Another great seminar!

On Saturday, I attended a wonderful seminar taught by Gojudan (15th degree black belt) Jack Hoban. Just as all of Jack's seminars, it was absolutely wonderful! The location was a new dojo sharing a building with a karate school. The room was packed! Yet, the closeness was great to be able to spend time with Jack as he went around the room helping, guiding and sharing his great stories.

We spent considerable time just doing "basics". I say "basics" in quotes simply because there really are no basics, per se. Once you start peeling the layers, there are countless levels of detail, efficiency and tactics to make "basics" not so "basic" anymore. This is exactly what the seminar was like, much to my pleasure.

We started by looking at some rolling concepts. Since our Soke's theme this year has been Togakure Ryu, we looked at that influence in techniques and strategy. This year also has been the Year of the Rat in asian astrology, so the feeling this year has been indicitive of a rat - an efficient survivalist, being able to sense and avoid danger, and having an intuition to always find the escape route.

In Togakure Ryu techniques, especially in the beginning levels, the emphasis is to evade and escape, using strategies and tools made for that purpose. So, in the seminar we practiced rolling as a means of escape and avoiding danger.

We also looked at three basic kamae, or postures. The first, Ichi no Kamae (aka Ichimonji no Kamae), involved standing in an "on guard" posture and he went into detail about the importance of the lead hand in "shaping/conrolling the space". He did similar things with the other two kamae, which were Hicho no Kamae and Jumonji no Kamae. In Hicho no Kamae, he talked about the importance of not collapsing the space when drawing the lead leg back.

In fact, this concept of not collapsing the space was an important element in all his demonstrations. He showed the Sanshin no Kata as a method to practice this concept. For instance, in Chi no Kata, the tendency is to pull the lead hand back before the rear hand comes forward. This causes the mai ai or distance between you and your target to collapse, inviting an attack. The same was true for the other Sanshin kata, such as Sui no Kata, Ka no Kata, etc.

He also spoke about doing Jodan and Gedan Uke (blocking) without collapsing the space, which was a different approach than many basic ways I've seen of doing those techniques. It made total sense from a tactical point of view and was something I noted for my own teachings and training.

We didn't do much in the way of weapons. But, we did look at some sword work, in particular how to create an opening to draw in an attack. When you and an opponent are both in Seigan no Kamae (a kind of "on guard" posture, where the tip of the sword points at the opponent's heart), there is no space to enter. By shifting "off line", but keeping your sword "on line", you cause them to follow your body with their sword tip. This creates a suki, or opening, to lunge your sword forward. They can't bring their sword back fast enough because they are out of kamae. This was one such example he taught.

The whole seminar lasted for over 7 hours, with a break for lunch. Even the break was nice. Many of us went to a small Italian deli nearby. I had a great panini sandwich and sat outside by myself. Towards the end of my meal, both Jack and Dale Seago (good friend and 15th dan) came and sat at my table. We chatted for a while until it was time to go back. You just can't beat good fellowship time, even with all the great physical training.

After the seminar was over, Jack and many others went to go have dinner and fellowship at a local Mex restaraunt. Unfortunately, I needed to get back home, so I wasn't able to go with them. I'm sure the night was filled with good food, drink and "Jack tales".

I am very happy to have attended the seminar. It was a much-needed recharge to my budo!