What inspires you, fires you?

It is Friday night at 8pm, I have just come in and eaten a king prawn stir fry washed down with a pint of orange juice. My two daughters are running riot around the house due to a combination of no school tomorrow and a game that is acted out with military precision using their imagination; they have in turn inspired me to write about it!

When you have trained in the martial arts for as long as I have (30 years next year) as Geoff Thompson says: I am two days older than water… no laughing! You would think that the arts would become boring doing the same old training the same old way to polish your technique; you would be wrong I am even more inspired to train now than I have ever been even if my body can’t muster what my head thinks I can (jumping kicks are off my Christmas list). When I am not training at the gym I am sitting at home watching DVD’s about training or reading books about training or watching the dreaded YouTube about training! (What a nerd I hear you cry, I am, I am).

My thirst for training knows no bounds, I think it is still amazing that you can look at a technique many times and not see something then someone comes along and points it out to you. There is a saying that says, “It is not the technique, it is the eyes you see it with,“ just like when you are doing a crossword puzzle and you have one more to find and someone just comes up and points it out to you (gutted).

I love to read about people that have do great things in their life and have paved the way for others. Mr Steve Morris is one of those amazing Martial Artists that after many years of training, teaching and researching is still learning and is an inspiration to me and many more; he is a lion on the field of battle and yet honest with the lessons he has learnt over the years and it shows in his teachings and training.

Mr Geoff Thompson is another amazing inspiration to me, he truly changed his stars from sweeping the floors to standing on the red carpet, from sitting in the bait cabin to sitting with playwrights, everything he said he would do when I met him in the early 90’s!

Just recently I was watching Eddie Bravo visiting and rolling with Marcelo Garcia, which was amazing, the exchange of movement and no ego, training with Bob Marley playing in the background. It was so amazing to watch and the best bit was that Eddie said he had watched Marcelo for many years and had told anyone that would listen how good Marcelo was and said that he is still inspired by him today; that spoke volumes to me.

Use every means possible to inspire you, as Hatsumi sensei would say, to keep going, the world is full of inspirational people to look up to and follow (no stalking) that you can’t fail to be inspired about training, treat your training like it is a great adventure where you are the star, boldly going on a great journey and not knowing where it will lead you to - just like the start of Kung Fu on the telly in the 70’s.  P.s. I told you I was old!!

Until our swords cross again…

Be good!

To find out more about The Advanced Fighting Centre visit:http://www.advancedfighting.co.uk/ or e-mail John Atkin at johnatkin24@btinternet.com