Patience, Grasshopper!
While working on a technique sequence designed to fortify their fundamentals, students may occasionally ask to do material that is beyond their skill level. I’ll often answer them in two ways. Either I will demur and tell them that their fundamentals aren’t where they need…
“Lads, you’re not to miss practice unless you died or your parents died.”
I chuckle every time I see this quote by Notre Dame coaching legend Frank Leahy. He was the head coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from 1941 to 1943 and from 1946 to 1953. He missed the 1944 and 1945 seasons due to serving…
Coming Up For Air
Dang! I’ve gone too long without writing a post! I’ve been buried in more work than usual over the last few months, juggling work across three municipalities. The summer months were especially intense. Things have slowly been returning to some normalcy – only a year…
A Small Step Forward!
The other day, I tested my right shoulder with a brief carenza with a pair of kamagong sticks. It turned out surprisingly well and represents a small step forward for me. First, what is “carenza” in Filipino Martial Arts? A short answer is that it…
“Back To Old School Garage Training!”
That was the delighted reaction of one of my private clients last week. I had offered him the option of training in my garage or at the ABS Training Centre, the usual location for our sessions. He chose the former. It’s a great change of…
Making It Stick: Video Homework Assignments
One of the more interesting teaching ideas I’ve encountered is video homework assignments for students. Specifically, the idea is to video private lessons and upload them to Google Drive for them to watch and analyze. The inspiration for this idea comes from Maija Soderholm, one…
Private Lessons and Big Data: Turning Sticks into Trendlines!
Before discussing my data experiment, I apologize for the month-long radio silence due to being (a) buried in work and (b) having a family get-together. That said, I’m happy to blog again! After a private lesson with Rosh, the owner of ABS Training Centre, we…
A Great Opportunity
A “Great Opportunity” is how I view my current right shoulder situation. To begin with, my right shoulder issues have gotten worse since October. There have been peaks and valleys with the pain in the front of the shoulder. Some days have been better than…
Musashi and Arnis
Below is a terrific video about Muhammad Ali and the famed swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. The video draws upon Musashi’s famous book, “Book of Five Rings.” For me, it’s interesting to see Musashi’s martial philosophy through the prism of Modern Arnis. One would be wise to…
Practicing With My Left Hand
I like to do a fair bit of solo training with both the right and left hands. Unfortunately, my right shoulder’s condition is such that I haven’t done much solo training with that side. In other words, I generally save my right shoulder for the…
