Each week during the 2023 season we’re going through the Eagles media guide to find an interesting nugget.
The Eagles’ PR interns do a great job filling out these little oddities in the media guide and they serve as a good way to meet the players behind the helmets.
This week, we chatted with punter Braden Mann, who grew up doing Taekwondo.
Me: How old were you when you started?
Mann: I started when I was like 3. I was really young. My parents put me in it just to learn discipline and value and stuff like that. It was great for me. So I did that up until I was probably 13 or 14, so I did that for 10, 11 years.
Me: What did you like about it?
Mann: I loved the sparring. It was a good way to get coordinated with my lower body too. That was always good. It was just something that I could really focus all my energy on. I was doing that probably, I would go to Taekwondo seven days a week for most of my life. Two or three hours a day. So there was a travel team and going to the Junior Olympics and stuff. It was something for me to focus all my energy on, which is kind of how I do things. Now, it’s football.
Me: Were you a rambunctious kid? Did it help you settle down?
Mann: I think I probably wasn’t a rambunctious kid because I was in it. I solved it before it probably happened for me. I was always dead tired from it, which I’m sure my parents always loved. It was great.
Me: So what made you stop?
Mann: Just focusing more on football and soccer and the other sports I had. It was taking up a lot of my time. And the way I wanted to do it, it was either all or nothing.
Me: What did it teach you — you mentioned discipline — what did it teach you about that element of life?
Mann: I think martial arts, in any form, is great for kids to start. It was just little things that culture teaches you early. Bowing, yes sir, no sir, yes ma’am, no ma’am. Just having respect for others. When you fight somebody it’s a lot of tension and a lot of emotions. So you always end it with a bow and respect for one another, which I always appreciated about it.
Me: Are there lessons in Taekwondo that you feel are helpful in football?
Mann: Absolutely. The commitment for me was the big one that I learned early. I was so committed to that and my parents held me accountable with it and that kind of translated to every aspect of school or football or whatever it may be. That was the main part I took from it.
Me: Any athletic part of it translate?
Mann: Yeah, the lower body. It’s mostly kicking in Taekwondo so just getting coordinated with my feet. I feel like if I hadn’t done that, I would have been a lot less coordinated. And body awareness. You do a lot of stretching and balance and kicking and all that stuff. I think just total awareness of your body.
Me: So it set a base for you a little bit?
Mann: Absolutely.
Me: Do you miss it a little bit?
Mann: I do miss it. I kind of wish I still did it. I’ve thought about it a couple times in the offseason, taking it back up again. Mostly for the stretches and being flexible. That is by far the most flexible I’ve been. I’ve thought about taking it up a few times.
Me: Thanks, man. I appreciate it.
Mann: Yeah, absolutely.
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2023-10-14 12:34:01
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