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There’s Always Time for Coffee
I just dropped my mate and trainer, Richard Norton, off at the International Airport earlier this evening. He's off to NZ for a few seminars and, going by the comments on Facebook, his hosts are a little apprehensive (on the humorous side) because Richard's reputation in the martial arts precedes him. Then he will back in Sydney for another week to complete his mission at Fox Studios. The evenings will be free.
On Monday we will go and meet the famous UFC fighter, Mario Sperry, at Rob Naumoski's gym for a MMA seminar. Tuesday, at my school for Kickboxing and BJJ. Wednesday, at Richard Awad's full time centre and Thursday at Jordan Micakovski's full time school.
Before flying out, there was enough time for a cup of coffee. I expressed my opinion that, as an Instructor, I also just need that time alone to experiment with, my selected senior students, the new things I'm learning. It is the time I get to analyse the techniques so I have a better appreciation of them. I thought about this over a cup of coffee and I guess if it didn't sound good, I have no doubt, Richard would've told me otherwise. I can really go on about this but one cup of coffee is not enough!
GA
Be Careful what you Wish for
I remember complaining to my Instructor, many moons ago, about not enough leg stretches at the beginning of classes. I can tell that made him angry and he made sure I got what was coming to me. However, it went horribly wrong because I thought I would never ever be able to stretch again!
The stretches took the life out of me that day. When it was time to start kicking, I had nothing left in those legs of mine.
The old days were like that; nobody would stop and explain to you 'this is why you do this' and 'this is why you do not do that' because the training was generally based on discipline and faith and you never questioned your Teacher. It would've been better if my Teacher perhaps could've explained to me, 'too much stretching – not a good way to warm up'. Instead of telling me, he punished me with ridiculous stretches which only caused pain. That was his way of getting his point across and punishing me for breaching the discipline and faith code. Although the old methods taught you many interesting things, more often than not, there was a price to be paid, usually with injuries because you had to find out the hard way; on the upside, it actually made you a better person.
Today, if you ask the Instructor a question, you will get an answer, usually the right one with no fear of reprisals. How lucky the young people are today! The moral of the story, BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!
GA
Mumbo Jumbo
Which is easier to remember? A list of words written in random order, 'morning, just, to, it, find, car, off, the, John, drove
, to, was, day, is, in, car, easier, find, work, got, his' or the same words in a sentence, 'John got up in the morning and drove his car to work just to find out it was his day off'? It's obvious the sentence is going to be much easier. So why is that easier? Without meaning, to recall the words listed randomly, one would need to have a photographic memory.
Particularly in BJJ where the moves are so many and varied, it's makes much sense when you put them into some array so people can better understand and recall them. This is because the links, between techniques, make it easy to remember which is particularly important in BJJ because of the huge number of techniques. Remember the blog about the 'flow'?
As a martial artist and Instructor, I can see the value in this for both students and myself. The world is becoming much more complex with more things to remember so we need a system which can simplify situations. It looks like the martial arts are doing that already.
GA