…..During the course of my life I have had the distinct pleasure of training with some fantastic instructors. People like Masaaki Hatsumi, Remy Presas, Dan Inosanto, Nene Tortal, Royce Gracie, Bill Wallace, Joe Lewis, Bob Orlando, Harvey Berman, Russ Wilson, Jeff Fields, Shiraishi Sensei, Nagato Sensei, Oguri Sensei, Nagato Sensei, Doron Navon, Phil Legare, Brian “Buzz” Smith, Bart Uggucioni, Rich Parsons, Otto Cardew, Ken Blackburn and the list goes on and on. (if I did not name someone do not take it as a slight) I have also had the distinct pleasure to train up quite a few outstanding practitioners as well! People like Gary Haffey, Kerry Krick, Pat Mayette, Tim Oommen, Tim Mayette, Dick Anderson, Ron Galaviz, Tom Kirkby, Tony Kirby, Dom Lazarski, Scott Sober, Brian Elliot, Mike Hammer, Jose Prieto, Big Tom, Nate, etc. As a practitioner that should be one of your goals. To train with and train up as many people as you can. You see when a practitioner takes the time to meet as many talented teachers as they can they are fortunate enough to be influenced by them and this helps their understanding of movement irregardless of the style that they practice! Likewise, when you train up as many people as you can while insuring quality control then you also once again gain a deeper understanding of movement! As we grow this understanding is very important because as you grow and age you will need to constantly refine and become more efficient at what you do! You get this by constant practice of course but also with seeing, feeling and doing the training with other teachers and also when you teach. So Train With & Train Up somebody! Explore, Teach and Create! You may just find out how much you love the Martial Sciences!
See You On The Mats!
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Brian R. VanCise
Note: This Blog is opinion only and Instinctive Response Training LLC nor Brian R. VanCise is responsible for any third party actions taken.
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This is something I find very interesting. Being CMA I have found that the majority of people I go to train with really can’t teach you all that much in a short (seminar) period of time due to the form heaviness of many CMA styles. Looking back on the seminars however I can say the only seminars that were CMA that I gained much from were, a Tuishou seminar and a qinna seminar with Dr Yang Jwing Ming. They were more application than form. This is why many years ago I swore off CMA seminars and only train with my sifu or a local sifu. The only exception so far were a couple of seminars with Chen Zhenglei and to be honest I liked Chen Sifu very much and I learned a lot from him but most of what I learned was in conversation over lunch in the middle of the seminar. This is not to say it is not worth going to one of his seminars, if you are a Chen Taiji person, or any style Taiji person, and have a local sifu, I highly recommend it but it is not the way to learn Chen style IMO.
But with that said I have had great experience at the few seminars I have gone to that were not CMA. I went to a seminar (actually I was dragged there by a friend) of Fumio Demura’s that absolutely changed my entire view of Karate and impressed the living daylights out of me. That seminar was well worth going to.
But of late, due to injury, I have had a lot of time to think about seminars and I do believe I am coming around to your way of thinking about it.
Hey Tim,
Even more than seminars if you are in an area look up someone that you would like to train with and take some private lessons with them. I find this even better than going to a seminar. 🙂 I have had many, many one on one training experiences with some fantastic people. One that I would like to mention was a semi private lesson with Rolker Gracie and Harvey Berman. It was my lesson but Harvey was my partner and the insights that Rolker gave me were invaluable. Those insights I try to pass onto IRT practitioners!
Thanks Brian I will look into that.
There are not many in my area to train with but there are a couple I may look into