Young masters: When we think of martial arts masters the image that usually comes to mind is that of a wizened Pei Mei type talking like Yoda and recounting many decades of knowledge of the art. In fact reality is quite different. Mastery is not a reflection of your physical age, but rather THE NUMBER AND QUALITY OF HOURS OF PRACTICE you have behind you. This means that it is possible to get deeply impressive levels of mastery at a young age. Gordon Ryan and Craig Jones are in their mid twenties, yet they have each spent so much time on the mats and done so in such an efficient and progressive manner that I have no doubts whatsoever that both can be considered true masters of grappling. Their knowledge level of everything from strategy, tactics, mechanics and training methodology of grappling is as good or better than masters twice their physical age. The key to this notion of young mastery is practice time and practice quality. Only when large amounts of time where each session BUILDS UPON THE LAST IN A PROGRESSION TOWARDS A GOAL does one see early mastery. I see in these young athletes a level of knowledge that usually takes much longer to accumulate. When you come to assess your progress, don't get distracted by insignificant factors such as your physical age, how many years you have been training etc etc. Focus on the only factor that counts – how much time spent in progressive high quality training have you accumulated? Be confident that well planned training can get you towards mastery in fewer years than our common images of martial arts mastery suggest and that there are many youngsters out there with extremely impressive levels of mastery – perhaps one day you can be one of them!
