Began December 2021. Modified often.
Price: Free
This is for growth, learning, play, and connection. Not a money-making endeavor.
New Location
“Central Park” at 38th & Lamar. Message me for exact location. We meet in my apartment. Back door opens into the park.
Calendar: Next sessions
If I don’t have other plans, I’m usually up for doing some training. Some ideas: Saturdays at 10am. Weekdays after 5pm.
Please always RSVP and be your word with timing.
– And – with a day or two notice, there is a potential to meet any day/time you want. All it takes is one person wanting to train. Goal is to eventually have training 3 or more days a week!
Check here often as schedules are likely to change.
We prioritize safety
Especially in our Stage 1 training (see below), the activities we train will safely increase flexibility, reflexes, confidence, healthy aggression, and reverse the “sissification” most of us may be experiencing with our inner strength, healthy aggression, and drive. That said, there are never guarantees of not getting injured.
The instructor has over 20 years of varied martial arts training, primarily Shotokan Karate, Shaolin Kung fu, Jeet Kun Do, and some more brutal garage fighting. That said, he (me) has the attitude of a nurturer and perpetual student while being at ease teaching. He is 55 years old, not buff or in extraordinary shape, a nurturer at heart. “I have nothing to prove. Nor do I enjoy hurting people.” Being careless for the safety of your fellow students will result in immediate uninvite. Finally, we are not woke or coddlers of feelings here; we do not care about your gender or skin color. Unless you are purple. I discriminate against purple people.
18-65 are welcome. Happy to make exceptions if parents are present! I’m at ease personalizing every part of the training, no matter how many students show up.
IMPORTANT: SHOW UP ON TIME and leave when you want. So you can start out doing a 20 minute workout and leave. Maybe the next time you do 25 and slowly build up. Not my style to push much.
Goals
Stage 1
Our goals include getting in better shape, improving reflexes, learning self-defense (and offense) skills, and really just get better at fighting should we find ourselves in a situation where we can not avoid engaging in violence.
Phase 1 (first few lessons) is to learn and practice various movements and improve balance. No sparring, unless you have previous experience.
Phase 2 is where we begin light, slow sparring. Your instructor’s range is from playful to intense, depending on your level and preferences.
For those who enjoy the sparring, you are encouraged to incorporate more protective gear as we progress but while it is recommended, gear is not strictly necessary… yet. After warmup, stretching, learning new techniques, and drills, we will do light sparring, adapting to student levels and preferences. See “Gear & Sparring” section below.
Stage 2 (some of us are now doing this)
Increasing use of protective gear so that we can explore more realistic, higher impact, and challenging situations. Depending on interest, we may split the classes into “easy days” and “hard days” or divide each session into high safety and then “higher intensity” for those who want to stay late and amp up the realism. See bottom of this page for more.
Update: A few of us are now wearing headgear and body armor. Loving it!
Required: integrity, awareness, and mental flexibility
By attending, you promise to see your sparring “opponents” as partners who you want to inspire to be safe with you. Even at the risk of slowing down your own progression. You promise to “spar down” to barely just above their level. Overly aggressive and careless participants will not be allowed back.
You promise to arrive on time, free to leave any time you wish with no excuse needed.
Finally, you promise and waive any rights to sue or otherwise hold responsible any participant, instructor, or land owner for any injuries incurred at or from the activities you choose to participate in with any instructors or participants at these events. We are just friends working out together.
That all said, the most valuable contribution you can make is to show up when you can and give it your best! Spreading the word is nice, too 🙂
What exercises do we do?
We stretch after some warmup and usually at the end of class.
Basic and easy to do blocks, punches, kicks, and other strikes based on Shotokan karate, Shaolin Kung Fu, and Jeet Kun Do. We may do some short form (kata) work and many drills.
Gear & Sparring
We spar with mouth pieces and bag gloves at the minimum, exception for beginners doing only light sparring with the instructor. Something I ordered that appears to be a good balance between protection, weight, and movement impedance is this torso armor. With that armor, you may need to adjust the size to western world sizes. For example, I’m slim-medium and 5’9″ and the “L” size of this armor fits me perfectly. Low price ($43) but long delivery time. Other protective gear you are welcome to wear include shin guards, groin protection, head protection, mana shield, etc.
Right now, the attendees are mostly beginners. We take it easy on each other while sparring. We focus on relaxation and breathing. For now, we mostly use our highest intensity in the drills.
That said, people who want to mix it up harder are welcome to stay late and/or come to different days.
What is coming?
I want to add in tactical and strategic study and training. In this area I consider myself “good but not good enough yet to teach,” curious, and having natural ability. Constantly researching and using various tools for the self-training but want to expand into doing more practice with others eager to improve our ability to think fast in stressful situations and make smart decisions about where and when we take what actions.
Given the usefulness of ground work (wrestling, jiu jitsu, etc), I invite people more experienced in that form of fighting to train us in that. Oh and I can teach some sword, staff, and spear if enough demand.
Actively reaching out to various practitioners of other related skills, as well as past fellow teachers, especially ones who know more than I do. For example, Marines, Rangers, Seals, Special Forces, Jiu Jitsu pros, small and medium arms experts, etc.
Big picture future goal
Build a large and varied enough group where pros in each area, (1) hand-to-hand; (2) ground work; (3) tactical-strategic; (4) small arms; etc., become “leads” or whatever term to designate they run that “department” (by then we’ll come up with a more cool sounding word, heh). Autonomy, integrity, awareness, and flexibility are important for this role.
How do I join?
Send an email through the contact form on this site or even better, find me on Telegram as @scottermonkey. Because I value efficiency, I prefer that all members use Telegram so there is one post I need to make to speak of changes to the schedule, get RSVPs, and hear your opinions, gripes, etc.
Share what your availability is and we will see if you can fit into one of the current “class” days/times or if there is space on my calendar to set up another day. I’d love to do this many days a week!
Want to create something like this in your area?
If you want help creating something like this, from marketing to the actual practice, tap me as a resource.
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