08.06.05 - 2nd Annual West Coast Kenpo Confederation
Lunch and Events
I had a banana and something to drink at lunch time as the only real food offering was burgers and hot dogs – neither of which are generally part of my regular diet. During the lunch break there was a competition judged by the black belts called the ‘Triathlon”. The first of the three events consisted of the competitor standing with his back to the volunteer ‘attackers’, among which included Walt from my TKI school, and the competitor would utilize different techniques for escape. The second was the semi circle drill which utilized the same ‘attackers’. The final event consisted of dummy drills, where the competitor beat the snot out of a dummy. Each competitor was judged and his score was tallied. At the end of the competition, each judge walked up to Chuck Sullivan with a single response to indicate the winner and Chuck quickly tallied these into a final 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finisher.
It was interesting to watch the competitors. There was a healthy mix of contestants ranging from the BKF, to one gentleman trained solely with the video series, to those who were part of an organized IKCA school. All of the moves were basically the same with just subtle differences. Without even knowing what to judge upon, the competitor that I had mentally flagged as the winner did indeed take first place. He was a student of the BKF and was later congratulated by Grandmaster Steve Mohammad in the BKF seminar class that I attended. His moves seemed the most controlled and his strikes were on target. He had a calm demeanor before and after each event but was all business during the actual drills and I wasn’t surprised at all that he won.
There is one other person I recall vividly who competed in this group. Some had taken to calling him the “Wildman” by the time we had arrived at the seminar. He had been there all week and was working with several different instructors and had spent a lot of time with Paul Metz. I believe his name was Jamie and he was from Alaska. What was so interesting about his guy was unique character and indomitable spirit. When he arrived, he was solely the product of the video learning series and hadn’t spent any time with any other Kenpoists prior to this trip – let alone an instructor. To look at him, the first thought that popped into my mind was “skater”; he had long hair kept in a pony tail that easily went the length of his back. He was very friendly and tried everything. It was humorous because he would be so excited to partake in something that he would just react instead of listening or thinking clearly. During the semi-circle drill, he had to be told repeatedly not to react when the ‘attackers’ were measuring for distance. He just kept jumping into defense mode and moved into his techniques. Literally on the fifth attempt to get through to him, Paul finally got the point across that he wasn’t supposed to move yet. In a little side-bar discussion with Paul Metz and some of the other guys that had spent time with him, they commented on how much he had calmed down during the week compared to when he had first arrived! If nothing else he was fun to watch and definitely got his money’s worth out of the seminar. It will be interesting to see what he is like next year if he attends.
I had a banana and something to drink at lunch time as the only real food offering was burgers and hot dogs – neither of which are generally part of my regular diet. During the lunch break there was a competition judged by the black belts called the ‘Triathlon”. The first of the three events consisted of the competitor standing with his back to the volunteer ‘attackers’, among which included Walt from my TKI school, and the competitor would utilize different techniques for escape. The second was the semi circle drill which utilized the same ‘attackers’. The final event consisted of dummy drills, where the competitor beat the snot out of a dummy. Each competitor was judged and his score was tallied. At the end of the competition, each judge walked up to Chuck Sullivan with a single response to indicate the winner and Chuck quickly tallied these into a final 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finisher.
It was interesting to watch the competitors. There was a healthy mix of contestants ranging from the BKF, to one gentleman trained solely with the video series, to those who were part of an organized IKCA school. All of the moves were basically the same with just subtle differences. Without even knowing what to judge upon, the competitor that I had mentally flagged as the winner did indeed take first place. He was a student of the BKF and was later congratulated by Grandmaster Steve Mohammad in the BKF seminar class that I attended. His moves seemed the most controlled and his strikes were on target. He had a calm demeanor before and after each event but was all business during the actual drills and I wasn’t surprised at all that he won.
There is one other person I recall vividly who competed in this group. Some had taken to calling him the “Wildman” by the time we had arrived at the seminar. He had been there all week and was working with several different instructors and had spent a lot of time with Paul Metz. I believe his name was Jamie and he was from Alaska. What was so interesting about his guy was unique character and indomitable spirit. When he arrived, he was solely the product of the video learning series and hadn’t spent any time with any other Kenpoists prior to this trip – let alone an instructor. To look at him, the first thought that popped into my mind was “skater”; he had long hair kept in a pony tail that easily went the length of his back. He was very friendly and tried everything. It was humorous because he would be so excited to partake in something that he would just react instead of listening or thinking clearly. During the semi-circle drill, he had to be told repeatedly not to react when the ‘attackers’ were measuring for distance. He just kept jumping into defense mode and moved into his techniques. Literally on the fifth attempt to get through to him, Paul finally got the point across that he wasn’t supposed to move yet. In a little side-bar discussion with Paul Metz and some of the other guys that had spent time with him, they commented on how much he had calmed down during the week compared to when he had first arrived! If nothing else he was fun to watch and definitely got his money’s worth out of the seminar. It will be interesting to see what he is like next year if he attends.
posted by Bonzai at 8/06/2005 11:08:00 AM
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