Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Recent seminars

The first weekend of December I was up in Chicago at Kurt Barnhart's clubs. Nice turnouts there. I even had my first tai chi instructor, Bill Grizzle, in the crowd. The subjects on Friday evening and Saturday morning were the internal aspects and he and Patrick Baio, both long-time practitioners, attended. I'm impressed with Bill's attitude in that he came and worked with us as a student. I managed to pick his brains a bit while he was there as well. Zoran Sevic from the John McSweenet lineage always comes to thump and I'm glad to have him and his open mind, too.
The second Saturday session was on working in the Web of Knowledge as a teaching tactic. I've done this elsewhere and Mr. Barnhart's people were tough to throw off. (This method is the subject of this month's article on my website.)

The following weekend's seminars in Holden, Massachusetts and Manchester, NH were well-attended. I had the opportunity to meet some new people and see my old friends Bill Gaudette and Lance Soares. Brian Walsh from Connecticut made the trip to Holden to take part along with his son, Chris. Brian and I have been communicating by e-mail and this was the first face-to-face. Good to have him there. Mr. White and I also had lunch Friday with a man we much respect, Hanshi Richie Bernard of Shidokan International.  
On Saturday in New Hampshire we had a full house in both sessions. The subject at Holden and Manchester was drills in one session and knife work in the second. The seminars were not duplicates and those who made all four got a special t-shirt.

Mr. White and I surprised the group there at his school by unveiling Ed Parker's gi top. This will be on loan from me and on display there at the Manchester Karate Studio. Since MKS is the largest Parker kenpo school in the US, I thought it was appropriate to make them the stewards of a precious piece of kenpo history.
 

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