Posts Tagged ‘Richard Norton’
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Once again GSW had the immense pleasure of hosting another BJJ Black Belt under the Machado Brothers.
Richard Norton is known by many in the Martial Arts world as a Action Movie Star who has appeared in over 60 movies, alongside greats such as Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yasuaki Kurata, Benny “the Jet” Urquidez, Don “The Dragon” Wilson, and Cynthia Rothrock. But personally Richard is more than just a name and a face on the big screen.
In 1996 Ko and I traveled to Geelong to attend seminars by Jean Jaques Machado run at John Will’s academy. Richard Norton was in attendance as well and he took the time to assist us both as we struggled with the concepts and ideas that JJM was trying to instill in us. It was a profound time in our training. Meeting legends in the Martial Arts and forging stronger ties with our coach John Will.
Recently Richard has returned to Australia from his home in LA to start work on Mad Max 4. Richard also started running seminars for local Martial Arts Schools, so I approached him about coming to NZ for a couple of sessions at GSW.
Richard ran 2 sessions for the GSW crew, one for the white belts and one for the coloured. As we have had so many sessions with John Will we did not know what to expect from Richard. But very quickly it became clear that while Richards teaching style was different from John’s, his skill and ability was beyond awesome.
While I was personally disappointed with the turn-out from both the GSW crew and our associated schools, the students that did attend were rewarded with an inspiring and thought provoking set of skills and drills. Richard was engaging and entertaining in his delivery and, like John, his stories and anecdotes reminded us why we are so privileged to be a Machado school.
Through our association with John Will and BJJ Australasia, we have been granted access to BJJ royalty and those that were there at the beginning of the BJJ revolution as we know it. Not only can we claim a direct link to the source but we have trained with those that help create the BJJ that we know and love.
Richard session covered many topics as he gave us what he called his ‘tea tasting’ in other words a broad range of skills and insights into concepts for our games.
For me personally it was a great look at things from a different perspective and the next day the feedback from everyone has been nothing short of astounding. Everyone knows that John Will is the very best coach and we are well versed in John’s delivery and execution of his seminars, which is why they now cater for 80+ people, but Richard provided a fresh insight into old skills and new twists and tweaks as well as new concepts. invigorating to say the least.
I won’t run through a list of what he covered as the group that made the effort can claim those things as their own, this is not a hiding of skills or a keeping of secret knowledge but an acknowledgment to those the gave up their time and took a punt on the unknown.
Richard also ran a session for the local Zen Do Kai students and instructors, held at GSW. Through sheer diplomacy I will keep my opinions to myself, other than this.
I cannot express how validated I feel in my decision to run GSW as I do, our mat culture is awesome and the people who attend our classes and fit the ideals of the school should hold their heads high and revel in their ability to absorb information and encourage the outpouring that this attitude inspires in our visiting instructors. You Guys and Girls rock.
Photos from the sessions can be found on our flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25573780@N02/>>
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