Episode 5 – Master Adam Grogin | whistlekickMartialArtsRadio.com Jeremy Lesniak: Hello, welcome to episode 5 of whitslekickMartialArtsRadio, my name is Jeremy Lesniak your host for the show and the president of whistlekick sparring gear and apparel. On today's show, we have Master Adam Grogin, a lifelong Taekwondo student, instructor, promoter and competitor from Northern New York. I met Master Grogin last year when we were introduced by Master Huzon Alexander, you may remember him from episode 1. Master Grogin is a great guy and he's doing more to spread the martial arts than most people I know. You'll see what I mean when we get into the episode. I was really struck by how dedicated he truly is. For some people, the martial arts is a calling and Master Grogin is one of those people. Listen. Master Grogin welcome to whistlekickMartialArtsRadio. Adam Grogin: Hi, how are you today? Jeremy Lesniak: I'm doing great, thanks. I really appreciate you being here. Adam Grogin: Episode 5 – Master Adam Grogin | whistlekickMartialArtsRadio.com Well, I'm really honored to be here so thank you so much for the invitation. I'm really excited about this. Jeremy Lesniak: Oh cool, let's get into it. This should be fun. Why don't you tell us a little bit about your history with the martial arts? Adam Grogin: Let's see so I've been doing martial arts for about 28 years now. My main background is of Korean style Taekwondo, a little bit of all the different types of Taekwondo, ITF, WTF and 01:18 and that. But I'm also pretty experienced with a lot of different things such as Wushu, Wing Chong, I really like extreme martial arts and the acrobatics, a little 01:28 so I'm pretty diversified but say my meat and potatoes is definitely the Taekwondo world. Jeremy Lesniak: Wow, that's pretty broad, now you are not just a practitioner of the martial arts you're also a school owner and tournament promoter. Adam Grogin: Yup, I own a school called Pil-Sung Martial arts it's Korean words and it's in Albany New York we've been here 01:52 just about celebrating our 10th anniversary so something I'm very proud of with that. We're a small school you know we focus a little bit more on the quality of our students and I do consider it as a school, not a business and we have a lot of fun here. Jeremy Lesniak: Oh cool, congratulations on that anniversary. That's a big deal. Adam Grogin: Thank you, thank you very much. Jeremy Lesniak: Episode 5 – Master Adam Grogin | whistlekickMartialArtsRadio.com How did you get started in the martial arts? Adam Grogin: Actually, my parents tell me I was very young at the time that it was the movie the original karate kid in the 80s that I saw when I was probably 6 years old and they brought me to start up some lessons after that because I wanted to. Now it's been going on like I said 28 years and I've never stopped and I never took any breaks and just kept going the whole time. Jeremy Lesniak: You're certainly not the first person on the show to reference the karate kid. In fact, the episode that we recorded earlier today made mention the karate kid and I think we had one last week that talked about the karate kid. Adam Grogin: Nice. Jeremy Lesniak: Certainly, yeah, certainly an influential movie for... Adam Grogin: Absolutely changed Jeremy Lesniak: most martial artists in our generation. Adam Grogin: Absolutely. Jeremy Lesniak: Episode 5 – Master Adam Grogin | whistlekickMartialArtsRadio.com When we talk to people who have been involved in the martial arts for a long time and I think we could safely say you're a lifelong martial artist. Adam Grogin: Yes sir. Jeremy Lesniak: Now the whole lot of years between your age and that start point Adam Grogin: Yes sir. Jeremy Lesniak: What would you say the martial arts has done for you? Adam Grogin: The martial arts, I don't want to say it changed me because there was never a chance to be changed I started at such a young age that there was nothing about me 03:21 but I would say it formed me. Who I am today, I attribute 100% to my experience in the martial arts. It really, I know a lot of people say it's a way of life but I don't think some people when they say that or people when they hear it truly understand when people say martial arts is a way of life, how much that means. I mean it's not just an activity, it's not 03:42 I do, it's not a sport, it's who I am and if I've had a conversations with people or family or my wife and you know would I ever stop, I don't know who I'd be if I wasn't a martial artist cause that's so much a whole who I am so when we talk about what it's done for me it's made me the person I am today, it's given me the fulfillment that I have in my life, the things that make me happy and the ability to get back which I appreciate, but also we know I have other careers that I'm involved with too besides martial arts and my success in those I attribute to the personality traits and characteristics that I've gotten out of being a martial artist, the confident leader, somebody with focus and discipline which are all the things I've learned from the martial arts has helped shaped me throughout my whole life so I mean all the things that people talk about that martial arts is supposed to do or could do I feel like I'm a living breathing proof of that you know not to sound like a commercial but it is possible and I’m I feel like that's the things I've gained from it. Episode 5 – Master Adam Grogin | whistlekickMartialArtsRadio.com Jeremy Lesniak: I completely agree, some of the phrases you used are things I have found myself saying to others and it just kind of gave me the thought, you can take the man out of the martial arts but you can't take the martial arts out of the man. Even if you did stop training, you would still be you. Adam Grogin: Exactly, it's you can't stop, but I don't know how to not to be me and me as a martial artist. One of the, it's our, I had a slogan I created at my school, I'm not big on marketing but the little slogan I came up with that, I wanted to kind of try to come up with a way of saying what I'm saying is that I don't teach martial arts, I create martial artists cause that's kind of like the way I see my representation of martial arts is I'm not teaching somebody a sport, an activity or how to defend themselves, I'm creating a different person, changing them or developing them or forming them into a different type of individual. Jeremy Lesniak: That's fabulous, I'm actually jotting that down, show that in my show notes. Adam Grogin: Yeah, one day that just hit me I was like jackpot, I felt really good about that. Jeremy Lesniak: Yeah for sure, cool. So why don't you think about a low point in your life that your martial arts experience helped you through`. Adam Grogin: Oh, that's an easy one for me. See, I've always been a martial artist, it's always been my passion who I am, everything I did growing up I didn't do any other sports I did just martial arts I worked at my martial arts school as my first job, I lived there basically, it's always been my life. But in my you know late teens early 20s, I had a career path that did not include owning a school, I always wanted to be a martial artist but I wanted to find a pretty financially successful career for myself, I'm very goal oriented and I at the time felt that martial arts schools, I didn't want to be involved with that cause the financial gain possibilities but sometimes unfortunately mean having to compromise a Episode 5 – Master Adam Grogin | whistlekickMartialArtsRadio.com little bit you know with quality you know it's not the case for everybody but unfortunately I think sometimes that is the case. So, I had a very distinct career path of that was going into grad school 06:48 and I was going to always be a martial artist but I never planned in opening a school. Unfortunately, in my early 20s I went through a lot of personal changes and some things that happened unexpectedly at my personal life that caused me to really need to just stop and it put me at crossroads and I didn't know where to go and what I was going to do. My plans had changed due to unforeseen circumstances. Jeremy Lesniak: Can you give us a little bit more detail? I don't want to pry too much but you know that's a time of life where a lot of us went through some pretty unexpected stuff and big stuff.