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.
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| 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.
