I was having a conversation with Geoff the other day. Geoff has done a lot of Thai boxing and MMA. He will freely admit to you he was a bit of a street fighter in his younger days and still does not take shit from anyone. Now in his mid 50’s he still trains all be it sports-based boxing, Thai boxing and MMA type skills. He was telling me, he and his training partner keep running into the ‘pause’. Since I was not familiar with what a ‘pause’ meant to him I asked him to explain.
Basically for him it was that moment in a fight when neither combatant knows what to do when facing off in what I call second phase. The pause for him lasts for a minute or so as he figures out what to do and this he explained was true for his training partners even when they go at it hard. But he had watched some of my training and told me he did not see the ‘pause’ in the guys I had trained especially when we go hard and get excited. You’re probably asking why? And as Geoff stated I had answered it for him, ‘the pause’.
I don’t really have a sales pitch for what I teach, basically it is what it is, so I told Geoff to observe our training and give me his observations. He told me as he watched the first day of training he felt he could take everyone I was teaching on the mats, but then by day 5 they could take him he exclaimed in amusement. Geoff is one of those ‘hard sell’ type martial arts guys because he has trained in that school of hard knocks and used it on the streets (he’ll tell you he was a bit of a shit head) and that experience and training makes it hard for him to buy into styles, systems and trainers today that, as he says, are full of BS.
So now he really wants to learn that ‘Bill Wolfe shit’ as he calls it because he feels I have the answers. As I explained to Geoff I have been at this a long time and trained people for over 40 years so I’ve learned a few things along the way. And of course how to deal with that moment of hesitation as we all know can be bad, in fact ‘deadly’ on the street, especially if a lethal type weapon is pulled on you.
Geoff wanted to know what my secret was and I had to laugh. As I told him, there is no secret. It’s in the training we do and rather than try and explain it to Geoff I told him he would have to get on the mats and learn it for himself.
Guys like Geoff who have trained in martial arts most of their lives and still have not found the answers to their training concerns, like Geoff’s pause for example, generally have the same reaction to my training and the methodology I apply. And that reaction is generally surprise! Geoff believes I have a ‘real system’, to quote him. I know that’s very true but that system was not born over night nor does everyone buy into it. The R & D that has gone into my training has been long and very often painful because you cannot fool old ‘street-fighters’ like Geoff. Frankly they have too much experience ‘in the shit’ to quote Geoff, to not recognize the true deal. For me it’s always heartening when guys of Geoff’s background and abilities share their thoughts on how and what I teach. As Geoff will tell you, it’s not fancy stuff I teach but it sure works and that’s coming from Geoff, a guy who has had more than his share of knuckle dusters and Mr. Hard to Sell Martial Arts.
So, if you’re experiencing the ‘Pause’ in your own training then sign up with me like Geoff has. You can meet Geoff at Battleschool 2018 September 10-14. And don’t forget to check out my new online training at combatives college with hundreds of important lessons for you including how to overcome the pause.
See you on the mats!