Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Brewer
I'm sure you and I share similar views about anything that claims to be "non-attribute based." That's a sales pitch, plain and simple.
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To a large extent yes Mike, but to a certain extent no (and I'm talking in general terms now, away from SBG and crazy monkey).
I think it depends whether you are positioning your instruction as Combat Athletics, Self Protection, or just Recreational martial arts:
Anyone trying to sell Combat Athletics as non-attribute based is kidding themselves and their students, I fully agree. Recreational martial arts, if that is how you honestly position it to your students, can be sold on the basis that as long as they are having fun and getting a workout then don't worry how it turns out. Some people just want to bash pads and swing sticks, and couldn't care if in a technical, attribute or combat sense it means zero.
For me the most difficult, and also the most dangerous fine line, is Self Protection. If you read pretty much all of my posts on SP across this board, you will see that I always say that good self protection starts with being in shape and having a strong level of attributes (physical, mental and emotional). I do believe that to be the case for the majority, and have no time for all the magic tricks and short cuts people try to sell. However, I always give that agenda because I know that many of the people on here, especially the guys I am talking to in this thread, are experienced athletes and fighters from one arena or another.
The difficulty in SP is when you try to teach someone like my Mum. She is a small, slight lady in her late 50's with pretty much no fitness or athletic background at all. She works as a nurse in wards where sometimes things can get scary. When she asked to teach her some SP, I just knew that 99% of what I can do she never could, not to any real level of use. So what I taught her had to be, and was, non-attribute based. I simply had to work with what I had knowing my Mum was never going have a solid base of attributes for me to work with. So having gone through that experience, and doing the best I could with some specific concepts in my toolbox, I do believe it can exist.
Now some people would say "well I just think thats a waste of time, a small woman in her late 50's whats the point, it will never work". Well what the hell is the point of martial arts then if we can't teach someone like my Mum? She needs it a damn sight more than I do.