August seminars

I'll be traveling a lot this coming month.
August 3-4 I'll be at Marc Shay's American Karate in Broomall, near Philadelphia. Saturday seminars are open to all. One session for kids and two for adults. The adult sessions will cover Two Man Set and Grafting. Sunday is a Comprehensive Review seminar, Part One.

August 9-10 it's Coastal Kenpo Karate in Goose Creek, near Charleston, SC. Nick Dreiling hosts. Open seminar Friday evening along with classes for kids taught by Bruce Meyer. Adults sessions Saturday on zone theory, grafting and category completion.

August 17 I'm in Ohio at Steve Hatfield's Panther Kenpo Karate near Columbus, in Mount Vernon. Kids and adults sessions. Adults will cover line and flow drills along with technique extensions.

The AKTS camp in New York is the last stop for the month. This is John Sepulveda's camp and it's director is Tim Murphy in Rockland, NY. This will be a biggie and it's my first time teaching in New York state. Dates are 8/23-25.

Contact info for all the above is on my site at www.wedlakekenpotv.com/leewedlake/seminars-2

Upcoming Seminars

I'll be in New Bedford, MA this weekend with Lance Soares. Subjects for this weekend include gun defense and sleeper holds/concussions.
Plymouth, England with Gary Ellis is set for the last weekend of June. Coincidental that Lance lives in Plymouth, MA. Flow drills, two man techs and weapon work there.
Ft. Myers, FL will host Part 2 of the comprehensive review seminar we started back in April. Forms 4/5/6 are on the schedule as well as finishing off the techniques.
A multiple attacker seminar is tentative for Round Rock, TX in July.
August sees Broomall, PA, Charleston, SC, Mount Vernon, OH and Stony Point, NY on the schedule.
More dates and places can be found on my site at www.wedlakekenpotv.com/leewedlake/seminars-2

Congratulations

Steve Hatfield

Back about 30 years ago I met Al McLuckie at a seminar I did at Fred Degerberg's in Chicago. It was the first seminar I ever did (and I sure wish it had been better). Al was doing Serrada Eskrima, having come from California and working under Mike Inay, an Angel Cabales student. Over the years Al trained in other arts and is a phenomenal martialist. I hosted a tournament in Chicago that I had Mr. Parker at and Al did a demo of his Filipino Martial Arts. When I asked Mr. Parker what he thought, he said "He's above average". That's pretty good from someone who had seen so much from all over the world, including crossing hands with Bruce Lee. Al has continued to progress and created his own system called Warrior Arts.

   Not long after I met Al I met Steve Hatfield from Ohio. I've always encouraged people to get with Al to improve their weapons work and Steve was one of them. Al lives in Ft. Wayne, IN and Steve being in the Columbus area, they were able to connect. Steve has been one of my students since the mid-80s and is also very well versed in chi-kung (qi-gong). Like many of my students, he's cross-trained and he passes that down to his students. Recently, Steve earned his instructorship from Al in Warrior Arts after 25 years of training. Well done, Steve!
 

Panther Kenpo Karate

Congratulations on 25 years in business! Steve Hatfield's Panther Kenpo Karate in Mount Vernon, OH, near Columbus, was established at the same time Steve came in under me to train. He's been with me since 2nd degree black and is working on his 7th.
   This past weekend I was up there to be part of the anniversary celebration. I taught a seminar on joint-locking techniques and their counters. I also worked with the instructors on Form Five.
   Steve has been assembling a list of the instructors he has been on the mat with over the years and there are some very well-known names on it. From kick-boxing there is Benny "The Jet" and Bill Wallace. In kenpo he worked with Ed Parker, Frank Trejo, Tom Kelly, Joe Palanzo, Huk Planas, Jeff Speakman and more. His experience in Chinese arts, particularly in chi-kung is deep as well. He's worked with Frank Chan over the past years. He's also done some Russian Systema. All in all, a prety well-versed instructor.
   You can see his website at http://www.pantherkenpokarate.com/.
Here's to many more years!

Weekend seminars successful and some promotions

Three airlines, two cities, in three days. I visited Steve Hatfield's Panther Kenpo Karate in Mt. Vernon, OH and Marc Shay's American Karate in Broomall, PA over the weekend. Steve and I tested some of his people on Friday and Monte McCammon was promoted to third black. On Sunday I promoted Sam Babikian of Media, PA to 4th black. Sam hadn't been promoted since 1991 and has been working under me for the last three years. Congrats to them both!
   I taught seminars for Steve's juniors and then two man defenses for his adults. What's notable about Steve's people is they always have their notebooks out- and they use them. This is something Mr. Parker always encouraged and I seem to remember it being required at Pasadena at one time.
   Mr. Shay's group asked to do some basic groundwork and joint-lock countering. I'd done a class like that in Chicago earlier in the year and the guys loved it. It's just a little basic "rolling" but enough to familiarize people with some grappling principles.
   Steve Hatfield also showed me a book he's been included in. He writes poetry and is one of ten poets to be published in the Apple Valley Poets collection. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=apple+valley+poets&ih=12_5_0_0_0_1_0_0_0_1.0_231&fsc=-1&x=17&y=19

Mt. Vernon, Ohio seminar

The seminars and black belt testing at Steve Hatfield's Panther Kenpo Karate in Mount Vernon went very well this past weekend.
First, congratulations to Mike, Julie and Joel for passing their tests for first degree black. They did a fine job. Mr. Hatfield and his staff are producing good quality black belts.
Joel Hatfield also hand-crafted a nice pagoda-shaped stand out of wood holding an engraved metal Universal Pattern, which was presented to me at the conclusion of the seminars on Saturday. It is very nicely done and I look forward to having it for display.
Participants came from all over Columbus, one flew in from Chicago (thanks for lunch, Bam- Bam Jr!) and another was in from Canada. We worked on the combination punch defenses, and based on the body language of the group, they were pretty intent.
As always, it was a pleasure to spend some time with the group there in Mount Vernon. I'd forgotten my camera, so if any of you were there and have a photo, please forward one to me so I can post a picture or two. Much appreciated.