Scotts RMAX movie trailer on multiple attackers

[James Lee]

I just pulled this offa Scott's forum. https://www.circularstrengthmag.com/...orktrailer.mov

[doubleouch]

James,
It's hard to tell much from the clip since he is working with compliant partners. The techniques look fairly hard to pull off to my eye. Some look darn near impossible. I'd like to see some work against resisting partners. I understand this may be his "soft work", but I don't think many of the techniques that he shows here would ever work in a real live situation. I'm sure someone here will tell me that I'm wrong, but the grabbing and fliping and spinning one guy while the other attacker waits his turn doesn't look right. If you look closely it looks like more than one attacker is attacking at the same time, but it doesn't happen. Maybie it's just for promotion.I won't judge by the video however since it is a promotional. Real techniques that work often aren't very flashy and don't look holywood enough for video.

[James Lee]

Maybe you should ask him or the guys from the seminar on his forum about it since there were also SBG guys there. He certainly seems like a no BS guy.

[JasonE]

James,
It's hard to tell much from the clip since he is working with compliant partners. The techniques look fairly hard to pull off to my eye. Some look darn near impossible. I'd like to see some work against resisting partners. I understand this may be his "soft work", but I don't think many of the techniques that he shows here would ever work in a real live situation. I'm sure someone here will tell me that I'm wrong, but the grabbing and fliping and spinning one guy while the other attacker waits his turn doesn't look right. If you look closely it looks like more than one attacker is attacking at the same time, but it doesn't happen. Maybie it's just for promotion.I won't judge by the video however since it is a promotional. Real techniques that work often aren't very flashy and don't look holywood enough for video.

This is the reason why many of us that attended told Scott that we thought it might be a mistake to release a video. If I hadn't been there, I'd be thinking "what the hell is this?" and wondering what's really going on. It looks kinda "out there" but it's actually pretty simple once you grasp the concept. That said, I think Softwork is something that needs to be felt before most people will truly "get it".

Scott never demonstrated any techniques at the Softwork seminar. He specifically refused to do so, actually. What he did demonstrate over and over is FLOW.

The video clip shows what sensitivity and movement can do when you stop looking for openings and simply FLOW with your partner(s). At lower levels, Softwork is all about moving with your partner, being relaxed and fluid in your movements, and spontaneously flowing with whatever happens. In essence, it's about working WITH your partner instead of against them.

More importantly, anyone willing to open their minds and explore their movement without worrying about "winning" can replicate the kinds of things Scott does in his demos. Heck, I was doing stuff I'd only seen in anime and comic books... crazy stuff, really. Crazy and yet somehow effortless if I just let it happen.

Working against a resistant opponent is what Scott calls Hardwork. Hardwork is a competitive, kick-your-ass approach to practice, what most schools call "sparring" or "rolling".

The idea is that by training with Softwork methods as well as Hardwork methods, a martial artist can accelerate their technical progress and effective efficiency without having to go hard all the time. As they improve, it becomes more and more difficult to differentiate between their Hardwork and Softwork, as they will have merged the best aspects of both into a personal style that is ultimately best suited for them.

In 13 years of training in a variety of "hard" and "soft" styles, the Softwork seminar was the first time I found a way to train that would allow me to use everything I knew in a completely integrated way. It was a great experience that has given me some great new insights into what I have done and what I will now need to do. I'm looking forward to getting a copy of the DVD so I can visually review what we did, mentally recapture the moment, and hopefully see how the hell I pulled off some of the crazy stuff.