The Ordinary Martial Artist

 Who am I? An introduction to the "Ordinary Martial Artist"

Who am I?  My name is Rob and I am the ordinary martial artist, I am literally the “white belt that didn’t quit”.

What do I mean when I say I am ordinary?  I mean exactly that, I am not anything special when it comes to martial arts.  I am not gifted physically at all – I am not athletic, I am not strong, I am not fast, I am not flexible and I am not a big guy at all, just a small guy with no physical talents to speak of and I am not particularly smart either.  I have never been and never will be a martial arts champion but instead I am just an ordinary person who is addicted to martial arts has continued to train martial arts day in and day out since the day I started and now I can say that I have managed to achieve some extra ordinary things many years later – although you should know that I have always, always taken longer than most to achieve and levels and ranks in my martial arts styles.

I have however been very lucky to learn from and train with some truly extra ordinary martial artists and teachers.  From my early days in Zen Do Kai and Muay Thai learning from amazingly gifted martial artists, fighters and teachers to finding my current Jiu Jitsu teacher who is incredibly gifted in all the ways I can think and my current Zen Do Kai teacher who is not only insanely gifted and knowledge as a teacher but is an incredibly technical martial artist and a very wise and knowledgeable leader to go with it.  I am very, very grateful for all of my past and present teachers.

I must admit to thinking that I do have a gift of being able to see and identify patterns in movement and the links in those movements and I seem to have the ability to break down movements and techniques into principles or at the very least I am able to quickly pick up the principles I am taught and attach them to techniques, drills and training and teaching methods and systems.  On top of that I have a very questioning mind and when I am training I am always thinking: How and why does this work?  How can I do this better?  How can I train this better and smarter?  How can I teach this better?  Where does it fit?  This is the same when I learn something new, I am thinking why, when, how on lots of different levels, this is automatic for me and I think it is largely why I have managed to become a successful martial artist and teacher over all this time.

On top of this my lack of natural talent has meant that I have needed to tap into my natural ability to break things down and reconnect them in training and teaching systems to make it easier for me to learn and easier for me to apply the things I learn and train them in a way that I can remember, improve and apply these skills more easily in my own development.  I have used this systemization not only in my own learning and development but also extensively as a teacher in all levels of my journey and I can honestly say I am a much better instructor/coach/teacher than I ever was or am as a fighter.

So this is where I hope I can share my thoughts, some tips, some techniques and my experiences as an ordinary martial artist.  It seems the world and the internet in particular is full of “champions” and “experts” and so many “sharks”, “gorilla’s”, “monsters” and “viking warriors” and I don’t know about you but I am none of those things and when I see videos and articles on social media I don’t see much that would apply to me or that I could use in reality – as much as I wish I could.  So I have created this page and others like on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/theordinarymartialartist  , Instagram @theordinarymartialartist and Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClZGqFxREO-2ZRC4qiPhDFA  with the hope that I might be able help others who are more like me than these champions.

Please feel free to ask questions, to ask for help on a topic or to share links that show other ordinary martial artists sharing their thoughts and skills.

I look forward to learning from each other J

Kyoshi/Khru/Coach Rob