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Daemonblade
25-Apr-05, 21:03
Hey guys and gals. After a successful 5th anniversary seminar for Northern Martial Arts Studios (http://www.kempo.org.uk) I was wondering what the general opinion on seminars was amongst the other Martial Artists in the area. I ask because despite local advertising we have found that most of our support comes from clubs in Inverness and England. It has been very had to get local clubs interested and it seems that most local Martial Artists in the area are very unwilling to exchange ideas and views.
Any opinions or ideas you guys have on this would be appreciated.
Iain.
Maybe they belong to those types of clubs that have a closed door attitude. Some groups will not let their students study any other type of MA other than what they teach. Maybe even showing interest in a type of seminar that you mention is also against their rules?
Mind you it was a Sunday they could all have been at church :roll:
Iain,
I am glad you had a good seminar. We have hosted several seminars over the last few years and have found that the bulk of our participants have come from Inverness, England and Europe. In fact the next seminar we have planned is with Scott Sonnon, and has attracted big attention from England and Europe, so much so that we are hosting in Glasgow at the Kelvin Hall International Sports Arena.
I had contemplated bringing Scott to Caithness, but didnt think we would get the numbers despite the fact the current UFC heavy weight champion utilises Scotts training methods.In fact the numbers in general have come outside of Scotland.
I think its in part due to the fact numbers have dropped UK wide for those training martial arts, and having had discussions with some top UK instructors lately, the finding are similar.
Interesting enough, my classes during the week are mostly attended by people who travel all the way back and forward from Inverness to Dunbeath, and private lessons from people who travel up fom all parts of the UK. I get a reasonable amount of interest locally for group classes, although i am booked solid with private lessons with locals, the bulk of group classes come from people mostly in Inverness and Glasgow ( we have opened a full time training centre there), and i am not convinced its due to closed minds as the previous post has mentioned.
There are some great other martial artists out there who are very open minded. Spike is a great guy and one i have a lot of respect for, and Stephen Copinger is a great guy also, and both come from different arts. Both have a wealth of experience also, and i would highly recommend them to people looking for traditional martial arts. We are well catered for here in Caithness, with the traditional arts ( such as Karate, KSW, Judo, Kempo) and the more modern and unknown arts with myself ( Escrima, Thai Boxing, Savate, Silat, Cage Fighting, MMA etc).
One suggestion would be an instructors meet to exchange training and teaching methods, and i would be very interested in this. In fact when i first came to Caithness i suggested this to your instructor, but he didnt seem keen at the time. I would be more than happy to arrange such an event and put up any costs. I was also contemplating using my caithnessmartialarts.co.uk domain name as a monthly magazine with articles and media clips for all clubs in caithness.
I dont think there is necessarily a closed door mentality in all the groups. I for one encourage my students to train with as many people as possible, as i still do myself, as i believe as an instructor it is a necessity, and for the last 5 years i have been training in a variety of arts outside my own schoosl curriculum, such as Silat varients, BJJ, Sambo and more, and have went back into full contact tournaments. Having said that Iain i posted on your guestbook on two occassions, once giving my praise for the new wesbite design and once congratulating your club on the seminar, and on both occassions they where taken down. Im not saying you have a closed door policy but on our forum board we encourage activity from a wide variety of instructors from clubs all over the world.
I would also be interested in the views and opinions of others.
Regards,
Andrew Usher
Daemonblade
27-Apr-05, 23:49
Andrew.
We are always open to new ideas and suggestions from everyone in the martial arts community and if anyone wants to have a discussion with us either through email or on our guestbook then they are very welcome to do so. All the members of Northern Martial Arts Studios believe that the people involved in the martial arts are part of a community in which we can all learn from each other and therefore progress and improve upon our chosen style. We also believe that everyone is equal, that everyone's opinion is worth listening to and should be respected even if we do not necessarily agree with what is being said. Your postings were removed from the NMAS guestbook because they were no more that very poorly disguised my club is better than your club, we have been doing that for years ego boosting and self promotion. That sort of conduct is frowned upon both within our club and on our homepage so we took the action we deemed appropriate and removed your messages.
Iain.
Iain,
I apologise if that is how you interpreted my post, but i fail to see how you could interpret it as that when all i said was:
" Congratulations on the new website design, very crisp and clean"
And on the other I merely said congratulations on the seminar, and mentioned if you guys had an escrima team perhaps we could hook up for stick fighting tournaments.
How you interpret it as me trying to say my club is better than yours is a mystery. Likewise as you know a couple of years ago I brought my old silat instructor up to your club to give a free training session in Silat.
So, given what i have said, along with the fact that last year when i brought up an instructor to the Systema Seminar, and sent your instructor the details asking him if he was interested or any students where interested, to which i got no reply, i have to say that what you have posted seems strange and odd.
Aside from that, I am still interested in others and their opinions on the martial arts, and likewise if anyone is interested in an instructor meet up, as I stated I would be more than happy to arrange such an event.
Regards to all,
Andrew Usher
I see handbags ar now being used in the Martial Arts world :roll:
Mr Usher has always seemed to be a practictioner of "Handobaggu Jitsu" :)
Mr Usher has always seemed to be a practictioner of "Handobaggu Jitsu" :)
Lol it seems that he is well known of in the martial arts worldl. Maybe we could give him a nice pink outfit (or pyjamas or something, what are those things called gees or is that butter?) to go with the handbag. :lol:
Iain I thought this forum was about seminar attitude in local martial arts not girlie fighting, mind you the pictures would be great :o)
never mind the handbags what about latex
Zael (Niall), you are most welcome to come on down to the free session in purse and handbag combat, but no latex please.
We actually had a guy once come to training in a tight spandex thing, and i am still tormented to this day by it :eek: .
Andrew
ZAEL is NIALL???????????????????????????
:eek: how scary is that?
wow who lurks behind other user names
Squidge, i making a wild assumption on that, partly due to the strong psychic powers my powerrangers latex rompers suit has, it has known to be wrong in the past however....
Andrew.
Don't be daft, Zael is not Niall, he is (NAME REMOVED BY MODERATORS) -- has no-one else noticed the latter's recent disappearance?
Did you not know that jjc and katarina are one and the same person, as are rheghead and squidge, and ...
Oh noooooooooooooo
DrS you have guessed my secret
For the past week I have been curious about some of the claims made here in this forum. Now we are way up as far as we can get on this Island and it seems that people come all the way from Europe and England to your seminars, found that very hard to believe. Also found it incredulous that there seems to be little if any support from the locals. Now if experts are being brought to their doorsteps then why not go to see them????
Getting back to these jet setting travellers (mm I wondered) sorry folks I had to look into it to satisfy my curiosity.
Yes I was able to find proof that the claims made by Iain were founded on truth, I am still struggling to find any molecule of evidence to back up Mr Ushers claims.
The next thing that I find curious is that there are Karate, Judo, Choi Kwang, Tai Chi, Kook Sul and Yoga here yet none of them go to your seminars…….WHY?
Did anybody turn up for a look??
It is also clear that none of them can be bothered to even join in this forum to make their views felt. Does that mean that they dismiss you guys as charlatans (and your so called experts) or is it complete apathy or maybe they haven’t heard of Caithness.org? From what I can see guys you are on your own and no matter how much ass licking that you do in public (case of Mr Usher) that’s going to be the case.
Hopefully I stand to be corrected (not by you guys) but by the locals
Finally IMHO I think it is a shame that local people don’t come out to support events in the county, especially when people from USA and Spain can get here….sad.
All you need to do is check for some of the archives, for example on Grampian TV, i have appeared twice on Grampian TV, once with a Silat Instructor, and last May with Rob Poyton, Systema UK Instructor.
http://northtonight.grampiantv.co.uk/content/default.asp?page=s1_1_1&newsid=3802
Likewise if you go to Scott Sonnon's forum board, you will see the seminat to be held in October on there. On another note, the last trainig day we had (mini seminar) we had some chaps from the Karate club, and on occassions we have some KSW people come train with us.
Also, we are awaiting to see an interview between Scott Sonnon and myself be published in Martial Arts Illustrated, hopefully in July.
Also if you go to our forum board, you will see many instructors there who have posted. My qualification and training is very solid and easy to check, not so sure about others.
If the ass lickin you refer to is my name in the groat today, then i am sorry, but i felt the maternity service deserved praise for the services they offer.
Andrew Usher
Nope was not referring to your instructors or to the other people you have met. The name dropping bit is a bit too childish for me to get involved with and I also know how easy it is to fill a slot in Grampian news.
I was trying to find out about (both) of your claims to having students coming over from these places and only the other guys stories seem to hold up.
Don’t know what you are talking when referring to JOG as I have not seen it today but going by your post it will probable is an ego trip. :roll:
Written:
"I was trying to find out about (both) of your claims to having students coming over from these places and only the other guys stories seem to hold up"
LOL, you caught me out, all the people at the seminars on TV etc, where cardboard cut outs, lol, that will teach me not to buy a job lot again.....
Setanta,
I tell you what, its friday and i am feeling generous, if you want ill send you a complimentary copy of one of our seminars on DVD, that will give you an idea of the people there.
Mr P Cannop
29-Apr-05, 17:53
i have a copy of the dvd
i have a copy of the dvd
Elaborate then please
Setanta,
I am presuming you do not wish a free DVD? As i mentioned before, i am more than happy to send you one, and provide that evidence you seem to be searching for, not that its difficult, its there on the DVD, and was on the systema uk video clips section also.
If you wish one, please email us at office@combatsystems.co.uk
Daemonblade
30-Apr-05, 22:49
The next thing that I find curious is that there are Karate, Judo, Choi Kwang, Tai Chi, Kook Sul and Yoga here yet none of them go to your seminars…….WHY?
Did anybody turn up for a look??
For the 5th anniversary seminar we had one (yes only one) visitor from a local club take part. He came along because he saw that we had gone to all the trouble of organising an event like this and felt it was only right to show his support. It's sad that other locals don't have that same open minded attitude. There ware no spectators what so ever. It's a pity because in the end we all loose out. :(
It's a great shame that the only martial arts enthusiast that has been willing to identify himself as such and take part in the discussion is Andrew. I and I'm sure Andrew hoped for more feedback even if it wasn't positive but constructive.
Iain
Maybe they belong to those types of clubs that have a closed door attitude. Some groups will not let their students study any other type of MA other than what they teach. Maybe even showing interest in a type of seminar that you mention is also against their rules?
Mind you it was a Sunday they could all have been at church :roll:
I think the Kook Sul Won is the only club in the area that actively discourages students from studying other styles.
As for the lack of interest from other styles, I think this is probably down ro the differences in the styles. The shoto kan (sp?) and judo clubs are by definitiion sport styles, it may be that people training in these clubs simply aren't intersted in the applications of a self defence style like kempo and just weren't turned on by the seminar. The Shoto Kan guys also put ina lot of time and Saturday is their main spaing class. Maybe they just really need their rest on a Sunday (or are dedicated church goers?).
As for things like Tai Chi and Yoga: in my experience most of the people at theses classes are there for the gentle, relaxing exercise element and are probably quite intimidated by the idea of a relatively intensive seminar!
A lot of people would also be likely to avoid an international seminar like the plague because they think it would be well above their level: especially if they've never trained in martial arts before or even if they are not familiar with the style.
Its a real shame that it is difficult to get people out to watch and participate in events like this.You could perhaps takea tip from the Shoto Kan guys and try to get the parents of children in the classes involved?
As "they" say - You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink......mabye it ain't thirsty.
I dont see what the problem with people not turning up to seminars being organized by clubs they are not members of :confused
I dont see what the problem with people not turning up to seminars being organized by clubs they are not members of :confused
Yip you have hit the nail on the head, except for one little thing. If you were a member of a yachting club then you would not expect those members to turn up for a seminar held by nuclear engineers.
But any organisation using the title martial arts is in one way or another proffering, self defence as an aspect of its curriculum. That’s how it all started.
Over the last years there has been a huge change in the way people train; it used to be one club and one club only, one style and one style only. That’s almost old hat now, cross training is the knew theme. It’s been proven by competitions such as UFC and K1 that just one art is not good enough. Karate and other striking arts fail on the ground, where most fights end up. Grappling and Jujitsu styles lack good standing striking techniques. Most of the martial artists that I know talk this way, nearly all of them are cross training now. As they say if you have to look after yourself the more you know the better.
Another way to look at is (going back to horses) if you had a pony and there was a big horse show coming to town your curiosity would take you there to see what’s what. Doesn’t mean you will return home with two Arabian Stallions. :D
[/list][/quote]
[quote="Hobo"][quote="Setanta"]
A lot of people would also be likely to avoid an international seminar like the plague because they think it would be well above their level: especially if they've never trained in martial arts before or even if they are not familiar with the style.
Heh thats an interesting point maybe these guys need to change the way they advertise their gigs. Also as you say students from other clubs may feel intimidated at trying out something new. Good point very good point.
Setanta wrote:
"Over the last years there has been a huge change in the way people train; it used to be one club and one club only, one style and one style only. That’s almost old hat now, cross training is the knew theme. It’s been proven by competitions such as UFC and K1 that just one art is not good enough. Karate and other striking arts fail on the ground, where most fights end up. Grappling and Jujitsu styles lack good standing striking techniques."
MMA isnt new, when i trained JKD concepts 15 years ago it was all about cross training, mainly a base six of arts, thai boxing, silat, savate, kali, Jun Fan Gung Fu and Shoot Wrestling. In the old days of UFC, Royce Gracie dominated, primarily as not many people well very well versed in the ground arts, but that all changed. Now people are going back to one or two arts and a lot of conditioning for UFC type work.
Andrei Arlovski, UFC 51 champion has stated his training consists mainly of conditioning, using Scott Sonnon's methods, which for those interested is Circular Strength Training. In a recent interview with him it was written:
"paying more attention to his boxing training today, Andrei Arlovski went back to the basics with a “Rocky-like” training regimen at the gym with Coach Arturo Salas in preparation for his Apr. 2 fight. It was that training, along with his desire to win, that enabled the Minsk, Belarus, native to earn the early second round TKO win over Wesley “Cabbage” Corriera at “UFC 47: It’s On!”
Besides his Sambo skills, he trained a lot in Jiu-Jitsu. Besides leg kicks, he trained hard in boxing. And his overall conditioning was impressive “I worked on it a lot, including training with Clubbells®,” said Arlovski, who is a firm believer in Clubbell® training. He continued “[the Clubbell®] really gives hard hitting power, striking stamina, timing and coordination, and refinement of entire core.” "
I am a big believer in conditioning, but specific conditioning to the individual and their aspirations within training. It all very well to train isolated technique, but reality is a vastly different ball game.
However, the art is only as good as the individual and i have seen many a good boxer, karateka who could kick the ass of a well trained mixed martial artist.
Andrew
Iain wrote:
"For the 5th anniversary seminar we had one (yes only one) visitor from a local club take part. He came along because he saw that we had gone to all the trouble of organising an event like this and felt it was only right to show his support. It's sad that other locals don't have that same open minded attitude. There ware no spectators what so ever. It's a pity because in the end we all loose out."
That would have been Stephen Copinger, he attends my class occassionaly and came to our systema seminar. A great guy and with a good knowledge of martial arts. Locally at the last semianar we had two KSW people, two Karate guys and a couple of former Kempo students.
To be honest, i never thought that hosting a semiar here would attract a lot of attention. I recall speaking with your instructor many years ago about a joint seminar, and it was felt that it wouldnt attract a huge amount of bodies, but then again population wise we dont have as many as say Edinburgh or London.
As an example, we have opened a full time training centre in Glasgow, and are considering one in Inverness, but i wouldnt give any thought to one here, as i think it would be too financially costly. Overall martial arts numbers have dropped considerably in the UK, and many pro schools are utlising the services of NEST of EFC to help retain student numbers through schemes such as 'little ninja's' etc. So perhaps the lack of locals isnt really down to them not being interested, but down to an overall social decline towards the martial arts.
Mr P Cannop
01-May-05, 16:46
Iain wrote:
"For the 5th anniversary seminar we had one (yes only one) visitor from a local club take part. He came along because he saw that we had gone to all the trouble of organising an event like this and felt it was only right to show his support. It's sad that other locals don't have that same open minded attitude. There ware no spectators what so ever. It's a pity because in the end we all loose out."
That would have been Stephen Copinger, he attends my class occassionaly and came to our systema seminar. A great guy and with a good knowledge of martial arts. Locally at the last semianar we had two KSW people, two Karate guys and a couple of former Kempo students.
To be honest, i never thought that hosting a semiar here would attract a lot of attention. I recall speaking with your instructor many years ago about a joint seminar, and it was felt that it wouldnt attract a huge amount of bodies, but then again population wise we dont have as many as say Edinburgh or London.
As an example, we have opened a full time training centre in Glasgow, and are considering one in Inverness, but i wouldnt give any thought to one here, as i think it would be too financially costly. Overall martial arts numbers have dropped considerably in the UK, and many pro schools are utlising the services of NEST of EFC to help retain student numbers through schemes such as 'little ninja's' etc. So perhaps the lack of locals isnt really down to them not being interested, but down to an overall social decline towards the martial arts.
could i get the next dvd ??
Hello guys,Spike here posting under the wifes username.
Been following this with interest. First off, glad to see Ray`s Course was a success. It is to be hoped that any martial artist is interested in other systems. I know I am. However I travel a lot to courses all over myself and have witnessed differing ways that even my own style (I don`t really like the word "style") is taught and practised. I don`t have a lot of time left over from my own teaching, training and organising of events so that`s unfortunately why I wasn`t there. Guys who run clubs themselves will understand I`m sure.
That is not to say I don`t wish all the other groups continued success. I think it`s so important that we maintain a variety of systems in the North in order to give the public a choice.For many years we were the only lot training in martial arts. I also find it very difficult to establish links with other Shotokan groups let alone anyone else.
I know a lot of this sounds like excuses guys but bear with me.
I do find interesting the perception of other peoples takes on each others styles (even within this thread). I am indeed interested in the application of techniques in a practical way (I first started training in Shorinji Kempo before going to Shotokan). Our club is not so aligned with the "Sport Karate" way of thinking, and I always try to offer an explanation of why a technique is done a certain way. I therefore get frustrated at being pigeonholed as a "Shotokan robot". I can only think somebody saw me walking home gingerly after a training session (I`m not getting any younger guys so cut me some slack) to make such an accusation. Isn`t that terrible.
I would be surprised if anyone was intimidated about going to another systems event because let`s be honest here guys, we all know each other.
Anyway guys must go now. Off to Church as Hobo suggests. LOL.
PS Play nice, now. Feel free to join our "apres training" in the Queens most Saturdays.
Good to see another instructor post. Shotokan was the first martial art i trained with, at Glassford street in Glasgow under Tommy Morris. There was a man who ruled his class with an iron rod, lol. I think you have an excellent point where time is concerend for instructors, and i know from our passing chats, like me you attend a lot of instructor training Spike, and it does eat on you time, and i am finding my time even more tight since the birth of my son a few weeks ago.
Variety is the spice of life as they say, and as i previously wrote Caithness has a good mixture of martial arts to cater for all. At some point ill need to come over to the Queens for a couple of beers.
Hi Spike
Good to hear from you, thanks for the kind words.
I staid out of this forum because as head of the school I didn’t want to blow my own trumpet. But seeing since you joined in why not?
It was an interesting thread that Iain started, a subject that I have given a lot of thought to as well. There have been some good thoughts put forward; the one about “An International Seminar” scaring people off as stated by Hobo that never really occurred to me, maybe it is close to the bone.
This was our third “Open” seminar and the first to attract some local support. It was also a celebratory one which I thought would have been supported more strongly.
I have lived here now for over 13 years and I have never seen an Open seminar held by any other club (except Mr Ushers) which I have found to be very strange. If you look at all the seminars being held nowadays around the country you will find that the majority of them are Open. Couple of reasons for this; training has changed quite a lot over the years (before Mr Usher pedantically decides to tell me it has been going on for X years as he did with Setanta, I know) and clubs have recognised the need for more information. Secondly when bringing people to seminars it is expensive and opening it up can help with the costs.
We discussed this situation in the club over the last couple of weeks and we all agreed that if either Wick or Thurso schools had an open seminar we would have made the effort to support them, it’s a community thing. That’s what baffles us, there doesn’t seem to be the same way of thinking from the other clubs. I think the last time there was someone from the States over here was for the Kuk Sool Won but I am pretty sure that it was a closed seminar.
As a Martial Artist I have always wanted to make sure that I could get as much from my training as I could and that was never possible if I restricted my self to just one art.
Maybe up here it is more a matter of just going to the club to train (instead of the gym) a couple of times a week, a general holistic interest in the MAs is never entertained.
The lack of interest is plain to see from this forum there are only 4 MAs represented here; I think that says it all.
i have a copy of the dvd
Ive also seen the dvd
Interesting thread now,
I wonder how much is percevied through prior experience, what i mean by that, is that for a long time seminars by traditional martial arts where seen as closed, mainly in part as they served for advanced training and gradings.
As Ray has mentioned, he hasnt seen many open seminars, and come to think of it, the 5 years i have been here, i havent seen any advertised as open other than Ray's. In fact when we spoke a few years ago i think one of the topics was indeed joint seminars, and how feesible they are.
Another aspect is how useful the seminar is to your own training methods and progress. To be honest, i wouldnt attend a seminar unless i thought it was going to be beneficial to me, and i wouldnt recommend an instructor unless i had visited their club and saw how they teach and their overall ethics etc.
Now to date, the only instructors i have seen in action is Spike and Ray. I have trained with Stephen and one of my long standing students is ex KSW. I havent seen any of the main instructors in action. This is mostly likely a failing in my part, and perhaps i should have spent some time introducing myself to more of the groups around Caithness.
Andrew Usher.
years (before Mr Usher pedantically decides to tell me it has been going on for X years as he did with Setanta, I know)
this forum there are only 4 MAs represented here; I think that says it all.
Thank you I wasnt wanting to bog down the forum with stats and figures, nor was I saying to anyone "tell me how great you are"
Only 4 thats sad :(
years (before Mr Usher pedantically decides to tell me it has been going on for X years as he did with Setanta, I know)
this forum there are only 4 MAs represented here; I think that says it all.
Thank you I wasnt wanting to bog down the forum with stats and figures, nor was I saying to anyone "tell me how great you are"
Only 4 thats sad :(
Pity, i love stats and figures :eek:
Pity, i love stats and figures :eek:
And we wonder why women don't bother with martial arts! :roll:
lol,
Well i have two female students who are statistics students, who would probably disagree with you.
Hi guys. Spike here again disguised as the wife, so be afraid.
Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to throw the doors open as it were to one of our courses. However.
Our powers that be have decreed that no unlicenced individual may train on these. This also applies to Club Members.We`re not even supposed to let unlicenced members train at the Club, although it happens because I`m a better karateka than administrator.
The reason is that our licence system and insurance including professional indemnity is tied up together in a quite complicated package. So the long and short of it is I`m not allowed to under the terms of the SKB constitution. Tommy Morris and our Kenny are Chairman and Vice Chairman of that august body respectively, and they`re not gents I wish to fall out with. However However.
Why can`t we support each other on a local level. We could set aside a night(s) where we train together. Maybe not as whole clubs but as Instructors and maybe some of our seniors swapping ideas. This could be a few one-offs held at an informal level.
What d`you think guys.
Hi Spike I am really sorry but I’ve got to say it, the lipstick is not your colour and that skirt sheesh…………now give them back to your wife :roll: ;)
First of all in regards to licences all our members are fully licensed under the AMA with indemnity up to £2,000,000. I can’t take the risk of not being insured, that could cause a lot of problems. Our clubs also have insurance that allows beginners to train before they pay up and become members (this also covers seminar days). As a teacher I also have a public liability cover that takes care of anybody who may come to the club and has not fully joined our organization, like newbie’s. Also on seminar days we get the people to sign a waiver, which is a legal document that’s covers our asses encase of injuries etc.
I would be quite amazed if Mr Usher or any of the other club instructors didn’t have a similar system up and running.
I am affiliated to three international organizations: Bushininternational, CQCS and Kilohana, now there is one theme that runs through these 3 and that is “family” We support each other, look after each other and in general behave in a family (clan) type way. I bet your wondering where I’m going with this, patience its coming. ;)
When I look at the isolation of Caithness and I think of the chances of most of the MAs up here to meet “big names” in the field of martial arts I realize that is not an easy thing. Especially the children in clubs up here, parents can’t afford to take them to Glasgow, Manchester or London for the day to see a Big Name. Because I am affiliated to the 3 above I have access to people that I could only ever dream of training with. That is why when I bring them up here I throw the doors open, I just want to share their expertise. I want to share it with the people of Caithness, want to give the people a chance to meet instructors like Jason Inay from California. I like to offer the MAs up here a chance for something new and a good day’s play. Unfortunately it seems that that the locals don’t give a toss about MAs outside their thing. I think if we resurrected Bruce Lee and brought him here it wouldn’t take they apathy away.
Getting back to the family theme, I (and most of my students who are Caithness born and bred) look on Caithness as a small MA family group with different viewpoints. This is why we would support someone who went to the bother of bringing someone new up here and that is why we get so frustrated when the “family” turns their back on us. It’s generally our extended families from Inverness and beyond that support us.
I am very open minded when it comes to MA and we (NMAS) will always throw the doors open wide on seminar days, it’s who we are and we will continue to be so.
This forum has been running for over a week and there are only 4 of us bothering to speak up, it says it all…don’t you think?
Leaving the thread aside for the moment, the idea of swapping ideas at a senior level sounds like fun; as I have said before you can never get enough inspiration.
Ray
Morning everyone,
If nothing else and going by the visited statistics, a fair few people have read this thread, which is good.
Insurance, yes we have that also, in fact if you are a club without it then you are both irresponsible and stupid. The ironic thing about insurance is that there is really only three or so companies used by bodies such as AMA, WKA, BNMAA etc. Because we have set up the full time place in Glasgow we have been deep in paper work, as you would expect and insurance policies has been one of them. We have decided to purchase our policy direct from an insurance firm than go through a body. Lots of reasons for that, but not appropriate for here.
Ray has summed it up nice I think, and the policy he outlines is essential a standard martial arts policy and I would doubt if your policy Spike or my policy is any different.
Ray wrote:
"Unfortunately it seems that that the locals don’t give a toss about MAs outside their thing. I think if we resurrected Bruce Lee and brought him here it wouldn’t take they apathy away."
I agree with you there, although using such words as apathy on this forum board has seem me get the old pitchforkjutsu, lol.
For the last few years we have just done our own thing, brought up some people and more or less had the same attendees from outside the county, with the occasional new face locally. I can't see it changing, and I am if I am honest about it, im not that fussed, if people want to come fine, if not, fine. I have been very fortunate in life and very privileged to have trained with who I have, and I happy to share it with those curious.
On another note, as I have mentioned several times, I am happy for an instructors get together. On this note, I am planning a free training day, late May, early June, free for everyone, and I am happy to open this up to you other instructors, to make it more of a open try before you buy day, where everyone can demonstrate take part etc, what do you think?
Oh one last little thing while on the Caithness theme. Although no Caithness MA (outside of our clubs, except one) made any of the 5 instructors we invited to the county feel welcome, the same cannot be said about the none MAs. All of the instructors have said what a great time they have had and how friendly the people were. So to all of the Caithness people who are not MAs and may be reading this thank you so much for giving them a great time and making them feel so welcomed :lol: .
Getting back to instructors and seniors getting it together, I have another idea, why not get together to arrange an Open Caithness Martial Arts Seminar maybe once a year or twice. All the clubs could come together and we could have an open fun day, mixing all the stuff we do. As this would be only a Caithness thing then Spike wouldn’t have to worry about his governing body (I think?) To put icing on the cake we could donate the takings to a charity of our choice. It would be nice to give something back to the community?? :)
Ray
That sounds like a great idea, and could resolve the governing body issue.
Twice a year sounds good, we could do a nice editorial in the Martial Arts magazine, and promote both Caithness Martial Arts and Caithness as a place to come.
Perhaps some instructors could get together over a beer or two and discuss it.
Hi guys. Spike again under the usual flag of convenience.
Like the idea of an open seminar. I think we`ve all established we`re insured one way or another so now we need to decide where/when to hold it.
I would still like to try a get together on an informal level as well however (I must stop saying"however") ,just a few of us. I could get the Assembly Rooms for an extra couple of hours on an evening or saturday afternoon, or if you have your own preferences feel free to suggest any other venue.
Ray, please understand that not all of us are filled with apathy and did not deliberately set out to make your guests feel less than welcome. I couldn`t attend your first seminar because as I told you I was off training with Sensei Kawasoe that same day. The last one was held around the time when my Father passed away and I didn`t attend my own club then let alone anyone elses. I did encourage my own lot to get along and have a look if nothing else.There I`ve got that out of my system and it`s gone never to be mentioned again.
Anyway enough of this ranting. I`ll be in the Assembly Rooms all Saturday morning from ten onwards, and very probably in the Queens late afternoon. Give us a shout and we`ll have a natter about matters Martial. I`m there most weeks, but I`ll be in Perth with Sensei Kawasoe on the 29th May. It`s the old boys 60th and he is partial to a tipple of Old Pultney. Failing that I`ll be there every Monday and Wednesday evening as well.
PS
Has anybody heard anything from the KSW guys, I know they train in the Assembly Rooms on a Tuesday and Thursday night.
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Hi guys. Spike again under the usual flag of convenience.
Ray, please understand that not all of us are filled with apathy and did not deliberately set out to make your guests feel less than welcome. I couldn`t attend your first seminar because as I told you I was off training with Sensei Kawasoe that same day. The last one was held around the time when my Father passed away and I didn`t attend my own club then let alone anyone elses. I did encourage my own lot to get along and have a look if nothing else.There I`ve got that out of my system and it`s gone never to be mentioned again.
PS
Has anybody heard anything from the KSW guys, I know they train in the Assembly Rooms on a Tuesday and Thursday night.
[/b]
Hi Spike sorry it has taken so long to answer your comment but my computer when to IT heaven.
I am really sorry to hear about your father passing away, my condolences.
My comment wasn’t directed at you solely, it was made so that I could get a rise out of some of the other people that have been reading this (check out the numbers). I suspect you knew that.
Waste of time that was ;)
There seems to be quite an interest in a Caithness in house seminar, which would be a start to making the (Caithness) martial arts world into a community/family type scene. I can see a few good things coming out of it. We would be able to mix ideas, we would be able to develop a healthy respect between clubs and build up a sense of camaraderie, which has been developing throughout the MA world at present.
Also through this maybe when there are more OPEN seminars more interest will be shown (we will always have ours open to the public anyway) and maybe more people will host them.
Then of course there is the charitable side, this alone will bring people to it that generally wouldn’t have bothered. Could also be a good recruiting ground for the clubs as well?
Haven’t heard from the KSW in general either, a few must have read this; hopefully they will pitch in their 2 cents.
There have been a few small posts on martial arts on caithness.org over the last 3 years, and when I think back it was only myself and Spike that posted. Perhaps the KSW and Judo club along with the CKD dont have internet access. I think the idea of an open seminar etc is good, but as in the email from Stephen to the three of us, I think organisation is the key. To date only Spike has replied to Stephen's email, which is a shame as I think he has the right idea on the idea of organising such as event.
As mentioned in the email my own group could not contribute to an event this year due to other commitments, but if the other groups don't have internet access then its going to take someone, possibly someone impartial to approach them about it.
Spike's idea of getting instructors together for an informal meeting and some training is in my view the logical first step and i would imagine a way to gauge overall interest, and lets face it, if the local instructors cant get an informal meeting going, then the likelihood of an open seminar working isn’t feasible.
Just my thought,
Andrew Usher
Thought i would bump this post a little.
For those interested in martial arts, i thought i would let you know that my interview with Coach Sonnon has been published in this month Martial Arts Illustrated. Its a great interview, and the magazine has done an awesome job, five colour pages.
Im hoping that it brings some interest to Caithness and especially the great clubs we have up here.
Andrew.
Modesty dont you just love it
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