Hi Christian,
Do you have your classes set up in such a way where everyone gets to work with a different person every five or ten minutes? In other words are the students rotated and forced to work with other people in the class that have different heights and weights? I ask this question because over the years I have seen in some schools where students tend to find a favorite person to work with and that becomes the only person they are willing to work with. I hope I am making sense. I personally will not attend a school where this is the constant.
Bob Henry,
Christian will be able to explain it better, but I'll give it a shot...
The simple answer is, "yes". We are often rotated and get to work
technique on different people of different body-types.
The actual answer is a bit more dynamic and involves what I think
correlates directly to the SBG "I" method (though I could be
misinterpreting it).
For the "Introduction" stage (of a new technique), Christian will
show the technique to be covered and then we will pair up with a
partner and work the technique against little resistance to allow us
to understand the proper form, intricacies and body movement
necessary to properly execute the technique. This stage doesn't
take much time as the energy our partner is giving us isn't
changing much differently from start to end.
We then work the technique in the "Isolation" stage where our
partner gives us progressive resistanace by way of increasing and
altering their reaction(s) to our own movements. The goal is to still
execute the same technique, but it's quickly discovered that the
intricacies and alterations of our own body movements (or setups)
need to be more dynamic and flow with what our partner is
"feeding" us. In my opinion, this is where actual "understanding"
of the technique happens and is also where Christian will have us
rotate and apply the technique against different partners, who by
simply being different, feed us different kinds of energy for us to
work with/against.
Also during the Isolation stage, Christian will introduce different
drills, specific to the new technique, and we do these drills
dynamically, but always have that specific "goal" in mind (whether
it be a sweep, sub, etc), and "look" to execute that "goal".
Sometime though, depending on the energy our partner is feeding
us, we'll find that that "goal" isn't the most practical for the given
situation (fighting being a dynamic thing) and we'll have to alter
our "goal" to something different.
For example: if the technique to be worked is the "neck tie" and I
(being 5'6") am rotated in with a partner who is 6'3", I'll still
threaten to get the "neck tie", but it might make more sense for
me to "finish" with a body lock or by attacking the legs, so I'll do
that too... ( do others consider this cheating? :p )
During the "Integration" stage, you'll get to rotate with as many
people as you have the stamina to work with including Christian
who never seems to get tired...
Personally I've found that working this way has allow me to not
only get the benefits of working techniques against different body
types, but also has allow me to better understand what techniques
to use (or not use) against those different body types...
something I'm sure Mr. Thornton knew all too well when
developing the "I" method in the first place.
Hmm, I though I'd be able to keep this post short. I think an
answer is in there somewhere.
-e
nice post Erik!
i'll only add that in the introduction stage i feel its best whenever possible to pair people up according to their physical compatablity in order to understand the mechanics of the 'standard' technique.
then as we move onto the isolation & integration stage, like Erik said, you need will get a chance to work the tech against partners of varying size, experience, and intensity levels. this will teach you where and when to make the proper adjustments to functionalize the sub/sweep/escape, etc. against all different opponents. that responsibility is always left up to the individual athlete. to make the technique work for you. its only my job to provide a safe and proper environment conducive for that type of growth.
but what a cool job it is =p ...
Just wanted to throw a quick shout to the guys at SBG-NYC and thank them for letting me train with them last Wed. Though I only spent a day with them, I felt very much at home training with them, and certainly felt it time EXTREMELY well spent. Christian is a great instructor, and does as good a job as any in relaying important concepts to his students. Thanks again guys!