I spent most of the weekend at a patterns seminar hosted by the YomChi TKD Association, the organization to which I belong. I am totally exhausted and mentally overloaded - and I had a blast!!!
The seminar was taught by Mr. Doug Arnold, VI Dan, who is my sahbum. He went over every tul in total detail - even better than last year's seminar. In addition to Mr. Arnold, another VI Dan, Mr. Dan Kohler taught part of the seminar, and Master Fred Ackard, VII Dan, stopped in both Friday night and Saturday afternoon and added his expertise to the instruction.
The participants in the seminar ranged from 8 to adults of all ages, and from 7th gup to VI Dan black belt. The seminar covered every Ch'ang H'on tul from Chon-Ji to Tong-Il, plus 4 direction exercises (Saju Tchirugi and Saju Maki). Students were excused from the seminar when their patterns had been covered... which is why there are no yellow belts in the picture; I forgot to take my camera with me on Friday night, and missed a few of them.
Every tul was covered in detail - how each block and strike should be performed, and why it should be that way (a piece missing from many seminars I've taken), applications - not just one, but many, and how to engineer and reverse engineer movements to see how to use them, which body parts blocks block and strikes attack, and how to modify them for other uses - how to teach techniques to juniors (as we got higher up), how to continue to research and experiment techniques, a chance to ask questions, be the person who demonstrated (never do tuls with jumps with a sprained back... but I still learned a lot being the demonstrator for Chung Moo! )... As students reached the highest tul they knew, they were dismissed, although a fair number stayed to watch; as the size of the group shrank and the lower ranks were dismissed, the concepts became even more technical, and included more detail on how to teach as well as how to perform - have you ever seen this Far Side cartoon ?
That's about where I am now, mentally (okay, my head's not too small for my body - but you get the idea). I stuck a notepad and pencil in my dobok jacket because the information was coming too quickly to wait until breaks to go write it down; now I have 40 pages of notepad (one of the little ones, about 2 x 4 - but on both sides) that I have to go back, read through, and organize, both for my own practice/improvement and so I can teach my students things I've been missing or had forgotten.
Here's a picture of most of the participants.
The seminar was taught by Mr. Doug Arnold, VI Dan, who is my sahbum. He went over every tul in total detail - even better than last year's seminar. In addition to Mr. Arnold, another VI Dan, Mr. Dan Kohler taught part of the seminar, and Master Fred Ackard, VII Dan, stopped in both Friday night and Saturday afternoon and added his expertise to the instruction.
The participants in the seminar ranged from 8 to adults of all ages, and from 7th gup to VI Dan black belt. The seminar covered every Ch'ang H'on tul from Chon-Ji to Tong-Il, plus 4 direction exercises (Saju Tchirugi and Saju Maki). Students were excused from the seminar when their patterns had been covered... which is why there are no yellow belts in the picture; I forgot to take my camera with me on Friday night, and missed a few of them.
Every tul was covered in detail - how each block and strike should be performed, and why it should be that way (a piece missing from many seminars I've taken), applications - not just one, but many, and how to engineer and reverse engineer movements to see how to use them, which body parts blocks block and strikes attack, and how to modify them for other uses - how to teach techniques to juniors (as we got higher up), how to continue to research and experiment techniques, a chance to ask questions, be the person who demonstrated (never do tuls with jumps with a sprained back... but I still learned a lot being the demonstrator for Chung Moo! )... As students reached the highest tul they knew, they were dismissed, although a fair number stayed to watch; as the size of the group shrank and the lower ranks were dismissed, the concepts became even more technical, and included more detail on how to teach as well as how to perform - have you ever seen this Far Side cartoon ?
That's about where I am now, mentally (okay, my head's not too small for my body - but you get the idea). I stuck a notepad and pencil in my dobok jacket because the information was coming too quickly to wait until breaks to go write it down; now I have 40 pages of notepad (one of the little ones, about 2 x 4 - but on both sides) that I have to go back, read through, and organize, both for my own practice/improvement and so I can teach my students things I've been missing or had forgotten.
Here's a picture of most of the participants.