A dragon on the wing

Or so my students declared during Wednesday's class.

Part of our warmups for class include standing with one foot extended knee-heighth, holding the foot pointed, then flexed, then raising it to hip level and repeating.

Well, because this was our monthly "REALLY push yourself" class, I was having us hold each position for considerably longer than usual. I'm normally VERY stable, but at one point, my balance got a little wobbly and I had to catch myself.

One of my students saw this, pointed, and exclaimed, "Look -- his IS human after all!"

A blessed Samhain to you all.

( 'Tis the season of the harvest, and this year I had a most wonderful crop indeed. )

Ye gods, I haven't posted since April? Ummmm... I took the summer off, maybe?

Let's see, what's been going on since then?

( Karate Stuff: )


( Work Stuff: )


( Personal Stuff: )


( Computer stuff: )

Kempo In The Park continues to go quite well. Weather has only made us move to our alternate location one time so far, and the only reactions we've gotten from the other people in the park have been some mildly curious looks. Tonight we even saw a fellow in a kung fu uniform working out over in another section of the park. I was going to go over and introduce myself to him, but he left before we were finished.

One of our students also took his first rank test tonight, and did very well. He was a little bit nervous about the fact that there were other people around, but he managed to tune them out and passed his test with flying colors.

Next Wednesday should be really interesting, if weather permits us to be in the park. The last Wednesday of the month is our Iron Body class -- a VERY heavy conditioning and striking class.

I wonder what the other park patrons will think about that one? ::G::

Well, tomorrow should be interesting.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the head instructor at our dojo had to close the doors last weekend. This has left us with students still wanting to train, but nowhere to do so.

Until we are able to secure a long-term arrangement for training space, we're going to be going back to a very traditional "old school" training ground -- outdoors. Tomorrow night at the usual class time, a small group of students and I will be meeting at Sea Isle Park in Memphis to train.

Fortunately, the forecast for the first several class sessions seems to be clear ::knock on wood::. If it rains but isn't TOO bad, we'll migrate back here to my house and train under the carport. If it's been bad enough that the carport is full of standing water, then I guess we'll adjourn somewhere and have a more philosophical, intellectually-based class over iced tea or something. ::G::

Any of you in the Memphis area who feel like stopping by, we'll be at Sea Isle Park on Mondays and Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m. And if you know of a facility that we could use, please let us know!

Sorry to have been silent lately, but I've been out of town for a totally awesome and long weekend.

( Cut for space. Here be Tales of Spring Training )
There's plenty more that I haven't included here, but it's late and I need sleep. It was a great weekend, and I'm still trying to absorb quite a bit of the information that was presented -- hopefully I'll manage it before it fades away again!

It was definitely a very interesting weekend -- if a rather tiring one.

Yesterday, one of the local high schools had a Women's Summit, and I was invited to hold up to four 1-hour sessions (I did two sessions) on basic women's self-defense. I pointed out to them that there was no way in Hell I could give a meaningful session on that topic in only one hour, but that I could and would give sessions on simple ways to keep themselves safer and not be a victim. Plus, I'm really not used to having to present that information in a 1-hour format, but I didn't mention that part to them. ::G::

Most of the ladies carried cell phones, and were of the opinion that all they would have to do in an emergency was to pull out their phones and call 911. Because most people don't realize how drastically your reactions change when something scares you (it's very common that your fine-motor skills deteriorate so badly that you can't even *work* your cell phone, assuming you even remember to pull it out), I had to have some way to produce a "fear" response in them without raising a panic in the rest of the school. Pointing behind them and yelling "SHARK!" had the most amazing effects, even though their logical minds knew there was no way there was a shark anywhere near the Girls' Gym. I then handed a cell phone to the girl nearest me, and proceeded to bodily drag her from the room, all the while yelling at her to call her home, or her best friend, or whatever other number she could remember.

In the time it took me to drag her from halfway down the basketball court to the door, she never even tried to open the phone -- and this is not unusual!

We covered a lot of information, from local crime statistics, to four different levels of awareness (and when each one is appropriate), to how to actually *see* what's around you, to which targets are and are NOT good ones to use if you should have to get physical with an attacker, to ways to escape from the most common ways of being grabbed without having to rely on strength to make them work.

Frankly, it was exhausting for me... but if it keeps just one of them from being added to those statistics, it was more than worth it.

Last night, four of us went out for a very pleasant dinner at Benihana's. They've been closed for two years because of a fire, and I don't think their chefs are quite "up to speed" yet -- at least, they didn't seem to have the same level of showmanship that I remember from them. Oh, well -- the company was good!

As for today -- it's been a lazy day, but in a little while I have to drive back to Nashville for the week because of work stuff. What's that old saying? "No rest for the weary..." ::G::

I went to a martial arts seminar up north this weekend, conducted by Combat Hapkido Grandmaster John Pellegrini. There were quite a few people there from seminars I'd been to in the past, or from the ones I've taught, and it was good to see them again.

( But I must admit, I got a BIG surprise. )


( I'm rather amused by another thing as well. )

I'm pleased.

As I've mentioned before, I'm working on recovering my full proficiency with the various forms as they're taught in the Memphis dojo, and making sure I have a viable bunkai (interpretation) for every move in every form.

I'd been wanting something better than the incredibly obvious interpretation of one particular move -- a form of shuto, or what most people think of as the traditional Karate Chop. I had come up with one that I thought would be effective, and got to try it out at class tonight.

I barely tapped her for the final portion of the move... and saw her eyes start to roll back in her head and her knees go wobbly.

::puts a check-mark beside that one:: Yep, that worked! 8-)

Well, this weekend my first Kempo instructor (to whose school I have recently returned) will meet for the first time with Steve Cooper (the instructor I trained with in Nashville) and the Grandmaster of that system/affiliation, George Dillman. Dillman and Cooper will be evaluating him and his "senior" student* as representatives of the school, for purposes of joining their affiliation.

As I understand it, the normal requirement to become an affiliate school is to have two Masters within the organization who will vouch for you. Cooper already told me that he'd vouch for the school based on my recommendation of them, but that still leaves us needing a second recommendation -- thus, the evaluation this weekend.

* Technically speaking, I am the senior student at the Memphis school (3rd degree vs 1st degree black belts). However, because I've spent the last 4 years in the Nashville school, I don't count. On the one hand, I can agree that I am no longer representative of the Memphis school and it's recent history/teachings. On the other hand, Cooper knows what I was like when I walked in his door, plus I would think having someone who got their 2nd and 3rd degree from a DKI (Dillman Karate Int'l) school should be considered a point in favor of the Memphis school.

We shall see.

Back in March, I taught a martial arts seminar in Albany, NY. Topics covered included chi, several chi exercises, basics of pressure points, ways to interpret the meanings of martial arts forms, and more. We recorded the seminar, and the DVDs are finally through the editing process and are ready to go!

Unfortunately, my laptop has had a major meltdown, so I'm limited in the scope of the updates I can do to my site -- things like adding Paypal is more than I want to tackle without my usual system. However, if anyone is interested in a copy, go to my site and send me an email with your shipping information. Pricing is $14.95 plus shipping/handling -- call it $20 total.

And if anyone is familiar enough with adding Paypal (or other e-commerce system) to a site to walk me through it, I'll love you forever! 8-)

A practice that I decided upon before I taught my first seminar was to make sure everyone realized and acknowledged the responsibility inherent in what we do -- that each individual is responsible for their actions and for all repercussions of those actions.

An example that I give is that if they use one of the pressure-point techniques that I teach them on someone, and that person falls and cracks their skull on the curb and dies, then they are just as responsible as if they had grabbed his head and bashed it into that curb.

Obviously, they have to be concerned with what the local laws say, and what the court is likely to rule... but they have to be at least as concerned with the ruling from the judge in their mirror. A good enough lawyer can probably let them escape from the court judge, but they have to look in that mirror every day for the rest of their lives.

After this last seminar in Albany, one of the attendees approached his instructor (who was also my back-up during the seminar) and told her that he'd always thought it was really cool to learn all sorts of ways to hurt/kill someone, but that until my seminar he hadn't thought about the responsibility involved, and now that had changed. He then went on to ask her several questions on that topic, and basically showed that he'd really had his eyes opened -- and he wasn't trying to close them again.

YES!

On 3/18, I will be teaching a martial arts seminar in Albany, NY. The hosting school has a flyer on their site, and I sent a copy to my family.

I love my family, I really do -- but sometimes they can show the color of their necks (i.e. RED) in some amusing (to me, at least) ways.
( Clicky )
And then there was the reaction from my former instructor back in Memphis... "DAMN Boy!" 8-)

As I have mentioned elseJournal, about a month ago I discovered how to take my immunity to the nasty part of the martial art that I study and turn it on and off. Actually, that's inaccurate -- I don't turn it off, but I can "move it out of the way" if I choose to.

This weekend, my school is hosting a seminar with our Grandmaster, George Dillman. I have the strong suspicion that he is going to want to ask me a lot of questions, and probably do several "experiments" ::G::.

There's one experiment that I am definitely going to try -- I have an idea that may allow me to protect another person from a third party's technique. All I can say is that if it works... holy shit! ::G::

This past weekend, I got to spend three days at a training camp that Muhammed Ali had built especially for his use, just outside Deer Lake, PA. It was a phenomenal experience, made slightly bittersweet by the knowledge that this may well be the last session held there for the style of martial arts I study -- there is some big boxing promoter trying to buy the camp from my Grandmaster, George Dillman.

( Cut to save space )

I went to a seminar by Song Park this past weekend. He had some interesting information and concepts.

( Click for further details )

I've drawn up a feedback form to send to the folks who attended the seminar. Having never needed to do something like this before, I figured I'd dump it on ask you! Anyone have any suggestions?

( Feedback Form )

Today was the seminar, and I have to say, I think it went *very* well!

Even if my lesson plan did get hopelessly scrambled, and portions of it get thrown completely out the window...

Or more accurately, they flew completely out of my head... ::G:::

But even though things didn't always go in the order I'd planned, I still covered most of what I wanted to, and if I'd had more time I'd have gotten to the rest of it. We had a *really* good group, and they asked some very good, pertinent, and insightful questions, and that always makes for a better session. We even had a couple of youngsters -- which can really change things up, especially when you start taking questions -- but they did a great job.

We seemed to have a really high interest level among the folks, which was particularly impressive when you consider they were there for *six hours*!

And now I'm slowly coming down off the post-seminar roller-coaster... some of the time I'm at the "oh god can I please just collapse for a little while?" and part of the time I'm positively *soaring* ... to the point that I'll probably start pissing off people around me before very much longer... ::G::

Thank you everyone for your input earlier. I think I'm going to go "flop" for a while!

As I've mentioned elseJournal, I'm going to be conducting a martial arts seminar on pressure points and extracting combat-applicable techniques from katas (forms), for a group of people who have no clue that forms are anything but complicated dances, and whose idea of pressure points are the eyes/throat/solar plexus/groin. I've got one day to give them the basics -- tall order!

I've been doing this particular brand of martial arts for 11 years now, and various other styles for 10 years before that. I am confident in my own knowledge of the material, and in my ability to teach. The one thing that I don't do very often is work with complete newbies, and even then it's with newbies that I know I will probably see again at the next class, or next week, or whenever, so if I overlook something I can "catch them up" then. I realize that there is a lot of stuff that I know on a subconscious level... and there lies the trap I'm trying to be sure I avoid. This is going to be the equivalent of taking a bunch of Jr. High School students who've had basic arithmetic, and introducing them to algebra and geometry... done by someone who is working on the level of Calculus.

I've already talked this over with my beloved gryphonrhi and with alysswolf, and they made some good points. Now I'd like to throw it open to you.

The basic framework I'm planning is to concentrate only on one very simple kata that they already know. The morning session will focus on what to do and how to do it, then the afternoon session will get into the more advanced topics, like why to do it that way.

If you were to attend such a seminar, what things can you think of that you would want/need to see covered in order to help you understand the material?