Ummm. Eep?

[draconis]

I'm over here alternating between feeling immensely proud, and going, "Eep!"

Many many moons ago, the head of the martial arts organization I belong to (George Dillman) was one of Muhammed Ali's sparring partners. Ali built himself a training camp up in the Pennsylvania hills, near a town called Deer Lake, and he used to train there with Dillman and his other partners. When he retired, he sold the camp to Dillman. In addition to periodically renting it out for boxers to come up there and train for upcoming matches, Dillman also runs a couple of weekend-long martial arts training camps there each year. The way these camps are set up, you'll spend anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour with one of the high-ranking instructors from all across the country and all around the world (including Dillman, obviously), then he'll yield the floor to the next instructor who'll teach something else, and so on.

The next one of these camps is Memorial Day weekend, and I'll be attending. I've attended a couple of them, and I have to say, the place is GREAT for training. It has fantastic atmosphere (both figuratively and literally), a wonderful sense of history (almost everything is the way Ali kept it when he and his family were living there), and it's one of those places that just seems to energize you.

I heard "through the grapevine" this morning that so far, this is going to be a very small camp -- only about two dozen people are signed up so far. I guess the economy is still biting people in the wallet pretty hard.

But that's not the part that made me go, "Eep!"

Apparently, when Dillman found out that I was going to be there, his reaction was, "Oh, he's coming!! I may have to have him teach something - he's ready!"

I didn't really even think in terms of being on his "radar screen," much less in such a positive fashion!

Okay, now to figure out WTF I'm going to teach, if he DOES ask! LOL

Comments

[raine]

Oh, that's awesome. :-)

[draconis]

Thank you! It really surprised me!

[lomedet]

Dragon, how are you so awesome?

*beams and beams*

[draconis]

*beams back*

Thank you!

And nah -- I'm just me! 8-)

[emyrys]

This is way cool -- congratulations!

Also, where in PA is this camp? Cause I live about 10 miles south of the PA border, and there is a Deer Lake, PA just a bit north of me.

(I've been enjoying thinking about you all doing your thing in the park, BTW. Makes me miss being out in California with everyone doing Tai Chi in the Redwoods. (not that I ever actually joined in, but I liked watching it & knowing that I could. heh))

[draconis]

Thanks!

I think the name of the town it's closest to is... Orwigsburg? or maybe Pottsville? I'm afraid that since I'm always dependent on them for transport to/from the airport (usually fly into/out of Philly), I've only taken minor note of the town names unless we stopped there for some reason. ::G::

[emyrys]

Ah, well, not close then.

[draconis]

Drat! 8-(

[laure_nar]

WooHoo!!! That's really cool. Congrats and have fun. I'm sure you'll think of something interesting to teach.

[draconis]

Thank you! I certainly plan to try!