The student becomes the teacher and the lesson leads itself (diary entry)

30.04.12

"They are not YOUR students! You do not own them." - Shihan Chris Rowen, GojuRyu Karate

"I am not your instructor. You teach me; you teach all of us. I am just your guide" - Stevie B, Mongrel Close-Quarter Fighting Method (somewhat paraphrased)

The two above quotes from two wonderfully different martial arts teachers have stuck with me and at the core of the way I teach for several years now. The first came from a man who was the embodiment of traditionalism. Trained and graded by the late great Yamaguchi Gogen, Chris doesn't teach without wearing his Japanesehakama and speaks fluent Japanese. Yet this is a man who's views have little in common with the jealously protective pseudoreligosity of what one considers to be today's traditional martial arts. He was one of the original five teachers I chose for my "Cross Training Martial Arts" series and always the man I saw as being the seal of traditional approval on my otherwise maverick ideas. Words of wisdom from Chris included "No one has a monopoly on knowledge", when referencing the cross training, and "I don't like styles and neither did the founders of karate". 

Stevie B is a very unorthodox fight and fitness coach who runs a full time gym in Birmingham. Bearded, dreadlocked and covered and tattoos, Steve was the complete opposite in appearance to Chris. However, he shared a dislike for stylism and the controlling methods inherient in the majority of martial arts training. Aside from his regular classes, he had a single favourite lesson focusing his own expression in self-defence training. This was the Mongrel Close-Quarter Combat Fighting System. What was different about this type of class and any other I had encountered was it became a type of meeting place - a melting pool if you like - of disperate fighters from a wide range of backgrounds. Here I met likes of Cass Lester, a streetwise martial arts coach in the Birmingham area, and various other characters. Scenerio training and tactics were all based on real experiences, as in ones the students or their friends/relatives had actually experienced recently!

Today, I ran a class that I think would have made both of these teachers proud. The underlying teaching method of Clubb Chimera Martial Arts, and by extension its martial arts consultancy programme "Vagabond Warriors", is to endorse a ground-up approach. I am less interested in teaching techniques how I learnt them, but rather in encouraging activities that inspire their creation. That is my work in progress. Work back from the fight (reverse engineering if you will) and develop methods that will have the students in your class show you what they found to be effective and effecient. It's not easy and it is very much a work in progress, but that's the real joy of discovery.

From the off, one student led the warm-up. Then I prompted others to come up with problems they felt the class were experiencing. Although there was a clear desire to learn more submissions, it was agreed the area they were lacking in was transitioning. Transitioning, of course, is where the beauty of real MMA, cross-training and eclectic self-defence coaching resides. Anyone can piece together different styles and use the "welding method", but the real craft is in building something new. So, we began with the transition from stand-up to clinch. I asked about possible tactics and how one could devise an activity to improve and discover better transitioning. After a discussion on techniques one student set-up a specific sparring exercise where one person used strikes to fend off a clincher (a sport variant of our Strategy One versus Strategy Two pressure test).

When we arrived at a lot of lowline takedown attempts, the class agreed it was time to look at out how to transition to the ground or away from the clinch. We moved into a simple single leg takedown attack and counter-attack. We then moved into a knee-bar submission both from the takedown and also in half-guard.

The lesson finished with some great MMA sparring. Real improvements were shown all round with some exciting exchanges. Then we had a shadow boxing and functional fitness warm-down and stretch.

DON'T MISS: Jamie Clubb at The Martial Arts Show - Free seminars and signings

DON'T MISS: "Vagabond Warriors 2.2"