Teaching The Fundementals

[Black Jack II]

Royal,

So if I am reading that right its more into the conditioning side of things, at least at that stage of the game, a martial art conditioning class with historical applications of a chosen style?

I would just add my two cents to include early into the program a small set of simple gross motor skills which can be used effectively under the stress of a real assault. An obvious and logical assumption but its common to see people not getting anything straightforward in a lot of schools for a good deal of time. Stripped down strikes, kicks, a protective guard, basic ready stance, you can figure it out, and then practiced for a small bit of time on skill developing drills as a backup while you are working them into the system.

[Royal Dragon]

I would just add my two cents to include early into the program a small set of simple gross motor skills which can be used effectively under the stress of a real assault

Reply]
I definetly consider this part of the basics. The problem is I was not taught this way, i was taught lots of forms, and many techniques that really made little combative sense, so I am actually trying to create a basics training program that is vastly superior to how i myself learned...that is the dream anyway.

I didn't get into good foot work drills for instance, untill a bit later. We did stances, forms, and practiced a gazzillion applications against many very similar attacks. The foot woork was in the apps, but not isolated into good move, counter move drills designed to help the student understand, and gain an advantagous position.

LOL!!, looking back, some of the stuff we did as beginners back in the day put us in harms way, and i am not talking about the OYD stuff, I'm talking about the shaolin stuff. I am seeking to "Idiot proof" my system, so blind instinct will keep my students safe in a confrontation. Learning to use thier footwork to take then out of harms way, and get them and advantagous position FIRST, before even thinking about techniques, or counters is where my mind set is now a days.

As far as techniques go, i want to work only a few techniques against many possible attacks to take the "Thinking" out of the over all strategy. It's really the total opposite thinking of how i was taught. It's a one defense against 1000 attacks, VS 100o defenses against one attack mentality.

When i spar, I try to keep myself at odd angles to my opponent to force them to reach for me. I like to trip them up, retreat till I see them getting empty, and then grab a position that I can use my body to futher take thier balance and make it really hard for them to launch an effectve attack, THEN I worry about counters and attacking myself.

I want to teach my students to do the same, very early, as I think it's easier than trying to block and deflect based on reaction timming...especially when one is under imense pressure.

I found a long time ago that learning to controll the distance, and position is easier, and more reliable than chasing hands and feet. I just wish that had been understood when I was a beginner. I would have been a better fighter when i was young enough to really enjoy it.

[Royal Dragon]

So if I am reading that right its more into the conditioning side of things, at least at that stage of the game, a martial art conditioning class with historical applications of a chosen style?

Reply]
Yeah, that sort of sums it up. It's heavy on structure, and body mechanics too. Level II & III is actually getting more into the style itself, and will be much more skill oriented. Level I is really just general Shaolin basics and conditioning.

The 18 basics techniques are from a variety of forms in the system, and are a "Sampler" of different tactics. I may rewrite that part of the curriculem too. I have too work through and find the various techniques that are useable and functionalbe a high percentage of the time while being instinctual no brainers as well.

Some techniques really require the body mechanics to be second nature to work reliably, others function even if your mechanics are really sloppy. I really need some guys to do two man drills myself to iron it all out. I probabally should start a highschool program, and see what is easy for raw beginners to get working fast.

[rogue]

That sounds good rogue. So much wasted time - thinking of taiji here specifically - worrying abotu whethe r ahand should be aninch to the left, or two inches higher - what a total waste of everyone's time! It's the feelign that matters, not the surface form - everythign that is of worth, and useable, is already native to the person - it just needs a method to naturally unfold that skill.

I love Tai Chi and it's on my list of arts to get back into one day. The way I was introduced to it (Yang style) was through push hands. A guy I knew wanted someone to practice with everyday and figured since he couldn't find TCC people who liked push hands he'd teach me. Twice a day, 5 days a week for about 3 months we'd be out doing various push hands, and I learned a lot about how TCC works from his approach. I'd have to say he was a big influence on my karate.

[rogue]

Black jack,

It's basicaly a mix of the above.

I have a REALLY hard time limiting class time to less than 1-1/2 hours, so here is the lesson plan for that. First 30 minutes are the warmup & stretchout. The next 30 minutes would be stance work, moving drills (kicks/punch/block combos, footwork drills), or raw conditioning, finnishing with some real flexibility work the last 10 minutes.

The last 30 minuts is allways twoman work. It can be two man versions of drills done prior, or technique work, or light sparring once the students have a bit of an arsenal to work with.

I generally teach in 3 sections; warmup & stretchout + conditioning is the first section. Basics, forms, drills is the second, and twoman application work is the third.

I like to keep each section the same length, so if it takes 40 minutes to do the first (warmup & stretchout is 20, conditioning is the other 20), then i want it to be 40 minutes each for the other two.

Obviously for beginners, i can't do that. It's really hard to shorten the warmup though, you really need 20 minutes of warmup before stretching, as per my daughters Old school Romanian gymnastics coach...I ain't arguing with a National champion builder on this one.

Also, for weight controll reasons, it's good to do cardio for a solid 20 minutes after warmup as your body is in fat burning mode anyway (takes roughly 20 minutes to switch form buring sugar, to fat), so I like to have them drill lots of kicks and such several times a week after the warmup&stretchout.

So you're essentially running a Tai Bo class?
Personally I'd shift to 10-15 minutes of warm up, then into the two man sets or drills, and then into teaching or reinforcing some concepts, tactics and techniques. Leave the cardio for the end if needed.

[Royal Dragon]

LOL!! No, hardly a Tae Bo class. But fighting skill needs to be backed up by solid conditioning, and basics.

[cwheelie]

learn to spell FUNDAMENTAL

[Royal Dragon]

"I never had much use for somone who only had one way to spell a word."


I forgot who said that, but I do know it was one of the founding Father's of our country.

[golden arhat]

sparring ?

lol
i dont care how fast you can do applications
its nothing without an opponent who actually fights back

stance work is good but being able to stay fluid is more important

where are the push ups ? indus? dips? pullups? deadlifts? punch bag raises?
sprawling drills ? leg condittioning (usually done by being repeatedly kiscked in the thighs in a drill or in sparring) wrestling ? running?

i mean ur stufff is all good but it eally doesnt compare to stuff like that

fighting makes good fighters
basics help and are very important
but stamina and experience are more important

[neilhytholt]

"I never had much use for somone who only had one way to spell a word."


I forgot who said that, but I do know it was one of the founding Father's of our country.

Maybe that's why the U.S. has unique spellings of some words as compared to their English counterparts.

[Royal Dragon]

That, and the American language was influanced by German and several other languges as well. It's really a *Mixed* language built on the framework of English.

Technically we teach *English* classes in elementary school, because American was founded on it, but the vocabulary portion is not English, it's American and includes words and spellings developed here and are unique to the American Language.