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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Don't make a mountain out of a mole hill

Often times when I teach new students they come into the training with pre-conceived notions of what the martial arts training of any kind "must" be like. The frustrating factor in this, is that before the student can actually learn what I have to teach them, I have to break down the "barriers" they have created in their mind 1st; a feat that depending on the ego of the student, can be very difficult to do.

One of my favorite "teachers" would always make his student do something (an "everyday movement") that didn't look like a martial art technique, only to later show the practicality of that everyday movement in it's ability to be used in a self-defense context as the student would inadvertently demonstrate how to block by simply...waxing a car. ;-)

I personally think that the success of learning what I teach is to see it's connections to everyday life. It's why my style of teaching uses a LOT of analogies or metaphors with understanding, but also with movement training. But what's more important is not just seeing the connections, but also FEELING the same degree of effort, & energy being shared between the technique and it's "normal movement" counterpart. Let's take moving non-telegraphically for example....


Sunday, January 5, 2014