Thoughts

Wednesday, 10 February 2010 13:31

Despite the rain and cold weather, then turning into some quick snow fall, the seminar was a success. Thank you all for the support and a special thanks to Guro Bob and Mosi that braved the elements to make it down. Maraming Salamat! For the full album of the seminar, click here.

Thursday, 17 December 2009 13:14

For the last three weeks, I have had the honor and pleasure of training an individual with the spirit of improving himself within him.  On the very first day, the pad rounds were extremely difficult as forward pressure is more than usual.  Before the pad rounds began, I told him that the rounds he will experience will not be like that in normal classes as this is the Fighter's Training session.  It was as if this was a cliche kung fu movie where the change in tempo and mood sets in.  With great perseverance, he had made it through the first of many challenging sessions.  Although it was only a few rounds, it is a step forward.

I asked him how he felt afterward.  His reply was, "I can't wait for the next one."  For the next few days, an additional round was stacked on what was already given.

In the last session, he made it through many many rounds of jumping rope, boxing, kicking, jumping, lifting, clinch, stick grappling, burpees, getting hit, etc.  An apprentice in the making after only six months of total learning?  There are many things to refine but its looking good so far.

I shared to him a story I heard from an interview with Guro Marc Denny of the Dog Brothers in a reality show that was done a while back about being tribe. How it was important for me to not take it easy on him nor I will be so hard it will break him. Instead, just enough is given so that the comfort zone is broken to enable him to reach his fullest potential.

Tuesday, 24 November 2009 12:01

In the realm of martial arts, we have many different types of people. We have learners, practitioners, fighters, competitors, etc...  What used to take a long time for the message to be clear was the concept of the "Toolbox."  In this day and age, we have the advantage of each Toolbox to be identified right away during a class session.  In general, there would be three different physical toolboxes. In generic form, these would be:

1. Empty Hands
2. Wrestling/Grappling
3. Weapon

The understanding of when to use which toolbox is very important. If fighting more than one person, especially a group, and committing to use just the wrestling/grappling toolbox might not be the best choice.  If maybe going up against your drunk best friend in a bad disagreement, using your weapon (blunt/blade/firearm) would be excessive and unnecessary.  If up against someone skilled with a weapon, maybe using more than just empty hand skill is called for.

Whichever the situation, the most important toolbox to be used was not listed. This would be the psychological toolbox.  Detection, diffusion, discretion, emotion, verbal, etc.  If this Toolbox can be as complete as it can be, then accessing the appropriate physical toolbox will make the encounter easier to deal with or maybe not having to open that toolbox at all.

Sunday, 15 November 2009 15:41

As of November 2009, reflecting on the progress and status of being an official school only after five months of opening, our first growth spurt has been quite an adventure.  It always feels that I constantly think of how to improve our newly founded training grounds by putting events together to raise funds for better equipment and reaching out to pool more knowledge into one spot. There was an article that I read a little while ago on how a business owner sat down and wrote a list of reasons why he created his business and I revisited the reason why the school was created.  It definitely was not to become a full blown business and quit my day job. Although that would be, what I'd consider, the American dream.  It was just to have a place to train and have a good time.  Of course, the training grounds that was initially looked at was at very high rates and serious questions had to be answered.  What kind of place will this be?  What kind of people would this pull in? How much will it cost?

Looking around the Virginia Beach and Hampton Roads area, it didn't have very many places that offered what I had experienced that was in my acceptable driving distance.  The martial arts world has changed considerably since I first started.  As a security professional in the information technology field, due diligence and due care are terms I am constantly using.  So, what does due diligence and due care mean?  An example would be if you came home one day and looked at your neighbor's house to see a broken window and the front door was wide open. You wait around a couple minutes and there is absolutely no activity.  Every fiber of yourself tells you that something is wrong.  Then, you make the important decision to ensure that what you have found is addressed to the best of your abilities because you were the first to find it.  Stepping up to the task of providing an experience very similar to mine and also have improvements was going to be a roller coaster of a ride.  So it was decided to give it a go.  The stage had been set.  It just needed participants.

Finding our current location had been a blessing.  It happened to be in an area that well suited the size of our first classes as a founded school.  I am very proud to have these members that put forth their commitments to supporting the mission and I hope to find more people that will take advantage of this rare opportunity that they helped to create.