Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Training at Caulfield Resumes on March 5 2007

It is almost time to re-start the regular weekly class, after the Summer break. It will be at the same time and place as in previous years: Monday nights, 7.30 pm, in the Aerobics room.

When I say Summer break, it's been more of a break from routine than any kind of rest for me. I had the pleasure and privilege of teaching a course over January, and as is usually the case, I learned a lot from teaching and trying out my ideas. Thank-you to everyone who participated.

I also had the opportunity to learn from other instructors in a range of different classes. In particular, I participated in Sensei Jay's course on "Attacking Skills and Drills", which drew inspiration from the words of the great swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, continued to learn the Dragon Pole set with Shihan Chris, and studied some of the finer points of Judo randori with Sensei Leonard.

All of these classes were held as part of the Summer Program at the Honbu (HQ).

Training with several different Federation Instructors is always exciting because you experience different perspectives on our martial art(s). As a student, this means that there is a greater chance that a particular technique of principle will "click", since it gets presented in a variety of ways, and the different angles also help to fill in a bigger picture. As, an instructor, I get to see how different approaches work, and expand my bag of teaching tricks.

So now I am looking forward to getting back into the regular routine, and seeing what 2007 will be like. I hope that you will share the journey.

See you at training ...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi. Thanks for sharing your experiences, esp. in regards to JiuJitsu. I am a blackbelt in Karate as well. I love the workouts. I sweat.. and get fit-er day after day. However, I feel I really don't know how to protect myself if the fight gets close, or if we end up on the ground. So I've been looking into JiuJitsu. BUT, there is Japanese vs. Brazilian. Is one preferred over the other? What do you think of them -- one vs. another? and what is your recommendation? Many thanks.
John

Daniel Prager said...

John: I practice a Japanese-derived Jiu-Jitsu, but have plenty of time for the Brazilian variety.

Here's my take on Japanese or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for self-defense.

Also: Have you spoken to your Karate Sensei about your concerns? It is hard to follow two masters.

Good luck in your search.