"There is no such thing as a stupid question." Really?
Published: Tue, 12/02/14
On Friday evening Santa came to town. Well someone dressed in a red
and white suit in a sled pulled by a Land Rover paraded up the high
street before the christmas lights were put on. Okay it wasn't
that exiting but the main street was closed and a lot of people came
out. So it seemed like a good idea to open the Stav Centre, have a
table with leaflets and see who was willing to stop and talk to us.
I am glad to say that quite a lot of people did and there should be
a few people along for the taster sessions next Saturday.
It was also an opportunity for some informal market research and the
two most common responses were:
"When are you opening?" and "Do you have
children's classes?" with a harassed mother usually
indicating a restless 4 year old.
Of course the answer to the first question is that we have been
teaching a couple of times a week and occasional courses for over a
year. There have been regularly updated posters outside as well as
other information in the local paper and displayed in various shop
windows announcing this fact for over a year. But you can never
underestimate people's capacity to miss the obvious. Or,
perhaps a better way of looking at it, don't underestimate the
difficulties of getting people's attention. Something to carry
on working on there.
The full answer to the second question is that traditionally Stav
was never taught to anyone under the age of about 13 years. So
there is no children's version of Stav as such. Indeed my
insurance company will not cover me to teach weapons to anyone under
the age of 14 years so classes to children are going to have to be
very different to adult classes. However there is certainly an
interest in a children's class so I am going to try a class for
8 to 13 year olds and see how we get on, there are two boys who have
promised to come on Saturday for a taster session so we will see how
we get on. The training will be unarmed and age appropriate and I
do have plenty to work on. I keep being told that after school
martial arts classes are very popular in some areas and so I should
approach local schools. Once I have had a chance to try out a
training system at the Stav Centre I may well look into it.
As for very young children my first reaction was 'no way'
but as I have thought about it I can see that a play based activity
based on the runic animal associations could be rather fun. I am
still resisting the idea but my inner child is getting interested in
the possibilities so watch this space.
So, taster sessions this coming Saturday, programme at
http://www.somersetstav.co.uk and if you would like to come to
Crewkerne for a Stav Self-defence/Close Quarter Combat Seminar the
next event will be on the 10th of January 10am until noon more
details at http://somersetstav.co.uk/stavcourses.html
regards
Graham
PS Stav Summer Camp is in July in Somerset, Ivar will be present and
teaching and it will be a great opportunity to train, learn about
Stav from the only person who grew up with the tradition and meet
new friends. http://www.stavcamp.org