Scott Sonnon Interview: Tactical Gymnastics

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From Scott Sonnon:

Scott Sonnon is a martial art expert, creator of The Saddle SAMBO System, fitness coach, dyslexia advocate, and wellness speaker.

Hi gymnasts and athletes,

This has been a long time coming. And I want to give you a free taste of whatʼs to come
so that once again you feel comfortable that Iʼm providing you with high-quality, no-nonsense tactical fitness. But before we get to that, let me tell you how we got here,
why Iʼm went through all the trouble of putting this into a new release, and why Iʼve
expanded the TACFIT fleet with the release of Tactical Gymnastics.

TACGYM is the end result of several evolutions of material. A few bitter people complain
that I continually repackage my prior work (and what I learned from my teachers).
Theyʼre right. There is a reason for this, and Iʼll explains if youʼre interested.

If not, then just scroll down and get the free book and videos to see for yourself that this
is a uniquely innovative iteration in my coaching development and the ongoing
refinement of the TACFIT system, and the CST philosophy in general.

All of this started when I began athletics and found that due to my physical and learning disabilities that I needed to exploit every training technology possible in order to approach and exceed my genetic superiors. I needed to dissect a skill; find its trainable components; strengthen and hone those nuances; and plug them back into the larger tactical application to assess the performance enhancement. So, you see my formula: thereʼs science involved, but it was and is just as much a journey of discovery as it is a calculated and researched hypothesis.

I needed to be better. But over the years, I found that I wasnʼt the only one like this. Certainly 15% of the athletes and operators out there performed well in spite of ineffective coaching and training methodologies. Certainly, TACGYM can help them, but this isnʼt necessarily designed, or rather, it hasnʼt evolved for their (lack of) needs. Youʼll see my signature coaching approach embedded in TACGYM and can sample it to confirm the high quality with which youʼve become expectant in all TACFIT courses.

 

I researched all manner of alternate movement modalities with my parent’s aid: Korean Chisanbop, Total Physical Response, Suzuki Method (across 7 instruments), and later Montessori Method, Feldenkrais Method, Laban Movement Analysis, and Alexander Technique. Each provided me with additional tools.

When I began my martial art education, I took these tools and my remedial “baby step” process and applied it to my study and practice. The results accelerated my internalization of the complex movements I learned in Chinese Pa Qua Chang Kungfu, Japanese Aikido, Korean Tae Kwon Do, and American Catch as Catch Can wrestling.

But when in Russia, studying their approach to combat biomechanics with my teacher, General Alexander Retuinskih, that I was able to begin systematizing my coaching approach and the movement palette I was compiling and creating. It began with Zdorovye – the Russian Natural Health System. You can see in Zdorovye the influence of Russian and Cossack martial dance upon their study of human movement in combat.

But as my study expanded to include not only those initial martial art approaches, but movements from Indonesian Silat, French Parkour, Brazilian Gymnastics Natural, Persian Zurkhaneh, and Indian Vyayam, my approach evolved into the Grapplers Toolbox. We are all human. No one culture has a monopoly on any particular movement. How do these movements all connect and coordinate? The GTB and later my book “Body-Flow Freedom from Fear-Reactivity” evolved as an expression of my coaching development to sew these widely-dispersed threads of power and grace into one tapestry.

If this history isnʼt important to you, just scroll down to get the free video and book and skip it. Itʼs are only interesting if you like to know where this all comes from.

That iteration provided very useful motor learning tools and technologies, but I needed
to refine the structural alignment of the dance-like positions. Some of the movements
were being performed for conditioning only. I wanted to focus on the integration of the
movement and breath with precise structural alignment. Thatʼs when I dove deeply into
my Hatha Yoga, the oldest form of biomechanics. The result of that exploration was
Prasara Yoga.

In Prasara Yoga, I had refined an approach to integrating movement, structure, and
breath in such a way that any two or more postures could immediately be brought into
the flow. And any sport or tactical skill could be dissected, refurbished, and rebuilt using a
customized Prasara flow. These coaching tools and training technologies comprise the
central thesis in the Circular Strength Training System.

But in the tactical realm, the people I teach really werenʼt interested in full-blown yoga
classes, or a several-year commitment to exploring their physical well-being. It was just
too touchy-feely for most people, especially when some people attached the stigma of
hatha yoga being a “Hindu” religious method. It doesnʼt need to be. The movements can
be denuded of any cultural or religious relevance. Remember Body-Flow: weʼre all
human, and no one group has a monopoly on any movement.

The Spartan Challenge is a bodyweight-only workout that moves the body through its full range of motion. This isnʼt a one-dimensional exercise that can only be performed on machines costing tens of thousands of dollars. You can perform this anywhere, anytime.

As Iʼve traveled the globe training with the greatest teachers in their respective disciplines, the most effective fitness methods answered: What are you fit for? Are you fit for your life? Are you fit to move through all environments you need to, navigating any obstacle, hazard, or challenge with ease and imagination? Thatʼs how the men and women I train define fitness.

Now, you donʼt need to be an ultimate fighter or an elite commando in order to take the challenge. Iʼve also provided a basic level progression, so that anyone, even if you havenʼt done any bodyweight exercise since elementary grade school, can perform.

And thatʼs really what I wanted to showcase for you with this free book and video: that given sufficiently incremental enough of a baby step, anyone can develop the fitness levels they dream of. Dreams donʼt appear from thin air. Thereʼs work to be done. But intelligent progression creates the opportunity for errorless development.

My goal has always been to provide other people like myself who need to exploit all of the training technologies possible to succeed, what Iʼve culled from the great teachers Iʼve had the honor of studying with around the globe.

Sure, you could do the same as I have and travel around, finding the greatest coaches possible, memorizing their contributions, dissecting their teachings, and through years of trial and error develop a concise, no-fluff method for maximizing the results and minimizing the details, but I hope, with this upcoming release of Tactical Gymnastics, that you will no longer feel that the only way for you to succeed is if you would do so.

Listen, I could certainly keep my discoveries to myself. I make a great living teaching my units, teams, and agencies. And itʼs an incredible honor to do so. But I believe everyone should have access to these discoveries. Insights kept are wasted. And the insights my teachers have given me feel like uncontainable abundance. Okay, thatʼs a bit too hippie a concept for some, but my experience has been that I have a duty to share what Iʼve learned, to honor my teachers as much as to have the privilege of providing others with the highest quality technologies possible. So, I canʼt really contain this.

Grab your copy of my free book and video, and Iʼll let you know about the free full deluxe packages of Tactical Gymnastics that Iʼm going to give away in a few days.

—> Download the TACFIT Spartan Challenge (book and videos) <—–

tacfit spartan challenge
From Scott Sonnon:

Welcome back CST pros and TACFIT athletes!

A few of you received some of the leaked footage over the past months of what Iʼve been up to in the RMAX laboratories. So, you may have already been anticipating this
announcement. If you are, thanks for being so patient. I promise that in the next few
days, Iʼll release the full package with what I believe to be the best bonus material Iʼve ever published.

Just hang in there. I promise itʼll be worth the wait, while we get the extra servers online
so we donʼt “break the internet” like the infamous Commando surge which caused one
of our ISPs to send us an invoice to replace their fried servers from thousands of hits
per second. LOL. No, that wonʼt happen again. Promise.

For those of you that arenʼt privy to the leaks on Facebook and Youtube, then just scroll
down and download the free book and videos: the TACFIT Spartan Challenge: Defeat the beast.

No obligations. Just quality programming, intelligent coaching progression, and
unique and innovative bodyweight-only tactical fitness that you can do “anywhere,
anytime.”

—> Download the TACFIT Spartan Challenge (book and videos)<—–

Get the book, access your Body-Flow, and discover its wisdom as your own. May the Flow be with you… and Be you.