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An Interview with Ryon Day

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Editor’s Note: This interview is long. So hella long in fact, that I almost thought about splitting it up into two or three parts; but I decided against it. You get it all at once! And if you just want to listen, the podcast version is embedded all the way at the end of the article too… enjoy!

Whenever possible I like to bring other people in to discuss their fitness philosophies with you, my fine readers. I do this for three distinct reasons:

  1. My views on fitness are just that, my views. I want to showcase as much positive stuff as possible
  2. I want to give you guys an occasional break from my awesome sarcastic ramblings
  3. Because I selfishly like hearing what other people have to say…

I say this because this week I sat down with Ryon Day, of Geek & Sundry and #TeamHooman notoriety.

I was lucky enough to meet him briefly at San Diego Comic-Con this year and he graciously agreed to sit down with me for what I thought would be a simple chat about fitness; and while we definitely talked about working out, and eating right, it turned into a wonderful discussion about what it means to be a geek, how to positively affect change in those around you, and how to love yourself.

So sit back and enjoy this very long, but fascinating, look into the geeky mind of a fit, and healthy, geek!

(Also, the full NSFW audio interview is available as well for those who want our voices in their ear-holes… see below!)

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An Interview with Olympian Nick Delpopolo

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Nick Delpopolo - JudoI’ve been lucky enough to have had the pleasure to train Judo (albeit very poorly) with 2012 Olympic Judoka, Nick Delpopolo on several occasions. I’ve always been immensely impressed by his work-ethic, humbleness and willingness to go the extra mile when teaching and I thought he might have some wisdom to share with my loyal readers; so I went out on a limb and asked him if he would be willing to take the time and talk about Judo, fitness and what motivates him to compete…

Luckily, he agreed and not only did we talk about violently throwing people on their heads, but also Starcraft, Game of Thrones and Snake Plissken. That’s right aspiring Jerds, this Olympian is a giant geek!

So let’s see what makes Nick Delpopolo tick, shall we?

The Jerd – “Hey Nick, thanks for sitting down with me today! I wanted to thank you for taking the time to talk to our readers about yourself. So before we get into me winging questions at you, would you mind telling the readers, who might not be familiar with you, a little bit about yourself?”

Nick Delpopolo – “Well, thanks for having me Jeff. I really appreciate the opportunity! My name is Nick Delpopolo. I’m a 2012 Olympian for the sport of Judo; I’ve been doing Judo for the last 20 years of my life and I am aiming to be the first make gold medalist in that sport for the Unites States.”

The Jerd – “That’s awesome! So 20 years huh?”

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How To: Find the Right Martial Arts School

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Strap in boys and girls, this is going to be a long one…

As I discussed in Balancing Gaming and Healthy Living – You Can Do It! one of the ways I suggested that gamers geeks find a healthy activity, that melds well with their gaming interests, was to take up a martial art – especially if fighting games were their thing.  I spent a little time discussing how to overcome one of the major hurdles to breaking out of your basement from in front of your TV or monitor – laziness.  What I didn’t address was the other major obstacle that many people struggle with, which is how exactly do you get started?

After reading this, you will be armed with the tools to find the right martial arts school that is the perfect fit for you!

For the last 25 years, martial arts have been a constant positive influence on my life and health.  Over the years I have run the gamut; I have:

  • Owned a commercial school
  • Taught out of my house and Rec centers
  • Studied privately and been a student at both small, recreational clubs and highly successful schools.

And through the years I can honestly say I have seen it all.  Good, bad and comical (I once walked into a school in Ft Lauderdale teaching “I Kick Your Ass Do”, I kid you not.)

The seeds of being a jerd were planted when, around 8 years old, I found my particular jock and my first geek around the same time.  I fondly remember every weekend going to the neighborhood pool and learning to play D&D with a few of the older kids on Saturday and then being glued to the TV on Sunday watching Kung-Fu theater and being absolutely fascinated by the athletic feats.   I spent that entire summer rolling dice and watching Bruce Lee movies, imitating what I saw.  From there, my path was pretty much set; all I had to do was find the right martial arts school for me, which unfortunately took me a lot of attempts.

So you want to be the next Jet Li.  How do you find the right martial arts school and get started?

How to find the right martial arts school

Take your place among these immortal bad-asses!

If you want to see a geek argument of epic proportions, put a few serious martial artists in a room and get them to argue about discuss what style is superior.  The debate will get hotter than a Kirk vs Picard panel at a Star Trek convention in no time!  Since our goal is more than likely to get in better shape, improve our flexibility and to get out from behind our computer desk; the actual style you ultimately settle on isn’t a big deal.  How the school is run and how you feel you fit in is much more important.

“The main factors in choosing a recreational martial arts school should be instructor personality, professionalism and overall gym culture.”

The first step to find the right martial arts school is to canvas the area.  Unless you live in the sticks, your town will more than likely have a plethora of options available.  They will run from tiny groups at the local YMCA to large academies with multiple programs available.  Being the geeks we are, our Google-fu should be strong enough to find out a little bit online about each of your prospective schools.

From this, weed out the schools who:

  • Market their kids program much more aggressively than their adult program – While any school owner trying to make a solid living at teaching knows that kids are where the money is, we are looking for a quality program that suits your learning needs.  So unless you are planning on making this a family endeavor with your children, this is probably not going to be the school for you.
  • Make a big deal out of belt/rank progression – While rank is an important part of training as it helps you gauge where you are and how you have progressed, an overtly belt-centric program generally means lots of out-of-pocket expenses over time and a focus on passing tests for the sake of the test itself rather than natural skill progression.
  • Promise deadly elite killing skills – Stay away from schools marketing themselves with Special Forces/Anti-Terrorist/Law Enforcement lingo and descriptions.  They are almost always full of crap.

Now, you should probably have 3, maybe 4, schools left on your list.  Hopefully they are all different disciplines, but even if they aren’t we are going to visit them all and watch a class.

Since you don’t know much about what you are watching, you aren’t trying to base your impression on what is being taught you are going to look at how it is being taught.  As a side note – don’t get scared or intimidated thinking to yourself “I can never do that” when seeing something that looks outside what you perceive as your physical limits.  The human body is amazing and you can do anything with enough practice.  I promise.

After you have watched a class at all your prospective schools, which one struck you as the most interesting?  This is the first major hurdle to finding the right martial arts school for you… The decision will be gut based, as there will be so many factors contributing to your decision – Did you like the instructor’s manner, did the students all seem friendly and to enjoy themselves,  did everyone look like they got a good workout, was what was being taught interesting to you, etc…

After deciding what school you want to further look into it is time to set up an Intro class.  Almost all school’s will offer some form of introductory program; some are simply just joining the regular class for free for a session to try it out, some will have set aside time for private intro classes to familiarize you with the basics and terminology and some will be a series of classes.  Regardless, the intro should be free.  Any school that does not have an intro program, or wants you to pay for them to essentially give you a sales pitch on why you should join their school, should be avoided.  If that is the case simply revisit your mental checklist and move on to the next school.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/8721
If your intro looked anything like this, walk away slowly.

After your intro if you are still interested, it is time to decide whether or not to sign up.  Now, depending on the level of professionalism at the gym this might go down any number of ways.  Just remember that at the end of the day, they are trying to get you to join and pay them money and in return you are expecting quality instruction and assistance in helping meet your goals.  This is the time, if you didn’t already during the intro process, to discuss what you are looking for out of this.  This is about you, you are the consumer, so you want to make sure that the product you are about to buy meets your needs or at the bare minimum can be tailored to do so.  Don’t be shy, be 100% honest… This is your time and money being invested!  As I said, there will be a million methods a school will use to get you to sign up, but I want to offer one piece of advice here:

Do not sign a contract for anything longer than 6 months!

School’s will probably want you to enroll for a year at a time, but they will almost always have a 6 month option in their back-pocket should you balk at the commitment.  They will do their damnedest to convince you to go for the longer option, citing all sorts of success metrics and cost benefits.  Ignore it all and go for the 6 month deal even if it costs a little more.  That is a solid amount of time to commit to life changes, and something new, without biting off more of a commitment than you should with a hobby you are completely new to.

Once your sign that name on the dotted line, get out there on the mats and getting to sweating and learning.  Remember that you are new, and that everyone else there was in your spot at one point or another.  No-one will judge you for being a spaz.  Martial arts students tend to be the nicest and most compassionate people you will ever meet, and they are almost always willing to help!

So, to recap:

Step 1 – Google-Fu

Step 2 – Weed out bullshit

Step 3 – Watch some classes

Step 4 – Take an intro

Step 5 – Sign up

Step 6 – Profit Start learning how to fight bears

Now get out there, find the right martial arts school, and give it a shot! Make sure to let me know what you decided on trying!

San Diego Comic Con 2012 Review – Part Deux

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Hopefully you read about our first day in San Diego for the 2012 Comic Con because today, intrepid readers, we jump right into the convention itself!

Like I lamented in the last post, we only were able to obtain 2 day passes so the already daunting and overwhelming task of going through the schedule of panels/events/signings/etc… became even harder.  Were we big enough fans of something to take half a day to wait in line for a panel?  Was there a signing or exhibit we were dying to see enough to wait in line for?  Did we want to try to obtain one of the Comic Con exclusives, like the limited edition BOOM! Studios zombie caricature cover art, by standing in line?  You might be noticing a trend of the line variety here, and if you haven’t been yet you have no idea how much line waiting there is.  It is a little crazy.  (And by “little crazy” I mean “batshit insane”)

So what to do?  We decided to skip the first couple hours of the convention itself to let the crowds spread out a little and go visit the Geek and Sundry offsite location, sponsored by AMD, at the Belo Lounge.  We got inside, witnessed a mental patient break in and start yelling about escaping from an institution and needing his Lithium, and then stood in line to meet and get our picture with web icon and geek goddess, Felicia Day.  After that we took a look at what AMD had set up to showcase.  Comic ConWhat had they setup for everyone you ask?  Bad-assery of the computer kind, that’s what!  They were demoing some sick 3D games that were spanning a crystal clear three Samsung monitor setups as well as an obscene racing rig featuring 5 monitors, a vibrating Recaro seat and a steering wheel/shifter/pedal control system.

Oh, and they were giving away processors and motherboards as well.  Score!

After spending sometime checking out the delicious gaming goodness, we walked down to the convention itself.  While the crowds milling around on Preview Night were light, that was not the case here on opening morning.  It was crazy crowded!  What struck me first was the mix of people attending.  I am sure if you stopped a random person on street and asked them who would attend Comic Con they would immediately conjure up an image similar to the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons or someone Urkel-esque.  The reality was that in attendance were a healthy mix of people, young and old, that looked no different from a huge crowd at a mall or concert (well, other than the liberal dose of people in Captain America costumes).  Now, there most definitely were a lot of people there that could use a little Jock infusion to level up their fitness and health, but you see that everywhere.

Comic ConSo we browsed the convention floor for a bit, overwhelmed at the immensity of it all.  As far as the eye could see there were stalls filled with artists/vendors/authors as well as a booth run by every major entertainment company you can think of.  The amount of coordination that goes into something this big is always a point of extreme fascination for me, as my mind can’t even begin to imagine the coordination necessary.  It truly boggles the mind.

I had the Nikon out and I was greatly enjoying the many elaborate and extremely well done costumes for a bit, but I knew I had to find my way up to the second floor by mid-day.  You see, while everyone else was standing in line to see the new suit of Iron Man armor, or to get a signature from their favorite artist, I was on a mission to meet one of my childhood heroes.  He was there, signing autographs and taking pictures and there was no way I was going to miss out.  So we wandered through the Comic Con circus and the maze that is the Convention Center so that I could shake hands and chat with Williams himself from “Enter the Dragon.”

Comic Con with Jim Kelly

At this point I had met, in the span of a few hours, one of my biggest nerd crushes icons *and* a martial arts legend who was integral on getting me hooked on training when I was a child.  Both sides of the Jerd coin stamped and shiny right there!  So far the Convention was already a huge success in my book!

Check back in tomorrow as I finish up my thoughts on the San Diego Comic Con, Cosplay and whether or not I will be attempting to brave the goat rodeo of ticket sales to return next year…  Let me know what your thoughts on Comic Con are!

Read: San Diego Comic Con 2012 Review – Part III, The Search for Spock 

Balancing Gaming and Healthy Living – You Can Do It!

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Balancing Gaming and Fitness 1Gamer nerds, in general, are considered to be generally non-athletic and un-healthy.

What if I were to tell you that doesn’t have to be the case and give you the tools to find a manageable balance between your geek lifestyle and healthy living / being active?

Well that is exactly what I am going to do, because I am living proof that you can be a giant nerd of Potsie-like proportions and still be in shape and lead a healthy life!

Throw away your pre-conceived notions!

If you get those out of your head, and set the excuses aside, I promise I can help you!

All through High School I gamed and read comic books.

I was an art nerd, and pretty damned skinny.  Don’t get me wrong, I was active back then – I ran cross-country (slowly) because a few friends did, I wrestled (very poorly) and I skateboarded (also pretty poorly) every spring and summer.

What I didn’t understand back then though was that being healthy and in-shape did not mean being super muscular or a gym-rat!

Over the years it became clearer and clearer (especially once middle age set in) that being in-shape and healthy didn’t mean being ripped with muscle or being able to run a marathon.  Those images that were in my head were just as false and unproductive as the image of a stereotypical gamer geek were to the jocks of the world.

The topic of stereotypes is one I will tackle in a future article, but the reality is that we all know they exist whether we agree with them or not…

“Being fit and healthy does not mean being super muscular or ultra-thin!”

So how do you blend your gaming interests with an healthy lifestyle?

The biggest hurdle for people wanting to make change in their life is finding the time, eating healthy and the motivation.

Oft-times people say they want something, but then their actions seem contradictory.  One of my biggest revelations from my many years of teaching martial arts, and just observing people, was my realization that people are inherently lazy.

This isn’t a judgement, I promise!

Am I lazy by nature?  Totes McGotes!  (“I Love You Man”?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Dammit…) I think anyone who participates in physical activity will tell you that if the activity was not mentally stimulating to them in some way, that they would A) not enjoy it and B) probably not do it for very long.

So what’s the solution?

I believe it is finding a hobby/activity that already matches your existing interest.  Like I said, we are all lazy by nature.  So every obstacle we a remove between us and our supposed goals just makes them that much easier.

One of the major obstacles to starting a new hobby is the question “Will I really enjoy this?”

If you already know you enjoy a facet of an activity that question is addressed before even taking your first foray into that new endeavor.  So what exactly am I talking about?  Let me give you a few examples:

  • You play a lot of console fighting games – Go join a martial arts school.  Learning to throw, choke and kick people in the spleen is quite satisfying and it will give you a greater appreciation for the crazy moves you make Yoshimitsu pull off while playing Tekken.
  • You pwn newbs playing FPS shooters on your PC –  Go paint-balling when the weather permits.  BOOM!HEADSHOTing people and then ridiculing them is fun over TeamSpeak or Ventrilo, but it is infinitely more satisfying in person when you see a paintball explode on their mask on the field.
  • You play a ton of RPGs – Take up fencing, or go join your local chapter of the SCA .  Actually learn to use a sword, or research some medieval zweihander manual and club some poor fool like a baby seal.  The workout is great and you can be more descriptive next time you are fighting a horde of goblins with your friends when playing D&D.

The other obstacle the subversive lazy part of your brain will throw up is going to be the excuse that you don’t know how to start, or that you won’t know what you are doing and therefore will make a fool out of yourself.

That is something I plan on tackling in-depth in an ongoing series in the near future, but for now let me assure you that 90% of the time the real world is more accepting of failure and mistakes than the geek world believe it or not.  I can’t remember the last time someone ran over and tea-bagged me on the paintball field while insulting my mother (maybe because I blocked it out, but I think you get my point).

Whatever it is you decide on doing, go out and do it and experience some healthy living.  You won’t be sorry!

Thoughts, comments or “your mom” jokes anyone?

PS: Make sure to get your free e-book, “The 7 Fitness Obstacles Newbies Face” by subscribing to our newsletter… no spam, I promise!

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Jerd? Define…

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So what is a “Jerd“?

I’m glad you asked! A “Jerd” simply put, is the combination of a jock and a nerd. To explain this better I have to tell you a little bit about myself first.

At different points in my life I have been:

  • a RPG geek (Random Jerd trivia – My first brush with publicly merging interests came when I was thanked in Steve Long’s “Ultimate Martial Artist” for Hero Games)
  • an avid comic book reader (Marvel, DC and independents)
  • a clerk in a comic book store
  • a fan of trading card games (Who had a first edition Black Lotus?  This guy.)
  • a PC gamer/user reaching back to the dark ages of the Atari 800
  • a console gamer on many platforms (I will prepare to offend Nintendo fans in another post)
  • a huge cinephile
  • a fitness club owner
  • a martial arts instructor
  • an IT consultant

I have never felt like I fit in firmly in any one circle of friends.

I had my nerd friends – RPGs, trading card games, console and PC gamers; my martial arts friends – traditional, sport and MMA fighters; and my sports friends – skateboarders, triathletes, wrestlers, etc… and I stood with one leg firmly in each circle. (That’s right ladies, I said three… Think about it).

For the longest time I never let those streams cross (#EgonSpenglerProtip) and went as far as making sure to never speak about my martial arts at work or my massive geekiness with my training partners. Why I was adamant about keeping my life so compartmentalized is a topic I will tackle another day, but I lived my life religiously by the first rule of Fight Club.

After years and years of this it started to become tiring; not to mention I was noticing friends and acquaintances here and there that also lived in multiple circles of influence. Rare as they were, they existed nonetheless. How was I to compartmentalize them?

It was a dilemma I was growing weary of!

So a couple of years ago I was in Tampa on a consulting engagement. All I did while living down there for six months was work and train.  I was away from my family, living in a hotel, and to be frank, it sucked. So I spent my time training. Hard. I would always come into the office battered and bruised, often with a blackened eye.

After one particularly bruising evening I rolled into the office looking like a prison-rape victim, and one of my co-workers started grilling me about how I spent my free time; so I let the fact that he lived in a different compartment than my martial arts go and I just told him.

Surprisingly to me, he wasn’t dismissive or condescending at all!

There were no cheesy karate chop jokes or Bruce Lee impersonations, he was genuinely curious about my training, exercise regimen and whatnot and expressed a desire to be motivated enough to pursue something like that in his own life. At the end of the conversation he looked at me and said “You’re a jerd.”  He could tell I had no clue what in the hell he was talking about, so he clarified for me.

“You are a jock.  And a nerd.  You’re a ‘jerd’.”

What neither he, nor I, realized at that moment was how impactful that word would be. It has rolled around in the back of my cranium for a couple of years now coalescing into this idea that is starting to manifest on the keyboard in front of me.

Despite what popular media implies you can be a nerd, a geek and a jock at the same time. It just takes a little bit of motivation for the geekier and a little less self-consciousness for the jockier, that’s all.

Thoughts?

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