You are responsible for your own progress
Published: Thu, 09/19/13
Yesterday I discussed the idea of Tsune meaning 'daily
habit' and without making the practice of a body, mind and
spirit training system part of your daily routine it won't have
much effect on your life. In Stav this is quite simple (I am not
using the word easy) because we have the practice of the Stances
which can be done pretty much anywhere, in normal clothes and only
take a few minutes. But as well as daily habit there needs to be
the willingness to practice alone. When I first left Hull and
moved to Oxford I was a long way from Ivar or really anyone else I
knew. So each morning I would go to a wood near where I was living
and do stances and axe training. It grounded me and I continued to
improve my Stav practice. If I hadn't had a training axe I
could have used any stick I could get my hands on. It should be
that even if you find yourself washed up on a desert island or
locked in a prison you will still have your Stav practice to focus
on. I do find it a bit discouraging as a teacher when I find that
someone who has been training regularly with me for several months,
maybe even a year or so can't actually do the stances on their
own, let alone practice anything else. The usual excuse is that
they can't remember everything so they don't want to get it
wrong, well that isn't really an excuse, when I did Geoff
Thompson's master class Geoff was fond of saying that if you
perfect one technique you perfect all techniques. Probably an
exaggeration but just practising one strike a day say 20 times will
make a huge difference to your development in Stav or any other
similar activity than doing nothing between classes. But you have
to take responsibility for yourself, it is no good being completely
dependent on your teacher or looking to your family and friends to
encourage you, you have to be willing to get out there and do it
yourself.
Having said that the role of the teacher is essential and I will
say more about that tomorrow. In the meantime I am developing the
membership scheme for Ice and Fire so that there is more support
for distance learning, this will include DVD, printed material,
online video lessons and an exclusive members egroup for asking
questions and being notified when new material is posted. There
are also big discounts on classes, courses and the summer camp is
only open to members. Until Saturday there is an opportunity to
join for £10 per month which will be the amount you pay for
as long as you maintain your subscription. See the signup page at
http://www.iceandfire.org.uk/join.html