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2 years ago
Warrior training
The Idea behind the new logo for TCG (tactical Combatives Group) is derived from the Spartan sword, helmet/shield, and spear. Why these why the new motto Molon Labe? The answer is quite simple. Dedication. The Spartans were deidicated to their country their people and their training. They were dedicated warriors. “When the young Spartan boy reached seven he was deemed too old to be coddled by his parents and was taken from them to live a military life for the rest of his existence. He was placed in a communal barracks with others his age, supervised by an older boy referred to as a Eirena who had respectively been the strongest in his class (and was himself undergoing something like officer training). For the next five years these Spartan boys were conditioned physically and mentally. They were educated- but only enough to count soldiers in a formation, read war sagas and sing and recite war poetry. . They were given rigorous strength and endurance training and physical conditioning through endless field and track events. They were taught wrestling and the art of ancient martial combat to make them lethal. They were fed -but it was a weak broth and in quantities only enough to exist. It was expected that the young starving boys would steal or otherwise find enough food to keep them strong. For this they would only be punished if caught and the lesson learned from this was how to look for food when none was available, a skill that would be needed in the future when occupying a village that had been sacked and abandoned. Discipline was the word to live by, with terrific punishments meted out if caught performing the most minor infraction.
At age twelve the lean and hungry boy was taken from the barracks and made to eat, live and sleep in one garment with no shoes under the open sky for one year, exposed to the beasts and the weather. This yearlong exercise taught survival and fieldcraft skills that he would need when deployed fighting abroad. From age thirteen until he reached what was considered manhood at twenty the Spartan child played very very serious war games. These games often left the contestants dead or injured and would include armed invasions on Messenian agricultural slaves called helots and other non Spartans living nearby. These war games taught small unit tactics, raids, reconnaissance and surveillance, and the art of the ambush. When age twenty was reached the Spartan boy was seen as a solder and had thirteen years of the hardest military training yet devised under his belt. For the next ten years he would still live in barracks as part of the standing army and only at age thirty were they allowed to marry and as a full fledged citizen, reproduce and achieve public office. It was only then that they were granted the privilege to live in their own house and not in barracks. This superbly trained Spartan soldier would still remain in the army no matter where he lived until age sixty when they were allowed to retire.” While most of us cannot live this life we can train, and more importantly we can take the training we do seriously. Make the most of it. Get the most out of it. How?
1. Listen to your instructor. Seriously allot of people neglect this one. They are always looking for the next best thing (somebody else who knows just a little more then their current teacher). The truth is a mastery of the basics is what separates the amateurs from the pros.
2. Take your time when training. Most people hear the instructor tell them to do a technique ten times. So they do. But as a result they train to time not to a standard. In other words they are only interested in completing the required set of ten reps then they sit around waiting for every body else like it’s a race. My advice slow down and take your time. Who cares if you are the last ones done. If you do the ten reps and nobody is done do ten more. There is no prize for the first people to finish.
3. Perfection, Perfection, Perfection. I had an instructor once tell me to make every technique look like I was doing it for a movie. (not real cheesy or silly) make every rep count. I would not want to be seen in a movie with bad form, so why train like that. Not to mention my life might depend on this training again one day. Mirrors can really help with this type of training. Video cameras are great for this too. Try to imitate your instructors body mechanics.
4. Don’t be selfish/make your partner better. I wish I had a dollar for every time I have had some one ask me to get them a new partner because the one they have is not good enough(seriously “they are not at my skill level”). If you help make your partner better it will make you better. When you can teach a technique you learn it better! As your partner gets better all of a sudden you will find your self needing to catch up to their skill level.
5. Make use of solo training. Not enough students do solo training. i.e. bag work jump rope. Motion master, shadow boxing (floor bag drills). Here are some photos of a mook Jong we made in Afghanistan with hand tools (no power tools) which leads me to my last one
6. Attend Class. When we did not have a school we made one. You must find time might be in the morning or maybe at night “But I don’t have time” when I hear this it makes me laugh and think about one of our Instructors who has an illness which would kill most people. Yet this member is the first Instructor up and at the school on training days. Most of the time this person has already put in 2 hours of training before I get to the school at 9:00am. Then I think of another one of you .Who is going to college, his wife is in college, he works 2 Jobs not counting teaching. When I say this several thoughts of days spent changing Brandon’s diapers followed by making pizza for the college kids for lunch then cleaning toilets at trinity before going on to teach private lessons then class, then trying to study for college classes. Yet I still had time to train with Guro Brian, Tony, Autrelle, and Joey on a regular basis. Before that I can remember spending $200.00 an hour for private lessons while I was getting ready to earn my instructorship in Kali, JKD and CSW (I only made 1,300 a month back then while trying to take care of Erika my self and Brandon)
It all comes back to Dedication. If you want to be a true warrior like a spartan you must dedicate yourself to your training.I can honestly say I don’t regret one day of training. Neither will you.
Molon Labe
Coach Sean Notes
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