Portland Seminar
Before it completely disappears from my mind, I need to give a quick recap of the Portland seminar that was two weeks ago.
The alarm went off at 4:15 AM on Friday. Quick breakfast, and was picked up for the drive to the airport. Got there, went through security (slowly), got to the plane on time. Uneventful flight, one connection in Salt Lake City. We got in around 12:30 local time, having covered 3,000 or so miles. It was around 1:15 when we made it to our hotel, which gave me just enough time to unpack my uniforms and rest a bit before being picked up to go to my Hapkido test.
Grand Master Garrison is an amazing martial artist, having trained for over 50 years with some fantastic martial artists over the years. He’s an old-school type of teacher: if you do something wrong, he’ll let you know in no uncertain terms. So it’s pretty intimidating when he’s got his eye on you. The testing panel had around seven 3rd-dans-and-up observing us. There were 4 of us testing, one for 1st dan, 2 for 2nd dan, and 1 for 3rd dan.
So, that sets the stage. It is already becoming semi-legendary in our dojang that he took issue with how we came to attention (some of us had fists, some open hands), how we bowed (too deeply), and how we came to ready stance (hands too close to the body and not strong enough). We went through a number of basics, from horse riding stance punches to moving punches and kicks before we got into more of the meat of the test — movement, locks, throws, falls, and various defenses against punches and grabs. I came under fire for my 8-point-balance breathing exercise (completely stance and then extending arms), front stance (too much weight on the lead leg), and kote gaeshi (leaving my chin out). My throws were considered pretty decent.
The four of us were kind of mentally and physically drained by the end of the test, which lasted a bit over an hour and a half. Most of us stuck around in the parking lot afterwards, rehashed things, and had some food. Then it was time for the evening session. By the time that was over, I had been up for 18 hours, travelled 3,000 miles and had 4 hours of martial arts training. We wrapped it up with dinner afterwards, and I had one of the oddest-named meals I’ve ever had (a Communications Breakdown Burger).
The following day we had a morning session and an afternoon session. Over the three sessions, we covered a variety of things. The main focus of the techniques were Tenkan variations, Kote Gaeshi, Osoto Gari, and Tai Otoshi. The school has a very strong judo focus to it; Grand Master Garrison was an Olympic-caliber judo player in the 60′s, and two of his senior instructors are excellent judo guys as well. I personally want to get as much exposure to judo as possible, because it is just fantastic stuff, and serves as a great base for just about anything you’d like to do in close-quarter combat. And I think my new favorite technique is Harai Goshi, even though I’ve hardly ever done it.
Another highlight of the seminar was a talk by one of the instructors who is a police veteran and SWAT team leader. I personally have never been in a physical confrontation, and it is good to get information from someone who has been there. He talked about a couple of his favorite techniques. He likes Kote Gaeshi; once he had the guy in the beginning of the lock and the guy reached behind his back for a gun in his waistband. He cranked on the lock and flipped the guy up in the air. As he was coming down, the police officer aimed the guy’s elbow right on the curb of the street. Really messed up the guy’s arm, but the gun was no longer a problem. He also likes inside leg kicks and a front heel kick to the chin. He also tries to avoid any techniques that might lead to exchanging bodily fluids, which eliminates punches to the face. Very interesting stuff.
We wrapped up the weekend with a dinner party at the Garrisons’ house. Lots of people, lots of food. It was a good time, though pretty exhausting. We got up a bit before 4 AM the next day for the flight back.
We finally got the results of the promotion exam this past Friday, and all 3 of us passed. So now I’m a 2nd dan in Hapkido.