Training with the 'animal'
Published: Fri, 04/05/13
I like to try different systems of training and the more I look
around the more I find that may be of interest. Next weekend I am
going to the Noble Science weekend seminar. This is a spin off of
Fightcamp (which I will be teaching staff at in August). Some of
the best teachers from Fightcamp will be there including Pedrag
Nikolic who taught me dagger and is teaching wrestling, Milo
Thurston who is teaching French Boxing and James Marwood who is
teaching WWII combatives. It should be fun and I am hoping it
won't be too cold since I will be camping at least on the
Saturday night. http://www.thenoblescience.com/ if you want to see
more.
At the end of May there is a seminar with Marc 'Animal'
McYoung, he is from California and apparently was one of the
pioneers of reality based martial arts. It is all based on
experience as a bouncer and corrections warden and he has a great
website http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/ . I love the bit
where he deals with 'pre-fight indicators' a current buzz
word in martial arts which basically means 'how do you know
someone is going to hit you?' Marc's answer, 'because
you are acting like an ass hole' to use the delightful american
expression, in other words people often get hit because they ask
for it. I can't wait for his seminar, I think it is going to be
both instructive and fun.
http://www.facebook.com/events/427250064001292/ for the Face book
event to be held in Bristol and thanks to Charlie Wildish for
bringing it to my attention. I am also getting to Guided Chaos
classes when I can, I should be able to get to the next two
Wednesday classes in Slough.
So why do I go to the expense and trouble to get to such seminars
(and, as some of you will remember I have also trained with Geoff
Thompson and Kevin O'Hagan over the past year or so). One
reason is that training at such seminars keeps me on my toes, I
find out what works and what doesn't in contexts where I am not
known as a instructor, in most cases I am just another punter. I
get to see other ways of teaching and pick up ideas which can be
useful for my own training and teaching. Occasionally I discover
something that is radically different and really makes me reassess
my whole approach to training. Not often, but it can happen once
in a while. But the main reasons are that it is fun to train and
converse with other people who take martial arts in all its forms
seriously. Also, it gives me a broad perspective on my teaching
and I hope that makes me a better teacher.
It always comes down to stances, lines and principles because I am
always working from a Stav perspective. But a particular
perspective doesn't mean a closed mind. Training tomorrow in
Somerset and see http://www.iceandfire.org.uk/forthcoming.html for
future events including USA in May and Summer Camp in September.