Monday, March 27, 2017

Virtually as good as it gets

NOTICE: I am in no way affiliated with Rodney King and his organisation. The below review is my personal opinion and attitude, presented in full honest, without any compensation whatsoever from any of the parties mentioned. 

In this day and age of virtual reality and online existence, it is no wonder that there is now a number of martial art instructors, teachers and coaches offering their services through the digital avenues. Just as with the “in the flesh” reality, some of those virtual schools are better than the others… Here, I would like to say a few words about one of those I like the most.[1]

The portal I am writing about is schoolofcrazymonkey.com  and it is run by, who would have thought, Rodney King. I have discussed his stuff in this blog before, so you know I had already liked the man’s work. In the meantime we had some conversations on several topics related to training and life in martial arts, which means I knew that he had been preparing the online program, and I was looking forward to checking it out.

King in his court
Well, he sure delivered! On the portal, Rodney offers a few courses, depending on your interest, and those include his Crazy Monkey Defense / CMD material (standup game), the Monkey Jits (BJJ portion) and Combat Intelligent Athlete (self-preservation aspect). Naturally, the underlying principles and training methodology between those has some overlaps, but the programs are done separately. It means, there is no shoving down your throat the material you have no interest in, or something you feel you already have a good grasp of.
The presentation is excellent. All the technical material and its tactical applications are presented in a progressive manner, with superb explanations – there is enough attention to detail to make sure you got it, but not so much to become the victim of the “analysis paralysis” syndrome. 



I have taken his CMD courses, one for the white glove level, and the one for the Blue Glove. Let me stress here one of my favorite features of the program – it is truly ongoing and evolving. Rodney is adding to the material and shooting new videos whenever he finds it fitting, which means your “library” is growing with time. It is probably the greatest advantage over buying one of those complete package DVD/download packs.

He usually begins a new section with some discussion on the theoretical and methodological framework and philosophy behind it (VERY important in this case!), thus putting things into context and making it that much clearer. Next, he will go into the technical details, and then proceed to the drills to functionalize the skills you are hoping to develop. Finally, King introduces you to sparring and the proper way to do it, both for the functionality and sustainability purposes.

And then, there is more! Once enrolled, you have the access to the study groups that involve some of Rodney’s certified instructors and great coaches on their own, as well as the “Ask-a-Question” feature that enables you to get specific answers to the specific questions you may have in the process of training. All in all, remarkable support from the coaching staff! 



To wrap it up, if you would like to overcome the adversity of not having a qualified instructor around to train with, while being concerned about the quality of the available online options, you can join the coachrodneyking.org without fear, as it is probably one of the best avenues you can follow with the aim of learning useful fighting skills properly, and with the right mindset.
Thumbs up!!!

[1] Naturally, I haven’t tried them all, so please don’t take this as being the ultimate, supreme best in the whole wide world.