by Tony Terranova Wed Jul 29, 2009 12:09 pm
Hi Matt,
You wrote a great article on this subject. Also it is a nice change for me these days now that you have joined me on my weekly weighted hill walk after so many walks on my own. Tave has also recently joined us and there is now a rumour that Steve and your brother Joe may be the next recruits.
Training partners are important. They provide several benefits such as: motivation; accountability (you get up at 6am because you know your buddy is waiting for you – otherwise you hit the snooze and fart button zzzzz ..pharp..); calibration of progress; comradeship; and they can improve your game depending on their ability. If you remember when we first started out I used to beat you on the hill sprints and the other exercises, then after a while we were even on the hill sprints and now my ass is yours on the hill sprints as you beat me every time (but your ass still mine on the other stuff for a little while longer). You are young blood and time stands still for no man, so for me father time reminds me I have to work twice as hard if I am to compete with you young blood’s. Soon you will beat me on everything.
The training buddy concept however goes even further for me. It underlies the often forgotten benefits and accompanying core values associated with community spirit which to me is the same side of the coin as the training buddy philosophy. In my humble opinion I believe that people either give or take physical, emotional and intelligence energy from each other. So it stands to reason that doing an activity on a regular basis with a buddy results in both people unknowingly ending up supporting each other. After a long while this happens at a subconscious level, it is awesome when that point arrives. We are at that point – if you recall when we hit the nemesis point (the point which you stopped when you were on your own) when we are together you said when you have nothing left in the tank it is the sound of my feet hitting the tarmac that keeps you going and you match my pace/rhythm; at that point I too am the ORIFICE MAN blowing out of every hole on my body, but it is the sound of your rubber hitting the road that keeps me going. That is the buddy system all wrapped up in that moment, we drive each other.
I remember for several years we used to spar with a kind of no rules concept (on a graduated basis of course for safety) with the small group who trained with me in my garage (before we opened the club). During that time we found out more about the art of fighting (what works and what doesn’t and what we were good at and not so good at) than we may have found in a stereo traditional martial arts setting. Some days were good days and some days were bad days - but because we had the same small unit of people training all the time you could bet your ass on the fact that if one of you was having a bad day that the other training partner would make it a good day for you by the time the session was over. This was our little training community before we opened the club. That is why we state on our website that our club training philosophy is based on a community spirit it is something Alan and I always believed in.
If you ever get a few minutes to just do some research on the concept of community you will find some interesting findings that are related to our well being (and to some degree will reveal why some people are unhappy with modern day living). We were not born to live alone all of the time. Togetherness is one of the major characteristics of communities which existed more so pre-modern / traditional society as we know it today.
A couple of good people to reference this subject are:
Ferdinand Tönnies –here is an extract from one of his many articles –“According to him, community is made up of three basic motives and loyalties: blood, bond, and neighborhood. The basic forms of these elements are family, village, clan, provinces, guilds, and professional and religious unions, the family being the strongest. Social relations in pre-modern societies developed on the basis of solidarity, support, and sharing. Whether it be through bonds of blood, as in the family, or through rural territorial bonds, as in the village, town or clan, all "forms of community" produced traditional values that were shared by all. This is precisely the reason why these values were strong. With the emergence of industrial society, however, traditional and rural communities began to unravel. Gradually, rational relations replaced rural and traditional relations based on solidarity, sharing and support. At this juncture, the new social form that Tönnies calls "society" (Gesellschaft) emerged in opposition to "rural community" (Gemeinschaft). In traditional communities, shared feelings of loyalty and everyday necessities brought about shared habits, traditions, and rural values. In society, individuals are strangers to one another; they are disconnected and independent from one another. In community (Gemeinschaft), by contrast, people are connected to each other despite all sorts of differences.”
And another source Max Weber – a sociologist who incorporated the concepts of "community" and "society"- here is an extract from his work – “Weber added a more dynamic view of community than that of Tönnies. He stressed the continuity of community, and claimed that human beings always develop the will and awareness to group around shared ideals and interests. This will and awareness is present in industrial societies, just as it was present in pre-modern societies. Still, Weber maintains that the group organized in the form of a community will, sooner or later, lose its social existence in modern society.”
Matt all this is food for thought as it is actually synergistic to the martial arts. If you read Ross Havens book the spiritual ways of the Ninja warrior you will see the real essence of community spirit and true core values of martial arts working in tandem together. Our challenge is to bring the old warrior, respect and community core values of the traditional martial art together with modern day training practices and current day needs. That has been my challenge for many years.
Once again well done mate
Tony.T
