Philosophy
Performance Over Perception
It does not matter what style you have trained in or whom you have trained with in the past. Certificates, rank and other adornments on a uniform are irrelevant. All that matters is your ability to perform, or better yet your ability to learn to perform better.
Aliveness
Aliveness is training with resistance using energy, timing and motion. Those who make their living based on their ability to fight (BJJ, Wrestlers, Boxers, Thai Kickboxers etc.) see this as common sense because it is the way they have always trained. Aliveness training is the functional opposite of forms training. Set patterns cannot, by their very nature, be alive.
Breaking the "Too Deadly To Spar" Myth
What works in Alive training is what works against a resisting opponent. Much of what is passed off as being too “deadly” for sparring is techniques that simply do not work. They are typically based on theory and not real life experience. If someone tells you that something is too deadly to use in sparring ask them how they know. Have they used it before? Has the person that taught them? Did they see it? Almost anything can work against a non-resisting opponent. I have seen many professional Thai fights where “knee traps” are allowed yet I have never seen it work. Of course we do not eye gouge each other. Who do you think would be better at sticking their finger in someone’s eye though: Someone who trains boxing against a resisting opponent, spending hours and hours working their jab, or the guy who has thrown hundreds of eye jabs in the air. If you are not sure how to answer this question, go to your nearest boxing gym and ask the coach to help you out. I would not want to trust my life on a technique that I was not certain would work.
Personal Excellence
Through
Physical Performance
© 2006 Performance Edge Martial Arts