Kimuras, Crucifixes, 300 Kms

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John Will demonstrating the Crucifix on his 2nd Black Belt student, Sean KirkwoodQuite a few hours of training and a lot of travelling with John Will last Saturday with only a very short moment, between destinations, for a cup of coffee. 

Imagine working in an office or any other job where everything becomes routine and nothing new happens.  Your mind switches off and and that’s when you start to feel bored.  The great thing about the martial arts is about mind stimulation ie gets it thinking again.  John Will injected a little more stimulation into my mind when I was half way through this blog.  If the martial arts were just simple and routine then the same boredom can creep in.  Checkers is far easier to learn than Chess but it’s the Chess people who we give credit to because of the complexity of the game.  It’s the same in martial arts – we need complexity otherwise it can become boring like playing checkers.  The self defence component of the martial arts is only a small integral part of our training but what keeps us there is the exploration and acquisition of new techniques and skills.   

The seminar at our school was truly remarkable with a couple of guest Black Belts, Sean Kirkwood and Simon Farnsworth, also attending.  It is not only the new techniques and ideas that made it a great seminar but also the approach and understanding of them.  John Will's motivational talks gives us reasons why we love to train the martial arts.  Many thanks to the students that came along for the support and share my passion for the martial arts.  Although, they may not remember all the techniques in their entirety but there was so much they learnt ie the little steps in between the start and end of each technique.  It was also great revisiting some of the basic moves because it was like re-igniting the flame.  No excuse in the world will patch things up for missing out on a seminar because the exact presentation can never be repeated.  When John and Richard Norton put these things on, they are injecting over 20 years of their experience into these seminars.

To turn some of our students' faces red, Darren Grieve, our Qld Head Instructor, had come down for the weekend to train with John Will.  On Friday night we trained at the PCYC and Darren was spellbound with some of the variations.  But that’s what happens in BJJ – where things seem to constantly evolve.  Credit must go to Darren for flying down here for the seminar.  I guess not everybody can be like him.
GA

Long Time, No See

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Hello everybody.  I know it's a been a long time between blogs but I make no apologies if there is nothing to write about.  I usually blog on a hot topic or an idea that might pop up and, lately, time has been an issue because of countless hours with Microsoft trying to resolve computer issues. 

There's so much to do and you wonder how we fit it all in but that is with everything we do, whether it be work, time at home etc.  But what would you do with the spare time if you gave up your training?  The answer would probably be 'nothing'.  That sounds good at the beginning but you will soon get bored.  Then you start looking for something to do and you end up committing to something only to find out down the track, it was a bad idea.  Perhaps, 'nothing' might be OK for some people but not for me, thanks!

We are always seeking to better ourselves, and the martial arts creates a channel for us to harness our skills and express our personalities through a challenging environment whilst interacting with each other in a common interest.  I have stepped out of our school's circle by teaching BJJ to outsiders at the PCYC.  Most of these students are already martial artists (some being brown belts) of Karate, Classical Jiu Jitsu.  

Continue your training my friends and enjoy the fruits of life in the martial arts.  There is nothing to gain by doing nothing.  Your computer will still be there when you get home, Facebook will not shut down during training and you don't have to miss any of your TV shows (record them, like I do).  Make your life worthwhile and don't come up with excuses which may make you feel better at the time, only to find out later, you have made a bad decision!

Interesting time with John Will last weekend.  It gave me the chance to catch up and train with him, including Steve Perceval and Richard Sargeant.  An interesting thing I share with John is he is constantly doing things to improve himself in the martial arts so he can be better at the age of 60.  Great philosophy!
GA

Reality Based Stuff gets real!

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We had Shihan Richard Norton in town again.  This time the Police Citizens Youth Clubs (PCYC) had brought him out here for a couple of seminars.  The Friday evening was BJJ at the Burwood PCYC arranged by the Manager, Gary Davies (who is also a Traditional Jiu Jitsu master) and Senior Constable Dave Geremia (student of mine).  It was an excellent seminar which included students from my BJJ school and Gary's Jiu Jitsu school. 

Saturday was Reality Based Self Defence at the Mount Druitt PCYC arranged by Senior Constable Julius Uru (also student of mine).  This is the roughest part of town and the PCYC has a tough job holding its ground with youths in that area which showed at the seminar with people wanting to flex their muscles (including women)  so much so, the Boxing Coach went flat out at Richard to prove a point but ended up getting choked out; he is a lucky man, Richard's awesome strikes were not on the agenda.  It was as real as it gets.  This small group was not easy to convince and found it hard to understand and follow directions, mainly because of their already preconceived ideas about street defence.  Basically, they were missing the point of what was being taught at the seminar.  However, Richard finally won them over and now these people want him back!  Richard also went through some Kickboxing drills with me later that afternoon.

Sunday was at Shihan Adrian Ionita's school; first, it was an hour with kids and then a seminar, with seniors, on the Black Belt Complexes which literally blew everyone away especially when Richard started to speed up.  This was a good class withSeminar at Whitewolf Martial Arts some very senior Black Belts in attendance who really appreciated what was being taught.  After that, Adrian invited us to a Chinese Restaurant before we headed off to the Airport.  It was a pleasure to meet Adrian who is a really great guy and a good martial artist.  

I really enjoyed the weekend having the opportunity to catch up and train with the 'Richard Norton', once again. 
GA

The Kung Fu Kid

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In China the movie's called the Kung Fu Kid because the story is set in China and the martial arts are Kung Fu (there is a bit of cultural controversy over that). Moving on – twenty two of us in total (students and family) went and saw the new Karate Kid movie together this morning.  Nobody had any complaints; it was quite an enjoyable movie and it was also a great day being together with students and families for that short time.  The movie is basically a remake of the original but at least the Karate Kid's master was played by Jackie Chan who is a real martial artist.  The Karate Kid, played by Jaden Smith who, unlike the original KK who didn't really know martial arts, actually is a martial artist.  Jaden Smith (Will Smith's son) and Jackie Chan make it real action packed. 

It was very entertaining and whilst it is all Hollywood the philosophy and reasons for training in the martial arts are all on the screen.  I particularly love the master-student relationship; maybe my age is catching up with me! I really like Jackie Chan in this movie and I realised it was because he played the part of a serious character which he has never done before.  I don't believe any of the critiques have picked up on this. 

This movie is especially great for the very young ones who may have not seen the original but although the story is predictable there are little twists and surprises.  Most important of all, what I got out of it, is seeing what my students and their families got out of it.
GA

The Mario Sperry seminar

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Last Monday night, I went to the Mario Sperry MMA seminar held at Rob Naumoski's gym.  I did one of Mr Sperry's seminars back in 1997 and I was surprised he recognised me when we shook hands; he must have a great memory.  I actually trained with one of his Black Belts for 3 months shortly after that.  Richard Norton was invited as a special guest who partnered up with me for the night.

The legendary Mario Spe rry is a protégée of Carlson Gracie.  He was handed his black belt at the 1995 BJJ World Championships, where he won the heavyweight black belt division, defeating many of the sport's greatest legends.  His has a long history of victories including World Championship titles in MMA.  Those who have been around long enough would remember the first ever 'No Rules Contest' at the Sydney Convention Centre in 1997.  There were  no rules, no gloves, no rounds and the winner was determined by a knockout or submission.  Mr Sperry won this event with a prize of $50,000 which was very good money at the time.

Mario Sperry was a real gentleman and very knowledgeable.  It was a pleasure to train with one of the 'greats' in martial arts and with Richard Norton in the room,  it was a double treat for us all who were at the seminar.  Plenty of photos taken which all can be viewed on my wall in Facebook.
GA

There’s Always Time for Coffee

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Richard forcing me to drink instant 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

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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

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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

Stop Wasting Your Time

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Time is something we haven't really got much of.  Every minute counts if you value your life.  If it was for sale you would most likely invest all you can, but that's not going to happen.  How horrible it is to see people wasting what time they already have.

I particularly see this in the martial arts where people lose focus in their training.  The little distractions seem to take over their life until they realise how much precious time they've wasted.  Once gone, you can't get it back. I look at a day to see what I can do and achieve.  This is not just about my training but the things that need to be done.  I also like to take some aside to have a cup of coffee with my son and daughter at one of those trendy coffee shops so I can have a good chat with them, away from computers and Foxtel.

Right now, I'm writing this blog.  I just got out of bed and I am getting ready to do a workout with the weights and kettlebells.  After that, I will get ready to go to work, starting at 3pm.  Basically, I have the day mapped out in my head and I will follow it through.  When it comes to my martial arts training, I have the whole week mapped out and I just make sure the little distractions, which may seem attractive at the time, do not get in the way.  I find people, who don't do the martial arts can be distractions but I overcome that by looking after No. 1.  By the way, this blog was written yesterday but I had technical difficulties so I had to wait till today to post it.  More time wasted!
GA

Ship, Shore, Island

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Here's an interesting game for the young ones who need a break from the usual martial arts routine.  The problem with kids is their minds wondering off during class; this game should address any boredom and get their minds back on track.  The game goes like this; you nominate one part of the room, ‘shore’, the other side, ‘island’ and somewhere in the middle, ‘ship’.  Basically, the idea is for the kids to run to the nominated side of the room by the Instructor calling out either ship, shore or island, and do it in such a way to trick them.  Whoever takes a wrong turn, or is slow off the mark, gets taken out of the game.  You start off slowly to get used to it and there are no early disappointments.  As the game goes on and the students start to really wise up, the Instructor has to try all sort of things to outwit them so only one person is remaining who is then declared the winner.  There are lots of ways to make the game become difficult which is only limited by the Instructor's imagination.

Now the really interesting part for grown-ups about this game is how easy it is to get a response from the kids by just calling out one word.  They learn to respond to each word and do what is required from them to do.  This is not new; the police have been using key commands such as ‘drop, tap and rack’ to clear out any stoppages from their firearm, Karate Instructors count out aloud to make things happen, Kickboxing Coaches use key words such as ‘jab’, ‘right cross’, ‘left hook’ for their students. Master Grappler John Will uses this method with the military and BJJ seminars. 

This process is quite effective and simplifies the training without having to repeat long winded or complicated instructions.  After being trained, dogs and other animals also respond similarly to those one word commands.  If it works for animals then think of the possibilities with humans!
GA