Good questions, Dave:
Dave Young wrote:1. Where do you go for more information on saving your life?
I read about two books a week, and check out the source material if it seems fishy. I have friends on the ground in some very high-risk professions and I keep my eyes open in a very high-risk environment. But in the end, it's about attention and awareness in the moment and a realistic evaluation of reality. The trouble with dealing with snakes all day is that some times you go home and everything sounds like it's hissing.
Dave Young wrote:2. At what point does a professional in martial arts stops learning?
Same point an effective human being stops learning- if you stagnate, it's done. That said, at some point in your training you have to step back and evaluate what you've learned. Just collecting techniques or memorizing words or strategies has no value. You are less likely to be killed by a lack of knowledge than by an overabundance of false knowledge, IM (professional)O
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Dave Young wrote:. How often do you change your program when you are instructing?
The stuff I teach officers is principles and awareness based, so I could teach the same class to beginners and experts and both will get a good deal from it, and I could stick with the format almost indefinitely and the students would grow. My private students are different. Most are experienced martial artists and want me to teach them about violence. Very few of them need much training on body mechanics- most of their problems fall under the headings of awareness, initiative and permission. Training time tends to be spent pushing until I find a hole, weakness or hesitation in one of the three areas and we work on that.
So, to answer the question simply, the student writes the lesson plan new each day.
Dave Young wrote:4. What scale or evaluation process are you measuring your students?
Good question, because this almost cries out for an objective measure and I haven't seen an objective measure (fitness, tournament records, size, certifications) that ever translated into real-world ability. Probably the two most important to me are: 1) How much effort and attention do I need to keep from getting injured when we mix it up and 2) How easy is it to get them mentally off balance.
Dave Young wrote:5. What other training or programs do you offer in your dojo, and if none WHY?
Again- private lessons, mostly. What we'll cover will range over communications, violence dynamics, criminal mindset and crime, de-escalation, weapons from improvised to rifles, identifying threats, use-of-force legalities, history, anatomy, animal behavior, evolutionary psychology... advanced first aid and tracking if I think it's relevant. Because you can't separate anything, especially violence, from its context.
Again, good questions.
Rory