Midwest Fall Seminar
September 17th & 18th, 2005
Grand Rapids, MI
The weekend of Sept 17 & 18 Sensei Brian Lentz and Professional Karate hosted the Midwest Fall Seminar with Sensei Yamashita at Lee High School in Grand Rapids , MI. Students came from Midland, MI including Sensei Rags Avery, Mid-west Regional Representative Dave Hayes from Lansing, MI, Dave Bloem and Kobudo students from Newaygo, MI, Stewart Schulman from Ann Arbor, MI and several students from Grand Rapids, MI were in attendance as well as YIBA Director Phil Sauer and some of his upper ranking black belts from Milwaukee, WI. Everyone was inspired by the drive and commitment of Sensei Teru Hendrey from Indiana.
Saturday morning’s session was devoted to basics practice, with a preview of what was to come for the instructor certification seminar on Sunday. During the lunch break testing was conducted for both empty hand and Kobudo. Congratulations to Kathy Lentz for earning her 6th dan, Lisa Wynsma for earning her 4th dan, Michelle Phan for her 2nd and Kathy Pusz and Chuck Weiler for their Shodans. Michelle Phan and Steve Mete also earned their Shodan in Kobudo. After a brief respite we were all back to work on SuiKenDo. We learned and practiced three short sets and then divided into teams to race furiously against each other. It was a fun contest with lots of cheering and was a great way to end an exhilarating and exhausting day.
On Sunday, about 20 students participated in the first phase of instructor licensing at Professional Karate from 9:30am to 1:00pm. We had sore feet and muscles from the day before, but as soon as we got warmed up the day flew by. The first two hours were devoted to basics practice—what to teach and how to teach it—who knew we could do so much with the kihon complex? It was a great opportunity to stretch our minds and remember not to get ahead of ourselves when it comes to teaching our students what is really important. The second half of the day was Kata practice, starting with the Kihons and going through Naihanchi Kata. Sensei Yamashita’s vision is to have everyone teach and perform their Kata doing the same techniques and utilizing the same sequencing. This will require some changes from all of us, and it won’t be easy. Many people don’t like change, resist it, or don’t want to take the time and energy to learn something they feel they already “know”. Change provides us with the opportunity to re-examine what we are doing, and why we are doing it. It is easy to go through the motions once you learn how to perform your Kata, but to make it come from your heart is a completely different matter. The opportunity to learn and practice with Sensei Yamashita is always inspiring because you can tell that is where his karate comes from.
Special thanks go out to everyone who traveled to make this event a success.