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Poole, Dorset 23rd & 24th September 2017
An inspirational and insightful weekend started with the
plank. Many readers may guess from this which Master led us during the warm up
as we kicked the first session off. As we had lined up it was great to see such
an international flavour to our group, with representatives from not only UK
ITF but also from Ireland and Germany.
I confess that, as I tried to keep up with the variety of
planking activities, a certain sense of foreboding for what lay ahead began to
creep into my mind. Which proved completely unfounded. Don’t get me wrong, by
the end of our two days I was left in no doubt that I’d been training and I was
left feeling that satisfying ache you get after you’ve trained hard and enjoyed
it. But at no point did I ever find myself regretting my decision to attend and
the weekend was a great experience.
And so looking back, my summary would be unequivocally –
if you get the chance to attend one of these weekends then do. You won’t regret
it. The ethos of the weekend is undoubtedly about equipping everyone to perform
to the best of their abilities and take away ideas and knowledge to share with
their students (if instructors), club mates and other practitioners.
After our warm up
we spent much of Saturday working on 4th degree patterns under the
tutelage of all of the masters present; with Grand Master Nicholls leading the
session and Master Wood, Master Gassor, Master Horan and Master McCarthy
helping students throughout. And the format for the 4th degree
patterns proved the template for all the patterns focused on over the weekend –
performing the patterns in instructor’s time, in our own time and then break
out sessions spent focusing on various specific moves within the pattern just
practiced. These sessions often involved working with a partner and this added
to the sense of camaraderie that was evident across the whole weekend.
Saturday evening saw a number of groups make the most of
the restaurants in the Quay area of Poole and a good meal, spent in good
company, certainly felt like it had been earned.
Sunday’s training, where we were joined by Master Chand
and a number of his students, focused on not only 5th and 6th
degree patterns (the latter giving the Masters a chance to practice Tong Il
with Grand Master Nicholls), but also sessions on semi free sparring, foot
sparring and a final session revisiting correct measurement in 3 step sparring.
As with Saturday’s training everyone was encouraged to ask questions, share their
thoughts on what we were doing and make the most of all the aspects of training
we covered. And whilst everyone worked hard it was all carried out in a relaxed
and friendly environment.
It was a real privilege to spend time with the masters
and other students present over the weekend and I’m already looking forward to
doing it again when the next one comes around.
Written by: Mr Jon Draper - 17th October 2017
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