What We Can Offer YOU-

• If you are looking for a martial arts, fitness and health based training programme that is not going to make you more stressed out than life already does,
  
• If you are looking for a martial arts, fitness and health programme where you work with people rather than against them
• If you are looking for a martial arts, health and fitness programme that encourages you to be creative, free to experiment and discover- 

 
PlAYing At Martial Arts-
PLAY in today’s hypercompetitive driven society, is often viewed by adults as fooling around or an attempt to escape things (Such as reality). PLAY is seen, unless enacted by children simply a waste of valuable time. People believe that there are more quantifiable things to achieve in life and there is either no need or time for PLAY. In mixed martial arts the branch of martial arts we come from, this seems to have become the prevailing view. People strive for titles, dominance and victory over whom they can beat as a measure of their success. It is our view  that in martial arts today (& fitness training) the essence of PLAY has been lost.

Could They Be Wrong?
Could some of the greatest thinkers, artists and social commentators in the history of mankind be so wrong?

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”
Plato (Ancient Greek Philosopher He was the world's most influential philosopher. 428 BC-348 BC)

“Play is the only way that the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold.” -Joseph Chilton Pearce

“Play has been man's most useful preoccupation.”
-Frank Caplan

“It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.”
-Leo F. Buscaglia

“When we come together to play and be, we are truly ourselves.When we are truly ourselves it is wonderful and when we act collectively in that wonder, we do transformative work for our community and our world.”
-Brad Colby  

“Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself”
-Miles Davis (American jazz musician, 1926-1991)

"The truly great advances of this generation will be made by those who can make outrageous connections, and only a mind which knows how to play can do that."
-Nagle Jackson

The Truth About PLAY
In recent years a growing number of noted mental health professionals have observed that play is as important to human happiness and well being as love and work (Schaefer, 1993).

Neuroscientists, developmental biologists, psychologists, and scientists from every point on the scientific compass - have recently begun viewing play as a profound biological process.

Some of the greatest thinkers of all time, including Aristotle and Plato, have reflected on why play is so fundamental in our lives.

Play re-establishes,

• Trust
  
• Safety and adaptation to the unexpected or complex!
• Play also makes us smarter and more adaptable.
• Spontaneous PLAY, prepares individuals to cope with life stress.
  

Would you not want to experience these benefits for yourself?

Why has this then been forgotten by so many adults?

Perhaps the truth of PLAY has been buried in the usual win-lose contests that characterize most adult negotiations and sports.

What We Believe And What We Coach at The PMA-Life Studio is that-

• The opposite of Winning is PLAY.
• The opposite of hyper-competitivness is COOPERATION.
• The opposite of stress is the FREEDOM TO MAKE MISTAKES & GROW FROM IT.
  

Kane, P (2004). The Play Ethic: A Manifesto For A Different Way Of Living. London: Macmillan
Website: Association For Play Therapy (http://www.a4pt.org)
Website: The National Institute For Play (http://nifplay.org)