Appearance and reality: One of the best aspects of a life in the martial arts is the characters who surround us. A notable feature of many of these characters is the degree to which they appear quite harmless to the average person, but are absolute killers in reality. Most people put a great value on appearance as the basis of fighting ability, but if our time on the mat teaches us one thing – it is that appearances can be very deceiving! Sometimes appearances ARE accurate. Ryan Gracie looked like he could defeat an entire football team singlehandedly and could. However, his brother Renzo, my sensei, looks like a friendly fellow of average build who most people would overlook as a threat prior to fighting – yet he was every bit as deadly. I always remember the story of my student Eddie Cummings first trip to tristar gym in Montreal. Mr Cummings had been winning many local tournaments and was now in demand for seminars. I encouraged him to go to tristar – home of Georges St-Pierre, where many mma fighters work out. On the day of the seminar, Mr Cummings arrived and saw the promotional poster in the wall. It featured a photo of him ripping a mans leg off and his nickname WOLVERINE SEMINAR” was used. Many people had come and now Mr Cummings went to the front desk and asked to go in to get changed into rashguard and shorts. The person behind the desk was used to MMA fighters with powerful physiques and Mohawks- he said “ok
