New environment – new perspective: I have always loved to teach in a new venue to strangers. I spend the vast majority of my teaching time in the basement of rga with my long suffering students. It is always a fascinating change of pace for me to go to a new venue and teach strangers (and doubtless a relief to my poor students back home ). When I go to a new room to teach, my intention is not merely to show a set of techniques, but always to show a new mental framework within which those techniques are housed and arranged. In truth, the most influential visiting teachers when I was a beginner were not those who showed me techniques- techniques come and go as your game changes and evolves – it was those who made me look at the sport in a new way that inspired me to look into and research some part of it in a way that created positive change and growth. It was CHANGE IN PERSPECTIVE , rather than learning new tricks, that had the greatest benefit for me. I always try to reflect this when traveling and teaching. As a stranger it is unlikely that I can, in the time available, create substantial and lasting improvements to your technique- I have no doubt that I can improve them, perhaps even substantially improve them, but in a single session I cannot give you the heel hooking skill of my best students. One thing I can do however, is change your perspective and introduce new modes of thinking that can in time, with sufficient dedication on your part, point you in directions that can create real improvement and lasting change. I try to use the techniques to show a way of thinking about development which will create improvements not for a single day, but for as long as those ideas interest you. Here I teach at my good friend and former class mate at RGA, shawn williams, at his school in LA. Because Mr Williams and I share a common history and philosophy, it's not so different as other schools I visit, but still, the notion of using techniques, not as an end in themselves, but rather as a vehicle for a new perspective on a given part of the sport, is the same. Just sixteen hours after this photo was taken in LA I was back in the blue basement in NYC teaching class
