Teaching and Creativity

Teaching and coaching are creative activities. We often talk about the art and science of coaching the physical arts but then we always bias ourselves towards the science. Why is that? Is it more important? I’m not sure it is. I’m not even sure it’s more important than the art even for reaching our desired outcomes.

I’d like to change that in my own simple way.

I appreciate the science but I absolutely love the art, the act of creating and designing a physical practice for a student completely lights me up. Talking about the Krebs Cycle… not so much.

This is where my passion lies, the joy of enhancing the dance of human movement through life or athletic activities.

Too much science equals too much mechanic and not enough bio.

When we focus too much on the science we lock ourselves into dogmatic approaches, drudgery and other artificial methods that are completely disconnected from the dance, the game, the roll. A creative coach, A Physical Creative however, will look at the same movements and see it with different eyes, the eyes of an artist.

If you’d like to experience this approach in person please check out our Physical Creative Live Workshops.

The Simplicity and Unity of Play

What is it that we’re doing here at The Physical Creative ?

We use physical practices that are simple, enjoyable and repeatable. We design play-based activities that encourage physical freedom, creativity and vitality. And because we are artist, Physical Creatives, we are not bound by any one discipline or way. We use, we steal and repurpose ideas, tools and resources from the old ways. We cultivate a way that is adaptive and alive to create a beautifully moving human.

In this video we use nothing more than a yoga block and a medicine ball. It could be any ball and any block.

I call these live workshops “Play Craft” as there is a deep physical creativity, utility and artistry in this approach and practice.

If you’d like to be notified when I start running these live workshops in person again please join my newsletter below.

The Physical Art of Creativity & Joy

Should we try to teach absolutely every movement and then coach it ? Or should we allow the student the joy of discovery through exploring their own movements and capabilities ? There’s a real worry about them getting it wrong. My thought on that is …” What is wrong ? ”

There must be spontaneity, a joy and anticipation in movement, a true sense of discovery of skill and training, not a programmed robotic approach.

We’re too mechanical and not enough bio.

It’s been my experience working with students and athletes at all levels, in a wide variety of settings and contexts, that people will find their own best way of doing something if they are put into a position where they have to adapt.

Each student/athlete has their own unique movement signature. It is their stamp, their personal interpretation of the skill. They are very adaptable. We need to encourage this approach, much like the art of improv. That’s exactly our approach in our Play Craft | Physical Creative Workshops.

I’ve written a few post on this here:

Adapted or Adaptable

Adapted or Adaptable Part 2

How to Get Smashed & Keep Smiling

Thoughts on the Mountain.

This weekend I went to spend some time in the mountains of my home town. They were calling and I needed to go. I also longed for the cold fresh water of the local creeks. While sauntering next to one of those creeks I had a few thoughts I’d like to share with you:

• I’d have to say that the mountains have had the greatest impact on the way I behave. More than any one person or thing.

• The lessons you learn from the mountains. The relationship you have with them covers so many things. The harmony of being in them, with them. Sauntering through them is an act of harmony and reverence.

• You do not conquer mountains. You have the fortune to be with them for a moment.

As for my physical practice, and my creation of a physical space , I’m reminded of this highlight from many moons ago.

Perhaps one day my friend.

Adapted or Adaptable? Part 2.

“I’m convinced that the combination of martial arts, gymnastics and dance will create super-fitness and movement skills and I will work diligently to create a world-wide tribe of Physical Creatives that teach and spread such wonderful practices.”

— Jason C. Brown

In a recent blog post about being “Adaptable versus Adapted” I shared a video of a few professional MMA athletes. In the video, these professional fighters show off their rolling and floor-work skills.

It’s a beautiful display of being adaptable.

And there’s no doubt that their martial-arts training helps develop the floor skills and vice-versa.

I’d like to highlight another professional MMA Athlete, Michael “Venom” Page demonstrating his willingness to explore and practice other art forms like gymnastics and Parkour.

It’s a pretty crazy video. Enjoy.

Two Simple Concepts I use for Skill & Strength.

Two Simple Concepts I use for Skill & Strength for Martial Artists. (But it works for everyone.)

I learned these from Russian researcher, Vladimir M Zatsiorsky, who was very influential in the strength and conditioning fields.

““Get as strong as possible while staying as light as possible. “ ”

— Vladimir M. Zatsiorsky

This is a very important approach for anyone that competes in a sport or activity that has weight-classes. It’s also very important for anyone that wants to master their own bodyweight and self-expression through dance, gymnastics or parkour, activities where external load isn’t a huge factor.

The second concept is wonderful for any type of skill that you'd like to develop, not just martial arts.

““Train as often as possible while staying as fresh as possible. “ ”

— Vladimir M. Zatsiorsky

If you were to apply this approach to any skill you’d like to develop you would do quite well.

How I Like to Experience Music

A friend recently asked me which one I prefer, to play or listen to music more? And my answer was “ feel.”

I wasn’t trying to be witty or deep. That answer sort of just came out of no-where. But I honestly think it’s the correct answer. Whether we’re playing or listening, I believe feel is the most important and relevant aspect.

And it’s strange, you rarely see “feel” talked about in the fields of physical education and movement.

There’s a very useful term in Jiu-Jitsu, “Think Less- Feel More.” I think we could use that approach for all areas of our physical practice and expression.

I wrote something similar almost 6 years ago: “The Body is a Musical Instrument.” Crazy how time flies.

After writing this post I stumbled across this beautiful observation.

““For me, beauty is a physical sensation, something we feel with our whole body. It is not the result of judgement. We do not arrive at it by way of rules. We either feel beauty or we don’t.””

— Jorge Luis Borges

The Art of Work is Messy.

As I meander through this creative career I’m building, that of a physical creative, I’ve come to realize a few things. This applies to all of us:

• My ideas will have critics, haters and trolls. My inner warrior-artist loves a good fight but I must do a better job of ignoring these folks.

• Many of my creative pursuits will go unfinished.

• Much of my best work will simply be the creative combination of old ideas. Or approaching old ideas in a new light. As a mentor of mine Frank Forencich says in his tagline, “Teaching Movement in an Old New Way. “

• I love the art of curation. I’ve always been a curator. Curation may be my greatest gift to you. I’ll do my best.

And finally, something that I’d like to share that isn’t very tangible, sort of untouchable actually but very important none-the-less. It’s our work between our work that makes us the most effective and creative. It’s our curiosity, our study, our desire to learn new things and our ability to wander and wonder. I like to call this The art between our art. Never stop exploring my friend.

One Huge Lesson I learned from Rose Namajunas

“Be Regular and Ordinary in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Rose Namajunas is an American Professional Mixed Martial Artist and two time UFC Strawweight champion. Besides being inspired by her incredible skillset and spirit, I recently learned why she shaves her head. And quite honestly, it’s a beautiful lesson for anyone that wants to study, practice and learn deeply.

If you’d like more lessons on the daily pursuit of art and expression, I think you’d like this book: Steal Like an Artist- By Austin Kleon.

Adapted or Adaptable?

Are you stuck? Physically unable to move forward and adapt to new training stimuli?

Maybe it’s a mental/emotional issue? Everything is all very well connected. As my mentor Frank Forencich once told me “There’s no such thing as physical fitness.”

Now Frank was simply stating that the entire person must be healthy not just their physical selves and how fitness in one area carries-over and influences the others.

I’ve been there and I see it with my sons right now. They possess the physical skills to take on new tasks quite well, but maybe they’re worried about the bigger kids in the room? Or maybe they’re afraid of failure? But at times they are very reluctant to try out new things and it has nothing to do with their physical abilities.

This is a very broad topic that we’ll be talking more about as we travel along our paths together. But today I’d like to talk with you specifically about being physically adaptable as opposed to adapted or a one-trick pony.

What do you prefer? 

A body that learns new things easily? A body that responds well to new stresses and challenges or a fixed, rigid body that can only complete one very specialized skill?

I’ll take the former thank you.

Let’s examine 2 videos.

The first video is The American Top Team, a group of professional martial artists in Florida. One of the best mixed martial art teams in the world.

Let’s look at their bodies, strong, lean, flexible and agile.

Let’s look at their skills. Now, these gentlemen are at the top of their fields in the world of martial arts but the skills they possess in tumbling and gymnastics are incredible. They are not professional acrobats or gymnast either, they are fighters.

They may not be the best at powerlifting, Olympic Lifting or Kettlebell Sport but I’m very comfortable saying that these men are strong and if they wanted to, they could easily excel at any strength sport if they chose to. They could climb, swim and do well in many track and field events as well. That’s just my hunch, I could be wrong though.

They are adaptable.

This is my goal for myself, for my sons and for the entire Iron Kimono Community. You included!

Now let’s look at the second video of an elite powerlifter.

Yes, it is 1008 pounds. I fully understand the awesomeness of that feat and I can appreciate his efforts in pushing human strength limits to new heights but at what cost?

That’s all I’m asking. At what cost?

He may be an awesome person. All the powerlifters I know personally are awesome people and this is not a critique of those individuals.

And I may be pointing out the obvious but have you even seen a powerlifter walk? How about run? How about throw a baseball or a punch? Right. Looks kind of silly. Labored. Difficult.

They are adapted. Turtles. One trick ponies. Of course not all are. I’m sure there are some powerlifters that possess more skills than deadlifting, squatting and benching. I’ve seen some jump fairly well.

And powerlifters are not the only tribe. Bodybuilders are pretty adapted and stuck as well.

When I was in high school almost all of the training information you could get your hands on was in the form of bodybuilding magazines. In one issue there was a challenge between Gary Strydom and Samir Bannout. Who could run a 40 yard dash faster?

Guess what happened during the actual race?

They both cramped up and neither could complete the 40 yards. All those years of training. All those muscles. Such nice abs and low body-fat and they couldn’t run 40 yards. You can check out both bodybuilders here.

Long distance runners are another tribe. I trained one women, a long distance runner, who could not perform one (1) lunge or bodyweight squat with good form.

Once when discussing wrestlers and conditioning with my boy Zach Even-Esh he told me a story about Russian wrestlers being half gymnast and half Olympic Weightlifter and I thought that was a pretty great combination to create an ultimate, well-adapted athlete.

Part wrestler, part gymnast and part o-lifter. Nice.

If you want to be adaptable vs. adapted. If you want to learn new skills easily and enjoy physical freedom here are some tips that you might be useful.

Nothing Trains the Body Better Than the Body:
Get a good grip on your own bodyweight before moving onto the super heavy weights. Gymnastics, martial arts, Dance, Acrobatics, free-running, Parkour, try them all out. Experiment.

I’m convinced that the combination of grappling, gymnastics and dance will create super-fitness and movement skills and I will work diligently to create a world-wide tribe of Physical Creatives that teach and spread such wonderful practices.

Hang Out with Awesome Training Partners:
Training partners are super valuable. I love the term cooperative-challenge. Push one another. Make one another work. Make one another smile and succeed.

Currently there are some pull-up challenges going on in our club using some odd pull-up tools. The first day we tried out the new tools, the max number of pull-ups was 3. One week later it was 18. 18!!!!!

That came about from athletes pushing one another and having a good time teasing each other while fully supporting the progress of each athlete.

Don’t Specialize too Early:
Don’t be the kid that only plays Baseball or football. Swim. Skate. Bike, Run. Sprint. Mix it all up. There’s a common term in strength and conditioning circles, GPP, General Physical Preparation. And as Pavel Tsatouline points out in his book Easy Strength, the emphasis is on preparation, GPP is a process.

Become a generalist. Be well-rounded. You’ll know if you possess super-abilities. A coach will point it out somewhere along the way. When that happens you look into specialization but don’t rush it.

Finally. Eat a ton of Brocolli.
I made that up but I’m sure it will help.