Training with the 'animal'
Published: Mon, 06/03/13
I had an entertaining and educational weekend. Training with Marc
'Animal' McYoung. It began on Friday night in a pub in St
Werbergs in Bristol where introduced us to the kinds of violence
that can occur, how to recognise the difference between social and
asocial violence and what to do about it. Some kinds of violence
can be de-escalated, some kinds can only be deterred. All this was
explained and described in highly colourful detail and all
expressed in Marc's highly entertaining style. You had to be
there to get the full effect. On the Saturday we looked at
maximising our power by paying close attention to the details which
lose power and efficiency and maintaining correct structure. Marc
also teaches the use of contact and rotation to get maximum effect
from a technique. This fundamental principle is surprisingly rare,
even in clubs that teach Chinese based martial arts. (Although I
have been teaching it as unarmed training in Stav for years).
The training on Sunday focused on knife defence. Again very simple
principles were carefully analyzed and developed beginning with
awareness of balance and simply falling out of the way. This moved
on to intercepts and finally finishing moves. Again all extremely
simple but highly effective. Most of the people attending were
quite good martial artists, in some cases very good and willing to
train both enthusiastically and safely, I had a lot of fun testing
stuff out with people who could both take it and dish it out.
It was a really good seminar and I would recommend anyone with a
serious interest in Martial Arts and self defence to take the
opportunity to train with the 'animal', but take your sense
of humor, his language is colorful to say the least and the way he
illustrates some of his points is both profane and hilarious.
As the seminar went on I couldn't help but be privately amused
by making comparisons between Marc McYoung and Geoff Thompson.
Both must be about the same age, Marc I suspect a little older than
Geoff. Both had a misspent youth where violence was a major
feature of everyday life. Both have made a great success of
writing about their experiences and seeking to educate martial
artists and the public about the realities of violence and self
protection. Both have drawn on a variety of teachers and sources
to develop their skills and knowledge. I am certainly not going to
say one is better than the other (I have more sense than that even
if I did have an opinion) both have a great deal to teach from
experience gained the hard way.
What I found amusing was the contrast between Geoff who is very
trim and fit, is teetotal and only drinks decaffeinated coffee and
is very proud of his clean living. Marc loves his coffee and his
beer and after he had effortlessly demonstrated an elegant
technique he would pat his rounded belly and say with a smile.
"I didn't get this by working hard, you get this by
working smart!"
I have trained with a lot of inspirational teachers and the key
thing about all the really good ones is that they are very much
themselves, they are not trying to live up to anyone else's
standards except their own. I guess the moral is that you
can't really be good at being anyone except yourself.
Getting to train with Marc or Geoff is relatively easy. Training
with Ivar Hafskjold is a really rare opportunity. Six places left
for the Summer Camp first week of September in Norfolk.
http://www.stavcamp.org