.
Speaker 1:Let's grow the awareness.
Speaker 3:I think that's kind of a new endeavor.
Speaker 2:I like that.
Speaker 1:I've had a bunch of people reach out to me and ask me when the next podcast was going to be. I've had a lot of good feedback, so I'm super excited. People are actually watching and I get a couple of messages about you know what we said and all those things. That's. I encourage you guys and I encourage, I tell these guys, I encourage you guys to you know, keep responding to the post, Keep commenting, Let us know what you feel and think.
Speaker 3:According to what you feel and think, you know I want to get. I want to get that guy on, that said with all due respect, and then disrespect me and tell me I don't remember who it was. He said something about me and like oh I, you know, the podcast is great, except for the perez guy oh yeah I'm like oh, ouch.
Speaker 3:I mean I mean sorry, not sorry, but that ouch, yeah ouch. But you know not my nature, you know I my entire life I've been okay with that. You know you gotta, you gotta love yourself before you can love anybody else. And I love a lot of, but you know what?
Speaker 2:but I think that's okay, like that. And, and we said at the first podcast, listen, take it personal. If you're gonna take it personal, take it personal. If you think that, oh, it's unwatchable because of juan, because of her, because of tj, don't watch. I mean, everybody has their own opinion, but yeah, don't watch number one.
Speaker 3:But don't, but I think that's what, unfortunately?
Speaker 2:I think that's what we need to do. We need to push the buttons of people so that, like you said, they either wake up or they're encouraged to do something different and not necessarily be, I think, america. I mean, I hate to sound like nationalistic, but we're innovators, right, we always try to do things and we always try to push the envelope. And I feel like, within our sport, let's just keep it in our sport, everybody's in this little corridor and they're a bunch of sheep, they're a bunch of wimps, they're a bunch of. Don't say nothing because it might upset the apple cart. You should be able to. What kind of man, what kind of woman are you? What kind of coach are you If you can't question? I'm not saying to be negative, I'm not saying to be an asshole, but come on, man, like, be able to stand up for yourself, like you do in your own house or your own school, to the organization, or to a referee or to whatever, with certain decorum. So anyway, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I mean that puts us in a place like there's a bunch of stuff to talk about, but one of the things that my resolution for this year is to see better leadership in the things and the things that affect us directly. So we have some of the worst leadership worst, the worst leadership in the history of sport. The worst. This is the only sport where you can not perform as a coach, as a referee, as an athlete, as an organization, as a leader of an organization, as a leader of an organization, as a leader, and they rehire you for four years and increase your salary. Imagine the NFL. I can't remember what the worst team is in the NFL this year.
Speaker 2:They fire those guys.
Speaker 3:A day later they fire the guy. No, not here the board of directors.
Speaker 1:Mid-game at halftime.
Speaker 3:Yeah, mid-game, this organization, the guy cries, you know, cries a little bit and he's getting ready to go back on the boat to get over the pond back to where he came from and he's like I'm going to leave because you guys are mean to me. And they're like oh, oh, please don't leave. And, by the way, here's more money to stay. Are you kidding me? Not a single male gold medal. Not a single medal. Not a man, not a man. It took the most, one of the most, arguably one of the most talented athletes I've seen in a long time and didn't perform because he was tick, tocking and wake walking. And then you get this guy, him and you and you hire him again for four years at an increased salary. I mean, bless baby Jesus, I like that job. You're in the NFL, you're in the NBA, you're in any other professional sport, you're in the Olympic movement, and you don't perform. They say thanks for coming. By the way, here are your bags, here's some parting gifts. Have a nice life and go to volleyball. I mean, go somewhere else, just don't stay here. But our revolving door doesn't. Apparently the door does revolve. You get in and it turns around and shoots you back out.
Speaker 3:Now, who do you want to blame? Don't blame, don't blame, don't blame. Blame the board of directors. Let's start with that. I'm going to blame the board of directors. Next, here's where I want America to wake up. Wake up, Wake up you second and third and fourth tier coaches and athletes who accept this and think this is okay because you have a seat at the table Now. Now, don't be mad at them, because they're doing it and you're allowing them to do that.
Speaker 3:Now, everybody else in the movement, in the Olympic movement, wake up. You're not performing. Your coaches aren't performing. Your athletes aren't performing. Your administration's not performing. Your organization's not performing. Empty the sink, flush the toilet, get rid of them. Move on and get some people that can actually get you to perform. That's my New Year's resolution, and it's not just in the United States WT. Wake up, get rid of the clown that's running your organization. By the way, it's going to be a wake-up call for the kooky one as well, because look what they did in the United States. Just to check, just to be clear, I'm going to say it now If your name's not Kim Parker Lee well, actually, if it's one particularly you don't get a seat at the table, you don't? You got to kiss the ring to get a sit at the table. It doesn't matter what you've done.
Speaker 2:So this is prevalent. Oh do I have to?
Speaker 3:do I have to stop? Do I have to stop the podcast now, and and and erase the past?
Speaker 2:No, no come on.
Speaker 2:But you know something about that like cause TJ, you you've been on boards. You've been on you know, you know athlete committees and stuff like that. I actually think that, as it relates to you, you brought that topic up. You know young, about the board. You know I believe in things are circular. You know life, you know history kind of repeats itself.
Speaker 2:And now we have a board that's a majority of the board it seems like aren't real martial art people, they're not Taekwondo people. You know Some of them are sport people, but they don't really know what's going on other than what's being told to them. So I don't know that they're doing a good job. I don't believe so. And I know those guys are volunteers. I know they just kind of supervise. At the beginning that was good because it got people away from. I'm so entrenched that I want to help TJ, I want to help Herb, I want to help so-and-so. So you get these independent thinkers, independent people. But now we've gone through so many cycles that these people don't really know what's going on and they're hiring and firing people, maybe without not a real understanding of what's going on within the organization, within the organization. But I don't know.
Speaker 3:It might be time to get more sports, specific people on the board, you know, because I think the way our one is one of the problems of one of the problems of getting public and non-sport people on boards the the uh, the independent directors is they have one goal they want to serve on an ngb board in hopes of getting on the U S Olympic committee board. So they all serve and when I hired cause I was the guy who hired the first independent directors the USOC asked me to vet these guys. So when we made that change over from the last revolt and we got rid of everybody everybody that was bad we got they said can you help us pick the independent directors? So I was the committee and I vetted all those guys and the one thing that was perfectly clear the independent directors from back then were the rejects that tried to get on every other board and couldn't get in. So we had this horrible, horrible group of people that we could get. When I was on the board, when you, when you were a coach, we hired great independent directors and one of that you know and this guy was a brilliant mind, great business person, and I begged him to be on the board of directors so that we could solve some of the problems. He came in and then he functioned there for a while and then that organization was dysfunctional.
Speaker 3:So it's hard to get good people because in a large part the organization is dysfunctional. And if you want nothing more than dysfunction manifested, look at the current numbers in the organization no medals, no medal performances. Second, membership is down. Third, revenue is down. Fourth, they went back into the hopper and picked up the most ridiculous non-performing people and put them in positions of power and then they had to get rid of people who violated the rules. So if you want an organization that's dysfunctional, you have to start with the board members. That can make change. And be frank, right now I don't even know who's on the board anymore and I don't really. It's not my problem to fix, but I guess the question becomes you're in the sport People that are in the sport, people that are paying those dues, whatever those dues are, and I'm a lifetime member.
Speaker 2:They don't know who those people are. I bet you, those people, don't know who they are.
Speaker 3:They got to fix their problem. It's a sport team, you know. I mean you have diehard fans here.
Speaker 3:There's a fan here. Last thing, there's a fan here for the what's that team, the oakland raiders? Right, oh, diehard fans. They moved to la or las vegas or whatever. They all went with them. That's, you know, cowboy fans. Whatever, these guys follow the teams and hope and hopes and days of one day they're actually going to win and do something. And I get, I get that's fandom. But as a member of USA, taekwondo you're not a fan, you're a client, that's it.
Speaker 1:Anyway, let's move on One second. I think the problem is, though, is what we're comparing it to, and I think most people don't know the history of, like, actual results of the US and the number of times we've gotten medals at the Olympic Games and how we performed in these big competitions, because I remember I'm going to say back at, uh, when we qualified for the, the 2024 sports, I saw someone post something about like, oh, this is such, it's so great, we've qualified four people, and it's like that's been the standard my guy like to qualify for. That's not the goal, like that. That's the part that ticks me off a little bit. It's like what are we comparing this to? What are we? What are we? What are we seeing as an overall result of all this? Like we all, we get Olympic medals.
Speaker 1:I've come from a generation that I mean. I was following Olympic silver medalists at the Olympic Games and I went there and we joked about it last episode. I got bronze. Our goal was to go get gold medals. There was no, not get a medal. There was no, not performers, there was not podium. We were there to perform, because that's what we've always done historically, whether it be two medals, three medals, one medal, whatever the case may be. Getting olympic medals has always been the standard. Winning the pan am games medals have always been a standard. I think people forget that. So when something happens in these days, we go, oh this is so amazing, but like that's standard. That's the, that's where we start, that's the beginning and that's just that's where I think people get. Like I said, get it all lost in translation is right there. Like you know, when you go, oh they do, they do something happen. That was great, but it's really not that great. This is supposed to happen.
Speaker 3:We're supposed to do this. You said it and this is this is where you have to start Right. In other words and soccer is a great example my son does soccer these days and you guys know I'm like you're right, Absolutely right. If you keep telling them that and they keep believing that and if that's their standard and that's their level, that's what they're going to believe. So in the United States, if you're on what I call the warmup tour, you try to get on the team to get a warm-up. You can take home and show everybody and that's your takeaway from the games. Your takeaway from the game is supposed to be a medal. If it's not a medal, you didn't perform. That's kind of the way it works. But if you enculturate your people and you say our goal is to get to the games, just to qualify, that's our goal, yeah, that's your goal. You achieved your goal. You qualified our goal. Yeah, that's your goal. You achieved your goal, you qualified. Now, that's what your expectation, that's what you thought.
Speaker 3:There was a time when we thought we couldn't beat Korea because people told us you couldn't beat Korea. And if you accept that, guess what? You don't beat Korea. So you've got to raise your standards and and I'm going to tell you, the soccer thing is interesting because I don't start from there Anybody, any coach that says that to me. I find a new coach my son, your son, your daughter, whatever they deserve to believe and try to become a world-class player, whether it's taekwondo, soccer, basketball, lacrosse, whatever it is.
Speaker 2:And if you're not starting, there you're limiting them, tj, what you're saying is, though, people in this era right now think that what we're doing is good, and because people are telling them it was good, and you're saying wait, wait, wait, go back to 16. We qualify four people, go back to 12. We qualify four people, go back to eight. We qualify four people. That's the standard. And the standard should have been getting multiple medals right Two and three and four medals and that's where we should be going, not that we have to say, oh, this was a horrible Olympic Games, but we can't say it was a great Olympic Games, right, but that's what people are hearing and I know we need to motivate them. But I guess there has to be a little bit of reality check, because our standards should be here and our results should be even with that, if not surpass it, and not below that, and I think the bar has dropped a little bit too low, maybe it was what they were told.
Speaker 1:Maybe maybe it was what they were told when they first got here. I mean, there's a, there's a. There's an interview floating around somewhere on youtube where it's like, oh, we want to come here and make sure that the this one bothered me. I remember we're going to come here and make sure that we don't just want people to make the national team, want people to go get medals, and I don't know where they got that from. I don't know who told who that and that became the thing.
Speaker 1:But now I mean, if I'm, if I'm speaking very frankly, now we're in an era where it's like you're successful once you make it to the academy, now you're good, now you, now you've hit the cream of the crop, and that's not the case. You know what I mean. That's. That's not where it goes, that's not, that's not the standard. And I, like I said, going back to what you said, our standards always been high. The results have always been what we wanted and we're not there yet. We're not doing anything spectacular out of the ordinary, extraordinary. You know, it's great for the athletes who went and performed and got a medal. That's, that's the goal, right? But the the reality is we're, we're, we're not, we're not performing at the highest levels of levels, and that's just point, blank and simple.
Speaker 3:What's USA Basketball's expectations? Is it?
Speaker 2:Gold medal.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:That's it.
Speaker 3:They're not starting at oh, let's hope we qualify USA Men's Soccer. They hope they qualify. They haven't cracked the code yet on how to get there. But that's a different story. There was a point in cross-country skiing and I was on the board of directors when this came up and I've told this story before, but I'll keep it short. The director of USA skiing said cross-country skiers can never medal. I looked at him and I go, you're telling me, are we physically different than the other people in the world? Are we incapable of the knowledge? We can't learn how to ski? And he says, no, they can't qualify. I go okay, I said I said. So. You're telling me if I gave you $10 million, in four years you couldn't get a person on the medal stand. No, then we need to do.
Speaker 3:director, I'm like you could give me $10 million and I don't know the sport, and with 8 million that I keep, the other 2 million I'd spend we'd get a guy on the medal performance stand. I said, and if you don't believe that, then look at skeleton, skeleton, historically, which is luge upside down, you face first, right? If you're not crazy enough, they didn't get medals. So I'm like dude, after the Olympics 92, I'm going to the Winter Olympics and I'm entering skeleton because in the entire country there were only 10 people doing skeleton. So that means I'm already in the top 10, right? So I'm like I want to go to the Winter Olympics, I want to get some warmups, I don't care if I win. Well, lo and behold, that year famous guy Sullivan came from a long history of skeleton guys won an Olympic medal, won an Olympic gold medal, gold medal. So yes, it's possible. If you dream the dream, if you don't try yeah, of course you know you relegate yourself to the successes that you believe you're capable of.
Speaker 2:That's it all right, let's get into some competitions. A couple things coming up. We have, all right, usa team trials. You have the canadian open. You have the us open. All kind of heck within a month. Heck within a month. Right, tj Within a month. You got it.
Speaker 1:Back-to-back-to-back competition. Yeah, I think even Canada has their selection right before the actual Canadian Open event. So it's a lot going on in the next three, four weeks. So it's pretty. Team Toronto is always exciting for me, you know what I mean. I like when everybody shows up and they're fighting for one spot and on that day we can visually see who wants it a little bit more than other people. Obviously, I got some guys in the mix. I'm always super excited. I used to be super excited to fight. I'm always super excited to coach there.
Speaker 2:So looking forward to that event, just from that standpoint, that's next week in Portland Oregon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, next week in Portland Oregon Friday, I think we're doing Olympic weights and then the second-place person of the Olympic weights gets to fight the off-Olympic weights on that Sunday, which is a little bit strange, but it is what it is.
Speaker 2:What's that? What do you mean?
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, that thing I don't know.
Speaker 2:You have any divisions that you're looking at that are going to be kind of hot. I mean, I think we have a couple categories where people could have some really interesting matches.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think 74. I mean, if we're just talking friendly, 74 went from being it's kind of like packed. I think there's like 12, 13, 14 people in there, something like that. So it'll definitely be interesting competition to see all those different guys match up. I would love to see two things. I would love to see it be a little like, for instance, I'm not sure if we're doing a random weigh-in, let's start there. I think we you know, I know they touched on some points about, you know, our guys not making weight at the Pan Am Championship and that's why they did all this weight shifting stuff but like I don't know, that's ridiculous Stop.
Speaker 1:I never have, ever not. It's the price of entry.
Speaker 3:It's the price of entry. You, you got a job right. You show up at your job. You're a plumber, you don't have a wrench. You're a surgeon. You don't bring a scalpel, I get fired. You don't show up. We, we've been on teams. I've watched coach Moreno when he was in Panic games in Cuba. He's training and and big wally is eating a bag of potato chips and moreno had enough sense of presence not to get crazy and just keep his training. And while while coach, while wally's going, you're hungry yeah you're hungry and it's like of course I'm hungry.
Speaker 3:He didn't run to the bag of potato chips. We had a particular athlete I won't mention her name who didn't make weight. I came back and I was like she should be fined and fired and never make another us team in her life.
Speaker 2:She can't make weight, you can't make weight but for the, for the, for the you know topic of team trials. I mean that's more of the reason you should have a random way in tj if maybe, let me.
Speaker 1:Let me quote, because maybe they have on the schedule. I've seen I didn't see random, so let me say that before everyone starts comment, tell me I'm wrong, but I didn't see it on the last list that was posted on their schedule.
Speaker 2:Security blanket of saying listen, they made the weight and then they made the random weigh-in we project that they should be able to make their weight at the Pan Ams or Worlds or wherever they go. So I think that's that. I'm a little I don't know what's the word I'm going to say concerned, because I think they have a couple of different formats. They have a round robin format. If it's less than this, they have a single elimination format, as if it's this it's not a random draw, it's a ranking draw. But you know you have a domestic point system that's maybe higher than a national team person. It's. It's a little confusing and I'm not sure it's a good, I think I think we should have scrapped the whole.
Speaker 1:Like I think the first person on the list is like top 20 ranking, or the person has ranked on the olympic list is the number one person in the division with that, because the whole thing started with the point reset, right? I don't think, if we're going with this whole idea of the point reset, why am I? These guys got 17 points, 16 points, 9.6 points. Why does that matter right now? It's so irrelevant that I don't think that should be a protection point of some reason that you're sitting away from everybody else. You know, let these kids go prove it, let them go earn it. You know, don't hide anyone or show anyone, especially when we're talking about the beginning of a quad. Let's let it happen. Let's see what's going on, you know, as opposed, to trying to negate and change all these things.
Speaker 2:I don't even like the fact that they let people and we talked about this last time, so I won't there but like now you have, for example, I know for specifically for use, 74, they've got 14 people and 68's got three like that's and only because these 68's were allowed to move up, whether they couldn't make the weight, whether they were uh, they thought they had a better chance just, I don't know that, that's well, ask yourself, is that?
Speaker 3:good for the pipeline. Tj, ask the question what's the purpose of a team trial selection process? And we wrestled with this all the way back when we were doing the same thing and you said how do you yield the best athlete in that division? And we started by the original idea behind the team trials. Originally it was national champion. You won the national championships. You fought the drag and you won. You came. Well, we realized the guy might get injured, not have his best day. It was about injury, right? Okay? Then we had the multi-day team trial. You went through a team trial, went to nationals and then you fought again. Then we had the multi-day plus top two. You went, went all six of you fought round robin. Top two had to beat number one twice. This way you're sure, you're sure to get well now on. Now it went to.
Speaker 3:If you feel like moving up, you can move up, even if you don't have a record right because of the cut, the, the reality that there are different weight divisions. Well, that's a fundamental problem between wt itself itself and the Olympic movement. You're going to have four divisions, fight four divisions. If it's not a good format, then why are you doing it at the Olympics? It's either fairer for there to be eight weight divisions than it is for there to be four, or you tool everybody in the world for four. Why are you creating this artificial distinction? To get more players and more weight divisions in the world championships and other events. Yet the Olympic format's four. It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1:So you would say not to fight any world divisions. You would say no world divisions.
Speaker 3:I'd say, if you either fix the Olympic divisions eight or fix the world divisions to four, because the reality is that you're trying to yield the best athlete, and if it's unfair just to be clear, if it's unfair for an athlete to compete, you could easily do it. By the way, you could have eight divisions at the world, at the olympics, which would need more medals, less athletes, because it's always about the athlete cap. So if the athlete cap is 10,005, which is what they're trying to keep then it's 10,005. You have eight divisions. Instead of having the top X amount of people, you do it like a world cup. You have the top eight or the top 16. That's it. But then you have eight divisions and it's fair. Is it really fair for a guy who's 110 to have to move up to 100 and whatever? Maybe?
Speaker 2:let me ask you this because I listen. So the olympic games right now, you're right, it's about a number. They can only have a certain amount of athletes. That combined into four. So basically there's 16 athletes in every category. So that's four fights and then if you have, you know, even if you have a, you lose someone there you might have three fights to get a medal. But you could do that. It would be like think about eight athletes. You have three fights to the finals, three fights to the gold medal and maybe if you lose someone there you have an extra fight. You have a fourth fight for the rep recharge. I mean, think about most of the Olympic Games, the first rounds, with the number one seeds. They're pretty much walking through that number 16 seed anyway. So you could. Actually I don't like having eight people, but the quality would be way more in that category and you'd give more people. You'd give a 54 guy a chance instead of fighting 58. You'd give a 63 guy a chance instead of 68. But that's not.
Speaker 1:I got a question. I got a question real quick. I think I miss the days of, like you know and again, I a little bit before I missed the day to show up and you get thrown into a bracket. I know you were taught last episode you were talking about, like you know, pruning of the trees and changing of the brackets and maybe that's where it all started. But like I don't, I mean I miss the days.
Speaker 1:You, you being the number one ranked person doesn't mean you should get a free first fight. You know I would, I would, I would throw everybody into the bracket like they used to, and to see where you fall. And it is what it is. You've either got a good bracket or I miss it with good bracket or bad bracket, that's it, and you call it good or call it bad. You call it what you want, you call it tougher or easier, but those were. We talk about the unexpected and unknown, the things you had to show up for. You know I, I was one of the unlucky people. I show up and I'm definitely gonna fight korea first or second, like that's all. They either get through korea to prove myself, to beat everybody else, and that's okay, that's okay, but like you're saying, I think that one in 16, even, and like we go, we talk about a lot coaches, the, the, the wild cards for olympic games.
Speaker 3:I'm not a fan of wild cards for olympic games what sense does it make to give a wild card to I don't want to say Afghanistan or whatever the country was? I saw a wild card where Lopez fought some wild card guy. So the poor wild card get guy gets in there and he's got to fight Lopez, who at that point was the best guy in the world.
Speaker 2:I think that was the Iraq back in the day, was it?
Speaker 3:Yeah? And he beat him like a redhead, redheaded stepchild, and as he should, because this is the Olympic Games. I'm not here to entertain you, I'm here to win a medal. So I don't think you serve if you want to help developing countries and I'm a bootstrap kind of guy, I don't mind bootstrapping people Well, bootstrap them at the local games, at the Pan Am Games, at the.
Speaker 2:Asian.
Speaker 3:Championships, not the Olympic Games.
Speaker 2:They didn't do it in swimming and boxing.
Speaker 3:Come games, not the olympic games, swimming and boxing, and come on, you know well, they have one. They had a swimmer that qualified, that came in, like you know, two hours later or something I can't remember. It was like they had one instance of that.
Speaker 1:But you're right, either. It's the rhythm, the vibe. Get on up. It's bobsled time. You know that's what they're doing, right.
Speaker 3:What is this? Cool runnings. But listen, you said something which is really poignant, right? If you're a champion, and you're a true champion and you're a gold medalist, you don't care who you you got to beat Korea first round or second round or in the final, right? I unfortunately got Korea always in the semi or in the finals, which was good for me. I'd rather fight them in the semi or in the finals, which was good for me. I'd rather fight him in the semi or in the final, because then they can't prune my tree right. So that's kind of the reality of it all. But if I got Korea first round, great, I'd love to have Korea first round. I'd like to fight him when I'm fresh and not tired or injured, right. So it's a different mentality.
Speaker 2:But anyway, tija, I mean Herb. I'm not sure if you know how many people are going to the trials, but, like any matches that you're kind of like anticipating, that could be good, like heads up.
Speaker 1:I mean, 68 is going to be interesting. There's only three of them in 68. You know, you got two pretty good guys. I don't know who the third guy is, unfortunately. I mean, I don't really know, but I think 68 will be interesting. I see a couple of people moved up in divisions because you had direct qualifications in 67. So you'll have the Olympic gold medal. Anastasia will fight in 73, which is kind of interesting. I don't think it's the most worst thing but, like you know, it'll be interesting. But mostly 60. I'm excited for 60. I'm always excited for 68. That's my division.
Speaker 2:So I'm excited for that, liz. I think 57 will be good, just because, you know, faith is our olympic, our olympic athlete and she's very, very good. But she's had a kind of a tough time from time to time with uh, uh caitlin out of california. I mean, they just for some reason they match up interestingly and and they go back and forth. So I don't think that's a an easy uh match up for our olympic, uh, our olympic athlete.
Speaker 2:And then I think in 68, like you said, listen, kafani is the pandem, an easy matchup for our Olympic athlete. And then I think in 68, like you said, listen, kafani is the Pan Am Games gold medalist and he's a national team member, he's a Grand Prix medalist. I mean, he's obviously one of the most talented athletes that this country has seen in a long time. And then you know, you've got the young kid, michael Rodriguez, and he's been on a tear, I mean on the on the Pan American level, and went over to Europe and fought some pretty big names that have had some really good results and he was able to deal with them and handle them and and win. So it's going to be an interesting matchup there.
Speaker 1:I like it, I love it, I like it, I love it, I mean it. Just it puts me back in the days when I had to go try to, you know, beat the giant per se, and I know we're not the same two people, but just like. That's what it's all about, you know, that's that's what. That's what getting out of the U? S was about, you know. Going back to my original point, you, you had to beat the giant to leave the country. You weren't worried about nobody else, because the person in your country was just as viable and just as strong and just as to go facing the world. So when you did leave, you had a certain level of confidence about yourself that you know what. Now it's time to go take on the world. So for me I'm.
Speaker 2:I think 74 is going to be a good division too.
Speaker 1:74 is there's a lot of good names in 74, a lot of good talent in 74. And young, and young, young kids. You know, yeah, for on Sunday too, one of the three will go into the 74 on Sunday.
Speaker 2:I don't even like that. Those guys made the decision to leave the 68. Why let somebody go up, just let those 74 people fight and these 68 guys get out of the way you got second.
Speaker 1:There's something about talent, something or another. Not eliminating talent. That's no one's job, that's not your job, because you're taking whoever all the off division or the olympic division, whoever gets second, you're allowing them a second chance to go fight someone. Maybe this is a true 74. Maybe it's a true 53. Maybe it's a true, you know, 70. Whatever the case may be, and those are big medals at the world championship because you, you can take a 68 or whatever let's use 68. You'll take a 68 and put them in 74. Maybe, maybe that's a change. Maybe that's not his style per se. Maybe it can be better than majority 74s or have good match against 74s in America, but that's not who like. We're trying to win there, but we're trying to go there and win and that's where it throws me off.
Speaker 2:You're not, you're not. I think it's a mistake. I mean, I it's so easy to say we're only going to focus on the Olympic categories 58, 68, 80 and a heavyweight. It makes it seems like it's clear. But how could you deny a 54 and 63? Maybe maybe a 54 can go get a lot of Olympic ranking points and take his shot at the 58s and and maybe do something, or vice versa. 63, he's really good at 63. He can't make 58 all the time and let him fight at the World Championships in 63. Maybe he does extremely well and he cuts down.
Speaker 2:I think it's wrong just to only focus on the Olympic categories. I mean, I get it in the big scheme. Those people I just mentioned would have to prove that they could fight in that 58, of course, but at the same time to deny them and just kind of act like they're not as important, I don't think it's smart, because you never know who can go up and who can go down. You never know who's going to grow. You know, especially those 54 people, 63 to 68. You never know, you never know.
Speaker 1:But I don't know, I think it's a little.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know better situation that they are having a team trials, whether it's round robin, single elimination I don't agree with all those different things, but I think it's. At least it's a step in the right direction, because I was thinking about something really controversial. Talk about history, tj Young. I remember two cycles ago, 2020 Olympic games qualifications Me and Herb are in the same division. I beat Herb head to head the last four times. I'm on the national team. You're not. I have a higher ranking than you. I have beat the people that you lost to and I wasn't selected. They took you Like transparency and favoritism, whatever, like literally I checked all the boxes that I was supposed to. I beat you higher ranked, more results and I don't get to go and you get to go. So at least we're in this team trial phase again.
Speaker 1:I don't think we're too far away from there I think you're talking about for the Olympic qualifications, correct? Yeah, I still don't agree with that. That makes that makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, even if you looked at the brackets that day, you had one guy who was the, the second guy in that that group that had a harder pathway to go qualify to the division and we took that path to go that way and that chose the person that was higher rank. That that that's crazy to me. I don't think we're. I know we're past that point because we're going into team trials for this situation.
Speaker 1:But like all that stuff where you go into a room and people sit like dude, you I'm not a believer. I understand that. You know you have to deliberate between some things and that happens between divisions. But when you look at those two in the same division and you go this is what this and this is what this, and you still come out the room and you make a different decision, it makes no sense to me, Like you can't make that make sense to me. The bracket didn't make sense to me and you know. But and not to say that that athlete wasn't good it just didn't make no sense for that tournament and in that process, you know I mean listen, I didn't have a dog in the fight.
Speaker 2:I am either one of them. I mean ones from texas, ones from hawaii. I have nothing to do with them, but I just my point was at least we're in the trials right now and at least these guys can. They can match up and we can see what happens, for better or worse. This is a big year. You've got a Grand Slam, a Grand Prix challenge in the United States.
Speaker 1:I'm excited about that.
Speaker 2:There's so many opens the points reset. I mean there's wild cards even for Pan Am Championships. There's a lot of things to fight for this year other than this team trials and the world championships.
Speaker 1:So I agree, but it's going to be exciting. I mean it's going to be like three weekends back to back, pretty much Right, almost three, yeah, that between Canada and the US Open. But I think it's a good start to the year and then we'll just go from there and see how that flows.
Speaker 2:But excited, always excited, I love this, what else, what else, guys, what else is new?
Speaker 1:What else is new, Master of disaster? You got anything? Grandmaster disaster? We put him to sleep. We put him to sleep. No, no, no, no. I like it. I tried.
Speaker 3:Unlike a lot of people, they have a word for what I try not to do it's ultracrepidarian. So an ultracrepidarian is someone who speaks with authority. Look it up it's someone who speaks with authority on a subject of which they have no knowledge.
Speaker 3:So I try not to speak on subjects like this because I'm not in the mix at the moment, other than the philosophical way of trying to choose a team player to say whether it's good or bad. You guys are in the fire at the moment. You're still putting athletes on teams, you're still coaching athletes Me. I'm looking at it from a different point of view. It's like how do you really yield the best athletes? So, on this particular topic, I try to be quiet just because I'm not involved at the level of intricacy and intimacy that you guys are.
Speaker 3:Obviously, for me right now, the only other thing on my mind is, you know, I woke up to a surreal couple of days ago surreal moment here in California where I thought it was just mean and I saw what's going on in, you know, in the Hollywood, california area, pasadena, and I have a lot of good friends down there. But this morning, when I opened up the New York Times, which I try to do every day um, there was a picture, a video, of a taekwondo school that was in a very nice shopping mall and it showed before and after. So this poor individual, which I'm going to try to figure out who it is, had a taekwondo school in a very affluent part, yep, and it showed a video of the taekwondo school and then it showed. It showed the entire center burned down. So this horrific wildfire thing that's going on here down in Southern California, I'm up in Northern California, it's just devastating.
Speaker 3:And this poor individual I don't know who it is I'm going to try to figure out who it is to at least reach out and and say, uh, if there's anything that we can do as people, because that's really what Taekwondo should be about, it's about helping our brothers and sisters. And, uh, I'm going to see if I can find it here, but it was, it was really just terrible. And, um, the wind's slow a little bit, but I don't see the video now, which is unfortunate, unfortunate but it was crazy about.
Speaker 2:That is like I. Obviously, in this moment it's not. You can't be pointing fingers and things like that because because it's just it.
Speaker 2:There's too much destruction, too much damage, you know. But you know there's there's been a lot of talk, you know, in the past about you know, uh, you know that that area was actually just lucky that the winds didn't blow the right way. And you, there's people that were talking about this and and unfortunately there wasn't a whole lot they've done to help prevent it. I don't know if it could have, but it's just a, it's a little sad and you know, I I read this morning that you know people had lost, for some reason, like a lot of homes in that area lost their, their insurance. Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. Yeah yeah, if you live in a wildfire area or a flood zone, like in my community. Here we live on the Bay Area and in the Bay here we have a lagoon and a levee system, and talk about the genius of America. I'm, at this point, an elected official and I'm trying to convince people that we need to raise the levy, because the government has told us we have to raise it and if we don't raise it, they're going to charge us flood insurance, which they sell you right. So $5,000 a year.
Speaker 2:Which they sell you. Which they sell you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just so happens, they break. You know they're a window company and they're throwing the rocks. So, anyway, you know I would go around to these houses and try to explain to people we got to raise the levy and they're like, oh, I go. Okay, do you want to spend $5,000 a year, or $200 for you know, to build a new levy? And so I, we won. You know we got 80% of the people, but you know these people that live the constant encroachment of people into areas that used to be where animals lived. You know these wooded areas because we need more housing. That's what happens. You get closer to these areas and so when they do have a wildfire which happened, by the way, that's just nature cleaning itself. Now you have that proximity. And when you get closer to you, cause that and people don't want to insure it because it's, you know, insurance.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're in the business of making money. You know they don't want to and if you want to pay for that insurance. So there are people that own their homes that probably didn't have that coverage, and that's unfortunate, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I pray for those people because it just looks horrific. I mean same thing. I've been looking at my Instagram and Facebook and I just it doesn't even look real. It looks like a damn movie set. So I feel for all those guys. I pray for them.
Speaker 3:Well, again, our podcast isn't always funny and whatever else and we do have, as you can see, we have good hearts, even though sometimes we joke about some of the other stuff. But in this very serious situation, all I can do is think about and hope and give my best wishes and assistance to my brothers and sisters down in that area, regardless of whether you're a taekwondo person or not. So it's just going to continue until it stops burning and all we can hope is that it stops and we can get our best efforts to make it stop. But again, brothers and sisters and my good colleagues on this phone, this has been the Warehouse 15. Good colleagues on this phone, this has been the Warehouse 15. We have a variety of topics that we talk about and we look forward to next week where we'll pick up the new and the latest. We have anything we're going to pre-frame for next week, gentlemen.
Speaker 2:No, I got to keep that a secret, man we got to give them. Oh, it's a secret, even better, it's a secret. Let's use surprise.
Speaker 3:Again, this has been a complete gold, silver and bronze medal production, you know, as I was reminded last week, and so uh, I changed my name for you.
Speaker 1:I changed my name for you I want you to misquote me or call me tj jennings again, so like I just want, I want you to know.
Speaker 3:I named my school gold medal at one point and there's a reason. I do have some bronze and silver medals. I can't find them, but I know that they're somewhere and uh, and moreno was around when I got most of them guitars yeah, but you notice the color of the guitar. You don't see any silver guitars up there. That's a gold guitar in the back up there. That's gold. All right, gentlemen, we're out later. Peace, all right, let's well, oh, actually, let me stop the recording. That's good, we stopped the recording, all right, we.