Three principles of good practice
Rafe, Saturday 01 December 2007 - 08:03:37
Playful, Methodical, and Fundamental. I believe these three principles are the basis of an effective long term training practice whether it is for Methode Naturelle, Parkour, Martial arts, or really most any discipline of human movement. Why these three things? Well first let us say that play is the most natural human method of developing the body. Play is a universal among higher animals, it hones the bodies attributes and capacities. Specific animals play in very specific ways because those types of play have proven effective over evolutionary time in developing the abilities that allowed that species to survive. We would be foolish to forget this evolutionary history. On top of that there is the simple matter of happiness. I think one could postulate that the pursuit of happiness is one of the core goals of a human being, generally if it does not make you happy you will lose motivation to do it. Play is fun by definition, and having fun makes you happy. So for example, lately in training people I have been trying to use games that develop the capacities I am looking for, whether it be tag, or sharks and minnows, or capture the flag. There's lots of ways to make space for playfulness in our training which will not only make it more fun but also more effective.
A dedicated training practice needs to be methodical too. Play will get you much farther then you might think, but to progress truly far in any discipline requires developing a taste for working hard with in it, being committed to it both physical and mentally, and approaching it with a plan. In this sense you're not just doing your practice because of the joy it brings in the moment but because it gives you a long term sense of accomplishment and self, it's worthwhile to you behind being just play, it's something you are willing to work on. Work can be a dirty word in our culture but the distinction between work, play and even art is much less distinct in many traditional cultures. Play is often seen as the work of children, and adults are expected to get the same joy out of their work. So yes, work on what you love to do, even when it is hard, even when you're sore, and when it's cold and wet. In the long run this brings you a deeper level of joy and happiness than just focusing on the now. In my practice I see the methodical element in things like forcing myself to keep a high pace while chaining movements, in setting up courses and starting to time myself over them, in going into my martial arts school and drilling the core movements whenever I can, even if can't get into a class or get any sparring in.
Finally it should be fundamental. Which is to say it should have a primary focus and goal and the training should be aimed to achieve that goal and the practitioner should often ask how well they are going about achieving that goal. For instance in parkour I see many people who are very proficient at many movements and can do many wonderful and technical things on a single obstacle, but when asked to run through a course of more then a handful of obstacles, they lose there wind, their co-ordination, and their technique. To me the core of parkour is the ability to move continuously through your environment, overcoming obstacles in the most effective way as you approach them. Some traceurs talk about training inefficiently to become efficient. I say sure this can be good part of the playful side of your training, but if you're not making the practice of efficient movement through your environment a regular part of your training to me you're not really doing parkour. It's sort of like saying you're playing basketball to improve at football. I feel the same way about martial arts; the core of martial arts to me is the capacity of defense. If you are not regularly engaging in training that challenges you to defend yourself in an alive way (see Matt Thornton's blog), then you are not really training martial arts, you are training martial art inspired movement. I am not saying the martial artist should seek out street fights, but if you have never faced an opponent who is actually trying to hit you, ask yourself what chance you will have of applying your skills when the context becomes alive.
In MN the goal is to develop the complete original movement capacities of the human being, so both of the above examples are elements you must seek in a real MN practice, and beyond that you must be able to lift carry and throw and do all these things in a chain and even mixed together. The way you train these things to should reflect your goals, so your lifting training is not just to be able to lift barbells, though this is good training. To train lifting in a fundamental way as a capacity one needs to lift a wide variety of the types of things one might need to lift in life, things that are not so conveniently balanced or easy to grip as a barbell or dumbbell or kettlebell. Things like uneven rough rocks, mossy logs, sandbags, other human beings, furniture, dragging things by ropes, or pushing things along the ground. One could go through all ten capacities and show examples of the type of training that arises from applying the concept of fundamental training to the guiding principles of MN, but I think the above examples are sufficient to understand the concept.
So if you're interested in MN, or are doing parkour, or martial arts, or tricking, take a second to ask yourself why am I training, what are my goals, am I training in a way that is playful and enjoyable, is it sufficiently methodical and basic, and am I really training for the capacity I actually want to develop.
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Rafe, Saturday 01 December 2007 - 08:03:37
Playful, Methodical, and Fundamental. I believe these three principles are the basis of an effective long term training practice whether it is for Methode Naturelle, Parkour, Martial arts, or really most any discipline of human movement. Why these three things? Well first let us say that play is the most natural human method of developing the body. Play is a universal among higher animals, it hones the bodies attributes and capacities. Specific animals play in very specific ways because those types of play have proven effective over evolutionary time in developing the abilities that allowed that species to survive. We would be foolish to forget this evolutionary history. On top of that there is the simple matter of happiness. I think one could postulate that the pursuit of happiness is one of the core goals of a human being, generally if it does not make you happy you will lose motivation to do it. Play is fun by definition, and having fun makes you happy. So for example, lately in training people I have been trying to use games that develop the capacities I am looking for, whether it be tag, or sharks and minnows, or capture the flag. There's lots of ways to make space for playfulness in our training which will not only make it more fun but also more effective.
A dedicated training practice needs to be methodical too. Play will get you much farther then you might think, but to progress truly far in any discipline requires developing a taste for working hard with in it, being committed to it both physical and mentally, and approaching it with a plan. In this sense you're not just doing your practice because of the joy it brings in the moment but because it gives you a long term sense of accomplishment and self, it's worthwhile to you behind being just play, it's something you are willing to work on. Work can be a dirty word in our culture but the distinction between work, play and even art is much less distinct in many traditional cultures. Play is often seen as the work of children, and adults are expected to get the same joy out of their work. So yes, work on what you love to do, even when it is hard, even when you're sore, and when it's cold and wet. In the long run this brings you a deeper level of joy and happiness than just focusing on the now. In my practice I see the methodical element in things like forcing myself to keep a high pace while chaining movements, in setting up courses and starting to time myself over them, in going into my martial arts school and drilling the core movements whenever I can, even if can't get into a class or get any sparring in.
Finally it should be fundamental. Which is to say it should have a primary focus and goal and the training should be aimed to achieve that goal and the practitioner should often ask how well they are going about achieving that goal. For instance in parkour I see many people who are very proficient at many movements and can do many wonderful and technical things on a single obstacle, but when asked to run through a course of more then a handful of obstacles, they lose there wind, their co-ordination, and their technique. To me the core of parkour is the ability to move continuously through your environment, overcoming obstacles in the most effective way as you approach them. Some traceurs talk about training inefficiently to become efficient. I say sure this can be good part of the playful side of your training, but if you're not making the practice of efficient movement through your environment a regular part of your training to me you're not really doing parkour. It's sort of like saying you're playing basketball to improve at football. I feel the same way about martial arts; the core of martial arts to me is the capacity of defense. If you are not regularly engaging in training that challenges you to defend yourself in an alive way (see Matt Thornton's blog), then you are not really training martial arts, you are training martial art inspired movement. I am not saying the martial artist should seek out street fights, but if you have never faced an opponent who is actually trying to hit you, ask yourself what chance you will have of applying your skills when the context becomes alive.
In MN the goal is to develop the complete original movement capacities of the human being, so both of the above examples are elements you must seek in a real MN practice, and beyond that you must be able to lift carry and throw and do all these things in a chain and even mixed together. The way you train these things to should reflect your goals, so your lifting training is not just to be able to lift barbells, though this is good training. To train lifting in a fundamental way as a capacity one needs to lift a wide variety of the types of things one might need to lift in life, things that are not so conveniently balanced or easy to grip as a barbell or dumbbell or kettlebell. Things like uneven rough rocks, mossy logs, sandbags, other human beings, furniture, dragging things by ropes, or pushing things along the ground. One could go through all ten capacities and show examples of the type of training that arises from applying the concept of fundamental training to the guiding principles of MN, but I think the above examples are sufficient to understand the concept.
So if you're interested in MN, or are doing parkour, or martial arts, or tricking, take a second to ask yourself why am I training, what are my goals, am I training in a way that is playful and enjoyable, is it sufficiently methodical and basic, and am I really training for the capacity I actually want to develop.
this content item is from Parkour North America
( http://parkournorthamerica.com/plugins/content/content.php?content.23 )