Take down and pin to back from knees. Very good fun and gets the heart rate up very quickly. I was looking to use the arm drag and elbow control to secure position and dominance and that worked for a few rounds then I went with Lee. Straight away his posture was bigger and more dominant which put me on the back foot immediately. He also employed a variety of paces and fast messy fakes to draw motion and reaction.
The main part of the class was experimenting with creativity and failure. In my proper job I am a teacher and this is something I strive for my students to experience primarily in learning. I try to use this as a way to deliver content and curriculum. I want to build the confidence to fail and learn, to build resilience and creativity, to ask more questions than you can answer. Then true high quality learning can take place. But fear of failure and criticism of self by others is a great obstacle to people in my profession reaching their potential. I see too many people, adults, who seem to know it all already, who have an answer, who want to talk but do not want to listen. This parallels my experience in martial arts. Fear of loosing students, face or control lead to stagnation and denial. How many pictures have you seen in martial arts mags of 7th dan masters who can't see their toes for their fat belly? Who have not tested their great wisdom against an uncooperative opponent in sparring? What message is this portraying other than bullshit? I guess it is because people want to belong to a team, a group or a community and then spend the rest of their existence supporting said institution. No matter how culty and ridiculous their methods and message are.
Thankfully the creators, I should say innovators, at PROMAI are forward looking and constantly evolving. Perhaps this is the true essence of the idea, not the style, that was labelled as Jeet Kune Do. Absorb what is useful and reject what is not. Shame it became a style but the idea still rings true 50 years on: explore, investigate, create, test, refine. And definitely not follow blindly, stagnate or kowtow down to the martial deity.
And so the ideas we explored tonight were on pieces of paper that were randomly shuffled and turned over. Some were completely alien as technique partners and others felt more comfortable and known. That was the whole point; go slow and explore and experience lots of failure. At least then you will have a greater understanding of why something does and does not apply to certain conditions.
Side kick and side control
Bottom control outward strike
Body clinch downward shoulder rotation
Long range inner forearm choke
Neck and wrist control elbow extension
My biggest failing last night was my lack of desire to demonstrate my failure to my class mates. Too busy being concerned about being unknowingly judged on a public platform. Which what I get kids in my class to do all the time and praise for their effort. Will endeavour to attach less importance to this in the future.
Big glove MMA rounds
Small glove sparring ground with Craig. Video is up on YouTube and Facebook dated 22/11/12.
Getting slightly better at striking for submission openings. Not in terms of success but in terms of strike volume. Striking was heavier than last week and beginning to attack other large muscle areas of the body such as the lats, thighs and traps.
Feel very old for a day or two after every session and only wish I had begun his MMA journey earlier in my life, not because I would be better than I am now but more comfortable with the experience of it all. But it s the journey and the process that is of prime significance not the destination .
One final note, in post class chatting to Ptas and Arial we discovered how much weight Arial has lost since training at the start of the year. Something remarkable like 40kgs. A tremendous example of what hard work and sweat can do. A tough lesson for many of the lazy bastards who talk about wanting transformation but only if they can sit on their arse watching shite on their big tele. By the way my weakness is my sweet tooth kicking in post 8pm every day. That is a tough demon to control.
Strength and honour.
No comments:
Post a Comment