Held an information session at the Edmonds’ Community Center last week. Session was time limited to about 45 minutes including Q and A. The session include not just talking and presenting but actual exercises, hands on experiments and interactions. The feedback was extremely positive. Here are some of the key points that we managed to cover:
- Why combine martial arts and gymnastics? – martial arts is suppose to be practical. Gymnastics improves hand eye coordination, balance, agility and can be lots of fun. Both are necessary for different purposes.
- How is our martial arts for seniors different to traditional martial arts? – we do not teach forms, you learn principles of mechanics for different needs. We take a creative problem solving approach versus a “This is how it was hundreds of years ago”.
- How is your gymnastics different than other gymnastics? – we are based off rhythmic gymnastics and therefore we use hand apparatus. We do not do skills that require major muscle mass for this age group. We use music to improve rhythm and to have fun while learning.
- How is this different then traditional exercises like weight training and swimming? The best analogy is that other exercises mostly build the muscles and is like earning money and yes, it is needed. MartialGym is a functional adaptive view of the world and therefore we are learn how to USE and stretch your dollar in a efficient and effective manner.
- Self defense from a different angle – I did not really teach them how to punch or kick. Even more relevant to them is how to warm up quickly before they go out; how to exercise even in bed; how to regain balance; how strong they are by simply changing the mechanics; how to roll to reduce injuries when falling; how to get back up after a fall.
Exercise
Making things relevant is very important. In a TV reality show Shark Tank / Dragons Den where entrepreneurs try to get finance for their ventures, one often cause for failure is that they can only see it from their own side and not from the audience’s (in this case, the potential financier’s point of view.
Give me examples of how you have seen presenter, teachers, friends (or yourself) totally missing the point.