Some of the old letters are up on Morris No Holds Barred.  A lot more archive material yet to come, but Trish is working on it.

We've been working on the site and Trish has just uploaded a new version of Morris No Holds Barred.  It's not complete yet and it needs a few tweaks, so please bear with us.

There's going to be a lot of new content in the Fighting Arts Alliance section, which is going to be reserved for members of the organisation I've been referring to.  More about that in the coming weeks. 

We also have a new DVD out, the second in the One on One series.  It's much in the manner of Round Kick Clinic, which is one of our most popular titles.  More about that soon--we're just working on the glitches on the site right now.

By the way, we've made significant reductions in the prices of most of the DVD titles to make way for more new stuff that's in the pipeline. 

Recently I've had a few people add me as a friend, and when I go to their profile to find out who they are, it's empty.  If you want to comment on the blog, I need to know who you are as a martial artist.  That's why I've locked the comments to friends only.  So, to put you on my friends list I need to see a description of you on your user profile that tells me who you are in martial art terms.  I don't mind if you're a beginner or whatever, it's not about that.  It's about keeping the comments on the blog on-topic with regard to serious martial arts.  That's also why I screen comments.

I'm happy to take questions on the Q&A thread or in the comments thread.  New people are always welcome.

We put a link in the sidebar of the blog on the left hand side of the page to access the Q&A thread directly.  I've answered a question about overtraining today.  New questions and answers will be noted in the sidebar.

We also added a small training calendar in the same sidebar.  You can see what open courses are coming up at a glance.

The computer we normally use for e-mail and internet broke down yesterday.  Whatever DVD orders were pending may be delayed for a few days, because the labelling software etc. is on that computer.  Trish will be in touch with you if you have an open order.  Meanwhile, I haven't got anybody's e-mail address or any of my usual files.  If you sent me an e-mail recently that you need a response to, please re-send it and we can pick it up off the laptop. 

I've been getting questions in e-mail, and sometimes I think the information I'm giving out privately might also be good to see on the blog.  So I'll open a thread here that lets people who comment on this blog ask questions.  If you're on my friends list, you can ask a question.  If you're not on my friends list and want to be, then get a free livejournal account and post an introduction to yourself on your own blog, then friend me.  In most cases I'll friend you back.

I'd be happy to take questions about training, technical stuff, anything fight-related.  To get an idea of the kinds of questions people have asked in the past, check out the letters page on my website.

Post your question in the comments on this post.  I screen all comments to start with, so it might not show up right away depending on whether I'm at the computer or not. 

I have a hard time keeping track of e-mails, so unless your question is very personal I'd rather see you post it here.

This post can be accessed in one click from the sidebar on the left side of the page.

Thanks for the comments, Tommy, Ken and Dave, and your questions.  Rather than responding in the comments, I'll need to write another post because there's still a central issue that I need to get across to you.

I had a really good weekend.  A big session at Loughborough with its incredible facilities and a diverse mix of people.  And a really intense day yesterday at Mark Woodard's.  If anybody attending those sessions can send me an e-mail with their thoughts about the session, I'll see if include any of that on the blog.  So write in and let me know what you thought.

I'll be blogging on both these subjects from tomorrow onwards. 

Just to make it clear: there is NO PRIMAL tomorrow 18 January, and the course on the 25 has been moved to Mark Woodard's in Gloucester (see my previous post).

A couple of points for anybody who's coming to Primal for the open session this Sunday.

We will be doing some weapons work, but it's not necessary to bring a lot of stuff.  If you have a training knife, bring that.  If you don't we can improvise. 

Equipment you should bring if you have it:

Skipping rope
Gum shield
Groin protector
Head guard
Bag gloves
MMA mitts
Boxing gloves
Thai pads

If you don't have the stuff, we can get by without it.  If you have it, bring it.

We'll be doing the full spectrum of work from Primal, but for those who aren't familiar with this kind of training, we'll help you through it.

The next open session will be on 25 January.

Just when I was starting to figure out how to use the mobile I've had for two years, guess what?  I've lost it.

Anybody who has that number, don't bother using it anymore.  If you've got the old number and need the new one, drop me a line and as soon as I've got a new phone I'll let you have the number.

On the brighter side, we had a real good training day at Primal and I have some new ideas, which I'll post about probably this week.  I've also got a technical post to go up in the next day or so.  

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been doing some thinking about the attendance at Primal.  I have a core group that I can rely on, but it's a very small core.  Nearly everyone else seems to be occasional visitors, or people who come once and I never see them again.

My main guys are paying for the month and then they're seeing people who come for one session, and get what amounts to a 4 hour private lesson for only £25, and then never (or rarely) do we see them again.  And they feel that it isn't right.  So do I. 

I've thought through all kinds of permutations on how to structure the fees, but it was getting very complicated.  So I've decided to do something simple.

The group at Primal seems destined, at this point, to remain small.  Therefore, the lessons are practically private lessons.  So I'm going to structure the fees to facilitate my regular guys training, but still leave the door open for people who want to come and try it out.  I'm not going to give special rates for one lesson the way I was doing in the past.  It just doesn't benefit me, or my guys.

So on this basis, I'm going to charge a flat fee of £60 for four weeks in advance.  This means that for those who only come for one lesson, you're paying rates much less than what I was charging for a private lesson, but you're still getting my full attention as an individual. 

For those who come regularly, the deal gets better the more you come.

If you are running a club, then you and I need to have a sit-down and talk about where you want to go and where I fit in.  I'm only going to work with instructors on a basis that we can both be happy with.  What this means will vary depending upon your circumstances.

One final note: I'm committed to keeping Primal going and moving forward all the time, as long there are guys like Rob, Rory, Spence and Dan who are prepared to take the journey with me.  I really don't make money off Primal.  The gym has to be paid for, my travel has to be paid for and if you do the math you can see that I'm never going to get rich this way. 

I'm trying to set up an arrangement that is fair to everybody--especially me!

In recent weeks I've been able to get some extra time at the computer, and I'm going to be posting more frequently.  After each post I tend to get e-mails from people who have read it, and I'm seeing that it would be good if I could make the blog more interactive.  I don't want to have a forum because that's too much work, but I've decided to try opening up the blog to comments on a conditional basis.

I've learned about this from Trish, who blogs on Livejournal also.  There is a friends-only option for both posts and comments. You can open up a free Livejournal account and add me to your friends list.  If you identify yourself either as somebody I know/train with, etc. or provide your real-world information with a description of yourself in martial art terms, then I'll friend you back.  I'm looking to keep the friends list restricted to people who are prepared to identify themselves in martial arts terms.  I'll only friend you back if I know you personally or if I can see from your user profile who you are.  No trolls or secret identities, in other words. 

Once you're on my friends list, you'll be able to comment on the posts.  If questions arise in the comments, I can address them on the blog as well.  Also, there's a potential to create a closed discussion among friends only, where the posts aren't visible to the internet at large.  This would be ideal for training groups, etc.  There are a lot of possible options for how we can share information. 

It's an experiment, like everything I do. 

Opening a Livejournal account is very easy.  Just go to http:///www.livejournal.com and fill out your user profile.  When I see you on my friends list, I'll go over and check our your profile.