I went to the GOE and the awards hall of fame....
to tell you the truth out of 50 or so different seminars that were going on I feal that only about 10% was decent the rest was Basics and inserts.
I was in one of the seminars and we began to do five swords, then went to my next seminar and again did five swords, then again the very next day someone started doing five swords. Alot of it felt like the same thing over and over.
Don't get me wrong there were some great instructors there but the majority wasn't worth flying out to chicago and paying to see.
To tell you the truth I was very disappointed I was told that this was going to be tailored to black belts yet the majority of the info was begginerish, intermediate at most. There was one seminar that the guy that was teaching and asking if everyone knew what a reverse punch was and a front (snap) kick was. I must have walked out on about 8 seminars, the last couple of hours I just stopped going inside the rooms and would just watch what everyone was doing.
Not to mention the the fact that it was so disorginized. They didn't now who was in which room until 2 minutes before starting on friday. By the way the occasion started on thursday but the seminar was on friday and saturday. One of the worst things was that there were a few individuals that amazing but they were all scheduled at the same time, lets say from 11-12:30, so you had to pick between them and then afterwards from 12:30 on there really wasn't anything worth seeing. I setteled for anything that was half interesting.
I haven't said any names and I have all the names of the professors/masters that was printed and posted that pat tracy gave to me. But I haven't said any names due to the fact that I don't want to personally insult any individual, I am just venting.
The real problem is that I have been doing martial arts for about 21 years and I love martial arts but when you don't get inspired by something you get dissapointed, every hour of the seminar I prayed that the next guy would have something good to teach. My hopes were up all through the two days; up untill the last seminar.
I truthfully felt bad because I had walked out on so many instructors until I met a large group of individuals after the seminar was over on saturday that felt the same way I did.
I would recommend going to seminars like this if you are not a black belt of if you haven't expored other alleys of martial arts. I am not saying that it sucked it was a great seminar, but not from an advanced student. For a black belt this was refreshments of core values and fundimentals.
I am sorry if I have insulted anyone while in the process of expressing my opinion of something that I have gone to. My goal is not to dicredit anyone but to tell you what I felt and experienced during this seminar.
I had a wise man once tell me that when you get up into the black belt rankings, new knowledge comes fewer and farther between, yet is typically broader. What he meant was that after 21 years, you are not making the same kind of daily improvements that you were at...say...blue belt. You have seen alot, and you know alot.
But, when you do learn one new seemingly little thing, you have a whole curriculum to apply it to. 5 Swords was done by alot of instructors there. Why? It is a standard. Everybody likely knew it, so it was aimed to allow more people to participate on common ground. I would bet that each seminar, even if the techniques were similar, covered different concepts.
Now, think about this...if you go to 15 seminars and learn one new concept at each, with a different technique as the standard, how likely are you to retain them?
If you attend 15 using the same technique, with a different concept, they are much easier to remember, and again, you can apply the concept curriculum wide, if you actually understand the curriculum.
I attended both of Roger Greene's seminars. Same stuff I have been seeing for 5 years. I almost have some of it memorized now. Guess what? I learned something new, and got some other stuff tweaked. And after my 23 years in the arts, that is too much stuff. It will take me a year or so to apply those "few" things to everything else I know.
Just because it appears simple does not mean it is NOT geared for black belts.
