Lights.Camera - Action!

Not much time to write this post - so forgive the spelling mistakes. I'm right in the middle of shooting my new MMA curriculum, and have been ding very long stints these past few days. With any luck, and fewer 'out-takes', we should finish the filming today. We shot nearly 1500 photos on friday, that will be used in the manual that will accompany the DVD set. This has been in planning for several years now - and it's exciting to be getting closer to actually seeing an actual product.
This is a very different approach - one that has been honed and developed over quite some time - the bits we were looking at last night (around 11pm) were beter than expected. I'll keep evryone posted!
For me, the approach to MMA should definitely be a 'fully integrated one' - as opposed to a convenient 'stringing together' of standard stand-up techniques, a few takedowns and some groundwork. That kind of aproach was something I was already doing, some 25 years ago. Now it's about program design - the way the whole curriculum is structured - it's about a seamless weaving together of the different worlds of stand-up, takedowns and groundwork - and even more importantly, it's about presenting the whole approach in set of a thorough and progressive training models; hence the challenge.
The MMA approach stands at the pinnacle of the martial arts evolutionary process - but there are challenges ahead for the unwary; we want our students to have access to the technology and effectiveness that the MMA approach has to offer but without the 'attitude' that is so often associated with the low-brow 'fight gym environment. The last thing a martial arts school operator wants is two disparate cultures running in his or her school. There are other challenges as well - quite a few of them - but this is something I personally have been taking on, particularly in the last few decades.
Well, need to run - lights, camera and action await.
Best wishes,
JBW