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From Boxing Rings to Disc Golf: Embracing All Sports for Personal Growth · Off the Bench - London

• Off The Bench - Host (00:03) Cheers! I like how that's like our intro. Yeah man. Well, okay, so... You wore the wrong shoes this week. No I didn't. Well okay, I know you're all matchy-matchy now. It looks good. I'm literally red top, red bottoms. Yeah I know, I know. But I was gonna say, you didn't even talk about your Jordan's guys. yesterday. It feels like yesterday. I was like, you know what? I'm going to wear mine this week. So now we got to do an episode next week where we just talk about Jordans. Yeah. Well, it'll come. It'll come. It'll come. But yeah, because like, it was a big deal when you got them. It's true. It's true. And then you wore them on the podcast. You unveiled them. and we didn't even say a word about it. Well, no, that episode was kind of rude stuff because we had to have you stupid on the episode. That was massive. I learned so much. Well, especially for you, right? Yeah. You going into your first match, first boxing match this year, you know, getting some insights from the ref, from a coach, from a previous boxer. You got the trifecta. Yeah, that was great. So I don't know, man, like, but my Jordan's didn't have to be about that episode. It was a learning, doing for you. So the Jordans can win. learned that finally got Jordans. Yes, yes. After 37 years, now you guys know how old I am, have Jordans. I have two pairs of LeBron's but I have one Jordan. Exactly. But even though like when we were talking after, the reason you got them. It's memorable. Exactly. Like that's those of you I made it choose. In some aspects, yeah. How was your week this week? Busy. Always busy. How's training going? Training's been good. It's good. Got some good kicks barring in. Okay. Making progress. You notice how I'm not at the gym anymore? You're hiding. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, ⁓ I guess we have another. Oh yeah. It's. We want to go fill it. What are you doing today? Hey. Nice to meet you guys. Well, I'm Malcolm the Milkman. Scott the Visionary. And you are? Coulter Jasnich Welcome to the episode. Thanks for having me. You're fighting this year. That's really exciting. Much like most of the things in my life, I get roped into them. He's been bugging me for a few years ever since he did the fight to end. I did fight to end myself. He roped me into it. While he's been trying ever since that, been like, you should do it, you should do it. I've always been like, I don't have time. I don't have time. I kind of did that to you too. You really did. Because you fought with my wife that year. And not you two against each other, thank goodness. I think between you and her altogether, it just really inspired me to get out there. You make the time. Yeah. That's And once you start doing it, you're like, all right, now it's a routine, and now you're going do it. And that's what I found. It's almost hard to get started with it, but it's the community, and it's really the routine of it that keeps you I tell you. And you wake up and it's Tuesday again. But it's that time. Something to be said about discipline. Yeah, exactly. All right. So like we had Heather on the episode last week talking about boxing from looking at rumors with Lawrence Boone coming into the coach and now referee. So we have that track back there. But you were also coming out a years ago doing a fight to end. and was like your first time really getting into the boxing ring. Now you've had previous martial arts experience, correct? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So you want to let us know what kind of career dad you were? Yeah, so prior to this, my dad was actually the South, not South American, but United States Southern champion of Taekwondo for two years in a row back in his day. Damn. So when I was a kid, he really, really wanted me to get into that, right? And so I did. I trained my butt off as a kid. had 14 fights in Taekwondo before the age of 16. What? I did pretty well. got 11 wins out of those 14. Holy I was really happy with that. But then, you know, I kind of fell out of love with it a little bit. My dad was really pushing the Taekwondo and I wanted to mix things up. So I tried different martial arts, did a little Kung Fu, a little bit of mixed martial arts, a little Greco-Roman. Never really competed in any of that. I really just enjoyed it. It rounded me out during university kind of age. And then, you know, kind of stopped when I moved to London. And then fight to end brought me right back to it. This drags you right back in. Honestly, and in the best way too. Like it was less fighting for anyone else and more for me. Good to reconnect with my dad in that way. Did you find all your previous experience helped you learn things easier or? That's a good question. Yes and no. So you're like, I'm doing things opposite or? Kinda, like. There was a lot that was like, okay, this is similar, but at the same time, was a lot where it's like, holy shoot, my ego is like really bad here. I gotta be new, I gotta be a novice at something and not pretend like I know it all and not come into it with this sense of, oh, this is related to this. Being a Blaine slave is hard. hard was that for you though? Incredibly hard. Incredibly, incredibly hard at the beginning. And then the first time I went sparring, I really learned that I knew very little. That's where it really became the sweet science to me and where you know you really learn the mechanics of boxing and how they're different to a full body martial art because you're not taking people down, you're not kicking for the legs, you are just watching that box as it were and how do you out think, out maneuver and then it became a game of chess and that's what really sucked me into it. I see the hat you're wearing. Shout out to the bank, science over violence baby. Okay, okay so that's a great hat to wear, especially when we're talking about getting into boxing because most people when they think of boxing they think, ⁓ just two sluggers going at it, know, pound for pound and then the lower weight classes it's like how fast could someone punch but like it's more than that. It is a sweet science. When it comes to boxing it's like reading movement, body language. I'm like making them think what you want them Yeah. The fakes, the leads, everything's that nature. And the beautiful thing about boxing, and really any martial art or fighting form is no matter what you do, there will always be a counter for it. And if your opponent can find that, you're in trouble. So how do you prepare for it? And it becomes again this game of chess. So training, it's like 16 weeks that you're training for fight 10. And that was the year after I did it. And I got to see you fight and that was... beautiful. But like the training, not the spark, but the training itself. Yeah. How was that for you? my goodness. I actually love the training. ⁓ I'm a big anime fan, so I actually got a lot. anime? What's your favorite anime of all time? Okay. So I grew up with Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Like that, that's core influence so much. Okay. Okay. I got to my hummus to that. Yes sir. But now that I'm bald, I really replace. Vegeta 100 % Vegeta straight up. Okay. Um, actually funny story about Vegeta if I could segue real quick. Yeah, go ahead. I actually have it's like an under armor, but it's the Saiyan armor print on it. It's so cool. I'll wear it to the gym one time. You'll love it. Okay. But I ran Tough Mudder this year wearing it and I just love to train. I love to these kinds of things, but I ran Tough Mudder wearing just Saiyan armor and everyone who saw me running kept yelling Vegeta. And then I would just yell, louder Kakarot and just pick up the pace. And I actually ended up getting the best time ever in Tough Mudder just to beat the Vegeta persona and run faster. It was great. It was absolutely great. That is amazing. Yeah. I've been more of a Goku. I respect it. Not a great father, but we love him for fighting. Oh, he's terrible father. He's like the biggest deadbeat pad ever. He literally dead Literally. ⁓ I'm with you. I'm definitely a fan. Vegeta's story is just epic. The character grown up. Goku is Jordan and LeBron is Vegeta. Yeah, yeah, big fans. Absolutely, man. I feel like they made them become so similar into it and then with all the newer stuff they're just trying to branch them out. Like give them their own paths again. the newer stuff iffy But Goku is like, Goku is still the upper tier and Vegeta has to work his way up to that which is literally LeBrons story. It's like everything, LeBron or everything in Jordan not to do it that much better. That's why he's still in the lead to this thing. At 42 years old. Yeah, I honestly I can't believe he's still playing. I do. Get all the records so that no one else can do it. He's still looking pretty good out there. Yeah, the Lakers aren't winning But that's a different story. like, to the point where he is also should be the best player on the team. Well, he isn't. I know. He's got Luka and then Austin and he's been... ...dressing quite a bit. Sorry, sorry if we like... Yeah, digress, yeah. It's what we do. But yeah, no, that was the big thing though. Like anime really inspired a lot of my workouts for the fight to end. And actually in all of my donations, I actually built them, I don't know if you guys have ever seen One Punch Man, but I built them all around the One Punch Man workout. So like if you donated $10, I'd do 10 push-ups, 10 sit-ups, 10 squats, run a kilometer, all up until 100, where I would do 100 of each and then run 10K. And I got a lot of people wanting to me do the 10K thing. So like that was really driving some great donations, great exercise, kept me fit for the fight. That was probably my favorite part, to be honest. That's actually cool. Yeah. And then you shaved your head, you're like, I'm all in. Head was shaved before then, His hairline couldn't last past 30. You did the one punch workout. Yeah. In your fight, was it a one punch knockout? No, no. I fought Chris Blue Bear and like, God bless that man. He can take a punch and give a punch. And like there were so many times in that fight where I see he's reading me and it was again, coming back to that chess match, right? Like that was so much fun. He did do this weird hump thing at me in the middle of the match and I'm not quite sure what that was. He started laughing mid match and he did this like weird little hip thrust. The rep actually stopped the match for a brief moment and he goes, what was that? He goes, I don't know. he goes, don't do it again. Me and Chris have great reform. were both laughing. What's he trying to say to you? Well, no, his coach was Dario, right? So Dario always loves his shenanigans. so, yeah, he called it the Dario special and like we were all laughing about it. Yeah, it did. It threw me off for a hot second. I'm like, that could have stopped the bats for all I knew. I remember that one. Yeah, I would recommend it in front of a ref. I don't think they love it. tons of fun though, yeah. Alright, so you did fight Dan, obviously. had your match. Yes, sir. Have you fought since? No, no, I've tried to once or twice, but I think it's my own discipline that's not getting me there right now. It's presence in the gym that really makes them look for fighters and opponents for you, and it's that consistency that they like to see. And honestly, in the last year, as I mentioned, I ran Tough Mudder. So that had me changing up my exercise a little bit, different endurance, different conditioning. So that had me outside the gym. Now I'm kind of coming back a little bit more. out to Demello's Fitness. I go there now, which is right beside Boomers. And it's nice because being there, my wife Meg, she trains out of the gym at least three or four times a week. So while she's there, I go to Demello's I'll pop in for another little boxing session after So she works out more than you then? Yeah, literally she is This way is basically the cheetah the living bottom in a cheetah right there. I'm telling you that's Like when I was at the gym on Thursday singer's part of that suspense. my god. I love watching my god, that is so intense how well they work together and like and ⁓ One of them one of my co-workers spent $250 to get a video of Meg just unleashing on me for five minutes. ⁓ Five minutes is so long. First of all kudos to her cardio. I couldn't do that but holy crap I've never been so rattled in my life here here. I'm going into it thinking like okay. It's just my wife. Hahaha No puns number two. I was like severely worried for my safety She's just like, I got it. Check hooks, man. I know that we're not trying to make this episode about your wife, but she has taken boxing to a whole other level from the Fight to End program to what it is now. When you look at a charity boxing event, one of them is for the charity, but the other thing is for bringing awareness to a gym and bringing some people, usually you're to get like 5%, maybe 2%, to stay with the gym and fight on. The 2 % stayed on. and are killing it. And both of them are women. Oh yeah. Right? Oh yeah. I mean you got sucked in years ago, guys. Yeah, but I come back for charity events. I haven't come back to actually just charity case. We'll see. You know what I mean? I wasn't going to say it. But you know what? My wife told me that she enjoys me training. Yeah. Of course. Either she's being nice and telling me I'm getting fat. Or. That's the polite way to say it for sure. You look so good when you're cutting. You know what I mean? I'm eating better. I drink less alcohol. I sleep a lot more. mean, no, sleep is the same. She legitimately just wants you to take care of yourself. I am totally right. I'm sorry. I know. I know. Some things are good for the body. Others are good for the soul. French fries just happen to be the Off The Bench - Host (17:09) Our podcast is basically about people staying active, know, work life gets a little bit hectic, or you know, get crazy, and so forth. What else do you like to do to stay active and get off the bench? Yes. Oh, so there's a ton of that. I mean, obviously going to the gym regularly is a great thing. I always like to have something to work towards in the year, no matter what it is. like last year was Tough Mudder. This year, I'm still trying to find my legs in what I want to work out to. I'm going to put my wife on the spot again. We're about potentially starting a family at some point. So my goal right now is if she gets pregnant, if anything like that happens, I want to be in the best shape I can be. when I become a father. So I'm just starting to get into good routine of that now. But more than anything, like my guilty pleasure in pastime is disc golf. Disc golf is so good. I love disc We have to have you guys out there. Okay, okay, okay. Disc golf. So we're not talking about regular golf, we're talking disc golf. Yes sir. What about disc golf that's so nice? Super cheap. It is. It's getting outside. You can have some drinks, ⁓ whatever people do on the course. Absolutely. out in the wilderness, having a good time, there's no pressure. That's it man. I always look at it as getting up in the morning and going on a beautiful hike through nature while just growing some plastic around. And you know, it's one of those things, it's much like real golf, you'll never be perfect at it, you'll never be amazing at it, you'll hit a tree at least three times every course, but it's the challenge of getting better. It's just getting outside. It's the community of it too. It's fantastic. Love the community. I think I mentioned to you a little earlier that, you know, it's so community driven to the point where I was even down at St. Julian's course yesterday, beautiful day, and there's a players who brought their own chainsaws to cut back some of the trees and like help take care of the park because it is a collective. It's truly eclectic. Yeah, because it's all this whole area. Nobody owns any of these courses. They're just in public hearts. just throw up the post. And southwest Ontario, and London specifically, we have such great course density. It's some of the best in Canada. Within 30 minutes, you could probably reach about 15 to 20 courses. Some are nine holes, some are 18, some are three. But no matter where you go, you'll find them. All right, so what got you into this one? like, you know, like, during COVID, I got into regular golf because of how frustrating it is, and I like to challenge myself. But I never, I never... COVID wasn't the perfect time to play disc That's I got into it. I played disc golf the first time. We need to get out. We so need to get out. Are you just as good as disc golf as you are at bowling? No, I haven't disc golfed that much. But I'm not like the worst disc golfer at bowling. I've got enough discs for all three of us to play. So with disc golf, you can buy a whole set for like 30 bucks. Like a good set. Yeah. yeah. Hell yeah. Okay. But the thing is to with disc golf and and I say this to a lot of people is different courses are made differently obviously A lot of the time you can get away with just a driver and a putter You really only need those two discs smaller courses. I will just rock a putter. Tempsford has my favorite putter course six holes I just bring one disc and go to town for like maybe 20 minutes. Yeah. Yeah, okay So that's that's one of my favorite things about it. I personally played think any given damn probably rocking six discs just because I like different ways they fly, different things you can do, tricks, you know. Yeah, yeah. And I carry about 20 some odd discs on me in my backpack. You have like a special dedicated backpack for a disc golf? I got one for Christmas. Oh my God. Do have the matching shoes? No, no, not yet. That's next stage. That's next stage. Do you have the meta glasses to like analyze with AI, the distance? So do your trail. ⁓ I wish my god that'd be so cool. know, talking to us in IT, Garum, what technology can I put into this to make the game even better? I would live for that. I would so live for that. But no, ⁓ typically when I go out and play, the joke is my friends call me Master Roachie because I'm such an anime nerd. I actually, I love my art too, so on the back of my disc I always do little dragon ball moments and so on my driver I got Master Roachie doing the peace sign and some cool stuff like that. So I'll actually go onto the course. Wearing Masuroshi's like orange shirt and all like just wear red sunglasses with it sometimes just to really play into the character So if you ever see me out there Between the two of us we have what? Six things jobs. Yeah, that tracks. Yeah, yeah, we do much and training So when are the fights this year? so I get a good It's in beginning of May. Beginning of May. So many people actually signed up to do Punch-Out. They're gonna end up doing two days. I don't know, it hasn't been officially announced. Because there was like 47 or 48 people that signed up, there was a lot. And when you do 16 fights, that's only 32 people. And everybody that did it wants to get in the ring and actually do a fight. That's awesome. So they're like, okay, the only solution is they didn't want to have everybody wait out forever. like, we can get everybody a fight, but it might not be this year, it might be next year. But then you'd end up running into the same problem next year. Because you'd be like, okay, well, you guys didn't fight this year. Then you end up in a wait list, we're getting fights. I that was the biggest issue with Fight Time when I did it. There was a cutoff. Maybe they didn't hit a minimum requirement for donations. And then if you didn't train hard enough, it was like that tough competition. like, you can come back next year and we'll try to make sure you get a fight. But we can't guarantee you this one because the car is full. And like, I like that because it forces you to go to the gym. And then the ones that don't show up are the ones you probably know are not going to get. And I've honestly met for this one. Some people have dropped off. Now, I communicate with the coach. So when I drop off, I'm not dropping off, I'm editing. Yeah, true. There's also a safety thing too, right? You want to make sure that people are at a certain level before they get in that ring. Well, initially, everybody signs up. I came in clean slate. I had talks before, other than like, mess around with Brad, whatever, something like that. They match everybody up based on ages, weights, experience level. But then they see the progress and the effort people are putting in and they're just like, okay, maybe we have to shuffle this around because like, this guy will destroy him now because he hasn't been going working as hard. This guy's going crazy. So sometimes I'll have to shuffle things around. Yeah, a little skill matching, right? for sure. But that's what makes the... is gonna make the the event good because like for yourself when you did the fight to end event, imagine if you're against someone that was at a way higher skill level than you or way worse than you and the fights over him still make my face look like a I it sucks. Not gonna lie, sucks. It sucks being good at things. I'm too good at boxing. I feel bad for our opponents you never finished. Maybe you just gotta slow down that delivery a little bit, milkman. You're hilarious, I like that. like that. It is one of those things, even my opponent actually is Chris LeBarre who your season and he had an opponent but that fell through during the season. So when I found out I was matched with Chris I was like, oh man, he's coming in with an extra year of boxing training so that really made me feel like I need to step it up. Obviously, you know, did some pad work with Meg at home, got a couple more private lessons. Ended up retrofitting our whole garage. She went all in. yeah, got a heavy bag, got a speed bag, double-ended bag in the garage. yeah, you should see the garage. Is it still like that? Still like that. yeah, we go out there every now and then, you know, like even if it's blown off steam, like if we get an argument or something, it's like, I'm going to go to the garage and go hit the heavy bag for 20 minutes. It is the greatest thing, you gotta say. She does it more than I do. I'm a pain in the butt. At least you can admit it. I know I am. like the relationship you have. Yeah, yeah, we're pretty alright. I think we got it together. It took a lot of time to get there, but, you know, it's the challenges that make those things at the end of the day more beautiful. So, moment is like your huge thing right now. Massive thing right now. Yeah. So, how'd you get into the community? yeah. We're coming back full circle. It was COVID, originally. Me and my buddy, it was just one of those things where like we need to get out of the house. We're very social creatures. Like I was in an apartment at the time and it was terrible living in apartment during COVID. It throws me that did. I was there. Those hallways are very awkward and the elevator servers. He ended up calling me up one day and he's like, hey, you know, I got a set of three. He goes, you should just pick them up. They're like, as you said, 30 bucks off Amazon kind of thing. He goes, it's free. We can be socially distant still. We can have a smoke and a drink and just go and go for a walk. And then he really took off with it. And my competitive nature needed to keep up. So it became this thing where every Saturday and Sunday pretty well over COVID, we just kept getting out playing, kept getting out playing. And then, you know, those scores, they started at like plus 32, like not a great round. And now, you know, we settle at like minus two, minus three most days. And like, it's just, it's just gone from there. You know you join Leeds, you meet the community and the beautiful thing about Disc Golf is there's an app for it and so you can see other... Yeah, yeah, it's called Udisc, it's great. Shout out to Udisc. Sponsor us. Imagine if that's the one we finally get. Every time someone mentions anything we're like, yes sponsor us, we got you. But it's such a good app because it lets you see what other players are seeing around the course. It lets you talk to other people, share your scores. But not only that, I work for the school board and we have RMC right next to us. We have a lot of green space and so. So you're like, well, we're putting one in. I did last summer. So RMC actually has a nine hole set for the students. Oh my gosh. This is the coolest thing. So they have a nine hole set for the students. And last summer I made really good friends with the athletic coordinator at the high school. And I said, will you let me set these up in the field here and make a little nine hole course? I actually. on UDIS, there were other players driving there and playing it. Coolest thing, I didn't set it up this year, I gotta talk to you again about it, but the most beautiful thing about it is the athletics coordinator for the board ended up seeing me doing this and was like, would you want to teach some students? I was like, heck yeah. He goes and orders hundreds of discs in this box, they each get a set of three, and we had a high school tournament where they learned, they laughed, like it was so much fun. shared the community with it and now a couple of them I see them on the courses in the circuit. That's awesome. I wish schools like that for us. We're like you know the experience of like having different things like this stuff wasn't around when we were there. I guess it was. This stuff has been around for a long time. It's been around but not mainstream. Like pickleball's mainstream. This stuff is mainstream. There's so much more. mainstream sports, even boxing is now more mainstream than it's ever been. And I always say it's because of bread in the city. wasn't for bread, boxing wouldn't be as big in the city. But damn. So how many, do you have your master set, then you have your practice set, then you have your practice on a Sunday set, and then your Saturday best set? You just get addicted to buying them and you're like, ooh, that's a new one. That's the problem, man. There's the brand thing too, right? There's certain brands you end up liking more than others. And it's like, want to collect that whole set from that brand. There's one in the water and you gotta get the whole setting right. Lose a lot in the water. Especially when you begin. As long as you your name on them. I've seen me on the C courses where like, obviously everyone writes their name on one number. People will find them in the water and actually call them. I get that a lot. I've had at least four or five discs just return to me, like out of the goodness of people's hearts. And it's easy enough to take nail polish remover and wipe that off. But that's another thing about the community. It's very much in the up and up. Meanwhile, we lost like eight months ago. Yeah, exactly. had someone call me actually in, it would have been December. And I think I lost that disc last May. And he was like, yo, I wading through this pond and I found your disc. And I'm like, why? Why were you there? But yeah, they find it, they'll return it and... say one of these months, you know, we start chatting and we tell you to help us organize a London off the bench disc golf tournament. Name the date. I can book a course through Udisc. I'm just saying the possibilities. We're just gonna like slow cut. That's great. You're giving me ideas. You can do a double tournament too, so like best disc. Good way to start, good way to enter the game. No, think doing that would be fun. Probably gonna be better tournament. We'll talk. We'll talk. We have business plans now. Okay, I like it. Business plans, like it's not really gonna be business. It's more just us organizing a big tournament. That's the fun of it though, right? And that's, think, you know, even not with this golf community, it's about building community in London. As the internet grows, the world shrinks, but community gets lost in that. I think it's so important to find it, build it. Again, coming back to boxing, that's such a beautiful thing about it, is the community. It is. Well, it's like, it's an individual, like we talked about this with Heather last week. It's an individual sport, but it's so team-based because you're only as good as the people around you. So you're just trying to surround yourself and like the good people always stay. And then the toxic people get weeded out. absolutely. You're not wrong. You know, it's like it's funny because like it's like obviously inspiring. Like if someone keeps being toxic and inspiring, everyone's not going to go very easy on them. Yes. Eventually they're gonna get frustrated and not want to be there. Yeah, that's such a good point. think the best thing about it, and you were right about it, when the internet grows, the community gets smaller. But once you these certain hobbies, like you and I wouldn't know each other if it wasn't for boxing. And how that community kind of grew. I I see your growth when you were training. I saw your whites grow. You saw my growth when I was boxing and continuing to do it. even when I was at the gym. I'm now back and he showed up and I got as I was warming up. I so dead. I'm looking in the mirror and there you are in the ring. was like yo! So like you're right. gets better when you're doing something physically active. Not necessarily it's physical. But like you're actively getting out there. You're getting out of your comfort zone. And like you get to see other people who are doing the exact same things you are. And it's actually like a few weeks ago we said you want to surround yourself. with like-minded people or good people because it becomes good as well. You're the average of the people you surround yourself with. And I think no matter what, community, false community, unpodcast community, know, it all comes down together to focus on the people. absolutely. One of the things with getting into all of these different things is like, Like you've done boxing, you've done martial arts growing up, you jumped into disc golf, tough mutter, you have to embrace being bad at things at the beginning. yeah, my god. Now how do you handle being bad? It's like, obviously you're good athlete, so like you go in and try something new, it's frustrating at the beginning because you're just like, I should be able to do this, but then you just have to learn. Okay, I don't handle being bad at something very well. If I'm being honest, I like to think I do. I'm in my own head a lot. And like the sport that I could actually say I'm in my head the most is I play volleyball a ton too. That's like my secret understudy sport. play men's competitive. Oh, court right now. I do love beach though. If you guys want to get a beach team. With what time? Yeah, fair enough. It's future time. But, uh. at our whole summer right now. Yeah, it's just gone. Every weekend's gone. But no, I play lot of volleyball and I'm a short guy. I'm only 5'8", so like all the way through high school and college, like was libero was the only option and so on and so forth. And now that I'm not playing in that kind of that regimented version of volleyball, it's men's competitive still, but I'm playing different positions and I'm playing middle. And I don't know if you guys know volleyball too much, but middle is not the spot for a guy who's 5'8". So super frustrating. A lot of movement, but I worked on my jump height. So now my jump height is like ridiculous and like I'm up there and I can get maybe one or two really good blocks to surprise a tall guy then they'll just jump over me. But there's that constant frustration and there's that constant in your head and that's why I like sports in general because they teach you how to work with them. And you know for every fault there's something good and I just find that instead of focusing on where I'm lacking I focus on what I'm good at and how to hone that and overcompensate for what I'm lacking. So where I'm short and say something like volleyball, I know that I can get to the ground and dive and get that ball quickly where other middles can't. So I'm doing a lot of crazy libero digs. I'm a libiddle. I'm somewhere in between the two positions. So that's what I really find to overcome when I'm not good at something. It's just focusing on my strength and building that to fill that gap. But I feel like when you have different strengths and weaknesses, that's how I'm sure your team is adjusted to that. well. Of course. They know, obviously you're probably not going to get the block on this giant guy in front you. Exactly. They're also ready for it. Yeah, I know. For sure. When I play volleyball, when I'm not injured, I like being a center. Really? As tall as I am. Okay. I like being a center. You like to jump. No, no, no, I do. I do. I just am very predictable when I jump. Right? Oh, yeah. because I'm always trying, like in basketball I'm always trying to get the top point. So I'm not one of those people who have the patience to wait for the ball to come down so I can spike it. But I also like trick shots, so when people think I'm going up, and I can fall it over, then I'm into behind them. That little dump? Oh, I'm here for that. That's greasy. That's a greasy move. I'm that dirty player. But do you do the fake swing headbutt? Yes. No, never headbutt it. That's hard to pull off. I don't think I've seen many people be able to pull that off and make it really look nice. I watched a video of it the other day and I was dying laughing. It was a guy who just like is really good at it. He's just jumping up and they're all ready to block and he just swings over. He just swings and misses it. hits him right on the head and goes just over the guy. That's wild. The amount of coordination that would take. Would they be infuriating as the other team? How did he do this twice? That is one of the things about that sport though. Like oftentimes you're expecting those big hits to be the thing to get the point. It's just a little boop right to the middle and everyone just kind of watches it and you're all frustrated with yourselves because you're like how do we let that be the point? I love physics and volleyball, all those sports, even boxing. ⁓ physics and force. Yeah, yeah. Like understanding like if you're in high school and you're taking physics, it's going to help your game in any sport, understanding the basic concept of physics. Knowing the right spot of hitting a ball and how it's going to trajectory move across the field or like it helps your math. So stay in school kids. Absolutely. But the other thing to that too though about physics is it even translates into boxing, right? good form versus bad form with the physics of it, you're not just driving with your arms when you're boxing. Well, when you shift your weight appropriately, that kinetic force comes right from the ground into your fist. And that's how you get those knockout punches. It's good form that'll get it because the physics behind it, right? The form is so much more like, obviously you can muscle through it, but like you can only muscle so far. Exactly. Muscling through a boxing match though, is exhausting. You're not going to last if you don't have good fundamentals. As someone that has terrible fundamentals. Honestly, I saw you before you even started training, his fundamentals were like really really good, but they were the wrong sport. Yeah, literally. But it was like, okay, he had tons of... It was a big problem, You had so much potential. just loved watching you train. was fun. That was the hardest thing, not wanting to kick someone when the kick is open and there. Oh man, so many rib shots that could have happened. Do you find yourself inspiring just like faking a kick just to see it go by? No! It's like when you're sparring and you're doing jabs only and you're just like... Yeah, it's like you want to do that. But the thing that I found that was the hardest to go from a kicking sport to punching only was my footwork. Because when I did lot of martial arts, you're constantly changing your stance. And I was always more comfortable in southpaw when I was martial arts. Really? Yeah, so when I started boxing, I purely orthodox, stuck to it, and I found such a good rhythm on it. But I found that any time that I wanted to Swiss orthodox, my right leg would get ready to just snap kick, and I'm like, I can't, can't step in. Bad habits. Now I we're backtracking a little bit. When you were in the ring, were you conscious during the ring? Did you know everything was going on? Or did you black out in the ring? No, had my coach in the corner. had a great set of in the corner. I Marcos and Heather and Dean all in my corner. And I just remember hearing Marcos just instructing me the whole time. And I just remember thinking... You take the controller and tell me what to do and I will just basically use those inputs and start punching. like literally everything he said I just kept doing. And I just kept going through it. Like he'd be like, one, one, two, three. And I like, just go with it. And that was the greatest thing. I just kind of shut off my mind and listened and went. Yeah. Like I'm turning myself into a weapon. Yeah. But I think that comes from experience. think that comes from writing experience. You said you've been in... 15 fights before you were 16. The thing that was tricky about it though is I've never had a crowd solely watching me like that event. The event itself was overwhelming. So you're 100 % correct. And I feel bad for a lot of people who train to get their first match and it's in like a gymnasium or a small stadium but it's not like a charity event where it's like... The amount of money that they put towards it is ridiculous and for that to be your debut fight, it's it's crazy. Cause you don't see the crowd, you see only your opponent. But you only see your opponent. It's about that time. like, it's in a, like, you've done a boxer martial arts event outside of Fight to End. Yeah. How was that experience going into, like, arena or a convention center that was dedicated for that? Where compared to, like, other parents watching kids? Those were wildly different, honestly, because a lot of those were, like, You're in some Lions club in some small town and like, actually my first fight ever was in Stony Creek and I was eight years old and it was a tournament. got in five fights that day. Um, but it was one of those things where it was literally in a Lions club and they just had with martial arts is a little different. It's basically just a circle on the floor. You leave the circle, you lose a point kind of thing. But there were just six circles and there were maybe 20 people in the entire building. Like just a referee for each circle and then the parents and those just supporting the individual. And honestly, there's a different nerves there, right? There's the nerves of the masses and then the nerves of the small, very focused group. And with my dad being in my corner the whole time, like I'd leave and he'd be like, well, you did really well here and you really need to work on this. And I'd be like, we're watching every darn step. So that was always nerve wracking. But I'm sure that helped you guys bond a lot. He came from that background 100%. And honestly when I told him I don't really want to do martial arts anymore, he was really supportive of that too. But he's like, well you're still going to spar with me in the backyard, right? And I was like, yeah, yeah, for sure. We always kind of had that all the way through. Now, going to a little psychology into it. Do you think the martial arts was more for your dad than it was for you? That's a good question. Definitely more for my dad. 100 % it was more for him to try to instill. He always wanted to instill good discipline. That was always his goal for me. Discipline was a really core value of his and it is of mine now. But I could always see that it was something a little bit more for him. He really wanted it for me. However, at the end of the day, having gone back to boxing, I see it in such a different light now. I do think it was a little bit for me because I draw so much from that in life now, not even realizing it. You don't realize how much of it was for you, but he's like, no, I have all these life lessons and this is what I can give you because I have all this experience. I think the biggest thing is like, we always talk about it where my parents are forcing their kids to do lots of YZ, then the kids push back, and then later on come back to it. and then they're like, well, the parents just force them on the kids and the kids are gonna be wanting. I know you were talking about potentially having a family. How would you go about that process? Because when you see potential in someone, you kinda wanna get to the point where they see it and they can reach for that potential. But you also don't wanna get to a point where you're gonna force it and then they get to the potential and they don't want it. What is your- What do you think is going to be your process on trying to balance potential and not? First of all, I know my kids are going to be incredible at it. 100%. That's going be brainer. We're exactly. But no, when it boils down to it, I would just encourage them to try everything and see what sticks, see what they like really at the end of the day. if they pick nothing, I'd at least try to guide them to where I think they'd be good and encourage that a little bit more. I'd never force. Even my dad there were some things like martial arts was the one thing he threw the line on. Hockey, he always wanted me be a big hockey player too. I ended up being a goalie for two seasons, that was about it. Wasn't very good. But I still tried it out, right? And he still gave me the chance for that. I think fighting, he always saw more of that, more of the potential there. So he drove that home. With my own kids, Meg and I always joke, we played different sports all growing up. Like polar opposites minus boxing at this She was big basketball, was big soccer, I was rugby, was volleyball, I was all sorts of different things. So between the two of us, we're like, let them try the full gambit, see what they like, and encourage the heck out of Like we were saying earlier, sometimes your friends don't play sports and then your kids don't want to play sports. And it gets them forward, like, as a parent it's hard because their social circle may not direct them in the right direction. When you get them into those communities when they're younger, then their friends are their team. They have those friends, then they have their classmates, then they have the ones that are outside their house. True, true. The viewpoints always change. When I was younger, I didn't really play sports except for the ones in my neighborhood. It was until was in grade 6, 7, and 8, when I started clicking on sports. So was a lay bloomer. And I went to pick up soccer about 10 years ago. It shows. Some days, yes. But I never had those opportunities to get into the experience of sports the same way and I got into it later. But I learned very, very quickly the basics of it because I had the music, the schooling and so forth. I was able to apply that in sports. the ones who were in it... I don't know that side of it. If I have kids, I want to know how to get them in a track where they're going to still love place sports, but I can unlock the truth. That's a beautiful sentiment though because you found a passion even though you weren't necessarily into sports when you were young. You translated to it. I've had the benefit, I have a much younger sister, she's 13 years younger than me. When I was 25 I actually adopted her and I took her in. She lived with Meg and I for two years. And it's one of those things where she had no sports drive. She wasn't really one of those kids that really wanted to be active. But she had different passions and you know every kid is gonna find their Every kid is gonna set into that. And I love that you found sports that later in life because that's how life changes. That's where you find those things. You grow as a human. I never say it's never too late to... It's It's true. Some of it is like if you're doing all these sports right now and if you have a kid right now you're probably still gonna be doing a lot of these sports. Got it. your child is going to be going with you to all of these things and they're going to be like, dad's doing this, I want to do that. So then they'll start getting it that's how they get it. That's true. That's why, probably why you got into martial arts at such a young age. Since I was like two, nuts. Like I'm in the gym, they're just like, punch this bag. Exposure, exposure, literally. Exposure therapy. ⁓ One of my earliest memories, my dad laid down like a heavy bag on the ground. I was like maybe three or four and he gave me a little set of mitts he goes, beat up that bag. And I was like, just sitting on it. It was great. It's such good little bit of energy. I love that. that. That is skiing. He got me into skiing really young too. picked that up like two. Okay. I've never skied. It's so much fun. Really? Next winter. Next winter. the black guy know how to ski and the white guy doesn't? I just don't I just don't know. Yeah, something's missed. I see. We gotta get you to at least Bowler next week. It's a nice little hill. I like Bowler a lot. Have you been to Bowler? Yeah. I've been to Bowler. It's beautiful. You know when you're like, I haven't been in a really long time. It's learning on like the school trips. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny when I learn though. like you learn on the bunny hill obviously. was such a struggle learning and you get so frustrated. And then eventually I was just. mad and done and then I took my stuff off. I got good advice from a teacher that was go grab lunch, come back, try it again. I tried it again and it was like. No way. And I was like, oh, I can just do this now. It's like, how? That's awesome It just clicked in. Yeah, when I was learning it was a school trip too. And CCH. And you you're doing your bunny hole and it's like, it doesn't make sense because the angle's not right. So like it doesn't make sense and like with gravity and all that it's like you're trying and it's not working. And then everyone, all my other friends were going down the black one, the black diamond one. was like, screw it, I'm just gonna join y'all. And then boom, it just made sense. No way. That's bull. Yeah. It just worked. And I was able to do the whole thing properly because the angle was right. Yeah. You can actually sit forward on a steeper hill. That's awesome. So, so then one year after my birthday. I went and snowboarded for the first time. Bunny Hill, frustrating as again. Yeah. Dive in and just figure it out. So like I learned on chaos. So riding a bike, same thing. Took me one day. Right into traffic. Trading wheels only lasted a day. No way. I learned on chaos. Okay. I respect that. That's good though. That's how you drive. I've heard a lot of people that say like... when you're learning to ski, just go on a ski trip, like, well, you got to get down the mountain. So you're going to learn by the time you get to the bottom. I can tell you a story about that. probably, ⁓ Jesus, it's Meg again. ⁓ so Meg is not a skier. ⁓ and I've been skiing my whole life. Nope. She can barely skate. and I love that we're getting this on video right now. snow sports are not her jam. So, and I love that she has no idea that we're talking about this. What? So I thought it'd be super romantic to take Megaway for a trip to Mont-Tremblant. I'm like, beautiful ski resort town. be very romantic. ⁓ I was like, don't worry, babe, you're going to learn how to ski. It's so easy. And here's me coming from like 20 plus years of skiing thinking it's no problem. And we get her on the bunny hill a couple of times and she's wobbly, but I'm like... You're looking pretty good. You're looking like you're ready for a green circle at this point. And so at Melchior-en-Blanc, there's this beautiful, long, meandering green circle that goes right from the top of the mountain. And me and Meg, we take the gondola up, and she's little shaky. I'm just kind of helping her out for the first little bit. She's getting good. Within the first two minutes of going down that hill, she catches an edge and goes right to the edge of like the ski path, I suppose it is. But on that edge is the steepest drop off. ever seen and if she didn't fall right on her butt and basically catch on to this tree she was going straight to the bottom of that mountain ⁓ and to this day she tells people I almost died on a ski trip and I'll never ski again. I had to hold her all the way down the rest of the hill she was just a blubbery mess. I like to be that a-hole and I'll edit that phrase I just said. We are going on a ski trip next year. We need to. We so need to. And we're dragging her with us. And it's gonna be great. Yes. Yes. I'm here for this. I do need more friends in London that ski though. Like that's one thing I found moving here. I will always rent. I will never fuck get my own because I won't get the full use of it. I have nice skis. Will they fit me though? No chance. No chance. I am a short king buddy. Those would be ski blades on you. So I will always right claim I won't get the true value out of them. hate that. But I am so down. Let's go. Oh my gosh. My sick days. You'd love my skeets, man. They're all right. Oh yeah. They're probably Dragon Ball, aren't they? No, they're called sick days. And actually they say sick day right on the bar. like a fluorescent orange and blue. And so like when I do a pool. Yeah, the orange and blue is Dragon It pops off. Yeah, does. Facts, didn't even think about that. It's always there. It's always there. No, the anime is in all life. do my murals, all that stuff. It's Well, honestly, I really appreciate you coming onto this episode and giving us a brief overview of you. Basically, our podcast is mostly about people in the community chatting, shooting this stuff. Just different ways of getting off the bench. like, we're talking about a whole bunch of different sports. Yeah. And you're a great African right now. of how to get off the bench, right? From like disc golf to volleyball to getting back into fitness with the male fitness, getting into the ring, your martial arts background. You you have the full package of what the bench is and I really wish you'd take the time to let our viewers see what they can do. I appreciate you guys calling me out. I think a message from our hopefully newest sponsor, just do it. Thank you, Nike. Appreciate that. Just get off the bench, just do it. If you're not sure if you can, find someone who can and get them to teach you. Yeah, inspire each other, right? Every day. now we have a disc golf tournament that we're talking about, a ski tournament, a ski trip. We have to get back into the ring, all of us. Oh yeah, even if you guys want to help train for your fights. I'm always looking for good sparring, anything. Use me as you need me. Our summer's booked. We're not skiing this summer. Alberta. We can try. We can go to Colorado, depending on the war status. Who knows about that one? don't need to touch on that one. No politics on this channel. where we can go and ski still. Absolutely. If not, next November, December, we're hitting it up. I love her. For sure, guys. Well, depends on the climate of our relationships. You know what I mean. Big facts, big facts. I mean, I don't want say the obvious thing, but if the world's right and you can't go, then it becomes a boy's trip. ⁓ Hey, let him stay in the chalet. Let him enjoy the ambiance. Meg certainly would. doesn't want to come in on it. I'm avoid any opportunity going downhill. You got it. Won't somebody take the children? Well, on that note, thank you for another episode of Off the Bench.