"Book learning doesn't mean anything if you can't actually get out on the mats and do it."

That's the bowdlerized version of a quote from my brother--the original is profanity-laced and, perhaps, clearer in its rejection of the intellectual in favor of the actual. The key phrase there is 'get out on the mats and do it.' A handy imperative, and one that you should seek to fulfill at least twice a week. Because in the end, it won't be about what you've read or watched or listened to, it won't be what you've thought or talked about, it won't be dynamics or fitness work--your life will depend solely on what you have physically done on the mats.

You already know that getting a reaction partner and hitting the mats is important, but did you know it's so important as to be the only thing that matters? This singular importance hit me today as I was thinking about teaching, about what I knew--and I realized that the bulk of what I know came as a side effect of my mat time. No one taught me the things in the Source Book or the Striking Manual. What I learned were the base principles, the gist of which can be summed up in less than a page. The rest of my knowledge comes from computing as many iterations of those base principles on another human body in real-time. Everything I know is just memories of mat time.

Videos and manuals inform the physical training spectrum; the training spectrum (dynamics & coordination sets) is there only to inform your mat time. From the very beginning, everything is a pointer for your time on the mats.

Another way to look at it: there's getting ready to work and then there's doing the work. Hitting the mats is doing the work. Everything else is just getting ready. When done in equal measure--getting ready & then doing--you have a complete training system that will allow you to experience the highest grade violence possible, with your fist firmly on the grippy end of the stick (as opposed to the wet end). Doing the work without getting ready is fine, though a little on the rough side. Doing nothing but getting ready all the time means you're not doing any work.

And when your life is on the line all you will have is what you've physically done.

Your performance won't be about how much you got ready--it'll be about how much you did.

All I'm doing whenever I teach is reporting on what I've experienced on the mats. Anything I tell you is a distillation of subjective, physical experience. As such, most of what I know is of very little use to you; most of what I know applies only to me & how I have to move to get stuff done. What little I know that is useful to other people I share freely in the hopes that it will improve your performance on the mats and give you the keys to unlocking your potential so you can end up knowing what I know--but for you, and you alone.

"Get your ass on the mats and make it all mean something"



For that to happen, you have to do the work. You have to hit the mats with another human body.

Everything we say and do is to improve the quality of your mat time. So read, listen, watch, think, talk, do your dynamics & fitness work--but then get your ass on the mats and make it all mean something.

Labels: fitness work, Las Vegas self defense class manuals, self defense videos, self-defense training