S.p.a.r.s.

Hello all,
I wanted to tell you of a system that has been developed by me called S.P.A.R.S. (Scientific Protective Accelerated Response Systems). It is based offf the nurological impulses our blain sends our body in times of stress such as fear,or in the heat of an attack etc. We deal with more Psycological aspects of the conflict than most CQC systems do. The balance between the physical and mental are 60%mental and 40%physical. We are purely conceptual as concepts cannot not be defeated and techniques can. One of the first things you learn in our system is fear management. A sample lesson for you all is as such. What is FEAR? I have a brief but simple expenation of FEAR. Break down the letters of the word FEAR so each letter stands for somthing. F.E.A.R. False Evidence Appearing Real. It is so true that is all fear really is. Say you were to go skydiving and you stood near the door and were to feel fear inside you as you looked miles to the ground being your first time. Think of the reasons of why you are afraid. Is it because you think your parachute might not open, or you might pummel to the ground and die. These are all preassumed F.E.A.R. It has not happened yet. But yet it seems so real. You have defeated yourself with false evidences of what might happen. Not what is happening. It is important that you understand the CONCEPT of fear and all its counter parts as well. Fear is also an alarm system for you to establish a MENTAL BLUEPRINT, or a game plan. It is easy to see whay concepts are so important. That is just the very first concept we teach.

As for techniques, obviously we need them to defend ourselves. In S.P.A.R.S. (Scientific Protective Accelerated Response Systems) we train in the hand, stick, knife, and gun, as well as a variety of combinations and common articals for that could be used as weapons. We Are experianced in the 7 Ranges of combat. Most systems only have 4. They leave out many ranges need to be successfull in combat. They will be discussed in a later artical. We also deal with 7 ways of attack. Taken a little further and in more detail than other systems.
Our weapon skills are also taught as a reflexive impulse in our training in the use of them in combat. They are also applied in all 7 ranges as well. The firearm is also used in each of the seven ranges and is taught to be used as a weapon even if jammed or empty. Weapon retention is also a part of our cirriculem. Our motto is to be an evolutionary system not a revolutionary system. Strive to never become a fixed system of techniques and learn to base your techniques on CONCEPTS.

Remain Well,
Jason D Blakeman
Founder S.P.A.R.S.

I invite you all to train with me in our 400 acre outdoor facility in Connecticut if you are ever in the area.

[Kit LeBlanc]

Jason,

I have not seen what you do, so I cannot comment on your program. Allow me to make some comments based on your pitch, and meant purely in the spirit of constructive criticism.

If you are intending to target law enforcement and military programs for teaching, I have a concern about your "conceptual" approach. This had better be backed up by kick-ass practical application or you will very quickly lose any interest by operators. The admininstrators may love it, the operators will be the ones that make or break it. Concepts very much can be defeated by a 6'2 230 lb SWAT cop coming through a door and shoving the barrel of an MP 5 into your chest, and who is TRYING to make you look bad in front of his buddies. That is the arena you will have to prove your system in.

Your approach should be geared to the hands on, not to the psycho-babble found in the likes of Inside Kung Fu and Black Belt.

If you are gearing it to professionals, stick with the knives, guns, batons and empty hands. Common household articles used as weapons are far better suited to civilian self defense. Cops and military use guns and knives and distraction devices and won't be interested in picking up the living room lamp.

Using your firearm as a weapon "even if jammed" (the proper term is "malfunctioned," terminology can kill your credibility in front of pros if you use it incorrectly) has some pitfalls, but there are also very innovative ways you can do this.

Again, this is meant constructively. My personal opinion and observations have been that if you do not have extensive live experience in what you are teaching, professionals will probably dismiss what you have to say. With empty hand and edged and impact weapons skills, that is not to say that you may not have good things to teach, nor is it to say that HAVING that extensive live experience means much either, if what you do simply doesn't work well. You probably won't even get listened to by professionals without having some experience.

As you plan to teach firearms, I hope you have people with extensive professional firearms experience to do so. This is much more important that with empty handed/impact weapons skills. Pros will look at your weapons handling and you will be ushered OFF the range if you don't know what you are doing. You can get by teaching accuracy and reloads and such as a competition shooter, but if you are teaching CQB and combat handgunning it is imperative to have military or law enforcement tactical experience.


Kit LeBlanc

Well first off let me say thank you for your input. I is nice to hear your opinion. Second this program is mostly made for the average joe with less time to train than doing a technique over and over to develope the technique into the muscular system. Our approach is much more psycological for obvious reasons. If you are afraid and you let your fear take over your body, your techniques will fail. The mind navigates the body. Not the other way around. Second in our firearms course, Jamming is a term used for less experianced people with little or no firearms training. I can furnish referances for training the Metro North Police Dept. out of N.Y.C. and many members of the USMC as well. I have gotten a very positive response from them all. I am due to teach another seminar for the MNPD in april as well. Our physical techniques are very hard core, simple, and effective, as well as easy to remember. As far as the concepts being defeated, It is the technique being defeated in such situations not the concept. The concept of economy of motion, Fear management, adrenal stress conditioning, etc. they cannot be defeated. The techniques chosen to be used in the situation can. I hope this helped to explain a little more and would like to hear more from you.

Jason Blakeman

[Kit LeBlanc]

Jason,

From your response it sounds like you are off to a good start! Good luck! Any plans for a website to disseminate some more information?

Kit LeBlanc

[Tom Douglas]

So how much of this did you borrow from Tony Blauer, Mr. Bakeman? See www.tonyblauer.com.

Just curious.

Tom Douglas

[Tom Douglas]

Also, I'm sure Jerry Peterson appreciates the similarity to his "S.C.A.R.S." acronym and program. See www.scars.com

[MarkF]

Mr. Blakeman,
Fear is a great motivator. Control of fear at all times is not necessarily proper or even possible.

First, many autonomic body systems, in particular, receptors and chemical downloads and reuptake would have to be controlled.

How is the interruption of downloading, reuptake, and re-reuptake, etc, of serotonin healthy? This is an autonomic process which works or doesn't. Then there is the control of catecholamines, not just adrenocortical control, would have to be accomplished for your system to work.

These are serious considerations, and just about impossible to do, but lets say it can be done. How is fear control a good thing? Fear can save your life, the life of another, and put you on automatic to defend one's self with what you do know. True, the techniques are not what is important, but just how does your system work in this environment?

Controlling fear means to control your blood pressure and controlling the heart rate which balance each other. When your heart rate is low, your pressure will rise. So do the levels of epinephrine and catecholamines, not to mention the corticosteroid release which is necessary for strength, or for the strength of control, not to mention the absence of pain when injured.

What about other receptor sites? The "morphine" receptors to control pain? The benzodiazapine receptors which control seizure? Amino ketones which portect the nervous system in general?

In theory, this is good practice, but appearing calm and being calm are two distinct responses most of us work with.

I just gave a smattering of what "fear control" may entail, but has your theory been put into practice, and if so, were you able to get readings from the nervous, circulatory, and pulmonary systems, not to meantion cardiac output? If you hold your breathe while in this mode, does your heart rate lessen? Are there rales when breathing?

Then there is autonomic control of the more outward signs, such as bladder control and bowel evacuation. Is the fear of looking down the barrel controlled or is it a conditioned reflex such as the aformentioned control of the bladder?

These are extremely important to achieving your goal and the goal of others with simlar systems.

But hey, if you can do it and prove it, where does one sign up?

[Mark Brecht]

Hmmm...

Your sig changed a bit... I remember you claiming some kind of dubious NINJA style... Which did not go to well in the Ninpo section i guess...

Now we have you back with this SPARS ???

Come on...

What is next???

STB

Scientific Tae Bo

:laugh:

[scoundrel]

S.P.E.A.R (Tony Blauer)

S.C.A.R.S. (Jerry Petersen)

S.P.A.R.S.

hmmmm.....

[kenjgood]

My "blain" hurts.

Initially looks like another "cool" Acronym/System for all to contemplate and venerate.

In real estate it is location, location, location. Lately it seems that in the combative arena it has been marketing, marketing, marketing.

Filling my head with newly formulated/reformulated scientific principles framed in pithy sayings and clever turns of phrase, always makes me feel like I shouldn’t have bought that vacuum cleaner from that guy at the county fair.

There is no free lunch, the way is in training, period.

I am skeptical but that is my nature. Hopefully S.P.A.R.S. has more substance than hype.

[Rhomyn Escalante]

Hmmmmmmmmm

[Mark Brecht]

Originally posted by Kurodaiya
I was just curious as to what role do you feel Tradional weapons play in todays society of laws,laws,and more laws, When so many of them cannot be carried without risk of inprisonment or a heafty fine. IMHO I feel that it is just as important today as they were yesterday. they give us an extention to our taijutsu and also honor the tradition as well. I feel that it is very nessicary if one wants to totally gain the essance of ninpo.

__________________
Jason Blakeman
Rokudan
Kurodaiya Ninpo Bugei
jodan
Unryu Sogo Bujutsu/Yuki Ryu Shinobi-no-jutsu


NO COMMENT... :shot:

Ken,

You left this one out....H.M.F.H.L.M.A.O.

Hit my freakin head laughing my ass off.

It convinces the attacker to stop the assault because he's so damn embarrassed


Tobs

P.S. My blain hurts too. :)

[Kolschey]

We Are experianced in the 7 Ranges of combat. Most systems only have 4. They leave out many ranges need to be successfull in combat. They will be discussed in a later artical. We also deal with 7 ways of attack. Taken a little further and in more detail than other systems.


Golly! That sounds almost as good as "One Hundred and fifty percent more cleaning power than the leading brand!" Who writes copy for these Sparring chaps anyway?

[Rhomyn Escalante]

I am sending a Money Order. I would like to buy all of the training tapes of your systems! I have seen C.R.U.N.CH in action and my kids are learning F.A.R.T.S. as we speak. Congrats on moving us to a new level. "You da Man!"

[Neil Hawkins]

What about N.I.N.J.A. - the National Institute for Novice Jujutsu Assassins?

Very good Ken! :D :laugh:

Neil

[kenjgood]

I know we are off the beaten path here, and I promise to nicer in the future....but this is just too good to pass up.


Forgot one more:

S.C.A.R.E.S. - The best of all the S.x.x.x.x.x. systems combined.

Proposed Logo for my new system.

http://surefire.com/images/farts.jpg

sorry if I had not stated this earlier,
I had left the ninjutsu thing a bit back to to some research I have done that Don Roley had encouraged me to do. I found that the history and people concerned in the art were bogus. I decided to continue on the other path I was traveling and learning and experiancing things on earlier as well.

As for the tony blauer thing, I would never discredit him for his hard work or training. He is an innovator and leader in the psycological aspects of street fighting. I have learned much from him both in seminars and tapes and allways refer to him when I teach. Any of my students could tell you that. Im sorry if I had ever offended him on this.

As for S.C.A.R.S I dont know the first thing about it or its founder.

My information that I use in my teachings are a compilation of what I have learned through the people of whom I have been taught. They include RMATC,Paul Vunak,Tony Blauer,and quite a few lesser known people. I have also included many of my own Teachings as well.

I will be sure to clairify any info I put out in the futurer if you all feel it is nessacary to keep the peace. I am not here to make enemies, just friends and exchange info.

Jason Blakeman

[tony blauer]

Mr. Blakeman, yes, please furnish me with your resume and your contacts in New York...

Normally, I would not post directly to this. But you actually made my jaw unhinge more than it ever has, so I was compelled to write you here.

You do realize [actually you mustn't!] that much of your post ecplaining your 'new' system contains not just confusingly similar information from my site, research and system, but you actually use verbiage that is professioanlly linked to BLAUER TACTICAL SYSTEMS research manuals and videos [all of which are protected by copyright].

In the US the penalty for copyright transgressions can run as high as $10,000 per page.

WHile you do return to mention you mean no offense, I can tell you your use of my material - without permission or certification - is very offensive.

You admit using every contemporary innovator's research and sign as the founder of your system...confusing.

If in deed you did learn from me at some seminar, then do the right thing. You need to contact my office and/or fix this - fast. WHile I enjoy making my research available to people around the world, on every video and in every mailing there is an attached disclaimer. It reads:

Special Note to Instructors, School Operators and Senior Ranks:

“It is said, if one does not honor the source of their education, that person has learned nothing.”

In this day and age of information and innovation it is necessary to bring up the issue of Intellectual Property and Copyright. This manual as well as our research is copyrighted and in several places trademarked. You do not have permission to reprint, recite or integrate our information for profit without our consent.

If you are interested in adding any of the TCMS curriculums to your instructional arsenal, do it right. Do it professionally. Be proud of your education; open mind and professional work ethic. Educate with honor and integrity. Learn it directly from the source. We offer personal and correspondence courses for those wishing certification or accreditation.

If you would like to host a seminar or simply have a question or comment, please feel free to contact us at 514.482.1643 or fax 514.488.1698
Or Email blauerhelp@videotron.ca

All rights reserved. No part of this manual or course may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the producer.

Copyright 1994 – 1999 Blauer Tactical Confrontation Management Systems


Pretty plain english. So are the words 'Do the right thing' - fix it.

Tony Blauer
President
BLAUER TACTICAL SYSTEMS

www.tonyblauer.com

S.P.E.A.R. SYSTEM (est. 1988)

[Spontaneous Protection Enabling Accelerated Response]

[Ironmongoose]

Hmm... Letsee. Should I consider the merits of training under someone who purports to integrate neuropsych in his training, and can't spell neurological, and doesn't fill in his profile? Oh, I've got a better idea--let's wrap our gi belts around our necks and pull until it hurts!

Please, Kuro, for your own good, stick to training on your daddy's ranch with your cop and Marine buddies. The more you go for the big time, the more people you're going to run into educated, integrity-conscious people who don't like plagiarists. You'll be increasingly hard pressed to find folks who are ignorant of Blauer's system.

To others, most of what you've read of Kurodaiya's is from the audios and videos at tonyblauer.com. I promise you that placed in context, their relevance is quite evident. I highly respect Mr. Blauer. He is one of only two or three CQC contract trainers endorsed by aslet.org 's Seal of Approval Program.

I'm a civilian and not a big gun/DT guy, but I've been given to understand that the most common malfunctions are failure to fire, stove pipe, failure to go into battery, and feedway stoppage. (Lonsdale, M. V. (1991). _CQB: A guide to unarmed combat and close quarter shooting_ Los Angeles: STTU.)

You see how easy it is to cite your sources? Try it sometime, Kurodaiya. As an educator, I'd pity you if I weren't so outraged.

IM

"If one does not honor the source of their education, that person has learned nothing."

[Neil Hawkins]

Iron Mongoose

Welcome to E-Budo and thank you for your input, I must point out however that it is a rule on this board to post with your full name.

The easiest way is to set up a signature in your profile, that way you don't have to keep remembering.

Regards

Neil

[elevasseur]

What you call the S.p.a.r.s system as been in existence for many years.
You should look up M. Tony Blauer's material (Just do a search with the name Tony Blauer on the internet).
There's nothing new there.

Eric Levasseur

[Sean Mulligan]

Jason,

Since you have not returned to defend your 'honor', I will have to assume that you've been compromised. It is obvious through the initial and follow up responses that although you have acquired the jargon, you seem to be lost as to how to reference this newly found information. This unfortunately will put those who had faith in you and 'your system' in danger should they actually have to use this material to protect themselves.

Do the right thing, revisit the forums that you occupied with this plagiarized material and retract your statements with an apology to the original source(s). If you act now, you may be able to avoid further embarrassment and legal repercussions. If you are sincerely interested in teaching/coaching/instructing this material, please contact the proper agencies, receive the training, and do it properly.

For those of you who have been caught up in this, please visit www.tonyblauer.com for yourself and see what we are referring to.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sean Mulligan
Blauer Tactical Systems
S.P.E.A.R. System Instructor
PDR Coach

[kenjgood]

I noticed my not so eloquently written post on all the various potential new systems, that could be derived by using germane acronyms was recently removed. Rightfully so, it was a bit over the top. Still think it was funny though....Some posts will not be in context.

It was a manifestation of a personal frustration…..Will you ever forgive me?

There are so many that want to "BE SOMEBODY". Do yourself and everyone else a favor, be yourself, no more no less.

If you want to lead, lead with some integrity.

If you are following, acknowledge the leadership.

Now back to my tea and crumpets.

[John Lindsey]

Ken,

I did get a chuckle out of your post, but had to remove it for obvious reasons. I have no idea how many youngsters we have here (age not IQ) so I try to keep things clean.

BTW, I am glad to see Tony posting here as well. I visited his website and had a good time looking thru the material. If he ever gets back to South Texas I will try and attend one of his seminars.

[Sean Mulligan]

John,

For your info, he'll be in Richardson for two weeks at the end of April 01.

Sean

[Kolschey]

As a result of this thread, I have taken the time to read through Mr. Blauer's site, and I must say that I am very impressed. Now that I have seen the "Real McCoy" I can see why people have spoken well of his system. While it is definitely a shame that unscrupulous people try to appropriate his material, it would seem that in this case the perpitrator has been caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar,and I am glad that I have indirectly come to learn more about Mr. Blauer's work. Perhaps some good can come out of even a "Bad Budo" type thread!

[Ironmongoose]

Sorry about not signing with my real name. Wasn't aware of protocol here. I believe I've corrected it with a sig.

I want to apologize too for the tone of my reply. Because I encounter so many violations of intellectual property considerations, it just gets frustrating after awhile. Admittedly I don't know if people's misconduct is just out of ignorance of the law, or whatever.

To be fair, everyone deserves a firm but civil warning first.

I'm pleased to be here at Ebudo, I'd heard much about it but never bothered to come around because I spend too much time online already.

Will drop in now and again.

[JoeStagner]

It's not that there is something wrong with teaching something that is based on what you learned from someone else.

Most of what Martial Artists claim as Trademark or Copyrighted Material is not !! (Especially when the claimant is not a US Citizen or Incorperated in the USA.)

The REAL problem with this type of thing (SPARS) isn't that they take from one teacher and repackage what they learned - it's that they get it WRONG.

I have studied Tony Blauer's material since the 1980's. I have been to many, many Blauer Seminars, been to his house several times, and was once a member of Blauer's PDR team. Tony and I don't speak any more - but I can tell you because I KNOW first hand.........

Blauer came by his understanding of the principals he teaches by developing them himself. Some of what he teaches is stuff he "invented", other stuff he learned along the way and then "evolved", still other stuff he simply borrows from the best source he had for that particular thing.

The "net" of it all is that the sum of Blauer's "system" (though I hate that term) is as compleat as possible (since Tony is still working - his system is still growing).

If somebody learns something froam a video, say Blauer's "Range Rover" drill and teaches it, there is nothing illegal about that and Trademark and Copyright law in no way prevents it. If that same persan says "I invented the Range Rover", unless Tony has Registered that Trademark in the USA, as a Canadian Company he can't even claim "by use" trademark.

There are REALLY ony two problems with things like SPARS.

1.) The guy who learned "Range Rover" from a video tape and began teaching it and calling it his own is not a theif - BUT HE IS A LIER. Our world and ESPECIALLY the Martial Arts is SOO FULL of unethicials and liers that such practice is common place - and any of us that DO have some sense of the HONOR that warriors once had should address this.

Tony and I were once friends (I think) and while I disagree with some of his team's "Wolfpack" behavior - Tony has EARNED the right to be referenced for his inovations - period. Not just to honor him, but maintain the integrety of the training process.

2.) .... and here is the BIG issue. This SPARS guy was teaching Ninja stuff six months ago !!!!! That means he can not possibly know enough about the reality approach of Tony Blauer or SCARS (both of which I've trained) to be getting it righ and THAT means he's endangering the people that he teaches.

If somone REALLY wanted to teach people to live saver lives - it's not that hard to do, but reading a few articles or a web site and "guessing" at the rest is simply sinfull - not just becausing it's riipping off someone's hard earned work - but because you COUD NOT understand what you are teaching and THAT is VERY dangerouse for your students.

Tony has guys on his PDR Team that were not Martial Artists before joining, some that came from "ancient mystic Villari Do type systems" - you don't have to be the baddest man on the planet to learn and teach - but you do have to go to school !!!!

You could learn and teach Tony Blauer matieral without spending a fortune - the same is true of most of the other "reality based" instructors ( but NOT SCARS or Krav Maga).

I don't really care if you rip Tony Blauer off, what I care about is that when you do that - you perpetuate the declining standards of Martial Artists - and that I DO care about.

I don't care if you teach something that you cloned from Tony Blauer's S.P.E.A.R. - what I do care about is that you didn't LEARN what you are teaching - so what you ARE teaching people will likly get them hurt if they ever try to use it in a self defense situation.

The S.P.E.A.R. is brilliant - but if you train the "techique" and not the theory (which you couldn't have got from the Black Belt" magazine) then you WILL NOT GET IT.

In fact - if you just copy the technique from the Magazines and then over train the technique - it WONT work for you (call Tony to ask why !)

I want it clear that I'm not kissing Tony's butt here - the guy pretty much hates me as far as I can tell - but the Truth is the Truth.

If you teach theory, principals, concepts, and techniques that you don't understand - you put people in danger.

There are SO many instructors out there who have never tested the stuff they teach, never defended themselves, etc, etc.......

Tony Blauer has never been a Cop, a Soulder, a Bodyguard, a Bouncer, A Professional Fighter - by his own admission he hasn't been in many fights at all.

I was all those things (except a uniform cop), Blauers concepts are tested daily by people who are REAL warriors.

Asside from the politics of it all - take your student safety seriously, teaching was NEVER supposed to be about our own egos - if you wanna teach Blauer's stuff, learn it from him. If you wanna teach Vunak's stuff learn it from Vunak, etc......

Would you read an article in the Americam Medial Journal and then go teach Surgery 101 would you !????

Joe Stagner

[George Ledyard]

Absolutely the best way to establish yourself commercially is to make up your own terminology which will make your system seem to be different from every other. L Ron Hubbard was the absolute, all-time champ at this but there are plenty of imitators in the martial arts.

Since all of these sytems originally derived from the martial arts in which there is far too much competition to allow any one or two guys to really get rich one needs to distance himself from everybody else on order to really charge the big bucks for their training.

If you look at what is in many of these systems you will find that very few of the "revolutionary concepts" are not found in the traditional classical systems. It's just that the ideas have been westernized and given psuedo scientific names which seem to legitimize the system.

Having said this I must put in a qualifier. I have been seeing the work of Tony Blauer for over 15 years now. He was running scenario training in the parks with a hodge podge of protective gear before any body else was even thing about scenario training. Yes, he is something of a creative type when it comes to creating new terminology. But at least everything he does is based on years of training and teaching. I think the complexity of the concepts in his system detract a bit. I mean I am a relatively educated guy and I can read a pge of his stuff and encounter fifty terms which are technical and need to be understood specifically as they are meant in his system. But if you take the trouble to work out what he is saying, it is all excellent. And that's because it is all based on a lot of years of training and teaching. His stuff is expensive but he is a true professional and I figure somebody ought to be able to make a decent living at this stuff. At least he doesn't have to lie about his background to make it (unlike some other folks trying to do the same thing).

[George Ledyard]

Originally posted by JoeStagner


Would you read an article in the Americam Medial Journal and then go teach Surgery 101 would you !????

Joe Stagner
If I was already a surgeon I might take what I learned in the article This is always an interesting issue. When I go to a seminar or buy a video I do it to acquire more knowledge. I want to improve my own training and find new things that will help my students be better.

I am not a fake. I am 5th Dan under Mitsugi Saotome Sensei in Aikido. I am also a Certified Defensive Tactics Master Instructor. So when I go to a seminar and learn some great ground fighting techniques from Erik Paulson that I shouldn't teach them to my students because I am not certified in a grappling style? I am the first one to say where I got the stuff but I do not think I am "stealing" anything when I pass it along or incorporate elements of it into my Aikido.

When I teach my DT students about self defense I use the basic model advocated by Paul Vunak. I bought his videos for full price, have taken what was applicable to my student's training and kept on going. I don't claim that I teach Jeet Kun do. I am happy to tell the students that when I show them the eye flick, straight blast, elbows knees combination that I got it from Jeet Kun Do and specifically from Paul Vunak's videos.

In the classical days of the martial arts teachers took care to guard the secrets of their arts by making the scrolls indecipherable by anyone who had not trained in the style. They never performed their best techniques in public. they didn't allow outsiders to view their training.

Now everybody of note teaches seminars for the general public. They put their stuff out on video. They get the money from doing that then they worry that people are stealing thir stuff. If I incorporate the hu bud drill from Kali into my Aikido instruction am I stealing from someone? I know who I learned it from but where did he get it? I don't think it rightly "belongs" to anyone.

I don't teach anything I can't do. I don't hesitate to tell people where I got something. But I do think that when someone has an extensive background in martial art he can pick up concepts and techniques from these very public sources and not have to feel hesitant about passing them on to his students.