…..In a living martial system there is no way to keep up with the training unless you train with the founder/head of system or one of his designated instructors.  First off what do I mean by living?  Well the idea is that the system while having certain fundamentals and elements and principles that it applies continues to grow as the leaders in the system explore those principles and create and innovate!  What this basically means is that the system is not stagnate and that if you trained in it at one time and came back then walla there would be a lot of new material to cover and catch up on!  So a living martial system continues to grow.  Now if you are a practitioner and have been around for a while to ingrain the basic fundamental skill sets then you can of course explore too!  That is the beauty of a living system in that no one is restricted and everyone can innovate.  As an instructor my greatest moments are when a practitioner comes to me and says look at this and walla they show some thing that is a variation off what we do.  At that point they are giving back to the system and growing up.  As the founder of Instinctive Response Training I am constantly playing with the principles, elements of control and the basic fundamental skill sets.  A tweak here and a tweak there some times brings forth some great creative expression.  I am not the same practitioner from just two years ago and very, very different from ten or twenty years ago.  I am always looking to create, innovate and change.  You see I believe that change is a good thing!  Through strife and change great things can be accomplished.  So in a living martial system change is embraced!  That is an essential element.  Now to stay current in a living martial system you will need to train with the founder if they are alive and also their designated instructors in the system.  That way you can keep up with the new innovations and also learn the root or core fundamental skill sets that the system employs to achieve their goal.  This connection is important!   Recently I had a practitioner come over for a private lesson.  This practitioner had some life changes and really has not been actively training with me for a few years.  However to his credit he maintained the fundamental skill sets pretty well and it was like we had been training yesterday.  However it was apparent quickly that he needed to learn quite a bit as the system and I had improved, changed and innovated in those two years.  Yet because he had kept his skills somewhat intact we picked up where we had left off and began the teaching to catch him up!  He came to the source of Instinctive Response Training (ie. me) and we took his skill set to a new level and understanding.  Now do to the distance that he lives we will only be training once in a while and also when he comes to Vegas a couple of times a year.  In the mean time he is sufficiently skilled that he can train on his own and if he has the time visit Gary Haffey here in the great North of Alma!  Leo Gaje of Pekiti Tirsia for years has not written a book on his system.  Now in truth we would all love that system to have a definitive book or piece of work that could be used as an excellent reference point.  However on many occasions this Grandmaster has said that he is the book or the bible of Pekiti Tirsia!  So in his system if you want to stay current you need to train with him!  In other systems or styles it is no different.  If you want to stay current in the Bujinkan and you study Budo Taijutsu the system of Soke Hatsumi then you need to go to Japan and train with him or if you cannot then train directly with people who just trained in Japan!   I can remember “The Professor” Remy Amador Presas the founder of Modern Arnis.  If you wished to stay current with his teachings then you needed to continue to train with him because he was constantly growing and innovating.  His older students who stopped certainly missed out on the later additions.  The older students who continued to train and grow typically had the best fundamentals as well as the latest innovations that the Professor came up with.   So in a living system you need to go to the source!  Train directly with the people who are closest to the founder/leader etc.  That way you can stay current!

See You On The Mats!

copyright Instinctive Response Training LLC 2009

Brian R. VanCise

Note: This Blog is opinion only and Instinctive Response Training LLC nor Brian R. VanCise is responsible for any third party actions taken.

Visit Us At:Instinctive Response Training