My salute to Professor Adam Kayoom

Caught up with with my friend & coach Professor Adam Kayoom during the recent Crazy Monkey Defense seminar in KL. Professor Kayoom is a Muay Thai champ & BJJ black belt under Professor Ricardo Liborio of American Top Team.

Adam is still his witty old self with awesome fighting skills & personality. The BJJ class of KDT Academy are always packed whenever Prof Kayoom is in town to teach for a few days. Prof Kayoom has a great aptitude for teaching & sharing techniques in such a way that it both amazes & enlightens you.

But it's something else that I wanna blog about when I met Adam recently. I bumped into Adam while going into the changing room during the recent Crazy Monkey Defense seminar. He was wearing his t-shirt inside out when he greeted me. I told him that and his reply stunned & touched me: "Oh, it's out of respect for the seminar & Rodney". Rodney King is the Founder & Head of the Crazy Monkey Defense Program who's giving the seminar then.

I realised that he did so because he did not want to display any other affiliations or groupings out of respect for the person giving the seminar. To me, this is really a classy act of thoughtfulness & humility, esp coming from an accomplished fighter & trainer like Adam himself. The seminar host might not mind at all but it's the thought that counts. That means full attention & respect is accorded to seminar & it's host.

This is the kind of attitude I hope to emulate in my life both on & off the mats: to be constantly thoughtful & refrain from words or deeds that might upset others. To be respectful & humble when learning from others. It might sound trivial but in my books, this is actually the hallmark of a true gentleman.

Prof Adam Kayoom, thank you for the lesson in thoughtfulness & humlity. I salute you!