Saturday, March 7, 2015

One thing or if many your favorite thing


I have developed a habit of ending class by having the students circle up and tell everyone one thing they learned.  If I did my job at all they have to have learned at least one thing.  Hopefully they learned a bunch of stuff.  If so they have to say their one favorite thing that they learned.

Last weekend was the USMAA North Central Regional Training Camp.
I decided to use this blog to list the favorite things that I learned

Thursday the focus was on Law Enforcement.

So it was me teaching One On One Control Tactics the way that I do it all day.
One thing that was very cool was that Omar Ahmad was also there.  Omar has been around One On One Control Tactics since day one.  He was deeply involved in its development.  It was neat to get his feedback on how I deliver the material.


My one thing?  What did I learn from myself?
The thing about teaching is I learn as much from the students as they learn from me.
My one thing was confirmation  / affirmation of the idea of teaching fundamental principles that can be adapted and improvised under pressure yields better results than memorization of specific techniques.

Proof of the pudding is in the eating, and so with his permission, here is a text I received from Adam after the class:

Travis and I got a few more guys who want to get in on the next training. I felt like a monkey fucking a football a certain parts of the day but it was great material and because everything tied together I think I improved as we progressed. This method of teaching built my confidence in the techniques. Truly amazing stuff Kasey can't thank you enough. I studied a lot of stuff and got to train with many great instructors but this is the first time I felt like I learned a natural fighting style that taught me to fight like a cop, not a BJJ practitioner, not a TKD practitioner, but a cop faced in real modern use of force situations. How much does a Steve Jimerfield text book cost? Where do I send my cash? And are there anymore trainings coming up that Travis and I can sign up for? Again thank you for your time today?

That text made my day




Friday - This was an opportunity for the younger Instructors (Youngbloods) to teach

I started the day with the practical application of joint locks.


After that Dillon was up with Kyokushin Karate.  The focus was on in-fighting showing possible applications of a particular kata.  Naihanchi is what the Okinawan folks call it, Tekki is what Shotokan guys calls it.

My one thing?
K.I.S.S keep it simple stupid.  You are not going to be able to implement a complicated strategy during the stress of interpersonal violence.  So get really good at simple strategies.  One such strategy we worked with Dillon was getting off line and delivering elbows.  If the 1st elbow didn’t end the confrontation follow up with more elbows .

The head is like a bowling ball full of Jell-O.  You can’t break the bowling ball, so you need to scramble the Jell-O.




Next up, straight out of Edmonton Randy King presented reality based self defense.

If you were to draw a Venn diagram of what I teach and what Randy teaches there would be a huge middle section of the same stuff with a small slice on the left for Randy’s background in FMA and Krav and a small slice on the right for my background in Japanese martial arts and Wrestling.

What was cool for me then was to see how someone presents very similar materials in a different way.

Randy had some very cool drills that I have shamelessly stolen and will be incorporating into my counter ambush training.

My one thing?
Confusion and surprise are so similar neurologically that they go down the same pathways of the brain, or close enough to it so as not to matter.
When a student comes to a counter ambush class, much of the surprise is removed.  You can’t surprise someone who knows they are going to be surprised.

Well there are ways but not many are morally sound or help in student retention (both their retention of the material and your school’s retention of students)

However, you can use confusion drills to artificially replicate surprise. Just as you can artificially mimic fear and stress response by elevating the heart rate.
Randy will get the students to ask nonsensical  questions about random things and the student has to answer the question actively while being attacked.



Here you can see Omar asking Randy a random question:
What is the sound of one hand choking?
The correct answer was  - gurgle




Dillon and I were up next.  

We have been having a lot of fun playing where Judo and Catch Wrestling are the same thing.  Same being said of Karate and old timey bare knuckle boxing.  So we decided to have an old timey theme to our training block.



Dillon enjoys his ribs tenderized

We called it Cobra Kai-ropractic.  Using striking to safely close distance, then putting on kubi hishigi or what Wrestlers call a neck crank.




My one thing?

A reaffirmation of one of the tenants of Katamedo Jujitsu:
The principles of grappling are constant, as are the skills involved; it is the techniques of applying these skills that holds the potential for the progressive evolution of the sport. A great freestyle wrestler will be able to adapt to sport judo, jujitsu, sambo, capoeira or Greco-Roman wrestling, and vice versa. The principles of the arts are common, only the rules differ. As such, a JuJitsuka must also learn the principles and tenets of atemi waza, or striking, which are common to many traditional arts such as Karate, or boxing.


Friday ended with Tim Jurgens Sensei demonstrating Kobudo.

My one thing?
How nunchaku were intended to be used, as opposed to how they are shown in popular media.



Saturday was for the guys who taught the guys who taught on Friday (Old Skool)

Q branch started the day with pre-hab, re-hab, injury prevention, and training longevity.
After 16 hours of getting thumped this class was a God send.






My one thing (3 things actually – hey it’s my blog I’ll do what I want)

Using motion to prepare for motion

Using foam rollers to “squish out” swelling and inflammation so new fresh blood can deliver nutrients to the area

Test for change

The next session was Dr. Omar Ahmad’s Jujitsu class.
He focused on guard passes and sweeps.  Then drilled those guard passes vs. those sweeps


He also worked on progression drills form different positions.  For example from the sweep you end up having him in Kesa Gatame (like a side head lock pin for Randy who doesn’t speak Judo).  From that position what are the available high percentage attacks?  If they fight off one they hand you another.  Take the gift they hand you.  It is rare to get the 1st one so you have to have a chain.  Eventually something will give.








My one thing?
Drills for skills baby!
I really liked what I’ll call the A,B, Avs.Bpattern of instruction.
A – Technical (in this case guard passes)
B- Technical (in this case how to sweep from your guard)
Avs.B – Drill
I have discussed on this blog how people learn better through play, the need for force on force training, and the need for injury free training.  This pattern hits all of these things and is fun (and gets your heart rate up too)







Gary Rudenick Sensei was up next with Judo

Gary worked on variations of Osoto Gari (great outer reap or leg sweep for Randy) If the throw didn’t work it is because they resisted.  There are only so many ways a body can resist being thrown in that manner, all of which hand you a variation of that throw.


Rudnick Sensei also worked on an arm crush that is known as “The Rudnick”.  
We worked on hitting the Rudenick from many different positions both in offense and in defense

Rudenick Sensei always picks the best looking guy in the class, then spends the next few hours beating the hell out of him



My one thing?
K.I.S.S part 2 – Adaptability
Better to know a few basic concepts that you can apply under a wide variety of situations than many techniques that only work under very specific situations and fail as circumstances change.

The final physical class of the seminar was Goju Ryu Karate with Dr. Lewinski
Dr. Lewinski used Kururunfa Kata as a platform to work on power generation and structure.


Dr. Lewinski runs The Force Science Institute and used many stats from his research to explain particular strategies
My one thing?
I have often said if you are inside striking range no one is fast enough to employ a defensive strategy successfully (100%)
Dr. Lewinski provided scientific studies confirming this.
Maintain reactionary gap or go on offense as you close range

After we cleaned up and got out of the way of the wedding planners taking over the space graciously provided by The Mermaid Convention Center, Randy presented a business for martial arts class.

My one thing?
Stay tuned true believers.  I learned a ton!  So much so that this class deserves a blog of its own.
Or, I might keep these things close to my chest. 
If you want a business consultation you can come to our next seminar, or go visit Randy

For now though I will just say this.  I was very successful in the Batman by 40 project.  I planned the work then worked the plan.
Now, for the first time I have developed a smart and realistic plan business plan. 
So I am starting project Wayne by 45, building up Keck Enterprises to earn enough money to be able to do some truly amazing things.
Last year I broke the Bat, now it is time to break the man, and make it rain like Bruce Wayne.


Along those lines check out these awesome Keishoukan Dojo T-Shirts and Hoodies

Keishoukan Dojo T-Shirt by sabertooth117


http://www.redbubble.com/people/sabertooth117/works/14238688-keishoukan-dojo-t-shirt?p=t-shirt


If you pick up some Keishoukan swag be sure to send me a picture of you wearing it doing something cool in an awesome place.  Pictures will be posted on the blog and we will play where in the world is...?

Saturday was capped off by the announcement that I had earned my teaching certificate in Katamedo Jujitsu.

This too deserves a blog of its own, more to come

Wow what a great day!

After class we went to BW3’s for much deserved chicken wings and to watch UFC 184

My one thing?
Although the Camp focused on personal protection and professional use of force, several of the fights were won with stuff we had just covered in camp.  
To mention a few:
Alan Jouban defeated Richard Walsh via KO (elbows that Dillon covered) at 2:19 of Round 1

Ronda Rousey defeated  Cat Zingano via submission (armbar that both Omar and Gary covered ) at 0:14 of Round 1


It was a great Training Camp.
I hope to see all of you there next year










Train hard, train smart, be safe





































































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