Just come home from a weekend in Sydney at the Australian Martial Arts Industry Supershow. I taught an Alpha MMA class and a Anti-bully (zero striking solutions) workshop. Everyone seemed pretty excited about them – it was a heartwarming weekend, with forty or fifty people taking time to personally introduce themselves and thank me for the classes. The pleasure was all mine – truly.I also feel very honoured to have received the Industry’s Lifetime Contribution Award – a humbling experience and one that I feel pretty good about. As I mentioned briefly upon receipt of the award, for me, it has always been about the ‘passion’ – I simply love the evolutionary process, the analysis, the research, the training, the teaching – pretty much every aspect of the martial arts. It has, and continues to be, a very exciting and powerfully intoxicating journey for me. So thank you to all concerned – and there were quite a few people involved in making that happen! Thanks especially to Fari Salievski, for putting the event together – thanks to Marc Herbert, for editing the amazing video montage that they screened on Saturday (where the hell did you get those photos from?) – and thanks to my wife Melissa for keeping the secret from me so well.
My good friend Richard Norton was also there – he was taking one of the last classes of the weekend as I was leaving for the airport. For those who haven’t met him, he is truly a ‘class act’. If you ever get the opportunity to get on the mat and be taught by him – DO NOT PASS THE OPPORTUNITY UP! He is one of the most inspirational martial artists you could ever hope to meet – Aussie-grown – and we should all be prouder for having him represent us on his travels.
I’m writing this on the plane – we are about to hit descent, so I’m away. Once again, thank you everyone for making that one GREAT weekend. Well done Fari!
Best wishes all,
JBW
