One of my favorite activities for a weekend is attending martial arts seminars. I've been to well over a hundred seminars with dozens of different instructors over the last 40 years.
This past Saturday I was lucky enough to attend a seminar with Vlad Koulikov. I'd say it was one of the top three seminars I've been to. Vlad has a ton of great material, explains both details and concepts well, and is a friendly, encouraging coach. I picked up some great details on techniques I already knew and even encountered a few moves I hadn't seen before.
Because it was a seminar and not a regular class, Vlad went through material at a pretty good clip. He'd show a technique, circulate around the map to answer questions and offer some coaching. Once he saw that most people had the general idea, then he'd move on to the next technique. I think it worked out to about 8 minutes per technique for demonstration and practice and answering questions. Fortunately, he grouped techniques according to common concepts and setup positions, so it wasn't too overwhelming of a pace. I got just enough of each technique that I should be able to remember and drill them all in the weeks to come.
We had two sessions - 2 hours in the morning with gi and 2 hours in the afternoon no-gi. To the best of my memory, here's what we went over:
Morning
Entering into a underhook belt grip, then from the belt grip executing
O-goshi
Harai Goshi
Uchimata
Tai Otoshi
O Uchi Gari
Tani Otoshi
Sumi Gaeshi (as a counter to the underhook belt grip)
On the ground, we covered 3 ways to break an opponent's grips when finishing an arm bar from the top, then a high percentage armbar escape for the person on the bottom. (With a little side excursion into how the usual version of that escape could be countered.)
Then we wrapped up with 4 leglock options from the saddle position.
Afternoon
For the no-gi session, we set up our takedowns from a two-on-one position. After showing some details for properly securing the two-on-one, we covered
Throw-by to a back take
Single-leg takedown
Fireman's carry
Sumi gaeshi
switching to a keylock grip for a sacrifice throw that I've seen before but don't know the name of
snap down to a headlock for another sumi gaeshi variation
a couple of counters for the most common counters to a two-on-one
3 different throws as counter to the two-one-one
We also covered some immediate entries into chokes from a couple of the throws.
Then on the ground, we went over
A turnover and choke entry against an opponent in turtle position
A sequence for entering into the guillotine from bottom of guard, with some follow ups if the initial choke doesn't work.
All very solid material and a lot of very useful details that I hope will improve my game in the upcoming months.
One final amazing thing about the seminar: the cost was only $40 for 4 hours. I almost never see instructors of this caliber available at that price. I've paid more than twice that for instructors with a fraction of Vlad's credentials and teaching ability.
For anyone who has the opportunity to train with Vlad Koulikov, I strongly recommend it.
This past Saturday I was lucky enough to attend a seminar with Vlad Koulikov. I'd say it was one of the top three seminars I've been to. Vlad has a ton of great material, explains both details and concepts well, and is a friendly, encouraging coach. I picked up some great details on techniques I already knew and even encountered a few moves I hadn't seen before.
Because it was a seminar and not a regular class, Vlad went through material at a pretty good clip. He'd show a technique, circulate around the map to answer questions and offer some coaching. Once he saw that most people had the general idea, then he'd move on to the next technique. I think it worked out to about 8 minutes per technique for demonstration and practice and answering questions. Fortunately, he grouped techniques according to common concepts and setup positions, so it wasn't too overwhelming of a pace. I got just enough of each technique that I should be able to remember and drill them all in the weeks to come.
We had two sessions - 2 hours in the morning with gi and 2 hours in the afternoon no-gi. To the best of my memory, here's what we went over:
Morning
Entering into a underhook belt grip, then from the belt grip executing
O-goshi
Harai Goshi
Uchimata
Tai Otoshi
O Uchi Gari
Tani Otoshi
Sumi Gaeshi (as a counter to the underhook belt grip)
On the ground, we covered 3 ways to break an opponent's grips when finishing an arm bar from the top, then a high percentage armbar escape for the person on the bottom. (With a little side excursion into how the usual version of that escape could be countered.)
Then we wrapped up with 4 leglock options from the saddle position.
Afternoon
For the no-gi session, we set up our takedowns from a two-on-one position. After showing some details for properly securing the two-on-one, we covered
Throw-by to a back take
Single-leg takedown
Fireman's carry
Sumi gaeshi
switching to a keylock grip for a sacrifice throw that I've seen before but don't know the name of
snap down to a headlock for another sumi gaeshi variation
a couple of counters for the most common counters to a two-on-one
3 different throws as counter to the two-one-one
We also covered some immediate entries into chokes from a couple of the throws.
Then on the ground, we went over
A turnover and choke entry against an opponent in turtle position
A sequence for entering into the guillotine from bottom of guard, with some follow ups if the initial choke doesn't work.
All very solid material and a lot of very useful details that I hope will improve my game in the upcoming months.
One final amazing thing about the seminar: the cost was only $40 for 4 hours. I almost never see instructors of this caliber available at that price. I've paid more than twice that for instructors with a fraction of Vlad's credentials and teaching ability.
For anyone who has the opportunity to train with Vlad Koulikov, I strongly recommend it.
