In the lastest episode of FAST TALK, we catch up with the Olympic and World Championship Silver Medalist Kenny Bednarek to talk about his journey and how you go from Junior College to Olympic sprinters like us!
DISCUSSION TOPICS
► TIME STAMP
00:00 OPENING
00:21 INTRO
00:56 WHO IS YOU?
16:19 TRACK OR FIELD
17:49 PATH TO PRO
29:43 RACE BREAKDOWN
39:49 FAN QUESTIONS
42:16 OUTRO
► MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO
FAST TALK Part 3:
► S O C I A L M E D I A
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Going from JUCO to PRO is a tougher path than that of a traditional sprinter, but that is exactly how Kenny Bednarek was able to do it. Kenny, also known as Kung Fu Kenny, is one of the premier sprinters in the world and is known for winning silver medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and the 2023 Eugene World Athletics Championships in the 200m dash!
In this episode of Fast Talk, we will get an in-depth look at his career over the years, how he got started; what he is like on and off the track; race breakdowns of some of his most iconic races in his career; what his diet looks like; his training regimen as a pro sprinter; how he went from JUCO to Pro sprinter and Olympic medalist and more!
#KingsleyTV #TrackandField #prosprinter
Do you feel like you get enough respect you know it’s like every single year I got to remind them who I am you know what was the biggest difference between Jo and the pro level there’s not that much of a difference as soon as I saw
Coleman go past me I was like okay we running so I had to catch him you ran 1949 in Joo what’s good what’s good welcome back to another episode of kingy TV my name is Aaron Kingsley Brown I post videos about the tracking field experience My Life as a professional Sprinter so if you VI with that go ahead and H H that subscribe button and join me on the wave
To 25,000 subscribers today we got a special guest my training partner Kung Fu Kenny Olympic silver medalist youo Legend World Championship silver medalist talk to him man hey I’m glad to be here uh thanks for putting me on here let’s get the ball rolling cool cool so
Today’s episode is a fast talk episode I haven’t done one in a long time so we’re going to bring this back and who better to start off with than my training partner one who’s had a lot of success putting on the headband Kung Fu Kenny
Kenny B States so to dive into it we’re going to start with who is you that’s the first segment and first question who’s Kung Fu Kenny tell me all about it where did that name come from where did the character get started from what’s it all about man uh so you already know
When we’re on the track you know we all have our same uniform so everybody looking the same and you can differentiate the the girls with with their nails and hair so just wanted to stand out from uh all the other athletes I wanted something to pertain to me so
Kungu Kenny has a set of values that pertain to me is humbleness discipline respect and dedication and I just want live those on and off the track so I mean that’s where Kung Fu can came from okay okay and that headband that was that was all you yeah like I said it
Just another way to kind of differentiate yeah differentiate so the headband the bow the everything I mean that’s who I am just you know the kind of the Silent Assassin and you know I’m as Dave said I’m a gamer so I don’t say much but once I go on the track my
Running speak for itself can you do kung fu uh I just started actually um so I I got a little kick in here and there but let me see the form give me a little Matrix NE I can do that after but um right now everything
Is kind of slow paced just because you know my hamstrings and everything a little tight but I I you you know just learning just the basics it’s mind-blowing cuz I mean some of the things that they did I was like holy crap but yeah once we uh get done with
The season I’m definitely going to do more in the off season cool so what do you do for fun what do you like to do outside of track who’s Kenny off the track I like to play video games so I mean I like to play C go of War I like
To take my dogs out to the park not supposed to do it but I love to you know play basketball so I’m a hoop I don’t blame you if I could would throw the football around a little bit but you know I just kind of like to do outdoor
Stuff you know anything that can kind of get my heart rate pumping I mean yeah just anything that requires me to be active I mean I don’t like to sit in the same spot for a while because I go crazy okay so if you could have your intro
Song at a meet what would it be what’s your go-to what you coming out to man dang for me I feel like I would probably choose break is like the cliche cuz I’m from Toronto and all that so maybe like non-stop or something but even grinding all my life you know nipy
Hustle oh yeah I feel that’s a good one to come out to Creed and I was like ah yeah yeah I like that Vibe what about you man I say what is that song that um where uh it comes out saying you is in trouble oh I don’t even know the name of
That one that’s am iGo song I don’t know why I like that song Sometimes When We in a meet I be listening to that I ain’t going to lie um that’s called Deads that’s what it’s called yeah wait Who’s the artist Migos and two chains okay
This one right yeah that one yeah okay you want to say it I don’t remember the whole lyric just say Deads by Migos and two chain oh Deads yeah my go-to is Deads by Migos and uh what’s the other my my goto is De by amigos and two chains they’re in
Trouble I mean I’m always a A J Cole fan so jcole okay I go with him um and something with Kendrick Lamar as well the name of Kenny yeah exactly so what kind of music do you listen to you said J.Cole you said Kendrick who else you
Got on your playlist like I said J Cole k I listen to a lot of Afro beats right now like burn boy bab boy I mean yeah he the main I think I think everybody so but yeah I started listening a lot of them because I feel like a little bit of
Rap today is not really it’s not really sinking with me um because some of the stuff that they’re talking about is just kind of nonsense that’s my opinion but that’s why that’s another reason why I kind of like J Cole and Kendrick because you know when you actually listen to the
What they’re saying you know it actually has meeting so with that I also like Eminem but I like when he had his music like in the 2000s Shady days yeah exactly but yeah I kind of like those guys so just anything that just has a
Good vibe and a good good story or a message to send out there like I love it so when you’re warming up for a meet like let’s say you’re in Paris right now and you’re warming up for the finals what’s in your headphones right now oh
Honestly I I have a mix so I’ll probably play like four jcole songs at least two Kendrick and then the rest is kind of just mellow chill so afro beats so anything that that just kind of chill that gives me just in a relaxed State I
Used to kind of just listen to music where I was like amping me up the entire time but I just got to the point where it’s like hey my body like I already know that something’s going to happen so why amp it up even more so um so now I
Just try to find that balance you know just before we get on the race and I mean sometimes you probably I mean you probably seen it but there’s been races where I’m kind of yawning so it’s like I’m not really tired but I’m just kind of just so like mellowed out and you
Know just going with the flow yeah I do the same thing like the only time I really listen to like hype stuff is if it’s really cold out like our race when we ran in uh where was that Gates head oh yeah Gates that I need I needed to
Pump me up man I’m like we about to go into this blizzard we sh no yeah so I need to pump myself up but other than that the race is going to do that naturally so you got enough nerves already why add to it so I like speaking
Of playlist everybody has that song on their playlist that they’re kind of embarrassed to tell people about what’s that for you what’s the most embarrassing song on your on your phone right now if someone stole your phone and was like all right let me go through Kenny’s music and they saw one song
That’s embarrassing what would what would it be honestly like I already said I like anime so I I got a few anime songs in there it’s in Japanese so I don’t know the actual name I don’t know what the hell they’re saying you know cuz it’s a Japanese but it’s some of
Those songs out there was it like a theme music it’s like a theme music and I I you probably watched Naruto in the past but I have one of his songs out there I think for season 1 they had the opening scene I have one of those that’s
One of the one of the songs I listen to in it’s in Japanese yeah okay well I haven’t seen Naruto but you did put me on a Death Note so talk more about anime man what’s your favorite shows to watch like I said I like Naruto I think that’s
My number one then I like Dragon Ball Z I mean I I kind of grew up on those two everybody grew up on Dragon Ball Z that’s show right there storywise is okay but we all there for the the we’re there for the transformation exactly um
But I like those two and then I like death note I like berserk that’s pretty shortlived though and then yeah it’s it’s an older one I like one punch man that kind of has a little comedic side to it as well but yeah I mean I pretty
Much love all of them if they have like a good storyline and it’s like not nonsense then you got me hooked on it okay you got to put me on the good ones man but some of them have like 20 Seasons man I can’t do that I I need one
That short digestible like definitely was a good one that put me on so like one like one piece is is one of the animes out there that’s pretty good but I can’t get into it because they have like over a th episodes so it’s like
Yeah that’s just too long for me if I didn’t grow up on it then I can’t get it yeah when I was in college and I had nothing else to do sure but now I got a family kids you know I yeah I can’t do a th000 episodes Man cheat meal what are
You going with it’s the offseason you just finished up a long year you have a choice of anything to eat celebrating your your success in Paris what are you going for man I like a nice bowl of ramen okay that’s a cheap meal you can
Have that at anytime no I mean you right you’re right come on give me give me some more all right so let me let some nice cheesy cheesy pizza then there go yeah there we goe it up I I like that I like just plain cheese though sometimes
Just plain cheese what are you T it’s a kids birthday party come on bro I don’t know I’ve always just been the just a cheese pizza kind of guy sometimes I put sometimes I put sausage and spinach but sometimes like hey if I just want a quick pizza I’m just going
To get cheese you’re too dedicated man I I thought you were going to go like cake or like ice cream or something you going ramen noodles and cheese pizza uh I mean I could say ice cream too um have it every now and then and stomach doesn’t
Really agree with it dairy free yeah dairy free so but honestly when it comes to ice cream I’ll just say scre it let me have it and then my stomach regretting it afterwards there we go get them double guts man come on all right speaking of Music we’ll go back to that
If you could host your own Coachella concert who are three artists that would headline your concert well you already know the two so I put jcole Kendrick and we got to Hype it up it’s Coachella we need people lit Travis Scott Travis there we go there we go okay all right
And if you’re in the club what’s kungu Kenny’s go-to dance move hey I can’t move my hips I don’t have I don’t have a dance you do the spotlight comes on you TMZ is like we got Kenny B in the club we see something shoot I might as well
Do it now go ahead I got my drink in my hand oh man all right so you’re a Packer fan and you love NFL football if you could compare yourself to someone in the league for what you do in tracking field who would it be you know what I mean who
Who would be your NFL comp that like resembles your career I guess I would say uh I mean he retired but Donald Driver okay cuz he was just consistent and he the baller until the very end you know what I would say for you I would say like Larry
Fitzgerald oh yeah that’s a good I consistent just every year putting up stats it been just like real humble real like kind of under the radar people don’t realize how good he is Hall of Fame career that’s a good comparison I think they’re both similar Larry Fitz daral
Used to be one of my favorite players okay speaking of flying under the radar do you feel like you get enough respect in the media man do they talk about you enough I mean you got the accolades you got a big following on social media do you feel feel like you get enough
Respect I think it’s gotten a little bit better but you know as of right now it’s kind of the same thing like you said I have the accolades and everything but I feel like you know I’m not really mentioned as one of those people that are going to contend you know you got
Those young boys coming up but you know I like every single year I got to remind them who I am you know that’s fine you mean that just adds Shield to the fire but when you go out there and run is that disrespect and being kind of
Unnoticed or at least talked about like the big stars are does that fuel you to run fast like do you feel like if you were mentioned you wouldn’t have that same no I I would still have that a fire cuz I mean if that wasn’t there I have
Something else to motivate me I’ve always been the type of person where I’m self motivated so that would never be a problem I’ll be out there say hey I’m motivated to be the best so that’s why I’m running fast and hey this guy disrespect me here or they saying this
And that’s another reason but every single time I step on the track there’s always a reason for me to perform okay well normally in track it doesn’t matter if you get the attention cuz you get to line up line up as long as you get a
Lane you can do your thing in terms of the relay when you’re disrespected and unmentioned you know you don’t get the opportunities to show what you can do and with the USA you guys have a spoiler riches you know you guys have so many people that can run certain legs yeah
You have the resume you feel like you have the criteria but you haven’t got a shot yet why should Kenny B be on the relay Lobby for yourself right now anything they asked me to do I’m going to do it um like like you said before I
Have the accolades and I would say I ran enough 100 meters to know that hey I got it in me i’ I’ve done a few practice rounds with some of the people that are on the team just got to give me a chance you know let me let me show you what I
Got I can do it for them I can run a nice easy second leg or be an anchor and I just you know I feel like deserve it cuz like I said I’ve been consistent and even Olympic year when I ran 99 like what you what you what do you want me to
Do there you go hey USA TF Coach man you listening he’s lobbying right now but as a Canadian Sprinter I hope they keep him on the sidelines cuz I know what he can do and he’s only going to help the team but in all honesty I want to see you get
A shot man cuz I feel like you deserve it yeah speaking of respect you’re a triple threat you started out as a 42 guy as you mentioned you ran 989 9 and 100 so do you feel like you’re going to get back into the four when we going to
See in some more fours man shoot that depends on Coach but I mean honestly I know this year we at least got two of them so I’m going to do my best to break my personal best in those but yeah I think most likely would be competing in the four
All year and off year and that’s that’s what it’s looking like right now but honestly for me you know I would love to just kind of dabble in it any time of the season but yeah it just kind of has to line up with the schedule you know so
When they talk about triple threats in the world do you feel like you should be mentioning that honestly as of right now I would understand why I wouldn’t be mentioning that just because I haven’t ran the four I know people forgot that I was a 400 Runner so once I get back into
Running that consistently then yeah I feel like I should be in that category cuz I know I can run 43 but okay as of right now we running you know just two in the one you go 98 196 and 43 that’s I know hey that opens the gates for other
Things maybe a 4×4 might be in your future then hey put me in coach all right let’s change gears so we were speaking about anime earlier cuz you like anime so let me ask you a question who’ win in the fight Goku or Superman oh damn I’m going to say Superman because
He has you know kryptonites so if he has that anywhere all his powers are pretty much gone and he has the other kryptonites like the red the gold and whatever so that influences his bodies in different ways and Goku you know his downfall is just I guess speaking a
Fight he can’t handle yeah but yeah I mean I’m going to say Goku okay all right now I got a A list of questions for you so your girlfriend charmila is also someone who’s been behind a lot of your success talk to me about her a
Little bit what what does she do for you behind the scenes and kind of helping you with your support team uh I mean when I first became a pro being a Collegiate season I mean being a Collegiate atmosphere having everything kind of catered to me and then all of a
Sudden hey you got money now you kind of have to figure out yourself and find your own team and she stepped in she helped me a lot with finding the right people to be in my team finding the right routine every single day to to
Kind of do she’s been a big reason why I’m successful successful in this Sport and I believe without her you know I would kind of be still struggling with a little injuries here and there but yeah she she’s done a lot behind the scenes I
Can say I dedicate most of My Success to her okay that’s very nice very sweet and now we’re about to change it up so she’s also a professional golfer she’s competitive so now we’re going to compare who’s a better singer you or her me who’s a better dancer her who’s a
Better cook me who sleeps in more her okay who’s the better driver me for sure I mean Indians are crazy who can handle liquor better uh I would say her in the beginning but now me speaking of discipline and things that you do off the track we both did a
Weekend fast talk to me about that tell the audience what that was like for you I’m not trying to scare anybody but that was the worst thing I have ever done to myself uh I mean honestly um we’re just trying to make sure that the body can
Heal itself properly and the first day I was okay you know we had practice so have you know by the time we’re done it’s already 2:00 you’re like oh I’m hungry I can survive but then once we tried to go to sleep my body woke me up
At 2:00 in the morning so I was kind of already struggling from then on but yeah I mean the second day as you already know that was a little bit more difficult for me I was telling her like hey I don’t think I can make it I ended
Up texting y’all in the chat like hey I think I’m about to fail but I mean I pretty much had a sleep the whole day just to kind of go through that you know body was aching here and there but that’s just it was going through its reserves and trying to fix everything
That need to be fixed and you mean the third day I was fine I mean I ain’t going to lie like when I first opened the fridge I kind like kind of opened it up and it’s like little smile on my face like I’ve never been so happy to
Actually see food I swear every bite was like that much more flavorful more juicy was like man I’ve never had a strawberry like this before exactly I appreciate it a lot more after the 3-day fast I like bodywise I feel a lot better um I mean
Some of the things that I was dealing with with my my hamstring injury you know I still had a little Scar Tissue a little tingle here and there after that like I didn’t feel anything I mean all the inflammation in my body I think it
Kind of went away so it was very helpful it was definitely worth it it’s just you know it’s a it’s a struggle going through 3 days without eating food well you need that Kung Fu Kenny mental strength to get through it right yeah for sure I mean I believe most people
Like if they’re not mentally strong they’re going to fail right especially after the first day so but it’s definitely worth it and I mean when you’re at this level if we can’t get through one simple thing like that how are we going to get through the rounds
You know facts look at the Olympic and World silver medalist benar qualifying to yet another semi-final this segment is called track or field and it’s basically this or that it’s a segment to give the audience a better sense of who Kenny is with the rapid fire questions
And just basically picking out what you like better you ready yeah all right normate Tech or massage gun norm tech cookies or donuts donuts NFL or NBA NFL watching the Packers or playing Madden watching the Packers okay Netflix or video games M video games all right sauna or cold tub sauna all right
Win the Olympics or suit up for the Packers win the Olympics okay okay world record or Super Bowl ring world record all right dedicated to the sport I like it night in or night out night in okay dinner in a movie or roller skating dinner in a movie okay
Sweats or jeans sweats rap or R&B rap super strength or super speed super speed invisibility or telepathy invisibility I sneaky Gucci or Versace 100 m or 200 M 200 400 m or 60 I was going to take that four and 4×1 or 4×4 4X one all right there you go as
The silver medalist from Tokyo gets the best of the gold winner so this segment is called path to Pro for those who don’t know I offer a program called the pro Sprinter blueprint where I teach young Collegiate sprinters how they can go pro and for Kenny he had an
Unorthodox pass to the pros he actually came Pro right out of Jo so we’re going to talk about that so take us back to Joo man everything that I’ve heard about Jo is that when you get there you’re trying to get as fast as you can it’s basically like prison there’s not much
To do other than run track go to school Run Track go to school what was your experience like I mean yeah that’s pretty much what it is I mean when I realized I had to go to J I didn’t want anybody to know I was ashamed and I mean
Once I got there yeah I was just just grind it out and get get out as fast as possible I mean honestly when I got there I was like okay what can I do to be you know one and done you know go to division one and I don’t think Pro was l
In the picture until later on but yeah I mean that was the plan so when you went there were you planning to transfer to a D1 after yeah I wanted I wanted to go to a D1 I verbally committed to Oregon and then I found
Out SC Ducks you know but yeah I wanted to go there so I verly committed to them and then I went to Joo so I was and talked with them for a while and I mean that year was just a crazy year a lot of things happened we had a few coaches
Come and go that that one year I didn’t don’t want to get too detailed about it but yeah I mean all I could say is that you know you got last chance you for football I believe you can have that for anything in the J level U that would be
A great content idea man last chance you for track oh yeah for sure showing all the people trying to get out there there’s a lot of great talent man I know you raced guys like Terence L back in the day yeah yep and Lindsay our training partner now so a lot of great
Came out of Jo but for you man you ran 1949 in Jo wied of course but still having your body go 1949 what that feel like just like people would say that I had a hurricane win behind me I don’t even care 6.2 some people a hurricane
They’re still not even breaking 20 194 that’s like I think that’s the fourth fastest time all conditions so what did your body feel like after that H dude it’s just like an out of body experience I mean you just got the wind picking you
Up and I was just riding it it it was just crazy it was mind-blowing I mean when I saw Terrence go I think he went 196 yeah and he like he was right before me in the heat before me and I was like who whoa okay I got to do something
Crazy cuz you know I’m that guy so I got to you know show up went cross the finish line and it’s kind of like yeah I did that kind of little bit um I can’t really describe how it feels I mean it’s just a whole out of- body experience and
I mean the fact that my body was capable of actually holding on to that says that I’m capable of running that we just doing at the pro seed now right so what was the biggest difference between Jo and the pro level that you found honestly I would say for the Jo level
There’s not that much of a difference I mean if you’re in division one you kind of have everything catered For You and I mean at the J level you have a few things for you but me having that transition and going from Jo to Pro I
Mean wasn’t that big because we had I think one massage therapist or two for every program in that school so there there be some days where we don’t even have massage therapist because they’re out with the the soccer team or baseball team somewhere else so you just kind of
Had to make do with whatever and then going into Pro you just got to find the right people and I mean you’re on your own essentially so it’s kind of like the same thing it wasn’t that much of a a difference I mean obviously you got more money involved and you’re traveling
Across the world and you know you get appearance fees here and there fans love you a lot more over in Europe but yeah I mean for me it wasn’t that big of a transition that’s good so basically in Joo you got to figure it out for
Yourself the pro level you got to figure it out for yourself pretty much yeah really the only time you get spoonfed is in college yeah that’s what I believe that’s why I always say that if you’re at the division one level I can understand why some athletes have a difficult time transitioning because
Like I said you have everything catered for you and then now hey you’re on the pro scene yeah you’re making money but you got to figure everything out by yourself if it’s not there for you and some people have a hard time just adjusting to that you know you you pull
A hamstring and sometimes they don’t have the luxury to actually have that staff there for them and then they got to just figure it out you know yeah so for the people who are in J right now who want to go pro they didn’t make a D1
But they still want to go pro eventually and they kind of discouraged and they feel like oh I have to go D1 in order to make it give them some words of inspiration man how can they make it that’s all noise uh I mean you just got to grind it
Out I mean just do everything your coaches say to do you got to make sure to be disciplined that’s the number one thing and if you’re disciplined and you know you study and do everything that you need to do on and off the track I think you’re capable of achieving all
Your goals that’s what I did I I only went to like two parties and then after that the entire year it was just hey track chill with my friends play video games play basketball whatever but I didn’t do too much you got to recover every single time you’re damaging the
Body by running and yeah you just got to be very disciplined in order to get to the next level speaking of which you had a successful transition from Jo to Pro your accolades let me actually make sure I get this right we know you’re Olympic silver medalist in the 200 you’re World
Championship silver medalist in the 200 989 PR in the 100 1968 PR in the 200 4473 in the four Diamond League champ in 2021 and you also not let a lot of people know this you have the record for the most sub 20s in a season with 11 the
Most bold ever had was five just for people who don’t know that oh did you even know that I didn’t know how much bolt had oh okay but and you’ve also run 21 sub 20s in your career which is I believe his fourth all time behind Noah
Bolt and Spearman correct yeah so you successfully were able to make that transition what would you say was the biggest key for your success going from Duco to the pros just being disciplined I wouldn’t have accomplished half the things that you read out if I wasn’t
Disciplined I mean like I said it’s just down to hey you work your body off every single day and the next thing you got to think about right after that is recovery because you know your body is doing something that’s unnatural not many people are capable of running that fast
Yeah just being disciplined was the reason why I’m here today as you already know over the past few years I had the toe injury then I had my hamstring pull and I still made it and that’s just because I just do everything to achieve do you like running the 200 I like it
But it gets to a point where I’m like man I’m tired of doing this I mean you already know the the year 2021 when I ran that many sub I was right there with you in a lot of those races and just we’re on the line like man another two
Exactly so I mean I try to see if I can get in 100 any of these races I was like nah nah n they don’t want you out there so I like okay I guess it’s another two and I mean honestly I would say mentally I was a little pooped out but physically
I I had another one in me I mean you did it you banged out 11 sub 20s a new record so I say that it went pretty well um but talk about your opportunities in the 100 man why is it so hard for you to
Get races in the 100 do you feel like I mean you guys are there’s a lot of politics you know Lane draws all that they’re going to want some of their people to have a lane out there you’re also American so yeah also American so
You got that you know they don’t want to have certain amount of Americans in the race exactly I mean most of the top guys are in the US so I mean like it’s just basically Politics as you already know cuz I mean running 989 like I already
Have that I cemented myself as a 100 guy so I mean that’s pretty much it that’s why yeah well I mean you still have your lane in the 200s so at least there’s that yeah this year you know I’m trying to shake it up a little bit in the 100
Run a few more and see what I can do with that try to make the team and get on that relay and you know try to double so what were some of the mistakes that you made when you went from jco to Pro that you could tell a young person to
Look out for and not fall in that same path I would say my biggest thing is nutrition when you’re in college you kind of just eating whatever I had ramen noodles not not like you know the fancy one just the the instant yeah yeah the couple noodles the instant noodles so
Yeah just for me the biggest thing that I had to change was just my diet I had a gluten intolerance problem so over time my body started rejecting gluten and I was having a lot of stomach problems here and there and that’s kind of when I got more heavily detailed of what I
Should put in my body and I mean that’s the most important thing that you got to worry about as an athlete because for us we you know we got to treat our body like as a car and if you’re putting bad bad gasoline in there then something’s
Going to give sooner or later um but honestly for these jle kids college kids that’s the number one thing that you need to focus on just diet and Recovery it’s key man all right so you’re one of those raw talented guys that didn’t really plan to go pro and track you kind
Of just were steered there because you had so much raw talent and you’re honestly one one of the most raw talented guys that I’ve trained with going out there and just not even knowing what you’re doing just running fast by accident so what was one thing that you learned about the pro level
When you got there that you didn’t know about before cuz you didn’t really watch track going up so what kind of surprised you when you finally got there honestly I would say technique technique um when I was running I always had compliments oh your form looks great blah blah blah
And then once I got to the pro scene it’s like hey your form is shitty so uh you just got to clean up um know so many different things you got Shin angle is how you’re pumping your arms you know simple things that like you can’t have your back arched when
You’re tired all those little things for me that was very humbling I mean everything else was kind of easier for me to digest but it was pretty much just fixing technique cuz it’s like hey you’ve been doing this for so long cuz I’ve been doing track for a while I was
Running like at an elementary you know running from elementary then when you’re 20 something you got to change you know simple things here and there it’s just very difficult to change it like that um so I mean for me that’s what it was well for people who don’t know when I say Raw
Talent this guy is really annoying to train with sometimes cuz I’ll be dying and he’ll be like yeah I’m dying too and then he’ll go out and run faster than he in the last rep so it’s like I can’t take your word man you’re setting me up
They call me a sneaky boy’s a sneaky boy for real so don’t let him fool if you’re ever training with him but man I’m feeling a little tight right here that’s that’s the line right there you know the other one I’m like hey what what are we
Going to do what are you going to do you yeah he’ll say ah I’m chilling I’m chilling and then take off but um run through people what your typical day looks like as a pro because a lot of people don’t know what our day looks
Like what we kind of do on a day-to-day basis as a professional athlete and tracking Fields what does that look like for you so you already know I’m waking up by 7:45 eat breakfast put my clothes on get to the track by 9:00 do our warmup and everything and then we pretty
Much do our our our runs at like 10 to 10:45 11: depending on what mood he’s in what what mood everybody else in how slow our fast today is then we got the weit room right after and depending on that day I dread it you know because
Sometimes my body be a little bit more stickier than others and I’m like man I want to go home you already know how long it can gets but sometimes you can get we done in the gym by 2:30 1 1:30 2:00 that’s the average range and then
After that go home for about an hour and get food right after that it’s recovery time so you know ice bath sauna massage chiropractor whichever day you have that on and uh by the time I’m actually done with my day it’s already like 5 5 5:30 5:00 yep then I’m already thinking about
The next day you know so you any downtime what do you do for fun I mean I pretty much give myself a couple hours to just play the game you know chill with the dogs sometimes if we have enough time if my body’s not feeling too
Crappy we take the dogs out on our little scooters that we bought and then after that we just pretty much kicking in watching our shows speaking of the game you do play in a Madden league with some of our teammates Kyrie Melissa Dez yeah we got a little mine going on talk
About your Madden League man when you stream man when you when you get your your Twitch profit so I I mean I just started doing the whole twitch thing my girlfriend doesn’t like it as much as I do but yeah I got me and a couple of
Guys in it and I mean we just having a blast and very competitive league uh we try to keep it realistic cuz you know with video games there’s going to be a glitch here and there but I think last season I went 14 and 4 and I lost in the
First round oh no like Dallas Cowboys over here exactly I choked so um damn D I mean that’s something I like to do I like playing video games but I like to play it more with friends and that’s why I pretty much got into video games
Because I mean I use that as a way to kind of get away from The Real World and just bond with my friends and talk about whatever talk crap or whatever we want to discuss and I’m actually going to be twitching that a little bit more uh I
Need to get some fans in there you know go ahead and plug your hand in man what’s what’s the twitch uh Kung Fu Kenny 98 all right go follow up get your streamers up yes sir Kenny bner second in the US trials looked brilliant in qualification for this final all right
So this segment is called race breakdown and it’s self-explanatory I’m going to pick two races to break down I’m going to specifically choose ones that that the audience might not expect that they might not have seen with cool stories behind it and then he’s going to do the
Same with his selection of his own so my first one go ahead and talk to the audience about this Race oh so this is the race in De Mo when I I guess it was my coming out party in 2019 you know I was out oh actually no this is a different race o skip that I started with the surprise first this is the surprise race yeah you
Know what it is yeah it’s it’s the finals right yeah so we got the finals here uh 2021 when my 989 you know you got Noah you got me you got a bunch of cats in there I was just out there running honestly I know how I was
Thinking in between these rounds he was kind of just going out there Carefree I ran nintend 3 I think in the first race and then after that I ran 99 something I forgot 996 and and mentally I was kind of like dang we just ran like really fast that’s my PB ain’t
No way we’re going to run faster than that so you know in the finals I was feeling very confident I just got to the point where I was like dang I can actually win this thing cuz you know I was PB every single round that was my
Mindset before the gun went off and that’s yeah I’m about to start as soon as the gun went off you know it was just go go go go um honestly for me I think if I ran a few more 100 meters uh during the race I would have
Been more mentally tapped in because while we were running the race I was kind of like okay we moving and you know I was right next to Justin and I unfortunately he and ended up pulling his hamstring so when I saw that I was like oh that guy just pulled his
Hamstring and then I almost went into Fred’s Lane and I was like okay I got to get back in the race and honestly I didn’t even really know what happened at the end and as soon as we just crossed the Finish Line I was just looking to
See where everybody was at and then once I saw the 989 I was like oh shoot like I didn’t I didn’t even know I had that in me and um then I was kind of upset cuz you know I got edged out by Fred um but yeah I mean overall I felt
Like I had a really great race racing there um and I was just a little disappointed cuz I got edged out but then I was also think I just made the relay team you know and that was that was a goal that me and Coach wanted to
Have uh so I mean I was having a lot of fun during that time well let me tell you what I saw from my perspective right so whenever you guys go to USA trials I’m always watching I’m nervous I’m pulling for you guys cuz I know it’s the
Hardest team to make in the world mhm and you went in there having barely run the 100 I’m like oh I don’t even know why he’s running the 100 like just focus on the two yeah I think I had like 400 you barely even R the 100 like why’s
Kenny doing this and you Haden even broken sub 10 yet you go through the first round 10:03 I’m like oh okay I think that might be a PR for you then you go out in the next round run 996 and tie my PR I’m like oh okay Kenny’s
Actually doing this thing he’s in the finals this is nice and then you make the finals and run 989 and get fourth and it’s crazy because that should put you in the relay pool but as we know politics and all that you didn’t get a chance but the reason why I picked this
Race is because that just showed your potential and what you can do when people are sleeping on you cuz you always just come up when people aren’t expecting it MH but it also could have changed your life cuz if you did Edge out Fred and you made that finals oh
Yeah maybe that’s you in the finals in the in Tokyo that silver medal instead of Fred so I’ve always felt that way if I edged him out the potential to actually win would have been there um because like you said before at the end
Of the day I have a lot of talent and I always put my aame and you know as soon as the gun goes off I’m just all right effort mode and just see what I can do we’re back in Olympic trials so I want to see you back in those trials at USA’s
And I want to get you in that 100 meter finals and make the team cuz I really feel like that would put an end to all the politics and you really get on the relay team if they if they play with you then then that’s personal no we we have to we
Have but we no that’s the goal um just we’re not playing around this year and we’re definitely going to make it this this year this team cool cool cool so that was number one number two oh yeah now this is the one I was ready for yeah all right about this one
We got the one in the morning and this like I was saying before this is my coming out party um and this is me right out of out of Joo and you didn’t even have the the beard yet nope I I just had a little this a little scrubble you had
The Aaron Brown yeah so you know I was just kind of going through the rounds and I think the first round um you know I did a little stop and go uh I guess the problem that I was having through these rounds was I was hearing an echo
So as soon as they shot the gun like I would hear the echo at the very last second so I was like okay we got to stop because somebody fall started and when we went into this round I remember coach told me before then he said hey just
Just go and I said okay I got you I got you as soon as the gun went off I did the exact same thing I did the did the race before I did a little let up I said oh people are still running yeah and then they’re running try the final as
Soon as I saw Coleman go past me I was like okay he we running so I had to catch him and then I tried to catch him and I ended up edging him out at the very end and I mean it honestly it just
Felt very easy to to me it was kind of like a normal day to me and then it just on to the next round but it was just a funny situation because I I’ve never been in the situation where I’ve stopped mid- race and then step on the gas the
Gas pedal and then Ed somebody out like that especially Christian Coleman so the reason why I chose that one is because that just showed me that you a freaking nature bro like you stopped mid- race well at the beginning of the race and still ran 20 flat like you don’t know
How hard that is to do a lot of people struggle to run 20 flat all out you stop look around oh start run or I’m in a race I’m in the USA trials you know trying to make the team and you run down Coleman who like you said always
Notoriously gets out and so even without you stopping he’s going to be on you you stop he gets on you you run him down and still have time to shut down at the end I was like all right this this dude’s different yeah you know and that was our
First year training together and when I was watching that I’m like okay this guy’s legit like this guy’s going to be a star that’s when I really knew you had the potential to be a big guy and you went on to do big things so yeah that
Was when I was just not thinking about anything just running raw running Carefree just just Raw Pure potential out of Jo like when I first saw that 194 198 I’m like Ah that’s Jo stuff I don’t know if you could get but that that I was okay this guy’s got some serious
Talent yeah we need to get back on that though yeah so those are my two picks what you got for me this year we had uh our Diamond League race in Brussels and as you already know I had the demons talking to me but I think it’s because
We went to Zurich the week before and it was very cold and then I think it was raining at that race and I think caught like the flu or Co or whatever it was so when I was going into Brussels I had a headache think I had the fever and then
I just I couldn’t function properly so the day before I was complaining to you guys saying like man my head hurts and we were doing our our warm-up drills and I was like stopping you guys like you good I’m like no my head’s about to explode and then you know then we did
That practice start me and Kyrie are gone and then we look back you’re on the floor what are you doing so yeah I I was going through a rough time the day before the race and I mean I talked to uh uh massage lady Jerica and I was like
What I got to do and I just ended up taking an Advil and went to bed and drank a lot of water and during the the warm up for the race I kind of still had that headache and just the flu symptoms I was coughing a lot and yeah I was just
Sick so you know going to the race I was I think I think I cracked a joke too I said hey if I’m coughing a lot right before the race like the gun goes off I’m going to put my hand up because you know obviously I don’t want to be
Coughing when they shoot the gun um so I mean honestly I just as soon as soon as they shot the gun it was kind of like all right enough BS just go time and for me like that was a very significant race because that was the first time I
Actually was down Sick bad and I I keep telling people that’s like my Jordan race you know the flu game and I ended up running 1979 at that race and I think that was my personal best for the year uh it was a pretty pretty tough season
Last year but yeah I just it was my flu game execution wise I felt like I did everything right and I mean right off the race you know I had the headache and everything but I I ended up getting the dub yeah like you said in the pre-at you
Were fallowing out and I was thinking in my head o I don’t know if K’s got it you know cuz we’re boys and we’re we’re competitors at the same time so I’m like okay maybe this might be the one but of course you pull out your flu game we
Both left that one happy and we had a nice moment at the end where they caught on camera and we’re dapping and we’re happy we both were SBS that was my first St 20 of the Season it was an up and down year for me too so I felt like that
Was a good race where we could actually show like all right if we just stop overthinking things and just go out there and execute this is what we can be doing this is what we should be doing you know so we got to bring that into pretty much we just had to simplify
Things and once we simplify it then everything is a flow and that’s what we’re going to do this year yeah yeah your next race my other race this is has nothing to do with Pro this has to do with high school okay taking it back so
I’m going to take it back to my high school days I think it was my sophomore year and I remember we were indoor it was in the indoor season and my coach and I decided to run the 800 M you know just to kind of build that strength up
For the four and for me this was just a funny moment just because like I said first time running it and then you have to do double the amount indoors instead of Outdoors so I had to run a total of four laps and once I got to my third lap
I I guess I miscounted on how many laps I did before and I just booked it and then when I crossed the Finish side I went to a dead dead stop and then my coach was like what the hell are you doing you got one more and I was like oh
so I you finish I Ran 2 minutes and 2 seconds so that was pretty decent but it was just a funny moment because like I said I’ve never put myself in a situation where I’ve gone to a dead stop besides obviously uh Pro Race yeah but
Right as soon as I stopped all my muscles start and the lactic came in and after that I was running slow as hell the last 200 M and it was just the worst last part of the race I’ve ever done in my life but but I still won but I don’t
Know how cuz if you sprint and then you’re not even done yet like you empty the tank I don’t know where you go from there so just mental toughness man you got to go through that booty lock that’s crazy damn Lan three Kung food Kenny Kenny bener he said a personal best in
The semi okay so now we got fan questions in this segment I put down a poll in my Instagram stories asking you guys for questions and now I’m going to pick the best three so first up we got one from Aaron G Hall who says what are Kenny’s
Favorite non QB Green Bay Packer players of all time not wow honestly i’ probably say Kurt Warner I like a throwback damn yeah that is a throwback I like Montana oh super throw and then I also like Ben rockburger no Brady no Payton nope okay I don’t like okay all right Manny hustle
Says if you could design your own spikes and lifestyle shoe what colorways and styles would you use honestly I have it like animated theme cuz like like I said before I like anime so narut yeah something like that I have some kunai and some shans on there and then have my
Own little head like I got my own headband design on there and what you just said that sounded like gibberish was that Japanese yeah kunai is like the a little knife thing they got and then shoan is the star thing that they throw okay okay see Kung F Kenny man yeah all
Right Noah devil 18 said why do y’all love wearing headbands cuz it makes me look cool I don’t know I don’t like showing my forehead for me for two reasons one is cuz back when I played basketball I liked Alan Iverson so I always wanted to
Look like him and I kind of just Carri that on from when I was running in track and two sometimes when you’re overseas you’re over there for a long time and you can’t get a haircut so when you have a headband that is covers it up that is
True so that’s the three but I’m going to do one more just cuz number four what’s the one thing that clicked in y’all’s head that led to you guys running Elite times honestly it’s like I said before just simplifying things I mean I know a lot of athletes have the
Problem with just overthinking and us as Pros we have those issues with overthinking and once you just simplify everything you just let everything flow and just let your natural Talent carry you then you know the sky’s a limit I mean simple thing you got to work on
Like I told you before one thing I focus on when I’m sprinting is just work on my knee lift and then everything else is easier yep for me it’s just not focusing on what can go wrong but focusing on what can go right cuz a lot of times
Times I’m worried like oh if I don’t run well in this race I’m going to get reduced or I’m not going to get back in this next meat I’m going to be kicked off the circuit and all these bad things running through my head that’s just a
Bad space to be operating in but instead think about what can go right and think all right when I do well and kind of putting it out there and manifesting your success then it kind of just translates into the way I run and I put less pressure on myself go out there and
Just just flow just let it happen yep all right so we’re about to get out of here but before we go Kenny what’s one thing that you want people to know about you that they might not already know I love instruments so I used to be in band
When I was in Middle School I used to play the trombone I wanted to be in the percussion but everybody wants to be a percussionist I’ll be playing musical um stuff on Apple music like just hearing the violin or something like that just gets me in a nice uh Mellow Mood and
Yeah I just love listening to I listen to a guitar guy as well I forgot what his thing’s called but he he just plays like songs for movies and and wherever like video games or whatever and he’s just he’s amazing at playing the guitar
And I Al I want to learn how to play it us sooner or later you know okay so when you’re done musical career or what just mess around with some instruments I’m going to be doing a lot yeah messing around with instruments just doing all sorts of things okay all right we’re
Going to get out of here Kenny tell them where they can find you uh you can find me on Instagram at Kung Fu Kenny same thing with Twitter or you can call it X now and same thing with Facebook and and Tik Tok cool go follow up follow me as
Well Aaron kingy Brown on YouTube Kingsley SC on Instagram X Tik Tok all that good stuff but we’re going to get out of here here Kenny appreciate your time appr thank you for having me on yes sir don’t forget to hit that like button and subscribe to the channel to join me
On the way to 25,000 subscribers thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next one
9 Comments
❤thanks for this chanps🏆
Nice video aaron would like to see this series with other athletes too
What’s the FASTEST you’ve ever ran in your event? 👇🏾
starting the day watching this 😎
Learnt alot
King Ab and kung fu Kenny. This was a dope video great insight
Missed ya Aaron
Very good interview.🔥👏🇨🇦
The collab we didn't know we needed 🇺🇲🇨🇦