The 2012 East Coast Kenpo Camp held at our school this past weekend (September 7-8) went extremely well. We had four awesome instructors for the weekend that certainly didn’t let anyone down. The camp began on Friday night with a 1.5 hour class taught by Rich Hale (7th degree black belt). Mr. Hale focused on the importance of principles and basics. He covered power principles, especially that of torque, and broke down several techniques with explanations. He even covered a couple extensions and told some stories of his past with Mr. Parker and other instructors.
Saturday began with an anti-bullying child class taught by Sean Kelley (7th degree black belt). The class was a major success with 24 children attending and the parents sitting on the sidelines interacting with the class. Mr. Kelley explained the problem of bullying in depth, taught some bully words, places where bullies bully the most, what to do verbally if bullied, solutions to the problem and some escapes. The kids and parents loved the class.
The first adult class on Saturday was taught by Mike Friedman (5th degree black belt). Mr. Friedman taught flow drills as technique entries, which everybody enjoyed. He taught a handful of different flow drills and showed how to work techniques based off the drills. It was a very interactive class with a lot of partner work. Mr. Friedman did a great job keeping everybody moving. The second class was a part 2 class from Mr. Hale. He continued to explain the importance of Kenpo principles and worked more techniques with explanations.
The third class on Saturday was taught by Rainer Schulte (8th degree black belt). Mr. Schulte taught self-defense/offense in a combative manner. He was straight to the point and completely realistic with the methods he was teaching. He focused on using the head to control the body, and the utilization of point of origin. He explained the importance of working off of the attacker’s reaction and using the best weapon for the best available target. It was a great class.
The final class of the camp was taught by Sean Kelley (7th degree black belt). Mr. Kelley taught many things during his class, with the topic being variable expansion. His focus was on utilizing foot work during techniques to steer the attacker’s body. He covered some Kenpo principles as well as some firearms tactics. It was a very informative class that everybody walked away with some great knowledge and things to think about.
The camp was awesome. In fact, it was the best seminar weekend we have ever had at our school. Kevin Kuliga and Kurt Snyder came from thePhiladelphiaarea, Deb Maynard came fromMaryland, and Leo Lacerte and Mike Gauthier came fromMassachusetts. It was nice seeing Kevin, Kurt and Deb again, and it was great meeting Leo and Mike. Both are great guys.
I would like to thank the following adult students of mine who saw the value of bettering their Kenpo by supporting this event: Beth Allen, Megan Uscinski, David Monroe, Josh Prosser, Scott Christenson, Ron Mesler, Griffin Jackson, Joesy Hendryx, Devin Kerr, and Dustin Laurie. I would also like to thank Devin Abbott and Eric Kessel Jr. for being the only two Juniors who attended the camp. Great work, guys.