From Matt:
The past few days I have been slammed. The errors on the Helix and replacing copies of discs – moving toward digital downloads – preparing an online lecture series – working on a new product release – bought a new pistol – have an artist I manage who has some really important, time consuming things happening with her. And, shooting our videos.
I’ve been looking at web traffic and I’m noticing something I completely expected – steady, no spikes, if anything slightly down.
Why is this? The flash factor.
Movement videos are not flash. Even with me rolling in ants, you can’t jazz up movement videos. In the world of martial art and combatives, movement videos are the insurance commercials of the action series. It’s when people get up, go grab a drink, use the bathroom, let the dog out, quick fix something for their wife. Then, they come back, sit down, and keep watching 24.
The flash videos are the wedge, equilibrium, wheel and axle, women’s self-defense, training videos from Pramek gym. Who wants to watch me move all the time, show you how to rotate your arm? Matthew Dycke of Vancouver told me, ‘Videos don’t do you justice – you can’t see how fast and smooth you actually are in a video. It’s a paradigm shift to have it done to you.’
That’s because of the movement videos.
Style is the language of a system. There are styles of doing things – shooting, hand to hand fighting, running, dieting, knife fighting, doing daily mundane tasks like getting out of bed, moving a box. For Pramek, these styles of doing tasks are a process, governed by what I call REAP…
Reality: your environment, what is occuring in your environment
Efficiency: how well do you move, how ergonomic is your kit or equipment
Application: what are you facing, how will the reality of the environment, and the efficiency of your movement and thought affect application.
Psychology: are you psychologically prepared for the prior three principles? Is your mind there, have you been trained for this?
REAP. You reap what you sow.
When you get out of bed: what time is it, did you sleep well, where is your mind mentally at that time, do you have dreams that bother you?
When you fight: are you prepared for your enemy, are you methods and tactics sound, do you have wasted movement or are you efficient?
When you pick up a heavy box (do you strain your back and have to go to the chiropractor, do you cut your hand because you didn’t check the edges?)
What people don’t understand is, in Pramek….Movement videos are the bang. You can have the flash – you can learn the wedge, wheel and axle, levers and fulcrums, equilibrium. But, if you have wasted movement, if you do not combine and coordinate your movements together, if you fall to the ground and injure yourself – then the percentage of advantage all of the science, physics, and mechanical concepts we teach – are reduced substantially.
Example – efficient movement and positioning of the body speeds up reaction time. If you are inefficient, then you have lost that advantage.
Without the bang, the flash only blinds the enemy, it does not deafen him and disturb his equilibrium.
Without the flash, the enemy, while disoriented, still sees you coming.
They build on each other.
And when you throw in theory – like Human Equilibrium. All I can say is – wow.
The Helix & The Gear, with the Wedge are devastating – they are the flash bang. And with Equilibrium – well, you’ve just kicked in the door into the defender’s face, stunning him, and then thrown the flash bang. While others are moving, and then wedging – the user of Human Equilbrium is manipulating their opponent or enemy in a completely different dimension.
A mentor of mine used to say, ‘Sell the sizzle.’ It’s gotta be hot – you have to sell the sizzle – make people want it. Which works fine in a lot of scenarios – for a promo, advertisement, yes. Sell the sizzle.
But, what about videos that are all flash? All sizzle?
So many people make only flash or sizzle videos. They speed up their movements on Youtube. They do impossible things in videos that people duplicate for what is simply the thrill of doing a ‘cool move.’ Or, they teach things that will simply get you killed. It’s the flash factor – they sell the sizzle. They sell women’s self-defense with ski masks like this is a Stallone movie, meanwhile never preparing a woman for the psychological affects of a rape. People are running around with pistols in states where you can’t have a pistol, or worst, showing people how to work with pistols when they person has never even been to an NRA pistol safety program. Flash flash Flash…and then when it comes to the bang – fizzle.
They sizzle, but fizzle under the light of reality that you really can’t use your stomach to disarm a knife. That flash comes out just a few lumens short of what they need.
Where is the bang – if you’re in a place where 99% of your students can’t use firearms – teach them to use a crowbar! I will put 500 rounds through my new Glock today just to feel the trigger pull and adjust it, then get used to the recoil again because I haven’t shot Glock in years, and then 100 per week for months until I get comfortable with it – only then I will begin teaching on it. If you can’t do that – don’t teach pistols! Pistols are not blue guns!!!!!!!!! Shoot it or stow it and then teach kubotans or crowbars.
That’s all sizzle – then fizzle.
Our movement videos build upon the combative videos, our theory builds on that. Most systems say, ‘Move this way for joint health. Move this way to punch.’ We say, ‘Movement + Theory = Application”. Thus, ‘Move this way for joint health, move the same way to punch, now move the same way to defend against a knife, and move the same way to open a door.’ Our movement videos are designed not for a style or system, but for human movement and efficiency.
We simply use Pramek as our outlet for expressing how to use them – while others can use our hip movements for their kicks, or our arm movements for throws.
We are releasing the language of our system – the styles of doing things, the theory behind it, and the theory’s application. Everyone who has gotten The Helix says it is a paradigm shift from any movement videos they have ever seen. So, when we release The Wheel, or we release The Fulcrum – these folks will glide right through them having done all of our movement videos…studying the fighting videos from the point of efficiency.While others, who got up to go to the bathroom, will simply have to go back and get The Helix & The Gear to catch up.