Rick’s Blog June 9, 2014: The Progression Map
We recently added a Progression Map to the website and this is something I feel is very exciting and so helpful to those joining our site.
A few weekends ago I had the best time at a two day seminar taught by Rory Miller and hosted by Randy King. Not only was the learning awesome but I got to cross arms with a lot of great and talented people.
A few times I was asked “how do you do what you do?” I took this as a nice complement considering the skill level of the people asking.
Well, I do what I do because I have worked though all the stages of the Progression Map putting in the time and effort to work each section and add those Principles to how I do things.
I would love to say the Map is my creation but I saw the tool on a TED talk and thought WOW that is an amazing way to organize what you teach and better yet it is a fantastic way for someone to find their way around our website.
It took a tremendous amount of work to organize it into the proper progression and it was a real learning experience for me as well. I would put Skill C into a cell then realize that cell is before this one with Skill A and you need Skill A before C so that had to change.
The Progression Map will continue to evolve and expand but right now it is up and functional and available for those who belong to my site. Unfortunately we don’t have a way to make it visible to non-members yet, so I hope the screen shot comes through okay in this.
Here is a description of how it works and the screen shot:
• Start on the left hand side and click on the first cell “Stacked and vertical = balanced” and it will take you to a video clip (just couple go to a document) to explain that principle.
• Once you self evaluate and feel you understand and can do the principle you can then move to right.
• Each row is organized to move them along through a similar set of principles i.e. the first row deals with centering, the second movement, the third and fourth striking etc.
• Each column has skills or principles or drills that are either equivalent in complexity (can be worked on at the same time) or are needed before moving to the next column. The drills in the same column complement the principles.
So you start on the left and learn the body mechanics and skills in that column before moving to the next column.
This way anyone coming into the site knows where to start and how to progress through the clips.
I have designed the Map so that what I do for self defence can be learned from it.
There is a row for my foundation style Uechi Ryu Pwangainuun Karate Jutsu and I personally feel that portion aids learning the rest but it is optional.
Some cells do not have hyperlinks yet but they are coming. The Map will continue to grow.
Hope you enjoy this glimpse and I am looking forward to members of the site giving me more feedback to improve our Map further.