Will you offer courses other than what is listed on the schedule?

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     More Offerings Are in the Works!  This web page is not being updated regularly right now (start up is a very busy time...), but feel free to e-mail info@ASM-Louisa.com with any questions about a particular course, and if you and enough other people have an interest that is not yet on the list, maybe it will even get a bump up in priority!

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What Sets Strategy & Motion Apart from (most) other Martial Arts Schools?

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Optimal training methods and fast & efficient learning.  In every individual class you'll find well-developed, progressive drilling methods - But our greatest value - that will teach you as fast as you care to learn - is in the larger structure of each course: we offer a uniquely clear learning path, and we teach full courses rather than ad hoc classes.

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The clear learning path.

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Almost all martial arts academies teach students a slew of techniques, leaving them to piece together the underlying ideas and goals.  Yet, techniques apply only when specific situations arise, then no longer apply  when the situation changes in certain ways.  The number of variables - even in a grappling tournament - is nearly infinite (the opponent might be a little to your left, but leaning to the right, with his near arm retracted, but his far leg over-extended... And you might be kneeling, or on your back . . .).  Trying to learn a technique for EVERY possible situation is impossible.  So, learning a martial art can be like setting out on a journey where you'll travel by canoe, bike, hot air balloon and maybe five other vehicles, and on day one, you don't know how to use any of those vehicles or where they are.  One day the instructor tells you how to hold a canoe paddle, the next, how to work the brakes on a moped.  If students stick around long enough some will eventually understand it how to make a voyage; others won't.  Most students will be frustrated and overwhelmed at various points.

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In contrast, Strategy & Motion takes a direct (and so, very American) approach of clarifying the ideas and goals at the outset.  From day one Strategy & Motion teaches the techniques as examples of tools to achieve specific goals; and how to chain goals to achieves the overall objective.  So, whereas in many schools "chaining" techniques is an intermediate level skill, at Strategy & Motion, students are learning from day one not only how to chain techniques, but also what a full chain needs to include.

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Courses, not ad hoc classes. 

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It's not economical to turn away students, so most schools let students begin training as soon as they ask about classes.  This means long-term students have to waste time while the coach explains basic things to "the new guy" - it's like making 6th Graders practice the alphabet because someone showed up for Kindergarten.​

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Strategy & Motion has students start together and progress in groups.  Each class builds upon the ideas learned in earlier classes.  It's no problem to miss a day now and again, but the whole class will NEVER have repeat material they have long since mastered.

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What Martial Art(s) do you Teach?

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This deserves explanation.

 

"Brazilian Jiu Jitsu" or "BJJ" is an off-shoot of Japanese Jujutsu that focused heavily on fighting out of disadvantageous positions.  As it was taken into broader competition (e.g. Mixed Martial Arts) BJJ confronted and adopted the best techniques it encountered from many other grappling arts - it has adopted methods from Catch, Folk Style, and Greco Roman wrestling , as well as from Sambo, and from other arts.  At the same time, other arts have adopted methods used in BJJ and the other styles.  So, when you get a bunch of yellow paint in your blue paint and it turns green, do you still call it "blue?"

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Today, calling a grappling art "Brazilian Jiu Jitsu" or "BJJ," is like calling green, "yellow" because that's what you started with.  BJJ schools teach submission grappling. So do Catch Wrestling schools and Sambo schools.  There are subtle stylistic differences - for example BJJ's longer rounds have practitioners grappling at a more relaxed, methodical pace, whereas Catch Wrestling's shorter rounds lead practitioners to move quickly with more power.  But at the end of the day, the vast majority of techniques at all schools, regardless of their style affiliation, are incredibly similar - good schools teach the biomechanics that work.  Strategy & Motion does not subscribe to a particular brand - though for safety, we do train at the relaxed "BJJ" pace.  But the techniques at Strategy & Motion are the same ones you will find today at most quality schools of submission grappling, regardless of the school's style affiliation, and the added insight on biomechanics we have from parkour and movement training allows us to offer some of the most technically effective versions of those techniques.

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Do all the Course teach Strategic Thinking?​

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While parkour involves split-second decision making, and the martial arts and fencing require tactical decision making and offer many analogies for strategic situations, only the dedicated "Strategy & Motion" course offers a comprehensive Strategy curriculum.  

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