If I did a good job last time talking to the hosts and instructors, hopefully before long there will be a Martial Arts Seminar near you. Hopefully you’ll know about it. Hopefully you’ll be interested and able to attend it. If no one attends seminars, seminars tend to not happen.
Why should you attend a Martial Arts Seminar? You probably already go to your regular classes every week. You probably already have an instructor that is helping guide you along your martial arts journey. Hopefully you have a core group of students that are learning with you. Hopefully you motivate each other when the going is tough. Hopefully you look forward to training for the sake of training.
I’m going to take a virtual pause for a moment to take a drink of water and to give you a chance to think about the things I just mentioned.
Hydration is important. So is taking a moment once in a while to reflect on things. Let’s get back to it.
If all of the things above are true for you, please understand you are lucky. It sounds like you have a good thing going with your martial arts journey. If that is the case, then you are exactly the kind of student instructors love to have attend a martial arts seminar. You’ll be excited to learn, excited to share, excited to be there, and you’ll lead by example.
If all of the things above weren’t quite true for you, then you’re the other kind of student instructors love to have attend a martial arts seminar. You’ll have a chance to learn, you’ll have a chance to share, and you’ll have a chance to be around other people that are excited about martial arts.
Here is how it works. Please pardon anything that may sound familiar from the hosts and instructors version of things. Like so many things in martial arts, similar ideas have different applications.
If you attend a martial arts seminar one goal should be to learn something.
Maybe you learn a new technique or a new way of doing an old technique. Big picture concepts apply across a variety of situations. Small details may make all the difference in a specific situation. It all depends on what you are looking for and looking at.
Seminars will cover a variety of things depending on the instructor. If the instructor has a special area of expertise, then that will probably be where time gets spent. Think Bill Wallace for kicking, Rory Miller for violence and conflict, and Iain Abernethy for practical applications of kata. While I’ve never had the opportunity to train with any of these three and can’t officially endorse their seminars, they all have established reputations for successfully teaching what they teach. It helps that the instructor not only knows how to do the thing but also that they have developed a method for teaching it effectively in a short amount of time.
If you’re looking to learn something specific to your style of martial arts, then you will probably look for a seminar offered by someone tied back to your style. If you’re looking to learn something outside of your style to explore or fill in perceived gaps, then you will probably do the opposite. While your instructor controls what gets covered in your martial arts class, when you chose to attend a seminar, you have more control over what you will learn. It’s your choice.
Before I move on, for all the instructors out there reading along, this point especially pertains to you. How often do you get a chance to have someone else teach instead of you? When was the last time someone gave you critique and feedback? If you need to pause to answer that question, it’s been too long. Seminars can help.
A second goal should be to get excited and motivated.
Seminars are not your normal class. There is a different dynamic to a seminar. Seminars have a different energy. They also often will have different people than your normal class, but we will deal with that separately in a moment.
When something is different than normal it is special. Special things get more attention and more energy. Think about how much extra focus you may have when a competition or an exam is approaching and how much extra you’re willing to do to prepare. Seminars can work the same way, but they should be significantly less stressful. You’ve picked the martial arts seminar to attend, not because you are required to, but because you want to attend. The seminar presents something that sparks your interest. Build on that interest. Take advantage of it. Use it to build momentum that will continue during and after the seminar.
Another goal should be to get to know someone.
Now let’s get back to the idea of seminars having different people at them. All of the things that we discussed with respect to the first two goals also are true for the other people attending the seminar. They also want to learn. They have extra motivation. Best of all, they also probably have different martial arts backgrounds than you do.
All these things combine to create a situation in which you should try meeting someone new. You don’t need to impress them or show off. Just like you, they are interested in the martial and respect the knowledge and experience of the instructor leading the seminar. Your job is to be a good training partner for anyone that you work with so they can get the most out of the seminar. Hopefully they will do the same.
Together we all achieve more.
And after it goes well, maybe you stay in touch. Maybe you’ve made a new friend or a new training partner. Odds are that this will be the case if you are open to the opportunity. Why? Martial artists all have martial artists in common. We don’t start from square one with nothing in common. Even if our styles aren’t the same, our spirits may align.
Even if you already know everyone at the seminar, it can also be a chance to get to know someone a little better, especially if one of you normally outranks the other in regular classes. Seminars level the rank playing field in a way that some normal classes often don’t allow, especially if uniforms abandoned in favor of street clothes or another less official attire. Take advantage of the situation and build bridges because it may be easier at the seminar.
Finally, set a goal to have fun when you attend a martial arts seminar.
If you aren’t enjoying yourself at a martial arts seminar, you’re doing something wrong. When the seminar ends, there should be at least a few moments that you actively enjoyed. Admittedly, sometimes those moments are after less fun moments when you struggled, or when something was physically demanding. That is a part of the journey.
Wrapping things up
As martial artists, we enjoy the process. We enjoy learning. Being surrounded by other likeminded individuals in the pursuit of a common positive goal is a great thing.
Seminars make all of this and more possible. If you haven’t already given one a try, I hope you will. If you’ve already attended a seminar, hopefully you find another that sparks your interest. If you can’t find the right one, maybe you should consider hosting a seminar in your area. Sometimes the students climb the mountain in search of the teacher and sometimes the students can bring the teacher back down the mountain with them.
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