Monday, January 22, 2007

Geeks with social skills

Yesterday, I stumbled over this old clip from my previous gym. Well, I don't really know if I can call it "old", since the material in it is from late 2002 - early 2003.

It struck me, how cool it is, that the guys on the video from back then are the same guys, that I still enjoy training and being with today. Main difference is, that today, they are all top athletes within MMA and BJJ. Really skilled people that inspire me so much in my own training.

We have never had an instructor in our gym to teach us stuff, nor do we have one today. We have always been this little group of guys who have just enjoyed training, exploring, learning and having fun. Learning and evolving as a group is what have kept us together and that is what still keeps us together today, years later. We have evolved together and shared many great moments inside and outside the gym. For that I thank them all.

This little group that started out over 7 years ago has grown bigger along the years, and all these new guys go through the exact same as we did. All enjoying the process of learning and exploring new things. They too will become great athletes and great friends. Will it ever end? I don't think so. And I don't hope it will.

I talked to one of those guys, with whom I have trained with from the beginning, Thomas la Cour. Today, he is one of the best and most intelligent MMA fighters I know of. We talked about what us in this group of people had in common, and it struck us that we all shared a certain combination of two things. All of us have always been - in school, amongst friends, at work etc. - the geeks with social skills. I am sure all of you have had one of those in your class in school. The computer geek, roleplaying geek or school nerd with a high level of social interaction skills. The guys who are becoming a part of our group today are exactly the same. I can spot them from day one and it never fails.

Maybe this is the magic combination for producing highly intelligent fighting athletes? :)



By the way, don't listen to the song, I am a BIGTIME training addict :D

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's funny, while talking to some of the boys from our gym in Roskilde, we concluded the same thing. All the top profiles (in Denmark) as well as in our gym are nerds. It must be something about never letting go of the thoughts - keep thinking and thinking about the passion day and night, always constructing new ideas and trying them out at the gym - also nerds seem to lack that macho mentality that keeps some people from evolving, because they're affraid to lose. Peace out - PiĆ£o.

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