On my honour I promise to...
Published: Mon, 05/20/13
We had a training session in Crewkerne yesterday afternoon and here
is a comment from Katie that was posted to Facebook in the evening.
"Back from the most fabulous afternoon of Stav .... Still
bouncing :-) ... Thank you Graham! Can't wait til a week and a
half's time when I can get back for more!"
Now Katie is obviously a young lady with good taste and
considerable discernment and I have added her comment to my list of
comments at http://www.iceandfire.org.uk/train.html where you can
also find details of our next course in June and a link to the Stav
Camp website. However, there is a problem with being an
inspirational teacher. While people are being taught they may feel
inspired and empowered but that feeling tends to die off pretty
quickly once someone is back in their everyday life. With the
waning of the inspiration tends to also go any consistency of
actual practice. So if you do have access to a regular class, and
at present that seems to amount to about five people in or around
Crewkerne, then you are very lucky. If not you are going to have
to practice on your own between courses. I know this isn't
easy but there isn't really any other way. I was inspired and
empowered by Ivar when I trained with him but I actually made
progress by training on my own. Sometimes I trained in bad habits
which Ivar later had to correct and I then had to unlearn some
things. But the important thing was that there was something to
correct, if I hadn't practiced anything then there would have
been nothing to improve on.
So what I do is ask my students to promise to do the stances on a
regular basis since that is the practice of Stav and to choose any
two strikes, cuts or thrusts and undertake to do at least 6
repetitions at least three times a week. That may not sound much
but it is infinitely more than nothing and once someone has picked
up their stick and made 6 repetitions they are likely to go onto do
20 or even 100. The object is to learn to see the lines and the
stick, staff or axe is your teacher. But the piece of wood
can't teach much unless you pick it up and use it, just as I
can't teach much unless you actually turn up and take part in a
course or camp.
I know I should make more available in the way of reading material
and DVDs to watch. And I will, gradually. But really books and
DVDs are only marketing ploys, effective ones yes in the sense that
more people find out about Stav. But a shelf groaning with
beautiful hard bound books and DVDS filmed, directed and produced
to a standard Steven Speilberg would be proud of is worth nothing
compared with actually doing a couple of basic exercises three or
four times a week. If you don't believe me get to the Summer
Camp in September and ask Ivar yourself.