Self inflicted violence

 Nobody likes getting bad news, even when they are not directly related to themselves. Sometimes such news wake up and put to the forefront those hard questions that we often seek to ignore or sweep under the proverbial rug. This time, it was the report of BJJ and MMA legend Rickson Gracie being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. And being that in this regard he joins other legends in the domain of combat activities, most notably Muhammad Ali, but other greats such as Freddy Roach as well, it made one of "those" questions resurface again...

I learned about this case via a report/commentary by Rodney King, who has already been featured a couple of times on this blog. His view of the situation (as shared on Facebook) is sobering because he also speaks from his own experience, which clearly shows that at issue is not an isolated case, or even a string of unrelated cases. These facts make the above question that much more uncomfortable to ponder. 

If take a stroll through my older posts, you will easily find out that dealing with injuries is one of the topics that are taken as important here, because they have at least a two-fold harmful effect - inhibiting further training; and essentially attaining a counter effect to that training, i.e. they makes us more vulnerable that being healthy and untrained. But, those are just the physical injuries. As a matter of fact, with regards to martial arts and combative training, if taken from the functional fighting perspective, they come with the territory, as a manner of speaking. Even when growing into chronic issues, such as arthritis, rheumatism etc, I am frequently inclined to think that it is worth the benefits one can reap from training. 

However, the neurological problems and conditions that may stem from them are a different can of worms. First, there is a huge quantitative difference in terms of the deterioration in quality of life, between various orthopedic issues on the one side and Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, or ALS on the other. The degree of a person's functionality in living their lives is simply beyond comparison. Second, and directly connected to the last comment, is how it affects our immediate social environment, i.e. the closest family and friends. Exactly...all of a sudden we don't just bear the responsibility for ourselves, as you can't simply say "it's my life". Because it is someone else's too. 

So, how do we tackle the problem? How does one stay active within his or her chosen field, especially when it is a true passion, while being more responsible in a long-term? Is it even possible to train in a way that is simultaneously geared toward functional effectiveness and personal preservation? The easy answer is - yes! But it is necessarily simple to achieve. Namely, there are many factors at work here, and a proper training environment needs to juggle many of them at any given moment. But that fact is by no means an excuse to neglect it.

The solution probably boils down to a good training methodology, depending on an individual's motives for and needs in the learning/training process. In your search for the good foundation, you might even start with some of the articles on this blog, and see how those suggestions apply to your current training situation. Or, you could go and consult any of those resources from Rodney King, because he has literally dedicated decades of his life and work to developing a paradigm that would successfully avoid or solve the problem we are discussing. 

Ultimately, from this perspective, it is not so much the question of what you do in your practice, but rather how you do it. Therefore, should you choose to keep following the same road, at least try to do it in the best vehicle available. 

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!!!

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[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. 

Walk the talk - review of Rodney King's book

Today I’m writing about a strange book…or better said, reading it was a strange experience for me. See, I have been familiar with the name and work of Rodney King (just in case – we’re talking the renowned martial art/fighting instructor from South Africa) and his no-nonsense approach and clear presentation of his creative kickboxing and clinch material, developed as Crazy Monkey Defense program, was very appealing to me. Rodney has all the traits of an excellent instructor: he knows his material and curriculum inside-out; has good eye for seeing what needs to be worked on with his students; knows how to bring a point across efficiently and succinctly; his students demonstrate those qualities in their own performance. For a few years in mid-2000’s he was among my Top10 video instructors out there.

And then, something happened. At some point, King changed his “game”. He started using the term clients instead of fighters/students, and stuff like life performance instead of functional skill etc. In short, the entire paradigm turned a bit too corporate sounding for my taste. Yet, his training material remained top notch, so I kept my eye on what he has to say. This year, he published a book titled Full Contact Living. Preparing You for the Martial Arts of Every Day Life. 

book cover

Uh-oh…so now it started sounding new-agey, too. Life coaching and things of that sort. Still, Rodney was teaching good and practical, hands-on fighting stuff all the time, so I read the book. At first I was confused – there was plenty of excellent info, albeit packed in a language that is not particularly inviting to me. The focus of the book is on the mental training and preparation, be it fighting or other situations that require performance under stress, and that is fine, I did not expect the book on how to punch and kick in the first place. No, it was the writing style that threw me off. Where was the “good ole’ high-speed low-drag” Rodney King?

And then it dawned on me! I read through his preface again, as well as other articles, interviews and blogs on the web to see what is going on. Admittedly, I had usually concentrated on the man’s technical and tactical material, while neglecting his background and philosophy (yes, shame on me). Once giving his story a bit of thought, it became obvious why he wanted to do away with a lot of his earlier ways of doing things. OK, but how did Rodney end up where he is now? Illumination no.2 – not being in any of those “action” professions, such as military, law enforcement etc., he is actually much more in line with his martial teaching than the majority of us.

You see, the phrase “martial arts as the way of life” is a much (ab)used and thrown around, with glaring inconsistencies between one’s training and daily practices. In that regard, King has actually taken the steps to really put his fight training experience in this daily life, and being that he lives in a modern social-economic paradigm, like most of us, this new approach actually makes a lot of sense. The vocabulary in use is adequate for the book’s intended targeted reading public, so even if you (like me) do not necessarily perceive yourself as a member of that public, there is still a lot of good stuff to be gained, but just understand that the literary style may not suit you. Then again, Rodney has put out a manual, not a novel.

Finally, to the contents of the book. After presenting the readers with his background (which gives the man substantial authority on the subject), Rodney divides his presentation into seven components – six principles and one meta-principle, given in a logical and pertinent order, even if they all work together.

1.      The wabi-sabi of peak performance is about what to strive for and how to keep sight on the objective and act on it, without getting lost in what could be distracting details.

2.      Buddha mind, warrior body deals with the ever important topics of focus and presence of mind, the crucial aspects of trying to achieve anything.

3.      Body attitude maters shows the often neglected interrelationship between body and mind in a fairly practical fashion, with some very good advice on how to improve in that domain, and this may be of special interest for the people actively competing in combat sports.

4.      Surf the edge of chaos could be my favorite chapter, as it pertains to the widely misunderstood way of dealing with change and thriving in the environment that may otherwise be intimidating to many.

5.      Exhale-take charge of your breath gives you the deceptively simple tools to facilitate the changes we are trying to accomplish, particularly in all sorts of performance under duress.

6.      Roll with the punches underlines that we all have to deal with setbacks and less than ideal circumstances, occasional failures and hiccups in our quest for whatever it may be, and how to deal with it.

Finally, the meta-principle of becoming an IGAMER fuses all the previous ones and discusses how in this case the whole may be greater than the simple sum of its parts. This is the section that glues all the pieces of your model together.

Again, I assume quite a few of my readers might be less than happy about the writing style in the Full Contact Living, but if you understand it as the packaging, you may still end up liking the contents and substance it has to offer.