The Iowa Seminar

Bringing light to the unwashed heathens

Jay Carstensen of KSMA flew me out to Des Moines Iowa for a little get-together last week, and it reinforced an idea I’ve recently come to terms with in my life: Only give seminars for people you know, that way, you can just be yourself. What a great time. Jay picked me up and we headed straight to the Royal Mile for a Guinness and food. Tony, his friend and workout partner, was already waiting for us and was one beer ahead. I sensed he might reach inebriation before me, so I quickly made up for lost time by downing two Guinnesses (Guinni? Guinesse? What’s the plural vernacular?).

Jay and I have a lot in common, so much that we could have been twins if not for my devastating good looks and Sinatra-like persona. His book collection alone was awesome, it rivals mine in both volume and rarity. We had many of the same texts, particularly rare eskrima and silat books. We spent a few hours going over his collection, and I could have just camped out there if it wasn’t so friggin’ COLD.

Music, same. Jay turned me on to records (remember those??) and I spent the weekend rocking his Rush collection. I have to admit, pretty good quality from those things, I didn’t realize they were still around. I have a student whose wife collects them as well…This might be a new thing for me. We’re both Rush freaks, and that alone is a bonding experience.

Jay’s wife Paige, a long-suffering woman who is FAR too good for him, made me feel welcome in their beautiful house. It’s huge, built in the early 1920’s as a ballroom and renovated throughout the decades. The house, not Paige.

Friday was the “Stagger-In”, as everybody arrived from such far-flung and strange sounding places as “Grand Rapids”, in a mythical land called “Michigan”. They told tales of a female creature that roams the backwoods, with a long golden mane and a high pitched shriek, with limbs made of sharp pointy blades. They called it a “Mariah”, and warned of it’s insatiable thirst for blood. I laughed at these nonsensical tales, and said no such thing could exist in the presence of manly martial artists. What these backwoods hicks won’t believe!

I was particularly happy that Chuck and Buzz came out, and a little apprehensive. Chuck is the owner of his own school and has his own style, while Buzz was good at this before I was friggin’ born. That they would consider me worthwhile enough to make the drive down was an honor, and I was a bit nervous that my stuff wouldn’t be in the same league with what they do.

If that sounds strange to you, have people you hold in high regard show up to YOUR workshop. Let me know what you feel. I bet you take something to calm your stomach.

Chuck made an AWESOME knife for me as a gift. I ‘m writing a separate post on it, and don’t want to give too much away right now, but I will say this: I would have gladly forked out serious dollars for this puppy. It’s now part of my every day carry arsenal.

Buzz brought a chick. A babe. A woo-man! She had been his high school sweetheart, which shocked me since I thought schools had yet to be invented when Buzz was a child. Or language, for that matter. It’s possible Debbie was the one in high school and Buzz just lurked the parking lots cruising for chicks.

Debbie was awesome, she sat through most of the workshop, and took the pictures you see in this post. Paige took some as well. I was in awe of the patience these women displayed with a bunch of men waving their testosterone around…My wife can’t stand to be in the same house with a bunch of martial artists, let alone the same room. Paige took the workshop, attending to her husband (Jay got sick the whole weekend) and their three year old son in stride, I’m convinced the woman runs off nuclear fission or something.

The workshop wasn’t very big, and I prefer it that way. I purposely keep my classes small as well, so everybody in attendance can get personal attention from me at some point. I hate when a large class struggles through something and I can only get to so many people before the time is up.

Friday night was a small clinic on Rikesan Pencak Silat, which includes joint manipulations and nerve strikes. I thought it went really well, and I saw everyone starting to get a grasp of the material. Rikesan is a complex system, and I could do a weekend on that alone.

Cover entry for neck shot

Buzz and I doing finger manipulations

Inside wrist stun

Saturday morning got off to a bit of a late start, but I expected that. After all the driving everyone did, I would have been surprised if they could achieve consciousness by noon. A couple of the local guys bopped in promptly at 9:00, and let me tell you: If there’s one thing tired people can’t abide, it’s perky bastards at 9 in the morning. Chris and Bao chattered away like a couple of magpies on crack while Buzz, Chuck and I plotted murder. No jury in the world would convict us.

This was interesting; I had scripted out a lesson plan for each day. Within the first hour, that was blown to hell. We were having so much fun doing the leg deflection drills, we just stuck with it and went through the entire set. I managed to cover about a third of the list, but barely. I mentioned this to Jay, and it didn’t seem to bother him, so what the hell…I just went with it. Give the people what they want. I went into single and double beat timing, entering on the second beat, target spread, foot trapping, angle deflection, a few variations for each.

Lowline entry and...

Kenjit Kembali!

Open his legs up a little more Chuck...

We touched on several areas, but I worked hard to give the lessons some flow and continuity so we weren’t just bouncing from one unrelated area to another. That’s important to me. I hate going to seminars and shelling out money for a big name only to get a fruit salad that doesn’t belong anywhere with the meal. Nobody seems to plan out a lesson for workshops these days, and you leave without anything tangible. We spent a couple of hours minimum on everything presented, and it looked like the guys walked out with much of the technique well in hand.

Ian opens Chuck up a bit

Outside pass and entry

Mr. Buzz introduces me to Mr. Ground

Dunno what the hell I'm doing here...

A RARE moment of joviality. I'm normally known as "Mr. Serious".

On Sunday almost everybody had to leave early because of the long drive back (wankers). A few of the local boys stuck around, and we covered the kerambit with entry techniques. When it dwindled down to just Tony and Jay I started running through Pangamot, but that didn’t last long…I could see their eyes starting to roll back into their heads from information overload. So I dropped it to one compression, made sure they had it well enough to work without me, and ended it there.

Buzz took some time out to help me with my staff work. He's an amazing teacher with a wealth of knowledge to share.

It was great sharing this weekend with everybody, I learned as much as I taught. Jay’s KSMA group is growing and they are led by a responsible person, which is far more than I can say for the majority of martial arts organizations out there. I hope to see you all again.

Next time, I’ll cook curry.