A good question, difficult to answer
Published: Wed, 06/05/13
"Graham has training with these people changed your
perspective on self defence and how you approach teaching it in
Stav?" Kevin, in response to my post on Monday
I promised I would answer this question this evening and I have
been thinking about it. The first thing to say is that I have
always been quite good at keeping out of trouble and on the very
rare occasions in my life when I have had to deal with violent
confrontation I have managed to cope with it quite well. It was
certainly interesting hearing Geoff Thompson say that he realized
that he was attracting violence towards himself because of his
state of mind. Once Geoff realized that he was creating his own
reality he also realised that he could change it and after that
violence was no longer a central part of his life. Marc McYoung
likes to say that violence almost always comes with instructions on
how to avoid it, follow those instructions and you can avoid
getting hurt. I think I had figured out both those lessons as a
child and generally speaking I have avoided violence in my life, on
the couple of occasions I have attracted violence towards myself I
wasn't in a good place emotionally and energetically and I knew
exactly what was happening. I certainly didn't let it become a
permanent state of being. A lot of the big name teachers seem to
have taken a lot longer to learn the same lesson.
I do pick up ideas and techniques which I use and pass on. I
learned some neat grappling techniques and how to punch much better
from Geoff. At Fightcamp I have learned a lot more about wrestling
and from lessons there I developed my dagger training system which
I find very useful for teaching body mechanics. The main thing
though has been the chance to try stuff out on other people who are
often pretty good martial artists, sometimes very good but who
don't know me or what I do so if I make something work it is
because it does, not just because I told them it would and I am the
teacher. I also get to try out ways of stopping common techniques
working. I am not sure when I discovered my technique for blocking
a grapple but I have used it a few times against quite good
wrestlers and it works.
I have also had the odd weakness exposed and I have had to address
it. One thing was my tendency to go into tunnel vision which means
I can be very effective against what I am focusing on but liable to
be blindsided by other threats. I realised that at a Guided Chaos
class which is probably one of the most challenging training
systems I have encountered since it challenges me to be very
relaxed and completely adaptable and that really is asking
something. I could (probably should) write a book on what I have
learned over the years. But the main effects are firstly the
inspiration and encouragement that comes from training with the
best, you simply come away energised and more enthusiastic.
Secondly I have simply realised how well Stav actually works.
During the workshop with Marc McYoung I found myself thinking quite
often when I saw what he was teaching, what kind of genius do you
have to be to work that stuff out without knowing Stav? And I mean
that completely respectfully. I was extremely impressed with
Marc's approach and teaching and I know he is drawing on
experiences I am very glad I have not had. But a lot, or even
most, of his physical techniques are very close to what I have been
teaching for years. I got there by applying knowledge of the web
and working with the five principles which made it quite easy. It
must have been much harder without that model to work from.
Anyway, the question got me thinking and thats my answer for
tonight. I would be happy to show you what I mean at Salisbury on
the 15th of June or train with Ivar himself at the Summer Camp,
only 4 places left now, two more people booked up today. Links
from http://www.iceandfire.org/calendar.html