A big weekend

Just come home from a weekend in Sydney at the Australian Martial Arts Industry Supershow. I taught an Alpha MMA class and a Anti-bully (zero striking solutions) workshop. Everyone seemed pretty excited about them – it was a heartwarming weekend, with forty or fifty people taking time to personally introduce themselves and thank me for the classes. The pleasure was all mine – truly.
I also feel very honoured to have received the Industry’s Lifetime Contribution Award – a humbling experience and one that I feel pretty good about. As I mentioned briefly upon receipt of the award, for me, it has always been about the ‘passion’ – I simply love the evolutionary process, the analysis, the research, the training, the teaching – pretty much every aspect of the martial arts. It has, and continues to be, a very exciting and powerfully intoxicating journey for me. So thank you to all concerned – and there were quite a few people involved in making that happen! Thanks especially to Fari Salievski, for putting the event together – thanks to Marc Herbert, for editing the amazing video montage that they screened on Saturday (where the hell did you get those photos from?) – and thanks to my wife Melissa for keeping the secret from me so well.
My good friend Richard Norton was also there – he was taking one of the last classes of the weekend as I was leaving for the airport. For those who haven’t met him, he is truly a ‘class act’. If you ever get the opportunity to get on the mat and be taught by him – DO NOT PASS THE OPPORTUNITY UP! He is one of the most inspirational martial artists you could ever hope to meet – Aussie-grown – and we should all be prouder for having him represent us on his travels.
I’m writing this on the plane – we are about to hit descent, so I’m away. Once again, thank you everyone for making that one GREAT weekend. Well done Fari!
Best wishes all,
JBW
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Comments

Korbett said…
John,

Contragualtions.... you totally deserve your lifetime contribution award. You are a mentor to so many people throughout the world. Not just becuase of your great skills as a teacher, but you find a way to inspire us to evolve oursleves as a martial artists, as teachers and take martial arts to another level.

Thanks for all the inspiration.

Your friend,
Korbett
10:20 am
Vince Choo said…
Congrats John. Your recognition is well deserved. Thanks for being the great coach that you have become.
1:59 am
JBW said…
Thanks Korbett - thanks Vince - your comments are much appreciated. I was speaking to another good friend today - Frank Monea from Melbourne - who came down for some training - and we were talking about teaching skills - in my view, it once again, comes back to reps. if you are teaching 1000 classes a year (as I do) then it's easy to start working a few things out - same as physical reps for tehcnique - 10 will give you the most basic exposure - 1000 will give you a solid understanding. teaching is no different - if someone is teaching 100 classes a year - then they need to do ten years of teaching to learn what I learn in any given year. Numbers count for a lot. A lot of my friends are asking me to write a book on Super-coaching strategies - and although it's on my list of things to do - there are other projects ahead in the line. Time - just need more time ...
JBW
4:20 pm
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