My students seem to be doing okay, they come from bad areas, are sort of mentally tough
and honest to a fault. the types who would tell you they couldn't get it up with their last
'almost-conquest the night before. can't say i need all the honesty they give--to be honest.
but i had to analyse why they were doing well in some of their pressure tests, that seem to
happen at a greater frequency then the rest of us.
trying to be objective i thought some of their successes might be due to:
-being able to fight already
-lying
-leaving out the 7 times they were thrashed on other occasions
-they were fighting children and the elderly
-they had some strategies that protected their egos
-they had good training
-they weren't going for the sports win--where all is black and white and weren't playing by sports rules
-etc. etc. etc.
after seeing some of the shite they've gotten up to in school, hearing some corroborated laughter and
accounting for from their friends--who seem to be around alot after school hours, knowing some of their
troubles through the co-working of the legal system [head cases, some of them]...i feel i can seperate
fact from fiction to enough of a degree where it's more or less an accurate assessment.
most of them weren't bad at fighting to begin with--and therefore weren't hard to reach for fight psychology.
what was missing was their success rates, not their willingness to engage. their egos were on the fence, in that
last fork in the roads between possibly being able to build up, or break down, from their mixed successes and
failures. they had rough families in the legal systems--most, and have been naturalized [largely] to regular
showings of violence if not from their own family, then from some of the characters in their collective neighborhoods.
one is bipolar and ready to go off in spite of his middle class background. another is the son of a politician, and
doesn't fit any of criteria most everyone else fits--upper class, that one.
having said all that--as a way of keeping it honest and not too self congratulatory, what i've done right [largely
with the help of some personal failures of my own and with some sound advice from Richie's many threads,
either directly or by inference] is:
-not overly stressing a win psychology, but rather a commitment to injure [the 'strong-showing']
-starting their game plan where the sports world would have them banned [joints; targets that shut down the fighter]
-emphasizing pre'emptive strategies, forward drive, and sticking [no room for counters]
-training the shite out of them, burning away their bad habits and dreadful pacing habits
-keeping the training almost a chimera of a real fight--short and exhausting, and angrily intensewhat was made easy for me was their gullible and trusting nature--they didn't doubt what i fed them [lucky for me
it was the truth, and i didn't have to pay in their broken down bodies].
one even had their brother who got out of prison approve of the strategies he was bringing home. the brother demonstrated
as such in an intense pressure test that came out of his return [i just couldn't make this stuff up...i've got all the head cases].
i feel as though i started this fun assignment thinking i was training novices, only to find that i was really tweeking the future
tough nuts and rough necks in their early stages. what i try and continually contribute, now that i'm not so in the dark to their backgrounds and realities, is the ability to discriminate who's entitled to the [with more on the horizon to be sure] beatings that have taken place since they started training with me. several have taken some time to reach--one of the best students is in constant danger of becoming a part of the judicial system, being kicked out of school, and possibly being a statistic at some point if he isn't careful, another really is a diamond in the rough, who seems to want it and want more for himself. he's the personality i think about when i imagine keeping that balance between giving all my energies to these young guys, and investing in them to some degree.
the winning psychology that one should take into a fight, and the winning big picture psychology that inclines one to leave said fight after--emotionally as well as physically.i'm growing as a result of seeing some of these perfect tabula rasas. their collective advancements and problems are so much on their metaphorical sleeves that the lessons to myself and them are almost daily. it's a very literal and real world they live in. one of them was telling me of multiples that invariably mean powerlessness and being robbed. he laughed about outrunning a group--that he was aware of, following his movements...ending up on a bus and cheekily smiling out of the back
window as the bus moved away from the group that was about to rob&roll him. he readily tells me of times his property was stolen, without much ego. and of times he's been nailed and not felt he could effectively do anything about it. he's been growing in maturity and fighting ability since i've met him.
never thought teaching would be like this. i think i like it more than i imagined i would. occasionally things get out of control and light lessons come out of it, that would not be a part of a softer group.
okay, finished rambling. but this was the place for the subject matter. i'm actually quite quiet about it elsewhere, hard to believe i bet
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Don't wait for it to happen...make it happen.
Subject: The TIGHT ROPE WALK 
Fri Oct 23, 2009 1:05 am
