restrictive training

Geoff Thompson.com : Update - july 2006 Contents 1. Geoff Thompson - POD CAST - Live on Monday 17th July 2. Geoff Thompson this weeks article is called 'The Art of Restriction' 3. Ebay updates 4. Tony Somers and conflict resolution 1. Geoff Thompson Pod cast You can now hear Geoff Thompson on your computer and on your MP3 player. Click on the link below and listen to Geoff talking to his friend Richard Barnes. Richard was the DJ with Geoff at Busters, immortalised in the book Watch my Back and trained with him for over 20 years. This just the first in a series covering all aspects of Geoff's life and work. This weeks podcat goes live on Monday 17th July and includes John Awesome Anderson The Art of Restriction Zidane's Headbut - Right or wrong The latest pod cast is available by clicking here. Link: http://www.geoffthompson.com/podcast.htm --------------------------------------------- 2. The Art of Restriction I did my summer course on Sunday (thank you very much to everyone who attended) and the theme - ‘the art of restriction.’ – was very well received, so, I thought I might throw a few lines together to underline my thoughts, both as a reminder for those that were there and as an introduction to those that could not make it. When I first started working as a club doorman all those years ago the thing that struck me most (scared the shit out of me actually) was how restrictive a real confrontation is when it comes to space. It didn’t seem to matter whether you were fighting on four acres of mown grass or three square foot of pissy pub toilet the fight always ended up very close and very personal. There was rarely any room for manoeuvre. This is why (and when) I started to experiment with very close range combat. I specialised in punching, because punching is the range most consistently available in a real fight and, culturally, pugilism suited me. I realised way back then that you very rarely had more than eighteen inched of space to work with, and yet all around me there were martial artists practicing their thing from a range of three foot or more using techniques that would not survive a live encounter. To try and mend the gaping hole in contemporary combat, for me and for anyone else interested in taking it to the concrete, I developed ‘restrictive training’. Through this I was able to summon instant power from any position and any range, even the most restrictive. Whether I was in a car or a phone booth, a toilet cubicle or a farmer’s field I was able to draw an explosion of power from (seemingly) nothing. I encouraged my students (and myself) to punch from seated positions (floor, chair etc) kneeling positions, off their back, on their belly, back against the wall – anywhere that massively restricted movement and so encouraged the chi channelling. From these positions you are unable to employ hip twist or use momentum to garner power. It forces you to ‘find’ something else. And you do. Very quickly. Because of restriction of movement and space we started to develop massive relaxation through necessity, because when you have no range to work with, tension and stiffness completely impede power. We also started to employ joints (the more the better) in the technique, so that (for instance) if I was in a phone booth or a toilet cubicle or a packed dance floor I could summon tremendous power and explosion without even moving my feet. And then there was intent, whichis one of the first things that starts to grow when space is at a premium. You realise very quickly that intent of power is power. Then there is that certain something that only restriction training can develop, an indefinable energy, an explosion at the end of the technique that cannot be brought or bartered for. You won’t find it in a book or on a tape or even in a class. The Chinese call it Chi, the Japanese Qui – it has as many names as there are cultures. Personally I don’t want to place a name to it or throw a shroud of mystique around it. And I can’t claim to know what the energy is other than an accident, and that restrictive training helps you to become accident prone. It works so well that folk have to start pulling their punches because the power they are generating is too much for their bones (they start picking up injuries etc) and too much for the bones of their opponents. This restrictive training is the main focus of my master class work. Not only does it force people to find some other source of power than the one that they normally employ, it also acts as an accelerator, people become big hitters much faster than normal. It would be no exaggeration to say that I get people punching twice as hard within on session using this method. But being able to punch hard is not what excites me about restrictive training. What I really love about it is the fact that it enables you to view life restrictions from a totally different and positive perspective. Just as restriction can trigger the release of chi in physical training so can restriction in life (if viewed correctly) enable you to discover a reservoir of power hitherto untapped. Lance Armstrong was given a life threatening restriction called cancer. He had a choice. Lie down and take it and probably die within a year, or find something that would not only enable him to heal, but also give him the power to win and unprecedented eight times at the Tour de France. Do you know that he was so dominant in the Tour that the organisers changed the route several times to give the other riders a chance at winning? I was bullied at school and suffered badly from depression. I also had a choice. Accept this and live a life of mediocrity and fear, or find something inside me, some force, some power that would not only elevate me above my playground bullies, but also take me to the world stage in martial arts and in writing. Everyone reading this newsletter at this moment is restricted in one way or another. It might be a health issue or a relationship problem, it might be economics or fear, your restriction could be that you are without direction or hope. And if you are like most people (I hope you are not) you are probably looking outside of yourself for someone to blame. If you have the courage to stop the exterior projections and look inside you might be surprised to find that there is an infinite amount of power available to you within the very restriction you are trying to escape. Many people (I count myself as one of them) go out into life and search out restriction in order that they might grow. Tough martial arts schools where they are at the bottom of the class (you can’t grow any more if you are at the top), difficult jobs where they feel out of their depth, situations that scare them, places (inside and out) that expose their cracks. Some people are really brave and restrict them selves with the little things that make the biggest difference. Things like diet, personal discipline, counselling, psychotherapy etc. Others (and I also include myself in this group) have no need to go in search of restriction because restriction has been thrust upon them (illness, money or family problems etc). Either way your route to the stars is not to turn your back on restriction and kick and scream and wish it gone (I have done all four) rather it is to turn into it, grab your spade of courage and dig deep, because somewhere within the problem you are facing right now is the answer that you have been looking for (probably) for your whole life. I encourage you all, as I encourage myself, to look in rather than out because my training and teaching these days is not so much about working out as it is working in. And it is much less about being a big hitter on the streets or the nightclub doors, and much more about being a big hitter in life. Thanks for listening in. Geoff Thompson - July 14th 2006