Stav is different
Published: Tue, 02/18/14
I often have interesting conversations about Stav but a couple of
recent exchanges stay with me. The question. What makes Stav
different? When you are developing a training centre and inviting
people to come and train in Stav then it is a question worth having
an answer too. The essence of the first conversation with a long
term student was. "I am glad you don't emphasise gradings
the way they did when I did Aikido." The other was yesterday
in the local builders merchants where a member of staff asked me
more about the Stav Centre and said that what I was teaching there
seems to be very different to the kick boxing he did in Yeovil.
There is always curiosity about the way we teach weapons right from
the beginning too. Another factor is that I don't teach
children, minimum age is sixteen and fourteen if attending with a
parent. But I would like people to give it a go in their forties,
fifties or sixties, there is no reason why not.
I am not someone who likes to promote their product by banging on
about how rubbish all the alternatives are. I know a fair amount
about how various martial systems work, I have trained quite
seriously in a few of them over the years. I am a firm believer in
freedom of choice and the availability of variety. There is no
need to rubbish what anyone else is doing to try and make yourself
look special. So I would never claim that Stav is the best martial
art or the only one that anyone should do. I just consider myself
very blessed to have been trained in Stav myself and I am happy to
share what I know. It is however a bit of headache advertising and
promoting the Centre in Crewkerne. I am referring to it as the
'Somerset Stav Martial Arts School'. To me this makes
sense, it is in Somerset, that bit is easy. I teach Stav there and
classes and courses will be focussed on the expression of Stav
through martial arts training. I am using the word school rather
than Dojo because this is the UK and in the UK we study in schools,
just as I refer to myself as a Stav teacher or instructor rather
than a Sensei.
Of course the words that most people are going to relate to are
'martial arts' and then they will expect to see something
rather different to Stav. So the next challenge is to try and
explain what is special about Stav and why the good people of South
Somerset should give training a try.
As a starting point Stav is not a combat sport and a great deal of
what is thought of as martial arts are actually competitive sports.
The grading systems which came out of Japan and then permeated
martial arts especially in the West really became significant when
martial arts became part of the school curriculum during the 1930s
when Japan was becoming a very militaristic society. Martial arts
should be about personal development and it is very hard to see how
passing a very specific exam at a particular point in time can
really measure self-development in any meaningful sense. Combat
sport training has very little to do with self-defence, obviously
an experienced and well conditioned MMA fighter is going to put up
a fight in a pub brawl better than someone with no training. But
it is my belief that if you are sorting out any problem by hitting
someone then something has gone seriously wrong. Self-defence is
about how you carry yourself physically but ninety nine percent of
the time it is the mind which gets you into trouble or keeps you
out of it. Even your emotional energy can attract harm or keep you
safe. Training with stances, weapon exercises working with the web
and five principles drills with partners teaches you how to work
with body, mind and spirit. First you have to master yourself
before you can influence others.
Is that a start? Of course if you want to hear it directly from
Ivar then come to the Stav Camp in August. You can just come for
the bank holiday weekend or come for the three days the week before
as well for some preparation training. Details at
http://www.stavcamp.org
regards
Graham