Blog
Wax on, Wax off!
There is not a single person on this earth who would not have heard the famous cliche, Wax on, Wax off – straight out of the original Karate Kid movie. It got me thinking in class yesterday whilst teaching
Richard Norton’s Black Belt Complexes to my students. I passed a comment that the moves might not make much sense or be useful to them at this stage. One student drew an analogy and said, ‘this is a bit like wax on, wax off.’ The Karate Kid had no idea what and why he was waxing cars and whether he was going to learn martial arts at all but, at long last (as the movie goes), he knew enough, just in time, to beat up the bad guys at the tournament.
The Black Belt Complexes need persistence and commitment and, within time, students will understand them and they will become useful. These techniques look impressive and there are many Black Belts who are willing to try them but none that I have seen, have made the committment They can be ‘painful’ and complex (pardon the pun) but once you are over the 50 per cent mark, they are really gratifying which will take you to another level in the martial arts. It is even better when you finish them!
I get a natural ‘high’ moving at speed with those moves. It has certainly changed the way I train and think in the martial arts. When others make the decision not to do them because they are too hard to learn only makes me feel more determined. There is something easier for those who don't like to indulge – take your jacket off, hang it up, put it on the ground and then pick it up. Enjoy!
GA
2010 Australasian BJJ Comp
This past weekend saw me down in Melbourne, with 3 of my guys competing at the 2010 Australasian BJJ Championships hosted by Mr John Will. It was a fantastic weekend and a real experience for Joshua, Michael and Antoine who train with me at Belmore and the Burwood PCYC. I also had a wonderful time catching up
with fellow instructors, also friends, whom I have not seen for a long time all gathered at one location at the one time. This sort of thing happened to me before when I visited Greece in 1999 with my cousin getting married at the time. I got to see all relatives and friends at the one go which I would not otherwise have been able to do so.
The tournament on Saturday was quite successful with no, or very little hiccups I could see. Congratulations to John and his wife, Melissa, for making it all happen. My guys want to do it again and I am hoping to see a bigger team from our school attend next year. It was really nice of Rigan Machado to greet me at the tournament and even remember my first name (that's 2 years after when I last saw him at a Sydney seminar). What a great (really great) martial artist and wonderful man!
The seminar by Rigan, on Sunday, was a real treat. We worked very hard and there is no doubt everybody got a lot out of it. Towards the end of the seminar Rigan drilled us with 60 armbars and 60 push-ups in between and I was up for it, I didn't miss a beat! Must be because us Karate guys have good core strength (lol).
GA
Why are you Tired?
We have our good days and we have our bad days. It all depends how you feel on the day. Human beings, in all other living things, have a biological clock which tells us when to eat, sleep and wake up.
If you unwantingly wake up early on weekends or have ever suffered from jet lag, it's probably due the effeffects of your biological clock in your body. The understanding of these clocks can be very helpful to you, for by doing so you may be able to learn to "set" them to wake up at a prearranged time, remind you of appointments or even help you to return to your car before the time expires on your parking meter.
If someone's daily biological clock runs fast, the person will tend to get sleepy early in the evening, but will be able to wake up in the morning with little difficulty. Exposure to the day/night cycle of the outside world will help him or her to reset his biological clock each day- humans being able to do this more easily than animals- otherwise he would go to bed earlier and get up earlier and earlier each day. Because of this need to readjust his internal clock, he is continually under pressure from the external world.
