Found an old post of Rodney's from this site. I have bolded the sections which I found particularly interesting.:
Hi Jeff,
I think Phil and the guys answered this really well. Here is my 2 cents
I believe this is an important post and it is in answer to questions posted on this forum and others. The HUGE and I mean HUGE misconception out there amongst those who have limited training or understanding of CM is that CM is only the defensive positioning of the hands near the top of the head. This could not be further from the truth. This has been perpetuated by those who came to one of my seminars years ago or a seminar where I was specifically asked or told only to coach that part of the CM. Just another reason I have gone on my own- if anyone attends one of my seminars today they will realize straight away that CM is a whole lot more than they thought it was.
Secondly to this, what I coach on my DVD's is not the whole CM. With the exception of the sparring 101 DVD most of the information I put out on CM was to help people improve their defense, something I felt was lacking in MA/MMA. However if you chat to any one of my athletes they will tell you that on any given night at my gym we work the entire game from stand-up, clinch to the ground. We work at times self-preservation against weapons and so forth. All of this encompasses what we term the CM Defense Program. I recently read of a guy who taught a seminar in the UK, he called an athlete out who knew CM and went on to show how useless CM was against a blade…. this is exactly what irritates me about MA as an industry- idiots who don't know what they are talking about. This instructor simply showed his ignorance of the CM Defense Program- thinking that the defensive hand posture was all there was to it. Not to mention that I view it as a compliment that he feels CM is such a threat to what he does, that he needed to take time out of his own international seminar to discredit it
Sure the name Crazy Monkey came from that hand positioning and was it not for a very good friend of mine who went on Safari who witnessed a troop of monkey's doing a similar action while defending themselves from another invading troop- the name would probably not exist today. When we talk about the CM today we talk about the CM Defense Program. The CM hand position is only and in fact less than 1% of the total amount of the entire PROGRAM. Those who train with me on a regular basis- know that outside of what makes CM obvious and notable are the more integral and most important components of the vehicle we call CM Defense Program.
I am going to outline things here otherwise it will take pages (The www.mymalife.com membership program outlines these better).
- CM has its very own coaching & teaching style. The way we coach is very different to most other MA or MMA training groups. We believe in intelligent training initiatives, client focused and most importantly performance based- but set out in such a way that it encompasses a broad spectrum of the MA population (Military, close protection, law enforcement, self-defense, fitness, wellness etc). I am yet to find any other single MA program that has such a wide scope of use, with little or no change to the engine that drives it.
- CM Defense Program is not just the hand defense, but also our own and unique clinch boxing game. The way we approach grappling and Vale Tudo. This also includes and is not limited to elbows, knees and so forth.
- CM Defense Program is one of the very few MA programs that actively coaches and integrates mental game training as a natural process of training in it. Sport and Performance Psychology is a huge part of the CM defense program. But we approach this from a healthy perspective not one driven and fueled by paranoia or religious, mystical nonscence.
This is only a few aspects that make up the CM Defense Program. No disrespect to some of those in the SBG, but most of them have very limited exposure to CM or at least in so far as it extends past just the defensive hand positions to the CM defense Program itself. We don't endorse anyone who coaches our program unless they are part of the STWA or more specifically a CM Defense Program Certified Trainer. Many of the gyms under the STWA banner are still in the process of becoming certified…. I will be putting a list up in the next couple of days of who is actually licensed to coach the CM Defense Program. If you go to one of those trainers and watch one of their classes you will see a very different program that is currently offered by many unlicensed trainers or seminar wanabee coaches.
This is exactly why I have decided to do my own thing, so I can focus on the CM Defense Program, ensure high standards and that clients training in the program are getting the right coaching methodology. A while back a saw a well known MA coach demonstrating my material on a DVD, it was simply crap and is not what I coach. This guy had never trained with me at all but was trained by someone else who never spent much time with me either. All he showed was a very bad version of the CM defensive hand positioning and nothing else. This is what happens when you don't actually train the program yourself and think taking notes on the sideline actually gives you full insight to what is going on
The end of all of this, CM is an entire program, not just the hand positioning that made it famous
Jeff I am happy you found an excellent group to train with, my advice though is this, unless the group is part of STWA, more specifically CERTIFIED and LICENSED in the CM Defense Program don't think for a second that you are getting or seeing the entire package- expect and know it is probably less than 1 percent! Secondly if you do or are getting a chance to train with a CM Defense Program Licensed Trainer- realize that the hand postion that is relatively unique to the program is not the program at all- merely a small percentage of it
When you do see the content out there and the youtube vids, the hand movements seem to be the most distinctive part of CMD so you can't really blame people for thinking that's what CMD is all about. But it's another matter entirely when you profess to rubbish a martial art which you don't fully understand (something that I have unfortunately been guilty of as well).
However I don't see this misconception dying anytime soon until CMD becomes more public about what it teaches. I am unaware if this is intentional or merely just because CMD is a new martial art.
I understand the logic of keeping CMD techniques private especially when there has been a lot of plagiarism and people taking CMD techniques and calling it their own, but I think at the end of the day, it doesn't quite matter.
Anyone can claim that they teach a martial art for e.g. karate, taekwando by looking at the wide amount of material on the subject there but without the proper certification and instruction, what does that amount to? It's not just the techniques that make a martial art, it's the training style , philosophy and the community that evolves around it. That is something that cannot be easily emulated from watching a video.
My personal opinion is that a wider range of CMD material should be made more accessible to the public. When I tried to get my friends to sign up to CMD, they went home to google/youtube it, only saw the boxing elements and decided that it's not for them. In fact, I was under this same misconception myself when I signed up for it!
A larger showcase of what CMD techniques are like would serve to dispel misconceptions of what CMD is without devaluing the benefits of being an official member of the CMD program. Of course there will be haters and people who post criticism of it, but that's unavoidable unfortunately in the martial arts community. What is important is that those who are genuinely interested in CMD get enough information to make an informed decision to give it a go.
