Integrating Structure

[Coach Tran]

I just reviewed Coach Sonnon's Integrating Structure DVD and I must confess that I was ignorant of the subject matter when I attended Coach's presentation. Before the presentation, I remembered I was nervous, shy, and I was wondering that I had some balls traveling so far to learning "s@#$" that I didnt know about. LOL. However I learned so much because I felt Coach's love and passion for the subject matter. It is kinda of weird but when you have love and passion in a teacher you also get the same feeling yourself as a student. This DVD is a great addition to the Softwork DVD and I would also recommend that people should also read Thomas Myers' Anatomy Trains to get a deeper understanding of Integrating Structure. All in all, if you are a martial artist or movement instructor and want to get a deeper understanding of your movement and structure, then get this DVD!!!

[Jay76]

I thought the DVD was great. So was Softwork. Both were put together nicely. IS was fantastic. One always thinks they know so much until they hear Scott speak, then its like "Wow"..The man is way ahead of his time. Hmm, maybe the time is now :roll:

I wish the IS video was shot with the camera Facing Scott instead of to the side of him though, thats my only SOP.

I can see how all of Scotts training can value one through a fight, MMA, etc..but??

Street..Ambush situation..where stuff happens so fast..one is not going to remember the shock absorption, etc, etc...One is going to need a really high level of training over and over, over again before one can even value it in a street fight. That part of the brain with all that good training in it will not even be alive during the ambush fight, only one's survival aspect will be. So since most people don't have a lot of time to train in their lives..how can one really take in all of Sonnons Tranining materails????

[Scott Sonnon]

Jason,

Your post sounds like you "get it" but that you have some residual knee-jerk reflex concerns about a suddenly violent attack.

Practice happens in every decision, not in a couple of hours a week of bashing some poor bloke in protective gear. How can one expect to be efficient only 23.9 hours out of the day? A combative crisis is neurologically and biochemically no different than any other daily crisis. Our CNS cannot differentiate between a true physical threat and an emotional/symbolic one, like a belligerent co-worker or highly agitated hungry baby. How you behave in every "mundane" moment IS your practice.
Read or re-read:
Empire of the Heart (http://www.circularstrengthmag.com/29/sonnon.html)
Joy in Training (http://www.circularstrengthmag.com/29/sonnon2.html)
Survival Not Sufficient (http://www.circularstrengthmag.com/31/sonnon3.html)
Antidote to Emotional Poison (http://www.circularstrengthmag.com/31/sonnon2.html)
Thank you for your good words about Integrating Structure and Softwork! I am very pleased you're continuing to get so much from the resource!

[Jay76]

I am gong to reread those articles..thanks Coach

[Jay76]

residual knee-jerk reflex concerns about a suddenly violent attack.

Coach, your sense of humor always enlightens me :shock: :D

I get it, don't worry. Just other crap in my head needs to come out :shock: :D

[Scott Sonnon]

"I have never for one instance clearly within myself. How then would you have me judge the deeds of others?"
Amigo, we all have residual stuff we're dealing with. It's all just our ego's fear. Together, through our practice, we'll see clearly through it.

[Jay76]

I just watched it again. Its truley amazing. It just seems most things stem biomechanically. I love science, anatomy, etc, so this stuff is just awesome to me. Its funny the human body is so complicated, yet so simple and vis versa sometimes. Its so much to take it. so exploring it piece by piece is the fun part.

Coach, I am sure depending on the person and thier tension can sometimes take years to get rid of. It seems like a new tension comes every day. More importantly is how people think, since everything you think will impact our bodies somehow..that alone can take years to in bed in them..that person must be a brick!!

All of this stuff is very hard for a lot of people to take in, since they are all brainwashed, just like they are brainwashed in nutrition as well. I don't want to get into that, but I am more for www.westonaprice.org ..What primative man ate makes more sense to me than what people are eating today.

You can tell I like to jump around in contexts when I talk. Thats why it was always fun in college writing papers. Lots of ideas, just they are everywhere on the paper. :shock: :D

I work in a gym, so I deal with so many myths its not even funny. Sometimes one has to be part psychologist too :roll:

I find one or they only way people will even tend to believe or listen to what one has to say..( strength training, nutriton, MMA, etc )..is when they see YOU doing what you say. I might talk about Clubs, but thats nothing. They have to do it themselves to see. Some don't see and say " I still like free weights better" .. :roll: Clubs are free weights :twisted: They like the feeling a lifting heavy weights. So they try a 20pd club and cannot lift it. Thats heavy, right? People seem to hate to train beyound their comfort zones and will not work on weak points.

The spider web concept is great. Everything makes sense, if its pointed out the right way.

Coach, everything you mentioned about Density, tension, etc. If one thinks about it for a second one can come up with some situation where they can relate it too, like you said missing a step coming down the stairs and one feels tingling throughout one's body.

All of Sonnons stuff is amazing, but Softwork, IS really blends everything together just awesomely.

The material is so deep, sometimes its hard to write about it, one just has to go explore it.

[Coach Jones]

I just wanted to throw in a quick comment about the "street-ambush" scenario. This is something in recent years that alot of instructors have been using to justify the reality-defense or adrenaline based combat approach. The truth of the matter is that if some criminal wants to really "ambush" you and smack you in the bean with a tire iron...well, he's going to. That's the whole idea of an ambush. On the surface, it sounds like a plausable idea. If we train to spontaneously (with a pre-concieved technique :wink: ) react when ambushed it must be a better way to go. The problem is, that when we go from walking down the street and arguiing with the girlfriend to lying on the groud with a headwound - it really doesn't matter how much adrenaline we have coursing through our system.

I think it was Joe Lewis who said, " It's the punch you don't see that knocks you out".That's kind of the deal in my opinion. If you see the punch, you can react to it. If you see the ambush...it's no longer an ambush. It's an attempted ambush, and an attempted ambush is no different from any other confrontation.

Just some food for thought,