Interview with Mark Twight - part 3

Sabina: This will be the first ever certification course ran outside your facility in SLC. What can we expect from the seminar in London?

Mark: We teach our military clients off-site quite a lot so we know the location and resources influence the tone of a course. And in that same context the culture of an organization, or in this case, a nation will affect the trajectory of the curriculum and how we present it. Our seminars feature a heavy educational or classroom component. If one understands which actions produce what results, and is familiar with the guiding principles and philosophy of training, the physical part falls into place naturally. If one learns how to analyze and dissect particular sports and activities, and is able to assess individuals and their abilities then planning the training is easy. When one becomes familiar with the Gym Jones definitions of hard, or easy, or adequate and modifies expectations to match then the training changes accordingly.

On the other hand our seminars are physical because certain classroom lessons must be reinforced, and of course, we must be sure to grab the students’ attention. We teach movements, most of which are familiar. More importantly we emphasize range of motion and proper form: not out of righteousness but instead to protect students from their own habits, to injury-proof them. Look around you; no one picks up a light weight with respect because in fresh condition it’s not heavy enough to hurt them. But what happens when a person is tired, distracted, in a hurry, threatened or it’s heavier or less stable than expected? He or she resorts to what has been practiced, to habit. Thousands of poorly executed repetitions take years to overwrite. So let’s get started now.

The seminar will be tiring, physically and mentally. We call it “basic” or “level one” because we have to call it something but even in four days the deep water cannot be plumbed. We’ve had people go through three or four of our 5-day seminars over a two-year period and learn more every single time.