Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Did you hear about the Special Olympics demo at spring nationals? Let's talk about it, sir.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: I will live with perseverance in the spirit of taekwondo, courtesy for fellow students, integrity within myself, and to become a black belt leader.
Welcome to the ATA Nation podcast.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Instructors, students, parents, athletes of song. I'm taekwondo. Welcome back to the Ata Nation podcast. This is episode 113, and I am your host, senior master Zach Hayden. It is a pleasure to be back with you. Today we have an amazing interview all about the Special Abilities division special Olympics demonstration that took place at spring nationals. You need to hear this. Let's get right to it.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: Special guest interview.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: Hello, Ata Nation. We are back with another awesome interview we have Miss Johan. Sorry, I said it wrong after I asked you. Let me. Let me start that from scratch again just because I was moving my phone to get my good recording, and then I got myself distracted and I'm going to start from scratch again. Hold on, let me move this.
I've been playing with my video setup, and I just don't like it right now. I hear you.
Okay, let me start over.
Welcome, Ata Nation to another great interview we have with us. Miss Johanneson. How are you today, ma'am?
[00:01:45] Speaker C: Fantastic, thank you, sir.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: Excellent. Well, I heard about this amazing thing at spring nationals, and I heard you were the one to talk to about it. There was a big kind of demonstration exhibition of Special Olympics taekwondo at spring nationals. Can you tell, for those of us that weren't there, what happened?
[00:02:10] Speaker C: Over ten years ago, we started a pilot program with Special Olympics because taekwondo is not one of their offered sports.
At that time, they didn't think enough people were involved and just kind of left us be. They were also worried that ATA was being exclusive and not allowing other schools to do it. And our constant argument was, we can't get other schools to listen to us to try this because we don't have the Special Olympics name behind us. So you've got us in a bad spot where we can't win. I mean, if I call another martial arts school near me, they're not like, oh, yeah, hey, let's hang out together. Let's go do this. It's not that easy. So after years of inviting Special Olympics people to come and watch our rings, it finally occurred to us. They don't need to come watch an ATA ring. They need to see what a Special Olympics competition would look like. And that's different. There's no sparring, there's no combat, and there is board breaking. So things change up its own set of rules. It's not an ATA program. It's ATA is involved with Special Olympics taekwondo program.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: Okay, so give me a little overview. I have, in my community, we have a pretty decent Special Olympics kind of program going on, but I don't quite understand how that melds together. I'm not versed in what Special Olympics does and whatnot. So give me a kind of an overview of the Special Olympics program and how that can tie into this Special Olympics for taekwondo.
[00:03:47] Speaker C: Yes, sir. So Special Olympics is not physical. Paralympics deals with physical issues. Special Olympics is more cognitive for people with autism or other intellectual disabilities. They do have guidelines of the application process that you fill out, just like the ATA does for our special abilities.
We've already been doing everything that each other has been doing for years, and finally it seems we found a group that gets it. So if you wanted to apply to be in Special Olympics, you go through their site. You can also certify yourself as a judge by watching all of these videos. It's free, but there's a lot of videos like concussion protocol and this and that. But you can become a certified Special Olympics coach as well.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: Okay, so now the Special Olympics, let's say I decide to, you know, we'll talk in a couple minutes about this expanding, but let's say you have Special Olympics in your school currently. Is this, this is a program? How does that look for your school, what they're doing in the school, things like that.
[00:04:55] Speaker C: Good. When I first opened up my school in Texas, because this is not where I was originally from, I just so happened to meet a parent who had a son with down syndrome, and he was ten, and she brought him in and to take a class, and I said, well, let me do a private lesson with him. And then I just started making it a special abilities class, and I was, you know, help me. What can he do? Does he have reverse scoliosis? That's common. Does he have neck issues? That's common. So she basically just helped me the whole way through. And the constant reiteration to myself was, you already know how to do this. I keep saying that to other instructors. You already know how to teach taekwondo. You just have to go a little bit out the box sometimes. But you already know how to do this.
[00:05:40] Speaker A: So the students, it's just like if, like most ATA schools have some special ability students in their schools already, that's just something we do. So special abilities are, excuse us, Special Olympics. What, now I've got my names wrong, but they, that's not something different I do in my school. It's something that I.
They're able to do these other competitions outside of the school. Is that kind of the difference there?
[00:06:15] Speaker C: Yes. So if you want to be part of the program, you just send in the information about your school, and that then makes you a registered school. It's only a list that we provide to athletes. When it's like, okay, it's a new sports season. Here you go. And if you're interested in Taekwondo, these are the schools in your area. In order to do this at your school, you have to agree to take on these students for eight to ten weeks for free. Now, you don't have to put them in a class, you don't have to have a separate. You could do one private a week, you could do one class every two weeks. It is strictly set up and determined by you, and I can guarantee it'll pay off in the long term. I mean, just even in a financial point of view, for some people that are only concerned about that.
Over a decade ago, when I did my first pilot program, I had twelve kids. Two of them are still with me, full paying, all eight events at every tournament all the time.
And so if people are worried about free training, it will come around.
[00:07:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Now tell us about one of those students that you have. They've been there for a long time. What have you seen martial arts do for these individuals?
[00:07:28] Speaker C: Well, I have a student I knew right away, Dan Richer. He's just. He's amazing.
He couldn't talk, he couldn't really read, but he wanted to join leadership. He wanted to be a part of it. So we made picture flashcards so he could remember the ten class management skills, because, yeah, I still do that.
So he's just, he's phenomenal with a bo staff. And I think it's funny when we have an in school tournament and all of our typical students go up against him and he wins, and they're like, what the heck? And I'm like, he's better than you. What do you want me to tell you? He's better than you. So I often use him as my guy since he's 27. He's been with me since he was ten, so I used him as my go to to show off that he's well spoken. Taekwondo has changed his life. He can stand up in front of people and give a speech. He couldn't do that before at all.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: And this is all ages. There's. What are the ages for Special Olympics?
[00:08:26] Speaker C: They have a young athlete program that even dips down to seven years old.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: Okay. Very cool. And so now these. These individuals are training in school. You have the. That time period that is. It's free or whatnot. But what are their tournaments outside of the. The one, I'm assuming there's one big special Olympics conference or something. Are there other more local things or. No.
[00:08:53] Speaker C: Well, each state has their own summer games, winter games and stuff like that. So it would start there for them.
[00:09:00] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:09:01] Speaker C: Yep. So you're just basically, you know, also the form you and the athlete gets created. There's no set form because we want to be inclusive of everybody. That means ITF, that means wt, that means all of them. So we don't compare our song forms against them. You can just basically make a creative one depending on the athlete's abilities.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: And you said the athletes are doing for the. The special Olympics competition. Forms.
You said forms. Weapons. And then they do board breaking.
[00:09:34] Speaker C: Yes. So weapons. The Special Olympics calls training tools because I guess it's less scary. But they can do their regular form, which is creative musical forms, team forms, board breaks. Not ready to do combat and sparring yet, but the board breaks is kind of interesting. We are going to provide a list of suggested breaks, like, okay, level one is a sidekick. Level two is a reverse sidekick. Level three is a jump reverse sidekick. So we won't put any rankings on what color board they do, but the technique they choose would be level one, two, or three.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: Okay, very cool.
They. So what, you've been doing this for a while, this kind of presentation at nationals.
Was this to show the ATA people what's going on? Was it more the special abilities or, excuse me, special Olympics organization? And then kind of. What was the feedback you got from it?
[00:10:38] Speaker C: It was definitely to let the Special Olympics see, as I said too many times, we just kept inviting them to watch an ATa ring, and they were like, yeah, cool. But it didn't speak to them. And I will tell you, we did this. We did this last minute. We all just started jumping around. I was sending videos to senior Master Ireland to go over with one of his students to help me out because their students wanted to be a part of it. I mean, it was insane. We had like two weeks. And when it was all done, I kept calling one of the reps and he wasn't responding. And I'm pacing and I'm. Oh, my God. You know, and then he texted me and said, give me a call when you can. And I called and I said, so, did they hate it? He said, we've been talking about it for hours. We're on board we love it. We're ready. This is the time. Finally. This is the one. And it just started exploding from there. So that demo and the support received from Misses Lee and senior master Taekwond Lee, I mean, it was just. It could have been more perfect. Everything went perfectly, and Special Olympics didn't do the. Well, me. They went, oh, this is what it is done.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: Very cool. And so that was the Texas group. Is that opening doors for across the country as well?
[00:11:54] Speaker C: Yes. I mean, I'm Texas, so. But some of the athletes are not, like, the next one that we're doing at the opening ceremonies for the summer games. I have athletes from all over. It's never a no from me. You know, we can make it work. We can. You know, some of the students that couldn't get the group routine because it was such a short period of time focused just on their solo, you know, there's always a place for me to slide somebody in so everybody can show off their stuff.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: That's very cool. And. And, I mean, this just seems like such a great fit. I know there's been discussion for years about these kind of things, as you. As you said. And I just on the. On the outside looking in, I've seen, you know, Ata trying to push and get in there and whatnot, but just seems like such a perfect mix. Ata has had special abilities, competitors, since, like, the beginning almost. I mean, we have always been such an inclusive organization in that way.
What has been a benefit for you just as an instructor dealing with this segment of the population?
[00:13:03] Speaker C: It all started when I lived in New Jersey, and I was walking by a special ring, and senior master winter, who was plain old Susan winter at the time, grabbed me, told me to gear up so I could spar. A girl who didn't have competition in her special ring. It was a girl in a wheelchair. And I was like, oh, my gosh. This is a joke. You know, I'm gonna have to, like, dance around and let her win. Whatever. So I geared up, and I stepped back. She read over my feet. She punched stuff out of me. She just. I was like, okay, maybe I should try now. She absolutely won with me. Absolutely trying. And I thought to myself, I am never gonna underestimate anybody again. Never again. And that's where the love for me started, where I realized who. Who am I to pity someone and think that they deserve me patting them on the shoulder? I mean, she kicked my butt, and it just changed me forever that I was like, wow, I want to see more. I want to see what more of these athletes can do. And eternal grandmaster and misses Sunsee Lee. It's definitely something in her heart. She loves this. She so much. They wanted ATA to be available for everybody and that was always important. The ATA is beyond smart. With chief master Stephens back in the day, special abilities was just everybody. So you have wheelchair sparring, somebody with down syndrome, starring somebody with autism. It didn't go well. We had a lot of students that didn't want to continue because it just wasn't fair. And so ATA does what it always does. It split it out and then it made it cognitive and physical. And then after a couple years, the parents with autism were saying, hey, we don't fit in this cognitive role. Where can we go? And now the ATA has physical, cognitive and autistic. We're the only ones. We're the only ones that see and understand how to get everybody on a level playing field.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: Yeah, it's such a great thing to see this move forward with Special Olympics. I saw a post just yesterday. If people are interested in, and I, man, it seems like everybody is. If people are interested in bringing this to their school or getting more information about how to jump on board, what should they do?
[00:15:18] Speaker C: Okay, first thing, reach out to me and give me your school information. I put that on the live registered school list for Special Olympics and myself, senior master Winter, Chief Master Newbery, those of us that are working on it.
And then I will keep you updated with how things are going. It is being announced, you know, in May in Texas that this is official. And whichever Lee family members available at the time will come and be introduced as the family that brought taekwondo to Special Olympics. And that's just gonna be the most important sentence to me. And I encourage schools to reach out because the bigger our list is when we go to our reps and we say, hey, look, there's people in Canada, there's people in South Africa, because I think that the representatives we're dealing with in Texas already see it. They're like, okay. I said, what do I do with people from other states? We're going to do it. Don't worry. We're going to get together. Their CEO with RC, they're like, excited themselves that this is all moving so quickly.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: Well, that's fantastic.
[00:16:20] Speaker C: All you have to do is reach out and be a registered school. The rule book and stuff will come later. We have it. They're just doing their final look for Grammar and spelling, but we have it and it tells you pretty much form scoring. Everybody's an overall and it's a creative form made to best suit the student.
Training tools, same thing. They can use nunchuck, you know, the plastic sword. Think of pro tech, easy boards, only rebreakable. And the color is chosen by the instructor and the student. And then you'll have a list of suggested level one, two and three.
And then whichever you pick that you know says, I'm going for this amount of points.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: Yes, ma'am. Wow, this is such a neat, neat event. A neat thing coming.
And you look at ATA. This is the organization to help bring this. I don't know that there are other martial arts organizations that are quite tuned in, like you said, to the special abilities world to help these athletes. So super cool.
I've got a couple of like, rapid fire questions for you. Have nothing to do with the topic today, but this is all about you as instructor, which. Real quick, you're in Texas right now. You were in New Jersey. You said, how did you get into martial arts?
[00:17:44] Speaker C: My daughter was doing it and she begged me to do a mommy and me class. And I said, no, leave me alone, I'm too fat. And she said, come on, come on. So I did it. And then I fell in love with.
[00:17:56] Speaker A: Parents need to listen to their kids when they should ask them to start martial arts.
[00:17:59] Speaker C: Yes, sir.
[00:18:00] Speaker A: Here's our rapid fire questions. Forms are sparring.
[00:18:04] Speaker C: Sparring.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: Okay. Favorite weapon?
[00:18:07] Speaker C: Chucks.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: I should say favorite training tool.
[00:18:11] Speaker C: Yes. Sanjabong.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: Favorite martial arts tv show or movie?
[00:18:20] Speaker C: Cobra kai.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: Cobra kai. That's a good one. New season coming. Okay, last one. You have been sent to a desert island to master one song on form. Which song on form are you picking?
[00:18:33] Speaker C: In wa two.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: In wa two. Good choice. Why Inuitu?
[00:18:38] Speaker C: It says, it's always been my favorite. It's the first form I ever did at a tournament. So that's always been my favorite.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: Excellent. Very cool. Well, ma'am, I want to thank you for your time and this amazing work that you're doing for all these special ability students, but also just for all of Ata nation. We really appreciate it.
[00:18:56] Speaker C: Can I tell you one more thing?
[00:18:58] Speaker A: Certainly.
[00:18:59] Speaker C: If you are. If you get to be as a registered school and we send students to you misses Sunsee Lee is donating free uniforms for this first year of the program. So you will not have to pay for the student's uniform at all.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: That is fantastic. Just another way Ata is showing that they are behind such an awesome new event and new thing for our athletes. All kinds of athletes. So. Yes, thank you, ma'am, for your time. We really appreciate it.
[00:19:30] Speaker C: Thank you. Have a good day.
[00:19:33] Speaker B: Listener feedback.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: I hope you enjoyed that interview as much as I did. Something to definitely keep an eye on. Now, in our listener feedback segment, we are starting something a little bit new, and this is an instructor shout out. So today we are shouting out Mister and misses Schmidt out of unbelievable Ata in Bonnie Lake, Washington.
One of their students says they are the true definition of a power couple in martial arts and in life. They care, love, and the care, love and dedication they give to their students is unbelievable. I like the little pun there.
This person says they are so blessed to have them as instructors, mentors, and friends, and on their journey in taekwondo with their two children. We love hearing about awesome instructors, so head over to our social media and send us an instructor shout out. We would love to include that on the next episode of the ATA Nation podcast. I think that's going to wrap it up for us today. Ladies and gentlemen, make sure you are out there taking action.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: Thanks for listening to another episode of the ATA Nation podcast. Be sure to subscribe and share with your ATA family.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: Let us know what you thought about the show today. I don't know if I mentioned in the episode that we have a listener feedback survey we're doing on the Facebook group. If you could fill out that survey, we would really appreciate it. Just working on some improvements, some things to come, exciting things for the podcast. But we would love your input. So let us know. Head over to our fan Facebook group and fill out that survey. I'll stick it on Instagram as well. Okay, guys, take care.
