Archetypes and why I love Emily Kwok!

While in graduate school and covering theory work, I was drawn to the work of C.G. Jung and later to the work of Joseph Campbell. In that work, he covers how the stories of mythos later create patterns or archetypes, images, that later create the stories of human interaction: hero, villian, etc. Later while reading Robert Bly, the male archetypes of "Sorcerer, King, Warrior and Prophet" were discovered. Meaning, that according to Bly, each man has these archetypes present in his soul, but in varying levels. I believe that we have archetypes in jiujitsu as well. I haven't fully developed the ideas yet, but images of Passer, Sweeper, Subber and Athlete come to mind.

I have spoken a few times about my relationship with Bill the Supple Leopard and how he epitomizes, technical, small guy jiujitsu. Now, I am anything but a small guy. Not huge, but not small either. At 5'10" and floating between 195-205#, I started jiujitsu closer to 260#. Since that time, I have become to identify and study, more like devour the jiujitsu of Bill the supple leopard, Marcelo Garcia and Emily Kwok. Since watching her and Stephan Kestings seminal work "How to defeat the Bigger, Stronger Opponent", I have picked up so many easily implementable and fantastic techniques, concepts and strategies since now I have 50/50 chances of encountering individuals on the mat smaller or larger than I.  As an older athlete, I am ALWAYS operating from a deficit, and it isn't just in size. It is either size, as their are athletes in my academy, way bigger than I am. Or it is in age, as the common practice age in the academy is about 20 years younger than I am, or it is in skill, strength or in speed. What appeals to me so much about this dvd is that it offers strategies and movements that not only benefit a smaller jiujitsuka, but in my opinion, an older one as well. As we age, we cannot necessarily build more strength or more speed, but I am convinced we can refine movement. This is the one of the last areas that aging warriors like me can at least hold our own.

How I have come to respect the work of Emily and others like her due to the fact that she operates at a world class level in spite of even greater deficits than I. The beauty of jiujitsu is that it offers everyone a fighting chance. Our archetypes are woven and fabricated due to the stories of others.

Pick up this DVD!